Speaker 1: You've been in so much pain that you're like, Wow,
Speaker 1: I'm screaming, but it's not helping. What can I do?
Speaker 1: What can I do? There's nothing I can do? And
Speaker 1: sometimes there were some no two am moments where he's
Speaker 1: just having a pan crisis and we needed to get
Speaker 1: him anti pain medication. All the puzzles look different, right,
Speaker 1: So each of these people are coming in not necessarily
Speaker 1: with the same end picture, and so you're putting together
Speaker 1: the pieces, but it's not always going to fit perfectly
Speaker 1: into any sort of box. I thought my life didn't
Speaker 1: have any meaning or didn't need to do anything. How
Speaker 1: terrifying would it be to fight an unknown enemy, one
Speaker 1: you didn't recognize and didn't see coming. What if that
Speaker 1: enemy was coming from within a disease that even doctors
Speaker 1: couldn't identify. Nearly half of all Americans suffer from some
Speaker 1: chronic illness, and many struggle for an accurate diagnosis. These
Speaker 1: are their stories. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco, and this is
Speaker 1: symptomatic august ROACHA has an infectious personality that you immediately
Speaker 1: pick up on, whether it be talking about musical theater,
Speaker 1: Squish Mellows or Brandy Carlyle you can just hear the
Speaker 1: joy in his voice. I love squishmallows. What's a squish mellow?
Speaker 1: As squish mellow is a type of stuffed animal. I
Speaker 1: think they're originally made for children, but of course they're
Speaker 1: appropriate for people of all ages. They're just very comforting
Speaker 1: and very soft, and so you can't see, but my
Speaker 1: my setup here is covered in them, covered in them.
Speaker 1: August has been through an extremely difficult and trying medical journey,
Speaker 1: but approaches life with authenticity and openness. That's probably part
Speaker 1: of why the community he's grown on social media has
Speaker 1: resonated so deeply with those who share similar journeys. How
Speaker 1: would you describe August to someone who's not met him.
Speaker 1: I would describe him as a wonderfully passionate human being.
Speaker 1: He just loves to help people. Now he has a
Speaker 1: community of over a hundred thousand followers on TikTok, and
Speaker 1: he is going above and beyond to try to share
Speaker 1: his story and to use that to help educate and
Speaker 1: trying to change the world for a better place. I
Speaker 1: know that sounds clich but like it really is what
Speaker 1: he's doing. That was August's partner, Christine, who has seen
Speaker 1: how much of a struggle. Relatively simple, everyday things can
Speaker 1: be for August because of his medical condition, but the
Speaker 1: first signs of something being wrong started showing up when
Speaker 1: he was just five years old, after being left in
Speaker 1: a basket and an alley in China as a baby,
Speaker 1: he was adopted by a family in Wisconsin. I categorized
Speaker 1: my childhood as well sad, but a brilliant beginning because
Speaker 1: I was given the gift of coming to America. It's
Speaker 1: a big process, and it changes a person, and it
Speaker 1: changes the way that we perceived the world. And so
Speaker 1: that is how my life started, brand new to a
Speaker 1: family and brand new to a country. August's brilliant beginning
Speaker 1: was quickly challenged by the unexplained and painful symptoms he
Speaker 1: began to develop when he was five years old. While
Speaker 1: August was raised female, as he grew into adulthood, he
Speaker 1: came to realize his gender identity was different the sex
Speaker 1: he was assigned at birth, and eventually transitioned to mail.
Speaker 1: That gives August a very unique perspective on his childhood symptoms.
Speaker 1: I was in such extreme abdominal pain that I didn't
Speaker 1: know what to do. You've been in so much pain
Speaker 1: that you're like, wow, I'm I'm screaming, but it's not helping.
Speaker 1: What can I do? And you know, being a child,
Speaker 1: you know you don't know what's going on. I mean,
Speaker 1: you don't know at any age, but my goodness a child.
