Staff Sgt Jason Ross - Marine

Today started out as most other days, with a chaotic breakfast. Afterward, I was attempting to take care of a little personal business on the web, when technology decided to find ways of causing frustration. After fighting with it for a little while I decided I'd had enough and went down stairs to the rest of the family, and Larry (Monica is here too, but we consider her family). Anyway, we decided to go to the beach today, and go visit with Anthony Netto. Anthony was at an event, over by a specialized gym, set up for people who have been, though various means, restricted to life in a wheelchair. The main focus was to introduce them to his Paramobile, and show them some of the possibilities, and from the expressions on their collective faces I'd have to say it was a very positive effect for many of them (there were about 12 people there, with their families and support). We had the girls there, along with Monica and Larry, and they were having a great time running around and ...

Jason had one appointment today, and wanted to get a hair cut. His appointment was with OT and then it was a matter of working with PT and OT to schedule out the rest of May for the month's appointments. Once that was done we headed back home. The girls were at daycare so we decided to let them stay there for a little while - Stacy asked to go to see Miss Nancy, and seemed pretty happy to see her once at daycare. After getting back to the house, and making sure that Jason was comfortable I did a quick check on my email and then headed back to pick up the girls. Not too much happen the rest of the day, until Linda and Monica arrived for the weekend. I was very happy to see them, and it is really great that Monica was able to come down with Linda. Linda and I plan to get away for a couple of days, and Monica is going to be filling in for me, with Jason. Jason has known Monica since she was a toddler, enrolled in Linda's day care, and she has always looked up to Jason as a secon...

Today was kind of an exciting day for Jason. He was able to get over to the Urology department and set up an appointment at the same time as his OT appointment. He recognized that he was at the beginning stages of another infection, and it was important to get it taken care of. While he was at Urology I went over to OT and let them know he would not be coming. They were very understanding and wished him well. The appointment at Urology was set up to be 20 to 30 minutes (actually listed out on his appointment list at 20 minutes) and we ended up being there for over 90 minutes. They initially had some trouble with the catheter and the doctor had to come in and take care of it; something that the corpsmen usually handle. Apparently once they had that done there was other examinations that had to take place and this time the medical team came back with a more comprehensive plan on what to do. Jason will be on a two week regimen of another strong antibiotic and then they want him to take a ...

This morning started off a bit better with the fact that there were no appointments to worry about. Unfortunately Jason wasn't feeling particularly good, due to a number of issues but mostly discomfort. I was concerned for a good portion of the day, but he never seemed to really get to the point where I felt I needed to take him in. He did end up taking a little more pain medication today, and that was the first time he had asked for that in about a month, maybe longer. The biggest help was that it allowed him to sleep a little more, and it apparently got him over the hump. By the end of the day he was feeling much better and even got in a couple of good hugs for his daughters when they went to bed. I read them The Story Of Jesus, and Stacy was very interested in it. Jackie didn't seem to have the slightest idea of what I was talking about, and I finally had to just put her in her crib so I could finish reading the story to Stacy. Funny thing is, when I did put Jackie in bed, s...

Google has decided that it was time to make changes to their blogging offerings, so today it looks a little different to me, but what the heck, today has been a different kind of day all around. Jason had the laser treatment yesterday, and he was told it would probably feel a bit like a mild sun burn today. Well, the doctor was right, it did feel like a sun burn, only it wasn't mild. Think of the kind of sun burn where your skin is tender, and it hurts just to put your shirt on. That's what Jason was trying to sit on, in his chair. As you can imagine, he wasn't too happy about it. He was up in his chair for about 20 minutes, dealing with the discomfort when I asked him if he would like to just get back in bed and forget his appointments for today. He said he would and I called his section leader and asked him to cancel all  his appointments. GySgt Parker is a great guy and said it would be no problem at all, and said to make sure that Jason just stayed down and was comforta...

Jason had a busy day today, even though there was only one appointment for him to go to. Of course this appointment took several hours, and he was in an operating room for a good part of it. He had the laser treatment done again on his wounds and so far it looks like things are going well. The smaller of the two has gone down much more significantly than first anticipated. The larger of the two has reduced also, but not as much. If they can even close one of the two it would be great, and then they could focus on just the one. There is also the continuing issue of the HO (Hetero-topic Ossification), and we still don't know what is going to happen as a result of that, but that's to be decided soon - we hope. After his appointment we took the girls to Target, where Jason bought them both a new pair of shoes. Seems the ones they were wearing just don't fit like they're supposed to anymore. Seems like Jason is buying new shoes about every six weeks or so. Its like the gir...

Jason and I went to the San Diego Community Presbyterian Church today, and it was great. I was very pleased to see that they have a program that is very similar to the Livermore Presbyterian Church, so we felt totally comfortable, and the people there were very friendly. We met the pastor prior to the service, Rev. John Powell and also a member of the choir, Sumpner (he didn't have a name tag on his robe, but that's how he introduced himself), and he was our impromptu guide. We didn't stay too long after the service though as Jason was feeling a need to get back down, though we did get to speak with a few other members of the congregation. Jason said he would like to bring the girls there next Sunday, since they will be with us again, a little later tonight. Actually, the rest of the day was pretty laid back and restful, just like I was hoping it would be. Larry asked for the day off, and I said that it was fine with me - he has been coming nearly every day since he started...