Here we are the day after a life changing day in our lives. The trauma + the miracles. I'm hoping this will be helpful for everyone to access Brigham's updates. Plus, I'm thinking it will be therapeutic for me. DAY ONE 8/7/2020 THE EVENT Friday morning (guessing 9:40ish) Brigham was building deck stairs in the Francis' backyard by himself. Somehow he accidentally cut himself with a skill saw on his right upper leg. (I will stress this point, he did nothing wrong, we are pretty sure we have figured how it happened and it was a freak accident.) Neighbors came running as they heard his bloodcurdling scream. Mom Francis (I don't have permission to use first names so I will refer to people as Mom + Dad) looked at her window and saw the blood. She quickly grabbed towels, leaping off her deck to get to Brigham and immediately applying pressure. Her husband was home and he ran out to help apply pressure and giving him a priesthood blessing....
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 th...
Before I get into Brigham's impairment rating, I wanted to document something new we learned in November. Brigham had been having some new pains near the scar where the cut happened, and we were concerned that maybe this was a sign of a new clot. It is so tricky, for 2 reasons. First, he cannot feel all of his leg and second, clot symptoms are the same as what he feels in that leg every day. We called Sheryl to get her opinion and she said to book an appointment immediately. Luckily, he did not have any new clots and she told Brigham eventually he will learn what symptom means trouble. For example, one guy always feels like he has the flu when he has a leg clot, so weird. She said it will take time. Because Brig's injury is so unique, she will always see him if he feels something is off. What we learned that day was Brigham has a chronic clot in the vein just above his right knee with clot strands extending a few inches past the clot. If he is ever seen at a hospital o...
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