Gratitude, Grit, and Going Home

Tyler’s back from a month-long hospital stay, and the story he shares is nothing short of incredible. From misread charts to breakthrough moments, this episode walks through the emotional highs and lows of his leukemia diagnosis and recovery.

We talk about:

• The moment Tyler was told he had cancer
• The unexpected lessons learned in isolation
• The healing power of community and male friendship
• Facing fear with humor and heart
• The importance of listening to your body and seeking help early

This one’s real, it’s raw, and it’s a reminder of how strong we can be—especially when we don’t go it alone.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the Lost Boy Scouts podcast. Yes.
Back in studio. What does thatmean? Back in studio.
Cossack studio. Right? We'reabove the studio? Mhmm. Means
I'm home.
Home. Means I'm home. Made itthirty days in the hospital. Was

(00:21):
it thirty days? Did you did youTo the almost to the day.
Wow. They would've been if Iwould've stayed one more day,
would've been thirty one. Wow.Then the doctors have their They
stopped you. I'm a little bit ofa bubble boy still.
Not really allowed to beshouldn't really be about I
don't have that huge System.Yeah. Is it just because the
poison is still in the system,or is it because your immune

(00:42):
system's so low? Yeah, theyknocked the immune system down
so low that I still have, youknow, there's just, there's
nothing there, there's noantibodies, the free antibodies,
that's what really keeps youhealthy. Are you to be taking
probiotics then, as we speak, orwhat should you be like?
I don't really know. They gaveme a list of stuff I can't do.
They didn't really can't bearound people to cough. Get rid

(01:05):
of it. Rid I'm sorry.
I mean, yeah, really, like, Ishould keep myself separate.
It's really like COVIDrestrictions. A little bit,
right? Like, keeping my distancefrom people. I wear a mask,
like, I went to the office todayand I wore a mask.
Okay. I made sure that everybodywas healthy when I was in, like,
the only reason I went isbecause we had a big big meeting
today, like, big quarterlymeeting. I think for everybody's

(01:27):
morale, they were all hyped thatI was there. Wow. What a crazy
Dude, I didn't tell you, Tom.
Thursday, Thursday, like, theday I was supposed to get
discharged, I'm so excited.Like, Do you know? They've been
kind of alluding to, the nurseshave been kind of alluding,
obviously it's up to theattending physician. The biggest
thing was, on Tuesday, I had mysecond bone marrow biopsy,

(01:49):
that's where they drew a yearback, they take some bone
marrow, and they send it off toa lab, that test takes two to
three days to get the resultsback from. So, it was looking
like I was healthy enoughMonday, my ANC had jumped, all
my other counts were looking sogood, We were just kinda waiting
for my ANC to kinda get to thatlevel.

(02:11):
Well, Monday, it hit pointseven, which is huge. We had the
goal of point five. And it wentto point seven? Point seven.
Woah.
It kinda knocked down to pointsix, the doctor's like, No, I
thought point seven was kindahigh, like, it's fine, we're
right in that range. Tuesday,'6, she's like, let's do this
bone marrow biopsy, so I had tofast all Monday night, I'm

(02:31):
fasting, fasting, fasting, andtake me down, like, at 3PM. I've
been basically fasting sincenine 9PM in the night. Woah.
Which no big deal, right?
But you're like, food is all Iwas really looking forward to in
the hospital. Like, that was thenot the hospital food, but all
the Yeah. That was your that wasyour that was your pinnacles of

(02:52):
the day. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Like, what am I gonnaorder? That and that they they
started letting me go outside alittle bit more. Okay. But I
think they could tell.
Right. That Tyler was walkinglaps around the nurses station,
and they were like, Tyler's gotthe zoomies. Tyler's got the
zoomies again. So, Thursdayrolls around. I like, I'm so

(03:13):
excited.
I'm like, I gotta tell the kids.I haven't tell the kids. I
wasn't going to tell the kids.I'm not gonna tell the kids.
Wednesday night, I'm like, Icall them.
I'm like, guess what?Everything's looking like I'm
gonna get out tomorrow.Everything is looking like I'm
gonna get out tomorrow. Okay.I'm getting out.
Tell my dad, tell my mom, keptit. Just those few people, you
know, people got that info.Thursday runs around and, you

(03:36):
know, the doctors are all inrotation, so I have four or five
doctors, every doctor has eithera PA, a physician's assistant,
or an LPN. Okay. Everything isflaky chappy.
Yeah, that's a whole anotherstory. Everything is chappy,
Everything is, like, flakingoff. Yeah. Well, anyways, the

(03:58):
LPN comes in Thursday morning,he's like, yeah, just my
interpretation of theinterpretation of the charts is,
you your blasts are still waytoo high for you to be leaving
today. And, like, I think the itwas like the air got knocked at
me.
Like, in the wind knocked at me.And I had Nina back, Nina whose

(04:18):
kids are down in Park City, Iher that day, and she's like I
she she came in the room to takemy vitals or something, and
think she could tell that itwas, like, it was dark. Yeah. It
was grumpy in there, and so,like, I'm calling my mom, I'm
calling my my dad, I'm like, Iguess I shouldn't have told the
kids, and she comes in, she'slike, don't listen to him, wait

(04:38):
for the attending to get here,they know how to read the charts
better, and so, about two orthree hours later, he comes back
in The same guy? Same guy, andhe's kinda got his tail between
his legs, and he's like, yeah, Iwas actually reading the wrong
chart.
And then, was just like,immediately, he was like, back
up. I'm like, hell yeah, westill might be getting out here

(05:00):
today. He was reallyembarrassed. He came in, he
owned he owned the mistake.Okay.
And then, finally, my the maindoctor, the doctor that checked
me in when I first got to thehospital, originally, she came
in and she's like, do you wannago home today? I heard you had a
little bit of a Yeah. She was?Yeah. Had a little bit of roller

(05:20):
coaster ride there, and she'slike, let's get you out.
Let's get you out today. So Ipulled my pick line, mom came
and picked me up. What did youthink, like I mean, what a fast,
surreal experience. Correct? Imean, like, it's surreal.
Right? But but surreal for mebecause, like, it only seems

