Norris Galatas Update - July 20, 2006

Thankfully, Janis & Norris arrived safely in Washington, DC with no airport nightmare adventures such as I suffered when I went to visit them!!!!!! :) Yay! Below is an email I received for Janis. Stay tuned for new updates as the days progress!

Hey Kat and friends! We made it! The flight from Meridian to Atlanta was a breeze and since I had Norris with me, I didn't get lost in the airport. We made it in plenty of time to catch the plane to DC and made it just fine. We took the shuttle to WRAMC and our only hitch was that Mologne House didn't have us a room. Well, SFC Galatas would not take "no" for an answer and by noon we were in our room at Mologne House.

Our address is:

[KAT'S NOTE: PLEASE EMAIL ME AT JEFFSKAT@GMAIL.COM FOR THEIR ADDRESS. FOR SECURITY REASONS, I HESITATE TO PUBLISH IT FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE!]

We walked over to the hospital and got a Subway sandwich for lunch and went to see Dustin DeCol [who is undergoing treatment for cancer]. He looks weak but in good spirits. He has had some bad nights lately. His sister Destiny was with him. She had Subway, too! LOL! After you are here a while, the same ole' food gets boring. We were very tired from getting up at 4:00 am this morning! Our friend Lisa Fisher dropped us at the airport and waited with us to board....she is "Auntie Lisa" to our dog Sable and she said Sable took turns sleeping with all three of her children....Sable feels at home there.

We came back over and took a nap and now we are going to grab a quick sandwich downstairs and go to bed early. The first familiar face I saw was SFC Ellis Martin! He looks GREAT! His injuries of last March were very similar to Norris's. He has had his surgeries and is healing up now. He warned Norris how painful it is to get closed up and the colostomy reversed. Norris said he is up for it. I will accompany him to the doctors appointments tomorrow. Norris tells me his room mate Jason and my buddy Spc. Yancy are over in the barracks now. The one thing I noticed right away is that the big table in the lobby of Mologne House that used to be stacked with cards, snacks, goodies and DVDs was empty now. Let's see if we can get some cards up here? Lots of little kids here now too. (I guess all those pregnant wives I met last year delivered! LOL!) Only one sad note. There was one memorial notice posted. We lost one up here. Ironically, his name was "Lauderdale" and that is the county I'm from back in Mississippi. And we met some nice ladies on the shuttle ride over that were attending a nursing seminar up here and one was from Jackson Mississippi. Small world.

Kat, we'll watch for your friends xxxxx and CJ! We appreiciate them taking an interest in us. It is good to be around "soldier language" again...I had forgotten how much I missed that! LOL! And I recognized one of the SICU doctors from last year who would not let Norris go back to the hospital ward because he wasn't happy with the oxygen numbers....good thing, too....that night Norris suffered a severe respiratory arrest! God will take care of us. Thank you for all the prayers! We are blessed.

Love you guys!
Janis and Norris at WRAMC....07/20/06