Anthony Jackson’s Two Words to Describe Life Since His Four PRP Injections.
By: Michael Doria
Anthony Jackson: Up in Arms, Literally
With a grin the size of a small country, Anthony Jackson holds his arms out in front of him in a zombie-like stance. “Somewhere in this range…is what I had,” he states. Then, up his arms go — over head, crossing them and bringing them back to his side in a sort of circular pattern. “Now I have 90 something percent, nearly full range of motion in each arm,” he added. Best part, it doesn’t hurt. Summing up the past two months for this one near hopeless soul is easy. “Pretty, remarkable,” admits Jackson.
The thing about Anthony Jackson is you wouldn’t necessarily know if he were in pain. He’s always smiling. He’s calm. He’s grateful. He’s likeable. We met him the weekend of June 25th during our Bio-Illuminate III CME Conference. He attended the conference with a group called Veterans In Pain, VIP, an organization that links former military members with chronic pain management therapies. His four injections were worth the shots. He’s tried every tip, trick and therapy to heal the pain in his shoulders. Both were dislocated while serving duty; one during a parachute jump, the other when a rocket landed in front of his vehicle and sent him flying.
“If I didn’t know so much of the benefit of waiting and being patient, to jump back into the gym to do more and more, I’d already be there,” laughs Jackson. “But I know the danger of pushing too hard, too fast.” For now, it’s strictly stretching and light exercise as he assimilitates back to a near pain-free world. “Very few instances of pain or locking up or anything,” says Jackson. Ever being able to utter those words wasn’t even crossing his mind just months ago.
From Present Tension to just Present Tense
Jackson is getting a double dose of pain freedom. He also notices a big reduction in the number of migraine headaches from which he suffers on a near regular basis. Without constantly thinking about where it hurts all day, every day anymore, he’s found joy in participating in life.
“I’ve been able to have pretty full days involved with the whole family…getting up at 5 something, helping with breakfast and either driving the kids or helping her get out the door with them. I haven’t had the ability to do that more than a couple days in a row and everytime it would cause me to get so low that I would crash for a day or two just to recover,” Anthony explains.
“Before, it wouldn’t be surprising to hear a yell from across the house at any given point because he turned wrong, or he reached wrong. He was always constantly hurting himself and that has gone down…so much. You can just tell by his mood. And he’s able to relax because he doesn’t have to be so on-guard as much either,” says Alex.
He’s curious to know what doctors think about his new condition when he heads to upcoming appointments. But he’s doubling-down on the taking it easy. On a trip to visit Alex’s parents in Iowa, he overdid it playing pickleball. “I hadn’t been able to swing a raquet in years. So, the next day I was pretty sore from that,” says Anthony. He says it’s mental work to not run full speed ahead. As he’s learned, no pain means more gain. Not the other way around.