Live better and longer with the fitness show hosted by fitness expert author and TV personality Fitz Kohler. She'll tell you why diets are dumb, supplements are snake oil, and the truth about how you can earn a lean, hard, pain-free, and athletic body. Now for our favorite bossy blonde, Fitz Kohler. Well, hi team. I am Fitz Kohler, your very passionate fitness expert from fitness.com and welcome to the fitness show.
Today I have a fantastic comeback story for you and it's a good one and it's certainly filled with inspiration and hopefully will be a motivating factor for you to continuously take your health serious. David Gehr is going to share his story of having a cardiac arrest and how he came back from that. And on fitness.com, I have a prompt where it says simply appear on the fitness show. And from there, you can choose some categories and what you'd like to talk about.
And I asked for comeback stories and David submitted his, and I thought definitely we need to share this with others. And if you would like to know what it's like to be dead and to come back from that, it's a doozy. It really is. It's a very special story and a very special man. You are going to fall in love with David Gehr. He is as sweet as they come and hardworking and just a decent human. And all I can say is I'm so happy he's alive. I'm so happy he's alive.
If you haven't done so already, don't forget to follow The Fitsness Show wherever you like to listen to it. Click like, leave a review, and maybe share this episode with a friend who needs to hear it. So David Gare, welcome to The Fitsness Show. It's been so long. I'm glad I finally got you on. Thank you for joining me. Yes, thank you, Fitz. And you know, I feel I've known you for over 10 years.
And the first time that I was able to even find you on social media, It was through my running coach who interviewed you years ago. And so I found you on, her name is Claire Bartholik and she is affiliated and associated with Runners Connect. And she had you on and you were talking about your cancer comeback. Well, I'm glad we finally met that way. Yeah. Yeah, man. You've inspired me ever since. So sweet. That's so sweet. You know, I do love how engaged you are.
Full disclosure for everybody, David's one of my hotties and my hottie body fitness challenge on Facebook and you're just, you're, you, you work so hard and you're, you're so encouraging to everybody else. And you're very forthright with your own training. It's just, you're a delight to have around. You're good for everybody. Thank you, Fitz. And you know, it kind of breeds itself.
You know, when I get it, I kind of give it back. And I follow several people on social media, yourself included and Rudy, and I'm just encouraged. And so when I'm encouraged, I can't not encourage others. Well, you're, you're a fine, fine gentleman. Where do you live? I live in the San Francisco Bay area in a small town called Hayward. That's Northern California. Right. And so you and I so fortunate to be alive here.
We have that perspective. Not, thankfully not, not a ton of people have, I mean, I guess there's probably a decent amount of us, but yeah, we're both grateful to be alive. So you are a sudden cardiac arrest survivor. Yes, I am. But before we get into that, I want you to tell me who you were before your sudden cardiac arrest. Okay, who I was before and kind of still today. Hardworking married man, father of three, grandfather of four.
Rise and grind every day and go to work, have a small circle of friends. And when I say small circle of friends, it's really smaller now. Because my best friend of 30 years had passed away from cancer. Sorry. And his went quickly. You know, he had discovered it in his pancreas. And then within two years, he was gone. And about that time is when I discovered you. Okay. And so that was my encouragement, my inspiration to kind of keep him going. He is a fighter all the way through.
But, you know, pancreatic cancer is pancreatic cancer. And actually, his name. His name was Greg Jack and I'll take it back it wasn't even pancreatic it was esophagus so they're kind of the same as far as the ribbon color goes and I still wear the ribbon today okay and I have a tattoo for him as well that's my tattoo. But so in 2014, I'll back it up a little bit as I'm working and raising family and providing and working for waste management.
In 2014, on September 26th, make sure you keep track of that date. My mom had passed away and she was, you know, 86 years old and it was just kind of caught us off guard. And after she had passed away, it didn't take but a couple of weeks for me to say, you know, I need to get some of this anxiety out of my body. I'm really stressing out. So I started walking the neighborhood. And then it didn't take too long. I started just doing light jogs.
