Round 2

Well, two operations later and the foot is (hopefully) fixed!  A new application has been submitted to the Army but it's thought that it may take anything up to a year to be processed.  Fingers crossed!

Although the operation in November went well initially, a second operation is now needed as the bone has fused together making the toe inflexible. The second operation, which involves removal of the metatarsal head and insertion of a metal rod, takes place on Wednesday of this week under general anaesthetic. It is likely that a career in the army will be out of the question following the procedure.

Operation 'Metatarsal Head'!

Never thought I'd see the day, but at long last, tomorrow Connor will be having his foot operation!  It's being conducted under local anaesthetic by his surgeon and a colleague who's flown in from Cyprus especially.  He'll be off his feet for a good two weeks but it'll be worth it if it works, and there's no knowing how successful it will be until they cut it open tomorrow and see what's really going on.  As soon as there's any more news you'll be the first to know!

Coming home

If someone had told me 278 days ago that my son would start his army training but not complete it, I would most probably have laughed.  There was no way I could have known, or expected, at that point that my gritty determined son would later be discharged on medical grounds!  Although I have known that this was inevitable for some time now, I haven't been at liberty to share the news until all family members had been made aware. 

He's now under the care of his specialist who has said that he will need an operation on his foot to remove particles of broken bone which have become detached and have lodged elsewhere in his foot, causing pain.  The problems have been caused by Freiberg's Disease which is a problem with the metatarsal heads, which hopefully might be treatable.

Despite being devastated when I first found out he was not going to complete his training, I've now got over the initial shock and am just really keen to get him home and get his foot treated.  Luckily, he's been informed that he will be allowed to reapply to the army after 12 months so long as he has made a full recovery following his operation.  He is staying on at the college for a little while longer to complete the education aspect of his training which will allow him to enter at a more advanced level in the future, as he will be reapplying as an adult.

The last few weeks have been a time of huge disappointment and upset but he's had a fabulous experience at the AFC and has done lots of things that he wouldn't otherwise have had the opportunity to do.  He's worked hard, played hard and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.  For now then there is little more to say.  It may be a little while before we can get the operation organised but as soon as I have any further news I will post it on here.

I just want to add a big thank you to everyone who's followed Connor's progress over the last eight months, and to everyone who's asked after his wellbeing.  Thank you all.

Family Day

The junior soldiers and AFC did an excellent job of hosting Connor's platoon's family day today.  They know how to put on a show!  It was great to be able to see first hand what our JSs have been up to this past 36 weeks; physical training, shooting down at the range, war games and camouflage training.  It was a real eye-opener too - I tried lifting one of the backpacks that they have to carry and run with and I couldn't even get it off the ground!  And that was without their guns and the extra equipment they have in their webbing.  I was astonished at how heavy the guns are!  The ration packs were delicious, especially the meat stew one that I tried.  I wouldn't go hungry in the field, that's for sure! 

A huge thank you!

The thing about Connor is that you can be sure he knows lots of people and he always seems to know the right people!  I've been so worried over the last few weeks about the state of affairs with his foot, but it just so happens that Connor knows somebody worth knowing who knows something worth knowing about feet (if you follow me!).  This good samaritan has examined Connor's foot and believes that it can be treated (although to what extent I'm not sure) however, he has offered a little ray of hope in what was otherwise a very grim prospect and for that I am hugely grateful (as, I'm sure, is Connor!).  So, to that good samaritan I'd like to say a very big thank you!  And for Connor, fingers crossed!

A waiting game

As I suspected, no definitive news.  We have to wait now for the specialist to submit his report and recommendations to the army.  The not knowing doesn't help.  Connor's still allowed to go on his hockey trip to Spain next week, although clearly he will be unable to play.  Perhaps a week in the Spanish sunshine will lift his spirits a little though.  He then has a week on leave before returning to barracks and hopefully the report will have been received by the end of the holidays.  As soon as there's any news I'll let you all know.

Fingers crossed!

For weeks I've been waiting for Connor's appointment with the specialist and now the day has finally arrived and my heart is in my mouth.  I'm trying to push the idea of a medical deferrment to the darkest recesses of my mind, but it's not happening too easily.  His foot appears to be seriously and significantly damaged which isn't a problem per se, except it all depends on whether or not it can be fixed to an adequate standard and how long recovery is likely to take.  My fear is that today will only lead to further investigation and that no final decision will be made.  I pray instead that we will discover that all this time we have been considering the worst case scenario and that all will be well.  Fingers crossed!