Speaker 1: I was freaking out. And my poor parents they looked
Speaker 1: at me and they said, well, you know, at the time,
Speaker 1: she she is probably going through some pre menstrual things
Speaker 1: age five, I don't know, extreme abdominal pain that couldn't
Speaker 1: be explained by what he ate or other environmental triggers.
Speaker 1: August symptoms would only escalate when he hit puberty. My
Speaker 1: mother there and I were very close at the time,
Speaker 1: and she was with me when it happened. I was
Speaker 1: actually at a dance conference. I was a dancer at
Speaker 1: the time, and I immediately thought, oh, maybe there was
Speaker 1: friction in my leotard or in my dance outfit or something,
Speaker 1: and she said, no, I don't think that's it. We
Speaker 1: have to go to the doctor now. And so I
Speaker 1: had skin lesions, sores, and they're not in nice places
Speaker 1: there in my agenda's So a lot of people were
Speaker 1: asking questions about are you sexually active? And it was no.
Speaker 1: I haven't been. I'm a young teenager, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't go out, I don't do anything like. I haven't
Speaker 1: done anything. And even if I had, why are you
Speaker 1: blaming me? You know? So you were misdiagnosed as having
Speaker 1: her piece at the age of twelve. Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: thinking to myself, what did I do? What did I
Speaker 1: do wrong? August was hit by a variety of complex emotions, confusion, isolation,
Speaker 1: and even guilt. I don't know if I did process it,
Speaker 1: to be honest, because everything moved so quickly. It wasn't
Speaker 1: just oh, here these sores. The doctor thinks it's herpes.
Speaker 1: How do you handle this? It was oh, the doctor
Speaker 1: thinks it's herpes? What did you do? It was immediate,
Speaker 1: the immediate shift of viewpoints and stigmatization of said symptoms surreal.
Speaker 1: So how was that treated? It wasn't They gave me
Speaker 1: light again for the top of it. Eventually, later in
Speaker 1: further cases of the same symptoms, I would receive prednisone
Speaker 1: for steroids, just a zapp it. But there was never
Speaker 1: any real full solution. It was just a lot of
Speaker 1: treating symptomatic things that would hopefully, hopefully someday go away,
Speaker 1: but never really did. With none of the treatments working.
Speaker 1: A part of August knew this diagnosis could not be correct.
Speaker 1: But with all the guilt, internal self struggle and stigmatization,
Speaker 1: August faced the consequences He couldn't rationalize wreak their own
Speaker 1: havoc as his symptoms intensified. So the lesions started presenting
Speaker 1: in your privates, but then they migrated to other areas
Speaker 1: of your body. At what point did your parents then
Speaker 1: realize that this isn't what they thought it was? Well,
Speaker 1: pretty early on, because they realized they had made a mistake.
Speaker 1: They realized that it wasn't herbies, and they realized that
Speaker 1: they had gone down the wrong path of thinking. And
Speaker 1: how did it come back? It came back as pain
Speaker 1: crisis And that's what we called them. When I'm in
Speaker 1: such severe pain and it comes done very quickly, this
Speaker 1: severe pain, and it'll just knock me out. And it's
Speaker 1: similar to our understanding of seizures in that you lose
Speaker 1: all control of your bodily functions, You aren't able to
Speaker 1: do much, and you start well, not convulsive, but there's
Speaker 1: such pain that that you can kind of see it
Speaker 1: zapping through my body. It's weird. It's weird. I don't
Speaker 1: know how else to describe it. That it's terrible. And
Speaker 1: I kept having those and of course they were written
Speaker 1: off as hysteria. On top of the lesions and sores
Speaker 1: all over his body, August abdominal pain from his childhood
Speaker 1: had now progressed into a full blown pain crisis that
Speaker 1: started to make it impossible for him to sustain a
Speaker 1: normal life. As the symptoms continued to add up, there
Speaker 1: seemed to be no true diagnosis in sight for August,
Speaker 1: just an endless search in the dark for something that
Speaker 1: felt beyond elusive. What are some other mis diagnoses that
Speaker 1: were thrown at you. Let's see ovarian cysts, lots of
Speaker 1: ovarian and uterine related diagnoses, none of which were correct.