(05:41):
like yesterday that I see Right.With the bruises, right? Yeah.
And then it was like, hey, I'mon my way to Yeah.
The cancer ward, I haveleukemia. It seems like it was
just yesterday. It Right? Itseems so crazy fast. When I look
at, like, the whole thirty days,I was like, that was probably
the fastest thirty days of mylife.
Yeah. Living it, like, sittingthere tied to those machines was

(06:02):
terrible, and, like, hugecredit, you know, if you follow
the substack, I wrote a hugethank you to them, huge credit
to the nurses, and the staff,and people that came and visited
me. Man, I, there wasn't a daythat really went by where I
didn't have to visit somebodythere, Somebody there. That was
awesome. I mean, you were there.
Mean, Preston showed up, youknow, my dad would stop by on

(06:24):
his way to work, and I I hadkids I went to high school with
that I've been friends with thatshowed up. Really? I had a buddy
from Arizona I went to highschool with. He's like, hey,
heard you're out, but you'regonna come hang out with me for
a couple days. That's insane.
And I'm like, man. And and, youknow, you were still probably a
little overwhelmed by it alltoo, because, like, it's still

(06:46):
you're you're still living thisthis nightmare of a scenario.
Truthfully. Yeah. A nightmare ofa scenario, like, it's not like
you were, like, all happy, golucky, normal Tyler of, like
Mhmm.
Jovial spirits Yeah. Stoked.There was times when I'd call
you and I'd like, oh Yeah. Arough day here. Or a text

(07:10):
message Yeah.
That would come through and it'slike, oh, yeah. He's kind of in
a moment. Right? And you cantell, like, when people are in a
moment, but rightfully so. Yeah.
Like, how crazy that thing was.Like, to be told that you have
cancer the way that it was.Right. Just how quickly it
escalated. How quickly it was.
I mean, the day that I seen you,the bruising, and the way that

(07:33):
the bruising looked, the nexttime I seen you was like, wow,
this is real. This is a reallife situation that, you know,
we're not prepared for asfriends, as brothers, as world
that we live on Right. And thisworld that we live in with
together, right, like Yeah.Where we are, for all intents
and purposes, best friend andYeah. Yeah.

(07:54):
Brothers. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Andwe know so much about each
other, but it was weird to belike, oh, he's down in Salt
Lake.
Yeah. You know, and I'm here andhere, my life is going on. Yeah.
Yeah. You know, and you knowthat.
Yeah. People know that your lifeis going on, but Yes. Your life
stops for a moment. Yeah. Like,and frozen and frozen.

(08:17):
It felt a lot like I mean, to behonest, it felt like COVID.
Yeah. Right? Like, that's theonly thing I had to compare it
to. It felt like I was back inthe COVID times, locked down,
isolated.
Even to leave my room, I thoughtI could have, you know, the mask
on, the gloves on, and my mylittle little smock on. I
remember watching people walkaround. And you know what's

(08:37):
what's even tougher to swallowsometimes is you're not the
worst case No. In that in thathoard. And and to be honest, it
was one of those things where itwas, you could see those people,
and I could just I could just begrateful.
I could be grateful that, like,well, I mean, to to backstep,

(08:58):
like, you do you watch threefourteen? No. The UFC three
fourteen? Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And then, you tojust to watch the the
Volkanovski Yeah. Yeah. Lopezfight, and the first thing out
of Volkanovski's Adversity is aprivilege.
Adversity is a privilege. Yeah.Like that, I mean, as if I've
I've had the there was nothing Icould do to fix it. I just I

(09:19):
just had to face it. Sure.
But I could see these otherpeople, and I could say, thank
God I don't have what they have.Thank God I don't have, I'm not
getting a bone marrowtransplant. Thank God I've not
had them to get radiationtherapy, you know. Yes, they are
dumping arsenic poison into mybody. I've got a two week break
between now and when I start myoutpatient treatment, but, like,

(09:42):
I am blessed to not be, not tobe When, you know, you can see,
you know, when you're in thecancer ward, you can see all
different walks of life and alldifferent walks of what people
are going through, you know?
It's somber moments for familymembers, because I came in there
and I've got treats and gifts,and I'm happy to see my friend
who I know is gonna be happy tosee me, but you'll walk around

(10:05):
there sometimes and you'll seesomebody and you're like, that
person is probably pretty bummedout by the look on their face,
by the way that they're carryingthemselves, by their demeanor,
that they're not happy, and thenmost likely that their loved one
is going through somethingthat's very, very scary. When
you walk past and you can see,you know, in that ward, could

(10:27):
see in people's rooms sometimesbecause their blinds would be a
little open and you're looking,and that person is, like,
staring off. You know, Iremember this one. I still
clearly, vividly, the person toyour like, if I'm looking at
your door to your left, I cansee in that room. I'm not sure
what they had or what they did.
Mhmm. But I remember looking inthere a couple times when I was
there Mhmm. And they werestaring off to the distance in

(10:49):
this, like, just this gaze of,like, staring off, and it almost
looked like, gosh, man. I'd togive that person a hug because
Yeah. It looks like they're justin the moment.
Right? They were that that thatyoung lady that was there, I ran
into her a couple times in thehallways as she was walking her
laps, she always had visitors,but, yeah, she was definitely

(11:10):
going through a hard time. Therewere moments when our doors
would be open at the same time,and you hear her just in there,
just moaning, just miserable. Idon't know exactly what she had.
What I do know is that, like,Utah, both at University of
Utah, the Munson Center, andthen where I was at LPS, they're
two of the best in the countryas far as blood borne cancers

(11:34):
are concerned.
And yeah, she was in a bad way.The only people that were
possibly worse than us was,there's a little room just
before you went into my littlearea, that's an anteroom, where
it's negatively pressurized,like all of our rooms are
positively pressurized, meaning,like, they're kind of sealed

(11:57):
off, right, like, it's actively,theirs were like negatively
sealed off, so like, they werereally, like, in a bubble. They
were, like, in a bubble becausethey had something like
pneumonia or COVID. They had,like, a sickness on top of Top
of their sickness. On top of thesickness.
Oh. And you never saw thosepeople. I never I never saw them
come out. The nurses would go inthere in full Vietnam. Full go,

(12:19):
yeah.
Yeah. And the, you know, thenthe experience, when you look
back on it, is best casescenario for Yeah. And, also,
like, a wake up call of, youknow, call to arms of what you
need to do going forward, right?What you, you know, like, hey,

(12:43):
man, like, life is fragile. Weknow that.
We know life fragile. We'vetalked about death before.
Talked about fact that weunderstand that life is fragile,
that we've had crazyexperiences, sometimes your way
of dealing with things iscracking the joke or something.
Yeah. And, that's not always theright answer.

