September 16, 2024 • 31 mins
SORRY FOR THE AUDIO. It was hard getting back into things, and I messed up my video recording to record 2 audio sources over each other and never hit record on my audio only device. Argh, yeah my momentum has been killed, but I will keep at it. Listen as I talk about the summer that killed my momentum.
Special shot out to Synhorst Property Maintenance & Landscaping
Summary:
How do you prepare for life's unexpected twists and turns? Join me, Raul Lopez, as I kick off Season Two of "How Do You Save Success in Spanglish?" by sharing a deeply personal journey that forced me to confront my own health vulnerabilities. It all began with a sudden onset of severe stomach pain on July 7th, which spiraled into a medical crisis involving emergency surgery and a suspected bowel obstruction. Amidst the chaos, I had to make a hurried call to inform my wife and grappled with the frightening realization of life’s unpredictability.
From the trauma of an NG tube to enduring multiple surgeries, I recount the relentless battle with recurring bowel obstructions and the emotional toll it took on me and my family. Balancing health, family responsibilities, and work seemed nearly impossible, especially as I faced significant weight loss and a slow, arduous road to recovery. The unwavering support of my loved ones became my anchor, reminding me of the importance of a cautious approach to regaining my strength and momentum.
As I emerged from this medical rollercoaster, life threw more challenges my way, from my daughter's illness to a series of domestic mishaps. Yet, the excitement of returning to my podcast and reconnecting with you, my audience, fueled my resilience. I express my heartfelt gratitude for your unwavering support during my hiatus and promise more engaging content, even if it starts a bit rocky. Tune in for a hopeful look ahead and a sneak peek into our upcoming lesson: how to say "success" in Spanglish.
See more at www.successinspanglish.com
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Intro Song: Regaeton Pop - Denbow Ambiance
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Raul Lopez (00:05):
This is Raul Lopez and you're listening to.
How Do you Save Success inSpanglish?
The path to success isn't easyFor minorities and people of
color.
Many attempt this journey withlittle to no guidance.
Join me as I sit down withindividuals who share their
stories of perseverance so thattogether we can learn how to say
success in Spanglish what'sgood, mi gente, welcome back.
(00:33):
It's your boy, raul, still here, can't hold me down Trying to
kick off this season two.
So thank you for joining, thankyou for taking the time to
listen in.
I know I've been gone for alittle bit.
I apologize.
Things were kind of out of myhand, as life likes to come at
(00:54):
you sometimes and knock you backa bit, which kind of delayed me
a bit.
So for anybody who might haveseen on the podcast socials,
that I did end up getting andhaving to have some medical
emergency during the summer,which kind of knocked back my
original intent of releasing newcontent for July.
So just you know, let you knowI was busy trying to get new
(01:16):
interviews, so I've had a bunchof interviews occurring during
the summer, some of which I'vehad to reschedule, but just to
kind of get you up to date on me, and obviously I like to tell
you and be honest about what'sgoing on, keep it real about
things and hopefully learn somelessons through life.
Life teaches us the bestlessons sometimes.
(01:41):
So somewhere around July 5thsorry, july 7th I started having
stomach pains.
It was funny because I waswatching um.
You know, I've had had somethings throughout the day, but
it was like shortly after, uh,watching House of Dragon, uh, I
was starting to feel like I justfelt like man, this is just
(02:02):
getting worse and worse andworse.
Um, and I decided, hey, I'll goto the ER.
I've read lots of stories onReddit about people who had
stomach ache, stomach pains, whodidn't take it serious, waited
too long to go to the ER andwound up dying.
So that was my initial concern.
(02:23):
Like man, I don't want to beone of those stories where I
waited for too long, try to betough and say I can't handle the
stomach pain, it's just astomach pain, it's just a
stomach ache, uh.
But I said, hey, you know what?
I think I'm gonna go to ER andget checked out.
Um, as well, I was gettingready.
You know, typical, I go take ashower before I go to the
(02:46):
emergency room and while doingthat I start throwing up and
realize, hey, now I'm on, I gottwo symptoms, so definitely
making the right choice here.
So as I start getting close tothe ER, things get worse.
I'm in so much more pain thatit's just kind of ridiculous get
(03:06):
worse.
I'm in so much more pain thatit's just kind of ridiculous.
God bless my wife.
It was like one in the morningwhen she dropped me off and came
back home to stay with mydaughter.
I told her you know, I'll giveher a call if anything happens,
because I know how ERs are.
It could take forever beforethey do nothing and tell you to
go home.
So I told her I'll give her acall if anything happens.
So they give me some medicationand try to get the pain.
(03:28):
But the pain just kept comingback.
They did a CAT scan to kind oftake a look at stuff and there's
other things in the hospital.
You're just waiting, waiting,waiting and then coming around.
I think 3 in the morning.
They said, hey, you might havea bowel obstruction.
We're going to check.
You're fortunate enough, thedoctor who did my bariatric
(03:51):
surgery was on call that night,so they were going to discuss it
with him, since they know myhistory to determine what's the
next best step with that.
So I'm like, okay, you know,for people who don't know, bowel
obstruction is when somethingin your intestine is, intestines
are being blocked and yourbowels can't move and it causes
(04:12):
back up.
That eventually causes a lot ofpain.
So mine apparently was caused bymy appendectomy that I had,
which I was 13.
Created scar tissue.
That I guess happens whenpeople find out about this.
I got hit up a lot and saying,oh, I had that happen to me or
something else happened to me.
(04:32):
So, yeah, come back five in themorning and they're like
getting me ready and I'm likewhat's going on?
Like, oh, you're going to havesurgery.
We're rolling you in right nowand I'm like surgery for what?
Nobody really explainedanything to me.
And the nurse God bless her shedidn't know what was going on.
She was like, oh, nobodyexplained anything to you.
I was like, nope, she's like,all right, they'll explain to
(04:55):
you when they get into the OR.
So they roll me up.
Doctor comes in, tells me allthe wonderful things about this
bowel obstruction that I have.
Apparently, they can tell thatit looks like it's called
probably from scar tissue.
They want to go in there and doan exploratory laparotomy to
make sure everything's okay.
(05:16):
And that's when they come in.
You have laparoscopy on yourstomach and they want to just go
in there.
