On Our Way!

I'm typing this on an iMac so it is going too suck. We were up later with our friends than planned. So, we're getting a later start than we planned, but it is ok... God must have wanted it that way. We're getting ready, will load up, maybe meet out good friends John and Tamra for breakfast and will be on our way. We anticipate hitting a few thunderstorms on the way to Nashville, but we should get there before 9pm. I might even blog along the way. Goodbye Walter Reed!!!

Two Days Left

“Two days left” has been our mantra all day. And it’s been a long day! It started at 8:30 a.m. as Roger was on his way to physical therapy and ended about 5:30 p.m. And we are exhausted. After we had lunch and the Stripe staff joined us in the lovely Walter Reed cafeteria, we headed to our first out-processing appointment. Thank goodness the ladies in this department were professional and cared about their work because the rest of the people we had to deal with the remainder of the day weren’t. It was at this appointment that we discovered Roger’s disability status had been changed from temporary disabled retired list (TDRL) to permanent. It’s better for Roger and us in the long run, but it wasn’t what Roger signed and agreed to and it would be worse for us in the long run if it was not right. So we spent the next hour or so trying to get proof of this change, with people from many departments and agencies saying it’s probably correct, but no one actually able to give us proof. And all these people were all supposedly trying to get an answer from the people who actually made the change but no one could. So we kept getting the “hopefully by tomorrow” response which is not what we needed to hear. Roger’s orders were cut then revoked and now are in limbo until tomorrow. Roger contemplated jumping chain to try to get something himself but decided it probably wasn’t smart. I don’t think he would have gotten any results either. So we rushed around the rest of the day getting signatures from everyone we could on his out-processing checklist for his unit. We couldn’t believe we got as many as we did before the close of business day, but we weren’t able to get them all without orders. Most of these steps are started four months before normal retirement and here we have two and a half days. At least we can start early tomorrow morning with only a few before we can go on to the next step of running around getting signatures for the post out-processing checklist. This all has to get done by tomorrow in order for any last minute things to be done on Friday so we can get out of here on Saturday. So every time we hit a little speed bump or hiccup, we had to remind ourselves there was only two days left of this BS and we’re done forever. We were so exhausted that we even declined free tickets to a Washington Capitals game tonight. That’s sad. We were really excited about seeing a professional ice hockey game, but we were too exhausted. We just woke up from a much needed nap and are about to eat some dinner so we can get to bed early in order to start all this over again tomorrow morning. I am so glad I’m here with Roger. Even though it’s been a sucky day, we did get a lot accomplished and I’m glad we are together to help each other through it. It’s so easy to get discouraged here. So please pray tomorrow is a better day. Thanks!

Going home sooner than I thought - and I won an award!

I have more information regarding my departure from Walter Reed. I ran around today getting paperwork completed so that I can leave soon. Now I’m only waiting for my leave form to be approved so that they can create orders for me – then I’ll be set to go. As it stands right now, my last day of duty will be Friday, March 14th. I begin my 70 days of leave on Saturday, March 15. Holly is flying to DC early next week and we have to do a few admin things together to prepare me for my retirement pay. We’re planning to have some type of get together for our entire group of GCC/DC circle of friends the evening of Friday, March 14. An Evite is forthcoming. We’ll be driving back to Texas on Saturday. My leave will end Friday, May 23 and I’ll be officially medically retired on Saturday, May 24. Right now I’m a little flustered because I thought I’d have more time to say goodbye to people, so I’m trying to see people when I can. Today I had dinner with my friend Erika and then went over to see Buddy & Amanda and their handsome baby boy. At least I have more definite info on the dates – everything is pretty solid from here. I’ll believe it when I have my leave approved and my orders in hand. I’ll keep you updated.

Oh – a quick note… this came out a while ago, but I’m lazy and never posted it. As you know, I photograph for the Stripe newspaper here at Walter Reed on an as needed basis. Basically, I’m considered a freelancer or a stringer. Check it out:

Subject: Journalism competition
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Judging for the annual MEDCOM Journalism Competition and to choose MEDCOM representatives in the Army's Keith L. Ware Award competition was held Friday, Jan. 25 at MEDCOM HQ. Walter Reed Army Medical Center staged a near sweep of the awards, but the Fort Detrick Standard pulled out the win in the category of best Tabloid Newspaper. Individual winners were Walter Reed Stripe editor Bernard S. Little in Feature Writing, Commentary, Sports Writing and Single Photograph; and the Stripe's Kristin Ellis in News Writing and Photojournalism.

Serving as judges for the competition were Jerry Townsend, former chair of the journalism department at San Antonio College; Rich Lamance, print team leader for the Army/Air Force Hometown News Center; and SGM Paul Stevenson, NCOIC at U.S. Army North Public Affairs.

The winners will each receive a certificate from MEDCOM, and will go forward to compete for Keith L. Ware Awards. Also going on to Army will be entries with no MEDCOM competition: The CHPPM Sentinel in Magazine Format Publications; Kristin Ellis in Art/Graphics; SFC Roger J. Mommaerts Jr. of Walter Reed in Photography by a Stringer and COL Paul Little of CHPPM in the broadcast category for Television Information Program.

Thank you to all who participated. Congratulations and good luck to our representatives in the Army contest.

I was happy to hear this news – especially since I didn’t even enter a picture – Bernard picked one and entered it for me. Thanks Bernard and congrats to you and Kristin on your awards! Here’s the picture that won the award and is going up for another one:

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.

No Hearing, Great Results, Excellent Birthday!

I know that many of you know that I had a hearing scheduled for this morning to appeal my initial disability rating from the Army Physical Evaluation Board (PEB) of 30%. Up to this point I didn't want to reveal too much information because my attorney had a strategy and the last thing I wanted to do was to undermine it. I know that sounds kinda' lame, but I don't know who's reading this blog. I can't remember how much detail I went into after I got my initial rating so I recap just a bit.

After I got that rating, it seemed low to me so I went to talk to a rep from the Disabled American Veterans (DAV). They have someone on-site at Walter Reed (WRAMC) to help us out with these things. When he looked at it and then looked at the regulation, he said it looked like I was supposed to get 100% disability. The DAV has a program where law firms in the DC area will represent soldiers that want to appeal their ratings. I was assigned an awesome lawyer from the firm Jones Day. This guy was awesome. He looked up tons of information regarding my situation, gathered documents and records and spoke to me several times to discuss my case. We finally met face to face last week at their office in DC and we went over all the information they gathered for my case. Then late last week I had to do some running around to gather a few more documents right up to Friday night. I took the weekend off and stayed with my good friends Amanda and Buddy (check out their blog!).

Monday morning I was getting ready to do some more info gathering when I saw that I missed a call on my phone. It was my PEBLO Counselor and he said that he had a new DA199 for me. The DA199 is the form that has a disability rating on it. I was a bit confused and when I called him back, I had to leave him a message. I then called my attorney and he said he wouldn't be surprised because they came to WRAMC last week and observed a hearing and then had a chance to speak to the board. Then as I was about to run out the door, my Case Manager called me saying that I needed to speak to my PEBLO ASAP! I headed right over there and as I was walking down the hall, he came out of his office and he called me back immediately. He showed me the new paperwork and apparently, after my attorney met with them, they convened another informal board and changed my rating from 30% to 100% through Aug 2009 on the Temporary Disability Retirement List (TDRL). So, I did not have to go to my hearing after all! I shared this new information with my attorney and he told me it looked like this was the best I was going to get, so I signed it.

Now the paperwork has to go to the Army Physical Disability Agency (PDA) for approval. If they agree, then they will cut order for we to leave WRAMC and I couold be home by the end of March. I know it's all confusing, but there is a very good short summary of the whole process, including what TDRL and other things mean, here: Military Disability (Medical) Separations and Retirements. This has been such a relief for me and my entire family. This entire four year saga of being away from home might soon be over... but lets just keep on praying for now. Thanks for praying for me and sticking in there. We only have a little bit more to go!

So today is my birthday... I'm 33. The staff at the Stripe newspaper office had cake for me - that was nice of them. And this evening I went back over to Amanda & Buddy's for dinner, games and cake. I'm so glad they invited me. It was nice to have a somewhat regular birthday. I wish Holly was here with me, but I'll see her soon enough. BTW - I think Amanda is going to be giving birth either Thu or Fri, the contractions are kicking in, so please pray for a safe delivery!

Cathedral and News from a Friend

You know that sometimes I go on trips to get me the heck out of Walter Reed during the week. I saw that there was one going to the Washington National Cathedral this past Wed and I had to go. I have already been there several times, but the place is just so darn beautiful. Every time I go I find a different aspect that is just calling out to me. This time it was the light coming through the stained glass windows. The past few times I have gone in the summer, but this time it is winter. And the sun lays low in the sky for most of the day. From the time we got there until we left, the light shined through the stained glass and painted a heavenly and just beautiful splash of color on the walls and floors. I just could not keep my lens off of the resulting splendor.

We started off the trip by having lunch at this place called Booeymonger. I ordered a chicken cheese steak with light mayo. After a few minutes, they yelled that a cheese steak with light mayo was ready. Well, I didn’t order that, so I waited. Next they got on the sound system and started yelling. Since people that ordered food after me got theirs, I figured they screwed up and I’d better go up there. Sure enough, my name was on the receipt for the cheese steak (why didn’t they just call my name?). I clarified that I wanted a chicken cheese steak and I sat down. But then they kept calling out the cheese steak! I started to wonder if they were ever going to make it right and they did. They called me up and I got my sandwich. But then they called out for the cheese steak with light mayo again… sigh. The sandwich was pretty good and then we headed over to the Cathedral.

