01
The Struggle
Morgan O’Neill could carry a man down a ladder but couldn’t stop grinding his teeth at night. After twenty years of high-adrenaline calls, his body had forgotten how to stand down. He woke at 3 a.m., heart racing as if alarms still blared. His smartwatch showed HRV 20 ms, sleep efficiency 60%, resting HR 94 bpm.
His annual labs looked worse: Cortisol flat curve, DHEA 50 µg/dL, CRP 4.5, testosterone 275 ng/dL, glucose 110. The doctor said, 'Stress adaptation failure.' Marcus called it burnout in uniform.
02
The Breaking Point
It happened at the station gym, mid-set, his vision blurred, and he leaned against the barbell, trembling. He’d saved others from panic, now couldn’t calm his own body.
That night, his wife showed him Vitals Vault. She’d read about first responders using biomarker dashboards to track recovery. “You can’t fight fire with empty reserves,” she said. He ordered the Stress Adaptation & Resilience Panel before sunrise.
