Bones Unfiltered Podcast : Special Needs Edition # 3 featuring Autumn Warren

In this episode of Bones Unfiltered Podcast : Special Needs Edition, I sit down with my wife Autumn as we share Brandon's journey - his stroke, his medical challenges, and the love and strength that keep us going.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

There we go. Alright. It normally gives a countdown, but it did not this time, however. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, welcome. My name is Bones. I am the host of Bones Unfiltered Podcast. Today is our special needs edition, episode number three. And I'm here with my lovely wife. We're going to share our story about the trials and tribulations that Brandon went through, all the way up to from birth, all the way up to current date. And what better person than actually tell that story is my wife, because she's the one that was the rock of the family. She's the one that, especially early on with Brandon, she was the one that was always at the hospital. I was going to work. She was the one that had to deal with the majority of the fallout. So what better person to actually tell this story than her? So, honey, I'm glad to have you on here today.

SPEAKER_03 1:07

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

And we're going to get started. Um, also, the the we chose today for two reasons. Number one, uh, Mother's Day is coming up. So, in celebration of Mothers, we wanted to do a Mother's Day episode featuring my wife. And also, um, it is Pediatric Stroke Awareness Month. So, for those of y'all in the medical field, you all y'all probably know this, but um, this is the month where they kind of uh celebrate um and raise awareness, I should say, to the pediatric stroke awareness. So, I'll have my wife tell a little bit more about that and we'll kind of dive into what happened with Brandon and show you some photos and whatnot. Remember, everything we talk about in this episode is our opinion and what we went through. If you're dealing with a handicapped loved one or someone who has recently had a severe medical um issue, it's best to obviously always pay attention to what your actual doctors and surgeons tell you because obviously they know better. So do your research and do your own due diligence. But once again, here's my wife, Auden. Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

Hello, thank you. My name is Auden. I'm Brandon's mom, Richard's wife, Bones' wife, sorry. I um for those that are unaware, PDAT Stroke Awareness Month is in May. There is one in 4,000 newborns that experience a stroke, and stroke is among the top cause of death and long-term disability in children. Symptoms go unnoticed or often missed because of the children's age, because we don't expect stroke in children.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Yeah, that we certainly don't, and it's a shame that when that does happen. Now, we're gonna show you a photo. Well, well, actually, first of all, uh kind of tell everybody, Autumn, what happened with Brandon. It's where we finally realized that he had a stroke. What happened early on? Kind of kind of share that story because we were both kind of blindsided, and both of us being in the medical field, we both actually felt inept because we felt like we missed something with him. However, it was, I think some of it had to do with just denial that there could be a problem with your own kid. And we were like, no, it's not it, there's not a problem, it's not a problem. It's just he just hadn't figured this out or hadn't developed this way yet. So a lot of that we were we kind of were hesitant because we just didn't want to accept the fact that maybe our child did have a uh you know some sort of medical issue. So, Autumn, go ahead and tell the story.

SPEAKER_03 4:04

So when I was 26 and a half week pregnant, I developed appendicitis, and that was the start of it all. The doctors thought that Brayden would be delivered early, so I had my bags packed, ready to go. And needless to say, March 20th, Brayden's actual due date, we were sent to the hospital to be induced. And on this day, which is really ironic, Richard's great-grandmother crush, died of a stroke. So we get to the hospital to be induced. The Pitocin thing did not work. At 10 o'clock on Monday morning, the nurse accidentally broke my water. And needless to say, it was a long birth, the epidurals didn't work. Braden ended up getting stuck in the birth canal. And at 12:03 on Tuesday morning, Braden was finally born. He was not breathing, and they do a test called the ABAR score. In the medical field, you know this. It is a test to determine how the child can function outside the womb. So his abgar, they test it for five minutes. His abgars were really low, like two to three for five minutes. With Brandon being stuck in the birth canal, they thought he broke his clavicle. So they rushed him to X-ray and put him on oxygen, and he didn't function as they thought he would. So never cry, never anything. Isn't that what a mother and father, whoever's in the room, want to see or hear your baby cry. Mine, I didn't even get to hold. And when I did hold them, they were like, Come on, come on, we need to rush it x-ray. Well, I lost a lot of blood, so in recovery it was a little longer. And Brandon went to the nursery until the avgars were up correctly. Things went fine in the hospital. I tried to breastfeed, of course. Brandon wouldn't suckle, so that was a bummer. But we bottle fed him and he is healthy. We get a call on the way home saying we had to stop at the pediatrician because the nurse in the nursery ended up with chicken pox. So that was the first thing that we had to do after we get out of a hospital for three days on days. Um things seemed fine. Brayden was like a newborn kid, you know, crying, everything, feeding fine. When Braden was about six months old, we noticed that he didn't want to do tummy time or turn to the left or use his left hand, just different things. So at the six-month stuck up, I asked the doctor about these things that we witnessed, and she said that actually, there's two doctors in the offices. One said he's just delayed, just continue watching him. So we watched him at nine months old. I had more concerns, and this part is where it gets tricky. Bones has started a new job. We have bought our first house. That was like around December 1st of 1999. On December 23rd of 1999, we have discovered that Brandon has had possibly a stroke.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

What goes through a parent's mind two days before Christmas? And your child is nine months old. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 8:14

