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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to

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Speaker 1: the White Tail Woods, presented by First Light, creating proven

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Speaker 1: versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First

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Speaker 1: Light Go farther, stay longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast. I'm your guest

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Speaker 2: host Tony Peterson. Today I'm joined by Missouri bowhunter Zach

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Speaker 2: Fleer to talk about organ transplants, facing your own mortality,

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Speaker 2: and how unimportant big bucks are in the grand scheme

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Speaker 2: of things. All right, folks, welcome to the Wired to

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Speaker 2: Hunt podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.

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Speaker 2: You might notice that this isn't the squeaky weird voice

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Speaker 2: of your usual host, but instead is the voice of

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Speaker 2: your good old backup QB. Tony Mark is off today

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Speaker 2: getting a medical procedure because he suffers from an uncommon

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Speaker 2: genetic variation of male pattern baldness, which only affects his mustache. Essentially,

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Speaker 2: he's getting hair plugs for his upper lip, which is

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Speaker 2: a worse process than it sounds, because they have to

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Speaker 2: remove the hair from his lower back and well lower

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Speaker 2: than that. I'm sure he'll have a luxurious mustache when

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Speaker 2: he comes out of hiding, and please don't call him

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Speaker 2: stinky lips or anything like that, because he's pretty sensitive

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Speaker 2: about this stuff. My guest today is a good friend

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Speaker 2: of mine named Zach Fleer, who is a really skilled

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Speaker 2: white tail hunter from Missouri. Not only does Zach routinely

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Speaker 2: kill good deer on public land, he's also living with

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Speaker 2: a spare part from his brother after experiencing near total

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Speaker 2: kidney failure. Zach's story is a humbling one that frames

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Speaker 2: up just how important family and friends are and how

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Speaker 2: you shouldn't take a moment for granted, whether you're at

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Speaker 2: home or in the woods. Zach, it's good to see

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Speaker 2: your face, buddy.

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Speaker 3: Good to see you, Tony. Appreciate you having me on.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we didn't know for a while there whether we're

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Speaker 2: going to have you around or.

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Speaker 3: Not, and it was a little touch and go for

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Speaker 3: a minute.

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Speaker 2: But you you know the reason I wanted to have

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Speaker 2: you on here. You and I met on a hunt, Geez,

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Speaker 2: that was probably I don't know what seven or eight

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Speaker 2: years ago now, on a Turkey hunt. And you have

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Speaker 2: have gone through some medical stuff that really I'm guessing

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Speaker 2: we're going to get into here, but has really shaped

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Speaker 2: the course of your life, and that's you know, we're

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Speaker 2: kind of running this shit Hits the fan series here

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Speaker 2: where we're talking to people who you know, have probably

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Speaker 2: have a different perspective on hunting and family and life

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Speaker 2: than a lot of folks who haven't had something go on.

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Speaker 2: So why don't you why don't you start? Let's start

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Speaker 2: with this, what's wrong with your kidneys?

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Speaker 3: Well, it's a. It's an autoimmune disease. And I was

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Speaker 3: unaware that I had I've probably had it my whole

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Speaker 3: life until it got really bad pretty much and things

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Speaker 3: started going downhill. So they call i G A there's

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Speaker 3: a big fancy long term that I can't pronounce and

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Speaker 3: can't remember, but i GA is what they refer to

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Speaker 3: it as. It's worldwide it's the most common autoimmune kidney disease,

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Speaker 3: so it essentially turns your your kidneys into scar tissue,

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Speaker 3: so they don't they don't work anymore.

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Speaker 2: And how did you know though? What was the first

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Speaker 2: indication where you're like, man, something's going on.

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Speaker 3: It was the it was the headaches, which I didn't

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Speaker 3: know this. I learned a lot about kidneys over the

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Speaker 3: last couple of years. But your kidneys actually affect your

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Speaker 3: blood pressure or control your blood pressure. Had no idea,

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Speaker 3: but I started having really bad headaches, and it was

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Speaker 3: right after our daughter was born, so I just assumed

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Speaker 3: that lack of sleep. It was second kid. It was

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Speaker 3: a little bit of a rough transition, and so I

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Speaker 3: was like, I'll get over it. But they progressively got

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Speaker 3: worse and worse, and I was like, well, maybe I

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Speaker 3: have migraines now, So, you know, started taking lots of medication,

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Speaker 3: and it got to the point they were every day

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Speaker 3: and like the first part of my day until medication

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Speaker 3: kicked in, I was just kind of out of it.

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Speaker 3: So as a guy, I'm like, yeah, we're fine, I'll

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Speaker 3: make it through. But my wife made me a doctor's appointment,

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Speaker 3: and so went into that doctor's appointment just for the headaches.

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Speaker 3: They were going to check me out. My blood pressure

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Speaker 3: was two twenty four over one twelve or something when

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Speaker 3: I got checked in, and the nurse was like, uh,

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Speaker 3: you might be having a heart issue. So they I

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Speaker 3: got hooked up to the cardio thing and my heart

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Speaker 3: was fine. So went through a whole series of other things. Uh,

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Speaker 3: and they're well gave it away. Was actually my ankles

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Speaker 3: were super swollen and they've always been that way. My

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Speaker 3: wife made fun of me quite a bit for having cankles.

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Speaker 3: But the doctor's like, there's probably something wrong with your kidneys.

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Speaker 3: And so that started off a whole journey of I

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Speaker 3: hadn't gone to the doctor and I don't know how long,

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Speaker 3: but I made up for it in a very quick

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Speaker 3: amount of time.

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Speaker 2: So so when was this When did it all start?

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Speaker 3: July of twenty twenty one was when the headache started,

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Speaker 3: and it was January or February in twenty twenty two

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Speaker 3: was when I went first went to the doctor.

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Speaker 2: And so you put up with the headaches, just assumed

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Speaker 2: it was, you know, life with another new baby, you know,

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Speaker 2: put it off till you couldn't do it anymore.

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Speaker 3: Huh yep, yep.

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Speaker 2: And they don't. They don't mess around with high blood

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Speaker 2: pressure when you're young and in shape.

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Speaker 3: No, No, that's what doctor says. He's like, something's wrong

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Speaker 3: because you're I mean, you're not very old, you're in

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Speaker 3: good shape. So it was they moved things along pretty quickly.

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Speaker 3: I did got an appointment with a and the prologists.

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Speaker 3: They did a bunch of blood testing and he didn't

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Speaker 3: have any baseline to go off of for like what

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Speaker 3: I was previously to where I was at at the

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Speaker 3: first round of testing. So he's like, we're going to

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Speaker 3: have to We actually waited out for about a month

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Speaker 3: still with a headaches because he's like, a most blood

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Speaker 3: pressure can medicine we can give you is going to

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Speaker 3: damage your kidneys. So he said, I want to make sure.

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Speaker 3: He thought it could also been because all the medication

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Speaker 3: I was taking to get rid of the headaches. He said,

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Speaker 3: sometimes those can temporarily give you they lower your kidney function,

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Speaker 3: and it actually got worse as we did lab so

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Speaker 3: he said, it's definitely not that because I've quit taking

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Speaker 3: medication for it. So then I got to do a biopsy,

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Speaker 3: which in and of itself was one of the more

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Speaker 3: traumatic things I've ever done. You get to be awake

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Speaker 3: for that and they use a really large needle and

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Speaker 3: just stick it right in there. I was like, this

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Speaker 3: is can't get worse than that.

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Speaker 2: But do they at least use some local anesthetic or something.

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Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, they do, but you can you can feel

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Speaker 3: it go in. It doesn't hurt, but you can feel

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Speaker 3: it going in there. And yeah, that was a good time.

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Speaker 2: So you and I'm guessing here, but with your autoimmune disease.

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Speaker 2: Were you were you like a special kind of to

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Speaker 2: go in there because did they have to be more

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Speaker 2: careful about you getting sick other ways? Was that like

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Speaker 2: a big concern or not?

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Speaker 3: It wasn't at that time. It is it is post

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Speaker 3: transplant because of the medications I'm on. But at that time, no,

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Speaker 3: they weren't. They weren't worried about it. He said genetic

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Speaker 3: because I was. I was worried about my kids, and

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Speaker 3: he's like, you're not gonna have worry about your kids.

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Speaker 3: He said, it's pretty random. He said it's the most common.

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Speaker 3: But he said it's really random. He said, your genetic

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Speaker 3: markers just lined up that way.

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Speaker 2: Just bad luck.

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Speaker 3: Yep.

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Speaker 2: So how old were you in twenty twenty one then

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Speaker 2: when you were started going through this. I was twenty

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Speaker 2: seven so and you had two kids at home.

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Speaker 3: I had two kids at home.

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Speaker 2: So when you when you started going through this, I mean,

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Speaker 2: what are you thinking? It was so hell?

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Speaker 3: Stuff doesn't has never really scared me that much. It

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Speaker 3: was a wake up call, like you know, going through

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Speaker 3: college and my young adult life. I was a good athlete.

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Speaker 3: I was proud of like my body and my endurance

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Speaker 3: about that stuff. So I'd never really thought anything like

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Speaker 3: this would happen, and so when it does happen, you're

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Speaker 3: taking back a little bit, like, Okay, I'm not invincible

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Speaker 3: like I thought it was, but I just didn't know

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Speaker 3: what it looked like going forward. At that point, I

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Speaker 3: was still functioning pretty well. The first round of labs

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Speaker 3: I did, he's like, your kidney functions out about nineteen percent.

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Speaker 3: Was when I first found out about this. And he said,

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Speaker 3: if the doctor said, if you go back in your life,

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Speaker 3: you would have known if you knew what to look for,

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Speaker 3: which was was in college for me, was when my

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Speaker 3: ankle starts falling, when I was playing baseball doing all

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Speaker 3: that stuff. So it was kind of a time of reflection,

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Speaker 3: like and he's like, it wouldn't have mattered. They can't

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Speaker 3: treat it. And the only way he treated is you

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Speaker 3: eventually you get to the point where you need a

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Speaker 3: new kidney or you go on dialysis.

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Speaker 2: So what's the cankles thing? Is that it just a

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Speaker 2: while retention thing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yep, your kidneys aren't are filtering fast enough and

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Speaker 3: so you tend to retain water.

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Speaker 2: So this this started to show up, you know, manifest

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Speaker 2: itself in some symptoms. You know, at least quite a

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Speaker 2: few years before you, you know, started getting the headaches

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Speaker 2: and really started getting it treated. And did you you

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Speaker 2: know you you were really good at baseball, right, M

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Speaker 2: play college baseball, That's what I thought. So as somebody

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Speaker 2: who played collegiate level sports, and you know you said this,

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Speaker 2: you looked at it and go health wise, I'm kicking

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Speaker 2: ass and taking name tags right like I'm not. You're

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Speaker 2: not worried about that. And then all of a sudden,

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Speaker 2: maybe not all of a sudden, but in a fairly

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Speaker 2: short period, you find out that there's something that you

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Speaker 2: have no control over because as many times you go

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Speaker 2: for a run and go to the gym, do whatever,

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Speaker 2: it doesn't matter, Like what was that?

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Speaker 3: Like, it's it's humbling because it's like I said, I

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Speaker 3: thought I was invincible for a while. And then and

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Speaker 3: you you know, my wife talks about this when you

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Speaker 3: get married. It's like for better, for worse and sickness

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Speaker 3: and health, and you like, you never think about that

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Speaker 3: until something happens. And because most time, I mean most

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Speaker 3: people live their whole life and don't have any major issues.

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Speaker 3: And it's like and then it happens, and so you

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Speaker 3: have to slow down a little bit and it's like, Okay,

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Speaker 3: we're this is now reality, and like how do you

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Speaker 3: move forward from here? It was kind of my mindset

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Speaker 3: because like, I can't. There's nothing I can do about

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Speaker 3: it now, so we either have to work through it

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Speaker 3: and where you can. I wasn't going to just give up.

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Speaker 2: I guess well, I mean when I wonder about this

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Speaker 2: and I know that you're not this way, I feel

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Speaker 2: like I would be this way if something like that

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Speaker 2: happened to me. I'd be an insufferable prick to everyone

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Speaker 2: because I would be like, take care of your health,

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Speaker 2: because you know, there's enough stuff we do to ourselves

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Speaker 2: to put ourselves in bad health, right, we know all

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Speaker 2: the routes to take to really destroy your own personal health.

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Speaker 2: And on top of that, you have this just you know,

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Speaker 2: satellite thing that might happen in your life where all

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Speaker 2: of a sudden, out of your own control, something vastly

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Speaker 2: changes your health for the worst. And now you're at

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Speaker 2: the whims of you know, the medical system and what

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Speaker 2: you have access to and just like a little bit

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Speaker 2: amount of luck there too.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, medical system is I hated it I never

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Speaker 3: went to the doctor, and now it's like, I'm thankful

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Speaker 3: we have the medical system because they did save my life.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, it it brings you to a point, like

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Speaker 3: for me, it's like I'm not in control, and you

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Speaker 3: kind of come to a point.

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Speaker 2: And I don't know if.

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Speaker 3: You're religious, kid or thing, but it's like, okay, God,

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Speaker 3: let's have this conversation because clearly clear you're the one

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Speaker 3: in control, not me. And so it just brought perspective

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Speaker 3: really to everything. And like like I said, to the

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Speaker 3: health part, it was it was really annoying because I

231
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Speaker 3: had to go on a super strict diet, which because

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Speaker 3: they're like all these things affect your kidneys, so you

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Speaker 3: can't eat processed food, you can't eat salt, can't eat sugar.

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Speaker 3: So I basically ate grilled chicken and salad for almost

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Speaker 3: two years, which I was like, it's a that was

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Speaker 3: probably that was sadly, probably the hardest part. For a while.

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Speaker 3: I was like, I am tired of eating salad and

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Speaker 3: grilled chicken, like this is it's just annoying.

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Speaker 2: But you couldn't eat venison, no red meat.

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Speaker 3: That was why that's why I switched to the long

241
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Speaker 3: bow for a little while because it definitely decreased my

242
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Speaker 3: success rate in the hunting. So that's yeah, very limited

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Speaker 3: red meat, like a the amount of protein which I

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Speaker 3: would I would eat more steak over like dessert. That

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Speaker 3: was just who I was. And so they they said

246
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Speaker 3: you can have between eighty and one hundred grams of

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Speaker 3: protein a day. I was like, that's like one meal.

