40. The Art of Survival: How Heart Attack and Stroke Survivors Defy the Odds

Will Schmierer: 0:00

All right. Welcome, everybody to another episode of the level software podcast this week in Episode 40. It is a another interview this week with my friend Crispian. We are former co workers. He is a heart attack survivor. I am a stroke survivor. I just thought he was. He's cool, interesting friend of mine. He had his heart attack about a month before I had my stroke. Really weird timing. For the both of us. Again, we weren't the same company. Same. And she of course, obviously if we're at the same company. We were we are he is still a developer. I guess I am still a developer. I'm not a full time developer anymore. Yeah, it's a we work,

Unknown: 0:41

same agency, very stressful work environment. You know, not specific to that particular company. It's just, it is what it is when you work for Fortune 500 brands, it is stressful. And so we talked about he's he actually just turned 50. This year, I turned 40 and 41 this year, I guess. Anyways, he's a good friend. I've really enjoyed kind of, I mean, I don't think either of us wanted to go through a heart attack or a stroke. But yeah, he's just a really cool guy. He has a lot of interest. He He's very I think we're very similar. You know, not on the outside, but we're both. He used to be a maker. I well know. We're both makers. He was into leatherworking. More than woodworking. I was more into woodworking. But yeah, we have that in common as well. You know, he's not huge into sports. I would say that's probably the one difference between us. But we're both super introspective. We're always both continuously learning things, challenging ourselves. Again, he's married. He's got he's got one child as well. And so we're both now currently in the south. So yeah, we have a lot of things in common. And he's a really good friend. He has a lot of interesting insights, a lot of interesting perspective. Again, he's a little bit he's about 10 years older than me. But you know, I thought it was instead it was a good guest. I think Crispin's a really, his story's amazing. He's doing a lot of work really make a comeback as well. And I think, you know, I think if anything, you see us we're not the age of average heart attacks, or average or strokes of average, but you see us really getting in there. You know, it took us both a little bit to kind of figure things out. But ethical back both four years out from the initial time or our significant events. I think we're really making progress. I think we are both doing well. We both changed career paths a little bit. So yeah, he's a great guest. I hope you really enjoy this episode. I hope you got a lot out of it. I think he could take anything from it. It's that yeah, he too, agrees. I think when it comes back down to it, we're really thankful for for the second opportunity at life and we're really trying to make the most of the people that have helped us along the way and challenge and push ourselves to be the best version. We could be going forward. Yeah, enjoyed this week's episode, Episode 40 of global surf buddies. What's better another episode of wobbles around podcast. This week we have a guest yet again. He is a former no current developer. He is a friend, former colleague of mine. He is a life event is a tragic. I won't use a tragic but a lot of life event survivor. He's not a stroke survivor is a little bit different. Yeah, he's he's a lot of things. We both have tattoos. We are both former makers. We were both at Shopify stores. We were both very big personalities with interesting stories, interesting backgrounds. And again, we are both significant life event survivors. Again, Christian, not a stroke survivor, but definitely a survivor nonetheless, and he's going to share his story with us this week. Lots to talk about really excited to have him on the podcast. He is like I said a former friend or current friend, former co worker. Yeah, just lots to get into. So yeah, welcome to the show, Christian. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, yep. I appreciate you coming on. Sorry, that was terrible intro as usual. I gotta get better at these intros. I decided I would wing it this week and put no notes together on my which is a terrible idea. I should have recorded our zoom call last week properly. Oh, no. In hindsight, but yeah, so let's go back kind of you know, we have a shared past a shared story kind of says little essays, honestly, it's pretty weird. It's pretty wild, too, if you go back and think about it. So we're both coming up on. And, you know, you get into it, but I, we're both coming up on our anniversary, which is around, about a month apart. So for both of us coming up about four year anniversary, I think it's yours at the end of this month, beginning of December. Okay. So

Chrispian: 5:24

I started back in like, November ish. You know, it took about six weeks before the final thing landed me in the emergency room. So. Right. Okay, so let's go back to 2019. And around Thanksgiving, because I know we were both talking to each other as we were former co workers, we were both kind of feeling something I know, we definitely had conversations that have been the wheels fell off a little bit for both of us. So you kind of get into the story a little bit. Sure. Yeah. So yeah, I was working on I was working at web dev studios with you at the time, and I was on the support side, and you know, he's busy, or the year before the holidays, people try to get stuff done before they close out and stuff like that. And I started noticing a few days before Thanksgiving. before November started, I had a two spells where I got very kind of like, I would say, almost traditional sort of heart attack symptoms where I got a little bit of blurry vision, I got a little bit weak, and I couldn't keep up with my wife while she was walking, she she could walk faster than me. And everyone tells me I walk too fast. So it was it was bizarre. It's definitely different for me. So after the second time, I told my wife, I said, Look, this is just got to be something. So I called my doctor and made an appointment and got there and by then my forearms has started hurting a little bit. So I'm telling him, my forearms are hurt. And you know, I've been trying to work out and I just, you know, haven't quite felt right and stuff like that. And she thought I hurt myself working out. But she sent me for some tests to check to make sure that those enzymes in my blood work from my heart, which everything turned out clean, you know, it was looked good. So they thought I hurt myself working out. But it's the pain just kept getting worse and worse and worse and worse. And I started having what I found out later, heart attacks, where I would wake up in the middle of night, and I'd have to grit my legs and just be shaking from the pain is mainly coursing through my arm still, oddly enough, it's not like it's not like in the movies where you grip your chest, you know, when you fall over dead, it's just not like that. I was sweaty, but I didn't know what was going on. I just happen to have instinctually thought maybe this is hard. And I started taking baby aspirin. Like that first time that I told you about that fuzzy feeling. I started taking baby aspirin about so almost immediately, when I thought something was off. I just some reason. It felt like my heart to me. But you know, it took them a while to figure that out multiple tests, I even had a heart attack in the nuclear imaging machine and they didn't catch it. That's because the LED just the positioning of it in your body. It's very hard to see. And it's and it's also why they call it the Widowmaker as it provides 50% of the oxygen to your body, just that one artery. And so that those two things combined, and only 12% of people survived the Widowmaker. So it's earned his name for sure. Yeah, and

Unknown: 8:24

I think one of the interesting things, you know, because I had similar, kind of a similar experience, because like things were not quite right. But nothing I could, I thought it was sitcoms, like because we had mood. It was like November, you know, who's down in North Florida a little bit. So, you know, didn't seem back crazy, but it was getting hard. And I think the other thing that is unique to us is we're both you know, we're a little older now it's four years since 2019. But at the time you were mid 40s. Right. I was mid 30s. And I think we're both good examples of like, you know, we knew something was up. But it wasn't obvious to us necessarily. Because we're not obviously, neither of us are her doctors, although we write we might be honorary doctors at real. Although I wouldn't. I would

Chrispian: 9:19

not take middle of medical advice. Yeah,

Unknown: 9:22

we're just sharing our experience, of course. Yeah. But yeah, we were both younger. So I think we didn't think things I think a lot of medical people in the medical field like they they're looking for obvious signs. They're not intentionally missing things, but I think that's kind of a lot. And yeah, that's one of the crazy things.

