A spirit of fear

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 2:17 

We have a six year old girl who is a plastics patient on one of our wards who needs to be lifted up in prayer. She had burn contractures to her ankle and knee and had a surgical release and skin grafts to both sites many weeks ago. As a plastics patient, she requires every other day dressing changes to both graft sites and to her donor site. Her dressing changes were traumatic for her and she would cry and scream for the whole things.  She would become combative and would squirm and shake during the dressing change which has to be sterile and is working with fragile wounds. As a result, she was not healing; each dressing change caused trauma to the wounds and she was containating the sterile wounds druing the procedure. Further more, she developed an infection with MRSA and a pressure ulcer to her heel. The infection now required 15 minute vinegar soaks thus creating more pain with each dressing change and an extended period of time for each wound's treatment. As a solution to this problem, we began doing her dressing changes in the operating room with general anethesia. There was debate about whether this was a good solution, and we then switched to doing the dressing changes while she was under conscious sedation.

This week was my first time taking care of her when her dressing changes were do. We did the dressing change with conscious sedation, but the whole thing didn't seem right to me. I didn't really think this was the best thing or best solution, and I suggested we try to do her dressing change without medicaiton. Before the dressing change we prayed for her, we prayed for the situation, and we prayed for wisdom. It required four nurses, one whom had pediatric experience. We tried distraction-reading books, singing songs, playing with playdoh, blowing bubbles, praying, all sort of things. It started well and then went bad. It was awful, and what made it worse were some of her comments. She was screaming, "Don't beat me, Don't beat me." We were confused as to why she was saying that, questioning whether this identifies something from her past. I might mention that the relationship she has with her grandmother, who is her caregiver, is not a good one. She would then say, "Apphia, I beg you" and beg me to stop. It was hard. The whole dressing change took an hour and 45 minutes and I was more convinced than ever that this isn't right either.

We need wisdom to deal with this dear child. I don't know how she was burned or what her past involves but it manifest itself very strongly in the fear that she exhibits during the dressing changes. It seems to be fear, but I believe there is also a spiritual and psychological element. The minute I wrapped the last piece of Coban wrap, she stopped screaming, got up, and was laughing, "Oh Apphia" she says. I don't understand. Please join me in prayer for this dear one. We know that the Lord loves her and has a plan and purpose for her; she needs prayer and healing, both physically and emotionally. Pray that rather than this spirit of fear, she will have a spirit of a sound mind.