Life Uncut - After Toxic Shock Syndrome Caused Lauren Wasser to Lose Her Legs, She Redefined What We Perceive as Beautiful.

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

Lauren Wasser was born into a family of models and started modelling at just 2 months old. She was a fit tom boy and had begun to make a name for herself in the modelling industry. When Lauren was 24 years old she developed Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS). In this chat we speak about Lauren’s personal experience of feeling a ‘bit off’ one day. 24 hours later she was fighting for her life. The syndrome caused a life threatening situation and Lauren ended up needing to have both of her legs amputated in an effort to keep her alive. Now, 6 years since the infection, Lauren is modelling with her golden legs.  Lauren also speaks about growing up with one view of beauty, and how our perceptions of beauty have evolved. Lauren speaks about her journey of recovering from her amputations and advocates for better after care for patients who experience similar changes to their lives.  This episode has been reviewed and approved by two medical doctors registered in NSW.  You can find more information about toxic shock syndrome in the links below: https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/epidemiology/epidemiology-fact-sheets/toxic-shock-syndrome/ TOXIC SHOCK SYNDROME AND STREPTOCOCCAL TOXIC SHOCK health direct government of SA You can check out Lauren’s Instagram You can watch us on Youtube Find us on Instagram Join us on tiktok Or join the Facebook Discussion Group Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! xx    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Life Uncut acknowledges the traditional custodians of country whose lands were never ceded. We pay our respects to their elders past and present. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land. This episode was recorded on Gadigal land. Hi guys and welcome back to another episode of Life Uncut. I'm Brittany. And I'm Laura. I'm super excited to introduce today's guest. Her name is Lauren Wossart. She is an American model who has been modeling since the age of two months old. And that's really important because her whole life was based around modeling. Her mother was a very successful model. And when she was in her early twenties, she contracted toxic shock syndrome.

Now, when you think of toxic shock syndrome or TSS, it's something that I feel like, I don't know about you, Laura, but growing up, when you get your period, the first thing you hear about is like okay don't put a tampon in for longer than eight hours make sure you never leave it in because you'll get something called toxic shock syndrome which can make you really sick I actually like vividly remember when you would get a box of tampons you'd pull out the information leaflet and when you're a little kid and you get your period and you first start using tampons you probably read that thing right like so it tells you like what the recommendation of the use is for the tampon I can hand on heart say that at the age of 38 years

old, I have never had somebody have a conversation with me around TSS. And this is exactly what Lauren is trying to advocate for because she followed all the directions and yet she started to show signs of the symptoms of TSS. And it wasn't until being in hospital and it actually being diagnosed, she was so lucky to live through this. And now it's become her life mission to share with other women just how dangerous it can be. She did end up having both legs amputated. She did survive and she is dedicating her life now to trying to make a change, which I think is incredible. I mean, this conversation goes beyond just being about TSS.

It's also a conversation around what it's like when your entire currency and the value of you as a person is based on the way you look, having to kind of rediscover your identity and also rediscover what beauty means when, and in the case of Lauren, she became a double amputee. Lauren speaks about some of the lowest moments she had after her amputation about not wanting to be on earth anymore, thinking she was a burden to people and not knowing how she was possibly going to get through life to six, seven years on being, you know, a cover model. She's got her golden legs. She's known as, you know, the woman with golden legs. Let's get into the chat with

Lauren. I'm very excited to welcome Lauren to the podcast today and have this chat. Hi, Lauren. Hey guys, thank you so much for having me. Lauren, we start every episode the same way with our guests and that is your Accidentally Unfiltered story. And you said you have one that's just happened very recently to you yeah I mean I think it's funny because I mean everyone that's in my life or just any of my friends or family like we always joke around about my legs you know because I can't feel anything so it's kind of funny because I can just like walk around and hit things and like I'm like ow but like I didn't feel anything you know so this is not that funny but it's just uh uh I was running I run I live in Los Angeles and I I live by the reservoir