We were in a big tour bus and the driver was concerned that he was going to have to park on the street like usual, but they just finished constructing an underground bus lobby, as they call it, with enough room for about 15 buses. You get off the bus and get right on an elevator. They also completed a new underground parking garage. They claim that the Cathedral, which started construction in 1907 and has been continuously under construction, was finally completed in 2007. 100 years of construction!

As I said before, the Cathedral was as beautiful as always. This trip was organized by the Walter Reed Pastoral staff and so we attended a short service (the Cathedral is Episcopal). It was very similar a Catholic service, but easier to understand and follow, IMO. Then we were treated to an explanation of how the huge pipe organ there works and a recital. I wandered around close to that area and snapped some pictures. When the recital began, I wandered away but was still able to hear the organ as its rich sound filled every cavity of the Cathedral. It was quite amazing! After that, a docent gave us a tour of some of the features of the Cathedral and told us some of the history behind it. She focused a bit on the War Chapel and then took us around the Cathedral. After that, it was time for tea!

We made our way up to the 7th floor observation deck and enjoyed some very nice tea along with small sandwiches and other sweet goodies. We really had a great time. I took quite a few photos of everything and they can be found here on Flickr: Washington National Cathedral.

Moving on, I have a few birthdays programmed in my Outlook and I noticed that today was my friend Yoli’s birthday (Jan 31). On my drive to run an errand, I decided to give her a call to wish her a great day. Yoli and I met in the 8th grade, back in 1988, so I have known her for 20 years. She is one of a few people that I still have kept in touch with after all these years. Throughout High School I remember Yoli was one of the only people our age that had a job. She worked at a Christian Bookstore. At the time, I thought that was neat. I also remember how she always seemed to glow... She just has this happiness that made an impression on me and I secretly yearned for. We never talked about it and in 1993 we graduated. I moved to Texas and I stayed in touch with Yoli. One time when I went back to LA to visit, Yoli invited me to church with her. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was excited to go. I remember asking her questions about church and it was then that I realized what it was that she had that I was looking for, the Lord. I mean, I knew who God was, but I didn’t really understand Christianity that well. Shortly after I got back home to Texas, I got a package in the mail. Yoli sent me a bible… my first and very own bible. I still have it.

We didn’t talk that much more for a few years but we did still keep in touch. I don’t remember what led to it, but she and her husband Matt and daughter Kailee came to visit Holly and I during the summer of 2005 when we lived in Arlington, VA. And then Matt was in town in Nov 2006 and came to visit us again for dinner. We had a great time and we have stayed in touch since then. Fast forward to today… Yoli shared with me that she was diagnosed with stage 3b breast cancer about two weeks ago. They are going to treat her with chemo first to see what happens and then most likely perform a mastectomy and go forward from there. She had her first Chemo treatment this past Monday. I don’t want to get into all the details because you can find them here at Yoli’s blog. She’s a sweet gal and I know that she’s going to pull through this. Being a cancer patient myself, I was able to understand some of the feelings she’s having, so that was nice. I prayed for her on the phone and offered to lend my ear to them whenever they might need it. It just breaks my heart to know that they are now going through this trial. Yoli was the first person to put me on the right path to accepting Christ into my life… thank you so much Yoli. I am asking all of you to please pray for Yoli and her family while they go through all of this.

Time Flies When You're Crazy Busy

I can't believe it's been a week since I last blogged. A lot has happened so I'll keep it as brief as possible. So we bought the Hyundai Santa Fe last Monday, on my birthday. We love it and are very happy with our purchase. Christmas Eve service at Austin Stone was beautiful. Christmas day at Roger's parents was great. We had a lot of fun. We watched a few footballs games over the past week. Happy UT won, sad A&M lost. Too many pro games to talk about, but enjoyed them all. On Wednesday, Roger received the date of his formal hearing for his disability appeal. It is set for February 13, 2008. Not only is that much later than he expected and means he will be there even longer than expected, but it's also his birthday. What a way to spend your birthday plus knowing it's going to suck is worse. So that means he won't be home at the earliest until March 13th. He was quite bummed that day knowing he has to be there so much longer. Tells you how bad it sucks at WRAMC. We've been getting numerous things done around the house since Roger is home to help including organizing the garage. This has taken the most time but we're pretty much done. We are very excited about how the garage make-over has turned out. We can definitely get both vehicles in there again once I get rid of a couple items. So I am spending today freecycling tons of stuff to continue organizing the garage while Roger is taking care of his truck. We are planning to drive him back to DC so he will have a vehicle while he's there so his remaining time won't suck as bad. This will also help him when he comes home for good as he has lots of stuff to bring back since he's been there so long already. We have a bunch more stuff to accomplish before Roger leaves, but only a few things that have to be done. The rest can wait for me to do during the semester or when Roger gets home for good. I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting, but oh well. Tonight we are going to Roger's sister Mirna's home for New Year's Eve celebrations. Hope you all had a great Christmas and will have a happy new year.

Weekend Update

I intended to post earlier this weekend, but I had such a productive weekend I got distracted. I ended up getting sick and didn't bake those red velvet cupcakes nor help out at the benefit event Thursday night. The volunteer coordinator told me to stay home and get rest since they had plenty of help coming. Did I do that? Well, I stayed home, but I didn't rest. I started working on my to do list but I didn't work super hard so it's okay.

My parents were in Taylor, northeast of Austin, for another funeral Thursday for a farmer and blacksmith friend of theirs, Charlie Stolte. He and my father were a lot alike and related very well to each other although Mr. Stolte was a couple decades older than my dad. They had similar backgrounds and appreciated each other well. My mom and I always said Mr. Stolte was what my dad was going to look like when he gets old. After the funeral and lunch with friends, my parents drove to my house in South Austin and helped me with a bunch of stuff. I bought an air compressor a week or so ago. We will be able to use it to make putting flooring in the attic an easier task by borrowing my dad's pneumatic nail gun. And we'll be able to air up balls, bicycle and automobile tires and blow leaves from under my front door on the front porch. And if you've ever driven to convenience store after convenience store trying to find air for your low tires to have them not work and lose more air, you know how much we will love having this air compressor. I've been wanting one for about five years now. You know I am going to find any excuse to use it.

So my dad helped me set it up, make sure it was ready to go and showed me how to use it and maintain it. I cleaned out a section of the attic which we will tackle first. The previous owners of our house left us lots of great stuff when we bought the house and I didn't realize how much they left in the attic. Of course everything they left was pretty much trash that we have had to dispose of ourselves. Thanks Stewart family! Anyway, my mom consolidated leftover garage sale stuff into fewer boxes while my dad and I messed with the compressor. She helped me load the boxes into my truck to which I took to Goodwill and helped me clean the garage from the trash I threw out of the attic. They also took a bunch of spare wood we had which helped to empty the garage out more. We're not only trying to organize the garage better but make room for another vehicle. We got two in there before I totaled my car in 2003 so I know we can get two in there again. Friday and Saturday were more projects I've been trying to get done for a while and I got almost all of my list completed. All I have left to do is clean the house tomorrow after I work in the morning and complete a personal Christmas gift for Roger which I'm working on now. I'd tell you what it is, but then Roger would find out. He's already been bugging me about his "real" Christmas present. Once Roger gets home, we will start on a new list. I'm sure he's looking forward to it. You never know, he might be happy and feel more normal to be doing things around the house.

Oh, I almost forgot. I got my anthropology final exam grade Thursday afternoon. I made a 91, A! So according to the professor's grading policy that means I made an 88.75 in the class BUT I went to a museum for two extra credit points. Which means I made a 90.75 in the class. That's a A! I'm so happy about that. Now I have to wait until Tuesday after 8:00 p.m. to find out what I made in my history class. When I think about it, I get nervous. So I try not to think about it. But I have to make a C or better in that class. I really don't want to have to take it again. I've had enough of research papers for a while. I don't want to have to do that again until I go to grad school. So I'm begging, please pray for me to make a C or better in that class.

So the museum I went to with my dad was the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History. I was really impressed. I was quite surprised with the collections they had and he and I really enjoyed it. Our other choice was the Houston Museum of Natural Science, but I couldn't afford to lose a whole day, three hour drive there and three hour drive back, at the time. I'd love to have gone there, but I needed the time to work on my paper. I can still go but I'd like to go soon since they have Lucy, the "missing link" according to evolutionists. I don't really care too much about seeing Lucy, but I've learned from past experience not to miss out on any opportunity that comes across my lap. I wish I wouldn't have listened to everyone else when they said, "Don't waste your money going into the Great Pyramid. It's not worth it." when we were in Egypt with the Army. I could seriously kick myself for not going into the pyramid. Even if there wasn't anything in there, I could still say I've been in it instead of just saying I've been there. Lucy's only going to be in Houston for a short while and only in a few museums in America so I'd like to see her if I can help it.

As you read in Roger's post from Friday, he got his PEB that morning but was unable to get any questions asked and therefore no answers. I still can't believe two offices whose sole jobs are to be there for the soldiers in these moments were completely out of the office on Friday. I worked for state government for six years before I moved to DC and we were never allowed to all go out at the same time. There always had to be a "skeleton crew" as they call it. I guess federal government is a little different. I mean, I basically knew that from my prior Army experience and with the history of what Roger's experienced so far at WRAMC, I'm not really surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised. Roger will probably have a very hectic day tomorrow trying to get answers in order to make the best decision. He's planning to bypass formation at 0730 and go straight to getting those answers before he starts packing to fly home on Tuesday. Please pray for him. I can imagine it becoming frustrating with the Army and WRAMC's history. So please pray for the Lord to be with Roger tomorrow and help him deal with the answers he receives and for him to get great advice.