Speaker 1: At one time, they thought I had crones and klitis,
Speaker 1: neither of which were true. There was never really like, oh,
Speaker 1: this one diagnosis covers all of your symptoms. It was like,
Speaker 1: it's got to be crone's plus another thing, because this
Speaker 1: doesn't cover it. An associate professor and rheumatologists at Northwestern
Speaker 1: dr Anicia Doua knows the struggle of finding a diagnosis
Speaker 1: all too well. It sounds like you're putting together the
Speaker 1: pieces of a jigsaw puzzle before you can get a
Speaker 1: clear indication of what you're looking at. Yeah, and that
Speaker 1: along with the fact that all of the puzzles look different, right,
Speaker 1: so each of these people are coming in not necessarily
Speaker 1: with the same end picture, and so you're putting it
Speaker 1: together the pieces, but it's not always going to fit
Speaker 1: perfectly into any sort of box, and that can lead
Speaker 1: to frustration and other diagnoses, kind of filling in the
Speaker 1: gaps before you can get to that final diagnosis. Still
Speaker 1: on a long road to the right answers, August was
Speaker 1: pursuing his dream, training to sing and dance on Broadway,
Speaker 1: all while the pain crises continued to get worse. They
Speaker 1: started to spread and cause him to be injured seemingly
Speaker 1: all the time. The level of the pain increased, and
Speaker 1: then of course there were swollen joints. I started dislocating things.
Speaker 1: It was, you know, to the point where the doc
Speaker 1: was like, well, if you'd just located anymore, we got
Speaker 1: to do surgery. And I was a dancer, I was
Speaker 1: a gymnast. By this time, I'm nineteen, I'm training to
Speaker 1: be a musical theater professional in New York City, and
Speaker 1: training in five in shields a day, you know, leotards,
Speaker 1: which aren't great for general source. And my teachers are like,
Speaker 1: why do you keep getting injured? What is happening to you?
Speaker 1: And we didn't know. We couldn't figure it out. August
Speaker 1: had dreamt of being on Broadway for such a long
Speaker 1: time that he tied his identity to it, but it
Speaker 1: just seemed his body couldn't keep up with his dreams.
Speaker 1: When you stake your identity in what you do and
Speaker 1: you lose that ability to do what you think is
Speaker 1: your life's purpose, it's a deep heartbreak. But also it
Speaker 1: takes a lot of your pride. It takes a lot
Speaker 1: of your pride because you're realizing that, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I'm not just my skills? Well who am I? What
Speaker 1: does this make me? Now? Am I just a person
Speaker 1: who is sick? Is that all I am? I just
Speaker 1: wanted to dance, I just wanted to sing, and I
Speaker 1: wanted to be happy. And it was a life full
Speaker 1: of pain and suffering that I didn't under stand. August
Speaker 1: was then hit with a pain crisis that would change
Speaker 1: his life, one that would take away some of his
Speaker 1: dreams but also move him closer to a final diagnosis
Speaker 1: for what had been ailing him for over fifteen years.
Speaker 1: Take me from nineteen year old August, full steam ahead,
Speaker 1: pursuing dance and performing arts career to one year old August,
Speaker 1: now bedridden and immobile. That must have been horrific that
Speaker 1: time period, And just give me an idea of that progression.
Speaker 1: It was so quick in such a strange way. What
Speaker 1: happened was I had a pain crisis and I never
Speaker 1: recovered from it. I ended up falling in the street.