You know their goal hope isthey'll come in, cut the scar
tissue, unblock that obstructionand hopefully everything will
start flowing after that.
So obviously they tell youeverything that's going to
happen and every potential riskwith a surgery.
(05:38):
As with all surgery, there'srisks associated with that.
So I had to call my wife at 5 30in the morning and say, hey,
I'm going in for surgery.
I don't really know much aboutit.
I don't know what's going on.
They have I have bowelobstruction.
Hopefully it's okay.
Um, they'll call you when I'mdone.
So obviously she's waking up,she's got to get, get my
(06:01):
daughter ready for her summercamp and go to work herself.
And you know, just woke up witha fright hey, your husband's
going to get surgery.
So I felt bad but I couldn't domuch about it.
But so they put me in.
(06:22):
The first thing they tell me iswe're going to stick a tube
through your nose.
We have to put an NG tube.
So if anybody's never had an NGtube, it's the worst fucking
thing in the world.
They stick a tube up your nose,through the back of your throat
, into your stomach and it ishorrible.
And they put it in me and Icried like a little bitch and I
(06:46):
begged for them to pull it out.
I thought they were putting itin to pump everything out of my
stomach, which it was what itwas but it was supposed to stay
there for the full duration ofmy time in the hospital for the
most part, so I was not awarethat I'd be wearing it for the
next two days.
So two, three days actually.
(07:07):
So yeah, that was fun.
And then they put me down.
I had my surgery.
I wake up.
They tell me that when theyactually removed the scar tissue
and they saw my intestine thatit was already dying.
So they had to remove about 25centimeters of my intestine.
(07:34):
Thankfully it would not reallyrestrict me my nutrition moving
forward, so there wasn't a fearof having to do anything other
restrictive other than havingsurgery.
So it was just heal and move onand feel better and get better.
So that's what I was lookingforward to.
(07:54):
I had this damn NG2 for anotherday and a half or so and it
sucked.
I couldn't talk.
It hurt when I swallowed itconsistently, felt like I had
postnatal drip and I felthorrible.
I had this surgery that removedeverything from my stomach,
which made the pain go awayinstantly and I felt so much
(08:16):
better.
But that tube sucked more thanall that at that moment so it
was horrible.
So anybody who ever has an NGtube, you know I feel you it's
horrible.
Don't wish it upon anybody.
So eventually I get out, movingon minor restrictive diet.
I was already eating solid foodby the time I got out, so there
(08:36):
was just really avoiding thingslike nuts and fiberless
vegetables because you don'twant fiber keeping you in there.
But it was really not thatrestrictive, not much craziness
that they were giving me.
So I felt good.
I started getting kind of backto normal walking, sucked,
(08:57):
slowly, getting back up to itand fast forward.
Literally about three days afterI got out of the hospital I
started having stomach painagain.
So here I am again Sunday.
This time I'm actually homealone.
Thank God for my parents thatcame in and took my daughter to
kind of help me you know, helpme not have responsibilities
(09:22):
while recovering and my wifewent to work and I was actually
waiting to get picked up to goto barbecue and I started having
another pain.
I was going to have a hang outwith my parents for the day but
started having more pain.
I canceled that ride.
I said nope, don't come get me,called my wife and she got out
of work and we both went back tothe ER.
(09:42):
They did another CAT scan.
We both went back to the ER,they did another CAT scan and
they said I had another bowelobstruction.
So at that point I'm like whatthe hell?
Is this something that's goingto be consistently a part of my
life?
Am I consistently having toworry about bowel obstructions?
(10:02):
And the doctor I don't know ifit was the nurse or doctor was
like possible, but we're goingto go in there and do another
surgery in your stomach and tryto see what's going on,
hopefully something minor.
But you know they're worriedthat I might have another
(10:25):
obstruction.
So terium again, having to go infor another emergency surgery.
Thankfully I was with my wifeat the time so I didn't have to
wake her up at 3 in the morning.
So they don't know what's goingon.
But the surgery.
Thankfully they didn't put theNG tube in after I was already
unconscious.
So thank God they listened tomy fears about that.
(10:47):
I didn't have to deal with thatwide awake.
But yeah, so here I am andsecond round, same hospital,
same floor, different wing and,thankfully, private room this
time.
But they were going to go muchslower this time, much, much
(11:09):
slower.
It looked like the surgery theydid initially caused another
obstruction and they weren'tsure why.
So they went back in, removedthe part, they fixed and refixed
it with a apparently a biggerjoint, um, which the doctor said
(11:30):
you could eat a chicken boneand you should be fine.
So cool, um.
But they, and as well as myself, wanted to take things slower.
I did not want to be back aweek later, so I spent more time
in the hospital a second time.
I was there for five days,spent more time with the NG tube
(11:53):
.
They actually kept me in therefor a good almost three days
with the NG tube before theyremoved it.
Pure, clear liquids the wholetime there.
They didn't even switch me onto protein shakes by the time I
left.
So they were going very, veryslowly with me on everything.
(12:13):
They wanted me to really beslow with everything.
So I left the hospital again.
The hospital again.
I had lost so much weight,continued to lose weight.
I think I looked and I thinkI'll post on the socials and on
(12:36):
the website a picture of how Ilooked a few days after.
I felt like a crackhead.
I was, you know, I looked likea crackhead.
I didn't feel like I lookedlike a crackhead.
I was, you know, I looked likea crackhead.
I didn't feel like I lookedlike a crackhead, but my face
was all skinny.
I could see all the bone.
It just felt scary looking.
(12:58):
I felt bad for my wife, who hadto deal with this twice and had
to deal with the trauma and thefear while also having to keep
everything up at home.
Thank God for our friends andfamily who helped with
everything while I wasrecovering.
But it was a lot of it was atoll.
It was a big toll on my family,on myself.
(13:24):
It was a lot of work and foranybody who's been through
emergency situations like this,you know it knocks you down.
I was expecting and prepared tohave all this stuff ready for
the podcast.
I had this momentum going and Ithink that's a big part of all
(13:46):
I probably talked about a littlebit today, but momentum killers
really fucking suck.
I'm here the night that I'msupposed to be releasing this
literally hours before midnight,sitting here and just wondering
, trying to get the momentum todo this.
(14:07):
My summer didn't end, by the way.
