October 11, 2024 • 21 mins
I am thrilled to introduce an incredible guest who embodies resilience and transformation—Kelly Thrush. Kelly is not only a dynamic public speaker and ultra marathon runner, but he’s also the cofounder of the Gratitude and Grace Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting families of transplant patients and individuals on their journey to recovery from substance abuse.
In this episode, Kelly will share his personal journey, highlighting how he harnesses his experiences to inspire others in overcoming adversity. We’ll dive into the power of failure as a springboard for growth, and discuss his passionate advocacy for mental health, addiction recovery, and organ donation.
Get ready to be inspired by Kelly’s story and the profound impact he’s making in the world.
Website and Upcoming Events:
https://gratitudeandgracefoundation.org/
Gratitude and Grace El Tour Team 2024- November 23
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Theresa Cesare (00:06):
Hey guys.
Welcome to Heart to Talk thepodcast.
I am the host and creatorTheresa Cesare My intention for
this podcast is to deliver toyou wisdom, inspiration, and
consciousness.
Through solo episodes andconversations amongst insightful
people.
It is my greatest honor to bringto you talks that come from the.
(00:32):
Welcome back to the show today.
I am thrilled to introduce anincredible guest who embodies
resilience and transformation.
Kelly Thrush.
Kelly is not only a dynamicpublic speaker and ultra
marathon runner, but he's alsothe co founder of gratitude and
grace foundation, a nonprofitdedicated to supporting families
of transplant patients andindividuals on their journey to
(00:54):
recovery in this episode, Kellywill share his personal journey,
highlighting how he harnesseshis experiences to inspire
others in overcoming adversity.
Get ready to be inspired byKelly's story and the profound
impact he's making in the world.
Welcome to the show, my amazingfriend.
Kelly Thrush (01:12):
Oh, wonderful.
Thank you for that intro.
Theresa Cesare (01:14):
I am so excited for this conversation.
And before we dive in I want toshare with this audience how we
know each other.
It's kind of cool.
You're
Kelly Thrush (01:24):
fairly certain you were
Theresa Cesare (01:26):
14 when I was a freshman.
Were you a senior?
When I was a freshman?
I was a senior.
Oh my gosh, that's right.
So we went, we met in highschool and I remind me, were you
student body president?
Kelly Thrush (01:37):
I was.
Yeah.
Sure was.
Yeah.
Theresa Cesare (01:39):
But fast forward, what happened in your
life, like your story that ledto what you're doing today to
make this giant impact.
Kelly Thrush (01:49):
Directly after high school, I went off and I
played some college sports.
I played college baseball for acouple of years.
Not editarily myself.
The teams I was on were good.
Myself was not terribly at ahigh level.
Really because I found that,partying and drinking beer Boy,
I was good at those, and theywere super, a lot more fun than
working out on the field andsweating all day, so, My focus
(02:11):
kind of got derailed prettyearly, right into college.
Then after college, things wentwell for a while.
I was running restaurants.
I, you know, got promoted earlyand quick and often through
restaurants for a while, andended up running, sports bars
for quite some time, and in theculture of bars and restaurants,
uh, specifically the ones I wasin, booze was a big part of
(02:32):
that.
And so what ended up happeningis what started as fun, drinking
beer and partying with thefellas and all that good stuff
and going out turned into a lifecrippling problem, and it
accelerated and my alcoholismand addiction just increased.
year by year until finally itwas now causing havoc and chaos
(02:54):
in every aspect of my life.
So it was a, it was a longjourney there for a while until
my mid to late 30s, it was outof hand.
I'd actually not drank for theentire year of 2006, well almost
the entire year, but it was ayear plus in 2016.
I didn't drink because at thatpoint my first wife basically
given me an ultimatum.
(03:15):
And said, hey, you need to cleanit up or we're gone.
And so I did, the very next day,cold turkey, just like that.
and didn't go to meetings,didn't have any support group,
didn't think I needed them.
I didn't have a problem.
All of the cliches that you'llhear from every addict ever.
and then finally a year later itwas, oh look, I'm cured.
I can drink like a normalperson.
(03:35):
Look, I did it for an entireyear plus a couple of weeks.
There's no reason I can't drinklike everybody else does.
Well, so I went out and, tried.
that very first day, other thanlying to everybody by not saying
that I was going out drinking, Idid fine.
I had two drinks and just likenormal.
That was great.
The problem was is that myaddiction came back with a
(03:56):
vengeance and within three weeksit was as bad if not worse than
it was when I quit the firsttime around.
and that sent me spiraling andthat was, the beginning of Ended
2016 into 2017.
as a result, my, my marriagedissolved.
my relationships dissolved withmy kids, with my siblings.
it was, it was tough there for awhile.
I was actually, the phrase I useis I was darn near homeless at
(04:19):
that particular point.
my grandmother who had livedwith us because of health
concerns, she lived with us andthe teenagers.
she still had her originalhouse.
Thank goodness.
Cause I was able, she allowed meto move in there with her.
Otherwise, I don't know, I don'treally know what I would have
done.
And
Theresa Cesare (04:36):
so how did you get out of it?
Kelly Thrush (04:37):
What ended up happening was during that year
of 2017, once I left the houseand I was on my own and I had
no.
Real responsibilities.
I was at this point, I went froma general manager and a training
manager that traveled, you know,different locations, for
restaurants to now I'm a serverat 38 years old, 37, whatever I
was at the time, living with mygrandmother and, I wouldn't say
(05:00):
in squalor, but, It was a stepabove that.