And sometime around, this is in September, and sometime around November, I had a major gallbladder issue that put me in the hospital for six hours. Okay. And my brother-in-law calls me up, and he knew I started to jog a little bit, and he invited me to do a 5K. And I'm laying in the gurney in the hospital and said, sure, I'll do it. And I didn't even know what a 5K is. I'm thinking like a half marathon or whatever, but it was 2.1.
So I committed to do that. And so in 2015 of February, I ran my first 5K and came in third in my age group. Fantastic. Can I ask, how old were you? Let's see here. That's going to be in 2014 to 15. I'm 63 now. I'm horrible at math. Oh, God, it's helped me out here. Okay. So 10 years ago. Yeah. Yeah. So I was 53. Okay. Which is a great time to pick up running. Why not?
Yeah. Yeah. And the funny thing is, is when I was in high school, I used to run home from school as a freshman to see if I could beat the bus, which I always beat the bus. Wow. And then took up cross country in high school and ran track and all that fun stuff as I played soccer. And we will be right back. Do your hips, glutes, quads, and hamstrings need extra support while running?
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I mean, I really wanted to run. So I started running and it was like in March or April when I found Runners Connect through a friend on Strava who pointed me that direction. And I signed up with a coach. It was Claire at the time because they go through a lot of coaches. And then I got onto their podcast and that's where I found you. And I just started building my arsenal on how to run smarter because I injured myself pretty quick after that 5k.
I just went out and ran and didn't warm up and I got a high ankle sprain and I was down for like six weeks. So as I was running and then my best friend of 30 years plus tells me he's got cancer, I've got more motivation. I run for those who can't. He was my guy and i ran my first half marathon in 2015 at the monterey bay half and right poor me, i thought i'd never run again after that i came home i was you'd have thought i ran a marathon.
And i'm laying in the tub the next day and i call my brother-in-law and he goes how you feeling, and i said well you want to do another one and he goes well i'm not ready but yeah let's do another one so i had run several and actually half marathon is my favorite distance i would take that hands down over everything that's why i run so many of those okay and uh so in 2016 is the year that greg had passed away or gone to glory as we say when i was running
that half marathon i was just way overwhelmed with emotions and just looking out at the ocean and just you know get I'm even getting teared up now, just seeing the beauty of that and knowing that he's not going through that pain and suffering no more, just really inspired me all the more to just keep on going, just to keep on running. And so I haven't stopped since. And it's a joy for me. It's a good release of tension, keeps me fit.
And all this time, fitness fits. When I'm thinking about why am I even doing this? What's the purpose of all of this? Well, you can fast forward to 2021 of September 26th. I came to bed at nine o'clock at night, like I always do. It was a Sunday night. So this is precisely seven years after your mother dying on September 26, 2014. Okay, go on. Yes. Go to bed. So I go to bed, and I usually go to bed at the same time, nine o'clock. It's a Sunday night. I got to work on Monday.
And my wife, she always comes up after me. And my daughter, who was in college at the time, would normally be downstairs with her earbuds in doing her homework, right? Well, that particular Sunday night, my wife decided, well, you know, I'm not feeling it either. I'm going to go to bed as well. So she came up. Fist, I am not kidding you. I lay down on the bed, and all she heard was the death rattle.
And when she looked out the bathroom door, she saw me laying on the bed with my fists up in the air, unresponsive, turning every color blue and green you can think of. Wow. She screams at the top of her lungs. My daughter, who's in college, should have her earbuds in, just rocking out, doing her homework, comes running upstairs. What's the matter? She goes, don't you die on me, David. It's not your time. Don't die on me. And she tells my daughter to call 911.
She dials 911. They're giving me CPR on the bed. The dispatcher says, put them on the ground. So they thudded me onto the floor. My daughter takes over doing CPR while my wife is on the phone with emergency and just down the street is engine six and just across the road is engine four and they both got to my house within six minutes, They get to my house, they stick me with an EpiPen, they kind of get my heart back, and I code blue here.
