This is a part of the Hot Topic podcast series from the Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center on Exercise After Burn Injury. Joy Greene, Burn Survivor, discusses The Importance of Family Support.

Joy Greene

Sustained a Burn Injury in 2011

My twin sister Judy, after the accident, was probably is relentless as my pain. She would constantly be talking about exercise, even when I was in the rehab hospital just coming out of a coma, with bandages head to toe. "You should meditate. You should breathe." And I'd be looking at her like, what are you talking about? Do you see me? I can't even move.

But she wouldn't give up. She thought I could run again. She thought I could swim. She thought I could do yoga. She thought I could take any class I wanted. She thought I could do the Cliff Walk, one of our most favor out walks in the Newport, Rhode Island, filled with rugged rocks. She thought I could do it, and she didn't give up.

And I think that's what helped me not give up. It was the love. And maybe there wasn't so much patience 'cause she would get frustrated when I wasn't listening, or maybe I just didn't want to listen because I was in so much pain.

But she wanted me to be back to who I was before. She wasn't gonna let this accident destroy me and the things I loved. And I think her faith in me helped me get back to something I love to do, and that's exercise.

Visit https://msktc.org/burn and get the answers you need from experts who conduct innovative and high-quality research, provide patient care, and work to improve the health and overall quality of life for people with burn injury. That’s https://msktc.org/burn.