Thursday May 26, 201 at 1145

I had a request from Laura Brecht for an address to get cards or letters to David, I'm sorry I didn't think of that earlier.
SSGT David Lyon
c/o National Naval Medical Center
Intensive Care Unit - Room 16
8901 Wisconsin Avenue
Bethesda, MD 20889
The address will remain the same for a little while but, as his condition improves he will moved to the 5th floor (out of ICU) and I will let you all know what the new room number is.

David just completed another round of dialysis and is doing good. He now has a team from the Psychological Health & Traumatic Brain Injury unit, headed by Christina O'Brien, Psy.D.. Their goal is to make sure his meds are doing well for his agitation when he is re-living the experiences at war and to do an overall evaluation of his psychological welfare.
I met with a Master Gunner Sergeant Michael Todd this morning and what a great man and a great Marine. I am very serious when I say that these guys are incredible individuals and are incredibly loyal and caring for each other. He told me of another warrior who came through here about 6 months ago who is up walking. The prosthetics he is wearing right now have computer chips that are reading his every motion and then his own prosthetics will be designed to his bodies individual way of handling the balance and other issues. If David is going to be injured in this way, this is an incredible time to have these issues because of the technological advances that have been made in his behalf.
We were told last night that David's ability to be on any prosthetic will be delayed about 6 weeks more than some of the other individuals because of the severe separation of his pelvis. Once they are able to put the screws in the front and back of the pelvis to hold it firmly, David will have at least 6 weeks before he will be allowed to have any weight bearing on on his hips.
The dialysis is a little difficult on him because it flushes the blood and every medication in the blood that is helping with his comfort level. The medication is still going in but it is also going out at the same time. Immediately after dialysis he is re-medicated and is extremely worn out.
David is so impressive, with pain at a 9.8 he still is aware enough to give us a smile or two. When I was talking to the Gunny Sergeant, David told Lynnette that he thought I was being a little disrespectful to his comrade. I can't think of one thing disrespectful that I was saying but I was still impressed with David's awareness through all the medication.
We are back to gowns and gloves for a day or two because David keeps spiking a fever - today it went up to 103. The are concerned with some bacteria and are presently doing all the lab work to rule out any infections. This is really a balancing act for several days and sometimes several weeks. These, I guess, are the "1 step back" that the trauma surgeon discussed.
David has had several visitors from EODs that he has worked with and they are all very much concerned and want to be a part of his recovery.

I can't think of much else to fill you in on today. We'll be going to the Washington Temple tonight and will then be with David after that so I will give you any updates if there is anything new to report.

Until Then - Lynnette and I Love You,

Gordon, Dad, etc, etc, etc