Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Episode 222 - Chase Cannon

Episode Date: February 28, 2022

Chase Cannon is a 24-year-old triathlete and avid outdoorsman. In 2021 he completed a 70.3 Ironman and multiple sprint triathlons, winning his age bracket twice, earning a spot for the USA National Sprint Triathlon. In October 2021, three days after taking his second dose of the Pfizer vaccine he nearly fainted, beginning a five-month journey filled with high heart rates, debilitating chest and body pain, multiple emergency medical visits, procedures, and tests due to complications from the vaccine.

Ladies and gentlemen, you know who this podcast is brought to you by. That's right. Black Riffel Coffee. Or if you're interested in trading stocks, BRCCC on the New York Stock Exchange, pretty awesome two weeks ago that a business slash brand. I don't know which one to describe it as, probably both. Started because of somebody's passion ended up getting listed on the stock exchange. I know very few people who have been able to do something like that. I'm extremely proud of my relationship, not only with Evan and the other founders, but with the brand.

If you want to support an amazing company that makes great coffee, their t-shirts are fucking awesome, they make great hats, their mugs. I mean, they've got just about everything from like stuff to lounge around at the house on the couch while watching the snowfall to drive it in your car. And yeti tumblers fill in the blank coffee subscriptions that can come to your house, a variety of different roasts. Just go to blackwreffle coffee.com and check it out. My guest today, man, I don't know how today's episode is going to be received. And I am completely okay with that because my guest today is Chase Cannon. You may never have heard of Chase Cannon because he's a very normal dude, just like I am, who is going through a very abnormal situation.

He's not a celebrity. He's not a sports star, but I bet you that he would want to be. I'm speaking for you a little bit, Chase. But what he's going through right now is by all accounts, and it seems to be agreed upon by the medical professionals that have treated him is a very severe and adverse reaction to the COVID vaccine. Now, we started off this episode talking about how there's probably a chance that people will label this episode as somehow being anti-narrative or anti-vaccine, which couldn't be farther from the truth. I'm not anti anything other than ill-informed or uninformed decisions. I think that people should have access to all of the information, good, bad, ugly, everything in between. That is how I think people can make the best decisions. Now, if you want to hear about success stories when it comes to people and their exposure to the vaccine, it's not hard to find because the vast majority of people have nothing but positive.

things to say about it and I completely support their message as well. Chase's story is different. I'm not even going to attempt to dig into it because he does a great job of doing that. But I think hearing about people who are not living the common narrative that most of us are hearing is a very, very important thing. And with that, I will leave it to Chase to talk for himself. Episode 222 with Chase Cannon and Joy. I'm looking at danger close now. So before we started, you were talking about the things you didn't want to talk about. Let's talk only about those.

Tell me everything that you're worried about getting in trouble for. Oof. That's a lot. Yeah. I'll be honest. If they haven't come after me yet for the ridiculous things that come out of my mouth, they're probably not going to come after you. So I want to do, I'm going to put a disclaimer on this episode.

actually it's not a disclaimer. I'm going to put a clarification because I think I know what we're going to end up talking about. And I think when it comes to, actually instead of beating around the bush, we're going to talk about at some point in time your experience with the COVID vaccine. I don't know why there seems to be a desire to, I'm going to use the word suppress, even though I don't know if that's the correct word, to suppress impasse. to suppress information or experiences that are different than the narrative that I, in my own opinion, see being pushed, which is it is your duty as an American to go get vaccinated, go get vaccinated or there's something wrong with you. If you don't agree with what we are saying, then you don't believe in science and versions of that. What I wanted to clarify for people when they listen to this is that when I saw your story on social media, you made a post and I actually, Greg Anderson reposted what you had sent to me. And I had briefly seen it because I was scrolling through my messages and I saw his post and I reread it.

And I was looking at it. In my mind, my thought in reaching out to you was, why can't you sit down and have a conversation with somebody about their experience? I thought it was from the little of what you posted, I thought it was very interesting. And I think that there's a chance that people will look at our conversation and say, we are trying to push an anti-vaccine narrative. So what I wanted to say, not a disclaimer, but just a clarification is, I am not an anti-vaccine person in general. I am highly vaccinated from my time in the military. I know that you had the desire to go into the military. And let me tell you what you're going to miss out on your.

first day at boot camp if you don't go. It's a gauntlet of what sounds like air cannons that are going to be jabbed into both of your arms. Well, this is what happened to me. And they finish it with like the swing of the penicillin needle right into your ass and you're just sitting there like, ah, with blood coming down both shoulders. The number of vaccines that I got actually even before going in the military, I was vaccinated by my parents. My children are vaccinated. I was vaccinated while I was in the military, I am not an anti-vaccine person. I'm an anti-non-educated decision person. And I think to make an educated decision, you have to be able to explore all

information, information from every different angle and make a decision based off of that. I don't understand why. Maybe I'm incorrect, but it seems to me like there is a true desire and effort to suppress information that doesn't go along with that narrative. So I in no way, shape, or form in trying to make this an anti-vaccine episode. I want it to be your experience of what you went through in your life because it is a possible outcome should you choose to vaccinate yourself or people that, you know, your kids or loved ones. And I think that's important to be able to talk about that without pushing any message whatsoever. That was my disclaimer slash clarification.

Chase, do you have any disclaimer slash clarifications? Yeah, I think you handled it. Yeah, it's, you know what sucks is that you have to say that. Is that I felt as I was thinking about today when we were sitting down, getting ready to talk, it's like, oh, if I actually don't say that, it'll give people the opportunity to say the exact opposite, which is not what I'm going for. I mean, yeah, my post made, you know, a couple people mad, so totally get that. What did it make them mad about? Actually, define the post, if you would, or describe the post.

and then I would like to hear the reaction. For sure. The whole story or just the post in general? The post in general, people's reaction to the post, and then we can kind of just dig into your whole experience. For sure. Yeah, so I posted on Instagram a couple Sundays ago and basically just stating out what had happened,

taking the vaccine, and some of the issues, I would say. that came from that. Yeah. And for the most part, it was, you know, people were really good about it. There's also some stuff from Greg Anderson posting. People really enjoyed my nipple. He showed everyone my nipple.

So on that post. I didn't catch the nipple aspect of this poach? Yeah. Post, what happened here? So it's basically me holding my shirt up showing my Holter monitor. Yes, I do remember that. I was looking at that and not the nipple. I apologize for not taking your message fully.

So I don't know if Greg posting really helped me out. A lot of people commented saying nice nipple, great nipple. So that was, you know, not really bad, but... Just remember the Internet's full of assholes. Yeah. But it was good. It was good. You better have good nipples, I guess. I guess.

I guess. So what would... When the negative commentary outside of the discussion of the anatomy of your body, which, again, I wish the internet came with a intelligence test associated with it. We should all have the internet, but maybe people who score lower on that test should get slower internet. Or maybe it should be only download. They need access to information, but until you pass a few tests, you don't get to upload. As far as negative commentary, what kind of?

You know, not a whole lot for the most part. There was one doctor had reached out to me, basically just stating my story was. fake and everyone that's like me is pretty much fake. And whoever, you know, she really didn't care if you're pretty much, if you're unvaccinated, she could care less what happened to you. Yeah. Which, you know, is disappointing because obviously there's a good bit of people like me that is struggling. So it also, I think if you're a doctor directly goes against the Hippocratic oath and probably the reasoning behind why you would want to get into medicine in the first place. Yeah.

So before we dive into your experience and, you know, where you are today, let's go back in time. How old are you, by the way? I am 24 will be 25 next month. You still have spots. Yeah. You're a young in. All right. Where are you from?

I am from Chadnook in Tennessee. Born and raised? 20 minutes south, Trenton, Georgia. So I'm a Georgia boy. But you're a Georgia boy, but you live in Tennessee. Correct. Do you tell a lot of people that? Is this authorized?

Do we need to edit this out of the bike? No, that's cool. Everybody knows back at home. I'm a dog through and through, so that's good. Is that a George Bulldog? I was going to say, that's a football reference, isn't it? I had a buddy. Yeah, he used to say, go dogs.

And I think another guy would be like, no, go roosters, or some other bullshit animal associated with that. All right. So born and raised. Yep. Born and raised, Trent, Georgia. And then went to college in Athens, Georgia, and then came back to Chattanooga and yeah, been there ever since.

What did you study in college? So didn't completely graduate, but I was going for agribusiness. Okay. And yeah. And did you have the desire to serve in the military prior to that? Yeah. So I wanted to go the officer route. Yeah.

But I actually had some guys, good friends, joined before me. and they, you know, they're like, you don't want to go to the officer route. You want to be part of the boys. So, yeah, I fell into that click. So came back home and, you know, started training. And here we are. So I am, I started my process of enlistment in the military in the late 90s. So I joined in 96, or actually hit boot camp in 96.

So let me know if this was a similar experience or what you had to go through. Recruiter. Right. They always tell you everything as well. Oh, yeah. Total and complete information. For me, then it was MEPs, the military enlistment processing station, I believe, which was the battery of the ASVAB test, which is the Armed Services Vocational aptitude

battery. The fact that I just pulled that out of my ass, by the way, I'm going to get myself a star for that because that was about 25 years ago. There was the initial doctor screening, for which actually my first time at MEPs, I was permanently disqualified due to hypertension, which I don't have. And that was an interesting and totally different story. I had to go back a second time after spending time with the specialists and a whole bunch of shit. Then it was off to boot camp. And then from there, the pipeline began. So how far into that did you make? Or was that a similar pipeline that was laid out to you?

So basically like right before I graduated high school, I actually went to recruiter. So I was going to go straight enlisted. Navy, correct? Correct. Good call. Probably the best call. For sure, for sure. My dad kind of pushed that too.

He was an Army guy. Grandfather also was an Army guy. And yeah, they're just like, go do something else. Don't be an Army guy. It's good to hear. No offense to the Army guys, but. It's good to hear when the other. can recognize the superiority of a particular branch in the military and recommend it to their family.

Oh, yeah. Army guys are not like, fuck you. Yeah, basically just my dad just talking about all the times he just slept in mud in his tent. He was just like, go do something else. Yeah, but. Food wasn't even that good. I had some of that experience, too, in my time as well. For sure.

It depends on what you're getting into. I actually, if my own kids had said they wanted to join the military, I probably would have pushed them more towards the Air Force, to be honest. for a litany of reasons, but I think they have a very diverse set of skills that could directly translate to their time out of the military as well. How is that? How many times did you meet with a recruiter? Man, I met with him once. I took a practice as VAB.

Scored pretty decent on it. And I kind of, it's kind of a funny story. I kind of ghosted him. so he was like calling me, blowing me up, trying to show up to the house. And I was just like, oh, this is really not good. Almost. Yeah. Let's call it the verge of predatory behavior.

Yeah, for sure. Then he started like calling my dad, so that was really good. My dad's like, you probably should figure this out. You're going to college or you're going in the military. So I was like, I guess I'm going to go try college first. So that's where I went. So you went to college, decided in the college journey that maybe let's readdress the military pipeline. Did you go back and talk to the,

I'm probably wasn't the same recruiter at this point, but I don't think so. No, I don't think he's there. Just because I had some friends go here recently and before, and I don't think he's there anymore. Yeah. And I actually want to talk to me about the level of physical activity leading up into this point in time. Did you play sports growing up? Like, what kind of stuff were you into? Because I think it will set a good baseline for conversation as to your health conditions and capacity right now.

Yeah, for sure. So I grew up wrestling, football, baseball, all those. sports. I actually high school played a lot of basketball, kind of dropped everything, and for some odd reason, got really into golf,

was horrible. I have no idea why I got into that. Still would show up to wrestling practice and have fun with those guys, but it was never on the team. I just kind of burned out. Plus,

I was really big into into hunting. So one of those team sports kind of got in the way of that. But for the most part, just weightlifting, that kind of stuff. Active. Yeah, for sure. Did you, like, do you have any heredity? I mean, maybe you're not allowed to ask these questions.

Not that, answer if you want to or don't. Did you have any, like, medical conditions growing up? Did you have any, like, family history of stuff that you were dealing with or up until the point in the recent past, everything was going well? No, everything's been pretty smooth. I don't. I mean, I've never even really had a primary. I don't think I've had a primary doctor until now. So it's usually, if I ever had anything to do, it was just go to your local whatever. Doc in the box? Yeah.

What kind of training were you doing leading up to that desire to enlist in the military? So what of weightlifting, CrossFit, also became a triathlete in that process. I actually just did my first half Iron Man back in May, and then just kept racing sprint triathlons until about late August. Mm-hmm. Yeah. What, so it sounds like you were, actually, I would say probably more active than somebody in their early 20s. Oh, for sure. For your average cohort.

You were out there, you were pushing yourself hard. You had a desired end state and a goal that you knew was going to be physical. physically and mentally taxing inside of the military. So you were training for that. Was your decision to get the vaccine based off of your desire to join the military because it was one of the requirements? So I actually had talked to some guys. They were just out of the boot camp process. I didn't really know them.

I had spoke to them. They were saying they were, you know, and this is what they said. They were just saying some of the guys were having problems. They don't know technically if it was from the vaccine or what was going on, but a lot of them were not recovering to do the pushups and the swimming, really more the swimming and the running for sure. A lot of chest pain kind of stuff. So I was like, their thing was I wish I would have got it sooner to recover if that was the case. So they could have dealt with any potential if there were any side effects prior to going in the military? I mean, because the odds are already against you.

I mean, that's not something you want to just push onto yourself. The odds are against you. What do you mean? In the military? Yeah. Just in that process, that pipeline in general. Yeah. It's challenging.

