Friday, May 23, 2008

Today was a day of running around Tampa it seemed. Jess and I were up early and off to the hospital so that she could say bye to Mark for the week. Then it was on to the airport to drop her off for her week in Canada to visit family friends. (She has since called three times!) I had to kill an hour and a half or so while I waited for Rich's plane to come in, so I forced myself to go to the International Mall near the airport and spend the time waiting there. Then it was back to the airport to get Rich and off to the next stop. We picked up a wheelchair van from the wonderful folks at Ride-A-Way for the weekend. This company is so good at letting us use their vans without charge on the weekends. Then it was on to the hospital at last.

We got back here just to see Mark in PT. He was very anxious to have Rich see him walking in the harness. Now, when we say walking, you must understand that this is just the beginning of the exercise. He has to have his right leg put into an inflatable cast to keep it as straight as possible and he moves his legs rather slowly. After ten steps or so, he rests and then does about ten more. He is doing very well with this, much better than he has been and was able to walk ten steps, turn around and go back. He does need the help of the therapists with his legs a good part of the time, but today he needed them less than before.

After PT it was off to get a haircut and get back into regulation mode. The colonel in charge came by last night and was delighted to see so much progress in Mark, but she commented that his hair was a little on the long side. She then got after the sergeant major about the length of the other patients hair as well. So everyone got haircuts today. Mark's sergeant major is a wonderful woman who was a battlefield nurse and she does cut the guys some slack when it comes to the length of their hair. No one wanted her called on the carpet, so they all complied.

After he looked neat and trim again, we signed him out and took him out to dinner in the van. He finally got to have that steak and mushrooms he's been craving for months. It was wonderful to see him eat it all.