THE HOMECOMING! -- 4/25/06

He's BACK! Late yesterday afternoon Joseph hitched a ride with his friends Kasey and Kris from LDS Hospital and returned home at last. He comes with renewed infections but looking forward to being in a less contaminated environment and getting better fast. He feels great, looks great and IS great. He was able to return with a wheelchair, bed, commode/shower chair and lift all loaners until the ones we have requested come. Insurance has declined the commode/shower chair and lift already. We'll appeal, but we'll purchase anyway, even if the insurance doesn't (thanks to all the donations). We set up a bedroom in the former dining area of the family room, using empty bookcases as privacy dividers. It works pretty well.
Last Saturday after seeing the photos on the 4/19 Blog of the black sand removed by Dad from Joseph's ears, Gretchen said I've got to have a look in there. . . Dad caught her photo after looking in his ear. She said: "Oh my gosh, it looks like caviar!" They scheduled an appointment with the audiologist to rinse out his ears. On Monday the doctor spent 45 minutes rinsing. He got lots of sand out, but ended up leaving a half dozen grains in each ear that refused to budge. Dad will still be looking keeping track of the record when the last grain of sand appears.



Yesterday's farewells with the hospital staff was poignant, with hugs all around. They've all become part of the family in the last three months. Katie is about to have her baby, Barb is recovering from an auto accident, our prayers are with them all.

The Home:
The home is coming! The plastering was fininshed on Saturday and sanded on Monday. The garage floor got painted over the weekend and looks great. The tile people came and got started putting in the tile in Joseph's shower/toilet yesterday. This morning the people from Hallmark Cabinets came to install the new custom built section of kitchen cabinets for Joseph. Doug Miles is here installing the air conditioning unit and last but not least Dustin Bowers (one of our EBM missionaries) is coming to install new counter top on the old but repainted kitchen cabinets and on the new cabinets as well. There is a lot of activity for Joseph's first day home!