Right. Especially coming out, I assume you would know, coming out of boot camp, you know, I guess being a little out of shape, that kind of stuff. And then. Well, let's just say that boot camp, depending on how you go in. Yeah. Could actually probably net you in better shape. It takes all kinds.

It takes all kinds. and you'll encounter all kinds at boot camp. There were people who legitimately were being calorically restricted by the drill instructors at Navy boot camp because they were absolutely flirting with the height weight like body standards. And there were others who absolutely deconditioned in boot camp because it's this huge melting pot of people from all over the country and you got to break them or maybe they wouldn't use that term. You have to reorient their priorities from a sense of me to a sense of we.

You're now part of this big unit. And there's a lot of skills that you learn. There's classes. And what you're not doing a lot of, especially if you're going to go down a specialized pipeline, anywhere near like a special operations pipeline, you're not working out as hard as you would want to to prepare for that. So there can be an essence of deconditioning. However, for some people, boot camp is the most difficult. physical activity they've ever done. Right.

So it depends. Okay. So you were looking at, and correct me, I'm not trying to speak for you at all. Correct me if I'm wrong in this. So you were looking at, you know you wanted to enlist. You had talked to some people about,

and again, anecdotally, it sounds like they were trying to figure out maybe what the issue had been. Perhaps they thought it could have been some issue with the vaccine. So I'm assuming that you made the decision to get it earlier rather than wait until closer to being actually going in the military.

Yeah, for sure. So I wanted to kind of be in the process this December, or I guess this past December and be shipped out by December 2022. That was the route I was wanting to go. Okay. And so what was the choice that you made and how did it go from there? Well, I guess depending on who you asked, it definitely did not go well for me. Yeah, I actually took a couple steps back. Okay.

When did those steps begin? So I got my first vaccine September 10th and didn't really notice anything too, too much. Which one did you get? I got Pfizer. Okay. Yeah. That is a, I actually am not incredibly educated about the three different versions. I know that two of them are two shot and one of them is one, right?

Correct. Is Pfizer a two-shot? Yeah. I mean, was the end. I don't know what it is now. There's no telling, but. I think they still count the initial as two and then the boosters. is hard to track a little bit how often you're supposed to take the boost or how many you may.

I think that conversation is still up in the year, but I believe the baseline vaccination still sits at two. Okay. So got my first one September 10th. Of 20, 21. Correct. Okay. And actually, I kind of want to put this in there as well. So that week starting out, I actually wrote.

So Labor Day was at Monday. I rode 80 miles. I was actually going for a century bike ride, which is 100 miles. That sounds terrible. It was awful. Yeah. It was so hot. It just that number of miles, I would say hard pass.

For sure. And then as soon as you balk, there's no coming back from it. I'm like 40 miles out. And I'm just like eating peanuts, Coke, just trying to get whatever in my body. Yeah. It's awful. It was an awful, awful day. actually it was a horrible week so but um so i went friday and so my wife and i both went and uh went in there

got the shot felt fine for the most part you know um i think that we can like the the typical like soreness in the arm or whatever so um yeah then we went fly fishing and we were riding cruiser bikes around the campground and I mean we're just we're just cruising probably like 7, 8 miles per hour and I could kind of tell like I was

I was kind of struggling and from like a cardio perspective yeah yeah I was like something's up this is not right and I had mentioned something to my wife's page and she was like you know maybe we've been hitting the Mexican restaurant

a little too hard maybe out of shape just a little bit you know because I just came off racing season, but I was like, I just don't know about that. I don't think I'm going to lose it in two weeks, which I hadn't rode in two weeks. And I was like, I just don't think so. Especially just a cruiser bike, riding around to different ponds going to fishing.

And, yeah, just kind of kept going on the mindset of just maybe just a little out of shape. Okay, and how did it progress? So, yeah, I took the second vaccine, the second vaccine, October 2nd. And again, well, actually, so looking back on it now, we kind of talked about it. But when I got it, you know, the initial, like sit around 10, 15 minutes at the pharmacy, just wait on, you know, see if anything goes wrong. That's kind of what they. I don't know. Yeah.

Yeah. So they give you the shot and they tell you to wait there. Just in case. I think they do that with the flu shot as well. Like I said, I'm not familiar with that. I'm not saying that it's abnormal. I just didn't realize that they asked you to do that. Yeah, and they're just like, you know, if you just want to hang around.

And I got about like 10, 15 minutes. And I was like, all right, cool, I'm bailing out of here. So I was heading to Walmart. And, you know, my nose just like started bleeding a little bit. And I was like, okay, you know, no big deal. Hadn't had a nose bleed and not a just a random nose bleed in a couple of years. which really is not that abnormal, I guess. And yeah, so I went into Walmart, got a brisket.

It was going to kind of just take the weekend. I didn't know how it was going to affect me. You know, some people have said, like, oh, my arm hurts or my back hurts. Just the typical. And some people have said I felt absolutely nothing the entire time. Yeah. So I was just going to take it easy. The dogs were actually playing that weekend, so I figured I'd smoke a brisket.

And it sounds like a very Tennessee thing to do. Yeah. Smoke a brisket, watch the dogs. Watch the dogs. You guys are deep. Deep. Fuck. It's really, I won't say it's the only thing to do, but football season in the South.

It's a big deal. Have you ever considered not buying meat at Walmart? Yeah, that was the first problem. But that was also, there was like this weird, like, shortage, I think, that we, I think, I don't, don't quote me on it. I think that was, like, the whole port thing. And you could, it was literally the last brisket in the whole, like, in the area that we lived in. Had you considered that somebody and everybody had left it there for a reason?

Now that you say that. Yeah. That could have been the problem. Brisket and Walmart to me is a classic pairing. This one more's pretty nice so. I will give them that. First off, that's a bold face lie. All right. If we're going to see her have this conversation, don't lie to my face. Walmart, did it have fucking like Italian tile floors? Are we talking like gold handles? What makes it a nice Walmart? It was new. It was newer, if that helps. More people in there had most of their teeth as opposed to missing them.

I mean, what are we talking? This is actually a pretty sketchy Walmart. I'm completely honest. Yeah. We won't say where the location is. Promise me you'll never buy meat at Walmart again. Oh, for sure. It's definitely a superstition at this point now.

I mean, there's butcher shops. And there's a Walmart here. I'll go into Walmart occasionally for certain things. It's not, when I think like, God, I am going to go get just this amazing prime cut of beef. My car doesn't start heading towards Walmart chase. I understand that. I usually, I would say I would not go there either, but I was, I had been watching how to smoke a brisket for probably like two weeks at this point. Yeah.

And I had looked. I mean, we're talking about food preparation at this point because the title of that video could lead you down a weird rabbit. Oh my gosh. I'm telling you. I put so many hours into why. watching and learn how to smoke this brisket. Like, it was going to be the greatest brisket. Did it come out?

The cooking preparation, the quality of the meat was definitely from Walmart. Yeah. So. You get what you pay for. Yeah, for sure. Sometimes. Even though this portion of what we're talking about has absolutely nothing to do with why you're here, I'm going to give you that life lesson that I have learned through mistakes.

Take that one with you. Put it in your back pocket and pull it out when you need it. Next time somebody goes, hey man, let's go get that brisket from Walmart to watch the dogs. You're like, no, no, no, no, no. Okay. For sure. I'm taking that on. Yeah.

Okay, good. All right. So, you're in Walmart, though. Yeah. So notice my nose bleed again. Oh, so it stopped and started. Yeah. It was initial, like, it just kind of like dripped a couple times, you know, cleaned it up.

So then I'm going through Walmart and I'm kind of just like snorting, like kind of embarrassed like I'm at this point holding this massive brisket. My nose is bleeding. And I'm like, okay, this is not cool at all. So I'm trying to rush out of there. As I'm rushing out of there, I'm kind of getting lightheaded. Just kind of thought, maybe just a nosebleed or whatever. Feeling off.

Yeah, for sure. And went back. That's also like looking back now. Then it was just like, whatever. I'm just in a hurry to get home. Not really even thinking about it. Get back out to the car at this point. You know, it's taken off and then stops.

I get to stop. finally. I mean, it's like someone busts me in the nose for sure. Got home, kind of sat down for a little bit. You know, I prepared, got the, got the Trager going, was just hanging out. Yeah, and then put the, I put the brisket on. I thought, so as soon as I put it on, my nose just took off again. And I was like, I thought maybe like the heat from the Trigger just kind of like blowing up. Maybe that was it.

Yeah. You're talking about a pretty profuse bleed from your nose? for sure yeah and nothing crazy like nothing like oh this is super abnormal i'm going it's not like a sprinkler head but it's right but i mean it's like yeah it's going pretty good so um yeah clean it up do that you know the whole process getting it to stop never had it again um didn't really have a problem i think that was saturday yeah that was a saturday sunday didn't really have a problem either Monday i woke up um And I was a little sore. You know, I mean, just like going back to, like, the mats in Brazilian jitsu.

Or just, like, having the flu, like a kind of like a body-ache soreness? Yeah. Yeah. So it was just kind of like sore all around. Muscles were tight and kind of just called boss, like, you know, this, the normal, what everybody else is getting. I'm just going to take it easy for the day. Cool.

Yeah. You know, we'll see, you know, whenever. just let us know and yeah just kind of took the rest of the week kind of normal did you start feeling better

after that day that you were sore um it's hard to look back at now I wouldn't say really normal there was some there's definitely some things then that would definitely like maybe you could question

um so at work I was having some So normally, like I have a respirator on sometimes at work. What do you do for living? So I work for RMJ Tactical. They make knives, tomahawks. Okay.

I actually do a little bit of the marketing for their sister company, Cheneuga Leatherworks. Okay. So I was helping build some cheese. And I don't know if you've ever, I assume you've had a respirator on. I don't know if you have. Basically like. I've had like, well, I mean, I've had like rebreathers and gas masks and stuff on. Right.

But so essentially like, you know how you breathe and if you like took it off? You could kind of see like the condensation, I guess, like the water. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. So when I took it off, it kind of like, I mean, it's almost, I wouldn't say like a cup of water, but it was enough when I like, I kind of was like flipping it off my head. It hit my pants. And I was like, where does this water come from?

And that was like, and I stood up. Well, I stood up and was a little dizzy. And so I kind of just like, leaned over the table. table and it was like kind of just choking to my boss. I'm like, man, I can't breathe. And he's like, you know, you're good? You're okay? Like, kind of, like, kind of worried about me. He's like, we're kind of off today. And I'm like, yeah, I feel fine. Just a tough day. You know, whatever. Were you wearing that respirator longer than you normally would have? No. Okay. I mean, I've worn it for a hot minute for sure. Yeah. And it's not, it's not that big a deal. So it's an abnormal amount of

condensation for the time that you were wearing. For sure. Okay. And it really honestly wasn't that long a time. But I just, and I noticed, you know, because I have headphones in, the buffer wheel, you know, it's loud, it's going. And never, didn't really think of it. I could kind of tell, like, in my breathing, it sounded off. But, you know, never really put two and two together until I stood up. And I was like, oh, well, this isn't really normal. In your head at this point, what were you associating you feeling off too. Were you concerned about?

Maybe it was tied to that second shot or the series that you had gone through. Did you just think that you were sick? To be honest, I kind of, it was kind of like in the back of my head, but I was like denying it. It was like a route I did not want to go down. Like, you know, just kind of, I didn't know anybody that had had an issue. So I was like, that can't be it. You know, I know so many people that has had it.

and with no issues whatsoever right yeah right so um you know as far as i know um no issues and i it's actually so somebody we we had talked um to a family friend they're like you know maybe you got bit by a tick or something and i'm like you know i had i had a tick on me first day of bow season and i was like cool that's it like I didn't you know I didn't care what it was I just wanted the problem be fixed and it fixed as soon as possible I just didn't want any time to be taken away for sure so that's and that'll tie tie in so the next so that was the second week October going up to third October third week of October at this point

going to CrossFit resilient Jitsu I'm still riding, I'm still running. But I go to track 9 on Wednesdays. And that was kind of, I had noticed my times were just getting slower and slower. And I was, I mean, I'm hurting at this point. And most workouts that we do, they end with a 400, 400 meter run. And that is, like, that's my bread and butter for me. Like that's, when I see that on the workout, it's an easy day, easy day.

And I say easy. I like running 400s. I like testing myself. So with that being said, I had usually one of the guys there that's really good at running, they'll kind of, hey, do you want to push it right here? And I was like, dude, let's push it. Yeah, just push off each other. Yeah.

So I was trying to go for. I was trying to break my PR. I was trying to go for like 110. Even though like I knew. That's a good clip. Yeah. I didn't feel good. But I was like, who cares?

I mean, what do I have to lose? Yeah. You know? So actually, so when I took off, I almost immediately felt it. And it was like something I had never felt before. Like I've never had chest pain. just the way that my ribs, just everything tightened up. And to be completely honest, like, if I thought I was going to shit myself, like it was that bad.

And, you know, a lot of runners, they do that. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty common. I don't know if you've actually lived a complete life until you've shit yourself, at least once. Fair. I guess I haven't lived completely. I have not. You have time.

You have a lot of runway in front of you. Yeah. So. There's a lot of ways you can get there, too. I'm told that a lot that I don't push it hard enough if I'm not trying to use my, you know, use bathroom my pants. Don't get to the end of your life without shitting yourself at least once. But, um. I saw that on a fortune cookie once.

Not a big deal. But yeah, just, I kept, you know, at that point that was probably like 200 meters. And I'm way back. This is, this is not good. He's yelling at me like, come on, dude. I know you have more in the tank than that. And at this point, I'm finishing in about two minutes. So people, I guess, that don't run, that is an eight-minute mile.

