My son was wounded in combat a year ago in Afghanistan. He is still in a wheelchair and will likely lose his leg in the next few months. This has been an incredible ordeal and I would like to contact other moms whose children have been in the same type of situation.

If I can be of any help to you in the least, please don't hesitate to email me. Just put your mouse on the blue letters/numbers of my screen name and click it.

Oh crap, I forgot about the brilliant new super secret mode on military.com. I will click you on as a friend, then hopefully you will be able to see how to send an email to me.

Anyway....back in 2004, I managed to get my legs run over by a US Customs UH-60A Black Hawk. The doctors were about to amputate, even after three long surgeries, but luckily they found a surgeon in Orlando that pieced me back together.

Still, I've dealt with years of depression and pain and it is because of that, I might be able to offer some advice to you or your son.

Make sure he knows, live goes on, love goes on, he just needs to keep on living life.

Sincerely,

Don

Hmmmm, after seeing this thread, I'm guessing we can't email each other any more.

forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5291911282/m/6210024132001

That makes a heck of a lot of sense.

Don

Hi Don,

Thanks for the information. How are you doing these days? Was it a military doctor or a civilian that worked on you and how was he located? I can't believe the amount of pain my son has endured and it is taking its toll on him, his wife, his children, and me. He got a terrible infection in his wounded leg in late May and had a PICC line in for 6 weeks. I am terrified he may develop another which could prove fatal or he could go septic and lose the other leg and maybe both arms, as well. I knew someone this happended to at Boeing a few years ago. Hope you are well and healthy these days!

Please check out Heroes to Hometowns (MODS, this is a .mil link). HtH helps severely injured Service Members and their families connect with their hometowns or new communities.

Also see the Wounded Warrior Program AW2 site, and find a Wounded Warrior Advocate in your area.

I pray that you son recovers, and that you'll find the strength you need to cope as he does.

Dr. J. Dean Cole, Orthopaedic Traumatologist, Florida Hospital in Orlando, FL.

He is the doctor who saved my leg. A doctor in Lakeland made plenty of effort but after three long surgeries, even he thought it would have to be taken.

They (Lakeland) sent me to Dr. Cole and he saved it. I too, had a bone marrow infection. Those antibiotics make ya feel like dirt but they did the trick for me.

Here's a couple of sites you can look at;

fracturecarecenter.com/cole/index.asp

fracturecarecenter.com/


Now here's the thing...I've been asked by many of my friends and coworkers who have seen the pain I've dealt with the past five years, "Do you think you would have been better off if they had taken it?"

I don't know, it could have saved me a lot of extremely painful days and nights but I guess I held on to the hope (and still do) that as slowly as it has been, it will continue to not hurt as much as time goes by. Now over five years since my accident, the pain levels (0-10) can go from as low as a 1 or 2 to maybe around a 7, usually on rainy days when I've been walking.

I think I've got a good grasp on what a 10 is, unfortunately. I try hard not to say it hurts like an 8 or 9 unless it really does.

I only say that because of one day at pool therapy, an older woman was in the pool when my therapists asked her what her pain level was. She said "ten".

I whispered to the therapists, "She sure as heck wouldn't be calmly wading in a pool if it were a 10". Been there, done that, and I was making all sorts of noises at the time.


Best of luck to you and your son.

Don

I have not been in a situation like this. I just saw the thread and although I have no advice for you I just wanted to say that your family, son, his wife and children are in my thoughts and prayers. Thank you to him for his sacrifices to our country and I hope that he will be abl eto keep his leg.

Good luck to your son with his recovery.

I hope the OP will come back and update us. I think I can imagine the stress she's under...maybe.

I do hope she or her son's doctors do give Dr. Dean Cole in Orlando a call to see if anything can be done to save his leg.

Don