0:00
today’s a gift uh it truly is a gift if you can if you can look at it that way
0:05
and then recognize that a lot of people did not receive today as a gift right so what can we do to honor those people
0:12
what can we do to honor ourselves and what can we do to honor the day and and and in my mind it is to live to make the
0:19
most of the day and how do you make the most of the day by doing what’s most important to you with the people that
0:25
are most important to you uh and so you know the punch today in the face is kind of a metaphor for me i want to get
0:30
today’s attention today was personified i want them to know that Ry was here you know and if you’ve ever been punched in
0:36
the face that kind of gets your attention
0:45
[Music]
0:53
ray Hartin was diagnosed with a high-risisk myyoma 6 years ago he’s been
0:58
through multiple treatments including a stem cell transplant listen in to where his medical journey has taken him and
1:05
hear what he’s learned so far how are you doing today Rey i’m doing well uh
1:11
and uh and I appreciate the opportunity to to meet with you Elena um how are you doing that’s the important thing i I am
1:18
also doing well but we’re going to talk about your multiple myoma trip today not that I won’t throw in some of my own
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stuff but um you are now 6 years post your diagnosis
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yes how in general do you feel uh I feel I feel good uh you know I had treatment
1:34
again yesterday and treatment days uh you know um just another both you know
1:40
mental and physical little you know bumps in the road you know it’s uh the physical reminder of uh yes you have uh
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multiple myoma uh yesterday I had a kyprolis uh infused um through an IV and
1:53
uh that you know uh tends to make me a bit nauseous uh and fatigued uh for the rest of the day and including today as
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well i’ll be a bit fatigued but not nauseous thankfully um and uh and then
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you know it’s also another you know mental uh uh hurdle to come overcome when you have treatment here because there’s days that you know don’t really
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even think that much about being a multiple myoma patient but you know you certainly you know you get jarred front
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and mind when you have to go to the infusion center get an IV started and all that uh uh for treatment but uh yeah
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you know all in all I feel fine I am very susceptible to the um powers of
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suggestion though you know it’s every like tweak in my back I’m like oh is that is that a mus is that a soft tissue
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Do you tweak or is that you know you know something you know wrong with my my spine or vertebrae or something like
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that so uh you know my story started as you know with an anemic blood uh value on a routine blood test position one
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thing I really wanted to talk about with you know uh with some patients and even you know even if you’re not a patient if you’re ally you will be a patient at
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some time i sure hope you listeners and watchers out there I’m not saying you’re getting myoma or any other chronic
2:58
serious disease but you need to go see your doctor people uh and uh you see him
3:03
annually get a blood test i’m in this journey with Helena for my routine blood
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test i felt great by the time my blood my um bone marrow biopsy came back i was
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had you know my bone marrow was 90% cancerous silent killers folks so many
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things happened go to your doctor once a year it’s an investment that you make in yourself uh so uh you know so make it
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happen people go to your doctor uh early intervention is the best intervention of them all um yep yep now I would like to
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ask you right the details about um your induction treatment and also your stem cell transplant you did the whole you
3:42
you did the transplant i just had a harvest but you got you went through the whole process tell me about it yeah you
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know uh you know my my doctor said you this is typically what we do you know uh myoma kind of the uh you know standard
3:53
induction therapy revalidate and dexamethasone so my doctor said “Yeah we’ll do that in like 3 6 months and
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then we’ll you know start thinking about a stem cell transplant.” And u and me being the overachiever that I am kind of
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I’m like “Great we’re going to do this in three months.” Uh and uh so I’m jumping into everything uh fighting uh
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fighting cancer like the way I approached anything else and u you know for me everything I’ve ever done in my
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career academically athletically musically what have you it’s always been some sort of milestone capstone type of
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event right so there’s a there’s you know studying or there’s uh training and
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there’s rehearsal or you know working on the deliver there’s delivering something you know and that’s kind of how I
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approach this i’m having a stem cell transplant that that’s a thing that’s an event and I’m going to I’m going to do
