My husband was injured in Afganistan in 2004 while building a training camp for refugees. He was building fences when he got hit in the head with a large steel pipe requiring him to get 20 staples in the top of his head. It was another 2 years after his injury before his x-wife made him seek treatment and discover what the extent of his injuries really were.
My husband suffers from TBI, PTSD, debilitating headaches, photophobia, tenitus, back and neck compression issues, severe memory issues, and many other minor nerve related issues from his injury.
I didn’t get together with my husband till 2008 after he received his injury and was seeking treatment. At the time we got together we had both just gone through our spouses cheating on us and he was just beginning his process for being medically discharged. My hubby was medically discharged in 2009 and that is when he moved back to California and we started building our lives together.
Our family is full of many dynamics. We have a total of SIX kids between the two of us all which live with us full time. Our 13 and 11 year old are from his previous marriage. Our 7, 6, and 5 year old are from my previous marriage, and the one that ties it all together is our newest addition that we had together who just turned 1.
Due to my hubby’s injuries he is unable to work, therefore he is a stay at home dad who shuffles kids to school and also volunteers as a highschool football coach for a small private Christian school. I however work for a CPA doing taxes and bookkeeping. During the off season I work 40+ hours a week and then from Jan-May I work 50-60 hours per week. So life for us is never dull.
In the past 4 years I have seen so much through my husband’s injuries. I have seen headaches so bad that he beats his head against the wall and then passes out from them. Tenitus so bad that it will drop him to the floor, due to his equilibrium being thrown off. Photophobia to the point where he wears dark sunglasses almost 24/7 and the slightest over exposure to light can make ruin a good day in a matter of seconds. I have experiences flashbacks, watched him relive moments when he was in theatre, and had him even disappear on my a few times. I have also seen him get bouts of anxiety due to being in unfamiliar environments or large crowds. All this while trying to expose as little as possible to our kids so they can have as normal as a life as possible.
I just recently was added to the caregiver program and became my husbands advocate as well. Howerever, its only at the lowest rating so I still have to work full time as well as take him to his appointments and do all the finances and run a majority of the household responsabilities. We live in a fairly small town and our VA hospital is an hour away from us, so it is almost imposable to meet up with anyone who might be even close to in the same situation as I am.
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