BLOG 48 Naval Life Finale (continued from Blog 47)

(This picture was before I was promoted, it is just all I had.)

(After beefing up)

My new body gave me ambition to join a softball team and a bowling league. I cannot say that our softball team did well. But, the bowling team won first place in two leagues and my bowling scores started at 135 average and ended averaging a 187. (I probably could not even break 100 today!) My first year, besides our team trophies, I won High Handicap score. I, also, played a lot of tennis and racquetball) It made me start getting homesick and I got a calendar and started marking off the months and days I had left.

( Talking to Joanne again.)

The last year I went to the church that Joanne invited me, I supervised a church volleyball tournament to make money for our Military And Single’s class. It was a success, so I got a call from the group preacher asking if I would do another one. (Even though I did not attend the church anymore.) I accepted and ran into Joanne again. My feelings for her came back, but I kept my distance.

During the tournament, a player twisted her ankle and it started swelling. We did not have medical equipment, so being in the gym, I had someone to go get a bag of ice, and sent someone to grab a pair of knee braces and an ace bandage. The tournament was still early so I needed to stay when we got her ready for going to the emergency room. I did not hesitate. I called Joanne over and gave her my car keys. I asked her to take the player in my car. She did and our romance started revising.

We never really made it official again, but we did get together a few times before I left. When we did go out, we talked about possibly still getting married, but under the conditions that we move to Dallas, Texas. I explained that when I got home, I would buy her a plane fare to come see if she could do the move! Joanne and I agreed to do the visit, but that she would pay her own way. But, until I left San Diego we were free to see others. (Of course, I felt that was permission for me to party with my Naval Friends, and more.) Though the chief technologist and I shared an office at work, all we ever did was talk about things and made assumptions of other sailors!

(Another lesson happened)

One day at work, we had a patient that was being very belligerent to everyone. I kept getting called to the back to talk to him. It was already at least three times when the technologist doing his study came in to the office, again! She said that he would not get on the camera and would not follow commands. Very perturbed from the constant interruptions, I boisterously said to go back and tell him that we were through begging and he HAD to get on the table. The technologist returned saying that he STILL would not cooperate.

We were getting behind on our tests, so I went to the waiting room to talk with his wife and explained that he was being uncooperative and would she go in the room and try to convince him to do the study. About five minutes later, the wife came to my office crying heavily. She told me there was something wrong because her husband would not respond to her. About the same time, I heard a code blue to Nuclear Medicine. I leaped up, asked his wife to stay in the office with Dave, and I closed the door behind me.

I made it to the room and the man was on his stretcher leaning into his lap. I checked his pulse and heartbeat and could not find either. By this time the code blue team was arriving and was pushing us aside. Someone got the crash cart and the team began trying to revive him. It did not work and he died. I told the doctor that his wife was sitting in the office and needs to be told. When we got to the office, I signaled to Dave to come out. The doctor closed the door, but you could hear the wife bawling and screaming.

After the talk, the doctor took her back to see her husband. After everything calmed down, the Head doctor looked at me and said that he was going to need a letter explaining what happened. When I took it to him, the doctor began scolding me for not realizing that everything the patient was doing were symptoms of someone possibly having a stroke or heart attack. He insisted that we ALL have a meeting going over symptoms to watch for when things like that happened. I felt personally at fault because the technologists were doing what I told them to do. I could not believe that I sent his wife back to talk to him, only to cause her to see her husband dying!

(Time to get discharged)

For your information, I want to tell you that the military has/d the best time off for us. You are given thirty days of vacation/personal time off every year that started in your first year. they gave each of us a half day off since we had to do call so much. The military took every holiday off. (Even the ones like Columbus Day) Best of all, your personal time could accrue up to sixty days and if you saved them up, you may take personal time connected with your discharge.

My discharge day was April 13, 1987. But I wanted out on my birthday on March 29, 1987. So, I saved enough days to do this. Your not discharged until the actual day, and you had to be available if something happened that would make you needed. Then, on the discharge day, you called your base and officially checked out. Also, at the bottom of your contract (in small letters), it states that if you are active duty, you are obligated to remain active duty if a crisis calls for your help. Those fourteen days in limbo were so long, believing that you could be called back at anytime before you are officially discharged.

(Blog 49 continues with My Naval Discharge.)