Mariah’s Reemergence

    Greetings blog-fans.  This has been an active week in Mariah’s re-emergence process.  Whereas therapy-packed days previously led Mariah back to her bed to spend hours sleeping or otherwise staying off of her feet and off her butt, she has hit the gym off-campus every day this week in the evening after a full day of physical, occupational, and speech therapy’s.  Her workout includes a minimum of thirty minutes cycling followed by weight-resistance training and therapy-related exercise.  Not to mention she has attended several other appointments as well, such as dental work, opthomolgy exams, and doctor visits.  Actually Mariah’s attendance to appointments is apparently singularly unique, I found out yesterday morning.  After a late Thursday night, I dragged myself out of bed at 7 am to feed Mariah and myself this week’s breakfast usual of oatmeal and fresh fruit, and then off to our first appearance at morning formation with the rest of Mariah’s Able Troop to which she was recently assigned while here at Walter Reed.  A stern Major addressed the Able Troop and apparently reiterated the importance of each soldier’s attendance to his or her appointments because, and I quote, “Once again, the Able Troop is leading in no-shows”  This of course registered in my own delinquent mind as hmmm…next time you miss formation and the sergeant calls you, just gently turn his attention back to the rest of the troops who are probably playing Nintendo Wii in their rooms instead of going to physical therapy…(ahh it feels good to be on the right side of the mean average!)

The most exciting piece of news from this week is that Mariah is now putting in afternoon hours at the AFIP (Armed Forces Institute of Pathology) about two hundred yards up from the Mologne House on campus.  This is pretty much a dream job for Mariah, and after her first two afternoons doing gross pathology work she has come out beaming and totally psyched for the next visit.  I can’t give a detailed account because I haven’t asked her a lot of questions about it, but she is thrilled and seems very much newly inspired.  It shows, both in her smile, and in her dedication.   She is really putting in that “one extra” in her sessions, and rather than wait for me to come up with activities in free time, she is tossing out suggestions.  This morning she reminded me, “Hey let’s go to that Pompeii exhibit at the National Gallery of Art”  (I was of course surfing the net, at the time).   So we went to the museums today, took in the Italian masterpieces and perused the exhibits at the Native American museum and finished off the day back at Mologne watching, “Thank You for Smoking” on our movie screen.  We are doing great and hope that YOU are as well.

Love and Light, 
Clay and “Bunny”