Chrispian: 9:42

And that's what I'd like they actually noted in my file after this that I look much younger than I am because they they missed a lot of the signs because I look younger. Yeah. So that actually worked against me, you know, I mean, I'll take the compliment and everything like that great. I look younger, perfect, but yeah, it almost cost me my life.

Unknown: 9:59

Yeah, It's a it's a funny thing, it is a nice thing until he realized the severity of the reality of things after it. Yeah.

Chrispian: 10:08

And I didn't realize going through the, through the process of having, you know, finding out that I later had multiple heart attacks, I was actually filling out another medical form. And I had to ask my doctor, I said, where it says, Have I had a heart attack? What do I say? And she's like, you haven't had one, you've had several, you know, so I didn't even know I had one. You know, I just thought the disease, just painful events were just, you know, sort of, you know, it acting up or whatever. But, you know, with 90% blockage It was when it's deprived of oxygen it goes into, I forget what they call it, but basically just a heart attack, you know, you start dying. Yeah. And yeah, and I think my wife saved my life, because I don't know how we figured it out. I don't remember I've always liked water put on me, it just makes me feel calm. And she started putting ice cold water on me to help calm me down. So I was sweating so bad. And when I was in the ER, she was still doing that. And you could see it on the machine, bring my blood pressure and my heart rate down. So every time she did that, I think she was actually helping me get through those. And, you know, a lot of things like that went right for me that helped me get through this without dying for one and with minimal heart damage. Yeah. Yeah. And

Unknown: 11:17

I think that's, that's the other thing too, is like things like sweating. Like, you know, we live in the south. It's not uncommon to sweat on a Tuesday afternoon for no real reason. Because your house is like 110 degrees, because you're maybe you're like me, you're trying to save a buck on on the air conditioning fellas. Yeah, there's so many things to watch out for. Yeah. You know, in hindsight, is 2020. What another thing I should say, I think, you know, correct me if I'm wrong. You are also a cigarette smoker? No. Yeah. All right. So it was just me that was smoker. Yeah. I drink.

Chrispian: 11:57

But not like a ton, you know, and I know that contributes as well. I wasn't real active. Of course, I love computers and technology. And that's what I do all day long. Right. And I was never really a sporty kid. You know, I mean, I played every sport a little bit, but just the most, you know, if they made me do it, you know, as soon as I had the option, I didn't do it, you know, high school PE I walked, you know that they gave me the option to walk or fail. And you know, I'll walk was a lazy teenager. Yeah, right.

Unknown: 12:25

Right. Because nobody wants to fail gym class, whether or not you're like, I don't want to fail gym class, because that doesn't make any sense. Yeah, yeah, I want to get an A. I want to do the bare minimum to get an A. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So later,

Chrispian: 12:42

later, I got into fitness and stuff. And that's one of the things like, I noticed that I was having trouble, you know, lifting weights or walking and stuff like that. Like, I just feel like I didn't have the energy. But everybody says like in your late 40s, and stuff like that, or mid 40s, you start feeling old, and you start slowing down and stuff like that. But like, I don't feel that old now, as I did when I was before the heart attack. And 90% blockage doesn't happen overnight. Or it takes years to happen, right? And so you don't know that you're getting, you know, a thing that provides 50% of your oxygen to your body is slowly getting clogged, so you're only getting half the oxygen you really should normally get. So your brain doesn't function as well, it doesn't have enough oxygen to be as sharp as you could be. You don't have enough muscle. Oxygen for your muscles to work properly. Anything everything starts failing, you know, so it could have been really bad. Yeah,

Unknown: 13:35

yeah. No, it's kind of it's kind of wild to because I think both of us are pretty intelligent guys, we worked in the same field. Like, you know, I know we have a bit of a different background, but I think we I don't want to put us on a pedestal but I think we had we had a relationship and it'd be a kind of conversations in the past when we worked together. Just to kind of have like a learning mindset before but like, you know, it's weird kind of I don't know I wouldn't cuz you were never big right? I know you're down. Wait since Yeah,

Chrispian: 14:09

I didn't I never looked big apparently. So I guess I carry it well, but I got up to 240 pounds and I'm 510 so that's pretty big for my frame. You know, so I just pack it really densely I guess? Yeah.

Unknown: 14:22

To be fair, I think when you're my size 240 pounds doesn't really register on what

Chrispian: 14:28

I write and high you know, obviously plays a role into it when you get 510 and 24 That's

Unknown: 14:32

pretty sick. Yeah, so I like unhealthy.

Chrispian: 14:35

Yeah, but I dropped 60 pounds you know, and I'm down 60 pounds right now and I want to look I can probably lose another 10 or 15 and still be perfectly healthy. Still have enough that left on me that I'm not going to be uncomfortable you know, and it if anything happens I'll have a little reserved

Unknown: 14:52

Yeah, I would say as a big man who has been up and down hopefully down now for the last time. I've never been uncomfortable but being thinner. So I can tell you that's probably a myth you made up in your head.

Chrispian: 15:04

No. So like, I have actually noticed some things that I don't like about being distance so far. Like when I leaned over like, I can feel my sternum. And it's just disgusting. Yeah, so weird I that I like, I thought I had a tumor. I had to ask my doctor because now I can feel my neck muscles. See things that? What's happening in tumors everywhere? What? Yeah,

Unknown: 15:26

yeah, yeah, that's fair. That is. Yeah, I'll tell you something else. Off off. Off camera, but there's something I came up pretty well. That's good. Yeah. So I guess what else we want to talk about? We want to talk about Yeah, some of the a lot of this is preventable, right? It's, you know, they say it was stroke, which I do agree, you know, maybe you have a different take on this. It's not really hot. Take a stroke is a little obviously different than heart attack, but same

Chrispian: 15:55

family different, different, exact, right. But

Unknown: 15:59

it's true that a lot is preventable. But I think when you're living life, when you got bills to pay, you're working for somebody else to work for yourself. It doesn't really matter. Like life has a way of even the smartest, wisest people. I'll absolutely get off track a little bit. And you know, like you said, do you care? Yeah, I would never say you were big, big. It wasn't even noticeable to me again, I'm probably not the person to size people up here. But But yeah, it's Yeah, me neither. Yet. Well, it's just it's hard, right? You're going through life, you'd like it? Well, I feel pretty good. And like you said, older age, we're getting a little older. But still, you're not thinking, you know, I'm doing anything super crazy. Does just doesn't register. So there's so many things we can do. And yes, things are preventable, but like, then you take in family history, like my grandmother smoked till she was 90. I mean, we couldn't get rid of her. You know, she drank tells us she was oxygen. You know, like, medics and like, Yeah, I think I think we get wrapped up in our lives and genetics, like, Oh, it didn't happen to these people. And then all of a sudden, you know, well be it didn't happen to those other people who don't make checks anymore. Well, not even addicts, like, well, they got away with it, you might not get away with it. So it's that was something I kind of had a realization about today is like, yeah, genetics plays a role. But if somebody already got away with something they shouldn't have. Not everyone is gonna get away with it. So anyways, yeah, if you want to kind of touch on some of that with your, your case, and what changed? And, you know, hindsight, obviously, is 2020. What would what? Yeah, what advice what things you have, that you want to share with us? So like,

