From A Near Life-Ending Accident To Competing In Ironman with Grant Archard, an Australian Army veteran

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket, Saul Marquez here on this series that

[00:00:08] we're doing with Mainstay Medical on their reactivate therapy. Today I have the privilege

[00:00:14] of hosting Grant Archer on the podcast. Grant joined the Australian Army in 2001

[00:00:22] part of the Royal Australian Corpse Transport. He was posted to A-Field Battery and in 2005

[00:00:30] had a military parachuting accident and fractured his T-4, 5 and 6 vertebrae. He was medically

[00:00:36] discharged from the Army in 2013 due to back injuries and shoulder injuries and chronic pain

[00:00:44] and really experiencing a lot of the tough stuff from the military and he received the reactivate

[00:00:51] stimulator and he's here to tell his story. So really, Grant welcome to the podcast. It's such a

[00:00:57] pleasure to have you here. Gee, thanks for having me. Of course. Now I'm not as good at telling the

[00:01:02] story as you are Grant. So what did I miss in your intro? Tell us what you want us to know,

[00:01:08] what you want the listeners to know about you. Yeah, no that was a quick run down. So I joined

[00:01:13] the Army in 2001, did my basic training, posted yet to A-Field Battery, it's an artillery

[00:01:19] unit, Colesworthy. I was in transport at the time but being an airborne unit, everyone is encouraged to

[00:01:27] obviously do the parachute training course and that. So I'd done a number of jumps up to that

[00:01:34] point when I had me parachute accident. So we were jumping in just as a normal training

[00:01:39] exercise into the Singleton Trader Area with nearby. Someone got tangled in my parachute

[00:01:47] and we descended essentially under one reserve parachute. I don't remember a whole lot of it.

[00:01:55] I was conscious throughout the whole lot so the normal descent from a thousand feet is about 50

[00:02:02] seconds and they said we hit the ground in about 12 seconds. It was over pretty quickly.

[00:02:08] When I hit the ground, I just, I remember thinking I was going to die not because I was

[00:02:13] injured or anything because I was winded and just couldn't breathe like I said to that which

[00:02:17] I said it's funny like at that point I was just struggling for breath and that. I don't

[00:02:21] remember the landing as such, I just remember hitting the ground and being winded.

[00:02:26] I put in a military ambulance and then took it to the hospital, had CT scans and X-rays and

[00:02:33] found out I had a fractured T-4, 5 and 6. The specialists I seen after that

[00:02:40] explained the way the fractures were, wedge fractures and he said probably likely landing

[00:02:46] flat on your back and it could just spine up when you hit so that sort of explained how the

[00:02:51] fractures occurred. So I was in hospital for probably three weeks maybe at the military

[00:02:58] hospital at Holesworthy. Had to get a custom back brace made up so it came right up to

[00:03:04] my neck and virtually just made out of like a I guess a plastic and aluminium skeleton to hold

[00:03:11] me back nice and straight and wore that for probably maybe five to six months and I was off

[00:03:17] work for that time and doing rehab, mostly water rehab because obviously there was no pressure on

[00:03:23] me back doing that. So I think maybe after about six or seven months I went back to work part

[00:03:31] time in that and then probably after 12 months I was back to essentially full duties but there were

[00:03:38] things I couldn't do ever again like I was never able to parachute again and I think the following year

[00:03:44] I got posted to the school of transport and I was a driving instructor for the next couple

[00:03:49] of years but it the fractures healed up well and they ached every now and again but

[00:03:56] it was just me lower back that turned horrible after that like it caused a lot of lower back

[00:04:02] problems and problems with me discs in my lower back I guess and there on that's where

[00:04:07] all my problem was in my lower back. I see a lot of specialists over the time like

[00:04:14] sports doctors and physios and occupational therapists and osteos, chyros and

[00:04:22] essentially from that day on I never had a pain-free day.

[00:04:25] Did it start right away or at what point did the back pain, the lower back pain start?

[00:04:29] No I'd say probably maybe like 18 months after the accident like certainly the first 12 months,

[00:04:37] 18 months was up around where the fractures and that were like they took a while for the pain

[00:04:41] to go away up there and I think from what a lot of specialists explained to me that they said

[00:04:46] 90% of the strength in your back comes out of your muscles so being that I was in that back brace

[00:04:51] for six months it just wrecked me me lower back and took a and I got back to a level of fitness

[00:04:56] I said but I think it's just like anything when you've had an injury it never 100% goes back to

[00:05:02] to what it was so yeah that became a struggle and then I think the more I started to learn about

[00:05:10] pain and that and it took a long time like it to work out how it occurred in your body

[00:05:16] and that and I think at that point there was a big lack of understanding with me about how

[00:05:22] mental health and pain went together because the pain drove the mental health and the mental