But finally in January of 2018,my liver finally quit.
and I was finally forced to bymy boss, my current boss
actually, who still I work forto this day, eight years, seven
years later almost, send me tothe hospital as an ultimatum.
Um, Um, because I was in denial,and she could see it, and so
(05:23):
could everyone else around me,that I was jaundice, my eyes
were yellow, my skin was yellow,I was sweaty, I was a mess, I
was death warmed over, and shelooked at me and said, you're
going to the hospital right now,and didn't give me a choice, and
thank goodness, and that was onJanuary 10th of 2018, because I
was in, end stage liver failure.
(05:43):
I was at stage four end stageliver failure from cirrhosis and
from the scar tissue and fromthe drinking.
and I spent in total about fourand a half months in the
hospital at that point.
So when you asked about rockbottom and quitting drinking,
none of that was by choice.
It was simply because I was inthe hospital.
Theresa Cesare (06:00):
It was like what nearly killed you is what like
had to save you.
There probably was nothing else,right?
Like, to, like, get you to snapout of it.
No.
Kelly Thrush (06:09):
Any, so, when I do, I do, a lot of talks, and
especially if I'm talking toyoung people.
I always talk about Marvelmovies, right?
And I don't remember which oneit was, Endgame or whatever it
was.
But one of those ones where,Doctor Strange and Iron Man are
talking.
And they talk about all thesedifferent scenarios and how this
plays out.
And he basically tells him,look, there's only one scenario
in which the good guys win.
(06:30):
And that was me.
This was the, the one timelinein which I actually made it out
alive, out of that situation.
Had I not met, Jamie, who is nowmy wife, she was then my
girlfriend.
Had I not met her at thatparticular moment in my life, I
wouldn't have made it.
Had I not been forced to go tothat hospital that day, I
wouldn't have made it.
There's a number of things thathad to play out, even when I was
(06:51):
in the hospital, had to play outin order for me to survive,
because there were multipledoctors.
We did the tours of the hospitalaround town, and we went to four
different ones, uh, and saw, youknow, a liver specialist, and
each of them, until I got to theone that did the transplant,
each of them said that there wasnothing that they could do for
me, that I was beyond repair, itwas time to get my affairs in
(07:12):
order.
I had about two months, give ortake,
Theresa Cesare (07:15):
Wow.
So then what happened next?
Kelly Thrush (07:19):
So, we do the tour of the hospitals and finally we
end up, at banner UMC down here,on campus.
And even there, the, the initialdoctors that came to see me,
this was now mid-February, giveor take, and I've now been in
hospitals for five weeks or so.
I got there and even the doctorsat Banner told me.
(07:40):
That there was nothing theycould do for me.
because my liver was so fargone, it was now dragging my
kidneys down with it.
So they were failing on top ofit.
And there were two doctors,internal hospitalists, medicine
doctors, that I, to this day,don't know what they saw in me.
Or what convinced them, but theyconvinced the transplant team to
take a risk on me.
(08:01):
I had goosebumps.
So, and yeah, it was, it waspretty amazing.
And so they were able toconvince the transplant team
that yes, this, this guy isworth the risk of.
all the things that could haveor maybe should have gone wrong.
And so finally, on beginning ofMarch of that year, I got
approved for the transplantlist.
(08:21):
And then there were all sorts ofred tape and hoops that you have
to do with insurance and soforth.
And then, um, on March 22nd, Iactually had a full liver
transplant that day.
Theresa Cesare (08:31):
Oh my goodness.
And you're doing well with it.
Your body received it.
Oh my God.
Kelly Thrush (08:37):
Oh yeah.
I am, I am healthier now than Iever have been.
including those high school dayswhen we knew each other.
life is so much sweeter.
I mean, you can imagine when youphysically touch your own
mortality, your perspectivechanges, at least mine did.
Right.
It's amazing how that changedeverything around me.
The, the first part it reallyhappened almost immediately was
(09:00):
waking up from that surgery.
The surgery took something like14 hours, something along those
lines.
And then I wasn't awake or atleast conscious for the next.
Sometime after that, and I wokeup in the ICU with the
ventilator sticking out of mythroat and all these tubes
hooked up to me and everymachine that you can think of,
Jamie's on one hand holding one,and my sister, Yes, yes, I
(09:22):
remember.
Blew in from Colorado, washolding my other hand, and then
family members who hadn't beenaround when the chaos of
addiction was going on, becausethey couldn't be, were now in my
hospital room with me, uh, andit was amazing.
And I was.
I was just overwhelmed withgratitude.
I mean, it changed my life thatthose 10 seconds waking up were
Theresa Cesare (09:43):
life changing.
Oh my God, what?
Miracle upon miracle that justgrew.
Kelly Thrush (09:48):
That recovery was tough.
Not only the physical recovery,because when I got out of the
hospital, I couldn't walk.
Any distance anyway, if it wasany sort of distance, I had to
have a wheelchair, if it wasshort, maybe I used a walker, I
had to learn how to do all ofthose things again and build up
my muscles.
I was down to, uh, about 150pounds.
Which, for my frame, is nothing.
It's skin and bones.
(10:09):
Uh, and yeah, if I fell, I hadno muscles to get back up.
So, that was a long process.
And then the process of actuallybecoming sober and thriving was
a very long process.
Because the 15 years or 17 yearsleading up to that, I mean,
there was very, very few days Iwent without drinking at all.
And so now, all of a sudden,here I am with this brand new
(10:30):
gift.