That's a warm-up mile for me. I was going to say, it's a far stretch from a 110 lap, which would be under a five-mile mile. Like a four-four. It would be, well, it would be exactly a four-40 mile. And so almost, I mean, closer to double the time you were shooting for it. Oh, for sure. And so as soon, and he's, you know, he's yelling at me. Come on, dude, like, pick it up, pick it up, let's go.

I know you got more than that. point, 100 yards, you know, stretch or 100 meter stretch at this point. And I literally feel like I'm going to die. I'm like, I don't know how I'm going to make it there. You know, I'm getting the thousand yards stare. I, you know, I hit the finish line. And I kind of like, I won't say belly flop, but kind of like soccer slid on my stomach in the field, kind of like ran out of the finish line into the football field and kind of like slid. And then just kind of was in my knees. and I was just like, you know, just grasping for air. And, you know, Paige was like, hey, you know, you may get you water.

Like, what did you get right there? And I was like, not good. Like, this is not good. And, yeah, so get to the car. And she's like, you know, that kind of made me nervous the way that you, you know, you kind of looked at me. Are you sure you okay? Like, are you okay? Like mentally, physically?

Like, is everything at work okay? is life okay? And I'm like, everything is fine. Like, I don't know what is going on. And also, I just thought about this.

So I kind of skipped a little bit. Monday, I actually, the Monday after, or the three days after I got the shot, I came home from work. And I forgot that, didn't say this,

but I came home from work. Paige was off work. We were both sitting in the bed. I kind of just like, laid back down and I was like I really don't want to go run because Mondays I normally take off like that's an off day but I just I guess coming off race season I was just like so just amped up just want to do something anything different than what I was doing because every work like every week was like the same workout it was so consistent for Iron Man training triathlon training and

I was like I'm going to go run so I like stand up and I basically just fall right back down to bed. She's like, and I have like a thousand yards stare. I'm kind of like goat leg at this point. Like I'm just kind of like staring like looking for her. And I can't really say if I was hurting or not because I didn't even feel like I was even here. And, you know, she's like, like, what are you doing? What are you jumping on the bed floor?

Like what are you doing? And then she looked at me. She's like, Chase, your lips are purple. You're turning pale. What's wrong? wrong and and I can just hear her just over and over and over saying that and finally it just like it came to me and I was just like what what are you talking about sounds like you passed out yes I say almost fainted I don't know I didn't I don't think lights

completely went out mm-hmm but I've never in my entire life I've never been knocked out So I don't know. Well, I mean, I'm not an expert in it, but I'd say if you were knocked out, you probably wouldn't have any recollection of her talking to her, the audio, the visual and audio. For sure. And it was so wild because I could, you know, I could see, but it was like, like pencil holes. And I could just like, my lights just going, like, far away and then back.

And then I'm just like, what are you talking about? So then, you know, me being stuff. stubborn. All right. Cool. I don't know exactly what happened. You know, she brings in some water. And she's like, you're not going running.

And I'm like, I'm for sure going running. Like, I'm not. That's exactly what a young man would say. Yeah, for sure. Let's disregard what just happened. And I'm going to go stretch it out. Yeah, I wouldn't recommend that to anybody. But, yeah, it's just I really enjoy, you know, working out.

Yeah. pushing the limits and in my eyes I've talked to her quite a bit about it but you know obviously it's essential for off days things like good sleep

that kind of stuff Western recovery but sometimes I have a problem with that so you're young and I think a lot of people honestly in this sport you know being a triathlet I think they have that problem as well

it's kind of just it's a drive I mean the people that are triathletes, they're very competitive. You know, it's really fun. It doesn't seem like a chore at all. So, but I guess back to where I was. Yeah, fast forward. So now you guys are in the car.

You're leaving the football field. You had just done your belly slide. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, went to ate dinner. And I was like, I really don't know what that was. like I didn't feel like me at all and she's like you know

talk to me about it explain it and I'm like I don't know like I guess like looking back at it now I couldn't really explain because like when you do like an Iron Man or something you cramp up right

so I just kind of took it as I cramped up but there was like a mental play to it and so went home everything was kind of normal. I went to Jitsu the next morning and there

it was a pretty easy role. That morning actually my chest was really sore and I got there and I was kind of like maybe I don't want to take it too too, you know, too hard but I just being me, I'm like who cares? Like, I'm just sore chest I'm sure that's that's completely normal.

It'll work itself. Yeah. Who cares? You know, as long as someone does it put, you know, need a belly or need a sternum, I'm good. You know? So, one of the guys was actually new, and I was kind of, like, burned out. I wasn't going to roll with him, but he had asked, and I was, like, for sure. He was a wrestler.

I don't think I'm a division one wrestler but I feel like that is something in Jit suit I'm decently strong at I would say that is my stronger suit would be takedowns now beyond takedowns I have no idea what I'm doing and that's just it but the

I had taken him down and somehow I don't know like how it spun out but basically I had his back and I went to go to put him in a rear-necked choke and I kind of just flung over and grass for air.

I just kind of like pushed myself off of him and if I remember correctly he was kind of like he kind of like he kind of like twisted around and hopped on me and I was just kind of like and he was like I'm sorry dude to hit you in the grill and like you okay and I'm like

I can't say anything and I'm just kind of like and I roll over and I'm like kind of tucked in and I'm like, dang, I don't know what is going on and I kind of like grass fair and he's like, are you sure you okay? And I was like, you know, kind of like that grunt voice is like, I'm about to puke.

And never did. You know, I kind of just laughed it off. I was like, whatever. I was like, I don't know what I just happened there, dude. I'm sorry. We can get back after this next week. At what point did you start thinking perhaps a medical professional should be consulted.

It took me way too long. Way too long. So. Because what you're describing from a non-trained eye, there's three or four things that you have described that would perhaps. For sure. I mean. Elicit a telephone call at a minimum.

For sure. Or like a text to somebody you know who was like maybe an EMT. Right. Like, hey man. I'm just so, you know, I just not. I don't like hospitals. I get that. So what actually got you to go to one?

So on that Wednesday that I was struggling, in the warm-up, I had talked to my track coach, and I was like, was telling him I was having some issues a little bit different to this stuff. He was like, maybe you should go get that checked out. That's probably pretty normal to get checked out. And I was like, kind of laughed at him. And I was like, dude, I,

I don't know. We'll just pan out. We'll see how it goes. And he's like, all right, man, just, you know, I'm here for you. You know, if this keeps going on, I think you really should go see something. And it had nothing to do in my chest. I kind of thought it was like a testosterone type thing. And so, you know, that day played out. That next week I had, let's see, I took off from Jitsu. At this point, my chest is so sore.

We're talking sort of the touch? Yeah, it was sore to touch. Yeah, my ribs. I kept like cramping up in my ribs. And I was like, maybe I'll just give it a week off. Whatever. You know, if that's what I need to do, then that is what it is. So Tuesday, I think I hopped on my bike, actually, and just rode

a train of ride. And I was like 20, 25 minutes off from like my normal pace. And it's almost like no elevation at all. And I was like, this is not good. I don't know what is going on at this point. Am I just old? Like that's what I'm thinking at this point. Like, did I just peek and this is it?

Like I don't even know how to explain it. And especially from a mental, aspect, it was so disappointing because you put in all this time and then where you should be peeking, you are way below the minimum standard. And so that Wednesday I went to, I, I had texted my boss a night before. I was like, hey, I'm going to go get checked out. And it was just a little dock in the box. Yeah. And I get there. and I fill out a bunch of paperwork and I go in and I'm like hey or they tell me they're like your your blood pressure is kind of high and I was like you know okay I have white coat syndrome

for the most part like what is that just your blood pressure goes up as soon as you're in a doctor's office oh okay like a stress response to being in the room yeah I have never heard that term but now as soon as I thought about that makes sense white coat yeah yeah yeah so uh I had At this point, I'm pretty frustrated. I'm like, this is going on. You know, I don't know if it's coincidental to me taking the vaccine. If you want to call it passing out, I almost fainted, whatever. This is what happened.

You know, I think it, you know, it could be a testosterone problem. I have no idea. I've never had any kind of issue like this in my entire life. And they were like, they're like, it's probably nothing. then we'll just, you know, do an x-ray chest x-ray on you, and we'll go from there. And I was like, perfect. So they, I'm almost, I'm almost positive they checked me for COVID that day. Because I told him, I was like, I don't think it's COVID-related.

And they're like, well, we're just going to check you. You know, what is it going to hurt? And I go to the x-ray, and it's like literally walk across the aisle or hallway. And get the x-ray. And on the way back, the lady's like, do you have asthma? And I'm like, you know, unless it started today, this morning, I have no idea. As far as I know, I've never had any issues. And she's like, okay.

Well, then I get back. I'm sitting there. The nurse comes in. She like peeks in. She's like, hey, have you ever had asthma? No. This is a different person. As well.

Correct. Yeah. So then the, I guess you essentially. I don't know if would the doctor there. Doctor or probably nurse practitioner. Right. They have a variety of people working there. Yeah.

So she comes in. Hey, are you sure you've never had asthma? No. Do you smoke? No. I have no idea. I've literally, this is, you know, I just got a vaccine back in early October. At this point, this is the last week of October.

I'm like, I've been struggling all month. I have no idea what in the world's going on. So she's like, okay, well, they dismiss me. They're like, you know, maybe you, she's like, maybe you should kind of look into what you're eating. Maybe your blood pressure is the problem. And I was just like, I mean, maybe, but for the most part, like I eat pretty clean.

I mean, you have to. You know, if you're going doing this kind of exercising, like you're going to feel like complete shit the whole entire time. Yeah, you have to fuel for the proportion. Right. So, and I was like, okay, maybe I am. And I just, you know, went with it. And my family threw a Halloween party on that Saturday. And I went, of course, I waited to the last minute, went and got a costume. What'd you go as? I went as an office character. Like from the show, The Office? Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. It was literally a shirt and a mustache that was... It could be a lot of things. It was super simple. Yeah. And it was like 15 bucks. It was on sale. So I was like, whatever. And I get there and I just, I mean, I'm like worn out. This is probably 1 o'clock in the evening when I'm getting the costume. So, I mean, it's not like I just woke up at 5 a.m. and just went to get a costume. So I'm like really, really. fatigued at this point. And I'm like, whatever. It's just been a tough week.

Tough week. Whatever. Works okay. Life's okay. My physical, you know, exercising is not okay. But, you know, if that's the worst case, you know, whatever. So we, I go to the party and Paige is actually at work. I actually text her.

And I'm like, I'm off again. I have no idea what is going on. And I get there and, you know, everyone's having a really good time. I'm like, I'm trying not to drag. I'm trying not to, like, show that, like, I'm just not feeling good. And, I mean, they spot me out quick because I'm the only one inside on the couch watching football. And everyone's outside by the fireplace. You know, they come in and they're like, are you okay?

like, are you sick? Like, what's wrong with you? And I'm like... Had you told your family about any of the issues that you were dealing with? I don't think so. And I was like, it's not, you know, it's nothing. It's not a big deal. And as the, you know, the further that day went on,

it was just like, every time I stood up, everything, I just kept getting drained, drain, drain, drain. And, you know, they're like, you know, joking around with me like, snaggy beer, that'll help the mood. And I'm just like, ah. honestly, I, I drank so much water that day. Like, just filling up now jeans just kept putting in my body. I'm like, I have no idea what is going on.

So I was kind of nervous and I was like, like, whatever, I'll drink a beer. Like, try to make the mood better. And, you know, I'm talking to my aunt. And she's like, you know, maybe you're just, you're just anxious. And I'm like, about what, though? she's like well are you stressed and I'm like no like I literally you know got off early this week to go deer hunting my boss let me I was like hey I'm going deer hunting and he's like cool if you kill something let me know I'll come help you drag it and like that that's what kind of

relationship I have at work so I mean it was like super super chill and and I'm like no I'm not struggling like financially things are good page and I are good um life in general is good I just feel weird I don't know and she's like well maybe you just have you know anxiety and I was like you know I think everybody to an extent has anxiety about things and I was like it just it doesn't feel like that you know it's not like before race where you're a little anxious or you have have a huge to-do list and you don't think you're going to get it done. It's not like that. Like it was, it was very overwhelming. And they're like, you know, I really think so. I don't think you should, you know, probably don't look too far into it. You're probably okay.

You know, it, I just don't see how all of us got the vaccine and it would affect you. You are literally the fittest in the family, you know, you have nothing wrong with you. I just I don't see that happening. And I was like, okay, cool. So then the next day, I text Paige. Your wife just raised her finger. She knows a story better than I do. Right.

So the next day was Halloween. And you get to fill the, so for people watching and listening, Paige is in the room with this. She's sitting just off camera. So she filled. She is sitting here supervise and make sure my story is correct. So she filled you in. What, explain what she just. filled you on. So my aunt had text

her that night. Pre or post this conversation you have with her? Post. Okay. And was like, hey, I don't think Chase is good. I think you should really check on him. And yeah, and she was like, maybe he really does need to go to the hospital. Yeah. So

that next day and I don't remember the day completely. I just remember being very just overwhelmed, I guess, just emotions everywhere. And

Paige's like, do you want to go to the hospital? I'm like, you know, honestly, no, because the Braves are playing tonight. And I really want to watch them. They have TVs in the hospital for clarity. They did not have a TV in this room. Do you have a cellular telephone? I did and I watched it, but it was not as good as sitting on my couch.