So in January, we start all these tests. CAT scans, MRIs, EEGs, so many things to determine. Brained ended up having a really bad stroke at birth because of the not breathing for the three minutes. As most of you know, after six minutes of not breathing, you're called clinically dead. So we start seeing a neurologist, pediatric neurologist, top, top, top doctor. And he says, your son has had a stroke. He started having um seizures, about a hundred a day, because the half of his brain is not working. So the doctor put him on some seizure medicine, and that didn't work. We'd follow up every couple weeks, every month. Brayden ended up having a hundred seizures a day. Needless to say, his seizures were not like the grandma's seizures, they were this. That's called infantile spasms. A hundred. So the doctor added more medicine. So this is in January, February, March. The doctor says, these five medicines we've tried is not working for your child. So he calls a specialist up in St. Louis, Missouri. And in April, we go to St. Louis to see if our son is a candidate for surgery called a right hemisphere ectomy, where they disconnect half of the brain. During these times at the neurologist, we are told that Brandon may never walk and he may never talk. So we are young parents, 25 and 23, and trying to determine how we're going to live this life with a disabled child. And we're just younger self. So going through all these making decisions when my husband is at work and they need answers. And rich work DMS, bones work DMS, and he couldn't answer his phone all the time. So there I am making these decisions on my child's life. I'm hoping for the best, praying for the best, thinking I'm making the best decisions I could. So in April of 20 of 2000, we go to St. Louis for a weekend. And the doctor says, yes, your son needs to have the surgery. The Brandon has the surgery in May. They disconnect his right hemisphere. This child is a chunky little fella because of all the steroids. He ends up having a seizure afterwards. But we were able to come home after about a week in the hospital, and we had to follow up in July, and the doctor said the surgery is a success. The next time we see neurology here in Louisville, they take him off all of his seizure medicines, which is great. So best time has passed, five years have passed, and things are going great. Brandon suddenly starts having headaches. I tell neurology and they said, oh, maybe they're migraines. So in February, I may get my dates wrong, or years wrong, sorry. In February of 2000 and I'm gonna say five, Brandon gets another MRI. Brandon now has developed hydrocephalus, which is a common factor in kids with the surgery Brandon had their right hemispherectomy. We go see the neurosurgeon here in Louisville, and Braden has his first shunt placement. And I'm not sure of that date, but in December of 2005, our life shifts. Because after a follow-up appointment with this neurosurgeon, every three weeks Brandon was in the hospital due to a shunt malfunction because they say Brandon has too much fluid in his spinal fluid, and it's clogging the shunts. Time has passed. We've had a second baby who was Logan, and Logan grows up in the hospital with us. The nurse practitioner was so great with us because I would have to carry a baby and push Brandon and a stroller, and the nurse practitioner would actually help me carry Logan as I pushed Brandon. We were in and out of the hospital so much. The first shunt malfunction when I went, because I was young and dumb, I told the nurse at the triage nurse, I said, I have a kid here who's throwing up and has a headache. She she dismissed it. My fault. I should have said, he's probably having a shunt malfunction. Well, we waited two hours in the waiting room until I saw one of the surgeons. And he told that nurse, get these back, because this is a shunt kid. We were back and we were seen immediately. Another CAT scan showed another malfunction. We lived this life for over a year, over and over again in the hospital with Brandon. One time while we were in the hospital, early in during these shut my functions, the financial advocate came and said, Miss Warren, we need to speak with you. I said, Okay. She said, You owe us money for copay. You know, I didn't grow up, you know, book smart, common sense smart until after I had Brandon. And this is when the balls showed up. That lady told me I need I owed $50 in copay. My son has been in the ER, he's had surgery, he's been in a hospital. I don't know how many times already. I told that woman that she's never ever to come to the room as my child is almost in a coma and ask for money again. Because if I didn't have insurance or if I was on Medicaid or any other thing, she can bill me. And that is when I started being the mother of an advocate. Because I tell you what, being an advocate of a disabled child or any child or anybody going through medical issues, that's the number one priority. So, of course, that lady never kept him. She billed me, of course. I get a bill all the time. Then one of the surgeries, Brandon ended up having to have a second shunt placed. Well, that shunt went through a good part of the brain because they did the right side, and then they had to go through the left side. The left side of the brain was the good brain. So after that surgery, they said there is a possibility Brandon could have seizures again. Well, one day in school, Brandon walked out of the classroom, walked up and down the hallways, just unfamiliar with everything. And the doctor, yes, at that time said Brandon's having partial complex seizures where you just wander and forget and things like that. So Brandon's back on seizure medicine, of course. Um, and I did forget forgot to mention Brandon's been in therapy, PT O T since he was nine months old doing all this stuff. So not only do we have to go to hospitals and doctor's office, we're in therapy once a week. Um, that was our life. We weren't able to go to sporting events or anything like that. We weren't even able to take a vacation because we're trying to take care of our child. So I think now we're at Brandon is in elementary school. He graduates elementary school. Um, and he gets in to no middle school, which is great school. He does fine through elementary school. When Brandon's in the eighth grade, right before, right after the eighth grade graduation, Brandon has another shunt malfunction. And this is June 8th of 2013. This is his 14th shunt malfunction. The doctor goes in, does a shunt malfunction, and when the doctor comes out, he says, Your child had a brain bleed in surgery. And he may have some deficits. Well, Brandon comes out of surgery, and he comes to the room, he wakes up, and he starts repeating himself. There's a news story on about a bus crash up on I-64, and Brandon repeats that. Now we're thinking he's repeating it because he's watched different show, different news channels. No. This is when we've realized that Brandon's short-term memory is lost. So we have to deal with this. Will you show that one picture? Which one? Um the one where we have to take pictures of his. Um maybe you didn't post it. Anyway, that's the we had to take pictures.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Talking about pictures of his shunt?

SPEAKER_03 20:04

No.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

Pictures because there's a picture of a picture of the scar. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:09

Brandon has two of those, and we call them his war wounds. They shave one side of the kid's head, and Brandon's not allowed to get a headache at least two weeks and because of infection. But um, excuse me. So after Brandon has a short-term memory loss, um, I start taking pictures and posting pictures and locking doors and leaving post-it notes in the area because I want him to remember things. And he starts therapy again to help him remember. Well, the therapy part of it was Brandon writing down stuff. Well, Brandon couldn't remember to write down stuff. I had to do all this homework for Brandon. Um, write down stuff that he could remember, write down, you know, you know, do not do this, do not, we need to take our medicine, the blah blah blah. Well, that's the same year that his first his cousin is born, and he didn't even remember Luke being born. But now that Luke's here and Luke has been here for 13 years, Brandon remembers things.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Just takes a while. Um lot of repetition.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

It's a lot of repetition, and it's a lot of his schedule, his routine schedule. Brandon is the greatest kid on this earth. He smiles. So Brandon's accomplishments go so far beyond anything. And having a good support group and having parents like Bones and I is worth every minute of it. I tell Brandon every day you we did not give up on you. Do not give up on yourself. So Brainan has graduated from elementary school and middle school and uh high school. He goes to Aaron's Trade School, and in there they teach him to have a job. Well, Braden's worked at Academy for six or seven years now, which is amazing. And he comes home and says, somebody else quit. I'm like, number such and such, and um seniority. And Braden also plays Special Olympics, um, basketball and football. I mean, sorry, basketball, bowling, and um softball. And he's amazing. He's a one-handed hitter or bowler. This kid works at Academy. This he plays Xbox as well. He learned to ride a little trike. He's he's we've taught him to swim. He can help take the dogs for walks. He helps us in our home. He puts our dishes away and he cleans his own little bathroom, like his own little apartment. Braden is amazing. And what's so fun now is Braden's 27 years old. And we were told he would never walk or talk and look at this kid. He thrives, he smiles, and he's freaking happy. And that's life. I mean, what a wonderful life. And for those that don't know, it's been hard on us too. We worked opposite for 13 years, so we didn't have to pay for child care because of course we know child care is expensive.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

Amen to that.

SPEAKER_03 23:49

Not not only working at health care is stressful, but coming home and always feel like you have to work, you know, medicine time, you know, everything. But what we have done as parents is simply amazing. I am blessed for this life that God gave me. Because I tell you what, one time when Brandon was in the hospital, I told God, I said, God, you did not put this child on this earth to live in this hospital. You either take him home to you or you let him come home with me. And here Brandon is.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

The best I could get is having my greatest accomplishment be my children.

SPEAKER_03 24:44

And this is why not only is it stroke awareness for pediatric, but it's Mother's Day, and having the greatest kids is my best mom moment, and I love it.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

I'm so proud of them. Because of them.

