Stryker Brigade News

Scott walked from the PT shop to his ward, about 150 yards of "return yardage." He stopped two or three times just to look ahead and take his bearings before continuing. Of course, the weekend PT and myself were on either side of him, but we didn't touch him. When we got back to the ward, Scott shook the hand of the PT and said he had to go "check on his guy" (meaning PFC Majors). He continued to walk ahead into his room and up to his bed. Majors was grinning from ear to ear as Scott walked in. Scott stood at his bedside and talked with him for about five minutes. They discussed the chapped lips they got and guessed as to its cause. They talked about the food and what they liked. Majors told Scott how to get ice cream by writing in on his sheet and circling it. Scott lifted his right leg high enough to show the ankle brace he was wearing to Majors. He explained the purpose of it as best he could. If I didn't know one was paralyzed and the other had a bullet in his brain, I would have thought it was a meeting between a sergeant and one of the men in his squad on a Saturday morning in the barracks. Majors told his mother that Scott kept him from misbehaving and if he did misbehave, he kept him from doing it again, that he took good care of him. His mother volunteered that Majors told her that Scott was more than a sergeant, he was a friend. Scott asked about when he would be leaving and then said he had to go back to his room. He walked out the door to where Julie was holding the wheelchair. I asked if he wanted to see Mike Oreo over in Ward 57 (57 and 58 meet in the northeast corner of the building's Fifth Floor like two corners of a picture frame) and he indicated that he did. We thought it would be a good idea to roll him over since he had walked so far. He could walk into the room and out after being taken over. As it turned out, Mike was asleep so we returned to his room.

Some time later, Dr. Neal, the neurologist assigned to Scott's case when we returned to Walter Reed from Bethesda was visiting the ward to see other patients when I noticed him at a computer terminal at the nurse's station. I told him not to move as I had something he would want to see. (He looked a little nervous--I guess word is getting around or something) I went to tell Scott that he was there and might enjoy seeing him (It had been about three weeks). Scott thought so and we put his shoes back on him. He walked out to the nurse's station and began talking to him. Dr. Neal was very happy to see him up and talking. He said Scott needed a Red Sox sticker on his helmet (Everyone seems to be crazy about the Red Sox here.). To my surprise, since he's not a big baseball fan, Scott began discussing the series in general terms. He hesitated at times, but knew what he wanted to say. After some small talk, Scott began to talk about Majors and Oreo. He accurately described Oreo's wound and his various surgeries. He talked about his "three" previous visits to see Majors before he was moved to the ward. He described his being in bad shape on the first visit in militarily correct language, but then said he was much better on the next two visits. Scott then reached out to shake his hand and went back to his room. I told Dr. Neal I thought he would want to see that for himself.

Since we needed to take Julie's cell phone to be repaired, return two puzzles we purchased to put together at Bethesda (but Scott got better before we could), exchange a digital camera for a better one (awsome photos to come), get some things for Scott, Julie, Tiffany and Alyson and some other errands that needed running, we left to go run them about 2:30 p.m. We arrived later than I want to think about to find Scott watching Addams Family Values. We ate our dinner and Scott ate an ice cream bar. Scott said he went for a CT scan while we were out. We thought he had one last night after we left for the purposes of making his skull model. We were (and are) a little puzzled about a second one, but will wait until tomorrow to sort this out.

ST