Stryker Brigade News

When I arrived in the room, Scott was done with breakfast and just finishing up with a shower. He was dressed and ready to go to PT/OT. Once there, he worked the arm cycle, still watching his right hand. This neglect thing looks ugly, but he's doing better every day. He worked the leg machine for ten minutes and then went to the mat. He got his legs belted together and feet placed on the giant red ball while he held a Lakers-colored basketball over his head with both hands. The idea was to bring the two balls apart and then together. It was interesting to watch, that's for sure. Scott walked on his own to and from the events with the therapist walking next to him. Very cool to see, but he's still working pretty hard at it (so no pictures until he's good at it). When PT was finished, we went to the OT room. It was the first time I've been there. OT works on the fine muscle control while PT works on the big stuff. We're probably going to continue with the PT, but OT is going to take up more time. Scott had to lace up two pieces of fabric on a wooden frame using his right hand. It was sort of like lacing up an old dress. He did it pretty much correctly, but sometimes got puzzled by the pattern of the lacing. He did it right, but didn't like the look so he wanted to unlace it and do it again. Next, buttoning a shirt and then we went to a putty-like substance that he had to roll out and then pinch. His final task for the morning was to pick up a nickel off the table. This we all take for granted, but we all watched him try it for the longest time. He looked at it so intently, at times I thought it would levitate off the table and into his hand. He was told to move it to the edge of the table and try it from there. This was an easier task and was accomplished in short order.

Scott seemed pretty wiped by the morning's activities and stayed that way for some time. While Julie and I were at lunch, some students from Notre Dame University came by for a brief visit. No one fainted, so I guess they're not Air Force ROTC.

Scott was rumored to do well in speech therapy today, but since we weren't present, we don't know if he made a sound in the forest or not. I hope to get more details tomorrow.

More fun with profiles today. Tiffany, Julie and I went to the Physical Evaluation Board Liaison Office (or at least that's what I think the letters PEBLO stand for) and met with a nice man who is the counselor for all the TBI (traumatic brain injury) and amputee patients. He told us about policies and other procedures that needed to be followed before Scott could leave for Minnesota and then we came to the profile that was discussed in a previous update. He said the profile was permanent and we said, "Uh, no it's not." We noted how one part was completed which said the profile was temporary and was due to be reviewed in March 2004 (Hmm. That's not right, it should read 2005). Anyway, to make a long story short, if the profile is really temporary, there is no need for a PEB and we can go to Minnesota without waiting for all that. Also, there was no narrative summary in the file and he couldn't have the PEB before that was in there. We all noted where the form needed correction and departed quickly with the paperwork. We may need to meet with this gentleman in the future, but not any time soon. Unless something else is screwed up. "Oh, doctor! Could we talk about this form for a minute?"

And this is how exciting the roller coaster at Walter Reed can be. Way up when Scott walks and then a scary fall with PERMANENT flashing in front of us and then way back up with TEMPORARY now flashing as we zoom past nurses trying to reach the doctor before some other doctor narrates a summary that sends us on another scary drop. Whew!

We got to meet Carl today. Carl is a small, clear plastic model of a damaged human skull. Carl is named after the first soldier to receive a replacement skull piece (I guess prosthesis is still the correct word). Carl agreed to allow the staff to make these shrunken-head-sized skulls for new patients so they and their families can see how the process works. Carl was in pretty bad shape at one time as is clear from looking at his skull model. I was off battling with a bureaucrat and missed the show Julie and Tiffany got at the office that handles these things. They told me Carl still visits from time to time as he lives in the area. The staff took some pretty big risks with Carl because they were doing everything they could to save his life. The risks not only paid off for Carl, but for about 60 other patients with skull injuries. The technology had previously been used to make models of injured body parts to educate patients, but eventually came to be used to make body parts like shoulder and hip joints. And skull parts, of course. I'll get you more information on this in the future, but it's science fiction made non-fiction by science. It takes at least a week from CT scan or MRI (which Scott can't have because of the bullet in his head) to production to sterillization to surgery. The process is simply mind-blowing. I hope to get to talk to these guys tomorrow.

Your project for today is to take a nerd to lunch because only nerds could come up with something this incredible and actually make it work.

I was very tempted to put out an early edition of the update today because:

PFC Travis Majors arrived on Ward 58 this afternoon! We now get to wave at him when we go to the nurses station. Scott wasn't up to walk over there this evening, but we'll be sure to go by in the morning. With Mike Oreo on 57 and elements of Scott's squad on 58, the 1/14 Cavalry is well-represented. But don't worry, they're spread out so as to be "tactical." Of course, we'd all rather they were arriving with the main body at Ft. Lewis, but it's good to have the wounded guys close enough to support each other in their recovery.

I visited Mike Oreo on Ward 57 this afternoon with his Dad and we had a nice talk about the importance of keeping certain bodily functions moving, the recovery process and keeping up the effort to remain strong. He looked great. Later in the evening, Julie and I had dinner with his parents and we discussed the "in's and out's" of the system here. We told them to seek us out if they had any questions about military paperwork or any other topics that left them wondering.

Julie and I went back to the room for popcorn and the Evening Movie: The Two Towers. Unfortunately, the film "ran late" (Scott wanted to see it all tonight and not hold the exciting finish to tomorrow--he even turned on the light over his bed so he wouldn't fall asleep) and we got to walk back to the Mologne House in a wonderful mist. Walking in the rain makes me feel like a soldier again and all my little pains go away. Yes, I'm weird like that. While we were walking Tiffany told us Scott doesn't have a problem speaking when he whispers. We're going to have to test that hypothesis first thing in the morning!

ST