Conversation with Doctor...Finally

10/15/2006 sunday
I had asked to speak to rodney's dr. and telephone meeting was set up-because of the time difference it was for 12:30 am on the 15th-I was so ready to hear from the dr. I was willing to set it for anytime. A Dr. Marco from Landstuhl army Hospital called and this is what he said.

1.)Mortar wounds to chest and legs-shrapnel will stay in becasue it would cause more damage to try and remove (knew all this except it was the first time I had heard the word "MORTAR"-I didn't know hardly anything about what had actually happened.

2.)Be transported to Walter Reed on Tuesday

3.)Rodney had had abdominal surgery as an exporatory measure-so huge scar on stomach from below chest around belly button and ending below that. Closed with staples. Not sure if surgery was done in Mosul or Balad Iraq? (1st time I had heard this also)

4.)Coughing a great deal and most likely developing Pnemonia-they put him on antibiotics. The dr. spoke of the difficulty of removing him from the respirator-his blood ox levels kept dropping and at one point thought they might have to put him back on it,. but they were now giving him breathing treatments and taking regular chest xrays.

5.) stated he was waking up more, but they were having a hard time keeping him awake and seemed to be really confused. He was really fighting them and wouldn't leave in IV or oxygen. Dr. mentioned he might have had a concussion from the blast and would contribute to his behavior. I shared with him that Rodney had history of having a difficult time coming out of sedation. There was no mention of a head CT scan.

6. Stated he shouldn't have lasting effects from his lung injuries.
7. explained to me how deep the soft tissue leg wounds were-I was surprised how deep he described them since I had no idea how deep they were. The earlier information made it sound as they were nothing.
8. Stated he had a cracked bone in chest are-I believe he said sternum-but will heal on its own.
The Dr. and I had a good discussion-I felt like I now had more of a picture of Rod's condition. I did share with the dr. some of Rodney's health history (allergies, asthma etc..) so I felt I was helping to get him the best health care-from clear across the world I could. I still felt like someone needed to be there with him-he had to be so confused and scared.
(This is one of the things that needs to change and I believe it is to some point with the system-the wounded need someone to advocate for them and they need family around as soon as possible for many reasons.)

until next time- (more on sunday the 15th)
T-