Stryker Brigade News

We went down to PT for the 10 a.m. session and it was great. Scott worked the arm cycle for ten minutes (five one way and five the other) without having his right hand lashed to the wheel. The only problem with this was he often looked at it instead of straight ahead or at some other object in the room. Not sure if this is good or bad. Maybe he just wanted to make sure he knew if it slipped off (which it did on several occasions). Scott worked on the leg machine/cycle after being stretched for a bit. He refused the wheelchair and insisted on walking back to the mat (actually, a raised mat some distance off the floor). The PT (Coren Point, about time I named the guy, huh?) walked behind him but we didn't touch him. Coren had the idea of getting him a walker, but Scott didn't like the idea at first. Mr. Point got one with wheels on the front and Scott warmed up to that idea quickly. I guess it looks less like a "senior" walker to him. He walked around the shop with the thing and we had some fun taking pictures of him during the process. (I've sent these to Todd at Strykernews and we'll see if he will do me a huge favor (no guilt here, so nobody hassle him if he can't do it, okay?) and post them. I also have a video of him from last Thursday on the treadmill that Tiffany shot, but it's a bit dated now and a little large in size.) Scott walked out of the room to the wheelchair which was waiting for him in the hallway. We then left for the Fifth Floor PT room to use the treadmill. While we were waiting, Scott walked up and down some stairs. He did pretty good on this and then had a seat back in the wheelchair. We (Coren Point, Scott and me) watched the man on the treadmill. He was running at a pretty good pace and looked to be in excellent condition. Then somebody moved out of the way and we noticed he was missing the lower half of his left leg and had a very sophisticated device in its place. It was absolutely amazing. Two engineer-looking gentlemen (no descriptions necessary) were standing by him taking notes while a woman took photographs with a professional camera. This guy just ran like a deer for something like ten minutes (that I was aware of) on a prosthesis that worked as well as his other leg. I took the opportunity later to tell him what he was doing was "outstanding" and got a polite "thanks" in return--like I had complemented his running form or something unimportant. Internally, I was thinking, "Hey, I just watched you do something impossible for ten minutes." Scott was impressed and got up on his walker when the treadmill was clear. He walked pretty well over to it and stepped on. He started out slow (0.5 something, probably MPH and not Elephants) but complained about the slow pace. I gradually increased the speed until he was at 0.9. I asked if he was ready to break the sound barrier at 1.0 and got an impatient, "Yeah!" in response. So, as I increased up to 1.5 I announced the Mach Number we were on. ("Mach One point Three") He walked for something like ten minutes and enjoyed himself tremendously doing so. Mr. Point had me move the wheelchair to the other side of the room so Scott could "walker" over to it. We actually continued out to the hallway before Scott got into the chair again. We zoomed up to the Seventh Floor and Scott told us he wanted to walk some more. I wheeled him to the Ward 75 sign near the elevator and stopped. Scott walked from there to his room, about five personal fouls worth of walking.

Scott had a dental cleaning appointment at 3 p.m. and we wanted to take Scott by PFC Majors' room en route in case he moved out for Augusta, Georgia early tomorrow. He was asleep and we didn't want to wake him. Julie and I debated on the way down about whether we should get Scott up to walk into his room. On the one hand, it would show Majors that Scott was getting better (something we know to be important to him) but on the other hand, we certainly don't want to show off. We decided to just leave Scott in the chair and talk about Scott's improvement, providing a demonstration if Travis wanted to see it for himself. Anyway, the debate went for naught as he was sound asleep. We did learn from his mother that he had his collar taken off his neck, so this is the Majors improvement for the day.

The teeth cleaning was pretty routine for a guy with a piece of his skull missing. I don't think the hygienist was quite up for it, but she hung in there and did a great job. On the way back, Scott caught a whiff of the Subway sandwich shop on the First Floor and expressed some appreciation for the aroma. We told him it was possible to get him a sandwich there, but he didn't seem interested.

Forgot to mention: Since Scott hates the helmet, I push the chair slowly and look out sharply in order to clobber anybody that gets close to him. He wears a knitted cap to cover the head and keep him warm. We also don't know if any Air Force personnel are in the area and we'd hate to have them drop as we pass by. Speaking of which, we learned our visitor was examined and released without injury last Wednesday.

Julie has been working hard on getting Scott moved to the Neuroscience Ward on the Fifth Floor since yesterday afternoon. Today, the effort paid off about 4 p.m. and the moving adventure began. We've accumulated some stuff in preparation for the move to Minnesota so I had to make three trips with small shopping bags full of sweatshirts, etc. We'd like to say, "Thanks to Ward 75 for all your work and to Ward 58 for the nice welcome!"

Scott's new room (5835, for those keeping score) has a view of the flagpole and area I described yesterday. I walked with him to the window at 4:55 p.m. and showed him the view. He put his left hand on the window frame above his head for a few moments. Then, I noticed he dropped his left arm quickly from the window frame and shuffled his feet a bit. I looked down and noticed the heels were together and the toes about 45 degrees apart. Scott had discovered the detail at the flagpole preparing to lower the colors and he had come to the position of attention. I stood behind him to catch him should something happen, but he stood there for five minutes and didn't move until the colors were lowered and the bugle call had stopped.

Then he let out a complaint about how they did it incorrectly. (That's my boy!)

As reported yesterday, Barbara (AKA Strykermom) was going to come by this evening and take the ladies shopping. Scott's dinner was diverted by Julie to his new room, but he wanted nothing to do with it (no broccoli, but this meatloaf was no appealing at all). We discussed going to the dining facility (OIF patients can supplement their hospital meals by a certain allowance per meal), but Tiffany mentioned the Subway encounter and we thought this was a good idea. We went to the First Floor, but Scott balked at going out into the main lobby area where the Subway is located. We couldn't figure out what the problem was and Tiffany asked him what he wanted on his sandwich so she could get it for him. Eventually, we coaxed him out into the lobby, but he told the women to pretty much get lost and have a good time since they weren't going to be eating. I was to purchase the sandwich. Well, I'm lousy at ordering food for other people and getting the orders straight so I convinced Scott it would be okay to just take a look inside the place and see what they had to offer. He overcame his anxiety quickly enough and sat up in his chair to point out what he wanted on the sandwich. He wanted lots of sliced olives on it and he made himself understood pretty well.

We went back up to Scott's room and sat cross-legged on his bed with our Subway sandwiches and watched The Fellowship of the Ring (the extended version, of course) on the DVD player. Scott relished every sliced olive on the sandwich and finished it off completely. After the movie was over, I helped Scott to the bathroom and alerted his nurse for the evening medications. By the time he finished and I had "tucked him in," she arrived with the meds. A short walk back to the Mologne House and the nightly update writing session began.

ST