Group Therapy

Well, the hip is not progressing as fast as I had hoped but it is getting better. We have been doing a lot of walking and going to a lot of the grandkids baseball and softball games so that is exercise for the leg. Guess by now I wanted to be back to completely normal. At least going to the games gets me out of the house and my hibernating mode. I am having no more flashbacks or bad nightmares so that is good news.

Still going to Group every week and some weeks are better then others. Sometimes we just talk about our weekly problems and other weeks we just talk about miscellaneous things in our lives. We usually, at least weekly, talk about Roosevelt and Pearl Harbor. Our oldest member (87) of the Group is a WWII veteran and was in both the Atlantic and Pacific Theater. He was in the Navy before the war started and saw a lot of communications just prior to the war starting that our government knew a war was about to start. Pearl Harbor really upsets him and he will get mad when he gets into that subject.

We also have a Korean War veteran in the group that was a military photographer and he still carries those pictures in his mind. He says he is much improved since starting therapy and medication.

Another in our group was in the Navy, landed Marines into Vietnam, and did some riverboat duty in Nam. We have one from the Air Force that was in ordinance and he has some physical problems along with PTSD. The one Marine in our Group probably has the most physical problems (other than our oldest member and that is just from old age) plus PTSD from Nam.

The other two regular members are both Army draftees. One was a convoy driver and the other did both driving and miscellaneous military duties in the southern part of Vietnam. We are a real mixed group of veterans from many wars. There are a couple of members that no longer attend Group meetings. One was an Iraqi vet that is well enough to find and keep a job so he has not attended in a long time. The other Army vet is really messed up and does not attend much because he does not like to leave his safe zone. I will have to see if maybe if I pick him up that maybe he might attend.

The Group has varying percentages of disability from as little as 30% up to a couple of us with 100%. Some of the guys should have a lot higher percentage then they are getting. The WWII and Korean War vet should both have 100% but the government probably figures they are too old so why bother. They will not be around much longer. Actually, they are cantankerous enough to last many more years and the government should give them what they deserve.

Enough rambling for today. God Bless America.