(13:03):
Right. Cracking jokes is funny,but it's not always the right
answer. Yeah. Right? Sometimeswe need to be a little more
sensitive to the fact that lifeis fragile, and this moment of
time that we just went throughwas a pretty fragile time of our
life.
It's different, right? We facedmortality with the loss of Nick,
right? And I thought, here weare, I'm done. I've thought

(13:24):
extensively about what I woulddo losing a brother. And now I'm
faced with this actual diseasethat has a five percent chance
of taking my life, that'spretty, you know, it's not, five
percent, like, five percentcould be walking down the
street, but, you know, this is atoxic, you know, actively trying
to kill me in my body type ofscenario, right?
And so, here I am facingmortality again, and it's just

(13:48):
that much closer, and yeah, youto, you just have to stop, and,
you know, hearing Volk say that,like, adversity is a privilege.
You know, you laugh. You'rekinda like, yeah, right.
Adversity sucks. You know,nobody likes to be, you know,
adversity, you know, it blows.
But it is. It's really wheregrowth. It's really where growth

(14:09):
happens. Sure. It's really wheregrowth happens.
And adversity is anything. Yeah.That is a wall. Right. You need
to be able to go through.
Right. We have our we have ourcomfort zone, Yeah. And then we
have, like, way out of ourcomfort zone. And there's, like,
that small inner circle that'ssomewhere in Yeah. In between
the knots.
But it's kind of where we wannabe on the the bleeding edge or

(14:30):
our fear. Yeah. Just on theoutside of our comfort zone. And
you always want to be pushingthe limits in a couple of ways,
right? Learning, pushing thelimits of, like, growth, pushing
the limits of, like, who you areas a man.
And and then, now, being able tobe comfortable in yourself and

(14:52):
in your skin for a moment ofjust, like, okay. Alright. You
have went through adversity, butyou don't need to go through
adversity tomorrow Yeah. Either.Do you know what I mean?
Yeah. You need to maybe, like,enjoy the day tomorrow and
today. Yeah. You know what I'msaying? Totally.
Totally. And and the the the bigthing for me was, like, letting

(15:12):
my guard down and lettingsomebody take care of the
culture, you know what I mean?Like, letting people come bring
me food, letting people comevisit, letting the nurses do
their thing, you know what Imean? Like, it'd be very easy to
push against, and even cominghome and having my mom, you

(15:32):
know, stay an extra couple daysand help out around the house,
you know, she's like, don't wantyou going back down to do your
same old things, right? One ofthe things I do have to be aware
of, and that's why we're sittingup here, is things like dust,
right?
Who knows what's in that dustthat could potentially cause an

(15:53):
infection, and then I wouldn'tbe one of those people in that
negatively pressurized roomthat's sick, and now we're back
on that infection, plus otherkiller cancer. I think that's
the thing, people hear cancer,and it's scary. I just happen to

(16:13):
get very, very lucky with thetype that I have. Acute,
Probiolectic, APN. ACL.
No, APL. APL. APL, or APML,microloid. Like, it's weird,
depending on how you look it up.There's another form of

(16:35):
leukemia, there's severaldifferent forms, it's APML, I
believe, well, it's another wayof looking at it, APML.
Yeah. And, like we talked aboutlast time, interesting enough,
you get arsenic. Yep. TheChinese brought that to Eric.
Right?
It's so crazy. I was talking toa coworker today, she was like,

(16:56):
oh, my grandma killed herselfwith arsenic. I'm like, I need
to hear this story. She's like,I'm headed to a meeting, but
we'll talk about it. And I'mlike, okay, well, I need to hear
this Did you do that?
Yeah. Woah. So when you leavethe hospital, the the nurses
lined up, and they give you off,and they're like, hey, don't

(17:19):
come back. Yeah, yeah, prettymuch. I mean, I got to be really
good friends with a lot of them,right?
A lot of them. They areincredibly caring people. It's
an incredible group of womenmostly, a few men, right, who,
they don't, they're like on myfloor, they're just not your
typical nurse, they're not yourtypical RN, they specific

(17:43):
training around cancer, right?So, they've taken extra training
and, you know, they're dealingwith the sickest of the sick,
they're cleaning up the personthat's vomited and couldn't get
to the toilet or the barf bag orwhatever, they're, you know, an
incredibly compassionate people,and from what I hear, it's one
of the best floors to work on,it's like one of the most

(18:05):
rewarding floors to work on, ithas to be, because they get to
see incredible success stories,and, yeah. Yeah, and be a part
of it, right?
Yeah. And be a part of somethingthat's so terrifying and
beautiful and scary, and all ofthose emotions that you can with
something like this, right?Yeah. Because, like you said,

(18:25):
you do hear cancer, you do seecancer, and you're like, ugh.
Yeah.
Holy crap. Yeah. What the world?Yeah. F cancer.
That's all I can think about it.Right? It it is. It it sucks.
There can be because that's thething, like, there's, I have no
idea how I could have caught it.
There's no rhyme or reason,there's no, you know, there's

(18:47):
tons of projection on what Ithink it could be, could it be
radon, could it be, you know,who knows? We do know it was
something environmental thattriggered this genetic mutation,
right? That the possibility ofthis mutation was sitting
somewhere in my DNA and it wasactivated by some external. Do

(19:07):
you have to then have the kids Idon't know that there's
necessarily a test For them toeven to even know. I don't know
if it's passed down geneticallylike that.
I don't think that's how ithappens. I think you either have
the marker or you don't have themarker, but again, again,

(19:27):
there's so much I don'tunderstand, and I could tell
that all my doctors were tryingto dial it down. Not many of
them traveled with crayons, Ithink it would have been helpful
if they would have marked itmarked it up with some markers
and crayons and give me acalling, but, yeah, you know,
they did the best they couldeducating To educate you. In
thirty days, to make me feellike an expert. Yeah.
So now you're back to work? I'mback to work, yeah. I just felt

