Brigham Updates

A Christmas blessing.  We realized that Brigham's right calf, ankle, and foot may be bigger (due to swelling) than his left for quite awhile.  So, I decided he needed new dress pants and shoes that fit, no more old jeans (that he has to peel off when it swells) and tennis shoes.  We were thrilled (ok, more me than him) when we found these active series slacks at Kohls.  They look like dress pants but they feel like sweats and have STRETCH!!! They are perfect for his situation and now I'm thinking I should buy a few more.  Oh, and the boots are easier to get on his foot then his regular dress shoes.  We are so grateful that we found a solution.  SCAR UPDATE: I cannot believe how much his scars have faded.  It is amazing what our bodies can do. Skin Graft on Inner calf fasciotomy  Skin Graft on outer calf fasciotomy The rectangle that is almost gone is where they took skin for the skin graft. The cut near the groin is the saw cut.  Here's a look at the whole leg. SIDE BY SIDE

Today Brigham had a follow up with Sheryl in the Vascular clinic.  She has not seen him since she removed the staples on August 24th.  She was thrilled to see how good Brigham looked. She was in awe that he could walk without a limp and even play a little soccer. Sheryl again expressed that he is a miracle and I could have sworn she had tears in her eyes.   It has been 3 months since his last appointment where they found the clot. Since then he has been on Eliquis to break up the clot and thin his blood. Good news - today the grafts and blood flow throughout Brigham's leg were good.  They have taken him off Eliquis and back to a baby aspirin.  He is under strict instruction if he has any symptoms of blood clots - - cramping, increased swelling, pain - - that he gets into the Vascular doctor ASAP. This stresses me a bit and I kinda wish they would keep him on blood thinners.  His next scheduled follow-up is in another 3 months.  A few things we learned today. Initial Surgery:   Brig

Brigham is increasing strength and his endurance but feels like this is a slow moving part of recovery. His inner quad muscle is still not activating.  At PT or the gym he uses a stationary bike or the elliptical. It is hard to run. He says he has to concentrate on how he moves his right leg so he doesn't limp. It's crazy how most of us take running for granted....we don't even have to think about it.  He is working for Jeremy part time - not as carpenter.  He moves trailers from job sites, dumps the garbage trailer, picks up supplies, runs to the bank, unloads wood or other supplies, drops off plans, etc.  He is kind of the errand boy.  He doesn't mind it because he usually gets to drive Jeremy's new truck. Most days he can make his own schedule which can help with resting his leg.  He wears a compression sock daily to help with the swelling.  He is registered for spring semester at Weber State starting in January to finish his associates. He has a follow up with t

 Brigham's memory of his 1st helicopter ride (aka AirMed flight) is being loaded on, then a moment where he felt claustrophobic and tried to move.  He recalls looking outside and the world seemed upside down. Then he remembers being unloaded off the helicopter. During the recognition night we were able to talk with the AirMed crew.  While talking to Judy I learned that what Brigham remembered was pretty accurate.  She said he was awake when they loaded him on the helicopter and then he passed out.  She said mid-flight he started screaming and thrashing, she said it was a great moment because she knew he was alive and had a chance because he was fighting. You see....the Francis' quick work gave him a few minutes, then the TXA got him a few more minutes, then the trauma blood gave him 10 minutes...ONLY 10 minutes to make it to the hospital. Jeremy learned that they needed a straight route to McKay Dee in hopes of getting him there in the time Brigham had left.  They were able to

Tonight was wonderful.  Layton City presented the EMS crew, the AirMed flight crew and Francis Family with a LifeSaver Medal for their part in saving Brigham's life.  This night had been in the works since Layton City Fire department came to our home to visit back in September. What an amazing experience.   Jason Cook (Battalion chief over the EMS crew) read this,  "Just before 10:00am on august 7th of this year, 20 year old Brigham and his father Jeremy were putting the finishing touches on a residential remodel project here in town. Knowing his dad has a lot of paperwork to catch up on and being very comfortable with the work that needed to be completed, Brigham told his dad to go home and he would finish the job. Shortly after his dad left, Brigham began working on the stair tread for a large deck at the home.  After making the cut with a circular saw, the blade guard caught on Brigham's pants, plunging the circular saw into his upper leg near the groin. Brigham immedia