248
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Speaker 3: So that was that was an adjustment, uh, for for

249
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Speaker 3: our grocery shopping, for our family meals. We all got

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Speaker 3: a lot healthier for a while there.

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Speaker 2: So so when you when you're talking about doing that

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Speaker 2: for like two years of being on that super restrictive diet,

253
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Speaker 2: is that is that because you're on the waiting list

254
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Speaker 2: now and you just got to maintain the healthiest level

255
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Speaker 2: you can until your number gets called or what.

256
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Speaker 3: So I already actually have done the transplant. Oh we

257
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Speaker 3: we got that last year twenty twenty three. My brother

258
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Speaker 3: actually donated a kidney to me, which in and of

259
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Speaker 3: itself is a very humbling experience because my brother is

260
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Speaker 3: worse than I am. He hates doctors, it's terrified of needles,

261
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Speaker 3: all that stuff. So it was a it was a

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Speaker 3: traumatic experience for him and so just humbling that, Uh,

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Speaker 3: you always hope that your brothers will be like there

264
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Speaker 3: for you when you need him, and uh, he stepped

265
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Speaker 3: up and did it. So I'm thankful for my brother.

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Speaker 2: Gabes is he is he ever going to let you

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Speaker 2: live it down?

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Speaker 3: He's been pretty he's been pretty good about it. He

269
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Speaker 3: said that beforehand, he's like, you don't know me anything.

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Speaker 3: He's like, I know you'd do it for me. So

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Speaker 3: he's been okay about it. I've you know, we try

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Speaker 3: to do a few more favors for him.

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Speaker 2: But so you when you when that doctor said you

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Speaker 2: know you're at nineteen percent function with your kid knees,

275
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Speaker 2: I mean, are there is that right away? Are they like, listen,

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Speaker 2: we got to get you on a list or we

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Speaker 2: got to find a donor asap.

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Speaker 3: So we started, we started getting set up to get

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Speaker 3: on the waiting list, which is a long and lengthy process.

280
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Speaker 3: You got to get all your past history, medical history.

281
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Speaker 3: I had to get dental lect rays to make sure

282
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Speaker 3: I didn't have any infection in my teeth, like just

283
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Speaker 3: all kinds of crazy random things. So that process took

284
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Speaker 3: a while to get on the list. And they also

285
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Speaker 3: were they can't solicit live donor. So you have to

286
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Speaker 3: sweet talk people, you know, to call this number to

287
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Speaker 3: see if they want to get test said, to see

288
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Speaker 3: if they're a match. So it was a long kind

289
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Speaker 3: of a long process there. And the dialysis is also

290
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Speaker 3: an option, which for me, I always I never wanted

291
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Speaker 3: to get on dialysis because that was that was like

292
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Speaker 3: rock bottom in my mindset, when you're hooked up to

293
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Speaker 3: a machine to stay alive. I was like, that's gonna

294
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Speaker 3: get which I ended up having to. But yeah, so

295
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Speaker 3: I think fifteen percent is where that's where they normally

296
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Speaker 3: will say they can put you down that dialysis. But

297
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Speaker 3: at my age, my doctor was pretty laid back. He said,

298
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Speaker 3: you will know when you need to be on dialysis.

299
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Speaker 3: And he said, as long as you're still doing doing

300
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Speaker 3: what you can do and are feeling okay. He said,

301
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Speaker 3: it's not like you're, you know, gonna at that stage.

302
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Speaker 3: He's like, you're you're gonna be okay. But he said,

303
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Speaker 3: you'll know when you have no energy, and you did.

304
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Speaker 3: I got there. I was pretty stubborn. So he's there

305
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Speaker 3: was a couple of markers. He said, you'll he said,

306
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Speaker 3: you won't want to do things you normally love doing uh,

307
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Speaker 3: and he said you won't want to eat, and he

308
00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:07,840
Speaker 3: said those are the two things that he said you

309
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Speaker 3: need to watch out for. So I got to the

310
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Speaker 3: point where I didn't want to eat, and I kept

311
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Speaker 3: forcing myself to eat because I was like, I don't

312
00:16:13,520 --> 00:16:15,800
Speaker 3: want to do it. And hindsight is really stupid because

313
00:16:15,800 --> 00:16:18,680
Speaker 3: I would have felt better having been on dialysis and

314
00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:23,080
Speaker 3: went in better shape, and I lost energy. There was

315
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Speaker 3: there was. I did a lot less hunting that year,

316
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Speaker 3: just and playing with the kids like stuff as normally

317
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Speaker 3: as I do. I've I spent a lot of time

318
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Speaker 3: just kind of laying on the couture, laying in bed.

319
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Speaker 3: So uh. They actually ended up forcing me to do

320
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Speaker 3: the dialysis just because my when we got closer to surgery,

321
00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:45,080
Speaker 3: my blood work and stuff, He's like, it's bad enough

322
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Speaker 3: now where he said you you may not get through

323
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Speaker 3: a surgery with the shape that your body's in. So

324
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Speaker 3: he said you have to get on dialysis.

325
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Speaker 2: So well, and that laying around like that wasn't worse

326
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Speaker 2: for you than the diet.

327
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Speaker 3: Well, if I laid around a lot, I didn't eat

328
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Speaker 3: as much, so that leveled it out.

329
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Speaker 2: So when you did you originally go on the donor

330
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Speaker 2: list and then end up you know, takes a little

331
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Speaker 2: bit of time when you're not you know, because I think,

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Speaker 2: isn't it like three to five years on average or something?

333
00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:20,119
Speaker 3: Yep, four years is average, okay, which is three to

334
00:17:20,200 --> 00:17:23,160
Speaker 3: five So they're trying to speed that process up now.

335
00:17:23,200 --> 00:17:25,400
Speaker 3: But yeah, they said it's going to be a minimum

336
00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:29,320
Speaker 3: of three years, so they tried to speed that process up.

337
00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:34,280
Speaker 2: And in that case, you're waiting for somebody to pass

338
00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:37,399
Speaker 2: away who's a match, right yep? And then in that

339
00:17:37,600 --> 00:17:40,640
Speaker 2: in that time frame, your free to go out and

340
00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:44,359
Speaker 2: beg and plead anybody that you're related to or whatever

341
00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:46,560
Speaker 2: who might be a match that for a spare part.

342
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Speaker 3: Yep, yep. I did my I think my mom was

343
00:17:49,640 --> 00:17:53,600
Speaker 3: my champion there. So she I don't have social media,

344
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Speaker 3: so she blew social media up, and like of course

345
00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:59,199
Speaker 3: we talked to my my siblings knew what was going on.

346
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Speaker 3: So they got to a lot of people we went

347
00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:04,480
Speaker 3: to church with were kind enough to get tested. People

348
00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:07,879
Speaker 3: I work with, I think they just did that so

349
00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:11,359
Speaker 3: they didn't have to do extra work. But but yeah,

350
00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:14,520
Speaker 3: so they we had a lot of people that, like

351
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Speaker 3: I said, again, that's humbling because I'm a very self reliant,

352
00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:21,240
Speaker 3: self sufficient kind of person. So it was humbling to

353
00:18:21,320 --> 00:18:23,960
Speaker 3: have a lot of people call in and willing to

354
00:18:24,720 --> 00:18:25,960
Speaker 3: give a kidney if they're a match.

355
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Speaker 2: So what is that like? I mean, what are you

356
00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:32,880
Speaker 2: thinking when you're in that position where you're like, all

357
00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:34,520
Speaker 2: these people are going on their way to help me.

358
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Speaker 2: It's got to be like a little bit of an

359
00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:38,760
Speaker 2: emotional roller coaster because there's a lot of there's got

360
00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:40,560
Speaker 2: to be a lot of promise and then a lot

361
00:18:40,600 --> 00:18:43,480
Speaker 2: of Nope, not a match or whatever. That person has

362
00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:46,320
Speaker 2: something going on, they're not healthy enough to do it.

363
00:18:46,640 --> 00:18:50,160
Speaker 2: What's like going through your head as you progress through

364
00:18:50,240 --> 00:18:53,840
Speaker 2: that stage and you know, it's just.

365
00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:57,920
Speaker 3: You always wondered, like I would do that for somebody else,

366
00:18:57,960 --> 00:19:01,159
Speaker 3: but having somebody do it for me it was It's

367
00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:06,040
Speaker 3: it's hard to process. I honestly intentionally didn't think about

368
00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:08,720
Speaker 3: it too much kind of throughout the thing. It was.

369
00:19:08,840 --> 00:19:12,280
Speaker 3: It was very much an emotional roller coaster for my wife.

370
00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:16,080
Speaker 3: She she probably took on the brunt of a lot

371
00:19:16,119 --> 00:19:18,200
Speaker 3: of this, taking care of the kids, taking care of

372
00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:23,200
Speaker 3: the house. I was wasn't doing much of anything, doing

373
00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:25,040
Speaker 3: as much work as I could on the computer and

374
00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:27,600
Speaker 3: then kind of hanging out in bed. Uh and it

375
00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:30,920
Speaker 3: got it got worse as the time went on. But

376
00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:32,639
Speaker 3: but yeah, yeah, when I got down to the end,

377
00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:35,119
Speaker 3: we had a couple of people that got through to

378
00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:37,920
Speaker 3: the process to the point it's a pretty extensive process.

379
00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:43,239
Speaker 3: They they won't different hospitals do it differently, but we

380
00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:46,040
Speaker 3: did that at the University of Missouri, and they are

381
00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:49,000
Speaker 3: super strict on who they'll let donate because they want

382
00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:52,199
Speaker 3: they don't want to cause health person problems for the

383
00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:54,400
Speaker 3: person that donate. So they run them through a bunch

384
00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:56,520
Speaker 3: of tests and they turned a ton of people away

385
00:19:56,640 --> 00:20:02,280
Speaker 3: just for different issues like wait, anything, they would turn

386
00:20:02,359 --> 00:20:05,280
Speaker 3: you away. And so we had a couple of people

387
00:20:05,320 --> 00:20:08,359
Speaker 3: get to the final stages and get turned away, And

388
00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:10,520
Speaker 3: so that was that was really hard for my wife,

389
00:20:10,560 --> 00:20:13,440
Speaker 3: you know, her her normal life was was not very

390
00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:17,439
Speaker 3: normal for a while. And so when we finally my

391
00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:20,359
Speaker 3: my brother got through the testing and I think he

392
00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:23,040
Speaker 3: called us for a match, it was I was pretty

393
00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:25,560
Speaker 3: emotional for my wife and and myself. You're like, okay,

394
00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:28,160
Speaker 3: there's there's there's light at the end of this tunnel, but.

395
00:20:28,840 --> 00:20:30,840
Speaker 2: Was it was there a point there where you're losing hope.

396
00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:36,520
Speaker 3: Mmm, I don't know that I ever lost hope. I

397
00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:39,359
Speaker 3: was pretty convinced that that God had a had a

398
00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:42,959
Speaker 3: plan first through this, But there was there was a

399
00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:46,399
Speaker 3: point where, uh it got got pretty bad for a

400
00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:48,280
Speaker 3: couple of days, Like I was in bed for probably

401
00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:50,879
Speaker 3: three days, just didn't get up, and uh here at

402
00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:53,520
Speaker 3: that point, you're like, okay, like is this is this

403
00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:57,479
Speaker 3: gonna like am I gonna make it to surgery? So

404
00:20:57,520 --> 00:20:59,919
Speaker 3: you start wondering, and like I said, my my wife

405
00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:03,399
Speaker 3: was she took a lot more of that trauma on

406
00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:06,600
Speaker 3: than I think I did. I don't think I from

407
00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:10,280
Speaker 3: my perspective, don't think I realized how far downhill I was.

408
00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:13,920
Speaker 3: From her perspective, she watched the whole progression as I

409
00:21:14,040 --> 00:21:16,359
Speaker 3: just kind of tanked the last couple of months.

410
00:21:16,359 --> 00:21:30,600
Speaker 2: So we focused like a lot on the physical aspect

411
00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:33,199
Speaker 2: of it, like how you're feeling and super tired and

412
00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:37,160
Speaker 2: you know, all of these like physical things. But mentally,

413
00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:41,160
Speaker 2: that's got to be such a heavy lift to sit

414
00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:44,720
Speaker 2: there and watch your wife handle everything while you're not

415
00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:47,960
Speaker 2: doing very you know, like you're not capable of doing anything,

416
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:49,200
Speaker 2: and you have a lot of time.

417
00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:52,439
Speaker 3: To think, yeah, yeah, it was hard, and she was

418
00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:55,680
Speaker 3: a trooper and there were some days that were real

419
00:21:55,760 --> 00:22:00,360
Speaker 3: hard for her. And I can't remember who who told

420
00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:02,359
Speaker 3: me this, but there it was one of I think

421
00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:04,160
Speaker 3: it was one of the doctors, and he said, you

422
00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:06,879
Speaker 3: you going through this. He said, you're not really aware

423
00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:10,040
Speaker 3: of how bad you are. He said, it's just just

424
00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:13,000
Speaker 3: kind of the human thing with something like this, where

425
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:15,400
Speaker 3: it's a slow decline, he said, I. He said, it's

426
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:18,080
Speaker 3: hard for you to realize the point that you've gotten to.

427
00:22:19,680 --> 00:22:21,200
Speaker 3: And so, like I said, there were a few times

428
00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:23,240
Speaker 3: where was like, Okay, this is this is bad. I

429
00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:25,880
Speaker 3: just laying in bed. I can't get up. I don't

430
00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:30,639
Speaker 3: want to get up, and the the horror parts. The

431
00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:32,879
Speaker 3: thing I think got that got to me the most

432
00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:36,560
Speaker 3: mentally and emotionally was my four year old son. I

433
00:22:36,560 --> 00:22:38,200
Speaker 3: put him in bed one night and he's like, Daddy,

434
00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:41,040
Speaker 3: are we going to wrestle again? And that was it

435
00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:44,040
Speaker 3: just like broke my heart because he didn't know what's

436
00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:46,000
Speaker 3: going on. He knew something's going on. There's a lot

437
00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:48,960
Speaker 3: of stress, but I hadn't wrestled with that poor kid

438
00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:50,879
Speaker 3: in months, and it's just like I didn't have energy

439
00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:55,159
Speaker 3: and I was like we'll wrestle again, buddy. But I

440
00:22:55,160 --> 00:22:56,879
Speaker 3: think that that was the point where I was like,

441
00:22:57,320 --> 00:23:00,800
Speaker 3: it's gotten it's gotten really really bad. Like my little

442
00:23:00,800 --> 00:23:02,400
Speaker 3: four year old kid just wants to wrestle.

