77: She Beat Cancer & Chronic Illness – The Healing Power of Functional Medicine with Denise Tarkington

If regular medicine isn't making the whole package, then functional medicine should be added in. Never lose hope. I think hope helps everything. And if you're someplace where you're not getting hope, then change. Just get hope encouragement, have a good friend system because that always helps.

Welcome back once again, everybody. I'm super excited to be here with Denise. She is actually a patient at Richmond Integrate Functional Medicine. And she's gonna be sharing her story with us today. Part of this is just for you to hear from other individuals who've gone through a struggle, who gone through a lot of stuff. Her story is actually really, really amazing. And to hear, like, how she's conquered different things and ultimately how functional medicine has changed her life. And so if this information is helpful, please, like, share, subscribe. Also, if you have any topics you'd like us to talk about, please share those because as you know, ultimately this is to help people to educate, encourage, and empower. And so this is here for you. So with that, Denise, welcome. I'm so glad you took out of your time to share with us today about your story.

My Pandora's box, as I call it, put it in a box lid shut tight.

Well, and we talked briefly before we started the conversation about how this is a little scary.

Yes.

Because you're sharing things that your family doesn't know. Who knows? Why don't you start when the first time you were ill? Because it's pretty amazing. You've been through cancer twice and you started a very young age back when you had it. It was rare. Now it's becoming more common. So why don't you kind of talk about that a little bit briefly and kind walk us through how you first interacted with the healthcare system.

So I was 20 and I had a lot of chest pains. And I was reading a book by Gilda Radner, I think it was called. It's Always Something. And she was going through cancer at the time, and she wrote about all the alternative medicines that she was using instead of regular medicine and all the terrible things that happened to her. And I remember reading the book, closing it as I finished it, and telling if I ever got cancer, I would never, ever do any sort of treatment. That was it. That was the end. I was over and done with. About two months later, I was calling home from Virginia Tech to tell my parents I had a tumor in my chest the size of a grapefruit. It's Jeff Tellson's story. My husband, he would say that it was the first time my dad ever told him that he could sleep in the same bed with me in college, not being married, just to make sure that I would stay alive so that they could come pick me up. So I went back, went to ncv. They did. They took rids out. They found out that the cancer was not Hodgkin's lymphoma. Stage one thing, which was a true blessing. Come to find out, it runs in my family. And my aunt had the exact same type that I did, but found later, and she didn't make it. So went through chemo. My parents didn't want to tell me at first that I had cancer because I had made this specific statement that I was not going to have chemo as soon as I woke up and they said, you have cancer. I immediately said, when? When is the first chemo treatment? Went through eight cycles of what was called promocytobond at the time. Hopefully I'm saying that pick a medicine, they throw it at you at that time. And then I did 16 cycles, I think, of chemotherapy to the chest. So that's what I live with now is the radiation piece of it.

Gotcha. And so what were some of the things you had a very firm statement, I'm never gonna do chemo, I'm not gonna treat it. And obviously 20, you didn't expect to get diagnosed roughly two months later. Like, what were some of your interactions with the healthcare system? Cause you were young back then. Back then, it wasn't quite as common for younger people to, you know, get cancer. Was it traumatic? Was it the system?

Great.

Like, tell us about that interactions. I think a lot of people skip over, like how people with, you know, significant health issues when they interact with the healthcare system, how that by itself can. Can be either a blessing or it can be itself a barrier or trauma or whatnot.

So I was very blessed. I honestly think way back when, when I had cancer, it's so much better than what it is nowadays because my son at 18, ended up with cancer and going through what he had to go through at the exact same place that I went through it years before. It was a way worse going through it with Josh. And for me, it was fine in terms of I had a great doctor, they talked to me, they dealt with me. There weren't services around it, but there also wasn't the. What I was seeking at that time was like, what should I be eating? Are there vitamins I could take? So more the functional medicine. There was no talk about functional medicine. There's a huge funny story in my family where my dad, who's the researcher of everything, discovered that vitamin C could cure cancer. So he was determined to show us that vitamin C would work. And he wanted me to take mega doses of vitamin C. So we made him take the mega doses of vitamin C. Well, you know what happens when you take mega doses of vitamin C. So we didn't see him for a day or two after he did that. But we were trying to find different ways he had researched about shark cartilage, taking shark cartilage pills. So we were trying to look at both and there. There wasn't much information for functional medicine there at all, along with, like, trying to find a way, just, you know, simple stuff of trying to fix things.

