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Hello and welcome to Open Heart Surgery
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with Boots. I am your host, Boots Knighton. And thank
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you so much for spending a little slice of your day
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with me and my guest today. And I want you
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to know that I don't take it lightly that you choose this
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podcast, that you likely find this podcast helpful
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and I hope that you find something, some hope from listening to
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these stories. I put my own heart and soul
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pun totally intended into choosing my guests
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and I want to make sure that every minute you spend with
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me is worth your time. So please be sure to send me
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some feedback.
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Bootsheheartchamberpodcast.com
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yes, that was the former name of the podcast and I have not switched my
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email over, but I do love hearing from my listeners. It might take
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me a second to get back to you, but every bit of feedback, positive
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or constructive, is so welcomed.
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And I want to also give a special shout out to
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some Patreon supporters. I have
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Amy to thank and Lucinda,
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Robin, John, Kim,
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Bill, Sarah, Kristen,
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Katie, Rose, Diana. I want to say thank
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you to those who are helping me me keep this
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podcast afloat financially. I sure do
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appreciate it. And if you are looking to support
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this podcast, you can go in the show Notes to Patreon
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and if you become a paid supporter of this podcast,
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you can join in on the zoom meetups that happen on the
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first Tuesday of every month. And it really is an
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amazing discussion of us coming together over our hearts.
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So thank you for considering. Lastly, if you
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haven't, be sure to sign up for my newsletter. You can see that in the
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show Notes as well. And I send out a newsletter
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about every Tuesday, Wednesday depending on how I'm
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feeling, to tell you about the latest episodes and to give
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you a little bit of a window into my heart journey as well, because
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it is not over for me. But let's get to
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today's guest. I am welcoming John
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Toivonen from.
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Oh gosh, Warba. You told me how to spell it, John.
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Warba, Minnesota. And Warba is
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apparently the center of the world. John, thank you
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for joining us. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm very
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honored to be on your program, very honored to be here and with
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your listeners and hopefully they can get something out of my story.
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Of course they will. And the 50,000 foot view
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of you, John, is you're lucky. I want to
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rub you for good luck. A lot of people do. Yes,
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because you have been through quite a
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challenging last five years, particularly the
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last two. And you have had to
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date three open heart surgeries and what's
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miraculous is that you continue to live
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a life wide open, full of love,
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and you are able to work, you are able to
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continue to. I don't know if the word
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thrive is how you would describe it, but you're here and
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you're able to clearly tell your story. And I just want to say
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all that for the listeners because at times when we listen
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to your story, it's going to be like, oh my gosh, how is this guy
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doing it? And you're doing it. Exactly. And
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that's kind of the best way to describe it is I just do it.
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I just trust in, trust in the, in the people around me
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that they're telling me the right things and I listen to my body
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and that's how I make it through every day. Bravo. Let's get to
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it. So 2019, how old were you
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then? I was 41 years
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old. Okay. Okay, so let's,
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let's just dive in and you're going to give us the
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30,000 foot view, let's say, of your story. And then along the way
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I'm going to interject with a few questions. Absolutely. We're
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41 years old with you, 2019, and you
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start to feel really bad. I, yes, I
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had gone through the whole day without really
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any symptoms. The only thing I had mentioned in the morning was that I couldn't
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clear my throat. That was the only thing that stood out in my wife's
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mind. I coached football. I went to our restaurant
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that we own to pick up the kids, ate dinner, had
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a beer, got in the truck, getting ready to leave, got the
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kids in there. And I said, you know what, I'm gonna go back inside to
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say goodbye to my wife. I grabbed the door handle and it felt like somebody
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just cut up my chest with a dull butter knife. And 15
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seconds later I was laying face down on the kitchen floor dead
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from cardiac toponade at that point in time. So I had an air of
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dissection and the timing with the ambulance where
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the hospital was. The people that were at the hospital
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that helped me and the surgeons that helped me in
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Duluth once I got life flighted there, saved my life and
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it, it was amazing. So I went through 11 plus hour
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surgery, repaired aortic ascending aorta and
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also a mechanical valve as well. I had a St. Jude's
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valve and that was first installed
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and Woke up about
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24 hours after the surgery and the ICU still
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alive. And it was pretty amazing to hear what had
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happened to me after I had basically left
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the hospital in Grand Rapids. So I
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want to go back to the butter knife
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sensation. So, like, you just felt, like, up the center of your
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chest, right? Yeah, from. Right. Like, top of the stomach all
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the way up. And it was just weird. And I'm like. I thought it was
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heartburn at first, and I started to feel like I was
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gonna fall over. And so I'm walking into the kitchen,
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and like I said, I just went face down on the
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floor. And it's a miracle you got back out of the car and you weren't
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trying to drive. Well, that's. That's the thing is that. And my kids were pretty.
