In the past two days, Aimee Copeland has experienced the most difficult pain of her ordeal with a flesh-decaying bacteria that nearly cost her life, her father wrote in a Facebook post detailing her recovery on Sunday.
"She occasionally cries from the pain, but she stops because crying hurts her stomach. She says that she feels like a patchwork quilt, because her body is a collection of skin grafts and bandages," Andy Copeland wrote in his Father's Day blog post.
The Snellville native suffered a deep cut on her calf on May 1 after falling onto rocks when a zip line snapped over the Little Tallapoosa River near Carrollton. She became infected with bacteria that causes necrotizing fasciitis, which destroys body tissues. The bacteria’s toxins did extensive damage, forcing doctors in Augusta to amputate Copeland's left leg at the hip, her right foot and both her hands.
Copeland's ordeal captured national attention as she battled back after doctors gave her a slim chance of survival.
Last week doctors upgraded her condition to serious from critical. She began skin grafts to close a massive wound left from her battle with the infection.
"Until now, Aimee’s pain has been focused on her amputation sites, the wound on her left side and, most recently, her right thigh (the skin donor site). She now has two new pain centers: her abdomen and her groin," Andy Copeland wrote of his daughter, a University of West Georgia graduate student. He explained that during Copeland's most recent skin graft last week, surgeons were forced to take muscle from her abdomen to create a flap over the iliac artery in her groin.
Her father noted that Copeland is now taking pain medication after his daughter underwent the grafts without the benefit of pain medication. Instead, she relied on meditation to get through the procedures. "Aimee is now taking pain medication in as liberal a dose as can be prescribed," he wrote. "If she even dared to refuse taking it, which she wouldn’t, then the doctors would most certainly administer it in an IV drip. Even so, the allowable doses of Morphine, Fentanyl and Lyrica are often inadequate to deal with the pain that Aimee is now experiencing. Please believe me when I say that Aimee’s refusal to use pain medication has ceased following her most recent surgery. She is now requesting it ahead of schedule."
Copeland wants and needs a quiet surrounding, but she also wants her family to remain in the room with her, Copeland wrote. "Much of our time together is spent simply waiting by her side until she expresses a need, which is not a problem for us. "That is one of the many roles we have as her parents. Whatever Aimee needs, her mother and I will be there by her side to provide."
He wrote that he and his wife Donna took a short break from their daughter's bedside to have breakfast as she slept fitfully.
"When we arrived back at the hospital she was visibly suffering from the pain of her surgery. We patiently tended to her, careful to be close by her side and provide her needs, but doing so with tender care. She said she was hungry, but she hasn’t been able to eat for over 24 hours now. She ate after her surgery on Friday, but she had trouble digesting solids and she wound up vomiting up everything during the night. She was concerned that she popped a stitch in her abdomen while heaving, but the doctors assured her that her stitches were intact."
Although she is suffering immensely, Copeland's presence of mind is sharp, her dad wrote.
"She looked at me with sad, raised eyebrows and whispered softly, “Daddy?”
“Yes honey?” I answered.
“Happy Father’s Day,” she said as her sadness withered into a faint smile.
I wanted to hug her, but to even touch her sends a shockwave of pain through her body. I could only smile and nod. “Thank you Aimee, I love you.”
Read more of Andy Copeland's Father's Day blog here.
Staff writer Christopher Seward contributed to this report.
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