Now, after you got your treatment for the non Hodgkin's lymphoma, what were some of the side effects from your treatment? Were there any neuropathy issues, scar pain issues? What kind of, you know, the first three or six months, what kind of things were you struggling with after the treatment?

So I had the leg cramps. Really, really bad leg cramps. I have neuropathy. I still have it a little bit in my fingers. Of course, the scars that I've had and I get all off kilter, is what my physical therapist will say. Because I'm missing some ribs, my body will readjust itself at times. And so she'll have to put me back in place, as she calls it.

She adjusts you.

Yes, exactly. In fact, I just did recently, I just did one of a First cupping. I tried cupping the other day and that was the best thing. Cause I have scars on my back from the second chemo, which I struggle with probably the most out of all the scars, and so tried cupping. And that was phenomenal. I never knew it existed till the other day.

Now, one thing as well that I think you, you had the cancer when you were 20, but you also had some issues with like, syncope, passing out some other kind of things before that. Correct.

I had pots. Yeah. And at that time, nobody knew what POTS was. So I. I now say there were dual pots where I'd go in and I would get sealing and they would tell my mom that it was because I just wanted attention and that that really wasn't helping me. And I had so many people tell me that Florinf was a placebo drug. It wasn't real, it wasn't helpful, but luckily I had. I mean, I had a wonderful doctor at that time. And he was like, you know, the side effects of this, I. It makes you retain water and you need to Retain water. So he put me on it and saved my life on that piece of it.

In your original, your physician back then, you know, we both know the person. You know, we try not to name names here, but very old school physician who would just look at people for the symptoms and be like, I think this is going on and you know, we don't really do that anymore. We kind of put people in these boxes. So you would have gone untreated for your POTS for decades, potentially.

Yeah.

If he hadn't just done good old fashioned. Hey, you've got volume issues. Let's give you a thing that makes you hold on to volume. And it's funny how you were gaslit a little bit back then. Oh, it's in head. Don't worry about it. Florinef is a placebo. You know, it's. That's.

Yeah. Many doctors going through that process of you need a psychologist. It's just attention or it's just stress. That was the other big thing. Oh, you're just stressed.

So let's talk about that briefly. What kind of symptoms were you having that they were saying were just stress?

My I get chest pains, really, really bad chest pains when my blood pressure lowers. And so they would constantly say that piece was stress. Then if we went forward after the first cancer and the radiation and everything, I also then had racing heart, so my heart would race all the time. So then of course they wanted to put me on antidepressants because they were telling me I was having panic attacks. And finally the doctor we know and love said to me, it's odd that you only have panic attacks when you stand up. You never have them when you're sitting down. And so he did a couple tasks and he was just like, no, it's part of your pots. We have to manage it. And so he managed that for me.

Did it actually get worse after the chemo?

Yes.

Yeah. Because there's different kinds of dysautonomia and one of those is actually related to demyelination and diabetics where they can get like all type of POTS and elderly age. But you can actually sometimes see that in chemotherapy patients where they demyelinate.

Oh, wow.

And so, yeah, it kind of makes sense that major's a little worse. And so you went through things, you got treated, you had some other issues before and then life went back to normal and you kind of went about your life. Why don't you tell us about your next big kind of interaction, I guess, with the healthcare system.

So I was coming it was actually after. Right after 9, 11, I was driving home and we found a lump on my back. And so I just went, not knowing. I should have gone to my oncologist. Wish I had went to a plastic surgeon who just said, oh, it's an ingrown hair, we'll take it out. And I kept saying, well, I've had radiation to the front. Is there anything that could happen in the back? No, nope, ingrown hair. We'll just take this out. And she was like, in fact, I wouldn't even test it, but they make me. The insurance makes me. Well, thank God the insurance made her test it because it came back positive for cancer. So then I had to go back in origins taken out so about that much. And then I had brachiotherapy, which is nothing I would wish on anyone. You kind of look like someone from Star Trek. They put radio rods in your back and you sit in a cement room for a week. No one can visit you except for friends that break through and ignore you.

You need those kind of friends, don't you? You do the. With the. Because that cancer was a rhabdo sarcoma, if I remember correctly. Yeah. Which actually can be a side effect of radiation. It's actually, you know, I've had another patient who I got for breast cancer, got rhabdo this after, you know, it was like 20 years later. I think it's kind of interesting that the first response of the specialist was it's nothing unrelated. And it actually was related. And let's talk about something briefly. You're an empath, which. Why don't you tell us about that? I think that's been a part of your journey a little bit. Yeah, your, your spidey sense, your intuition, your gut feeling, you know what I'm saying?

