October 18, 2011

What a day... Jason went down to the PACU a little early this morning, and was back in his room before 10:30. I got down to see him off and then took off to run a couple of errands. One of the errands was to check out a Burger King. Jason has been asking for something from Burger King for a couple of months now, and there just don't seem to be any around here. I have a gps to help me find things and provide directions, so I figured I'd just use it to get me to a Burger King. I punched in the name and five different locations came up, within 5 miles of here. I had selected the first one, and that one took me to a brick building, that had a laundry mat, a barber shop, and a dry cleaner business. I looked around and there was no burger king, though there was a Starbucks across the street. The second entry said it was only 3.48 miles so I was off and searching. By the time I had gotten to the address provided, I had traveled nearly 8 miles. Perhaps their measurements are, "as the crow fly" and not surface streets. I'm about ready to give up on BK and just have Jason wait until we get back to California, where I know I can find one.

As I said, Jason got back at about 10:30 and we were going to be going down to the MATC at about 14:00 (2PM). The only issue with that is that at 11:00 we suddenly had visitors coming into the room as if they were lined up out in the hallway. Don't get me wrong, Jason really likes to see visitors, especially when they are folks he hasn't seen in several years, like today. I just wish we had some way to space them out a little more so that we could get some of the other things we need to do, done. Tim Brown is back from his road trip, and I saw him in the hall way, though I don't thing he ever made it into the room. Two of the GySgts that Jason originally worked for, when he was in Dispersing came by, and Col. Slocum also came in, since he was back in the area. There were several of the Wounded Warriors who had come by and then there was Sherri Beck from Wounded EOD Warriors, so like I said it just seemed like it was non-stop people. I don't want to tell them to not come, as I said Jason likes to see them, I just would like to figure out a way to be able to get the visits in and also get all the PT time in as well.

Finally, I did kind of put a stop to the flow of people, and I sort of enlisted the help of one of the other wounded warriors. He came to the door and I let him know that I was wanting to get Jason out to the MATC, and that I wanted him to sort of let anybody else know that visiting was over for now. It was now after 14:30 (2:30PM) and Bridgette (yeah, she was in the room too, with the girls) and I were working together to help get Jason ready. This was the first time for Jason to be getting in to his chair, since Thursday, last week, as he was still tender in a few places. We were able to get the shorts on him okay, and by now the girls (Stacy and Jackie) were getting kind of cranky and tired. Bridgette said she had to get them to their nap, so she left and after I helped Jason get his shirt on I was going to get him in to his chair. Jason had a difficult time getting over to the edge of the bed, due to the tenderness of some of his injuries. Once he was in place I picked him up and placed him in his chair, as easy as I could. He said he wasn't going to be able to stay there and needed to get back in to the bed. Well, I picked him up, as easy as I could and got him back in bed, and got him as comfortable as I could then just let him rest a little while.

We had Popeye's for dinner tonight, as when all was said and done, the day was getting away from us. On top of everything else going on, the bed side rail broke, and was causing the adjustment controls to act a bit strange. Sometimes the bed would start moving on its own, though it didn’t cause any discomfort for Jason, just made him a little nervous at first. The nurses told us they would order another bed, so we’re hoping that it shows up tomorrow.

We will be having a conference call with the folks at Balboa (San Diego) tomorrow, so Bridgette and I will be trying to get the girls into some short term day care, during the meeting. It is supposed to be available to us, though neither of us has ever checked it out. We didn’t find out about this meeting until later in the day today, so we couldn’t get over to check out the day care center and will need to do it early tomorrow. We’re also hoping that Jason is feeling better and will be able to go to the meeting in his wheelchair; otherwise he’ll go with the prone cart. In any event, I need to get to bed so I can get up at a reasonable hour. The hot water has been stopped at the Lodge, so I may have to find another place to take a shower – I don’t enjoy cold showers.

Thank you all, for all you have done and all the support and prayers you have been passing along our way.