Sorry it has been awhile since my last update.  Take that as good news!  Brig is going to therapy twice a week.  He is getting stronger.  That inner quad muscle is still not working the best.  This may be permanent damage, or it may be something that comes back with time since nerves are the last thing to heal.  Some days we have to remind ourselves that it hasn't even been 3 months yet. It is amazing where he is at in his recovery.  Overall,  Brigham is continuing to make good progress.  He also has been cleared for light duty work.  So if you know of any 10-20 hour a week jobs that don't require standing the whole time or maybe has shorter shifts then please let us know.  Here is some video of him in the backyard today. He is moving so well!! And one more short one. Stay tuned...next week or so we have something pretty special to share.  Thanks for the continued love, prayers and support.

 Are you ready to see Brigham in action?  Seeing what he can do at physical therapy is so awesome!  His movement + strength keep getting better. They are doing some dry needling to re-activate that inner quad muscle.  This is one the surgeons have been concerned about from the beginning about whether the nerve was completely cut through.  They are not working much with scar tissue in the upper thigh cut yet, the therapists want it to heal a few weeks more. However, Brigham could not resist kicking a soccer ball last week. He was at his "Brigham team"  indoor game and stepped out onto the field and kicked it with some force.  He didn't know what to expect especially with the numbness in his leg. He said the numbness wasn't as weird as he thought but there was some pain in his groin near the scar. We don't know if that is due to the scar tissue or muscles still healing. Either way he loved it but decided not to do it again...at least for awhile.  10/8/20  Campfire w

 Yesterday was 2 months since the accident and tomorrow it will be 9 weeks.  When I think of the progress Brig has made in such a short time I am astounded.  Sometimes you lose sight of the change and improvement when you are living it everyday. Does that make sense?  It's when I take a step back and really see the bigger picture that the reality + emotions come quick and strong.  When you are living in the day to day you can find yourself in survival mode just like the day of the accident.  You remove yourself from the emotions because you have a list of things to get done.  Especially since Jeremy and I have tried to go back to a regular routines + jobs as much as possible.  We have a family calendar that hangs in our kitchen. This picture was displayed during the month of September (it was taken 9/2019 when he played for Weber).  One day Brigham walked (or crutched) by and said....my leg will never look like that again.  He continued with...if I can move + play soccer like this

Tuesday Brigham had his final follow-up with Dr. Hobson regarding the skin grafts.  The grafts are looking good + healing good.  He no longer needs to keep them covered but he chooses to wrap it at night so it doesn't ooze or stick to his other leg etc. Every morning he applies Neosporin around the edges and then applies Aquafor ointment to the center of the graft. Dr. Hobson explained that he will never have hair or sweat glands in the skin graft area.  This means those patches will always be drier and need more moisturizer.  Tuesday evening we went and watched Brigham's friends play indoor soccer. I know this scoreboard picture is not that clear but they renamed their team Brigham.  This mom got teary eyed- but what else is new? I was a touching gesture of support + kindness. He was surprised to see his friend Chase (they played HS and college soccer together) playing as a sub this week.  This is them catching up after the game.   You will notice that Brigham is wearing 2 sho

Today we had a follow up appointment with the Vascular doctors/surgeon.  First they did an ultrasound on his graft checking on the flow and how the graft is holding.  Due to the numbness he only felt a small portion of the ultrasound gel or scope. The rhythmic sound of the blood pumping and the darkened room made both of us feel sleepy as the technician did his work.  Next we had to wait 1 1/2 hours for the doctor appt.  So, we got lunch and parked under a shady tree while Brigham watched Arsenal play on his phone.  Our appointment was with Jason the PA.  He is the one who saw Brig regularly while he was in the hospital. Unfortunately during the ultrasound they found a few clots in his femoral vein.  After Jason talked it over with Dr. Akhtar they put Brigham on blood thinner (Eliquis) for the next 3 months. His next follow up is after Christmas.  Here is an updated scar picture of his upper right leg.  This was right after his morning shower that he took by himself and even stood up f