Going out like.

Yeah, tell us about that a little bit. Cause I feel like that's something that people maybe heard the term and it's something we talk about a lot about being, you know, people that are hyper mobile or empaths. And we'll get to that in a second. But how did your intuition play into all this? Because you know what I'm saying, as.

Far as I wish I was the person I am now back then, because I would have pushed a lot harder and said no, because I knew there was something wrong. But then the other side of me didn't want to believe that there was something wrong. I didn't say enough, in my opinion. But there's been plenty of times I've called you before and I'm like, I know it won't show up on a test yet, but I know that this is going on. I don't feel right. And so now I speak up a lot more about things. But it's a gift when you can tell things about yourself. But sometimes it can also make you look odd to people if the doctor doesn't know you well enough and doesn't understand that piece. And you walk in and you're like, I know I have strep throat. I'm like, well, I've done all the tests and everything, and you don't have strep throat. And I'm like, I know, but if I come in in two more days, I'm gonna pop positive for strep throat. I. I just know. And 99% of the time, that's what happens.

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Now I want to briefly talk about intuition. I'm actually reading a couple books, right. I'm reading a bunch of Jonathan Haidt's work right now, which I'm not sure if you're familiar with. His most recent book is the Anxious Generation, but he writes a lot about how our minds think, and he talks about your intuition, or you'd call your gut feeling and your consciousness. It's really interesting how some of the newer research is showing that our intuition, that gut feeling is like the elephant. And in our brain, our consciousness drives the elephant. But a lot of times we get these gut feelings that are way, way bigger than our ability to comprehend. Sometimes the reality is our intuition is more keen than our thinking mind is. But then you have to Spend the time to actually explain I feel this way. And then your conscious mind starts diving into and researching. After a while, you figure out, oh, yeah, I have these symptoms. Two days later, strep is positive. When I meet these individuals, they tend not. Let's talk about that a little bit. I'll use the word empath because a lot of my patients who are hypermobile are empaths. It actually gives them this spidey senses intuition. But that also is a part of the dysautonomy and POTS as well. Could you talk like. Cause that's a journey for you, learning about that for yourself. I mean, you've had this gut feeling, but now you've kind of filled in the gaps with, you know, working together with me with, like, what that actually means to be more insightful with your health. So can you talk about that in your play a little bit?

So to me, it's a gift, but it also can. You have to be very. For me, I have to be protective of also, and I haven't learned that piece of it. So I can be in a room with people that are very high energy, and it will suck the life out of me. So I have to be really, really careful about it. And a lot of my members in my family can be very high energy. So I'm slowly learning. But it helps too, that. I mean, it also helps in that you can sometimes, if you pay attention. And it's gotten harder now for me, now that we do teams calls a lot. But it would help a lot if I was in a room. I could tell who wasn't for something and who was for something just by being in the room and just feeling how people feel. I used to be much better at that piece of it than my, like, using it to help me. I think now that teams meetings have come on and I'm more by myself, that I'm trying to use it, especially as I get older, to help me.

And the way I explain being empath, and you've heard this, you know, many times before, it's kind of like that Spidey sense, you know, when people are neurodivergent. There's the. You know, we think about Asperger's, think about adhd, dyslexia, but there's also this intuition, this emotional intelligence that you can kind of go in a room. You feel the energy. It's helpful if you're a lawyer, because if you're on the. If you're interviewing someone on the stand, you can tell they're being dishonest. With you, you can be like, they're holding something back. I'm gonna keep on going. If you're a salesperson, you can know this person's not buying this person, and you can kind of know where to focus on. Really super helpful for caretakers, for women, because it's like your security. You can kind of know this place is safe, unsafe, like that. Intuition. One of my friends, I've actually interviewed her, Rosanna Cap Hodge. She's a child psychologist and she specializes with trauma. And she kind of refers to it as being clairvoyant. She can actually walk in a room with a new patient and kind of get a sense for what kind of trauma they've had, where they've come just from. Because she's fine. She's honed it in so much. A lot of people don't get that. And they think they're. It's all in their head. They're just, they're hypochondriac. They're just anxious. They're just, you know, they're a worry reward. Like, why? And because it doesn't quite make sense because it's dealing with the subconscious aspect of your nervous system. But if you train it, and I've had patients who train, they can actually, like, for you, Like, I know. Like, I know I'm sick. I know I'm not sick. I know. And even with care, like family members, you don't. There's something off here, you know, and we've talked about before how it's actually been helpful with your work with kind of knowing, like, you know, there's some funny stuff going on here. I need to look into this a little bit, you know, and people like, how'd you know that? And you're like, I just knew, you know. But the other thing, I want to talk about this a little bit because it also means if you have trauma, it can be more impactful. What's its impact on your nervous system? And obviously going through your health journey, you've had some trauma with interactions with the healthcare system and other stuff. Why don't you talk about how that interaction and how your nervous system, your intuition, how it's all played together for you.