in Los Feliz and I run that every you know a couple days a week and I was running on Friday and I was on my last stride like I was finishing my three miles feeling good whatever whatever and like mid stride I'm like running and my running blades they're they're made by Nike they're incredible this has never happened to me in my entire existence of having no legs but my blade like actually slipped off so like my whole leg just like flew up in front of me like slow motion and i'm dead ass just like and i just got them like re-golden so i'm like damn it that's so clean and it's just like so gold and it's just propelling in front of me and i'm like fuck and then as i'm like realizing what's happening i hit the floor really hard and i'm like wait what just

happened i'm like my my leg just like flew off and then i'm sitting there like trying to get the shit like you know back on and like hurrying up and finishing my run but it wasn't it wasn't even that that like was like low-key funny I was just like mad at people because it was so many people and I'm like not one of these people asked me if like I was low-key okay or like if I was good and I was like damn that's crazy so I put my blade back on and I just ran literally past everyone that like didn't help me and I was like fuck all of you guys yeah fuck you that was gonna be my question because honestly I feel like people can be so weird about disability and so therefore they're like well I don't want to I don't want to draw more attention to it I don't want to you

know I don't want you to feel offended by me asking if you want help you're capable you can do this but at the same time if you saw anyone fall over in the street would you not ask them if they're okay and needed help well like first of all like disability isn't even in my vocabulary like there's nothing on this planet that I cannot do I'm just sharing this story with you because I think it's low-key funny for me because if you know me like I just take a piss out of that so like for me it was more so just the humanity of like where the fuck is everybody and like do you not just check if someone's okay if they fall like what if I fucking hit my head or something and then I just put my leg on and I pass by all of them and they're just I'm just like you guys

suck like as I'm running by I'm just like fuck all of you guys I do imagine it would there'd be a funny moment where you're not really understanding what's happened yet and like it's all slow motion and you've got this golden leg in the sunshine like fluffing through the window and you're like that's supposed to be on my leg yeah yeah it was jokes but yeah it's that never happens that's not supposed to happen it just actually was like my fault because I didn't make sure I was locked in so Lauren we're gonna get into your story around everything that you experienced when you were 24 toxic shock syndrome and how that absolutely just changed your life literally overnight can you tell us what your life was like before you contracted toxic shock yeah uh i grew up in

los angeles my mom and dad are both models so i came from that background of perfection i was an italian vogue when i was three months old shot by patrick dimashe with my mom uh we traveled the world together but i never wanted to model i was an athlete i played basketball at full scholarship to play D1 basketball. I was just an athlete. I didn't really give a crap about modeling. Like to me, it was just kind of a joke to be honest, but I did it here and there, but it wasn't, it wasn't fulfilling, you know, it wasn't something that like made me like get up every day. It was like, I just wanted to play with the guys and play basketball and play pickup games and, you know, go to practice. And that's really all I cared about. And then I was 24, active, young girl,

had been using the same brand of tampons that I'd been using since I started my period. Super absorbent, heavy. And yeah, it was October. It was flu season. I was living alone for the first time. It was my blind cocker spaniel and I in my one bedroom apartment in Santa Monica. Yeah, it was just a normal day. I was on my period. I just started developing like flu-like symptoms and it was October. So it was flu season. So all of my friends were getting sick. So I was just assuming that like, oh, maybe I'm just a little off. As the day progressed, I obviously kept changing my tampon as you normally should. And it was one of my good friend's birthdays that night. And I remember texting with them like, I don't know if I can go. I don't know if I feel

well enough. Anyway, got in the shower, changed my tampon again, went straight to the venue and I walked in. It was like all my friends literally looked at me and they were like, you look really sick. And at that moment kind of, you know, hit me that like something was wrong. I drove myself back to my apartment. I was extremely hot. By this time, I guess I was developing 107 fever. So I wanted all of my clothes off. So I just went and laid down. My mom and I are really close. So she didn't hear from me and knew that I wasn't feeling very well. So she was trying to get in touch with me and she couldn't. She had just had surgery. So she was bedridden and also like 45 minutes away from me at the time. So she couldn't get to me. So she called for a welfare check from