443
00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:07,920
Speaker 2: So that's like real shit. I mean, that's like framing

444
00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:12,480
Speaker 2: it up really as you're as you're going through that,

445
00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:15,280
Speaker 2: Like how hard is it to just slide into a

446
00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:19,280
Speaker 2: pity party? Like I I just wonder what it's like.

447
00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:21,399
Speaker 2: I mean, because you see so many people out there,

448
00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:23,520
Speaker 2: a lot a lot of young folks, Like it's it's

449
00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:26,639
Speaker 2: really easy to sort of adopt this victim mentality and

450
00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:29,960
Speaker 2: you know, the world's against me whatever pity party stuff,

451
00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:33,360
Speaker 2: but you're actually like the person who should be having one,

452
00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:36,200
Speaker 2: you know, like if anybody's entitled to a pity party,

453
00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:39,399
Speaker 2: it's you laying in bed with your kidneys dying on you.

454
00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:40,720
Speaker 2: Like how hard was that?

455
00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:49,000
Speaker 3: I don't know. My My mind set normally is like

456
00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:51,640
Speaker 3: you give me a challenge, it's like I'm gonna I'm

457
00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:53,880
Speaker 3: gonna push as hard as I can just to get

458
00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:57,000
Speaker 3: through it. And so I'd have to ask my wife.

459
00:23:57,080 --> 00:23:59,320
Speaker 3: But there wasn't there wasn't a lot of pity party

460
00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:03,320
Speaker 3: on my part. I don't know. I look at it

461
00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:05,359
Speaker 3: from a perspective, it's like, if somebody's gonna have to

462
00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:07,840
Speaker 3: have this issue, I was like, I'd rather be me

463
00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:11,280
Speaker 3: than one of my kids or my wife. So it's

464
00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:15,080
Speaker 3: like I'll bear this burden. I mean, we all had

465
00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:16,919
Speaker 3: a burden a bear during the season, but it's like,

466
00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:21,720
Speaker 3: I would rather just be me. So it wasn't. I

467
00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:24,280
Speaker 3: don't know. I didn't. I didn't tried not to have

468
00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:26,679
Speaker 3: the pity party. I tried not to to make a

469
00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:29,480
Speaker 3: big deal about it or talk about it. I got

470
00:24:29,800 --> 00:24:32,280
Speaker 3: it got pretty annoying with everybody asking like how are you.

471
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:37,119
Speaker 3: It's like I am, I'm still here. Quit asking. But

472
00:24:37,119 --> 00:24:40,200
Speaker 3: but so, yeah, I didn't. I don't know. I didn't.

473
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:41,560
Speaker 3: I didn't go down that path.

474
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:45,679
Speaker 2: So I could see that being an easy path to

475
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:48,280
Speaker 2: go down for a lot of people. So you go

476
00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:51,560
Speaker 2: through this, you're you're on the waiting list. Your brother

477
00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:54,760
Speaker 2: finally gets through all of the testing and everything finds

478
00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:56,840
Speaker 2: out he's the guy, even though he's terrified of needles

479
00:24:56,880 --> 00:24:59,480
Speaker 2: and he doesn't want to do it. There there has

480
00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:02,040
Speaker 2: to be a of relief there, but maybe like a

481
00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:04,800
Speaker 2: new sense of fear, Like now you can see the

482
00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:06,320
Speaker 2: light at the end of the tunnel, but you're not

483
00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:07,960
Speaker 2: you are not there.

484
00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:12,000
Speaker 3: Yet, yep, and it was that was a real thing.

485
00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:17,479
Speaker 3: Like my poor wife, she called it that this doctor

486
00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:20,400
Speaker 3: multiple times, like is he going to make it the surgery?

487
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:26,359
Speaker 3: And we kind of got to a point where it

488
00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:28,600
Speaker 3: was too late. We had the surgery schedule. I think

489
00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:32,720
Speaker 3: it was December thirteenth of twenty twenty two, I think

490
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:36,879
Speaker 3: is when the surgery actually got scheduled for, and we

491
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:40,240
Speaker 3: had kind of picked that date. We could have done

492
00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:44,080
Speaker 3: it sooner, but I was trying to let I make

493
00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:47,439
Speaker 3: it a convenient time for my brother and little so

494
00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:50,919
Speaker 3: we scheduled this in October. I'm pretty sure it was

495
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:54,600
Speaker 3: October September, October. And at that point in time, like

496
00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:57,080
Speaker 3: I was, I didn't feel great. I was still kind

497
00:25:57,080 --> 00:25:58,919
Speaker 3: of getting around doing some stuff. So I was like,

498
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:03,040
Speaker 3: we'll be fine, you know, having that whole conversation, and uh,

499
00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:05,439
Speaker 3: that was when the bottom kind of fell out. And

500
00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:07,680
Speaker 3: so then it was a point was like, okay, am

501
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:10,280
Speaker 3: I going to make it to surgery and I still

502
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:14,480
Speaker 3: didn't want to do the dialysis thing, and uh I

503
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:18,560
Speaker 3: started dialysis on at the end of November, and that

504
00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:25,080
Speaker 3: that was the point we're even hunting. I we a

505
00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:27,960
Speaker 3: rifle hunted that year. I actually shot that really big

506
00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:31,400
Speaker 3: a point, but like I couldn't do anything of that deer.

507
00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:33,919
Speaker 3: After I shot it, I was like, I can't move it,

508
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:37,120
Speaker 3: I can't feel addressed. I was just there. I had

509
00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:39,400
Speaker 3: to call for help. And that was that was when

510
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:41,679
Speaker 3: I got a little more real because I was like,

511
00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:43,879
Speaker 3: this is what's what I always loved, doing what I

512
00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:46,360
Speaker 3: want to do, and it's like I just can't do it.

513
00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:50,520
Speaker 3: So that was a little bit of like am I

514
00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:52,280
Speaker 3: gonna Am I gonna get to the point where we

515
00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:58,560
Speaker 3: make it the surgery and then then the call were there.

516
00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:02,080
Speaker 3: So I was doing labs weekly and you can kind

517
00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:05,040
Speaker 3: of see the progression where it was going down to,

518
00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:07,399
Speaker 3: and that that last round of labs, I was at

519
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:13,199
Speaker 3: six percent of kidney function and came came home and

520
00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:15,560
Speaker 3: like you're sitting about that. I quit showing my wife

521
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:17,640
Speaker 3: my lab numbers because it just it was so much

522
00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:20,600
Speaker 3: stress for I got that phone call They're like, you're

523
00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:23,960
Speaker 3: going to have to be like on dialysis and so

524
00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:25,679
Speaker 3: one of the main reasons I didn't want to be

525
00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:28,720
Speaker 3: on dalysis is they they fuse a vane and artery

526
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:32,000
Speaker 3: in your in your forearm, they like cut them and

527
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 3: I don't know how that process works, but it's he's like,

528
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:39,040
Speaker 3: you will you'll lose some feeling in your hand. And

529
00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:40,800
Speaker 3: I was like, I just don't want to do that.

530
00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:42,600
Speaker 3: I don't want to put a port in my arm.

531
00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:45,919
Speaker 3: And it was the way they had it set up.

532
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:49,359
Speaker 3: You had to I had to get the I don't know,

533
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:52,359
Speaker 3: like pre off or whatever. They walk you through the

534
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 3: whole process. That takes about two weeks to get scheduled.

535
00:27:55,359 --> 00:27:56,840
Speaker 3: Then you do the surgery, and then you have to

536
00:27:56,840 --> 00:27:59,280
Speaker 3: wait two weeks before they can use the port to

537
00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:03,240
Speaker 3: do dialysis. And we got to the point where or like,

538
00:28:03,280 --> 00:28:05,119
Speaker 3: I can't no longer do that, so they had to

539
00:28:05,119 --> 00:28:09,040
Speaker 3: put a direct port in my like in my neck,

540
00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:14,280
Speaker 3: straight in. So that was that was not fun either.

541
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:16,800
Speaker 3: I was like, it was like it was all kinds

542
00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:17,480
Speaker 3: of terrible now.

543
00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:21,720
Speaker 2: But so when you you know, you and I kept

544
00:28:21,760 --> 00:28:23,639
Speaker 2: in contact through that whole thing, and I knew I

545
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:26,000
Speaker 2: knew you were. You had mentioned a couple of times

546
00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:28,280
Speaker 2: that you were running real low on energy and not

547
00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:30,520
Speaker 2: feeling great, but every once in a while you'd send

548
00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:32,280
Speaker 2: me a kill photo of something and I'm like, well,

549
00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:35,639
Speaker 2: he's still getting out there, could you? Were you still

550
00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:37,760
Speaker 2: enjoying hunting at that point, because at that point you

551
00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:39,680
Speaker 2: were like, what a month out from surgery or not

552
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:40,720
Speaker 2: even quite a month.

553
00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:44,280
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. Then that November one, so I didn't hunt

554
00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:46,520
Speaker 3: near as much. I like, getting up in the mornings

555
00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:52,080
Speaker 3: was almost impossible, which some morning hunts were just were

556
00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:55,320
Speaker 3: just out. So that whole fall, both season and everything,

557
00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:58,680
Speaker 3: I think I hunted twice. I did did kill a

558
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:03,600
Speaker 3: dough with a boat, which was I felt like it

559
00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:07,640
Speaker 3: was pretty pretty good accomplishment out of that point, thankful

560
00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:09,200
Speaker 3: I had to help getting that deer out too. And

561
00:29:09,200 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 3: then November the day I think I shot that deer

562
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:17,360
Speaker 3: an opening day, but like the day before, it was

563
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:19,239
Speaker 3: one of the worst days I had, and I was like,

564
00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 3: I'm probably not gonna go hunting and ended up going

565
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:25,880
Speaker 3: out and it was I was cold all the time

566
00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:27,960
Speaker 3: anyway at that point, and we had a pretty cold day,

567
00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:31,280
Speaker 3: so I had every layer of clothing that I had on.

568
00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:35,400
Speaker 3: I was inside a sleeping bag and just bundled up

569
00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:38,840
Speaker 3: and I was about ready to give up. I was like,

570
00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:40,600
Speaker 3: I'm going back to the house. When that deer came out,

571
00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:42,840
Speaker 3: so I was like it was like a little bit

572
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:46,320
Speaker 3: of a lift in spirits. I was like, okay, we

573
00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:50,400
Speaker 3: can we can get through this. But yeah, it got

574
00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:51,800
Speaker 3: pretty bad there to the point where it was like,

575
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:54,880
Speaker 3: I I didn't hunt any mornings that whole season.

576
00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:58,920
Speaker 2: It's just but when you did hunt though, you know,

577
00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:01,120
Speaker 2: just the random an afternoons that you got out there

578
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:04,120
Speaker 2: and you felt, okay, was it? Could you enjoy it?

579
00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:07,040
Speaker 2: Was it like a good welcome distraction. Yeah it was, Yeah,

580
00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:07,479
Speaker 2: it was.

581
00:30:07,560 --> 00:30:10,160
Speaker 3: It was. It was really good just to just to

582
00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:12,800
Speaker 3: be out there. I took took my little son multiple

583
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:15,680
Speaker 3: times too, and I just just enjoyed being with him

584
00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:19,680
Speaker 3: in the woods. Yeah it was. It was a good

585
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:22,600
Speaker 3: escape for a little while where he didn't have to

586
00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:25,959
Speaker 3: to think about it really, So it was nice. It

587
00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:26,880
Speaker 3: was a nice little break.

588
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:30,560
Speaker 2: Did you find yourself when you when you were hunting

589
00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:33,960
Speaker 2: in those moments because you've killed a lot of big deer, Like,

590
00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:38,000
Speaker 2: did you find yourself going like caring about that part

591
00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:40,120
Speaker 2: less and just being like, man, I just need to

592
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:42,160
Speaker 2: sit here in the freaking woods.

593
00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:46,520
Speaker 3: Yeah? Killing was there was so I actually didn't know

594
00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:49,280
Speaker 3: if I actually wanted to kill something because then I

595
00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:51,320
Speaker 3: had to get it out. And so I was still

596
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:54,120
Speaker 3: hunting some public laying and it's pretty good hiking some

597
00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:58,160
Speaker 3: of those, and just that in and of itself was

598
00:30:58,160 --> 00:30:59,640
Speaker 3: was It took a lot of effort, but I was like,

599
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:01,920
Speaker 3: I want to do this, just just still want to

600
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:05,680
Speaker 3: be out here and enjoy nature. And but yeah, and

601
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:09,120
Speaker 3: when it came down to like rifle season, I was like,

602
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 3: the first legal deer that comes out is going to

603
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:14,400
Speaker 3: get shot at, because it's like, I don't know how

604
00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:17,600
Speaker 3: much longer I could do this, But so that was yeah,

605
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:20,440
Speaker 3: I was like, I'm just gonna whatever's whatever comes out

606
00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:21,040
Speaker 3: and is legal.

607
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:23,760
Speaker 2: When you were doing that way, I mean when you

608
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:26,960
Speaker 2: were getting close to surgery time and you're running real

609
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:29,360
Speaker 2: low and you're still going out there hunting and still

610
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:31,720
Speaker 2: doing your thing, was that driving your wife crazy or

611
00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:32,560
Speaker 2: did she encourage you?

612
00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:37,840
Speaker 3: She encouraged that because she knows just that it's kind

613
00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:40,760
Speaker 3: of my It's always been kind of my escape. Like

614
00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:42,880
Speaker 3: you you know, you work hard and to have a kid,

615
00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:45,000
Speaker 3: it's like, okay, I'm gonna take take this time and

616
00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:48,080
Speaker 3: just go and do that. So she was always very

617
00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:50,360
Speaker 3: encouraging for that. I didn't go a lot but I

618
00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:52,800
Speaker 3: think she was probably the times I went by myself,

619
00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:56,320
Speaker 3: she was probably a little worried, but she still allowed

620
00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:59,040
Speaker 3: me to go, which I appreciate, so.

621
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:00,760
Speaker 2: She probably knew how it was to you.

622
00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:01,600
Speaker 3: Mm hm.

623
00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:04,960
Speaker 2: So you go through that, you kill that big bastard.

624
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:08,640
Speaker 2: You're right up on the on the cusp of this surgery.

625
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:10,400
Speaker 2: What's it like going into it?

