My old Journal!! And so many memories of Curt's injury

Sigh....Should've never opened that folder up...

Truck hit again, June 1, 2007
My hubby called this morning at 4 from baghdad hospital his truck was hit again and this time he is going to Germany then he thinks back home here. I don't know what is exactly wrong i have yet to be notified by the army and he was pretty much incoherent and I coudn't undestand what he was saying to me so I wll give an update as soon as I call rear d here...

....I am sooo exhausted going on three and a half hours sleep! The Dept of the Army informed me this morning at exactly 8:00...she didn't tell me much just that "she is calling to inform me my soldier was involved in a roadside bomb attack and he suffered shrapnel wounds to his right leg, he is being evaluated at the EMT clinic in Baghdad and it is a non-life threatening injury." That was all I got from her. I said my husband told me he had surgery and was needing at least a couple more so he was going to Germany. She said Well this is all the information I have at the moment.If he goes to Germany he will probably call you before we do to update you.
This is so frustrating! I don't know how bad he is or what exactly is going to happen next! Now we play the waiting game I guess.....

....Update--he is on his way to Germany as we speak...um I was told to allow maybe two days for the doctors to evaluate him and decide whether or not I need to come there...he will probably call me before I get another update from the DOA...that is all I know at this point...I am staying strong because I know he is alive and for that I am thankful...the full extent of his injuries I do not know yet...haven't heard a peep since yesterday afternoon...so getting kinda antsy for some info I know they said it would be a couple days....I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a busy day!

June2nd
I still don't know how bad he is, what the extent of his injuries are, how long he could be in the hospital, anything!! I thought Curt would try to contact me again last night but the phone never rang...I was told by the DOA yesterday that once he was in Germany they (the DOA) would call me with a 1800 number so I could call him there...still nothing! So frustrating!

June 3rd
Update--he just called again he is still in Baghdad, his flight to Germany was cancelled...hoping to go in the next day or two for another surgery...his whole right leg is broken, his arm, his index finger and shrapnel wounds on his left leg. He will be going to Walter Reed from Germany. He said he is out of commission for a LOONNGG time...and is tired of laying in bed!! HaHa...he sounded the same...he just said this was the worst experience of his life and I asked him if there was a lot of blood and he said yes...I think he is still out of it, doped up on some drugs
I told him to call me again when he can...and that all of his soldiers are worried about him
thats my update

June 4th
Curt is now in Germany, having one more surgery tomorrow before sending him to Walter Reed on Friday. Sounded much better! Still in pain of course and we have a long recovery road ahead of us, but all in all he seemed in pretty good spirits! Can't wait to see him! I will be going to WR to be with him expenses paid by the army...((sigh))
I am exhausted....but I am still so thankful and so overwhelmed by everyone's kindness and sympathy...but we will get thru this because we are Army Strong!!

June6th
nothing yet, he had another surgery today and will be at WR on friday...thats it for now...the DOA took all my travel info from me...thats it...he will be flyinginto WR on friday as long as nothing is postponed..the DOA just took all my info so I'll be ready to go when the docs give the ok.
He had surgery this morning just to clean out the wounds (3rd one) the shrapnel is still in his leg-lower left-he says he can see it. His right leg is shattered pins are basically holding it together from his hip to his ankle. His right arm and hand is broke and his pinky finger on his left hand.
Today he was kinda in a bad mood which is probably to be expected! I can't wait to see him probably next week-just gonna give him a big ol kiss!

June 11th
disgusted
with the army right now! still at home! they have me on a flight tomorrow at 630am...BUT they did not include Kaylie!!! so now I am waiting for them to call back to see if they can get her on the plane! I am appalled and so disappointed in the army! I mean I could have driven and been there by now if I had the money!! This is absolutely ridiculous! my husband was hurt 10 days ago now and I am STILL in georgia!!! I finally broke down today...this is just enough...I am very very disappointed in the way this whole thing has been handled...they promise me I would go today but no lets wait until 130pm to call me and tell me the only flight out of columbus was leaving at 136 so now I have to wait another day...if this would have been taken care of three days ago like it was SUPPOSED to I would not be in this situation...okay sorry done venting!! just had to get that out, i have been crying since I got off the phone with them...what else can go wrong??

okay, just got my call, now I AM leaving again tomorrow at 630am!! I feel so much better! I even got my tickets in hand!! That is such a relief to me you have no idea.