Thanks all. Sorry this is so long. That's what happens when I wait to post. I'd say I'll try to be better, but you know as well as I this isn't the first time and it surely won't be the last. One more day and a wake up and Roger will be home. I can't wait. I'm very excited. I know he is too.

Me and Owen

I finally got a hold of the picture with me and my buddy Owen hanging out here at Walter Reed. Man, that sure a fun day! We talked about all kinds of stuff... me, him, LA, Austin, Willie. Ahhhh...the memories. They'll last forever. Call me soon Owen - we'll hang out again... for a few minutes. But this time, don't act like you don't know me, even though you really didn't. (Can you tell I'm in a better mood?)

Holly's back in Texas and I go back to my daily grind of Occupational, Physical and Aquatic Physical Therapy tomorrow. And I also get to toss in a bonus SCUBA lesson. Did I tell you I'm taking SCUBA lessons here for free? Yeah... all I'll have to do to get PADI certified is do my four check dives somewhere back home within one year and I'm certified - for life! Tomorrow is my third day in the pool.

Saturday I'm signed up to go to the Army/Navy Football game up in Baltimore. Walter Reed is taking up about one hundred soldiers for the day. It should be a lot of fun. Apparently we're going to get special treatment - whatever that is at a military function where there are 50,000 other people. And we will have to go in our uniforms to represent. I just don't have a whole lot of cold weather gear to go along with my uniform. But I hear we'll get some soon. Oh... my phone's ringing... I think it's Owen... hang on...


Eh - wrong number. Enjoy the nice fall weather! :-)

MEB Addendum Complete! Docs Make Decision on Mon?

After my last post, I continued to sit in the waiting room for about 15 minutes. My Neurologist came out and said he was done. He gave me my file and told me to go down to the medical boards office and ask them to process a particular case number that he wrote on a post-it. I hurried down to the office and told them what the doctor told me to say… and they were quite confused. First it took them a while to realize that I was in the Army. Uh, hello? My uniform says US Army! They then told me that he had indeed done a dictation and that it would not be available until sometime next week. Talk about your hopes being dashed. We called my Neurologist again to make he sure he understood what he was doing, and he said yes. It kinda ticked me off because he gave me the impression that he was going to put it in the computer, but he didn’t… he still dictated it. Well, whatever. I’m used to being run over all the time now, so I gave in, thanked him and filled out the required paperwork to route the finished product to me at WRAMC.

I decided to listen to my stomach and went to the cafeteria to get a bite to eat. As a soldier on medical hold with a meal card, I get to eat free there too. On the way to the cafeteria, I saw my Rad/Onc, Dr. Duelge. His wife and daughter were there too, it was nice to see him and to meet some of his family. After eating, I went back up to wait for the bus, which finally came after a few minutes and I was on my way back to WRAMC. But as the bus was driving off, I got a call on my mobile phone. It was the medical boards office. Somehow, the dictation was completed already! She needed my Neurologist to review and sign it and asked me for his phone number… I gladly gave it to her. She asked me to call her back when I got to WRAMC.

I called her immediately when I got off the bus and she said everything was good to go. I gave her my fax number and the fax number of the PEBLO and headed off to the PEBLO’s office. Upon arriving at the PEBLO’s office, I explained that they should be expecting a fax from NNMC and I wanted to make sure they received it. They told me to take a seat and I did. I was sitting for no more than a minute when my PEBLO came walking out of the office! I told him they were faxing over an addendum and he raced off to fetch it. A few minutes he came back with it in hand and I breathed a sigh of relief. Whew!!

He explained that all the MEB docs were gone but he would pass the paperwork to my MEB doc first thing Monday morning. He said that they should have a determination regarding which conditions are ratable and will go forward to the PEB. I will have 72 hours from the day I receive this form to either concur or nonconcur with the findings. If I agree, my case will move to the PEB and they will say that I am either ‘fit for duty’ or ‘not fit for duty’ and then assign a disability rating. If I agree with them and everything goes smoothly, there is a chance (just a chance) that I could be home for good before Christmas. I just glossed over how the system works. It is a confusing system with all sorts of rules and such. If you’re interested in learning just a little bit more about where we go from here, I suggest you check out this link regarding the Army Physical Disability Evaluation System (PDES).

Let me know if you have any questions by posting a comment or emailing me directly. This is what the last seven months here have been leading up to. This is also what the article in the Washington Post discussed earlier this year. I’m diving head first into all of this. I hope I can keep my head above water! Please pray that everything moves swiftly and easily… I would really like to go home soon.

Confusion Leading to the End?

I am sitting at the Naval Hospital in Bethesda waiting to see my Neurologist. Holly blogged yesterday that I was going to see my Neurosurgeon, but she was slightly off. I saw my Neurologist two weeks ago and at that time he answered all the additional questions that the MEB doctors had. In the past few weeks I have seen all the specialists involved in my care so that they could enter final notes into the system for my MEB. They call these addendums. I thought everything was done and I went to see the PEBLO (Physical Evaluation Board Liaison Officer), the guy that is the go between the MEB docs and everything else. He went into the system, printed out all the notes and said he would pass them to the MEB docs. I got a call a few hours later from my PEBLO and he said the MEB docs were ready to move forward with the process... Except for one thing. When I saw my Neurologist two weeks ago, he said he was going to dictate a new board. What that means is he would speak into a microphone all the new information and it would have to be transcribed and sent over to Walter Reed. Minimum time? About two to three weeks. So that would stop everything in it's tracks... Again. So, my question is why?

If he already answered all the questions... Why do this again? I already have a board dictated. Okay... Terminology break. When a doc dictates a board, the resulting document is called a Narrative Summary or NARSUM for short. A NARSUM initiates the Medical Evaluation Board process (MEB for short). From there it moves on to the Physical Evaluation Board or PEB. More on that when we get to it.

So, I already have a NARSUM. It was a very poorly written document and it was out of date. I told this to my Case Manager at the time and she said that was fine. That updated information could be added via these addendums. As far as I understand, all the addendums are in. But as I said, my Neurologist wants to dictate a new NARSUM. He asked to bring my old NARSUM, which I did. But I still don't understand why he couldn't ask the doc that did it in the first place since he's in the office next door! Talk about the right hand not talking to the left!

Anyway, I have no idea what's going on. The big question that I have today is, if all the questions the MEB docs were answered in the addendum, why does a new NARSUM have to be dictated?

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Okay, he just called me back and said that he is going to enter the new information, whatever it is, into the electronic system - a new addendum. He says he's putting in a new NARSUM. Whatever. I think I better call and see if what he's doing is valid.

I just called my PEBLO and he said he just left me a voicemail! He said that he can enter a new NARSUM into the system and the docs can start on my case as early as Friday!

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I will update you later on what exactly takes place the rest of the day. Looks like things might be moving along! :-)

Back in DC... again. -sigh-

I’m sitting on Continental flight 223 from Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH) en route to Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI). I booked a flight from Austin (AUS) through Cleveland (CLE) into BWI that left Austin just before noon arriving BWI near 6pm knowing that Holly was going to have to drop me off on her way to school around 8am. This morning, she dropped me off as scheduled and I went right to the ticket counter to see if I could catch an earlier flight. Sure enough, they were able to confirm me on a flight leaving at 9:20am, connecting in Houston and getting into BWI a little after 3pm. There was a catch though… the plane was scheduled to arrive in Houston at 10:15 and the flight to BWI was departing at 10:52. Not such a big deal except for the fact that the arriving and departing gates were on two entirely different ends of the airport. See for yourself: Arrive E19, Depart C25.

In addition, Roger needs to eat, so I had to find food along the way. The plane landed on time but we were delayed getting to our gate and I didn’t deplane until 10:25. We were told that there would be a “uniformed attendant” at the end of the jet way to answer any questions and help us out the best they could. There were two guys next to me that were in the same predicament and several others from what I saw. I got off the plane and guess what? No “attendant.” I looked at my watch, figured I could get across the airport, tightened my backpack over my shoulders and took off.

I remembered from going through IAH last week that they had lots of moving walkways. I would have to take advantage of those… I walked and walked and walked… my right leg was starting to be uncooperative at a fast pace, so I pretty much limped the whole way. My knee was locking and I was starting to sweat, but I was committed now. I wondered where the others were, but there was no time to stop and look. I found the end of the ‘E’ concourse and came to a big intersection. I slowed down and looked for a place that sold premade wrapped sandwiches, but there were none in sight. I was wasting time! I limped on through the ‘C’ terminal that seemed to go on forever and kept my eyes open for food. I saw a sign that pointed me in the direction of my gate. This area looked familiar from last week. I knew there was a USO nearby, but I didn’t remember seeing anything but junk food there, so I kept walking. I finally found the area where the C20-ish gates were. I saw C23, mine was C25, so I was close.

I looked at my watch and it was 10:35. I had made good time! I saw an area that sold food and wanted to get a Subway sandwich, but the line was too long. Right next to it was a Popeye’s. I saw that they had chicken already to go and all they had to do was box and bag it. I bought some and made my way to where I saw C23. Looking up the concourse, I saw the gate numbers getting smaller. I saw a lady on an electric cart and asked her where C25 was. She told me up ahead on the right, so I walked past her. Then I heard her say something to me… she asked me what gate I was going to again. Again, I told her C25. Then she told me to go the other way and turn right. Basically, when she told me it was ahead on the right, she meant from her perspective! How was I to know that? I had passed my gate! I must have missed the sign when I saw food… I looked at my watch and it was 10:47.

