Florida veteran pressing lawmakers, VA to prescribe fewer pain killers

Florida veteran pressing lawmakers, VA to prescribe fewer pain killers
My FOX Orlando
Dana Jay Reporter
December 5, 2013

WINTER PARK, Fla.
A bicycle is the vehicle that landed a central Florida veteran before congress to urge lawmakers to push the Veteran's Health Administration to prescribe fewer pain killers to wounded warriors.

Justin Minyard of Winter Park is medically retired from the Army after a series of back surgeries.

He told FOX 35 that six years ago he was addicted to opioids after injuring his back In the rubble of the Pentagon after 9-11 and again while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"At this point I had been in a wheel chair for almost two years, I had severe cognitive problems, I had very little short term memory and I was isolated," Minyard said.

Things changed after a friend badgered him to go for a bike ride.

"I was exercising again and there was wind in my face and I was with other veterans again and it was as close to being in the military as I could be while not being in the military still," he said.

Now he tries to do the same for others through Operation Shifting Gears.

Minyard founded the all-volunteer not-for-profit organization to get other combat vets on bikes.

He sees cycling as a way to give veterans the confidence to overcome both physical and emotional challenges that come with returning from war.

"It gives you confidence and it instills that military ethos thinking back where you need to be," Minyard said.

Operation Shifting Gears is sponsored in part by Boston Scientific, which makes the spinal cord stimulator that allows Minyard to manage his pain without using prescription pain killers.
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