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My young kids were pretty young at the time. Had I just hopped in the
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truck, it would have happened right there. I would have never gotten out of the
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truck. And I was behind the restaurant where nobody really goes. That's
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where I parked. And so I'm lucky. I'm lucky that I
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didn't close the door, because that door automatically locks. I left it open. You know,
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there's so many things that factored into the timing with it that I'm still
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here. Wow. You are not the first guest I've had
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on where there's all these little, tiny miracles
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along the way. I mean, it. It is. I just have the
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chills thinking about that. For you and your kids and your wife.
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And tell us real fast about tamponade.
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So basically, the way it was explained to me, because that's what was the
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official diagnosis. I still have the paperwork from when I was
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released from the emergency room. I guess essentially, it's just that
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periocardio sac around your heart fills with blood or liquid or whatever,
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and it just stops your heart. It constricts your heart. Okay. And so they actually
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put in a drain to drain that
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at the emergency room, and then also had
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blood going into me. So they would drain it, and then they
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transfused it at the same time. So that's the only reason why I stayed alive.
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Okay, Right. Because you had dissected. And so then
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the blood was. Okay. Wow, what a dumpster fire. But
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11 hours later. So you had your
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aortic root replaced. Right. Help me remember. Your
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aortic root. Your. The dissection repaired, and
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then the aortic valve. Correct. And then I also had a
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bypass. Oh, the bypass. An artery that
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stopped working. And so the right side of my heart
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was essentially dying. So they had to do
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that at that time as well. And so that's where the
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first part of the journey starts, essentially. Yeah, exactly. And I
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think anybody that is probably in listeners and maybe even yourself can
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agree that usually after the surgery, it's just
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complications from there on out, experiencing because of the
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trauma, because of what happened, and because of the surgery, because it's such
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a big ordeal. And so that's what happened to me
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essentially, into my second open heart surgery. Right. And now
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we're in Covid and we're just about. We
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were just about. We were. We were about.
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My second open heart surgery was February 7th of 2020,
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and the COVID shutdown happened March 13th.
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For everything that's like our restaurant shut down,
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you know, sports venues shut down, everything shut
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down. But into the second open heart surgery, that bypass that I
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talked about, I had been feeling not so good
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since January and finally went to see my
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cardiologist, and she's like, you don't look good. You need to go to
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Duluth. You're leaking. Something's going on. Well, they thought it was one
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thing. They thought it was my repair leaking. And they were just going to go
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in and put a stitch in and a simple procedure. And they
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decided to go through instead of go through the growing, which I'm glad they
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didn't. And they went through open heart, and
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they got in there and found that that's not what was
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happening. It was the artery that they used to
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bypass. The old artery had stopped working,
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shriveled up, and spit clots in my. Around
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my heart, and the old artery
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actually started working again. So
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miraculously, I survived the unsurvivable number
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two. And I'm just thinking,
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like, you know, I think of terms of a
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car, and you have all these different pipes taking, like, oil
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places and gas, and. And it's just like you were just
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sputtering along. And I'm just thinking of, like, oil clumps or something,
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just getting into the engine. Yeah. And you're just
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literally sputtering along. And the car is like.
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Right. But this is life threatening. I know. That's. I know. I. I
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picture something like that, too. Like, just. It's just like going like this. Yeah, it's.
