March 15, 2011 11:20PM

It has been a very long day and another trip up and down on the roller coaster, with a final little up, here at the end. Linda and I visited with another family, whose Marine has injuries similar to Jason's. The family was both honest and realistic about how the treatment and progress would be, and it felt very positive. David was up with Jason already, and had been for over an hour when we came in. We really don't know what we would have done if David and Miriam hadn't come. Jason was a bit more alert, and this was both good and bad, though I guess the reason it was "bad" was an inevitability. The good was because we were able to communicate better with him, and the bad was that it seemed like Jason was beginning to recognize that he was seriously injured and that he wasn't physically the same. You could see in his eyes and facial expressions that he was distressed, and not just from the pain. He answered some of my questions with blinks of the eyes, and we could tell that his vision was much better today as he could focus on who was talking to him. When I asked him about having visitors he indicated that he did not want to see any. I think it is directly linked to the fact that he understands some of his injuries. This is going to be difficult for him (and us) so we need to be prepared to work even harder to keep his spirits up.

Tomorrow he goes back in for another surgery, and from what we have been told it sounds like it is going to be a very long set of procedures. We were spoken to by five sets/teams of surgeons, all of them wanting to be sure that we fully understood what they were going to be doing. By the time we were done talking to them all I felt like I had a pretty good idea of exactly what was going to be happening. They all seemed to take painstakingly detailed explanations so that the families do understand and they are so very patient to answer questions - completely. Jason will be going in by 7:30AM, so they'll come and get him by 6:45AM. The surgery will be for about 6 hours, and possibly more. This is probably a good thing as we need to take care of some personal business and there is going to be a Family Wounded Marine orientation that we need to attend.

From what we understand, this first week is by far the most difficult, and I am so glad that we will soon have it behind us. We are so anxious to be able to talk with Jason, and yet understand the need for him to be kept the way he is for right now. It is heart warming to see the blog is being followed by more and more people. Miriam had to go back home yesterday, and David needs to get back to his job tomorrow. They will be missed greatly, and especially by Bridgette. Bridgette has been a real trooper in dealing with all the challenges at hand, and though we do our best to help her out, she relates better to David and Miriam - IMHO. The good news in this is that David and Miriam will be coming back, as time permits.