So I don't know if it's helped me as much as it helps me when dealing with medical system. Like when my son went through everything that he went through, I have a little plaque that I had in my purse all the time that just said, trust your gut, not the doctor. And it was. There were so many times that I had to you have to advocate for yourself and you have to advocate for your family. And there were plenty of times when I'm sure they thought I was a crazy woman, but I knew that it wasn't the right thing for him or this wasn't what we wanted to do. They're much older now, but I still do it.

Well, it's kind of funny because your previous doctor, who was a mentor of mine for a while before he retired, he used to. I mean, one of the things he used to say was, you know, when you're taking care of a patient in the hospital, one of your goals is to keep the hospital and the specialists from killing your patients. I remember hearing that as a young physician going, man, this guy's kind of. He's kind of out there, he's kind of crowdy, like, why would he say that? And then fast forward and I'm talking about, you know, it's. Now the literature is that medical error is the third most common cause of death in our country. And it's like this guy saw this 30 years ago and knew it and people kind of looked at him kind of weird, but he fall for his patients. And you had that experience and now realizing, actually, yeah, you need, when you engaging acute critical care, you need to be really have your, your spice since your ears up because, you know, everybody's trying their best. But, you know, if medical error is the third most common cause of death in our country, then you need to kind of question things and feel good about stuff and know whatever's happening is. Is the right thing. So let's, let's fast forward a little bit. Where's function? Say we met, well, years and years ago before we started, before I started doing functional medicine. Why don't you talk about that journey? Because so far we talked about your interaction with the healthcare system and how conventional medicine saved your life. But also you got to a point in time, we had health issues. So what's going on with your health? Before we first met, as far as.

Stuff, I had a terrible gut. And I honestly think, me personally, if my stomach's okay, then my POTS is much better. And so I. It wasn't equaling each other at the moment. And so I was having problems with that. And you're like the old doctor where you investigate things instead of just kind of saying, oh, you need to see the specialist, or oh, go see this specialist. I prefer you either have one that's an investigative doctor or you have an er. Kind of slots you to different areas that you need to go Kind of doctor. You're the investigative. So I needed to get my stomach fixed in order for my pots to be somewhat livable. And it wasn't working with, you know, I was on Prevacid. It wasn't working. I was on all these other kinds of medicines off the sides. And that wasn't working. So I can't actually we met because of my daughter, because she had pots and no one could get her pot straight, even after all the years of me going through it. Went through the elimination diet with her. Probably wouldn't have done it for myself, but I did it with her. I will say I'd left you and gone to Wegmans with the list of all the food I needed to buy. I picked up the phone in tears, called Amanda and said, you need to get here. I have a full shopping cart and I need another shopping cart and I don't know what I'm doing. And I'm having a mental breakdown in the middle of the grocery store. So she showed up. We had fun. We did it together. We nearly killed the rest of our family while we were doing it. I think she ate a whole banana tree in the process of all of it because with the sugar, you know, to get the sugar in. But it made me realize that it gave us knowledge. Like she now knows if she eats oats, she's not going to feel well. So she's modified her diet so that she feels better and she's up and running. And so once they were both out of the house, I thought, you know, I really need to get myself straight so that I can hang out with my grandbaby coming up soon. So that's awesome. And it's been such a huge difference. I just. I feel so much better. The only part I don't like out of all of it is I take a lot of pills.