Speaker 1: My friends had to move me from you know, cars
Speaker 1: that we're running in the streets this New York city,
Speaker 1: so no one cares, you know, you know, and they're
Speaker 1: pulling me through waving, you know, swerving cars and it's
Speaker 1: you know, and they call the ambulance and they get
Speaker 1: me to the hospital. And it's scary from being so
Speaker 1: close to singing and dancing professionally to now almost a
Speaker 1: mobile and bedridden. Practically overnight, August life was collapsing all
Speaker 1: around him, with no clear direction to alter the course
Speaker 1: of his symptoms. I was hospitalized when I was twenty one.
Speaker 1: I had lost all ability to walk without mobility aids,
Speaker 1: and I was covered in I think it was thirty
Speaker 1: genital sores at the time. My joints were swollen, and
Speaker 1: I was just like, it was so hard to move, Lauren,
Speaker 1: it was so hard to move. I can't imagine how
Speaker 1: grueling that must have been. So how long were you hospitalized?
Speaker 1: I was hospitalized for a period of a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: maybe a month. The care was lovely from the nurses.
Speaker 1: The nurses made the place. Because the doctors told me
Speaker 1: that I was lying flat out. They sat me down,
Speaker 1: both of them, with my parents, and they said, we
Speaker 1: think your daughter is lying so psychosomatic, psychosomatic, psychosomatic, all
Speaker 1: of it. You're not being able to walk, you're collapsing
Speaker 1: in the street, your incredible pain, your sores, it's all
Speaker 1: made up. They said, we'd like to refer you to
Speaker 1: our psychology department because this shouldn't be happening. I experience
Speaker 1: still a lot of medical gas lighting, a lot of
Speaker 1: people telling me that I was hysterical or that my
Speaker 1: symptoms were psychosomatic. And I experienced a lot of sexism
Speaker 1: and racism. But I don't experience as much of that
Speaker 1: now that I present. His masculine August's understanding nature always
Speaker 1: came naturally to him. Looking back on a time when
Speaker 1: his life was so often in the hands of others,
Speaker 1: he could rationalize the doctor's limitations. But August faced many
Speaker 1: dark years of isolation that would challenge his resilience and
Speaker 1: self fortitude. I was bedridden for a period of almost
Speaker 1: four years. It was heartbreaking, to say the least. To
Speaker 1: go from dancing for hours upon hours every day to
Speaker 1: not being able to get up and go to the
Speaker 1: bathroom alone is a life shift that I'm not sure
Speaker 1: anyone ever thinks still have to face. I lost pretty
Speaker 1: much all of my friends, and so I basically was
Speaker 1: living at home with my now ex husband, going to
Speaker 1: doctor's appointments when I had them, but doing nothing, nothing
Speaker 1: at all, because I thought my life didn't have any
Speaker 1: meaning or didn't need to do anything. At this point,
Speaker 1: when all hopes seemed lost, there came a light at
Speaker 1: the end of the tunnel for August on his diagnosis journey.
Speaker 1: He had finally been referred to a specialist who looked
Speaker 1: at his symptoms from a different angle, who recognized what
Speaker 1: he might be suffering from. I was so relieved to
Speaker 1: have some sort of something, a word, a word, a
Speaker 1: phrase to hold onto just something. We'll be right back
Speaker 1: with Symptomatic, a Medical Mystery Podcast. Now back to Symptomatic,
Speaker 1: a Medical Mystery Podcast. August Rocha had been suffering from
Speaker 1: a mysterious disease since he was five years old. From
Speaker 1: severe abdominal pain to sores and lesions all over his body.
Speaker 1: August symptoms never seemed to get better with any of
Speaker 1: the diagnoses or treatments he received. Desperate for hope, he
Speaker 1: was finally referred to a rheumatologist who put the puzzle
Speaker 1: pieces of his symptoms together in a way no one
Speaker 1: had yet. They said, I think you should see this
Speaker 1: doctor because you are a Chinese and she specializes in
Speaker 1: Chinese medicine. I said, okay, fair enough. And I saw
Speaker 1: this woman and she looked at my chart and she
Speaker 1: looked at me, and she says, I know what you have.
