Stryker Brigade News

The first order of business was to take a small load of excess food and other items from our hotel room to the Fisher House since Julie and Tiffany are leaving Thursday and I'm moving in until Saturday. Julie and I hooked up with Tiff and Aly there and walked over to the hospital together. It was not too cold this morning. A little below 30 (you know, freezing?), but not much wind and the sun was out, so no problem. The local newspaper says the temperature for 52 of the last 55 days was "above normal." All I can say to that is "timing is everything!"

Once we arrived, we all went to the dining room area of the ward (scene of many a displaced meal) for a Family Meeting about Scott. While we waited for everyone to arrive, Scott and Tiff talked about the X-rays taken yesterday afternoon and what they revealed. It seems there's some more objects sprinkled around Scott's body, but he said none of them appear to be very large and all appear to be near the surface. He was very impressed with the X-rays of his skull, though. He said he was able to go "behind the scenes" and see the shots after they were taken. He said the object in his brain is bigger than the model I'm carrying around in my pocket. I told him what I had was based on the CT Scan, so it's the same size. I couldn't convince him, though. Scott said there's also some small objects scattered around his head besides the bullet.

The meeting started about this time and his doctor, neuropsychologist and the therapists discussed where he was when he arrived, discussed his progress and talked about his strengths. Most notable among those were his personality, motivation to get better and his ability to function well when things are in context. The Occupational Therapist gave the example of doing well on the "menu" exercise as opposed to just talking about food items. She also said he was very good with money, something many TBI patients are not. The Neuropsychologist said the statements made by the others are supported by her testing. She said if Scott is given a little extra time to complete tasks he excels at them. She also made the best statement I heard today, that his motivation is a strong predictor of his success. We also talked about what he needed to work on in the future. They were unanimous in saying he was a pleasure to work with.

Where do we go from here? The treatment summaries will be sent to the Seattle VA facility. Stacy the Social Worker gave us a comprehensive list of contacts at all the places we might even think about contacting. She said there's still no date to arrive at Walter Reed. I'm coming to the conclusion that Scott might need to just show up one day in March 2005 at Outpatient Neurology and re-introduce himself.

The X-rays taken yesterday afternoon were also discussed and I asked if we might see them and get a copy to take with us. Dr. Kusar gave us the slideshow after the meeting. We went to a nearby office and she called them up on the computer. There were 15 shots in all. We were able to see for ourselves that most of what Scott said was true. He and I disagreed on the size of the bullet, but we did notice some very fine particles in the skull X-ray. I was unable to tell from the side view how deep they were in his head, but I hoped they were under the skin and not in his brain.

After the slideshow, we went to Occupational Therapy where the focus was on home safety, especially in the bathroom. The therapist said the OT guys in Seattle can do a home visit to discuss this in more detail. We discussed Scott's vision problem and how it would affect moving around his home. I was interested in recovery and what it looked like. You know, "How do I know it's happening?" She said it varies pretty widely and many never recover at all. She said she had one patient who woke up one morning and could see normally. (Our unanimous favorite!) Others experienced a gradual widening of their visual field until it returned to normal or stopped at some point. Some experienced gradual increases of vision in the whole field at once until they recovered or it stopped at some degree of "shading." I guess we'll just have to wait and, hopefully, see.

After lunch, we prepared for an outing to the Mall of America via light rail. The object of the outing was to go to a movie and get some community skills like taking public transportation. The movie was selected by one of the other patients, but Scott and I were up for the Wesley Snipes vampire flick, Blade Trinity. Tiff, Aly and Julie rode along with us, but decided to pass on the film. I was shocked, shocked to hear this. The theater was not what I would call occupied and we got to our seats just before the film began (I hate paying good money to see a film then have to watch commercials for fifteen minutes). Scott liked the movie and I must say I thought it was better than the second film of the series. It's not exactly destined to become a Christmas classic beloved by families everywhere, but I do think it will do for Pommeranians what Men in Black did for Pugs.

After the film, we met up with the girls for some chow at the food court just below the theater. Scott had teriyaki chicken with rice. I made my joke about Pommeranians and Pugs and Scott didn't get it at first. Once I put him in the correct context, he got it and added to it. We were getting up to go and Scott said he was feeling funny and began to rub his stomach a little. I got right up next to him and asked, "Do you feel like dancing?" He laughed and didn't mention feeling funny again so it must have worked. Julie and I walked them to the train and then went over to be picked up by the shuttle.

Julie was mostly packed and I've got two more days of filming on Steve Thorne's Suitcase Living. I have to leave here packed, yet not so packed I'm wearing the same stuff for three days.

ST