Chapter 19—

A/N: I would greatly appreciate some ideas… as I am running out of them again…. Please help.

"Mom, it hurts. I am not sure why." Jeremy responded. His knee hurt more than it had in several weeks. Steve did not say anything about any swelling or lack of mobility during physical therapy, but they were heading to Dr. Bartley's office for the results of the MRI.

But of course, Jeremy never really said anything to Steve about the soreness, and the stiffness of his knee. All they talked about was Amanda, and his life, nothing about the knee. Actually, Jeremy had just thought that he may have over done everything yesterday and this morning. Denise led Jeremy to Dr. Bartley's office. Dr. Bartley was the orthopedic physician that was assigned to Jeremy's medical team when he arrived home. A team of doctors had been assembled to help Jeremy, as he was in very rough shape when he came home. However, Dr. Bartley and Dr. Steinbach had been the primary physicians.

Dr. Bartley had taken a much more quiet approach to Jeremy. Dr. Steinbach was more gregarious than Dr. Bartley. Dr. Bartley believed in more of hands off approach where the patient and his family would allow for the healing process. Both doctors were well respected in their particular specialties, however neither doctor liked the others bedside manner.

Denise and Jeremy walked into Dr. Bartley's office. His office was very different than Dr. Steinbach's; instead of the elegance that Denise saw in Dr. Steinbach's office, there was a high level of practicality in Dr. Bartley's office. The desk was oak with a number of pictures of his family. There was sports memorabilia on the walls. Jeremy and Denise stood in the office waiting for Dr. Bartley. Finally, about five minutes after 3 Dr. Bartley walked in.

"I am sorry that I am late… I was with a patient. Why don't you have a seat?" Dr. Bartley said in his very southern accent.

Denise guided Jeremy to the chairs in front of the doctor's desk. As the doctor sat down he opened the file on his desk. Denise assumed that the doctor was looking at Jeremy's file.

"As you know I have received the results of the MRI from this morning… and they have me more than a bit concerned." The doctor said with his eyebrow raised.

"Dr. Bartley, why are you concerned? I thought that my knee was getting better." Jeremy said in amazement, because up until that morning he felt good about the knee.

"Jeremy, healing is going on, but from what I see on the MRI is some scar tissue forming right around here." Dr. Bartley said a he was pointing to a section of a knee on a diagram that was on his desk.

"Doctor…." Jeremy said trying to make him realize that he could not begin to see what he was pointing to.

"Ah, yes of course." The doctor was a little bit embarrassed as to his lack of sensitivity.

"What are you trying to say doctor?" Denise asked with irritation in her voice.

"I actually see two problems, one being there is significant scar tissue forming around the original injury, and the second issue I see is Jeremy has an infection in the knee. From the looks of it, it is a relatively new infection, but a rapidly growing one." Dr. Bartley finally said.

"Ok, what are we going to do about it?" Denise asked trying to sound more like a mother than a nurse.

"Well, right now my major concern is to clear up the infection. I would like to put Jeremy on IV antibiotics, which Jeremy you are going to need to stay in the hospital a bit longer and you are going to need to stay off of your knee as much as you can. I am hopeful that once we get rid of the infection the swelling in the scar tissue may go down, and we can deal with that accordingly.

"Doctor, I understand the seriousness of an infection, but is there something you are not telling me? And what caused the infection?" Jeremy sensed that there was something that the doctor was not saying… and that concerned him.

"I am not totally sure what caused the infection, but infections sometimes occur in patients that have a lot of hardware in their joints. As you and your mother are well aware of, when you injured your knee there was a lot of shrapnel, remnants of a bullet, basically a lot of very severe damage. Unfortunately, when the original surgery was done metal screws and plates were used to put your knee together. However, the immune systems do not always like that many foreign objects and infections are more prevalent. Patients who have joint surgery are at risk for developing infections of the hardware of the joints. Bacteria can travel through the bloodstream and attach to joints. Once bacteria have found the joints, the body's immune defense has a difficult time fighting the infection." The doctor explained clinically.

"Ok, I understand all of that, but I still sense there is something else." Jeremy replied trying to understand what the doctor did not want to tell him.

"Look, Jeremy there is a possibility that if cannot clear up the infection relatively quickly, that I am going to have to go back in and remove the hardware, and pretty much start over with the reconstruction of the knee. And if I do that you will probably lose the majority of the mobility of the knee. And I really do not want to do that, as you have made tremendous progress in regaining the mobility of your knee." The doctor explained; the tone of his voice changed from a clinical physician to a very concerned person.

"Dr. Bartley, so how soon are we going to start the antibiotics? And what is the actual course of treatment?" Denise had been listening, but wanted to let Jeremy deal with talking to the doctor, but she finally saw the need to step in.

"I would like to start Jeremy on IV antibiotics right away. I would also like to put him in a knee immobilizer, just to ensure there is limited motion, and I want to stress to the both of you that Jeremy needs to have very limited movement in his knee, as I do not want the infection to spread. Yes, Jeremy, you are going to lose some of the mobility that you have worked so hard to regain. But hopefully, with the antibiotics we can clear up the infection and not have to worry about surgery." The doctor tried to sound reassuring.