(19:51):
too healthy to take disability.Sure. Right now, like, I
thought, like, to be honest, Iwould just go crazy.
If I were just sitting there, Iwould have just gone crazy. And
I'm lucky enough to work for atype of company that has remote
work, that I can do from alaptop, that I can do in between

(20:14):
treatments, like knowing mytreatment schedule will allow me
to schedule my treatments and mywork work around that kind of
stuff, so. And so, do you feelrun down? Do you feel like you
can sleep now because you're inyour bed? Do you feel like
you're you are settling back?
Because now you've been homefor, what's that, almost a week

(20:36):
now? Almost a week, yeah. We'vebeen Thursday will be a week,
right? So, yeah, I feel like Iam sleeping better. I'm also, I
haven't received arsenic sincethat time either, so, I don't
know what the half life is onit, you know, that's Yeah, well,
it's definitely, you weregetting a lot Yeah, a ton of
steroids, actually weaned me offthe last week before I was

(20:58):
there, which is good, becausethose things were keeping me
awake.
Yeah, that's a full adrenalinerush. Yeah. You know, yeah, I do
feel like I'm sitting better, Ifeel like I'm waking up better.
It'll be interesting to see thedifference, like, once I go back
to outpatient. They have told methat I can take my outpatient

(21:18):
treatment in Park City.
Oh, good. Which is huge. It'shuge. Because it's about, what,
an hour from door to door frommy house to Downtown Salt Lake,
where was. What so they'll havewhen you go there, you're there
for a week, or you're just therefor a day?
It's outpatient. It'soutpatient, so I'll be there

(21:40):
just the hours that I need totake the arsenic, and then I'll
be able to Are they doing bloodplatelets at that point? No,
blood platelets and bloodproducts were only to stabilize
my blood. Which is really justlike an infusion, right? Yeah.
You're cycling new blood inthere. Yeah. The old blood out.
I got 28 different bloodproducts within really the first

(22:00):
really the first few days that Iwas there. They pretty much
stopped giving me bloodproducts, biomed out week two.
I think there was a couple oftimes the less, like, certainly.
Could I get Lance Armstrong'sblood products? Could I get
Yeah. Some Can I get some bloodYeah? I don't know what's short
saying.
Can I get can I get a little bitof I need a blood boy? Somebody

(22:21):
young with that. Yeah. What whatdoes that show what does that
show with the vampires? That'swhy they that's why the vampires
do the blood.
Right? It keeps them young. Whatdoes that show? Twi Twilight?
Twilight?
Twilight? Twilight? Is thatright? Yeah. For the Alien,
maybe.
Yeah. Twilight. I think that'sthe the the premise of a vampire
is just to keep them young. Keepthem young then too. That that

(22:42):
that's what keeps them young orkeeps them alive?
Blood. So and and a better of,you know, pure blood. Yeah.
Yeah. That's crazy.
Yeah. What a crazy what a what aa journey. Life. Right? Right.
I mean, life. This is literallylife. This is and and now that
we're on, you know, two and ahalf years of doing this, people

(23:04):
are people are now gonna be ableto, like, watch our lives. Yeah.
And let's say it's you know, Iwas thinking about this in a
day.
Let's say it's the first timeyou've heard the episode of us,
and they don't have any, youknow, they don't know any
reference to us. Maybe they justthey they happen upon it, and
they start listening to it. Nextthing you know, they're like,
watching this life unfold. Yeah.It's almost like, you know, it's

(23:27):
on the TV.
It's like it's like this thissitcom that we're coming through
of of life, and it's interestingthat we have this now, stamps of
our lives that, like, forgenerations, people will be able
to go back and listen to, and beable to remember those moments
and capture those moments of howwe felt, what we were going

(23:49):
through, you know, and life isone of those things where I
think, like, you're crazy tothink that life is easy. You're
crazy to think that adversityisn't your privilege. Right.
Yeah. Because the next thingthat happens is gonna be worse,
and you better have some strongelasticity, or, you know, you're

(24:15):
feeling like, and so God givesyou all these tasks and all
these assignments, and it'slike, okay, I'm ready for
another one.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you have tolook at it. You have to change,
have to change, this ishappening to me, you have to
change the mindset from this ishappening to me, to this is
happening for me. Sure. And Ithink that was one of those

(24:38):
things I decided very early onin my stay at the hospital.
This is not happening to me,this is happening for me. There
is something amazing that'sgoing to happen because of this.
Yeah, there's not the best thingthat's happened to me in my
life. Right. It's definitelynot, but it's happening for a
reason, and what does this tellme?

(24:58):
I mean, I don't know if you're afan of Norse mythology, but,
like, Odin, he plucked out hisown eye in order to see the
Right? And that future wasknowledge. Right? He had
knowledge knowledge of thefuture, and that's what made him
a God. Right?
Like, that's the story behindwhat made him a God, that
knowledge. And so, for me, like,this knowledge about myself,
about how tough I am, what canput up with, what I can recover

(25:21):
from, it just makes me closer tobecoming the best version of
myself, the most clear versionof myself. Yeah, for sure. And
with all of that being said,like, you had, you did keep, for
the most part, a really goodspirit about Yeah. There there
were no, wasn't without its darkdays, for sure.

(25:43):
It wasn't there were there weredefinitely some dark moments for
sure. There was definitely, youknow, I always, like, to be
honest, like, the nurses kindaset set They definitely set the
tone, right? Yeah. They come in,they're happy, and they're,
like, you know, they're easy totalk to, like, oh, that made me
all that much more exciting. Ifthey were, like, there's a

(26:04):
couple times I got some nightnurses that were just, like, all
business, you know what I mean?
They just didn't we just didn'tclick, like, I definitely
definitely felt them bring bringtheir Bring their feet down.
Yeah. Yeah. I've seen one of thenurses left you a message saying
that she was stoked at you.Yeah.
You got out. Made a lot of goodfriends in the hospital, and

(26:29):
some wanted to know what I did,so we talked a lot about the
podcast, you know, in and out ofyour room, like, they work
twelve hour shifts, so seven toseven I have the same nurse.
Okay. You know what I mean? Andtypically the way they work,
they have a three day shift or afour day shift and then they're
off, right?
So, usually what would happenis, for their three or four days

(26:51):
on cycle, they try to maintainthe same patients, I think, for
the most part, like I wasgetting the same people, you
know, day after day after day.Okay. Like, so, it's, you know,
and then they go on their breakand then, chances are they come
back, and it's like, oh, Tyler'sstill here, so, I'm going up.
Yeah, yeah, you are. Mean, I'dlike to think it was me, but
like, you know what I mean?