the cops. Wow. At this time, I just remember that my blind cocker spaniel was like, and if you know cocker spaniels, they're so sweet. She was jumping on me ferociously, barking at me. Basically, she knew something was wrong. And again, I had 107 fever accumulating and I heard the cop knocking at the door. So I got myself up. I opened the door and he just said, you're really sick. You need to call your mom. And if you've ever been to LA, like where my apartment was and where St. John's hospital is, is literally five minutes away. Like I could see the hospital from my balcony every day. So the fact that this cop just said, oh, you're really sick. You need to call your mom. And he actually just left me is insane because I was dying. Did he ask you anything when

he came in for this welfare check? I don't want to put all the blame on him, not kind of investigating more at that time, but did he ask questions? Did he try and get more information or was it just like, Oh, you're, you're alive. You're fine. Go sort this out with your mom. It's like ticking a box. Yeah. Yeah. I just, I mean, you know, this is also part of my journey and also part of my job, right. Is bringing awareness, not to just women, but to men, to first responders, to doctors, to, you know, schools, to nurses, you know, these are things that people need to be aware of. And so I don't blame him. Unfortunately, I wish that he would have taken a second act and been like, wow, I should just at least get this girl to the hospital,

but he didn't. And had he known that TSS was a thing, maybe he would have known like flu-like symptoms. Well, you know, maybe if he would have even asked me if I was on my period, but again, I had 107 fever. I was delusional. I had no idea what was going on. So I don't even know if I would have been able to say anything to him, but called my mom, knowing my mom and her motherly instinct. She said, you know, are you okay? And I'm just like, I'm really sick. And she said, well, did he say he's going to take you to the emergency room? Like what? And I was like, no, he just said I was really sick and he left, but that didn't sit well with her. So once we hung up, she actually called for another welfare check, called for her husband to come get her from work, from his work

to drive her to me, called for all of my friends, called for everyone she knew to get to me to my apartment because she knew something wasn't right. Took off like 30 minutes to get inside my apartment. They found me face down on my apartment floor. They then rushed me to St. John's where thank god there was an infectious disease doctor on call because they couldn't figure out why this young healthy 24 year old girl is literally dying before us so then I was having I had like two heart attacks they told my parents to like basically prepare for my funeral and once they found the tampon and they sent it to the lab it came back as TSS1 which is toxic shock syndrome and then the doctor gave me the medicine that was necessary I was in a medically induced coma for

a week and a half. At this point in your life at 24, because I think as women, we are conscious of toxic shock syndrome. I think as women, it's something you're told when you're in your teens and you first get your period. It's kind of almost like just mentioned as a byline, but no one actually takes it seriously or thinks that it's something that could happen to them. What was happening for you? Because it seems like your experience is not what most women would think toxic shock or how it's created. Yeah, it can happen at any time to anyone. Yeah. A lot has to do with the branding you know the packaging the making it a discreet hand gesture of passing it in a party or something it's like why are you shaming the fact that this is something that we

have to do because we're women and we make babies this this should not be something we shouldn't be able to speak about like why are you making it a bad thing when this is just a natural thing that every single woman on this planet has to go through going back to your story lauren when you had gotten into hospital and they acknowledged they recognized it was tss they knew what it was that they were dealing with and they could start treating it your body was responding to the treatment what happened next how did this progress for you yeah so basically when I was dying in my my bedroom you know when you're dying your body basically goes into shock and tries to send all of the blood to your internal organs your brain your heart your kidneys so a lot of the damage

that was done when my body was basically trying to save itself the blood flow didn't get to my legs, my arms. And so once I got to the hospital, they were trying everything, but I woke up and I was 200 pounds. My head was shaved because my hair got matted and no one cares about your hair when they're trying to save your life. I had tubes everywhere. I woke up and there was a woman changing a bag, a nurse changing a bag. And I remember asking her later what that was and it was all black and she had to keep re-changing it. The water that they had to put inside of me to make me that big was to flush all of that out. So I was seeing the toxins actually coming out of my body into these like jars, trying to get it out of my system. My feet were just excruciating.