Chrispian: 17:56

one of those things I always think about is like, that advice thing? Like, what would I tell my younger self, and then this case that I tried to think of more of my future self and these days, and like, what what can I do for my future self care to make his life a little easier, but like, for the heart attack, specifically, like I wish I understood nutrition better and exercise and the relationship between, you know, losing weight happens in the kitchen, and fitness happens in the gym, you know, that you can lose weight with exercise, but it really your diet controls a lot of your fate in that regard. The, the, the amount of misinformation out there, and bad education are, you know, for this country, especially, like, even the food they recommend to kids and the food pyramid and different things like that. I know, it's a lot better today than it was but for sure, when we grew up, it was just basically propped up by the Sugar Company, you know, so cereal for breakfast, you know, and sugary bars and whatever. You know, and, and for me, and I, everybody I know everybody's chemistry is different. So I'm not dogmatic about like what diets because I'm not on a diet, I don't do diets. I just eat healthy now. And for me, that means cutting out refined sugar. It means avoiding as much processed foods as possible. I eat very little red meat. And I exercise, you know, I do, I don't, I don't go crazy. I walk as much as I can. Some weeks that's more than others. And in the rest of the time, I lift weights, and I lift weights very regularly, it just suits me very well. And my body responds pretty well to lifting weights more so than cardio, but I do my cardio to make sure that my heart is healthy. So yeah, just those things like find, find something that works for you. And, and don't follow any kind of fad diets that everybody who's in really in nutrition will tell you a diet doesn't work that have changed the way you think about food and your relationship with food and thinks that

Unknown: 19:42

yeah, for sure. Yeah, you're not dogmatic about diet. But you know, I think I've kind of experienced this too. Over the years. I definitely eat a lot better than when I had my stroke. Right. And I just realized, you know, it's weird. I have another One of these relations, I was like, oh, like keto is the hot thing right now. Everybody's like keto keto, keto. And it turns out, you know, I did. I just tried it. I was like, I've had so many carbs in my life, I could probably spare a few carbs. And it turns out, that's probably what I should have been doing the whole time. Because again, you're cutting out refined sugar, you're cutting out bread. Just unnecessary carbs, right? Yep. I'm not dogmatic about it. But I'm already like, yeah, a lot more greens, I'm eating a lot more. Meat suits me. Well, I know, people do like to do Karwar all these stupid things. And like, it's fine. If you do. It's just, I mean, I just like, Yeah, whatever

Chrispian: 20:46

works for you, whatever gets you to that gets you to that place, right? You know, you're just trying to get healthy and thin. And if you do something different after that, you know, as long as it's not permanent, some of these diets, I think, are kind of dangerous. Yeah, it's an even you know, but again, if it gets you healthy, you know, do whatever helps you long term, you got to really have good balance, you know, you can eat you need a little bit of everything. We're omnivores, you know, and you can do it on plant based or just meat based. But for me that meat, it just has an increased risk of inflammation and, you know, with higher cholesterol, that that that recipe is not great. So the prognosis there is to have less things to have that kind of fat in it. So I lean more towards vegetables and lean meats and things like that.

Unknown: 21:32

Yeah, and I don't know if you agree with this, but I think once you have a significant life event, totally, things just change. You're like, Well, I used to be a little bit more picky about what I didn't, didn't want. And now Mike, well, if I can get through the last four years, I could pretty much I can eat dirt, if I had to, but yeah, it's yes. I like doing hard things. I don't know if that's necessary, or it's for everyone. But I like to prove to myself that I can do hard things now. Probably it's probably too extreme sometimes. But yeah,

Chrispian: 22:11

it's same. It's interesting. Our perspective changes maybe generational thing too.

Unknown: 22:18

Yeah, probably a generational thing. For sure. Of course, I think every generation thinks that a certain Windows Yes, it seems it's I always think it's related to like boomers and millennials and Gen Z, but I think it's really, really intuitive. 2030 4050

Chrispian: 22:35

Exactly, exactly. Yeah. It's like every generation says the last generations music sucks, you know? Yeah. Or the new generation to you know, their musics terrible.

Unknown: 22:49

Well, I gotta be honest. I mean, I grew up on 90s Hip Hop, I cannot listen to hip hop anymore. And that's like, the newer stuff. I'm just, I saw no tick tock and I was like, you know, they're right. And it's not that I can't listen to it. I just don't have the same appreciate a guy. I love New York. 90s Hip Hop. Sure. Definitely. East Coast. Like I'm a hardcore. I tell you this all the time. I tell everybody this all the time I kick a west of I 95. Yes. Yeah. I mean, you're from Alabama. My grandparents were from Alabama. I went to Alabama. That's probably a lot of the reason why I can't go west of I 95 on the East Coast anymore. Certainly.

Chrispian: 23:28

Well, I 90 group 90s grads, I had to get one everything.

Unknown: 23:34

Back on Track kind of health wise. Yeah.

Chrispian: 23:38

Took a lot of work and exercise and eating right. But I go from my four year checkup and in a week or so. Yeah, just a little over a week. I can't believe it's been four years.

Unknown: 24:18

Yeah. Sorry. Cut out a little bit there. Oh, no worries here. The end. So yeah, you were see we were talking about though, coming up on four years. And yeah, he was coming

Chrispian: 24:31

up on four years. And I go for my four year checkup. And I think the 27th of November. So kind of fitting this right around the time that it happened. So

Unknown: 24:41

nice. I mean, it's hopefully that all comes out positive and yeah, good to go.

Chrispian: 24:46

I've been good every time I've been so I'm expecting it to be good this time to I've only done better since last time. Fingers crossed.

Unknown: 24:54

Yeah, and I think that's a good message to send to everybody is that, you know, you're fortunate enough to start Have I have one of these significant life events and you have made the change is yet to turn your life around for the better? You know, it's exciting. And for everybody out there going through it, I think it's important to remind yourself because it was hard. I mean, I'm sure you experienced this to the first cup, probably a couple of years. You know, leaves a lot of questions, you know, what did I do wrong? Whatever, what? What could I have done different? I mean, in my case, I could tell off different probably, actually take everything I was doing up until then do the opposite. And you will be in much better shape than I was in when I had my situation. But yours probably slightly different. But yet, yeah, and it's like, gets a wild ride, it's nice to see, you know, you're doing well after, you know, you're a couple of years out. And so what always surprises me is worse, people, like, have these things that go through it to do some of the hard work and be lonely either for sure. Yeah, and I know some people who unfortunately, still do the opposite, which is, you know, oh, yeah, terrifying.

