New Life Choices

I am in a better place than I was last post.  Yesterday we had Jacob's doctor visit.  Here is the gist...

* Jacob's x-rays looked good.  I mean he has a rod in there now, so really we are just making sure his body isn't rejecting the metal.  His bones looked more together than when they were broken, so I guess that is good.

* Jacob has 5 incision marks.  Two big incisions, and three smaller ones.  The doc took out his 3 smaller incision stitches, and then put a hard splint back on his calf.

* The next appointment is Tuesday.  There he will get his other two incision stitches taken out, and he will get a hard cast on.  Then we wait for 4 weeks.

* If he has no complications from his cast being put on, he will be able to come home to Atlanta on Wednesday.  (YAY!)

* For the future: He will get his cast off in 4 weeks (5 weeks from now), if all goes well.  We will get all his paperwork, and files transferred over to the VA hospital in Atlanta, and go from there.  I mean we have a month to get it done so I am not too worried, or stressed.   He will then find out when he can start physical therapy   No weight, or work can be done on his leg before that point.  The doctor said in reality, he will be healing for 6 months, and not have function back until then.  Full function/running marathons, we are looking at a year....

So we asked the doctor the dreaded question.  What did he think about deployment in October?  He said it was out of the question.  I could hear Jacob's soul deflate a little.  We had talked about that as an option, so it didn't come as a complete surprise, but no one had said those words out loud yet.

So the great news: Jacob will be home on Wednesday, that is two days earlier than we thought! Super happy about that!

Then the news we need to digest: Our "plan" has been disrupted.  We had what we thought a laid out plan for the next year and a half.  We keep thinking of things that will need to be adjusted.  So what do I do when things seem a little out of control?  OCD the problem to death.  So in this case we broke down what could seem like an overwhelming issue, the fact that what we thought would be our future will not, into small achievable pieces.  Apparently we were headed down the wrong "plan" so we will adjust and have to go with the flow.

Step One: Get me home so I can continue my employment with Atlanta Public Schools.  DONE
--> Jacob's brother(s) will be here tomorrow to relieve me and help him around the hotel/getting to the doctors.  A huge relief!

Step Two: Get Jacob's orders changed, as he will not be active anymore.  DONE
--> We have him on R&R until Friday.

Step Three: Figure out if he can get disability pay, and for how long.
--> This will take some constant attention.  It is doable, but will take some calls, and constant pestering.  The Army will take care of you, but you have to go through the Army steps, and that can take a lot of time.  Our hope is to get his orders changed and in effect by Friday, so there is no lapse.  We will see.

The answer we get from step three will then put into action the next few steps.  We are looking at Jacob starting a career with his new bachelors degree.  We are looking at getting a new deck on our house, because of water damage.  We are looking at putting off finishing our dream basement. We are looking at my race schedule, and what is doable and what isn't.  We are really just starting from almost blank slate.

We have the general layout, where we will live, I have a job, and we have a house with a small zoo.  Everything else is kinda up for grabs.  It is not every year we get so much freedom to make new life choices.  When I look at this opportunity through my pink sunglasses (yes, I really do have pink running sunglasses!), it looks a bit more rose colored.  No really.  This is a new path, that we never saw coming, but everything happens for a reason, and we will forge this new path open to the new possibilities.

Who knows what this all might bring. But overall, I am pretty okay with the outlook at this time!