Marine Corps Birthday Ball!

A lot has happened the last few days and I promise to blog all about it tomorrow! (I am so tired from the past few days) For now I wanted to at least post the pictures from the Ball last night. We had an absolute wonderful time. Justin looked so handsome in his dress blues. My mom and I were so honored to be his dates at the ball!

Enjoy the photos and will blog all about the progress Justin has made the last few days tomorrow!

Leaving the hospital and heading to the Ball!

Murphy and Justin

Left to right: Megan (Mike's date), me, Shelby (Murphy's girlfriend), and Anne (Marine sister)

Mary (Mikes mom) and Mom

Family picture minus dad

Mike and Justin (Justin enjoying his first beer since before deployment and yes he received permission that he could have one)

Moms and Sons

Shelby and Murphy

Megan and Mike

With Julie our Marine liaison! 

With our outpatient section leader when we make it to outpatient! 

Mike and I! 

Leaps and Bounds of Progress!

Time is just flying by over here at Bethesda! I can't believe its already November and the weather is starting to show it. Expect today it was nice and sunny here and wasn't very cold. Well here is the last few days recap!

Sunday: Mom, Auntie Linda, and myself all volunteered at the Marine Corp Marathon. It was a great experience in so many ways. First we rode the metro at 5:30 am to Virginia to the Iwo-Jima memorial where we met our group. Then we escorted the hand cyclists to the starting line and hung out to watch the beginning of the race. (By the way it was freezing that morning since it snowed the day before, but thankfully it was an absolute beautiful day with the sun shining)! Drew Carey who is a retired Marine sounded off the race with the gun shot and he also ran the marathon! After watching the beginning of the marathon we went back to help set up for after the race. Then we spent time cheering on everyone at the finish line who ran the 10k, the hand cyclists, and the marathon runners! It was so amazing to see so many people participating. Many of the hand cyclists were double and single amputees who used there upper body to ride 26.2 miles. It was also amazing to see double and single amputees running the marathon! Justin spent the day with my dad, Uncle Jeff, and Cody. They hung out until we got back in the early afternoon. Justin had a good day, but spent Sunday resting up for the rest of the week. 

One of the double amputee wounded warriors injured in June participated in the skydiving ceremony!  

Early morning and it was cold! 

Drew was freezing standing up there

The Commandant General Amos and his wife! (He was actually pointing and waving to my mom!)

Marathon winner! (Ironic an Army guy won the Marine Corp Marathon) 

Monday: We had a good Halloween! People came by and dropped off candy to Justin and the wounded warriors. Justin went to pick up his Dress Blues from the tailor and dropped them off at the dry cleaners. He also went to therapy and this was the last day of inpatient physical and occupational therapy. Mom and I finished getting all of our dresses and shoes for the ball on friday. It was a nice morning hanging out with the family since this was the last day they were all in town. 

Tuesday: This was Justin's first day down at the MATC (main physical therapy gym). Justin is getting so much stronger and is able to transfer to and from his wheelchair a lot easier now. The skin grafts are coming along, but still are painful when he moves certain ways. His hands are coming along too, especially the left one. There are still pins sticking out, but his range of motion is increasing and pain is decreasing. We are so proud of all his progress! Now we just need his appetite to increase, and the more therapy he does the hungrier he is getting. We also talked to the prosthetists (prosthetic team) and they think his left leg may be ready to start molding for a prosthetic in a couple weeks. We are just waiting for the donor site from the skin graft to heal. The right may take a little longer because the skin graft needs to completely heal. I know this was very encouraging news for Justin! They initially start the guys on "shortys" which means its just a foot attached to the stump. As they get stronger they add length and eventually knees. So hopefully by the end of the month he will possibly have one leg!!

Wednesday: Today Justin made leaps and bounds of progress! Justin had the catheter removed today and his picc line discontinued. He officially has no attachments to anything. We also found out that he may possibly be discharged to outpatient by next week. He is going to begin trial runs over the next few days to see how he does. Justin is so excited and is trying to prove he doesn't need help with anything. He wants to transfer and doing everything on his own so he can go to outpatient. We are so proud and excited that he is taking huge steps ahead and no more steps back! 