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everything I can to get ready for that and be in the best physical condition what what are the variables I can control and uh as you know from reading
4:47
my book Elena you know that yes that that lasted let me hold it up for people i was going to mention it Ray but here
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it is me myself and my multiple myyoma yeah you know thank you you know so as I
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mentioned in the book you know that that preparation stage one induction therapy
5:05
lasted less than two weeks you know I’m sitting at a PF chains with my son and my and my wife and I’m just beat it’s
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dinner time and I can’t even pick up the menu i’m just exhausted and you know I a
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couple realizations came at that point in time you know one is that you know I was I was approaching my b my fight
5:23
against cancer in a non-sustainable type of way it was all encompassing first thing I woke up thinking about last
5:30
thing I thought about when I went to sleep and even though I was working full-time it was a thought thought in my head as a newly diagnosed patient for
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crying out loud and what could I do i can work out really hard you know work on my physical conditioning and with that I get energy to go you know source
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nutritious foods prepare nutritious foods and all that and you know I I began to realize that you know I was I
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was using a paradigm of a capstone event you know there was a game day fight night performance you know uh you work
5:56
deliverable or what have you every day with a chronic disease is your day every day is game day every night is fight
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night uh so I needed something sustainable and I also came to the realization that my whole being was more
6:08
than just like my physical being you know my you know I’m going to be strong and powerful and and all this you know I
6:14
had all these you know as a musician it’s the mixing board you know a little more of this a little less of that and
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you know and I and by thinking just you know kind of exploring how I was feeling with a growth mindset and open mind you
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know I said “Dude you’re so much more than just your physical body there’s their mental component your emotional component your spiritual component i
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don’t know there might be some other components too but for me that’s what I recognized.” And like you know any one
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of those variables you know can pull up some of those variables that are lagging for example you know if my physical
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conditioning is strong I’ll have the energy to go to the market and to to buy nutritious foods and prepare meals and
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so forth but at the same time you know any one of those variables can pull down maybe a more healthy variable you know
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when I was sitting there at the PF chains I was just beat you know and but a lot of it was like this mental and
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emotional ex exhaustion of being a newly diagnosed patient you know and so I I went to go see a specialist um you know
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as part of my care and I’m like “Yeah you know I’m going to bust it out let’s you know let’s do this let’s do this
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stem cell transplant in three months.” And she goes “Whoa whoa whoa why?” He goes “Well you know 3 to six months induction therapy and then stem cell
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transplant.” Goes “You you might not need a stem cell transplant at all let’s I mean let’s just you know let’s not
7:24
rush it you know there’s to go through it I’m like and that it dawned on me like we don’t have to rush it I don’t
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have to rush it you need it when you need it if you need it you know that appealed to me you know uh you know for
7:35
me I have a fight against cancer you know there’s a lot of patients out there have a journey against cancer and I think that’s kind of the way the the
7:41
community you know you know talks about it a lot because a fight you know metaphor you know tends to suggest that
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there’s a winner and a loser uh and you know Any anybody who’s ever been to an infusion center and seen people you know
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piped up to IVs you know uh dealing with cancer knows that there’s not a single loser in that room you know we we spoke
8:00
a little bit about the fight metaphor in our emails just setting up today and I just wanted to explain to you sort of my
8:06
thinking i’m I’m a I’m a non-fight person and it’s okay to be a fight person whichever
8:12
whichever just because I’m a non-fight person doesn’t mean I’m going to live any longer the reason I I don’t I don’t
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embrace the the fight metaphor and don’t think about it that way is I sort of look at it as like you know I’ve got a
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body that’s made up of about about give or take 37 trillion cells you can have more you can have less and this isn’t
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even the bacteria that lives in us this is just the cells that are what we would consider us and I don’t I I I I don’t
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feel like I can mobilize if I’m thinking about it to the extent that my thoughts and my feelings may mobilize something
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in my body I don’t feel like I can mobilize
