Carrie S. Hayden

n issue, but I'm in the Army and have always struggled with my weight. I was officially diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) in November of 2014 after suffering with a constant severe burning pain since October in the right side of my face at the temple that radiated down through my jaw. The pain made it difficult to do much at all, and I was going to school for up to 8 hours per day learning a language at the time. I was put on medication to control the nerve pain from the pulsing blood vessel that was resting on it. I then had a severe allergic reaction to the medication (called a Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms (DRESS)) in mid-December that took a month to recover from the rashes and fever, and another month to fully recover from the damage it did to my liver. That, along with the fact that I was no longer on meds to control the TN, made it nearly impossible to get up and do much, let alone workout. Then no other medications the doctors tried after this could control the pain. I finally had microvascular decompression surgery near the end of April 2015 to move the blood vessel off of the trigeminal nerve. I still have some twinges and am also still working on rehabilitating my neck muscles, but I was able to work through a hip issue from the immobility. During all of this, I gained 30 pounds in 7 months! My initial Why when I started in July was to drop enough weight to fit back into my military uniforms properly. I recently reached 20 years in the Army and I was not going to be kicked out for my weight. I reached that goal by losing 14 pounds in just 7 weeks and have now lost a total of 22 pounds in the past 6 months! I met one of my short term goals this past January and passed my physical fitness test which I hadn’t taken in more than 3 years. My long-term Why now is to continue to lose weight, stay positive, stay healthy, share my story, and help others in their journey(ies) to a healthier lifestyle. My main short-term Why for this group, and for however many future groups it takes, is to lose enough weight to meet the Army standards and not have to be taped anymore, not just fit into my uniforms. The other is to stay fit enough to continue playing volleyball competitively and stay strong enough to ride my horse the way she deserves to be ridden (not just flopping around on her).