Five weeks and 3 days after arriving at OCS, this candidate is on his way home. I’m at Bethesda Naval Hospital and have some time to kill, let me tell you how much things suck right now.
Last Wednesday was the Combat Readiness Test. For those that don’t know, the CRT includes a rope climb with full gear (no pack), 3-mile run, casualty evac drills, push ups, and a coordination and speed drill.
Everything was going fine until the end of the 3-mile run, and I’m talking the last 20 meters. My right leg started to hurt real bad, and I started falling out of the squad. Five seconds later and SNAP, I collapsed to the dirt. My squad leader told me to get the hell up but I told him it wasn’t happening and to finish the run. Seconds later I was surrounded by Marines asking me what hurt and telling me everything was going to be okay. I told them I couldn’t move my right leg at all and they began screaming “CORPSMAN!” I was quickly lifted onto a stretcher and double-timed all the way to the medical building.
An hour later after receiving X-Rays, I was told the bad news. I had fractured my right femur, basically breaking my right hip. To say I was devastated would be a grave understatement. Two hours later I was in an ambulance on my way to my current residence in Maryland.
I was quickly prepped for surgery, which lasted a couple hours, during which surgeons inserted 3 screws in my femur head. I woke up to Adrienne standing above my guerney which made me feel about 10 times better. The surgery went well, there were no problems whatsoever. My parents arrived around 2200 and we visited until around 2300. Since then I’ve been stuck in my hospital bed. I finally got crutches today which allowed me to hobble into the TV/computer room.
Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, I was told by my surgeons that even though the surgery went well, there is still a fair chance that my femur will not heal correctly and I might need more surgeries down the road. For now, I will be on crutches for at least 12 weeks.
As for returning to OCS someday? I’d like to go back and finish what I started and become a Marine Officer. If that’s medically impossible I guess I’ll just deal with that when the time comes.