After that surgery there wasmore shit to come, but you know,
it knocked me down.
It knocked my momentum out andI spent more time worrying about
recovering than the vodka,which is what matters more.
I took some time out of work,but I couldn't take too much
(14:29):
time because I had run out ofPTO and I didn't want to risk
losing money.
So thankfully I work from homein a cushiony chair in front of
a computer.
That didn't require anythingphysical so I could get back to
work really quickly.
But you know it's been hard.
Things were all over the place.
(14:51):
I didn't quite feel like myself.
I didn't feel like I had thesame drive at the moment.
I kind of just wanted to sitdown and do nothing for a while,
which is kind of what I did.
I rested, I tried to recover asbest I can Things.
(15:14):
I think it took me about twoweeks or so before I started.
I went from liquids for a fewdays to liquids with proteins
and then mainly liquids withprotein shakes for a while, then
eventually jumped back onsolids after my after a couple
(15:36):
of weeks visit from my doctor,getting the okay to start going
back to solids.
So take it really slow.
Try to take it really reallyslow.
Um, slowly building my way upto more bigger foods and normal
foods and, um, I thought thingswere getting better and I
(15:56):
thought, hey, maybe I can comeback and get back to normal.
Like it took me a while, youknow.
Thank god, thank God for thisbuddy of mine, stuart, who owns
a landscaping company here whereI live, who was thankful enough
to come mow my lawn for acouple weeks free, because I
(16:23):
couldn't do anything Even afterlike four or five weeks of being
out.
When I finally decided to tryit, I barely did half the lawn
before I started feeling painand said no, I got to stop.
So it did take me a while, butslowly started feeling better,
started thinking, saying, hey,time to get this ball rolling
again.
I know my momentum got killed.
(16:43):
I got to try to go, you know,get this podcast back on and get
things going again.
And it seems like every time Ithought that something bad
happened again, because it waslike I had another day where I
had stomach pain and you thinkabout it, I had stomach pain and
(17:10):
I just started crying, thinkingnot again.
I was scared to death that Iwas going to have to go back to
the hospital again and haveanother surgery.
So once again, I waited, pushedand waited and waited and
waited, hoping it would just goaway, go away, but it didn't,
and decided to go back to the ER.
So here I am.
(17:31):
This is literally about, likeyou know, my first week out of
the hospital.
When I got out the second time,when I got to that following
Sunday, I was scared shitlessthat something bad was going to
happen and nothing happened.
Going to happen, and nothinghappened.
Then another week and nothinghappened.
And then eventually I let myguard down again and boom, I
(17:52):
started having stomach painsagain and it knocked me down
again and I was freaking thefuck out.
So we went to the hospital.
They did an x-ray.
The doctor said it looks likeyou might have another
obstruction.
Let's give it a little bit oftime.
He's like I don't want to sendyou to go get another CAT scan
because you already had two ofthose this month and I want to
(18:13):
shoot more radiation in you thatI don't need to, so let's give
it a little bit.
Thankfully, by about 9.30, thepain started going away.
9.30, the pain started goingaway and I was thankful that it
(18:34):
went away.
But it scared the shit out ofme.
I went back to liquid diet fora few more days and protein
shakes again to kind of weanmyself back into normal food
again.
But it was scary and I realizedI wasn't really quite out of
the water.
So now I live in consistent fearof something happening with my
(18:56):
stomach.
So which is kind of difficult,because you still have the same
hunger and you still want to eatthe same food sometimes and
sometimes I'll eat food ThenI'll feel weirdness in my
stomach And'm like what the helldid I do?
And I get nervous and I'muncomfortable for a little bit
and then it kind of goes awayand I'm like okay, I think it's
just the natural progression ofme healing.
I think this is all going to befunky for a while.
(19:19):
You know, so long as I'm not insuper pain again, I think
hopefully it'll just keep goingthe way it is.
As I'm not in super pain again,I think hopefully I'll just
keep going through this.
So just got to realize I needmore time.
So I tried to give myself moretime.
Then, a couple weeks after that,my daughter gets sick, she gets
pneumonia.
So we're dealing with that Onceagain, like this momentum ball.
(19:43):
I just can't get back torolling.
I can't come back up here.
I can't, as much as I love this.
I actually had an interview andI posted about it a while ago
with another podcast and um,with Asher Wright and uh I I
I'll post a link to that as welland I had missed it so much and
(20:06):
I was like, oh my God, I hadsuch a good time.
I got to get back on this.
I got to get back on it and Ithink that was like right before
I got my stomach pain and thena week after that, my daughter
got sick with pneumonia.
So we're dealing with that andyou know, just worried about her
checking her temperature.
I wasn't sleeping because I wasstaying up.
You know, me and my wife weretaking turns laying in bed with
(20:29):
her to take her temperatureevery hour because she had a
fever for about a week beforeshe started getting a cough.
Before we took x-rays donebecause the doctors take forever
before they even determine shehad pneumonia and then starting
antibiotics and then obviouslythinking she's getting better.
A couple days later she'swaking us up at three in the
(20:50):
morning because, um, she brokeout in hives and her body's full
of hives all over.
So we had to go spend anothertrip to the ER.
Thankfully it went away withsome Benadryl, um, but you, we
were at the ER from 3 to 6.30 tocome home to let her sleep fora
little bit so we can go do hermiddle school orientation.
(21:14):
She missed all her last coupleweeks of camps that she had her
soccer camp and I went to work.
My wife drove to New York to gohelp her mom without any sleep
that night.
So it was rough, I meanphysically, emotionally, you
know.
Just everything going on.
And then dealing with mydaughter was another hit on the
(21:36):
momentum train.
Man, like you want things to goand sometimes it just won't let
you and so I said, fuck it, Ihave to give myself a deadline.
I have to give myself adeadline of when something needs
to come out, because then Ihave nothing else but to do it.
And so I did.
(21:59):
I posted I'm back, and I postedthat I'll have something out for
the 16th, and I had that I'llhave something out for the 16th
and I had every intention ofhaving one of my interviews that
I had recorded during summer,prepped and ready to go, but
(22:20):
once again, life, life.
I kept pushing it off.
Okay, I'll do it this Friday,I'll do it this Saturday.