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That's pretty funny. I like that. I totally picture that same way
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myself. I'm trying not to make light of it, but I'm also. My poor
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little brain, like, this is so messed up. And
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I. And again, thank God you went to
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Duluth. And I. Another side trip. I just want to take
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temporari. Really is. When you heard those words,
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how did you find the energy to be like, okay, here
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I go again, back to the ER like, it. Yeah, it was
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pretty tough I mean, I was. I was. I was batting a
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thousand going to the ER and getting sent to Duluth, there for a while.
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And so, like, they won't even. So now, you know, it's gotten to the point.
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It got to the point where my local hospital won't even deal with
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me. In fact, my cardiologist says, just come straight
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to Duluth. Just come here, because I don't want you to deal
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with them. I want you to just be here. Because I'm only about an hour
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away, and it's. St. Mary's Essentia is where I
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go. They just built a brand new, beautiful facility there in Duluth
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and great surgeons, great, great cardiologists. So.
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Yes. And making light of my story is what helps me get through, so
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I'm glad that you were able to share that with me. So. And by the
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way, my local cardiologist said I'm a zebra to her, so. I hear
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you. And, yeah, I have to go elsewhere now, too. And it's.
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It. I don't know about you, but I've had to grieve that and
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be like, oh, why can't I just be like a horse? You
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know, Like, I want to be a horse. I know. Like, yeah, yeah. If I'm
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going to stay in the hospital, why can't I just stay locally so people can
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come see me or whatever. Exactly. Because we need our community around us
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or. I know half the doctors, though. Half the doctors will come in and see
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me and say hi. You know, that doesn't happen. I got to go. It alerts
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now, so. And actually, it's. We've even bypassed that now, so.
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Yep. Before we lead into the third open heart surgery, part of my
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complications was they had put a probe in my
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arm to apparently measure your blood pressure while
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you're. Arterial. Blood pressure.
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Yep. And so when I got done with the second
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open heart surgery, because I had. They had to take me off Warfarin for a
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few days. I was doing Lovenox shots, which
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Lovenox is like, you know, heavy blood thinner. Yep. Well, it kept
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my blood so thin. Yeah. So I was putting something on
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a shelf one night, and all of a sudden I felt like my bicep just
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cramped. And after a couple hours of being
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in extreme pain, I finally go to the er. That was the first time
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they had the lights on for the ambulance to take me to Duluth because
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they were extremely worried that I was going to lose my arm. Had compartment syndrome
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in my arm, and the artery tore
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in my arm, so I can't get blood work on that arm
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anymore because it's a grafted artery. And I just don't want to deal with
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weird stuff happens to me. So. Oh yeah, I want to.
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I want to keep it safe. So that was, you know, a part of the
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journey too, that, you know, for five weeks I couldn't move my arm. And they
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were concerned that I wasn't going to have it anymore. They might have to amputate
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it. So fortunately came out of that just fine.
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So. But then moving on to the next part of my story, which would
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be the third open heart surgery, the beast, as I like to call
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it, I guess I started to come down with a sickness in
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April of 2023. And I thought it was
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the hold on. So you made it a couple of years. I made
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it a couple of years. I was, I was in a good spot. I was
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in a really good spot. I mean, my health was
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good. Everything was stable,
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no problems. And all of a sudden I come off a weekend and Monday
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I just, I got a fever and chills and I thought I had the flu.
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I even went to the doctor, which wasn't my doctor. I should have reached out
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to my cardiologist, but that person agreed too. You're like, yeah, I think you have
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the flu. Well, then finally, when I couldn't take it anymore, after about three to
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four, you know, four weeks, I went to the ER
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because I just was not feeling great. And based off the tests
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that they did, I went to see my cardiologist the next day and she's like,
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I can't believe they didn't send you to Duluth. You need to come here now.