626
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:17,600
Speaker 3: Well, so that it actually the surgery actually got pushed back,

627
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:24,120
Speaker 3: which was I started on dialysis, which is it's kind

628
00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:27,160
Speaker 3: of terrible. Honestly. The doctors all told me that you'll

629
00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:30,840
Speaker 3: feel better. I was like, great, I'm looking forward to that,

630
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:33,400
Speaker 3: and so the first session I did feel little bit better,

631
00:32:34,040 --> 00:32:36,320
Speaker 3: but I was going three or four times a week,

632
00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:39,200
Speaker 3: and you're in there for four hours, so you don't

633
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:40,840
Speaker 3: you've got a lot of time to read books and

634
00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:42,120
Speaker 3: think about things.

635
00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:44,840
Speaker 2: But I remember, hold on a second, Zach, can you

636
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:47,120
Speaker 2: I don't really even know what dialysis is. Can you

637
00:32:47,160 --> 00:32:47,680
Speaker 2: explain it?

638
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:51,720
Speaker 3: Uh? So they put the port into one of your arteries.

639
00:32:51,800 --> 00:32:56,280
Speaker 3: So they went down into my actually through my neck,

640
00:32:56,320 --> 00:33:00,120
Speaker 3: into my whatever artery that is. I don't know. I

641
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:03,680
Speaker 3: biology is terrible. Yes, there's that's the word for it.

642
00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:06,600
Speaker 3: So they did that and then they hook you up

643
00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:09,560
Speaker 3: to this big machine that's got some kind of fancy

644
00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:12,160
Speaker 3: filter on it. I learned a lot from the guy

645
00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:13,320
Speaker 3: been doing it for a long time. He said they

646
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:16,440
Speaker 3: used to use seaweed to filter out, so they're they

647
00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:19,720
Speaker 3: pump blood out of you continuously. It's it's cycling through

648
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:22,720
Speaker 3: and it filters out all the toxins, which is what

649
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:24,880
Speaker 3: your kidneys are supposed to do, but mine were no

650
00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:30,200
Speaker 3: longer filtering anything. And it pulls fluid off you too,

651
00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:32,760
Speaker 3: because when your kiddies get bad enough, you don't don't

652
00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:35,160
Speaker 3: urinate as often and your body just builds up fluid,

653
00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:38,600
Speaker 3: and so they can use that process too to pull

654
00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:41,360
Speaker 3: fluid and it filters your kidney. So I like, it's

655
00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:43,720
Speaker 3: a giant machine sitting beside me, and you can wash

656
00:33:43,760 --> 00:33:45,720
Speaker 3: your blood pump through it. You can feel it coming

657
00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:51,600
Speaker 3: in and out. Like it's it's interesting that it's that

658
00:33:51,720 --> 00:33:54,800
Speaker 3: room was full of people that were in worse shape

659
00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:58,520
Speaker 3: than I was. Like, that was that was pretty humbling too.

660
00:33:58,600 --> 00:33:59,960
Speaker 3: You walk in here, It's like, man, all these people

661
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:03,680
Speaker 3: look like they're already at the end of their rope.

662
00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:05,880
Speaker 2: Were they all getting dialysis too?

663
00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:08,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're all on dialysis that they had a special

664
00:34:08,719 --> 00:34:11,200
Speaker 3: room that's just Diallasis patients. So you go in and

665
00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:14,160
Speaker 3: that's your appointed time and get hooked up.

666
00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:17,080
Speaker 2: So you were doing this like twelve to sixteen hours

667
00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:17,640
Speaker 2: a week.

668
00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:22,160
Speaker 3: Yep, for four days a week for about it took

669
00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:24,160
Speaker 3: about four hours. The sessions were so.

670
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:25,640
Speaker 2: It didn't make you feel better.

671
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:29,200
Speaker 3: The first time, I was like, okay, this is good.

672
00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:31,200
Speaker 3: I felt I had some energy, but they didn't run

673
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:33,759
Speaker 3: I can't remember all the technical terms for it, but

674
00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:35,319
Speaker 3: they run you for a certain amount of time and

675
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:37,400
Speaker 3: they pull a certain amount of fluid off and the

676
00:34:37,440 --> 00:34:41,960
Speaker 3: filtration rate all that stuff. So basically to just get

677
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:44,600
Speaker 3: your body started. It was a pretty short session and

678
00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:48,920
Speaker 3: I actually felt better, but they forgot progressively worse, like

679
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:51,400
Speaker 3: the more I did it, And they said that some

680
00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:54,880
Speaker 3: people's bodies just don't tolerate dialysis. I mean, it's a

681
00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:57,279
Speaker 3: pretty The guy that's took me up, he's like, it's

682
00:34:57,360 --> 00:34:59,040
Speaker 3: kind of a form of torture, but we're keeping you

683
00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:04,000
Speaker 3: alive for now. So and it was it just you come,

684
00:35:04,440 --> 00:35:07,840
Speaker 3: you get get through the process, you come home. And

685
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:09,400
Speaker 3: I always went in at seven in the morning and

686
00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:13,240
Speaker 3: i'd come home around eleven eleven thirty and would eat something,

687
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:15,680
Speaker 3: say how the kids, and I was in bed until

688
00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:18,160
Speaker 3: probably six o'clock at night when I could get back up.

689
00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:20,640
Speaker 3: It just wipes you out. I can't have no energy.

690
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:24,040
Speaker 2: It was nice. So that was if half of your

691
00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:27,240
Speaker 2: blood isn't inside of you, Yeah, for four hours.

692
00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:32,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's a I'm thankful for the process. It

693
00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:37,320
Speaker 3: kept me alive longer, but yeah, it's hard to I'm

694
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:38,759
Speaker 3: trying to think of how the guy put it. He said,

695
00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:41,640
Speaker 3: we'll keep you alive, but you're not really living. Uh,

696
00:35:41,680 --> 00:35:43,640
Speaker 3: but that's the way he put it, which was kind

697
00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:44,040
Speaker 3: of true.

698
00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:46,839
Speaker 2: But so then so then your surgery got bumped back

699
00:35:46,840 --> 00:35:50,880
Speaker 2: a little bit. Why the surgeon.

700
00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:56,239
Speaker 3: Had a family emergency and his daughter actually got super sick,

701
00:35:57,360 --> 00:35:59,239
Speaker 3: and so they pushed it back. It was scheduled for

702
00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:01,799
Speaker 3: December thirty teenth, and they got pushed all the way

703
00:36:01,800 --> 00:36:06,439
Speaker 3: back to January nineteenth. So it was at that point

704
00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:08,759
Speaker 3: in time I was very thankful to have started Dallasis

705
00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:11,520
Speaker 3: because it would have been pretty rough that extra few

706
00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:13,120
Speaker 3: weeks trying to get to surgery.

707
00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:15,719
Speaker 2: So what's the surgery, Like.

708
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:22,319
Speaker 3: We go in and there's they do a bunch of

709
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:24,200
Speaker 3: blood tests, they do all that stuff. They take you

710
00:36:24,239 --> 00:36:27,120
Speaker 3: to big prep room and shave all the hair off

711
00:36:27,120 --> 00:36:33,439
Speaker 3: your everywhere on your body. Uh, what's that's always? That's

712
00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:35,040
Speaker 3: my joke. I was like, I go into the hospital,

713
00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:36,600
Speaker 3: I always have to take my clothes off. I was like,

714
00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:37,960
Speaker 3: is there a time where I can just come in

715
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:40,200
Speaker 3: and not have to get naked? Like every time I

716
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:42,359
Speaker 3: go in there, Like I'll just take my clothes off

717
00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:46,560
Speaker 3: when I walk in. But yeah, so it's, uh, that

718
00:36:46,680 --> 00:36:49,600
Speaker 3: part's awkward. And then they tell you, you know, all

719
00:36:49,640 --> 00:36:51,600
Speaker 3: the things that they're going to do to the surgery,

720
00:36:51,719 --> 00:36:53,880
Speaker 3: all the risks you have, and then you know, do

721
00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:57,080
Speaker 3: you have any questions like how do you feel in today?

722
00:36:57,840 --> 00:36:59,879
Speaker 3: You know, I asked a surgeon. I was like, hey,

723
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:03,239
Speaker 3: on the day you got, how's steady hand? But he's like,

724
00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:08,239
Speaker 3: I'm good. Yeah. So my I use humor to deal

725
00:37:08,239 --> 00:37:12,080
Speaker 3: with stressful situation. So, uh, my wife doesn't appreciate that

726
00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:15,960
Speaker 3: very much. And that is moments. But yeah, there's then

727
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:19,040
Speaker 3: there's that time where like my brother came in right

728
00:37:19,080 --> 00:37:21,040
Speaker 3: before he went to surgery that that was probably hard

729
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:24,719
Speaker 3: because he he could tell he was nervous. Like I

730
00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:27,680
Speaker 3: felt really bad for him because like he just despises

731
00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:31,160
Speaker 3: needles and knives and all that stuff. So I just

732
00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:33,040
Speaker 3: stressed for him. And then they take you to a

733
00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:36,799
Speaker 3: room where you're just kind of sitting and waiting. You

734
00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:38,520
Speaker 3: get get to think a lot a lot of things there,

735
00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:41,799
Speaker 3: and like you reflect on life, like where have I

736
00:37:42,160 --> 00:37:44,520
Speaker 3: What have I done to this point? And so like

737
00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:47,720
Speaker 3: you think about jobs and all the hunting stuff, and

738
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:50,600
Speaker 3: I was like, none of that is is really all

739
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:52,960
Speaker 3: that important in this moment, Like you start thinking about

740
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:55,760
Speaker 3: my wife and kids. I was like, at that point,

741
00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:59,920
Speaker 3: my wife was actually pregnant again, which I've left forgot

742
00:37:59,920 --> 00:38:04,719
Speaker 3: to mention that she's she was a our our third

743
00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:08,520
Speaker 3: child was born ten days after my surgery, so she

744
00:38:08,760 --> 00:38:13,560
Speaker 3: was ready to pop. So the pushing the surgery back

745
00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:16,799
Speaker 3: for her was like she's like, I'm gonna have a

746
00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:19,719
Speaker 3: baby and you're gonna be surgery. Like it was, it

747
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:20,400
Speaker 3: was stressful.

748
00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:22,719
Speaker 2: But do you think she was more stressed out than you?

749
00:38:23,760 --> 00:38:29,520
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, significantly. And she's still she still carries more

750
00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:32,239
Speaker 3: trauma from that that that or I just haven't dealt

751
00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:35,480
Speaker 3: with any of it yet. But but that's the stuff

752
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:38,640
Speaker 3: you think about it. I'm like, I'm leaving a wife

753
00:38:38,680 --> 00:38:44,600
Speaker 3: behind who's has two kids. She's nine months pregnant, Like, yeah,

754
00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:46,880
Speaker 3: that's the You have no control over her. It's like

755
00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:49,480
Speaker 3: you just just pray. The God's sovereign and going to

756
00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:52,080
Speaker 3: take care of you in that time, and if you

757
00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:53,720
Speaker 3: take me, take care of my wife and kids.

758
00:38:53,719 --> 00:38:57,839
Speaker 2: So yeah, I bet her stress level was. I mean,

759
00:38:58,160 --> 00:39:00,319
Speaker 2: because if it goes wrong for you, you check out

760
00:39:00,719 --> 00:39:05,120
Speaker 2: and she's still got real heavy lift going on there.

761
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:08,680
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, I forgot that she had the baby

762
00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:13,320
Speaker 2: when you were just just post operation. Uh so you

763
00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:16,000
Speaker 2: you have to I'm I'm guessing they you had to

764
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:17,520
Speaker 2: sit around and wait because they got to go in,

765
00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:20,040
Speaker 2: take his out, make sure everything goes okay before they

766
00:39:20,080 --> 00:39:23,080
Speaker 2: start on you. And so you're just like, however long

767
00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:27,359
Speaker 2: this takes, sitting there twiddling your thumbs thinking about all

768
00:39:27,400 --> 00:39:29,239
Speaker 2: the dumb shit you've done in your life and all

769
00:39:29,239 --> 00:39:32,800
Speaker 2: the decisions and all the like, probably going pretty deep.

770
00:39:32,719 --> 00:39:35,799
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, yeah, you got a lot of time to think.

771
00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:38,040
Speaker 3: It was. I can't remember how long I but I

772
00:39:38,120 --> 00:39:40,799
Speaker 3: was in a room just laying there by myself. There

773
00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:43,000
Speaker 3: wasn't really any nurses in at that time. They had

774
00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:45,960
Speaker 3: me all prepped for surgery, and it's like we'll come

775
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:49,879
Speaker 3: and get you when when they get when they get

776
00:39:49,880 --> 00:39:51,680
Speaker 3: the kidney out of my brother, they said, we wait

777
00:39:51,719 --> 00:39:53,680
Speaker 3: for that because if something goes wrong, we don't want

778
00:39:53,719 --> 00:39:57,239
Speaker 3: to have you already prepped for surgery, like in surgery.

779
00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:01,440
Speaker 3: And so yeah, you do, like get to reflect a

780
00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:04,400
Speaker 3: lot on life, what you've what you've accomplished with your life,

781
00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:09,439
Speaker 3: and like in that moment, none of those big dear,

782
00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:12,920
Speaker 3: none of that stuff mattered. Like I was like, I

783
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:15,640
Speaker 3: spent a lot of time pursuing all of that, and

784
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:19,560
Speaker 3: it's like a perspective. There's a lot of times where

785
00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:22,000
Speaker 3: early in our marriage, I was like, I ditched my

786
00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:24,120
Speaker 3: wife a lot to go hunting. It's like, maybe I

787
00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:26,120
Speaker 3: shouldn't have done that. Like you do, you reflect on

788
00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:29,200
Speaker 3: all those things, like all the decisions, all the what ifs,

789
00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:31,319
Speaker 3: Like there's probably a lot of things I should have

790
00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:35,840
Speaker 3: done differently. So it was yeah, for an hour and

791
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:37,000
Speaker 3: to happen to do that.