SPEAKER_03 25:13

I am wiser. And I'm an advocate. And that's far more. Far more the best ever. Thank you guys so much for being here to listen to our story. Because this child, this child, beautiful, beautiful child, deserves everything. Everything we can give him. And he gives us so much more. As he does with everyone. He's like his dad, and he doesn't meet a stranger. And he asks me every day how my day is. And on top of that, he texts me different things throughout the day. And it's so fun having communication like that. And the best part of it all, we get to drink beer with him, and it's so fun. And one of his friends say, since he walks with a steady gait or unsteady gait, that when he drinks too much, he walks straight. It's so fun to watch these fun things.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Now, this picture I just showed was one of them. Big shout out to the uh Kozair Charities Kids Center. Because when early on, um obviously he was little in this picture. Um, early on, he was with Amy here. We would take him to do rehab. And they put him through various different things, especially with the left hand, trying to get it to where he had uh a little bit more functionality out of it. And um there's a picture here that uh got one of the way we e-stem his arm, so we had these electrodes, and we still got the device, we still use it. Um, they sent us home with this e-STEM machine that you see here, and of course, we had to put these various electrodes on his arm, and you had to juice it up, and uh it would actually cause those muscles in there to contract and release, and it did it on a cycle of I think three seconds, three seconds on, three seconds off, something to that aspect, and it was used to try to help keep those uh tendons and ligaments from getting real stiff and contracting, and we still use that to this day for various reasons.

SPEAKER_03 27:58

And I did forget to say, Brandon went through numerous other surgeries, his arm was bent down like this because of the contraction in his arm because he is paralyzed in the left arm. He has uh plates and screws in his wrist, it's more cosmetic, but it did it does come up like this. He has no use of his left arm except from the elbow down. He can hold a coke and open a bottle. He does have that unsteady gait like a stroke patient was, and he does wear the AFOs. He's been wearing AFOs since he was nine months old.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

Um what's AFOs for those who don't know, honey?

SPEAKER_03 28:37

It's uh the leg braces that they put in your shoes. Now, when you're a little kid, you don't need they put plastic like um the hard sole on the bottom of them so you don't have to wear your shoes because you know kids don't wear shoes a lot. Um but his left leg is more stroke-like because it's real skinny where the muscles didn't grow correctly, and his stiffness, and he had to have two heel cord lengthenings so he wouldn't get contracted in that left leg, and then his right leg is fine, but we do keep a small leg brace on it just for his shoes to be the same size, and um but so I I forgot to tell you guys that. Sorry, let that part out.

SPEAKER_00 29:38

Yeah, no, it's all right, honey. You're doing you're doing good.

SPEAKER_03 29:41

But Brandon is not on any seizure medicines anymore, and he only takes two because after his short-term memory loss in the brain bleed, Brandon got really bad anxiety. Um, let's just say he was waiting for a school bus. He would pace and rub his hands like this, and he does this a lot, and um, so that's signs of anxiety. So that has calmed down some since he's been an adult, but he does take medicine for anxiety and he does take backlin uh to help him with his contractors as well. And so you'll notice that he gets real tight when he's unsteady and walking, his little left arm will be like this, and for his balance support, excuse me. Um but Brayden does he he's awesome, he's an awesome kid. I mean, I don't know what else I can say about him.

SPEAKER_00 30:39

I think he's badass because for those of you all that that are gamers out there, and I know we're on the kick channel, he plays Xbox um online all the time. And what's remarkable about him is he's only got the use of one hand, so he had to learn. When he was younger, he wanted to play video games, so I reached out to Microsoft to see if Xbox had any kind of controller that I could buy for him to where it was more joystick style. That way he could use it because he only had one hand. Well, of course, back then they had no options. So I pretty much told him, I said, look, son, if you if you want to play Xbox, then you're gonna have to figure out the controllers with one hand. You're just gonna have to figure out how to make it work. And uh it's actually pretty damn remarkable to watch. Um now, granted, he he'd get online and still get, you know, he still might get his ass kicked because you know, kids that are on there with two hands would run circles around him. But if you watch what he can do with one hand on a two-handed controller, it's pretty damn remarkable. And he can actually compete to a degree with with people online. So it just shows the amount of uh fortitude that kid had to actually dig deep and learn and figure out how he was going to do something so he could do it. And I'm I was very proud of the way he did that. This let's show a picture of real quick. Let's show a picture of him. This was a picture at my folks' house. Um, the first picture is him kind of sitting in the grass. Well, he used to that that's the way he would actually early on, he would, besides walking, he could stand and walk. But he did a lot of buttons.

SPEAKER_03 32:32

But he didn't walk until after he was two years old. Yeah, he would scoot.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

But he would scoot kind of like this. Was the best depiction that I had of the way that he would before he learned to walk, and that's what he would do, is just scoot and drag himself all over the yard. And then, of course, I've got a picture here of him um actually trying to get up. This was after he had scooted, we we were playing frisbee in the yard. So that's the way that he would have to get up. So as you can tell, the you know, but you can almost see the little T-Rex arm there. It it's it's definitely smaller, and I know people hate when I when I call it that, but uh again, after his episode, you all know that we we made little jokes with him about it because we wanted to build him thick skin, and it it didn't go over very well with a lot of people. They thought it was pretty bad that I would make fun of him, but the whole point was again, kind of like I talked about in his episode, was developing him thick skin because we knew that kids are pretty rough, so we wanted him to be used to hearing stuff, so that's why we would do that.

SPEAKER_03 33:42

And this is another fight I had because Bones and I worked. Brandon wasn't qualified for Medicaid. I fought and fought, and since this is an unfiltered podcast, I'm gonna say this when Brandon was 14 months old after his first brain surgery. We went to try to get disability for Brandon. We were denied because we made $20 too much. And what did I say? Fuck you, fuck the government stuff, because this is bullshit, because my child needed uh extra expenses and we couldn't afford them. We needed extra help with you know medical help. No, Brandon did not receive Medicaid until he was 16 and a half years old, and he did not receive disability until he was 18. I fought and fought for Brandon after I wrote many letters trying to change things for our disabled children. When Brandon turned 18, I looked at him and I said, I'm going to Frankfurt to sit on their steps and I may get arrested because I'm going to fight for Brandon's bill. If this doesn't, if they do deny you again. Well, Brandon ended up getting disability after he turned 18 because he didn't need mom or dad anymore. Since Brandon was 18 as well, we had to fight for guardianship because Brandon's brain injury. That was the hardest six months of our life. We had to have a court, a jury trial court date for them to deem Brandon disabled. We had to have a psychologist, a psychiatrist, and a lawyer come to our home. I think they spent an hour and a half with Brandon asking questions to deem him disabled. We go to court and it's up to these 12 people to decide if our son is disabled. We live with the child. You know, we have a pool, we had a pit bull at the time. I was so scared that they were going to take our child away because of safety reasons or this, that, and the other.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

And they are sticklers about that.

SPEAKER_03 36:42

They are big time. Um, if you don't have the financials in order and 2 a T to the bank statement, they will write you a letter saying you got to go to court. Or um, so I do this. I start in because it's July to July. I start in December, and I get the first half of the year, and then in May, I'll try to finish just so I have these extra couple months to do. And I I have to do like a uh Excel program on how to do his financials, his income, his outcome, whatever. And I have to have it all notarized. Oh, and it's so much work, but I do it because I love my kid and I'm advocate for him. So if you go through this, you know you're not alone.

SPEAKER_00 37:46

Here's a picture of Brandon.

SPEAKER_03 37:51

That's an EG.

SPEAKER_00 37:52

That was an EEG that was done. So that was back when we were uh trying to figure out what the hell was going on with all of his seizures. So that was one of the many stays that we had.