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the the health that I want if I’m talking to my cells that way so that’s
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just me but for some people it’s like like I said doesn’t mean I’m going to live any longer so whatever works for you and I think that’s the the important
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uh message to get out to people it’s like you know you are you and you’re the best you that you can be uh and uh and
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you know do you know do what feels right to you for me the the fight metaphor is
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uh it in it inspires me it motivates me right you know and uh yes you are i just
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I just want to say to the listening audience Rey is a proponent of punch today in the
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face that’s your your your motto I guess uh well you know being a musician I’m
9:32
always in search of ways of making a little bit of extra money uh and uh one of those ways is with t-shirt at
9:38
performances and uh you know you put some sort of attitudinal uh ex saying on the back and punched it in the face
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actually grew from from if not now when and if not now when grew from me you
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know as I was going through this this this you know cancer journey as I as I’m trying to get my head around it and
9:56
changing my paradigm you know I think you know back when we were kids we had this like awe of discovery right we
10:03
didn’t we didn’t intentionally go I’m I’m going to learn today but we didn’t know anything so everything that we
10:09
every everything that we did experience we learned you know just going outside and experience in the world and we
10:15
started beginning to to gain knowledge we all had this sense of wonderment of discovery and then we became teenagers
10:20
and we knew it all i’m using little air quotes for those of you who are listening instead of watching you know we kind of know it all and we just we
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stopped with this you know sense of discovery and for me I had I had lived in a bubble a cancer-free bubble for 54
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years you know and now all of a sudden I was a patient i was learning so much from my support group and and the like
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and and you know and I I I wanted to be a little bit more you know growth
10:44
mindset about it and so I and I I it dawned on me that you know I take I me like a lot of lot of lot of humans I
10:51
think it’s part of the maybe endemic of the human condition i took time for granted um and uh that time I took for
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granted uh all tomorrows were taken for granted next weeks next months but sometimes it would be like next year
11:03
depending on the topics maybe in decades into the future just taken for granted they were going to be there and the more
11:08
I thought about it the more I thought you know how does that present or manifest itself in me and that was uh I
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took people for granted you know because they’d always be there for me because I took time for granted like Helena she’s
11:20
my dear friend you know I I’m thinking about her but I’ll I’ll connect with her tomorrow because she’s gonna be here tomorrow i’m going to be here tomorrow
11:25
so it doesn’t really matter so you know it kind of dawned on me it’s like you know what are the things you want to do what are the things that are most important to you and who are the people
11:32
that are most important to you what do you want to do and who do you want to do it with and so that led me to the little you know motto for the back of the the
11:37
gig t-shirt if not now when you know and that morphed itself to as you said punch today in the face you know I want to
11:44
Today’s a gift uh it truly is a gift if you can if you can look at it that way
11:49
and then recognize that a lot of people did not receive today as a gift right so what can we do to honor those people
11:56
what can we do to honor ourselves and what can we do to honor the day and and and in my mind it is to live to make the
12:03
most of the day and how do you make the most of the day by doing what’s most important to you with the people that
12:09
are most important to you uh and so you know the punch today in the face is kind of a metaphor for me i want to get
12:14
today’s attention today was personified i want them to know that Ry was here you know and if you’ve ever been punched in
12:20
the face that kind of gets your attention you know and uh so you know I want to be able to you know what what
12:26
gives me a sense of inner peace and a sense of self-satisfaction is laying in bed at night thinking you know I I made
12:33
the most of today and then kind of peeking over at tomorrow and saying I’m coming for you next you know uh th those
12:39
are those are the you know the you know the thought processes that I have in my head about you know you know living uh
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and uh because you know when you face any chronic serious chronic disease the
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road can be bumpy at times right you know uh it’s not it’s it’s not all tailwinds and downhill a lot of times
12:57
it’s headwinds and uphill but uh but you still have today and we can’t uh take
13:03
tomorrow for granted so what are we going to do today uh to to make the most of it and to to feel the best of
13:08
ourselves you know I want to follow up on a couple of things you said you know uh first of all I think you know from
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reading your book um I think you have a you know you were talking about how you were taking things for granted like you
13:20
used me as an example like my friend Helena but you seem to have a pretty good support system not everybody does
