October 2, 2011

Today was a nice relaxed day for Jason, as there was no real plan for us to do anything, other than get out on his prone cart, sometime today. My daily routine, for the past few weeks, has been to bring a few bottles of water over to Jason - he still likes bottled water over their "filtered" water, and then, if he's in his room, go get some breakfast for the both of us. Today I went down and got some oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar, same as yesterday (the oatmeal here is really pretty good).

After breakfast, Dr. Malone came in and had a nice little visit with Jason and a quick check to make sure he was doing okay, and to answer any questions if there were any. No questions today, so she only stayed for a few minutes and then went to go see another patient. Shortly after she was gone I asked Jason if he would like to get out on his cart, and get some exercise. The funny thing about getting ready for either his chair or his cart, something always comes up that extends our stay in the room, and today was no different. Once Jason was dressed and comfortable I went out to get the prone cart, and asked one of the staff to assist in helping him to get on to the cart. The great thing is that Jason is just about totally independent about getting on to the cart, and all we (there are always at least two of us holding the cart) do is just stand there, making sure the cart does not move.

Jason took off for his 5-lap tour of the fourth floor. There were a few other folks on the floor, though none of them ever were in the way of Jason's progress. On the first few laps of the floor I noticed this one patient, who was in his room, by himself, and looked like he was bored. I asked Jason if he would like to stop by and visit one of the other patients and he said he would. We stopped by and asked if he would like company and he said most definitely. His name is Colonel Slocum of the Virginia Air National Guard, and he was in because of an injury that was being corrected. We stayed and talked for about 15 - 20 minutes, exchanged some contact information and then we went on our way. I came back a few minutes later and had him sign the visitor log. We got Jason back in to his bed and got him hooked back up to his PCA, as his pain management needed to get taken care of. The big difference for this trip was that Jason went out without his usual "push" of pain meds, and he did alright. I was quite happy about this...

Another visitor was CWO Timberly Palumbo, another EOD tech. She had just gotten back from Afghanistan and Col. Tarter's wife wanted to bring her around to visit with some of the patients here. She and Jason hit it off pretty well, since they both speak EOD, and had Afghanistan in common. They stayed for about 20 minutes and then needed to get on their way, and yes I got a picture and had her sign the Red Book. Right after they left a visitor from the UFC came by to visit, so we had back to back visitors today. The fighter's name was Stephen, and he was here with his trainer. I had them sign the Red Book, and I got pictures of them with Jason, and then Stephen asked for Jason's contact email, so he could stay in touch. He wanted to know that Jason was doing okay, and that if there were anything that Jason needed, he wanted to be able to help with it, if he could.

For lunch today we had food from the galley, and then for dinner Jason wanted Popeye's, so I went off and bought it for him. It worked out because I also needed to go pickup some bleach for washing anyway, and Popeye's is real close to the Target that I go to. After dinner, Jason went to sleep, and slept pretty well, as he had a very active day, especially for a Sunday. Tomorrow is a big day for him and we need to get down to the barber shop early, so him going to sleep a little early is probably a good thing.

Thank you, for all your continued support and prayers.