I looked down the concourse and the gates were numbered backward… C25 was near the end! I put it into high gear and I knew I was breaking a sweat now. I got to the end of the gate and one of the agents yelled to me, “Baltimore?!” I held up my boarding pass and yelled back, “Yes!” I got there and she scanned my boarding pass and then mentioned something about ‘that’s why he’s late… he got fried chicken.’ I felt like saying, lady, if you only knew. I walked down the jet way alone and onto the plane. I found my seat and there was an older Hispanic lady sitting there. She was hesitant to give up her seat, until the attendant intervened. She moved over, I stowed my backpack and took my seat as I felt the plane begin to move backward. In a sweat, I looked at my watch and it read 10:52. I made it!

A quick postscript now that I’m back in my room. I was surprised that my suitcase and the baggage of all the others made it to BWI on time. Kudos to Continental for getting it right. And I’m glad I bought lunch… the so called lunch on the plane was a horribly dry turkey sandwich about the size of a small lemon. I tore into that fried chicken much to the dismay of my fellow passengers. I brought warmer clothes back with me to DC and I’m glad I did. I walked to grab dinner and the wind was pretty chilly. Fall has arrived in DC.

My visit home with Holly was too short, as usual. I don’t feel like we planned a whole lot but we stayed busy. We slept in too late most mornings and stayed up late. This was bad for her since she needed to study and still attend classes. Then I caught a cold and was sick for the last few days. It’s probably a good thing I’m here and she’s there – I would distract her way too much.

I’ve got some great pics of the new baby and family that I will post soon.

Bend It!

Just a quick note to let you know that today went much better than yesterday. I slept well, went to Aquatic Therapy, went to lunch and saw the whole newspaper crew and ate with them. Then they invited me back to see the final layouts for the paper that is coming out Friday.

Earlier this week, I neglected to mention that after shooting that building dedication last Thursday, I shot what WRAMC calls Organization Day, or O-Day. It was basically like any company picnic with booths, games, food and fun. I spent four hours in the heat taking over 390 pictures. Many pictures of the same things to make sure I got good ones. It was extremely hot, but stayed in the shade and learned that if you take their pictures, you get you food tickets and food from those that give it out before everyone else. It was awesome.

Then this past Tuesday, I had the opportunity to photograph the Postmaster General of the United States and Retired General Colin Powell unveil the new 41 cent Purple Heart Stamp. Colin Powell then awarded two soldiers (that happen to be in my platoon) Purple Heart awards for injuries they sustained during combat while serving in Iraq. It was a very cool assignment and I got to rub elbows with the professional photographers… and I mean that! These guys shoot with their elbows sticking straight out to make sure they have staked out their “space.” They push and get in your way… it was awesome. I got some pretty good photos and it was exciting knowing that I was photographing something going on and that if I didn’t get the right pictures, they wouldn’t have them for the paper. I was sweating like crazy during the whole thing and I think I popped off about 130 pictures in just an hour. I really had fun and am learning a lot. I don’t know how I’m going to capture an image of the paper when it comes out tomorrow though. I just want to share it with you somehow.

Lastly, Captain Nun from yesterday’s post stopped by to tell me that she had extra tickets to the Major League Soccer (MLS) game between DC United and LA Galaxy. I know that the famous David Beckham joined the LA team this year, but still has not played. But I knew it was a sold out game and they were 6th row seats near the goal, so I called a few friends and ended up going with my friend Tina from my community group, who also happens to be a soccer fan. I’ve never really followed soccer and she kept me up on the rules of the game and what was going on. About 30 minutes into the game, Beckham began warming up, stretching and running back and forth. We figured his team just had him do it for show to make the fans happy. He did all of this right in front of us since we were almost down on the field, so it was cool. But the fans were just downright annoying. From the time that he got up, they stood up to watch him warm up and got in everybody’s way. The dude was just warming up! But I think it was mostly the ladies… so I guess that’s why. Anyway, we hit halftime and it started to rain. Hard. Good thing Tina brought an umbrella. We huddled in our seat and everyone around us got soaked. Then with 20 minutes left in the game, Beckham took off his shirt (to the pleasure of the ladies) and put on his game shirt and got in the game! So, this was his MLS debut in America. The news said he was inspired by the large crowd and by being in DC for the first time ever. He was a bit slow and almost helped LA score once, but in the end, DC won the game 1-0. At the end of the game he took his shirt off again and gave it to one of his players (a tradition, I guess?) and went on his way. All in all, we had a good time and it was pretty exciting. Maybe I’ll see another soccer game in the near future.

No Official Results Yet

I stopped in to see my Case Manager today to see if the MRI results were in the computer yet. She looked and part of it was there, but it was not completed or ‘signed’ yet. I’ll check back with her tomorrow afternoon. This morning I had my first assignment with the Stripe, WRAMC’s weekly newspaper. I photographed the dedication of a building here on post to CPL Angelo J. Vaccaro, a soldier and medic who gave his life in the line of duty. This guy is a hero… the kind of guy you want to have in your platoon if you run into action. He did some amazing stuff and saved more than a handful of lives on the battlefield. You can read about some of the amazing things he did in this Stripe article from last week’s edition.

The shoot went very well. I was nervous as hell and it didn’t help that it was just about as hot as hell out there. I knew that the paper was relying on me for their pictures and I didn’t want to let them down, so I think I took too many pictures to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I ended up taking 186 photos in an hour – and I’ll bet they don’t even use some as the reporter there took her camera too. But maybe I’ll make the front page – I’ll let you know. I talked to the reporter later in the day and she was impressed. I’m not one to toot my own horn though, so well see how it turns out. I’m just doing this because I want to be a better photographer and doing this in my spare time will push me to work better as my work will be critiqued. I need that. I’ll post some of the photos next week after the paper comes out – I don’t want to post them before that as a courtesy to the paper. When I got back to my room, my entire uniform was soaked with sweat – yes, it was that hot outside. I had to change into different clothes for Aquatic Physical Therapy, so I had to lay my uniform out to dry. It was a very hot day and tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter and more humid.

Speaking of tomorrow, I am shooting Organization Day on Friday. O-Day, as they call it, is a day where two hours around lunch is set aside for people to have fun. People can bring their kids, there are games, food and fun. I have no idea what to expect… but I know one thing. I’m going casual in some wicking shorts and a t-shirt because I hear everyone else will be casual. I hope I take some decent pictures for them. Oh... and the best part about O-Day? No 0730 formation Friday morning!! I can sleep in.

Big MRI Tomorrow for Roger

I know; long time, no blog. As you have been reading, thanks to Holly’s posts, I have been quite busy here. I now have formation every Mon, Wed and Fri at 0730, and I have to call in on Tue and Thu before 0800. Right now I am doing regular Physical Therapy (PT) on Mon and Fri at 0930 and Aquatic PT on Tue and Thu at 0930. I leave Wed open to rest. All the running around here in the heat and all the exercise from PT really wears me out. And let me tell you, I’m not just doing the minimum in these PT sessions either. I really push myself way beyond the numbers that they set for me. I want to get better and it feels good to work out. Yesterday, I pushed it a little hard but it didn’t phase me… I was doing this exercise where a therapist and I do a very quick side step while tossing a seven pound ball back and forth… we move at a pretty fast pace. Well, it was pretty crowded and there were lots of canes, people and wheelchairs lining the aisle. We did a couple down and back, but on the third one it looked like more stuff was in the way, and I was so busy looking out for stuff, that I ran into the curtain. Only problem was, there was a chair behind the curtain! So I fell on to the floor.. my right hip hit the ground but my arm hung on to the chair and that helped break my fall a bit. My therapist asked if I was okay and a Navy O-3 helped me up… I announced that I was fine… and we did a few more laps. No pain, no gain; right?

In other news: I recently started attending a group here that meets twice a week called “The Think Tank.” And I am also looking into helping out the newspaper here on post, the Stripe. More on those in another post.

So, here’s the BIG reason for this post: My One Year MRI after the end of my cancer treatment is tomorrow at the Naval Hospital at 1pm. The only problem is.. I can't talk to my doctor about it until Aug 13th! No worries though, after the MRI is done, I'm going to go downstairs and get of a copy of it on CD and pop it into my laptop. After looking at these things for over a year and having my last one to compare to, I think I'll be able to tell if there's anything growing that shouldn't be. And I'll be able to get a copy of the Radiologist's report in a few days to confirm. I know God has been good to me and I feel pretty peaceful about it and that it is going to be a good scan. But I might have trouble sleeping tonight thinking about it. Please pray for me... please pray that I get some rest and that it is clear. I can't tell you how excited I am to have this year behind me since I finished Radiation Therapy. I can't wait to finally declare to the world that I, Roger Mommaerts Jr, am a cancer survivor.

More Leave

With everything going on here, I forgot to mention that I am taking leave to go home back to Austin starting... well... today, May 23 through Jun 11. My flight leaves at 1100. I'm done packing and need to get to bed. I have to catch a bus at 0800 to the metro station to be at the airport around 0900. I sure am looking forward to being home again for a while!

Order Mania

I haven’t really posted much since the promotion. Life here at WRAMC has been steadily amusing. And I don’t mean that in a good way. Let me take you back to last week. Here’s a little teaser of things to come in this blog. You read my last post, right? The one where I got promoted? You know how I found out I actually got promoted? I happened to log on to our HR website and noticed that my rank was changed there. Nobody called me to tell me the good news; nobody patted me on the back. In fact, I didn’t even get any orders. When I went to the staff here, they said they couldn’t pull up my orders. They told me to go to another office on base. I walked there and they could not either, they sent me to another office. The last office said they could not either. So here I am, I know I got a promotion, but I have no way to prove it because I have no orders. Without the actual orders in hand, and can’t wear the new rank. I’m going to stop here on this story. Remember where we left off, okay?