What's one of the things really interesting? You know, there's a whole nutritional side of cancer. You know, if you have certain nutrient deficiencies, you're more prone to different cancers. If your vitamin D levels are low, you're more likely to get cancer. If you have some of your trace minerals are low. And it's interesting if you're hypermobile. Hypermobile individuals need more protein, particularly collagen. They need more trace minerals. They all on testing because of how inflammation impacts their immune systems. They all tend to be vitamin C deficient, B vime deficient, vitamin D deficient. It's interesting also as well, a lot of em have gut issues or SIBO problems, you know, which you've dealt with in the past. And those individuals tend to get multiple B vitamin deficiencies, which can make peripheral neuropathy worse and make your neurological stuff worse. So all of a sudden, like, you know, I said a lot of words that's kind of complicated. But it's a basic, you know, lab based, clinical based, nutritional, dietary thing, Particularly with dysautonomic patients that are hypermobile can have a ma. That single thing by itself can have a huge impact on the symptoms, which are many, you know. And I want to talk about that a little bit about your discovery process, because a lot of things I've said right now, some people, what if you're hypermobile, you need these nutrients and you're more prone to SIBO and gut issues. And I had no idea. Oh, I have those problems. I had no idea they're connected, you know. Could you, like, talk about that a little bit, how that's changed your current health status? Because, you know, when you have dysautonomia, there's a direct correlation with your guts nervous system and your central nervous system.

Yeah. So for one thing, I can now get out of bed and I don't crack and crackle all the time because the. Forget what it's called. You probably remember spxspm.

Spm, yes.

Love that thing. Miracle. It's an absolute miracle. Role people, everybody should be taking. So that's how I take GI microbe, I think, from my stomach. And that I've gotten off completely off of Prevacid or any of those kinds, Especially after reading all the terrible things that can happen with those. It's like I've been able to get off of most of my prescription meds, except for two. And the rest of them have all been vitamins and minerals that I'm on now, which is helpful.

So which medications were you on previously that you were able to get off? If you mentioned the Prevacid, which is a ppi. Other medications we were on previously that you were able to get off of, remember?

I know.

Sorry. You go back in the past.

No, I have to go. I can tell you the two that I'm on now because I'm never letting them go. They've been on. I've been. I have them all in a jar that I need to throw them all away, but I've never made it to one of those medical things. Both Amanda and I have a case of ones. We need to go and throw them away. A lot of them didn't work. There was one that I took that it was Supposed to increase my blood pressure when it went low.

Was that metadrene?

Yeah, that metadrine, which had terrible side effects for me.

Are you still on the flu cortisone?

Yeah, that one over in the pindle wall.

Gotcha. But you really get off of. I think the. Let's talk about the PPI briefly, because I think more people are realizing that these acid blockers can actually make things worse. They can actually drive yeast and strep overgrowth in your gut, which can drive a lot of gut issues. They can drive nutrient deficiencies, B vitamin deficiencies, iron absorption issues, and they can also actually. They're associated with increased risk for peripheral neuropathy, as well as cardiovascular and kidney issues and even dementia, you know, and so talk about getting off that drug. Because just getting off that one drug by itself, you know, it's one of those things. You got gut issues. So, hey, let's give you an antacid, and it treats one gut problem and causes five other ones, you know, years later. But people don't realize maybe just how about that one journey with that medication? What some of the things you later realized it was causing and, like, the whole process of getting off of it.

Funny thing I found was even though I was taking it, I would still get terrible heartburn at times. So then they were like, oh, just increase it. And I was like, to what point am I increasing this that, you know, it's not a good thing getting off of it? I had to. The one thing that I did have to go slow because it almost caused, like, a. A huge storm in my system as I got off of it. I tried doing cold turkey, and it didn't work. So I slowly got off of it. But I added the olive oil extract pills, olive leaf extract, added those and the GI microbe. I think one other. For a while. You had me on a couple different things before. And I was able to get off of it, which it corrected my system a whole lot better. And it makes me feel a lot better. I don't feel like I'm on something that's gonna cause me Alzheimer's or anything like that.

Just a concern.

Yeah.

How's your neuropathy doing now? Is it the same, better, worse than it was, you know, five years ago?

No, it's better now, which I'm not sure why, but it's not supposed to.

Do that, is it? No, it's gonna get worse as you get old. Enough better, huh? That's strange. Well, I. Joe, say it jokingly. Cause there's interesting herb, nutrient Protocols like alpha lipoic acid, en cysteine, glutamine, that can help with nerve integrity. But also some of the things in the functional medicine, some of the post cancer kind of things to minimize the side effects of some of the chemotherapy things I've had. Now, the later out you someone has neuropathy. I had one patient who, he came to me within six months of getting head neck radiation, and he had horrible neuropathy. He had lost chemo, but six months later, he forgot he had it because begone. Pretty soon, you know, if you get someone 20 years out, you're not gonna have the same impact, but you were, you started these things soon enough that, you know, it's still there, but it's better than it was, which is also going to impact your pots and diseases, you know, so it's kind of all connected, you know?

