Doug's continued recovery & Farmington Fire

After a month without washing his foot, he finally
got to soak his foot! It felt great... note his skinny
leg. It's been another month now, think of how bad
it is now!!


After soaking his foot for about 20 minutes he could just
touch his foot and all the dead skin would come off. Gross!


Doug's morning commute... from the bed to the recliner!
It is the only commute that is shorter than Helen's!


This is Doug's long commute... out to the family room
recliner! Wireless internet is a great help for him. He
can do some of his work right from the chair!


Doug starts his therapy sessions with a 20 minute heat
pack. That is supposed to get his muscles all warmed
up for his workout!


He doesn't do any twisting... only core strengthening
exercisees. If he twists, he screams! He is getting
better though! It is just very slow!


Doug at the leg lift machine. They are trying
to keep him in good enough shape that he will be
able to walk when he gets his cast off and when his
back stops spasming!


The first day of crutches! I am not sure that
he is too excited about it... He looks a little
worried. He should be because he was on enough
drugs to make crutches very dangerous!


Bob Hawkes, his physical therapist, put a belt with
a handle on Doug so he could help hold him up. He
needed it a time or two!


Learning how to go up stairs! He was so afraid
of falling he could hardly do it! He was definately
suffering from "Post traumatic syndrome".


What goes up, must come down! He was exhausted
when he was finished. It was a lot of work.


At the end of his therapy session, they put electrical lead on
his back, pack him in ice and then "shock" him. It sounds
awful, but he says that it helps him feel better!


Electric shock from the front. He can turn it up and
down in shock strength. After 20 minutes, we are done
and we get to go home! All in all it takes about 3 hours
from doorstep back to doorstep.


These are some houses in our ward. The fire came within
50 yards of their homes. This is the second fire in Farmington
in 3 years. It was even in the same area!


It was a little too close for comfort.

The fire started in Farmington Canyon, went over the

mountain to Bear Canyon. I can't tell you how impressed

I was with all of the fire fighters. Especially the ones that

fought it by air!

The far canyon is Farmington Canyon.

The front lines of the fire coming down the hill was kept

in check by helicopters dropping water on it.

You can see the helicopter flying along with a "bucket"

of water. I don't know how they could see what they

were doing.

If you look really close, you can see the helicopter

dumping the water on a hot spot!

But... as they were getting the fire under control near

the homes, it went crazy up behind the mountian top.

You can see it burning on the mountain ridge behind

"our" mountain, to.

A "scout" plane would fly into the smoke first and then let the

big belly dump planes where to go and where to dump. They

really were unbelieveable. They would

fly into the fire and dump the red fire retardant. This pass we

got a picture of it when it dumped the red stuff! Sometimes

they had to be flying only by gages because there is no way they

could see anything.

Well hello everyone! We are still healing here in Farmington. Doug is doing better, but it is slow going. Somedays he feels like he is going backwards. We may not be able to see improvement every day, but when we look back a little ways, we can see a lot of change!

His work came and set him up with wireless internet and a direct line to his PC in his office in Mountain Green. He usually works 3 days a week, but it takes him 6 days to get his hours in. He has to keep on the move... He goes from the desk, to the recliner, to the table, to the other recliner to his bed and then starts over again. He can only sit in a straight back chair for about 30 minutes to 1 hour. It doesn't give you a lot of time at a desk. Like I said, we are happy for the wireless internet that helps him continue working when he needs to sit in a recliner.

He is getting "cabin fever" and would love to be able to get out more. He went with me to the grocery store on Saturday. He walked down one isle and back up to the front of the store and that was about his limit. He went out to the car to sit in the reclining seat. Poor guy. He would love to go see the new Bourne movie, but there is no way. When it comes out in DVD he will have to see it... then if he needs to, he could do it in small pieces!!

The fire in Farmington was pretty exciting. We had (almost) front row seats to watch them fight it. All of these pictures we taken withing 30 minutes to 1 hour tops. Several members of our ward got really nervous. Two had the fire withing 50 yards of their homes! We are glad that everything turned out ok.

Jett turned 2 this week... can't believe it!!! Even harder to believe is that Jeff will turn 26 on Friday! How on earth could my baby be 26 years old??? I guess that proves that we are getting older.

We are doing ok. We are plugging along. Friday I go back to work... when I leave Doug it will be like a new mother going back to work and leaving her baby. It will be hard. It might be harder for Doug... we will have to see!

I guess that is it.. leave your comments! We love to hear from you! :) Love you all, dnd