Speaking of orders… I needed orders assigning me to WRAMC. Easy enough, right? When I came over here the week of April 23rd, they started to in-process me. My other orders were set to expire on April 27th, so they put in a request for orders (RFO) assigning me. They finally came on the 26th, but I thought the start date would be the 28th, they came with a start date of the 23rd! This really worried me since I had already paid for a week’s worth of lodging in Rosslyn. Anyway, without getting too complicated, they amended my original orders that ended on the 27th to end on the 22nd, and then they amended them again putting them back the way they were to end on the 27th, finally they cut a new order rescinding the original order that brought me to DC in the first place so that the medical retention processing (MRP) order bringing me to WRAMC could take effect. Confusing? You bet. That’s three orders, remember that. To make matters worse, I then had to go to the Malogne House, which is like a hotel here, to get what is called a statement of non-availability (SNA) to say that the hotel was full and I had to stay in Rosslyn so that I could get paid for the week I was worried about. Here’s the clincher… you remember the three orders? Nobody here could produce those for me either. One guy gave me one of them, but I needed all of them.

So I had three assignment orders and a promotion order somewhere out in space that I could not get. So you know what I did? I made a few phone calls to the place I was working here in DC. I called up my co-worker Angela and she gave me some numbers for people I knew could help me. I called up the office that could help me and within fifteen minutes I had all four orders in my inbox. I love having connections.

Other than that, last week went okay. I had a dental exam and they didn’t see anything to worry about – I just need a cleaning in the near future. I also talked to my neurosurgeon, Dr. Rosenbaum, and he is going to work to get my NARSUM completed. In fact, I got a call from one of the neurologists over at NNMC who is working with my neurosurgeon and neurologist to get it done. He said it should be completed early next week. You see, that’s why things here take so long here. One thing has to happen to trigger something else. And if one thing gets delayed, everything else gets delayed. Patience is key, but it is hard sometimes.

Lastly, Friday afternoon, I got a call from my Platoon Sergeant. She said that since I got promoted, I was no longer eligible to stay in the room where I am now. I was going to have to move out into another building that is supposedly a step up from where I am now. That has been an adventure in itself, but more on that tomorrow.

I got promoted!!!

I'm going to make this quick... I got promoted today to Sergeant First Class (E-7). Tamra came this morning to take pictures for me (thanks again Tamra). The company commander pinned me (or velcro'd me.) Anyway, this was three years in the making. Thank God!!

Almost done in-processing

I had another long day of briefings and classes. I started my day with a class that taught us about the Medical Evaluation Board (MEB) process. The people that will be handling our cases were there – and they knew what they were talking about. They gave us a lot of material that I just need to sit down and read. But overall it was very informative. I also learned that the average time it is currently taking for Reserve Component (RC) soldiers like me to get through the process is 157 days. So, the estimated I have received of 5-6 months sounds right. Eesh! Anyway, I may be taking some leave here in the near future to go back to Texas for a week or so. We’ll see.

My next briefing was about the programs and benefits offered to us by the USO and MWR to do things here in DC while stuck in the area. They basically encourage us to get out there and see stuff when we have off days. I was already planning to do that… so nothing new there.

The last briefing was about all the VA and the benefits they provide and also help in getting a job for the future. I already have a job in Austin, but they’ll be good classes to take regardless. Those classes last a whole week. So they will keep me occupied for a while.

Overall, lots of good information today! I also met an Active Duty Army Major who also had a brain tumor removed, but his was from the front of his brain. We have similar situations, so I’m going to keep in touch with him and his wife, who I also met, to see how things go for them. It was neat because I kept on running into them. I saw them in the Dining Facility and joined them for lunch, then I was waiting for a briefing and they walked up for the same one, so it was cool.

Tonight I went to the community house again for dinner. My fabulous friend, Allison (or Allie, as she prefers to be called) gave me a ride from the Court House metro there. Matt P cooked a fabulous meal and we ate outside in the cool breeze. It was a great meal and the company was excellent, as always. After, Allie gave me a ride back up to WRAMC, but I felt bad because she printed out directions, but I made her go a different way. And in DC you can’t seem to ever be able to make a left turn, so it was a real pain because we could not get turned around to go the way we really needed to go! Well, we figured it out and I obviously got home safely. I’m sorry, Allie, for the crazy driving tour of DC. I hope your trip home on 495 and the parkway was easier!

Tomorrow I just have to stop by the dental clinic for an exam and cleaning and then I am done for the day and then will be pretty much done in-processing. All that is left is a meeting with the Company Commander. Tamra needs to turn in some keys here, so we might meet up for lunch if she has a chance. I think that next week I’ll have a better handle on where we go from here. We’ll just have to see.

No surgery now and Almost done in-processing

The weekend went well – but it was very tiring. I went with Amanda to the house we worked on at 7am on Saturday morning… yes!!! 7am! We really had a good time working out there all day. I personally worked on a few projects. First of all, I took over 150 pictures for Amanda. I also worked on fixing a toilet, installing smoke and carbon monoxide sensors around the house and then repairing the fence that surrounded the house, which involved hammering in probably a hundred nails! After we cleaned up, we ended up back at John and Tamra’s for some pizza and games. Sunday we went to church and then John took me to the PX so that I could buy cleaning supplies for the room. After that, we headed back to the house to try to finish the fence. The fence was repaired, but needed to be primed and painted. We were able to finish priming and painting the outside of the fence, but only got as far as priming part of the inside of the fence. I guess we’ll need to go back and finish the job in the future. I left with John, Tamra and Zach, we had dinner, and then they dropped me back off at WRAMC.

Walking back into my room was a shock. I hadn’t realized what a mess I had left it! I decided to start unpacking and I just kept going and going until I felt like it was habitable. When I looked at the clock, it was 3am. You know… it was worth it. I’m just one of those people that unpacks first just to get comfortable. I’m glad I did because it was done! Yeah, I had to be at a formation at 0830 Monday morning, but I could get sleep after. I got a few hours of sleep and walked into the Gym across the street from our billets and was surprised to see a gaggle of people just sitting on bleachers. Apparently, a formation just means we show up and they account for us. I was expecting to stand in lines of platoons and squads, but I guess we don’t do that here. After that I ran off for a quick breakfast and then met with my social worker who talked to me about my options regarding choosing to stay in the reserves or elect to have a board where I will be medically discharged or retired depending on what disability rating I get. Well, I’ll have more on that later. The rest of the day I just went from place to place to continue in-processing. I was exhausted from all the walking around and decided to go back to my room to take a short nap. Well, the short nap turned into a long nap and I missed dinner. I set my phone to wake me up, but dismissed the alarm. Thanks to my friend Jill N. who called to say hi, she woke me up before I slept way too long! Luckily, there is a little place in the hospital, called Walt’s, which is open rather late where I can use my meal card. I got a hot dog, a salad and some other items, and headed back to my room. I watched some TV, worked on a little paperwork and went back to bed.

This morning I was awakened by a phone call at 0630 by my new squad leader. I knew it was him because I put all the numbers I needed in my phone and the Caller ID tipped me off. I’m not really sure what we said to each other… I guess he was checking on me to make sure I was ok. I went back to sleep thinking that I didn’t have to check in now and decided that I was going to sleep in to get some rest and finish in-processing in the afternoon. My phone woke me up again at 0900 when another squad leader from the platoon called to see if I was okay. Man… I told him about the earlier call and he said he never talked to the guy who called earlier, so they didn’t know what my status was. Anyway, I hope that never happens again! Okay, so I finally got my lazy butt up at 1100 and got going. I must have been extremely tired from the weekend and Monday. I did all the in-processing I could for the day and got ready to go to community group. I made it from WRAMC to where we meet in Arlington in only 40 minutes, which I think is pretty good for mass transit. After the meeting, friends Kezia and Jana gave me a ride back here.

Okay, last thing… my neurosurgeon has wanted to fix the incision on the top of my head for quite some time now. He just doesn’t like the way there is an indention and no hair across it. We talked last week and I thought we were going to do it this week. But after my neurologist said they might be able to go back in to fix the seizure issue, everything got confused. I finally talked to him today and here’s the skinny: My neurosurgeon doesn’t think that any surgery in the brain should even be attempted until all other options have been exhausted and no earlier than 36 months after the end of my radiation therapy. Not only that, but he doesn’t even want to work on my scalp until 12 months after the end of my radiation therapy… which is mid-July. So, no brain surgery for at least two more years, and no working on fixing the scalp until after this July. But he and I are confident that they won’t have to go back into my brain. I know I’m in good hands and he’s pretty sure it will resolve itself over time.

The other issue I have been having here is that my Narrative Summary has not been completed yet and I still don’t have the permanent profile that I need to get this process started since my new doctor last week changed it to a temporary one. Well, I explained all of this to my neurosurgeon and he is going to do both. It won’t be this week, but he said he’ll take care of it. With him involved now, it looks like I am in good hands. I’m going to let my case manager know and put them in touch with each other, if necessary.

Tomorrow I have to attend three briefings throughout the day, so it should be an uneventful long day. But I’m almost done in-processing! After tomorrow, all I’ll need is to have my teeth checked and I’ll be done.