[00:05:27] health drove the pain so getting on top of that so I was diagnosed with depression and then later

[00:05:34] on PTSD and then I got medicated to that and I did a few inpatient stays in a mental health

[00:05:43] clinic and that and that was fantastic like that for me for every day people would be a benefit not

[00:05:49] just the people with mental health problems I said the things I learned in there and how to manage

[00:05:55] my life and pain and and not focus on pain was a big thing yeah but yeah and then down the track

[00:06:02] I started seeing pain specialists on me back because it got to a point where I wasn't handling

[00:06:09] it it was starting to drive my life not me be the focus so I did pain management courses and

[00:06:16] they were really good they was just not inpatient ones but I'd just go in for the day and you'd

[00:06:21] see physios and doctors and specialists and do a lot of PowerPoint presentations on how to

[00:06:27] manage pain and a big thing that I took out of those was managing my work and rest ratio so

[00:06:34] before I would just go out and do something and get it done then I said after that I knew

[00:06:40] I'd be able to work for maybe half an hour and then I'd need to rest for an hour or two I think

[00:06:45] and then over the years I managed to work at how much I could do and how much I could rest but

[00:06:50] I was always in pain so that the pain never went away then probably it would have been maybe

[00:06:59] around 2017 so I've been seeing pain specialists in Newcastle near where we're living and had

[00:07:10] radiofrequency injections where they are I guess essential is the best I can describe is where

[00:07:14] they burn the nerve endings off to try and stop the pain that so that worked really well for a

[00:07:20] period of about six months and then it gave me probably maybe 30% relief in pain which for me

[00:07:26] was a massive improvement I could do stuff I could drive and not want to lay down afterwards I could

[00:07:33] do stuff around the house I could mow the lawn and not want to lay down and that sort of wore off

[00:07:38] after about six months had it done again it just lasted it just got less and less so it

[00:07:44] lasted about three months and then the last time I had it done it probably lasted a month

[00:07:48] I think and it wore off so it just diminished the benefit totally diminished

[00:07:52] like my specialist at the time Dr. Russo he explained to me said we can just keep doing it

[00:07:56] he said but the nerves just learn to repair themselves it gets less and less he said you'll

[00:08:02] end up in here every week just getting an injection that doesn't work so it's not sustainable

[00:08:07] yeah at that time he explained to me there was a few different options and to look at there was

[00:08:12] the spinal stimulator one where the cords went up the spinal cord but they just blocked

[00:08:19] the pain signal coming down and it was never it never felt like a viable option for me

[00:08:24] I because I was too worried about surgery near my spinal cord and that I was never a big fan of

[00:08:31] that and the other option was the reactivate implant which then was just a couple of electrodes

[00:08:39] into the muscles in the lower back and once it was explained to me that it then worked on

[00:08:47] repairing the muscle not just masking the pain and because the surgery wasn't obviously as invasive so

[00:08:54] it felt like a better option for me so it worked on fixing the problem not masking the problems so

[00:09:01] that's awesome and so it was a relief right you went from not knowing the answers to having

[00:09:09] some temporary relief to back to the same place and then you decided to go for it tell me

[00:09:17] how it was afterwards yeah it was good so the surgery itself was was only in hospital for one

[00:09:23] night so it was you come out pretty sore for the first week but then I think it's maybe

[00:09:31] a week or two weeks once the swelling everything settles down go back in and see

[00:09:36] one of the technicians from Mainstay and they then go through and program the reactivate

[00:09:41] implant and that's really done at a personalized level to you because every obviously everyone's

[00:09:48] lower back's difference you lie on the bed and they run the program starts out very very low

[00:09:54] where you can barely feel it in your lower back you feel like a little tingle on that and then

[00:09:59] they just adjust it up and trying to get both the left and right side of the back

[00:10:05] contracting at the same rate that sort of thing and got that adjusted up and started using it was

[00:10:11] probably maybe six months I started noticing a difference I guess you could pinpoint at that

[00:10:20] point I'm like I can feel some less pain but the big thing was I was noticing I was being able

[00:10:28] to do a lot more so although the pain was starting to come off a bit I was more functional I was

[00:10:34] able to drive and notice when I got home I continue on doing something I could go and mow the lawn or I

[00:10:41] could I wasn't worried about wanting to lay down afterwards oh and then probably six to 12 months I

[00:10:47] noticed an even bigger difference like I think my pain has dropped maybe 20% I guess which for me

[00:10:55] is I'm really happy with like I'm under no illusion that I'm ever going to be pain-free

[00:11:00] that's just something I've got to live with so but yeah probably that six to 12 months is where

[00:11:06] I noticed a massive difference in my functionality like I guess it's hard to put an number on but

[00:11:12] I'd like my functionality increased like 100% I reckon it that's insane whereas before I could