Today the Assistant Commandant and his wife came to visit. They were very nice and spent time visiting all the guys. Other great news is that I went around with one of the Marine coordinators and passed out cupcakes (made by one of the doctors wives) to Marines and their families. While I was doing this it was so nice to see only 3 Marines in the ICU/CCU and only a handful on the wounded warrior floor. (All branches of service are up on the wounded warrior floor, but there were only a handful of Marines at this time). It was so nice to see open rooms on the wounded warrior floor. When we first arrived almost all the rooms were full. (Supposedly causalities should start to slow down because winter is coming. I guess they don't like to fight in the cold.) At the same time the reality is outpatient is very full because there are so many wounded warriors. 

Justin and our family would also like to Thank Everyone who has sent letters and packages! Even to those of you we are never met! We sincerely thank you all so much. Most of all thank you for the prayers and support, it would have made this a lot harder to go through without support! So thank you so much to everyone who takes time to read this blog because you care for Justin!

Good Night from Bethesda! 

Snowing Saturday!!

Last three days of catch up because things have been so busy around here!

Wednesday: This morning Justin had his skin graft bandage changed for the first time since the graft Monday. Lets just say the dressing stuck to the open skin and in the words of Justin "my language was very colorful". He said it was so painful when they took the dressing off. They even gave him extra pain medication, but he said it didn't help. The team changed it very early that morning so only dad was with him. Fortunately, he was not in a lot of pain later that day after the wound care was completed. Justin worked with the occupational therapist in his room but did not go to physical therapy because the back of his leg was still sore from the skin graft. Wednesday was also a nice day because my aunt and uncle came to visit and are staying until Tuesday.

Thursday: Justin went down and visited the MATC gym (The main physical therapy gym). It was good for Justin to see all the guys working out and all the different stages they are in their recovery. We met with the head physical therapist and Justin was able to ask a few questions. Hopefully in a few weeks Justin will be able to start his physical therapy in the MATC. He needs to be a little bit stronger to move from inpatient therapy to the MATC. He also needs to loose all his wound vacs. He is getting there, but having the skin grafts this week set back his therapy progress, but at the same time helped to close everything up and help him move forward.

Justin also went to be fitted for his dress blues uniform for the ball next Friday! We are excited to be able to go with him, and so thankfully he is healthy enough to attend. The Commandant, his wife, and Sergeant Major came to visit today! Justin was finally awake to meet him. Last time he came to visit Justin he was in CCU and on the ventilator. They spent a long time with Justin and our family!

Friday: Justin went down to the PACU (area where patients go before and after surgery. In Justin's case he didn't have to go for surgery to have his wound vacs removed, but he needed to be sedated because its painful.) They removed the last two wound vacs from the right hand and right leg!!!! All of us are very excited, especially Justin! He feels like he is free and has no attachments. He also decided he wanted to discontinue his dilaudid IV PCA (PCA means that Justin can choose to give himself medicine if needed every 10 minutes or whatever the dose is set at). Justin decided he didn't need it anymore and wants to only take oral pain medication. He is now officially not attached to anything. He has come a long way from having multiple chest tubes, central lines, 5 wound vacs, heart leads, arterial lines, ventilators, and anything else I am forgetting. I think he is finally turning a corner in the right direction!!

His occupational therapist also made him a splint for his left hand so he can begin moving his three fingers and doing exercises on his own. This definitely give him something else to focus on during the day and also gives him control over his therapy. Another wonderful surprise that occurred today was our cousin Cody was able to visit for the weekend. Justin and Cody have not seen each other for 3 years and the last time they saw each other was boot camp. (Well Cody came to visit Justin the first week he arrived, but he doesn't remember)

Saturday: It was a nice quite day at the hospital today. There were only a couple of visitors that stopped by and we all just hung out! The guys watched a movie when we made a Target run, and we brought back lunch and all hung out. Then in the early afternoon the snow began to fall. It was really cold outside, but I guess not cold enough because the snow didn't stick to the ground. Cody and I went outside and took a picture in the snow. It was really cool for all of us to see the snow flurries out the window. Especially being from California where we never see snow unless we drive to the mountains. We were all a little jealous though that it was in the high 80s at home. Thankfully the snow has passed because Mom, Auntie Linda, and myself are heading out early tomorrow morning to the Marine Corps Marathon. We are volunteering to help and cheering on all the wounded warriors!

Well its time for me to get some sleep we have to catch the metro across the street from the hospital bright and early in the morning!

Good Night from Bethesda!  

Cody and I among the snow flurries! 

Goodbye Trauma Team!