Moved In... Sorta'

Thursday was a very busy day for me. I had to go to the office to finally turn in my badge, turn in some keys, take care of some paperwork, but most importantly... sign and get a copy of my NCOER!!! The ordeal is over! It took a few weeks, but I finally got it in - and it was a pretty good review. But it took so long to get everything done that someone had to drive me to WRAMC for my 1530 doctor apointment (Thanks for the ride Alan - and thank God for that GPS!) I made it to the doctor appointment and it went well. My new PCM is on the ball and should be easy to work with over the next few months. Earlier this week I got a call from a nurse at the clinic at Fort Belvoir - she told me that a test they did on my blood last week came up positive for G6PD deficiency. I'm not going to go into detail about what is now because when I told the doctor he thought it would be a good idea to run the test again to make sure they got it right. He's also going to check my liver enzymes to make sure they're at a decent level. I went down to the lab, they took my blood, and I was off to my apartment to pack. I also finally talked to my Neurologist and we talked about my EEG results. We had a bad connection, so at first I thought he said that they were wildly abnormal... I was confused! But it turns out that he said they were mildly abnormal. He didn't see any epiliptic activity and said that the results were in line for what would be seen in a post brain surgery patient. So, basically nothing to worry about right now. We just need to see how this new drug works over time.

I'm learning how to get to and from WRAMC using the metro system. Buses run pretty frequently on two streets at the front and back of the post. I take a bus to the Silver Spring metro station and then take the red line to Metro Center and transfer to the orange or blue line to get to where most of my friends live. Total time during rush hour is about an hour. I'm guessing that off peak it will take about an hour and a half. I don't think it's too bad - the fact that I can even get around this easily is amazing.

I went home and started packing. A few friends from my new Tuesday night Community Group from church came over to help and after a while we got hungry, so we went to Cafe Asia to eat (I love their food!) They all went home and I continued to pack. With an end in sight I kept at it until 3am when basically everything was pretty much ready to go.

This morning Tamra came over and we got everything loaded into her car and made the trek over to WRAMC. When we got there we had a hard time figuring out where to park to offload the goods. A young Private agreed to watch the car while we unloaded in the circle drive and took everything up. When we finally got everything up to my room on the third floor, my key wouldn't work on the door. Tamra went down to park the car and I went down to the S-4 office to see what was wrong. They told me to call the guy that assigned me the room. I called the SSG that assigned me the room and he said I needed to call S-4. Not so fast! No passing the buck here... he told me to meet him at the S-4 office. It turned out that since I didn't put anything in the room, when they did a walk-through of the rooms, my room was empty, so they assigned it to someone else. Now, this may sound like a Charlie Foxtrot to you, but this is par for the course for an Army operation. Anyway, several phone calls were made, rooms were looked at and by the time we were sure I could have a room on the second floor, two hours had elapsed.

The room is decent. Each room has a walk-in closet, tile floors, a bathroom with a stand up shower, a kitchenette with a small stove, fridge, microwave and sink. There is also a plasma TV and an iMac in each room. The room wasn't exactly clean and the furniture wasn't placed very well, so we methodically moved furniture around, swept and mopped the floor underneath and put it all in new places. It took us quite a bit of time to get everything wiped down and cleaned up. We basically got it to a state where Tamra could take all her cleaning stuff home and I could finish up any odds and ends when I get back on Sunday. It was getting late in the afternoon, so I packed up some clothes for the weekend and we headed out. John, Tamra, Zach, Amanda and I had a nice dinner at Ray's the Steaks between Rosslyn and Court House and then we hung out at John and Tamra's for a bit. Now I'm at Amanda's for the weekend. She graciously offered their spare bedroom to me and I gladly accepted.

Tomorrow we're working on fixing up a run down house in Alexandria and then rest in the afternoon. I feel like I have a lot to do in my room still and that's occupying my thoughts. Amanda offered me some towels and bedsheets that I can use while I'm here. I have towels, but they're thirteen year old brown Army towels. And they gave me bed linens, but they're not fitted and not comfy. Thanks Amanda! I just need to unpack and get everything put away so that it feels like a home away from home. After that, I'll be happy. Please pray for a smooth move-in!

Sign of things to come?

I showed up at WRAMC for my 0900 appointment with my Social Worker and guess what? My SW has been out all week. I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come… When I went back to the building where all the Case Managers were, they were all gone to some ceremony. Seems to me that at least one should stay behind – they all just up and left. I checked in to see if my orders assigning me to WRAMC came in yet and they hadn’t. And my promotion orders didn’t come in either. I poked my head in the housing office to see if I could at least get my room, but that person was out too. My day was really beginning to feel like a downer. I checked into my platoon’s office and checked my email and such. I decided to look in the housing office one more time and success! I got a room assigned and went off to check it out. It is in what appears to be a recently renovated building because it sure didn’t look old. My room is on the third floor and will do nicely for a few months. I’ll have more details on the room when I move in after Friday. The only issue I have is that the last person didn’t do a very good job of cleaning it. So, before I move in I’ll be giving it a good scrub down to make it meet my standards.

When I was checking out my room, my Case Manager called me to see if I was still in the area. I was and went by the office to drop off some paperwork and found out that I have an appointment with my new Primary Care Manager (PCM) tomorrow at 1530. So, I’m going to go to my work in the morning to turn in my pager and badge, finally sign my NCOER and if the orders come in, get my E-7 pinned on (or velcro’d on) and grab some lunch. Then I’ll make my way to WRAMC for my appointment. Tomorrow night I have to gather everything up again to prepare to relocate. If you’re free and want to hang, give me a shout – I might be able to use a little help and it’d be nice to not be alone.

Allison picked me up tonight and we had dinner with a bunch of friends who live together from the church. They really did a great job of cooking! They do it every Wednesday night, so I might make this a regular thing. Thanks to all of you at the community house for dinner! And thanks to Kezia for the ride home. Another long day tomorrow – off to bed with me. BTW: I am feeling much better on my meds. I think the extra rest I’ve gotten over the past few days has helped, but my tummy is still a little uncomfortable. That should pass in time though… I hope!

MRI Results

I slept good last night. I went to Bethesda NNMC today for my EEG, but didn’t get a chance to talk to my Neurologist – he asked me to call him tomorrow for the results. I did sit down with my Oncologist and we looked at the MRI pictures. Everything looks stable and there is no new growth at this time. Yippee!!! It’s late so I’m making this a short one. I have a few appointments at WRAMC tomorrow, so I need to get to bed.

Is Today Only Monday?

I'm really tired, so I'm going to be short and to the point today. My commute to WRAMC this morning went fine. I found the building I was supposed to report to and the office too. I met with the LTC and she got me moving in the right direction. I met with at least ten other people in various departments. I got a meal card so that I can eat in the Dining Facility (DFAC) for free; was assigned a Social Worker that I'll meet this Wed; a Case Manager, whom I met today; the people in the Reserve Liaison office, who will cut my new orders; the housing guy, who will give me a key to a one man room in building 14 (not the famous 18) on Wed; the Chaplain; the personnel folks in S-1, who take care of the paperwork; and my new command structure, as I have been assigned to 5th Platoon of the Medical Holdover Company. They tell me that my orders assigning me to WRAMC will start 28 April 2007. My current orders end 27 April 2007. This means that I will move out of this apartment in Rosslyn, Arlington, VA on Friday and move into the housing on WRAMC in DC. If you want to write me, you may do so after this weekend at the following address:

SSG Mommaerts, Roger J. Jr.
WRAMC, MHO 5th Plt
6900 Georgia Ave
Washington, DC 20307-0001

My cell phone number and email address will remain the same. I’ll really begin in-processing to WRAMC next week and visit with many more people. They tell me that I’ll be here anywhere from 90-150 days. Right now I understand that they have only two formations per week where everyone assigned must show up to make sure everyone is here: Mon and Fri at 0830. Tue-Thu we just call in to let them know we’re still alive. Weekends we’re free to do whatever we want as long as we don’t leave a 50 mile radius. If we do, we can get a pass or take leave if we’re eligible. I’m sure that those that are in good health will be assigned some kinds of tasks every once in a while, and that’s okay. For now, that’s about all I know about WRAMC. I spent pretty much the whole day there, from 0800 to 1545. And it was a warm one today too. And the AC isn’t on yet… because it’s not the right time of year. That is so government, right?

I talked to my Oncologist today and he said the MRI looks good. I’m going to meet with him tomorrow after he talks to the radiologist and after my EEG. I’ll give you the skinny on that tomorrow.

So, these new meds I started taking on Friday… they give me no less than a few side effects which include but are not limited to: headaches, fatigue (I feel tired ALL day), slight chills, stomach ache, twitches, my right leg feels very tired at the end of the day, trouble waking in the morning (BIG trouble), pressure up my spine and on my shoulders, and last but not least, it’s messing with my emotions. I had a major breakdown today. I’m not afraid to admit it. I was blubbering like a baby, but didn’t really know why. I guess it felt good to get it out, but I guess I wasn’t exactly sure why I was crying. I don’t feel very good on this medication right now and I hate being alone. I was and maybe that contributed to it too. Well, my good friend Kezia called me just at the right time and saved the day. She swooped in and picked me up. We went to dinner and then hung with friends Chris and Jumoke. I feel a lot better tonight and hope this doesn’t happen again soon. There is so much going on right now and I suppose I just needed a release. And with these meds in my system, they came out this way. I have that EEG tomorrow and will voice these concerns to my Neurologist – we’ll see what he thinks. Also, I understand that my promotion is in the works and the orders for that should be cut by the end of the week. Yay!!

All Day at the Hospital, New Meds

Today was a pretty stress free and straight forward day. I got up, headed to Bethesda NNMC on the metro and saw my Oncologist for my 1130 appointment. It was a fairly easy visit. He had a resident there learning today so I got the help teach strength, balance and memory testing. They do this every few visits just to gauge my level and see if there any differences from last time. I think my strength gets better each time, but the memory stuff stays the same. I'm not getting any younger!

