Winning Attitude from JR on Dancing with the Stars - Mind/Body Connection = 10!

Dancing with the Stars' JR (fall 2011), a veteran of the Iraq war, has my vote every week so far to come back again.  Not only is he clearly gifted with what all it takes to be a dancer, he has a winning attitude and is teaching so many people about people who have been burned, injured, or otherwise had setbacks.  

He was asked about his history on a recent interview: he enlisted the year after he graduated.  He went to training and deployed, and it wasn't too long after his vehicle was hit -- those who were thrown from the vehicle weren't as hurt, ironically, but everything in the vehicle combusted.  His having survived, based on my background over the years with patients with burns, has much to say about our ongoing medical abilities.  I've attended a continuing education seminar about head injuries in returning veterans: the field medicine is so advanced now, more people are coming back with injuries than EVER before.  Then they go out into the community for medical care, not just with the Veteran's Administration/VA programs, so we all have to be on the lookout for them AND become aware and educated about their needs and what to do to best treat them.  

When I took "Introduction to Occupational Therapy" in the early 1980s, knowing 'business', which I'd been studying, was not where I ultimately wanted to be for a bachelor's degree, I was assigned or picked the case of a little girl whose hand was burned when she picked up a firecracker off the ground. I was to present all about burns.  At that time, if a person had burns over 50% of their body, they didn't have a very good chance of living.  Around that time, a young woman my age, whose family I knew, was studying to become a PT and was sitting in traffic with her brother who had a broken leg, and a vehicle rear ended a gas truck which exploded.  He was able to get out of the car but had difficulty getting to her due to his foot/leg problem.  She survived and got to the point JR talks about when he got to see himself in the mirror and think about what that meant to have burns like that, and she died at that point; to me this was part of my 'life education' about the power of the mind related to health.  I respectfully share the story here in honor of her.  There were many times along my career as an OT when I thought of her when things really not pleasant were happening to me professionally, due to the changes in the medical system that is literally causing it to sink and take a lot of people with it (while other programs and beliefs and clinics are rising up, so get in a lifeboat or swim and get to them!). 

Much of those difficult times were when I lived in Colorado Springs working at the city hospital inpatient and outpatient therapy team.  To deal with that every day is really difficult stuff and we really didn't have it built in that we had the opportunity to 'process it'.  My boyfriend was a city worker who retired not long after 9/11, which is about the time JR was deploying to Iraq.  Being in Colorado Springs where there the Army's Fort Carson is, we were going to a lot of retirement parties and there would be young men and their friends out celebrating that they were going to deploy.  My boyfriend was a Vietnam veteran: I'd done my internships at the VA in Denver -- we both knew what these young people had in store for them.  It was very hard to celebrate 'our' phase of life, knowing what we were going into.  Now it's not really much being covered in the news about things officially beginning to wrap up in Iraq! I'm happy to see it, unfortunately sometimes it feels like the struggles just switch to be somewhere one, someone else.  

So no matter where it is, I hope that those who have the inevitable struggle have someone like JRs mother, who was there to share with him when he came out of his medically-induced coma.  She initiated the conversation with him about attitude.  While I've worked with someone at the VA who had been badly burned, also a young man, I don't have extensive experience with burns and I've never been in a 'burn unit' for work; I understand it's considered to be the MOST 'intense' working environment in medicine.  I do know that people who have supportive people around them to help them with their attitude seem to have a tremendous advantage.  This can be VERY difficult when you're mired in problems -- physical, emotional, financial.  "Comparing yourself" is not what I recommend, just do your "personal best".  

If right now you're at one place and you're not thrilled with it, in the near future consider finding something to appreciate: Right now I'll use the example that I'm so grateful to be breathing relatively clean air: I've not always had that, as in the past I have lived with smokers.  I took my shoes off when walking in grass yesterday and slowed down, took my shoes off, and just focused on how wonderful it is to be experiencing that. To live in a country where virtually all open the faucet and drinkable water comes out! (That, in some places is NOT the case, I realize, but the US overall has amazing utilities compared to other countries.). 

And I'm grateful there are people on 'the airwaves' of television, available to all for $0, who can inspire and set such an example.  I hope this little story about my perspective about JR's example and my long history of medicine 'stuff' allows us to all realize there ARE advances being made, and we have much to be grateful for.  Much to also be aware of and lots to avoid! It'll be intersting to see who wins the trophy this season, but we've ALL won by having JR in the mix! 

~~ Mardy