Speaker 1: And she told me I was probably diagnosed at the
Speaker 1: end of age twenty one with the Chet's disease. It's
Speaker 1: a rare form of vasculitis that causes inflammation in the
Speaker 1: blood vessels, which are everywhere except for your eyes, and
Speaker 1: you have to have sores. In addition, you have to
Speaker 1: have sores that are either in your eyes your mouth
Speaker 1: or your genitals, and you have to have them twice
Speaker 1: in those three places in a twelvemonth period. I had
Speaker 1: never heard of it. I had never seen the word.
Speaker 1: I didn't know how to say it. When you heard that,
Speaker 1: when you heard that the diagnosis, you heard the shots,
Speaker 1: what went through your body? What went through your mind? Honestly, Lauren,
Speaker 1: I was so relieved. I was so relieved to have
Speaker 1: some sort of something, a word, a word, a phrase
Speaker 1: to hold onto, just something. And I said, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: that's a I can google that. Right. It was like
Speaker 1: Christmas in a weird way, because I realized, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: this is a path that I can follow, this is
Speaker 1: something that I can research, this is something I can
Speaker 1: learn about. But on the opposite side of that token,
Speaker 1: it was, oh my god, I have a rare illness.
Speaker 1: What is that mean. I've heard of them before, and
Speaker 1: I've heard of, you know, the rare illness community, but
Speaker 1: I didn't even know. I had no clue, no clue
Speaker 1: where to start to look for community, to look for
Speaker 1: people like me, that there were people like me. I mean,
Speaker 1: I thought I was you know in sci fi movies
Speaker 1: where they're like, I'm the last alien from this planet.
Speaker 1: That's how I felt. I felt that way the disease
Speaker 1: that had been robbing August of his autonomy and quality
Speaker 1: of life finally had a name. With a name also
Speaker 1: came a sense of relief and calm, knowing now what
Speaker 1: he was up against. Here again is Dr Nisha Da
Speaker 1: who heads up the Vasculita Center at Northwestern explaining more
Speaker 1: about the chats. So Bishets is an autoimmune disorder and
Speaker 1: we consider it as in the category under the umbrella
Speaker 1: of the vasculinities. Autoimmune diseases are essentially when your immune system,
Speaker 1: which should be fighting infections and viruses and all the
Speaker 1: bad stuff, basically recognize as a part of your own
Speaker 1: body as a problem and starts attacking it for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: then eventually causing inflammation and damage to whatever part it is.
Speaker 1: So Bisht is a variable vessel vasculitis essentially where different
Speaker 1: sizes of the blood vessels in your body can be
Speaker 1: inflamed and cause damage. And how difficult is it to
Speaker 1: get a proper diagnosis for disease like bischets. It's different
Speaker 1: things for different people. Different symptoms that start popping up
Speaker 1: and and they kind of build on each other and eventually,
Speaker 1: over time, hopefully they get to some sort of diagnosis
Speaker 1: and recognition of what exactly is going on. But there
Speaker 1: isn't one specific thing. We don't have one genetic mark
Speaker 1: or we can check, or one lab test we can check,
Speaker 1: or one thing we see under the microscope that's going
Speaker 1: to give us a clear, definite diagnosis. It's really more
Speaker 1: of a compilation of different clinical features that we think
Speaker 1: about to try to piece them together to make the diagnosis. Now,
Speaker 1: with a proper diagnosis, August not only felt relief in
Speaker 1: the sense that he knew what illness he suffered from,
Speaker 1: but also felt a sense of relief letting go of
Speaker 1: the self blame. I just needed to know that I
Speaker 1: wasn't the one who is causing the problems, that it
Speaker 1: wasn't me, because in my mind all this time it was,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I've been such a burden and I'm
Speaker 1: thanking my life. You know, I'm taking down everyone with me.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't true. I hadn't done anything. One thing
Speaker 1: that is apparent from conversations with August and his partner,
Speaker 1: Christine is that neither one sees the other as a burden,
Speaker 1: regardless of medical circumstances. How and when did August share
Speaker 1: his health struggles with you? And how difficult was that
Speaker 1: for him to open up? It was a pretty like
Speaker 1: natural conversation because early in our relationship he had to
Speaker 1: flare up, so we just had to talk about it,
Speaker 1: and so I learned what his symptoms are, how he
Speaker 1: navigates those, and what he needs. So there's definitely a
Speaker 1: lot of an educational time time for me to really
Speaker 1: understand what's going on. But it was pretty seamless because
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, you know, I was
Speaker 1: seeing August in a lot of pain, and as his partner,
Speaker 1: I want to do what I can to help him.
