September 3, 2025 • 70 mins
Welcome to Hot Topics! In this episode, we're joined by John McDaniel, who shares his experience with ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that causes inflammation and ulcers in the digestive tract. This condition leads to symptoms like abdominal pain, diarrhea, fatigue, and weight loss.
John talks about his journey living with ulcerative colitis, which he was diagnosed with at age 13. He recalls how his symptoms, including bloody stools, started suddenly and how he was afraid to tell his parents. The diagnosis required an endoscopy and a colonoscopy, as the condition doesn't show on regular imaging tests like X-rays.
He also discusses the emotional challenges of living with a chronic illness, including feelings of embarrassment and being misunderstood. John explains how stress plays a role in his condition, leading to what he calls "stress poop," where anxiety can trigger flare-ups. After surgery to remove his colon, he had a temporary stoma, which helped him eliminate waste while he healed. He now has a j-pouch, allowing him to eliminate waste normally.
To monitor his condition, John has to get a colonoscopy every year, which is more than the average man, highlighting the ongoing nature of his care. He stresses the importance of awareness since there is currently no known cure for inflammatory bowel disease. Now in remission and not taking any medications, John manages his condition with a careful diet and regular check-ups. He encourages others facing similar issues to seek support. Join us for this important conversation that highlights the strength needed to live with ulcerative colitis and offers helpful insights for those dealing with similar challenges.
Who is John McDaniel?
John is a stay at home dad who is a nerd about several things including music, books, history, and sports. He also hosts a podcast about the EFL and NFL called "The PitchGrid Podcast."
You can find John:
On Facebook (Profile): https://www.facebook.com/the.pitchgrid.podcast
On Facebook (Page): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61566358666939
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepitchgrid/
On X # 1: https://x.com/pitchgridpod
On X # 2: https://x.com/JRAwky
On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PitchGridPod
On TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thepitchgridpod
On Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thepitchgridpod.bsky.social
John has a podcast called "The PitchGrid Podcast." Listen and subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/4jGYrJadVEuflrR1QamfkF
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/DGnco_NmE14
Rate this episode on IMDB: TBA
********************************************
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Visit us on
John talks about his journey living with ulcerative colitis, which he was diagnosed with at age 13. He recalls how his symptoms, including bloody stools, started suddenly and how he was afraid to tell his parents. The diagnosis required an endoscopy and a colonoscopy, as the condition doesn't show on regular imaging tests like X-rays.
He also discusses the emotional challenges of living with a chronic illness, including feelings of embarrassment and being misunderstood. John explains how stress plays a role in his condition, leading to what he calls "stress poop," where anxiety can trigger flare-ups. After surgery to remove his colon, he had a temporary stoma, which helped him eliminate waste while he healed. He now has a j-pouch, allowing him to eliminate waste normally.
To monitor his condition, John has to get a colonoscopy every year, which is more than the average man, highlighting the ongoing nature of his care. He stresses the importance of awareness since there is currently no known cure for inflammatory bowel disease. Now in remission and not taking any medications, John manages his condition with a careful diet and regular check-ups. He encourages others facing similar issues to seek support. Join us for this important conversation that highlights the strength needed to live with ulcerative colitis and offers helpful insights for those dealing with similar challenges.
Who is John McDaniel?
John is a stay at home dad who is a nerd about several things including music, books, history, and sports. He also hosts a podcast about the EFL and NFL called "The PitchGrid Podcast."
You can find John:
On Facebook (Profile): https://www.facebook.com/the.pitchgrid.podcast
On Facebook (Page): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61566358666939
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepitchgrid/
On X # 1: https://x.com/pitchgridpod
On X # 2: https://x.com/JRAwky
On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PitchGridPod
On TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thepitchgridpod
On Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thepitchgridpod.bsky.social
John has a podcast called "The PitchGrid Podcast." Listen and subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/4jGYrJadVEuflrR1QamfkF
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/DGnco_NmE14
Rate this episode on IMDB: TBA
********************************************
Follow A Step Ahead Tutoring Services:
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/astepaheadtutoringservices
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/astepaheadtutoringservices
On X: https://www.x.com/ASATS2013
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a-step-ahead-tutoring-services/
On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@astepaheadtutoringservices
On TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@asats2013
On Eventbrite: https://astepaheadtutoringservices.eventbrite.com
Visit us on
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Hmm, well, hello, hello everyone, just a little bit well, hello,
hello everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's your girl, Gabrielle. Welcome to a brand new episode.
So I'm testing something. Yes, welcome to a brand new
episode of Hot Topics. It's your girl, Gabrielle. I just
want to say my name one more time. Let me
tell you what the show is about. So this show
(00:59):
is show where we like to have real talk. There's
a lot of dinggings going on, sorry, Like we like
to have real talk about real things, particularly in the
educational scope. So we like to focus on education. Namely,
(01:21):
we talk about mental health, self care, artificial intelligence, robots
taking our jobs, plenty of discussion about homeschooling, talking with tutors.
So we cover a variety of things within the educational realm,
all with the purpose of educating you all with the
(01:42):
purpose of you being more informed, well off, having more
knowledge than how you did yesterday. So that's how we
roll here at Hot Topics, and today is no different.
So today I am looking forward to this conversation. So
I have a brand new topic and a brand new
(02:03):
guest on the hot seat. So let me tell you
what that topic is today. So the topic today is
living with a chronic illness. This is part three of
that discussion, but we are particularly going to focus on
alterative colitis. That's right. We love to highlight health conditions
(02:25):
here on our topics as well. This is the third
time that we have done this thread, but today is
alscerative colitis. That's what we're going to focus on today.
And I have a guest with me who's going to
help me out. His name is John McDaniel. So let
me tell you about him. So who is John McDaniel? Well,
(02:49):
let me tell you simply put. He's a stay at
home dad who's a nerd about several things, including music, books, history,
and sports. He also has a podcast where he talks
about the e f L and the NFL. He calls
that the pitch Grid pod podcasts. I believe I'll have
(03:14):
him correct me on that, but yes, that is briefly
about who he is. So without further ado, I'm gonna
go ahead and bring him to the stage. Hi, John,
how's it going?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Good?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Good? Good? Did I say the name of your podcast
pitch Grid.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
The pitch Yeah, the pitchod podcast.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, the pitch Grid podcast. Okay, awesome, awesome, all right, Well,
thank you for coming on hot topics. I am looking
forward to us teaching the masses about all sorts of colitis.
But that's what you have right now, so I want
(03:59):
to to dive into it. So let's I'm just gonna
have you start talking. So tell us about your experience
living with this chronic illness. Oh just sorry, quick quick note.
So icourage you guys to check out the first two
parts in our in our catalogs. I'll make sure you
(04:20):
guys check out those prior episodes. Okay, John, go boom,
go ahead.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
So I was diagnosed with ulcer of class when I
was about thirteen, almost fourteen years old. We didn't know
it was gonna happen at all. It's it just happened
out of nowhere, really, and I honestly didn't know what
was going on. I was kind of embarrassed by it
(04:46):
because one of the things that is part of ulcer
of claiais is that when when you have a flare up,
you can have like bloody stools and stuff. So when
I saw that for the first time, it freaked me out,
and I was kind of embarrassed because I didn't know
what was going on. I was just hoping to go
(05:07):
away it did. My parents found it and started a
journey for about six years where I was in a
lot of chronic pain and constantly almost I was in
the in and out of a hospital for almost a year.
At one point, I've had my colon removed and my
(05:30):
gallbladder removed as well as well as an appendix. Yeah,
it the journey, to be honest, Gabrielle is so full
of ups and downs and roller coasters, and my experience
is not unique. And also it is a unique because
no one person with ulcer of clients has the same
(05:54):
a journey as me or you know, every single person
has a different story. I was fortunate to not have
to live with a stoma for very long, only for
about like two or three months and that was it.
But otherwise it's it's been a roller coaster, dankully. Right now,
I'm in what it is called remission, so I am
(06:16):
not need to have it treated medically speaking, But that's
not something that is off to the case for a
lot of people in the bold sort of class. So
I'm very lucky.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
They sound lucky. They sound lucky. So let's let's uh
kind of dive into that more so. One of the
So how did you, I guess let's dive into how
you discovered that you had it. So you said your parents,
you had bloody school one day. It just came out
(06:50):
of nowhere.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yes, literally, I just I went to the bathroom and
I turn around. That's what I find. And I'm like,
what's going on? In my mind, I'm freaking out, like
is something wrong? I don't know if I should what
I should do. I I probably I should have told
my parents first take, but I did it because I
(07:13):
was just so scared and hoping it would go away.
But I happened to not flush one time and they
saw it and they asked, and I went to the
doctor because of it. And one of the tricky things
is like even when you're diagnosing it, you don't see
it like on an X ray or anything like that.
(07:36):
It has to be treat It has to be diagnosed
with a endoscopy and a kolonoscopy. So I had to
go into Cincinnati Children's for that, which is a great
hospital by the way for kids, and I was very
fortunate to be around that area for that.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely absolutely So. Now how old are you
when this happened?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Thirteen or almost fourteen when I was first diagnosed.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
When you were young in your teenage years.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Yes, And that's that's the thing like it crazy part
is some people can be diagnosed as babies, right, they
can have it right away, But then others it just
happens out of nowhere, and it just that's one of
the common stories I've heard is you never know when
you're going to find out. You could have to find
(08:31):
out in your later year you have it, and it
just you just happen to have a gene that is
either propensity for it.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Oh, it's it's it's genetic, it's hereditary.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
It can't well, not not necessarily. It's just a random
gene that it's the least believed to just being one
of in your gene pool. That it's not hereditary necessarily. No,
it's just happens to be there in your get up
for some of all. And and that's a scientist are
(09:06):
still trying to figure out how that happens and what
causes it necessarily. Still it's not fully quite known. It's
still quite a pretty big mystery. But that's what I mean.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
No, I mean, that's mainly what science and health is.
It's mysteries and finding things out, and for sure it's
constantly evolving every year.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yeah, yeah, it is. It really is, and that's kind
of an amazing thing about it. And I just don't
my brain doesn't have the propensity to understand it at all.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Well, you don't have to figure it all out, No,
I like to though. Okay, So bloody stool. So it
just came sporadically, Like was it like drops and then
it just blew up one day or was it just
like bam?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
It was just bam one day. I I was normal
the one day and then the next did everything was
different and I didn't know what was going on.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Was it pain? Did you feel pain? Or was it
just blood?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
It's once it started, Yes, the pain started coming. It
didn't at first, and that was the weird part too,
because like I wasn't hurting or anything like that at first,
and then the more it happened, the more I started
feeling it. And that's when we went to the doctor
and checked it out.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
So you said something interesting. You were embarrassed and didn't
tell your parents. Yeah, elaborate. Could you elaborate on that more?
Speaker 3 (10:46):
I you know, I feel like part of it is
just being a teenager. In a way. You know, you're you,
you're finding out all these things about your body, right,
and you know, looking back on it, I like, I
part of it is, I don't know. I just I
felt like it I couldn't tell because I was so
(11:08):
scared that I didn't know how to tell them necessarily,
and also like I didn't know how they would react.
It just felt so overwhelming that I just didn't tell them.
And I think, I guess that's part of I guess
somewhat what teenagers do in a way, even though you
(11:28):
know a lot of ways those are things that need
to be told, they just don't know how to say it.
You know, I think that's part of it. For me,
at least, I just didn't know how to articulate, and
so I just didn't say anything. But yeah, it's fascinating
(11:51):
looking back on it now, because like, would I have
told them probably right away? Yes, if I was that
person now, I probably would have. But you know, I
guess hindsight's not always fifty fifty.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
So it's sort of you didn't know how to articulate it.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
And then you know how they were didn't know what
would come of it. You know, I didn't want to
I guess part of it also is fear of not
knowing what would happen next, right, like, you know what's
going to happen now? Am I dying? What's going on?
Speaker 1 (12:27):
You know?