SPEAKER_03 38:05

I believe this is the one after his last surgery in 2013. But that's what it looks like. And that's how skinny he used to be.

SPEAKER_00 38:19

Yeah, the reason, hell, that's part of the reason why we got in Special Olympics is he he started chunking up because you know, he would sit around on the couch. I mean, you know, a lot of handicapped children out there, it's not like they have a shitload of friends because they really most of the time they don't. I mean, that's why Special Olympics to us is so very vital and important to Brandon, is because it gives him an outlet to actually uh socialize with people that have similar issues as as he as he does.

SPEAKER_03 38:54

Not only that, it gives a parent, you know, somebody else in the same network.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

That's a good point.

SPEAKER_03 39:02

Because, you know, going back to the very beginning of our life with Brandon, we were stuck in hospitals and doctor's offices and therapies. And our friends had kids our a that Brandon's age, and they were going to sporting events and practices, and we didn't get to experience that until now. And I think Brandon's been in Special Olympics now for uh six or seven years.

SPEAKER_00 39:29

I don't know. Seven, eight years.

SPEAKER_03 39:30

But it gives, you know, me as a parent, I'm a very introverted person. So it gives me somebody else I can be friends with because of the equal things that we share with our children.

SPEAKER_00 39:45

Yeah, that's a good point.

SPEAKER_03 39:46

I mean, it it is true.

SPEAKER_00 39:48

And what and what's funny too about what you mentioned earlier, and I didn't really weigh in on it, but it with the whole governmental stuff, it it's it's really funny how when you have a kid and they're little and they're actually at their absolute most vulnerable, the government doesn't nitpick you near like what they do and once they become an adult. Because dealing with Brandon now is a lot harder than it was when he was a kid. Um, and I and I understand the precautions. I mean, I get it. They they're worried, you know, they want to be very nitpicky on the amount of money he has and where his money's going, because you know, sadly out there, there's a lot of people that actually take advantage of their own loved ones, and it's it's sad, but it's the world we live. So it definitely makes it very difficult to jump through all the hoops that they want that you do do on a consecutive basis.

SPEAKER_03 40:42

But it's worth the fight, guys. It's worth the fight. Um being parents is so hard, but it's the most rewarding job out there. You know, we have our full-time jobs, we have an outlet to go to sometimes. You know, I work in healthcare, been in healthcare for 25 years. I love my job. I love the people that I work with, but it's an outlet. I I get up early, I go to work, I work eight, twelve hours, and I come home and I'm a mom, and I can be a better mom because I have that outlet. Not saying that we need it, but saying that I just get away. Bones now is retired, and he his outlet is you guys. His outlet is James Lucre, who he gets to talk to. His outlet is, you know, having friends, and and that's his outlet, but he's at home. He doesn't have the outlet that I have.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

Yeah, and the this podcast has actually been very therapeutic for me for that reason. Because with EMS, you know, I was so used to interviewing people like I used to talk to different people every day, and you see thousands of people over the course of your career. I mean, you see tons of different people, whether it's family patients, it doesn't matter. You're always conversing with someone. And when I retired, I think that was probably one of the biggest blows for me was the fact that uh I miss the people I worked with. I miss the camaraderie we had with doctors and nurses at various hospitals. Um, we, you know, police fire and EMS, we ran around, we all ran around together because you're all in that same similar field. But now that I'm retired, it's and I don't leave, I don't even get out of the house much. It's it does become very lonely. So this podcast has been therapeutic for me to also get me back to talking to people. And I've met like like right now, currently, Mary Ash is in here, uh, Valerie's in here, uh, Janice is in here, you know, to name a few, and um without going through these comments, you know, but all of these people that are currently in here, Miss Elizabeth's in here, these are all people that I see on a daily basis doing what I do now. And what I mean by see is I just talk on social media, but they are so supportive. And uh it's just amazing how something this trivial as a podcast can actually you can actually make a change in someone's life or they can make a change in yours, and they don't even ever have to even have met you in real life yet. And uh that's what's pretty amazing about this. Now, one thing I want to get my wife to talk about because I think this is a great topic, too, is we got fortunate enough with Brandon. You you have two different types of charities around here. You had Make a Wish and you had Dream Factory. Well, the differences between the two were Make a Wish was really for children that were pretty terminal. They were probably not gonna make it, you know, through the issues that they were dealing with. Whereas Dream Factory was more for the chronically ill, so the kids like Brandon that weren't necessarily gonna pass away from their illness, but they were constantly in the hospital. It was constantly something that was holding them down or making it harder on life. So Brandon was fortunate enough when he was little to have his dream factory wish granted, and he wanted to go like most children did. He wanted to go to Disney. So they sent us to Disney for a week, but they put us in this place that was in Kissimmee, Florida, and it was called Give Kids the World. And this was like an entire subdivision that they had bought out. And on the property, it was all it was all fenced in with this beautiful, like, you know, decorative concrete wall all the way around the whole the perimeter of the facility. But the facility had all of these little houses because it was like a subdivision. So the houses were subdivided into two different uh family dwellings in one. And they had, I don't know how many of these houses they had, but that's where they would send all these people having these make-a-wish, dream factory, whatever. They would put you up there. But the cool thing about that place, too, was is it was kind of like a theme park in and of itself. It was they had a movie theater, they had a train that the kids could ride on, they had a huge, you know, putt-putt, um, indoor uh EA Sports did what? EA? It was like a huge game room where they could do all sorts of different video gaming at any time they wanted to go do this. The outdoor live uh Candyland was that was cool, big outdoor Candyland. They had the kids could go fishing if they wanted to fish, they could swim, they had splash parks, a horseback ride. They had yeah, they had horses that they would horseback ride kids on uh every Thursday was Christmas. So they would they didn't when we were there, but a lot of times they would make it snow and Santa Claus would come in. Now he did come, and when he was there, uh all the kids, even the kids like you know, Logan. Logan had to be with us because he was so small. Well, it boy if Brandon got gifts, Logan got gifts. So when we would go away to the park, they would bring in all sorts of presents, and they would be in our our house while we were gone. And then when we came home, we came into our place, and there was just all these gifts and bags and stuff like that that were for the kids. And on the site, they also had eateries, so you didn't even have to leave technically if you didn't want to. They had a what I think it was one.

SPEAKER_03 46:59

You did have ice cream every day, breakfast, noon, and night. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 47:04

You could get that you could get ice cream at three in the morning if you wanted it. Um you they had different sit-down restaurants, a couple, a couple of them that were you know specific to that establishment. And then they had Boston Market and they had some other things. You could get cotton candy, snow cones, and and then of course Disney would send various characters. So one one day every week, they would also send over, I think it was one day a week, they would send like various characters into that park to walk around and mingle with the family and let them get photos. And since it was so much smaller, it was nice because you weren't competing, you didn't have to wait in lines, you just walked around. It was it was kind of like how it was back when I was a kid, which the lots has changed because the population has gotten so much more. So now they have to, you know, even seeing characters, they don't free roam the parks anymore like they used to because they just there's just too many people. But um, but anyway, Give Kids the World had a it had a thing, and I'm gonna show you a picture of it. It had a thing where Brandon did this with his mother. They're standing in front of this thing. Well, it had an interactive screen where Brandon was kind of conversing with a pixie of some sort, a fairy or whatever. And her job was they she was to work with them to create his star. And his star would actually be affixed to the inside of this giant castle that was in the in this establishment, and it's still there to this day, and it they they created it while you were gone. Then one day you came back from the park and your star was there, then you took it to the back to the castle, and they they kind of showed you where your star was gonna be located. And as you can see above Brandon in that picture where he's kind of pointing, there's a whole bunch of stars, but all the stars have the kids' names on it. So his star is in one spot, and they gave us the map location of where it is to where it is always gonna be there. So if Brandon, if we wanted to go back to give kids the world today, we would we could we'd have to pay to stay, but you get you could still stay on site and still go to these places, and he can go back and actually see his actual star if he ever chose to, which I thought was really neat.

