The MQU, Pt. 1

Continuing, the day after the claymore range incident I was back on crutches. The clinic, Winder's Health Clinic, gave me some ice packs, a foot brace, compression stockings for my ankle, and some Tylenol and basically told me to tuff it out. I couldn't even stand on my foot. That night I started to come down with something, now for the first few weeks of basic everyone's sick, its called Joe's Crud. It's like you have pink eye 24/7, the second it heals someone gets you sick with it again, there are other things too, your given up to 7 vaccinations at once at 30th A.G. so your inviting disaster. But this was alittle different, I felt like a had a fever, I was tired, and I was coughing up blood.

I wanted to lay down on my bunk, but it was only 15:30, to even think of resting before 17:00 was equivalent to jumping into shark infested waters then splashing and yelling, so I went into the stalls and tried to sleep there. After half an hour of sitting in a room filled to the brim with methane and ammonia, I decided I might as well just tell the Drill Sergeants about how I was feeling. So I got up and crutched over to the Drill Sergeant's office in the front of my squad bay, the first thing DS Furlow said to me was "Buffalo (That was my nickname), you look like the fucking walkin dead, whats wrong?" I wasn't sure what he meant, was he talking about my crutches? I responded "Sorry Drill Sergeant, what?", to which he responded
"Your fucking pale Burnham." I told him I had a fever, and that I wasn't feeling well, he nodded to the other DS in the office, and got up, took an ear thermometer, and took my temp. 102.7.

He drove me to the Emergency Room at Martin's Army Community Hospital (MACH for short). When we got there they took my dog tags, and sat me down on one of those hospital beds, gave me an IV, then sent me to get X-rays to make sure I didn't have bronchitis in my lungs or whatever. A tall, old Lieutenant Colonel sat down with me, he gave me some Cherry Flavored Cough Syrup and Tylenol and recommended me for the Military Quarantine Unit so I could hang out with other sick people and get worse, oh well, at least my blood tasted like Cherries after that. The MQU wasn't that bad really, you didn't really have to make your bed to speck, you could eat whenever you wanted to, watch movies whenever you wanted to, and sleep whenever you wanted to, and sometimes this one worker whom I can't mention by name for obvious reasons would bring in his PlayStation 3 and let us play Guitar Hero with him, he also had some great war stories, he was Military Police and a Combat medic in Iraq back in 2004.

But for me, it was all hell.

All I could do was sleep, I didn't have the energy to even walk to the T.V. , the lunchroom had lots of food and drinks, but what use was it? Every glass of water felt like burning fire the second it hit my throat, now imagine how solid food felt. And my last privilege, my bed, my god given right to sleep whenever I wanted, even that was taken from me. I remember laying down, the second I went from standing vertically to laying down horizontally I couldn't breath, at least not while I was on my back, I had to turn on my side or I would wind up coughing nonstop. I couldn't fall asleep for more then 5 minutes before I fell into a coughing storm and woke up. I would constantly go from Freezing to Boiling, switching between my sweats and my shorts constantly.

There was one time that I managed to fall asleep for awhile, I had a dream. Me and my Girlfriend were at the Miami Airport, we had just arrived from New York, me and her alone to start a new life together. She was talking to someone at a counter to arrange for a taxi to come pick us up and take us to a hotel for the night, I stepped outside to see what downtown Miami looked like, there were skyscrapers everywhere, and it was so warm... I turned around and went back inside, she was gone, there were so many people inside. I started calling her name, but I didn't get a response, I checked everywhere but I couldn't find her. I went back outside and started screaming her name, it was night, I ran all around calling for her. Where was she? Was she lost, was she exploring the city, did someone hurt her? I was afraid, so afraid that I would loose everything, all I had was her, she was the world to me. And as I ran, it started to rain, within seconds I was drenched, and it was so hot out I could swear I was sweating at the same time.

I woke up hyperventilating with one of the Nurses and some of the other soldiers standing over me, it was about 01:00, I had been screaming her name for about a minute, then they saw me breathing hard and thought I was suffocating, they had called an ambulance and when it arrived they took my blood pressure and pulse: 180/110 and 135. They stuck me with another IV and took me into ER for observation that night... In reality, my girlfriend was safe and sound sleeping in her bed 1261 miles away from me. I missed her with more force then the Niagara Falls. It's hard, being so far away from someone you care so much about. The best way I can describe it is like your walking down a road, and all the while there's a bungie cord pulling at your heart, every step you take you want to turn back even more. I couldn't tell you how many times I pictured myself stepping off the bus, her jumping into my arms, and us just holding each other for eternity... Sometimes the thought of being with her again was the only thought that made it possible to get through the day...