Speaker 3 (12:30):
And I guess not want to face that reality.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
And then it can be overwhelming for a teenager. Right,
it's right, you know, especially have all this blood that's
coming out of you and the toilet. So how long
did this happen before? Well, your parents discovered it. You
didn't say.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Anything, right, Yeah, when did they?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
How long was that? So from the time you from
the time it started to when they discovered it.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Okay, yeah, it wasn't long. It wasn't long at all.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Oh we have ah. I forgot to tell you that
we may get comments that pop up. Cool, so we
happen to have one here. I have had this since
I was seventeen years old. Hey, Dominique, how's it going?
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
So there you go, so you're not the only one. Yeah,
it's awesome real life. It's more common than you would think.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
It really is. I'm it's shocking once I got into
this how many people are affected by it? It really is.
And Dominique shout out to you I'm sure I don't
know what your struggle is, but I know that you're
probably bosting it right now.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Man, she said, I all right, all right, so let's
all right, So let's jump back to the hospital. So
parents like, you're going to the hospital.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
You go to the hospital, and well, we went to
our family doctor actually and that yeah, and so he
was like, I don't know what's going on. I need
you to go to Children's and get him because when
I got the x ray, he had to get an
x ray first, and nothing showed up on it, right,
like no bowels or obstruction or anything like that, because
(14:25):
that was the first thought. And then he wanted me
to go get a colonoscopy, and that's how we found
out officially.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
And then after that the doctor I got, he signed
me steroids actually to take for a year. So that's
kind of how I started my journey. And for a
while they actually worked, like I felt okay for a while,
and then it all sudden didn't work.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
So what so the bleeding, The bleeding stopped when they
when he took the serois.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
It didn't completely stop, but it did for the most part,
like it would come back occasionally, but we thought, okay,
well this must be clearing up, you know, the steroids
might actually be working, and this might have to be
something I do permanently. You know. Yeah, it was crazy
because like, oh wow, this just changed abruptly. I wonder
(15:21):
what's going on, you know, and then it did it
so yeah, all.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Right, So it was like a year of relief, right,
So you there was no blood, no pain, It was
like this magic pill steroids, and then it was you
were good for a year, and then it stopped. All
of a sudden, it stopped working. Tell us about that.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
So basically what happened was all of a sudden, pain
just started coming back constantly, and I it was really bad.
Like you know how doctors ask you to ring out
a scale of one to ten, right, was almost out
of ten, if not worse. It just felt unbearable. I
we had to go to the er a couple of times.
(16:07):
I just I couldn't deal with it. I was curled
up in bed and I didn't want to do anything
most days. So at that point that people were just
trying to figure help us figure out what was going on,
and you know, and then it would be the case
of I'd either be really constipated or be incredibly have
(16:30):
incredible diarrhea with blood and stuff like that, and yeah,
it just began a cycle where I was in and
out for the most part of twenty fifteen. I think
we calculated about eight total months were spent in the hospital.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Oh wow, in and out of the hospital for eight months.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, of that year, eight months. I was in that
hospital for eight months that year total, at least that's
what roughly we calculated by that point.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
And you were still a teenager, Yeah I was at
this time.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Yeah, I was eighteen. I turned eighteen the day I
signed my cold and I consent to get my colon removed.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Colin removed. Okay, let's let's jump into that. Tell us
about that.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
So basically, at that point, everyone was at a loss.
His pain's getting worse, it's it doesn't look good. His
coal and his intestines are incredibly inflamed. Right, So it
got to the point where at that point they were saying, Okay,
this is really inflamed, and we don't know what else
(17:43):
to do. Maybe it's time to just get your colon removed, right,
because that might be the only way for you to
get any relief. At this point, and so basically at
that point it hadn't been officially diagnosed. At that point,
I was termed indeterminate colitus because it had the symptoms
of both ulcer of colias and crones, which is a
(18:05):
twin almost or sister disease of ulcer of colias, except
it has it affects different areas of your intestines. So
at that point they were like, what are we gonna do.
How can we help this pain go away or at least,
you know, maybe help the intestines not being so inflamed.
(18:27):
So they decide to diagnose me with ulcer of colias
and get the colon rooved. And at that point they said,
if we don't do this now in your colonie versus
you would die. M So it was like, yeah, let's
do that. I guess yeah, I'd rather not die, So
(18:48):
let's just take the colon out and that and that
in itself is a surgery that demands like, you know,
not just having your colon roof, but you have to
have the stoma part, which and then the plan was
to then have it taken down for a few months
after that. But yeah, they decided, you know, this must
(19:11):
be the best. At that point I had gone through
having gone to a urologist and him take making me
take some mental which I found out I have an
allergy to, apparently because I had to go to the
er for it a few times. But yeah, and not
(19:32):
just that, but like they tried the steroids to get
it didn't work. They tried all sorts of medications, all
sorts of infusions, and so it worked for a little
like a week or two, and then it would die
off again. And yeah, it just.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
All this while you're eighteen.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Yeah, almost eighteen?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
So what entry into adulthood?
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Yeah, no joke, Like that was my first form ever
signed that I had to sign consent for, like, and
that hit me so hard what I do, Like, this
is my first ever like signing a paper as an adult.
Like I didn't think that would be the first thing
I'd be doing, you know. Hmm. I thought, you know,
(20:23):
maybe something more like impressive or something like that. Nope,
it's just cool and removal. Mhm.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So let's let's dive into that. So okay, so this,
prior to the removal, you are on even more medications,
more steroids, more infusions. Removal, So before or after.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Before I before the before the removal, I was on
about fourteen pills total a day, and that was spread
out throughout the day, and that didn't it doesn't include
infusions and stuff as well. And then after it kind
of stayed that way for a bit, but it was
(21:09):
a lot less And yeah, we at that point was
just trying to find out something that could help ease it.
Like a lot of it was like probiotics or antibioticyped
stuff that would help because part of part of what
ultterflies is is your body is attacking yourself, right, the
(21:32):
white blood cells attack your intestines and say that you're
infected when they really aren't, right, So it inflames your intestines,
and so to treat that, you have to help calm
the bacteria in your gut. And so that's a lot
of why the probiotics antibiotics sort of thing for me.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Mm. So it was you were so this whole time,
you were you still experiencing pain, bloody school was everything
like decent.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
After the removal, So prior I was prior, yes, I
was everything just bloody stools and pain, and I wasn't
able to do anything like I would try. I was homeschool, right,
So I would try to do school for a day,
(22:29):
and then the next day I would completely forget. I
was in so much pain. What I remember what I
had learned the previous day, So it to me it
felt it was almost pointless to do school again because
I couldn't do it. And not only that, but like
I was dealing with depression as well, I think, and
looking back on it now, I could think that was
part of it as well.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
You know that's a big deal. I mean, going in
and out of hospitals, bloody school, feeling pain, all this pain.
Teen pills a day, yeah, a teenager young.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yeah. I also found that there's such a thing as
water poisoning. Because I was so freaked out that I
needed to hydrate myself. I started drinking about twenty four
eight ounce cups of water a day. Yeah, it turns
out that's not healthy. So yeah, I had to cut
(23:26):
back in my water and take a slight bit. But
you know what made me do that, I was just
so incredibly paranoid I was gonna get hydrated because I
had been told that hydration was such an important part
of like, not only like with some of the pills
I was taking, I needed to drink a lot of water, right,
but dehydrated do you mean? Yeah? Okay, because I didn't
(23:48):
want to be dehydrated. I wanted to stay hydrated because
not only because of the pills I was taking that
me and me to stay hydrated, but also I did
not want like because I had been told also like
dehydration can cause more problems. So yeah, I kept drinking
a ton of water, and yeah, that wasn't healthy.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
I wasn't helping. And then you learned the hard way.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Yeah, pretty much. I even got seated a couple of
times in that year as well.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
So all right, let's let's make sure we get it
to the surgery. All right, So the entire colon was removed.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
So basically all that is left in my colon is
the tiniest little nub like an inch or two that
is left of all the entire twenty six feet of
that large intestine. And what they did is they took
my small intestine and uh well they made a stoma
out of it for right after the surgery. So basically,
(24:52):
they took a bit of my small intestine and made
it where it sticks out of my gut, and I
had to wear a bag over it, and that's where
I pooped for the next three months.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
The bag was outside my body or outside inside.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
It was outside my body, so like if I if
you back then looked at my shirt, you would see
it bulge right on my what would be my right
your left side of my gut, and that's where my
bag was. It was just covered up by a shirt.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Although the bag was like in like in your belly area.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Yeah, it's just there's a small it was like a
two in like a small little hole, right, mm hmm.
And then it's covered up by a bag and that
had to be cleaned out like every week. There was
a whole entire process for that, and there's a whole
system for it. It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Oh it came out of your stomach.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Yeah, it came out of my stomach and you could
see it if like you took the bag off, you
could see you could see that. Yeah, and you have
to clean off and testing everything else. And that was
the entire prop.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yeah. Uh, you still me?
Speaker 3 (26:15):
All right?
Speaker 2 (26:15):
You still with me? Alright? Tell you from all still there?
Oh you're muted. Oh let's see, sorry, I'm not hearing
you right now? All right, give us a second, guys,
I'm not hearing you. Oh, I'm gonna try this again, okay,
(26:41):
all right, Johnny there, all right, sorry, alright, I'm not
hearing you. Huh. All right, bear with this, guys. I
don't know why I'm not hearing him. All right, try
(27:03):
logging in and out. I see. All right, Sorry about that,
you guys. Some technical difficulties, so bear with us. But yeah,
so while we wait for him, I'm just going to
I'll just throw out some symptoms of all sort of covidis. So,
(27:26):
according to the Mile Clinic, some symptoms that you may
have it are diarrhea, rectal bleeding, belly pain and cramping,
rectal pain, urgency to pass stool, not being able to
passtool despite the urgency, weight loss, fatigue, fever, and in children,
(27:48):
failure to grow. Oh that's an interesting one. All right,
looks like he came back and see if this works.
All right, john Hey, can you hear me now? Yes?
I can hear you.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Okay, talk about about the grow not growing thing that
is a thing, that is actually a thing. It happened
to me, right, So my doctor told me I was
going to be about I've been told, my parents have
been told at least I was going to be really tall,
like six foot two, like a lot of my family
(28:18):
and my dad's side in particular is really tall, so
everyone thought it was going to be really tall. I
was about five ten and then I started taking the
steroids and I stopped growing. I haven't grown an inch since.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Since since I started. Yeah, it wasn't the all sort
of Coltis wasn't the steroids.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
That I think is probably more the coldest than but
at the time we thought it was the steroids. But yeah,
I stopped. I did stop growing. That is a thing.
It is weirdly a thing.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
That's weird. What do you think that is?
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Or it's not really done, Like we brought it up,
like what what's going on with that? They're like, oh,
it just happens like that sometimes.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Okay, but yeah, that's that's crazy. All right. So we
were talking about Okay, so you it was like a
little hole that came out of your stomach and there
was a bag over it and that's where the poop
went into. Yes, that's where the went into.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Yeah, it was just a little thing of intestine that
had a tiny hole that poop would come out of
and into the bag. It was the weirdest. It was
the weirdest thing to watch if.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
You cleaned it every every week. Why not every day?
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Well you well know you changed the bague every day,
but like taking the changing out an entire bag process,
because it's such a complicated process that we had to
change it every so often and clean out the system
and like h all that to make sure it wouldn't
get inflamed. Because intestines don't need to be cleaned like
(30:06):
every day for that, but it's just to make sure
it doesn't get inflamed over a long period of time.
You had to clean out like the entire cap and
like around the intestine part there was an entire cap
and everything like that that had kind of kept it
protected a bit so it wasn't like exposed to too
(30:28):
much feces as a result.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
And like did you smell it? I have to ask
like did you smell it?
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Oh? Yeah, if you yeah, I could smell it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Could other people smell it? No?