I don't have time this Saturday, I'll do it Sunday, okay, okay,
you know, do it this Friday,I'll do it this Saturday.
I don't have time this Saturday, I'll do it Sunday, okay.
Okay, you know what.
I'm going to go do it.
I'm going to go do it this weekand my lovely daughter, who I
love to death, decided to take anice bath after a long day with
(22:45):
some soccer and she wanted torelax and didn't notice the
water overflowing.
And the water overflowed to thepoint that it made its way down
the bathroom, down the hallway,through the ceiling of my
kitchen and even all the way tothe basement.
So, yeah, now I had majorrepairs to do.
(23:11):
This isn't even talking aboutany of the other physical things
I'm dealing with.
I've had shoulder pain that I'mgetting physical therapy for,
and hand pain that I'm startingto get looked at, and now I'm
here having to mop and clean andrip down a ceiling get looked
at, and now I'm here having tomop and clean and rip down the
ceiling, and while I thought I'ddo a DIY, I had to get
(23:31):
insurance involved.
So another level of stress anda level of issue.
So we have people here.
So if you hear humming, that'sthe blowers and the
dehumidifiers that they putthroughout the house to dry
everything up before mold couldpotentially grow from the water.
And now I'm dealing with that.
On top of everything, a couplegood things, though.
(23:56):
I did get the promotion thatI've been waiting for.
So my first ever promotion,which was a nice, my first ever
promotion, which was a niceboost, a nice positive, with
everything.
And Tuesday I go to Vegas for awork conference.
So a couple of good things tocome up here.
But momentum, this momentum, youknow.
(24:20):
Coming back to the theme of theshow, how do you say success in
Spanish?
And I remember when I was aconsultant and you deal with
different projects.
It's something you deal with,all projects.
You know part of projectmanagement.
You know when, when you get adelay and something kills the
momentum of the project, it'sreally hard to start back up.
You know to get back to thatsame momentum you were.
(24:45):
It's difficult, and I thinkthat's where I'm at.
I am stuck on trying to get mymomentum back.
You can still have motivation,and my first episode that came
out was difficult and hard andeach one was scary and took a
(25:08):
lot of work and effort to goback forward and do the next one
until eventually it just becamesecond nature and I knew
exactly what I had to do.
And I came here, I banged themout, my interviews were great,
everything was going forward andI just kept doing more and more
and more, learning, beingfaster, being more efficient.
It just became second nature.
And then I got stopped.
And then I'm here todayclicking on things and I'm like,
(25:30):
oh, my outlook is out of syncand I have to download something
else.
And what was the name of theprogram I used to record my
video?
And where was this and how do Ilog into that?
And I had to try to juststarting.
This again reminded me of myfirst time doing this, where it
took me forever.
And this is actually not evenmy first take.
This is my second take becauseI didn't like what I started
(25:52):
with, because I lost my momentum.
I don't feel comfortable in thisagain.
I'm not in my rhythm.
Um, you know, even with this,when I release this.
I'm gone on Tuesday you knowI'm not going to be around to be
on everything like I normallyam and get ready and prep for
(26:14):
next week, and I think that'sokay.
I think I have to realize, andI think we have to realize
something that we're going toget these bumps.
Momentum is really important.
Momentum is really what's goingto keep you going sometimes.
But sometimes things are goingto happen and knock you down and
(26:35):
that initial jump in momentumis going to the initial push to
get that momentum is difficultto get started.
It's scary.
Um, I feel like I'm afraid offailing again.
Um, with this, I'm afraid ofsomething else coming again and
knocking me down again.
Is it worth starting somethingif I don't know, if I'm out of
(26:58):
the?
You know I'm in the clear yet,but I want to do do this and I
love it and I enjoy it and Iwant to provide something and
I've interviewed some greatpeople and I've got some more
people that I need to interviewand I've got to get back to them
Because I feel I've neglectedsome of the people that I
haven't had a chance tointerview, that I had scheduled.
And I have more people to calland try to get them to agree to
(27:21):
get interviewed.
So I'm excited to get back.
But, if you see, things aren'tas smooth as they were or things
are kind of bumpy.
The road for me isn't as smoothas it was before and it's taken
me some time to get back intoit.
Even now I sat here for maybean hour or two, allowing the
(27:46):
ADHD in me to just look at ablank screen for a while.
I reset my OBS to differentviews and moved folders around
and did all the stupid stuff Ishould have not been doing.
So, um, but yeah, man, I meanrecognize that momentum is
(28:09):
important, especially withthings.
Um, with things moving forward,um, trying to get back into
your rhythm, trying to get backinto your comfort zone that made
things go smoothly, isdifficult and, as with all
things, sometimes you just gotto jump in and start moving
(28:30):
forward.
So that's where I'm at now.
That's what I'm trying to getback into trying to get back
into getting this thing back towhere it was.
I had lots of plans, of stuffthat I really wanted to
accomplish this summer that Ididn't get to.
So I'm hoping to get there soonand I just have to kind of get
back on this and keep doing it.
But yeah, man, that's me Likewith all things.
(28:55):
Man, keep your health in check.
It's always going to beimportant.
Keep your mental health incheck, it's always going to be
important.
Keep your mental health incheck, make sure that you don't
let anything slide and thatyou're willing to go get checked
out when you need to getchecked out because it's
important.
But then also, if you ever getknocked back and that momentum
(29:19):
you know that momentum traingets derailed, it's okay, it's
okay.
You know, I think I just got totell myself it's okay.
You got to tell yourself it'sokay, you'll get there, you'll
get that momentum back and, baby, it'll be beautiful.
So let's keep at it.
I'm going to keep at it.
(29:40):
I'm going to keep making stuff.
Let's keep at it, I'm going tokeep at it.
I'm going to keep making stuff.
You know, this was kind of acontinual, vulnerable aspect of
my life.
I'll probably come back at alater time to talk a little bit
about my promotion.
There's lessons learned fromthat as well as always.
(30:06):
But I'm excited.
I hope I don't look it and Iapologize for that, but I'm
excited.
I hope I don't look it and Iapologize for that, but I'm
excited.
I'm excited to come back, getthis started again.
I missed it.
I miss being, I missedinterviewing people.
I've missed talking to peopleand putting everything that I've
done out for everybody, and I'mlooking forward to giving you
guys more stuff.