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Like, you don't have a choice. Like, you have to come here. And
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so rushed over there. And that's when
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they found that I had an infection. And specifically
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the infection attacked my, I like to say
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fake parts for, for the story, but for my
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aortic sleeve that was replaced and my
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aortic valve, my mechanical valve. And I actually, I actually
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developed a 1cm abscess on the root of
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my. Of my valve as well. So it
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was non negotiable. Surgery was the only
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option. And my surgeon, who was really good,
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said, I can do it, but I think you should go to
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Abbott Northwestern down in Minneapolis. Is there
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a level one trauma and transplant
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place? And they also have ECMO there, the
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ECMO machine, which is what I had to be on. And for those out there
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that know ECMO is not really
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survivable, it's about 50% people come off
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of ECMO and I was on it for four days. So they had
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to go in and do what they call a redo. So they had to take
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out all those fake parts, and they put cadaver
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parts back in. The problem with the surgery and what made it 20
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plus hours was when they opened my chest, it looked like
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hamburger from all the scar tissue. In fact, my surgeon
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said that was the stickiest chest he's ever seen. I don't know
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necessarily what that means, but I'm assuming it was bad. At one
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point in time, they actually pulled my pulmonary artery, and he had to massage my
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heart to keep it going. Lots of different
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complications. That part took 11 hours. And then the surgery
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for the redo took another seven or eight. Actually, I
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think it was eight plus even. They had to scrub the inside of my heart,
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get all the infection out, put those cadaver parts in, and here
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we go. And then they left my chest open for four. For those
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four days, while I was on ecmo, they went back in a couple times and
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just tweaked a few things. And that surgery was on a Tuesday. And by
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Sunday evening, they woke me up, and I was in the
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icu, and I had bad dreams, and I had ICU delirium.
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And it was bad. It was very, very bad. I was in a very,
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very, very dark place during that time. You're like the third or
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fourth guest I've had on that have spoken specifically
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about the delirium. And it's almost as if
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that's more traumatic than the surgery itself. Yes.
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There's things that I still have not told my wife that happened
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to me during that time. The things I saw.
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Basically, like, in a nutshell, what made it so bad is that
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I saw about 12 people in my room, and all of them were waiting
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for me to die so they could harvest my organs. And it
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was awful. I was talking to them. I don't know who was.
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Who was real and who wasn't. It was bad. It was a very, very dark
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situation for me. Um, I had people that say, oh,
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yeah, this person saw, you know, kitties
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and rabbits, you know, bunnies running around. I'm like, well, that's not what I saw.
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Yeah, lucky them. I wish I would have saw that. Yeah. Yeah. And I
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still. I still, to this day, haven't dealt with it. I have a friend
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that's. I don't necessarily think I need a
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00:18:10
psychiatrist, but I have a friend that's a life coach that I really trust that
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00:18:14
I want to share that information with. And I'm ready. Okay.
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00:18:18
And I'M ready to tell my story about that too. So that's a whole nother
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story for a whole nother day. Because that, I mean
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00:18:25
that, that's going to take up probably an hour. Just me going through everything that
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I saw and it's, it's. That was
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00:18:32
probably the most traumatic part about it, about the whole experience. Well, and you didn't
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00:18:36
have any control, right? You're. You're stuck. I didn't you. And
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00:18:40
you can't, you can't escape it. You can't self soothe. You
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00:18:43
can't distract yourself. You can't turn on a TV on your. Like,
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00:18:47
there's like. Or go on a walk. There's like all these things that keep you
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00:18:51
prisoner to your mind is what I'm. What I'm hearing.
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00:18:54
Yep, you are. You were. I was a prisoner in my own mind,
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00:18:58
in my own room. Y. And it was awful. And I, and I hear
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00:19:02
actually now because I shared. My sister. My sister's friend
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00:19:06
was the basically manager of the fifth floor, which is the
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00:19:10
cardiac wing at Abbott Northwestern. She came and talked to me and I told her
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00:19:13
about my experience and I don't know if it's because I told her about that.
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But now to now today they have people that come in, like
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00:19:21
visitors or volunteers that'll come in to when people are
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00:19:24
experiencing that and sit with them and talk with them and play cribbage with
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00:19:28
them and get their mind off of it. Good. So I, I mean it's a
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00:19:32
good change. It's something because the nurses and doctors, they're like, ah,
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00:19:36
I'm not dealing with that. That's. It's ICU delirium. Get
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00:19:39
over it. You know, they see it all the time, you know, and a. No
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00:19:42
fault to them. They have to desensitize themselves from it. But yeah, it's, it's
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00:19:46
good. So that part of the experience was, was terrible.
