Today I pulled up the story of a patient who was here a couple years ago that I had always meant to share with you, and didn't get around to back then. This happens a lot! I have a patient who has a wonderful transformation, or comes in with a great story, but then I get busy, and there are so many patients and so many stories. But I have them all stored, and eventually, hopefully, I will share many! But today is Honu's turn.
Honu the turtle was living a happy life with his family until he saw some funny brown water and wanted to investigate. It was coffee! Which is not good for any turtles, even if it's decaf. So his family quickly gave him a bath but... they used a hair dryer to try to dry him and the concentrated heat of the dryer meant Honu got burnt (PSA: Please do not use any heat for drying stuffed animals. I've seen way too many burn victims!)
Here are Honu's diagnosis photos. Fortunately, the burns were pretty small:
We agreed Honu would come to the hospital and even though he'd had a bath, he would get a spa (there was concern his foam filling hadn't dried all the way before the burns) and then we would treat his burns once everything was nice and clean.
Here he is in his bubble bath:
Once clean and lightly stuffed (he'd get more stuffing after surgery) it was time to choose fabric for his grafts. I always tell people, perfect matches are rarely possible, and if so, I send photos of patients with transplant options. In Honu's case, there wasn't a perfect match for either of his greens, but there were two nice options:
His people made a choice, and surgery proceeded. The plan was to make the patch on the top of his shell heart shaped. For his belly burn, I was able to stitch the injury so he had a small scar, but no patching.
Here are some closeups of those healed wounds:
There was the option of a heart on his belly too, but his people opted for the seam scar instead.
Once approved, stuffing continued, so here's his heart being made and installed with a bit of his original stuffing:
And here he is all better, socializing with my turtles and waiting for his flight home to the Pacific Northwest:
Thank you so much for taking such good care of Honu! He looks so happy that he's making new friends :)
This post was done in part in honor of my turtle, Tuesday.
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