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I'm a Marine Corps wife whose husband lost his leg in Iraq
on June 6, 2007.
I thought he was on patrol, but I got a call.
And it didn't really zone into anything other than, how would
you feel if I came home missing a limb?
And I would not be mad at you if you did not want
to stay with me.
And I was like, what's going on?
No, of course I'd stay with you.
Your leg does not make you my soon-to-be husband, because we
were engaged.
And so then I talked with another guy who said they'd be
in contact with me to let me know the details.
I mean, I have medical training, but it still didn't
prepare me.
He was not himself.
He was on heavy narcotics, and his spirits were down.
But I could tell when I came in the room, his
spirits were up again.
And it was a good visit.
Everybody was welcoming, and it was just good to be by his
side, finally.
We were at Walter Reed for almost two years.
He went through extensive therapy where I would see him
screaming or crying because-- then he would just be like,
just push harder, just push harder.
And it was a lot because you have to really push those
muscles in order to gain even 2% back use.
It was really hard because my husband's a Marine, and to be
able to take those physical things that he can't do, he
was not ready to admit that.
So it was very important for the medical care-- whoever's
beside the person, I found out, was so important for them
to be able to know when to push, know when to back off.
He has mood swings.
He would just be miserable.
He would not want to get out of bed till 4
o'clock in the evening.
He would wake up, and he would just be sweating.
And he would be like--
at first he wouldn't--
I think he had more nightmares than what I know.
But the ones that I know about, he would just wake up,
and he would just not know where he was.
And then sooner or later, once he got into the counseling and
he started--
he thought he was doing it for me.
He started realizing that he needed some of it.
And it was just a process.
It's like losing someone in your family.
He lost his leg.
The man he came back is not the same man that went.
And so he had to re-learn how to live in that man's body.
I knew he had a problem, and I knew that he was depressed.
I knew how I would handle it, but soldiers coming back from
war are so different.
And so that therapist knew how to talk to him.
He started seeing that it's OK.
I can do this.
I can talk with someone who knows what's going on, and
it's not bad to talk about it.
And so that's what he got from it.
I'd say it took him about a year to get out
of the woods totally.
He still has--
he just started working, which was a big thing for him,
because he needed it.
He needed some type of being.
When they're in the military they have a purpose.
They have a job.
He didn't have that anymore.
And so he needed that.
There are going to be good days.
There are going to be bad days.
And they're just days.
If I can help anyone to know that you can make it.
You can fight this, and it's a long fight.
But it's worth fighting.