That in my mind, I didn'tdeserve.
Somebody else or other peopledeserve that way more than I
did.
and I have no emotional tools.
Or, um, self awareness on how tocope with all of those things,
right?
Because before, it was alwaysjust, I just boozed it up.
That's how I dealt with anythingand everything.
(10:51):
Celebrations, bad things, itdidn't matter.
Theresa Cesare (10:52):
And so tell everybody what you're doing now
as a result of your journey.
Kelly Thrush (10:59):
And during that journey and that process as I'm
going through smart recovery,uh, which is how I came up
through the sober ranks, so tospeak, and as I found fitness.
I knew I had to give back.
I had to.
It was, it was something I hadto take this gift that I have
been given and make sure that Iearn it every single day because
it's something that it was givento me by, by somebody who, who
(11:25):
granted me the gift of life.
Right?
And so I need to somehow givethat back to the community, to
other people that might bestruggling.
So Jamie and I started afoundation called the Gratitude
and Grace Foundation.
we, uh, provide community andfinancial support for transplant
patients and their families asthey're going through these,
that journey of their own.
Because with transplants, thepatient itself is typically out
(11:48):
of work for a year or so, butthe bills are still there.
The mortgage still needs to bepaid, the electric bill needs to
get paid, and Jamie and I reallysuffered through that, and I'll
say Jamie really sufferedthrough that.
She had the hard part.
I just.
tried to get healthy again, shehad to worry about the electric
bill or the water bill or thecar payments or whatever it was
that we had to worry about.
(12:08):
Um, to the point where she wasactually, as I was recovering, I
would recover Monday throughFriday at my grandmother's
house.
And my mom and my grandma wouldbe there cause you have to have
24 hour care.
And then that would allow her towork.
And then I would come home onthe weekends.
Well, what I didn't know until acouple of years later is that
she would turn off the waterMonday through Friday.
(12:29):
Okay.
Take a shower at grandma's houseand then she could go to work.
And then we'd come back on theweekends.
Everything's back up.
And so we started thisfoundation to help people in
those types of situations, whereif somebody does have an issue
with the electric bill or rentor whatever, we can be there to
provide at least, at leastalleviate some of that stress
and some of that problem.
(12:50):
Uh, and so that's how the wholething got started.
That's
Theresa Cesare (12:52):
so inspiring.
And so you have an annual eventor many events in how you
fundraise.
Yeah.
Tell us about that.
Kelly Thrush (13:00):
Oh, yeah.
There's all sorts of events.
There's good ones.
So we'll talk about the bigones.
So on Saturday the 28th, we'rehaving our Gratitude and Grace
Gala.
And it is a fundraising dinner.
We're holding, posting it out atWestin La Paloma, who's now one
of our sponsors.
Hillary Phelps is our keynotespeaker.
she is very big in the recoverycommunity.
She has her own podcast.
She's an author.
(13:20):
and so we flew her out.
Hopefully she's in the air rightnow.
Her flight's been delayed.
Oh no,
Theresa Cesare (13:25):
fingers crossed.
Kelly Thrush (13:25):
No, fingers crossed.
She's supposed to land here in acouple hours.
Um, she's going to be ourkeynote.
And so we're going to, we soldtickets and we're raising money
there.
We're going to have.
raffle items and all other waysto donate that way.
The next one coming up is wehave a team for El Tour de
Tucson because part of my crazyultra endurance races is I'll go
ride this 100 miles with ElTour.
(13:46):
Uh, and this year Gratitude andGrace has a team.
So we have 10 riders currently.
So if there's anybody listening,you'd like to cycle?
Shoot, even if you don't like tocycle, we'll get you on the
website and you can sign up withthe team because it's pretty
fantastic.
And then the flagship event iscalled the Tumamoc 10 that
happens every March.
and this one is, near and dearto me.
so about four or five years agonow, um, uh, I was going to
(14:09):
celebrate what we call in myhouse my liverversary.
And my buddy, another one thatyou actually know from high
school, Tom Cox, Yeah.
Yeah, so, he was a buddy of mineand he says, Hey, how are you,
this was like four years ago, hegoes, How are you celebrating
your, your Libraversary thisyear?
I said, well, I think I'm gonnago run up and down Tumamoc.
And he goes, hell, that's agreat idea, man, I'll come with
ya.
and I said, yeah, I think I'mgonna do it ten times for a
(14:30):
total of fifty kilometers.
And he goes, what are you,stupid?
I'm not doing that with you.
That's, that's ridiculous.
And so, he didn't do it all ten.
But what I did do that firstyear was sucker enough people to
come with me that I had someoneto go with me every single trip.
Every ten times for that wholeday.
and that has now flourished intoan event we call the Tumamoc
(14:52):
Ten.
And so this next year, it'sgonna be on March 8th.
And we are going to, every houron the hour, starting at 7am all
the way through 4pm.
People, we all go up the hill asa group.
Now.
For those of you that arelistening, you don't have to do
it all ten times.
There's a few people that arecrazy enough to try that and go
for it.
One
Theresa Cesare (15:09):
time nearly kills me and I think I'm pretty
like fit.
Kelly Thrush (15:14):
Well, in that case, since you know you can go
once, you have to go twice.
Oh, I love that.
And it can take you as long asyou want.
I love that.
As much time as you want.
And we'll have snacks and musicand sponsors.
And we're gonna have bibs thisyear so that we stand out on the
hill.
We have t shirts.
I mean, it's a whole, it's awhole to do.
