Robbie and Joanie

Join us as we follow the post injury life of Robbie and Joanie and the their own remarkable Road to Recovery, in Joanie's own words. 

            On October 1^st 2010 my husband was actually killed and brought back to life in Afghanistan.  Call the wording overly dramatic, traumatic or intense, but that’s exactly what it was.  He died in Germany where they waited to find out if he was stable enough to make the trip back to the U.S., and coded again when they moved him to a step down Intensive Care Unit 3 weeks later at Walter Reed.  Every day was a new battle to keep him alive. 

That was the day our world began to be turned upside down, ripped inside- out, chewed up, spit out, and then stepped on for the next 2 years. We actually weren’t married at the time he was hurt, we got married in December, got a puppy, and eventually our own apartment away from the hospital.   We were put in base housing within walking distance of the hospital when he was released because we did not have a car with us.  He came back to The States with his hospital gown- his military and dog tags arrived about 2 weeks later.  I packed a suitcase, waited for 2 days (until I got word where they were sending me), and that’s what I lived off of for the next 3 months, until a family member drove my car from Ohio to Texas for us.  The point is, there were happy moments but we had almost gone back to basic survival instincts; we were grateful that he was alive, to have each other and that most of him was at least functioning. 

However, we still found ourselves struggling.  Almost like we were trying to swim upstream with weights on.  Robbie had started school and I was searching for a job.  We were blessed and I got pregnant, which we were told couldn’t happen. However, nobody wanted to hire someone that was pregnant and hadn’t worked in almost 3 years.  We were having trouble paying bills and my car kept dying and nobody could figure out what was wrong with it.  That’s when the Coalition stepped in and found us a dealership willing to work on our car, no matter the cost. When this dealership was unable to determine what was wrong with the car, they offered us a trade in. With help from the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes and our local River Rats we were able to get a suitable car to take our new born to her appointments while Robbie was at school.  Also, I was offered a position in the Coalitions “Heroes Thanking Heroes Program.”  It allowed me to work from home, make my own hours, take care of my husband and daughter in such a stress free manner.  It gave me a sense of self worth because it allowed me to contribute monetary value toward our household.  I was able to start to dig us out of the hole we were in and not feel like I was sitting with my hand out. I was working toward our future instead of asking everyone else to figure it out for us. 

Today we are a whole different family. Robbie is going to be starting a Physician Assistant Program. I am in school, working for the HTH program, on the fundraising committee and we volunteer together at our church. As of right now we don’t know exactly what our future holds but we are excited to keep moving forward and use what we have been through to motivate us and to pay it forward.