Today Justin was officially released from the trauma team service and is now on the PM&R team (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation). This is great news and it means he is stable enough and can focus on therapy and working towards getting to outpatient (which is probably a still a few months away). Thankfully today Justin wasn't in a lot of pain from the skin grafts, and was actually refusing pain meds. He is working with the doctors because he wants to get off more and more medicine. 

Justin did not go to physical therapy today because his legs/hips are all wrapped up from the surgery yesterday. The occupational therapist did come by and work with his hands! He is making tremendous progress with his hands, especially the right! He is becoming more and more independent. He was also told today if he is feeling up to it he can go to the Marine Corp ball next Friday night Nov. 4th! They ordered his uniforms and mom and I are getting his medals/ribbons tomorrow. The whole family is invited to go and we decided if he wants to go then we will go with him. We will just see what next week holds. We may just go for dinner and come back if thats all he can take. 

Everything else is going great, Justin slept most of the afternoon. I think he was recovering from surgery yesterday. Justin decided he wanted pizza for dinner so we ordered it and hung out in his room watching TV. Overall, today was a great day and thankfully not eventful. It is nice to finally have a quite days, and to finally get off the emotional roller coaster we were riding for almost two months. Today marked exactly 8 weeks that Justin has been here and tomorrow will mark 8 weeks for us. I can't believe in two months how much has changed. We are so blessed and thankful that Justin is here with us alive and making the tremendous progress he is making. There were too many times we were just hoping and praying to make it to the next day. We can finally say we are taking big steps in the right direction!! 

We pray everyone has a wonderful week! Tomorrow Auntie Linda and Uncle Jeff will be in to visit! I know they are looking forward to seeing Justin and vice versa. Auntie Linda came out here the first weekend we arrived in Bethesda. So I know she is very excited to be able to talk to him and see him. 

More good news from Bethesda, Justin's friend Hueston moved to outpatient today! We are excited for him, and all the progress he has made. Mike had his 22 surgery today and had 4 pins removed from his left arm. Everything went well for him! Thankfully all the guys are moving in the right direction and getting stronger daily. 

Good Night from Bethesda!!  

3 day catch up!

We had a wonderful weekend here in Bethesda and the weather was nice!

First off as a family we really want to thank EVERYONE that participated in any way to Justin's Fundraiser on Saturday! A huge THANK YOU to our neighbors John and Donna Vallejo for putting the event together. Also thank you to our family members Auntie Ann, Auntie Robbie, Chris and Uncle Hal for representing our family. Thank you to the City of Rancho Cucamonga including the Mayor for attending and especially to Legends Burgers for allowing the event to be hosted there. We really can't thank everyone enough for everything you all have done for us. Justin has repeatedly told us to thank everyone for him. Like I have said in the past thank you doesn't do justice for how grateful we are.

To recap the last few days:

Saturday: We had a BBQ/Lunch get together with the guys from Justin's unit and their families. This was Justin's first "day pass" to leave the hospital. We stayed on base and had lunch at "The Fisher House" (Fisher House is multiple large houses on base which are similar to a bed and breakfast that house military families visiting the base or in this case staying at the hospital). We spent a couple hours hanging out and eating really good BBQ food! It was a really nice day until we decided to head back and Justin's wheelchair for some reason got stuck in "turtle mode" (literally it had a picture of a turtle instead of a jackrabbit on the screen). My dad and I tried to push it manually, but its really heavy since its an electric wheelchair. So he very slowly (and I mean verrrrrrryyyyyy slowly) crawled back to the hospital until finally dad and Justin fixed it. Thankfully it was right before we climbed up this hill. It was really not funny but dad and I had a good laugh because we were all so frustrated trying to fix it. Justin was just mad and frustrated. Thankfully it is fixed and we figured out the problem. Justin did excellent outside, but he was just very tired and sore from sitting up. It takes a lot out of him to get him ready and transfer into his chair. He isn't strong enough yet to even sit up on his own without help. Continuing with therapy will help build up his strength and core. That night Justin and I hung out and watched the movie Limitless together. He was worn out from the day because the next thing I heard was snoring so I finished the movie while he slept.

Pictured from Left to right: Mike Nicholson, Murphy Hueston, Justin and Travis Green

Sunday: We had another good day yesterday. One of the sergeants wives and her cousin came up to visit. They were so sweet and brought all the guys very nice plants/flowers and cards and stuff to make a Welcome Home Banner. Justin couldn't leave his hospital room and was still worn out from the day before to help. So the rest of us all went back to Mike's room (since he has a two-bedroom apt) on the base because he is in outpatient. It was a lot fun to hang out with the guys and their family members and work on the banner for Echo. After we made it we brought it back for Justin to sign!