13:27
but you know you have your wife you have your kids your kids were basically adult kids and you seem like you had a lot of
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friends that came together so is that accurate i am extraordinarily lucky in
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that I have a a team a tribe that is with me you know unconditionally you
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know my wife um you know as you know navigating the United States health care
13:51
system can be difficult um the amount of snail mail we get is overwhelming
13:57
understanding insurance is something that just doesn’t even click in my head and uh you know you you have all this
14:03
correspondence with health care health care providers the payers the insurance companies pharmaceutical companies and
14:08
the like it can be daunting I’m that’s just correspondence people then there’s medical appointments there’s medications
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there’s all sorts of you know I I am fortunate I have this this team behind me and you know one of the things I like
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to tell people is uh you know if you know of anybody going through a serious health condition alone um in particular
14:27
but even if they’re not alone reach out to them and and they they first of all
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will appreciate it and they probably do need the help and I also like to tell patients take the help when it’s offered
14:40
you might not think you need help but the people on your team need to help you
14:46
you know I might not need a ride to the infusion center but I might have a friend who needs to drive me to the the
14:52
the uh center you know there’s a lot of people out there that need to have some sort of sense of control and when
14:57
someone that they love and care for um is going through something and they they feel powerless and they like they don’t
15:02
have control and that doesn’t make them feel good so help your friends feel a little better accept the help when it’s
15:08
offered i I would say two things on that too is like um the fact that you know cancer ghosting like is a thing there
15:14
are people who get diagnosis of all kinds and people evaporate and in terms of being a patient and whatever your
15:20
caregivers and support system is around you like I’ve said this to so so many people I’ve been in so many forums and
15:27
done so much research that even no matter how bad you feel and as you know when you’re going through a stem cell
15:33
transplant induction therapy the heart there are parts where you feel really bad and there can be some parts later on
15:38
but you can always always always let your caregivers know that they’re making a difference like even when you’re weak
15:45
and you really don’t have much of a voice because that’s what keeps them going you know and they’re such an important part of you know your life and
15:52
and and just getting getting through they are super important and sometimes they have the tougher job more tough
15:58
than the patient right and so uh if you you know if you know people out there who are caregivers ask them how they’re
16:03
doing uh because it’s you know it’s I I like to give the the analogy of my wife
16:08
giving child birth you know unpleasant experience uncomfortable um uh and in
16:14
the moment right and uh but but I never knew how much that you know she could go
16:20
where is she at her limits you know for me it’s like is she there right now she knew uh and she could go for me here’s a
16:27
person I love and you know she’s uncomfortable you know how much further can she go along same type of thing when
16:32
you turn turn the tables right you know she doesn’t know where I am uh on my th
16:38
you know approaching my thresholds of whatever they might be you know nausea fatigue and what have you you know and
16:44
sometimes your mind can can play with you it can be a very exhausting journey for caregivers and allies as well so you
16:50
know check in on with people and if you know somebody having a serious uh issue check in on them i know one of the
16:56
biggest obstacles you talked about ghosting you know quite frankly in my mind I I think it’s it’s a lot of times
17:02
people just don’t know what to say so if you you know don’t know what to say you don’t say anything at all or maybe you say “Oh you know I’m going to put it off
17:08
tomorrow because I don’t really know what to say and tomorrow becomes next week next month and so forth.” Just start there and I I learned that lesson
17:15
uh you know just talking in group with people because you know you know patients I’ve heard people you know
17:20
utter uh the the comment uh you find out quickly who your friends are i’m like
17:25
you know I I I hope I never share that same mentality because you know my friends are my friends for a reason you
17:32
know and um and uh and hopefully it’s not you know because of my illness or their illness or something else you I
17:39
just want to you know I for me I give them the benefit of the doubt you know they’ve got stuff going on in their lives that I don’t know about uh and and
17:45
so yeah maybe they don’t reach out to me but if I reached out to them uh or you know maybe they just don’t know what to say because I’ve done that off of silly
17:52
matters as I you know recount in the book for me you know my emotional intelligence is I hadn’t even heard that
17:58
word Helena until the early I want to say the early 2000s i am
18:05
emotional intelligence yes I am young on my journey of emotional intelligence and
18:10
and the EQ out there uh and I’m I’ve learned a lot and I’m continuing to learn a lot about it i know but I you
18:17
know grew up with those values of calm cool and collected and things like that not talking about your feelings that’s just the the the way we kind of grew up
18:25
those are our values and and then just you know learning that other people have some different values and you know when
18:30