Better than not watching it at all. Correct. but however so I get there and I tell them I'm like hey you get to the hospital now correct so you've elevated past I go to the mercy room okay so you're past the dock in the box correct and I get there and you know she they're like you know they're asking me my symptoms you know chest pain shortness of breath and I was like we're like we're We kind of mentioned like maybe, you know, maybe it has to do the vaccine. Maybe, you know.

And so we get there and, you know, we tell them all that. They finally rolled me back pretty quick. I mean, I guess because a 24-year-old, and it wasn't really that busy, but a 24-year-old with chest pain, they kind of. Probably pretty serious. Yeah. So I go back. You know, I'm talking to the nurse, just watching, watching the baseball game. You know, she's like, she noticed my Iron Man shirt.

She's like, oh, you know, you do Iron Man's. And I was like, yeah. And we were like talking about that. I think like her boyfriend or husband did the same race or whatever. And I was like super, you know, that's cool. And we were just going back and forth talking about it. And she's like, okay, you know, the doctor being here in a minute. she comes in

actually before that nurse left I was like hey just so you know like I might got bit by a tick I don't really recall I remember it being on me but I don't remember pulling up you know that's early September

and she's like okay I'll let her know it's probably not a big deal like if you don't have any bumps or anything at this point like probably not a big deal so she comes in and she she really stressed like hey your D-D-D-D-D-Mers up

we are going to send you to your what was up my D-D-D-Dimers so again like do not have a medical degree yeah basically like if you're bruised or basically like blood clots if your D-d-d-d-d-dimers essentially like really high okay

and it was it was only a little bit elevated but she was like I don't know. She was kind of like, I don't know. I'm not seeing anything on you. Let's go get this checked out, especially like if it's, because like I showed her like where I thought I might have got bit or like where I pulled the tick like off my ankle or whatever in that general area.

And she's like, well, let me look at it. She's like, there's no bump. There's nothing. Like it's almost two months. You'd be showing something. It's like super unlikely. She's like, we're going to go give you a. cat scan. We're going to check you out. And so, and actually, like, I was not really arguing with

it, but I'm like, you know, because like, I, like, I did not want to go down the vaccine route at all. That's not something I even want to mess with. They didn't want to talk about it. Didn't even want to even bring that up in reality. And I'm like, so if that cat scan comes back, normal, you're going to check me for this, you know, for this tick bite, right? or possible tick bite. She was like, yes, if you're so inclined, like, that's what I'll do. Like, she's like, I don't think that's it. Like something, she just kind of felt like something was up.

And so I go to the CAT scan, you know, it came back normal, came back. She's like, I really think we should check you out for paracarditis. And I'm like, that's that. tick thing that I asked for, right? And she's like, I'm not worried about this tick thing. She's like, you're hurting in your chest. And this is, I don't think this is normal. And at this point, she's getting like, she's kind of getting a little fiery with me. And I'm like, okay, like, whatever. If, you know, you know more than I do, I'm just trying to help out, though I'm being at this point, not helping at at all. And,

she basically like went through all the options they had or they said they could do at the hospital or at the ER they're like you know we're going to send you to a cardiologist they can figure it out and I was like cool this was a waste of trip but I went everybody told me to go I went and you know went back home and I just you know kept hurting. I was like, I'm going to go back to work. And then I started hurting even worse. Same symptoms just magnified? Yeah. Yeah. So the blood clot was looking, they were looking for blood clot in my lungs. Due to that in, what did you call it? The D-dimer. So that's what they were looking for. Correct. Yeah. So, and, you know, I'd text my boss. Well, that was, that was

that was Sunday I was like you know I'm gonna I'm gonna take Monday off and we're gonna regroup we're gonna try this again on Tuesday cool you know let me know if I can do anything for you you know hope it's nothing so ended up going that whole week not working and end up back of the ER on that Sunday I was actually gonna go I was gonna go I was gonna go for a walk. Not a run. Yeah. A walk.

Like a brisk one. Yeah. Yeah. Because my wife was not home and I was like, I'm tired of sitting in this house. In moments of lack of supervision, you were going to go out and make an excellent decision. For sure. Yeah. For sure.

And yeah. Sorry. Very hardheaded. But, yeah. So I actually went to go put on my running shoes. and as soon as I tied them and stood up, my world just went spinning. And I was like, holy shit. This is tough.

And I kind of just put my hand back on the washer. And I was like, you know, what is going on? And I looked down and I actually hit my heart rate and I was like, and I saw it. It was like 126 or 1.30. 36 and I was like, oh my God, this is not good. This is not good at all. So I walk back over to the couch.

I sit down. I kind of just put my head in between my knees and I was just like, this is not good. I feel awful. Pages at work. You know, I'm just, the first thing I could do, I was just like, I call my aunt and I'm like, hey, my heart rate is this. and she's like that doesn't sound that well but I don't really know heart rates

and I'm like why I'm telling you this is not good like this is basically not running hard but you're being active not walking around the house I'm like this is not good at all so she takes me

we go back to the ER different ER at this point so this is your third trip to the ER no second second yeah got you second um and the doctor they were super cool

um explained everything again I'm like you know sorry I'm being burden like I'm here this is it I was like I know you got other things to work on not just me

um but this is it and and he's you know we started talking about Iron Man he also did Jitsu so we were talking about that and he's like so show me where

because I guess like the notes from like the past they're like let me see the notes from the past ER experience and I was like okay and he like looked at it

and he's like I'm not really seeing anything chances are like something would have popped up if that was the case and I told him so in between that I went to, we went to another dock in a box and it was a friend. You know, I talked to her.

She, she, um, COVID test, you know, for the third time or whatever it was. Um, did, you know, blood work, thyroid check, you know, did the whole thing. We did the, what I call it, or what she, I guess, what she called it a tick panel. So it's basically like any kind of disease. Just to rule it out. Right. so and I also did an antibody test and it took a hot minute to get all that back and I told that doctor's like hey like I already got you know the tick panel and he's like okay he's like

I'm gonna go to my desk and I'm gonna study up on this for a second like something's not right and I was like you know cool like take your time I'm just here chilling so he went back and he went He went back for probably like two, two and a half hours. And he's just like, man, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you some antibiotics. We're going to try to eliminate the stuff. Because he's like, you know, you can't just keep coming to the ER, you know, every week. Like, we've got to figure something out.

And I'm like, cool. That sounds really good with me. and he he sent me to or he wrote like recommendation like I was supposed to go see this like disease specialist or whatever and he's like you know take this

we're we're going to try to knock this out you know you you should if this is the case you're going to know pretty soon whether or not that was it so he's treating you potentially for the tick correct okay yeah he's like

Because that, because I mean, essentially, like, nobody wants to go down that road, the vaccine road. You know, and... Did you voice it to this doctor as well? That this... Yeah, I mean, it's in the notes. Like, hey, like, this doctor said something about paracarditis. Like, and it's kind of embarrassing, but I was telling Paige, I'm like, this is what they're saying, like, I'm kind of getting, you know, stumped again. And she's like, I'm calling over there.

She calls, she's like, hey, you know, can we get a... an MRI or whatever it is. She's waving at you. Right. So it was an echo cardiogram, which is an ultrasound of your heart. I think she might need a mic. No, I'm sorry. Is your wife a nurse?

Maybe. Maybe. And you're over here trying to explain medical stuff. For sure. That's why I said it's going to be a hard time. Keep looking over there making sure. It's all right. So apparently she was asking.

And she also works on a cardiac. Yeah, cardiac force. So what she said? She was telling you is that you needed to ask for a specific test. Right. And I asked, and they're like, you know, I don't think, I don't think that's super necessary. I'm not saying they're like, you know, maybe, maybe, but we don't really think that's necessary. Let's see what this medicine does.

So I was like, cool. All right. We'll, you know, we'll try it. I mean, what do we have to lose? So I get the antibiotic and, man, it wrecked my world. The antibiotic did. Dude, I don't know if, like, I've never been on a trip, but I was seeing colors in reptile skin.

What did they give you? It was doxycycline. Okay. And most, like, I know people that's on that and it's totally fine, but like, for whatever reason, my body did not want any part of it. Okay. And, you know, I'm like texting page. I'm like, and it was kind of an okay day. Like, I was like, maybe it's working.

I don't know. Like, I don't know how to tell. I'm still sore. And probably around like five o'clock, you know, I was taking. exeter and I'm like I have a migraine from hell and have you ever had migraines before I've never had a mic you know the essential like oh I have a migraine I had no idea what a migraine was yeah um me got to the point where I just you know she's like talking to me and if like if I barely opened my eyes or was trying to talk like I literally felt like I literally felt like

I was so nauseous. Like, I thought I was going to die. I was just like... And this was after you started taking the doxy? Yeah. So they had all the lights turned off in the house. You know, her and her mom, they're both like, they're on the computer. They're just like, you know, what can this be?

Maybe it is the medicine. We don't know. So then they persuade me to go back to the ER that night. So this would be trip three. Yeah. And it went awful. We stayed at this point, like they didn't even ask really, like you wrote down on the paper or whatever. They didn't even ask like what was going on.

We probably stayed in there. I don't want to guess the hour, but it was the long time. In the waiting room or in the actual? Yeah, in the waiting room. Ours. Waiting to be seen. Yeah. And I have like a blanket over my head.

head. At this, they also taught me into getting in a wheelchair. Actually, so I had to have a friend come over and like pretty much guide me to the car. They're like, we're calling the ambulance. And I'm like, no way, you're not getting me in an ambulance. What would it take for you to actually get into an ambulance? I don't know. But that's not it. Okay. That's not it. Not trying to be tough guy. I was just like, I'm not like this is someone else out there really needs that ambulance. I don't need this ambulance. Sometimes those ambulances, they're there for you, Chase. Maybe.

Maybe. Try to be respectful. Try to let others get it, you know? Yeah, just die quietly at home in pain. For sure. As opposed to asking for help? Okay. For sure.

Very stubborn. Yeah. Very. Well, now that you recognize that in yourself, perhaps there's something you could do about it. I've learned a lot in this journey. I learned a little too much, honestly. All right.

So you're back at the hospital. to the help of a friend with a blanket over your head. I'm assuming to keep the lights down. Correct. And we probably waited hours, you know, maybe four plus hours. And we get back there. And I'm like, honestly, like, I'm just trying to sleep. Because I'm just like, maybe if I sleep, it'll go away.

I don't know. And, you know, they come in, they ask typical, like, are you drinking enough water? Let's check your blood pressure, blood, everything, you know, came back fine. You know, again, the, the ER was like, or I'm sorry, the, yeah, the ER doctor was like, you know, again, we're stumped, no idea. And, you know, Paige is advocating for me, just asking a thousand questions because I have no idea what's going on.

And then, yeah, they, persuade me again to get in the wheelchair. And we're probably, like, we probably were in that room from less, less than an hour. I mean, we were there for a long time. Different doctor every time, I'm assuming. Yeah. Yeah, just off their shifts.

And, well, the reason why we went back to the CR was because the doctor before was like, hey, I'm going to make sure to put this in the notes. Like, you know, if this doesn't work, we're going to go on. We're going to keep this train going. Did the doctor that you saw this last time see those notes? notes or were they in the notes? You know, I don't know. Okay.

I would assume so, but, yeah, I don't know. So you hop in the wheelchair? Yeah, hop in the wheelchair. To head home. Head home. At this point, it's like probably like five or six of the morning. And we're into November of 21 at this point, right? Correct.

Shortly after Halloween, okay. Yeah. This is literally, let's see. Yeah, we're in like the second or third. week of November. Okay. And so get back home. I'm feeling super guilty.

You know, Paige just did a 12-hour shift. We simply, we just, you know, waste so much time in the ER. And, you know, I was just like, you're not getting me to go back to the ER. I was like, this will be the place I die because I'm not going back. We can't just keep doing this. Like, unless they can figure something out. and on on the first doctor visit they actually referred me to a cardiologist and so I got worked in there and this at this point this is November 11th it's a Friday 12th so the 12th we go back we go see the cardiologist

you know he's he you know he's really listening to me and I'm like no man I've been to the ER this many times like I've been healthy all year I've had the best race season of my life and I was trying to boast but I was like trying to like really show like I'm not a drastic difference between where you were and where you are right and also like I wasn't I was trying to explain to him that like I'm not just Baza and tries, kind of active. Like, I'm letting him know, like, hey, like, I just won my division, you know, twice, or my age group twice in sprint triathlons locally.

Got invited to nationals in Milwaukee next year. Like, you know, I'm a fit dude. You know, things are really not going well. And, I mean, he probably wrote, honestly, he could have wrote a book. I mean, he was just, like, really listening to me writing things down. and you know I was feeling because I was being really listened to I guess I was like I was feeling better and not in the sense of like you know my chest still hurting they do they you know they did the EKG and he was trying to explain like because I have been healthy and I've never really had an EKG

in a hospital they don't know what to go off of yeah don't have a baseline so everything looks normal it um so they put a holter monitor on me had that on for 30 days i'm assuming that measures your heart rate it does so it's like it's like this little bitty chip i mean it kind of looks like floss but it like clips in and to your skin well it's like so it's like a sticker okay and it has like these like electric probes like they're not in you but like somehow it'd be like the same way like a watch or like the heartminder I'm wearing now. Gotcha. But, you know, it sat right here and, you know, they're like, you're going to wear this for 30 days.

We're going to see what the problem is. You know, if anything crazy comes up, you know, it'll tell us immediately. You won't have to wait for the information to get back, and we can go from there. So what that sucker show? A little bit. So it showed a heart rate. of 206. And at this point, like...

I'm assuming you were not exercising at that point. Not at all. Okay. And I've went back to... It's so wild how many people don't know anything about their heart rate. And they're like, is that like really bad? And it's like, well, to put in perspective for you, you know, my run for the, for half Iron Man, the highest I ever got up to was 202.