So I promise that there will bemore.
(30:27):
I just am not promising thatit's all going to be a smooth
start for me right now.
So I'm going to try my best andthat's all you can ask for,
right?
So thanks again, everyonelistening.
I appreciate you stickingaround.
I appreciate all the peoplestill listening and checking up
(30:49):
the podcast while I haven't beendoing anything about it.
So when I jump on and I see thenumbers have still gone up and
people are still downloading, itmade me happy.
I thought I'd come to acomplete disaster.
So thank you all.
Appreciate it, appreciate allthe support, appreciate all the
concern.
Thank you everybody that helpedout while my summer my horrible
(31:12):
no good, very good, bad summerhappened.
But I'm back.
So, all right, man, hopefullyyou guys get to join me again
next time as we continue tolearn how to say success in
Spanish.
See, even that was hard.
Alright, guys, peace.
This is Raul Lopez and you're listening to.
How Do you Save Success inSpanglish?
The path to success isn't easyFor minorities and people of
color.
Many attempt this journey withlittle to no guidance.
Join me as I sit down withindividuals who share their
stories of perseverance so thattogether we can learn how to say
success in Spanglish what'sgood, mi gente, welcome back.
(00:33):
It's your boy, raul, still here, can't hold me down Trying to
kick off this season two.
So thank you for joining, thankyou for taking the time to
listen in.
I know I've been gone for alittle bit.
I apologize.
Things were kind of out of myhand, as life likes to come at
(00:54):
you sometimes and knock you backa bit, which kind of delayed me
a bit.
So for anybody who might haveseen on the podcast socials,
that I did end up getting andhaving to have some medical
emergency during the summer,which kind of knocked back my
original intent of releasing newcontent for July.
So just you know, let you knowI was busy trying to get new
(01:16):
interviews, so I've had a bunchof interviews occurring during
the summer, some of which I'vehad to reschedule, but just to
kind of get you up to date on me, and obviously I like to tell
you and be honest about what'sgoing on, keep it real about
things and hopefully learn somelessons through life.
Life teaches us the bestlessons sometimes.
(01:41):
So somewhere around July 5thsorry, july 7th I started having
stomach pains.
It was funny because I waswatching um.
You know, I've had had somethings throughout the day, but
it was like shortly after, uh,watching House of Dragon, uh, I
was starting to feel like I justfelt like man, this is just
(02:02):
getting worse and worse andworse.
Um, and I decided, hey, I'll goto the ER.
I've read lots of stories onReddit about people who had
stomach ache, stomach pains, whodidn't take it serious, waited
too long to go to the ER andwound up dying.
So that was my initial concern.
(02:23):
Like man, I don't want to beone of those stories where I
waited for too long, try to betough and say I can't handle the
stomach pain, it's just astomach pain, it's just a
stomach ache, uh.
But I said, hey, you know what?
I think I'm gonna go to ER andget checked out.
Um, as well, I was gettingready.
You know, typical, I go take ashower before I go to the
(02:46):
emergency room and while doingthat I start throwing up and
realize, hey, now I'm on, I gottwo symptoms, so definitely
making the right choice here.
So as I start getting close tothe ER, things get worse.
I'm in so much more pain thatit's just kind of ridiculous get
(03:06):
worse.
I'm in so much more pain thatit's just kind of ridiculous.
God bless my wife.
It was like one in the morningwhen she dropped me off and came
back home to stay with mydaughter.
I told her you know, I'll giveher a call if anything happens,
because I know how ERs are.
It could take forever beforethey do nothing and tell you to
go home.
So I told her I'll give her acall if anything happens.
So they give me some medicationand try to get the pain.
(03:28):
But the pain just kept comingback.
They did a CAT scan to kind oftake a look at stuff and there's
other things in the hospital.
You're just waiting, waiting,waiting and then coming around.
I think 3 in the morning.
They said, hey, you might havea bowel obstruction.
We're going to check.
You're fortunate enough, thedoctor who did my bariatric
(03:51):
surgery was on call that night,so they were going to discuss it
with him, since they know myhistory to determine what's the
next best step with that.
So I'm like, okay, you know,for people who don't know, bowel
obstruction is when somethingin your intestine is, intestines
are being blocked and yourbowels can't move and it causes
(04:12):
back up.
That eventually causes a lot ofpain.
So mine apparently was caused bymy appendectomy that I had,
which I was 13.
Created scar tissue.
That I guess happens whenpeople find out about this.
I got hit up a lot and saying,oh, I had that happen to me or
something else happened to me.
(04:32):
So, yeah, come back five in themorning and they're like
getting me ready and I'm likewhat's going on?
Like, oh, you're going to havesurgery.
We're rolling you in right nowand I'm like surgery for what?
Nobody really explainedanything to me.
And the nurse God bless her shedidn't know what was going on.
She was like, oh, nobodyexplained anything to you.
I was like, nope, she's like,all right, they'll explain to
(04:55):
you when they get into the OR.
So they roll me up.
Doctor comes in, tells me allthe wonderful things about this
bowel obstruction that I have.
Apparently, they can tell thatit looks like it's called
probably from scar tissue.
They want to go in there and doan exploratory laparotomy to
make sure everything's okay.
(05:16):
And that's when they come in.
You have laparoscopy on yourstomach and they want to just go
in there.
You know their goal hope isthey'll come in, cut the scar
tissue, unblock that obstructionand hopefully everything will
start flowing after that.
So obviously they tell youeverything that's going to
happen and every potential riskwith a surgery.
(05:38):
As with all surgery, there'srisks associated with that.
So I had to call my wife at 5 30in the morning and say, hey,
I'm going in for surgery.
I don't really know much aboutit.
I don't know what's going on.
They have I have bowelobstruction.
Hopefully it's okay.
Um, they'll call you when I'mdone.
So obviously she's waking up,she's got to get, get my
(06:01):
daughter ready for her summercamp and go to work herself.
And you know, just woke up witha fright hey, your husband's
going to get surgery.
So I felt bad but I couldn't domuch about it.
But so they put me in.
(06:22):
The first thing they tell me iswe're going to stick a tube
through your nose.
We have to put an NG tube.
So if anybody's never had an NGtube, it's the worst fucking
thing in the world.
