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Blogs by Frances Seymour
Final Battle 5/21/2016 10:22:05 AM
PTSD and the ways this disorder affects families varies from person to person, I'm certain. However, this is the way that I've witnessed it in my life. This is just a small portion of the legacy that PTSD left on me... PTSD… What is it and how does it affect people? I’ve lived with the effects most of my life but did not realize this truth until just a few years ago.
My daddy was a Korean War Veteran. He served during peak violence in Korea. My husband was a Vietnam War Vet and his term was shortened due to a violent attack that left him wounded for life. Both of these men suffered severe anger issues throughout life and guess who the ultimate victim was? You guessed it! The family!
I never understood what was controlling the actions and attitudes of these two loves of my life until my husband sought help and was diagnosed with PTSD just a few years before his death.
The medication that the VA administered helped to calm him tremendously. I was grateful for the relief and the change of attitude my husband had received. Too bad this diagnosis came many years too late. Too late for David to be the understanding, patient man that he probably wanted to be. Too late from him to be able to relax and enjoy life. Work became his outlet and he was a total workaholic!
My husband talked about flashbacks and experiencing the trauma of war over and again in his mind. Today he and my daddy too, are free from those demons as they both reside in heaven.
This year as I approached the third year of David’s departure, I was visited by a night filled with dreams about David’s last hours on earth. I saw the limp body, the white sheet the EMT’s put in place. The words “massive heart attack” and “nothing we could do” will be forever etched in my brain. The body bag the coroner brought in hours later—the bag being zipped up and then the pain of seeing his body taken and these images replayed again.
All that I could do was toss and say, “Lord, please don’t let me go there:” And, then turn and say, “Lord, take these thoughts away!” With that being said, perhaps in reality, I’m still a PTSD victim—captured in a moment of time by the images of my husband’s final battle…
