Staff Sgt Jason Ross - Marine

Today started a little rough for Jason, as he was feeling achy and generally poorly - though there was no fever. I think that perhaps it was a combination of two weeks of the hyperbaric chamber and the cutting back of the pain meds, and his body was just saying, "I need a break." So, that's pretty much what we did. I called the folks at UCSD Med Center, and then over to the hospital and let them know. A short while later, Jason decided to take a shower and after that he felt much better, though he still did not want to go do anything. On a brighter note, Linda (a.k.a. Mom) arrived this morning and I went over to pick her up at the air port. She is going to be staying down here in San Diego, until we leave to head back up to Livermore. It is going to be nice having her here, and she will be very much involved in helping around the house with the different things that need to be done, as well as helping with the girls. If I understand it correctly, the girls will be comin...

Jason's day today, was pretty much the same as yesterday, and that's a good thing. The wounds on his left side have almost closed up, and that is a better thing; and, he is taking on greater control of his own life and that is the best thing. Okay, maybe I'm being a little over dramatic here but things are going well and Jason remains positive about the future. We're making plans for my departure, and I have spoken with the folks at Balboa, including giving them a list of the things that I need to do regularly for Jason. I will be working with others, over these next two weeks to make sure as many of the points are covered as possible, and then it will be simply up to Jason to learn what he still needs assistance with. The treatment with the hyperbaric chamber seems to be going well, I just wish they could get their schedule to be a little more stable. It seems like the get started with their "dives" a little later each day now, and so that means he gets out...

Today was about as routine a day as Jason ever has. We got up and had breakfast; then, we headed over to the hospital at the Naval Base; and, finally we went over to the hyperbaric chamber. They got started a bit late, due to some new patient, but other than that, it was pretty much normal. Jason is dealing with some recurring pain, and that is probably related to his meds being cut back, so that is just a matter of time before he is able to not have the discomfort bother him so much. We are looking forward to Linda getting her on Friday, and then she is going to be staying with us for the next two weeks afterward. Well, actually at the end of that visit I will be heading back home with her. Yep, I am going to be going back home, and staying there for at least two weeks, and probably longer. Jason and I have had a number of conversations and we both think it is time for me to take a step back to my own life again. He is getting to the point of being able to take care of many of the t...

Today was an exceptional day for Jason, where he is showing that he is becoming more in tune with his healing and his body. He is learning so much better how to deal with the different levels of pain, and he is getting better ar dealing with that pain and discomfort. Like many of the guys who go into the hospital for long term recovery, usually from some type of sever injury, he doesn't want to be on any kind of pain med, any more than he has to be. Because of the level and seriousness of his injuries he was placed on some pretty significant amounts of pain medications, and over these past several months (almost a year now), he has been cutting back on the amount of medication he is taking. Recently he stepped down to a lower dosage and he is feeling the affects, yet he is once again, learning how to deal with it. It really makes me feel proud of him, to see the determination in his face, with regard to taking control of everything. He is fully aware that he is going to need help w...

Wow, to think that a year ago we were back in Bethesda and Jason was up on the 5th floor making all kinds of progress. Most of his surgeries were over with and all the focus was on his recovery. Yeah, there were still a couple surgeries that had to be done, but for the most part the focus was on him getting more involved with the PT and OT folks. Now, here it is a year later and two of the biggest areas that he is working on is PT and OT. There are a number of other appointments that he has to contend with, though most of what needs to be done is just get him up to a strength level as well as an ability to move is hands and arms so that he can deal with his own needs, as much as he can, on his own. Jason has been recognized by so many of the different command folks, both in Bethesda as well as out here (Wounded Warrior Battalion East and West), for his attitude and how positive his out look continues to be. And, it seems that because of his attitude and out look, his recovery has been ...