SPEAKER_03 49:38

I tell you what, having the the dream factory and the wish and everything like that is great for these kids. They get to experience something outside of a hospital, outside of a doctor's office, and they get to have fun. Now, guarantee the parents and the other children have fun too, but it's just remarkable seeing kids enjoy themselves because being stuck in hospitals is no way to live. No, it's not, it's terrible.

SPEAKER_00 50:12

It's really hard.

SPEAKER_03 50:13

And Brandon had a great time in Disney, and we ended up going to all the parks. Now, we'll tell you a funny story. We read Animal Kingdom, and then it started to shitstorm. Shitstorm.

SPEAKER_01 50:28

And I know where you're going.

SPEAKER_03 50:33

This family of five was standing next to us as we're shriveling our kids onto the tram. This man closes up his uh stroller, but guess what? He forgets the kid in the stroller.

SPEAKER_00 50:49

He folded in infant like a fourth grade level.

SPEAKER_03 50:55

Um everybody started laughing. Everybody on the train started laughing. It was so funny. And Brandon remembers that and it cracks us up laughing. But he got the experience. Um all the Disney areas parks. We got to go to uh Universal Studios, and that was the same year, and I think this is in 2010 that Harry Potter's thing came out. We were able to get ones at that point. Um and we got to go to was it SeaWorld? Sea World, I think. Yes. So we got to go experience all these parks and stay at Give Kids the World for a week. It was a week of great fun, laughter, and everything, which these kids need to experience.

SPEAKER_00 51:46

Yeah, I think there's a picture. Matter of fact, I've got a picture here of um Brandon when um I wish I could make these thumbnails bigger where I could see what it sucks being being old. Here's a picture of Brandon when he was doing his hippotherapy at the uh there was a place out in Green, uh, green, valley green, metals green, green hill.

SPEAKER_03 52:09

It's green hill therapies.

SPEAKER_00 52:10

Green Hill Therapies?

SPEAKER_03 52:11

Uh-huh. It's on Flat Rock Road someplace, um, or out there in that area.

SPEAKER_00 52:17

And it was neat. They just walked him around inside that barn. But the big thing was that that, you know, that horse there is very gentle, very slow rolling. But you you get that whole up and down motions. It was good for core developments and stuff for Brandon. It forced his body to try to, his core to try to strengthen up to support himself and hold himself up while that horse was moving around. And of course, then they also did stuff with his hand as well, but a lot of it was stretching and stuff like that that they would do, and they would use that horse also as kind of a distractionary tactic to where they could get good stretches in and stuff on him, where and he was kind of mesmerized by the horse. So it was a really neat program. We were very very lucky that he got the opportunity to do that. It was pretty cool. Now, um, let's see.

SPEAKER_03 53:15

I forgot just Justin has accomplishments, I think.

SPEAKER_00 53:20

Did you show him no not well not yet? But um, well, here's one of the Special Olympics when he was he was winning getting an award and had the little young lady there presenting him with the award. That was Special Olympics, obviously. Those those kids get they get awards even for participation, which which you know wonderful, which they should because and that's part of the reason why I started this whole I wanted to do a special needs podcast, is you know, like I said before, a lot of these handicapped kids, you know, my son included, he don't have a whole lot of friends. And part of the reason is he's a grown man that can't he can't drive, he can't leave, he can't go anywhere without me or or his mother taking him. So uh bye, Miss Mary. Thanks for dropping in, honey. Um, you know, it's it's very difficult for him to get out. So he other than Special Olympics, he doesn't have a lot. And that's another reason why I kind of wanted to do this podcast because I got to thinking, I'm like, you know, people love podcasts, podcasts are very popular right now. But how many podcasts that are out there? And and I'm sure there may be some. Um, I'm sure I'm not the this pioneer of it, but I was like, man, how cool would it be to have a special needs edition to where we can bring these kids on? And I know it can be difficult to listen to them. Um, some stutter, some don't, some may have a hard time even formulating complete sentences, you know. But but the cool thing is you you have them on and you have their families on, and you get to hear interesting stories about kids with various ailments. And then not only that, but the kids are there, and even if they can't participate or they do the best they can, uh, you know, my podcast isn't something super special yet, but on the same token, to them, it it's no different than any other podcast that's out there. They get to be a part of one, so to them it's an awesome experience. It's like, wow, I get to be on a podcast. They don't care who the hell's podcast it is, just the fact that they get to be on a podcast. So I've really enjoyed so far, and I'm glad my wife, I was actually blown away that she actually even wanted to do it because I really, when she was like, Well, I'd like to be on your show, and I was like, What the hell? I was like, Who are you and what have you done with my wife? But I'm glad that she wanted to be a part of this, and I think you've done a really good job today. Um, we still got hell, we still got some other stuff we can talk about. But um, but the big thing with Brandon was, you know, he does have he has made a lot of accomplishments over the years, and uh we're very proud of him. I mean, he's he's gone to school, and like she talked about before, you know, when you when you go to school like like them, um when you go to school, he he he started off at Bates. There's another picture of him. That's when he had arm surgery, you can tell that yeah, he was a little bit bigger, bigger lad there, and his arms splented up. But you know, he um when he started school, he went to elementary school, and it it's it was a it was called Bates Elementary. It was an incredible school because they had a very big uh special needs populace, and they really stressed the all the kids that didn't have any special needs, they really stressed the fact that they take care of these kids that are in their school. They help them if they see them in need, they don't make fun of them. They really tried to help kids without disabilities learn about kids with disabilities and how to treat them and and and not be mean.

SPEAKER_03 57:13

And the staff was wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 57:15

Yeah, they were.

SPEAKER_03 57:16

I mean, they were family-oriented staff there. I guarantee you it's a smaller elementary school, it was a one-floor elementary school, which made it nice, but it was so great. Now, when he got to know middle school, of course, it was bigger and more popular, but the EIP program that we did, the uh special needs program, you know, they allowed the kids to intermingle with um the special needs, and that was great. And when Brandon got to high school, he was in the best buddies program. So he got to team up with a student athlete, and it was amazing for that too, because these student athletes got to learn about and and have a little buddy, and it helps people grow and you know, see the differences in people because not all of us are the same. If we were all the same, like robots, life would be really boring. But I tell you what, having all these disabilities and having, you know, even us as parents and friends and whatever, we all have flaws. So whether you learn to you learn about it all, and it's so great to learn about different things in life, um, because there's so much change. But the one thing that doesn't change is the love for your kids and the support we give them.