Speaker 1: I've never met anyone that cares so deeply for others
Speaker 1: and cares so deeply about their well being. And you know,
Speaker 1: that's something so beautiful about our community, our transgender community
Speaker 1: and also the rare disease community. We have so many loving,
Speaker 1: caring people who want to make sure that we're okay.
Speaker 1: And she's just one of those people. Yeah, a bright
Speaker 1: light in each other's lives. August and Christine have learned
Speaker 1: how to best support each other. August still needs assistance
Speaker 1: from a walker or a wheelchair, to get around easily,
Speaker 1: and even then still has stabilitating pain crises. Instead of
Speaker 1: letting it overwhelm him, he's channeled the pain and trauma
Speaker 1: this experience into activism for the disabled community, the adopted community,
Speaker 1: the queer community, and of course the rare illness community.
Speaker 1: I have to say, you really do radiate positivity and that,
Speaker 1: particularly in light of the fact that you live with
Speaker 1: chronic pain. How did you go through the process of
Speaker 1: channeling your diagnosis into activism? Mm hmmm. That really started
Speaker 1: in earnest when I realized that I wasn't alone and
Speaker 1: that there are people just like me who are waiting
Speaker 1: for answers, who are waiting to know that they're not,
Speaker 1: you know, losing it, that they're not the problem, that
Speaker 1: they're not the reason that their body is betraying them.
Speaker 1: And I just want people to know that when they
Speaker 1: see me and they listen to what I have to say,
Speaker 1: that they are not alone. That there are so many
Speaker 1: wonderful people out there who have experienced very similar, heartbreaking
Speaker 1: things who know that pain and want to comfort you
Speaker 1: and want to stand in solidarity with you and talk
Speaker 1: about how okay we can move forward, Okay we can
Speaker 1: heal these wounds. We can work to give you help
Speaker 1: and give you healing, and we can work to move
Speaker 1: towards a future that is brighter. Because that's what I
Speaker 1: see for the rare disease community. Because of his openness
Speaker 1: and genuine joy about life, August has built up over
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand foll the words on TikTok, who are
Speaker 1: now all part of a shared community. Even with all
Speaker 1: the treatments and research being done on autoimmune diseases, Creating
Speaker 1: this sense of community for patients is exactly the type
Speaker 1: of thing Dr Dowa says makes an even bigger difference
Speaker 1: in their lives. Finding forums where you can kind of
Speaker 1: talk about your concerns and share that I think is
Speaker 1: a really empowering thing for patients and and it's really
Speaker 1: important for them getting better. Honestly, because you can treat
Speaker 1: all the clinical symptoms, I can give you a bunch
Speaker 1: of immune suppression, I can give you a bunch of
Speaker 1: things to try to make you better. But in terms
Speaker 1: of like holistic care and actually making someone live their
Speaker 1: best life, you know, the drugs aren't going to be enough,
Speaker 1: and so you need some other sorts of support and
Speaker 1: ways to move forward and cope with some of the
Speaker 1: stuff that's going to come up, whether or not it's
Speaker 1: your disease flare or a side effect of the medicine,
Speaker 1: or just how you feel. August roch A battled through pain, crises,
Speaker 1: sores and lesions, overwhelming his body, being told it was
Speaker 1: all in his head, being shamed for herpes diagnosis, having
Speaker 1: to give up his dreams of a musical theater career,
