Stryker Brigade News

And yes, all you sinister types can bust my chops about lefties all you want.

After breakfast, we went to the PT session. Scott did fine on the arm cycle, putting in four minutes in each direction at twice the strength of yesterday. He got stretched for walking, but felt too lightheaded or dizzy to do so. I suspect pharmaceutical sabotage again, but will reserve judgment until all the facts are in.

We returned to the flag pole after PT and discussed PFC Majors again. Scott is of the opinion that he is doing better than he is because he can talk. We aren't going to argue with him right now. After a healthy dose of sunshine and brisk breeze, we returned to the room.

After lunch, PFC Majors' brother came up and we discussed how he was doing. The pneumonia is cleared up (Whew!) and he is supposed to leave for Augusta, Georgia (Not Savannah, sorry) mid-week. We related some stories about how each of us got the news and how we ended up at Walter Reed. He related how his brother was able to lift a light object about a half inch off the bed, which we took to be a good and hopeful sign.

Scott and I watched about a quarter of the Chargers at Atlanta game when in occured to me that today was the day the Tacoma News-Tribune article on the Stryker Brigade's wounded was supposed to appear. I went to the Ward's computer and found the article, but their printer stank. I wandered the halls of the empty building looking for another work station (The Ghost of Computing Present) and ended up in Ward 57's computer room. I printed out the article, the .pdf of the front page, complete with the photo (taken by Julie) of Scott, Tiffany and Alyson in the ICU before he went to Bethesda and a very kind letter from Scott's Squadron Executive Officer. In the letter he addressed Scott as SGT(P) Thorne, which is as close to official notice that we've received to date that Scott is, in fact, promotable to Staff Sergeant (E-6). We had heard this previously, but haven't received anything like this. There's no room to share the rest of the letter here, but one day "all will be revealed."

Later in the afternoon, the brother of a co-worker and his wife came in to visit Scott. He's a civilian employee of the Army who works with some of the General Officers who visited Scott last Thursday. He also talks more than his sister said he does. They brought a nice gift of a basket with some Halloween candy. We talked about how Scott was doing and a minor problem with Invitational Travel Orders that he will fix on Monday. Scott needed to "use the facilties" so we excused ourselves and went into the hall to continue the nice small talk until they had to leave at about 4:30 p.m.

Unfortunately, Scott was unable to actually "use the facilities" until sometime around 10 p.m. after an x-ray and some other work that I'll spare you the details of. When I left at 11:30 p.m. he was back to resting comfortably. Certain things can slow down on morphine, time-release or not, and this was very unpleasant for all. Let's hope for a better end to the day tomorrow.

ST