So, I mean, that puts it in perspective, like, how hard. That would be probably an extreme level of exertion for you. Correct. And so you hit above that. What were you doing when it hit that 206? So that's something we still don't know. Because, like, for the most part, I was still just on the couch. I'm so fatigued.

So the day after I got the Holter monitor, I went to my sister's wedding and, like, walking from the car, probably like 50 yards to like the reception, I hit like 189 right out the gate, you know, I watch. And I'm like, oh my God. Like I don't feel good. I'm going to not put a spotlight on me. I'm going to keep, you know, I think I had the same, like, I think I had the same beer the whole entire night in my hand. Like I just was not in the mood. You know, people were like, come dance, come dance. And I'm like, maybe in a little bit. We'll try it out here in a little bit.

And, you know, people are hugging me and stuff, and I'm trying to, like, kind of hide it. And, yeah, so keep going. You know, I have no idea. I mean, there's nothing that comes back to me that would hit 206. I mean, again, you know, no CrossFit, no running, nothing. Is there a chance? I hadn't even worked at this point.

Is there a chance that was an erroneous measurement? I asked that because I assume you would have felt it in your heart racing as well. Well, so that's kind of the thing that I go back to anything really over like 160 you can feel. I mean, there was times where like I was hurting and felt like it was going to pump it on my chest. but like, you know, if you ask me, could you feel the difference between like a 198 or whatever? No, no. Yeah, I'm not asking that.

I mean, like, you could, I was curious if you felt. I mean, that to me is damn near. Like, if you look at the math, what is it, like 220 minus your age. Right. That for me at this point in my life and my 40s, they'd be like, well, you're dead. But I would also feel it. You know what I mean? Like I would feel that happening in my body as I approach that.

And I think like the reason I can't pinpoint. it was it happened on Thanksgiving day okay but I cannot pinpoint when during the day yeah because like there was just I had so much pain through like my rib cage I mean it essentially felt like somebody just kicked me straight up like straight onto the chest

and that you know I try like it it bugs me to death I'm like where was that because like that could it easily put me in, you know, cardiac arrest. Well, other than the 206, did it catch any other instances of you having a really, really elevated heart rate? That I don't really know because, like, we didn't. So with that, and I'll say this, so after the month was up, so I had to check up, you know,

at a month, but it was like a couple days before I had to send off my Holtermon and they, I'm trying to think, it's so much just compact in. They, we were in there for probably 15 minutes at max. You know, page is like, I'm definitely going to this, this one with you, like something, they have to see something. And we walk in, and she's kind of, you know, like, hey, you know, how's her thing, blah, blah, blah. Oh, you're still having the same symptoms. Well, that, I don't really know what's going on.

You know, she's like, we didn't see anything. And it actually sent it to, so the hospital we go to, it actually sends stuff to like an app. And it actually, like Paige had noticed that the company of the Holtermonder had actually called them saying, you know, it did hit 206. And, and Paige was like, well, actually, we did have. something because it showed that or whatever and they're like well let me see and they're like oh well i do see that but you know everything looks okay and and i just kind of like drop my head i was just

like and nothing against her you know it's just kind of like what what world are we on that 206 is okay and you're not exercising i don't i don't know anybody that can hit that and i mean that's It's a tough place to be, too. I had a workplace injury back in 2005. And there's a lot of neuropathic pain associated with that. So I'm trying to describe to doctors the pain that I'm feeling and the lack of result that I was getting from the variety of treatments and approaches that they were taking. And it got me to a place where I got very, very frustrated because I didn't think that the people that I was talking to were listening. So I think I can understand the headspace.

that you're arriving at. You almost arrived at this place where it's like futile. Like, like, why are you even asking me what's going on? Because I'm telling you and you're not doing anything about it. Right. And I don't, and nothing to her. I think she honestly was trying to do everything that she could. I think the process of these kind of things are so slow. Well, did you find a doctor in this journey that you thought connected with you and was really willing to dive in and what was going on? Yeah, so after that, that whole thing, you know, I'm kind of really pissed. You know, you can, you know, I wasn't being a jerk or anything.

It's frustrating. I guess she's like, you know, I swear, like we were in there for like five minutes. And I'm not exaggerating. When I say five minutes, like, it was kind of like, hey, how's the day? Okay, everything looked fine, cool. And, you know, she's like, I think we're done here. and I was like, yeah, we're done here. And she's like, okay.

And so we walk out and Paige is like doing everything she can not to see me. Because like at this point, I'm in so much pain. And we were leaving and I'm just so pissed. And I remember just like asking her like, do you like shoot straight with me? Like no more, no more bullshit. Like do you think I have cancer? Like is this like is this something I need to. prepare for. And she's like, and we're going through Starbucks line, and she's like, you know,

I don't think so. I think they would pick it up, but I don't know. And I just remember like looking out the window. And it's kind of tough talking about. I just remember asking her like, you know, am I a dead man? Am I just a dead man walking at this point? And tough questions to ask. but I mean it was just to the point where like nothing was being answered like is this and I was just I kind of felt like nobody was shooting it straight with me well were they providing you any other explanation as to why you were feeling the way that you were no they I mean they kind of just brought back the the paracarditis myocarditis like maybe that's a route and I remember like my cardiologist was like I'm gonna and this is kind of like what he said was like if these tests come back normal, which I don't think they will, like it's going to show something. I think we're, he didn't really say like we're in trouble, but he kind of like pinpointed like, we're going to have to really, really look into this.

Like this is not, something's up. So that's why I was asking this questions because like, I felt like I felt like I was dying, but nobody wanted to tell me. So it got super super super. Oh, you almost felt like that you were, they were hiding that in. info from you? Yeah. And... Not that that's rational to think that, but I think I know how you arrive at that place. Yeah. I mean, well, there are so many things at that point, like, everything's so dark. You know, you don't, you really don't even feel like anybody's advocating

for you. Yeah. You feel like you're being dismissed. And, you know, like, obviously, like, family's there, you know, for you. But when you're in that spot where, you know, they don't know, the doctors don't know it's kind of just like okay like I am dying and that's I just need to accept it

because nobody's figuring this out and I'm hurting at this point I'm waking up you know I would fall asleep in a boxers on top of covers three fans

and I would somehow even work the air conditioner down to like 59 degrees 61 degrees like i did not care about anything i was burning up so bad and i remember just like waking up at like one in the morning i'm like just pouring sweat and i was sleeping pretty good but like just and i felt like that day was fine like i don't feel like i was in a bad mood or anything like that. Like, I didn't go to bed mad, but I woke up. And it's so hard to describe. I literally, like, it felt like someone took my skin off, you know, dunked me in lava, put my skin back on, and just hit me with razor blades.

Delightful. Dude. Fuck. And then, you know, I would pretty much just, and she had no idea, you know, there's like a thousand fans going on. You can't hear shit. I'm walking around the house just pacing back and forth, just pretty much cussing, just pissed off. Were you talking to the doctors about the physical pain? Did they recommend anything to abate that pain?

It... Right. And she did order it out. Right. So, and that's another thing. Like, all these tests are essentially like two months out. Yeah, depending on the test for sure. Right.

And I didn't have a primary. So that is, if there's anything to learn from this, if you don't have a primary, get a primary. Because when I called to get a primary, they're like, oh, you know, I called probably 20 plus people. And I would say about 80% of them was like, we're not taking new patients. And the rest were like, oh, it'll be like April or May. And I remember just like, well, don't, they're like, you know, do you want me to put you down? I'm like, no, I'll be dead by then.

So don't worry about it. And they're like, you know, they're kind of like laughing. They're like, oh, okay, well, you know, I don't, hopefully not. And I'm like, you don't even understand. And at this point, I'm saying up like 38 hours straight, just burning. So from physical pain. Yeah. Yeah.

Straight burning. Did it any point in time you think to maybe go to the hospital and talk to them about that? No, I mean, yeah. So it did come to that. But I was, and we'll get to there. But I was just like, I mean, what are they going to do for you? I mean, they literally, I had talked to him. about it before. It wasn't to this like severe, but they had no idea. And so then we, we get to

the first week of December. And I text page, well, actually, so I took, I took the dog out, still not working I mean I can't like I was having some like some good days when I say good days I can do the dishes yeah I mean it's pretty much just laying on the couch

and I let so I let my dog out and he I'm talking about the slightest bump slightest bump here goes my world spinning again and I'm like

holy shit what is going on? It's so hard to explain and I'm like I know my neighbors had to think like I'm completely cracked out I'm like grabbing on to the trigger

I'm like walking my way into So you're stumbling essentially pretty much like I'm just trying to find my way to the door because like my world is just all over the place and finally make it inside get him inside and you know small steps

grabbing the wall, you know, grabbing the island, get to the couch. And I remember like texting Paige and I'm like, this, this is the day. This is the day I'm going to die because I don't know if my body can take it any longer. I mean, I was hurting that bad. And so Paige had reached out to a family friend who knew somebody, another cardiologist. And they're like, let me, let me take a look at it. So, right. So they, you know, let me, let me go back, look at everything he's went through, paperwork-wise.

So like a third party is going to take a look at everything, all the work that everybody else has done. Right. Give you a different assessment. So he, he essentially, like, I don't, as much as I want to give him a shout out, definitely not going to you. Yep. but he's pretty much a higher level and he's like you know let me look at it and they were just kind of like

can he get to the ER like now and you know page text me like can you get to the ER now and I was like well I most definitely can't drive because I mean I feel drunk I mean I'm so just world spinning and she's like hey like mom's coming to get you and she's going to take you down there so and and they're like they're already going to know they're waiting for you you know this is probably like is this because they heard from this other doctor yeah so he had called them and told him um basically like he was going to be there but he had to be in a meeting so like he was running everything through like one of his right hand men um but was like doing it through text and and was, you know, telling them basically what to do, which they pretty much knew what they were doing.

They did know what they were doing. Is this the same hospital you've been to before or a new hospital? So this is one of the same branches as the first I went to the ER. It's just downtown, different location. It's like the big ER. So I get there and they're like, you know, how can I help you? And I'm like, hey, you know, Chase, Dr. so-and-so told me to come down. down here. And they're like, okay, you know, do you care to take a seat right here for me?

Let's check your blood pressure. And I was like, cool. And so I checked, I check my blood pressure. And this nurse is kind of like, kind of frantic. Like, hey, tell everyone he is here. They just kept saying, he is here. And then it just, you can hear him through the hospital. Hey, he's here. He's here. let's go. And I'm like, what is going on? Yeah, what are you not telling me? What in the world is going on? So I go in this little like triage room. You know, it's just me and another nurse. She's like, you know, if you don't mind, take off your shirt. Let's, we're going to run EKG. And at that point, it's just me, my mother-in-law and this nurse.

And the next thing I know, there is like 20 of us in this small room. and everyone is asking a thousand questions. And I'm trying not to talk because I thought like with EKG you're not supposed to talk or whatever. And they're like, come on, we got to know something. Like you're going to tell us and she's answering like to these four people. I'm answering for this section of people. And then it's like, then they're swapping, asking questions. And it's just, it's a lot of chaos.

A lot of chaos. And they're like, you know, hey, we're. We're going to take you to this next room. It's literally, you're going to go to this door and you're going to be in that room. And they were like, it's going to feel like, you know, you've been kicked in the chest, what we're going to do to you. And I kind of like, at that point, I just kind of leaned up against the wall. And I kind of like just made a joke.

And I was like, oh, so basically what I've been through for the last three months. is what you're saying. So I got this. And boy, did I eat those words. The nurse asked me, she's like, do you need a wheelchair? And I just smiled at her and I'm like, I'm okay. I can walk. And so I walk in this room. There's probably like six nurses and they're like, who are you? and I kind of like look behind me and there's not really anybody I guess like because like my mother-in-law was still talking to them

and they're pretty much you know who are you and I was like I'm Chase they told me to walk in here they're like you're the dude that has a 206 heart rate and you ran a 13-beat run

of non-sustain VTAC like that's you and I was like, and I didn't know about that part. That's why they thought you couldn't walk. Right. They're like, and they're like, why are you in a wheel?

Or like, why are you not in a wheelchair? Yeah. Why are you walking? And I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, trying to make a lot of it. I'm like, I wonder why they didn't tell you. I think they, I almost feel like they didn't tell you because they thought it would scare the shit out of you. Which I don't know. I don't know if I necessarily consider that to be a very good moral decision because you should at least be able to know what's going on in your own body.

I mean, if you saw the room I was in, it was like maybe a third of the, I mean, it was literally enough for a hospital bed. And so I walk in there like, please, like, you need to sit on this bed. And I'm like, okay. Yeah, they're worried you're going to kill over, man. And I was like, I, wait, what is going on there? Like, everything's going to be okay. We're going to run a couple tests. Like, you know, he described in there, you know, it's going to feel like you're, you know, you've been kicking the chest.

no big deal okay cool and at this point I was willing to do whatever you know I was hurting so bad and again

here comes I mean the room was literally 20 people I don't know I don't even know how that many people could fit in a room if something honestly would have went bad I don't know how they would have got out

because they would have stumbled on each other so what did they do to you in that room So there was like, there's, I think two EKGs hooked up to me. There, I feel like I had IVs going every which way. Are they explaining what they're doing to you? Yeah. And be honestly, I mean, I'm kind of going to that 1,000-yard stair. Yeah.