Today was another day of just Jason and myself. We were going to attempt to get out to see Anthony Netto, and spend a little time at the beach, but that just didn't happen. Jason was just a bit too uncomfortable and he didn't feel like he was up to getting out. I believe part of the issue is that he has been cutting back on some of the pain meds and his body is still adjusting to the lower dosages. I am hopeful that it won't take too long to adjust because if it doesn't he may have to go back to a higher dosage again. He did take a shower today and he made the comment about how much better he feels after taking a shower. When I changed his dressings the wounds looked pretty good, and for the most part, the smaller of the two primary wounds looks like it might be closing up in the next couple of weeks. Perhaps I'm being an optimist, but that's what it looks like to me. I did get a chance to get in a nice ride today, about 20 miles, and found some new places to ...

Today was another day of just the two of us, for the most part. We did get a chance to get over to Costco, to pick up a few things. We really can't buy too much there since it is just a small family that is being cooked for and stuff. Jason does love his Frosted Mini Wheats, so we almost invariably buy a large box of those. It is amazing how he can eat in the morning - though breakfast is the most important meal of the day (I wonder who said that first). Along with everything else we picked up a couple of nice steaks and I cooked them on the grill tonght, and they came out great. We had a nice meal, with a salad and everything. Tomorrow we will be trying to get out to the beach, with Anthony Netto, though it all has to do with how well he is feeling, so we continue to just take it one day at a time. I think I told everyone that my son David and his wife Miriam had a baby boy, this past Wednesday, but I don't think I mentioned his name, so here it is.... (drum roll please)... ...

Jason started the day out with another visit to the folks at UCSD, and their hyperbaric chamber. They ran in to a small delay, so he didn't get to begin his "dive" until almost a half hour later than planned. Normally that wouldn't be much of an issue, except that today he wanted to head over to the Sports and Family Fun Day at the Naval Base. As it turned out, the treatment went smoothly and we were headed back to the base at just a little after 13:00 (1pm). The events were effectively all done so all we could participate in in the lunch. Of course that wasn't too bad, so we had a nice late lunch. We got there just a little while after Anthony Netto arrived, and he brought along a ParaMobile (aka - ParaGolfer) for Jason to use. I helped get Jason from his wheelchair into the ParaMobile and then Jason took off to go visit with some of the other guys. It was very exciting for me to see Jason getting around in his ParaMobile, and all of the guys who saw it thought i...

Today started early as Jason had a very early appointment at Balboa Naval Hospital and then needed to get over to the UCSD Medical Center for the hyperbaric chamber. The first appointment went a little longer than first anticipated, though we were still able to get over to UCSD in plenty of time (I think we had 10 minutes to spare... ;-)). There was both good and not so good news from the first appointment, as there is an issue about the repeated areas of pain for Jason. The not so good news is that the reason for the discomfort is that there is scar tissue build up and they can only correct it via surgery through an area that has already been grafted. The good news is that they also feel very positive about the chances of getting it corrected, he just has to wait until after the HO has been taken care of, and that might get done for another couple of months. That takes us back to the hyperbaric chamber... they're confident that it will help, but don't know how long it will tak...

Hello to all, and God Bless to each and everyone of you. Linda and I have been up in Los Angeles for the past few days, due to the birth of our fourth grandchild. David and Miriam are the proud parents of a new baby boy, born on June 19, 2012 at 05:25 in the morning, 7lbs 11oz. and 21 inches in length. They have not told us of his name yet, though I am aware that the hospital is pressuring them a bit to provide one. In order for them to be discharged from the hospital tomorrow the baby needs to have a Social Security Number; and, to get one of those you have to have a name. I suspect they will be letting everyone know soon enough, and for right now we are simply going to be happy with the fact that he is healthy and everyone is doing well. Linda and I came back down this afternoon, and arrived back in San Diego at about 15:45 (3:45pm) +/- a few minutes. We went in and spoke with Jason and found him to be in very good spirits and feeling pretty good. He was surprised to see us, since ...