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00:19:49
But, but I improved quick, I really did from being in the
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hospital. I mean I, I was. I couldn't walk for several days. They
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00:19:57
wouldn't let me. They wouldn't let me get out of bed by myself. I had
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00:20:00
to be hoisted up and put on a chair. And for
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00:20:04
anybody that's ever had that, that's a completely like devastating
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experience. You feel helpless that you
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00:20:11
can't even. I can't even stand up. So.
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00:20:15
So that was, that was a humbling experience. It really was that part of it
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00:20:18
because I just wanted to get up and go. I wanted to go outside. I'm
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00:20:21
like, can we go outside? It's Nice. There's a balcony out there. It was
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00:20:25
beautiful. You know, that time of year was May. You know, I'm. You know,
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00:20:28
it's. Spring is here. I want to get outside. And now they wouldn't let me,
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00:20:32
so they had shut my kidneys down during it. And so I was on a
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00:20:35
machine that would, you know, basically change, do what your kidneys
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00:20:38
do. And so they had to wake them up. So I did have dialysis
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twice and started working again. Kidneys are good.
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00:20:46
Kidneys are functioning good to this day. And then it was pretty quick after
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that that I got out of the hospital. So I had my surgery on a
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Tuesday, and I was
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00:20:55
out of the hospital the following
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00:20:59
Thursday. I think that's incredible, considering it was
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00:21:03
pretty quick. That's impressive. Yeah, it
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00:21:06
was. It was pretty quick that they got me out of there, and I wasn't
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00:21:10
ready. I can tell you that. I was not ready. I
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00:21:14
got home, and the most devastating thing when you've had
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00:21:17
one traumatic experience from a health perspective
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00:21:21
is when you have another. You now know what it takes
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00:21:25
to get back to where you were. And it's like, the
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00:21:29
best thing I can explain is it's like. It's like chasing a ball down
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00:21:33
a hill, and you just can never get close enough
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00:21:37
to grab that ball. That's what it felt like. It's like, I'm never gonna get
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00:21:40
there. Never gonna get that ball. That spun me into
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a deep kind of thought, like, man, I just. This is
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00:21:48
gonna be terrible. And it was. You know, I'm not gonna sugarcoat things.
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00:21:51
It was. It was. It was not a good time. And,
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00:21:55
you know, there's. That was touch and go for months. In fact, my color didn't
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00:21:59
even return until probably five, six months later. People
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00:22:03
that had saw me, like, the week before had said, oh, my gosh,
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00:22:07
your color is back. You look so much better. So it was pretty
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00:22:10
grim there for a while. I couldn't even do cardiac rehab because.
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00:22:14
My ask about that. Did you go into that? Okay?
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00:22:18
I had to quit because I couldn't even do it. I just. Wow. And
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00:22:22
we were trying to figure out what was going on, and then when we finally
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00:22:26
got testing done, right heart, cath
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00:22:29
tee echo, you know, all the whole
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00:22:32
work. Figured out that my right side of my heart was in failure.
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00:22:37
I was functioning at about 29 on the right. On the right
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00:22:41
side of my heart. My valve. My mitral valve was
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00:22:44
failing. I was severe to. I was
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00:22:48
moderate to severe regurgitation, and something was going to have to be
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00:22:52
done. But I'm not going to survive another open heart surgery.
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00:22:55
So off to Abbott we go again to discuss with people.
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00:22:59
And that was that. That was kind of the touch and go for
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00:23:03
a while. The T word came out. Transplant. Because they
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00:23:06
just knew that I wasn't going to survive another open heart surgery. They could hope
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00:23:10
they could do it catheter wise if they had to replace my valve, but they
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00:23:14
weren't confident that they could do it. So I did
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00:23:17
some testing there. After about a year, I did
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00:23:21
a right heart cath with exercise. And for
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00:23:25
anybody that's done that, that's a horrible experience because you can't be sedated and you're
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00:23:28
laying on a surgical table completely
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00:23:32
awake. That is awful. I just did it a month ago and it
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00:23:36
took me like two weeks to emotionally recover. Yeah. Oh, my
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00:23:39
gosh. My blood pressure before we went in was so good.
