Friday, August 6, 2010 at 0815 on Saturday Morning

Hallelujah, No X-Fix

That's right, the right hand is free of hardware. David is a free man. When he found out they were going to go ahead with the surgery on his ear.....let me explain. The ear surgery was to do a skin graft on the ear drum because it was, pretty much, destroyed in the blast, combined with other concussion blasts that David had experienced. We were told that they wanted the ear surgery to be the very last because, when they do the ear surgery, he can not have any other surgery for a week or two because the oxygen mask he would have to wear during surgery would build up pressure behind his ear drum and damage the work that had been done. So, when he found out they were going to go ahead with the surgery on the ear, he told them to hold off on the ear until they could do the surgery on the X-fix at the same time.

Now that David has established himself as the total power around here, when David talks, people listen. Only kidding. They surely want to do everything they can for every warrior and so they did 2 cat scans to make sure they were seeing if the hand had healed enough - it had. So now there is no hardware on him and he looks like he is wearing ear protection for a wrestling match. The surgeons even put little smiley face stickers on the hard cover protecting his ear.
If you clench your teeth and feel the muscle that is right next to the temple, that is where they took the graft to repair his eardrum. They cut the back of the ear and go in. It's a pretty involved surgery and lasted about 4 hours. They will take the head gear off, perhaps today. It will be about a month before he will really know the success of the surgery, but the surgeon told us that he was 95 % confident that it will turn out perfect. Another great thing was that the pain throughout the day was very minimal - the only pain he complained of was the phantom pains.

Michael, David's brother, came in late and will see him this morning. These brothers of his really love David and respect what he has done - they know, first hand, what incredible effort it takes to do the job he was doing in the military.

The Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, came in to see David yesterday. He was very much to the point and told David of his appreciation. He gave David a challenge coin and a "get out of jail free card". I'll let David tell you the meaning of that card.

David's friend, Carlos, stood on two legs yesterday. He said he cried, not from the great amount of pain, but because he was standing again. When I serve in the Bountiful LDS Temple, I serve with many older men and women and sometimes when you ask them how they are, they make comments like, "I'm Vertical" or "No Chalk Line This Morning" or "I didn't see my name in the Obituaries, so I'm doing great!" I think Carlos and David both feel that way. They are alive, and there is a bright future. Carlos felt a bit short because of the short prosthetics that are first used - I think his wife is about 4' 10" and he was quite a bit shorter than she when he stood up on the shorties. He said that the HO in his left leg was very tender so he had to shift his weight to the other leg, but he was standing. It makes me cry too, Lynnette and I have really built a great love for him and his beautiful family.

Many of these amputees had a great amount of HO and the surgeons try not to do any surgery to remove it until 6 months to a year because it can also be a great support for them if the pain subsides enough. Many times, when they are fitted for the prosthetic, the designers will put a bit of a bubble in the area of the HO so that it does not come in contact with the prosthetic. So, we'll see how it goes with David because he has a great deal of HO.

David is a bit envious of the fact that Carlos is ahead of him in the healing process and now Carlos is getting close to being in outpatient. Carlos told David that he wasn't going to be his neighbor anymore but that David would be "right here" and he pointed to his heart. He sincerely meant it - I don't know how that touched David but it sure hit me right in the tear ducts.

Writing this blog is like therapy for me. The tears just flow when I think of the beautiful moments that encompass a potentially lousy experience. I sincerely mean it when I say that we are all extremely blessed.

All My Love, As Usual,

Gordon