Having been assigned to an Army Reserve medical unit *and* having worked for decades in civilian medicine I can tell you that US Armed Forces surgeons are known worldwide in the medical community for the advances they've made in the treatment of burn victims.But it sounds like you already knew that.
It took 4 hours to change the bandages, every two days. Excruciating.
Although he's not everyone's cup of tea (he's often pretty vulgar) Richard Pryor did a concert years ago during which he spoke at length about his experiences as a burn patient.It sounds like you and he had similar experiences.
After the soaking and painstaking removal of the stuck on gauze, then came the debridement process. Again, a Gray Lady, who was up in her years, and happened to have experience with burn victims from WW II, patiently did the process; God Bless her; and had the loveliest accent and hearing her stories made the time go by faster. [To this day, I eschew deriding the French.] This woman was a an angel.
Furacin. A new word in my vocabulary.
I must say, I never worked up the courage to actually look at the damage.Then she would call in the doctor, and I’d wait for his joyful exclamation: “Look! New pink skin!”
I just took his word for it. At some point in the debreding process, it was deciding to use a *hot tub* type contraption for me to soak in to ease the removal of dead skin. First two tries, I passed out due to the extraordinary pain. Eventually was able to tolerate it.
A backstory to this adventure, was that we [lowly ranked Airman & me] became close with the doctors. When I got out of the hospital, they invited us to play at the officer’s club for duplicate bridge. That was fun; even went on to a tournament and earned *master points*. LOL.
Our rubbing elbows with officers created some jealousy among our peers. And so it goes; another reason why military life, wasn’t in the career path of a Vietnam era draftee. One of the doctor wives recruited me to help with her Girl Scout troop, which was a nice experience.
You are to be commended for your service GSC. Kudos.
I never thought about having anything in common w/ R. Pryor. Heh. But you are right.