My Story
Cpl Yuriy Zmysly, US Marine Retired, suffered an anoxic brain injury after a "routine" appendectomy on his base in 2006. He served two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan in 04 and 05.
Journal
Monday, June 29, 2009 10:25 PM, CDT
Hello All! Well we had a wonderful trip! We came home from Aspen Colorado on Friday. It was so great to see our old friends, like the Edmundson's and the Briest families and we had the pleasure of meeting in person the Mettie family, as well as new ones. The trip was with a group called challenge aspen and there were six disabled veterans and their families. Yuriy, Myself and my dad went on the trip.
Our flight to Colorado went really well, Yuriy did amazing except he was a little nervous on the propeller plane from Denver to Aspen. When we got there we got out rental car and drove to the hotel. Monday we went white water rafting, it was so much fun, Yuriy was helping paddle as well as splash the other people in the other rafts lol. Tuesday the guys did horseback riding, Yuriy rode a horse named Babe. They took them on the trail all the way to a river and turned around. Yuriy loved every minute of it.
Wednesday we went to the beautiful Maroon Bells for fishing. Almost all the guys caught a fish, except Yuriy but he was ok with it. Next year we will bring gold fish for him to catch haha. We got a little sunburn from sitting by the lake.
Thursday was the hot springs, which is a beautiful pool. The springs have water that comes off of the mountain and its warm. Yuriy walked into the pool with my dad and Jeff and did awesome. We bought him a raft and he was relaxing on it, he was in the hot springs for about an hour, which is a long time for him. He also had a life vest on and got off of the raft and kicked his legs to swim. His legs have gotten so much stronger. Thursday night was our celebration dinner, Yuriy was not feeling too great I think between being tired and sunburn really bad on his legs he was not too happy so he wanted to leave quickly. Then he thought it over once we got to the hotel and decided to go back and wanted to show his appreciation to the people of Challenge Aspen and also so good bye to the families and the guys. This is a Huge step for him. Usually he doesn't stay long places and doesn't think twice about it.
It was so amazing the difference there was this year verses last year. Last year he was so sick and tried to participate as much as he could. But this year he was so much healthier and stronger he was able to participate in everything. It was so nice to have a vacation!!
We got home and had my mom and Andriy Yuriy's brother pick us up from the airport. They surprised us by cleaning our room up, Thank you! My dad, Yuriy and I were so tired and slept so good the night we came home. Saturday my brother Paul and his wife Jenn had a wedding BBQ so we went to that. It was a lot of fun, Yuriy actually stayed for 4 hours, with out getting anxious, another huge step for him. Sunday we had my cousins from Indiana come by which it was so nice to see them. Today was a rough day and I don't really know why. Yuriy was angry and upset all day, thank God for his brother because he was the only one to get through to him. Yuriy is sick of having a brain injury and wishes his life was easier and I wish like everything I could take the injury away but we just have to live wiith it and try hard to get him as good as he can get. He is ok now, and hopefully will sleep well and start over tomorrow. Also the day before our trip we went to the Middle East conflict Wall in Marsilles IL. It was very emotional and we got to visit with his friend's family. Sgt Hopper got his name on the wall. It is an amazing tribute to the men and women who have died over seas. http://www.ilfreedomrun.org/ Well that's all for now,~~New Pictures are up!~~~
<3 Aimee Z.
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