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pecuniumAs of now I am at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Wash.
D.C.. Sooner or later I will be allowed to leave.
My diagnosis has been confirmed (four for four on those who examined me) and I have some prognosis. I am sick. :)
Seriously, it will be some months (and actually years) before we really know just how affected I am going to be. Some 45 percent of Reiter's patients suffer from a recurrent condition, more or less chronic. Which means I am going to be seeing doctors and taking meds for the forseeable future.
I think (hope, pray) I will be sent on to Ft. Lewis (convalescent leave is not yet known) in a week or so. I have just started a new treatment and we want to look at the bloodwork on that before I get handed off to new doctors.
On the plus side, Ft. Lewis has rheumatologists, so if I get a Medical Board (to see if the Army thinks me useful enough to keep, if I am not hale enough to do as much as everyone else) I will have an expert. My case manager is hopeful, most of her Reiter's patients have not been discharged.
How the interim goes (since it will be at least the end of Sept. before a Board can reasonably be convened) is up in the air. I may be kept at Ft. Lewis, I may be temporarily retired, and then recalled for evaluation.
I have managed to take in some of the sights here, and visit with some people (Maia was in the area when I arrived, so we got to spend a few days together, when she and my father drove out from Tenn.).
I am more bored than anything else right now. The news is hard to watch, I don't have enough books, and getting around is possible, but tedious, as I have no car and the walk to the subway is sometimes too long. I am more glad to be home than not, but there are times I wish I was still over there (and that won't happen... by the time we have any idea of how I am responding to treatment, and how much remission I am going to get the rest of my unit ought to be on its way home).
All in all I am readjusting to being in non-combat zone tolerably well.
D.C.. Sooner or later I will be allowed to leave.
My diagnosis has been confirmed (four for four on those who examined me) and I have some prognosis. I am sick. :)
Seriously, it will be some months (and actually years) before we really know just how affected I am going to be. Some 45 percent of Reiter's patients suffer from a recurrent condition, more or less chronic. Which means I am going to be seeing doctors and taking meds for the forseeable future.
I think (hope, pray) I will be sent on to Ft. Lewis (convalescent leave is not yet known) in a week or so. I have just started a new treatment and we want to look at the bloodwork on that before I get handed off to new doctors.
On the plus side, Ft. Lewis has rheumatologists, so if I get a Medical Board (to see if the Army thinks me useful enough to keep, if I am not hale enough to do as much as everyone else) I will have an expert. My case manager is hopeful, most of her Reiter's patients have not been discharged.
How the interim goes (since it will be at least the end of Sept. before a Board can reasonably be convened) is up in the air. I may be kept at Ft. Lewis, I may be temporarily retired, and then recalled for evaluation.
I have managed to take in some of the sights here, and visit with some people (Maia was in the area when I arrived, so we got to spend a few days together, when she and my father drove out from Tenn.).
I am more bored than anything else right now. The news is hard to watch, I don't have enough books, and getting around is possible, but tedious, as I have no car and the walk to the subway is sometimes too long. I am more glad to be home than not, but there are times I wish I was still over there (and that won't happen... by the time we have any idea of how I am responding to treatment, and how much remission I am going to get the rest of my unit ought to be on its way home).
All in all I am readjusting to being in non-combat zone tolerably well.
