Special Forces

These past two days have left me awed and emotional. I took part in caring for 3 Special Forces soldiers who came in from down range. These guys are late 20's/early 30's, handsome as anything, scruffy, and completely sweet. They were involved in an enemy encounter that resulted in many casualties. These 3 guys were comrades, friends, and family. There is a 4th in the ICU. They were roomed in the same room with each other making for quite a crowded space. They suffered various degrees of injury. One had two gunshot wounds to his leg and a possibly ruptured testicle; another might lose his arm because a bullet went straight through the artery and the bone. The 3rd lost a leg below the knee. They arrived from Downrange on Monday morning; we got them by Monday night from the ICU. CPT K spent the majority of her night trying to take care of all of them, which is much too much for one person. Because I had beyond boring patients to myself, I jumped in there with her. Pain was the hardest part of the night. These guys were sky high, looking us in the eyes, and doing everything we asked of them. they were dirty, sweaty, tired, hungry, in pain, and we were moving them, lifting them, poking them, pushing pain meds that just weren't doing it because these injuries need more than just morphine. They were all NPO at midnight because they were going to the OR this morning so they feasted for the 2 hours they had before we took everything away. Today they were joking around as best, they were thrilled to have AFN TV, but it was night and no one could sleep and there was always pain in the way of light heartedness. One of the soldiers was laying a soaking wet bed and he stood up long enough to pull the sheets out from under him and place new ones. His first comment was "I think I'm going to pass out, but I'm going to stand up, just hold my back." They will all hopefully fly home to Ft. Bragg on Friday, so I said my good-byes when I got off shift. In the 2 short nights that I was helping care for them, they probably did more for me than I possibly could have for them; I wish I could have done more. Guys like them are what make this place worth it. I came home today and cried. Pray for them.

Oh yes, and I received 12 packages from the mail room today. Talk about exciting.