"Do you have trouble getting around?"

You know, the hover round commercial with the old people at the edge of the Grand Canyon, this is what Jason was quoting when I got there early this afternoon.

He had been up and around the halls for the first time since the incident. In his motorized wheelchair. He can only use is right hand at the moment, so he has a sweet joystick to control his wheelchair. "I got up to 2mph today!" haha, small victories.

But, I missed it all. I was very mopey this morning, being selfish in the hotel room lying in bed. So I didn't get to see him up in his chair at all. And of course that made me more upset. I can't be there all the time, but I still feel like I miss everything when I'm not there. I'm going to try to get out of here a little sooner tomorrow morning. His mom has been going in the mornings, and that's helped a little with my emotional state so at least I know he's not alone, but I still hate missing it. And she's leaving soon, so I'm really going to have to start getting up sooner. He has a hard time keeping all the doctors straight and what they say about different things, so I really want to be there for them too.

A nursing school friend and old childhood friend came to visit this afternoon, so that was refreshing. To have some of my friends visit instead of his. That sounds bad. But they're just as concerned about him as they are me, and it was nice to just be relaxed and gossip about back home and say bad words and stuff. hahaha! We ate pizza, and they didn't give us ranch, so that was a huge bummer. But it sufficed. I now have a season of I Love Lucy on DVD to fall asleep too thanks to Tammy :)

Looks like he won't be eligible for promotion until October now, because he has no paper trail proving that he went to this certain person to update his records at the end of JUNE - so before July 8th (which was the cut off for August's points) - how incredibly irritating. If points go up again, he'll just have to keep waiting and waiting. It's like he just can't catch a freaking break. What more does the man have to do!? It will be a year in October that he's been eligible for promotion, by the way. The system is absolutely ridiculous.

I can't believe it's only been a little over a week since he's been here in Md. It feels like it's been a month already. He's made insane progress over this week though, but when you're going through it, it's hard to keep that in perspective. He still feels like it's moving too slow. But he's got so much more strength - he got a trapeze the other day so he can pull himself up in bed better - and he's rolling to each side mostly on his own. His legs are still numb but that's because of the epidural. It seems like he's requiring less and less epidural to control his pain so that's good, I'm hoping we can wean it off soon. Skin grafts next week for the leg, fingers are going to take a little longer just because they're the fingers and more complicated. His 'residual limb' is done - he got the shrinker wrap on it today and will probably start the prosthesis casting in a couple weeks! Of all his injuries, that was obviously the most serious, but it's going to heal first, no doubt. His fingers will be the most complicated and frustrating for him I'm sure. We're stretching our muscles every day, but that's as much as we do so far. His appetite is increasing little by little, but still not where it used to be. He gets protein shakes with every meal but doesn't always drink them.

Our dog (and my car) safely made it to Virginia last night! Mom said Sadie was very interested in sniffing around all the new places, inside and out. She said she has a beautiful coat, and she can tell we take really good care of her. Now, how she will look after my dad gets through with her is another story :) I take her to Petco for grooming about once a month or so - mainly because I don't want to clean up all her dog hair out of my bath tub. Plus they clip her nails and brush her teeth and brush her out for an hour. My dad is way to cheap to pay for that. He'll probably just put her in the shower with him. He doesn't think she eats enough - but she's soooo picky. Probably the pickiest dog I've ever seen. She'll graze on her food all day instead of gobbling it up immediately like most dogs. I just remember our dog growing up - she was such a redneck dog. Dad fed her everything off our plates - and I remember putting my plate on the floor so she could lick it before we washed it. I will give Sadie table scraps sometimes, but too much will upset her tummy, she's not used to all that. She's definitely a beggar, she'll plop her head right on your lap and stare at you until you give her something. And we buy her the super expensive food that you can only buy at PetSmart or Petco. Dad will probably shit his pants when he sees how much it costs. But, I want to get her up here to see Jason. I'm tempted to find a Therapy Dog vest and smuggle her in. They should make exceptions for situations like this - it's got to have been proven to be so wonderful for their recovery. Jason said hi to her on the phone today and she started barking a ton - she never does that, we usually have to provoke her for a few minutes to get her to bark once! It was interesting - I so hope she recognizes him, he will be so heartbroken if she doesn't.

He tells me I'm the best wife ever, every night. Although, I definitely don't feel like it. I'm not doing anything anyone else wouldn't do - maybe a little extra nursing care, but that's in my blood. "What did I do to deserve you?" haha, I clearly didn't have an answer for that. "No other wife would do this, or know to do this." (catheter cleaning, etc) "You're doing such a great job, (we're reading Men are from Mars Women are from Venus right now, and we've been practicing saying these 5 words a lot!) I really appreciate everything you do. I know I can't show it right now, but I do." I said "I know, let's just go buy some diamonds when this is all said and done". He nodded his head "Ok sounds good." Small victories :)