Monday: Today Justin had his hopefully LAST MAJOR surgery!! He had skin grafts done on his right hand and right leg. Everything went well and he was feeling good tonight (thank goodness for pain meds). He is probably going to be in more pain tomorrow, but the surgery meds and block they gave him in his leg helped control his pain tonight. We are hoping by either Friday or Monday to loose all the wound vacs. He is finally all closed up and now all the healing can begin. He still has some pins sticking out of his left hand and internal pins that will eventually come out. (but its not a major surgery) Justin was in a good mood tonight and we watched TV and hung out as a family. Its really nice to go back to having family dinners together again. Even if it entails sitting in a hospital room, at least we are all together. We normally all eat dinner with Justin in his room and its really nice that he can now eat whatever he wants.

Only big plans for this week is to control the pain from the skin grafts especially at the donor site where they took the graft from. Hopefully loose the wound vacs and continue with therapy and of course stay healthy! Our Auntie Linda and Uncle Jeff will becoming in on Wednesday and spending the week with us, so we are excited to see them.

Please continue to pray for Echo as they finish up deployment and for all the men and women serving. Please pray for any military men and women and their families that may be joining us here at Bethesda this week. Also for the families of those who passed away this weekend from the war, especially a fellow Marine from San Diego.

Have a blessed and wonderful day tomorrow!

Addition to last post!

I forgot to include this in the last post...

On Wednesday we attended a lunch BBQ hosted by a Marine organization. They had amazing food including some delicious steaks. At the BBQ we had the privilege to meet and hear US Marine Mike Corrado sing this song live. I wanted to share this video with everyone! I have personally seen sone of these guys featured in the video around the hospital. These are true heroes "Still in the Fight".

Enjoy!


http://youtu.be/of7dGa91uO8

This is Mike Website if anyone would like to hear more of his songs. http://www.mikecorrado.com/

Good Night!

Fall Weather Friday!!

Sorry I haven't blogged the last two days. The days have flown by and when I got back to my room I was exhausted. So to recap the last few days!

Wednesday: Justin went in for dressing changes and wound vac changes. Everything is coming along nicely! We are scheduled for skin grafts on Monday! This should hopefully be the last major surgery. Justin was in a good mood and enjoyed playing on his new Ipad given to him by the Semper Fi organization! He also received a very generous gift of Itunes in the mail from a fellow marine family! I am pretty sure he will not have to buy anything on Itunes for a long time! Thank you so much to the whole family who sent the gift! Wednesday night Justin and I hung out watching Zookeeper and eating popcorn (okay I was the only one eating popcorn). We had a good time hanging out and laughing. Dad went to "Guys night out" and he had a good time! They went to Dave and Busters and they had fun playing games and "drinking free beer". Overall Wednesday was a great day! 

Thursday: Justin had physical therapy and after therapy he went outside for the first time since arriving at Bethesda on August 30th. He enjoyed being in the sunshine even though it was cool and windy outside. Then he cruised around the hospital! Mom and I attended a few meetings at the hospital. We are going to volunteer at the Marine Corps Marathon in DC on Sunday Oct. 30th with the wounded warriors. Justin also received a very nice package from our family friends. Thank you Maliee/Diaz family and Ana, Justin loved  everything. Thank you to another friend who sent him Netfixs. Justin is so happy with his new entertainment. Justin also received his package he ordered from Amazon. He needed new headphones, sun glasses, and hats. So last night he decided to watch Netflixs on his Ipad with his new headphones. I think he was in a happy place! 

Today: Justin went back to the OR today for bandage changes and he lost the wound vac on his left hand! We are down to only 2 wound vacs....Wahoo!!! Justin is doing well today, he is just tired from surgery. I went with Justin's friend Mike and his family to physical therapy today and he walked on both legs! It was so awesome to see him walking around. These guys are so amazing and such an inspiration. You can see their determination even if they are tired and in pain they continue to fight through and continue to work out. These guys do not give up. I can't wait until the day Justin gets up on his new legs. 

Here is a link that has different stories from injured wounded warriors.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/beyond-the-battlefield

Well mom and I are going to pick up dinner. Justin's request Arbys! I will blog again later tonight or tomorrow!

This is Justin last night!! Watching a movie on his Ipad with the new headphones!