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Not unless the bag was really fold and by that
point I was needed to have it changed anyway.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Okay, because that's wild. Yeah it is. Oh yeah, it's
just on you mm hmmm, yeah, that's I mean, it's
kind of weird. I mean, at least it's kind of
a weird thing for me to think. But at least
you were able to hide it because it was under
(31:13):
under a shirt. No one else could smell it. Yeah,
it's some kind of relief there.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Right, Yeah, Yeah, it wasn't easy always to hide, especially
like when it was needed to be changed and whatever,
but you know, at least there was some discreetness to it.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
Yeah, okay, yeah, go ahead, sorry, because no one wants
to see that, I would imagine.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
So, like that's an extreme thing to look at, that you're,
you know, defecating into a bag.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Yeah, and not only for some kids, it's even worse.
It's even worse. Like I've known some people who have
you see or crowds that've had a bag since they
were a baby. And it's a huge bag too. Like
if you just go look up like stoma bags on Google,
it's crazy with the things you will.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Find, imagine. All right, So, so that whole thing was
three months, right, and then yeah, tell us what happened
after the three months were up.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
So this was always the plan, Like I was gonna
have the stoma in the bag for three months, and
if it was going fine. Everything was going fine, and
they were gonna take it down and I would just
pot normally. So what happened is they took the stoma
down and so I had my coloner moved in December.
Stoma was taken down in March. And what they did
(32:46):
was they took that intestine nub and they stapled it
to the nub with the colon that was left over
from my cornermoval and so now and then they just
made a pouch out of my small intestine that has
enough of a hole where food can get through and
get digested. But that means I now can't have like corn,
(33:10):
nuts or seeds, particularly because that stuff can get stuck
and washed into the pouch and that would cause a blockage.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
So so where so is the do you that's what
you have right now to this day?
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Yes, I still have what it's called a J pouch.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Yes, So the pouch is where the previous bag was.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Yes, it's it's some of the same intestine that was
used for the stoma.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Yes, okay, okay, so it's still in the belly area,
So you're still defecating into the bag?
Speaker 3 (33:50):
No, not anymore. No, they took it down. They closed it, right,
they closed that area, and now all I have in
that on that area is just a scar.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Oh okay, so you're defecating normally, yes, in the toilet.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Yes, I had to relearn that oddly enough once I
haven't removed. But yeah, yeah, I do that normally. I
do I miss this normally now. Yeah, so yeah, one
of the weird Yeah, you were talking also about like
(34:26):
urgency to have to go to the bathroom. Right, We
would make trips sometimes and those were the hardest for
me because I never knew when I would have to
go to the bathroom, and so sometimes I'd have to
hold it longer. And I remember one time I had
to after this go in a urinal because all the
(34:48):
all the sit down places were full, and that was
the most embarrassing thing in the world for me.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
But oh no, that was I imagine that was just.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Yeah, I was crying.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
My mind blowing. That was just insane.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Yeah, yeah, it's just it hits you like that and
then you're you have to go or you're gonna crack
your pants.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
So and that was what before this, before.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
This, This was I think it was right after and
I was still kind of learning everything back when you
had the bag right after I had the bag.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Yes, okay, Oh man, that's insane. Mm hmm okay. So
I mean, I know this is all gonna just sound gross,
but so you were just so when you had the
the bag after the first surgery, So you were defecating
into the bag when in terms of urinating, was that normal?
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Yes, it was.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Okay, so you the urine was coming out of one
hole and then the poop was coming out of another hole.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Yeah. Yeah, it was really weird for the first little
bit right after the surgery, though I had a cafeter
because I stayed at the hospital for three weeks. I
think it was. The crazy part is my memory is
so fuzzy about this part because after a certain point,
(36:26):
my memory just decided to block all the stuff in
my mind about it.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
So that's traumatic.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
Yeah, there was, yeah, like right, I didn't know that
that's that the brain did such a thing until a
lot later in life, and so I just was like, man,
I don't remember a good three years of my life,
and that depressed me so much. But at the same time,
it's a good thing because like you don't want to
(36:56):
know that kind of stuff as well. But lately the
more I think about it, the more I started remembering.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
So, do you still remember those three years? Do you
still remember that time?
Speaker 3 (37:07):
It's in pieces. Yeah, it's in pieces, just like the
more standout moments in my brain.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
I mean, I mean, I all, I can, I can
imagine it kind of just went. You just kind of
shoved it deep into the dark holes of your mind
and you know, yeah, just to put it, to repress it.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
And yeah, and just get by on a daily basis basically, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
So you so just you, you mentioned about you can't
have seeds, So let's talk about the special diet, right,
how is it with food?
Speaker 3 (37:46):
So, Okay, when I first got out of the surgery,
surgeon told.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
The first sorry the first one or the second one.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
First one, okay, well no after the second one, because
that's when I had the J pouch, right, So after
the J pouch, they said, okay, right now, you cannot
have any more corn nuts or seeds, and he never
explained exactly what that meant. So for a while it
(38:15):
just kind of went like, okay, no corn nuts or seeds,
just on face value, right, But then my mom decided
to take that to an extreme where I couldn't have
corn syrup, corn starch, anything with any kind of nut extract,
anything with because even after this or after the stoma
(38:38):
went down, I was still in a lot of pain.
I still wasn't like feeling great, and so she was
just trying to find anything, you know, that might help.
And I even went gluten free and began at the
same time at one point, but to try to figure
that out. And that was also when I had my
(39:00):
gallbladder removed like a year later, So.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yet another thing on top of this one.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
Yeah, because they found gallstones because of the inflammation. So yeah,
it's crazy. But yeah, the diet is lately though, I
have been able to eat pretty normally for the most part,
(39:28):
but I just have to be very careful, like watch
what I eat nowadays, Like if something is bothering me,
like I have pain afterwards, I just try to avoid
that food if at all possible, or or tweak it slightly,
you know. Like let's take tomatoes for example. Right, I
didn't eat tomatoes for a long time because it would
(39:49):
cause like blood in my stool. Right, So I didn't
eat those for a while. But then lately me and
my wife have kind of figured out, Okay, you can
have a small bit of tomatoes, right, but not like
you know, spaghetti sauce.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Right.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
So it's kind of like finding the moderation balance to
it too, you know what food I can have and
stuff like that. And I'm I'm still in remission as
I've been in that way for like last four years now, So.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Good for you, Good for you? Yeah, So what would
happen if you ate those corn nuts or seeds? What
would happen if you ate them?
Speaker 3 (40:35):
So basically what would happen? Is it? So? The J
pouches has just a small enough hole where food can
get through, right, But corn nuts and seeds can lodge
into that hole and cause a blockage because they don't
fully digest completely when you eat them, right. You don't
(40:55):
always chew a seed or a nut thoroughly right, And
there's a five that they can just get stuck in
that hole and cause of blockage, which would mean you'd
have to have surgery for that.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Has that ever happened.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
To Not yet? No, I've had a couple of close calls,
but not a surgery yet. No.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Okay, have you? I mean, do you miss it? Is?
You know? When people? Because I just imagine when when
people can't eat certain foods because of a chronic illness,
because of a disease, because of some kind of health ailment,
and like there might be a sadness about it, right
(41:38):
because right right, or an allergy things like that. So
how you know, do you feel any kind of way
about not eating? I mean it's real, a minor I
mean in my mind, I'm like, Okay, you can't eat seeds,
you can't eat corn, But I don't know if you
have an attachment to it or do you miss it.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
I mean, it's been a thing so long. I've a
humor as a bit of a copy mechanism. I call
corn the yellow little devils. And like I miss cashews.
Cashews are like my favorite nut. I've always liked those.
But and I guess if I had to miss anything,
(42:18):
I would say those are the thing I missed the most.
But like I missed more stuff when I was on
the diet my mom had me on than I do
right now. Like I can be basically pretty much anything
I want, and nuts and seeds don't really affect that
or corn really, I mean, yeah, it's like my wife
(42:38):
loves corn, my my life likes a good hominy. But
it's okay with me. I'm not like too fussed about it.
But I think part of it is just I'm used
to it at that point at this point, So it's
I'm sure like for different people like oh you miss
corn on the cob right or something like that, like
(43:00):
at a cookout or whatever. But and sometimes I'll occasionally
feel that, but most of the time it's pretty okay
for me.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
So now I wonder is there a sense of so,
how do you feel? Is there a sense of like,
do you feel normal? Not normal? Because I think you know,
when people have these types of illnesses, there's a sense
of like I feel like a freak of nature. I
feel like I don't fit in. Do you feel that way?
Speaker 3 (43:33):
I have felt that way for the most part since
I started having UC right, like I said, I dealt
with depression and part of that was definitely feeling like
I am not normal. And I think one thing that
I definitely feel like makes me feel different is the
(43:55):
people not understanding what chronic pain is. Because people will say, oh, well,
you're it. You don't seem like you're in pain, so
why can't you do this this or this right? Well,
I might not show it because I'm just used to it, right,
or I'm pretty good at hiding it at this point,
(44:19):
or I just don't want people to see it and
I and so when people don't see it visibly, they
just assume you're fine, right, And so in that way,
I feel definitely like I'm misunderstood, I guess. But I
also kind of look at it like it's something that
(44:41):
I don't need to put on others as well, right,
I don't want others to have to feel bad for
me just because I'm dealing with something that they don't
see visibly, right, I don't want to be treated any differently,
So I try to be you know, as discrete about
it as possible and not judge it if people do
(45:05):
kind of take the assumption that, oh, well, you're not
hurting at all or anything like that, because you don't.
I've dealt that with that, particularly more when I was
with my parents, but not so much anymore. But yeah,
that's definitely something I would say I feel different on, right,
And like when people ask, oh, well can you have
(45:26):
this food, and sometimes like you know, the diet restrictions,
I definitely feel like I inconvenience people, you know. But
nowadays it's not as inconveniencing, but it's still I feel
bad when I do have to like make people something different,
like we can't spaghetti or whatever.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
You know.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Yeah, like when it's you're going to like a barbecue
or party and then you have to tell people, sorry,
you know, I can't eat this, I can't eat.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
That, right, Yeah, that was that was always a thing
for me that I always felt embarrassed about. And I
like I used to have to bring food to places, right,
Like it was that it was that strict a diet
at that point, Like I would just bring food. And
I know there's a lot of people who have like
(46:16):
you see or crones or any type of stuff that
you might have diet restrictions with that do that a lot,
and I'm sure that's something they can relate to as well.
But yeah, yeah, it's it's something that you need to
do if you need to do it for your health,
it's the best thing. It just feels weird and you
(46:36):
don't like inconveniencing people. I'm a people pleaser. I don't
like making people feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
So I mean, well that could be good and a
bad thing. But yeah, now that discussion for another day.
How is it now with doctor's visits, hospitals things like that.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
I have not been to the hospital in like five years.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
That's good.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
Uh, yeah, I've I don't need my infusions anymore. I
was having infusions for a while, but I don't need
them anymore. I'm just I'm just feeling pretty good. Doctor's
visits have been good. I I'd probably need to have
a colonoscopy sometime soon, but otherwise, you know, I'm not
(47:24):
like having to do a ton of like medical checkups
or whatever. It's just you're you're good, You're feeling good.
You know, diet's good, you know, colon doesn't look explained,
You're okay, you know.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
So I mean, do you have like I'm wondering if
you have like more colonoscopies than like the normal man.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
Oh, absolutely, you have to have one at least once
a year in order because what with U see, you
have to make sure that you don't like have not
like normal pulps that they would look forward to colon
as be right, but like inflamed pull ups and or
(48:06):
inflamed parts of your intestine, because that's when it could
become a problem, right, and that could show that you're
not that your remission is starting to go back away, right,
because you can go in and out of remission with
inflammatory ballid disease quite frequently.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
I guess I mean that it could be. I mean,
I mean that makes sense, right, especially you know, so
you have like a piece of a colon and then
you have like a pouch over colon and mm hmmm, yeah,
when you have I mean that surgeon. But yeah, when
(48:46):
you're introducing outside parts into your body, you know, it's
like you have to have special.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
Care, yeah for sure. Yeah, and and just you know,
make sure that you know I'm eating healthy and that
I'm not you know, doing anything too drastic.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
Right.
