With My Apologies

Let me start by saying how sorry I am that I have been MIA from this blog for two entire months but in my defense, what a whirlwind the last two months have been!

As anyone who has been following this blog knows, my son left for BCT (basic combat training) on July 27. He was scheduled to graduate from his OSUT (one stop unit training) on December 17. However, things have changed. Dramatically!

Blaine just recently spent 30 days at home. Why, you ask? Oh, let me tell you...

With just 12 days of BCT remaining, Blaine suffered a pretty severe injury to his ankle during a hand-to-hand training exercise. He wasn't fully off the ground when one of the guys in his platoon took him down to the ground, dislocating his ankle. He called from the ER to try to tell me what was going on. I thought he was sick but he was in a tremendous amount of pain. Now, I've never been faced with my child being deployed or injured abroad but at that moment, he could have been stationed on the moon. My hands were tied, there was nothing I could do except talk on the phone to try to get all the details I could get. I heard surgery. Oh no. The tendons in his ankle were torn and a piece of soft tissue had gotten into the socket and they were unable to put the ankle back in place without surgery. "Mom, can you come?" That's what Blaine wanted to know. When the nurse took the phone and explained what was happening, she asked if I was coming to the hospital. I explained to her that I lived several hundred miles away and that it would take some effort but I would be on the next possible flight if she thought I should. She suggested that I wait and see how he felt the next day before making any plans.

Blaine was in surgery for nearly 3 hours. The doctor called to let me know what was happening and he suggested that I not make any travel plans. Said it might not be a good thing for me to run out there, let him tough it out...I agreed to stay put. Now, I felt like the worst mother in the world. I would never, for a second, think of not being by his side if this had happened here. I didn't think he should go through this alone, but I stayed put. Everybody said to let him be a man, let him grow up...I don't care how old you are, you still need your mom in certain situations!

When I talked to him the next day, he sounded much better. He told me not to worry about coming out, he was going to be fine. He told me how disappointed he was that this happend when it did (if there would ever be a convenient time for something like this to happen!). He was supposed to get his beret on Thursday of that week. And oh yeah, "we were going to throw hand grenades today!" I suggested to him that maybe there was a reason he wasn't supposed to be throwing hand grenades on that particular day.

We were told that they had to wait for the swelling to go down so that they could get him in a cast and he should be home by the weekend. Well, on Friday, they took more x-rays just to see how things were progressing and it was not good. The ankle was not staying together properly and they also found a fracture in his leg that they had missed the first time around. They scheduled him for surgery first thing Saturday morning so that they could put two screws into his ankle to hold it in place while the tendons healed.

Blaine spent nearly two weeks in the hospital. He could hobble around the hospital on his crutches, but it wasn't the same as being with his buddies. There was a girl from his platoon in the hospital at the same time with a hip fracture. They spent some time going back and forth to keep the other company.

I offered to come out, he said no. I offered to send him a care package and he said no. I offered almost every day and he just kept telling me that he would wait until he got home. His spirits just got worse and worse. He would be in the most foul moods, almost brooding. I knew what he needed. He needed a care package! Unfortunately, I waited way too long to send it!

Just the anticipation of the arrival of that package changed his mood. We spent a lot of time texting. I sent him a message, asking if he'd gotten any mail that day. He asked me why. I told him he should be getting something. He asked me what. I told him it was a surprise. He asked me what it was. I told him he'd have to wait. He said ok....followed by what is it? This went on and on for several hours until the package arrived. That is a story in itself and the man in the mail room at General Leonard Wood Community Hospital is an absolute saint!

Anyway, once he got the package, he said it was like Christmas morning! It was close to Halloween so I put in some Halloween candy, some orange and black M&M's, a bag of Reese's mini's (Blaine's favorite), a few buckeyes, a few magazines, a deck of cards and a bag of Army men. Along with it, a note that read:

"If you can't play Army with the big boys, at least you can play Army with these guys."

He left for home shortly after he had gotten his goodies and he was kind enough to share his candy with other soldiers and the nurses. He even taught the nurses about "Buckeyes." Seems that those are a regional thing, they'd never heard of them and he told them how to make them. I'm sure that was tough having all that attention from those pretty nurses!

I finally saw Blaine on October 18, the first time since I watched him board his plane at the end of July. That three months seemed like an eternity. The first thing I noticed was that he was so skinny! Blaine always had a little pudge around the belly, even though he wasn't really heavy but it was all gone now. He always wore that military hair cut, so that wasn't a real shock. But it was nice to just wrap my arms around him and get that big hug!

I walked by the recliner one day while he had his foot all propped up and noticed that his incisions were looking little dry and maybe pulling a little. I went looking for some Neosporin and was told that he didn't want it because he "wanted some really cool scars." Obviously, he's dealing well with all of this! You know what they say, scars make really cool stories!

If I learned anything from this whole experience it would be that if, heaven forbid, anything ever happened again, I will not listen to anyone else. I will not wait to go to my son, to send him a package of goodies, to do whatever I have to do to be there for him.

Thirty days goes by very quickly. I knew that he would be leaving soon but I also knew that he would be coming home again very quickly as he is nowhere near healed. He will be flying home on November 20, I assume, for another thirty day period. He will be home for Thanksgiving. We will make sure to enjoy every moment we have.

The whole experience has made me think. It's made me think about what a parent goes through when their child is injured, or worse, on foreign soil. For that matter, on American soil, as we witnessed just days ago. It's made me think about those families that are apart for not only during the holidays but on birthdays, weddings or even the birth of their own child.

It's made me think about what these men and women give up for us every day. The very fact that they put their lives on the line day in and day out for all of us is an idea so out of my realm of thinking. I mean, come on, who am I to them?

Every person who enters the military does so for their own reasons. Maybe its a long-standing family tradition. Maybe its to honor the memory of someone they love. Maybe its just because there aren't enough jobs out there right now or insurance benefits and they can't afford not to join. Whatever the reason, the result is the same. Some of these soldiers will be changed forever. Some of these soldiers will lose their lives. But its all for us and I can only hope that America never forgets that.

Have I told you lately how proud I am of my soldier?