Look Mum - no broken bones!

Glorious sunshine, good beats, two hours in the car with my JS and a pub lunch.  It doesn't get better than that!  I haven't seen Connor for what seems like an age but yesterday I managed to catch up with him when I took him back to barracks after his weekend at home.  He's been so busy lately having returned from a skiing trip to Italy a week or so ago then going straight out again onto manouvres for almost a week.  Surprisingly, he even managed not to break anything!  He seems to have made good progress with the skiing, especially since he's never done it before.  He's making plans to complete a ski instructors course some time in the future.  For the time being he's back to the hockey though which he really loves.  The manouvres seemed to go well by all accounts too with him excelling at the shooting.  I think that's probably his favourite bit.  So much excitement!  This week he's back to PT and education so he'll be back to earth with a bump no doubt! 

Happy but exhausted

It seems an age since I posted any updates on here.  Connor was been home a couple of weekends but is now away for the next few weeks.  I managed to spend a good 45 minutes with him on the telephone last night and can report that he was in extremely high spirits!  They've had a busy week and he's pretty exhausted but he had loads to tell me.

He seemed particularly pleased with his performance during the escape and evade activity.  This is the army's version of hide and seek.  Basically the juniors are required to get from checkpoint to checkpoint whilst being chased and must evade capture at all costs.  Connor's description of this was something along the lines of "well good, but hard" with the highlight involving him diving over a barbed wire fence head first, puncturing his hands on the razor sharp barbs as he did so.  Apparently, his section were the only ones to evade capture, so he was pretty pleased about that, you know how competitive he is!

He was really suffering though when I spoke to him last night.  During the course of the week they'd had navigation exercises, night navigation, escape and evade, and the army's version of circuit training.  Roughly translated as a number of 1.6 kilometre runs with or without full kit, carrying various objects such as tractor tyres, interspersed with team challenges and the snipers alley.  Basically, snipers alley refers to the long pits of mud, water and ice that soldiers are often seen belly-crawling through on tv, covered in camel nets.  They then had a stretcher run followed by assault course in full kit then a work-out on the rifle range.  I was exhausted just listening to him!

For anyone who's unfamiliar with modern day army life you might be surprised to learn that the barracks that the junior soldiers ordinarily live in are very much like university halls of residence in modern multi-storey buildings, only instead of them having individual rooms they share 12 to a room.  It's all very civilised I have to say.  This week however, the JSs have been to an old-style barracks for the week where they stayed in the long single-storey wooden buildings.  I thought this might have been a challenge for Connor, given that he does find it difficult to share space with 11 others in his section but he seemed to really enjoy it.  In the old barracks there are up to 30 soldiers in one room and he seemed to thrive on the camaraderie and the chance to be with new people. 

Today he's out on cross country, so there's not much time to recover from the previous week's activities.  He won't be home for a few weekends because he has to fit in voluntary service as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Award and a skiing trip, but at least it sounds as though he's picked himself up after the Christmas break and has settled back into army life, which is great news. 

Roller Coaster

I never thought I'd hear the day when my JS would say that what he's doing isn't challenging enough!  Honestly, there's no pleasing some people!  He does like to be busy though, bless him, and he'd heard that when soldiers aren't on a tour of duty they just sit around and do nothing.  I'm sure it's not really like that though...

What I am sure about is that the doctors at base must be pretty fed up with seeing Connor.  Now it's his foot and he's had to have it x-rayed.  Just waiting for results which he should have by tomorrow.  I really hope it's nothing too serious because if it is, they may have to defer his progress until it's sorted out. 

It seems to be one heck of a roller coaster ride this journey from JS to soldier and we're not even half way through yet!  Having said that, I'm still proud of him getting this far - not all those who started out with him have been so lucky.

Back to base

So much for seeing my Junior Soldier over Christmas.  I think I saw him twice, but then there's little hope for me now there's a girlfriend on the scene!  It was nice to see him though.  He's changed so much since I last saw him about five weeks ago, the most noteable difference being the huge muscles he suddenly seems to have developed!  He's obviously being put through his paces, which is no bad thing. 

This week, back on base, he's looking forward to a couple of marathon hikes then they're out on manouevres for four days.  I don't envy them that, especially in the weather we've been having but they'll need to get fit again after all the excesses of Christmas no doubt.