We knew there had to be more miracles involved and more people affected by Brigham's experience. We knew that many things had to go right in order to save him. It's like lining up swiss cheese slices and all the holes lining up...kind of like the perfect storm but in a good way. We learned more about Brigham's experience today. Isn't it crazy how days start out normal and then take a sharp turn? Around 11am Brigham received a call from the Layton Fire Department.  They asked about his healing + stated how amazing it was that he is alive. They arranged a time to visit early afternoon.  Fire Battalion Chief Jason Cook and Dr. Mark Oraskovich who is the referring physician who works with Layton City fire + EMS visited with us for 1/2 hour. Neither of them were at Brigham's scene. However, Chief Cook has read the report from EMS, AirMed, and even had seen pictures from surgery. He went on to share more situations where things lined up just perfectly to save him. EMS - T

 Tuesday we had a great follow up with Dr. Hobson at Huntsman.  He removed the wound vac and the skin grafts look good and healing well. This is the first time since the accident that Brigham is wound vac free.  He says it is awesome to use the crutches without worrying about stepping on the hose and carrying around the wound vac bag on his shoulder or around his neck.  We change the dressings on the skin grafts daily and he will have another follow up next Tuesday. His pain is pretty much gone.  He occasionally takes tylenol or ibuprofen but it is becoming less frequently. After the appointment we went out to lunch at a local favorite Salvadorean pupusas + tacos (in Syracuse, Utah).  It is owned by Brig's best friend's parents. It was great to see friends to share some hugs + tears.  If that wasn't enough for one day....Brig was feeling so great Jeremy drove him to watch his indoor soccer team play at 10:30pm. It was great to see his friends + watch them play. I'm so s

As we start to do a little bit of real life among Brigham's healing I find less time to write on the blog.   It's official after 6 weeks Brigham is wearing underwear again. haha!  That may be too many details but it is one more milestone.  If you have been following since the beginning, you may remember Brigham said he was never wearing underwear or pants again. That was the day after the accident.  He couldn't imagine putting anything on his thigh.   So much healing has happened in the past 6 weeks it is amazing. On Saturday we changed the bandage on his skin graft harvest site.  This is on his right thigh where they took the skin to be used for the skin grafts.  The black color on the bandage is iodine mixed with blood, oozing and vaseline. That is a mesh (that had the iodine + Vaseline in it)  that is stitched over the harvest site. You can see the 8 black stitches.  As he heals we will trim it off.  We are not quite sure how that works yet, we will ask at his follow up

Here is a good explanation on Compartment Syndrome + why Brigham needed a fasciotomy.  On the drive to Huntsman Hospital in SLC we got a video call from his friend Leo (who is serving an LDS mission in Idaho) it was perfect timing and a fun distraction.  We got to the hospital at 9:00am to check in. We were together in Pre-Op for about 3 hours.  It took 3 tries to get the IV in and all 3 of them hurt.  Good thing Brig is tough.  Luckily they didn't remove the wound vac until he was in surgery, one less moment of pain.  You will notice he is wearing his new ARSENAL face mask that my brother + SIL got him.   Dr. Hobson came in and explained the skin graft surgery, which I found interesting. They use something that looks like an industrial cheese grater to remove skin from his right thigh. Then they run it through another machine that makes holes in it so it looks like mesh.  Once the skin is mesh-like it can be stretched and then stitched on the fasciotomy site. Since it can stretch

 Here is a video of Brigham walking on Saturday, September 12th. It's the same one I posted to facebook + instagram if you already saw it there. 

Thanks to my friend for reminding me to show you + to document an updated picture of Brig's scars. We took them today. Here is picture of his whole right leg.  In the end, he pretty much will have a scar from his hip to his ankle. Here is the lower scar near his knee. The vein harvest site scar. Here is the injury cut on his upper thigh that started it all. Same upper thigh scar...different light.  We couldn't tell which picture showed it better.

We are happy to say that today was Brigham's last wound vac change.  Wahoo!  We are planning + hoping that it is his last one.  The only reason why he would have to continue home health wound care is if he doesn't end up having surgery for some reason. This afternoon he had a Covid Test in prep for surgery on Monday.  Mondays surgery is with the plastic surgeon at Huntsman Hospital to close up the fasciotomy sites.  Plan A: was to have a pre-op appointment where they accessed the fasciotomy's without the wound vac and decide what they could stitch up + where they would use a skin graft. Well...that appt was scheduled this past Tuesday (8th) and was cancelled due to the intense wind storm. So, on to Plan B. Plan B: They will access him before Monday morning before going into surgery.  More good news...Huntsman recently changed their policy and I can go into the hospital with Brigham and wait in the OR waiting room while he is in surgery. What a relief + blessing that we don&