Chrispian: 26:18

You know, but you've had heart attacks and other stuff like this, too, that, you know, where they, they just, you know, they get healthy for a little bit, but then they, you know, go back to their old ways, I understand you, I failed a lot at the beginning to remember I was trying to get back on track. And but now, I've been on a good track record for quite a while. So everyone's got to find that, you know, the reason for themselves. And for me to hardtack was enough. You know, it took me a little while to finally quit tripping over myself a little bit. But know, once I started getting some momentum, it just kept building be consistent. That's the main thing.

Unknown: 26:51

Yeah, which I think is obviously easier said than done. And it takes, like you said, it takes a little bit of time and figuring out the things. You know, because everybody's different. And they always tell you this at every hospital, every medical facility, and they're not wrong, takes time takes a different plan for every individual because the body chemistry is so wildly different. It's amazing. Quite how different everything is. And yeah, sticking with it is. Yeah. If you want to change, you can change it just it. Yeah. Definitely. Ups and downs. And, you know, I would say that old adage of two steps forward 10 steps backwards is pretty on. Pretty sad. It's not the not the quote, but it is the case. Right? So

Chrispian: 27:47

absolutely. As long as you keep coming back, initially, you'll be making progress. We were working

Unknown: 27:53

together, actually, we had our events kind of about a month apart. I guess, you know, we don't have to dive too deep into it. But I think it is something important to talk about because we're younger survivors. Going back to work is not as easy as just going back to work. No. So in the hour, I you know, again, we both have a little bit of a different story, but I think, yeah, is there is there words of encouragement or advice you would give people who are younger ish, you know? I don't know what, what is the average age of a heart attack survivor? Do you know?

Chrispian: 28:41

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know the average age, but it's happening younger and younger. And every 33 seconds someone has a heart attack. One in 23 people die of a heart attack. It's the number one cause of death in America still.

Unknown: 28:56

Right. Okay, so the average age doesn't really matter. But I think both of us are on the younger side of our events. So I think you know, going back to work for me. I don't know if you probably had a very different experience, but I just felt like I wanted to go back to work because I was trying to get out of my head from what happened. Probably did it too quickly. You know, I'd love to hear your take on your thoughts and like what you might do differently just you know, some words of wisdom for other people who are going through this who might want to get back to work and eventually probably want to get back to work. Just some thoughts around how they see we both work. Absolutely. So for

Chrispian: 29:44

me if you can take time to heal and get you know, get your your body and your mind right you need to do that. I didn't I didn't really have that choice. I had to go right back to work. And shortly after that, I changed jobs and I realized later that I still had PTSD from it. I wasn't over it. I didn't take any downtime. I just I couldn't afford to. And later, I had another job where I had better work life balance and was able to take breaks and work on myself. And that's one of the things that really helped make a difference, you know, and then I have ADHD, and also getting that under better control made a big difference, because you're constantly under stress with ADHD. And getting that into better control is only good from a heart because stress is another big driver of weight gain. It's driver of heart problems and stuff like that. So if you got some distress, and yeah, you need to deal with it.

Unknown: 30:32

Yeah, and I think that's a big thing, especially in the field that we were working in, develop our agency world. You know, nobody's fault. It's highly stressful. It is stressful. But in hindsight, like, it's like, yeah, like, I look back at myself, and I'm like, I loved the work. I love the clients. Yeah. But like, at the end of the day, I was not a rocket scientist. I was changing the global economy. I loved what I was passionate about it. But it's like, saying, Yeah, you have these moments where you're like, love this love the people we're working with love the the brands that we were working with Cisco see in our space? Absolutely. Once for me as a kid, like, instead of before, outside again, MBA, big one for me. Like that was like my dream. Sure, yeah. That's a kid in the 90s. In New York, he I went to, I thought I was gonna play in the NBA. I don't know why I thought that. Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was a cool thing. And again, after you had this life event, it's like, it's surprising, shocking, but you want to feel as normal as possible. In my case, I wanted to feel useful. If I die at a little different scenario than you i guess i because of the stroke can because being hospitalized, I was able to file for short term disability, which I wouldn't have been out of choice for. I mean, I just was able to do that. But I spent the first three months of 2020 in inpatient rehab the first time in January, and I went back to the hospital where I then got diagnosed with MS. So back to inpatient. All three months, right up until COVID. So I got a mandatory break. Which, you know, for me, I lucked out, I guess, lucked out just not the right word, I guess. Yeah. I don't think I don't think when we have a heart attack or a stroke. Lucky out is the correct terminology. But I was lucky, I guess. Right. I was forced to basically. I never go my way. I was lucky. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, honestly, I look back. I'm like, No, if I did have some luck. No, sorry. You were saying about your luck? No, no worries. Oh, you're saying about your? No, I was just saying, like, I think

Chrispian: 33:14

I think I am lucky with it, you know, like, all the things that could have gone wrong. And all of them that went right, you know, to make sure that I was okay. You know, seems lucky. For sure. Yeah. Go into the right. Yes, at the right time. Like, I got to the hospital just before the snow and I started hitting where I wouldn't have been able to get there. You know, little things like that just kept happening, you know, little lucky things like that. There's a lot of unlucky things, too. Of course, you know, but yeah. Again, this one's a pretty hard one to catch. And I beat the odds. And I'm still here, and I'm happy.

Unknown: 33:49

Yeah, and the figures, you're able to keep going and you're able to keep improving. And you want to keep improving, which I think is a fantastic thing. And now you're starting to kind of share that message. I've seen you posting up bar this year. But I think it definitely takes some time. I mean, I again, I don't want to put this on you. But I I felt this way. Like at the beginning. I just exactly. I didn't want to be a guy that was a stroke survivor. I didn't want to be a guy that was a stroke survivor with Ms. I didn't want to be any of those things. Now I kind of embrace it. And I changed my perspective to be yes, I'm the guy that had this and I sure as hell do not if I can help people avoid this at all costs, like that is what I actually believe in and I don't care. Well, I never cared. You know me. I never cared what other people thought about me for the most part, right? But now I didn't genuinely do not care because I want to help other people. And I think that's still a fight for me. It's a fine line because there's a lot of people on social media. You know, though They'll self diagnose or go through a thing. And they'll come off a certain way about it, which is not the way I ever want to come across. I want to come from a place of being helpful being insightful, like when I think you and I share this, probably because of the work we did in the WordPress space where it is. Open source, it is about sharing knowledge. It is about kind of, you know, when when you and I work together as developers, we used to do pair programming. Or we ever did it specifically together, but I'm sure we were on several zoo calls together at some point. I know. I recall that specifically. But yes, I'm pretty sure we did it. Because that was a big thing. You know, like, certainly, when I got into my role seems to my stroke, he was like, I wanted everybody to Yeah, feel supported be, you know, and that's, that's kind of how I feel. Now I want other survivors. To know that it's hard. It's definitely not easy. Yeah, so I guess, you know, maybe you want to talk a little bit about your mindset, and if and how that's changed. And like, like you said, last week, when we talked, you know, you're starting to share this journey. I think it takes a little time, just like everything else, you know, there's a lot to unpack when you go through this. And you kind of figure it out as you go trial and error, I will see what works for you or cutting out works for others. And yeah. Doug, just yeah, it's just about kind of sharing, you know, you started share more on social media I've seen about your journey and like, you know, helping others. I think it's very much in the spirit of WordPress, where we come from, you know, that this worked for me, and it might work for you. That kind of that kind of attitude and that kind of sharing of knowledge about heart attack and things to look out for and things just how the journey is going and where you see it going for you if anywhere or yeah yeah,