Speaker 1: and being bedridden all to finally have a proper diagnosis,
Speaker 1: a treatment plan that is helping, and most importantly, a
Speaker 1: community and partner that supports this stage in his journey
Speaker 1: is inspiring. Makes me proud, and it just makes me
Speaker 1: so happy because August is having an impact on people's
Speaker 1: lives in a positive way. Like he's kind of like
Speaker 1: a light in the darkness in a sense as as
Speaker 1: I to describe, because like with his compassion and with
Speaker 1: his love of people, he creates a safe space for
Speaker 1: people to go to feel empowered, to forget a lot
Speaker 1: of awfulness that's in the world. I say this probably
Speaker 1: once a day to my girlfriend. Being queer is such
Speaker 1: a gift. Being trans is such a gift, And when
Speaker 1: you combine that with being disabled, you've got a wonderful
Speaker 1: intersectionality of a human with vast understandings of the world
Speaker 1: through lived experience, through community, and so there's someone out
Speaker 1: there who knows what you're going through. Even if you're
Speaker 1: the most trans, queer, diverse, intersectional person that exists, someone
Speaker 1: out there sees you and goes a thank you, family,
Speaker 1: I've found it. I'm not alone. You are never ever alone.
Speaker 1: And in terms of advice that you would give someone
Speaker 1: else who is struggling to find answers and a diagnosis
Speaker 1: for what they're going through, what advice would you give them,
Speaker 1: I would give the advice to be as kind to
Speaker 1: yourself as you can. And that's a lot easier said
Speaker 1: than done, of course. But my advice then goes for
Speaker 1: eire to say, make sure that the people around you
Speaker 1: are really supporting you, because I know that's a huge
Speaker 1: job to experience all these things and beyond the lookout
Speaker 1: for people who aren't caring for you. But if people
Speaker 1: aren't caring for you, if people do not want to
Speaker 1: believe you, if people do not want to see that
Speaker 1: you are truly in pain, you do not need that
Speaker 1: extra pain in your life. That is extra pain. You know,
Speaker 1: if you're looking for more information on bishets, you can
Speaker 1: check out the American Bishet's Disease Association by heading to
Speaker 1: www dot Bischets dot com. That's b E h c
Speaker 1: e t s dot com. My name is August Rocha.
Speaker 1: I am a man who has been battling with this
Speaker 1: diagnosis for over sixteen years and counting. But I'm a
Speaker 1: Bishets warrior, and I'm happy to say it. This is
Speaker 1: the season from the Alley of Symptomatic, so we just
Speaker 1: wanted to thank all of our guests for sharing their
Speaker 1: stories and thank all of you listeners for joining us
Speaker 1: each week. We'll be back next year to explore more
Speaker 1: stories of people who have battled unknown illnesses, searching for
Speaker 1: diagnoses that baffled their doctors. My name is Athena Jeer Bollini.
Speaker 1: I'm Naobi Ricks. My name is Kyle Thompson, Camrad Laws.
Speaker 1: I'm in swan It Monica o'ka. My name is Shelby
Speaker 1: Zach Dobeck. And when I was eleven years old, I
Speaker 1: struggled for thirteen years, and I struggled with a medical
Speaker 1: mystery for almost two decades. For fifteen years, I struggled
Speaker 1: with disease and for nineteen years I struggled with a
Speaker 1: disease that was misdiagnosed symptomatic. A Medical Mystery Podcast is
Speaker 1: an original podcast from I Heart Radio. Are shows hosted
Speaker 1: by me Lauren Bright Pacheco. Executive producers are Matt Romano
Speaker 1: and myself. Our EP of post production is James Foster.
Speaker 1: Our producers are Cierra Kaiser and John Irwin. M