bugnut's Blog

A brief story of life
Mar 13, 2008 | 12:12 PM PST
I am going to enter this in my blog because there is not enough room in my profile. At the early age of 16 and 18, my wife and I ran off and was married much against our parents wishes. I graduated after we were married and landed a good job. We had 4 kids one daughter and three sons.In the mid 6o's I contracted a deadly flu, HONG KONG Flu, and transferred it to my family. We lost our oldest son and our youngest son, ages 31/2 and 6 months. We were devastated we did not have the support of our families. I just went off the deep end and having no regard for my wife and two kids I joind the draft. I felt like I just needed get away and get sent to Viet Nam. As it turned out I was chosen for speacial schools and advanced very quick.I was then stationed at Corpus Christi Texas. My wife and kids and I had made a trip back to Oklahoma and had a severe auto accident, my wife was injured so bad, my daughter just sufferd broken bones and cuts, my son lost his right eye and half the right side of his head, I hade a broken neck in three places and multiple other injuries. The took us all to the same hospital in Tulsa. They seperated us to different places in intensive care. They patched my daughter up and my wifes brother agreed to take her home withem , luckily my wife had his number in her purse. After being there fo a day the Army sent a helicopter and picked me up and took me to Ft Sill, 300 miles away. I did not have a clue as to how my family was doing. I was gone for 2 months with very limited information about my family. I was finally able to go on medical leave and went to my wifes mothers house she had finally felt she needed to help. My wife and I recuperated there and when my son was able to come home about 4 months, we went back to Corpus Christi. I was then sent off to Viet Nam, which I was involved in so many situations that I still cannot talk about. I then was stationed at Ft Lewis, Washington. While we were there I had a country western band, I played lead guitar, (beleive that?) While we were playing at an Elks Club on Woodbe Island(sp), we had some friends tell us about two little girls that were abandoned and abused. We imediatly left the club they took us to the house and we picked the two little girls up and took them home. One was 17 months the other 6 months. The next morning I went to JAG and started the paper work, whithin 6 months we had birth certificates with our last name. Have you ever thought that things happen for a reason? I do. By that time I was suffering pretty bad with PTSD, and decided to end my Army career. Moved to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, bought a house got a job found that I could not work for someone else. I started my own steel fabrication company. Then in 1990 our house burned down, we lost everything. I had a good insurance and they rebuilt the house. By that time we were tired of city life so I bought the 20 acres we now live on. But then on Nov 1st 1999 I dropped a 600lb steel beam on my left hand after that my company went down and i had to disolve it. After 9 surguries the first year my hand is somewhat re-attached, not too functional no use in the thumb. That retired me for good. I had already had a drinking problem due to the night mares and sleepless nights, this just added to it. I started going to the VA for help and they have me on meds that help a lot. I have since stopped the hard alcohol and have had pulmanary failure put on oxy 24/7 and have had a couple of heart attacks. Now you can understand why I hold my wife (Mary) so next to my heart. She has stuck by me when I ran everyone else off.

John

Many Thanks
Mar 8, 2008 | 10:34 AM PST
I would like to begin this entry with a huge thanks from the bottom of my heart to all my friends on GG for all their prayers and support.It just don't get any better than this! My sleep study is over and I don't want to see the inside of another hospital room, never. I feel great getting better each day. My wife told me I could spend all day on here if I wanted to. YEA! I went out to my sunroom yesterday and started a few hibiscus seeds. Last fall before I had all my health issues, I had bought a dumptruck load of mushroom compost. Does anyone know if I can use it as potting soil? Thanks again for everything. John

The SUN is shining
Mar 5, 2008 | 11:59 AM PST

Today I am on my way to spend another night in a medical institution. While I was in the hospital they hooked me up to all kinds of $%^#@, and said that I stopped breathing 90 times in one hour. Now they are going to hook me up and run a sleep study, so I can have another piece of equipment to help me breath at night. All I want is to be able to grow some seeds and watch them grow and flower. I dont enjoy at all just to report on sad and bad things in my life. My goal is to accept my friends offer and accept plant starts because my wife said she would help me this year to enjoy what I love to do and that is growing flowers and taking pictures. I have always been one to take care of anything that came up, but, here I am feeling like I am begging for support. More later.

John

It's just good to be back
Mar 3, 2008 | 5:03 PM PST
You know sometimes we really don't know what is in store for us everytime we wake up to a beautiful day, rain or shine. But there is one thing that I do know is that the power of friends and their prayers. They did get the old thing ticking again and I just fulfilled the one thing I have wanted to do for days--Logging on to Garden guides