Uh, and so this year we havesponsors.
We're partnered with the U of Afor this event on Chumaloc.
(15:35):
So we are officially sanctioned.
So to speak, uh, it's going tobe fantastic and it's going to
be another fundraiser for thecommunity.
Um, so that we can get out andhelp some more families.
Gosh,
Theresa Cesare (15:44):
this is so inspiring and I'm so proud of
you.
And so for those listening,including myself, I'm going to
drop every link for, of course,your website, upcoming events.
Is there a way to give to, youknow, to donate to Gratitude and
Grace?
That's going to contribute ifyou can't make an event or if
you're going to miss it.
How can we
Kelly Thrush (16:04):
yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, right on the website.
I mean, there's a big donate nowbutton right there you can also
donate to other events like forexample, tumamoc 10 or or l2 or
either or you can go to thoselinks on the The actual website
and you can donate to a team oryou can just donate to the
foundation itself we're a 501c3.
Everything is taxed write offstax deductible so especially
(16:25):
when it comes around towards theend of the year and people like
oh my gosh I haven't spent mytax money to write off You I, I
got a great foundation that, canalways use an extra hand.
Theresa Cesare (16:33):
That's incredible.
Wow.
Before we wrap up, is there anytips
Kelly Thrush (16:39):
yeah, especially if you are struggling.
a lot of times it's thoseirrational thoughts that we have
in our own heads, that voice inyour head.
That you typically, at least inmy case, is not terribly nice.
It doesn't say nice things to memost of the time.
and every single time I havetalked to it, it's usually full
of B.
S.
I almost cursed.
(16:59):
Uh, and so, if you're strugglingand you're, and you really are
wanting to be sober, but it'shard, it's difficult, just
remember that This will pass.
That craving will pass.
The phrase I like to use is ridethat wave and when you get that
urge and I just I gotta have adrink or I gotta use.
I promise this if you ride thatout long enough It'll dissipate
(17:21):
and it'll go away.
One of my favorites when I'mdealing with folks that are new
to sobriety is like I need tohave a drink.
Well, okay, let's back that up.
The only thing you need to dotoday is breathe.
Everything else you can dotomorrow.
Theresa Cesare (17:34):
I love that.
Kelly Thrush (17:35):
So that'd be my biggest, my biggest piece of
advice is just Stick it out.
It'll pass.
None of this is permanent.
Theresa Cesare (17:41):
Thank you so much, Kelly.
All right, we're gonna now pivotto the ending questions.
And so the first one, what isyour favorite book?
Kelly Thrush (17:50):
Oh, see, I, you told me that.
Do you have a few?
Yeah.
So I got like a list.
Okay, give
Theresa Cesare (17:55):
us your list.
Hey, there are no like minimum,like, yeah, give us, yeah.
Fair enough.
Kelly Thrush (18:00):
So I am currently in a series, it's called the
Last Kingdom series or, or theSaxon Tales or something.
It's historical fiction and it'sabout England.
And there's, you know, Vikingwarriors and so forth, and so
that's what I'm doing currentlythat I'm reading, that I
thoroughly enjoy.
The book that started this wholething, is called Running Man,
and it's by Charlie Angle.
and he is an ultra runner, anadventurist, and also very big
(18:24):
in the addiction community aswell.
And so he started this wholething when, I read that book in
probably 24 hours.
Well, while my wife was sick andI was holding her hair back in
the bathroom, she looked, yeah,it was like three in the
morning.
She goes, Oh honey, you can goto bed.
You don't need to stay with me.
I'm like, no, I'm good.
I'm in the middle of this book.
It doesn't bother me.
Um, but yeah, so charlie angle,the running man had a huge
(18:45):
impact on me.
So those are probably the firsttwo, the comfort crisis by
michael easter is anotherreally, really good one that I
like.
Theresa Cesare (18:51):
Thank you for those.
And then the next question, whatis your favorite affirmation or
mantra that keeps you motivated?
Kelly Thrush (18:59):
The motivated is why not?
Yeah.
Ooh, why not?
People will say, yeah.
People will say like, you'regoing to run a hundred miles.
Yeah.
Why not?
I love that.
Let's go for it.
Why not?
If, if, if you can do whateverit is that you want to do.
Yeah.
Why not?
If you fail, who cares?
Like, we get this amount of timeon this planet.
I mean, it is, it is, it, itflashes in front of you.
(19:20):
So go do the things that scareyou a little bit.
Go do the things that you're notsure you can do.
Um, I have a 300 mile trekcoming up in April that I'm not
real sure I can complete that.
But you know what?
I'm going for it.
Why not?
If I, if I make it 150 miles Soshoot, if I only make it 50,
only, only make it 50 miles, youknow, I made it 50 miles that
day.
(19:40):
Like that's, it's amazing.
So yeah, why not go, go camping,go trekking, go skydive, go do
whatever you want to do.
Go have experiences that youwill not be able to get possibly
tomorrow.
Theresa Cesare (19:50):
I love that so much.
And the last question, what doyou want to be known for?
Kelly Thrush (19:57):
I want to be a person that people around me can
count on.
No matter what they need, itcould be obviously the
foundation in helping completestrangers navigate those, trials
and tribulations in their life.
But shoot, if you need helpmoving the couch, I got a truck.
Sure.
Let's go do it.
So I want to be someone that youcan call and know that, yeah,
(20:20):
I'm there.
And we don't even have to begood friends, too.
We could be complete strangersand you just need a hand.
And yeah, I'm on it.