you’re calm cool and collected sometimes you’re not really completely cognant of uh of yourself it’s certainly you know I
18:36
think maybe less aware of what’s going on with some others um because of the need of being calm cool and collected
18:41
and so I um you know learning about this you know whole EQ component and uh and
18:47
and trying to understand my my whole being uh more more so you uh you know
18:52
sometimes like in group people talk about just my fatigue you know I just want to clean my house and like yes you
18:57
do and that’s and and and the the way you feel when you can’t is very real right u but you know don’t show yourself
19:04
a little bit of grace you know you might not be able to finish cleaning your house but you might be able to start you
19:10
know uh you know and celebrate that you know I got you know or maybe do part like at least I got the dining room
19:15
table dusted and some things you know you know cleaned up in the dining room I can deal with the living room you know maybe tomorrow whatever ever but you
19:22
know we we tend there’s a lot of people out there like me you look at those the completion of stuff but let’s not forget
19:27
just celebrate getting started i literally I have celebrated cutting my toenails i hope to celebrate that today
19:33
Helena because I looked at them yesterday and needed to be cut but I was had treatment yesterday and I was just I’m not going to cut my toenails uh and
19:41
I know that sounds ridiculous but to celebrate the small things today when I cut my toenails I’m going to Yes I got
19:48
those done and maybe there’s going to be a little while longer i have to cut my toenails again but at least that’s you know try try to get up every morning try
19:54
to get dressed and try to you know just get started with something i think everybody will feel you’ll feel a better
19:59
doing okay so Ray are you ready for my lightning round of questions these are I love lightning rounds of questions these
20:05
are the wrap-up questions baby okay i’m hoping you’re going to pick one about Van Halen Sammy Hagar no and there and
20:12
there’s no prizes at the end either so I’m really disappointing you so what is the biggest thing you’ve
20:19
learned from having myoma so far uh a time um and if not now when punch day in
20:26
the face do the things that are most important with the people that are most important to me it’s my my biggest um
20:31
takeaway uh and that’s tied with also cancer tends to take away a lot of things also at the same time if you’re
20:38
open to it it adds a lot of things and an example I will give I know it’s a lightning rod round you don’t have to be
20:45
piffy you can go March 10th uh 2019 I did not have multiple my I mean I had it
20:51
just wasn’t diagnosed and at that point in time I had a ton of roles in my life I know I was a father I was a son I was
20:57
a husband I was a a bandmate I was a teammate I was a boss I was an employee
21:02
had all these roles in my life each and every one of them I had these accountabilities and these goals and objectives that were tied to them you
21:09
know what March 11th came around got diagnosed with multiple mom myoma and you know what changed nothing at that
21:15
point in time I still had every single one of those roles every one of them they still had accountability skills and objectives then very quickly you know I
21:22
was a cancer patient advocate I was a cancer patient organizational fundraiser you know and and all these other roles
21:28
got added to my life I actually some of the most rewarding things that have happened to me in my life other than
21:34
getting married and the you know being a father to my two children having patience reach out to me from around the
21:41
world uh you know through the book and through my my social media efforts you know I converse with people from New
21:47
Zealand South Africa Turkey Iran um uh I it’s the most rewarding experience in my
21:54
life yesterday I get a message on social it’s like yeah we were across the hall from you at the city of hope getting
22:00
treatment i’m like “No way.” And uh she’s like “Yes way.” And I’m like “I wish you had said hello or something i
22:07
let’s let’s do this together.” And she “You know what yes you know I’ll send you my our private contact information
22:12
and DMs.” And uh but yeah it’s um you know you know the things that I’ve
22:17
learned do what’s most important uh with the people that are most important to you that’s the treasure in your life uh
22:24
and then also you know don’t always look at you know your serious health condition as a sense of loss you know
22:30
what is the gain from it you know does it offset the loss maybe maybe not I don’t know but there are things that come and these have been wonderfully
22:36
rewarding experiences finding other myoma warriors like yourself uh and then you know uh so many people in my group
22:43
and outside my group you know when I needed help they reached out and pulled me forward uh and I committed myself at
22:51
that point in time or soon thereafter that I want to be that person in the community as well you know I have
22:56
benefited from the trailblazers in front of me if If there’s other people out there that need a helping hand
23:02
temporarily or permanently needs to be pulled forward I want to be that that resource for them to help pull them
23:07
forward for patients caregivers and allies uh and it’s been rewarding you bring me right to my next question so
23:15
would you undo it if you had the opportunity if you could and I don’t mean undo it like be cured now i mean
23:22
have it never happen what a great question
23:27
um I would love not to have multiple my mom myoma
23:33
i don’t think I’d undo it because I don’t know if I would have learned my life lessons without it i would have
23:41
continued on my little bubble uh I am my my fourth book comes out May 6th um
23:47
that’s part of all all four of those books are well three of those books certainly the myoma book is well it’s
23:54
directly related to myoma but all four of the but three of the books are also related to if not now when things I
23:59
wanted to do and you know time’s ticking away uh I don’t I think I would continue to take uh time for granted that would