They were burning. Gain green had set into my right leg, was setting into my left leg. They rushed me to UCLA to try to get me in a hyperbaric chamber to try to get the blood flow more consistent and try to salvage my legs as much as possible. But unfortunately, they gave me a choice of you know it was moving too quickly was either my life or my right leg so of course they wanted to save my life so i had to amputate my right leg and then they gave me a 50 50 chance of my left side ever being okay because my heel was badly damaged and that was all burned off for me so i didn't have that skin and there was i mean you need that heel skin can't be transplanted from someone else not that skin the skin on your heel is different from any part of

your body and that it's so tough and strong. So it can take the beating of being on your feet all day or running a marathon or dancing all night, just doing life. My godfather to this day, rest in peace, he was incredible by my side. And he was like, you should just amputate both of them because you can get back to your life. You're an athlete, all these things. But my mom was definitely more so like salvage everything and yeah you know I'm kind of caught in the middle because I don't know I I wouldn't have never thought I'd be in that position so and how do you make that decision under so much stress with no time frame it's not like hey you guys have a think about if you want to amputate your leg get back to us it's like you're gonna die so you make

your decisions now and I had to sign the papers so it was like really insane to actually have to like give the authority for them to literally chop my leg off. So then they amputated my right leg below the knee and amputated my toes and my heel was debride and put me in like the top three hospitals in Los Angeles for rehab. I mean, I went to St. John's, UCLA, and then Cedars. And then I was in a wheelchair for eight months and they're literally like, all right, bye. see you later going from being sick to being told that you're going to have your legs amputated but something that I know was part of maybe even a consideration at the time is that you thought that there was a possibility you might lose both your hands as well I know that you were in a

situation where you just had to sign the dotted line but what were you processing at that time what were you feeling were you resigned to the fact or were you fighting it I don't even think I knew the severity of what was happening like I think I everything was happening so fast my life within 24 hours completely changed and no going back. The damage was already done. I was basically just doing what I needed to do to survive. You know, I didn't, I didn't have an option. It was my life or my leg. Yeah. And then you just said something really interesting. They put you in a wheelchair and then they just wheeled you off and were like, bye, good luck. Was that literally it? Like we've done our job. There's no aftercare from their behalf anymore. And you've just got

to go find your way in the world. I mean, I think that's pretty much what happens, right? Unfortunately, if something happens to you, you go and you get the help you need. And then it's kind of like, all right, our job is done and back to the real world, you know, but it's like back to a real world of what I, every part of myself that I knew as a 24 year old girl up until that point was that person. And then you're putting me in a wheelchair. I have half a foot. My heel is open. I have no right leg. I'm 200 pounds. You know, my head's shaved and you're wheeling me into my room. I think that's really when it hit was the reality set in, but also the reality of my life was completely

and utterly just what the fuck just happened to me. Lauren, you said something at the very start when we were talking about your story and your leg coming off and I said disability and you said I don't even believe in the word. What did you think in that moment? Because when you're, I mean, in no way have you been abandoned in that situation but your life has been completely flipped on its head. you no longer are the version of yourself that you were x amount of weeks prior how did you

process that because you can do all the physical rehabilitation or the physical therapy in the world but it also comes down to the mental load that this is taking on you and how you process this new identity and who you're going to be and what you're going to achieve and how you're going to mentally overcome this is just as important as the physical recovery yeah I didn't even know You know, I had no idea how and what I was going to do in life. You know, I had only seen one side of beauty, right, which was perfection. I only knew being an athlete, which was being active, being consistently in motion. And here I am, can't even walk myself to the bathroom because I don't have a fucking leg.