Chrispian: 37:12

I try not to be obnoxious about it. Yeah. Yes, yeah. noxious about it. But I I post about it on social media when I can I you know, if any, if I can help anybody, like I talked about it, as soon as it happened, I blogged about it. Yeah.

Unknown: 37:29

It's a message out there. Yeah. Because I think, you know, again, I don't know if you've experienced this, with your situation. But as a survivor, it's great to hear from doctors and medical professionals, and all nurses and support staff, everybody in the picture, everybody playing a role. It's great to hear their thoughts and takes. But it's different when you hear it from another survivor who's actually gone through it, lived through it, and sort of recovered to a degree, whatever degree that is. Again, not that the information from doctors, nurses and other medical professionals is bad, but it's like you want to really I want I want you we like tangible things. For you. What's What's something? Yeah. Wild that worked for you that you never thought would work? You know?

Chrispian: 38:26

Yeah, that's true. Like, one of the things I didn't realize for like it for the ADHD too, but for my for my heart stuff that just happened to be that the two things went together as a height for me a higher protein diet and less sugar. Cancers also feed on primarily sugar, you know, it's just an easy but abundant energy source. So actually, having a lower sugar diet can help with that, from what I've read, you know, for me, it's just been, you know, having sugar makes me want more sugar, you know, and so, not having that. And it's also messes with your dopamine levels, it makes you, you know, mess with the reward system and stuff like that. So, for me, having a high protein diet helps my ADHD and helps me stay focused in eating the right things. Like, you know, lean meats, low fats, good fats, but not the more the bad kinds, lower cholesterol, and mostly just like Whole Foods, like nuts and fruits, like I get all my carbs from fruit. I don't eat anything like candy and things like that. I do have a bar that I like, Larabar not to, I'm not promoting them or anything like that, you know, they're not paying me. But they're made from all natural stuffs like four to five ingredients, three ingredients sometimes. And they're very to me, they're really good you know, in there, they're not a Snickers bar. They're not gonna compete with that. Like, you know, they're to me. They're very sweet after getting off regular sugar for a while, man, they are so sweet.

Unknown: 39:50

That's one of the crazy things is I never had a sweet tooth, so I kind of got lucky. I was a big fat dude who liked food period.

Chrispian: 39:59

I love food. To like I couldn't do without to sweets, like I'll eat and overeat like apples, you know? I mean, just give me a bucket of apples. Yes.

Unknown: 40:06

Yeah, that's thing now. So it's like, alright, well now I'm eating like, now we've gotten into like, all sorts of things like that's why I love keto because I'm like, Yeah, give me 10 bags of spinach sounds Oh, yes had bags of spinach salad bowl. And I'll yeah, yeah, now Mike trying, again not to promote any specific diet or anything but like worse. I think people don't realize that when you're my size human being I just need fuel. And I always throw in wood as fuel like I don't really. Like now Mike used to love pizza, but like not only miss pizza, like I mean, I kind of

Chrispian: 40:46

got that I've got a pizza tattoo. On my arm. I worked at a pizza place for six years. I love pizza, I still have pizza. But now what I do is every one every once in a while when I have it. I'll have it like maybe every three months, right? And then I'll get a small and I'll eat three pieces. And I won't eat the crust, you know, and I'll get like cheese on it and then mostly vegetables. So a piece of flavor. You know, it's good.

Unknown: 41:09

It's weird that I actually get a veggie pizza now too, which I never would have had prior to 2018 a

Chrispian: 41:16

lot found out that I liked him when I worked at a pizza place actually, like when I had that was the only thing that was left on the buffet. We were able to eat the leftovers, you know, so I would drag grab whatever's left and was vegetarian pizza. And I was like, Oh, wow, I can't tell that there's not any meat on this. This is actually really, really good. So I've liked him for a while.

Unknown: 41:32

Yeah, so I actually worked at a pizza place as well in high school and I was a delivery driver because it was one of the best things you could have in high school to make a ton of money on on the weekends. What are you gonna have to do manual labor? Yep. Which I was. In hindsight, maybe I should have done more manual labor. Right. But yeah, I think I was spoiled there. Because it wasn't a pizza buffet. But Gotcha. Yeah, you just as his driver, you just kind of stood by the pizza counter, and you could make whatever you wanted, whenever you want.

Chrispian: 42:05

And once I became a cook, I was able to make whatever I wanted to and we used to make these breakfast pizzas instead of sauce and stuff like that. You scramble some eggs, and then you put whatever toppings you want on and it's just so amazing on pizza dough.

Unknown: 42:16

Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Yeah. You know, it's weird, though. Like you said with sugar and pizza like nowadays, pizzas often now when I do eat it, I like it. But I'm like, yep. Yep. Do I really need it? Like, exactly. Like I kind of miss that greasy? Oh, like three. All right, I'm gonna admit something that is terrible. I love Costco. But I don't really love Costco food. But my son had a piece of pizza. A Costco the other day cuz he's like seven and it looked it looked good. And it's not because I come from New York In New York style pizza. But it looks good with that greasy pepperoni and I had one bite and I swear to God, I felt like crap to the rest of the day. I just had to go run three miles. And just just because I was mad at myself. Oh, sure. I mean, I was going to

Chrispian: 43:06

get hit something similar happened the first time I had some sweets after I stopped eating sugar. And I just said was worse than a hangover. The next day. I felt horrible. Like I had trouble getting up in the morning. Everything. It was just I felt terrible.

Unknown: 43:19

Oh, that's a good. So just to come back to this because so you did drink? Yeah. Prior to your heart attack? Not like not you're definitely not an alcoholic. Like I Well,

Chrispian: 43:32

no, no, I drink like twice a week and I would drink. You know, I have a pretty high I had a pretty high tolerance to act and I could drink you know, to Yeti the small tumblers they're made for that. And you know, size wouldn't be full of ice and then twit biker or bourbon and 37.

