Stryker Brigade News

PT consisted of the same exercises as yesterday only more of it. Scott is up to 15 (Scott changed it himself from 14) minutes on the upper body cycle. That device I called a personal gym yesterday is actually called a Total Gym. The new event at PT was tossing and catching a ball. Another patient got involved with this because he needed to work on one of his arms, too. The catch game went fine with only one bop on Scott's head because he couldn't get the hands up fast enough. He smiled because there was no harm done.

Scott walked to his speech therapy appointment. While he was there, I went down to the Air Evac Office (with the full knowledge I was wasting my time) and learned nothing useful. Earlier in the day, a call went up to the ward asking when Scott's craniotomy (removal of a piece of the skull to allow the brain to swell, etc.) was performed. Well, DUH, it was the day he was shot, of course.

This leads me to a new diagnostic category: Air Force Anxiety Disorder. Among the symptoms are:

--Frequent questions about a condition that's already described in minute detail on the request for transportation.
--An obsessive need for useless information (such as the date of birth of passengers).

Scott took a nap at lunch time then walked down to OT. Once there, he again used the arm press and tried to play football on the X-box (but that was too hard to do). He had to put nine small plastic pegs in holes and take them out again. A colonel came down to work on a nearby computer during the pegs exercise. Apparently, a computer program with lots of OT tasks and devices was not working. In a few minutes, his wizardry paid off and Scott took his seat in front of the machine. Of course, the colonel made a show of the accomplishment. I told him I would report it to the Flag Officer Selection Board (the guys who make generals out of colonels). He smiled and said that was a great idea. He told Scott he had been watching him and was impressed with his efforts to improve.

Back to the computer. One program drops balls from the top of the screen and the patient is required to move a basket underneath the dropping ball to catch it. The first device to be used was a button press. The harder Scott pinched or pressed the button, the more the basket moved to the right. Scott got about 60% of the balls with this device. The second device to be used involved twisting a handle to move the basket. Scott got 80% of these once the speed was increased a bit. He enjoyed this activity a lot.

After OT, it was a short walk over to PT for the treadmill exercise for the afternoon. Scott walked .24 miles at speeds up to 2.0 MPH. Scott walked back up to his room (using the elevator at one point, of course) while his mother pushed the wheelchair and I ran interference (no casualties to report).

When we arrived back at the room, Scott quickly got into bed and pulled up the sheet and blanket. He was obviously tired. Julie told him he had some "fan mail" and cards from students and faculty at Scott's old high school. Scott asked her to read them, which she did. In the package with the mail and cards was his football game jersey. He was pretty stunned to see that again (he graduated in 1999) and plans to wear it at PT in the morning (if it's not too hot in the room). On Scott's behalf, I'd like to thank the students, faculty and staff of Orange Glen High School in Escondido, California, whose name is (appropriately) Patriots. Thank you very much.

This afternoon I went down to the 3-D Lab to say good bye to the crew, just in case we got moved before Monday. Only Dr. Rouse was there at the time, though. I thanked him again for his work and pointed out to him on the model of Scott's skull (not yet with MG Farmer) what I figured out about how Scott was injured. I told him I would have been puzzling over that for a long time if I had not had the chance to see the bullet suspended by a post in the model. He gave me some releases to be signed for our participation in the training film being produced. I'm sure it will have some boring title, but I love the cast!

In the evening, Tiffany made spaghetti back at the Mologne House (the hotel we're staying in here at Walter Reed) and brought it to the hospital. Yum! We haven't had a home-cooked meal in a while. (Of course, we've been offered them, so it mostly our fault.)

We'll see what tomorrow brings.

ST