June 13th
Finally made it to WAlter reed yesterday...what a journey!! My first plane out of columbus was delayed because they could not fuel the plane because of the lightening. then my plane in atlanta was delayed because of a mechanical malfunction with the plane and sat on the tarmac for one hour!! made it here though with a HUGE headache LOL...got to my hotel dropped my bags and said take me to the hospital!! I got there and he was still in recovery from surgery.sat in his room for about two hours before he made itback up. Talked to his roomate who was also injured by an IED...nice family going thru basically the same type of injury. Even though his roomate might lose his foot. Curt looks really good. on a scale of 1-10 I'll say 7. He has surgery tomorrow to remove the rods bascially holding his leg together and they will put in pins to start putting his leg back together. We got him in a weelchair today and we walked all around the hospital...and I have to say Curt is so lucky compared to some of these injured soldiers here! My heart goes out to them but they are all in good spirits it seems which is wonderful. the emotions here and evrything there are no words to describe. We've already met the NFL team washington redskins and a retired brig. general! who almost made me cry...fought in every war since WW2!! sweet old guy...thats my update for now!

Well, things are going as good as they can right now! Curt had surgery a few days ago and another one yesterday but it was only minor yesterday to replace his splint on his leg. They cannot put any casts on him until his open wounds heal. They seem to be healing nicely though. His major surgery they removed the rods and put pins in his leg, too many to count which he will have for the rest of his life unfortunately...His leg is broke in two places, above his knee and below his knee. He has pins from about five inches above his knee to about six inches from his ankle. My poor baby! He will probably get arthritis in his knee later in life. Also, he did suffer bone loss and cartilage from his knee, and he has two wound vacs coming from his knee which is gross! just machines sucking out all that icky stuff from his knee.

My room does suck, it is sooo tiny with a slanted floor and a leaky ceiling, but there is nothing else available right now so I will live, I spend most of my time at the hospital anyway! I am supposed to be at teh Mologne house but there is no room of course, but I do call everyday to check to get the hell out of this room!

Kaylie is going to stay with my sister in Chicago next week..that will be good for her she's pretty bored! We got to meet a Nascar driver today last name was Martin he drives the army car...pretty cool...

June 20th
We got to meet Regis Philbin today and had our pics done with him, will be shown on tomorrow mornings show!! I was almost crying but Curt couldn't stop cheesin' LOL

June 29th
well, we should be discharged next week as an outpatient probably for the next month at least! that is good news!! he got most of his stitches taken out today, some still in. We are going to the big fireworks display at the capital on the 4th with our roomate who also happens to be in 3rd Brigade!! He's in 2-69 though. thats just funny, out of all the injured soldiers we end up roomates!! We also have a very, very big VIP coming next week (he lives here in DC hint hint) they won't say for sure who it is, but the address on the paperwork we had to fill out said the address! (duh) like we won't figure it out, so everyone is all in a tizzy scrubbing the place down! we had to fill out so many papers and social security no's. if curt didn't put me down I could not get in the hospital that day! Then they came around tonight and asked what curt wanted "him" to call him. Curt or Curtis. He said Curtis! LOL...this should be interesting....

July 3rd
got to meet the big Mr. President Bush today! It was absolutely crazy in the hospital!! We were not allowed to leave the room and they had I swear 20 SS guys walking in and out of our rooms and two dogs sniffing around our stuff! He got to our room about 11 this morning, said hello gave me a hug asked Curt about his injuries told him he looked good and is proud of him for serving blah blah blah, asked how they were treating us here and how they were serving me, then we took pics and that was it! We should get the pics in about two months they said...I was kinda disappointed he seemed very impersonal and nonchalant, almost like he really didn't care, I mean I know he's a busy man and all but come on, show some emotion and at least sound like you mean what you say! But all in all it was a once in a lifetime experience...and that is all I can say about it LOL


4th of July D.C. style!!

So we had an AWESOME 4th of July. We got bused over to the Capitol lawn where we got to watch the concert from the first row!! Hosted by Tony Danza, it was awesome, we got to see Yolanda Adams, Eliot Yamin, Little Richard, Hayden from the NBC show Heroes, and Dirk (country music guy) anyway, I was up and dancing during Little richard's performance he was great!! My favorite performance. Also I teared up when Yolanda Adams sang God Bless America. Then we watched the fireworks then went into the Capitol Building for a reception with the celebrities and crew from the concert. Awesome once again!! We got a tour of the building and got to go into Nancy Pelosi (speaker of the house) office and private balcony which overlooks penn anvenue. Great view my mouth dropped open and the guy took of pic of me and curt on the balcony with the washington monument lit up in the background. Beautiful view. then we went into the reception hall, and mingled with the performers from the show, (eliot is really cute by the way as is the country guy Dirks) We got back to the hospital about 12:30 in the morning!! Curt was exhausted! But what an experience to be VIP's for a night!!