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00:23:43
And I get in and I get white cone syndrome. And then my blood pressure
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00:23:47
skyrockets to 160 over, you know, 90. And so
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00:23:50
they're pumping me with nitro tabs to try to get my blood
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00:23:54
pressure down. And then they gave me some more blood pressure medication.
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00:23:58
Finally, they were okay with it. I was on that table for an
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00:24:02
hour waiting for the test to start. Yeah. While they were cath, I
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00:24:05
was cath and everything else, it was right through my neck and, and everything. And
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00:24:09
then after it was all said and done, all that blood
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00:24:13
pressure medication just rushed to me and I was
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00:24:16
so dizzy. Yep. And of course, I
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00:24:20
didn't eat after midnight. And this was. It was 5 o'clock
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00:24:24
in the afternoon before I even got a little bit of a morsel of snack.
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00:24:28
So it was. Yeah, it was not a good experience. But we got a
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00:24:32
baseline, figured out that things were okay. And then
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00:24:35
come the next testing, echo, follow up a
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00:24:39
few months later, found out that my valves have
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00:24:43
improved. First time I've ever heard of when
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00:24:47
I get news from a doctor, it's always like, oh, it's going downhill. Yeah. But
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00:24:50
this is the first time I got. Well, no, it's going the other way. Your
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00:24:53
valves are fine. The leakage is back to moderate.
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00:24:57
We don't have to do surgery anytime soon. Your heart.
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00:25:01
At my heart, I think my right side of my heart was at 44.
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00:25:04
Incredible. So we're good. The ejection fraction rate was good.
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00:25:08
And he said, your. Your things are good. So ever since then it's
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00:25:12
been. It's been positive. But there's still the thought in the back of my mind
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00:25:15
that no matter what, that my path may
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00:25:19
still lead to that, because the right side of my heart will never
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00:25:23
recover the way. The way it was. Right.
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00:25:26
And like you said, you're batting a thousand. So every time they
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00:25:30
say go to. Yeah, you gotta go elsewhere. It's. It's always
Speaker:
00:25:34
bad news, and it's just like, can a guy catch a break? Which is funny
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00:25:38
for a guy like me to say, because I've caught a ton of breaks. Right.
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00:25:41
I've died six times. I've flatlined six times, and here I
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00:25:44
still am. But it just seems like I just want to
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00:25:48
be able to go three years without surgery now.
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00:25:52
Yeah. And we're getting close. I feel you on
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00:25:56
fingers crossed. So how are your wife and kids?
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00:26:00
You know what? They're great. My wife has been
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00:26:04
so wonderful in the whole experience. She
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00:26:07
understands my daily struggles. You know, like, a lot of
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00:26:11
times, I don't want to get off the couch. I don't want to do anything,
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00:26:15
and I get a lot of leeway there, you know, and my
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00:26:18
kids, they were affected by it. You know, I have four daughters. The two older
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00:26:22
ones were, you know, I think 12 and
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00:26:26
15 at the time, or 13 and 15. So, I mean,
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00:26:30
they were when I first had my first episode, and.
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00:26:33
But my. My youngest daughter, she still sleeps. Still sleeps on the
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00:26:37
couch. She can't sleep in her bed. Because when I got home from the hospital,
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00:26:41
the first time that's where we slept was everyone slept in the living room with
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00:26:44
me while I slept in my chair that I'm sitting in. By the
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00:26:48
way, this is whenever I. Whenever I hear or
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00:26:52
see on Facebook, what are the necessities after open heart surgery?
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00:26:55
Electric recliner, number one. Number one. I.
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00:26:59
This is my recharge station. This is where I go when I don't feel good.
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00:27:03
Plug in. I've slept many. Slept many, many, many,
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00:27:07
many nights in this thing. So it affects them still to this day, like,
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00:27:11
I know it does, they get nervous. Like, my daughter. Like, my
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00:27:14
wife was on the way home, and there was an ambulance going to Duluth,
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00:27:18
and my daughter had to run in the house to make sure I was here,
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00:27:22
even though she asked my wife, you know, is that dad?
