Monday, April 20, 2009

the story of what happened to Spencer's hands



It has been a terrible weekend. 

 In the late afternoon on Friday we took Spencer to the Emergency Room.

Here's what happened to Spencer a few hours before our ER trip.
I don't really understand it, but here's how Jamie Hansen explained it (and I quote):

Piecing together the story from Spencer and Ryan, they were going to add an injector pump at an irrigation well that had not been used in a while. They did not know if it was even hooked up (live). So Spencer had his tester probes to see where a live wire was to tie in a 110 wire to run the injector pump. You are supposed to put one end on a ground, and the other probe to the live wire to test it. He was not getting any reading on the tester, and so he was trying different locations. Some how one probe must have been on a live 240 wire and the other probe touched or came close enough to another 240 wire that it arched over, and the flash of the resulting 480 arch flash made a blue light with a big boom! The shock wave was so great, that it knocked them both back. And even Ryan Jones who was slightly behind and to the side of Spencer also had flash burn on his face (although nowhere near the extent of Spencer's). My feeling is that Spencer's wounds were only from the arch flash, as he was holding the insulated probes. If he would have had direct contact with the 480, it would have killed him. He would have had a chunk missing (burned) from his hand, where the bolt interred, and a hole blown out his lower leg or foot where the bolt would have exited his body to the ground. In either case, he is fortunate to be alive. And to have loving, caring family, and Church family surround him now.
This picture was taken about one hour after the accident occurred
Believe me when I say that his hands looked much worse on Saturday.

When I first saw Spencer's hands, they looked different.  He had them soaking in cool water when I showed up to the farm to pick him up.  He pulled his hands out of the water and it looked like this soggy whitish gray paper-towel material was covering his flesh.  Not too gross.  (Jamie was sure impressed with the composure I had when looking at his hands).
When we got in the car, I asked Spencer what was that weird substance they had put all over his hands.  He informed me that the "stuff" all over his hands was his skin!  
And that's when I lost it.  I cried.  I groaned.  My stomach turned and I couldn't look at his hands again for a long while.  

In the ER, the doctors cut off all the dead skin with scissors and tweezers.  Spencer was on morphine at this point and going through a bit of shock.

It has been three very difficult days since the flash burn. 
Spencer's hands are a) healing, b) wrapped in thick layers of silvadine ointment and gauze, and c) useless right now.

I'm grateful for a few things at this point.

1.  I'm grateful that my husband is alive.  I realize this accident could have been a lot worse.
2. I'm grateful for hands.  Just think for a minute what your life would be like without hands.  
3. I'm thankful Spencer was able to receive a priesthood blessing before almost anything else.  He was blessed to regain "full use of his hands", and that "the healing would begin from this moment on".

 Spencer will stear clear of 480 Volt electric boxes for a long, long while.  And next time, if there ever is a next time, he will have the proper safety equipment on.  

More to come.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Easter Message

Playgroup Field Trip

Our playgroup took a train from Fresno to the little town of Hanford.  We rented a "fire engine" around the town.  The truck driver took us to a little carousal, the most scrumptious ice cream shop, and the park.  Then we hopped back on the train.  It was great fun.  I couldn't resist pulling Taylor out of school to participate.  I was wiped out by the end of the very long day, but it was well worth it.


Here's part of the gang

McKay had a blast.  It was the perfect day for a little boy.

Maren loved the carousel, but I only let her ride it once because she gets car sick and I didn't bring a change of clothes.  I didn't want to take my chances.  

Here's the the whole gang on the fire truck

Ready to board the train


enjoying the 30 minute ride



  Looking at this picture makes me want to go back this very minute.  I ordered 4 scoops for $5.30 and this is what they gave me!  
It's Rocky Road, Chocolate, Banana, and Strawberry.  It's the best ice cream I've ever had.  
Yes, my kids and I ate the whole thing!  What a yummy lunch on a chilly day!



Monday, April 6, 2009

Who's your favorite?


This guys sure is different and sometimes scary, but he can sing.
He's one of my favs.
I also like the 16 year old red-head (Allison).
And Anoop-dawg.

an announcement

I don't have a good reason why I've been keeping this a secret from the blogging world, but I might as well let it out:

I'm going to have BABY #4!

I'm due in September. I'm 16 weeks along.

Today my mom told me that I'm big. And my husband. Thanks, guys.

I'll post a picture soon.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Wicked

Taking the "BART" --Bay Area's Underground Railway System

We saw and visited with some very interesting people. A little scary.

I think next time we'll just take our van and deal with parking.

in San Francisco's Opheum Theatre

Coming out at 11 pm



Dinner at Red Robin (this was before the show)--We wanted to eat in San Fran, but we had some technical difficulties. We locked the keys in our car in Dublin. We stopped to buy an umbrella (because it happened to be a rainy evening) and got stuck for two hours in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Red Robin happened to be right there.
So all of our time set aside to stroll around the city was completely wasted, but we still had a great time blaming each other for locking the keys in the car. See, Spencer left the keys in the ignition--and I locked the doors. As I was shutting my door, Spencer yells, "Wait!" Honestly, I did have time to stop the door from closing, but I didn't really even try...because I didn't know there were keys locked in the car!
Happy Anniversary to us, right?!!




Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Spencer, what did you start?!!

Here's a blog entry I found today written by one of Spencer's second cousins.
It's about the worms....

What has my husband started?

our winter snowtrip



My sister Ally and Tay-Tay on the way to the mountains We start our trip in the desert and in one hour this is what we get.

Playing in the snow. Thank you, Pender's for inviting us. It was lots of fun for the kids.This is what Ally did.
After one hour we were done. This was a very quiet ride home.