He returns to Walter Reed bone tired. Nothing to write in the green notebook today. In a small voice, he asks everyone -- his mom, the social worker, the nurses -- to leave him alone for a while.
It's too hard to concentrate, and these headaches won't go away. Worried doctors schedule him for a battery of tests.
Pfc. Garth Stewart undergoes therapy daily to try to regain strength. He lost 20 pounds and part of his left leg.
(Michael Lutzky/The Washington Post)
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| ___ Video ___  Purple Hearts
Marine Gunnery Sgt. David Dill, 39, and Lance Cpl. John A. Keeney, 20, were awarded the Purple Heart for their sacrifices in Iraq. Both were recuperating at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.
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Discharge
Across the ward, John Fernandez is packing up. His orthopedist, Donald Gajewski, is so pleased with the way John's wounds are healing, and how well John has managed on his day passes outside the hospital with Kristi, that he offers a deal: Discharge to Fisher House, a small inn on the hospital grounds for patients' families. But they need to return for daily dressing changes and physical therapy. The prosthetics lab will be able to start casting John for artificial limbs once his swelling has gone down.
"Take it easy," Gajewski cautions, "you're still healing."
The nurses cluster around as they leave, offering a round of applause.
At Fisher House, they are in the dining room eating lunch when John's grandparents arrive from Long Island.
"Gramps!"
"Johnny, Johnny." Frank Fernandez, 81, is a veteran himself, a Navy man who survived the bombing of Pearl Harbor and then had two torpedoed ships sink beneath him. He spent 33 hours in the water and won't go swimming to this day.
Mary Fernandez, 74, bustles through the door.
"I brought cookies from New York!" She kisses John. "How you feel? You're still pale."
"No, I'm great. I'm fine."
"Your eyes. You always have lively eyes. Your eyes are pale."
Frank agrees.
"You need more color," he concludes. "Color, color, color. That's the name of the game. Color! Before you know it, you'll be shootin' baskets. You know, why not?"
John smiles.
"Right now it still hurts," he tells them.
"It has to hurt," his grandmother clucks.
"Let it heal, John," his grandfather says softly. "Let it heal."
John and Kristi excuse themselves for a nap, and only after they leave the room does his grandmother's smile begin to tremble. Tears slip down her face.
New Arrivals
Nighttime on Ward 57. The rooms are quiet except for the beep of morphine pumps and the sound of a lone TV.
Downstairs, the triage room is bracing for an influx of new casualties. An hour ago, another medevac plane landed at Andrews Air Force Base.
A gallery of photographs from Walter Reed Army Medical Center by Washington Post staff photographer Michael Lutzky and a video report on Marines recovering from their injuries at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda can be viewed at www.washingtonpost.com/nation.
NEXT: Reconstruction
