Saturday, November 8, 2008

Concurrent Residency

In the picture below is shown Santa, Arlo, Craig, and Jeanette with Brian in her belly. This was during the time that I was going to BYU working on my degrees in Civil Engineering. I worked at Wright's Furniture Mill.



Wright's Furniture Mill made softwood bedroom furniture and waterbeds. I worked there while going to school for a few years. They had a boat that they would allow some of the employees to use. The boat had an inboard Chevrolet 350 CID V-8 engine hooked to a jet pump for propulsion.



When Jeanette was 9 months pregnant with Brian, I went water skiing with some of the people from work. We went in Utah Lake. The water in Utah Lake is known for the large algae blooms that thrive there. I skied for a while and was getting back in the boat. As I boarded the boat I went over the transom (the back of the boat) and climbed into the area where the engine is. The wake of a boat rippled under us as I was attempting to stand up in the back of the boat. There was no guard on the alternator. If fell against the alternator. My lower right leg was abraded across the shin.

The next day at work my shin began to swell and exude a pussey substance. Jeanette made an appointment and we went to the doctor. When the doctor saw it he asked immediately if I could drive myself to the hospital. He informed us that the abrasion had gone through the skin and that the bone was exposed, and it was infected. I needed to have it cleaned out and get a skin graft.

Jeanette took me to the hospital and was there for my surgery. She went home that night only to be interupted by labor pains. Jeanette drove herself to the hospital. I was in the hospital on one floor while Jeanette was in labor on another floor.

Here you can see the area where the skin graft was taken. I had to keep my leg elevated for a month. Jeanette told me about some of the proceedure. She said that my shin was cleaned up with a planer, like the one I have in the woodshop, and that the skin graft was cut with another planer. The skin graft was stretched over the area on my shin that was now bleeding well and stabled in place. A polymer foam pad was compressed against the graft using elastic bandages.



Yes, Jeanette and I had concurrent residency at Utah Valley Hospital for a while. She gave birth to Brian (she said that I was not at all helpful), and I was there to get my leg repaired.

5 comments:

  1. What a lady! as women we can do what we need to when the time puts forth the need...may it continue to be so. I do admire you both for the love that has grown with you both thru the years. love ya.

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  2. I can't help but wonder where Arlo and Craig were while the rest of you were busy at the hospital. Did Jeanette's mother take care of them?

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  3. Isn't odd how times like this happen.
    It reminds me how the good ol'murphys law tends to throw us for a loop every now and then.

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  4. Arlo and Craig spent some time with their Grandma Barbara.

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  5. What a funny story...ok sorry Jeanette not funny at all!

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