- I already wanted to serve my country.
I come from a long line of military, but when I watched those towers go down, it kinda struck and it kinda struck home and I'm like, yeah, I gotta do something.
I gotta defend my country.
- [News Reporter] AJ Ethridge, an Air Force war veteran, served as a mechanic before being medically discharged due to a traumatic brain injury.
However, this was just the beginning of his challenges.
- I was living kind of recklessly and ended up screwing my back up, got stuck on the opiates with the VA. - [RaeAnn] The pills left AJ numb to his pain, but eventually led to addiction.
- The only difference between me and a heroin addict was I was too scared to shoot myself up.
So I would go to the ER 'cause I had the medical proof that I needed the drugs and I'd have them IV me.
I would purposely injure myself just to go to the ER.
And it kills me every day to think of that.
- It was to the point where the kids didn't wanna be around him.
I really didn't want to be around him either.
My kids deserve better, I deserve better.
He deserved better.
- [RaeAnn] Geneva, his wife, confronted AJ with a life-altering ultimatum.
Either quit his destructive path or risk losing her and their children forever.
- [Child] Faster, mama, faster.
- I didn't want to see a good man fall down a bad hole.
- [RaeAnn] Despite numerous attempts, AJ found himself trapped in a relentless cycle of trying to quit.
- They tried hypno, they tried acupuncture, they tried massage, they tried chiropractic, they tried everything and nothing worked.
- [RaeAnn] But just before his fourth back surgery, AJ was given an alternative option by the Salt Lake City Veteran Affairs pain management team.
- I was approached by Kim, she had this new program and she took me under her wing.
- [Kim] Hi, Good afternoon.
- Dr. Kimberlee Bayless is an acute pain service nurse practitioner, and Clinical Director of the Transitional Pain Service at the Salt Lake City VA. She says, research shows chronic opioid use nationwide is about 5 to 13%.
Here in Utah, before her program, about 10%.
- We knew that we could do better, and we knew that our veteran population, if we were at 10%, could lead to unintended consequences, opioid dependence, opioid addiction, those other things that down the road could potentially cause harm.
- Dr. Bayless played a pivotal role in spearheading a revolutionary pain management approach, the first of its kind in the nation, within the VA system.
The method adopts a whole health approach, including working with the vets before surgery.
- Patients that have surgery or that have chronic pain still have pain, but does that need to be treated with opioids?
Does that need to be treated with those types of substances?
And I'm not saying one or the other, it's just allowing us to talk with our patients and saying what matters most to you.
I'm happy to say and report today that we're at 0%.
We have eliminated new chronic opioid use here at our Salt Lake City VA. - It was a lot of individual counseling, which I do better in than groups.
And the caringness that I felt, and I felt like safe that I could reach out, what worked for me.
- [RaeAnn] AJ says the pain never goes away, but now how he manages it is different.
- Through a hip surgery, a full hip repair, later that year in June, not a single of opiate.
And because of this program, I'm alive today.
- [RaeAnn] He realizes the love he holds for his family (kids yelling and screaming) far surpasses his fear of pain.
- [AJ] My relationship with my family is a lot better.
They actually act like they love me now.