Staff Sgt Jason Ross - Marine

I know it has only been a couple of days, but I wanted to let everyone know that Jason did get out of the hospital, again today, and he is back in his house. There was some excitement with the "new" wound care nurse, as she made a few mistakes in changing the dressings, but Jason was able to handle it and everything got done well, in the end. Jason actually told them to, "...get her out of my room and find me someone who knows what they are doing!" And, knowing Jason, my guess is it wasn't in a nice pleasant voice. He is a Marine after all. Anyway, things seem to be going well for him right now and he is getting used to being on his own. We let the girls talk with Daddy, twice today, and they thought that was pretty exciting. I think Jason enjoyed it too. We were going to be setting up SKYPE, but there were a couple of technical glitches (Jason's laptop doesn't have a microphone) so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Take care and stay positive and p...

Originally, Linda, the girls and I were supposed to be headed back up to Livermore today and Jason was to take over ALL aspects of his life. As it turned out though, Jason was feeling some significant pain at about 21:30 (9:30pm) last night and wanted to get in to the ER - so I took him. By the time all was said and done they determined that he should be going back in to the hospital, where they could get a better handle on what it is, causing Jason so much discomfort. By the time I left from Jason's hospital room it was about 05:10, and I went straight back to the house. I was getting pretty tired at that point, since I'd been up for almost 24 hours, and by the time I did get back in bed, it was 24 hours. We checked in with Jason and they were working to control the pain, and it seemed like they were doing a good job of it. Jason had his pca, so that he could get the meds as needed and stayed on top of the pain. The challenge is that they don't know what is causing this ...

Today we made some preparations to travel back up to Livermore, and let Jason be more on his own. It is a step we are taking with trepidation and concern, but know that it is the right thing to do.Originally we had planned on leaving tomorrow morning, and made arrangements to have all our things packed and ready to roll in the morning. As it turned out though, Jason's temperature went up again and he was complaining about shooting pain again. Linda and I discussed it and decided that the best course of action would be to either leave later on Saturday, or early Sunday. We want to be sure that Jason is feeling better before we depart. It is hoped that his fever goes back down and that his pain level drops significantly. There is no hurry to be out of here anyway, so it works for all of us. Besides, it gives us another day to finish our packing and see how creative we can be in getting all our things in to the Explorer. Well, today started with the idea that the only reason we were...

Jason had two appointments today, yet he ended up staying at the Naval Base Hospital campus for nearly five hours. He was attempting to get a few things corrected, as well as find out the status of some supplies. I requested supplies about 4-weeks ago and still nothing has shown up. The  "stop-gap" supplies keep things going and he is okay, again for a few days, but I will need to head over to pick up a couple more tomorrow, when we take the girls to their appointments. From what we have been told, the supplies are coming, they just haven't gotten here yet. Linda is doing most of the packing, as she wants to have some level of organization to the stuff we'll be driving back with. I told her I could get the packing done in a matter of a couple of hours, and she said she would rather do it, and let me stick to the heavy lifting (moving boxes to the truck). Anthony Netto is helping us move some of the stuff up when he comes up a couple of days after us, so that makes i...

Not 100% sure about receiving an update in the next day or two, but I am sure there is one coming. There was a bit of a meeting today, between Jason and a point of contact at Balboa. Jason did not hold back in anyway this time and the point of contact (leaving out the name on purpose) was appreciative of his candor. There was a desire, by some of the Balboa Medical Staff, to sit down with Jason and go over some options that he has, if he remains in Balboa. Jason flat told them that he is tired of waiting on these meetings that seem to continually get scheduled and no update or information comes from them. Jason said he wasn't interested in any of their meetings, or the results now; he is ready to go back to Bethesda and let them do the surgical procedures that it appears he needs. The point of contact simply said the meeting, which was set for Friday, will now, not be taking place and instead there will be an effort to coordinate Jason's transition to Bethesda. Jason will be ...

Jason's "new" support team is doing a little better today, though I still had to take care of his wound dressings. I am optimistically hopeful that by the end of the week they will collectively have their act together. I still have some questions on how he is to be fed dinner in the evening, and how his clothes are to be laundered. If there is no one else around he is unable to do these things on his own. Tonight Linda is doing the laundry and she also made him dinner. David, his brother, is coming in for a short visit tomorrow, so that should be a good day for him. The cool thing about this is that Jason doesn't have any appointments tomorrow, so they should have some time together. Linda and I are going to spending some time packing, and see if we can get everything done by the end of the day tomorrow. Not really that much to pack, but we would like to keep it organized.  Take care and stay positive - Thank you, for all your continued support and continued prayers...

Well, today was supposed to be the first day of me totally stepping away from supporting Jason's needs for his recovery. It didn't quite work that way. I asked him if he had contacted Maxim (the company contracted with) and he said he had sent them a text message last night letting them know he needed someone here by 06:30. By 07:30 I had gotten his breakfast; helped him get his clothes together; and, assisted him in getting out of his bed. There was no transportation so I took Jason to his appointments and it happened to be the same time we needed to get the girls to day care, so that was no big deal. The challenge was connecting up with the Maxim folks. It took five phone calls and three trips back to the house before we were back on track. It was also noon time, so at least they were there to help with his lunch. Jason was feeling pretty good today, so that was a big plus, as well as very helpful in getting beyond the frustration of their stumbles. Tomorrow we are again lo...