"So how much longer am I going to be in the hospital?" Jeremy asked, as he was looking forward to going home.

" I would have to say between 2-4 weeks to clear up the infection. And if we have to do surgery we are looking at 6-12 weeks minimum." The doctor grimaced at the thought of everything that Jeremy had endured in the past few months. This kid, the doctor thought, has been wounded in the line of duty, a bullet wound to the knee and reconstructive surgery, an explosion to the face that leaves him completely blind, a massive seizure that took weeks to recover from, and now a very serious infection to the knee, this kid just needed a break.

After the conversation ended, Denise and Jeremy went back to the hospital room. Jeremy had followed the doctor's orders and went back into the room via a wheelchair. Shortly after he returned to the room a nurse came in and started the IV antibiotics. While she was there, she also helped Jeremy change the knee brace he was wearing to the immobilizer that the doctor had prescribed. The immobilizer did not allow Jeremy to bend his knee at all. When the nurse left, Jeremy looked in the direction that his mother was standing, and still not seeing her, and said,

"Mom… why is all of this happening?" Jeremy was frustrated… he was confused; he was upset that something else happened.

"Honey I do not know. I am sure you are frustrated, but you will be fine… I am sure of it." Actually Denise was not sure of anything at this point in time. Jeremy had endured a lot in the recent months, but she never thought that he would get an infection that could ultimately rob him of the mobility of his knee.

"Mom, can you call Dad and tell him?" Jeremy asked. Denise was a bit surprised at the request as Frank and Jeremy had never been very close; in fact it had been her and Jeremy that had been close.

"Yeah, I will. In fact he was going to be my next call. I will call him now." Denise said, searching for her cell phone in her purse.

"Mom, I have been awake since about 330 this morning… would you mind if I slept for awhile? I am very tired." Jeremy asked… and he was very tired.

"No, that is actually that is a good idea, it will help to rest with the antibiotics. I will come back later… if you need anything call me on my cell, ok?" Denise said.

"I will." Jeremy said as Denise walked out into the hallway. Now she was having the same thought that Jeremy was… why was this happening? She flipped open her pink cell phone and hit Frank's cell number, and she let it ring four times and then she heard,

"Major Sherwood." Frank officially said.

"Frank, its Denise." Denise said, as she realized that Frank had neglected to look at the caller ID on the cell phone.

"Hi, where are you?" Frank's tone changed from the Army Frank to the family Frank.

"Well I just left Jeremy's room at the hospital… it does not look like he is going to be coming home any time soon." Denise replied.

"Why… did something happen?" Frank sounded concerned.

Denise then explained the whole situation from the scar tissue to the infection, and what would happen if they could not get the infection cleared up quickly. Frank became irritated, not because Jeremy or Denise had done anything wrong, but that Jeremy just could not seem to get a break. The two of them talked for a couple of more minutes, and they both decided that they would meet at home in an hour.

Denise said good-bye to Frank and walked back into Jeremy's room. She saw him, and he was fast asleep… and he looked at peace for the moment. She turned around and walked out because she did not want to wake Jeremy, because the best thing for him at the moment was sleep, and to let the antibiotics take hold on the infection.

As Denise walked to the car, she saw Roland. He waved to her, and she smiled. She and Roland had been friends ever since he and his wife Lt Colonel Burton had joined the post five years ago. Roland was a highly respected Psychiatrist specializing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD), who also worked at the hospital. He and his wife had recently separated, and a divorce was imminent. They had been together for over twenty years, but there was not much holding the marriage together.

Roland came up to Denise, and asked,

"How is Jeremy?"

Denise told him almost the same thing that she told Frank. She explained the infection, and the course of treatment, and how tired and frustrated she was. Roland like always lent a sympathic ear, and offered,

"Jeremy, how is he taking all of this?"

"I do not know, he was tired, and I know that he is frustrated… but is attitude is not bad, in fact this is just another set back for him, and he is dealing with it."

"You look like I need to call an emergency meeting of the Army Wives?" Roland said with a smile, hoping that he would want to spend sometime with her friends.

"You know that does sound like a good idea… but not tonight." Denise smiled, as the meetings of the Army Wives club was often away to blow off some much needed steam.

"Ok, then I will plan it for Friday night… you know in two days from now?" Roland was glad that Denise had taken him up on the offer.

"Roland, thank you. I do not mean to be rude, but I need to meet Frank at home in about 20 minutes…" Denise said looking at her watch.

"No problem… I will call Roxy, Claudia Joy, and Pamela at set up the meeting." Roland said flipping open his cell phone.

"Thanks Roland." Denise said as she got in the car and drove away. She got home just as Frank was pulling in the drive way.

Frank got out of the car and just looked at his wife. She was a beautiful woman Frank thought, but he knew the stress level she was carrying was high. The look on her face when she got out of the car just said it all… she was tired, angry, sad, mad, and very frustrated. And there was nothing that they could do about it. Frank let Denise fall into his arms, and he just held her.