You know, it's like, wait, what just happened? My whole entire life was just flipped on its head. And then again, I don't know anything about amputees. I don't know anything about prosthetics. I have no idea. And why would I? So it was just an unfamiliar world, but also how the hell am I going to A, survive this, but then like be accepted in a world that doesn't accept anyone that's like myself, I felt in that situation because I felt so alone. And also just like, again, not even really knowing what just happened. It just all hit me. And then it's like, almost, I guess, for what you guys can take it is, like the pandemic, for instance, the whole world shuts down, right? There's no access to anything. You can't do anything. That was literally my life. But the whole world kept moving. And people kept doing things, you know, like life kept on. But I was stuck in misery. And I was stuck in a place where I would barely want to see the sun. I would keep it completely dark. You know, I contemplated suicide every single day. I would wheel my chair my wheelchair into the shower every day and just scream at god and ask him why you know and Really thinking about like in what way can I take my life today?

Because I didn't want to be here. I didn't see a place for myself I didn't even know what the fuck just happened to be honest And I just was like it was so much damage and it was so much to just take in And I was so innocent and young and I had no idea I couldn't kill myself a because my little brother was coming home every single day he was like 13 14 at the time so he would be the one find me and I couldn't live with myself there's no way in hell I would be able to live with myself knowing that he would have to come home and find me like that and live the rest of his life or my mom you know I just think that's very selfish and

I also didn't want that for myself I knew that I had to get the fuck up how did you survive it Lauren what changed I think being an athlete really helped in this situation because I have that mindset of figure it out, get up. What are you going to do? And to be honest with you, a lot of people just think they're off limits. And I think God gave me this purpose for a reason. It unfortunately takes something to happen to someone that looks like myself for people to pay attention. People think that they're invincible. No one is off limits. TSS can happen to anyone. Once I had realized that it set a fire in my heart that I needed to not only share this with the world, but like wave my hands and scream on the top of my lungs.

And I don't want it to see it happen to another soul. And so that's why this message is so important for women to have and for men to have because every single person needs to be aware of this. What was the time period, Lauren, between when you went home and you had the amputation to when you were able to go and actually get a prosthetic and relearn that process and get your life back? It was about eight months. I was in a wheelchair for eight months. My left foot was basically trying to fix itself. So my toes would actually start to try to grow back. Wow. And it was extremely painful. And then going back to what you had mentioned, asking me what there is on the planet that's tough enough for a foot. The only thing that

I had accessible to me or that could even be of some value was baby foreskin. It's tough enough to allow me to walk and stuff. So I had two of those. Do you say foreskin? Yeah. Far out. Yeah, maybe foreskin. Can you talk to us about the time period for when you made the decision to amputate your other leg? Because I imagine that is a really big decision because, I mean, I don't know. You tell me, but I'm imagining there's a big difference between having one foot to zero feet. Is that, is it better to have had both legs amputated or what was your experience? I mean, yeah, I think I definitely wish I would have done it sooner. But again, I can't go I can't be myself up for that, right? I just had to go trial and error. I think that's just life. But

given the circumstance, I didn't know it was the unknown. So I was just going with what God gave me and the instinct of I fight. I'm a fighter. I mean, that's the only reason why I'm alive and here today. So I have to exhaust all of my options before I can make a definitive answer for myself and especially, you know, losing a limb, right? The first one wasn't my choice. The second one was freedom for me. My left foot was, the damage was irreversible. Again, I had mentioned earlier how my toes were trying to go back. I had three surgeries to cut my toes back and it was just excruciating pain. It felt like I had like a toothache for 24 hours a day. What kind of life is that? And then I'm in excruciating pain and I'm miserable.