They stick a tube up your nose,through the back of your throat
, into your stomach and it ishorrible.
And they put it in me and Icried like a little bitch and I
(06:46):
begged for them to pull it out.
I thought they were putting itin to pump everything out of my
stomach, which it was what itwas but it was supposed to stay
there for the full duration ofmy time in the hospital for the
most part, so I was not awarethat I'd be wearing it for the
next two days.
So two, three days actually.
(07:07):
So yeah, that was fun.
And then they put me down.
I had my surgery.
I wake up.
They tell me that when theyactually removed the scar tissue
and they saw my intestine thatit was already dying.
So they had to remove about 25centimeters of my intestine.
(07:34):
Thankfully it would not reallyrestrict me my nutrition moving
forward, so there wasn't a fearof having to do anything other
restrictive other than havingsurgery.
So it was just heal and move onand feel better and get better.
So that's what I was lookingforward to.
(07:54):
I had this damn NG2 for anotherday and a half or so and it
sucked.
I couldn't talk.
It hurt when I swallowed itconsistently, felt like I had
postnatal drip and I felthorrible.
I had this surgery that removedeverything from my stomach,
which made the pain go awayinstantly and I felt so much
(08:16):
better.
But that tube sucked more thanall that at that moment so it
was horrible.
So anybody who ever has an NGtube, you know I feel you it's
horrible.
Don't wish it upon anybody.
So eventually I get out, movingon minor restrictive diet.
I was already eating solid foodby the time I got out, so there
(08:36):
was just really avoiding thingslike nuts and fiberless
vegetables because you don'twant fiber keeping you in there.
But it was really not thatrestrictive, not much craziness
that they were giving me.
So I felt good.
I started getting kind of backto normal walking, sucked,
(08:57):
slowly, getting back up to itand fast forward.
Literally about three days afterI got out of the hospital I
started having stomach painagain.
So here I am again Sunday.
This time I'm actually homealone.
Thank God for my parents thatcame in and took my daughter to
kind of help me you know, helpme not have responsibilities
(09:22):
while recovering and my wifewent to work and I was actually
waiting to get picked up to goto barbecue and I started having
another pain.
I was going to have a hang outwith my parents for the day but
started having more pain.
I canceled that ride.
I said nope, don't come get me,called my wife and she got out
of work and we both went back tothe ER.
(09:42):
They did another CAT scan.
We both went back to the ER,they did another CAT scan and
they said I had another bowelobstruction.
So at that point I'm like whatthe hell?
Is this something that's goingto be consistently a part of my
life?
Am I consistently having toworry about bowel obstructions?
(10:02):
And the doctor I don't know ifit was the nurse or doctor was
like possible, but we're goingto go in there and do another
surgery in your stomach and tryto see what's going on,
hopefully something minor.
But you know they're worriedthat I might have another
(10:25):
obstruction.
So terium again, having to go infor another emergency surgery.
Thankfully I was with my wifeat the time so I didn't have to
wake her up at 3 in the morning.
So they don't know what's goingon.
But the surgery.
Thankfully they didn't put theNG tube in after I was already
unconscious.
So thank God they listened tomy fears about that.
(10:47):
I didn't have to deal with thatwide awake.
But yeah, so here I am andsecond round, same hospital,
same floor, different wing and,thankfully, private room this
time.
But they were going to go muchslower this time, much, much
(11:09):
slower.
It looked like the surgery theydid initially caused another
obstruction and they weren'tsure why.
So they went back in, removedthe part, they fixed and refixed
it with a apparently a biggerjoint, um, which the doctor said
(11:30):
you could eat a chicken boneand you should be fine.
So cool, um.
But they, and as well as myself, wanted to take things slower.
I did not want to be back aweek later, so I spent more time
in the hospital a second time.
I was there for five days,spent more time with the NG tube
(11:53):
.
They actually kept me in therefor a good almost three days
with the NG tube before theyremoved it.
Pure, clear liquids the wholetime there.
They didn't even switch me onto protein shakes by the time I
left.
So they were going very, veryslowly with me on everything.
(12:13):
They wanted me to really beslow with everything.
So I left the hospital again.
The hospital again.
I had lost so much weight,continued to lose weight.
I think I looked and I thinkI'll post on the socials and on
(12:36):
the website a picture of how Ilooked a few days after.
I felt like a crackhead.
I was, you know, I looked likea crackhead.
I didn't feel like I lookedlike a crackhead.
I was, you know, I looked likea crackhead.
I didn't feel like I lookedlike a crackhead, but my face
was all skinny.
I could see all the bone.
It just felt scary looking.
(12:58):
I felt bad for my wife, who hadto deal with this twice and had
to deal with the trauma and thefear while also having to keep
everything up at home.
Thank God for our friends andfamily who helped with
everything while I wasrecovering.
But it was a lot of it was atoll.
It was a big toll on my family,on myself.
(13:24):
It was a lot of work and foranybody who's been through
emergency situations like this,you know it knocks you down.
I was expecting and prepared tohave all this stuff ready for
the podcast.
I had this momentum going and Ithink that's a big part of all
(13:46):
I probably talked about a littlebit today, but momentum killers
really fucking suck.
I'm here the night that I'msupposed to be releasing this
literally hours before midnight,sitting here and just wondering
, trying to get the momentum todo this.
(14:07):
My summer didn't end, by the way.
After that surgery there wasmore shit to come, but you know,
it knocked me down.
It knocked my momentum out andI spent more time worrying about
recovering than the vodka,which is what matters more.
I took some time out of work,but I couldn't take too much
(14:29):
time because I had run out ofPTO and I didn't want to risk
losing money.
So thankfully I work from homein a cushiony chair in front of
a computer.
That didn't require anythingphysical so I could get back to
work really quickly.
But you know it's been hard.
Things were all over the place.
(14:51):
I didn't quite feel like myself.
I didn't feel like I had thesame drive at the moment.
I kind of just wanted to sitdown and do nothing for a while,
which is kind of what I did.
I rested, I tried to recover asbest I can Things.
(15:14):
I think it took me about twoweeks or so before I started.
I went from liquids for a fewdays to liquids with proteins
and then mainly liquids withprotein shakes for a while, then
eventually jumped back onsolids after my after a couple
(15:36):
of weeks visit from my doctor,getting the okay to start going
back to solids.
