MATT CALLED ........Sunday evening 7/25/10

Hi everyone,
We received a call from Matt Sunday night, we kept getting disconnected, low battery and then the DS told them to hang up - apparently one of the soldiers was not following orders and once that was cleared up - they were able to continue their phone calls for 10 more minutes.

Matt said the swelling in his legs has gone down some - not all the way. When we asked him if he was in pain, he said it would say it was between a 1 and a 2.
He did get to go to the firing range last week. Matt said he was about 90% accurate with his firing. Having never really fired guns in the past - we are thinking that this is a good start - he wants 100%. We will see.
He was going to try and get his MRI done today, Monday, because on Tuesday they are going to be working with grenades and his DS told him he didn't want to miss that. He is hoping that if he has the MRI he will know something by Wednesday.
His options are - if he does have stress fractures - he could be sent home to STL to recoup for 30 days and then report back for evaluation and if everything is OK - he can start up with the next group when they start week 5 of training.
He said Bravo Co. doesn't usually do this, they would keep him on base and find work for him to do while he recoups.
There is still the possibility that he could receive a Medical Discharge depending upon what the MRI says. Hopefully everything is OK and his completion of Basic Training is just delayed by a month or so. You just never know.

Matt said that when he went to sick call last week, he thought they would just give him some ice to put on it. Not the case here. The fact they they are willing to spend the $ on an MRI for his legs and not just send him home or make him keep training at full speed is a good sign. Apparently they do not give out aspirin, ibuprofen, they just have to work through sore muscles, strains, etc.
Matt is concerned, but sounded good.
Please continue to keep him in your prays.
Thanks everyone,
Diana (mom)