Got up this morning and Linda made breakfast for all of us, and it was really good. We did a few things around the house and at about noon Bridgette came over to the house, from her place. We spoke briefly with Jason and decided it was a good time for us to do a little exploring around San Diego, so he and Bridgette could get a little time together. While we were out we came across Anthony Netto and Jim and they were just going to lunch, and asked us if we would like to join them, so we did. Anthony had just gotten back from Michigan, where it was working with another group, and it seems there is some interest there for the ParaGolfer, so it was a good trip for him. After lunch we called Jason and asked about what time we should plan on getting back over to the house and he said stay out until 21:00 (9pm) so we did. Tomorrow we will be heading over to the hospital  to touch base with the medical team, and then head off to the hyperbaric chamber at UCSD Medical Center for Jason's ...

Okay, a bit of an update about yesterday first, since not much happened today, other than my two sons, George and Sean, flew in to celebrate Father's Day with us. Yeah, I was pretty happy about that and very glad to see them, since I don't get a chance much anymore. The beauty of it is that they flew in from two different air ports and managed to get here within 15 minutes of each other. I was able to pick them both up with one trip to the airport. Wait a minute, I'm supposed to be talking about yesterday... The dinner with Lt. Col. Oliver North and Bob Hammer was set for 19:30 (7:30pm) with the reception starting an hour earlier. That meant Jason and I needed to leave the house no later than 16:00 (4pm), so we did, or at least pretty close to that time. What I failed to remember was that Fridays in June tend to generate more traffic and so it took longer than planned to get there; and, once we were there Jason had to have his I.V. antibiotics. We texted Bob a few times t...

Actually, as I write this, it is June 16, since it is after midnight. We had a very busy day with being on the local news and then ending with the dinner with Oliver North and Bob Hammer. We had Tom and Fred come over to set up a little garden area for the girls and on top of that, we were provided the opportunity to meet Ralph, a gentleman who has been a big help to us these last couple of months. Linda was not able to go with us to the dinner because Jackie isn't feeling too good, and she felt she needed to stay home with her. When I called back to the house this evening, Jackie was feeling better, so it was probably good that Grandma stayed and helped her get back to feeling better. Like I said, it is kind of late, so I'm really tired - There was a major traffic accident on the way home, so we sat on the freeway for quite awhile - I'll write more tomorrow and catch everyone up on the goings on, with the parting thought that Jason is doing well, and he was able to stay ...

Today was Jason's first full day at home, since leaving the hospital (for the third time) and he spent most of it in bed. Linda and I spent more time at the hospital as we both had appointments, and then there were several people who wanted to just talk with us, especially since Linda was here. I guess it is because some of them have heard me speak of her several times, and now they can finally get a chance to meet her face-to-face. We even had lunch at the galley, and they were serving enchiladas and fajitas (chicken), along with a number of other side dishes. Anyway, after the appointments and we were all done, we came back to the house. There were a number of other errands we wanted to get done, and we did do most of them, with a few left over for tomorrow. Tomorrow is also a big dinner for Jason, and Linda and I, as we are going to be headed to the Ritz Carlton to listen to and then have dinner with Oliver North. There is also going to be someone there that I have been wanting ...

The day began early for us as the girls came over to the house at about 06:40, since they had not spent the night with us. They were awake and ready for the day, and we were up and also ready for the day, since we had showered and gotten dressed by the time they arrived. Linda and I took them over to their day care at around 07:15, and then headed over to see Jason. He was feeling much better and was actually kind of busy when we arrived. He was working with the staff of five west, and there were a number of members who remembered him from the last time he was there. The MRI was still to be analyzed, so that was a big thing starting out, and as it turned out, there was nothing found, so we were all very happy to hear about that. Not much else went on during his stay, other than to find out that he was in good shape and that they decided to let him go home tonight, and will be receiving antibiotics, just as he did before. He will be getting them for only two weeks this time, and that wa...