After that, I grabbed a quick bite and then headed to my Neurology appointment. We discussed my last seizure and also talked about the strange twitches going on around my right big toe and the side of my foot. For about two months before the seizure, the activity was so pronounced that I would lay in bed and could feel it. Sometimes it would keep me awake for a while. Then, after I had the seizure, they seem to have slowed down quite a bit. He was interested by this and seemed fairly certain that these were, in fact, tiny focal seizures occurring throughout the day. I thought it was just my brain confused and healing doing that, but that is basically a type of seizure, I guess.

We did more strength testing and he also seemed satisfied with my improvement, but wanted to control the seizures. I am at the maximum dosage for Keppra at 2,000mg per day. He also told me that Keppra is good at controlling generalized seizures, but not so good at focal seizures. I tend to have focal seizures that progress to a generalized seizure. So, he waded through the list of additional medications that he could add and finally ended up at one called Tegretol. I’ll be taking 400mg per day to start. I took my first 200mg tonight and feel okay – a little drowsy – which is a side effect. He said that it also might make my stomach feel upset for the first few days, but it should pass. It’s feeling pretty good so far. The only issue with the Tegretol is that it can increase liver enzymes, so he’ll need to draw levels to make sure that I’m getting enough of the medication into my system and that my liver enzymes don’t increase to a dangerous level. He also wants to do an EEG on Tuesday, just to see what kind of activity by brain is creating. He mentioned that there may be some scar tissue or something else in my brain that is irritating it and causing these seizures. It is apparent that something in the part of my brain that controls my right foot around my big toe is irritated. He said that if I was interested, they might be able to pinpoint it in time, and possibly go back in to remove the irritation. Hmm… we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. He was also happy that I had an MRI scheduled for later in the afternoon and would use the data from the EEG and MRI to compile the NARSUM for my MEB. He said that he’d have a better idea of what to include in the NARSUM, but was not going to do it until I was stable. That means that next week, WRAMC will only transfer me into their system, I’ll have to move there and then will have ongoing appointments until the doctors think my condition is stable enough to begin the board process. In addition, my doctors don’t want to see me moved to a different location – they would prefer that I stay close to them for my care during the MEB process. My Neurologist said, “Why start you over again with a new doctor? That’s just stupid.” I agree. I hope WRAMC agrees.

After the visit with him, I went down to MRI, and after a short delay due to an emergency MRI, I had my time in the machine and actually fell asleep inside the magnet again. I didn’t have a chance to get a CD of the images because it was after 1800 when I finished, but my Oncologist is going to call me Saturday morning with the results. I’ll pick up a CD on Tuesday when I’m there for the EEG and will try to share them with you.

After the MRI, I high tailed it back to Clarendon and joined up with Amanda, Buddy, Ryan, Zach (John’s brother) and Tamra for dinner to celebrate Tamra’s getting out the Army. We went to The Cheesecake Factory and ate a lot of food and of course, dessert too. Buddy and Amanda gave me a ride home and hung out for a while with me. All in all – another good day. I’m looking forward to a weekend of rest and beautiful weather here in DC. I’ll let you know what my Oncologist says about the scan results tomorrow.

More Successes Today, MRI Tomorrow

Today Tamra and I did the whole military hurry up and wait thing. She picked me up at 0700 and we headed down to Fort Belvoir, stopping at a Dunkin’ Donuts for breakfast. We got to the clinic at 0730, checked in and then we waited… they called me back to take my vitals at 0800 and I went to another waiting room with Tamra. And there we sat… and sat… and sat. I’m not kidding. We sat there for hours and finally near 1130 they called me back to see a doctor. They only had two doctors working, and so many people showed up to in and out-process, that they had to fit us in between other patients. The doctor that saw me questioned how I was going about the process. I told him about the plethora of people that I have talked to about how to go about this and he still seemed confused. He finally gave in and did what he had to do; he approved my permanent profile and gave me a form 14 that I’ll take to WRAMC. Then he said he needed to call someone at WRAMC, a LTC. It turned out to be the same LTC that told me to go this route to begin with! So, everything has come full circle. He didn’t reach her but sent me on my way a little after 1230.

I didn’t get a call from work either about my NCOER, so I didn’t have to stop there. I had a nice early day and got a chance to take a nap. I did call the LTC at WRAMC and also had to leave her a message. She called me back this evening and said that I needed to come in as soon as I could. But tomorrow I have appointments with my Oncologist, Neurologist and I have an MRI, all at Bethesda NNMC, throughout the day. I told her the soonest I could be there would be Monday morning, so I have a 0800 appointment. She said that she looked up my record and noticed that my home of record (HOR) is Austin, TX; she suggested starting me at WRAMC and moving me to Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in San Antonio, TX to finish up. It was loud where I was and couldn’t really have a discussion so I just said I understood and told her I’d call back tomorrow with more questions. We’d really like to do the MEB here in DC because of several reasons:

• -My doctors are all here
• -I have lots of friends and support here
• -I have a supportive church here
• -I can’t drive and could get around well on the Metro
• -Holly can come to DC to work and see me too (maybe)
• -I might have another minor procedure to improve my incision next week (4/27)
• -I think the care would be far superior

So, I have my reasons. But ultimately, it is going to be what the Army wants. But, my prayer about not wanting to move before this weekend has been answered – it will for sure be sometime next week. I have that MRI tomorrow, so please pray that the tumor has not come back and that I’m still healing up there. I think I am. Tomorrow evening we’re having a little celebration dinner for Tamra. Today was her last day in uniform in the Army. Now’s she’s on terminal leave until July (I think.) If you're interested in joining us, let me know. Tamra, you’ve been a real life saver and great friend this week. Holly and I thank you and John so much for supporting us through everything. We love you guys.

Easy Day Today, Unknown In Store Tomorrow

Not a whole lot to report today. I had a hard time going to sleep again last night. This morning I spent a good amount of time trying to figure out where my evaluation was. Even though my NCOER was reportedly signed by everyone except for me, there must have been some kind of change or it got lost, because the completed NCOER is apparently now on somebody’s desk to be reviewed... again. Soooo…. when the powers that be finish reviewing it, everyone will sign it - and someone is supposed to call or page me to let me know that I can come by to sign it.

With that all figured out, I was finally able to call Tamra to pick me up and we made our way back down to Fort Belvoir. I made it through every step of the medical checklist except for the review with the doctor. They only do these out-processing reviews Mon thru Wed and Fri from 1300-1400 and Thu from 0700-0830. Well, tomorrow is Thu – so guess what that means? By bootie has to get up extra early because Tamra will be here at 0700 to pick me up. Tamra has to be at WRAMC in the afternoon, so we are hoping that we can finish up at Fort Belvoir pretty early and then make our way to WRAMC where I expect I’ll need to go next to continue the process. I really don’t know what’s going to happen when I talk to the doctor. I know that they’re going to see that I need to be put on medical hold, but I have no idea how they’re going to do it. I’ll have all the details on how that goes tomorrow. And hopefully my work calls to say that my NCOER is ready to be signed, so that we can stop there on the way to WRAMC and finally cross that off the list.

After getting back to the apartment, I had to tend to some more emails and also worked on a paperwork issue related to my pending promotion. I’m hoping that I’ll be promoted soon! I went to a farewell this evening for dear friend Erika, who is going to San Antonio for a few months for some military training. She’s a good friend of mine and Holly’s, so she and Holly might get together since she’ll only be about 80 miles away. In fact, she’s going to a school at a location that I’ve been to – so I know for sure it is a quick drive.

Okay – I’m heading off to bed now. I need to get up around 0530. Goodnight.

300 and minor victories

This blog is our 300th! Holly and I started this thing up when I first mobilized to DC in May 2004. We’re at almost exactly three years so it would appear that we average 100 posts per year... interesting statistic. Or not. :-P

Okay, so today… what did I get done today? Well, before I even get there, let me tell you that I tossed and turned until about 3am. My mind races through all the things that I need to get done in the next few days, ways to get them done quicker, and the ever present thought of having a seizure while alone always haunts me. I don’t know why I am afraid of it. But sometimes it terrifies me. The two times I was conscious for the start of them, they were agonizing and I remember them well. I think back to how horrible and scary it feels and just don’t want to have it happen to me while I’m alone. It’s nice when Holly is there, as she was every time, to tell me its going to be okay. But eventually it is going to happen when I’m alone or in public around strangers. I just need to keep praying that the Lord will ease my fears. Join me, will you? This is a toughie for me.

Alright, back to today. Since I didn’t get to sleep until late, I woke up later. I finally got to the Pentagon around 10am and went to the medical clinic. I went to the desk and told the nice lady that I was out-processing and needed to retrieve my records. She went to the back and brought them out. If you take a look at item number one on my list from yesterday, you’ll remember that I needed to get my profile paperwork. As soon as the lady handed me my records, I cracked it open to see if the profile was in there. Nada. I then explained to her that I called right before I went on leave about this and that someone changed it in the computer and that the paperwork must be somewhere. She looked in her computer and saw that I did call about it. I found an old temporary profile and handed it to her and told her that I just needed a new updated one that is permanent like in the computer. She took it to the back to a nurse to see if the doctor could fill it out. While she was gone, I stood at the counter, bowed my head, and just prayed that the good Lord would intervene and just get it signed today somehow. She was gone a while and I sat down. After a few minutes, the nurse came back and said that the doctor needed to see me to fill it out and that there were no more appointments today. The lady at the front desk said that I would have to call back at 6am the next morning to make an appointment with my doctor so that she could do it. This didn’t sound acceptable to me. First of all, my doctor knows what’s going on with me and could have the form filled out in five minutes. Second, I already called over a month ago and asked the doctor to take care of this – and someone did because it changed in the computer. I really had a problem with having to do extra legwork to get something signed that should have been signed a month ago.