Like, it's just so much is going on. Overwhelming, yeah. And I'm in this small room. It's like, holy cow. this is this is real I don't know what's going on but this is real and so they're like you know we're going to do the dissent trial on you this is what what did you just call it the adenicinicent trial okay um and you can you can look it up on youtube and my experience to the youtube the person on youtube is two totally totally you know different things different things and

I, the first time they're like, you know, we're going to start them off at 12 milligrams. And, you know, there's, I'm like holding this nurse's hand. She's like, you know, just grab my arm or my hand. You know, you're going to feel a little pain. It is what it is. And at that point, my heart rate is through the roof. They're like, but you're going to have to get your heart rate down. You're got to breathe.

And I'm like, I'm breathing. Like, this is, this is it. This is all I have. And that takes off. and the best way to explain my experience, and of course, you know, I can only speak of my experience with this, it felt like someone was grabbing my skin from my back and was just trying to rip my skin off my back while putting their hand inside my chest and pulling my heart out. So is it a stress test for your heart?

Essentially, it's like it's a nuclear test, I'm pretty sure. Okay. So, and I think there's multiple nuclear tests. And so, you know, they're like, they're yelling at me. They're like, good, good, good. You know, they're screaming, like, push the bag, push the bag. You know, they're trying to get that drip. So essentially what it does is it stops your heart for six seconds.

What they're trying to see is your heart. They want to see, because kind of like, how they, and it's really hard for me to explain it, but it's like electrical. They're trying to see is it sparking off when it's supposed to you. So, you know, I'm sitting there and I have no pain medicine or anything in my body. And it also, like, with that feeling, it kind of feels like, and maybe you feel this like more so, I guess, like for you, like, base jumping. Like when you jump that initial, like grab your stomach. The rising of your stomach and your chest.

Yeah. And like, for me, like a roller coaster. So it's kind of like that. And it felt like they were just like sucking the heart out of me. I feel like my chest, like I'm about to bend completely backwards. And, you know, everybody's screaming every which way. And what I did notice is they didn't, what I think, and I guess I'll tell this in a minute. But they, so that first one was so rough. It made from like from here.

at my neckline in my chest all the way down on my toes numb. Couldn't not feel my body. And it, my face was uncontrollably just slapping back and forth. And, you know, my mother-in-law is just in there

and she's like, you're okay, are you okay? And the whole time, I'm just trying like, like, I'm trying my heart is to like, one, like, not cry, right? And two, like, I'm trying not to say every cuss word that is imaginable because it hurts so bad. And it wasn't even a matter.

I couldn't even say anything. It hurts so bad. And, you know, they give me like 15 minutes to cool down. Constantly people are rotating in that 15 minutes like, hey, you're good, you good. And I'm still, like, my face is like, keep slapping back. And finally, like, after like, I don't know how many minutes, but it seemed like forever. My, I was, I just chilled out. Like, super chill.

are chilling and you know they get me a blanket and but I'm also burning up so they put a wet rag a cold wet rag on top of my face you know my mother-in-law was asking me

a bunch of questions like you know is that good are you okay like I know that hurt like they should have got it and I was like I don't care I don't care what happens

from here on now do not let them do that again do not let them do that again and so here they come rolling in they're like dude we're sorry you know what we were looking for we didn't get we're going to have to do it again and we're going to bump up the dose

and I just remember going you know just like fuck and I just kind of and like one of the nurses that was like walking in he's like laughing his like his heart rates you know it's going right back up and I like I heard him say that And I kind of look back up. And at this point, like, I'm like, maybe around, like, 160.

And I don't know what it went to, you know, during that or whatever. But they're like, that's not what we were looking for on the EKG. So it was not what we wanted. So they hooked me back up. And at this point, like, I'm pretty pissed. I'm like, dude, I don't. At this point, I honestly did not. know my heart was going to take it again. I remember just like praying like if this is it,

you know, let it be peaceful, you know, let it be quick. I don't know how else to explain it. And, you know, that was, they did, I think, 16 milligrams of the adenicine trial. So they bumped it up. They hit me with that. And I was getting more effects of the medicine. than I was like the actual like what they were hoping like what most people would get out of it I guess and this time they and when I was going to say before so this time they held my arm up and I think the reason why it hurts so bad the first time is because they didn't hold my arm up and it was a slow drip so I think it lasted like more than six seconds and I don't know I just know the next time, they hold my arm up.

And I was like, this is different. And I was like, well, I was like, well, I was like, well, this is new. But I wouldn't say different. It was actually the second time, you know, they're like, all right, you know, here we go. We're going to do it again. And they like count it down. And, you know, they're screaming, you know, push the bag, push the bag, push the bag, because they're trying to get that, the, I guess, like, drain the fluids to, like, flush it out.

You know, they wanted to hit and they want to push it out of you. my body essentially went numb right then. Like my body is in shock. I feel like I'm in a cartoon like tornado. My head's all over the place. I cannot control my neck. I'm just like sitting there slapping back and forth on the bed. My feet literally feel like at any given time I'm about to do a V-up and my feet are coming from my face.

Like they're going to slap it. And that one was, was super, super rough, way worse than the first one. And again, you know, they're pissed. They're like, he's just getting the effects. Like, we're going to have to do something. So they ended up giving me a muscle relaxing. And like I said, the first time they gave me like 15 minutes this time,

it was enough to, hey, go get more people and bring them in here. And I guess in case like something was to happen. And, you know, and I can see. outside the door, there is so many people. There's nurses rotating. Some are like, I don't want to watch this anymore. And somebody's rotating in for them. And they're just in the back, just watching.

They're like, they don't want anything to do with this. And at that point, I was just like, holy shit. Like, these people, you can see it on their face, like this, what they're watching is not normal. Do you ever consider telling them to stop? So I told them a little time, and they would come in there like, you know, we're sorry. We have to do it again.

And my cardiologist now, you know, is texting them, I'm saying, like, I'm sorry. Like, I'm sorry. I'm not there. You know, please tell my mother-in-law. Because she was advocating from like, I don't think he can do it again. And they're like, and they're like, we. we're going to have to do it this third time. And they're like, you know, they're trying to think outside the box.

What can we do to make this less? And they're like, they didn't really want to run it with a muscle relaxer. They wanted to be as natural as possible, even though that whole thing is not, nothing about it as natural. And so we do it again with the muscle relaxer. at 16 again, 16 milligrams. And I still, you know, neck down, numb, the whole feeling. I didn't have that crazy, I didn't feel like I was going to do a V-up, or my feet were going to smack me in the face, like the second time. And don't get me wrong, it hurts so bad.

But like my body, I guess because the muscle relaxer, you know, it did bring my heart rate down. and I just remember like looking at him at the EKG and he's like all right you know squeeze back squeeze back and and I'm like staring at him and I'm like dude for God's sake make sure this works I don't know what else to tell you

I don't know if I can do it again and he's pulling the printer paper out and he's like and I'm sitting there you know just like ah and just like crunching up super numb and I'm trying to my at this point my face is trying to slap again. And I'm just like holding it. Just kind of like,

and I'm just shaking. And he's like, we got it, we got it, we got it. And he just screams, damn it, we don't have it. And I just remember like,

everybody in that room just like, I don't know if I can watch this again. How many times did they do this to you? This was the third time. How many times total did they do it? Three times. So they walked out. They walked out.

And again, Again, I'm the same kind of stuff. Numb. I'm hurting, obviously. And I remember just, like, fighting tears. My mother-in-law is, like, ask me questions. And she's just like, I don't know if they're going to do that to you again. But if they say they're going to need to, you know, you're at the end of the day, this is your body.

like, do you want to do it again? And I remember just holding back tears and just pin it like, in my head I'm just like, fuck it. Let's do it again. And when they walked in, they just kind of like had their head down. And I was just like,

I'm like, dude, let's do it again. Let's do it for the fourth time. And I know they like, they kind of just joked and they're like, ah, you're a professional now. Like, they're like, dude, you took it like a champ. They're like, we think we actually have enough once we looked at it. What the fuck were they looking for?

So that's the hard part, right? And the EKGs with the squiggly lines, I have no idea. I cannot explain it at all. But whatever they're looking for, and I'm sure people reach out and let us know, but they're looking for basically, I think. Okay, so they're making sure there's no, like, clogs essentially. in your heart in my heart right so

or electrical irregularities yeah all right so what you're describing everything leading up at this point is unbelievable

did this process change the way that they were treating your symptoms or how they were providing medical care to you I feel like they

I mean essentially like that whole knot they were I mean I feel like most people don't have, you know, 20 people in a room taking care of you. So I feel like they honestly were doing what they need to do.

Yeah. And they, you know, were taking really good care of me. You know, one of the guys he had asked me, he was like, you know, yo, dude, I'm going upstairs. You know, you want any snacks. You want a power raid. You want a Sprite. What do you want?

And I was like, nothing. I just don't want to be a burden anymore. How about? And you said you don't want to be a bird. burden anymore? Yeah, I mean, I hope that you have learned through this process that your head is actually, in my opinion, in the wrong spot. At some point in time, you're going to have to change that mindset. Oh, for sure. Not overall, maybe just in the perspective of, you know, also, you know, you're at a place where you're at your house thinking that you're going to die and then you get to

the hospital and you're telling them that you don't want to be a burden. Also, though, like, you know, I'm seeing people getting rolled in from like car crashes. Yeah. And I'm like, you know. That's why they have multiple people on staff. I know, but it was just so, that whole day. I get it. I'm just.

It was just so overwhelming, you know, and the last thing I wanted was someone to go get me a snack, you know? Yeah. No, I get it. I'm just saying, and oftentimes people's largest impediment. Right. Is themselves. Oh, for sure.

It was definitely, I mean, it was, definitely an ego check. And I don't want to make it sound like I'm just some tough dude. I just honestly, like, I didn't want to be a burden. Um, because it sucked. I mean, it honestly, I mean, it was the lowest point in my life. Yeah. Um, leading up to it after, um, you know, and the dude was, I mean, he was so cool. He's like, you know, he's like, you know, he's like, I'm not fucking leaving this room until you tell me what you want to drink. Because you just went to that and you're going to get a drink. Like, you paid so much money for all this?

Like, you're going to get a Sprite or something. And I was like, sure, like, surprise me. So he comes down and he, um, he gave me, I think he gave me like a Sprite in the water. I took the water. And, you know, we just talked. And one of the nurses, she came in and she was not with the, um, the cardio team. She was strictly like my ER nurse. And at this point, I, uh,

my my blood pressure was like 206 over like 102 I think I think that's what they said and she's like you know I really think you should stay the night here tonight and I'm like I don't want to be I don't want to be near y'all like what I just went through like I just want to go home um because be honest I had no idea that was going to happen and I did not know I was going to make it out. Like that's how bad it hurt. And she's like, okay, well, you know, your blood pressure is this. And, you know, we can give you some medicine.

I'm going to go talk to the cardiology team. And if they think you're good, we're going to send you home. And but she's like, my recommendation is, I think you should stay. and you know she kept saying the blood pressure and I'm like how many people go through this and your blood pressure is not high? I mean how many times are you tortured? I mean it literally felt like I was being tortured and your blood pressure is normal and I know she was worried about me. You know, I don't think she wanted me to have a stroke or whatever. But at that point like I feel like the quickest way to calm me down would obviously be some medicine.

and also getting out of there and going home. And, you know, she went back and talked to the cardiology team, and they're like, okay, they said, you know, from a cardiology standpoint, they're not worried about you. They think you'll be fine overnight. I'm going to give you medicine, and we're going to load your blood pressure, and we're going to send you home,

and then you have a follow-up tomorrow with the doctor that was, you know, texting it, and doing the whole thing. So, Paige and I get there, and, you know, he...

To the follow-up. Correct. Gotcha. And it was a really good follow-up. He basically just just laid out there. It was like, hey,

like, because we didn't know what happened. Like, we don't know anything. From the point where they said, damn it, to the time I said, I'm ready for the fourth time.

Let's do it. it again. And so he's like, he's explained everything to us. You know, he's like, hey, this is what we think. We think, um, you have atrial tachycardia. He was like, in most scenarios, it would come from a virus. But in this case, we, you know, you've had, you know, five to six test, you've had anybody test, he's, I don't, I don't know how it would be anything else, right? Other than the vaccine? Right. So is that the first time that one of the medical professionals was potentially connecting

the dots between what was happening to you and what caused it? Right. And I really want to lay it out there. Like, I don't, I know, like, others have had problems, but, like, truthfully, I don't know if it's, like, just where I'm from, like, if people were just more inclined to look at it. Like, okay, it's a possible. Like, it was more so, like, nobody had an ego really, like, oh, I'm not worried that it's, you know, it is the vaccine. I bet it's something else.

Like, they were pretty, like, I, you know, I don't see how it's anything else. Like, they were being straightforward. At this point, they were being. straightforward. Right. And I feel like for the most part, for like, and again, like, no one, I don't, and I feel like no one's right out of the gate, you're going to be like, oh yeah, that's from the vaccine. Because one, they don't want to scare you. And two, you know, I think that's a big observation to just blatantly say that. Yeah. And do the best your ability to remove all the variables too. Yeah. Right. So, and, and so, you know, I got put on fucking. which is a anti-arhythmic medicine. So basically what it was supposed to do was basically stop my heart rate from going way up, having these palpitations.

And, you know, we're pretty stoked. We're like, okay, we found an answer. And, yeah, this is mid-December. and we you know we go the whole month just trying that he's like this should you know you should feel something did you no so none of the symptoms really changed and so then they were like you know because I was having such such a hard time and I feel like I've cut so much out of this out of a lot of the story but like a lot of the symptoms of that I was telling them they were like Maybe, you know, you have pots.