I got it for you.
Theresa Cesare (20:32):
Thank you so much for tuning into this
episode.
Please download, rate,subscribe, and share this
podcast.
Also, be sure to visit mytheresacesare.com to check out
my inspirational merch, connectto my social accounts, and much
more may you continue to befilled with wisdom, inspiration,
and consciousness.
(20:52):
Otherwise, friends, I will beback in two weeks for another
episode of Heart to.
Hey guys.
Welcome to Heart to Talk thepodcast.
I am the host and creatorTheresa Cesare My intention for
this podcast is to deliver toyou wisdom, inspiration, and
consciousness.
Through solo episodes andconversations amongst insightful
people.
It is my greatest honor to bringto you talks that come from the.
(00:32):
Welcome back to the show today.
I am thrilled to introduce anincredible guest who embodies
resilience and transformation.
Kelly Thrush.
Kelly is not only a dynamicpublic speaker and ultra
marathon runner, but he's alsothe co founder of gratitude and
grace foundation, a nonprofitdedicated to supporting families
of transplant patients andindividuals on their journey to
(00:54):
recovery in this episode, Kellywill share his personal journey,
highlighting how he harnesseshis experiences to inspire
others in overcoming adversity.
Get ready to be inspired byKelly's story and the profound
impact he's making in the world.
Welcome to the show, my amazingfriend.
Kelly Thrush (01:12):
Oh, wonderful.
Thank you for that intro.
Theresa Cesare (01:14):
I am so excited for this conversation.
And before we dive in I want toshare with this audience how we
know each other.
It's kind of cool.
You're
Kelly Thrush (01:24):
fairly certain you were
Theresa Cesare (01:26):
14 when I was a freshman.
Were you a senior?
When I was a freshman?
I was a senior.
Oh my gosh, that's right.
So we went, we met in highschool and I remind me, were you
student body president?
Kelly Thrush (01:37):
I was.
Yeah.
Sure was.
Yeah.
Theresa Cesare (01:39):
But fast forward, what happened in your
life, like your story that ledto what you're doing today to
make this giant impact.
Kelly Thrush (01:49):
Directly after high school, I went off and I
played some college sports.
I played college baseball for acouple of years.
Not editarily myself.
The teams I was on were good.
Myself was not terribly at ahigh level.
Really because I found that,partying and drinking beer Boy,
I was good at those, and theywere super, a lot more fun than
working out on the field andsweating all day, so, My focus
(02:11):
kind of got derailed prettyearly, right into college.
Then after college, things wentwell for a while.
I was running restaurants.
I, you know, got promoted earlyand quick and often through
restaurants for a while, andended up running, sports bars
for quite some time, and in theculture of bars and restaurants,
uh, specifically the ones I wasin, booze was a big part of
(02:32):
that.
And so what ended up happeningis what started as fun, drinking
beer and partying with thefellas and all that good stuff
and going out turned into a lifecrippling problem, and it
accelerated and my alcoholismand addiction just increased.
year by year until finally itwas now causing havoc and chaos
(02:54):
in every aspect of my life.
So it was a, it was a longjourney there for a while until
my mid to late 30s, it was outof hand.
I'd actually not drank for theentire year of 2006, well almost
the entire year, but it was ayear plus in 2016.
I didn't drink because at thatpoint my first wife basically
given me an ultimatum.
(03:15):
And said, hey, you need to cleanit up or we're gone.
And so I did, the very next day,cold turkey, just like that.
and didn't go to meetings,didn't have any support group,
didn't think I needed them.
I didn't have a problem.
All of the cliches that you'llhear from every addict ever.
and then finally a year later itwas, oh look, I'm cured.
I can drink like a normalperson.
(03:35):
Look, I did it for an entireyear plus a couple of weeks.
There's no reason I can't drinklike everybody else does.
Well, so I went out and, tried.
that very first day, other thanlying to everybody by not saying
that I was going out drinking, Idid fine.
I had two drinks and just likenormal.
That was great.
The problem was is that myaddiction came back with a
(03:56):
vengeance and within three weeksit was as bad if not worse than
it was when I quit the firsttime around.
and that sent me spiraling andthat was, the beginning of Ended
2016 into 2017.
as a result, my, my marriagedissolved.
my relationships dissolved withmy kids, with my siblings.
it was, it was tough there for awhile.
I was actually, the phrase I useis I was darn near homeless at
(04:19):
that particular point.
my grandmother who had livedwith us because of health
concerns, she lived with us andthe teenagers.
she still had her originalhouse.
Thank goodness.
Cause I was able, she allowed meto move in there with her.
Otherwise, I don't know, I don'treally know what I would have
done.
And
Theresa Cesare (04:36):
so how did you get out of it?
Kelly Thrush (04:37):
What ended up happening was during that year
of 2017, once I left the houseand I was on my own and I had
no.
Real responsibilities.
I was at this point, I went froma general manager and a training
manager that traveled, you know,different locations, for
restaurants to now I'm a serverat 38 years old, 37, whatever I
was at the time, living with mygrandmother and, I wouldn't say
(05:00):
in squalor, but, It was a stepabove that.
But finally in January of 2018,my liver finally quit.
and I was finally forced to bymy boss, my current boss
actually, who still I work forto this day, eight years, seven
years later almost, send me tothe hospital as an ultimatum.
