Academy Update - Week 12

I thought I would devote an entire post to Eric's week in the Academy since this has been a doozie of a week!

First, the good: This is the end of week 12, which means that he's 2/3 of the way through the Academy, and only 6 weeks until graduation! In some ways the time seems to have gone by quickly, but what do I know - I'm not the one who's actually IN the Academy! :)

And now for the bad and the ugly (may as well lump them together). Eric went into this week knowing that it would be a tough one. At the end of last week, a member of his class made a bad mistake, so the whole class knew they would be paying the price. So on Tuesday morning, at 5:30am, the class had a disciplinary run - about 6 or 8 miles at a 7-minute mile pace. Most people were hurting a bit after that run.

Then Wednesday was OC day - where they all got sprayed with pepper spray (OC stands for Oleoresin Capsicum - impressed, aren't you?). For the majority of the people in the class, the effects wore off in about 30-45 minutes. Everyone, that is, except Eric and one other guy, who were still suffering the following day. Last night we drove to an urgent care center so he could get checked out. He was having severe burning, pain when opening his eyes, watery eyes, and his pupils were severely dilated, making him extra sensitive to light. The doctor gave him some eye drops similar to the kind they use for pink eye, verified that his eyes were not scratched, and sent us home. We have to go back for follow up this afternoon, so hopefully he's on the road to recovery now.

(I would have inserted a picture here, but it wouldn't have been pretty...hehe.)

Unfortunately, today is his qualifying day for his handgun work, and he obviously won't be able to do that (kinda hard - and dangerous, I would think - when you can't see well!). So because of the injury he'll have to do his qualifying next Tuesday.

Overall, I think this is one of those weeks where Friday couldn't have come fast enough for him! But the end is in sight, and he still HAS his sight - 2 really good things.

***4:15pm UPDATE***

Eric got home today and was really excited. Ended up that he tried to qualify with his handgun anyway (even though the doc said he really shouldn't) and scored a 249 out of 250 (average of three test scores), which was the best score in his class. His first test was a 247, and then he scored a 250 on the second two tests. He was the only one to get a perfect score on any of the tests. Needless to say he's pretty excited!