I can almost see you right now. You’re sitting on your favorite chair or reading this on your computer with no real plans for today. You served your country, and you suffered a traumatic injury, or life-changing illness or disease because of it. Now, you’re just kind of hanging out, waiting for your next VA appointment and letting life move on without you. I’ve got good news for you: Your time has come. I know because I’ve been there.
When I was injured in Iraq in 2003, I didn’t think it was that severe of an injury. I had ruptured a couple discs, but I didn’t want to leave my fellow Marines, so I just kept pushing forward. However, over the course of the next year the pain in my legs grew so severe that I was popping morphine pills like candy and it wasn’t touching the pain. My doctors finally recommended surgery to remove the discs and fuse my spine with screws, rods and cadaver bone.
When I woke up from surgery the pain in my legs was gone, but I immediately knew something wasn’t right. The doctors were poking my legs with needles from my hip to my ankle and I couldn’t feel anything, nor could I move my legs. In what seemed like an instant, I was paralyzed.
I was medically retired from the Marine Corps in 2006, and I returned home to Colorado an empty shell of a man. Soon, it was only the drinking and pills that could help me hide from my depression.
My VA therapist encouraged me to get involved in adaptive sports, and I was amazed at the world of opportunity it opened up for me — both professionally and personally. My adaptive sport journey took off, and so did my rehabilitation. I got involved in skiing at the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic and I was immediately hooked. I worked hard and earned a spot on the U.S. Alpine Ski team, even traveling to Russia to represent the United States. In Sochi, I was the flag bearer for the opening ceremony.
Even now, knowing the rehab process never ends, I am still on my adaptive sports journey. I continue training to keep my spot on the U.S. Paralympic Alpine team, hoping to once again represent my country in Korea in 2018.
Through it all, this is what I’ve learned: Adaptive sports can take you from a place where you see no future to a place where you determine your own. But let me be clear: There is no single roadmap to recovery. No one can prescribe a single drug or a single treatment to make you whole again. Your best recovery will come from the methods that work best for you. The sooner you embrace that idea, the quicker you’ll recover.
Another equally important point is that your recovery requires your involvement. It won’t just happen to you.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs leads the world in adaptive sports therapy programs. It offers a number of innovative sports therapy programs to help disabled veterans rediscover their potential and redefine their lives. From their renowned instructional clinics on adaptive summer and winter sports, to their competitive programs for wheelchair veterans, to their partnership with the U.S. Paralympics and community sport programs nationwide, the VA has something for everybody.
Adaptive sports and recreation can help you confront challenges and redefine your perceived limits. The path is not always easy — nor should it be — but it certainly is worth the effort. A 2009 study by Disabled Sports USA found that disabled veterans who participate in adaptive sports have greater independence, more fulfilling relationships, greater job satisfaction and less stress than those who don’t. In other words, disabled veterans who participate in adaptive sports tend to be healthier and happier.
If you are a disabled veteran, I challenge you to join me, connect with VA’s adaptive sports programs at , and redefine your mission.
Jon Lujan grew up in Littleton.
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