Almost home?

Just a quick update on my goings on here at Walter Reed. I understand from my Case Manager that my case has been reviewed by the Army Physical Disability Agency and I can only assume that they approved it and it is now moving on to what we call Transportation and Transition. They let my Company here know that I’m going home and then my Platoon Sargeant and I sit down to see how much leave I have and want to use. This is kinda how it works… they are required to give me ten business days to out-process here and then twenty calendar days of transitional leave plus any leave I have accrued. All this begins when orders are published. We have to sit down, decide that the above is pretty much what I want to do, submit it to Transportation and Transition and they will cut the order in a few days. Example: Say my name shows up on the list sometime next week. We’ll go over the paperwork and submit it. They publish an order saying that all this starts on March 10th. I understand that means I’ll have ten business days of out-processing and that my leave begins March 22nd. Right now I have 50 days of leave plus 20 days of transitional leave… that’s 70 days of leave (woah!) So that means I’d be on leave through May 30th. The whole time I will be paid, and also receive my housing allowance. I could even choose to go back to work at my civilian job through that time. But I’ve been away for four years – so I have no idea what I’ll be doing. Maybe a nice vacation with Holly. May 31st would be my first day medically retired. We’ll see how it goes.

Other than just waiting for that, I’m just chillin’. I helped Amanda and Buddy run errands yesterday and we took some portraits of little Xavier for announcements. When Holly was here my portable hard drive took a fall while it was running from a coffee table and now it refuses to run. I think I’m going to send it off to have the data recovered. That really stinks. What else is there?.. Winter has really sucked here. We’ve only gotten two decent snows and a lot of rain. That’s about it for now.

Here’s an update from Holly on her dad:
Harvey is still having digestive issues. The ulcer medication had to be approved by insurance and was taking so long to get approved and prescribed that Dr. Bonds prescribed an over the counter medication instead so it would get into his system since it's the same thing as the prescription medication. His legs started swelling again after activity this week. He had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Bonds Thursday and he's going to start the Warfarin again in a few weeks. He really needs the ulcer medication to start healing him so his digestive issues will calm down.

My Dad's Home

My dad is home today. He was moved yesterday from ICU to a regular room and they began medicating him for the ulcers. Early this morning his doctors checked his stats and said he was good enough to go home. They made it home by noon after all the paperwork and checking out. He was prescribed medicine for the ulcers and will take it for two months. His appetite has returned and he said he's feeling great and has more energy than he's had in a long time. But he's going to take it easy for a while though. I would feel great too if I was given four units of blood and three units of plasma. Roger said he's got the blood of seven people in him. He also said his legs weren't swollen and were actually the same size. Dr. Price, checking on him while Dr. Bonds was out, said my dad's blood was too thin and she did not think he needed to be on Warfarin anymore. She told him not to take any for two weeks and to have a follow up with Dr. Bonds and she would let him know what she thought about him being on Warfarin. So thank you for your prayers. My dad is doing well. Hopefully after the ulcer medication begins to heal him, he can finally start gaining some weight. He needs to gain as much as he can.

As for my weekend in DC, I got here Friday afternoon and Roger & I went to lunch at a quaint Indian restaurant we never got a chance to try when we lived here. It was delicious. Then as I thought we were going to head straight over to Walter Reed, Roger told me we were going to go check something out and he turned into the circle drive of Hotel Palomar in Rosslyn. I was shocked. He reserved a spa suite for the whole weekend. It's wonderful. Hotel Palomar is a 4 star, luxury, boutique hotel owned by the Kimpton company. It's very eclectic and I love the decor and art. Our room is a spa suite meaning it has a jacuzzi tub and an elliptical machine in the room. No, we have not used the elliptical machine. But we have used the jacuzzi tub. It also has spa products, luxurious linens and two soft robes in cheetah and zebra print. The service is great and we are really enjoying our time together. It's so nice to not be at Walter Reed. We can sleep in late and really rest. Roger's not going to want to go back to Walter Reed. And it's so close to all the places we love in our old stomping grounds. We had dinner Friday night at Hard Times (Texas themed chili parlor), dim sum for lunch Saturday at China Garden with friends Mike & April and a surprise dinner for Roger's birthday with a bunch of our old friends arranged by Amanda & Buddy at Costa Verde (Peruvian). That was a lot of fun. It was so nice to hang out with so many people we love. Today we had lunch with more friends at Silver Diner after a great message from Derek at church. I'm so glad we went to so many of our favorite places and got to go to Grace since this is probably going to be my last visit to DC. I also got my hair cut by Azziza yesterday afternoon at her new salon, L'Azur. I'm not looking forward to finding a new hair stylist in Austin, but I'm glad to see she is doing so well. She gave me the color information for my highlights so I can give that to the next stylist at any Aveda salon I go to in Austin.

Well, we just finished dinner and we're heading back to the jacuzzi tub which is so big it's like a mini pool. I fly home tomorrow afternoon. This has been a great weekend and I'm glad our last weekend visit while Roger is here in DC has been so relaxing and special. Hopefully Roger will be home in a month. I can't wait!