Jason had a much better day today, and the infection is going away. Initially Jason had a white blood count of about 23K (Monday early) and today it was down to about 8K. That is all in just over 24 hours. The doctors were very pleased, as was Jason (and me and Linda). He is still needing to go through a number of tests and get an update on the MRI that was completed, and then we'll know more about what has happened. He did have some visitors today, and I suspect that there will be others - I think we need to get the Red Book out again so we can capture all the names. Also, it looks like the hyperbaric chamber treatment is still going to be available, once Jason gets beyond this little set back. Linda and I went over to see him and spend some time with him this morning, and then we took off to go do a couple of things we wanted to do earlier. Actually, one of those things was to go have lunch with Huge and Julie Keener. They had come down this way for some personal business, and fo...

I was hoping to start this post off with a little levity, and I'm sorry to say that isn't going to happen this time. Linda and I got home at about 22:15, and to be quite honest, we were tired after that 3-hour drive. We had had a great time up with David and Miriam and expected to continue to have a great week with Jason and the girls. So we went to sleep about 23:00. Apparently, right after we went to bed, Jason started experiencing some pain and discomfort. It was kind of a different pain, and he thought he could just "will" his way through it, with the help of some of the extra pain meds. The extra meds did help some, by taking the "edge" off, and he tried to get comfortable; then, he called me at just after 01:00 this morning. Since I went to bed tired, and only had a couple of hours of sleep, I didn't wake up on the first ring of the phone. In fact, I remember looking at the cell  phone and thinking, "Why is it making all that noise?" and ...

For those wondering what happened with the blog.... Yesterday Linda (wife/mom) came in to San Diego and we got a chance to visit with the grand kids, for a few minutes. We'd hoped to spend a little more time with them, but it didn't happen. We took off at about 18:20 (6:20pm) so that we could get up to see David, Miriam and Dylan. We've been wanting to see the two of them for several weeks now, and we have a chance so we've taken it. Jason is being taken care of and all should be okay, and besides, if there is a need they can always call me, or worst case, 9-1-1. Anyway, Friday was a relaxed day for Jason and we spent most of it at home. He was not wanting to move too much, so he didn't go to any appointments on Friday. Next week we find out about the hyperbaric chamber schedule and once that gets started we will need to figure out the rest of his schedule, though he still wants to get in as much as possible. Linda and I will be back Sunday night and then we will ...

Today has been a good day for Jason, and his healing regimen, as we were able to get up and have a quick breakfast, then head over to the UCSD Medical Center. They have the hyperbaric  pressure chamber, where oxygen will be give to Jason and higher pressure to help with the healing of his wounds. While in the chamber he will be breathing 100% oxygen, for 30 minute periods, separated by "rest" breaks. I don't know how long the breaks are, but I'm guessing they are at least 30 minutes also. They said that they have seen some remarkable results on different patients who had wounds that looked worse than Jason's look. Not that their injuries were worse than Jason's, just the wounds at the point of going into the chamber. We took information and pictures to show the docs, but I forgot to bring along the model. Even from the pictures they were surprised at the extent of Jason's HO. It was kind of funny, the way one of the nurses acted, when she started to put th...

Today started out as many of our mornings do, with getting breakfast ready for the girls and Jason, and then making sure everybody has the clothes they want for the day. That's where it got a little different. Jason has some compression shorts (that's what they're called because they kind of pull everything together). He wears them under his regular shorts, and he says they help greatly in making him more comfortable. Yesterday, I worked with Van (the wheelchair guy) and took apart Jason's seat, and then after a few photos, put it back together. When it was all back together Jason said that it was more comfortable, so with that, and the compression shorts it has helped to make him more comfortable. Having said that, he is still only able to stay in the chair for a few hours, and that's what the hyperbarric chamber is going to help... we hope. The getting ready this morning was also done with the idea that we were going to be having lunch with Gary Sinise. There were...