Um, Um, because I was in denial,and she could see it, and so
(05:23):
could everyone else around me,that I was jaundice, my eyes
were yellow, my skin was yellow,I was sweaty, I was a mess, I
was death warmed over, and shelooked at me and said, you're
going to the hospital right now,and didn't give me a choice, and
thank goodness, and that was onJanuary 10th of 2018, because I
was in, end stage liver failure.
(05:43):
I was at stage four end stageliver failure from cirrhosis and
from the scar tissue and fromthe drinking.
and I spent in total about fourand a half months in the
hospital at that point.
So when you asked about rockbottom and quitting drinking,
none of that was by choice.
It was simply because I was inthe hospital.
Theresa Cesare (06:00):
It was like what nearly killed you is what like
had to save you.
There probably was nothing else,right?
Like, to, like, get you to snapout of it.
No.
Kelly Thrush (06:09):
Any, so, when I do, I do, a lot of talks, and
especially if I'm talking toyoung people.
I always talk about Marvelmovies, right?
And I don't remember which oneit was, Endgame or whatever it
was.
But one of those ones where,Doctor Strange and Iron Man are
talking.
And they talk about all thesedifferent scenarios and how this
plays out.
And he basically tells him,look, there's only one scenario
in which the good guys win.
(06:30):
And that was me.
This was the, the one timelinein which I actually made it out
alive, out of that situation.
Had I not met, Jamie, who is nowmy wife, she was then my
girlfriend.
Had I not met her at thatparticular moment in my life, I
wouldn't have made it.
Had I not been forced to go tothat hospital that day, I
wouldn't have made it.
There's a number of things thathad to play out, even when I was
(06:51):
in the hospital, had to play outin order for me to survive,
because there were multipledoctors.
We did the tours of the hospitalaround town, and we went to four
different ones, uh, and saw, youknow, a liver specialist, and
each of them, until I got to theone that did the transplant,
each of them said that there wasnothing that they could do for
me, that I was beyond repair, itwas time to get my affairs in
(07:12):
order.
I had about two months, give ortake,
Theresa Cesare (07:15):
Wow.
So then what happened next?
Kelly Thrush (07:19):
So, we do the tour of the hospitals and finally we
end up, at banner UMC down here,on campus.
And even there, the, the initialdoctors that came to see me,
this was now mid-February, giveor take, and I've now been in
hospitals for five weeks or so.
I got there and even the doctorsat Banner told me.
(07:40):
That there was nothing theycould do for me.
because my liver was so fargone, it was now dragging my
kidneys down with it.
So they were failing on top ofit.
And there were two doctors,internal hospitalists, medicine
doctors, that I, to this day,don't know what they saw in me.
Or what convinced them, but theyconvinced the transplant team to
take a risk on me.
(08:01):
I had goosebumps.
So, and yeah, it was, it waspretty amazing.
And so they were able toconvince the transplant team
that yes, this, this guy isworth the risk of.
all the things that could haveor maybe should have gone wrong.
And so finally, on beginning ofMarch of that year, I got
approved for the transplantlist.
(08:21):
And then there were all sorts ofred tape and hoops that you have
to do with insurance and soforth.
And then, um, on March 22nd, Iactually had a full liver
transplant that day.
Theresa Cesare (08:31):
Oh my goodness.
And you're doing well with it.
Your body received it.
Oh my God.
Kelly Thrush (08:37):
Oh yeah.
I am, I am healthier now than Iever have been.
including those high school dayswhen we knew each other.
life is so much sweeter.
I mean, you can imagine when youphysically touch your own
mortality, your perspectivechanges, at least mine did.
Right.
It's amazing how that changedeverything around me.
The, the first part it reallyhappened almost immediately was
(09:00):
waking up from that surgery.
The surgery took something like14 hours, something along those
lines.
And then I wasn't awake or atleast conscious for the next.
Sometime after that, and I wokeup in the ICU with the
ventilator sticking out of mythroat and all these tubes
hooked up to me and everymachine that you can think of,
Jamie's on one hand holding one,and my sister, Yes, yes, I
(09:22):
remember.
Blew in from Colorado, washolding my other hand, and then
family members who hadn't beenaround when the chaos of
addiction was going on, becausethey couldn't be, were now in my
hospital room with me, uh, andit was amazing.
And I was.
I was just overwhelmed withgratitude.
I mean, it changed my life thatthose 10 seconds waking up were
Theresa Cesare (09:43):
life changing.
Oh my God, what?
Miracle upon miracle that justgrew.
Kelly Thrush (09:48):
That recovery was tough.
Not only the physical recovery,because when I got out of the
hospital, I couldn't walk.
Any distance anyway, if it wasany sort of distance, I had to
have a wheelchair, if it wasshort, maybe I used a walker, I
had to learn how to do all ofthose things again and build up
my muscles.
I was down to, uh, about 150pounds.
Which, for my frame, is nothing.
It's skin and bones.
(10:09):
Uh, and yeah, if I fell, I hadno muscles to get back up.
So, that was a long process.
And then the process of actuallybecoming sober and thriving was
a very long process.
Because the 15 years or 17 yearsleading up to that, I mean,
there was very, very few days Iwent without drinking at all.
And so now, all of a sudden,here I am with this brand new
(10:30):
gift.
That in my mind, I didn'tdeserve.
Somebody else or other peopledeserve that way more than I
did.
and I have no emotional tools.
Or, um, self awareness on how tocope with all of those things,
right?
Because before, it was alwaysjust, I just boozed it up.
That's how I dealt with anythingand everything.
(10:51):
Celebrations, bad things, itdidn't matter.
Theresa Cesare (10:52):
And so tell everybody what you're doing now
as a result of your journey.