Speaker 3 (49:04):
One of the things also that can really influence how
you feel is stressed as well. So that's something I
have to manage quite frequently as well because otherwise tell
us about that. So I've learned that stress can be
a huge factor in like how how I pain, how
(49:28):
I feel pain. So like the more I'm stressed, the
more my chronic pain flares up and I I stress.
So if I'm stressed, you will know. But yeah, it's
(49:48):
something that like the more I'm stressed, the more the
pain goes up. So I have to like find ways
to like decompress, right and find ways to manage it differently,
because otherwise it'll start hurting a lot. And obviously I
I can't do that. I can't be incapacity as for
(50:09):
too long. So finding ways to manage, finding ways to
you know, control that stress, it's hard, but you know
I've it's but I've been able to find some healthy
ways to do it and not be overcompensating at the
same time.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
So when you get really stressed out, you you feel
you start to feel.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
Pain, yes, very much so, And and that causes me
to stress poop as well, So to.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
Stress what sorry, stress poop, stress poop? M h, what
does that look like?
Speaker 3 (50:46):
I just have like diarrhea for like a few hours.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
So there's a like a manifest a physical manifestation of.
Speaker 3 (50:55):
Stress, Yes, very much so, not just like in but
also outside. And it's it's so weird, right you wouldn't
think that's the way, But our body is funny things,
but it has to deal with stress, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (51:10):
Yes, absolutely, absolutely all right. So I know we're having
a lot of fun right now, but I'm gonna start
to wind things down. So if you well before I
get to that part. So what's happening with you right
(51:30):
now today? So you're you're in remission. You know, you're
not doing infusions, You're not on steroids. Are you still
doing the fourteen pills? How's your medication regim.
Speaker 3 (51:44):
I'm not taking any meds or anything. And that's the
crazy part. Like I was taking like a probiotic and
antibiotic like twice a day and an infusion once every
couple of weeks, and now I don't have either, and
that's the crazy part. There are some great infusions and
stuff like that that a lot of doctors and scientists
(52:07):
have been working on that are really helpful stuff. And
one of the infusions I was on the last one
was an experimental drug.
Speaker 1 (52:16):
And.
Speaker 3 (52:18):
I tell you what, it worked wonders for me. It
really did, because you could tell like I was feeling
better once I had my infusion, and right before I
would feel awful. So yeah, it's crazy, but yeah, right
now I'm not on any pills. I'm not doing any
infusions right now. I'm one of the lucky ones. I
really am. Most people who have crohnes or qulitis do
(52:42):
not are not that lucky.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
Yeah, and I've referenced her age several times in the episode.
But how old are you right now? I'm twenty seven,
twenty seven, So now youse where you were diagnosed at
thirteen and twenty seven, So that's fourteen years. Yes, that's
a fourteen year span. So in reflecting on all of this,
(53:07):
where where are you now? Where? What do you think
of when you reflect on the past fourteen years?
Speaker 3 (53:15):
I think I've come a far away in terms of
not only physically, but like mentally. I feel like it's
made me a lot stronger, a lot tougher, right, I
feel like I've been able to know that I can
do this, I can press on and still survive, and
(53:38):
I have a group of people who support me and
that is the most important thing for me, and that
if I can take care of myself, then I can
be stronger. And it's not easy, right, I'll have my
bad days, but you know, still pressing on and you know,
(53:59):
don't I don't want to sound cliche, right, because it's
it's not and for a lot of people, it's so hard.
And I don't want to discount that either, because that
for me, I don't want to discount that. In my mind,
you know, I know that there are people who are
going through a lot worse with the same illness, you know,
(54:20):
And it's something that will be dealing with the rest
of my life, you know, and who knows, I might
be back to that place again, you know. So just
preparing myself mentally and you know, emotionally as well. That
is something I've had to mature a lot in so
I think I've come a long way and I'm grateful
(54:41):
that I've been able to get through it stronger, I think.
Speaker 2 (54:48):
Yeah, And just to just to just to be sure,
is there you're living with this whether I your life.
It's not a it is chronic. It's a chronic it's
a chronic illness. You have to live with this for
the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (55:07):
Yes, yeah, there is. There is no known cures if yet,
and they're working on it. But I I, as of now,
I am expecting to have this for the rest of
my life.
Speaker 2 (55:19):
Yeah, all right, Dominique put up some more comments. I'm
just gonna share. She said, I'm off meds and take
only an infusion every eight weeks. Okay, so that's or.
Speaker 3 (55:33):
Remickaide.
Speaker 2 (55:35):
If you can put that in the comments, Dominique, that'd
be great. She said, yeah, she's forty five years old. Yeah,
and forty five years old now she's had it since
she was seventeen, so that's a very long time. And
she said the biggest thing for me was to change
my diet. That seems to be a biggie. Yeah, changing
(55:58):
your diet.
Speaker 3 (55:59):
Yeah, some people have a way more strict diet than others.
It's crazy. Like the spectrum, Like they're the Crones and
Clydes Foundation does a thing every year, like what it's
called IBD Day where they just like have a bunch
of people from all over the country get together they
have IBD. The spectrum is incredible, Like you'll have some
(56:22):
that are like two or three years old and they're
wheelchairs with stoma bags and it's heartbreaking, and then you
have teenagers who you know are going through the same stuff.
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (56:38):
Yeah, hopefully Dominie can answer your question. Oh she just responded. Okay,
she said, neither was good for me, but I take another.
She doesn't know the name of it.
Speaker 3 (56:52):
Okay, cool, Okay, Yeah that works. Yeah, sometimes they don't work. Yeah,
like Remicad it worked for some period, but then it didn't,
and then Tibia was the one that worked for me,
and at that point it was still an experimental drug.
But yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (57:08):
The confusion, it was like an IVY like it.
Speaker 3 (57:11):
Was, Yeah, at what point my my veins were dried
up to the point that I needed like an ulder
sound to help find the veins to stick me on.
It was taking so I was taking it so often?
Oh wow, yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:27):
So like the repeated needle pricks and mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (57:32):
I actually, funny story, my vein broke a IVY catheter.
I'm not kidding.
Speaker 2 (57:40):
It was how did that happen?
Speaker 3 (57:42):
They were just going to they were sticking me and
all of a sudden, the needle snapped in half and
the nurse took a picture of it. It was the
craziest thing. Like, yeah, you have rock hard veanes. Yeah,
no joke.
Speaker 2 (58:00):
Yeah, so many needle pricks, Yeah, yeah, it's hard after
a while. Oh my god, Well you you have overcome
the worst of it, my friend. I mean, you got
to live with it for the rest of your life,
but the worst is over for you. Crossed for now.
Yeah now, okay, all right, So you know at this
(58:23):
point of the show where I like to ask my
guests to share where it's a wisdom with our audience. So, John,
do you have any words of wisdom for our audience.
Speaker 3 (58:35):
Whatever you're going through, stay strong, don't give up, even
if it's a depressing time. You will get through this.
I promise. There are people who love you and care
about you, and they will help you as well. So
don't give up. Even if you're in the darkest time.
(58:55):
There is light at the end of the tunnel. So
do that for me and for others, those of us
who are also surviving and dealing with this stuff. You're
not alone. There's always someone that will be there now.
Speaker 2 (59:10):
Beautiful, beautiful, all right, Well, John, thank you for coming
on Hot Topics and sharing your story.
Speaker 3 (59:16):
Glad to come on, Glad to talk about this and
something that not many people know about.
Speaker 2 (59:22):
Yeah, and I know Dominique, and I didn't know, So Dominique,
you and I may need to talk, all right, So
let's get your promo. It is now promo time, all right,
you guys. So John McDaniel has a podcast, and he
(59:43):
has spread his podcast all over social media so you
can follow him personally. It is the Dot Pitch Grid
Dot podcast. He also has a Facebook page of the
same podcast. It is called pitch Grid podcast. He is
on Instagram the pitch Grid. He is on x He
(01:00:04):
has two X accounts. I almost said Twitter, but he
is on X. He has two of them, so pay
attention to that. One is pitch Grid Pod and the
other one is j R a wk Y, So make
sure you get a handle on those two. He is
also on YouTube as pitch Grade Pod. On TikTok is
(01:00:26):
the pitch Grade Pod, and he is also on blue Sky,
the pitch gridpod, Dot b s ky Dot, Social, all
of that stuff. It is scrolling below on the screen
right now, but for those of you listening on a podcast,
that information will be in the description. So one way
(01:00:48):
or another, you're getting this information. So there you have it.
So I encourage you guys to follow John all over
the place. Make sure you subscribe to his podcasts. Speaking
of which, he also has a podcast called the Pitch
Grand Podcast, So listen and subscribe to it. Wherever you
(01:01:09):
get your podcasts, so it might be Apple, Spotify, good Pods.
Wherever you get your podcasts you can check. I encourage
you to listen and subscribe. John tell us about your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (01:01:23):
Well, basically, I'm a nerd who loves sports and loves
to talk about it. I cover the NFL or American football,
and the EFL Championship, which is the second tier of
English soccer pyramid. I just talked about the latest news,
the events going on, and I like to cover the
games as well. So if you're interested in worrying more
(01:01:46):
about soccer, we're probably gonna do some more of that.
With the off season now here and with the NFL,
we're starting to ramp up on off season preparations, so
we're gonna get more into that. So if you're interested
in any sports we're learning about it, definitely follow the podcast.
We've got some new content in the works and working
(01:02:07):
with other podcasts as well and looking forward to hopefully
growing a bit more and branching out.
Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
So all right, there you have it. So you're you're
interested in sports and all all that is sports, make
sure you subscribe to listen and subscribe to this podcast.
The Pitch Grid podcast is a link in the description,
but you know, listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
(01:02:38):
All right, John, thank you so much again for coming
on Hot Topics.
Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm I'm so
glad to be able to have this opportunity.
Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
Awesome, so I will we got to do this again,
so I will hit you up for sure, but for
now I will place you backstage so your your time
is pretty much done. All right, thank you again, all
right later, all right you guys. So that is it.
(01:03:10):
This was definitely an informative podcast. I learned a lot today.
But yes, thank you for joining me on another episode
of Hot Topics. So now let me just take this
moment to remind you about the powers behind Hot Topics.
(01:03:32):
So that power is me, but more specifically so Hot
Topics is a production of my tutoring company, A step
Ahead tutoring Services. So you know what, let me just
connect it back to John. You know, maybe you have
a child right now who is homeschooled right now due
(01:03:53):
to medical reasons. Right you know, homeschooling has been growing
over the past number of years and has been exploding,
And maybe you have a child similar to what John
went through, who well he wasn't homeschool for medical reasons.
(01:04:13):
But that might be something that you're going through right now.
You may have a child who is homeschooled right now,
or maybe you have a child that has a chronic
medical condition that has to go to hospitals and doctors
and in and out of medical facilities, and it's hard
(01:04:37):
to be stable in a public school or stable in
a private school, and it's easier to homeschool. Right, So
this may be you. So if you find yourself in
a situation where maybe you have a child that needs
a lot of medical care and is difficult to maintain
(01:05:00):
that child in a public school system or in a
private school system, excuse me, and maybe you have no
choice but to homeschool. So if you find yourself in
that situation, or you are in that situation, I encourage
you to reach out to us. Our tutors are available.
(01:05:21):
You can if whether you're homeschooling or not. But if
you happen to be in this situation where your child
needs a lot of medical care and it's difficult for
your child to maintain stability in the academic world, hit
us up. Our tutors are available. Our website is www
(01:05:45):
dot a Step Ahead Tutoring Services dot com. If you
are in the New York City or a Nasau County area,
we have tutors that can come out to you in person.