Today was a busy day, for many reasons. Jason had a couple of appointments to get to; we needed to speak with Cmd Ledyard to get some supplies ordered in; today is Jason's older brother David's birthday; and, we were supposed to be going to the Padres - Giants baseball game. We got the appointments done, and even were able to meet with Van, the wheelchair guy, about working towards a new seat cushion. Actually getting that done was more difficult than you might think. For whatever reason, Jason's schedule and Van' schedule always seemed to be just a little out of sync. Dawn, from Physical Therapy,  was finally able to get both of us together, at the same time and in the same place. The supplies all came in, but unfortunately it looks like they didn't come in until just after we left the building, so we'll have to pick them up tomorrow. The Giants game was something we were looking forward to, and being able to go was being made possible as a gift from the Padres...

Jason started today with a couple of bowls of Frosted Mini-Wheats. It seems to be his favorite cereal. The girls were still sleeping while we ate - I had Wheat Chex, and only one bowl. The girls got up just as we finished, and so I got them Kix to have this morning. Jason was still dealing with the pain, and he said it wasn't as bad as it has been the last couple of days, so that was good to hear. I got the girls ready and we were off to day care. As Jason got on to his chair and then into the van, his pain level went up. That one area, near the sacrum, where it has opened up again, is really giving him some problems. The good news is that on Thursday we head over to UCSD for the hyperbarrik treatment. We found out today that the treatment will probably go for several consecutive days, so the other appointments will have to be cancelled, or possibly set for later times. We found out most of this information while we were talking with Jason's case manager, and then we also ask...

Not much to write about today, other than Jason did take a shower and had his dressings changed this morning. The wounds need to be looked at by the doctor, and I will make it a point to have them do that tomorrow. The strange thing about tomorrow is that he really doesn't have any scheduled appointments, other than urology is looking for him to come in sometime, in the morning. We'll take the girls over to day care, probably around 09:00, and then head over to urology, and then we go to see one of the doctors, probably dermatology, or maybe Dr. Pyo - or both. We need to renew some of his Rx anyway, so we'll stop and see Dr. Pyo one way or another. Today Jason spent most of the day in his bed, and laid in the prone position, as that helps with the pressure on the wounds on his backside. Most of the discomfort he is experiencing is from that area, and this is about the only thing he can do to help relieve some of the pressure. I'm hoping that the hyperberic treatment i...

Today was like many other days, especially weekend, where we have plenty of things to do, but not sure which are the best things to do. The girls got up early, about 07:30, and were full of all kinds of energy. I did have to give Jackie a bath as there was a diaper failure last night and it was a little messy when she first got up. It really wasn't too bad, just bad enough that it required a new set of sheets and a bath. After that I fixed breakfast for all of us, and we had oatmeal. The down side was that we're out of raisins... That was okay, it was still good. Jason was still feeling a little uncomfortable, and unfortunately he needed to have the dressings looked at and adjusted. He'll be taking another shower in the morning, and that should help out some, but because of the level of pain he has been going through these past few days I doubt that we will be going to church in the morning. We talked about it for a little today and he said that he thinks it might be bett...

Today was a good day, though Jason did have to deal with an elevated issue of discomfort and the occasional spike in pain. The good part is that it only comes once-in-awhile, and it really doesn't last too long, but he would really rather not have to deal with it at all. It kept him in bed for most of the day, though he was up a few times and came out to play with the girls for a little while. Linda and I bought Stacy a tricycle back at Christmas and she has only recently gotten big enough to ride it correctly. She is always wanting to go out in the backyard and ride her "bicycle." Jason was able to get out and watch her ride and it made her very happy and Jason really enjoyed being there for her. Jackie likes to get out in the backyard as well, and she also has a little scooter type rider. The rider has four wheels, so it doesn't fall over, and it is very lite weight. The challenge is to get Jackie to want to use it. Stacy is riding all over the patio and Jackie is j...