So take it really slow.
Try to take it really reallyslow.
Um, slowly building my way upto more bigger foods and normal
foods and, um, I thought thingswere getting better and I
(15:56):
thought, hey, maybe I can comeback and get back to normal.
Like it took me a while, youknow.
Thank god, thank God for thisbuddy of mine, stuart, who owns
a landscaping company here whereI live, who was thankful enough
to come mow my lawn for acouple weeks free, because I
(16:23):
couldn't do anything Even afterlike four or five weeks of being
out.
When I finally decided to tryit, I barely did half the lawn
before I started feeling painand said no, I got to stop.
So it did take me a while, butslowly started feeling better,
started thinking, saying, hey,time to get this ball rolling
again.
I know my momentum got killed.
(16:43):
I got to try to go, you know,get this podcast back on and get
things going again.
And it seems like every time Ithought that something bad
happened again, because it waslike I had another day where I
had stomach pain and you thinkabout it, I had stomach pain and
(17:10):
I just started crying, thinkingnot again.
I was scared to death that Iwas going to have to go back to
the hospital again and haveanother surgery.
So once again, I waited, pushedand waited and waited and
waited, hoping it would just goaway, go away, but it didn't,
and decided to go back to the ER.
So here I am.
(17:31):
This is literally about, likeyou know, my first week out of
the hospital.
When I got out the second time,when I got to that following
Sunday, I was scared shitlessthat something bad was going to
happen and nothing happened.
Going to happen, and nothinghappened.
Then another week and nothinghappened.
And then eventually I let myguard down again and boom, I
(17:52):
started having stomach painsagain and it knocked me down
again and I was freaking thefuck out.
So we went to the hospital.
They did an x-ray.
The doctor said it looks likeyou might have another
obstruction.
Let's give it a little bit oftime.
He's like I don't want to sendyou to go get another CAT scan
because you already had two ofthose this month and I want to
(18:13):
shoot more radiation in you thatI don't need to, so let's give
it a little bit.
Thankfully, by about 9.30, thepain started going away.
9.30, the pain started goingaway and I was thankful that it
(18:34):
went away.
But it scared the shit out ofme.
I went back to liquid diet fora few more days and protein
shakes again to kind of weanmyself back into normal food
again.
But it was scary and I realizedI wasn't really quite out of
the water.
So now I live in consistent fearof something happening with my
(18:56):
stomach.
So which is kind of difficult,because you still have the same
hunger and you still want to eatthe same food sometimes and
sometimes I'll eat food ThenI'll feel weirdness in my
stomach And'm like what the helldid I do?
And I get nervous and I'muncomfortable for a little bit
and then it kind of goes awayand I'm like okay, I think it's
just the natural progression ofme healing.
I think this is all going to befunky for a while.
(19:19):
You know, so long as I'm not insuper pain again, I think
hopefully it'll just keep goingthe way it is.
As I'm not in super pain again,I think hopefully I'll just
keep going through this.
So just got to realize I needmore time.
So I tried to give myself moretime.
Then, a couple weeks after that,my daughter gets sick, she gets
pneumonia.
So we're dealing with that Onceagain, like this momentum ball.
(19:43):
I just can't get back torolling.
I can't come back up here.
I can't, as much as I love this.
I actually had an interview andI posted about it a while ago
with another podcast and um,with Asher Wright and uh I I
I'll post a link to that as welland I had missed it so much and
(20:06):
I was like, oh my God, I hadsuch a good time.
I got to get back on this.
I got to get back on it and Ithink that was like right before
I got my stomach pain and thena week after that, my daughter
got sick with pneumonia.
So we're dealing with that andyou know, just worried about her
checking her temperature.
I wasn't sleeping because I wasstaying up.
You know, me and my wife weretaking turns laying in bed with
(20:29):
her to take her temperatureevery hour because she had a
fever for about a week beforeshe started getting a cough.
Before we took x-rays donebecause the doctors take forever
before they even determine shehad pneumonia and then starting
antibiotics and then obviouslythinking she's getting better.
A couple days later she'swaking us up at three in the
(20:50):
morning because, um, she brokeout in hives and her body's full
of hives all over.
So we had to go spend anothertrip to the ER.
Thankfully it went away withsome Benadryl, um, but you, we
were at the ER from 3 to 6.30 tocome home to let her sleep fora
little bit so we can go do hermiddle school orientation.
(21:14):
She missed all her last coupleweeks of camps that she had her
soccer camp and I went to work.
My wife drove to New York to gohelp her mom without any sleep
that night.
So it was rough, I meanphysically, emotionally, you
know.
Just everything going on.
And then dealing with mydaughter was another hit on the
(21:36):
momentum train.
Man, like you want things to goand sometimes it just won't let
you and so I said, fuck it, Ihave to give myself a deadline.
I have to give myself adeadline of when something needs
to come out, because then Ihave nothing else but to do it.
And so I did.
(21:59):
I posted I'm back, and I postedthat I'll have something out for
the 16th, and I had that I'llhave something out for the 16th
and I had every intention ofhaving one of my interviews that
I had recorded during summer,prepped and ready to go, but
(22:20):
once again, life, life.
I kept pushing it off.
Okay, I'll do it this Friday,I'll do it this Saturday.
I don't have time this Saturday, I'll do it Sunday, okay, okay,
you know, do it this Friday,I'll do it this Saturday.
I don't have time this Saturday, I'll do it Sunday, okay.
Okay, you know what.
I'm going to go do it.
I'm going to go do it this weekand my lovely daughter, who I
love to death, decided to take anice bath after a long day with
(22:45):
some soccer and she wanted torelax and didn't notice the
water overflowing.
And the water overflowed to thepoint that it made its way down
the bathroom, down the hallway,through the ceiling of my
kitchen and even all the way tothe basement.
So, yeah, now I had majorrepairs to do.
(23:11):
This isn't even talking aboutany of the other physical things
I'm dealing with.
I've had shoulder pain that I'mgetting physical therapy for,
and hand pain that I'm startingto get looked at, and now I'm
here having to mop and clean andrip down a ceiling get looked
at, and now I'm here having tomop and clean and rip down the
ceiling, and while I thought I'ddo a DIY, I had to get
(23:31):
insurance involved.