Well, Happy New Year to everyone.  Let's hope it's a good one and best of luck to all the Junior Soldiers (who are now Senior Junior Soldiers - if that makes sense!).

Merry Christmas!

Permission for use of image obtained from http://www.wildshotsonline.com/

A very big thank you to everyone who's shown their support for Connor by following the blog.  He hasn't always found his new way of life easy and I'm sure it's been uplifting for him to know that his friends and family are all behind him.  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

Home safe and sound!

Despite the snow, Connor is home at last.  I'm so pleased he's made it through the first term and I'm sure he's ready for his well-earned rest.  When I get chance to see him is anybody's guess though because the snow here is already at least six inches deep and doesn't show any sign of stopping!  At least I can text and ring him any time I like now and I'm likely to get a response :-)

Home in the snow

Well, we are knee-deep in snow and my baby is on his way home by train!  I did try advising him that perhaps it wasn't the best idea he's ever had but he wasn't buying into that.  Even if he gets home tonight, I'm not sure that he'll make it back in time for his deadline on Sunday evening!  Fingers crossed that the snow thaws by then.

Gutted!

I hadn't known until last week that Connor was intending coming home this weekend, but as soon as I found out, I was really excited.  I'd planned to take him to see my new nephew - his new cousin, but as I'm not too well at the moment I thought it best not to go.  I realise that he's a 16 year old boy and doesn't really want to spend every free weekend with his old mum but I was still looking forward to seeing him, if only for an hour or so while I drove him back to barracks.  Gutted I was when he said his Dad was taking him back to the AFC without me having seen him.  Ah well, I had to be pleased for him really because he doesn't often spend much time with his Dad and there's only three more weeks to go until he finishes for Christmas and I'll definitely be seeing him then. 

Connor's latest update

From the telephone conversation I've just had it sounds as though Connor's starting to enjoy himself again.  He's made no further complaints about the bothersome injury that seemed to be distressing him so much just a few weeks ago, and his flu symptoms have now dissipated.  The three nights on exercise seem to have re-invigorated him, despite it being cold (-4 degrees!), muddy and physically draining.  He seemed particularly impressed with himself for staying awake on stag duty (night watch) lying face down in a cold and muddy pit for six whole hours!  Having said that, I think the prospect of losing a week's wages as punishment for falling asleep on duty was probably deterrent enough!  For someone who used to earn only ₤12 a week from a newspaper round prior to joining the army he seems to have become quite adept at clearing his wages every month!  He has a skiing trip booked for January and is touring Spain with his hockey team in February.  He used to play for a local hockey team while he was still at school and I'm pleased that he's taken it up again.

I'm really looking forward to seeing him this weekend as all being well, he's intending coming home.  He hasn't been home for five weeks and I think he's looking forward to a break and a little bit of TLC before the final stretch before Christmas.

Civilian to Soldier link

Just in case you were wondering, I've removed the link to the BBC i-player for the Civilian to Soldier film footage as it's now been removed from the i-player and is no longer available for viewing. 

Home safe and sound!

Connor's been on exercise in the Yorkshire countryside this week so I'm pleased that the weather has been better this week than of late.  He'd promised to ring me on Saturday when he'd arrived back and warmed up a bit, so I sat there all day like a lonely old fool, waiting for his call, grabbing my phone every time it sounded, but he didn't ring.  He still hadn't telephoned by 9.30pm so I texted him.  I knew he was back though because a soldier from another platoon had let it slip on the AFC's Facebook site that they'd been back since early in the afternoon and had been spotted in their lines polishing their rifles!  Anyway, it was only a brief text conversation but enough for me to know that he's ok and that he's been busy since returning, sorting out his kit and so on.  Hopefully, if I'm lucky, he might get a few minutes to chat tonight.

Sick soldier - again!

So much for being a super-tough junior soldier!  The poor little chap, after having his flu jab last week, has now got a throat infection, a chest infection and a small dose of the flu and is feeling very sorry for himself.  Especially since he had breathing difficulties whilst doing PT this morning and ended up being whisked down to the medical centre! 

On Friday and Saturday nights the junior soldiers are allowed to order in food, so in an attempt to cheer himself up he's put his order in for pizzas tonight and is looking forward to going shopping in town tomorrow, followed by Rememberance Parade and go-karting on Sunday.  Knowing what a hypochondriac he's become, it's to be hope he comes back from go-karting in one piece!