SPEAKER_00 58:55

Yep, amen to that. Now, I wish I'd have thought about that video, and I don't even know where it is. I wish I would have thought about it because you I I didn't even think about it until you just mentioned, but she's talking about school because once he went from Bates, he went to No. No was a sister's uh sister school for Bates in regards to their also excelling um handicap program that they had. But then right next door was DuPont Manual, which again was the next step that way. And Brandon got to walk the aisle and graduate technically with his group as he aged out. But that's why he ended up going to uh Aaron's after the fact was a trade school because he that allowed him to go until he was to the age of 21, and that's where they helped with the whole job development and whatnot. And he had he had a little uh worker that was with him that once he did start an academy, she would go and shadow him and make sure he was doing things appropriately and not doing inappropriate things while at work. And then eventually she slowly started dialing it back to where he's at, where he's at today now, as he goes to work and he doesn't have to have a chaperone or or anybody shadowing him anymore, which is kind of nice. But the when he was at DuPont Manual, uh she was talking about the athletes and stuff, and they had a pep rally, and they actually brought him down in front of all the whole uh student body, and he got to throw a pass to the their wide receiver that he knew. And of course, he threw this pass to the wide receiver, caught it, took it in for an indoor, you know, indoor touchdown. It was a really cute video, and then the football team signed it and gave him the ball, which was really cool, and he still has that ball to this day. That's one of his prize pictures.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:49

And he also was on the homecoming court when he was in high school, which was awesome too.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:56

Yeah, I think this picture here was of him.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:59

That's of him in the eighth grade. He got an award for his reflections program.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:11

We were proud of him. Now, that being said, I mean, you know, like his his high school diploma is not really technically the same as what all of us watching would be. Um, his but they but they at least gave him that experience of walking the aisle and graduating, you know, even though technically, due to his disability, it it didn't happen officially.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:36

You have to have so many credits to graduate. And Brandon got to go to school until he was eight. I think he can go to school until you're 21 when you're disabled if you do all these programs correctly. And so um uh Brandon did that. He went, I think he was 18 when he graduated, was able to go to Aaron's until 21 or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:06

Yeah, I think, yeah, I think you're right.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:08

And he really enjoyed the work, uh the work program and errands because mom's a nervous Nelly anyway, sometimes when it comes to my kids. But Brandon got to ride a Tart bus. The school bus, the Jarson County school bus would pick him up here at home, and it would take him down to Manual. And from Manual, he would get on a real Tart bus. And he would go and drive it down to Aaron's trade school, which is at first to Muhammad Ali or something like that. He would get off the bus and have to walk a mile a block. And then he would they would take TART bus to go to whatever workplace they had to go to. Like sometimes they went to Audubon, sometimes they went to Norton's, uh, downtown, sometimes they went to the cathedral or the 1MCA. Sometimes they could walk because the 1AMCA was just around the corner, but they would take TARC buses and walk. And you talk about being alone on some of these things. How? How do these kids do it? But that's part of their experience and independence that we need to give our kids.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:21

And I agree with Linda. Linda, she just said the special needs kids should be encouraged to get out and experience the world. You never know what will really move them or make them happy. And that's very true. I mean, we push Brandon just like just like I said before, I I would make fun of him to help him build thick skin so when people were shitty to him, he could handle it. And that kid, you nothing phases him. His his give a fuck meter is it never runs out because he just doesn't care. You can make fun of him, he doesn't care. He's got such good thick skin. But and and it may have been unorthodox the way that I did it with him, but on the same token, we we've had fun because we we've wrestled and and and um uh and done stuff just like everybody, every other father does with their kid, but I push him to his limits to encourage him to try to figure things out, just like the Xbox. He wanted to play so bad. I was like, well, if you want to play so bad, you've got to figure out how you're gonna do a two-handed controller with one hand and do the best you can do to play. Yeah, that's the only thing I could tell you. And he did. So the kid is definitely very good with uh uh achieving any kind of adversity that he's dealing with. He does a really good job of getting through his heart. Is he probably the one of the sweetest kids you'd ever meet, and he would do anything for anyone. He is incredibly unselfish. Um so we're very we're very blessed about that. And even now that he's older, I mean his um I'm doing CLS work with him now, but he has a what what is what's April again?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:10

She is the she's the behavioral behavioral uh therapist. He she helps with um money management and also social outings. Brandon, not only does he do the Special Olympics and work, but once a week he goes to Wesley Manor nursing home and he volunteers. Yeah, he's been we keep the kid busy.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:31

Yeah, he's been doing volunteering for the the nursing home once a week for for what eight years now?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:37

Five or eight, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:38

I think because I've been retired eight, he's been doing it as long as I can remember. So at least eight years. Yeah. So he donates his time. And what he does when he goes to the nursing home is he goes out there and and he his job is to help when it's dinner time for the residents. So he'll help, he'll help with filling up their drink cups or bringing them a utensil. If they need it or napkins. He's limited, obviously, on how much he can carry plate-wise because of his uh one only having one hand. But but he goes out there and he um he he really enjoys like he'll come home and tell stories of some of these elders that are in this nursing home that he's known for a while that he just I mean he just loves the hell out of. He looks forward to going. And not to mention, apparently, this nursing home around the corner here is uh apparently they got some pretty good cooks. So because he comes home bragging about all the free food he got. Guess what I ate today? And it's always it always sounds good. And and you can tell by looking at my son that he he don't miss a meal. So so he's a he's a strapping lad.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:46

So he uh he did take he takes after my side the family.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:52

I wish I had a picture of it because it's kind of comical. I I always teased him and said, if if you look at my son, it if you drew a line all the way down his body, one half of his body would be his mother, the other half of his body would be his dad, because I'm such a a fucking stick. So um, you know, with little legs and all that crap, and of course, with his little T-Rex arm and and little leg, you know, he's he's kind of got like a his his leg is real thin on that on that affected side.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:21

So he may have a picture of me. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:24

I don't know if I do or not. But um but anyhow, I mean I'm sure I probably do, but trying to find it while I'm doing this podcast would be rough.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:33

But uh I wish I'd have found that video though. I I didn't even think about that video. I don't know if there's really any other photos I've uploaded. I didn't upload a a whole whole lot, but um I don't know who's the what this one is here.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:48

Oh, that's him getting his class ring.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:53

Oh yeah. Damn, I haven't seen that photo in a long time. Yeah. Class ring. He's still wearing and he wears that class ring every day.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:05

He's proud every day. And I think he's also proud of the school that he went to. I think he is too, yeah. He really loves Manual and he really loved No and all that.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:17

So we'll see what this photo is.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:21

Um that fo that photo is when he went to prom. And of course, our our niece Jordan went with him.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:28

Yeah, she she went as his date.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:31

And then we went to IHOP afterwards. They had so much fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:36

My fat belly in that photo, and I look just I look so different.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:43

Yeah, clean shaven, not your appearance now.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:46

No, it is not. And I'm kind of glad. But you know what?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:51

He can be pretty and I can look young. That's all that matters.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:54

That's right. Let's see what this one is.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:58

This is the this is graduation. Swimper graduated.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:05

You know, you you actually took the time to actually somewhat dress up, and I just look like complete dogs.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:11