Most touching was the marine who was sitting at our table with us with his wife and beautiful daughter!! He was injured back in 03 during the invasion. He is or was I should say (he is retired now) an EOD tech, and a bomb blew up in his hands! He is the most amazing guy! His story was so touching and my heart ached for him. He lost his left arm, leg and eye and his thumb and index finger on his right hand. What a true Marine he is!! I will forever remember him and all the other soldiers we have met while here, each with a story to tell...

if we only knew what our troops have gone thru....they have been to hell and back and survived! for that they are grateful and they are the true heroes of this war to go thru what they have gone thru we will never know or truley understand the not only physical sacrifices but mental as well...I respect them all! Their outlook on life is absolutely amazing! And I am humbled by that...

God Bless Our Troops-those in the past, present, and future
Especiallly those who have paid the ultimate price for our country!!


July 10th
got discharged from the hospital on friday!! now staying at the mologne house for an estimated 45 days!! whoo-hoo!! It was such a great feeling to leave that hospital behind and now just deal with doctors apts. and physcial therapy apts. we are halfway there!!
he is doing good, pain is in control and will hopefully the doctor said today be able to remove the pins from his hand next week!! thats another step...then as soon as they can remove the two holding his knee together we will be able to start weight bearing and learning to walk again, (which we will be able to do the majority at at Benning! (thank God) thats still at least three weeks away... and he does have a nasty scar on his leg for life along with his 23 pins and two plates in his leg for the rest of his life...no more road marches with a 60 lb. ruck sack for him...


July 19th
so had our big doctors appt. today. Curt is getting his berry pins taken out next week! yay!! It was kind of good news bad news though. Good news is the work on his leg looks good, all the pins that will be in his leg looked good and the work putting his knee back together looked good. The bad news is he has a lot of bone pieces floating around in his knee, which concerns the doc. Curt does not have good range of motion with his knee yet (it barely bends) so the pain starts next week once they remove those two big pins from his knee and the physical therapy actually starts!! bring on the meds!! Another concern was the healing process. Doc said it could never fully recover and if it does it won't fully and it will take up to 2-3 yrs. and looking at another couple surgeries down the road in a yr or so to relieve some of the pressure and floaties from his knee.

As soon as these pins come out next week-two in his knee two in his hand-hopefully we will only be here for another couple weeks or so...I hope so. I am ready to be home. We're hoping the flight works out to bring Kaylie back since we won't find out mom's and tylers flight until monday they said-then I still have to get kaylie's ticket to marry to theirs! pray that it works out and I can get her back here!! I miss her horribly!!
Anyway-that is the update-tomorrow we are taking a tour of the white house whoo-hoo should be interesting!!

Aug 13th
Doc said we can go home if we want a week after Curt's eye surgery!!!! They would LIKE him to stay until he is weight bearing and leave at the end of september, but we said uh-uh we want to go home!!! So after his PRK surgery we can go, I am so excited!! Even though that means he won't get his full CON leave (30 days) he will only get 2 weeks. Because he needs to start weight bearing mid september and work on that in physcial therapy hard core! But I am so excited!!!! three more weeks!!!!!!!!!!

Oct 5th
So the doc told Curt probably next year he will get a whole knee replacement. They want to wait as long as possible before doing it, since their only good for about 20 yrs. then he will need another one. In the next few months or so Curt will have a surgery to take out the "floating" bone in his knee. The doc said he is amazed that Curt is even able to bend his knee to what he can and that he is walking. So basically his knee will not get any better than it is right now until we have this surgery....
We will more than likely go back to Walter Reed to have the knee replacement done next year, since we are not so sure we trust MACH!! lol
On the scale of care WR gets a 9 and MACH gets a 4!!!!!!


And Curt is no longer part of 3rd ID as of Oct 10...The armor center called him and offered him a Cadre position with the WTU here at Benning, which is a two year commitment. He took it after debating. He feels like he is abdoning his guys, but this will do him good and let him have a desk job for the next two years while he heals.
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