Stryker Brigade News

Shaving is one of those tasks that many of us do not think much about. We do it and move on. When I arrived this morning, Scott was shaving with his left hand, something he's had to learn to do since the injury. He does a pretty good job, too.

After Scott finshed up, we rolled down to the Prosthetics Lab in the basement and met up with Julie there. Our appointment was with a former Air Force man who used to perform the tasks that got Scott home safely in the first place. He continues to serve by helping veterans here. In short, what a guy! Scott was fitted for three items and issued two. The first of these was a new type of Ankle Flexion Orthotic, similar to what he was using from the PT room, but better. The next device was a boot-like thing to help keep his right calf muscles from tightening up while he sleeps. The third is the new helmet. This has to be ordered, but will probably arrive tomorrow, maybe Friday. We discussed ways to snazz it up with the fitter and had some fun with this. Scott wanted to walk up to RT and we wanted to see how the new brace worked. It worked very well and Scott's right foot does not drag or catch at all now.

Recreational Therapy was only set for a half hour. The tasks used cards to test memory and problem solving. Scott finished up by playing a well-known game. As he was playing, I told Scott to "relax and pass the time by playing a little Solitaire." The RT had seen the movie and thought my referring to Scott as the "Minnesotan Candidate" was a hoot. (Hey, they've both had someone screw around with their brains.)

The next stop was Occupational Therapy where Scott completed the test (Motor-free Visual Perception Test) and got to work on dialing the telephone. He called his own house first and had fun leaving a message on his own answering machine. He then called Tiffany on her cell phone and spoke with her briefly. He called my cell phone. I answered and got a crank call ("You suck" followed by a laugh and a hang up while I was looking right at him.). We were searching for other numbers Scott might want to call and I came up with the idea of calling his unit at Ft. Lewis. We hunted around for the number and Scott remembered it. Well, it was actually C Troop's number, but we got B Troop's number from them. He dialed it and I asked for the CO. He wasn't there, so I asked for the First Sergeant. He came on the line and I identified myself. I told him Scott wanted to speak with him and I put him on. Scott spoke for a short time and then a friend of his came on and they spoke for some time longer. Scott grinned the entire time he was on the phone. I'm guessing, but I'd be willing to bet five degrees of temperature tomorrow morning that they were grinning at Ft. Lewis, too. The OT said this kind of thing was very therapeutic so I suspect we'll be doing more of it soon.

Scott had lunch in his room, after I went and got his tray out of the dining room. For some reason, being seen eating there once locked in his tray delivery to that location. No matter who says what now, that tray arrives there. Maybe tomorrow this will be corrected. Long time readers know there's more important things that can go wrong!

Scott wanted to nap a bit, but didn't manage it before we left for Speech Therapy. Scott walked there and we left the office for the waiting room. Julie was working on something and then went to a novel. I was reading Red Storm Rising until I fell asleep about a half hour later. Scott walked up and lightly tapped his mother with his cane. Caught us both napping! He gave us a hard time for sleeping on duty, but I told him we had been properly relieved by the therapist.

We walked down to PT. Scott had lots of stretching to do because he's tightened up on the back of the right leg a bit. He had some balancing exercises to do, too. After these, he went down the hall to the Fitness Room for some bike work. He had ten minutes on one of those bikes with the moving hand grips then went back to the main PT room. It was decided to try to position the rocks in Scott's head to eliminate the Benign Positional Proximal Vertigo (BPPV) problem. Scott was up for it, but wasn't thrilled about the process. He hung in there in all the positions, but the hardest was to sit back up. It seems that once the particles move back, you have to adjust to them being in the correct spot again and get all the symptoms you had before. He was down for a bit, but hung in there and walked back to his room. We had the lights out and got some pain meds for him.

Knowing what fun Scott had yesterday with The Maury Show, I put it on again for the "exciting" conclusion of Stupid Paternity Tricks. Unfortunately, the show did not have the desired effect of making him laugh.

Eventually, the dinner hour arrived and so did Dr. Champagne to discuss the braces and the day's progress. She had seen Scott walking earlier and was impressed. She was not thrilled to learn Scott's dinner was (again) in the dining room area. I went and got it for Scott. To our amazement, he desired more food, so Julie and I went down to the cafeteria to get him something. The pickings so close to closing were slim, but we got him a big slice of pizza. He gobbled this down while watching television and chatting a little with us. Scott seems to get very tired about 7:30 p.m. and today was no exception. I put the boot on his right leg while Julie got out some clothes for tomorrow. We left him half sleeping and half watching True Lies on the tube.

ST