My Son and I

Scotty Update

Ok well on to new news....Scott's scans came back clean...finally yesterday. So one big big worry off of our minds. Still a little confused about the entire thing...but I will take it. Also Scott, Mikey and I started college algebra Tuesday nite......I have decided I must be a masochist....Between school, tons of homework already, plus I am completely revamping two web sites, which means tons and tons of pictures have to be reworked, so really who thought this would be a great idea?!!!!

But Scott is enrolled for the fall semester at Benedictine College here in Atchison and would be doing rather well on his new leg if he could stop falling and tearing up the stump. He just gets in a hurry and jumps around and BOOM, falls and tears the skin or puts a blood blister on the bottom....you know, he just doesn't stop and think.....

He turned 25 May 25th, of course that was Memorial Day and he thinks his birthday should always be a 3 day holiday.....imagine that! His son Akai turned 4 May 29th, and Mike's birthday was May 27th. Quite the busy week for birthdays.....

Also they have been here working on the concrete walkways and driveways, I am telling you now these guys are awesome and when this is done we want to do something really big for them. I mean they are driving 1 1/2 hours dragging massive equipment, working Saturdays and Sundays to do all of this for free! I will have plenty of names and tons of pictures that I am going to put up when everything is finally finished.

Also we have been working to get the 3 bids for the pool deck for Scott's pool lift. And I do have video and pictures to put up of Scott getting into the pool Sunday.....OMG it is just too funny. He had such a blast, getting in and out is a bit of a chore, which is where the pool lift is going to come in handy!!! And he did manage to get burned, I told him to leave his shirt on but....... so the awning will help tons. And boy did he find out how much work it was. His calf actually cramped up on him after about 2 hours in the pool, so the therapy of being in there is going to be tremendous. The funny part was he got in and his best friend was here with him, he is a life guard, so Scott is trying to swim around and yells out "I can't swim", MB turns around to get him, then realizes he is standing and Scott can just stand up......LOL The look on his face was priceless.

Oh and we got a call the other day, I guess we are headed back to San Antonio to be in yet another documentary. You know it would be nice if when they take these to Cannes if they would pay for us to go to help promote them....hmmmm......I just don't see that happening, but damn!!!

Also I have been trying to help another mother whose son was injured in Iraq last Friday get through the initial shock and help with knowing what to expect and how to deal with the Army. They are actually headed to San Antonio too.

Oh and my book deal is off, apparently when it got to editing, they wanted me to remove the stuff about Scott's ex-wife and how she stole the money and remove quite a few things that I had already published on the blog. I told them that all of that played into where we are today and it wouldn't be a complete picture without that information. So I told them to kiss off. I will find someone else to publish it or I won't.....
Ok well I am going to try to upload the video and some pics from Scott's pool day. Take care and love all of you!

Luana

Labels: Pool

Another Article on 3/509th Charlie Co

http://www.idahostatesman.com/worldnews/v-print/story/770318.html

2 Great Articles

This first on is our Scott being a "Superstar" again and talking about issues.
http://stjoechannel.com/content/fulltext/?cid=63991

This 2nd article is on the 3/509th in Afghanistan. So cool...
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/international/Working_Toward_a_SelfSufficient_Afghanistan_One_Tylenol_at_a_Time_08280696#

GREAT ARTICLE About 3/509th

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090512/wl_mcclatchy/3231901;_ylt=Ai0aQDawl7yka4hFOP.SacZvaA8F