Well, I went I went to the graduation and you didn't because you got held that night. And it was eight o'clock in the morning. Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:18

I didn't get high. Yeah, I was still sleeping.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:20

Yeah. So yeah, his before he retired, work took a lot of his time, so he missed a lot out on life. So he's making up for it now for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:36

Yeah, I don't I don't try to I don't try to overdo myself now with work because my family are more they sacrifice long enough. And uh oh, that's the that was him at work. I already showed that. I swear that pitch. These thumbnails, I need to figure out how to make these thumbnails bigger where I can see because my old ass can't tell what the hell I'm looking at.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:02

Um Linda put dimpos. Didn't realize that was you. Yeah, Miss Linda, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:12

I look way fucking different. I think I look like I don't I don't like myself.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:20

You know hi Pam, I hear a lot about you, dear. Happy Mother's Day, ladies. I'm hoping you're all enjoying this, and for the fathers out there, happy Mother's Day to your wives. Let's see if that's the class ring one.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:35

Oh, that was the class ring one. I think that's pretty much I think I've gone through a vast majority of them. Oh, here's the one of the boys when we were in uh they were they were with Spider-Man and he flipped his fucking lid over Spider-Man. Oh, he loves Spider-Man. He loves Spider-Man, so that was when he got to be in front, and of course they're in front of a well, aka green screen, it's not green, but they actually put a background behind them and it made them look like they were in a uh on a comic comic book cover. It was kind of cool how they did it. But yeah, he is he was obsessed and still still does like Spider-Man. Spider-Man's definitely his one of his favorites, but now he's got he's got a new um, I'll have to show it. I'll have to do like a little TikTok or something and show the video of him with his helmet. But um he bought the Iron Man helmet for himself. And we found out that you you can talk to it and make it open and move and do shit, and it's it's really a neat helmet. But um see if there's any other photos. Now it's Brandon's been talking, and he wants he wants a a golf cart, which now here's a picture of us when we were we were all at the um Universal Studios. Universal Studios, yeah. And that was one of the Franks that was in uh Men in Black. Men in Black. That was one of the many dogs. They they had several that uh played Frank. That way, if one wasn't feeling it that day or cooperating, they had extra dogs to go to. So that was one of them that was in Men in Black. So they were the kids were really excited about hanging out with Frank with his little little suit on. It was pretty cool. That was a neat experience, but I told the kids, I said, just enjoy it while you got it because you'll never experience that. The way we had that, you'll never experience that again. And uh trying to see if there's any others. Yeah, here's one with them with Pinocchio when we were at Disney. And that was that was fun. And we had a good time because there was a girl when we were there. I I'll share this about her, and hats off to her, but um, well, I can't say her name actually, because I just said she was somebody that was a patient. But anyway, she would there was a patient of mine that I used to make all the time for a specific reason. And anyway, that patient, when I was in EMS, that patient eventually moved to Florida. Well, we stayed friends on Facebook, and we let her know. And and at the time, she when she saw that we were putting stuff on Facebook about going for his dream factory wish, she was like, she reached out to me and she says, Hey, she said, um, if you needed a a tour guide, I'm in that park every day. Matter of fact, she had worked there uh as well, so she's like, I'm in this park every day. She goes, I would be more than happy to show you all shortcuts while you're there. So I let her know when we were coming in, and sure enough, the the young lady she she met us at the park and she hung out and walked around with us the whole day. And even when we would go into certain rides or something like that, she she would kind of hold our belongings because you know when you're there on that park through Dream Factory, you're getting all sorts of you're getting little knickknacks and stuff like that throughout the whole day while you're at the park, too. So you're always carrying something, but she would hold all of our stuff while we could go and sit through a little program or be on a ride or whatever and not have to worry about our belongings. She would watch everything. So I I wish I could say her name, but I really shouldn't, uh so I won't. But you know who you are. And I I love you to death. And and um another great person that you know I met happens chance and turned out to be a really stellar person, and and um somebody that still, even though I'm retired, still to this day, we send messages every now and again to each other. So uh kudos to her. Um I don't know what else, anything else you want to kind of share with them? Let's see where we're at right now. We're at an iron 15 minutes. So is there anything else that you would like to share?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:29

I don't think so. I think I shared it all.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:31

You think you got enough? You talked about enough?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:34

No more tears, God, no more tears.

unknown 1:15:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:38

Our life has not been the greatest life, but it's been a blessed life. We've lost people along the way, uh friends, family through death, just through growing apart. And I tell you, life is strange, but when you have a certain network, your family, my husband, my two boys, a good support group, and good people around you, you can survive anything.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:12

Yep. And there's always there's always things you can do.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:17

We can better ourselves, yes and no. We can live a boring life, but I tell you what, that our life is nothing but boring.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:26

And you know, another thing about doing a special needs podcast, too, that we're very friendly people, and we don't we understand the value of networking because you have to have that, especially when you have a handicapped kid. You're you're gonna be networking with a lot of various people because you're you you need help. You know, it's hard to do it alone. So it takes a village. And then, you know, and another reason to do this podcast too is is is people may say, hey, you know, I got a handicapped kid, but maybe they don't know a lot of people, or maybe they're in a new area and they just feel like they're all alone. Well, you know that you can always reach out, even with us. Like that I have a website now. You can actually even send me messages on my website, which is uh bonesunfiltered podcast.com. So if if you went there, you could even send a message. It if someone out there is doing this alone and just needs someone to vent to or talk and just kind of have as a network, well, you know, we we would be happy to talk with somebody and help them through this. You're never alone. You're never alone. So um you could always reach out, you can reach out and find me on Facebook. Um, you all know you know, Bones Enterprises LLC, period, on Facebook. That's my Facebook page. Um, that's the business page, and Bones Warren's my personal page. Um again, we would be willing to anybody who feels like they're doing it alone and needs someone to vent, just vent to. Or, I mean, hell, even if you're in this area and you, you know, you never know. You can make friends with people and and you have something in common with, and you can help them through their time of need, and and they could pay it right back to you when you because just because we're things are knock on wood going okay right now with Brandon doesn't mean that that couldn't change on a dime tomorrow.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:29

And you know, another thing, sitting here listening to Bones Talk, is that you never know, you see me at work, you never know what my home life is like. You see him on podcasts with music and stuff like that. You may not know what his home life is like or what we've been through. So, this is the way to share experiences, and I hope others can share experiences because you're not alone, and life is hard enough, and we all need support. So please reach out.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:02