24:06
have manifested itself and taking people for granted and the rewards that I have from you know from our our patient
24:12
community our caregiver community our ally communities been too rewarding um
24:18
like I said I would love not that to have and hopefully one they will will find it you know this book is a a
24:23
fundraiser it’s my create your own fundraiser for the multiple myoma research foundation um all netriters
24:29
proceeds go to it and uh you know hopefully one day we’ll get a cure for this and other cancers uh and I would
24:36
love for that to happen but no uh I know it’s a lightning round i’m rambling you said something very early on when we
24:41
were talking that I also realized when I was bedridden like I realized beyond a doubt that I am not my meat suit like
24:49
that I am something else besides this like you talked about and it’s like if I
24:54
had not been bedridden and so sick I would not have learned that probably until I died so that’s why I asked that
25:00
question but anyway the next question is and this is a more esoteric question from my other podcast but I want to try
25:06
it out on you so what do you suspect is the true nature of reality
25:17
yeah you thought you were just going to talk about your book no I’m asking some other stuff wow but the true nature of reality wow if you have a
25:26
guess nobody knows so I’ll tell you that part nobody really knows that’s what I like about this there’s no right answer
25:32
that we know about now you know I I I don’t know uh the true nature reality i
25:39
And it’s something that I I I think about a lot like because I love living uh Helena and I can’t imagine not living
25:47
uh but I don’t really know what like life is you know are we are we do we
25:52
have these parallel you know life structures you know where you know there’s always you know like some place
25:58
right now in you know in another spectrum another dimension there’s a 12-year-old Ray and he has lived for 12
26:03
years and who knows how much longer you know he’s going to live but today right now I’m at the 60-year-old Ray and and
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talking about that I don’t really know you know from a um you know reality I I
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don’t know what reality might be but I know what I want my I think what my duty of reality is and that is to make this
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world a little bit better for for me being in it uh you know and so what what
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can I do you know collectively we’re we’re all in this together and we have we live in such a weird time uh and you
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know everybody kind of not everybody but a lot of people kind of confuse opinion for fact uh everybody’s correct and
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everybody else is wrong uh super divisive um we tend to be uh uneducated
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and that you know we’ll read a bunch of clickbait headlines uh and then the danger is if you even bother to click
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deeper into that then that’s all the type of news that you get fed anywhere you know back in the analog day you pull
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up like a treasure of information like the Wall Street Journal you were your own filter of this incredible amount of
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data and you went to where you wanted to go but now you know we are fed based on
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our pra our past you know behaviors we are fed our news streams and like that and and and so whatever you read you
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tend to read more of what you just read and that doesn’t do really a whole lot for your you know uh intellectual
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horsepower um you know so you know we we live in this kind of complicated time and and I just want to be productive
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member of our collective society cuz we are all in this together uh we all get
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something helena and myself we have multiple myoma who knows we might get something else to go along with it uh
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and um you know we’re all in this together we are stronger together uh as
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as people and you know I I want to be a community builder and I want to be a positive influence i want to be a
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positive role model to to my family my friends but to to reach out like I said to be helpful and to be productive so
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for me I don’t know what reality is but I know what I want my reality to be and that is a to be a a resource uh there
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are times when I need help and I treasure and so so grateful to people who help me along uh and then when I can
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be a resource and help people along that’s uh tremendously rewarding so uh what reality is I don’t know uh I do
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know that you know my perception of where I am is my reality but it’s probably a different reality for
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everybody else has a differing perception which is darn near everybody uh so maybe we have a you know uh
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together we have 14 billion people on the planet and there’s 14 billion different realities uh where do they
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intersect and uh how can my uh how can how can I be productive in going forward
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as opposed to being deconstructionist and making us deevolve backward back to the
