Luke Schmitz Survived Iraq

Its 11:00 at night and I'm sitting here trying to figure out where the day went. Seriously...I didnt even remember it was Friday until I hit the hospital. I headed over to Luke's room at 9:00 and he was just getting up for the day. Tim said he was there starting at 8:40 and Luke was out like a light so he went down for coffee, then breakfast, then mail, and finally when he came back, Luke was up. I entered the room just as a nurse left, so I said goodmorning and asked how his night went...obviously well if he was still sleeping! They gave him Benedryl (sp) that knocked him out 'before the nurse even left the door.' He wanted to clean up so I gave him privacy and went for some breakfast. MMmmm..the french toast here isnt too bad. Anyway went back up and chilled out for a while, watched some bad tv until the Psychologist came up. He continued to ask Luke questions and I felt a little out of place to I excused myself and said I would be in the waiting room. Waited for about 10-15 minutes reading a very uninteresting magazine when the Dr. came in and wanted to chat with ME!!! ahhhh, I've never talked to one of those guys before. So we had a good little 15 minute chat about Luke's wellbeing, then our relationship and he made sure I was fine..la de dah....well it was about 10:25 and I had to go shopping with the ladies of the guest house at 10:30!!! oopsy! So I hurried back over to the guest house..and yeh, we didnt even leave until 11:15.
But the ladies and I, including Nancy of course, enjoyed lunch at Apple Annies, then moved on to shop around at these little...well gift shops like jewelry, hippy clothes (not kidding) pottery, you know...those kind of shops. Nancy and I both walked away with watches and her a beautiful peice of pottery, me a stone candle holder.
We get back to the guest house and relax for a while. Then I headed over to BAMC to catch Luke after PT. I sat in his room for about 5 minutes until he came wheeling through the doors..using one leg to move forward and the handrails with his good arm. Quite a site to see.
Now I noticed when I entered the room that there were crutches sitting against the wall. HMMM
LUKE WALKED 60FT TODAY! On crutches of course, but 60 ft!!! thats awesome. the PT guys are really excited about having a hard worker like Luke. He does exactly what they tell him to do and works super hard. But thats LUKE..of course he does.
Well blah blah blah...THEN Jim and Cathie came to visit. Cathie in tears and Jim with a big grin on his face. I think it took Luke saying OK CATHIE before she would let him go from her hug. :) You could really tell Luke was excited they are here. He did so well today, no naps! for the first day. He told more of his story and we told him some of the struggles he went through. he didnt know his knee caused all the problems with infections and him being sick.
later after everyone left he asked me if he was going to be ok...well of course, then he asked if he was over the worst of it. I said that the infection was gone, but still more PT to go and things are going to be a rollercoaster for a while. He is still thankful to be alive and not more seriously hurt. He was glad they took his knee if it caused the problem, he said hes the kinda guy thats wants things off and doesnt really care if thats what needs to be done. What a guy huh?
Lastly, Tim Nancy and I enjoyed an oversized dinner at Red Lobster, where for the first time ever, I was embarrassed at a restaurant. Some guy came over to me, apologized for interupting our meal and said some words to me and then gave me his number!!!ahhhhggggggg! thats never happened..I didnt know what to say. But the guy next to us gave a chuckle after the guy left and we all joked about ripping up the number...but Nancy said I should show Luke first! ha. what a day. Good Day.