For 6 months my phone was set on the loudest ringer possible, waiting for a phone call from Dennis, preparing myself for a phone call from someone else... always anticipating.
Pregnancy insomnia has already kicked in and I didn't get much sleep the night before last. I got up at 5:30 with Dennis, made him lunch and went back to bed. He was supposed to spend the day serving as medical coverage for training on the other side of the island. Basically that means he was going to sit in the van all day and study for his upcoming advancement exam.
At 8:30am I was knocked out and my phone started ringing...I didn't hear the first call, ignored the second one and finally answered when the number called for a third time in a 10 minute time period.
"Is this Mrs. Sanders?"
"yes..."
"This is Sgt. _______, has anyone spoken to you this morning?"
"no....."
"Well first of all I want to tell you that Dennis is ok, but he was involved in an accident this morning... we are at the hospital now. He said to tell you not to panic because you are pregnant and you don't need to stress"
I have a pretty bad problem when it comes to stressing but for some reason this phone call didn't even phase me. Maybe it's my body not letting me stress to keep this baby safe, maybe I'm already becoming mentally prepared for having a boy and experiencing a lifetime of ER visits...who knows. I even asked the guy if I needed to come down there or if Dennis would be able to drive himself home! I guess he realized that he had to tell me something to make me understand without giving too much detail... he told me that Dennis was going to be taken back for CT and xrays...he was pretty bad off when he first got there but that he was fine now and that they may keep him over night. At this point I realized that it sounded pretty serious so I jumped out of bed and headed downtown to the hospital.
When I got there, Dennis had been taken back for CT so I waited in one of the family waiting rooms with Dennis' former Chief, his current chief, and some of the Marines that were already there. I figured I'd go ahead and ask exactly what happened...
About a quarter mile off base, the driver lost control of the vehicle, overcorrected and hit the middle concrete median on the highway as they flipped a few times. The driver was ejected from the vehicle, as well as Dennis and another Corpsman. After the crash, a Marine from another vehicle came running up to Dennis and told him to hang on and that he was going to get the Corpsman. Dennis' response was "I am the Corpsman." At some point he started seizing and vomiting and fortunately one of the Marines knew to turn him on his side and pry his mouth open.
Even after hearing all of this, I still didn't know what to expect when I saw him.
This certainly was not it:
How is it that he goes 6 months in Afghanistan completely untouched, but he gets in a humvee accident in HAWAII?!? Not that I am complaining by any means whatsoever, at least with it happening here, I was able to see him and be with him as opposed to not knowing what was going on if something like this had happened over there. But it's so ironic- I made myself crazy constantly worrying about him... not even thinking twice that something could possibly happen when he was home safely.
Fortunately all of Dennis' CT and xray results came back fine. No bones were broken but he's got some bruising on his lungs, some pulminary contusions and he can't really move from the waist up because he's so sore. They sent him home yesterday afternoon...he's going to be miserable for a few days but he's fine.
***update***
Turns out, Dennis has a broken rib and a potential hairline fracture in his pelvis. So much for bones made of rubber! Way to go ER docs for not telling us and letting us find out in the xray/ct reports two days later!
I received a really funny phone call this morning from the Marine Corps Headquarters in Washington DC. They were calling to inform me that my husband had been involved in an accident and asked if I had spoken to him yet. I told him that I had, because he's currently laying on the couch right next to me. The guy was even more confused when I told him that he wasn't deployed!
Gotta love the Marine Corps! We are definitely ready for Dennis to get back to Navy side and working in a hospital again.
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Just when we thought this weekend couldn't get any crazier, we were woken up this morning by a Tsunami warning that's expected to hit around 11:30 Hawaiian time. I've experience many Tsunami warnings since we've lived here but this is the first one that people have actually started panicking about. Fortunately we live in the middle of the island and won't be affected... but like I said, life is never boring!
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