792
00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:50,000
Speaker 2: Obviously I've never gone through this, but it sounds like

793
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:53,719
Speaker 2: such a very natural thought process. But at the same time,

794
00:40:53,760 --> 00:40:56,879
Speaker 2: you've got to weigh that against having something that you're

795
00:40:56,920 --> 00:41:00,520
Speaker 2: that passionate about to where you're still going out to

796
00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:03,480
Speaker 2: the blind with your son when you can barely walk,

797
00:41:03,520 --> 00:41:07,160
Speaker 2: you're sleeping all day, there's still there's a component of

798
00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:09,560
Speaker 2: that passion for the outdoors that's carrying you through to

799
00:41:09,600 --> 00:41:11,760
Speaker 2: some level, you know. I mean maybe it's two percent

800
00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:13,480
Speaker 2: of what the family is or whatever. But it's like

801
00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 2: a it's not an like it's not insignificant, you know.

802
00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:20,200
Speaker 2: But then you but then you go through this and

803
00:41:20,239 --> 00:41:23,800
Speaker 2: you frame it up against the rest of your life

804
00:41:23,800 --> 00:41:26,480
Speaker 2: that you could have lost. Yeah, it's just the big

805
00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:29,320
Speaker 2: deer just not that important. They're not.

806
00:41:29,640 --> 00:41:34,719
Speaker 3: And like even post post surgery and all that, I

807
00:41:34,719 --> 00:41:38,280
Speaker 3: don't hunt there as much as I did. That's because

808
00:41:38,280 --> 00:41:40,359
Speaker 3: I think it well, part of you have three kids,

809
00:41:40,360 --> 00:41:43,799
Speaker 3: so you're just busier. But the perspective of that, and

810
00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:45,560
Speaker 3: my wife said that too, She's like, there's been a

811
00:41:45,600 --> 00:41:48,120
Speaker 3: lot of change since then, Like I'll spend I spend

812
00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:51,279
Speaker 3: as much time with my family as possible. I spend

813
00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:54,200
Speaker 3: a lot more time serving other people too, like in

814
00:41:54,239 --> 00:41:58,279
Speaker 3: our in our church, and just like eternal perspective, like this,

815
00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:00,279
Speaker 3: I'm gonna die at some point, I know that, but

816
00:42:00,320 --> 00:42:04,640
Speaker 3: there's you have an eternal life after this that you

817
00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:07,319
Speaker 3: can live now for. So there's been there's been a

818
00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:10,279
Speaker 3: big shift. I still love hunting, I would do it

819
00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:16,280
Speaker 3: all the time, but having gone through that and coming

820
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:19,759
Speaker 3: to a point where you get to reflect on like

821
00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:23,040
Speaker 3: this is what I did with life pre surgery, and

822
00:42:23,040 --> 00:42:24,640
Speaker 3: I feel a little bit like I have a second chance.

823
00:42:24,680 --> 00:42:27,279
Speaker 3: Now It's like, Okay, I'm going to reset some things,

824
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:33,040
Speaker 3: reprioritize some things, and try to try to really focus

825
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:38,200
Speaker 3: on family, like investing in my family, because the reality

826
00:42:38,200 --> 00:42:40,719
Speaker 3: of this is is kidneys have a shelf life. They've

827
00:42:40,719 --> 00:42:42,520
Speaker 3: already told us that, and so it's like, this one's

828
00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:44,560
Speaker 3: not gonna last, probably not going to last the rest

829
00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:48,480
Speaker 3: of my life. Average is fifteen to twenty years. I

830
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:50,359
Speaker 3: was a close enough match to my brother. They said,

831
00:42:50,360 --> 00:42:51,880
Speaker 3: you'll probably get longer than that out of it. I

832
00:42:51,920 --> 00:42:54,200
Speaker 3: think the longest one they've had like up to forty years.

833
00:42:54,200 --> 00:42:58,480
Speaker 3: But so there's a reality there that's like this is

834
00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:02,680
Speaker 3: a temporary fix. So they'll we'll we'll either have to

835
00:43:02,680 --> 00:43:07,200
Speaker 3: do it again or But so that's that's a good

836
00:43:07,640 --> 00:43:10,359
Speaker 3: reminder to keep things in perspective. Right now.

837
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:13,920
Speaker 2: So when you come out of this, like what do

838
00:43:13,960 --> 00:43:16,200
Speaker 2: you what do you feel when you wake up from

839
00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:18,560
Speaker 2: that surgery? Like what do you like when you come

840
00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:20,440
Speaker 2: out of that and you're kind of like, you know,

841
00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:23,359
Speaker 2: your your brain's going back a little bit and you're

842
00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:25,840
Speaker 2: realizing what's going on, Like what what do you feel?

843
00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:30,360
Speaker 3: I didn't have a headache, was the first time I noticed,

844
00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:33,640
Speaker 3: which is the first time in however many years. It's like,

845
00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:38,520
Speaker 3: my head doesn't hurt. But I was, you know, pretty groggy.

846
00:43:39,680 --> 00:43:41,759
Speaker 3: Like you go in, you get on the they have

847
00:43:41,880 --> 00:43:44,080
Speaker 3: you move over to the surgery table, and when you're

848
00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:49,279
Speaker 3: in your nice little gown mostly naked, and uh, anesthesia

849
00:43:49,360 --> 00:43:51,960
Speaker 3: starts and like there was a lot more people in

850
00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:53,520
Speaker 3: the room than I thought there'd be. So I was like, well,

851
00:43:53,719 --> 00:43:56,440
Speaker 3: I was awake. This would be embarrassing, but like whatever,

852
00:43:56,520 --> 00:43:58,520
Speaker 3: so you do the breath and then you're out, like

853
00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:03,439
Speaker 3: and then just remember waking up and I had there

854
00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:06,319
Speaker 3: was just like cords and things stuck in me everywhere,

855
00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:08,520
Speaker 3: and I was I was curled up on my side

856
00:44:08,560 --> 00:44:10,319
Speaker 3: and just I was coming in and out a lot.

857
00:44:11,239 --> 00:44:12,799
Speaker 3: I remember the nurse saying something to me. I have

858
00:44:12,840 --> 00:44:18,480
Speaker 3: no idea what she said, but but you're it's like

859
00:44:18,640 --> 00:44:20,520
Speaker 3: I'm awake. I was like, that's gotta be a good time.

860
00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:24,520
Speaker 3: Like I'm still here. This is I don't think this

861
00:44:24,560 --> 00:44:27,400
Speaker 3: is what heaven looks like. It still smells like a hospital.

862
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:33,000
Speaker 3: So so yeah, I was like just grateful to wake up, like, okay,

863
00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:36,239
Speaker 3: I'm still here, and then I don't know what. I

864
00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:39,440
Speaker 3: was pretty out of it cognitively at that point, so

865
00:44:39,480 --> 00:44:41,560
Speaker 3: I don't know how long it was before like they

866
00:44:41,600 --> 00:44:43,239
Speaker 3: allowed my wife to come in and see me. It

867
00:44:43,280 --> 00:44:49,520
Speaker 3: was a several hours long surgery, and so it was

868
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:52,000
Speaker 3: good when I finally got to go into the recovery

869
00:44:52,080 --> 00:44:55,920
Speaker 3: room when they could come in, and they had pretty

870
00:44:55,960 --> 00:45:00,440
Speaker 3: limited visitors because at that point they they shut my

871
00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:04,320
Speaker 3: immune system off completely so it didn't reject the kidney.

872
00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:08,520
Speaker 2: And so you're on a pretty heavy immuno suppress and

873
00:45:08,640 --> 00:45:09,879
Speaker 2: after after.

874
00:45:09,600 --> 00:45:14,279
Speaker 3: The yeah, well immediately after surgery, they hooked me up

875
00:45:14,320 --> 00:45:17,600
Speaker 3: to they call it a rabbit. I can't remember what

876
00:45:17,280 --> 00:45:19,680
Speaker 3: the long name was for it, but it's something they

877
00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:21,840
Speaker 3: derive from from rabbit. So that was a question they

878
00:45:21,880 --> 00:45:23,360
Speaker 3: asked me, like, do you eat a lot of rabbit?

879
00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:26,680
Speaker 3: I was like, well, I have, I have before, but

880
00:45:26,680 --> 00:45:30,440
Speaker 3: I wouldn't say a lot. But it just shuts your

881
00:45:30,440 --> 00:45:32,759
Speaker 3: immune system down, which is why they leave in the

882
00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:35,600
Speaker 3: hospital for quite a while after. But and I'm still

883
00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:38,759
Speaker 3: on immunosuppress a meds, but they're not not to that

884
00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:42,200
Speaker 3: level like at that point in time, they're like, yeah,

885
00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:44,720
Speaker 3: cold or anything, like you don't have an immune system,

886
00:45:44,760 --> 00:45:50,479
Speaker 3: like it can take you out. So it was it was, yeah,

887
00:45:50,600 --> 00:45:53,319
Speaker 3: interesting that you can have a visitor in there, but

888
00:45:53,360 --> 00:45:54,640
Speaker 3: they were pretty strict about that.

889
00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:57,879
Speaker 2: So so even when you even when you go through

890
00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:00,040
Speaker 2: all that, you went through and you get out on

891
00:45:59,920 --> 00:46:02,719
Speaker 2: the other side, now you have a new concern that

892
00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:05,440
Speaker 2: the kids picking up some kind of virus at daycare

893
00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:08,400
Speaker 2: or whatever can all of a sudden turn, you know,

894
00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:10,760
Speaker 2: it can break bad in an instant.

895
00:46:11,520 --> 00:46:12,359
Speaker 3: Yeah, real bad.

896
00:46:12,440 --> 00:46:12,520
Speaker 2: It.

897
00:46:13,040 --> 00:46:17,600
Speaker 3: So we were in quarantine for ninety days. Like I said,

898
00:46:17,600 --> 00:46:21,280
Speaker 3: my wife had a had or third third kid, Solomon,

899
00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:24,480
Speaker 3: ten days after surgery, and I couldn't go, which was

900
00:46:25,160 --> 00:46:28,399
Speaker 3: really hard, Like I enjoy really enjoying my kids and

901
00:46:28,440 --> 00:46:31,319
Speaker 3: like being there in that process, and it was really

902
00:46:31,320 --> 00:46:34,200
Speaker 3: really hard for her too, Like I got to FaceTime

903
00:46:34,239 --> 00:46:39,520
Speaker 3: in which is not it's not the same, but yeah,

904
00:46:39,640 --> 00:46:42,480
Speaker 3: like you you miss that, like missed the burth of

905
00:46:42,520 --> 00:46:45,919
Speaker 3: my third kid. Yeah, there was a lot of weird

906
00:46:45,960 --> 00:46:50,680
Speaker 3: things happening, and so ninety days, you're pretty much. I

907
00:46:50,719 --> 00:46:52,799
Speaker 3: was stuck at home. I did some try to do

908
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:55,600
Speaker 3: some work on the computer and stuff. But I mean

909
00:46:55,640 --> 00:46:58,160
Speaker 3: it's ninety days where even my wife can't really go

910
00:46:58,200 --> 00:47:02,400
Speaker 3: anywhere because if she brings anything back, it's like it

911
00:47:02,440 --> 00:47:03,680
Speaker 3: could be crash and burned for me.

912
00:47:03,880 --> 00:47:07,160
Speaker 2: So so give me, give me a don't know scale

913
00:47:07,200 --> 00:47:09,839
Speaker 2: of one to ten. One is not a bad ass

914
00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:12,160
Speaker 2: at all. Ten is super duper bad ass. Where's your

915
00:47:12,200 --> 00:47:13,960
Speaker 2: wife fall after this whole thing?

916
00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:21,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, she was, She's definitely in ten. Yeah, she had

917
00:47:21,080 --> 00:47:23,520
Speaker 3: a baby on her own. She took care of the

918
00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:27,000
Speaker 3: baby and be and our other kids on her own

919
00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:31,640
Speaker 3: after that. Like it's just she was a trooper through

920
00:47:31,640 --> 00:47:35,319
Speaker 3: that all I think. I think in the moment, like

921
00:47:35,360 --> 00:47:38,160
Speaker 3: she did what she had to do, and coming out

922
00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:41,719
Speaker 3: of that now is where she started processing all of it.

923
00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:45,480
Speaker 3: So it's more of a like any health stuff right

924
00:47:45,520 --> 00:47:49,319
Speaker 3: now is an instant trigger for her. And like I said,

925
00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:53,279
Speaker 3: either I'm just either I'm not very emotionally aware or

926
00:47:53,960 --> 00:47:56,040
Speaker 3: ignorant or what. But I was like, it still doesn't

927
00:47:56,040 --> 00:48:00,440
Speaker 3: really like I made it through this, Like God provided,

928
00:48:00,520 --> 00:48:03,799
Speaker 3: I feel like I don't feel like he's gonna take

929
00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:07,920
Speaker 3: me like with another sickness or something. But for her

930
00:48:07,960 --> 00:48:10,600
Speaker 3: it's real because again she's like I've got three kids,

931
00:48:10,960 --> 00:48:12,520
Speaker 3: like you go off and die, like I have to

932
00:48:12,520 --> 00:48:13,200
Speaker 3: take care of all of this.

933
00:48:13,320 --> 00:48:19,760
Speaker 2: So it's it's hard to it's really hard to contextualize,

934
00:48:19,800 --> 00:48:24,080
Speaker 2: probably because your experience, I mean, you were the to everybody,

935
00:48:24,120 --> 00:48:26,040
Speaker 2: you were like the victim, right, like you were the

936
00:48:26,040 --> 00:48:29,400
Speaker 2: one who was suffering, and she's just got to put

937
00:48:29,440 --> 00:48:33,439
Speaker 2: on a brave face and survive. But her experience is

938
00:48:33,719 --> 00:48:38,279
Speaker 2: vastly different than yours, but real bad and kind of

939
00:48:38,320 --> 00:48:40,440
Speaker 2: in a way that she can't really even get it.

940
00:48:40,560 --> 00:48:42,799
Speaker 2: She's not getting credit the same way you are for

941
00:48:42,840 --> 00:48:44,799
Speaker 2: getting through it, like it's a different experience.

942
00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:49,200
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, And we had we had a lot of

943
00:48:49,239 --> 00:48:53,000
Speaker 3: friends from church and wherever, just they were constantly checking

944
00:48:53,040 --> 00:48:54,839
Speaker 3: in on me, like how you doing. It's like I'm

945
00:48:55,160 --> 00:48:57,040
Speaker 3: doing fine. You need to check in on my wife,

946
00:48:57,640 --> 00:49:00,880
Speaker 3: especially during that ninety day quarantine, like baby, you know

947
00:49:00,920 --> 00:49:04,920
Speaker 3: you got some just a lot of emotions after you

948
00:49:04,920 --> 00:49:07,880
Speaker 3: have a baby and hormones going crazy. Like I was like,

949
00:49:08,040 --> 00:49:10,520
Speaker 3: just just check on on her, like.