[00:11:20] take the kids to school and it's a half an hour drive I'd get home and just want to

[00:11:24] lay down for an hour or so I dropped the kids off get back and I was able to do stuff

[00:11:29] around the house so and then I guess the flying effect from that was going into Ironman and

[00:11:35] starting to trade for that like I had an exercise in probably 10 years and it was I had to start

[00:11:41] right at the bottom again like I guess learning to run again that's a huge jump like the Ironman

[00:11:47] now so can you remember that moment that sort of sparked the confidence in you to make a play

[00:11:54] yeah so that was prior to me implants I got a good mate and he'd done a 12 of them and my wife and I

[00:12:00] didn't talk about going up to see him and watching race and that we're sitting out the front one day

[00:12:04] and I was having a conversation with my wife and I said I'm gonna do what I mean and she goes

[00:12:09] yeah she goes no you won't she looks like you're like yeah right at that point she said no I'm

[00:12:15] not going to um I did it so you're like I'm doing it it was more that I have to do it now that

[00:12:21] I won't so that's so I sort of and this is probably a bad trait of mine is that I don't put a lot of

[00:12:30] thought into stuff sometimes so I jumped on went onto the Ironman website and at that point

[00:12:39] if that was in May 2022 so I had 12 months and I went I'm just gonna register because if I register

[00:12:46] and pay I can't pull out of it so when I did that and had to then formulate some sort of getting back

[00:12:55] into exercise as I said I hadn't done that in essentially since leaving the army so it just

[00:13:01] I always associated exercise with paid and I never wanted to do it so it was a big a big

[00:13:08] learning curve like I went from I went from running maybe one or two kilometers at the start

[00:13:15] where I'd have to run for a couple hundred meters and walk and then run and walk and then

[00:13:20] I just built on that each week I'd run a little more distance and try and increase my pace

[00:13:25] and built up to the point where I was able to run sort of 10 20 and eventually in trading I run

[00:13:34] out to the distance of a marathon to 42 k so crazy man so and then there's a there's it's

[00:13:41] a bike it's a swim bike run right in that order yeah yeah and you did it all yeah so the swim is

[00:13:51] 3.8 kilometers the bikes 180 kilometer ride and then a 42.1 I think or two a standard distance

[00:14:00] marathon so it it yeah it was I guess a lot of work because I was coming from nothing at the start

[00:14:08] and I think leading into it I had done all the distances individually in training in that

[00:14:17] but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to put them together in the race and I think mentally

[00:14:22] physically I was probably prepared but mentally I just went I'm not sure if I can do it even

[00:14:27] up to the point of race day I just went I don't know if I can put all three together

[00:14:33] and see what happens but yeah so I guess in between that so I started trading in May

[00:14:40] and then it was in August when I had the implant put in so I then had a disruption for a period of

[00:14:48] time to get over the surgery in that so I had I don't know it was probably maybe I guess three

[00:14:56] or four weeks training was interrupted to recover from surgery and then the switching on a

[00:15:01] reactivate but then I noticed at that point I was able to do again as we got through the sort of

[00:15:10] three six month mark after the implant I was able to do more training and be less affected afterwards so

[00:15:20] the same as then just my normal everyday activities I was able to do more and more

[00:15:26] without having to rest so long so yeah so then May come around and it probably come around a

[00:15:34] bit quicker than I was hoping but yeah so I did that in Port and Corian did it in four hours

[00:15:42] I think 40 minutes for me first one so nice man congratulations that's huge I don't know it's

[00:15:49] quite fully how did it feel yeah your whole body just hurts everything just dings I think that's

[00:15:57] I said but it's funny because you just your butt hurts because you've been on a bike for 180 kilometers

[00:16:04] every bit of skin just feels like it's been torn to pieces because it's just been rubbing

[00:16:08] to that low and the run was hard like I got to the run and it become a jog walk jog walk

[00:16:14] because at that time I was just spent and then I think I finished it so I probably started it

[00:16:21] maybe around seven o'clock sorry about eight o'clock in the morning and I think I finished a

[00:16:27] bit after eight thirty at night so it's you get to the point and you're running in the dark

[00:16:34] the course is lit and that I said but there's points where it's just the dark and it's

[00:16:38] lonely and that's one of my good mates he said it becomes more of a mental battle that a physically

[00:16:45] early up when he said because you're running in the dark on your own and it just you can hear in

[00:16:50] the background other people finishing and stuff it's like I've got another lap to go on me run

[00:16:56] or something but it's yeah you get to the I guess what they call the finish shoot it's just

[00:17:02] a big red carpet and lined with hundreds of people around you and you somehow you just get

[00:17:09] yourself across the line it's funny like at that point as tight as you are for exercising for

[00:17:16] twelve and a half hours all I wanted to do was have a shower and go to bed because I was just

