Enjoyed being with the family last Sunday at Berthas. Thanks Bertha for picking me up on Saturday. This has been a very eventful and busy week for me. Where do I start. On Tuesday at physical therapy I had a problem with my left eye. At first I couldn't figure out what was happening, but when I went to smaller space (bathroom) I realized that with my left eye, I seemed to be seeing smoke, or dark cloud with black dots that were moving around. My occupational therapist said that I should have it checked out. That night when I was in the dark, out the corner of my eye I could see flashing light. The next morning, I called my
GP doctor and my eye doctor and left messages. My GP was the first to call and was concerned and made an emergency appointment with a optomoligist (sp) my eye dr is an optomigist and when he called he was pleased that I was being seen. Everyone was concerned that I had the beginning of a detached rethna, but I received the news that my condition was called posterior vitreous detachment. I will have to live with the floaters. This is suppose to be a condition that developes as we get older and has nothing to do with the accident, but I really don't believe that. It just happens to be on the same side that my nose was broken, that my lip was busted. I do believe that it was brought on by the accident. In addition to my sessions of pt, I also had an appointment at the coumadin clinic, an appointment with my orthrpedic surgeon and with my GP, and my lawyer. Every thing went well. I can start cutting down on my coumadin and in three weeks, I'll be off it. I'm now walking with a cane, I'll be able to start driving very soon. The good news with my lawyer is that we're proceeding with the law suit and my health insurance has agreed not to require to be reimbursed as they could have required. Whatever settlement I receive, I'll be able to keep at least $60,000 and not pay to the insurace company. My boss and her lawyer have agreed for me to file suit first because even if we deplet all of his coverage, she has a much higher uninsured or underinsured on her policy that I do and she can file against her policy. The only bad news is we heard from FEMA and we'll receive no help with replacing our furnace. Don't know how they decide these things, my former boss who is very wealthy, received $750 and our friends, the Suttons, who live on the same body of water and had extensive damage, received nothing. I didn't get my hopes up too much, but I was hoping to receive a little help. Still, I guess I can;t expect to get something for nothing. I don't know who I told, but Gene will be having outpatient surgery to replace the battery in his pace maker on Nov 13. All should go well with that.

Appendix Halloween 3.1

Oh, yeah, Joyce. Got the card. Sorry I forgot to put that in last post. Thank you. It was nice.
Gotta run.

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Hey gang! Well it's Halloween and OH NO!...I'm 3-0! Haha! Didn't seem "that " old until I actually reached it and thought "I'm not even in my LATE 20's any more." Any way, we're getting through it okay. Yesterday I took a PT test and scored a 255, about what I was scoring before we went to Kuwait back in Jan. Well, it seems like we may still have trouble making family functions in the future because I took the PT test so I could get a waiver to re-enlist. Yep, right now it seems like our best option, given I don't have a degree in biology, chemistry or engineering and I don't have staff time, yet. If I get the waiver, I'll more than likely re-up for 3 years, putting us at 10 1/2 yrs in service leading toward the full 20. Once you've done 10, might as well do the next ten and get the retirement. I have to get the waiver first (which has to go all the way up the food chain to the post 2-star general) because I didn't reup by the time I was 90 days out from my ETS date. Michelle's not real thrilled, but she understands why we have to do it and supports me. She's a great wife. It's like the sticker says: " Army Wife- Toughest job in the Army." Kids were looking forward to getting a house of our own "near Grammy and Pop", but they kind of understand/accept that this is just the way it is.

Got Chris his Webelos/Boy Scout uniform today. He's really excited about that. We're heading to Macon tonight after trick or treatin' to see Michelle's mom. She had 4 of the discs in her neck fused together last Friday. She's doing alot better. Had a costume party last Friday and had a few couples over. That was fun. Like usual, Betty Crocker cooked enough to feed the whole Byrum clan and we sent home bags of goodies with our friends. Jason and his wife came up from King's Bay Ga. Naval Station, 1 mile north of the Ga/Florida border. He's been married for year or so, but didn't tell anyone. We gave him heck for that all night. His wife's name is Christy. She's 19 (yes, Jason is 3 months older than me) and really neat. They seem real happy, and definitely a good match. She's the grown up in that relationship. Haha!


Gotta' run help Michelle get ready for dinner and trick or treating. Take care, everybody and look out for the fiends and ghouls.

Happy Brithday to Christopher Piper! Hope that it's a great one. I know you didn't get it today but your card is on its way.
Had a wonderful time at Bertie's yesterday. Wish that everyone could have been there. It was lots of fun but just ended too-too soon. Where did the time go? It's really nice to have fun people in the family and also to have some little ones who like to cut a rug.
It was great to see Margaret walking again even if it was slowly. She looked great.
The food was great also. I tasted it clean up until bedtime.

I enjoyed our time together yesterday. Glad to see everyone is doing well!

Hannah