Stryker Brigade News

We discovered at the last minute that our Invitational Travel Orders did not apply any longer due to Scott being at his home station, so fortunately the Fisher House Foundation (www.fisherhouse.org) was able to come through for us again and obtain tickets for Julie, Dan and myself to get up here. We also got word at the last minute that we had a room for 10 days at the Fisher House on Ft. Lewis, Washington.

My mother gave us a ride to the airport in San Diego Tuesday afternoon, but we stopped at Jack-in-the-Box (fast food burgers, etc. for those of you not in their area) on the way there. The woman working the order window sounded very much like the Cousin It character from the Addams Family Movies to Daniel, so he launched into an impression, which caused all of us much amusement. Julie mentioned trying to upgrade our Alaska Airlines tickets to First Class on the way to the airport and Dan said he wouldn’t fit in up there. When we got to the airport, it turned out he was the one with the First Class ticket. So, being a good boy, he swapped his seat with his mother. He and I sat next to each other and watched “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” on the portable DVD player.

We arrived at the Sea-Tac Airport and eventually made our way down to Ft. Lewis. There was not a line when we got to the “security” office (about which I’ve complained before) and got through without being asked if I’d rented the same car in January. We had a minor misadventure getting into the Fisher House (hospital security, which is pretty good, had to let us in) and we wanted to get to Scott’s house before it got too late. By the time we got there, Aly and Tiff were asleep, but Scott was still up. He looked pretty good and communicated very well. He’s made some good improvement since we last saw him in January. Not all the communication is verbal, of course, as he uses a combination of facial expressions, hand gestures, ASL (American Sign Language) letters or words and English. He was very pleased to have his wallet back in his possession. Julie told him the story (again) of the FedEx deliveryman, turned Yellow Cab Driver. After a bit, we went back over to the Fisher House and crashed for the night. We had to be at the hospital, Madigan Army Medical Center, for the pre-operation stuff the next morning at 0900.

Wednesday, we got to the hospital early, so we got in line for some muffins that looked suspiciously like Costco muffins and some orange juice. A friendly looking colonel was in line and I almost asked him if he was Dr. Werschkul. I went to the pre-operation office to see if Scott had checked in, only to learn he was over at the surgical office in a part of the hospital called the Medical Mall. (There’s way too many malls in this story, aren’t there?) We were called in my Dr. (CPT) Eckert, one of the neurosurgeons here. He did a very thorough assessment of Scott, which was fun to watch because Scott was in such a good mood. Scott took out two of his X-rays from the package we got at the Minneapolis VA hospital and had me put them on the light board while Dr. Eckart was out of the room. When he came back in, he looked at the films and was very impressed with them. I think he said something about their being very remarkable pictures. I pulled the bullet model out of my pocket (because I have a hard time not carrying it since my son is forced to do so) and showed it to the doctor. We held it up to the films and talked about how fortunate Scott was. Dr. Eckart said Scott would not have to worry about being injured again and of course Scott told him he was going to get back in the fight. Dr. Eckart told him he was through fighting, that he had done enough, but Scott only said, “Ha!” back to him. Dr. Eckart had a good sense of humor, for a neurologist, and got all our brain movie lines, including the ones from the Steve Martin movie, The Man With Two Brains. We were impressed. Tiff asked about the possibility of there being some video taken of the procedure for Dr. Rouse (who made the replacement piece) at Walter Reed. Dr. Eckart said there was no way any video could be taken as they weren’t set up for it, but stated that they did have a digital camera and photos could be taken. I volunteered my own camera if they needed another one.

Later, Dr. Werschkul, who was the friendly doctor I saw earlier, came in and spoke with Scott and the rest of us. He wasn’t able to convince Scott he was done, either. I had the impression they looked at him as someone too special to risk in combat again and not just someone who couldn’t recover well enough to go back.

We went over to the pre-op clinic and Scott went through the routine over there. We met some of the staff there who would be taking care of Scott the next morning including a woman nicknamed “wimpy” who seemed to be the hospital problem smoother. After talking to her, there could no longer be a problem because it was smoothed out just fine. She told us that Dr. Werschkul had operated on her neck and how worried they all were when he was deployed to Iraq. I don’t know how old Dr. Werschkul is, but he’s “very experienced.” That’s a nice way to say it!