Kelly Thrush (10:59):
And during that journey and that process as I'm
going through smart recovery,uh, which is how I came up
through the sober ranks, so tospeak, and as I found fitness.
I knew I had to give back.
I had to.
It was, it was something I hadto take this gift that I have
been given and make sure that Iearn it every single day because
it's something that it was givento me by, by somebody who, who
(11:25):
granted me the gift of life.
Right?
And so I need to somehow givethat back to the community, to
other people that might bestruggling.
So Jamie and I started afoundation called the Gratitude
and Grace Foundation.
we, uh, provide community andfinancial support for transplant
patients and their families asthey're going through these,
that journey of their own.
Because with transplants, thepatient itself is typically out
(11:48):
of work for a year or so, butthe bills are still there.
The mortgage still needs to bepaid, the electric bill needs to
get paid, and Jamie and I reallysuffered through that, and I'll
say Jamie really sufferedthrough that.
She had the hard part.
I just.
tried to get healthy again, shehad to worry about the electric
bill or the water bill or thecar payments or whatever it was
that we had to worry about.
(12:08):
Um, to the point where she wasactually, as I was recovering, I
would recover Monday throughFriday at my grandmother's
house.
And my mom and my grandma wouldbe there cause you have to have
24 hour care.
And then that would allow her towork.
And then I would come home onthe weekends.
Well, what I didn't know until acouple of years later is that
she would turn off the waterMonday through Friday.
(12:29):
Okay.
Take a shower at grandma's houseand then she could go to work.
And then we'd come back on theweekends.
Everything's back up.
And so we started thisfoundation to help people in
those types of situations, whereif somebody does have an issue
with the electric bill or rentor whatever, we can be there to
provide at least, at leastalleviate some of that stress
and some of that problem.
(12:50):
Uh, and so that's how the wholething got started.
That's
Theresa Cesare (12:52):
so inspiring.
And so you have an annual eventor many events in how you
fundraise.
Yeah.
Tell us about that.
Kelly Thrush (13:00):
Oh, yeah.
There's all sorts of events.
There's good ones.
So we'll talk about the bigones.
So on Saturday the 28th, we'rehaving our Gratitude and Grace
Gala.
And it is a fundraising dinner.
We're holding, posting it out atWestin La Paloma, who's now one
of our sponsors.
Hillary Phelps is our keynotespeaker.
she is very big in the recoverycommunity.
She has her own podcast.
She's an author.
(13:20):
and so we flew her out.
Hopefully she's in the air rightnow.
Her flight's been delayed.
Oh no,
Theresa Cesare (13:25):
fingers crossed.
Kelly Thrush (13:25):
No, fingers crossed.
She's supposed to land here in acouple hours.
Um, she's going to be ourkeynote.
And so we're going to, we soldtickets and we're raising money
there.
We're going to have.
raffle items and all other waysto donate that way.
The next one coming up is wehave a team for El Tour de
Tucson because part of my crazyultra endurance races is I'll go
ride this 100 miles with ElTour.
(13:46):
Uh, and this year Gratitude andGrace has a team.
So we have 10 riders currently.
So if there's anybody listening,you'd like to cycle?
Shoot, even if you don't like tocycle, we'll get you on the
website and you can sign up withthe team because it's pretty
fantastic.
And then the flagship event iscalled the Tumamoc 10 that
happens every March.
and this one is, near and dearto me.
so about four or five years agonow, um, uh, I was going to
(14:09):
celebrate what we call in myhouse my liverversary.
And my buddy, another one thatyou actually know from high
school, Tom Cox, Yeah.
Yeah, so, he was a buddy of mineand he says, Hey, how are you,
this was like four years ago, hegoes, How are you celebrating
your, your Libraversary thisyear?
I said, well, I think I'm gonnago run up and down Tumamoc.
And he goes, hell, that's agreat idea, man, I'll come with
ya.
and I said, yeah, I think I'mgonna do it ten times for a
(14:30):
total of fifty kilometers.
And he goes, what are you,stupid?
I'm not doing that with you.
That's, that's ridiculous.
And so, he didn't do it all ten.
But what I did do that firstyear was sucker enough people to
come with me that I had someoneto go with me every single trip.
Every ten times for that wholeday.
and that has now flourished intoan event we call the Tumamoc
(14:52):
Ten.
And so this next year, it'sgonna be on March 8th.
And we are going to, every houron the hour, starting at 7am all
the way through 4pm.
People, we all go up the hill asa group.
Now.
For those of you that arelistening, you don't have to do
it all ten times.
There's a few people that arecrazy enough to try that and go
for it.
One
Theresa Cesare (15:09):
time nearly kills me and I think I'm pretty
like fit.
Kelly Thrush (15:14):
Well, in that case, since you know you can go
once, you have to go twice.
Oh, I love that.
And it can take you as long asyou want.
I love that.
As much time as you want.
And we'll have snacks and musicand sponsors.
And we're gonna have bibs thisyear so that we stand out on the
hill.
We have t shirts.
I mean, it's a whole, it's awhole to do.
Uh, and so this year we havesponsors.
We're partnered with the U of Afor this event on Chumaloc.
(15:35):
So we are officially sanctioned.
So to speak, uh, it's going tobe fantastic and it's going to
be another fundraiser for thecommunity.
Um, so that we can get out andhelp some more families.
Gosh,
Theresa Cesare (15:44):
this is so inspiring and I'm so proud of
you.