And then I'm just given all of these painkillers and I'm like, fuck that. So I'm grateful that I was able to make that decision for myself. But it was also like I was turning 30 and I was like, I do not want to live the rest of my life in misery. I don't deserve that. I deserve to be free. I deserve to have a life and not just get by. And it was the best thing I ever did, you know. But I also had to learn what I was getting into, quote unquote, putting my toes in the water. you know I gotta like see what I'm getting into no pun intended yeah yeah totally what is your

life like now Lauren I mean with where you were at when you were absolutely in the deepest parts of this experience to where you're at now seems like almost coming from night to day what is life like for you now I live a beautiful life I'm so grateful you know like I said there's nothing I cannot do on this planet but again that's a luxury that I have you know I'm like That zero zero one percent that has the accessibility to the prosthetics, to the feet, you know, to the health care that allows me to get to be who I am and do what I do. You know, our health care system is so messed up. God forbid, you know, someone goes in and loses their leg today and gets hit by a car. You know, they're just given the basic peg leg, I would say, to get them by.

And it's like, wait a second, that's so unfair because someone's already losing a part of themselves. And then how are they supposed to even feel like they've gotten their life back if they can't even walk up a hill or like have a natural gait? So that's just something else I'm fighting for. But yeah, there's nothing I can't do. And I live an incredible life trying to change what we think is beautiful within the fashion industry, entertainment industry, showing a new side of beauty, because I think more than ever, we need to really rally and fight for what we deserve.

And that's for safe feminine hygiene products. That's for equal pay. That's literally for everything that we have to fight for, you know? I know you mentioned earlier that you said, you know, you don't see yourself with a disability, but you were for a period of time in a wheelchair and now you do have two prosthetics. I'd love to know how you perceived people treating you in that time. Do you feel like you were treated differently all of a sudden because you're in a wheelchair, because you looked differently? And I know you said, you know, you were running before

your leg came off. No one helped you, which is wild because I think if you had two normal legs, somebody would have helped you. Yeah, that's exactly it. And I think it's because people are scared of like offending someone. Well, it's actually funny that you say that. My mom literally was like, I call my mom and I told her and she's like, yeah, but it's like, not like everyone fucking sees that every day. I would go and pick up someone's leg and I'll be like, can I give this back to you? But, but I mean, we laugh about it now. How did people treat you differently? You know, I think it was more so like, I don't like help. I've never been the type of person to ask for anything because I, again, I'm just very self-sufficient and I'm also just like do it myself. And I hated being in a wheelchair and having to have that help and needing my mom to constantly drive me to my doctor's offices or wheel me around places. or it was such a reality check for me just to see how unfair the world is regarding accessibility

and disability. Just me traveling the world, I don't know how people do it because a lot of the world is not made for people in wheelchairs or people with, you know, certain disabilities, just the accessibility of going up a hill or like, you know, in Italy and Rome and in Japan and all these places. They're walking cities. So that was something that I never experienced. But now that I'm able to experience it because of my life, my lifestyle, I don't know how it is. And I always say that people in wheelchairs or any kind of adaptive situations like that are my heroes. Because to have to be in a situation where you're put in something where you have to use it every day to do anything and everything and you get up with a smile and you go in the

shower and even though it takes you 20 more minutes than a normal person or you know you have to go to the store and you're you're smiling and you're everyone's looking at you different and you don't care because you know that like for you to be out in the world that's so much strength you know like to get up every day and face a world that doesn't accept you and is not really necessarily made for you or has even tried to do anything for you is hard and to see people just honestly own it and just do what they got to do and they do it with a smile i salute them also like i can do everything like i'm below the knee i don't have any pain i can run i can hike i can go swimming i the only time i honestly remind myself that oh shit i don't have legs is when

i have to go pee in the middle of the night like and i gotta put my legs on like honestly if i'm wearing pants you would never know i didn't have legs like that's a luxury you mentioned something earlier you said and you're talking about because you're working in the modeling industry and you said you know it's a privilege to be able to redefine beauty standards especially within a traditional traditional modeling and traditional media but did your perception of beautiful change have you had a more of a you know a softening or a better understanding of the diversity like what's changed for you in this space? 1,000%. Again, I think coming from that 1% of beauty, you know, growing up with Stephanie

