Knee Deep in the Hooah!

OK, you do realize that now that we have a broken hip and “convalescent care” ordered that Bryan is fully expecting me to tease him mercilessly about his age. Father Time (his official nickname in BCT) is recovering well.

He is in the hospital and will most likely be there until early next week. He had a plate and three screws put into his hip. The official diagnosis is a stress fracture. The official prognosis is full recovery — plate should make the hip good and strong.

Bryan said his hip had been a little sore for a couple of days. He got up Friday morning and was running in a graduation run. These are traditional runs that take place every time a class is ready to graduate. It is custom for all Candidates to run a 4 mile run with them in honor of their achievement. He said the pace is for these runs are generally slow and pretty easy.

He made it all the way to the finish line… his leg started getting numb. His other leg started feeling numb… he heard a loud pop and he was eating dirt — literally. He went down. That is when his hip snapped. Fortunately for him a soldier with a medic background was in the run too, and he immediately came over and evaluated Bryan and made sure he got medical care ASAP. Bryan said at some point (I am not sure where this falls on the timeline of things) but he was needing to be moved from one location to the next and there were stairs to be managed. A very strong Sgt. came over and had the other guys put Bryan on his back! This Sgt. walked my husband up some steps and made sure that not a single bit of pressure was put on that hip.

Bryan said that the attention he got was immediate. The medical staff caring for him was top notch, and the responsiveness from the Cadre and the other Candidates was stellar and extremely professional. I am so grateful that he is surrounded by such competent, caring and strong soldiers. I really am very grateful and extremely proud of all of them in the way they cared for my husband — their comrade, when he was seriously injured.

My anger is slowly dissipating now that I have some confirmation from Bryan that he is, indeed, going to live. It really was not a very good way for me to have learned the information. One 5-minute phone call could have saved me a lot of grief and an incredible amount of fear and anguish.

When I first read the email consoling me over his surgery of which I had no knowledge, I was in total shock. I remember trying to find phone numbers. I also remember my hands were shaking so hard I could barely hold the phone at one point. I couldn’t read anything. I kept looking at words, but it all looked jumbled to me for a moment.

“Who do I call? What’s going on? It’s a mistake right? Maybe the person sending me the note meant to say she was sorry for Mike’s wound — this can’t be about Bryan!” These were the thoughts floating around my head. The first person I thought to call was Sgt. H. He is Bryan’s recruiter and has helped me out a few times. I called the station. No answer. I looked at the clock it was late and they were already gone. So, it took me a while to remember where my emergency contact information was for OCS. I called the number I had and wound up making over 8 calls before I was actually talking to someone who knew the status of his health. It was a very gut wrenching thing to go through. I had no idea what we were facing. I had no idea the severity (and hip injuries can get pretty severe!) of his injury.

This morning when we talked he was laughing. He was lucid. He was on top of his game already. I was crying. I was fuzzy headed from not sleeping all night, and I was ready to sink. I am not going to Benning at all today. I am going to wait until I need to be there to pick him up to bring him home. This was not the homecoming we were planning, but this is what we have been handed. We are going to charge forward and see what the Army will offer Bryan in the lines of a future. We don’t know what his second chance will look like — if he gets it at all. Regardless we are a team and we will make it through this together no matter the decisions. For better or worse. For richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. That is what I promised, and that is exactly what I intend to do!

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