[00:17:21] tired and so I said yeah from probably four o'clock in the morning that they start by

[00:17:27] the time you get up and get prepared I said all I want to do is just go to sleep because

[00:17:30] I was tired so I had a bad I had a shower and I think I laid down that was it it was just

[00:17:36] I was out for probably the next 12 hours till the next day so and how did the conversation go

[00:17:41] with your wife? It was good so I had a lot of family and that there and I'm sure your kids

[00:17:48] were proud too yeah good I think they because it's such a big day for them like they they got to

[00:17:53] see me and they were just ready for bed then but it was funny our young this fella

[00:17:57] he he said you might not be a first across the line Daddy Gus but you might be the first one in

[00:18:02] the ambulance so thanks for the support buddy so it's funny yeah no it was really good and having

[00:18:10] family there and when you cross the line I think it just gets you across that line because it

[00:18:16] it you get to the end point and you just you buggered like it just you don't want to move

[00:18:21] your legs don't want to move yeah but they you come across the finish line and they wrap a

[00:18:25] towel around you put a metal over you and I said oh the sudden you've just got these energy to keep

[00:18:30] going then so yeah that's awesome man well congratulations on that and wow so kudos to

[00:18:38] you and there's a lot of people out there Grant that are still struggling with a lot of the pain

[00:18:44] they haven't even gotten that 20 30 40 relief what what message would you give to them? I think

[00:18:50] the biggest thing is to not give up on pain and I guess I went through a similar thing like I'd seen

[00:18:57] multiple pain specialists over the time and they said no there's nothing more we can do

[00:19:01] that sort of thing you know so I think it's persevering and I guess the medical system

[00:19:06] shouldn't be like that I said but it's waiting to find a doctor and go this is what you need

[00:19:10] I said but I think now and since I've been working with with Mainstate and reactivate

[00:19:17] and having the benefit of it and realizing what it can do I said it's getting the word out there to

[00:19:24] people about the different treatment options I said not and I think and how we go about that I don't

[00:19:32] know but I said letting people know about that so they can go to their doctor and go this is

[00:19:37] something I want to try I said so many foreign people about what's out there so they can go to

[00:19:43] their specialist and say no I want to try A B or C because I saw this person do it or this

[00:19:48] person told me I can do this type thing so it it may take a long time I said that I think that's

[00:19:55] the hard thing is finding that balance between your pain but also the mental health part I said

[00:20:01] because the mental health part is sometimes just as big as the the pain part I said because

[00:20:08] for me for a long time was the driver of my pain and not wanting to exercise because I just

[00:20:15] I went mentally I went no because if I exercise my back's kind of hurt I don't want to do it

[00:20:22] so certainly getting out there getting help for the mental side of it then it's a massive

[00:20:30] improvement to then help with the physical pain as well totally it's a mental game as big

[00:20:36] as it is a physical game and finding the right options is key and kudos to you grant you sought out

[00:20:45] that help that mental health help the you lucked out with a good physician that had some good options

[00:20:52] for you you went for it and this is a transformation in my eyes what you've done yeah like I've

[00:20:59] had a bunch of conversations with other people I think I think certainly my wife but

[00:21:05] the biggest thing I keep going is that just I'm I've just seen myself as an average person I said

[00:21:10] I don't like the limelight as such a lot of the media stuff I've done since having the implant

[00:21:18] now it's been a big learning curve for me I said but it got to a point where I went

[00:21:23] I can use this platform to help inform other people I said totally no so I think that's a

[00:21:29] big thing like it that the eye man's a big thing and but I think it's achievable by anyone

[00:21:37] with just a bit of work and I said that that's all it takes I said but that little bit of work

[00:21:41] just needs to kick off from getting help from someone whether it be mental health help or

[00:21:48] the physical help to start someone's journey I said so it's achievable by almost any one I

[00:21:55] think now I think it just needs to start with a conversation whether that's with your partner or

[00:22:03] your GP or someone I said because it just once that happens then the options are out there to

[00:22:11] go look for them to find someone that's going to fit your needs for your healthcare to get you

[00:22:19] where you need to be yeah grant for sure well we appreciate you sharing your story and certainly

[00:22:29] inspiring me inspiring our listeners to really not stop and to get after it and there's options

[00:22:37] out there for you if you do have pain so check out the show notes we're going to leave some

[00:22:43] links to options for you if you're dealing with it or if you have patients dealing with

[00:22:47] back pain there's certainly hope for them grant is a testament to that so grant can't thank you

[00:22:54] enough for joining us today and this has been a true pleasure and we're looking forward to staying

[00:23:00] in touch with you appreciate the opportunity to get the message out there to people that

[00:23:03] there's hope and opportunity for them well hey you're the best message there is my friend so

[00:23:08] appreciate you jumping on geez thanks very much