Med Board Process

We have very mixed feelings about the Med-board process that is currently ongoing. Maybe it's that I am so connected to him that I feel what he feels? The Army is in a process by where they determine whether he is fit to stay in the Army (which they will find that he's not...we know this is ineivatable). So there is this pending sad day that is inching closer and closer while at the same time we can't wait for it.

It is sad because putting on that uniform every month makes him feel like he did something important and is a part of something that is so awesome and badass! It puts a smile on his soul to be a part of it.

We can't wait for that day to come because then he won't have these weekends each month and the 2 weeks a year to have so much stress of "performing" that it exhausts him and puts him in bed with a migraine. We plug along with life and then when drill comes it's this mad rush to raise our standards to come close to the Army's and by the end of the weekend he's crashed and burned and laid up in bed for a couple days.

Another stressful part of the Med-board process is that it has been explained to me that by the end of it all, the Army will give him a "rating" that will go hand in hand with the VA rating. Their findings will be final. So this is a fight where they want to see his best days and make light of his injuries while still showing he is unfit for duty....that way they won't have to pay him when they kick him out....and we have to make sure they see his worst days and show how debilitating his injuries are to his daily life and our future so that when they kick him out, they will compensate him for his actual service and sacrifice!

Today he is supposed to be at his make-up AT (that's what they call the 2 week drill that occurs once a year). They had him do a 2 week make-up because due to his injuries he is unable to go out in the field and perform the activities the other soldiers will be doing for AT. So his make-up time is spent showing up at the Armory in Salem, in uniform, at 8 am and then sitting there and doing what little activity he can do until 4 pm. I say he is supposed to be there because he is actually laying in bed with another migraine. This is his 3rd one in 6 days. He attended make-up drill all last week and then Saturday and Sunday he had his regular monthly drill so that's a lot of stress for him to perform day after day.

They will never understand how hard it is for him to just get up and be there by 8 am (he could not do it without my extensive help) and then when I pick him up at 4 he is exhausted and tired as if he took the bar exam all day after getting no sleep. If he had lost a limb, they would all see his sacrifice and would imagine how hard life will be....but because they can't see his brain injury and how its lasting effects take a toll on him they can easily dismiss him as lazy or faking it. Most of his fellow soldiers have been blown up multiple times and they are "just fine" (or so they think they are)...so what's wrong with Harris? I just hate that uninformed ignorant thinking.