So another level of stress anda level of issue.
So we have people here.
So if you hear humming, that'sthe blowers and the
dehumidifiers that they putthroughout the house to dry
everything up before mold couldpotentially grow from the water.
And now I'm dealing with that.
On top of everything, a couplegood things, though.
(23:56):
I did get the promotion thatI've been waiting for.
So my first ever promotion,which was a nice, my first ever
promotion, which was a niceboost, a nice positive, with
everything.
And Tuesday I go to Vegas for awork conference.
So a couple of good things tocome up here.
But momentum, this momentum, youknow.
(24:20):
Coming back to the theme of theshow, how do you say success in
Spanish?
And I remember when I was aconsultant and you deal with
different projects.
It's something you deal with,all projects.
You know part of projectmanagement.
You know when, when you get adelay and something kills the
momentum of the project, it'sreally hard to start back up.
You know to get back to thatsame momentum you were.
(24:45):
It's difficult, and I thinkthat's where I'm at.
I am stuck on trying to get mymomentum back.
You can still have motivation,and my first episode that came
out was difficult and hard andeach one was scary and took a
(25:08):
lot of work and effort to goback forward and do the next one
until eventually it just becamesecond nature and I knew
exactly what I had to do.
And I came here, I banged themout, my interviews were great,
everything was going forward andI just kept doing more and more
and more, learning, beingfaster, being more efficient.
It just became second nature.
And then I got stopped.
And then I'm here todayclicking on things and I'm like,
(25:30):
oh, my outlook is out of syncand I have to download something
else.
And what was the name of theprogram I used to record my
video?
And where was this and how do Ilog into that?
And I had to try to juststarting.
This again reminded me of myfirst time doing this, where it
took me forever.
And this is actually not evenmy first take.
This is my second take becauseI didn't like what I started
(25:52):
with, because I lost my momentum.
I don't feel comfortable in thisagain.
I'm not in my rhythm.
Um, you know, even with this,when I release this.
I'm gone on Tuesday you knowI'm not going to be around to be
on everything like I normallyam and get ready and prep for
(26:14):
next week, and I think that'sokay.
I think I have to realize, andI think we have to realize
something that we're going toget these bumps.
Momentum is really important.
Momentum is really what's goingto keep you going sometimes.
But sometimes things are goingto happen and knock you down and
(26:35):
that initial jump in momentumis going to the initial push to
get that momentum is difficultto get started.
It's scary.
Um, I feel like I'm afraid offailing again.
Um, with this, I'm afraid ofsomething else coming again and
knocking me down again.
Is it worth starting somethingif I don't know, if I'm out of
(26:58):
the?
You know I'm in the clear yet,but I want to do do this and I
love it and I enjoy it and Iwant to provide something and
I've interviewed some greatpeople and I've got some more
people that I need to interviewand I've got to get back to them
Because I feel I've neglectedsome of the people that I
haven't had a chance tointerview, that I had scheduled.
And I have more people to calland try to get them to agree to
(27:21):
get interviewed.
So I'm excited to get back.
But, if you see, things aren'tas smooth as they were or things
are kind of bumpy.
The road for me isn't as smoothas it was before and it's taken
me some time to get back intoit.
Even now I sat here for maybean hour or two, allowing the
(27:46):
ADHD in me to just look at ablank screen for a while.
I reset my OBS to differentviews and moved folders around
and did all the stupid stuff Ishould have not been doing.
So, um, but yeah, man, I meanrecognize that momentum is
(28:09):
important, especially withthings.
Um, with things moving forward,um, trying to get back into
your rhythm, trying to get backinto your comfort zone that made
things go smoothly, isdifficult and, as with all
things, sometimes you just gotto jump in and start moving
(28:30):
forward.
So that's where I'm at now.
That's what I'm trying to getback into trying to get back
into getting this thing back towhere it was.
I had lots of plans, of stuffthat I really wanted to
accomplish this summer that Ididn't get to.
So I'm hoping to get there soonand I just have to kind of get
back on this and keep doing it.
But yeah, man, that's me Likewith all things.
(28:55):
Man, keep your health in check.
It's always going to beimportant.
Keep your mental health incheck, it's always going to be
important.
Keep your mental health incheck, make sure that you don't
let anything slide and thatyou're willing to go get checked
out when you need to getchecked out because it's
important.
But then also, if you ever getknocked back and that momentum
(29:19):
you know that momentum traingets derailed, it's okay, it's
okay.
You know, I think I just got totell myself it's okay.
You got to tell yourself it'sokay, you'll get there, you'll
get that momentum back and, baby, it'll be beautiful.
So let's keep at it.
I'm going to keep at it.
(29:40):
I'm going to keep making stuff.
Let's keep at it, I'm going tokeep at it.
I'm going to keep making stuff.
You know, this was kind of acontinual, vulnerable aspect of
my life.
I'll probably come back at alater time to talk a little bit
about my promotion.
There's lessons learned fromthat as well as always.
(30:06):
But I'm excited.
I hope I don't look it and Iapologize for that, but I'm
excited.
I hope I don't look it and Iapologize for that, but I'm
excited.
I'm excited to come back, getthis started again.
I missed it.
I miss being, I missedinterviewing people.
I've missed talking to peopleand putting everything that I've
done out for everybody, and I'mlooking forward to giving you
guys more stuff.
So I promise that there will bemore.
(30:27):
I just am not promising thatit's all going to be a smooth
start for me right now.
So I'm going to try my best andthat's all you can ask for,
right?
So thanks again, everyonelistening.
I appreciate you stickingaround.
I appreciate all the peoplestill listening and checking up
(30:49):
the podcast while I haven't beendoing anything about it.
So when I jump on and I see thenumbers have still gone up and
people are still downloading, itmade me happy.
I thought I'd come to acomplete disaster.
So thank you all.
Appreciate it, appreciate allthe support, appreciate all the
concern.
Thank you everybody that helpedout while my summer my horrible
(31:12):
no good, very good, bad summerhappened.
But I'm back.
So, all right, man, hopefullyyou guys get to join me again
next time as we continue tolearn how to say success in
Spanish.
See, even that was hard.
Alright, guys, peace.
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