Yeah.

What would you say your biggest intake takeaway if someone's listening to your story, like, wow, she went through a lot and she fixed her gut and took a few things and she's doing great now she's gonna see her grandbaby when her first cancer was like, you know, how many decades ago? What words of encouragement, what insights? How about this? Maybe blue. Three insights and three encouragements. Like, what are the top three insights that you learned? This whole process that you're like, this is gold. If I could recommend three things to everybody with a health issue, regardless of what it is, these are three things I learned that I would recommend everybody do.

One, trust your gut. Two, if you don't have a doctor that's answering your questions and listening to you, even if I don't know how many times I've come to you and said, well, this medicine or this supplement makes me feel like this. And you're like, well, that's not something that normally happens, but with you, it could, okay, well, let's try something different. And when I back a while ago, I had asked a doctor to keep me alive long enough to get my kids out of college. That was my goal because he told me I wasn't a marathon runner. And so I said, I just want to stay alive enough to get them out of college. And he was like, well, you really want to stay alive until you see your babies because it puts the whipped cream on top of it all. And so after he said that, and I loved him to death, that's when I started investigating other things because I did want to see my grandbabies and I wanted to be healthy, healthy enough to take care of them. And so if my takeaway is, if regular medicine isn't making the whole package, then functional medicine should be added in.

And if you get to have three words of encouragement to people out there who are struggling, what would you say they've heard about what you've been through and where you're at? I mean, it's kind of cool like that. The exact same thing happened to my, my father in law with his liver transplant. He was like, I just want to survive to see my kids graduate from high school and then see them go through college and oh my gosh, I might see them get married. And then now he's seeing all of his grandkids and so he's in his mid-70s, still kicking it, you know, it's, it's priceless, right? What, what words of encouragement would you have?

Never lose hope. I mean, I think hope helps everything. And if you're someplace where you're not getting hope, then change. Just get hope, encouragement, have a good friend system because that always helps. And I think that if you listen to your gut and you keep the hope, then pray. I'm a big.

Prayer's important as well.

I'm a big believer in prayer. So somebody's listening.

Yes. There, that's awesome.

Yeah.

So thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for sharing. I know that we talked about this before and this was a little, you had some angst about it because you're like, this is going to be on there in the ether and once you put it out there, it's like social media goes out there, you know, try not to, you know, so, so I do thank you for your time. I mean, the goal of this was just for, you know, this is. People think functional medicine is just for, you know, high level people. It's, you know, or it's for everybody. And it's when you share your story of encouragement, which I think is awesome. On the hope. I wanted to add one thing on the hope thing. You said there. I had two patients that came to me with different cancers. One came with mesothelioma and one came with a renal cell cancer. Typically with mesothelioma, you, you live for like a couple years afterwards, maybe it's a slow kind of cancer. And typically with renal cell, usually within like a year. It's kind of because his was already spread. It was interesting. The one person with the mesothelioma, it destroyed his wife. You could tell he was crushed. You could see his eyes and he was dead within three months. He should have been alive for at least another year. And then the gentleman with the renal cell, he lived almost five years, and he was like, Dr. Hartman, I've lived a good life. I know where I'm going when I die. I'm good to go. And I'm like, okay. And it's really interesting how the perspective and how they took the news for two cancers that were, you know, pretty bad off. And it's just interesting how much hope, having a reason for living have a reason for. What is your reason, what's your why? Having a reason why you do what you do, just that alone can have a massive impact on your outcome with your health. And I think that if nothing else, and you're getting, you know, you said, you hear. I mean, when's your grandchild due?

You said July.

July. So we're talking about a month.

I know.

The whipped cream's coming.

That's right. You're gonna have the new goal.

Well, yes. So the question. Maybe next time I see you off to ask, what's your next goal?

Yep.

That's my thing for you. What's your next goal? After you get the whipped cream, what's your cherry? Right.

Yeah. So exactly.

Just keep at absolutely cool. Well, thank you so much for sharing your time. Thank you so much for your insight follows out there. Hopefully it's helpful for you and otherwise, take care. We'll talk to everybody soon.