But if you are not in those areas, or if
you prefer virtual, our tutors are available online, so we're
(01:06:07):
either in person or online, so either way we can
come out to you. You know, whatever is fit for you,
whatever works for you. So our tutors are available. So
we do one on one tutoring. We do test prep,
we do college counseling, We do collaborative editing and proofreading.
(01:06:28):
So we also do business coaching and tutoring, tutor coaching
as well for the budding entrepreneurs of the world, but
particularly for parents. We do one on one test prep,
college counseling, and collaborative editing and proofreading. So if you
need any of those services, hit us up that website
(01:06:50):
again www dot a step ahead tutoring services dot com.
And I also encourage you to follow us on social media.
We are on many different places where Facebook, Instagram, x YouTube,
we're on TikTok, so we are in many different places,
so I encourage you to follow us on social media
(01:07:14):
as well. All of this information, of course, is on
the screen right now or in a description. Either way,
the information is at your fingertips. And I forgot to
do the thing, but I also want to make this
final plea. I encourage you to leave your feedback about
(01:07:35):
today's episode. Whether you are watching this on video right now,
or you're listening to this on a podcast, I encourage
you to leave your feedback about today's episode. Did you
like it? Did you love it? Do you have your
own al sort of colitis story that you want to share?
(01:07:58):
Do you have your own chronic illness story that you
want to share? Drop it in the comments below, you guys,
drop it in the comments below or in the comment thread.
If you're listening on the podcast, I'm seeing more of
like the comment features pop up in the podcast platforms now.
(01:08:19):
I know it's popped up in Spotify. I know Good
Pods always had one. Apple podcasts. Apple podcast is notorious
for their comments section, So if you're listening on a podcasts,
I encourage you to drop them comments. So, yes, please
(01:08:40):
give us your feedback about today's episode. The more you comment,
the more that this episode will circulate on the web,
because the Internet rewards popularity unfortunately, so the more you comment,
the more this episode will circulate. So I encourage you
to leave your feedback in the comment section or in
(01:09:06):
the comment string wherever you are hearing the sound of
my voice, all right, you guys. Well, that is it
for Hot Topics. I look forward to you joining me
on another episode of Hot Topics. I am now signing off,
bye guys.
Hmm, well, hello, hello everyone, just a little bit well, hello,
hello everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's your girl, Gabrielle. Welcome to a brand new episode.
So I'm testing something. Yes, welcome to a brand new
episode of Hot Topics. It's your girl, Gabrielle. I just
want to say my name one more time. Let me
tell you what the show is about. So this show
(00:59):
is show where we like to have real talk. There's
a lot of dinggings going on, sorry, Like we like
to have real talk about real things, particularly in the
educational scope. So we like to focus on education. Namely,
(01:21):
we talk about mental health, self care, artificial intelligence, robots
taking our jobs, plenty of discussion about homeschooling, talking with tutors.
So we cover a variety of things within the educational realm,
all with the purpose of educating you all with the
(01:42):
purpose of you being more informed, well off, having more
knowledge than how you did yesterday. So that's how we
roll here at Hot Topics, and today is no different.
So today I am looking forward to this conversation. So
I have a brand new topic and a brand new
(02:03):
guest on the hot seat. So let me tell you
what that topic is today. So the topic today is
living with a chronic illness. This is part three of
that discussion, but we are particularly going to focus on
alterative colitis. That's right. We love to highlight health conditions
(02:25):
here on our topics as well. This is the third
time that we have done this thread, but today is
alscerative colitis. That's what we're going to focus on today.
And I have a guest with me who's going to
help me out. His name is John McDaniel. So let
me tell you about him. So who is John McDaniel? Well,
(02:49):
let me tell you simply put. He's a stay at
home dad who's a nerd about several things, including music, books, history,
and sports. He also has a podcast where he talks
about the e f L and the NFL. He calls
that the pitch Grid pod podcasts. I believe I'll have
(03:14):
him correct me on that, but yes, that is briefly
about who he is. So without further ado, I'm gonna
go ahead and bring him to the stage. Hi, John,
how's it going?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Good?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Good? Good? Did I say the name of your podcast
pitch Grid.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
The pitch Yeah, the pitchod podcast.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, the pitch Grid podcast. Okay, awesome, awesome, all right, Well,
thank you for coming on hot topics. I am looking
forward to us teaching the masses about all sorts of colitis.
But that's what you have right now, so I want
(03:59):
to to dive into it. So let's I'm just gonna
have you start talking. So tell us about your experience
living with this chronic illness. Oh just sorry, quick quick note.
So icourage you guys to check out the first two
parts in our in our catalogs. I'll make sure you
(04:20):
guys check out those prior episodes. Okay, John, go boom,
go ahead.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
So I was diagnosed with ulcer of class when I
was about thirteen, almost fourteen years old. We didn't know
it was gonna happen at all. It's it just happened
out of nowhere, really, and I honestly didn't know what
was going on. I was kind of embarrassed by it
(04:46):
because one of the things that is part of ulcer
of claiais is that when when you have a flare up,
you can have like bloody stools and stuff. So when
I saw that for the first time, it freaked me out,
and I was kind of embarrassed because I didn't know
what was going on. I was just hoping to go
(05:07):
away it did. My parents found it and started a
journey for about six years where I was in a
lot of chronic pain and constantly almost I was in
the in and out of a hospital for almost a year.
At one point, I've had my colon removed and my
(05:30):
gallbladder removed as well as well as an appendix. Yeah,
it the journey, to be honest, Gabrielle is so full
of ups and downs and roller coasters, and my experience
is not unique. And also it is a unique because
no one person with ulcer of clients has the same
(05:54):
a journey as me or you know, every single person
has a different story. I was fortunate to not have
to live with a stoma for very long, only for
about like two or three months and that was it.
But otherwise it's it's been a roller coaster, dankully. Right now,
I'm in what it is called remission, so I am
(06:16):
not need to have it treated medically speaking, But that's
not something that is off to the case for a
lot of people in the bold sort of class. So
I'm very lucky.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
They sound lucky. They sound lucky. So let's let's uh
kind of dive into that more so. One of the
So how did you, I guess let's dive into how
you discovered that you had it. So you said your parents,
you had bloody school one day. It just came out
(06:50):
of nowhere.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yes, literally, I just I went to the bathroom and
I turn around. That's what I find. And I'm like,
what's going on? In my mind, I'm freaking out, like
is something wrong? I don't know if I should what
I should do. I I probably I should have told
my parents first take, but I did it because I
(07:13):
was just so scared and hoping it would go away.
But I happened to not flush one time and they
saw it and they asked, and I went to the
doctor because of it. And one of the tricky things
is like even when you're diagnosing it, you don't see
it like on an X ray or anything like that.
(07:36):
It has to be treat It has to be diagnosed
with a endoscopy and a kolonoscopy. So I had to
go into Cincinnati Children's for that, which is a great
hospital by the way for kids, and I was very
fortunate to be around that area for that.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely absolutely So. Now how old are you
when this happened?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Thirteen or almost fourteen when I was first diagnosed.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
When you were young in your teenage years.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Yes, And that's that's the thing like it crazy part
is some people can be diagnosed as babies, right, they
can have it right away, But then others it just
happens out of nowhere, and it just that's one of
the common stories I've heard is you never know when
you're going to find out. You could have to find
(08:31):
out in your later year you have it, and it
just you just happen to have a gene that is
either propensity for it.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Oh, it's it's it's genetic, it's hereditary.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
It can't well, not not necessarily. It's just a random
gene that it's the least believed to just being one
of in your gene pool. That it's not hereditary necessarily. No,
it's just happens to be there in your get up
for some of all. And and that's a scientist are
(09:06):
still trying to figure out how that happens and what
causes it necessarily. Still it's not fully quite known. It's
still quite a pretty big mystery. But that's what I mean.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
No, I mean, that's mainly what science and health is.
It's mysteries and finding things out, and for sure it's
constantly evolving every year.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yeah, yeah, it is. It really is, and that's kind
of an amazing thing about it. And I just don't
my brain doesn't have the propensity to understand it at all.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Well, you don't have to figure it all out, No,
I like to though. Okay, So bloody stool. So it
just came sporadically, Like was it like drops and then
it just blew up one day or was it just
like bam?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
It was just bam one day. I I was normal
the one day and then the next did everything was
different and I didn't know what was going on.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Was it pain? Did you feel pain? Or was it
just blood?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
It's once it started, Yes, the pain started coming. It
didn't at first, and that was the weird part too,
because like I wasn't hurting or anything like that at first,
and then the more it happened, the more I started
feeling it. And that's when we went to the doctor
and checked it out.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
So you said something interesting. You were embarrassed and didn't
tell your parents. Yeah, elaborate. Could you elaborate on that more?
Speaker 3 (10:46):
I you know, I feel like part of it is
just being a teenager. In a way. You know, you're you,
you're finding out all these things about your body, right,
and you know, looking back on it, I like, I
part of it is, I don't know. I just I
felt like it I couldn't tell because I was so
(11:08):
scared that I didn't know how to tell them necessarily,
and also like I didn't know how they would react.
It just felt so overwhelming that I just didn't tell them.
And I think, I guess that's part of I guess
somewhat what teenagers do in a way, even though you
(11:28):
know a lot of ways those are things that need
to be told, they just don't know how to say it.
You know, I think that's part of it. For me,
at least, I just didn't know how to articulate, and
so I just didn't say anything. But yeah, it's fascinating
(11:51):
looking back on it now, because like, would I have
told them probably right away? Yes, if I was that
person now, I probably would have. But you know, I
guess hindsight's not always fifty fifty.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
So it's sort of you didn't know how to articulate it.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
And then you know how they were didn't know what
would come of it. You know, I didn't want to
I guess part of it also is fear of not
knowing what would happen next, right, like, you know what's
going to happen now? Am I dying? What's going on?
Speaker 1 (12:27):
You know?
Speaker 3 (12:30):
And I guess not want to face that reality.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
And then it can be overwhelming for a teenager. Right,
it's right, you know, especially have all this blood that's
coming out of you and the toilet. So how long
did this happen before? Well, your parents discovered it. You
didn't say.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Anything, right, Yeah, when did they?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
How long was that? So from the time you from
the time it started to when they discovered it.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Okay, yeah, it wasn't long. It wasn't long at all.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Oh we have ah. I forgot to tell you that
we may get comments that pop up. Cool, so we
happen to have one here. I have had this since
I was seventeen years old. Hey, Dominique, how's it going?
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
So there you go, so you're not the only one. Yeah,
it's awesome real life. It's more common than you would think.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
It really is. I'm it's shocking once I got into
this how many people are affected by it? It really is.
And Dominique shout out to you I'm sure I don't
know what your struggle is, but I know that you're
probably bosting it right now.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Man, she said, I all right, all right, so let's
all right, So let's jump back to the hospital. So
parents like, you're going to the hospital.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
You go to the hospital, and well, we went to
our family doctor actually and that yeah, and so he
was like, I don't know what's going on. I need
you to go to Children's and get him because when
I got the x ray, he had to get an
x ray first, and nothing showed up on it, right,
like no bowels or obstruction or anything like that, because
(14:25):
that was the first thought. And then he wanted me
to go get a colonoscopy, and that's how we found
out officially.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
And then after that the doctor I got, he signed
me steroids actually to take for a year. So that's
kind of how I started my journey. And for a
while they actually worked, like I felt okay for a while,
and then it all sudden didn't work.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
So what so the bleeding, The bleeding stopped when they
when he took the serois.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
It didn't completely stop, but it did for the most part,
like it would come back occasionally, but we thought, okay,
well this must be clearing up, you know, the steroids
might actually be working, and this might have to be
something I do permanently. You know. Yeah, it was crazy
because like, oh wow, this just changed abruptly. I wonder
(15:21):
what's going on, you know, and then it did it
so yeah, all.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Right, So it was like a year of relief, right,
So you there was no blood, no pain, It was
like this magic pill steroids, and then it was you
were good for a year, and then it stopped. All
of a sudden, it stopped working. Tell us about that.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
So basically what happened was all of a sudden, pain
just started coming back constantly, and I it was really bad.
