FALLS CHURCH, Va. - Master Sgt Natalia Laughlin is as tough as they come. She is disciplined, focused, and always up for a challenge. The combat medic has found more than her share of challenges, beginning with an injury that brought her to the Joint Base Lewis-McChord Soldier Recovery Unit, where she was already familiar.

"I worked as a platoon sergeant at the SRU for two years. It's a pretty demanding job, and I would find soldiers would interrupt PT time with a lot of issues that required me to back up PT to earlier in the morning so I could get a workout in," said Laughlin, who always put soldiers first no matter how it adjusted her schedule.

"Unfortunately, in the great state of Washington, in the fall and winter, it can be very dark out in the morning, and I was out running in the fall of 2022, and I just tripped on the trail. I fell and sustained a hip injury and a back injury, and I also tore a UCL ligament in my hand. Go big or go home, right?"

Her injuries were no laughing matter as the mother of three had to learn to navigate her health at the very place she worked. "This has come full circle for me because I used to be over these soldiers, and now I am one of these soldiers. It gives me a new perspective. I'm getting to experience it on both ends. It was very humbling for me," said Laughlin.

She focused on the immediate injuries and tried to return to normal, but the challenges continued. "The docs thought I had fractured my hip - luckily, it wasn't broken. I had lots of PT, and they also discovered I had tendonitis in my hip as I am an avid runner. I underwent further evaluation after I came off cadre duty at the SRU."

She had an MRI on her back, and it revealed a swollen kidney. "I had to go to a nephrologist, and I had surgery in July 2023, where they went in to fix my kidney. Medics are not the best patients," she says, laughing.

She had to have a stent put in and was down for six weeks. "I struggled with this because you go from running 100 mph all the time to this. My energy and activity were stripped of me." And, just a few days before kidney surgery, I learned how messed up my hand was from the fall from the MRI."

Laughlin knew she had to fix herself first to be a better mother, leader and soldier, and she admits there were some uncomfortable times throughout this journey. "Growth never comes from being comfortable. That's something that's been driven into me this past year. I've certainly not been graceful through it all. I've learned, and I've progressed. I've learned to step back and focus on my health at 40 years old and almost 19 years in the Army."

As if these challenges weren't enough, Laughlin shares the biggest test of her life also happened concerning her oldest of three daughters this year. "My 20-year-old daughter has intractable epilepsy, and she started having seizures again during this timeframe. She is pre-med up at the University of Washington, and we've learned she needed brain surgery."

The physical injuries aside, Laughlin wants her story to be her approach to the compounding issues that keep piling on and that seeking help at the SRU is a good thing. "It's been a brutal year, no lie. I feel like you have to wake up every day, and as cliché as it sounds, you have to find gratitude every day, even if it's just for the smallest thing. I didn't grow up like that; it is a skill set I learned in the Army."

She says she and her daughters have a wall of joy in their house where they put a sticky note up daily of the slightest joy they find. "Learning to make that a habit in your brain of finding gratitude, even in the darkest moments, or the crappiest days, or the crappiest years, it gets you through. Even if it just gets you through that one hour - whatever it takes. Find your gratitude."

Grateful for the resources and events the JBLM SRU offered to help her through her recovery, Laughlin said she also got started in one-on-one therapy this year. "I'm old school Army. I was in when we had BDUs. It's a different Army now where we promote mental health and preventative (medicine) to make sure you are cohesively strong, not just physically strong."

Her message to those suffering in silence? "You don't have to keep it together all the time. It's exhausting pretending to be ok. It's okay not to be ok, and we must promote that. It's hard and makes me feel weak, but I have 20 years of thinking like that, and I'm working on it."

Now that she has experience on both sides of the Army Recovery Care Program, she hopes every soldier will see her journey and learn from it. "Take advantage of the programs. It's okay to be weird, sad and hurt; everyone else is there for a reason. Get involved and be uncomfortable. Just know it's okay, and this, too, shall pass. I live by a motto: "Tough times don't last; tough people do."