Seymour and Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell just walking around, you know, and my mom just looking, banging 24-7. It's insane. I still look back and I'm like, damn, that's crazy. But again, that's unrealistic. You know, I mean, not everyone is born that way And also can just look like that. I think that being an athlete and then just being a young girl, I think like any of us when we're young, we think we're invincible. We think that we are untouchable. There's nothing that would ever faze us. So I think having something which I basically defined my whole life, right, was this outer being of being able to model or do whatever the hell I wanted to do based on my looks. and then to have that stripped right like my legs were taken from me I can't just like put a band-aid on and act like it didn't happen it's like my fucking legs like I have to own it I have to show it I'm not gonna hide in a prison all my life so I wanted to release myself of that and I was hiding

myself for a really long time and I made sure I walked without a limp I would only really show if I really wanted to but going through all of what I went through from you know being suicidal to all this stuff like i had to do the work and the work started within and it really started with none of this shit matters like who gives a shit what you look like it's about who you are like what's in your heart what do you want to do on this planet that's not only going to affect you but the people around you the people that are coming after you what legacy do you want to leave for yourself and for the generations to come our lives are not about ourselves our lives about everyone else that's around us and how we can impact them and how we can help them how we can you know make the

world better. I think growing up in that one side of beauty is honestly ridiculous because it's so shallow. Who cares? Who cares what you do, what you drive? If you're not a good person or you don't have a good heart, then you're ugly anyway. So it doesn't matter if you're the most beautiful person, you know. What is next for you and what are the things that you want to achieve with this? As far as my advocacy goes, I have a documentary that I'm in the process of making and I'm only doing that because I have 90 hours of unseen footage of when I first went into the hospital. Wow. You know, there's only key points in which I want to share with the world, but it's only key points in which that I need people to see me in that position. For instance, screaming

for my mom, not letting her, you know, let me go back for them to chop off my legs. I need the world to see me in that position because they only see me now, right? I'm only known as the girl with the golden legs, this, that, and the other. And it's like, wait a second, do you know how I got the golden legs yeah almost losing my life I did I wasn't born like this like this is literally me having to a survive but then you know learn what and how I'm gonna live my life keep having the conversations keep informing women that we deserve better and we deserve to be protected Lauren thank you so much for coming on today and very generously donating your time which I'm sure is very valuable to you we really appreciate it and I've learned so much that I'm embarrassed to say also as a

36 year old woman that I had no fucking idea about don't be embarrassed but there's nothing to be embarrassed like that's the reason this is this is so important you know like we as women need to have these conversations but we've been taught right we've been conditioned to like be discreet or not talk about certain things and it's like where is that coming from that's not coming from women I also love what you said because this is not I mean all of these things that affect women are not just women's problems like men and everybody needs to be educated in the same way in order to support the people in their life that they love in order to be able to know when something's going wrong like i think this is not just for things like toxic shock

syndrome but like conversations that we've had on this podcast around endometriosis pcos like all of these things that we experience majority of men don't even know that they exist don't even know that they're an issue and it's like how do you how do you support the people in your life how do you help them recover go through something be empathetic towards it if you don't even understand the root cause of it. And also just as like a final message going back to the very beginning where you said you know your mum or someone in your life you're so lucky that they knew you well enough to know something was wrong and they that went to the extra effort to check on you because in that moment I thought I don't think my mum would do that and that's not because you know

I'm so close to my mum but she would never think that when I'm unwell with a fever that I'm dying she would just not think that she'd be like well rest up make sure you get a hot water bottle or get what you need. But I don't think my mom would send somebody over for a welfare check in that moment. And I don't know many people that would. You're so lucky that you have such a mom who's so in tune with you. But it's just more of a lesson to everyone. When you have somebody in your life that is not well, just check on them at the end of the day. Or ask. In that situation, if you don't feel well, hey, are you on your period? Yeah, I am. Well, are you using a tampon? maybe you know maybe take it out see how you feel so anyone that wants to go and find out more

please go and check out lauren's instagram page or check out the websites everything's in our show notes and thank you again so much for your time today thank you lauren yeah ladies so wonderful to meet you guys take care We'll be right back.