American Soldier says,
For crying out loud I don’t know whom I pissed off, but life for American Soldier is stressful lately. Last night my wife and I had to bring our daughter into the hospital. She was diagnosed with RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus). We thought she had the touch of pneumonia but that was not the case.
It all started when we were coming home late yesterday afternoon and my daughter began to wheeze and began to show trouble breathing. We stopped and I examined her and noticed that her glands were swollen and her chest was raspy. I told my wife that we’d bring her home and we’d keep an eye on her. We have a nebulizer machine at home so that typically does the trick.
Well later on that night her breathing got shallower and she was ‘tugging’ really bad. She was not doing very well. So we got dressed and ventured off to the very over crowded Emergency Room. We checked in and took our seats. There must have been about 40 people in that waiting area. My poor daughter just starred up at us with that helpless look and we held her close.
We finally got to the triage and the nurse could clearly see that our daughter was in bad shape. So she brought us into the ER immediately. Test after test and poke after poke our daughter lay there crying and so helpless. We felt helpless! Finally the doctor decided to do a test for RSV. RSV is the leading cause of lower respiratory tract illness in infants and young children. In the United States, approximately 50% of infants and young children become infected with RSV each winter season. RSV causes about 90,000 hospitalizations and 4,500 deaths per year in children under age 5 years.
So needless to say we were a bit concerned when the results came back positive. They admitted her around 2 am, and it was at that point my wife went home so she could get our other children ready for school in the morning. Our babysitter was already past her allotted time.
So I sat there last night watching my daughter so helpless and struggling just to breathe. I looked out the window and thought what in the world is going on. Why am I being tested like this? I don’t remember messing with the karma pool, so what gives?
Through the night the nurses came in and checked on her and gave her different treatments. I just held my daughter in my arms and told her it was going to be ok. Even though I knew that this is beyond my control. I could only be there for her.
At some point, I don’t really remember I fell asleep on the chair next to her bed. Never leaving her side. I awoke to my mother coming in and saying hello. My eyes full of sleepiness, and my body aching from sleeping on a makeshift bed. I went to stretch and was reminded that my arm is not how it was before and pain streaked down my body.
My wife would come in later and we spoke about me trying to extend my leave. So we put in a Red Cross Message to be delivered to my commander back on the post. The Red Cross did their thing and gathered all the information they needed. I was thinking that this would be an understandable request and besides asking for 5 extra days to be with my very ill daughter didn’t seem like a lot.
Wrong!
For some reason my commander, who is a different commander I had before. Decided that due to the fact that I didn’t have anymore leave days and that he spoke to a medical professional and they said that RSV isn’t as severe as everyone things that my request was denied! I’d like to know who this medical professional is!!
Denied!
All I could do was concur and roger that. I mean how could I argue the point. It’s cut and dry, black and white! He did pull the excuse that he was an officer and that I shouldn’t question his decision.
Roger that fuck face! I thought to myself. But only the first two words came out.
So on Saturday I will leave my very ill daughter in the hospital and I will make my way back to the Army way of doing things again. I am very disturbed at what transpired but I got no choice. One of the downfalls of the military is you don’t have choices sometimes. You have to bite your lip a lot. And in the end, you follow the orders no questions asked.
I promised myself that I would never put myself in the position to choose my family over the Army. That came and went today. I have some thinking to do regarding this event and how it will affect future ventures in this mans Army. God forbid if something happens to my daughter when I leave!!
So I asked that if people are praying for me, divert that energy to a 2 year old little girl who is very sick right now. Me leaving her right now in my opinion is a very stupid thing to do. So she will need something to fill that gap. A prayer or two is all I’m asking.
From a very sad and angry American Soldier.
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