Stryker Brigade News

Evening folks,

First, let me say what a pleasure and honor it was getting to meet Travis today!

Well, we had a bit of fun trying to FIND Travis. *Laugh*, Travis is not located in the main hospital at 1 Freedom Way. When Sammie and I arrived at the hospital, I pulled up in to the round about at the entry way, we secured a cart and unloaded the car to the cart. I left Sammie @ the front speaking to an elderly patient who was outside for some air, and went and parked the car.

We went in to the hospital and Headed towards the GF wards, well it turns out in the main hospital, the "G"'s are the therapy rooms, OT, PT, RT etc... After wandering for a bit, I stopped off in another ward and asked the nurses where we could find 1GF. They both said "no such thing exists, do you mean 1F?"

So they pulled him up in the computer and the one said, "Oh, she's right, he's in 1GF" This started even more confusion, then they got on the phone and found out he's in the new Spinal Injury Unit at the Downtown location.

After an entertaining session of the 2 helpful nurses giving us directions, we headed back out, explained to the elderly patient at the front why we had not dropped off our load, loaded the car back up and made our way to the other hospital using a map which looked like stick figure drawings and my memory of the nurses visual drawing of the directions.

We made it to the other facility without a problem, located a new cart and reloaded it up and headed off. Found the Spinal Injury Unit straight off, it's a brand new facility apparently built off the main structure of the downtown hospital.

There's a slight modification that needs to be made to Travis's mailing address. The correct address is as follows.

Department of Veterans Hospital
VA Medical Center - Downtown
Attn: Travis Majors 1GF Room 101-4
1 Freedom Way
Augusta, GA 30904

The phone # and extension that Cindy had is still correct for him.

I checked in at the nurses' station and they pointed the way to Travis's room. When we walked in, he was awake and looked at me, so I said "I heard you put in an order for Fruit & Dr. Pepper" :)

The nurses were very happy with his responses today, they said he's not really said a word to anyone since arriving to the facility, but perked up today. He was actually pretty chatty with us; you could tell he was tired though.

Travis said that he was heavily sedated for the flight and first couple days at the GA facility, he really does not have many memories of his first couple of days here from what I can tell. He did say he's still having quite a bit of pain, and cannot bear to be touched due to the sensations in his limbs.

He said that he was up all night and most of this morning, but was not sure why, just very restless. I asked him if it was due to pain or feeling anxious about the move, and he denied both.

He said they have had him up in a wheel chair once since he's arrived. I asked him if he would like me to go see if we could get him up and take him outside for a bit today since it turned out to be a beautiful day, but he declined. This is point where he brought up the pain sensations. He also said that they had not yet been doing much PT with him.

Another vet came in while we were there. He was a Viet Nam flyer and is a T7 paraplegic. One of the Dr's had heard Travis was coming and suggested to this man that a visit from him would be good for Travis. He introduced himself, but I cannot recall his name at the moment. Sammie and I stepped out to give them a bit of privacy and went and spoke to the nursing staff.

As of yet, goals and a care plan have not been established, there will be a care plan meeting some time this week, Travis, his parents and the Dr's will be in attendance.

They are currently managing his pain via dermal patches and oral meds. He's also receiving breathing treatments a couple times a day.

He sounded really good, no rasp, a strong voice though soft spoken. He smiled several times and was cracking some jokes with Sammie and I as well. He had me dump out his 64 ounce mug with water in it and fill it up with 3 Dr Peppers.

At one point, he was moving his head from side to side and up and down and I asked him if he was uncomfortable or needed his pillow readjusted and he laughed and said "Nope, I'm exercising."

Travis finally dozed off, and I sat and spoke with the Vet who had come down to visit him for awhile. While sleeping he had several episodes of involuntary movement of not only the right arm, but of both of his shoulders as well. He's in a oscillating air bed, this is a therapeutic bed to help prevent bed sores. It seems to make him uncomfortable when it cycles, but he did not complain about it verbally. He'd just take a few moments to readjust his head/neck after a cycle.

He does have a "Sip & Puff" controlled TV with some sort of cable access. He had Fox News on while we were there. He does not have a DVD player. There's very little room in his space for personal items. He does have a portable stereo (small boom box), but it's sitting unused in a corner and he did not want me to hook it up for him.

I stashed the junk food I brought him in the bottom drawer of his bureau, opened up the two buckets of fruit, did not want to leave them in the cellophane to prevent moisture build it. We need to add Sour Cream & Onion Pringles to his list of likes.

One thing I did notice it's very warm in there. Travis does have a fan, but he said the nurses do not like him using it(???). He said something to the effect of "I just lay here and sweat." And he had me turn the fan on for awhile.

We also brought him a small Christmas tree and he had us open it up and put it out for him, so that's now sitting on his bureau as well.

Yvonne, I printed the email from you and read the following to him:

"Please tell him we're trying our damndest to get him "hooked up" so he can communicate. His friends want to know what kind of DVDs he wants (would you let us know if he's got access to the equipment to watch them right now?) and they have DEFINITELY not forgotten him. They're appealing to us for lists of his likes and dislikes and things he thinks he'd like to have."

That made him grin. I think we may be able to get him a small DVD player and rig it up on his tray/table but will need to speak to the nursing staff about this.

Apparently his parents have expressed a desire to see if they could get him moved closer to Columbus, GA where they live. He also expressed just wanting to go home. I'm almost wondering if he is declining any luxury or entertainment items because it would make it seem like he was moving in there. Just speculation on my part, but that's the impression I was left with.

We also took him down some chocolate chip and sugar cookies that we made last night and he had me help him eat one of the big chocolate chip cookies. I left him with 2 tubs of chocolate chip and 3 tubs of sugar cookies, so those should hold him for the next little while.

Of course, typical for a hospital, about 10 minutes after he had dozed off, the nurses started coming in to fuss with him. The first one came in and changed the dermal patch. The 2nd one came in to empty the catheter bag, and then yet a 3rd came in to give him a breathing treatment.

Sammie and I got ready to leave; his mom had left a notebook on his stand with a note asking visitors to sign in. I made sure to leave my email address and phone #'s in the book. I also put 2 of my business cards in the folder and showed Travis where I put them. I let him know if he needs anything at all, that we're an hour and a half to two hours away tops and to just let me know. I also left one of my business cards with the nursing staff and gave them the same message, that if he needs or wants anything, to not hesitate to call me.

Further, I checked on the availability of a computer with Internet access in the facility. The nurse stated that they had some sort of set up in the recreational therapy room, but she was not sure what. She said that if Travis wanted to arrange for access to email that arrangements would need to be made with his social worker. I will take my lap top with me next visit and see if there is any wireless internet access that I can highjack a connection off of while I'm there :)

I am going to try and get down there next Sunday, but I have a prior commitment in Charleston, SC that I need to see if I can move around. If I cannot swing next weekend, then we'll defiantly be down the following. I'm hoping that I can swing it to do Charleston on Saturday and Augusta on Sunday (or vice versa).

I think that's about it. There should be more information available after they have the care plan & goal meeting mid week.

I'll send all of you an update next time we visit.

Thank you for all that each of you due for these amazing young Americans. They are truly the next great generation and the best examples of our country.

Best regards,

Angel Moss