(27:11):
I think for continuity of whatthey have to do, what they have
to remember. Yeah. It's probablya little easier. Yeah. You know
what I mean?
Like, that's better for thepatient to kind of just see it
from their face and Sure. Youknow, somebody who kind of
understands. You know, the samewith the aids, they have all of,
you know, you kind of go througha progression, right, they have
a nurse's aid, you know, they'rethe ones that are in charge of

(27:33):
doing kind of the less, less Theworst jobs? Oh, maybe, like,
going in there and finding outwhat you had for dinner.
Unfortunately, hey, they neededthey needed that sample, and as
try as I might, like, couldn'tdid I was like, everything I
could do not to give it to them,like, just to be like, oh, yeah,

(27:55):
haven't gone.
I haven't gone. I haven't gone.Finally, they were like, you
gotta do this. They filled me upwith MiraLAX and semisoft, and
it was like, don't know. Yeah.
Yeah. And, I mean, also,obviously, all the drugs too,
they back you up. Right? All thedrugs they give you. Oh, yeah,
yeah.
For sure. They just stop you up.Yeah. And it's pain it gets
painful. You're just like, oh,oh.
Think this All you're doing iseating. That's funny because,

(28:19):
not that this reminds me ofthat, but, like, I think that's
the same thing with, like, drugaddicts. Oh, yeah. They get
backed up. Yeah.
And they're like, they're whenthey finally release the hounds,
it's like, let's go. Yeah, itis. They're yeah. Opioids, I
think, I think that's the commonthing with opioids, for sure.
I've had that one for that.
For sure. I think that's what itis. I wasn't on a lot of I think
I took two nights. I asked forsomething stronger for Tylenol

(28:42):
just because my back was allYeah, you're laying on that hard
ass bed. Yeah.
Not sitting comfortably. Well,it was bruised. Everything was
bruised. I made the mistake ofletting Cozy use the Theragun on
me Monday night because I waslike, my back's just stiff. Did
I freeze again?
Yeah. Oh, no. That that firstMonday, before I even went into
the hospital, and, yeah, there,I was bruised all over the

(29:05):
place. So now, outlook and andstuff, when can you resume? Do
you know when you can resume JiuJitsu, when you can go back to I
think Jiu Jitsu, for me, isgonna be one of those things
where they say your ANC is highenough.
I have a feeling that my ANC isgonna get knocked down a little
bit again when I get started onthe Outpatient stuff. The

(29:28):
outpatient stuff. My hope isthat I'm healthy enough to, at
some level, volunteer just tohelp at camp. I don't think I'll
be able to participate on themats, but if I could help, grab
the camera, grab the clock, runsomething, perhaps I can be

(29:48):
healthy enough to do that. I'vealso signed up both as a couple
of things, as a volunteer and asan ambassador, working on
getting the podcast to become anambassador for Tap Cancer Out,
the Jiu Jitsu 501C3.
It's the one that CJI was thebiggest contributor of last

(30:16):
year. Oh, okay. And they runtournaments all across this
country. There's no tournamenthere in Salt Lake. What the
heck?
Yet. Yet. Let's go. So, we'reworking with them, so I'm gonna
hopefully be out in Denverrunning a clock or doing
something with them in lateJune. Oh, okay.
I actually think it's the weekbefore camp. So, are the two

(30:39):
things I'm kind of lookingforward to, hopefully being
healthy enough to just observe,maybe not necessarily
participate. Still be around itand part of the community. Yeah,
yeah. Yeah.
I would really like to get backin, in a manner I'm like, help
you with class, you know what Imean? Like, it's hard with those
kids because they're justfreaking petri dishes. Yeah,
they are. But Yeah, they'll goaround the kids. But They're

(31:01):
gross.
Yeah. Yeah. So, I'm I'm I'm I'mhoping I'm hoping that just to
figure out how I can stay closeand connected because it's
important to me. I think therewasn't a person that didn't
reach out from the academynature and say something, like,
everyone that I've known or madefriends with the last three
years there has reached out,pretty much. So, whenever you,

(31:24):
so if one of the kids is sick,then they have to stay away, or
you just need to wear a mask?
And I'm talking about yourchildren. Probably what they
would need to do, what would bethe safest risk for them to stay
at the county, quarantine, andI'll wear a mask, and I don't
know, hoping that we're gettinginto summertime, would be not so

(31:46):
much. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
We got teased with a couple ofwarm days, and I think it's
gonna get cold I guess, in acouple of days, but that's okay
because I think most of thesnows on the ground is gone. I
think it's gonna stay gone.Yeah. We we've been able to be
in the sun a little bit more. Igot the bus out driving a couple
times.
Nice. I, you know, we've I I andhang out with Misty Yeah. At the

(32:14):
spa regularly, and the other dayI went over there, there were
some people from out of town,and I was showing one of the
guys the bus, and before I knewit, the other people came out,
and they wanted to sit in there,pretend like they were driving
it. They were video recordingthemselves, roll down the
window, sitting in there. Theythey were they they spent about

(32:37):
fifteen, twenty minutes takingpictures of the bus and, like,
pretending like they were, youknow, driving the Yeah.
Hanging out on the bus, and theguy was like, man, see, you can
make money on this, and he'slike, yeah, maybe, you know,
like, one day, maybe, you know,but I don't mind just letting
people sit in there for very andjust hagging me. Yeah. I I there

(32:59):
is a similar bus, pretty muchthe exact similar it's the exact
same as mine, just without theRhino lighting, but, I mean,
it's for all intents andpurposes, if you looked at it
and looked at mine, it's calledthe Burn Slow Bus. Oh, yeah. The
Instagram handle, I think, BurnSlow Bus.
Oh. And they are currentlydriving from the Baja Coast
right now. Oh, sick. So wewatched, I mean, I watched their