After we finished at the hospital, we went out for a late lunch at the Olive Garden, which is one of Scott’s favorite places to eat. We had a very nice lunch and Aly provided the entertainment. She is such a cute baby, and this is a purely objective, scientific finding. Being her grandfather has no influence on this assessment process at all. She sat between her parents and looked up at both of them, squealing with delight every so often. We talked about going to Costco afterwards as we wanted to obtain some muffins for the next morning’s consumption. We left in separate cars, but didn’t keep together as there was no pressing need to do so. We went back to the Fisher House and watched one of my favorite movies, “Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy,” until we got too tired. We had a very early wake up as Scott had to be at the hospital at 0700 the next day.

The Big Day. We arrived a little before 7 and met the three of them at the pre-op registration area. We checked in and then went to another room when Scott’s name was called. The other persons waiting looked a little puzzled when the six of us got up at once. I noticed this and announced it was a new concept, Group Surgery, being tested at Madigan. “It’s like group therapy, only more painful.” We went into a large locker room area for patients to lock up their stuff once they changed into gowns. After Scott changed, we went though another door into an area with a lot of beds partitioned off with curtains. Scott got into one and was greeted by various members of the surgical team who went through the paperwork, put in IV lines, etc. I told Scott he was the Main Event on the card this morning. Dr. Eckart came by and I asked him where he went to school. He said he went to Med School at Loyola. We hugged Scott and watched him go though the double doors to the operating room. We walked around toward the surgical waiting room and were surprised to see Dr. Eckart. He told us their digital camera wasn’t working and they would need to borrow mine. I fished it out of my bag and showed him how it worked. Dan thought I was taking too long and said, “Hey, it’s not brain surgery!” I’m told Dr. Eckart smiled and rolled his eyes at that one. I don’t know as I was still explaining the video function to him at the time.

We went on over to the waiting area and took up out positions. Most of the folks waiting talked about what they were there for and got to know each other. We played with Aly, took cat naps, read and answered the phone on the wall. About 11, the word came in that Scott did very well and was done earlier than they thought he would. We took that to be very good news, but had to wait two more hours before being able to see him. Sometime during this wait, Dr. Eckart came out with the camera. I thanked him and didn’t think much more of it until I felt Aly’s feet on the back of my neck. It was Tiff holding her and wanting to see the photos. I looked around and Dan and Julie were right there, too. We reviewed the photos, two of which are “medical” (somewhat reddish—one of the piece screwed into his skull and the other shows the sutures in his scalp) and so I won’t send them to Todd Sweet for posting on www.strykernews.com. The others are of Scott in the operating room and the recovery area. They show the OR staff, Dr. Werschkul and the bandages on his head, etc. They are nice, but not gruesome.

When Scott was ready, we went with him to his room on 7 North. He was happy to see us all, but a little groggy and in some pain. Once he got to his room and settled in, we were able to go into the room and talk to him. He insisted on hugging all of us, which was nice. His head hurt quite a bit and we teased him a bit about being careful what he asked for. He spoke a bit and was frustrated that his vision wasn’t any better. He really expected fast results! I told him that it’s only been six months since he was shot and less than six hours since his skull was repaired. Give yourself some time! Julie thought his speech was better already, but I thought that was just Julie being hopeful. His head is wrapped with sort of an elastic bandage (Ace being a registered trademark, you know) and he has a drainage line coming out of the wound. The idea of this being to establish a gentle suction to draw the brain, which has shrunk a bit, back out toward the inside of the skull again.

It was pretty clear he was going to sleep a lot, so we decided to go and let Tiffany and Aly take over the watch. We drove around a bit making phone calls on three different cell phones, then went back to the Fisher House where Julie promptly took a nap. Dan and I decided to go out to get a wireless Internet hook up for my cell phone because I really didn’t want to use the AOL dial up thing on the house computer. Later, we went back to the hospital and watched an episode of the Simpsons with Scott before he grew tired again. We went out for pizza and Dan and me (!!!!) were “carded” for the pitcher of beer Dan ordered. He informed them that I was significantly older than 39½ (Thanks, son) and we commenced to have some sport with the young woman. Dan told her we were from California and she asked us to take her home with us.

We had a very good laugh about that one, my friends.

ST