Like you know how doctors ask you to ring out
a scale of one to ten, right, was almost out
of ten, if not worse. It just felt unbearable. I
we had to go to the er a couple of times.
(16:07):
I just I couldn't deal with it. I was curled
up in bed and I didn't want to do anything
most days. So at that point that people were just
trying to figure help us figure out what was going on,
and you know, and then it would be the case
of I'd either be really constipated or be incredibly have
(16:30):
incredible diarrhea with blood and stuff like that, and yeah,
it just began a cycle where I was in and
out for the most part of twenty fifteen. I think
we calculated about eight total months were spent in the hospital.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Oh wow, in and out of the hospital for eight months.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, of that year, eight months. I was in that
hospital for eight months that year total, at least that's
what roughly we calculated by that point.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
And you were still a teenager, Yeah I was at
this time.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Yeah, I was eighteen. I turned eighteen the day I
signed my cold and I consent to get my colon removed.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Colin removed. Okay, let's let's jump into that. Tell us
about that.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
So basically, at that point, everyone was at a loss.
His pain's getting worse, it's it doesn't look good. His
coal and his intestines are incredibly inflamed. Right, So it
got to the point where at that point they were saying, Okay,
this is really inflamed, and we don't know what else
(17:43):
to do. Maybe it's time to just get your colon removed, right,
because that might be the only way for you to
get any relief. At this point, and so basically at
that point it hadn't been officially diagnosed. At that point,
I was termed indeterminate colitus because it had the symptoms
of both ulcer of colias and crones, which is a
(18:05):
twin almost or sister disease of ulcer of colias, except
it has it affects different areas of your intestines. So
at that point they were like, what are we gonna do.
How can we help this pain go away or at least,
you know, maybe help the intestines not being so inflamed.
(18:27):
So they decide to diagnose me with ulcer of colias
and get the colon rooved. And at that point they said,
if we don't do this now in your colonie versus
you would die. M So it was like, yeah, let's
do that. I guess yeah, I'd rather not die, So
(18:48):
let's just take the colon out and that and that
in itself is a surgery that demands like, you know,
not just having your colon roof, but you have to
have the stoma part, which and then the plan was
to then have it taken down for a few months
after that. But yeah, they decided, you know, this must
(19:11):
be the best. At that point I had gone through
having gone to a urologist and him take making me
take some mental which I found out I have an
allergy to, apparently because I had to go to the
er for it a few times. But yeah, and not
(19:32):
just that, but like they tried the steroids to get
it didn't work. They tried all sorts of medications, all
sorts of infusions, and so it worked for a little
like a week or two, and then it would die
off again. And yeah, it just.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
All this while you're eighteen.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Yeah, almost eighteen?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
So what entry into adulthood?
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Yeah, no joke, Like that was my first form ever
signed that I had to sign consent for, like, and
that hit me so hard what I do, Like, this
is my first ever like signing a paper as an adult.
Like I didn't think that would be the first thing
I'd be doing, you know. Hmm. I thought, you know,
(20:23):
maybe something more like impressive or something like that. Nope,
it's just cool and removal. Mhm.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So let's let's dive into that. So okay, so this,
prior to the removal, you are on even more medications,
more steroids, more infusions. Removal, So before or after.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Before I before the before the removal, I was on
about fourteen pills total a day, and that was spread
out throughout the day, and that didn't it doesn't include
infusions and stuff as well. And then after it kind
of stayed that way for a bit, but it was
(21:09):
a lot less And yeah, we at that point was
just trying to find out something that could help ease it.
Like a lot of it was like probiotics or antibioticyped
stuff that would help because part of part of what
ultterflies is is your body is attacking yourself, right, the
(21:32):
white blood cells attack your intestines and say that you're
infected when they really aren't, right, So it inflames your intestines,
and so to treat that, you have to help calm
the bacteria in your gut. And so that's a lot
of why the probiotics antibiotics sort of thing for me.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Mm. So it was you were so this whole time,
you were you still experiencing pain, bloody school was everything
like decent.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
After the removal, So prior I was prior, yes, I
was everything just bloody stools and pain, and I wasn't
able to do anything like I would try. I was homeschool, right,
So I would try to do school for a day,
(22:29):
and then the next day I would completely forget. I
was in so much pain. What I remember what I
had learned the previous day, So it to me it
felt it was almost pointless to do school again because
I couldn't do it. And not only that, but like
I was dealing with depression as well, I think, and
looking back on it now, I could think that was
part of it as well.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
You know that's a big deal. I mean, going in
and out of hospitals, bloody school, feeling pain, all this pain.
Teen pills a day, yeah, a teenager young.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yeah. I also found that there's such a thing as
water poisoning. Because I was so freaked out that I
needed to hydrate myself. I started drinking about twenty four
eight ounce cups of water a day. Yeah, it turns
out that's not healthy. So yeah, I had to cut
(23:26):
back in my water and take a slight bit. But
you know what made me do that, I was just
so incredibly paranoid I was gonna get hydrated because I
had been told that hydration was such an important part
of like, not only like with some of the pills
I was taking, I needed to drink a lot of water, right,
but dehydrated do you mean? Yeah? Okay, because I didn't
(23:48):
want to be dehydrated. I wanted to stay hydrated because
not only because of the pills I was taking that
me and me to stay hydrated, but also I did
not want like because I had been told also like
dehydration can cause more problems. So yeah, I kept drinking
a ton of water, and yeah, that wasn't healthy.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
I wasn't helping. And then you learned the hard way.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Yeah, pretty much. I even got seated a couple of
times in that year as well.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
So all right, let's let's make sure we get it
to the surgery. All right, So the entire colon was removed.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
So basically all that is left in my colon is
the tiniest little nub like an inch or two that
is left of all the entire twenty six feet of
that large intestine. And what they did is they took
my small intestine and uh well they made a stoma
out of it for right after the surgery. So basically,
(24:52):
they took a bit of my small intestine and made
it where it sticks out of my gut, and I
had to wear a bag over it, and that's where
I pooped for the next three months.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
The bag was outside my body or outside inside.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
It was outside my body, so like if I if
you back then looked at my shirt, you would see
it bulge right on my what would be my right
your left side of my gut, and that's where my
bag was. It was just covered up by a shirt.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Although the bag was like in like in your belly area.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Yeah, it's just there's a small it was like a
two in like a small little hole, right, mm hmm.
And then it's covered up by a bag and that
had to be cleaned out like every week. There was
a whole entire process for that, and there's a whole
system for it. It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Oh it came out of your stomach.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Yeah, it came out of my stomach and you could
see it if like you took the bag off, you
could see you could see that. Yeah, and you have
to clean off and testing everything else. And that was
the entire prop.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yeah. Uh, you still me?
Speaker 3 (26:15):
All right?
Speaker 2 (26:15):
You still with me? Alright? Tell you from all still there?
Oh you're muted. Oh let's see, sorry, I'm not hearing
you right now? All right, give us a second, guys,
I'm not hearing you. Oh, I'm gonna try this again, okay,
(26:41):
all right, Johnny there, all right, sorry, alright, I'm not
hearing you. Huh. All right, bear with this, guys. I
don't know why I'm not hearing him. All right, try
(27:03):
logging in and out. I see. All right, Sorry about that,
you guys. Some technical difficulties, so bear with us. But yeah,
so while we wait for him, I'm just going to
I'll just throw out some symptoms of all sort of covidis. So,
(27:26):
according to the Mile Clinic, some symptoms that you may
have it are diarrhea, rectal bleeding, belly pain and cramping,
rectal pain, urgency to pass stool, not being able to
passtool despite the urgency, weight loss, fatigue, fever, and in children,
(27:48):
failure to grow. Oh that's an interesting one. All right,
looks like he came back and see if this works.
All right, john Hey, can you hear me now? Yes?
I can hear you.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Okay, talk about about the grow not growing thing that
is a thing, that is actually a thing. It happened
to me, right, So my doctor told me I was
going to be about I've been told, my parents have
been told at least I was going to be really tall,
like six foot two, like a lot of my family
(28:18):
and my dad's side in particular is really tall, so
everyone thought it was going to be really tall. I
was about five ten and then I started taking the
steroids and I stopped growing. I haven't grown an inch since.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Since since I started. Yeah, it wasn't the all sort
of Coltis wasn't the steroids.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
That I think is probably more the coldest than but
at the time we thought it was the steroids. But yeah,
I stopped. I did stop growing. That is a thing.
It is weirdly a thing.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
That's weird. What do you think that is?
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Or it's not really done, Like we brought it up,
like what what's going on with that? They're like, oh,
it just happens like that sometimes.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Okay, but yeah, that's that's crazy. All right. So we
were talking about Okay, so you it was like a
little hole that came out of your stomach and there
was a bag over it and that's where the poop
went into. Yes, that's where the went into.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Yeah, it was just a little thing of intestine that
had a tiny hole that poop would come out of
and into the bag. It was the weirdest. It was
the weirdest thing to watch if.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
You cleaned it every every week. Why not every day?
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Well you well know you changed the bague every day,
but like taking the changing out an entire bag process,
because it's such a complicated process that we had to
change it every so often and clean out the system
and like h all that to make sure it wouldn't
get inflamed. Because intestines don't need to be cleaned like
(30:06):
every day for that, but it's just to make sure
it doesn't get inflamed over a long period of time.
You had to clean out like the entire cap and
like around the intestine part there was an entire cap
and everything like that that had kind of kept it
protected a bit so it wasn't like exposed to too
(30:28):
much feces as a result.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
And like did you smell it? I have to ask
like did you smell it?
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Oh? Yeah, if you yeah, I could smell it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Could other people smell it? No?
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Not unless the bag was really fold and by that
point I was needed to have it changed anyway.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Okay, because that's wild. Yeah it is. Oh yeah, it's
just on you mm hmmm, yeah, that's I mean, it's
kind of weird. I mean, at least it's kind of
a weird thing for me to think. But at least
you were able to hide it because it was under
(31:13):
under a shirt. No one else could smell it. Yeah,
it's some kind of relief there.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Right, Yeah, Yeah, it wasn't easy always to hide, especially
like when it was needed to be changed and whatever,
but you know, at least there was some discreetness to it.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
Yeah, okay, yeah, go ahead, sorry, because no one wants
to see that, I would imagine.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
So, like that's an extreme thing to look at, that you're,
you know, defecating into a bag.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Yeah, and not only for some kids, it's even worse.
It's even worse. Like I've known some people who have
you see or crowds that've had a bag since they
were a baby. And it's a huge bag too. Like
if you just go look up like stoma bags on Google,
it's crazy with the things you will.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Find, imagine. All right, So, so that whole thing was
three months, right, and then yeah, tell us what happened
after the three months were up.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
So this was always the plan, Like I was gonna
have the stoma in the bag for three months, and
if it was going fine. Everything was going fine, and
they were gonna take it down and I would just
pot normally. So what happened is they took the stoma
down and so I had my coloner moved in December.
Stoma was taken down in March. And what they did
(32:46):
was they took that intestine nub and they stapled it
to the nub with the colon that was left over
from my cornermoval and so now and then they just
made a pouch out of my small intestine that has
enough of a hole where food can get through and
get digested. But that means I now can't have like corn,
(33:10):
nuts or seeds, particularly because that stuff can get stuck
and washed into the pouch and that would cause a blockage.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
So so where so is the do you that's what
you have right now to this day?
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Yes, I still have what it's called a J pouch.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Yes, So the pouch is where the previous bag was.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Yes, it's it's some of the same intestine that was
used for the stoma.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Yes, okay, okay, so it's still in the belly area,
So you're still defecating into the bag?
