Staff Sgt Jason Ross - Marine

Today was a very important day in the treatment for Jason. He was given a special skin treatment and no skin graft. Now we have to wait a couple of weeks and then we'll know if the treatment took. There is a high degree of confidence that it will, however we are also aware of the alternate plan, if it does not. The doctors and staff here have been very good and supportive of Jason and helping him get through this, so we continue to feel that they are doing the right thing. With that, all we are doing now is basically waiting. There are some activities we hope to do while we wait, and there is the pending promotion, so we do have things to keep us generally busy. An example of how our joint lives have been, when I left this evening the first thing out of Jason's mouth was, "Are you sure that I don't go to the PACU in the morning?" My response was, "I don't think you do, but I'll go check to make sure." Going for treatment, almost every day has b...

Today is a day that we hope saw the final "washout" of Jason's wounds, and going forward we only see some minor dressing change activity after tomorrow. Jason will be going down to the O.R. tomorrow to have the treatment done that we are all hoping will be the way for him to avoid having to get another skin graft. Because it is in the O.R. he will be going down a little earlier than the past few days, so I might miss him when I head over there early in the morning. He has gone as early as 05:15, and I'm just not out of bed and dressed at that time... usually. One of the other exciting things to happen was that First Sargent Barrett came in to talk to Jason about a number of things, and one of those was let Jason know that he is being promoted to Staff Sargent on Monday, or at least it looks that way. We found out a couple of days ago that Jason had been selected, and that Jason's number is a relatively low number, which means it will be among the first selected ...

Today was a pretty good day for Jason. He came back from the PACU with a few new areas of discomfort, but that is to be expected from time to time. They had to use some of the Dakin solution today, and only on a couple of areas where there was some colonization noticed. Otherwise he was feeling good. Almost as soon as he was settled in his room there were some visitors, NYFD (New York Fire Department) members came by and stopped in to see some of the wounded warriors. There were six of them, with two of them being retired. When they found out about the date Jason was supposed to join they were very impressed how it came to pass. They said they come down about every 6 weeks or so, and that the next time they come down they would like to take Jason and I out to dinner. I thanked them, and said I hope we are not here the next time they come down, but if we are we'd be happy to go to dinner with them. They left the room and within a minute, maybe 30 seconds, Marines Helping Marines c...

Okay, I took a bit of flak from some folks, about the hat I was wearing on the boat. I'm a SF Giants baseball fan, and not Atlanta Braves. As you can see from the picture, the weather was actually pretty nice and much sunnier than what I expected and I needed a hat. Of course Atlanta didn't do much better than the Giants this year, so I guess it really doesn't matter that much. The SF Giants will be back next year, so I have that to look forward to. Okay, on with the rest of the blog... ;-) Today was a nice day for Jason, as he was able to get down to the PACU a bit earlier than what has happened in the past, and that means he was back a little earlier. I got to his room just a few minutes after 10:00 this morning and Dr. Malone was in there already talking to him (but I didn't miss much). She let us know that things were still progressing nicely and that Friday was still the day for the next big effort to get those wounds closed. The difference this time was that she ...

Today was an awesome and excellent day for Jason and I both. We went fishing with a few other folks, and caught fish. We were fortunate enough to be invited to go along with a small group of out-patients (Jason was the only one still "in-patient") and there were two boats chartered for this event. I guess I was a bit on the anxious side as I woke up at about 4:00 and couldn't go back to sleep. I finally got up and was over to see Jason before 6:00. Actually I would have gotten there sooner, but it seems there has been a change in the parking rules and I had to go to a different garage, and as a result the move from one garage to the other took a few minutes and then I had to walk farther and that took a few more minutes. I wish they would let us know when a change like that is going to happen. Jason was awake and waiting for me to help him finish getting ready. Most of the medical staff was about as anxious as I was to get Jason out. We were going to be out from about 0...

Jason and I went out to Sunday Brunch, at the Double Tree hotel today. He came back from his PACU visit, where it went pretty much normal, with just a washout and no new issues identified (the way we like it). About an hour after getting back to his room I saw the nursing staff moving pretty quickly to insure we were able to get out. It was great! Initially I thought it was only important to Jason and I to get out, but as the time approached the nurses were doing things without me asking, and making sure we were going to get to the hotel. I've attached a new picture of Jason eating at the table, with a few other folks from Walter Reed/Bethesda (a.k.a. WRNMMCB) and then one waiting for the bus to take us back to the hospital. This was the first time that he had gone for a ride, with the new seat on his chair, and it worked soooo much better than the old one. I think we'll keep it. Actually, the brunch adventure was a nice prelude to us going out tomorrow, for the fishing trip....

Today was one of those laid back kind of days, where there really wasn't much planned other than the PACU visit. He went down early and was back by 10:00 today, no update other than to say things were looking good, and we're still moving forward. We had a few visitors, one of which was the Governor of Indian, Mitch Daniels, and then also a couple from Patriot Riders. They came by and gave a coin to Jason, and spent a little time with us to thank Jason and let us know that if there was anything we needed they would do what they can to help. Governor Daniels was not what I had expected, as he came in and was very relaxed and spoke to Jason and I like he was almost apologetic for intruding on us. Not sure that makes any sense, but that is how it felt. Jason got out on his prone cart today and did some laps for the 4th floor, and then decided to stop in on one of the other EOD Marines. SSgt Travis Green, and his wife have been here for a couple of weeks, and it was very good to g...