(33:21):
little clips on the socialmedia, you know, throughout the
day. He was driving in the sandon the beach the other day, and
he was talking about it, and Iwas like, I just, you know, sent
him a message, hey, what sizetires are you recommending?
Like, maybe twenty minuteslater, boom, he responded, and I

(33:42):
was like, this is crazy. Yeah.You know, we're gonna have him
talking, so I sent him a pictureof my bus and told him, hey, you
know, I'm thinking of doing thesame thing of driving to Baja
and our bus, and he's like, Ah,it's the perfect route for it.
It gets anywhere you wanna go,and, you know, we talked a
little bit more, and him and Ihave been chatting back and
forth, which is kind of cool,like, that little tiny connector

(34:05):
puts you in contact with people,right? Yeah, these micro
communities.
That's what I think about withthese little things that we do,
these little projects that wehave, is just keeping our reach
out there, keeping our face outthere, keeping our names out
there, keeping the fact that weare promoting healthy

(34:28):
lifestyles, Yeah. And, with whatjust happened, your healthy
lifestyle habits, or non habits,will either, one, get you
through it, or two, bite you inthe ass, right? Yeah, and so,
I'm sure that your healthyhabits will, the fact that your
body did what it was supposed todo is by the fact that you're,

(34:51):
for most intents and purposes,healthy. Yeah. Right?
Yeah. And that promotion ofthose things is what I think
about. Yeah. Know, what I takeaway from this last three days
is like, man, go get don't don'tjust be like, ah. Right?
I think that pain will go away.That pain in my balls, that lump

(35:13):
in my balls, my butt my butthurts, or, like, these weird
things, these weird I've gotbruising on my body. Yeah. You
know, you're like, it'll goaway. It'll go away.
No. Yeah. It won't go away. Andand then, if you're, like,
careful, it could get worse.Right?
Yeah. And that's what that's thethings that I, you know, wanna
make sure that our audience andour friends and our families to

(35:34):
remember is, like, don't ignoreit. Right. Don't ignore the
signs, don't ignore the things,go see what's going on. What's
insane, and I think this is,like, is kind of the impetus of
why we started doing this, I waslistening to this book called
Boys Adrift.
Oh, yeah. It's an incrediblebook, think we should do an
episode on, I don't know if youget the chance to read or listen

(35:56):
to it in a Sure. He's telling astory about this kid who's kind
of in a lot of trouble, getshooked up with an older
gentleman who's gonna, kind ofoffers him a job, and he says,
Hey, I just need you to pull allthe nails out of this pile of
wood here, when you're done withthat, I got something else for
you to do. Job probablyshould've taken like half an
hour, you know. Dude goes backto check-in on the board, you

(36:18):
know, about an hour later, thenhe's finished with one board,
and he's like, well, show mewhat you're doing here, I'm
like, what's going on?
We're not done. Nobody had shownhim how to use the cloth. Oh,
right. He was hammering thenails, and just super
frustrated, and here he is, thisboy is, you know, 14, 15 years
old, nobody's shown him how touse that hammer. Nobody's shown
him the claw with a hammer topull off the nails, and so, you

(36:41):
know, we're the generation thatinstructs the next generation,
and we can't lose sight of that.
When we lose sight of that,these young men are, they're
seeking influence elsewhere,they're seeking influence from
fucking Jay Pauls or the YouTubeinfluencers, M and M's or the,
you know, these people from thestreet or TV that may not

(37:04):
necessarily have how to write.Sure. Well, and yeah, I mean,
you're putting in, what you'reputting in, right, is at some
point, some sort of knowledge,Yeah. And what you're failing,
probably, is the fact that youdon't have the knowledge. Yeah.

(37:26):
Right. It works in this weirdway of of if I just asked if I
just asked, or if I just wentand found, seek to to find more
answers, maybe I'd find theanswer a little quicker as
opposed to, like, banging myhead against the wall. Right.
Or, like you said, the walls arein front of me, here I go. I'm

(37:48):
just gonna stand there and waitfor the door to be open as
opposed to just moving a littlebit to the right and open the
door.
Yeah. Yeah. I think so too,think with that idea of men or
young men who don't have a groupof people around them to help

(38:09):
them and to influence them willwander lost. Yep. And they'll
guess.
Yep. You know? We we hadTristan's twenty first birthday,
and and I remember, like,talking to people and just
telling them, like, thank you somuch for what you've done for my
son. Yeah. You know?
If it wasn't for jujitsu or thefact that the man that he's
around Yeah. He might be adifferent man. It definitely

(38:32):
takes a village. It definitelytakes a And I gotta and, you
know, you're a great father.You're a great father, but
there's probably ways that and,you know, posts the other day
about Professor Nick, and I'mlike, there's ways that they've
had a positive influence on hislife, right?
And that's not demeaning to you,it's the comprehensive, right?

(38:54):
It's the comprehensive of itall. Yeah, it's all compounding.
Yeah. And then, like, when youtalk about a village of men who
influence people, right, youneed to put your your you need
to put them around, and you needto encourage them to be around

(39:14):
people that will lift them up,that will call them out of their
bullshit.
And then hopefully they do thatfor somebody else, you know. So
hopefully they do that forsomebody, you know, hopefully
they, in return, help somebodythat needs help, you And I think
that that community that wehave, the community that we're

(39:36):
building, is just those things,is just that. Right? Like,
somebody's sick, boom,everybody's on. Everybody's
there.
Yeah. Somebody needs help. Okay.Cool. Got you.
Yeah. Somebody's down, alright?We'll lift you up. Yeah.
Somebody needs to be humble.
I got you on that Yeah. Right?Yeah. I forgot what was talking
about yesterday, and it waslike, you know, the journey that

(39:58):
he's been through to get towhere he's at now. Maybe that's
why.
Maybe the journey was, and allthe with all the shit that he
went through, and all the peoplethat have quit, and all the guys
that have taken advantage ofhim, and all the the bullshit,
but then you look around of allthese people that got together
for Tristan's birthday, andeverybody was like, I mean,
that's that's our friendship.That's our friend group. Yeah.