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00:27:26
And. And she said, no, no, he's home. And she ran in
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00:27:29
here to make sure I was here, because that's. I mean, that's how
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00:27:33
traumatic it is for them. You know, that's. A lot of people
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00:27:36
don't. The survivors. We have the easy part. We just
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00:27:40
lay there and not die. Right. I can't agree. It's our.
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00:27:43
It's the people that support Us. And I'm talking even bigger
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00:27:47
than my family. The people that I have met through Rock
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00:27:51
from the Heart, you know, an organization that I work with and volunteer with, the
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00:27:54
people I've met through a hope. Just all these connections that
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00:27:58
I keep making, and it's just a powerful experience when you
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00:28:02
can make that connection with someone. I always encourage
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00:28:06
anybody to reach out to me. Email, phone. I don't. I.
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00:28:09
I will give the world my phone number. Just reach out to me
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00:28:13
and let's talk, you know, because we can't do this
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00:28:16
alone. Nope. That's the whole point of this podcast. You
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00:28:20
know, it's like, it's. It is one of the
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00:28:24
hardest thing, knock on wood. I've not had cancer. I have
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00:28:28
severely broken a leg, so I can speak to that. But
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00:28:31
I. From what I can tell, heart. Heart stuff is
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00:28:35
one of the hardest roads you can walk because it's what keeps us alive, our
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00:28:39
heart. And it's such a complicated organ, and so many things can go
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00:28:42
wrong with it. I also like to say so many things can go right with
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00:28:46
it. Yeah. And so my greatest
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00:28:50
hope for you is you get to keep your beautiful heart. I mean, heck,
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00:28:53
y'all been through enough as it is. I'd have you to have to
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00:28:57
part ways. It's mine. I want, like, this is this.
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00:29:02
I don't. I don't want someone else. I already got somebody else's
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00:29:05
valve in an aorta, and who knows? If they had aortic
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00:29:09
disease, I might be destined for another aorta dissection. So that's
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00:29:12
the other thought process I gotta think about, is like, what if this were
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00:29:16
aorta was just like my last one, you know? So
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00:29:20
I want to keep my heart because even though it's damaged,
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00:29:23
it's mine. Exactly. It's what makes you you, and it's
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00:29:27
what you love with and laugh with, get scared
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00:29:31
with, like, all. All the things. It's right there with you.
Speaker:
00:29:35
Well, John, thank you so much for your
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00:29:39
generosity of coming on the podcast today to share your story.
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00:29:43
I will have in the show notes help folks can find you any
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00:29:46
other parting words of advice or
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00:29:50
wisdom. You know, it's a marathon, not a sprint.
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00:29:53
I take it day by day, hour by hour, listen to your body
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00:29:57
and know that there is so many other people out there that are
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00:30:01
feeling just like you. And everyone's story
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00:30:04
and everyone's journey, even though they may be
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00:30:08
similar, it's a different experience for everyone.
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00:30:11
Not everyone has had the complications that I've had. Not everyone's had the
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00:30:15
complications that you've had, the next person's had. But we all share
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00:30:19
that common thing with that we have been through this experience.
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00:30:22
So please, like I said, reach out.
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00:30:26
I'm more than willing to talk. Oh, wow. I've made a
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00:30:30
new friend. You're just such a lovely soul. Thank you, John.
Speaker:
00:30:34
Yes, you too. Yes, thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah. And
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00:30:37
for my listeners, do get in touch with John. And if you haven't
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00:30:41
yet, do be sure to subscribe to this podcast wherever
Speaker:
00:30:45
you get podcasts, because I don't want you to miss any more
Speaker:
00:30:49
episodes. And if you liked this episode today
Speaker:
00:30:52
and you think can think of someone who would benefit from listening to it, please
Speaker:
00:30:56
send it to them. And if you even have another
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00:31:00
second, I would love it if you consider leaving a review.
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00:31:04
It's how people find this podcast. So, John,
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00:31:07
thanks again and thank you to all the listeners spending a
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00:31:11
slice of your day with me. Me. I love you. Your heart is your
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00:31:15
best friend and you matter and you're never
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00:31:18
alone. Be sure to come back Tuesday after next. We're in the every other
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00:31:22
week rhythm where I will bring you another story of hope and
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00:31:25
inspiration.