Update

Well here is out latest update on Scott. He is now officially retired from the Army. The military had a small ceremony on March 26th and presented him with his ARCOM....finally.He had supposedly been put up for it when he was injured, but the paperwork never went through,then when the guys returned from Iraq they put in for it again.....never went through, so his squad leader at Ft. Leavenworth put him up for it at his retirement and he received it. We have been laughing about it because part of the reason he received it was for "NOT" dying....Only in the Army!!!! So his official retirement date was March 27th, we had a party for him at home on April 18th. It was also a reveal moment for everyone who had worked to get the basement ready for him to come home. We have had so much going on in switching everything over to the VA instead of Army it has been absolutely crazy. And on top of that he got kidney stones the Monday after his retirement.So that was 10 1/2 hrs in two different ER's to have them tell us that they have no discovered2 masses. One at the end of his pancreas and one in his bladder. So we have been waiting to have another test run since the end of March!!!! Now they state they are very concerned but....they don't seem to be moving very fast to get the next test done! So me being me.....I got cd's of his ct scans and sent them off to his doctors in Texas. They are going to compare them with his last ct scans there. Although they have told me that nothing was there on their ct scans 9 (oh no wait...10) months ago! So they are concerned. But if I am going to get a second opinion (hell even a first opinion) I trust Texas more than Leavenworth VA system!!!!Scott is handling it very well. As he says he is not going to worry because if it is "C",then there is nothing he can do about it and if it is not...then why waste any time worrying about it. Well I am glad he can do that...again me being me....I worry.But all in all he is doing well. Now on to VA crap!!!I am soooo going to hate this system. They are slow and he is just another veteran to them.We are used to BAMC where he is one of the top priority cases. The good news is his Medicare and Tri-Care Prime have kicked in as of May 1st so I am thinking we may be stepping outside of the system for anymore health care. Also we had to go to Major Medical to be evaluated for the HISA Grant and so that they can approve a pool lift system to get him into the pool. Get this, they will are willing to pay between 3800.00 and 5000.00 to put in a pool lift because it is therapeutic but will not put in walkways. I start to think I can only be dumbfounded so many times and then they prove me wrong!!!!They came to the house to look the situation over as to additional concrete sidewalks and such.(Remember we live in the country)Well that was a joke....they offered to put up temporary metal walkways but then he was denied that because we don't have concrete sidewalks and the only way we can get those from the VA is to use his 1 time Home Adaptation Grant. Well I don't want to use that here, because eventually he will move out into his own home!! So hmmm imagine that....this dealing with them is going to become a nightmare. And since he has been approved we now get 2 letters a month asking if he is going to apply for the Home Adaptation Grant because they have recently decided he could possibly be eligible....huh? I have the letter saying he has already been approved...One hand does not know what the other is doing!!!!He also applied for his CRSC so hopefully that will get finalized soon. We did get his VA award letter, but are still waiting on the pay.....
Scott did get another leg with custom liner, so we are going to try walking again....keep your fingers crossed. When we were at the Major Medical appt. the Dr in charge of it the amputee Dr, he starts yelling at us because Scott has not been to an amputee clinic....well we didn't know anything about an amputee clinic and since he just got his leg the day before.....we didn't have a reason to go to amputee clinic!! But along with that he immediately starts talking about doing a revision on his stump...wait wait he didn't even look at his leg...what the hell? And on top of it NONE of these Dr's are burn Dr's! AHAHHHHHHHHH!!!! Enough bitching for now...on to video and pics.....love to all of you!

Scotty Retirement Ceremony

Scott officially retires Friday March 27th. His award and retirement ceremony is Thursday March 26th at 7:30am at Munson Army Hospital at Ft. Leavenworth, KS. Anyone and Everyone is invited. His retirement party is April 18th here at our house in Atchison, KS. Of course everyone is invited to that as well. I will be sending out more information the closer we get.
He was finally approved for the VA Specially Adapted Housing!!!!! Took our Federal Recovery Agent to get it done......but its done!!!
Ok enough for now. Things are just chugging along and thats about it!
Love to all.

Scott Update

Scott and I at YPO Fund Raiser in Hollywood CA

Again I have become somewhat horrible at updating the blog. So here is our last 3 months encapsulated. The leg and walking has not worked. His leg broke out in huge blisters so he could not really wear it at Christmas except to show it off that he had it. They made him another leg, trying to find something to make it work and he wore it for 20 minutes, when we removed it the entire bottom was filled with blood. He blew out the end of the stump. Also during this time he had face surgery again, went through the VA rating process and we were trying to get home by end of January. So.....

Face Surgery sucked.......I have attached pictures....the doctor did not listen very well to what Scott wanted done and pretty much did what he wanted to do.
The VA was being a pain and we had to get back after Christmas to try to finish up his rating process.

And we have managed to get home on terminal leave. He retires from the military on March 27th.

Since we have been home we have been trying to get him into the VA system up here, find a new prosthitis (sp) (someone who works on his leg), went to Alaska to say good-bye to his guys who left for Afghanistan and went to Hollywood to help promote a fund raising event for his new Ibot Wheelchair, oh yeah and finish the construction on the house, clean and put away all the stuff that they had packed as well as find places for all the stuff I brought back from Texas!!! Oh and my mother fell and broke both wrists at work the week before we came home. Can anyone say.....Luana needs a real vacation?!!!

We did not get home in time for him to start school so he will be joining the summer session at Benedictine College. Anyway enough for now..I will try to keep everthing going at least once a month so you all know where he is. He will need more surgeries but we are going to do them at home not in Texas anymore.

And please please everyone, these Ibot wheelchairs are an amazing thing for our wounded soldiers......they give them soo much more mobility and freedom. They are 4 wheel drive, go over curbs, up and down stairs and stand up on 2 wheels raising them to a sitting height of 6' so that they can speak to people face to face and allows them to reach up into upper cabinets. So any donations to purchase these would be a fantastic idea. You can go to the following site to donate online. Each wheelchair with discount is approximately $24,000.00. So every dollar counts towards the purchase for another wounded soldier. http://huey091foundation.org/