Thursday, June 5, 2008

Day 4 - June 4, 2008

I woke up today to realize I was just in too much pain to walk to the hospital (it's probably close to a half mile). I know it's because I haven't been sleeping enough to let my own muscles heal nightly, but there's nothing I can do about that. So anyway, I called the hosp at 6am and Kev's nurse was so excited. She said that he had had a great night and they were able to lower his oxygen enough that he was on basically a C-pap level (for like sleep apnea - I may have spelled that wrong). I was actually happy because we thought he might be able to come off the ventilator.

I decided to go to the PX to buy some clothes since we couldn't get in to see him until noon and on the way back from the store, we got the call that Kev needed to go in for emergency surgery. Apparently his stomach wound was coming undone. They were worried that his bowel might be trying to come up through the three layers of his abdomen so they had to go in and fix it. I was petrified. You can't go from being happy that things are looking up - to being devastated because there is always the risk of death from every surgery - not to mention the possible complications of why this is actually happening.

So after a couple of hours Dr M. came out and said that the surgery went well. After coming down off of the fear that the outcome would be horrible, I had to sit through meetings and let me tell ya - your brain can't go up and down emotionally this often and then concentrate during research and study meetings.

After Kevin came back from surgery and the anesthesia started to wear off, the nurse wanted us to try to get Kev to obey commands. He hasn't yet - but we aren't thinking about that. So anyway, I kept telling him to open his eyes and a couple times I really did see his left eyelid flicker. (to be honest - I can't see him being able to open them because they are badly burned and have TONS of goop covering them to keep them wet) So the nurse and I started trying to get him to move his leg. The nurse finally quit trying and I did it one more time. About a minute later - his right leg lifted and moved about an inch. You cannot imagine how elated I was. The nurse saw it happen and he kinda got a little bit nasty and said that that wasn't him following a command - it was reflex. My opinion - fuck that nurse. He said that obeying has to happen immediately. Now I ask - how is a person that is sedated and on all kinds of pain killers supposed to do something immediately? Think about it...how many of us have had too much to drink and try to do something only to struggle to actually get it done? That's right. Let's all say it together - FUCK THAT NURSE! I saw my son move his leg and I had never seen him move his leg not one time before. He did it and I don't care what that dork nurse thought.

Of course though, I was really upset about the nurse saying that stuff. It's only because it's the next day that I can say the hell with what the nurse said.

And I realize this has been a long post - but we aren't done with the day yet. Next we had the ophthalmologist come in and tell me that he needed to take a look at Kev's eyes. He said that from the front, the actual eye looks good, but he needs to go behind. Not only that - he also needs to stitch Kevin's right eye shut. That eyelid and above it have 3rd degree burns. I had noticed that his right eye didn't quite shut the whole way, but with everything else - I looked past it. It turns out that because the eyelid was so badly burned, as it heals it is going to actually pull the lid farther up and it would make it where the muscles would never work to get it to shut up through and after he has his eye skin graft (in about 6 months). So he stitched it shut and from what he said - Kev was really pissed. When the doc was pulling at his eye - Kev kept trying to hit him. Mind you he is not even awake - but we all know Kev's attitude - DON'T MESS WITH ME!

So about his vision - according to the doc - he likened it to a digital camera. He says Kev has all the ability to take the picture. The eye itself looks good. But now we need to find out if his brain can 'download' the picture and actually process it so that Kev can see. We have no idea when we will know if Kev is blind or not. Time will tell, I guess.

This about sums up this day so I am calling it quits here.

1 comment:

Larry Arnone said...

Dear Kamm's Family,

My name is Larry Arnone and I was just made aware of your blog today through a good friend. You see Leslie, I am apart of your family in the Army way. My name is Larry Arnone a fellow blogger and a Father of a soldier also serving with the 173rd ABCBT now in Afghanistan. My soldiers name is Alex and he is currently serving in Kunar Province which is not far from where you son was injured during combat operations. I too started a blog dedicated to my boy shortly after he joined the Army. I find blogging very therapeutic just like you.

My online blog author name is bluestardad if you are interested. I wanted to send you a comment letting you that although I do not know what you and your family is going through, I do fear it and want you all to know my heart and prayers go out to you all especially your soldier. When you can please express many thanks to your son for what he has done for our Nation. This will never be forgotten in my heart. Thank You Private Kamm.

Leslie if there is anything I can do please feel free to reach out to me and I will try and do what I can. It is obvious your soldier is a fighter after reading all your posts and perhaps that is why he was chosen by someone in the Army to assign him to the 173rd as they are all fighters.

My payers to your family,

Larry