Jess & TJ back from Utah

TJ was glad to be home too.

Wednesday night, Jessica and TJ drove to Salt Lake. TJ had a check up on Thursday morning at Shriner's, then Jess had a family reunion. They came home Friday night. I had the two older kids with me Wednesday, Thursday and Friday...and I gotta say I really missed Jess and TJ. Ok so my parents had Toph and Creedance Thursday and Friday...I had them each evening, which isn't difficult, but I missed my wife and baby boy. Here's a few more images in my ongoing photography project.

Tim, a wound care specialist at EIRMC, cleaning up TJ's stump...I love Jessica's expression in this photograph.

The trip was a bit frustfrating for Jessica. We were thinking that in 2-3 more weeks we would be back down there to start the prosthetic, then just a week later would have it and TJ would be learning to walk on it. But now we are looking closer to the end of July that we will be down to cast for the prosthetic, and another 2-3 weeks until we will have the foot. So it will be closer to mid to late August. TJ is so ready to walk...but he can't. He can't even step on the stump because it is so much shorter. It is tough for us...but it is also difficult to 'look a gift horse in the mouth.' Shriner's has been such a blessing for us, and they have been so wonderful to us with everything. Just kind of hard.

We have a very active little boy!

The last window...almost

The last window to install. 10' x 11'...quite big.

Friday we headed up early so that we could get the last window finished. Well so it is the last except for the storefront entryways. We have been holding off on this window because the general contractor needed to use the opening to get the lifts out of the building. Well, we were told that they would be flying them out first thing in the morning. We had at least 2 hours of preparing the frame to install it, and we wanted to use our lift to get the glass up to the second floor. We had to get the window closed up by the end of the day, because they did not want to temporary it closed again. Well, as construction projects go, things did not go according to plan. The crane that was going to be used to fly the lifts off the second floor, was not available until about 3:30. It would then take an hour or so to move the lifts, and another hour or two just to get our frame set...let alone the time to glaze it (install the glass in it). We were not about to stay that long on a FRIDAY! So as far as I know they had to put a temporary in. So Monday we will tackle it and get it all finished. Then we can focus on the entry ways, and Gary can finish caulking the exterior.

These insulated units were quite heavy to pass up through the window. That's me in the red hardhat.

Temple

So I finally remembered to take the camera up to the job site. This shows the big window in the front all done...except for one of the largest insulated units. Today we installed 6 window frames that will not have glass...they are in front of louvers and kinda silly to have but whatever. We are now down to just one more door frame with a couple of sidelights and the big window on the 2nd floor. It is really great to see it nearing completion. Everyone who can should go through the open house.

Almost There!

We are nearing completion on the Temple. Last week we installed the BIG frame on the front of the Temple--about 8' wide and 30' tall, and today we installed a tall narrow window that is on the northwest corner--about 3' wide and 40' tall. They were challenging.

We had a lot of difficulty setting the final insulated glass in the large front window. My boss, Gary, was on the lift with the window (4' square) and Jason and I were inside in a very precarious position poking our bodies out of little excess holes. The top section of this large frame is not in a room, more like a crawl-space that will be lit at night to shine out the stained glass window...anyway so only 18" from the inside plane of the window is a painted wall with two small cut-outs. We could not get the glass to the frame from the inside but all the glass sets into the frame from the inside. The plan was that Gary would lift the glass into us and we would take the balance, then get the glass inside on an angle, and set it from the inside. But Gary could not even get under the glass to lift it. So Jason and I just looked at each other and out the window I jumped onto the lift with Gary to get the glass up. Did I mention that this was at 6:30pm after starting at 6:00am. We were tired and had to get this frame closed up before we went home, and we wanted to get home.

The frame I am talking about is the large area of plywood in the center of this picture. That whole area is in one room (for the most part) that is 2 stories+ tall. Beautiful! I will post some pictures that show the glass soon.

We are now down to one more window, 2 entry-ways, and 6 frames (with no glass) left to install. The last window we have to wait on as that opening will be the exit for the lifts on the 2nd floor. We have started on entry ways, and we are also waiting on other junk to get done for the 6 frames. There are also other things here and there that have to be done there, but we have really gotten a lot done in the past months. It has been really amazing to see so much transpire there. It will be a beautiful building.

One more cool thing I was told today... Gary told us that we will be able to get tickets for the Dedication! We can get one for ourselves and a companion. So Jess and I will be in the temple for the Dedication. What an opportunity!

TJ is home!

I stayed at the hospital with TJ again last night, I wanted Jess to at least have the chance to sleep through the night. He did quite well, he was a bit grumpy, but slept for most the night. His fever did not spike once, and so our family doctor released us this morning. It took a while to actually get out because they had to arrange an in-home IV, but we were able to get home before 2pm. It is nice to be home with him and not confined in the hospital.

The in-home care nurse came to get us set up with the IV stuff and so for the next week or so we will be giving TJ his medicine ourselves. We also will be going into the wound care specialists to have his dressings re-done each day. It looks so much better than it just 2 days ago. The wound care doctor removed all the excess skin and got it all cleaned up today. We may be back to doing the wrappings ourselves soon.

This has been an anxious few days, but we never felt really scared. The doctors and especially the nurses made us feel such at ease. One nurse in particular, Mickey, was just so wonderful to us. I havecometo really respect nurses and all they do...they are the ones that make the difference! The doctors are great, but the nurses are the ones there right when you need them.

TJ Update

This last week Jessica was worried about how his leg looked and so took him into the doctor to have it checked out. Well, it has gotten infected. Our doctor prescribed an antibiotic, but he couldn't keep it down. So Thursday night, after a wound specialist in our ward took a look at it, we took him into the ER. They put him on an IV to get the antibiotics into him, and we have the wound care specialists working on it topically. It is looking so much better, and TJ is in much less pain. He is doing much better and we may be able to bring him home Monday--unless we go to Shriner's then. We have a check-up scheduled for Thrusday, but that may be moved up...we will have to play that by ear. Everyone has been so wonderful to help us through this...our family and friends near and far...Thank you for your prayers.

Here are some more photos:

Our little TJ is such a good sport

Sometimes it is difficult to wrap, because of TJ's "help."

"Hand, Foot & Leg"