Officer School Phase-I ends and surgery begins

This past frigid cold and snowy weekend I completed my last 3 day OCS (Officer Candidate School) drill here in Utah. We complete three of these drills once a month prior to shipping off to a full time duty training station. For Guard OCs around the country it will be in Ft. McClellan, AL. Here's a very cool video not made by me that shows a bit of what it's like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tDeP_snKUI

As you can see the first portion is not very fun. It includes alot of yelling, pushups and other exhausting excercises while they yell in your face for not making the correct decision after they taught you what it was or if you fail to make a decision at all. Believe me, failing to make a decision is worse than making the wrong one! The phase we just completed here in Utah totals 1 week long and it's called Phase-0. In Alabama we complete Phase 1-3 in steps, assuming we graduate to the higher step. This will be my second time around starting Phase-1. If you'll recall I shipped out for Phase-I this past June but had to drop due to a painfully nagging knee injury. I came back to Utah and limped through Phase-0 all over again (yep you have to start from the very beginning if you drop! BUMMER.).

KNEE SURGERY
And so Monday morning after my last OCS drill in Utah I was in the Tooele hospital to have my knee scoped by my orthopedic doctor. This surgery was my last resort as x-rays, physical therapy and MRIs have proved to show nothing of what is bothering my knee. I can walk just fine most of the time but once the knee is stressed or pushed beyong normal people limits: running long distances, carrying heavy loads or going up and down hills or stairs, it starts to really hurt. And since in OCS you RUN EVERYWHERE, there was just no way I could complete the course with my knee the way it is. Or should I say was, at least I hope. We'll see in a week when the swelling goes down and I can take my bandage off and the stitches are out and it heals up.

So there I was in a gown and a huge IV in my arm and getting briefed on the gurney they had me on. The anesthesiologist briefed us on how he'd put me under and monitor me. Needless to say LaShawn was freaking out. Didn't help we had watched a show the night before about people waking up during an operation still under paralysis of the drugs but though not able to move can feel everything. I wasn't worried.

The next thing I remember is the anthesiologist saying I'll give you some feel good medicine and then we'll put you under with some gas and other stuff. Well I remember him injecting the feel good/relaxer med into me and I'm awake feeling groggy. 15mins later I can see straight and LaShawn is there. My knee starts pounding a little bit; you know, the feeling you start to get right before flaring pain comes. So they asked if I wanted some pain med. I said yes thinking I'd get an ibuprofin. Nope, they gave me a Lortab. That was a mistake. That combined with coming out of surgery made my whole day a gross nightmare.

As soon as I got home I felt sick to my stomache and head. I hate the whole naseau thing but even worse when your head feels worse than your stomache. Maybe they're hand in hand? Anyhow, I tried to drink water to quell my stomache but it didn't work. I eventually vomited up the crackers, cranberry juice and water they gave me with the Lortab. I felt better but not well so I laid down. Later in the day I decided to get up and hobble to Wal-Mart. Big mistake. My head starts to spin as soon as I get out of the car and I'm feeling queasy. I wait in line for 5 mins hoping to get out and to the bathroom. It wasn't too be as such because I told the lady I had to go to the bathroom and she said she was almost done. When I told her I had to throw up she didn't say anything else. I made it into the bathroom but not before upchucking into my hand and trying to hold it in my mouth and hand. Finally I got to a stall and let loose. I barfed until I was dry heaving. At least I felt better and I cleaned up, returned to the counter and then left for home where LaShawn cared for me with chicken soup broth and ramen noodles the rest of the night.

One good bonus of this is my insomnia has taken a vacation and I've been able to sleep very well and deeply. Is it the 4-5 hours of sleep while at OCS or the amnesia or whole experience? Who knows, who cares? I'm sleeping and I'm feeling well. Oh and what was found in my knee? Doc found a bunch of loose tissue and cartilage which he cleaned up. Unfortunately it revealed a crack in my cartilage of the knee. This can only be cured through not running, lots of chondritin and glucosamine and luck. So I'm trying to do just that. OCS full time is coming up which I will have to get through and I think I can. After that I think regular running for fun is out of the question for at least six months as I try to get my cartilage to heal up, a hefty task.

James' first time in the water

Here are the pictures that go along with the email he sent to Niecie.

He is growing so much as a young man while serving the Lord, it is truly remarkable and humbling! all those beatings were worth it, mom!!!


Here's James baptizing a member of a family in South Africa.

Here's a family that James (on the right) and his companion Elder Thole (next to him on the left, i believe) are also baptizing :)

I think the kids are adorable, especially the cute little potbellied girl on the left.

Just to think about how sweet these kids probably are (and probably have no idea of what it means to be baptized if they're all 8 and above) and how much having the Lord in their lives will bless them... it's so humbling!!

God is good!


James has also had the opportunity to do baby blessings in the church down there. He and his companion blessed about 5 babies, according to one of his last emails. Babies are usually blessed within their first month of birth - or the first Sunday of the month, whichever comes first.


The first Sunday of the month is when the Church, as an organization, fasts and donates the money that would have gone to buy the food, to those in need as what's called a fast offering. It's also a time for us to focus our thoughts on the Lord and attempt to be like Jesus when he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. Some times, entire wards (local congregations based on location and zoning) will fast and pray for a specific member at the request of the leadership in the congregation.

Christmas in South Africa

Since I haven't paid for internet in my apartment this month (yet), I didn't get a chance to write James...but here's what he wrote me.

Pretty busy week. We actually did our Christmas celebration on Saturday since we were all met together for zone conference anyway. They did some pretty crazy things. We played games watched ‘over the hedge’ exchanged gifts, and of course had a lot of food. I’ll get to call home on Christmas day and it’ll be about 6 o’clock your time. Turns out we’ll actually be working that day. We’ll see what they say. I also hit another milestone on Sunday when my companion and I had a few baptisms and this time I got in the water! If the computers here decide to not be so retarded I’ll post some pictures. One man was waiting baptism for a while and was calling himself a member even a month before his baptism. He was like a little kid when he saw the font filled. The electricity got turned off in our house on Thursday and we thought it was just because of the storm, but it turns out that our landlord hasn’t paid the rights to his land in a while and our power has been out for 4 days and our food’s spoiled and nobody wants to take responsibility and we’re hungry, there’s no food, we can’t shower, we stink, we can’t cut our hair and….it sucks! Fortunately our weekend was worth it. I’ll let ya’ll know about Christmas.

write back woman, and logan's holding auditions f

It just ended there. I have no idea what happened lol.

Memorable Quotes from Mom

For those of you who aren't regular witnesses to the wisdom of Dianne's pop culture, german culture, health culture, diversity culture, any culture knowledge... allow us to enlighten you with some of our favorites.

Around Thanksgiving, 2007
"that's RIGHT. he was puff daddy, then p. diddy, and now he's kanye west."
yes, exactly mom... he just up and morphed into kanye.

There are more quotes on the way, i just have to find them. :)