So basically what pots is is your heart rate and your blood pressure, like when you stand up or when you're laying down to stand up, it, it goes, it tries to stay at a healthy balance. But mine's not doing that. One is like overpowering the other. Did they have any explanation as to why that would just start all of a sudden? So a lot of people do get pots from the vaccine. Like it's pretty common. Okay. And it sucks.

That's the first I've ever heard of that term associated with the vaccine. Yeah, same. I had no idea what it was. So then they, there's basically nothing. I think there's some medicine, but from like what I've heard, what they were saying, like, the medicine is kind of useless. Okay. in a sense. So they

they bump my sodium intake. You know, he's like just whatever you do, whatever you're eating, I don't care what you do, what you're eating, dump salt.

Crush, salt. Eat as much salt as you can. Did that help? No. I think it made things worse. And I also was taking three ibuprofen a day.

I'm sorry. I was taking 800 milligrams. Right? Yeah, 800 milligrams, three times a day on top of that. For a week. For a week. Just to see if that helped. And by the time that we got to Christmas, like,

I was doing so well all day. You know, was... So the medicine and the ibuprofen and the sodium, it was making a difference. Not really. I thought you just said you were feeling... So, I think, like, spirit, spirit-wise. Got you.

You know, it's Christmas Day. I'm trying my hardest. You know, I'm not... I want to have... I just want to have a good day. It's been so long since I've had a good day. And I want to go all the way through this day. So, you know, we...

We go to... The in-laws, we, you know, open presents there, eat breakfast, and I'm feeling just, you know, I'm feeling kind of sick. I kind of can feel it's creeping on. And I'm like, maybe I can sneak all the way through, maybe. And so, you know, I go to my parents' house after that, you know, really good. You know, we're joking, having a good time. just enjoying each other

and then we go back to the in-laws for dinner and I would say like breakfast you know it was equally just as good at my parents I think I think also like the reason why it was kind of tough that morning was because I didn't sleep good

and it was just kind of like I was kind of dragging yeah and so Christmas night you know we showed up right in time for dinner and, you know, I'm on the way down to, you know, her parents' house, I'm like, I'm so hungry. I cannot wait to crush food. I need some food in my body fast.

You know, we sit down, you know, make this plate, and I can just feel my body just shaking. I'm trying to eat. I have, at this point, I have no. none whatsoever, no appetite. My body's shaking. You know, my, my world's starting to spin. The, you know, my heart rate just sitting there is, you know, way up at this point. And I kind of like, they're like, just go lay down.

Go lay in the gas bed or whatever. And I'm like, no, like, I just want to enjoy the dinner. Like, let me, let me just sit here. And like, I'm probably not going to say anything, but I just want to sit here. and like we're going to finish this dinner. And I remember just like Paige starting to cry. It was just kind of like, I think we're going to bounce. I think we're going to take you home.

And that, you know, obviously there was a lot of ego checks before that. I mean, it was constantly, but this one, it was really, It was really tough. You know, it's Christmas Day. I just ruined dinner for everyone. Nobody wants to eat now. Everybody thinks about to pass out. And I just remember, you know, on the way back to our house, the whole entire time, like, just sitting there, just waiting to vomit.

I have a trash bag ready. And, yeah, get back to the couch. and probably lay there for like four hours or so and then I start feeling just a little bit better and I'm like how does this come and go? Like how does this just choose you know one minute I'm literally it feels like

you know I'm knocking on the door for death. Yeah it sounds like you're standing on death door one minute and the next minute it's like and that's the hardest thing you know for a lot of like a lot of people that I've talked to that's going through this, it's so tough mentally because one day you're one step forward, next day, you're three steps back. You just have no idea. And in the beginning of all this, it was super, super tough on me. And I've talked to a couple other athletes as well that, you know,

pro athletes or whatever they're thinking, you know, climbing or whatever and they're all, you know, the same mindset. Like in the beginning, it was so tough because, like, you think you're just being a bitch about it. You know, in my head I

was just, I was kind of like, really? Like, I hope you enjoy that your wife is bringing all the money and you're just sitting at, you know, sitting at home watching TV. Like, are you proud of yourself? It's a rough headspace to be in, but I understand what you're saying.

And that's where a lot of us, like I said, like we have family, but we're so disconnected. And a lot of it, like I don't really, and I'm not really an angry type person at all. Like, I'm pretty happy go lucky. But the pain brings so much rage, the thoughts in your head. Like, it's almost like the physical pain is, is tough. Yeah. But the mental pain, like, you know, I can explain it to you. But like, I don't know if you really get the sense of it.

The same way that someone else is going through it, I kind of get where they're coming from. But I don't. It's so dark. If you want to actually break people, a human being, it has to be a combination of physical and mental. The physical alone won't do it. but the mental aspect will fucking crack them. So I know what you're talking about. Between that day on Christmas Day and today,

so we're sitting down February 15th, hope everybody had a good Valentine's Day yesterday. Have you found a medical professional that can explain what is going on with you? So I'm still with the same cardiologist. Have they done anything drastically differently since that crazy stress test? So it's really...

So now they are treating me... So mid-January... So it was literally like a month on the money with the Fleckinide or whatever. And so now they put me on steroids. And... Right. And they...

Off the Fleckonet on. fucking odd, yeah. So, steroids making any impact? You know, I, I feel like I was up moving around a lot more. That felt like that was, that was the starting line of, okay, I can put dishes in the dishwasher. I can make little steps. Like, so what you seem to be describing as an incremental, microscopic incremental, maybe towards what could be considered improvement. Right. Okay. And then, you know, right off that, we, I'm now put on anti-influentary medicine. Right. Steroids for a week. And then as soon as that was over, I think it was like pretty much, it was about right after.

And so they put me on the inflammation medicine. And they also, Um, they put me on, I'm kind of on a beta blocker like today. Um, because, you know, walking around doing this, like I have to. Like, if I was sitting here talking to you, um, especially, you know, probably in the beginning, the, you know, excitement or just the adrenaline dumps. I, the adrenaline dumps are crazy, you know, uh, it's a, it's constant. I mean, Are you continuing to see improvement? Yes, yes and no. Am I better than what I was in October or November?

Yeah, like at the lowest point, okay. For sure. Like, I'm not back at work. I literally worked, or I'm sorry, I walked for the first time, like exercising, walked a mile straight last week. That was the first time I've exercised. since October. Fuck.

And is there a doctor that is telling you what it actually is that's going on in your body? Or do they know? So, I have a couple tests as soon as we fly back. We will. How about up into this point? Up into this point,

have you had somebody who's told you? He's, it's tough, right? He, he wants to get to the bottom of it. You know, he's not giving up on me, which is super awesome. You know, if he hears this, I really hope he doesn't get mad for me saying this, but like, I've never had a doctor to give me his phone number and say, you know, if you need me.

And this was from the first time I saw him in December. And he's like, if you need me, text me or call me. He's like, you know, obviously I deal with a lot of people, but like, text me. make sure you text me. And actually right after we talked, I guess it was at Monday, I think we both talked, it was at Wednesday. And I had a doctor's appointment that Thursday.

And I was trying my hardest, but my heart rate was so far through the roof. And I didn't, you know, not stress about anything. It was just, it just progressed like it gets worse and worse. and I thought I was going to go back to the ER on Wednesday night. You know, I'm texting him. And this is like 9, 10 o'clock at night. And, you know, he texts back ASAP.

Like, hey, man, like, if you're, like, I'm a medical professional, 10 o'clock at night. If you think you're dying, then go. Sounds like good radical advice. Not that I'm a doctor, but. Yeah, I mean, you know, it is. But also, like, I want him to, it was more so like

I wanted the confirmation of yeah they're going to run these tests if you go or whatever yeah if that's not the case I'm not going because they're going to tell me what they've told me the last you know three times before so I'm not asking you to speak for the doc but does he attribute what is happening with you

to your exposure to the vaccine um because cause Allie is a bitch right like he can't say maybe necessarily exactly. And one of the things I'll hear when people talk about reactions to the vaccine is they'll say, well, that probably would have happened to them if they were exposed to the virus as well. And maybe that's a totally legit statement.

But again, I don't know necessarily either way. I'm just curious if the medical community, if they are comfortable or willing to say, hey, what you're dealing with right now is due to the fact that you were exposed to the vaccine. Yeah, you know, I don't, I don't want to speak for him. Yeah. And I think, I think that's a tough, that's a really tough spot. And I think that's where we're at with all of this is, you know, there's a couple

things like I'm still working on as embarrassing as it is. Like this whole thing is super embarrassing, but. There's actually zero percent of this that's embarrassing. The, you know, unemployment. you know, asking for that, I have to have doctor approval. For compensation, I have to have doctor approval.

The doctor has to underline it to correct. Show legitimacy of the claim. And that doesn't even mean you get it. Yeah. It's, and I say there's a compensation, there's a website. Yeah. And that's pretty much

what we're looking at, you know? and it's a tough pill to swallow. But, I mean, from an ego standpoint, you know, three days after take a vaccine, you know, all these things match up. You know, next week if I go in, he says, you know, I don't think it's from the vaccine. Cool.

I would probably honestly disagree. Yeah. You know, I don't think this is all coincidental. and then somehow you're treating me, you know, and I'm not saying he's saying this. This is theoretically. Yeah, yeah. You're treating me for myocarditis. And, you know, I hope, you know, next week I go, and there is no mild carditis.

That even makes my recovering path even easier, right? And the arrhythmia like that, that as well can cause the chest pain and all the symptoms I'm having. Well, let me ask you that. Chances are probably not. But yeah, let me ask you this. Have you, have you, in going through this process, have you met other people that are also experiencing the same thing? Oh, for sure. And what I would say, not only the same symptoms, but onset due to similar experiences. To be honest, like, I had a really tough time coming out and talking about in general. And not really the backlash. Because at the end of the day, like, this is just what it is. is this is reality you know um i i didn't cause this i didn't want this to happen i didn't wish it to happen um but some these people in in some of these states like their doctors are just saying like

you're just anxious and they're saying you know i think i'm you know one minute they're saying you might have brain bleedage and then they get sent to someone else and they're being uh you just have anxiety and i and i and it's you know, it's really tough to talk for them. Because I can tell their story. Yeah. Well, I'm just curious if you've encountered people who have a similar story as to yours. Yeah.

Fuck. Have you, I mean, what is your experience when you've tried to talk openly about this? Do people, do you find that they are willing to at least consider the fact that the vaccine could have a negative consequence or do they want to avoid that level of conversation or association? You know, it, in all honesty, I think for the most part, people are really good or they're really just have a fake face about it. I think a lot of people still, though, it's so political. And, you know, some of my friends, they're on both sides. I'm not really a political person. but you know, you kind of can see on their faces

when you know, you try to explain it and it's like, you know, I doubt that, you know. And it's tough, it's a tough pill to swallow. And maybe I'm just overlooking, and I hope that's the case. But I think for the most part for like where we live, which I haven't really, to be honest, we like maybe less than 10 people knew before I posted.

And I was getting texts. like crazy like you know hey had no idea that was happening why wouldn't you tell me i was you know i would been here for you for sure yeah and it's like how how do you explain to somebody that your body is so in shock you know you're there's you know and i say this respectfully there's older ladies passing you in the grocery store and looking back at you like you're a prick. You're, I was, uh, so I met you at the street corner where I meet all the guests and walking up here, you know, you're walking slowly.

I mean, I recognize that obviously and I was asking you like stairs or elevator. And you're like, absolutely the stairs. I'm like, fuck you, dude. We're getting in the elevator. Like, uh, I mean, it certainly has a physical impact on you for sure. Right. Did the doc, uh, God. And again, this is it.

It would be, I feel like, I mean, are they giving you a path forward? they think it's going to look like. Do they feel like that what you are going through it, you can fully recover from? Yeah. They, you know, it's hard for them to say, you know, will it be a month from now? What would be a year from now? They don't know. And I think a lot has to do with, you know, when I go and get checked for inflammation, just to see where I'm at. Um, because they already, you know, they check my arteries. And they pretty much tell me that you're 24. It's almost, even if you were the most unhealthy issue in being

it would be almost impossible you know that was good a lot of things were good um we they definitely have a plan A I'll say that we have a plan A

but if plan A doesn't work you know I think it's right back to the board and a lot of it has to do um you know if it is a lot of it has to do with my own carditis they, it's just a waiting game from what, it's, it's so hard from what I've heard from others

and just in general that they, it's hard to diagnose myocarditis. That's the fluid and swelling around your heart, correct? Myocarditis? Yeah. I feel like, well, I gave exactly that medical description. Yeah, for sure. I think you're spot on. Yeah, no, people can look up myocarditis, which I'm going to actually after this as well.

I'm sure that I am positive of what it actually means. And also the, when they said the atrial tachycardi, so basically with that, they were saying that the, I think the top of my heart. Is that correct? Top. So not a medical student here. That's a medical term, the top. That's one of the four sections of the heart. For sure.

Bottom, left, and right are the other three. The northern part of the heart is beating really fast, faster than the rest of the heart. heart. So that's, that's where they're at. Let me ask you this. Do you think or do you feel, and this is, of course, based on just your opinion that what you are experiencing is due to the exposure to the vaccine? Um, I do. It'd be, it'd be hard to, you know, connect the dots to something else. Yeah. So let me ask you this. And this is based off of your feeling of that. how do you feel then about this emphasis and push for everybody to go out and get the vaccine given your own experience because they definitely and I'm not against the message of hey

you know the vaccine is safe and efficacious I think there probably should be an asterisk associated with that, but you can't just swipe under the table the other potential consequences that may come from it. So, and I'm just out of curiosity. I mean, like, you're obviously dealing still in the middle, in the throes of working yourself through a horrendous situation. How does that, how does that strike you when you see that messaging, when you hear that? Yeah, it was tough. I mean, it was still from, you know, what I thought about before. I don't, I don't think there ever should be a mandate. Especially when, you know, if something like this happens, who bails you out?