(40:22):
For me, I'm lucky because, youknow, two of my best buddies,
you and Tristan, are part ofthat community. Yeah.
You know? Yeah. And I canimagine my life, what it would
be like right now, without whatI have, you know, in this life,
and I hope to encourage othermen and encourage people to
continue to do that. Yeah. I wastalking to Braxton today, and I

(40:45):
was telling him that I was,like, really grumpy today.
And part of it, I think, wasthat I, you know, I I always
listen to the same podcasts.Mhmm. I was listening to the
same music, but the last coupleof days, I've been listening to
Wild Boy Scouts on the left, andand and they're great sometimes.
Oh, the last podcast on theleft? Last pod sorry.
Lost podcast on the I said lastpodcast. Yeah. Last podcast on

(41:07):
the left. But this one was aboutCharles Manson. The last one's
about Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that italso causes me to be a little
grumpy because I'm listening tothe story and, like, I'm kinda,
like Yeah. Imagining myself, andBraxton was talking about that.
He's like, yeah.
Because he's like, you kind ofimagine yourself what you listen
to when you watch, like, thesemovies, those movies like, like,

(41:29):
death and torture, whatever, allthat crazy shit, porn. You put
yourself there. Right? And thenif it's a negative context, you
kinda start to feel sympathy forsome of these people because
these people are characters.Right?
Yeah. Oh, Manson's a character,so he kinda, like, start to feel
sympathy for him in some thingsthat he because that's kinda
what they want, they want you tofeel a little sympathy for him
because they are telling usanother story, I remember during

(41:54):
part, one of the one of thehosts was like, this is awesome.
He was talking about how CharlesManson had masked a murder. So
masked a murder. He's like,that's not what I meant.
I didn't mean awesome. I meant Idon't even know what I meant,
but it was like, you know, inhis mind, that's how he was
describing it. Yeah. Like,awesome. Holy crap.
Look at what he's doing. Give mea little shit. It's like, I

(42:15):
think I probably needed to sothen today, was like, I'm not
listening to this shit. Or I Itold you the same thing about
the Lordy Daybell. Yeah.
Yeah. I told you the same thing.I kinda felt like achy after I
listened to it, you know, and Idon't like that feeling. Yeah.
No.
You you definitely everything inmoderation in moderation. Right?
And I I oddly enough, I listenedto that same episode. Did you

(42:35):
ever listen to any they they Idon't remember. They they need
Charles Manson's music?
Yes. It's oddly good. It isoddly good. It's oddly good.
Hey, it's a good voice?
Yeah. Well, then, we're talkingabout the fact that, like, he's
And he wrote for, like, theBeach Boys? That dude. And
you're like, what? The fact thatIndy is really charismatic,
right?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it made hima perfect leader. But, you're

(42:57):
right, like, I have to listen,like, I have to listen to you,
okay, I'm gonna listen to thisone series, and then I'm going
gotta go find some happy StumpedYeah, yeah, because it is, it's
true. Where your where mindgoes, the energy flows. Right?
And so, if you're you're sittingin that kind of darkness, it's
you're inviting that darknessinto your life. So, I I totally
And I had some rough, you know,I had enough couple of with with

(43:18):
wrestling and stuff, and justbeing a little discouraged with
some of the things that weregoing on, but then I have to
remind myself, like, now I'maround these young men and young
women, and they and andencouraging them to be better,
and here I am grumpy as shit.And I I was talking to Misty,
and she's like, okay. I need tolet's get off the phone because
and I was like, I don't knowwhat you're talking about. And
she's like, yeah, I know.

(43:39):
Because your voice I can tell inyour voice that you're grumpy.
Yeah. And I was like, in myhead, was like, no, you can't.
But I could hear the fact that Iprobably was Yeah. Like, just a
little like Yeah.
And and then, you know, I didn'ttrain yesterday. I trained
Sunday. Sunday's training wasinsane because there's so many

(44:00):
people on the mat, but it wasquick. Mhmm. You know, because I
was cooking, so I needed to getthe grill going.
Will and I were trying to getthe grill going, so I didn't
really get a good train in on onSunday. But, yeah, I think,
like, for for when we, know,taking care of yourself is is

(44:20):
everything. Right? Mental,physical, spiritual Mhmm. And
and and making it like thisthis.
Everything, everything that youcan, everything that you can be,
everything that you can fix orimprove, you should. Education,
learn to get better, learn tofigure out how to make yourself
better as a man is important inthe whole scheme of things.

(44:45):
Yeah. You know? Yeah.
And I hope when people listen toour stories, that's what they
get from it. Yeah. That we'restill just real men who go
through these real lifesituations and have to be there
for each other, you know, helpeach other figure things out.
Yeah. Yeah, and we need eachother, we need other men.

(45:06):
It's really important, and Ithink that's one of the things
this book says in Boys Adrift,like, boys of single mothers,
forgetting the author's name,Leonard Sachs, he basically
says, if you are a single mom,find a group of men, vet a group
of men, or an activity whereyour boys can go be around other

(45:32):
men. Yeah, it's important. Itis, it is. Yeah, it absolutely
is. You've been doing some bigthings with wrestling too, but
what's going on with the Yes, sowe took the girls to Spokane, to
women's nationals, that wasreally fun, that was a really
good experience for the girls.
We got the US Open coming up inthe next week. Yeah. Things are

(45:54):
kinda winding down. The kids aregetting summeritis, and I can
only imagine those poor kids inPark City because they've been
in the snow for the last youknow, since November. It's been
snowing there, and all a sudden,they get they get a little bit
of grass, and they get a littlebit of sunshine, and next thing
you know, they don't wanna bestuck in a in a in a resting

(46:15):
room, and so our numbers kindawent down, which I got a little
discouraged about, but it'sokay, like, they'll get there
and and and we'll we'll havekids coming out and their kids
are getting better.
We did I got there today and wealmost had a private with these
two kids, I was, like, able to,like, really walk them through
positions, walk them throughwhere they're struggling, and
they were, like, so excited.They were like, that was one of
the best practices we've had,coach. I really wanna give a

(46:38):
huge shout out to my to ourfriend, Nick Jackson. Park City
baseball is number two in thestate right now. Two in the
state.
And I wouldn't watch them today.And, dude, I would highly
recommend if you're in the ParkCity, if you're the Wasatch back
or Wasatch, you know, if you'rethat Park City area, go watch

(46:58):
the baseball team. They areamazing. Those kids, the way
that they are excited, the waythey're playing, they were just
they were knocking ball. I mean,they were doing everything.
They were talking. They werechatting. They were chirping. It
was awesome, and I was watchingDave Easler and Nate Jackson,
are our friends, and they werejust the whole group, the whole