950
00:49:10,560 --> 00:49:12,239
Speaker 2: She do you know what it's like? And I have

951
00:49:13,040 --> 00:49:15,080
Speaker 2: you this is this is gonna be a terrible example,

952
00:49:15,160 --> 00:49:18,040
Speaker 2: let me use it anyway. So you're this rich dude

953
00:49:18,320 --> 00:49:22,360
Speaker 2: who goes to this premier hunting place and shoots a

954
00:49:22,560 --> 00:49:26,360
Speaker 2: one hundred and ninety six injure and get your trophy photos,

955
00:49:26,440 --> 00:49:28,719
Speaker 2: and everybody's just like, oh my god, Zach's the best

956
00:49:28,760 --> 00:49:31,880
Speaker 2: hunter ever. Meanwhile, your wife's just the guide who did

957
00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:34,279
Speaker 2: all the work to find it, all the work to

958
00:49:34,320 --> 00:49:36,720
Speaker 2: set up the stands, run the cameras, pattern it everything,

959
00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:38,600
Speaker 2: and she's just sitting back there like, well, you know,

960
00:49:38,719 --> 00:49:41,000
Speaker 2: like I pitched in a little too, but everybody's like, no,

961
00:49:41,080 --> 00:49:42,920
Speaker 2: you're the man. That's that's what I think of when

962
00:49:42,960 --> 00:49:43,440
Speaker 2: you tell me that.

963
00:49:44,280 --> 00:49:46,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, excuse me that that is one hundred percent kind

964
00:49:46,560 --> 00:49:47,520
Speaker 3: of how it went.

965
00:49:48,560 --> 00:49:52,040
Speaker 2: So I in preparation for this podcast, I was just

966
00:49:52,160 --> 00:49:55,240
Speaker 2: reading up on organ transplants and kidney failure and stuff,

967
00:49:55,719 --> 00:49:58,279
Speaker 2: and one thing that I read about that's pretty interesting

968
00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:02,279
Speaker 2: is with a lot a lot of organ transplants, uh,

969
00:50:02,320 --> 00:50:06,920
Speaker 2: people's personality will change afterwards. And so you know, you

970
00:50:07,000 --> 00:50:08,319
Speaker 2: kind of look at that and go, is this just

971
00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:12,200
Speaker 2: going through something super traumatic and you know, like facing

972
00:50:12,239 --> 00:50:14,879
Speaker 2: your own mortality kind of thing, or is it are

973
00:50:14,920 --> 00:50:17,000
Speaker 2: you taking a piece of that person with you and

974
00:50:17,040 --> 00:50:20,040
Speaker 2: becoming a little bit of them, Like do you do

975
00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:22,480
Speaker 2: you now suddenly do any of the annoying stuff that

976
00:50:22,520 --> 00:50:23,160
Speaker 2: your brother does.

977
00:50:24,840 --> 00:50:27,759
Speaker 3: So we do have this joke. My my wife read

978
00:50:27,840 --> 00:50:31,000
Speaker 3: up on about a lot of this stuff, like and

979
00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:34,759
Speaker 3: kidney kidney disease is probably the best thing you could

980
00:50:34,760 --> 00:50:37,640
Speaker 3: have because everybody has two kidneys. So like you got

981
00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:41,879
Speaker 3: a heart problem, like nobody's gonna freely donate their heart.

982
00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:45,919
Speaker 3: I don't think so anyway. But yeah, so my brother

983
00:50:47,160 --> 00:50:49,319
Speaker 3: he shops all the time, Like we make fun of him.

984
00:50:49,320 --> 00:50:52,759
Speaker 3: He says he doesn't, but he's always shopping. And when

985
00:50:52,800 --> 00:50:55,799
Speaker 3: you have ninety days of quarantine, like you can read

986
00:50:55,800 --> 00:50:57,520
Speaker 3: some books, you can do some work, but you and

987
00:50:57,600 --> 00:51:00,600
Speaker 3: evily end up on Amazon. Like my wife's like, this

988
00:51:00,719 --> 00:51:03,200
Speaker 3: is real. It's like you're you're doing it. But I

989
00:51:03,239 --> 00:51:05,000
Speaker 3: was like no, I mean, I was like, what else

990
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:06,560
Speaker 3: are you gonna do? So I bought like a I

991
00:51:06,600 --> 00:51:08,239
Speaker 3: think I bought a pair of parents in some church,

992
00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:10,440
Speaker 3: which I don't. I don't ever shop for clothes. But

993
00:51:10,520 --> 00:51:13,880
Speaker 3: she's like, this is a real thing, Like you're so

994
00:51:15,239 --> 00:51:17,120
Speaker 3: I wouldn't say I still shop a lot. I don't.

995
00:51:17,200 --> 00:51:19,000
Speaker 3: I don't think my personality changed a lot.

996
00:51:19,080 --> 00:51:21,840
Speaker 2: But would would she say that it has.

997
00:51:22,360 --> 00:51:25,200
Speaker 3: I don't think she would. Other than that experience where

998
00:51:25,239 --> 00:51:26,360
Speaker 3: I shopped for like two.

999
00:51:26,160 --> 00:51:29,600
Speaker 2: Weeks but you got so bored you close shop I did.

1000
00:51:29,719 --> 00:51:30,560
Speaker 3: That was pretty terrible.

1001
00:51:30,600 --> 00:51:33,480
Speaker 2: But dude, I I kind of get it when I

1002
00:51:33,520 --> 00:51:36,040
Speaker 2: when I got COVID and I was in you know,

1003
00:51:36,160 --> 00:51:39,720
Speaker 2: my ten days or whatever. Back when COVID was everybody

1004
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:42,680
Speaker 2: was scared and you know you actually did quarantine away.

1005
00:51:43,440 --> 00:51:48,040
Speaker 2: I started like online shopping for shit. Like I look

1006
00:51:48,080 --> 00:51:52,080
Speaker 2: around my house and if I didn't kill it, like

1007
00:51:52,719 --> 00:51:55,120
Speaker 2: or take a picture of something, like, it's not going

1008
00:51:55,160 --> 00:51:57,320
Speaker 2: to end up on my walls, right, but my walls

1009
00:51:57,320 --> 00:52:01,440
Speaker 2: are covered in decorations and stuff that Like, you know,

1010
00:52:01,480 --> 00:52:02,680
Speaker 2: I was thinking about this the other day when I

1011
00:52:02,680 --> 00:52:04,520
Speaker 2: was working on I'm like, I've never bought a blanket

1012
00:52:04,560 --> 00:52:06,920
Speaker 2: in my life. Like if you were like, go buy

1013
00:52:06,920 --> 00:52:08,040
Speaker 2: a blanket, I'd be like, I don't know, I guess

1014
00:52:08,040 --> 00:52:10,080
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go Target and try to find one. But

1015
00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:12,400
Speaker 2: they show up in my house all the time, like

1016
00:52:12,440 --> 00:52:14,919
Speaker 2: all these decorations and stuff. But when I was in

1017
00:52:15,200 --> 00:52:18,880
Speaker 2: when I was in COVID quarantine, I watched every Jackass movie.

1018
00:52:18,920 --> 00:52:21,480
Speaker 2: I watched. I mean I was like, I kind of

1019
00:52:21,480 --> 00:52:23,239
Speaker 2: get like a little bit of what you're talking about,

1020
00:52:23,280 --> 00:52:25,440
Speaker 2: because I was starting to look at stuff like, oh,

1021
00:52:25,520 --> 00:52:27,400
Speaker 2: this is a cool thing to like put on my wall,

1022
00:52:27,440 --> 00:52:28,480
Speaker 2: and I never do that.

1023
00:52:29,040 --> 00:52:33,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, I watched fishing shows, which I have nothing. I

1024
00:52:33,360 --> 00:52:36,400
Speaker 3: like fishing. The fishing shows, I don't know how you

1025
00:52:36,480 --> 00:52:38,920
Speaker 3: make them exciting, But I watched a lot of fishing

1026
00:52:38,920 --> 00:52:40,600
Speaker 3: shows during that time too. I was like, I don't

1027
00:52:40,640 --> 00:52:43,399
Speaker 3: know what I'm doing, just what I did.

1028
00:52:44,520 --> 00:52:47,280
Speaker 2: As somebody who filmed a fishing show last year. They're

1029
00:52:48,440 --> 00:52:49,760
Speaker 2: difficult to make exciting.

1030
00:52:50,640 --> 00:52:52,120
Speaker 3: I can imagine that.

1031
00:52:52,360 --> 00:52:54,600
Speaker 2: You know. I filmed it with Andy May, you know,

1032
00:52:54,680 --> 00:52:59,560
Speaker 2: the whitetail Hunter, and I think what made that show.

1033
00:53:00,120 --> 00:53:02,240
Speaker 2: I mean, we caught a lot of fish, it was cool,

1034
00:53:02,520 --> 00:53:04,200
Speaker 2: but I think what made it cool was just us

1035
00:53:04,239 --> 00:53:07,319
Speaker 2: giving each other NonStop shit, like when you're fishing with

1036
00:53:07,360 --> 00:53:10,960
Speaker 2: your buddies, you know, because otherwise I mean other Fishing's

1037
00:53:11,040 --> 00:53:13,520
Speaker 2: tough to make fishing compelling. I mean that's why most

1038
00:53:13,520 --> 00:53:16,000
Speaker 2: of the content is all tournament based, because there's some

1039
00:53:16,080 --> 00:53:21,560
Speaker 2: drama built in there, you know, total sidetrack. So you're

1040
00:53:21,760 --> 00:53:25,839
Speaker 2: you're out of the you got a long runway ahead

1041
00:53:25,880 --> 00:53:28,280
Speaker 2: of you now before you even start thinking about this,

1042
00:53:28,280 --> 00:53:31,520
Speaker 2: this latest kidney here maybe maybe starting to wear down

1043
00:53:31,560 --> 00:53:35,319
Speaker 2: on you a little bit. Well, how does it you?

1044
00:53:35,480 --> 00:53:37,120
Speaker 2: Kind of you kind of alluded to this, but like

1045
00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:40,160
Speaker 2: what are you looking at for like your future now?

1046
00:53:40,200 --> 00:53:42,920
Speaker 2: Like have you changed how you plan? Like are you like, man,

1047
00:53:42,960 --> 00:53:45,120
Speaker 2: we're taking the kids to Disney, We're doing this, We're

1048
00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:48,000
Speaker 2: doing that? Like what did it? Did it change at all?

1049
00:53:48,000 --> 00:53:50,040
Speaker 2: How you're like, I'm I'm grabbing life by the short

1050
00:53:50,080 --> 00:53:51,280
Speaker 2: and curlies and I'm going hard.

1051
00:53:52,040 --> 00:53:54,520
Speaker 3: Yeah it did. I came out of it with a

1052
00:53:55,239 --> 00:53:59,640
Speaker 3: little more motivation to do things differently, Like I think

1053
00:53:59,680 --> 00:54:04,279
Speaker 3: one for me was like this life's going to end,

1054
00:54:04,280 --> 00:54:08,080
Speaker 3: so thinking about eternity, like I started doing I started

1055
00:54:08,080 --> 00:54:11,280
Speaker 3: doing pastor training. Still still am going through that process.

1056
00:54:11,320 --> 00:54:13,879
Speaker 3: But I was like, I want to make I don't

1057
00:54:13,880 --> 00:54:16,440
Speaker 3: want to have all my uh all my hopes stuck

1058
00:54:16,440 --> 00:54:18,920
Speaker 3: in in this life because I know it's gonna ended up.

1059
00:54:19,000 --> 00:54:22,479
Speaker 3: It just about did. So that's been a big big

1060
00:54:22,560 --> 00:54:27,360
Speaker 3: change for our family too. But outside of that, like

1061
00:54:27,400 --> 00:54:30,880
Speaker 3: I said, just like really investing in time with my kids.

1062
00:54:30,920 --> 00:54:33,719
Speaker 3: It's like I don't ever I wrestle with my son

1063
00:54:33,800 --> 00:54:36,680
Speaker 3: all the time, every day, lunch breaks or at night.

1064
00:54:36,800 --> 00:54:40,399
Speaker 3: He's just it's it's uh, it's fun. So I don't

1065
00:54:40,400 --> 00:54:42,480
Speaker 3: want to miss out on those opportunities. And there was

1066
00:54:42,520 --> 00:54:45,760
Speaker 3: a lot of times with with my kids and with

1067
00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:48,640
Speaker 3: with my wife where I missed opportunities just to be

1068
00:54:48,719 --> 00:54:51,960
Speaker 3: with them, be present. And it's like, so I think

1069
00:54:52,120 --> 00:54:54,000
Speaker 3: coming out of it, that's been the biggest two things

1070
00:54:54,000 --> 00:54:57,200
Speaker 3: for me was like just being being present because it

1071
00:54:58,440 --> 00:55:01,239
Speaker 3: got pretty close there too to my wife not not

1072
00:55:01,280 --> 00:55:03,160
Speaker 3: having a husband anymore, and so it's like I don't

1073
00:55:03,200 --> 00:55:06,320
Speaker 3: want to I don't know, I talk about like the

1074
00:55:06,800 --> 00:55:09,160
Speaker 3: rent widows and all that stuff. It's like I don't

1075
00:55:09,239 --> 00:55:12,920
Speaker 3: want her to feel that way anymore. And so it's

1076
00:55:12,960 --> 00:55:18,520
Speaker 3: been a change with a little more perspective on investing

1077
00:55:18,560 --> 00:55:21,879
Speaker 3: in in my family and it just yeah, what what

1078
00:55:21,920 --> 00:55:24,080
Speaker 3: God has called me to do with you know, sharing

1079
00:55:24,120 --> 00:55:24,600
Speaker 3: the gospel.