I expressed these concerns to the lady at the front desk and she was willing to hear me out. I’m trying to get a lot done and can’t get around easily and they wanted me to go the extra mile to get something done that should have already been done. Are you getting me? Finally, I told her that first and foremost, I am a soldier, and I will obey an order; and if the commander of the clinic tells me to go home and come back tomorrow, I will obey that order without another word. But if there was anything that we could do to get the form signed today, I would do it. Silence. She told me to have a seat and she disappeared. When she returned, she said that the nurse of the day would see me shortly.

After another wait, the nurse, an Army Captain, called me into their office. I again explained my dilemma to the CPT and she listened to me. The CPT told me that they would be able to help me out, but it would not be immediately. It was nearing noon. My doctor would have an opening at 1340 that day where the paperwork might be taken care of. I made a quick call to Tamra, who was supposed to drive me around, but wasn’t able to get a hold of her. I decided this was an answer to my prayer so I decided that I better take the CPT up on the offer, even though it meant that I wouldn’t get out of the Pentagon until near 3pm. The CPT made the appointment and I was off to find lunch. It worked out great because I needed to drop off a set of keys anyway at the office I worked at for a while. They were happy to see me again and let me use a workstation to check my email, make a few phone calls and eat my lunch.

I made it back to the clinic by 1330 and was called back to see the doctor. The doctor finally came in at around 1350. I brought the doctor up to speed and in less than five minutes the form was done and in my hands, and I was out the door. Four hours of work to see a doctor for five minutes to get a form filled out. Can you believe it? Now we can cross number one off the list! A big thanks to the nice lady at the desk who was willing to do what she could to get me what I needed today. I was sure to fill out a comment card commending her actions and dropped it in the comment box.

On to number two: I called Tamra and she picked me up at the Pentagon City Metro station. We headed down to Fort Belvoir and found our way to the out-processing building. We checked in and I had to provide copies of all my orders for the whole three years and other paperwork. I was then given a checklist of buildings that I needed to visit to get them to check items off of the list. Things like: Personnel, Finance, Medical, Dental, etc. We went upstairs to the first item on the list: personnel. When we got there, I explained to the Staff Sergeant that I was eventually going to have an MEB. Thank God I told the SSG that, because since that was the case the SSG said that we should skip everything on the list and just go right to medical. Nothing else would matter since I wasn’t really going to get out right now anyway. I just needed to get to medical so that they could see there is an issue and they could refer me to WRAMC. Boy, talk about a life saver! The SSG was very helpful, so I made sure to save their phone number for any future questions I might have. It was just after 1600 and we noticed that the first place in medical was still open, so we went there first.

We found the building after getting slightly lost and I picked up a medical packet. The packet said that pretty much all the other stations were closed, so we decided to call it a day. Tomorrow we’re going to head back down to Ft Belvoir and try to get the medical stuff completed. I also need to sign my NCOER that they couldn’t find on Monday. I’m going to call work in the morning to see if they have it handy. If they still can’t find it, I’m going to go to Belvoir first. If they do have it, I’ll go to work first thing and sign it and then head down to Belvoir.

So, I’d call today a pretty good day. I just hope that tomorrow goes smoother. After work, I made some copies of paperwork that I might need tomorrow and sent a copy of my new profile to my unit in Fort Worth as they needed a copy. Then I went to a community group of my church that meets in Kezia’s building. Kezia and Jumoke picked me up and I had a great time hanging out with everyone. I feel pretty tired today, so I’m hoping that my body gives in and I can get some decent sleep tonight. Thanks to everyone for your prayers!

Can you say confusing?

Today was my first day back at work and boy… was it a doozie! First of all, I’ve been having a hard time getting to sleep here in my new digs. The first night, Saturday, it rained all night. There is some kind of metal skirt that sticks out from the building on my floor, so guess what? I got to hear the pitter patter of drops falling off the building onto the metal skirt. I didn’t get to sleep until nearly 2am and then was woken up by jets making their approach to Reagan National Airport at 6:30am. Yes, I am a light sleeper. Last night, Sunday, the wind was howling like crazy. The northeast has been getting pummeled by this storm and it just won’t die. It sounded like things that were loose on the building were being tossed around outside.

I got to sleep around 2am again and managed to get up around 8am. I grabbed a quick bite in the store downstairs and headed off to work. I got there around 10am and was warmly greeted by everyone. My boss was happy to see me too, but apparently there were some issues with my evaluation not being turned in yet. In the Army, Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) and Officers are required to be evaluated annually. They are supposed to be done by a certain time of the year, and when things fall behind, the people up the chain get hounded for not having the evals of their people done on time. I knew this before I went on leave and completed my part of my NCO Evaluation Report (NCOER.) Well, I guess we are cutting it too close for comfort since everyone from my unit in Fort Worth to the people at work want to know where it is.

The first thing I did was track down the guy that I knew could tell me where it was. I found him and was told to talk to another person higher up. That person knew that it was missing but didn’t know where it was either. Basically, all the people that needed to sign it had already signed it and they were just waiting for my signature. But now the eval was no where to be found. This person said they would talk to another person and see if they can track it down and that I should check back later. I checked back later and the person was gone. There was some kind of sewer leakage that blocked one of the entrances on and off base today, so they let people that lived far away go home early. I guess that person left? I stayed to get my work done… I won’t be at the office tomorrow, so I hope they find it so that I can sign it on Wednesday. My boss wondered why they just could not print out a new one and have everyone sign it again… I have no idea.

Speaking of work, I made quite a few phone calls regarding the Medical Evaluation Board (MEB) process that I am about to begin. The issue is… I have no idea how I’m supposed to initiate it! I think I know the problem though… normally a soldier doesn’t have to initiate it – it begins when they get hurt and then they get worked through the system. My issue is that because I have been having all my treatments done at the Navy hospital, the Army hospital has no idea what’s up with me. They don’t know I need an MEB! At first I thought I was supposed to begin out-processing from my office, and also take the paperwork that I do have to Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) and that would start the process. But when I ran this by my Reserve Management Office (RMO), they said that I should probably not do that quite yet. Instead, I should call WRAMC and the office that does the out-processing and see what they say.

I followed their instructions and called WRAMC. I explained my dilemma to someone there and they told me that they would have to speak to someone above them to see what needed to be done. To my surprise, a few minutes later they paged me and I called back. They had a list of things that needed to be done and paperwork that I needed to gather in order for everything to go smoothly. A plan! It sounded good to me, so I took notes and hung up. One of the items on the list required that I ask the out-processing office a few questions too. I called them up and they had a similar, but slightly different plan. They urged me to call a different person at WRAMC, but to come to them to begin out-processing immediately! I called the person they suggested I call and they were very helpful. They told me basically the same things the first person at WRAMC told me with a few slight changes. I called the first person back and left a message with them explaining that I had spoken to the out-processing people and this other person at WRAMC and that the plans were slightly different – I expect a call back from them tomorrow.

Okay, so all these details, right? Here’s what it comes down to:

1. When you can’t physically perform your duties in the military because of an injury or disability, they put you on what is called a profile. They have temporary and permanent profiles. I have been on a temporary profile since the surgery, but my main doctor recently put me on a permanent profile because you have to have one to start the MEB process. First thing tomorrow, I have to make the trek to my medical clinic in the Pentagon to get a copy of that P3 profile. Simple enough, right? We’ll see.
2. I need to begin the out-processing process which has to be done at Fort Belvoir, which is about 30 miles south of DC. I can’t drive, so our good friend Tamra, who is also in the Army and happens to work at WRAMC, is going to give me a ride. There, I’ll begin the process, but when I get to medical, they’ll see my past history and things will screech to a halt. They will immediately refer me to WRAMC for an MEB. Then we’ll drive to WRAMC and I’ll meet with some of the people that I spoke with on the phone today. And it all works out perfectly because Tamra needs to take care of some business there tomorrow too! I’m not sure of what all will happen when I get there – I’m kinda flying by the seat of my pants on this one.
3. I need a Narrative Summary (NARSUM) from my doctors explaining what happened to me and what conditions I have now. I have appointments with my Neurologist and Oncologist on Friday to knock this one out of the way. BTW, I also have a follow-up MRI Friday afternoon to see how things look up there. Pray that everything is still getting better for me, okay?
4. Since this happened to me while I was on Active Duty, it is considered a Line of Duty injury (LOD). Apparently there was supposed to be a form filled out quite some time ago (a DA2173 to be exact,) it was never done, so the folks at WRAMC will take care of that for me.

Wow! So those are the major things at this time that I know of. In addition, I was told that once I go to WRAMC and they begin the process, they will put in a request to the Army to cut a new set of orders assigning me to the Medical Holdover Company at WRAMC. The Army will then have 72 hours to cut the orders. Whatever date the orders say I am assigned to WRAMC is the date that I have to move out of this temporary apartment and into the housing at WRAMC. My current orders expire on April 27 – I’m sure they will be done by then. In fact, if I go there tomorrow, they might be cut by this Friday. I was kind of hoping to spend one more weekend in this apartment close to everyone I know, but I might have to move before then. Or, they might cut the orders by Friday, but the effective date won’t be until sometime next week. That would be preferable since I have medical appointments pretty much all day Friday and it would suck to move over the weekend. So, let’s pray that I am told to move next week too.

Confusing? We’re just getting started. Tomorrow should be a fun filled day of running around and being told different information. I pray that it goes well. I know I’ve probably given you way too much information, but I wanted to tell you everything and it also gives me a way to put it on “paper” to make sure that even I have it right. I’ll update you tomorrow evening. And if you have questions for me, please leave a comment and I’ll answer them. Now it’s close to midnight again and I’m still up. So, I’m posting this and going to bed.