Unknown: 43:46

Yeah, absolutely. I have the tumbler. Absolutely. Do you still drink? No, not anymore. I stopped completely. Yeah, me too. Which is wild, because I was an alcoholic for 22 years and a pretty high functioning alcoholic. Nobody ever called me on it. And I'm so thankful. Honestly, this was our because we were talking about being thankful for our sort of event. And I just I feel I feel a lot of things but I always feel lucky because I never had to go to 12 step because that's like a lot of work. I got I put in a lot of work to my recovery. And I do feel lucky that I just wish in hindsight that I had maybe see treatment at some point, because I look back and you're like, Well, it's a rebalance, like treatment would have been nothing compared to what I've gone through now. Absolutely. And obviously you aren't to that level. But you know, I can totally see that make totally makes sense. Yeah, I mean, so like I I don't smoke cigarettes. Nothing I mean tried medical marijuana for the you know, I really wanted that to work to be honest. Yeah. The prescription here in Florida, I still have my card, but I don't really I don't know. I'm thinking of trying again, go to edibles, possibly, but I've not had a good experience with it. Yeah,

Chrispian: 45:22

I've tried edibles and I didn't really, you know, it's to me, it's not the same as smoking it, you know, like I've, I've, I've had my share as well, you know, and it's

Unknown: 45:30

I like it, but, you know, absolutely. Yeah. It's always it always wants to be out because everybody seems to be having a good time with medical marijuana. And, you know, as a stroke and heart attack survivor, you kind of want that like magic, something that just like yes, likes, and I don't want the magic pill, but just something right. And like, yeah, of all the things. It was a one thing Why

Chrispian: 45:54

Why can't the medicine for us make us give us a buzz or something? It just takes a hormone pill and she gets a like alcohol like buzz off of it every night and she loves it. Yeah,

Unknown: 46:03

like while you might think now like, you know me. I you know me at my worst when I was like 500 pounds. Like, remember 2019 We went to the company retreats or whoever had to retreat. I triking Dalinar warns us for no. Oh, that's a reason in five minutes, just other than to prove that I could do it. I

Chrispian: 46:24

think I have a video somewhere still. Yeah.

Unknown: 46:26

I mean, I was like doing all these. I don't know where I was going with a story. But it's yeah, I'm just I wish I wish medical marijuana did something for me. It'd be like the one thing Oh, I know where I go. I pick it that and like, I used to be a competitive eater. I used to be a lot of things. I'm a big guy, but I just use a lot of things. But see, this always happens. Stroke brain. I forgot where I was going. So he's big and fat. Oh, and now my vice is running. Oh, right here we give it tonight. We're chatting and recording. And I'm like, Oh, give me give me 15 more minutes because I want to finish running. I really get

Chrispian: 47:12

everybody I get cranky if I don't get my workouts in for sure. Yeah.

Unknown: 47:16

And it's weird. It's, it's so weird to be running because it's like, it's the one thing I swore like, I thought I'd never stop smoking, I thought I'd never stopped drinking. Right. Both of those are all out of the picture. Thank God. Thank you. And here I am, two and a half years into my recovery. So starting last year, now I'm running all the time, I can't stop running.

Chrispian: 47:40

Yep, the only thing that's kept me off the treadmill is I get Baker cysts in my left leg. And when it gets bad enough, I have to take a break from walking. So I've tried to alternate it like every other day and break it up into multiple chunks so that it's not all tedious all at once you know, but I've always liked walking and it really clears my head. You know, we've got a lake in my where I work. There's a lake around it being between the two buildings. And I think it's like a mile or something like that anyway, but it takes me 15 minutes to do the cleat completely around at three miles an hour. So I roughly walk three miles an hour.

Unknown: 48:16

Nice. Nice. I think we have a shared kind of a thing there where we like to challenge ourselves but also baru Fievel wrong or prove prove prove that I had this other day. Not that I'm proving anything, I just don't what I don't want to be is. I'm already statistic. I don't want to be another statistic, right. That's why I take this so seriously. Same. Yeah.

Chrispian: 48:46

And when I go to the doctor's office, it surprises me how often they tell me that people just don't get better. Yeah, shocking, right? is most people don't even try they give up.

Unknown: 48:57

Yeah. And, again, not to compare the two. But I think based on the average age of a stroke survivor, I kind of understand that just because generally it's around 65. Now Stroke can happen just like heart attack at any age, because my whole heart could be a genetic effect. Could be a zillion things. But yeah, but you know, 65 Maybe you're tired and you suffer a stroke. And it's a bad one. You know, you don't want to give up hope but right, you may be less inclined to start running at 65. And, you know, that's very true. Yeah, I mean, there are some things you can control and to a degree you're willing to put in the work probably but you know, seeing results may take longer. Oh, absolutely not age. For sure. Um,

Chrispian: 49:51

like even if 50 I'm noticing it takes longer to lose weight and get in shape and stuff like that, you know, just

Unknown: 49:56

I can verify that for 40 Yes. Yeah, I didn't even start running to lose weight. I just started running because I was like tired of crappy walking, because like my walking was getting better. But it was almost to the point where I was like, You know what I was trying to run. Like, it's actually genuinely mean this when I say I started running because I was like, I think it might just be easier if I just kind of like, fall forwards a little bit and see what happens. And sure, it led to running it, you know, wasn't passed and be and it's so fast. It's actually strangely left is picked up in the last week. Out of nowhere, I have no idea what's happened. I'm not even shitting. You. Since we chatted last week, I literally have gone from like four miles an hour to like, almost five miles an hour. And wow. Yeah, but a year ago, I was only doing like, three miles an hour running was really, people were like, Oh, I see you're walking around like this. This is this is not Washington. Brother. This is a lot of work for walking. Through is this funny? Yeah. I used to get to know, people and neighborhood and say stuff. Oh, of course, which you wouldn't know me being a stroke survivor or not? Oh, absolutely. Neighbors just to know me period. That's our watershed upon this podcast and the other podcast. So I know we talked a bunch already. I guess the listening kind of before we wrap up. I should have asked you this earlier. I'm sure we could talk about many things. I'd love to have you back on time. But since you you know, it did take you a little while like you said you had no no way you do. You're probably calling them stumbles. But I think it's just things just take time. Yeah, I agree to figure out because you you're gonna we're gonna you're gonna relearn everything. You gotta relearn things, you gotta figure things out a little bit of trial and error. Yep. Finding, you know, I don't know if you've had this experience. Because again, are things happened to right before? COVID? Which was our gates kind of a weird timing where everything got weird. Absolutely. So have you been able to find support every look for support? Have you done a lot of tests yourself for like, I've

Chrispian: 52:20

done most of it myself, I'm just very, I've always been independent. And like, if I want to learn something, I just go online and learn it, you know, just the informations there. So I tend to do a lot of that. But like my doctors, of course, are involved with my treatment, anything I run everything by them. And my family is very supportive and stuff like that. But outside of that, I've just

Unknown: 52:39

kept it to me. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, would you there's nothing wrong

Chrispian: 52:43

with getting help. If you need it. I definitely encourage people to you know, reach out to anyone, if you need help find support, whatever you need to get through anything. Yeah.

