openbah
I'm not lazy, I'm disabled.
Five weeks and 3 days after arriving at OCS, Openbah got NPQ'd.
On the morning of March 1st, Charlie Company had 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, breaking my right hip. Two hours later I was in an ambulance on my way to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.
I was prepped for surgery, which lasted a couple hours. I woke up to my girlfriend standing above my gurney, which made me feel about 10 times better. The surgery went well, there were no problems. My parents arrived around 2200 and we visited until around 2300.
I spent the next 3 days in my hospital bed. I managed to hobble into the TV/computer room once.
A femoral neck fracture occurs just below the ball of the ball-and-socket hip joint; this region is called the femoral neck. When a femoral neck fracture occurs, the ball is disconnected from the rest of the femur.
The most important issue with my femoral neck fracture is that the blood supply to the fractured portion of bone is often disrupted at the time of injury. Because blood flow is diminished, the fracture is at an elevated risk of not healing (hip osteonecrosis), especially in my case, where the fracture was badly displaced. If the fracture does not heal, a partial hip replacement will most likely be necessary. Unfortunately, hip replacements tend to wear out in younger, more active patients.
During surgery, a small incision was made on the outside of my right thigh. Using x-ray, the surgeon placed three screws across the fracture in order to stabilize the broken femur.
The sad news is, statistically only about 25% of patients who sustain a broken hip return to their pre-injury level of activity. For now, I will be on crutches for at least 12 weeks!
I was discharged from Bethesda at 1030 on March 4th but didn’t get out of the pharmacy until 1230. Even though they prescribed 2 weeks worth of percocet, they could only give me 45 pills. I wasn’t about to leave with only a few days worth of meds, so we waited until things were sorted out upstairs and I got my pills.
The 9 hour car ride back to Boston might have been the most painful 9 hours in my life. We pulled up at 2130 and were met by my sister and her husband, who came over to help get my things inside and get me situated for the night.
Since Saturday I've spent the majority of my time propped up on my living room couch. I got cable and internet back, and FedEx is bringing me TiVo today.
I'm getting loads of support, from my girlfriend, friends, and my family, all the way up to the Colonel of OCS. I'm getting emails of encouragement daily from people online I haven't even met.
As for returning to OCS, I’d love to go back and finish what I started and become a Marine Officer. I think deciding to go into the Marines was the smartest decision I ever made. I pray that my hip will heal and one day I'll be strong enough to return.
You can follow my progress on my blog at: http://openbah.com
On the morning of March 1st, Charlie Company had 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, breaking my right hip. Two hours later I was in an ambulance on my way to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.
I was prepped for surgery, which lasted a couple hours. I woke up to my girlfriend standing above my gurney, which made me feel about 10 times better. The surgery went well, there were no problems. My parents arrived around 2200 and we visited until around 2300.
I spent the next 3 days in my hospital bed. I managed to hobble into the TV/computer room once.
A femoral neck fracture occurs just below the ball of the ball-and-socket hip joint; this region is called the femoral neck. When a femoral neck fracture occurs, the ball is disconnected from the rest of the femur.
The most important issue with my femoral neck fracture is that the blood supply to the fractured portion of bone is often disrupted at the time of injury. Because blood flow is diminished, the fracture is at an elevated risk of not healing (hip osteonecrosis), especially in my case, where the fracture was badly displaced. If the fracture does not heal, a partial hip replacement will most likely be necessary. Unfortunately, hip replacements tend to wear out in younger, more active patients.
During surgery, a small incision was made on the outside of my right thigh. Using x-ray, the surgeon placed three screws across the fracture in order to stabilize the broken femur.
The sad news is, statistically only about 25% of patients who sustain a broken hip return to their pre-injury level of activity. For now, I will be on crutches for at least 12 weeks!
I was discharged from Bethesda at 1030 on March 4th but didn’t get out of the pharmacy until 1230. Even though they prescribed 2 weeks worth of percocet, they could only give me 45 pills. I wasn’t about to leave with only a few days worth of meds, so we waited until things were sorted out upstairs and I got my pills.
The 9 hour car ride back to Boston might have been the most painful 9 hours in my life. We pulled up at 2130 and were met by my sister and her husband, who came over to help get my things inside and get me situated for the night.
Since Saturday I've spent the majority of my time propped up on my living room couch. I got cable and internet back, and FedEx is bringing me TiVo today.
I'm getting loads of support, from my girlfriend, friends, and my family, all the way up to the Colonel of OCS. I'm getting emails of encouragement daily from people online I haven't even met.
As for returning to OCS, I’d love to go back and finish what I started and become a Marine Officer. I think deciding to go into the Marines was the smartest decision I ever made. I pray that my hip will heal and one day I'll be strong enough to return.
You can follow my progress on my blog at: http://openbah.com