You know, who's there for you when your wife comes home from work crying and you can't do anything about it because you're pretty much down the couch, you know, who's going to take care of that, you know, who's going to take care of bills? If I don't know more, you know, I don't know if I would have taken a that risk. And not just a health risk. I mean, what it does to you, you know, mentally, physically. Yeah. As a new marriage. Yeah, you're in the trenches for sure, man. You know, financially, that's tough. You know, it's definitely tough. I mean, it's tough for anybody, but for someone that, and I won't say I had it figured out by no means. But I mean, I'm a normal American.

I was living an okay dream. Well, you know, and again, this is where I think it's important to point out that there's nothing to say that if you would have been exposed to COVID, you wouldn't have had exactly the same symptoms. Right. Right. And so, and I'm as far from anti-vaccine as you could possibly be. I'm just really, really anti-unformed decision. And I think it's very important that people understand the potential risk, but then also when you look at risk, right, you have to look at, you know, Is it 50 out of 100?

Is it, you know what I mean? One out of a hundred? Like, not all risk is the same. But how can you possibly make an educated decision if you don't at least explore the potential consequences? Well, that's the problem is you have to explore. Yeah. And you really can go and you can look at it. And chances are you're not going to see, you know, my face on an article saying this is what this dude's been through.

Well, I think that's why I wanted to reach out and talk to you. I'm not saying that people, if they take the vaccine, that this is what's going to happen. Right. What I'm saying is it's important to show all sides of a conversation and a discussion. And it's that way people can make the most educated decision possible. I'm not trying to sway anybody's opinion on the topic of COVID or the vaccine. Right. And obviously, like, COVID is real.

COVID is real. I've had it twice. Yeah. I've had it twice. You know, knock on wood. I've never had it And you know

Before I wasn't worried about it Now it's like Well shit Yeah I did everything Before To make sure You know I wouldn't get it

And if I did get it Chances are My odds were pretty high Now it's like I did what I was told And now it's like I've taken five steps back And it's like

Now I have to be a little worried Well, what you're going through could have potentially lifelong consequences. I mean, let's be honest. I think the most important thing that our country, the leaders in our country that they could have said that they didn't was we are not sure. This is the best information we have right now. And as it changes, we will change and update you as we know it. This is the best path forward based on the information we have now. It's this hesitance to, to, to know, not say the words, I don't know or I'm not sure. And I think that gets very dangerous, especially when you start pushing people, large groups of people, and then trying to force compliance through odd mandates or restrictions. Yeah. I don't think there's anything wrong with

saying, I don't know. Because I don't think that your experience is unique by any stretch. I think it's hard to get people to talk about those experiences. And that's why I think it was important to sit down and have and have a conversation with you about what you went through. Because for somebody to say that that's not real, I mean, fuck right off. You can see the pain in your face. Right. I can see you trying to like put together all of the pieces of shit. Did this happen first? Did that happen first? Was it on this visit? Right. Like that shit's real. And I know like pages had to like come in so many times, but I, I've been on the couch for so long. Like at some point, like your brain honestly, like it goes dull.

A lot of it is just and to be to be really honest like I haven't been, I haven't felt even remotely normal until three weeks ago. That's a long time. That's an incredibly long time and I'm glad to hear that you are at least trending back in that direction. For sure. And also the hardest part was so I kind of deleted social. media, the apps. I was kind of already in that phase, but when I was going through this, I didn't see what I'm seeing now.

What do you mean? Like, as in like all these Instagram pages that are advocating for people. I didn't have social media, so I felt alone. Man, it was dark. You know, I only knew two other people. Somebody actually sent me an article of, you know, a professional mountain biker. you know, I reached out to him and his girlfriend on Instagram, and they were just kind of like, you seem like you're going through the same thing, and this is what we did, and I hope you get better,

but that's really the only thing I can do for you. Like, I hope someone's there for you. And the other person I met, like, his family, he's a senior in high school, and he's going through this. And, you know, they, you know, they, you know, they, you know, they may. message me and was just like, hey, like, I really hope someone's there for you. And I didn't really, you don't really understand what that means until you're, you're really in the thick of it. Yeah. And, you know, it's tough, it's dark. And I think it's, I think it's essential that those people have a voice as well. For sure. They, they can't, it can't be ignored. And again, I'm not trying to sway anybody's opinion on any topic. But you have to, you have to at least

look for both sides of the conversation. For sure. And a lot of it, you know, there, I will not say, I'll say social media platforms. I will not. We'll keep it as that. But, you know, the fact that you can't say you cannot spell out vaccine. Oh, is that what? Okay. Yeah. That's why people will put the at sign in it or? That is the craziest thing. If you tell you. me five years ago that you couldn't say vaccine. Yeah. I would have laughed in your face and been like, dude, this is America.

Well, I think, I think, God, I would like to think that the people that make those decisions are saying, or at least thinking about it from the perspective of, and not that this is a correct perspective, but like for the greater good, we have to do this because we don't want anybody to push misinformation and disinformation, which I really think those should be really, really, further defined instead of thrown around as a blanket term. I would like to think that they are at least pure in their intent to do that. But I think in the future, five years from now, 10 years from now, looking back at what messages were or conversation points were suppressed and how far one particular narrative was pushed, I don't know if it's going to be judged so hot. I think any time that you try to censor, well, what I'll say is this, I haven't at least found in my life yet a situation where censorship did something positive. Right.

Where it instilled more faith than it stole. For sure. And people that are injured like me, it sucks because, you know, you have people from all types of backgrounds, right? Religion, political party, everything. And to be tossed in the middle of this political war. when people are hurting, you know, it's pretty disgusting. Yeah.

You know, it sucks. And whatever, like, I've kind of just came to grip with it. Like, you know, cool. If the battle is that it is rare, perfect. Perfect. Have that. But don't say there's no one hurt. And don't try to make it invisible.

Because there is people. And there's people. Way, way worse than me. And there's a couple of things I read from people. They don't even know. Like the last person I read, you know, her husband just died from myocarditis, just dropped dead. Yeah. And it's like, in reality, we, as bad as it sucks, you know, we,

you've got to have the feedback. Positive and negative. We all want what's best for us. We all want to strive. I don't think there's anyone out there, whether they want the vaccine or they're against it. In reality, they would take the vaccine if they thought it was safe. I mean, that's plain as day.

And again, I can just keep rambling about just, how discussing this, just be tossed in the middle of everything. What would you hope that people learn from your experience from what you talked about? I mean, what would you hope that it could do or provide to somebody? You know, that's a tough question. You know, if you've taken the vaccine, and I don't want to say this, just real quick, then I'll answer that. You know, I've had friends say, hey, I saw what happened, but I went ahead and took the vaccine. I hope you're not mad at me. And it's like, why am I mad at you? Yeah. I want you to be healthy. I want you

to feel safe. And if that's the way, then that's the way. And make the best decision for the situation that you're in, of course. And if you're healthy and nothing happens, great, right? And you know, if you end up in my situation, I'm here for you. I'm here for you regardless, either way. And I suspect your first words out of your mouth probably wouldn't be I told you so. Yeah. And I think that's what a lot of this is, is everyone just wants to be right. And I think that's where we've got all this wrong. Yeah.

So that's a good way to put that, actually. Not bad. So what would you want people to take away from you? Um, I would just say, I don't, from like the vaccine standpoint or in general, the experience that you've just gone. So since October to mid-February, let me carry the one on that. That's almost six months. In the words I would choose to use, after listening to you for the first time, describe this, your fucking horrendous journey through medicine, pain, personal exploration.

I mean, for people listening, what would you want them to know? And maybe there isn't an answer to that because you haven't been asked it yet, but... Well, you know, and I fall in this category as well. I've been, you know, someone, you know, someone woke up this morning complaining that they didn't want to do the dishes. You know, they didn't want to take the trash out. They didn't want to make their bed. When, I didn't see you hiding in my bedroom this morning or kitchen. I made the bed this morning in the hotel. I was going to say, because I didn't feel like to do any of those things this morning.

But I did, fuckers. Good. You know, someone is in my spot. Yeah. Wanting to do that. And the coin, you know, and that doesn't mean like I'm out of that equation. You know, somebody is wanting to do what I'm doing right now. They are in the thick of it.

and they're, you know. It's a powerful tool to contextualize things like that. I think that's important. And honestly, you'll probably look back at this last six months for a very long period, if not your entire life because it will provide context for appreciation, suffering, and everything in between those two things. Yeah. I mean, from just doing dishes to hop in the shower and not feeling like you're going to pass out.

Yeah. It's easy to bitch about wanting to do the dishes until you physically are at a place where it's impossible and then you wish that you could. And Page makes fun of me, but that's like one of my only goals every day. As soon as I wake up, you know, I read a little bit. I try to reach out to some of the other people. Just let them know, like, you know, today's a good day. You know, if you're suffering, you know, let me know. I'm here for you.

But, and then I get up. I make the bed and I just try to do as much as I can. Yeah. That's really, you know, that's it. That's all I can do. If you're able to return back to baseline, I don't want to use the term normal because that's such a shifting. I would take that, though. Yeah.

Whatever it is. How about return back to where you were prior to June of last year, whatever that might be on whatever metric you're using? you think you'd still want to pursue the military? I mean, obviously, this is the front-site focus for you right now, but assuming that you're able to make your way through it, you still plan on pursuing all the other goals in life that you have? Has it reframed maybe what you want to do with your life? You know, I said if I can be healthy by May,

I'll run a half Iron Man in October. I know Paige is a little against that, but, you know, I might take it easy, enjoy some of the things I missed out on, but, you know, eventually that's the route I want to go. I want to do half Iron Man, full Iron Man. I know it's a big task to ask, but I guess try to raise money for those that are hurting. Yeah. So.

And you can do that through the accomplishment of your own goals as well. For sure. imagine how amazing that will feel when you are able to accomplish those things, especially through the lens of what you've gone through in the last six months. Yeah. It'll be a big thing for sure. I think it's important that you have a voice and you can talk about your experience. And maybe for some people, you know, this episode, they'll be like, I don't want to fucking hear about this.

You know, propagandists, you're trying to, you know, push an anti-vaccine narrative. And to me, that's the exact opposite. I think the experience that you went through, A, it's real and B, it's important for people to hear that just because it's not necessarily happening in your life doesn't mean it's not happening very quietly to somebody very close to you. For sure. Yeah, and that, yeah, just the reality of it, you know, it's a tough pill to swallow. Yeah. Especially when you sit here and you get, you know, called an anti-vaccor, and it's like, what are you talking about? Yeah.

You know, I wanted the best just like everyone else. Yeah. But, you know, it is what it is. It is what it is. Dude, your story is unbelievable. Well, thank you. Not as in like I don't believe it. Right.

God, I should have picked a different word. Your story is hard to listen to the struggles. And I'll tell you why, I mean, maybe not as hard for most people. I really struggled with my journey through military medicine and the realization that a lot of the hospitals are training hospitals. Running joke is where do you go after you get all D's in medical school, the United States Navy, or what do you call the guy who graduates med school with all D's? You're like, oh, military doctor.

And I've had some great experience with military doctors, but they're also just humans. And it's a practice, not a science. and they don't have all the answers, and it's human beings. And I was looking back on it now, I'm not going to say it was irresponsible. I think the people did the best that they could, but the amount of medications that I was on and the interactions and the fact that my sister started finding some of those things as opposed to the doctors. And I'm like, this isn't working. Try this.

It's still not working. I cannot sleep unless I pound an entire bottle of Captain Morgan. So I get it. That story of what you went through and the difficulties of that. that and feeling lost and feeling invisible and feeling like your opinion is diminished. It's rough, man. I get it. And I applaud you for continuing to put one foot in front of the other because there

are some people that will crack underneath that and that's just, it sucks. And they have, you know, and honestly, like, they have every reason to. I mean, it's a really, really dark place. And I want to clarify as well, like, you know, all of the, like, what you say, said, like, I really think majority of all the nurses, all the doctors, they're just doing what they have in front of them. They're not perfect. They're not.

They're just trying to do their best for sure. And I just want to clarify that as well, that by no means am I against them, nor are they my enemies, you know, obviously. Yeah. So. Well, I want you guys to go and enjoy a little bit of Montana, so I'm going to let you guys get out of here. We've been out of it for well over two and a half hours. Oh, wow.

What? How would you like to close this out? I'm hesitant to ask you how people can get in touch with you because there's some fucking assholes out there who will try to get in touch with you. But I will let you close it out, Chase. First time on a podcast ever talking about a very personal experience and a topic that is contentious to say the least. It's, you know, not on here after winning. Kona, Iron Man.

Not exactly, nor did I ever think I'd ever be on a podcast, never even thought about it. But, you know, I struggle sometimes like this, you know, I try to, you know, feel like my story is not enough. Like, you know, so many others are struggling. But at the same time, like, you know, my story is my story. Yeah. Regardless, whether I like it or not, that's it. and what I choose to do from here is really up to me. So, yeah.

Well, I'll close it by thanking both of you for your time. I know the travel is not the easiest. I know you're still dealing with what you had talked about for the last few hours. So it's awesome that you would choose to put that strand on yourself to come share the time with me. And I hope that the people listening can at least take the time to appreciate, you know, maybe you don't have it so bad.

And maybe just remember there might be some people out there dealing with stuff that you're very fortunate to avoid. For sure. And myself as well. Yeah. Cool. On that note. Well, thank you. Let's get you out of here. All right. Cool.