Unknown: 52:52

Yeah, for sure. And I think one of the things that I'm starting to realize is I wish I had access to like you, because again, if it comes from our developer mindset, being self taught in that field, obviously, there's no Well, probably all the obvious solace, but not the rest of the world. There is no like schooling for being a developer. Technically, I mean, now there's some things but it's so iffy, right? There certainly wasn't when we were coming up. You know, we're basically the age of the internet. Yeah. But I think looking back, it's like, I wish there were some at like, in the beginning, it's very lonely, like, you know, I have a wife, I have kids, I have family. They're all helpful, but family is good. But they also have lives to get back to and like, worry about their stuff. I just wish there were more resources. Even just places to go and find a little bit of a community like not a crappy Discord server, but like somewhere to like, have other survivors who are stroke survivors who are heart attack survivors, just to kind of like bounce ideas off of and be like, hey, this worked for you. Did you try this? Or I tried this, this worked for me, it might work for you. And yes, through a lot of research, a lot of digging for years, and you and I can look back and be like, Oh, well, we kind of figured it out. But I feel like it's not that easy. Like it's actually quite difficult.

Chrispian: 54:22

And the information is just out there and all kinds of places to you know, so it's difficult, you know, so having sections of is great. Like I did a lot of reading of online communities and stuff like that people that have already been talking about it is super helpful. Yeah,

Unknown: 54:36

and big, big pieces, like the American Heart Association's Asian American Heart Association is stroke.org or Greek, big resources, but they're so big. It's almost I don't wanna say unhelpful because it's not true. But it's like it's just so big. You don't know where to where to start, like, where to dig in where to rock. I mean, it's right don't want to sound like an ass totally, it's a real grind to get this dig this information out. And I think that's one of the things that you and I, again, kind of would agree on and would relate to. And I think it's the developer mindset, because you're used to digging for answers that don't. Yeah, like almost creating a Stack Overflow for heart attack and stroke survivors would be a great resource because there's literally, yeah, yeah, it's just climbing things. Yeah. Just like, Hey, start here like this. Yeah, I mean, I always I always bring it back to breathing because the thing that has really opened up my eyes, shockingly, in the last four years is breathing. We all do it. We all breathe, we all know we need to breathe. In my case, because I was a cigarette smoker, my breathing was predominantly mouth breathing. I didn't realize until I read a book called breaths by James Messer. Not only was my breathing, not ideal, it was also kind of hurting me, it hurt you genuinely to be a mouth breather, because your system isn't built to be a continuous mouth breather. 24/7. So that was something that really opened my eyes that I was shocked to find out is again, not dumb guy. I'm not, you know, I didn't go to Harvard University. I mean, right, like to shit on but like, it was a fine college. I love to high degree time. Yeah, I guess you know? Yeah. Before we wrap up, let's kind of touch on like, what are some of the things? Obviously, you're self motivated, self starter? kind of guy. But is there anything that's really that you've come across? It's opened up your eyes and made you think differently? Has it always been a kind of a process? Yeah, just kind of,

Chrispian: 56:56

for me, it's like a process like that. There's been some aha moments here. And there, you know, like, really understanding where motivation comes from, for me, you know, how my ADHD affected my thinking on food, like, part of ADHD is, you know, impulse control issues, and you will end up eating stuff, even if you don't want to just because you're bored, your body just wants to dopamine, you know, just a dopamine hit. Just give me another dopamine hit.

Unknown: 57:19

First and understanding that, and, yeah, absolutely. So you got to start

Chrispian: 57:26

thinking through that lens. And you start slowing down when you make decisions and stuff like that. And it helps you, you know, not make those in the moment decisions to have the dessert, you know, you think it through and have sort of questions to ask myself about different decisions and stuff to help me keep on track. And, you know, willpower, a lot of people say willpower, which I have a lot of, a lot of people do, and they still fail. Willpower is not enough. You have to have a framework or, you know, I call it a framework, because I'm a programmer, but you know, you have to have habits, and you have to have a system in place to help you not fail when your willpower eventually fails. Because you only have so much every day, you know, you get you get bombarded with decisions and all kinds of things that weigh you down over the day. It's always the end of the night when you go for that snack or whatever, and it opens up the floodgates. And you know, you've been 1000 calories before you know it.

Unknown: 58:11

Yeah, for sure. I think it's it's also mindset, it's a lot of combination of things. I think, for me, looking back, you know, we both left the place we were at. But you touched on it earlier, it was really tied to the place we were at. But I think we both needed to make a change for a lot of reasons. Yep. And I think if you can make that change that is significant. You know, it's not because of anything in particular, like agency life is agency, okay. It doesn't matter where you go. Right. Right. Or it's just it's not for everybody, though. Well, it's very hard to sort of assess in the moment, a real time, you know, that is looking back I think. Good call, bad call. Okay. Good call. And the fact that I got out of it, bad call, maybe the way I got out of it, the show never handled that thing. Leaving places very well. Because especially for me, because I've been there for a long time. Right. But yeah, it's a really tricky thing. And I think people don't give themselves enough credit. Yeah, it's just, it's just hard. Absolutely.

Chrispian: 59:29

Yeah, genuinely. And for me, that was a tough time, you know, and you realize, like, in it, you know, I was glad to be there. And I mean, I still am thankful for the time there. It's a wonderful learning experience with a lot of great people, a lot of fun projects, you know, it's just fast paced, you know, that's all that really that's what it boils down to. And if you can't keep up with that pace, and like I just was a point in my life where I was done with that pace, you know, and it's time for me to I want to work on stuff longer, and a little more in depth in a different way. And I needed to slower pace for my life for me to be healthy. Yeah,

Unknown: 1:00:00

Yeah, and I think again, I think I didn't realize at the time, but I think you just summed it up perfectly. It's like, yeah, sometimes you just need to be like, you know, like, you know, I just didn't want to walk away again and hit another break. I think I just had to. Yep. Yeah. Clean, break that and just move on. Because I think that is you learn a lot when you go through these things. And they don't even say that I could summarize it in this podcast episode, but you just learned a lot about yourself feeling or about overcoming hard things. I'd rather not have gone through it. But you know, again, that's where I share what I share with this podcast. And with other things online. I've been right. less active recently, my time of year might just be because I'm tired for sort of sucrose 5000 miles, I'm, I might take a break from. I've run, right. I've run every day since I know, every day except for four days since October 6 of 2022. So I'm due for a little break a break. Oh, no, sorry. I just have to wait yesterday for the first time in a while and I'm so sore. I can't even move my arms today. Which is weird, because I run all the goddamn time. But I do not live we love love it and I love it. Yeah, I love the feeling. Once you get back into the rhythm of lifting regularly, I do not love the feeling of oh, I'm just gonna lift several 100 pounds for no particular reason after taking a several week break from lifting weights and your high of dead arms and two legs. And yeah, they gotta have some new tools.

