Stryker Brigade News

We drove around a little in the snow trying to remember exactly where the hospital was, but ended up getting there eventually. The snow prevented my using the buildings as landmarks and there was no sun to use for navigation. The results: Alyson's temperature was normal today and it looks like she had a little infection so she gets antibiotics for seven days. You won't believe how long it took to find that out. The official description of her condition today: "Cute." (Hey, I could have told you that!)

Meanwhile, back at the VA... Scott went to Physical Therapy for the usual stretches, a leg massage, a different type of stretch, some balancing exercises, and walking on the treadmill with electrodes on his right leg to stimulate the muscles while he walked. (He just loved this!) Julie reports that the hot and cold sensation of the massage was painful for Scott as was the massage itself. Scott did not enjoy this in her opinion. Pain is not the sensation we want, but pain means sensation and that's what we want. We'll see how much comes back eventually.

Next up was Occupational Therapy where he got to do word searches. He scored 100% on each so he kept moving to more difficult problems. He was given some homework at the end of class. Since he had to wait for me to pick him up, Julie convinced him to work on the homework then. Afterwards, Scott went to his room and took a shower. However, we were taking too long for his satisfaction and he decided to walk back to the Fisher House in the snow. Personally, I think Julie told him she liked snow, which is true, and Scott decided to prove this.

Eventually, we all arrived at the same place (Fisher House) and had lunch together. Plans were made to go to the Mall of America and see a movie. I put my two cents worth on Alexander, but a favorite appeared to be Christmas with the Kranks. Jim and Audrey arrived to get their car back (thanks again!) and Jim said they were likely going to see Alexander at a different location that evening. We agreed to make contact about this as the afternoon wore on.

We caught the shuttle bus to the Mall, which was knee-deep in people so we got Scott a complimentary wheelchair (no one is paying any attention at the mall, so at least Scott isn't likely to be injured by incidental contact if he's in the chair). Everybody but me (I read reviews, you see) went to see Christmas with the Kranks. I found a nice, noisy spot (the only kind available) and read some more of Jim Moffet's book on the First Minnesota (almost done, Jim!). Jim called about Alexander. I declined the offer to go and asked him to give me his review. This was a good call as it turned out.

After the movie/reading, we went to dinner at one of the restaurants associated with the Camp Snoopy activity. This proved to be a mistake in that we had to put up with two "shows" consisting of people in Peanuts character suits dancing and lip-synching popular tunes (well, they were popular at least 20 years ago) with altered lyrics. Scott and I were less than enthusiastic about the show, but the food was pretty good. After dinner, I rolled Scott up (using the elevators at Sears because I knew they would not be near as busy as the ones out in the main hallway) to a game store to see if he was interested in a game, er, Rec Therapy project from Avalanche Press (www.avalanchepress.com, for those who are curious) while the ladies did some shopping. While we were rolling around, Scott made it a point to say "thank you" to anyone who got out of our way. Wait, let me rephrase that: To anyone who got the hell out of our way.That's better. We found the AP section of the gamestore (Games by James) and discussed the various offerings. I suggested a tactical game about Guadalcanal and Scott noticed one about the Battle of the Bulge. Guadalcanal beat the Bulge by a nose so we went to the counter to pay for it. I had the clerk open the game to make sure we didn't need any dice with it. The cleck handed me the dice and I asked Scott if he thought he could handle them. He said he could and I put them back in the box. I quietly asked the clerk to hand me a huge die in the case for a gag. The die was about three inches across on each side. I turned and asked Scott if he thought he needed dice like this one. He turned (because he can't see to the right) and was startled at first, then gave me a big "Oh, yeah! I need that!" I gave it back to the clerk and we rolled off for Sears again leaving a trail of "thank you's" behind us in our wake. On the way, I told him he could move the counters with his left hand, but had to roll the dice with his right.

Once on the First Floor again, I asked him about getting gifts for Tiffany. He wrote in his book a word I'll not repeat until after she gets something (Tiff may have spies reading this update!). Soon after he put the book back in his pocket, I spotted Tiffany pushing Alyson's stroller along. Scott gave the command to persue her and off we went. I dodged shoppers and gatherings of impressionists doing "slack-jawed yokels on their first trip to the big city" until we got right up behind her. Scott struck his target and Tiffany jumped, as desired.

We all linked up at the exit and then went out into the Very Cold to await our shuttle bus. However, since so many persons were waiting and the bus was late, we were concerned about getting on. We were conspiring, er, consulting with each other, about how to secure a spot on the shuttle when a competitor's (empty) shuttle operator offered to take us all to the hotel. Very Cool.

We went back to the hotel and Scott wanted to check his e-mail. He did and asked me to delete some he had already read. Then I checked the local (North San Diego County) news, particularly the high school football playoffs, as I knew Scott would be interested. From there I went to Stykernews.com and we looked at some of the Yahoo! News photos of the 1/25ID in Mosul. I asked Scott if he wanted to see the pictures and he said he did. He looked at one photo of two Stryker vehicles in town and recognized the intersection. I then checked to see if there were any comments on the last update. I read the kind comment from "Florence in TN" and this got Scott wondering whom he knew named Florence in Tennessee. He couldn't think of anybody and we all told him again how many people were reading the updates. I went to this section and scrolled down to the start, 9/24/04 (the date Todd at Strykernews.com started posting them--I started on 9/14/04 when I got the news of Scott's injury). A name on Todd's introduction to the updates caught Scott's attention: SGT Demand. Scott asked where he was. I told him that he didn't make it. Scott was stunned and insisted that I tell him more. Tiffany told him that we didn't want to tell him until he was able to talk about it and we didn't know if he even knew. I reminded Scott that we sometimes had to show him pictures of relatives before he could speak to them on the telephone. Scott said he was right next to Demand during the incident and described where he was during the attack. I went to the section for the fallen of the Stryker Brigade and showed him the photo of SGT Demand there. I also showed Scott the photo of SSG Burbank and told him he was killed in the same attack that cost Mike Oreo his left arm. He just slowly shook his head as I read the captions to him. He immediately asked to call other members of the patrol, but they were not home. While he left messages, I dug out the press releases to show him about the incident. He told me he wasn't mad at me for not telling him. I think he was trying to tell me he understood why we hadn't told him earlier, but I'm not sure. I told him I had an e-mail from Demand's (step-)father that I would read to him tomorrow, if he wanted to hear it. Unfortunately, Scott, Tiffany and Alyson could not stay the night (infant logistics) and the last shuttle was waiting for them downstairs. I hated them leaving under these circumstances, but there wasn't much else to do. I went downstairs to make sure the shuttle didn't leave without them. Scott again assured me he was OK and I gave him a hug in the doorway.

ST