(47:21):
staff, they were having such agood time, and, you know, don't
know a lot of kids because I'mnot in the school a lot, but I
definitely know a lot of thekids that are on the team
they're all like, Hey coach, andthey were coming to me knuckles
and it was a good environment tobe around. So if you if you get

(47:42):
a moment, like I said, they'renumber two in the state right
now.
Their goal was to score 20points in baseball. Dang. And
they were at 11 in the fifthinning when I was there. Dang.
11, and they were still going.
I think they even had some ofthe younger kids playing, you
know, on the bases andeverything, so. Shout out to
Nick Jesse and Dave Piesler andthe group of coaches that

(48:04):
they've got there with the kids.It's just important to have good
coaches. Always. Always goodcoaches, good mentors, good
Yeah, just be positive.
Be positive. Yeah. You know? Andso, yeah, that's a benefit for
being a high school coach, isyou're around the other sports
and stuff, and you know thoseguys, and so that's fun. Summer

(48:25):
camp summer camp is is gettingready to get the chance winning
with, like, announcements.
I mean, some of theseannouncements, these fights that
they're I can't have you now.You remind me, I'm watching it
from the hospital, and I'm justlike, yeah, I'm just blown away.
How about it, man? Nick? Yeah.
Nick's keep taking a fight. I'mready. I'm ready. Oh, I'm so
excited for him. Adam Adam'staking a fight.

(48:45):
Like, huge. It is big. They're Iknow some more fights that are
potential that are potentialmatchups going on. Jeff Kern is
doing his Super Fights event inSeptember in Chicago, and I know
some guys that are on that card,and I'm excited for that as

(49:07):
well. I know some of thepotential matchups that could
potentially happen for Jeff andand that super fight, so those
announcements will keep comingout.
And yeah, I mean, like, there'sjust so much good stuff going on
for our little community, and wego back to you, if you had any

(49:27):
kind of idea or if you have anyinterest in trying Jiu Jitsu,
you know, Anthony has his schoolin Hebert. It's never been
easier. We have our school inPark City, there's so much you
can do, there's so many peopleyou can go around, and you be a
part of the community, you cansee what we're talking about.
You can be a part of that familyand learn how to navigate that

(49:49):
world and see what it's like,and I would just highly
encourage you to come check usout, come see us. Mean, we
teased about come see us onSundays, and some people took
that the wrong way, but the factof the matter is, we just want
you to come on that.
Yeah. Come see us, come hang outwith us, come be a part of our
community and give yourself toit. Yeah, absolutely. I mean,

(50:14):
we're kidding, but we're notkidding, right? Like, talked
about that in that episode, Iwrote a substack post about it,
like, you know, the feedback wegot was from a nice young lady
that was misguided in my ourWhat we were seeing.
We saying. Right? I mean, wewent in what we said. Yeah. We

(50:34):
definitely met what we said.
We definitely met all. If youdisagree, come disagree. We'll
work it out. We'll work it out.And, like, I mean, we're gonna
bump nothing, somebody's gonnatap, and it's okay.
Maybe we'll be better friendsafter. Yeah. We'll see Always
will. We'll see, you know, highvibe. That's beauty of it.
That's the kind competition isbeing bred out of our school
system right now, so, yeah.Feels so good to be back in the

(50:58):
groove of these conversationsand just chatting, man. I'm so
grateful for you, Dan. I'm happyto see you here. Yeah.
I'm glad that my best buddy is,like, on the mend, that your
body did its job, and that hehad the successes that you had
after That initial shock of whatit was, and then it's like,

(51:21):
okay, now we're back on thetrending upward. Yep. And so,
yeah, I think it's a I love you.And thank you. And I appreciate
everything about Summer camp.
Sign up for summer camp.Anything else you got going on?
Just, yeah, man, like, trying towe're doing the fundraising
again for the Super Fights, and,oh, yeah, we have that going on,

(51:43):
so if you're interested in beinga sponsor or having your name
out there with the, involved inthe camp or the Super Camp,
then, you know, I'm gonna getahold of people. I've got an
email, I've got some, I've got adeck, a sponsorship deck that
we're presenting here in thenext couple of weeks, and so,
appreciate that, and appreciateall the help that goes into

(52:05):
those things, and, yeah. SoHopefully, warm weather's
coming, and I We're do someepisodes from the bus.
Let's do it. As soon as we can.We're gonna get the next steps
up. Yeah. As soon as you'regood.
As soon as you're healthy.Outside is okay, as long as it's
not super windy, right? Can doit. As long as I'm separated and
like, they said windy duststorms, like, stay out of that,

(52:25):
but like, I'm good. There'splenty there, people outside.
You know what mean? Let's do.Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
Cool. I'm gonna plug one thing,I got 28 blood products, if you
have the opportunity to godonate blood, go donate blood.
Man, I used to be an avid blooddonor in Colorado, they'd come
to my office at work and I'ddonate. Have you ever donated

(52:47):
marrow? I have not donated, I'vedonated plasma, but I don't know
Marrow, I heard, is painful.
What is your do you know youryour My blood type is o
positive, o negative. Whateverthe most universal is. Mine is o
mine is o positive, I think.Yeah. But, I can only give blood

(53:07):
to my Blood type.
My blood type. Like, my bloodtype is rare because I can give
it to only people with my bloodtype are allowed to get my blood
type, so we're O's. Yeah. No oneworks such good, buddy. Yeah,
yeah.
It's an interesting side story,was talking to another gentleman
who had a fovea leukemia that Ihad, who did have to have a bone

(53:27):
marrow transplant, it changedhis blood type. It changed his
blood type and his bone marrowtype. He received bone marrow
from his son, and it changed hisblood type to his son's blood
type. Wow. Yeah, it's crazy.
Oh, it's so weird. Yeah, go giveblood, go and man, if you can, I

(53:48):
mean I'm sure there's peoplethat there's ways to visit
patients to go and likevolunteer and hang out with them
and they, you know, they alwaysbrightens up their day and Being
a part of that giving communityis important? Yeah. Well, cheers
everybody. Thank you until nexttime.
Appreciate you. Appreciate you,brother.