Speaker 3 (33:50):
No, not anymore. No, they took it down. They closed it, right,
they closed that area, and now all I have in
that on that area is just a scar.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Oh okay, so you're defecating normally, yes, in the toilet.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Yes, I had to relearn that oddly enough once I
haven't removed. But yeah, yeah, I do that normally. I
do I miss this normally now. Yeah, so yeah, one
of the weird Yeah, you were talking also about like
(34:26):
urgency to have to go to the bathroom. Right, We
would make trips sometimes and those were the hardest for
me because I never knew when I would have to
go to the bathroom, and so sometimes I'd have to
hold it longer. And I remember one time I had
to after this go in a urinal because all the
(34:48):
all the sit down places were full, and that was
the most embarrassing thing in the world for me.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
But oh no, that was I imagine that was just.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Yeah, I was crying.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
My mind blowing. That was just insane.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Yeah, yeah, it's just it hits you like that and
then you're you have to go or you're gonna crack
your pants.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
So and that was what before this, before.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
This, This was I think it was right after and
I was still kind of learning everything back when you
had the bag right after I had the bag.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Yes, okay, Oh man, that's insane. Mm hmm okay. So
I mean, I know this is all gonna just sound gross,
but so you were just so when you had the
the bag after the first surgery, So you were defecating
into the bag when in terms of urinating, was that normal?
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Yes, it was.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Okay, so you the urine was coming out of one
hole and then the poop was coming out of another hole.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Yeah. Yeah, it was really weird for the first little
bit right after the surgery, though I had a cafeter
because I stayed at the hospital for three weeks. I
think it was. The crazy part is my memory is
so fuzzy about this part because after a certain point,
(36:26):
my memory just decided to block all the stuff in
my mind about it.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
So that's traumatic.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
Yeah, there was, yeah, like right, I didn't know that
that's that the brain did such a thing until a
lot later in life, and so I just was like, man,
I don't remember a good three years of my life,
and that depressed me so much. But at the same time,
it's a good thing because like you don't want to
(36:56):
know that kind of stuff as well. But lately the
more I think about it, the more I started remembering.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
So, do you still remember those three years? Do you
still remember that time?
Speaker 3 (37:07):
It's in pieces. Yeah, it's in pieces, just like the
more standout moments in my brain.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
I mean, I mean, I all, I can, I can
imagine it kind of just went. You just kind of
shoved it deep into the dark holes of your mind
and you know, yeah, just to put it, to repress it.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
And yeah, and just get by on a daily basis basically, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
So you so just you, you mentioned about you can't
have seeds, So let's talk about the special diet, right,
how is it with food?
Speaker 3 (37:46):
So, Okay, when I first got out of the surgery,
surgeon told.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
The first sorry the first one or the second one.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
First one, okay, well no after the second one, because
that's when I had the J pouch, right, So after
the J pouch, they said, okay, right now, you cannot
have any more corn nuts or seeds, and he never
explained exactly what that meant. So for a while it
(38:15):
just kind of went like, okay, no corn nuts or seeds,
just on face value, right, But then my mom decided
to take that to an extreme where I couldn't have
corn syrup, corn starch, anything with any kind of nut extract,
anything with because even after this or after the stoma
(38:38):
went down, I was still in a lot of pain.
I still wasn't like feeling great, and so she was
just trying to find anything, you know, that might help.
And I even went gluten free and began at the
same time at one point, but to try to figure
that out. And that was also when I had my
(39:00):
gallbladder removed like a year later, So.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yet another thing on top of this one.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
Yeah, because they found gallstones because of the inflammation. So yeah,
it's crazy. But yeah, the diet is lately though, I
have been able to eat pretty normally for the most part,
(39:28):
but I just have to be very careful, like watch
what I eat nowadays, Like if something is bothering me,
like I have pain afterwards, I just try to avoid
that food if at all possible, or or tweak it slightly,
you know. Like let's take tomatoes for example. Right, I
didn't eat tomatoes for a long time because it would
(39:49):
cause like blood in my stool. Right, So I didn't
eat those for a while. But then lately me and
my wife have kind of figured out, Okay, you can
have a small bit of tomatoes, right, but not like
you know, spaghetti sauce.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Right.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
So it's kind of like finding the moderation balance to
it too, you know what food I can have and
stuff like that. And I'm I'm still in remission as
I've been in that way for like last four years now, So.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Good for you, Good for you? Yeah, So what would
happen if you ate those corn nuts or seeds? What
would happen if you ate them?
Speaker 3 (40:35):
So basically what would happen? Is it? So? The J
pouches has just a small enough hole where food can
get through, right, But corn nuts and seeds can lodge
into that hole and cause a blockage because they don't
fully digest completely when you eat them, right. You don't
(40:55):
always chew a seed or a nut thoroughly right, And
there's a five that they can just get stuck in
that hole and cause of blockage, which would mean you'd
have to have surgery for that.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Has that ever happened.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
To Not yet? No, I've had a couple of close calls,
but not a surgery yet. No.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Okay, have you? I mean, do you miss it? Is?
You know? When people? Because I just imagine when when
people can't eat certain foods because of a chronic illness,
because of a disease, because of some kind of health ailment,
and like there might be a sadness about it, right
(41:38):
because right right, or an allergy things like that. So
how you know, do you feel any kind of way
about not eating? I mean it's real, a minor I
mean in my mind, I'm like, Okay, you can't eat seeds,
you can't eat corn, But I don't know if you
have an attachment to it or do you miss it.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
I mean, it's been a thing so long. I've a
humor as a bit of a copy mechanism. I call
corn the yellow little devils. And like I miss cashews.
Cashews are like my favorite nut. I've always liked those.
But and I guess if I had to miss anything,
(42:18):
I would say those are the thing I missed the most.
But like I missed more stuff when I was on
the diet my mom had me on than I do
right now. Like I can be basically pretty much anything
I want, and nuts and seeds don't really affect that
or corn really, I mean, yeah, it's like my wife
(42:38):
loves corn, my my life likes a good hominy. But
it's okay with me. I'm not like too fussed about it.
But I think part of it is just I'm used
to it at that point at this point, So it's
I'm sure like for different people like oh you miss
corn on the cob right or something like that, like
(43:00):
at a cookout or whatever. But and sometimes I'll occasionally
feel that, but most of the time it's pretty okay
for me.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
So now I wonder is there a sense of so,
how do you feel? Is there a sense of like,
do you feel normal? Not normal? Because I think you know,
when people have these types of illnesses, there's a sense
of like I feel like a freak of nature. I
feel like I don't fit in. Do you feel that way?
Speaker 3 (43:33):
I have felt that way for the most part since
I started having UC right, like I said, I dealt
with depression and part of that was definitely feeling like
I am not normal. And I think one thing that
I definitely feel like makes me feel different is the
(43:55):
people not understanding what chronic pain is. Because people will say, oh, well,
you're it. You don't seem like you're in pain, so
why can't you do this this or this right? Well,
I might not show it because I'm just used to it, right,
or I'm pretty good at hiding it at this point,
(44:19):
or I just don't want people to see it and
I and so when people don't see it visibly, they
just assume you're fine, right, And so in that way,
I feel definitely like I'm misunderstood, I guess. But I
also kind of look at it like it's something that
(44:41):
I don't need to put on others as well, right,
I don't want others to have to feel bad for
me just because I'm dealing with something that they don't
see visibly, right, I don't want to be treated any differently,
So I try to be you know, as discrete about
it as possible and not judge it if people do
(45:05):
kind of take the assumption that, oh, well, you're not
hurting at all or anything like that, because you don't.
I've dealt that with that, particularly more when I was
with my parents, but not so much anymore. But yeah,
that's definitely something I would say I feel different on, right,
And like when people ask, oh, well can you have
(45:26):
this food, and sometimes like you know, the diet restrictions,
I definitely feel like I inconvenience people, you know. But
nowadays it's not as inconveniencing, but it's still I feel
bad when I do have to like make people something different,
like we can't spaghetti or whatever.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
You know.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Yeah, like when it's you're going to like a barbecue
or party and then you have to tell people, sorry,
you know, I can't eat this, I can't eat.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
That, right, Yeah, that was that was always a thing
for me that I always felt embarrassed about. And I
like I used to have to bring food to places, right,
Like it was that it was that strict a diet
at that point, Like I would just bring food. And
I know there's a lot of people who have like
(46:16):
you see or crones or any type of stuff that
you might have diet restrictions with that do that a lot,
and I'm sure that's something they can relate to as well.
But yeah, yeah, it's it's something that you need to
do if you need to do it for your health,
it's the best thing. It just feels weird and you
(46:36):
don't like inconveniencing people. I'm a people pleaser. I don't
like making people feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
So I mean, well that could be good and a
bad thing. But yeah, now that discussion for another day.
How is it now with doctor's visits, hospitals things like that.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
I have not been to the hospital in like five years.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
That's good.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
Uh, yeah, I've I don't need my infusions anymore. I
was having infusions for a while, but I don't need
them anymore. I'm just I'm just feeling pretty good. Doctor's
visits have been good. I I'd probably need to have
a colonoscopy sometime soon, but otherwise, you know, I'm not
(47:24):
like having to do a ton of like medical checkups
or whatever. It's just you're you're good, You're feeling good.
You know, diet's good, you know, colon doesn't look explained,
You're okay, you know.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
So I mean, do you have like I'm wondering if
you have like more colonoscopies than like the normal man.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
Oh, absolutely, you have to have one at least once
a year in order because what with U see, you
have to make sure that you don't like have not
like normal pulps that they would look forward to colon
as be right, but like inflamed pull ups and or
(48:06):
inflamed parts of your intestine, because that's when it could
become a problem, right, and that could show that you're
not that your remission is starting to go back away, right,
because you can go in and out of remission with
inflammatory ballid disease quite frequently.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
I guess I mean that it could be. I mean,
I mean that makes sense, right, especially you know, so
you have like a piece of a colon and then
you have like a pouch over colon and mm hmmm, yeah,
when you have I mean that surgeon. But yeah, when
(48:46):
you're introducing outside parts into your body, you know, it's
like you have to have special.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
Care, yeah for sure. Yeah, and and just you know,
make sure that you know I'm eating healthy and that
I'm not you know, doing anything too drastic.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
Right.
Speaker 3 (49:04):
One of the things also that can really influence how
you feel is stressed as well. So that's something I
have to manage quite frequently as well because otherwise tell
us about that. So I've learned that stress can be
a huge factor in like how how I pain, how
(49:28):
I feel pain. So like the more I'm stressed, the
more my chronic pain flares up and I I stress.
So if I'm stressed, you will know. But yeah, it's
(49:48):
something that like the more I'm stressed, the more the
pain goes up. So I have to like find ways
to like decompress, right and find ways to manage it differently,
because otherwise it'll start hurting a lot. And obviously I
I can't do that. I can't be incapacity as for
(50:09):
too long. So finding ways to manage, finding ways to
you know, control that stress, it's hard, but you know
I've it's but I've been able to find some healthy
ways to do it and not be overcompensating at the
same time.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
So when you get really stressed out, you you feel
you start to feel.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
Pain, yes, very much so, And and that causes me
to stress poop as well, So to.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
Stress what sorry, stress poop, stress poop? M h, what
does that look like?
Speaker 3 (50:46):
I just have like diarrhea for like a few hours.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
So there's a like a manifest a physical manifestation of.
Speaker 3 (50:55):
Stress, Yes, very much so, not just like in but
also outside. And it's it's so weird, right you wouldn't
think that's the way, But our body is funny things,
but it has to deal with stress, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (51:10):
Yes, absolutely, absolutely all right. So I know we're having
a lot of fun right now, but I'm gonna start
to wind things down. So if you well before I
get to that part. So what's happening with you right
(51:30):
now today? So you're you're in remission. You know, you're
not doing infusions, You're not on steroids. Are you still
doing the fourteen pills? How's your medication regim.
Speaker 3 (51:44):
I'm not taking any meds or anything. And that's the
crazy part. Like I was taking like a probiotic and
antibiotic like twice a day and an infusion once every
couple of weeks, and now I don't have either, and
that's the crazy part. There are some great infusions and
stuff like that that a lot of doctors and scientists
(52:07):
have been working on that are really helpful stuff. And
one of the infusions I was on the last one
was an experimental drug.
