Friday, May 4, 2007

Clean up on aisle four

When I arrived at the Field hospital I finally was given a pain killer that took away some of the pain. I was the first casualty they had for the day so they got to me right away. First thing they did was take me to get x-rays to see where the shrapnel was in my foot. Also they wanted to see what the damaged looked like on the inside. It wasn’t good even I could tell that! I could tell it was bad when I saw that all the bones had a dark jagged line through them.
Now all this time they had a bandage on my foot but they didn’t have one on my thigh because it wasn’t bleeding much while I was lying down. However to get from the stretcher they brought me in on to the x-ray table I had to stand like a flamingo. When I did that it started flowing again and it was getting everywhere all over the floor and the x-ray table. Now I wasn’t worried about my belongings (or lack there of) but their multi-million dollar machine didn’t seem like it was bought to be a gauze pad. After I received a look like I just busted their laptop I apologized (a lot). Come on guys it wasn’t my fault, blame the dang French terrorist.
Surgery took them a while and the one thing I remembered before the surgery was when they gave me the anesthetic; you know when they ask you to count backwards from 100 to 0. I don’t know about you but I try to compete and have fun with everything I do, and that my friend was a challenge. So before they gave me the anesthetic I asked them “how far do people usually get before they black out” and the Doc said “about 96-94 somewhere around there” so I replied “when I wake up tell me how far I got.” I finally awoke from the procedure at about 10pm and I was hungry because I couldn’t eat anything before the surgery and hadn’t eaten since breakfast. When I asked for the food they sent the Doc in to make sure I was doing ok. The first thing he said was “you are definitely a fighter, you made it all the way to 87 I was shocked. I almost gave you another dose ‘cause I thought it didn’t work.”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Josh, you really don't know me, I am a friend of Thom Gruber. I am Canadian and live in Surrey B.C.. My family and I wish to thank you for your bravory. We are sorry to here about your injury, and we wish you a speedy recovery. My father was in the British and the Canadian army a total of 15 yrs. Regimental Sgt. Major Richard Lewis, he was shot in the foot in the Kieber Pass during the 30's Indian war with the British Forces, he has since passed 84 couragous yrs. My first born daughter Tammy Lynn was in the Canadian Army she went to college and received the Commantant's Shield.
We have our boys in Afganastan, and we can't thank you young lads enough for taking the fight to there back yard.
I guess getting the Purple Cross isn't very pleasant, and we are glad to here you are going to be alright. God was with you, and you still have your whole life in front of you. If you are still in Iraq give the men a way to go and God Bless, please come home soon !!! Bryon Lewis