1080
00:55:24,719 --> 00:55:27,840
Speaker 2: So when you look at your your hunting future with

1081
00:55:27,920 --> 00:55:30,400
Speaker 2: White Tails is one of the things that I've always

1082
00:55:30,400 --> 00:55:33,879
Speaker 2: respected about you is you have access to private land,

1083
00:55:34,760 --> 00:55:37,960
Speaker 2: but you you spend a lot of time working on

1084
00:55:38,000 --> 00:55:40,160
Speaker 2: public land here too. And you know, a lot of

1085
00:55:40,160 --> 00:55:42,440
Speaker 2: people when they get when they're like, hey, I can

1086
00:55:42,480 --> 00:55:44,960
Speaker 2: go to the farm, even if it's you know, farther

1087
00:55:45,040 --> 00:55:47,000
Speaker 2: away or whatever. They're like, I'm going someplace where the

1088
00:55:47,040 --> 00:55:48,879
Speaker 2: food plots are and the box p lindes are and

1089
00:55:49,800 --> 00:55:52,120
Speaker 2: I'm taking I'm taking that route. I'm not going to

1090
00:55:52,200 --> 00:55:54,320
Speaker 2: go fight it out on public land down in Missouri

1091
00:55:54,360 --> 00:55:57,240
Speaker 2: like you do. But you still do it? Are you?

1092
00:55:57,280 --> 00:55:57,400
Speaker 3: Like?

1093
00:55:58,480 --> 00:56:02,680
Speaker 2: Do you look at hunting now? It's just differently, like

1094
00:56:03,320 --> 00:56:05,759
Speaker 2: I just want to go do like be where I

1095
00:56:05,800 --> 00:56:08,319
Speaker 2: want to be when you take the time to go,

1096
00:56:08,920 --> 00:56:11,120
Speaker 2: do you look at it differently instead of just thinking

1097
00:56:11,200 --> 00:56:14,120
Speaker 2: like my best chance for a big ones here or

1098
00:56:14,239 --> 00:56:15,880
Speaker 2: I know they work this ridge and I want to

1099
00:56:15,880 --> 00:56:18,000
Speaker 2: get up there, like you, do you plan it differently

1100
00:56:18,040 --> 00:56:18,799
Speaker 2: at all now or not?

1101
00:56:19,719 --> 00:56:23,040
Speaker 3: So I have to plan it differently because I can't.

1102
00:56:23,920 --> 00:56:27,160
Speaker 3: I can't scout as much as I did, So from

1103
00:56:27,160 --> 00:56:32,239
Speaker 3: that aspect, it's playing a lot differently. I do a

1104
00:56:32,280 --> 00:56:36,560
Speaker 3: lot more scouting as I'm hunting now, finding fresh shine,

1105
00:56:36,560 --> 00:56:38,360
Speaker 3: which should have been doing all that before. But a

1106
00:56:38,360 --> 00:56:40,160
Speaker 3: lot of times scout before season and I go to

1107
00:56:40,200 --> 00:56:42,359
Speaker 3: where that is, but like finding where the der are

1108
00:56:42,360 --> 00:56:44,359
Speaker 3: because it's like I got a lot more limited time

1109
00:56:44,920 --> 00:56:46,880
Speaker 3: to actually be here, so I got to make a count,

1110
00:56:48,400 --> 00:56:52,319
Speaker 3: and I'm kind of a realist, So the expectations I

1111
00:56:52,400 --> 00:56:54,239
Speaker 3: have for how big a buck I'm going to go

1112
00:56:54,280 --> 00:56:57,480
Speaker 3: after are what they were, you know, two three years ago.

1113
00:56:57,640 --> 00:57:01,040
Speaker 3: It's like, I'm I have an amount of time out here.

1114
00:57:01,080 --> 00:57:03,880
Speaker 3: If I like the deer I shot last year, I

1115
00:57:03,880 --> 00:57:05,480
Speaker 3: think I was as pall as luck I've ever shot.

1116
00:57:05,520 --> 00:57:07,680
Speaker 3: But it was pretty exciting because I was like, that

1117
00:57:07,760 --> 00:57:10,120
Speaker 3: was the first deer I've killed post surgery, like it was.

1118
00:57:10,239 --> 00:57:12,280
Speaker 3: It was just awesome to be back out there again.

1119
00:57:14,080 --> 00:57:19,000
Speaker 3: So just enjoying the moment like I it helped me.

1120
00:57:19,200 --> 00:57:21,320
Speaker 3: It probably helped me enjoy hunting even more because I

1121
00:57:21,360 --> 00:57:26,760
Speaker 3: just enjoy being in the woods more now and shooting

1122
00:57:26,800 --> 00:57:30,080
Speaker 3: whatever gets me excited in the moment without the weight

1123
00:57:30,120 --> 00:57:35,800
Speaker 3: of expectation of killing a trophy, which I I wasn't

1124
00:57:35,840 --> 00:57:37,680
Speaker 3: real bad about it, but it was always there, like

1125
00:57:37,960 --> 00:57:41,760
Speaker 3: there's people that know me have an expectation that I'm

1126
00:57:41,880 --> 00:57:44,440
Speaker 3: going to kill a big deer, and it's like I

1127
00:57:44,480 --> 00:57:46,000
Speaker 3: may not. I may just go out and have fun

1128
00:57:46,040 --> 00:57:48,840
Speaker 3: and shoot the first legal thing. Like it's I don't

1129
00:57:48,880 --> 00:57:50,040
Speaker 3: really care anymore.

1130
00:57:51,080 --> 00:57:54,760
Speaker 2: And you were you're speaking my language now, buddy, I mean,

1131
00:57:56,040 --> 00:58:01,440
Speaker 2: it's just uh, there's a freeing aspect to not caring

1132
00:58:01,480 --> 00:58:04,560
Speaker 2: about the big antlers as much. There's just like it's

1133
00:58:04,600 --> 00:58:07,480
Speaker 2: like freeing to just be like I view this more

1134
00:58:07,520 --> 00:58:11,080
Speaker 2: as as like an outlet for me to just go

1135
00:58:11,160 --> 00:58:13,960
Speaker 2: be in a place that really matters to me. And yeah,

1136
00:58:13,960 --> 00:58:15,920
Speaker 2: it's important to get to meet It's it's fun to

1137
00:58:15,960 --> 00:58:18,160
Speaker 2: shoot them, it's fun to do the whole process. But

1138
00:58:18,240 --> 00:58:20,880
Speaker 2: when you when you fly real close to the sun

1139
00:58:20,920 --> 00:58:23,880
Speaker 2: with the trophy stuff, and then you realize, like, it's

1140
00:58:24,600 --> 00:58:26,680
Speaker 2: it's cool, but it's there's a lot of it that's

1141
00:58:26,720 --> 00:58:29,280
Speaker 2: not cool and it doesn't matter as much as we

1142
00:58:29,320 --> 00:58:31,520
Speaker 2: make it seem. And you kind of come back to

1143
00:58:31,560 --> 00:58:33,280
Speaker 2: earth a little bit and you're like, I'm looking at

1144
00:58:33,280 --> 00:58:35,400
Speaker 2: this the same thing that the trophy hunters are doing,

1145
00:58:35,600 --> 00:58:38,439
Speaker 2: but I'm looking at it a different way. It's it's

1146
00:58:38,600 --> 00:58:41,560
Speaker 2: really freeing, and it's like it's a that's a message

1147
00:58:41,600 --> 00:58:43,160
Speaker 2: I've been pushing a lot, you know. That's one of

1148
00:58:43,200 --> 00:58:45,160
Speaker 2: the reasons. Last year Steve and I went down to

1149
00:58:45,200 --> 00:58:49,200
Speaker 2: Oklahoma to hunt public land, you know, Steve Vanilla, and

1150
00:58:49,240 --> 00:58:51,439
Speaker 2: I was like talking to him beforehand. I was like, dude,

1151
00:58:51,440 --> 00:58:54,120
Speaker 2: we're going deer hunting this is not going to be

1152
00:58:54,160 --> 00:58:56,240
Speaker 2: a big buck deal like we're we If we get

1153
00:58:56,280 --> 00:58:58,120
Speaker 2: deer in front of us, it's going to be freaking awesome,

1154
00:58:58,520 --> 00:59:01,000
Speaker 2: and it's it's hard for people to grasp that. And

1155
00:59:01,040 --> 00:59:02,720
Speaker 2: I killed two little bucks on that hunt. I know

1156
00:59:02,760 --> 00:59:03,920
Speaker 2: I'll get a ton of shit for it, but I

1157
00:59:03,920 --> 00:59:07,920
Speaker 2: don't care. Like four days on public land and you

1158
00:59:08,040 --> 00:59:11,240
Speaker 2: get a fifteen yard broadside at something in a state

1159
00:59:11,280 --> 00:59:14,040
Speaker 2: that's ten hours from home, it's just like, yeah, it's

1160
00:59:14,680 --> 00:59:17,240
Speaker 2: there's a different feel to it than going out and

1161
00:59:17,280 --> 00:59:19,880
Speaker 2: you know, chasing a hitlister on grandma's farm or whatever,

1162
00:59:20,200 --> 00:59:22,880
Speaker 2: and they're all great, but it's fun when you kind

1163
00:59:22,880 --> 00:59:25,520
Speaker 2: of achieve that level where you're just like I don't

1164
00:59:25,720 --> 00:59:29,240
Speaker 2: need that pursuit of big antlers, Like he walks out,

1165
00:59:29,280 --> 00:59:31,040
Speaker 2: I'm going to shoot him, like you get on you know,

1166
00:59:31,120 --> 00:59:33,960
Speaker 2: Like I'm not saying that, but I'm just saying, like,

1167
00:59:34,000 --> 00:59:38,320
Speaker 2: when it's not that's like not priority one things, just

1168
00:59:38,400 --> 00:59:40,960
Speaker 2: you just look at it differently. It's free, and yeah,

1169
00:59:41,120 --> 00:59:41,600
Speaker 2: it has.

1170
00:59:41,480 --> 00:59:43,600
Speaker 3: Been a lot more free and like I just just

1171
00:59:43,720 --> 00:59:47,680
Speaker 3: enjoy hunting Moore. There's not the pressure of I have

1172
00:59:47,720 --> 00:59:49,920
Speaker 3: to make sure it's legal. That's that's my biggest hurdle

1173
00:59:50,000 --> 00:59:52,720
Speaker 3: right now. I use the buy nos a lot, and

1174
00:59:52,760 --> 00:59:55,440
Speaker 3: I'm not one I shot last year. I was scoping

1175
00:59:55,440 --> 00:59:57,320
Speaker 3: about pretty hard and I'm like, dude, he's got four

1176
00:59:57,360 --> 00:59:58,120
Speaker 3: points on one.

1177
00:59:58,000 --> 01:00:00,400
Speaker 2: Side because you've got aprs there.

1178
01:00:00,800 --> 01:00:02,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, we got gotta be four points on one side.

1179
01:00:03,000 --> 01:00:05,440
Speaker 3: So and when I first saw him, I was like

1180
01:00:05,560 --> 01:00:07,920
Speaker 3: I was I felt disappointment because I was like, I

1181
01:00:07,920 --> 01:00:09,560
Speaker 3: don't think he has four points on one side. And

1182
01:00:09,560 --> 01:00:11,040
Speaker 3: then he turned and I was like, oh man, I

1183
01:00:11,080 --> 01:00:14,280
Speaker 3: was like, go time, he's got four points. But uh yeah,

1184
01:00:14,560 --> 01:00:18,560
Speaker 3: just it's more fun. And I think it's really good

1185
01:00:18,600 --> 01:00:22,240
Speaker 3: that I'm in this place now because next year or

1186
01:00:22,320 --> 01:00:24,800
Speaker 3: this year, Titus will be six. So in Missouri you

1187
01:00:24,800 --> 01:00:27,640
Speaker 3: can start honting when or six and like taking him

1188
01:00:27,680 --> 01:00:31,320
Speaker 3: out with no expectations, like you shoot whatever you want, buddy,

1189
01:00:31,360 --> 01:00:32,880
Speaker 3: We're going to have a good time with this. And

1190
01:00:32,920 --> 01:00:36,440
Speaker 3: so that's more what I look forward to now, Like

1191
01:00:36,960 --> 01:00:38,600
Speaker 3: I'll be excited if I shoot a big deer, but

1192
01:00:39,120 --> 01:00:41,760
Speaker 3: I'm not going to pass. I'm not going to pass

1193
01:00:41,760 --> 01:00:43,960
Speaker 3: a lot of deer waiting on a big one.

1194
01:00:44,000 --> 01:00:47,840
Speaker 2: So, uh, at six, is he just going to rifle hunt?

1195
01:00:47,840 --> 01:00:52,360
Speaker 3: Then I'll see if he can shoot the crossbow. He's

1196
01:00:53,320 --> 01:00:56,880
Speaker 3: he's not real accurate right now. He just gets excited

1197
01:00:56,920 --> 01:00:58,800
Speaker 3: to shoot a gun or the crossbow or whatever. So

1198
01:00:59,240 --> 01:01:03,840
Speaker 3: we got some skill to hone over the summer. But yeah,

1199
01:01:03,920 --> 01:01:06,720
Speaker 3: we'll see how he does with the crossbow. But he may.

1200
01:01:07,000 --> 01:01:08,520
Speaker 3: I don't want to push him too hard either, Like

1201
01:01:08,600 --> 01:01:11,240
Speaker 3: if he's not not ready, I won't force him to go.

1202
01:01:11,280 --> 01:01:15,080
Speaker 3: He just says he'll enjoy going with me, and he

1203
01:01:15,120 --> 01:01:17,360
Speaker 3: always wants to shoot squirrels too, so we might try

1204
01:01:17,360 --> 01:01:19,200
Speaker 3: to get some of the practice in on squirrels before

1205
01:01:19,240 --> 01:01:21,120
Speaker 3: we hit for deer, so it's.

1206
01:01:21,000 --> 01:01:23,800
Speaker 2: A good way to start it. He hasn't turkey hunted yet.

1207
01:01:24,360 --> 01:01:27,880
Speaker 3: He's been with me. He didn't get to carry again

1208
01:01:27,960 --> 01:01:30,800
Speaker 3: or anything. So yeah, he just he just enjoys being

1209
01:01:30,840 --> 01:01:31,560
Speaker 3: with dad mostly.

