In Which Jer May Or May Not Get Onto A Plane

So Jer is currently in a holding area waiting. This is because the plane broke down. I am glad they are fixing it and giving it a thorough check over before they get in the air, as I would rather not have Jer half-blown-up twice if I can help it.

He's doing pretty well-- a friend of ours in Germany was able to visit him quickly right before they loaded him on the bus and said his spirits were high (Thank you, Jason!). He'd started running a low-grade fever last night, but while they didn't have any information about it today I'm assuming it's well under control or they wouldn't be moving him.

You will recall that it took three tries to get Jer up off the ground when he left, so while they've said it will only be a couple of hours I'll take that with a grain of salt. I'd like them to REALLY give that plane a good going-over, so I don't mind the wait.

They'll let me know when it's up in the air, and hopefully he'll be arriving some time late this evening or early tomorrow morning. The first 72 hours we'll have to limit our visiting and touching him, since they have to wait for the blood work to come back and make sure he doesn't have malaria or one of those other nasty little diseases you can pick up in Afghanistan. While Connor and I coming down with malaria would undoubtedly make for dramatic writing material, I think we'll try and avoid it at all possible. Especially for Connor. Yeesh.

Though now that I think about it, malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes, so kissing Jer shouldn't do anything. Unless he's picked up some other bug. Oh well; better safe than sorry.

We should with any luck get to go in and see Jer tonight though. I can't wait! Needless to say I slept hardly a wink last night. Good thing I now have some top-of-the-line under-eye concealer, thanks to my shopping extravaganza of yesterday.

As there's been a little confusion, I should probably clarify that when I said he was coming home, I didn't mean to our house. He'll be in the hospital-- probably for some time-- while they bolt pieces of him back together. While there he'll probably have a couple of plates inserted in his heels too, which should be amusing at airport security checks.

Jeremy's going to let me know as soon as he's up for visitors other than Connor and me, and I'll pass that along. We may try and space them out so we don't have the masses descending upon us all at one time. Give us a week or so-- I'll let you know if he's ready for y'all before then and you can come on down.

They've said that he'll be in a private room with a bed for me, which is nice. Connor can visit during the day but he's not allowed to spend the night, so I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to work that yet. I may be calling various people who live on post to see whether or not Connor and I can crash on their couches for a night or two so we don't have the commute in the morning. We left some flex time in our respite care hours so that Joanna can take Connor for a couple of nights and I can stay there, but that's not a long-term solution. It will largely depend on Jer's wishes, what procedures he's having done, and whether or not I can sneak past the nurses with Connor in a large duffel bag after visiting hours are over.

Joke, people. Joke. I could never fit all my new toiletries in there with a toddler crammed in my overnight bag anyway.


~Jess