September 10, 2011

Six months ago, Linda and I arrived at Bethesda, National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) and we waited for our son Jason to be flown in from Germany. Bridgette was already on the plane with him, as he was being medical evacuated back to the United States, and he was to arrive sometime the following day, though it was expected to be in the afternoon/evening sometime. Actually, Linda and I had arrived the night before, on the 9th, and spent that night in a hotel, and that is why I tell Jason I have only been here one day longer than him, and now, looking back, it has been sometimes a difficult and painful journey and other times very hopeful and positive. There are some visitors who come to the hospital on a regular basis, though their visits are spaced out with a month or more between them. When they see Jason or me their reaction is usually, "Wow! You still here?" Well, yes, we're still here and we will be here until Jason is ready to move on to the next step, and we'll take each day one day at a time, until it is time to go.

Jason didn't go to the PACU today, as it was decided later in the evening last night that they didn't feel he needed to go to the PACU. It looks like he won't be going down until Monday, unless there is another change, late. He is getting better and still doing his best to deal with the challenges of recovery, and we're all here to help him get through this. He was out on his prone cart today, as Dr. Malone has asked him to put more time on his belly. Actually, I think he likes the prone cart better, because of how he lays down with the cart and he can get better speed up, than he can in his chair. Guys and speed - what is it that makes guys want to see how fast they can go (I'm guilty too). Jason made four full laps of the 4th floor and then decided he wanted to get back to his bed. While he was out doing his laps, they made the change out from his old bed to the new one, so it was effectively seamless as far as Jason was concerned, and even had the trapeze had been changed over.

There were some visitors today, with one of them being a former patient/wounded warrior. He is a single amputee, though his other leg was heavily damaged, and he lost some of the use of his right arm. He was just coming through to say hi to anybody that happened to be here, and to talk to them a little about how they got here and what they need to do to get beyond here. There was another group that actually came up to see Tim (Jason's friend), and he had gone up to New York. So, instead they came over to spend some time with Jason, even though they didn't know him. It was nice to see people giving of their time, just because they could. Dave the cookie guy, and his wife came by and dropped off some cookies. They didn't get to visit with Jason, as he was asleep when they came, so they ended up talking to me, outside his room. Otherwise, there were no other visitors, other than the medical staff.

Not much else going on today, we talked and visited and ate our meals, then it was getting late and Jason had fallen asleep, so I told him good night and that I loved him, and let him know I was going back to the Lodge and he went back to sleep. Thank you, all for all your continued support and prayers.