1210
01:01:31,680 --> 01:01:35,040
Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, six is young man. I mean, it's

1211
01:01:35,560 --> 01:01:37,680
Speaker 2: it's just they're on the cusp there, you know. And

1212
01:01:37,720 --> 01:01:40,160
Speaker 2: I even look back, I didn't start my daughters until

1213
01:01:40,160 --> 01:01:43,480
Speaker 2: they were eight on turkeys and deer, and I look

1214
01:01:43,520 --> 01:01:45,040
Speaker 2: back at the pictures of them now and I'm like,

1215
01:01:45,080 --> 01:01:46,480
Speaker 2: I can't believe I took him out there when they

1216
01:01:46,480 --> 01:01:49,040
Speaker 2: were that little, you know. And my wife is really

1217
01:01:49,120 --> 01:01:51,080
Speaker 2: like I can't believe you took my daughter's you know,

1218
01:01:51,360 --> 01:01:53,680
Speaker 2: gun hunting turkeys when they were eight when you look

1219
01:01:53,680 --> 01:01:58,000
Speaker 2: at the pictures. But it's you know, it's cool to

1220
01:01:58,000 --> 01:02:01,280
Speaker 2: get him on an animal. But it's just that that

1221
01:02:01,600 --> 01:02:04,560
Speaker 2: part of like my hunting, that that's what changed me

1222
01:02:04,640 --> 01:02:07,600
Speaker 2: the most is when I could take my girls. I mean,

1223
01:02:07,640 --> 01:02:10,120
Speaker 2: I'll have years now where the first month of the season,

1224
01:02:10,160 --> 01:02:12,400
Speaker 2: I don't even pick up a weapon other than carrying

1225
01:02:12,400 --> 01:02:15,400
Speaker 2: one for them, and I don't care at all. Like

1226
01:02:15,520 --> 01:02:20,360
Speaker 2: gets so fun to take and just experience it, you

1227
01:02:20,400 --> 01:02:23,480
Speaker 2: know through their perspective. Now it's like, yeah, it's so

1228
01:02:23,600 --> 01:02:26,560
Speaker 2: fun to be with somebody when any deer is anywhere

1229
01:02:26,600 --> 01:02:29,080
Speaker 2: near you, or a turkey gobbles anywhere near or anything.

1230
01:02:29,080 --> 01:02:31,360
Speaker 2: They're like, oh my god, this is the best thing

1231
01:02:31,680 --> 01:02:32,720
Speaker 2: that's ever happened to me.

1232
01:02:33,800 --> 01:02:35,960
Speaker 3: Eyes are getting huge. Yeah, that's It's been a lot

1233
01:02:36,000 --> 01:02:39,760
Speaker 3: of fun just to just to re experience stuff that

1234
01:02:39,800 --> 01:02:42,840
Speaker 3: I'd forgotten about, like little things you find walking through

1235
01:02:42,880 --> 01:02:44,920
Speaker 3: the woods. They get his pockets to be full of

1236
01:02:44,960 --> 01:02:47,080
Speaker 3: acorns by the time we get out, just stuff like that.

1237
01:02:47,160 --> 01:02:49,480
Speaker 3: He just he gets excited about everything, and I'm like,

1238
01:02:50,280 --> 01:02:52,440
Speaker 3: I need to I need to just enjoy all the

1239
01:02:52,480 --> 01:02:55,840
Speaker 3: moments again, whereas you get for a while, I got

1240
01:02:55,880 --> 01:02:58,760
Speaker 3: so focused on, you know, killing that big deer. It's

1241
01:02:58,760 --> 01:03:02,200
Speaker 3: like I missed out on just enjoying being out here, so.

1242
01:03:02,360 --> 01:03:07,000
Speaker 2: Right, I dude, They they let you know how much

1243
01:03:07,040 --> 01:03:09,480
Speaker 2: cool stuff is out there. Yeah, and you know, you

1244
01:03:09,520 --> 01:03:13,160
Speaker 2: think about I think about this a lot. Where you know,

1245
01:03:13,360 --> 01:03:15,480
Speaker 2: if you you have limited time and you go out

1246
01:03:15,480 --> 01:03:19,440
Speaker 2: and you're scouting or you're hunting, you're so mission focused

1247
01:03:20,080 --> 01:03:22,040
Speaker 2: and you kind of miss a lot of that stuff,

1248
01:03:22,080 --> 01:03:24,480
Speaker 2: you know, Like we don't when I was growing up,

1249
01:03:24,480 --> 01:03:26,640
Speaker 2: like it was pretty common we're just going to the woods,

1250
01:03:26,960 --> 01:03:29,320
Speaker 2: like we're just gonna go walk through the woods, you know,

1251
01:03:29,440 --> 01:03:32,440
Speaker 2: or like just be there and you're just doing that

1252
01:03:32,480 --> 01:03:35,320
Speaker 2: for the experience of being there and not because you're

1253
01:03:35,360 --> 01:03:38,120
Speaker 2: going to get a pattern on a one sixty or whatever.

1254
01:03:38,400 --> 01:03:40,960
Speaker 2: And kids are just like they're perfect for framing that

1255
01:03:41,080 --> 01:03:44,400
Speaker 2: up for you, like they're they don't they just view

1256
01:03:44,440 --> 01:03:47,320
Speaker 2: it differently. And it's like such a nice centering moment

1257
01:03:47,680 --> 01:03:50,440
Speaker 2: because we can go so far you know, I don't

1258
01:03:50,480 --> 01:03:51,880
Speaker 2: know if it's even the wrong way, but we can

1259
01:03:51,920 --> 01:03:54,520
Speaker 2: we can go down some different paths that where we

1260
01:03:54,680 --> 01:03:58,720
Speaker 2: just don't appreciate the woods for what it really can

1261
01:03:58,760 --> 01:04:00,920
Speaker 2: offer you. It's like if it if it doesn't deliver

1262
01:04:01,000 --> 01:04:03,720
Speaker 2: me that hitlist or it was no good, and it's like, man,

1263
01:04:03,960 --> 01:04:06,640
Speaker 2: that's just not It's a rough way to go about it.

1264
01:04:07,240 --> 01:04:09,720
Speaker 3: Yeah, it really is. Yeah. I was the same way

1265
01:04:09,800 --> 01:04:13,160
Speaker 3: growing up, but a lot of it was to escape

1266
01:04:13,200 --> 01:04:16,040
Speaker 3: doing you know, chores at how But we lived on

1267
01:04:16,240 --> 01:04:18,640
Speaker 3: fifty acres, so I was just gone all day, playing

1268
01:04:18,640 --> 01:04:21,640
Speaker 3: in the woods, playing in the creek and just loving it.

1269
01:04:21,720 --> 01:04:25,920
Speaker 3: And so it's been been good to get back to that.

1270
01:04:26,120 --> 01:04:27,640
Speaker 3: Just just enjoyed being out there.

1271
01:04:27,680 --> 01:04:30,080
Speaker 2: So big time. Did you did you kill that buck

1272
01:04:30,160 --> 01:04:31,000
Speaker 2: last year? In public?

1273
01:04:31,640 --> 01:04:37,360
Speaker 3: I did? Yeah, it was I know, there's we camp

1274
01:04:37,440 --> 01:04:39,840
Speaker 3: We camped out. I went with a couple other guys

1275
01:04:39,880 --> 01:04:42,360
Speaker 3: just camped in the back the truck, which was a

1276
01:04:42,440 --> 01:04:46,200
Speaker 3: lot of fun. And it was one of those days

1277
01:04:46,200 --> 01:04:50,400
Speaker 3: where I set them up and and every spot that

1278
01:04:50,480 --> 01:04:52,200
Speaker 3: I wanted to go after I got them where they

1279
01:04:52,200 --> 01:04:54,160
Speaker 3: wanted to go, somebody somebody was like pulling into the

1280
01:04:54,160 --> 01:04:57,160
Speaker 3: parking spot. I was like, this is December. You guys

1281
01:04:57,160 --> 01:05:00,040
Speaker 3: should be hanging out for Christmas or something. But so

1282
01:05:00,080 --> 01:05:02,800
Speaker 3: the last spot I would ended up going was there was.

1283
01:05:02,920 --> 01:05:04,480
Speaker 3: There was actually a bunch of fresh signs, so I

1284
01:05:04,520 --> 01:05:06,960
Speaker 3: was like, okay, well we'll hang out here. But but yeah,

1285
01:05:07,000 --> 01:05:08,160
Speaker 3: he's a public Laian deer.

1286
01:05:08,080 --> 01:05:10,240
Speaker 2: So what what what was he doing? What'd you kill

1287
01:05:10,320 --> 01:05:10,520
Speaker 2: him on?

1288
01:05:12,000 --> 01:05:14,320
Speaker 3: I was in in a transition aery like there, I

1289
01:05:14,440 --> 01:05:17,000
Speaker 3: was real tight to betting, uh, and there's a bunch

1290
01:05:17,000 --> 01:05:19,160
Speaker 3: of crop fields behind me, and he was just working

1291
01:05:19,200 --> 01:05:22,520
Speaker 3: his way through down a trail. I I shot him

1292
01:05:22,560 --> 01:05:24,560
Speaker 3: at eight yards, which was probably good. I needed a

1293
01:05:24,560 --> 01:05:28,240
Speaker 3: close shot. It had been a while so but yeah,

1294
01:05:28,240 --> 01:05:31,000
Speaker 3: he was just slowly moving through that care in the world.

1295
01:05:31,040 --> 01:05:32,840
Speaker 3: I was on the ground too, which made it made

1296
01:05:32,840 --> 01:05:33,520
Speaker 3: it even cooler.

1297
01:05:33,600 --> 01:05:37,040
Speaker 2: So so you went into Missouri public land in December

1298
01:05:37,240 --> 01:05:41,160
Speaker 2: after the guns, he's enraged through speed scouted a spot

1299
01:05:41,240 --> 01:05:43,920
Speaker 2: after playing you know, a B, C and D was

1300
01:05:43,960 --> 01:05:46,920
Speaker 2: taken up by other dudes, and found some fresh sign

1301
01:05:47,080 --> 01:05:48,680
Speaker 2: set up in there and killed one from the ground

1302
01:05:48,680 --> 01:05:50,240
Speaker 2: to eight yards I did.

1303
01:05:50,320 --> 01:05:54,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's pretty awesome, I thought. The only only mistake

1304
01:05:54,800 --> 01:05:57,600
Speaker 3: I thought I made was I there was a tree

1305
01:05:57,640 --> 01:06:00,040
Speaker 3: on the ground that had a split trunk, and so

1306
01:06:00,120 --> 01:06:01,720
Speaker 3: it was a huge tree and I sat up in

1307
01:06:01,720 --> 01:06:03,840
Speaker 3: front of it. But the trail actually came by me.

1308
01:06:04,120 --> 01:06:06,520
Speaker 3: One of the trails came by me at like feet

1309
01:06:06,920 --> 01:06:09,360
Speaker 3: and so it split off at about eight yards in

1310
01:06:09,360 --> 01:06:11,680
Speaker 3: front of me. And so as he's coming down this,

1311
01:06:11,800 --> 01:06:13,760
Speaker 3: I was like, you better turn otherwise this is gonna

1312
01:06:13,880 --> 01:06:15,880
Speaker 3: it's gonna end bad. And he did, which is way

1313
01:06:15,920 --> 01:06:19,440
Speaker 3: I thought they would go. But it could have got

1314
01:06:20,000 --> 01:06:21,560
Speaker 3: I don't. I don't. I don't know if I could

1315
01:06:21,560 --> 01:06:24,400
Speaker 3: have shot him if he came straight or not. But

1316
01:06:24,400 --> 01:06:25,800
Speaker 3: but yeah, it was. It was fun.

1317
01:06:26,760 --> 01:06:28,160
Speaker 2: Did you kill that deer with a compound?

1318
01:06:29,440 --> 01:06:31,880
Speaker 3: Yeah. I haven't been shooting the longbow very much.

1319
01:06:32,040 --> 01:06:34,960
Speaker 2: Just I really don't need the challenge anymore.

1320
01:06:35,920 --> 01:06:39,280
Speaker 3: I do at some point, but not I have enough challenges, so.

1321
01:06:39,360 --> 01:06:44,040
Speaker 2: Right right, Yeah, man, I love it so much. Your

1322
01:06:44,040 --> 01:06:47,680
Speaker 2: story is freaking wild. Dude. I'm so glad you made

1323
01:06:47,680 --> 01:06:50,120
Speaker 2: it through that. Uh, it's great to see you. I

1324
01:06:50,520 --> 01:06:52,760
Speaker 2: really appreciate you coming on and sharing your story. I

1325
01:06:52,760 --> 01:06:54,040
Speaker 2: think a lot of people are gonna listen to this

1326
01:06:54,080 --> 01:06:57,080
Speaker 2: and they're gonna maybe reevaluate how they look at their

1327
01:06:57,120 --> 01:06:57,880
Speaker 2: hunting a little bit.

1328
01:06:58,720 --> 01:07:01,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I hope. So I'm glad to share.

1329
01:07:01,320 --> 01:07:05,600
Speaker 3: And yeah, I think the woods in general would be

1330
01:07:05,600 --> 01:07:07,800
Speaker 3: a lot better placed if everybody's out there just enjoying

1331
01:07:07,840 --> 01:07:12,000
Speaker 3: it and gets a little competitive, I think. And just

1332
01:07:12,000 --> 01:07:14,320
Speaker 3: go out there and enjoy it and enjoy your family.

1333
01:07:14,320 --> 01:07:15,160
Speaker 3: Take them out there. Wike it?

1334
01:07:15,240 --> 01:07:17,800
Speaker 2: So yeah, I love it, buddy, Thanks so much for

1335
01:07:17,840 --> 01:07:18,200
Speaker 2: coming on.

1336
01:07:18,840 --> 01:07:19,680
Speaker 3: Yep, thanks Tony.

1337
01:07:21,760 --> 01:07:23,840
Speaker 2: That's it for this week, folks. Make sure to tune

1338
01:07:23,880 --> 01:07:26,640
Speaker 2: in every week for some more whitetail goodness. I'm your

1339
01:07:26,640 --> 01:07:30,560
Speaker 2: guest host, Tony Peterson. This has been the wire Don podcast,

1340
01:07:30,600 --> 01:07:32,640
Speaker 2: which is brought to you by First lad Now. If

1341
01:07:32,680 --> 01:07:35,120
Speaker 2: you want some more whitetail content, feel free to head

1342
01:07:35,120 --> 01:07:37,240
Speaker 2: on over to the mediat dot com to get your fill,

1343
01:07:37,680 --> 01:07:39,440
Speaker 2: and while you're there, feel free to check out all

1344
01:07:39,440 --> 01:07:42,040
Speaker 2: the other podcasts and the video series and the articles,

1345
01:07:42,320 --> 01:07:44,560
Speaker 2: or maybe even do a little shopping at the Mediator

1346
01:07:44,600 --> 01:07:45,360
Speaker 2: store while you're there.