Speaker 1 (52:16):
And.
Speaker 3 (52:18):
I tell you what, it worked wonders for me. It
really did, because you could tell like I was feeling
better once I had my infusion, and right before I
would feel awful. So yeah, it's crazy, but yeah, right
now I'm not on any pills. I'm not doing any
infusions right now. I'm one of the lucky ones. I
really am. Most people who have crohnes or qulitis do
(52:42):
not are not that lucky.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
Yeah, and I've referenced her age several times in the episode.
But how old are you right now? I'm twenty seven,
twenty seven, So now youse where you were diagnosed at
thirteen and twenty seven, So that's fourteen years. Yes, that's
a fourteen year span. So in reflecting on all of this,
(53:07):
where where are you now? Where? What do you think
of when you reflect on the past fourteen years?
Speaker 3 (53:15):
I think I've come a far away in terms of
not only physically, but like mentally. I feel like it's
made me a lot stronger, a lot tougher, right, I
feel like I've been able to know that I can
do this, I can press on and still survive, and
(53:38):
I have a group of people who support me and
that is the most important thing for me, and that
if I can take care of myself, then I can
be stronger. And it's not easy, right, I'll have my
bad days, but you know, still pressing on and you know,
(53:59):
don't I don't want to sound cliche, right, because it's
it's not and for a lot of people, it's so hard.
And I don't want to discount that either, because that
for me, I don't want to discount that. In my mind,
you know, I know that there are people who are
going through a lot worse with the same illness, you know,
(54:20):
And it's something that will be dealing with the rest
of my life, you know, and who knows, I might
be back to that place again, you know. So just
preparing myself mentally and you know, emotionally as well. That
is something I've had to mature a lot in so
I think I've come a long way and I'm grateful
(54:41):
that I've been able to get through it stronger, I think.
Speaker 2 (54:48):
Yeah, And just to just to just to be sure,
is there you're living with this whether I your life.
It's not a it is chronic. It's a chronic it's
a chronic illness. You have to live with this for
the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (55:07):
Yes, yeah, there is. There is no known cures if yet,
and they're working on it. But I I, as of now,
I am expecting to have this for the rest of
my life.
Speaker 2 (55:19):
Yeah, all right, Dominique put up some more comments. I'm
just gonna share. She said, I'm off meds and take
only an infusion every eight weeks. Okay, so that's or.
Speaker 3 (55:33):
Remickaide.
Speaker 2 (55:35):
If you can put that in the comments, Dominique, that'd
be great. She said, yeah, she's forty five years old. Yeah,
and forty five years old now she's had it since
she was seventeen, so that's a very long time. And
she said the biggest thing for me was to change
my diet. That seems to be a biggie. Yeah, changing
(55:58):
your diet.
Speaker 3 (55:59):
Yeah, some people have a way more strict diet than others.
It's crazy. Like the spectrum, Like they're the Crones and
Clydes Foundation does a thing every year, like what it's
called IBD Day where they just like have a bunch
of people from all over the country get together they
have IBD. The spectrum is incredible, Like you'll have some
(56:22):
that are like two or three years old and they're
wheelchairs with stoma bags and it's heartbreaking, and then you
have teenagers who you know are going through the same stuff.
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (56:38):
Yeah, hopefully Dominie can answer your question. Oh she just responded. Okay,
she said, neither was good for me, but I take another.
She doesn't know the name of it.
Speaker 3 (56:52):
Okay, cool, Okay, Yeah that works. Yeah, sometimes they don't work. Yeah,
like Remicad it worked for some period, but then it didn't,
and then Tibia was the one that worked for me,
and at that point it was still an experimental drug.
But yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (57:08):
The confusion, it was like an IVY like it.
Speaker 3 (57:11):
Was, Yeah, at what point my my veins were dried
up to the point that I needed like an ulder
sound to help find the veins to stick me on.
It was taking so I was taking it so often?
Oh wow, yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:27):
So like the repeated needle pricks and mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (57:32):
I actually, funny story, my vein broke a IVY catheter.
I'm not kidding.
Speaker 2 (57:40):
It was how did that happen?
Speaker 3 (57:42):
They were just going to they were sticking me and
all of a sudden, the needle snapped in half and
the nurse took a picture of it. It was the
craziest thing. Like, yeah, you have rock hard veanes. Yeah,
no joke.
Speaker 2 (58:00):
Yeah, so many needle pricks, Yeah, yeah, it's hard after
a while. Oh my god, Well you you have overcome
the worst of it, my friend. I mean, you got
to live with it for the rest of your life,
but the worst is over for you. Crossed for now.
Yeah now, okay, all right, So you know at this
(58:23):
point of the show where I like to ask my
guests to share where it's a wisdom with our audience. So, John,
do you have any words of wisdom for our audience.
Speaker 3 (58:35):
Whatever you're going through, stay strong, don't give up, even
if it's a depressing time. You will get through this.
I promise. There are people who love you and care
about you, and they will help you as well. So
don't give up. Even if you're in the darkest time.
(58:55):
There is light at the end of the tunnel. So
do that for me and for others, those of us
who are also surviving and dealing with this stuff. You're
not alone. There's always someone that will be there now.
Speaker 2 (59:10):
Beautiful, beautiful, all right, Well, John, thank you for coming
on Hot Topics and sharing your story.
Speaker 3 (59:16):
Glad to come on, Glad to talk about this and
something that not many people know about.
Speaker 2 (59:22):
Yeah, and I know Dominique, and I didn't know, So Dominique,
you and I may need to talk, all right, So
let's get your promo. It is now promo time, all right,
you guys. So John McDaniel has a podcast, and he
(59:43):
has spread his podcast all over social media so you
can follow him personally. It is the Dot Pitch Grid
Dot podcast. He also has a Facebook page of the
same podcast. It is called pitch Grid podcast. He is
on Instagram the pitch Grid. He is on x He
(01:00:04):
has two X accounts. I almost said Twitter, but he
is on X. He has two of them, so pay
attention to that. One is pitch Grid Pod and the
other one is j R a wk Y, So make
sure you get a handle on those two. He is
also on YouTube as pitch Grade Pod. On TikTok is
(01:00:26):
the pitch Grade Pod, and he is also on blue Sky,
the pitch gridpod, Dot b s ky Dot, Social, all
of that stuff. It is scrolling below on the screen
right now, but for those of you listening on a podcast,
that information will be in the description. So one way
(01:00:48):
or another, you're getting this information. So there you have it.
So I encourage you guys to follow John all over
the place. Make sure you subscribe to his podcasts. Speaking
of which, he also has a podcast called the Pitch
Grand Podcast, So listen and subscribe to it. Wherever you
(01:01:09):
get your podcasts, so it might be Apple, Spotify, good Pods.
Wherever you get your podcasts you can check. I encourage
you to listen and subscribe. John tell us about your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (01:01:23):
Well, basically, I'm a nerd who loves sports and loves
to talk about it. I cover the NFL or American football,
and the EFL Championship, which is the second tier of
English soccer pyramid. I just talked about the latest news,
the events going on, and I like to cover the
games as well. So if you're interested in worrying more
(01:01:46):
about soccer, we're probably gonna do some more of that.
With the off season now here and with the NFL,
we're starting to ramp up on off season preparations, so
we're gonna get more into that. So if you're interested
in any sports we're learning about it, definitely follow the podcast.
We've got some new content in the works and working
(01:02:07):
with other podcasts as well and looking forward to hopefully
growing a bit more and branching out.
Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
So all right, there you have it. So you're you're
interested in sports and all all that is sports, make
sure you subscribe to listen and subscribe to this podcast.
The Pitch Grid podcast is a link in the description,
but you know, listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
(01:02:38):
All right, John, thank you so much again for coming
on Hot Topics.
Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm I'm so
glad to be able to have this opportunity.
Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
Awesome, so I will we got to do this again,
so I will hit you up for sure, but for
now I will place you backstage so your your time
is pretty much done. All right, thank you again, all
right later, all right you guys. So that is it.
(01:03:10):
This was definitely an informative podcast. I learned a lot today.
But yes, thank you for joining me on another episode
of Hot Topics. So now let me just take this
moment to remind you about the powers behind Hot Topics.
(01:03:32):
So that power is me, but more specifically so Hot
Topics is a production of my tutoring company, A step
Ahead tutoring Services. So you know what, let me just
connect it back to John. You know, maybe you have
a child right now who is homeschooled right now due
(01:03:53):
to medical reasons. Right you know, homeschooling has been growing
over the past number of years and has been exploding,
And maybe you have a child similar to what John
went through, who well he wasn't homeschool for medical reasons.
(01:04:13):
But that might be something that you're going through right now.
You may have a child who is homeschooled right now,
or maybe you have a child that has a chronic
medical condition that has to go to hospitals and doctors
and in and out of medical facilities, and it's hard
(01:04:37):
to be stable in a public school or stable in
a private school, and it's easier to homeschool. Right, So
this may be you. So if you find yourself in
a situation where maybe you have a child that needs
a lot of medical care and is difficult to maintain
(01:05:00):
that child in a public school system or in a
private school system, excuse me, and maybe you have no
choice but to homeschool. So if you find yourself in
that situation, or you are in that situation, I encourage
you to reach out to us. Our tutors are available.
(01:05:21):
You can if whether you're homeschooling or not. But if
you happen to be in this situation where your child
needs a lot of medical care and it's difficult for
your child to maintain stability in the academic world, hit
us up. Our tutors are available. Our website is www
(01:05:45):
dot a Step Ahead Tutoring Services dot com. If you
are in the New York City or a Nasau County area,
we have tutors that can come out to you in person.
But if you are not in those areas, or if
you prefer virtual, our tutors are available online, so we're
(01:06:07):
either in person or online, so either way we can
come out to you. You know, whatever is fit for you,
whatever works for you. So our tutors are available. So
we do one on one tutoring. We do test prep,
we do college counseling, We do collaborative editing and proofreading.
(01:06:28):
So we also do business coaching and tutoring, tutor coaching
as well for the budding entrepreneurs of the world, but
particularly for parents. We do one on one test prep,
college counseling, and collaborative editing and proofreading. So if you
need any of those services, hit us up that website
(01:06:50):
again www dot a step ahead tutoring services dot com.
And I also encourage you to follow us on social media.
We are on many different places where Facebook, Instagram, x YouTube,
we're on TikTok, so we are in many different places,
so I encourage you to follow us on social media
(01:07:14):
as well. All of this information, of course, is on
the screen right now or in a description. Either way,
the information is at your fingertips. And I forgot to
do the thing, but I also want to make this
final plea. I encourage you to leave your feedback about
(01:07:35):
today's episode. Whether you are watching this on video right now,
or you're listening to this on a podcast, I encourage
you to leave your feedback about today's episode. Did you
like it? Did you love it? Do you have your
own al sort of colitis story that you want to share?
(01:07:58):
Do you have your own chronic illness story that you
want to share? Drop it in the comments below, you guys,
drop it in the comments below or in the comment thread.
If you're listening on the podcast, I'm seeing more of
like the comment features pop up in the podcast platforms now.
(01:08:19):
I know it's popped up in Spotify. I know Good
Pods always had one. Apple podcasts. Apple podcast is notorious
for their comments section, So if you're listening on a podcasts,
I encourage you to drop them comments. So, yes, please
(01:08:40):
give us your feedback about today's episode. The more you comment,
the more that this episode will circulate on the web,
because the Internet rewards popularity unfortunately, so the more you comment,
the more this episode will circulate. So I encourage you
to leave your feedback in the comment section or in
(01:09:06):
the comment string wherever you are hearing the sound of
my voice, all right, you guys. Well, that is it
for Hot Topics. I look forward to you joining me
on another episode of Hot Topics. I am now signing off,
bye guys.
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