Father's Day was tough for Aimee Copeland's father. In a Father's Day blog post, Andy Copeland announced that Aimee is still in an enormous amount of pain, feeling even worse than she felt before.
Aimee became infected with so-called "flesh-eating bacteria," or necrotizing fasciitis, this spring after suffering a cut on her calf from a zip line accident. Her left leg and right foot have both been amputated, as have her hands. Her condition had been marked as "critical," but last week, doctors upgraded it to "serious," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
More from GlobalPost: Yandex, Russia's Google, takes off
On Friday, Andy Copeland announced that Aimee was refusing to take pain medications because of "personal convictions," USA Today reported. "The area of her wound, which I saw for the first time on Sunday during a dressing change, is massive," her father had said Friday, adding that nurses were shocked at her courage and her refusal to take morphine.
However, on Sunday this was no longer the case. In a new blog post, Andy Copeland announced that Aimee now depends on the drugs, which still aren't doing enough to ease all of her pain. "Aimee is now taking pain medication in as liberal a dose as can be prescribed…Aimee’s refusal to use pain medication has ceased following her most recent surgery. She is now requesting it ahead of schedule."
The increased amount of pain she is feeling comes after she had a skin graft surgery. "She says that she feels like a patchwork quilt, because her body is a collection of skin grafts and bandages," her father wrote.
We rely on support from listeners and readers like you to keep our stories free and accessible to all. Monthly gifts are particularly meaningful because they help us plan ahead and concentrate on the stories that matter. Will you consider donating $10/month, so we can continue bringing you The World? Donations made between now and Dec. 31 will be matched 1:1. Thanks for investing in our work!