November 17, 2011 - Showers are nice

Jason's day started out a little different than other days. Not because he had breakfast with Mom and Dad - which he did, in his room; and, not because of special visitors - which he had. It started differently because right after breakfast, his OT (occupational therapist) came in and said she wanted to work on some different skills today. Well, the different skills turned out to be learning how to take a shower. The plan, originally, was to get dressed and head over to the gym with OT and then later work with PT and come back to his room. What happened was that the wound care team came in and said they wanted to do a dressing change, and that is what we did. As it turned out, I did all the bandage removal, and that went well. Then one of them, I really don't know who, suggested that Jason should consider taking a shower today, to help with the healing. We all, including Jason, though it was a good idea so OT did an immediate change of plans, and started working on Jason taking a shower.

First, when doing a dressing change Jason if more comfortable with being on the prone cart, and that is where he was when this started. Now he needed to transfer over to his chair. We had to get his chair set up, so that he could comfortably sit on it, without all his bandages (that is...padding). We placed a sheet on the chair and Jason sat directly on the sheet. We then had to move the bed, so he could get to the bathroom and shower, and that took a few minutes. Once in the lavatory he needed to figure out how to get to the shower. There was a special chair put in so he would be able to get all showered up, without worrying about his chair or seat cushion. I was working directly with OT, so I would know more about what needed to be done in the future, because Jason would no doubt want to take another shower someday (they are now scheduled every Monday and Thursday). Jason felt really good after the shower, even though he also felt very tired. It was a great deal more work than what he is accustomed, and that's okay because he slept really well after we were done.

Linda and I went off to take a look at a second possible house, and this second one does look better, so we're anxious for Jason to see it. I think it may be a little bigger than the first out we saw, though I didn't measure the house the first time. The previous house had placed that would not work for Jason, and it was generally uncomfortable. The second house may also have some tight places, but while we were there it just seemed to be a better house, for Jason's needs. We need to get Jason out to see the new house, and once that has been done, we will know what Jason wants to do.

There were a couple of special visitors for Jason today, Brigadier General Dana, and his Chief of Staff, Colonel Hollahan. Both of the men knew Jason from Afghanistan, and saw Jason before he came back to the United States. They were both wanting to know more about how Jason was doing, and just get an understanding of how he was progressing. There visit lasted for nearly an hour, and we had a great discussion. The General said he was headed back out to Bethesda soon, and would look up a few people for us, and let them know Jason was doing well. We also talked about some of the challenges we were dealing with, with the biggest being Jason's truck, and getting it out here. We told them about how his truck suddenly stopped working so the Colonel offered up some names and contact information of people that can help to get the truck running again. I will be contacting them tomorrow, and hope that helps Bridgette, so she doesn't have to worry about it any more. She has plenty of other things to get done and should be able to just not have to deal with the truck too.

Thank you, for all your support and continued prayers for Jason and all the Wounded Warriors.