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cave great question thank you good question asker
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good question asker okay so when you die assuming your solar
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consciousness lives on what do you hope to discover or find out what’s left
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what’s more I hope to peek in and and uh uh and uh you know follow the ones I
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love and see what they’re up to i you know I I you know I there’s so I have a
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a 29-year-old daughter and we have a 29-year-old daughter and 27year-old son
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i’m so excited to to know what what they got going on uh and uh and deep into the
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future but uh yeah it’s uh you know where do we go and you know uh I sure hope I don’t know what the afterlife is
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but I hope there is some afterlife because I love living and uh I love learning and I love uh uh watching and
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listening and I do love talking as uh you listeners and viewers know so so Rey
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so once again here’s the book Me Myself and My Multiple Myoma where can people find you you you can find me anywhere um
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you can uh literally I’m on uh like most social platforms and it’s my name Ray
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Hartin spelled H A R T J- N with the exception of Tik Tok um I’m Ray Hartin 5
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i think when I was signing up I just you know my favorite number they gave you I
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hit a five but I’m Ray Hartin on all the social platforms my website is Ray Hartin if you are a patient caregiver
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and ally and there’s anything I can do for you and I mean anything uh please let me know my phone number is in the
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book yes it is i was shocked when I saw that reach reach out to me uh and uh my
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my email is in the book as well my email is also on this podcast it’s
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rayartin@gmail.com if there’s anything I can do for you like I said a little bit earlier it’s been a you know among the
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biggest honors of my life connecting with other patients when these patients from these this collected small collection of women from Iran reached
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out to me it’s like check that out man forget geopolitical differences religious differences and all this uh
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this is humanto human interaction uh you know and uh what could be better it’s
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it’s fantastic so if there’s anything heck if you just wanted to say hi uh drop me a line cuz I will say hi back
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and uh and I I would appreciate that i love the opportunity and uh I you know I’ve I’ve met all these great Myoma
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warriors um you know uh like you Helena you know we we got something we didn’t
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ask for it uh but uh we’re also not letting it stop us uh and uh you know uh onward we go and together um we are so
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much stronger than we are uh individually uh when you need a lift people reach out there and you know and
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and let people pull you forward and you see somebody else that needs a lift you know please consider reaching back and
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and pulling them forward as well uh together we are strong so Ray any final words for your fellow
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myoma patients or their caregivers i love you i love you Helena i love all uh
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everybody uh out there i mean we are a community we’re special you know and we’ve gone through our struggles but be
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grateful for those struggles for they have made you who you are uh today uh
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and that is one badass cancer warrior and uh you know so you
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know be grateful for the things that you’ve gone through be grateful for the things that you have sometimes it can be
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difficult to do that uh but also you know unwrap today is the gift that it is
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what are you going to do today what is your intent for today uh what are you going to do for yourself and for the
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people that you love and uh if you find that I promise you you are going to find a sense of inner peace and isn’t that
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what we all strive for is this kind of sense of inner peace um you know you’re you’re you’re doing the things that are
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most important to you so go out there live be good folks ray thank you so much for chatting with
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me today it’s been my absolute pleasure thanks for watching i hope this video
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has helped you if you are in the thick of something click to join me on another journey and don’t forget to subscribe
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and give a thumbs up it really helps the channel [Music]
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