Yeah, please do. And the last episode, music-wise, I did for the Bones Unfiltered podcast was with the um amazing band called Appalachian Moon. And for those that didn't turn into that episode, um, I think that episode turned out pretty well because as anybody's watched my podcast has already can can already tell that I'm learning. I'm slowly getting to where I can figure out technology and do a little bit better stuff. I mean, hell, I'm glad that these microphones worked. I had to, I just got these yesterday and I had to figure this out so I could do this podcast with her, and potentially um I'm gonna do some gigs uh hopefully with uh Kozair Charities here in Louisville and do some podcasting for them. So I had to buy extra gear to be able to do this. So this is a trial phase for that too. But the one of the lead singers, Blake from Appalachian Moon, he as well has um he had some handicapped children, and sadly one of them uh passed away. And uh in the next week or two, I would like to try to find a day where I can get Blake on here and have him tell his story because he's willing to do that. Because, you know, what he's gone through is even something that we can't wrap our head around. And it's something that he went through that no parent should ever have to, but sadly he he had to figure that out. And he's gonna share his story, so we're we're gonna be very honored to have him on here and share his story about everything too, because he's in a little bit different situation, but it's still it still all comes down to you know, it still kind of ends up the same, it really does, um, just slightly a slight variation. So it'll be interesting to hear his story about what he's gone through with his kids and uh the those the different support systems he's had or maybe has not had. So uh we look forward to that. And again, I thank you, Autumn. I'm I was really blown away that my wife even wanted to because she's I am very extroverted, she is very introverted, so we are polar opposite people when it comes to that. Um so when she looked at me and says, Hey, I would like to be on the show, I was like, Holy shit, are you serious? And I was like, Well, that's great, I would love that. And I'm glad we tried it outside. She wanted to do it outside, do something different. Um, we'll see how this turns out.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:39

You see me looking around, I'm watching all the birds and the squirrels and everything.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:44

I don't know if they can hear the birds, but there is a plethora of birds.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:48

There's cardinals and blue jays and finches, and I had a hummingbird while we were out here. And so I just turn around and watch all of the birds. I the older I get, um, and the less drama I want in my life. I just sat out here and watch them, and it's so peaceful. Yeah, and I love it. And we've made our backyard into like an oasis for us, and I tell you what, all the colors we have and everything. So I wanted to do it out here because this is peaceful, and we can kind of share it with you if you can hear the birds.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:25

I don't know if they can hear or not. Hopefully they can't. Hopefully, these microphones are good, but we'll find out.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:31

But anyway, um thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for tuning in and happy Mother's Day to everybody.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:38

Yeah, Miss Linda, happy Mother's Day, Val, happy Mother's Day, Wolf's.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:43

Wolf, nice to meet you. Val, nice to meet you. Hello, everybody.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:47

And then I don't know who else is still in here, but we had uh Elizabeth was in here, Miss Janice was in here. Thank you so much, Miss Janice. Elizabeth Pam was in here at one point in time. Hey, Pamela. Um, thanks for dropping in. I greatly appreciate that. And then uh let's see, Mary Ash, of course, was in, but she's she's gone now. But but um, Miss Mary, thanks again for dropping in. I can always count on certain faces, and pretty much the people that are in this room right now are the ones that um are pretty pretty consistent when I do a podcast, and I'm very honored for that.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:23

Thank you for supporting Bones as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:27

Thank you all so much. My buddy Pat was in here at one point in time, and he's probably not now, but he was. So I appreciate Pat dropping in. Same with Scott Brayley again. Scott Brayley, he drops in uh on every podcast. He may not stay, and I understand podcasts are long. Um, they're long, it's it they're hard. Sometimes they're hard to sit through. Now, me, I'm a podcast junkie, so like I don't mind putting on a podcast, even if it's an audio, and chucking the phone down while I'm doing dishes or doing laundry or doing whatever. Hell, even doing my work for the band for James Lucer Music, I'm always got a podcast running, trying to either learn something new with podcasting or learn how to do shit with for band management or learn how to, you know, whatever. Or just listen to a podcast to have background chatter going on while I'm working. And and if I pick something up or learn something new, then that's a bonus. So uh, but some people aren't. But those of you all that at least drop in, I really appreciate it. Um again, just to drop a shameless plug on myself, please go to www.bonesunfilteredpodcast.com. Check out my website. It's very simple. It's not it's not super hard to navigate. It's not, I wanted something just simple. Uh we do have merch. So check out the merch store. If you feel if there you see anything you would like, I would appreciate the support. Um, I do get that merch is run through fourth wall, but I get royalties on products that are sold. So it will just help me generate a little bit of revenue. Just my goal is mainly just to make enough to cover my business expenses every year, which you know includes insurances and like StreamYard, which I'm I'm on here showing this podcast, as well as Buzz Sprout, which is what this podcast, along with some of the others. So the people that I've done in the past that you haven't seen activity yet on like Spotify, uh Apple Podcasts and whatnot, those your your episode is coming. I I had to I can do so many per month. Um, I think it's an hour upload per month. So I had maxed out because I've got a lot of episodes so far. I've done a lot quite a few podcasts, I've done a lot more than I thought I had. So your episodes, as well as my lovely wife's here, this episode will eventually go up. Um, for those of you all that do not know, and uh whoops, wrong button. For those of you all that do not know, if you're looking to say you say you don't care for music, but you just want the special needs podcasting, say that's your flavor. Well, then if you look at this logo here is the logo I created that I'm gonna put on this podcast with the missus. Um this is episode three. I don't even know. I probably I hope I labeled it right, but this is episode three of the special needs podcast for season one. So if anybody's looking for the special needs, if you see the logo that's on your screen right now, then you know that's gonna be just special needs related stuff. So it can be special Olympics, special needs, maybe it's families of special needs. So it doesn't like this episode, doesn't always have to have the special needs individual in it. Um, we just want to bring something different for people to experience. So I thank you all so much for tuning into that. And of course, regular um musical and other topic um podcasts are still on Bones Unfiltered Podcast. Um, once everything is uploaded, it is uploaded now to all of the streaming platforms. There's so many podcast platforms I've never even heard of that we're on. So, but the big ones obviously Spotify, uh, Apple Podcasts, Amazon is always the quickest to load us up. Um, we're on all of those, and most of those are audio now. If you want to see video, then obviously Bones Um Enterprises LLC, period, is my Facebook business page. Um, that'll always have these up to where you can actually click on it and watch it. You could also go to YouTube if you're a YouTuber and not a Facebooker, that's fine. You can find everything that I've got on uh YouTube at Bones42323. Um, so definitely check that out. And as for KIC, I'm slowly, slowly uh starting to gain some followers, but I'm very new to KIC, so I don't have a whole lot. So anybody in the KIC network, if you're out there listening, give me a like, give me a follow, I'd greatly appreciate it. Um, all the likes and follows and hearts and stars that everybody gets, every little bit helps. And right now I'm not you know, I'm not generating a whole lot from doing podcasting, and that's okay. Um, but if somebody does donate anything to help the cause, it is greatly appreciated. So until then, I guess. Is there anything else you want to add?

SPEAKER_03 1:28:48

Just happy Mother's Day, and thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:50

Yeah, definitely happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. And again, um stroke, it's Pediatric Stroke Awareness Month. So, you know, let's say a prayer. If you're if you're the praying type, say a prayer for all the all the uh children in that are in the world that are currently dealing with something like a stroke that they're uh having to deal with or other medical ailments that they're going through. Let's say a prayer for the kids because it's it's really the hardest watching kids have to go through stuff like that. It's bad enough watching adults, but kids, to me, it's even worse. So, but until then, I guess we can wrap this up. Well, this is this is my lovely wife Autumn. Bye. And I'm Bones saying be good or be good at it. Look forward to seeing you all on the next episode, which will probably be a musical episode next week. So uh pay attention to Facebook and all the social medias for any flyers that I post a couple days ahead of time to let you know time and place. So until then, peace.