Chrispian: 1:01:52

Okay, last that first little bit when you first start, it's rough.

Unknown: 1:01:56

Yeah, one of the things that drives me crazy. I don't know if you've had this, but like, I have completely changed my life changed my lifestyle done everything correct. And still. Sometimes things don't go your way as a survivor for various reasons. Because I've had some little things, nothing major, just like I found myself randomly taking another pill late. recently. I was like, right, how am I doing? I'm doing five marathons a week. I'm like campaigns. Okay, I'm insane. And I'm taking more pills. I have more devices. Yes. I don't need another contraption for medical, like, I just go Of course. I mean, they're great. But I just got this thing from another doctor that I'm seeing their leg pumps because I'm a big guy. And I have some residual things from pre stroke that are still being resolved. Gotcha. Yeah, it's this is some weird stuff. It's just amazing how you I just word of caution to everybody out there. Definitely do the right things. But don't assume because you started doing all the right things that you are. Listen, you're gonna be in a better spot than if you're doing the wrong thing. Do a yeah, sometimes is the overcorrecting Mela. So kind of. Yeah. I'd love for that pendulum to just get Oh, absolutely. But back to the middle. Absolutely. Yeah,

Chrispian: 1:03:40

I've started getting back into that I pulled a muscle in my back. I've got a Baker says with all from overworking out, you know what I tried to lift something too heavy to work out, you know, doing a deadlift, I pulled a muscle in my back. And I got to be more careful. I wish I could do it when I was younger. But now this just starts breaking.

Unknown: 1:03:58

Right? And it's like you're like, calm doing all the right things. And now, now what's going on? This is where the old amps kicks in with the like, it's doing great. You're doing these things, but it's like, right, yep. Yep. There's 40 There, septic that?

Chrispian: 1:04:13

Yeah. And another thing they don't tell you too, is like the medications that I'm on. They actually kind of limit you like the blood pressure medication makes you tired. Some of them make you gain weight, you know, so you're fighting against some of your own medications to do better in some cases.

Unknown: 1:04:26

Yeah. And reminder to everybody out there because I think we talked about this on our call. You can probably come off some things like don't be afraid to question your doctors. I feel that's a good thing we talked about because like absolutely, they definitely want to help they definitely have your best interest. But sometimes, you know, sometimes they're tired on a Friday morning when you're rolling in for your semi annual appointment and they're just like, whatever, whatever, whatever and like

Chrispian: 1:04:54

and one of my doctors told me they don't even really think about taking people off medication once they put them on nobody ever really comes off. And very often, when patients ask, they're like, oh, yeah, you're right, we had this, like, I got off my blood thinner because I was primarily on it for, you know, projection purposes. They didn't want to send to reject or slip, and already new blood clots to form around it. So I had it for three, three and a half years before they took me off. I was very recently about six months ago,

Unknown: 1:05:20

which is funny, because it's the one that I keep asking about on my copy office. Oh, absolutely.

Chrispian: 1:05:24

It's the one that has the most risky, of course, yeah.

Unknown: 1:05:28

Well, you are a young stroke survivor. Is it really that big a deal for you to take that? I'm like, No, but I really just don't want a fucking paper cut to look like a mass murderer saying. Absolutely. And be cold all the time. Yeah, I don't have that symptom. But it might be because I'm always wearing a hoodie and running in Florida.

Chrispian: 1:05:51

I'm in Alabama, but I just I like I can't always wear short sleeves. I I get cold, I go work out. So that's one of my rules. If I start getting cold and complaining, I have to go work out. Yeah,

Unknown: 1:06:01

actually, you know, it's funny you were talking about how you don't like necessarily being super thin. And I feel you on that because it's like, sometimes I take over running because I like me to like, bulk up a little bit. And still lifting weights. Low. Yeah. Yeah. And having a really good is Oh, yeah, well, I just I didn't like that I didn't know 22 inch arms and looking like the rock. So now I'm going to start lifting out the rock and start tapering down during an action movie. Why not? You know, like I said, I like you. I like to do ridiculous things. But I like to do. I like to do things that other people don't necessarily want to do and probably don't want to say can't do but probably won't do. Yeah. It's a fun game. 40 years old. I still can't grow up. Right. Won't do is a good way to put it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, I think you know, we've had a good conversation for this episode. I think we've probably gotten pretty long today. So let's cut in and out a little bit. My kids drove me crazy with the Internet. I do want to thank you for your time. And so of course it it prepared no notes. So all of Christina says places you can find him connect with him at we'll all be on the show knows. You don't want to thank you for oh,

Chrispian: 1:07:30

I know, just Google my name and my everywhere, right? Because you're clearly

Unknown: 1:07:34

the owner of that name as as you will quickly find out when you google him. Also, do you want to mention that thing? You're starting later?

Chrispian: 1:07:48

Yeah, I'm working on a podcast as well. That's the reason I'm not just some random guy with the audio equipment in his house. You know, I'm starting a podcast of my own as well called abstraction point for programmers. I'll be launching that sometime early next year. So I'm lining up guests and getting all my learning how to do the editing and stuff like that right now. So nice.

Unknown: 1:08:09

Yeah, well, we'll probably maybe be hopefully this recording works out. But I'd love to chat and I'll tell you about some new things. Yeah, we could work together in the future because I know again, you're telling kind of a different story but similar story and I think there's a lot of you know, things that you and I have experienced in WordPress and community building in general I know that's always a hot word right now because of course,

Chrispian: 1:08:35

you know, people aren't anytime

Unknown: 1:08:37

markers love a buzzword and ruining it. Yeah, sure. We got tons of stories we share about the old days and how every marketer at every company is now best best best ideas I'm sorry, I'm just I'm thinking back to some of the some of the things trypsinized clients we saw or criticism of things that used to say that are literally driving me crazy in my head as we were wrapping up this episode. Make it pop. Yeah, God make it pop. Yeah, well, oh god. Oh, the oatmeal. God that was the best I use. Yes, that absolutely. should throw that in the show notes. I wish all right. Well, thanks again. Christina. I'm gonna end the recording and then we can wrap up. Sounds good. All right, thanks. Alright, a little bit of an awkward ag exit there from the end of the podcast but I do want to thank my guests crispy and Burks for joining me on the show. I think it was a valuable it was time well spent. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you got a lot out of it. Hope you got some things you're thinking about. Anyways, hope you enjoyed it. And we will see you next week. I also have a guest next week. So back to back guests going back Couple of weeks I do have to reach out to Rosa. I think we're going to have to rerecord the podcast at some point. I was not able to really salvage the audio from Episode 38. So for now. See you next weekend.