Blinded four months ago by a roadside explosion in Iraq, Pepper is almost completely dependent on his wife. She helps him bathe, dress and eat. When he walks, he throws his hands over her shoulders, shuffling along behind her. She has become his eyes.

"It has been a huge challenge for us," says Heather Pepper, 26, sitting on the patio of Fisher House, a group home at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. "I had to do everything as if he was a brand-new child, except bigger."

Most families at Fisher House have similar stories. A mother who showed her brain-damaged son photos of his family to revive his blurred memory. A Colorado man who kept a vigil by his son's hospital bed during the 19-year-old Marine's three-month coma.

Nearly 7,000 men and women have been injured since fighting broke out in Iraq in 2003, more than half wounded badly enough that they could not return to duty. Many are sent to Walter Reed in Washington or the National Naval Medical Center in nearby Bethesda, Md.

Once there, it is a stressful time for the soldiers, who struggle to recover from their injuries, come to grips with the changes to their bodies and often worry about the future. It can be equally hard on their relatives, many of whom put their lives on hold to spend seemingly endless months at the hospital.

Many came to Walter Reed on just a few days' notice and have been there since. Some have quit jobs, left children behind with relatives and even risked losing a home to be there. Suddenly, they are thrust into the demanding role of caretaker.

Sean Carroll, 19, lost a leg and several fingers and was riddled with shrapnel in March when his unit was attacked. Doctors gave him just a 50 percent chance of surviving a flight from a hospital in Germany to the United States. He spent 58 days in a coma and now moves around in a wheelchair. When his grandmother, Phyllis Schmidt, learned he was hurt, she immediately went into the bedroom of her home in Payson, Ariz., to pack. The retired nurse has spent most of the past five months with her grandson, her sole focus helping him recover.

"I was with him when he took his first steps as a baby," she said. "And I was with him when he took his first step with his prosthetic leg. It was wonderful to see that."

The Peppers have seen the future they had plotted out disappear. He planned to serve 20 years in the Army before retiring with a full pension. Now, totally blind, Pepper will be forced to leave the military with a medical retirement.

The couple isn't sure what they'll do when they leave Walter Reed. Heather quit her job to take care of her husband, and left their young daughter behind in Germany, where Staff Sgt. Pepper was posted, with her parents.

Pepper is gradually learning to do small things for himself, such as making breakfast and showering. Doctors have given him a prosthetic eye and he is awaiting a second. But Heather still has to be with him almost all the time.

It doesn't bother either of them, though. The time they spend together has brought them closer than they have ever been in their six-year marriage.