[00:00:00] Scott DeLuzio: Sometimes the hardest part about coming home from deployment is realizing that your body made it back, but your nervous system still thinks that it’s deployed. Sleep turns into a fight. Pain becomes this background noise that just never shuts off. And the more you try to push through it, the more isolated you can feel like nobody around you could possibly understand what your brain is doing at two o’clock in the morning.

[00:00:23] If there is another way that this can go though a version of life where your shoulders drop again, where you find people who just get what you’re going through, you don’t have to give the full backstory, uh, a, a version where you discover something that pulls you out of your head and back into life. One small step at a time.

[00:00:44] That’s what this conversation today is gonna be talking about Rowdy McMahon. Our guest today talks about working as an Air Force nurse in Afghanistan, the nonstop urgency that she experienced, the mass, mass casualties and what it did to her after she [00:01:00] returned. She also. Shares things about the chronic pain years on heavy medications, tapering off of them, mental health support, and how the Wounded Warrior Project, uh, in their programs helped her rebuild from the inside out through nutrition, adaptive fitness and community.

[00:01:19] Before we get into this episode, though, I want to take a moment to raise awareness for something that’s deeply important to our community. The Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation. This organization is working to build a permanent national memorial in Washington DC to honor the service members, families, and civilians who are impacted by the global war on terrorism.

[00:01:37] This memorial will serve as both a tribute to those who served and as a way to ensure that their sacrifices are recognized and remembered for generations to come. If you’d like to learn more or find out how you can support their mission, visit GWOT memorial foundation.org. Now, let’s get into today’s episode.

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[00:02:08] Scott DeLuzio: Hey, Rowdie, welcome to the show. Really glad to have you here.

[00:02:11] Rowdie McMahon: Thanks Scott. It’s great being here.

[00:02:13] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. So, before we get into the, the conversation and kind of your, your story and everything like that, for the listeners who maybe aren’t familiar with you and, and who you are, could you tell us a little bit about yourself, your, your military background, and, you know, just kind of a brief overview of who, who we’re talking to here today?

[00:02:29] Rowdie McMahon: Yes. I was an Air Force nurse stationed at Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. Uh, one deployment to Afghanistan. I worked med-surg, so basically like your regular floor nurse deployed, worked, stepped down, and then came back as a pacu, post anesthesia care nurse. So basically tra taking care of everybody outta surgery and drunk and drunk babies.

[00:02:56] Those were fun.

[00:02:56] Scott DeLuzio: It is not something that, [00:03:00] that I would expect that, that you’d have to deal with very often. But, you know, people, people tend to surprise you with, with, with that kind of thing. So, so, so you mentioned you’re, you’re a nurse you know, in, in Afghanistan you’re, you know, caring for lot, lots of different people.

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