Page 831 - Total War on PTSD

My therapy through the VA has been extremely helpful because the first year I basically spent not leaving my apartment whatsoever after my wife passed away. With Reece I started getting out more. And now, I am doing everything, every day. It's been seven years of therapy so far. I don't go to see fireworks or anything like that. I stay in my apartment. For me, the loud sounds, the bangs, the bright lights, they are all triggers for me, so I just don't do that.
I have a PTSD diagnosis. My first exposure and knowledge about PTSD came about after my first suicide attempt when they hospitalized me for around 90 days. I have been hospitalized for PTSD a total of four times, I think. I have had a lot of treatments, a lot of ups and downs, kind of like a roller coaster. What I have learned now is that I just have to ride it out. Just because today is a bad day doesn't mean tomorrow is going to be bad. I used to be really down on myself, but what I have come to realize is that while I may be broke, I'm not permanently broken. I still have a chance to rehab myself. I've been working out, walking more, etc. I have a chance to make a comeback of some kind. I just don't know what yet. My mobility is much better now. I am able to, and I do, walk two miles a day. Just last year I had my left hip replaced. When I fell, it compromised my joints so much that I am going to have to get my let knee replaced and my right hip replaced within the next three to five years. My joints are just trashed. I have had 15 surgeries so far.
When I got hit with the roadside bomb, that's what caused a mild TBI. Then they brought me back to garrison and did six months of rehab and got back on jump status. Then my first jump under jump status when I was in the middle of parachuting, somebody dropped their equipment into my parachute and I dropped 75 feet to the ground. That's what completely compromised the
831 of 1042