And so for those listening,including myself, I'm going to
drop every link for, of course,your website, upcoming events.
Is there a way to give to, youknow, to donate to Gratitude and
Grace?
That's going to contribute ifyou can't make an event or if
you're going to miss it.
How can we
Kelly Thrush (16:04):
yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, right on the website.
I mean, there's a big donate nowbutton right there you can also
donate to other events like forexample, tumamoc 10 or or l2 or
either or you can go to thoselinks on the The actual website
and you can donate to a team oryou can just donate to the
foundation itself we're a 501c3.
Everything is taxed write offstax deductible so especially
(16:25):
when it comes around towards theend of the year and people like
oh my gosh I haven't spent mytax money to write off You I, I
got a great foundation that, canalways use an extra hand.
Theresa Cesare (16:33):
That's incredible.
Wow.
Before we wrap up, is there anytips
Kelly Thrush (16:39):
yeah, especially if you are struggling.
a lot of times it's thoseirrational thoughts that we have
in our own heads, that voice inyour head.
That you typically, at least inmy case, is not terribly nice.
It doesn't say nice things to memost of the time.
and every single time I havetalked to it, it's usually full
of B.
S.
I almost cursed.
(16:59):
Uh, and so, if you're strugglingand you're, and you really are
wanting to be sober, but it'shard, it's difficult, just
remember that This will pass.
That craving will pass.
The phrase I like to use is ridethat wave and when you get that
urge and I just I gotta have adrink or I gotta use.
I promise this if you ride thatout long enough It'll dissipate
(17:21):
and it'll go away.
One of my favorites when I'mdealing with folks that are new
to sobriety is like I need tohave a drink.
Well, okay, let's back that up.
The only thing you need to dotoday is breathe.
Everything else you can dotomorrow.
Theresa Cesare (17:34):
I love that.
Kelly Thrush (17:35):
So that'd be my biggest, my biggest piece of
advice is just Stick it out.
It'll pass.
None of this is permanent.
Theresa Cesare (17:41):
Thank you so much, Kelly.
All right, we're gonna now pivotto the ending questions.
And so the first one, what isyour favorite book?
Kelly Thrush (17:50):
Oh, see, I, you told me that.
Do you have a few?
Yeah.
So I got like a list.
Okay, give
Theresa Cesare (17:55):
us your list.
Hey, there are no like minimum,like, yeah, give us, yeah.
Fair enough.
Kelly Thrush (18:00):
So I am currently in a series, it's called the
Last Kingdom series or, or theSaxon Tales or something.
It's historical fiction and it'sabout England.
And there's, you know, Vikingwarriors and so forth, and so
that's what I'm doing currentlythat I'm reading, that I
thoroughly enjoy.
The book that started this wholething, is called Running Man,
and it's by Charlie Angle.
and he is an ultra runner, anadventurist, and also very big
(18:24):
in the addiction community aswell.
And so he started this wholething when, I read that book in
probably 24 hours.
Well, while my wife was sick andI was holding her hair back in
the bathroom, she looked, yeah,it was like three in the
morning.
She goes, Oh honey, you can goto bed.
You don't need to stay with me.
I'm like, no, I'm good.
I'm in the middle of this book.
It doesn't bother me.
Um, but yeah, so charlie angle,the running man had a huge
(18:45):
impact on me.
So those are probably the firsttwo, the comfort crisis by
michael easter is anotherreally, really good one that I
like.
Theresa Cesare (18:51):
Thank you for those.
And then the next question, whatis your favorite affirmation or
mantra that keeps you motivated?
Kelly Thrush (18:59):
The motivated is why not?
Yeah.
Ooh, why not?
People will say, yeah.
People will say like, you'regoing to run a hundred miles.
Yeah.
Why not?
I love that.
Let's go for it.
Why not?
If, if, if you can do whateverit is that you want to do.
Yeah.
Why not?
If you fail, who cares?
Like, we get this amount of timeon this planet.
I mean, it is, it is, it, itflashes in front of you.
(19:20):
So go do the things that scareyou a little bit.
Go do the things that you're notsure you can do.
Um, I have a 300 mile trekcoming up in April that I'm not
real sure I can complete that.
But you know what?
I'm going for it.
Why not?
If I, if I make it 150 miles Soshoot, if I only make it 50,
only, only make it 50 miles, youknow, I made it 50 miles that
day.
(19:40):
Like that's, it's amazing.
So yeah, why not go, go camping,go trekking, go skydive, go do
whatever you want to do.
Go have experiences that youwill not be able to get possibly
tomorrow.
Theresa Cesare (19:50):
I love that so much.
And the last question, what doyou want to be known for?
Kelly Thrush (19:57):
I want to be a person that people around me can
count on.
No matter what they need, itcould be obviously the
foundation in helping completestrangers navigate those, trials
and tribulations in their life.
But shoot, if you need helpmoving the couch, I got a truck.
Sure.
Let's go do it.
So I want to be someone that youcan call and know that, yeah,
(20:20):
I'm there.
And we don't even have to begood friends, too.
We could be complete strangersand you just need a hand.
And yeah, I'm on it.
I got it for you.
Theresa Cesare (20:32):
Thank you so much for tuning into this
episode.
Please download, rate,subscribe, and share this
podcast.
Also, be sure to visit mytheresacesare.com to check out
my inspirational merch, connectto my social accounts, and much
more may you continue to befilled with wisdom, inspiration,
and consciousness.
(20:52):
Otherwise, friends, I will beback in two weeks for another
episode of Heart to.
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