Email update from Dad sent 1/20/2010

So, it’s January 20th, exactly two weeks since we arrived at Michael’s bedside in Washington, DC. Fourteen days ago, we stood beside his bed in the Intensive Care Unit watching him breath and wondering what was left of the boy that went to war. Right now we are waiting for Michael to get out of surgery for additional work on his jaw, his nose, and his eyes. We’ve been able to talk to him, walk with him, laugh with him and cry with him. He’s still Michael and we’re grateful for that but he’s no longer a boy. He’s a man now and he’s my hero. He has knocked John Wayne out of the top spot. He didn’t sleep well last night so he wasn’t very talkative this morning. He’ll be even less so when he gets done today. I’m sitting here wondering what might have been the crisis of the day if January 3rd hadn’t happened the way it did. I believe my perspective has been altered for life. Things that used to seem so important have far less significance now.


This hospital is becoming too familiar. It’s a big square building with at least seven floors. So far we’ve spent a great deal of time on floors three, four, and five. We enter on floor one where there is the lobby, the administrative offices, a Subway sandwich store, a Dunkin Doughnut shop and the biggest pharmacy I’ve ever seen. There’s more action there than at a K Mart with a blue light special on. We come through there every day and go straight to the elevators to Michael’s floor. We’ve started stopping at an earlier floor and taking the stairs to get our blood pumping. There are four levels in the stairs between floors with a total of 28 stairs between each floor. Roxann thinks I’m a weirdo for counting the stairs. Maybe I am but its something I’ve always done (there are 13 steps into my mom’s basement). Michael’s room is on the fifth floor. There is also a “family room” where we can check emails and such. Because this is a government building with federal rules for internet use, we’re limited in what we can get to. We can’t do any Facebook and anything with a live website link or embedded video is locked out. Also, if we want to print we need to go to the Family Assistance Center on the third floor and sign in to use their computer and printer. The laundry room is on the sixth floor but we have to go to the Red Cross office on the third floor to get the laundry detergent. The cafeteria is also on the third floor near the barber shop, the snack bar, and the little convenience store. For those times when we’re burnt out on salad and the daily choice of chicken surprise, there’s a tunnel in the basement to building one where there’s a Burger King. There’s also a Post Office there but we haven’t used it. I don’t know where building one is on the surface because I have no sense of direction here (there’s no mountain to orient myself with). Every floor looks exactly the same where the elevators and stairs dump out. More than once I started down the hall only to realize I’m going the wrong way or I’m on the wrong level and I have to backtrack (at 28 stairs a trip, it’s adding up!). That’s it for now, I’ll send more when he gets done.



Dad