So they get me going again, they take me away in the hospital, and I coded blue twice there. They put me in an induced coma, put a ventilator on me, and pretty much told my wife, you know, if he comes out of this, he might have some difficulties. He might not be able to walk, his memory could be shot, he might not. You know, there's just going to be a lot of complications with him.
The beauty of this is so far that I'm alive, but also the timing of everything that the Lord had placed in our lives. For my wife to go to bed at the same time as me, for my daughter to not have her earpods in, because had my wife come up even 10 minutes after me, I'd have been gone. Yeah, for sure. It was that quick, because it's called the Widowmaker, and it's an electrical storm where your heart doesn't beat anymore. And you know this because you've had the cardiac doctor on there.
It just quivers like this, and it's not pumping blood. So I'm not getting oxygen to my brain. So I should be like, no memory, no nothing, no motor skills or anything. So I go to the hospital, and I code blue there, and they put me on the vent. They give my wife no hope. The next day, so we're going from Sunday the 26th to Monday the 27th, a friend of mine from church who's my pastor, he comes in. and he's paying me a visit. He's reading.
And he told me this after. And he said he was stroking my hair and petting my hand and just talking to me. And then he prayed for me and anointed my head in oil. And within five minutes, he said my eyes opened up and the doctor was there. And he says, hey, doc, he's coming too. And he tells me, David, kick your feet. And so I'm kicking my feet. And this is all on a recording that he had done for my wife.
Okay and here's what's really weird everybody asks did you have an out-of-body experience did you see anything different i didn't see anything but i saw this before i came out of my induced coma i remember standing at this wall and this wall was black and it had like these.
Tiny streaks going across it and it was a real tall wall and it was a real wide wall And I was looking for a door because I said to myself in this vision, I said, I don't think I'm supposed to be here and I need to find Tori and Kathy. And Tori and Kathy is my wife and daughter. And those are the last two people that touched me. And after I said, I don't think I need to be here, there was a light behind me, of course, shining on this artsy wall because I thought it was in an art gallery.
I turned around and as I turned around, that's when I opened my eyes and I saw Ed and I'm kicking my feet. How interesting. Isn't that something? And so within that day— What do you think that was? What do you think that was? That was me getting my life back. That wall was just stopping me from going anywhere I shouldn't be going because I knew I shouldn't be going there. So, David, I got to say, I find it fascinating hearing people who've had near-death experiences and what they see.
I mean, I'm admittedly not a religious person, but I'm not a denier either. No, you're not. Only someone who has been on the brink of death, you know, you hear these stories like, gosh, is that true? Is that real? It's interesting to hear all the similarities between those who have seen a light or been turned away. Do you feel like you were in the heavens? And I mean, what do you think that was? I don't think I was in the heavens. I think I was in a place where I was just kind of stopped.
I was stopped from going any further to heaven or I'm not going to go to hell. I know that for a fact. But I was just stopped because it was just like a moment in my life.
And I'm thinking back, why did I do all that running? how come what's the significance of all that running well the significance of all that running was is that i built up my oxygen levels and my vo2 max to be so superior that because i was without oxygen for several minutes right that my memory and my motor skills were not diminished at all slightly as i came out of it of course but as i've gone days now i'm back to my normal self.
And what I picture that wall is, is I believe, because there was a lot of people that were praying for me. I believe that in that wall, that those shiny things that were going through the wall were probably prayers for me to say, hey, you know, it's not his time. Bring him back. He's got a lot of stuff to do. He's got to be on Fitz's show. That's right. Big, big, big priorities. Now, do you feel like if there was a door there, then that would have been you going to die?
I might have tried the door. I might have tried the door. But like I said, Fitz, it was a tall, tall wall and a long wall and there was no door. And I said, I don't think I was supposed to be here. I remember saying that. That's really cool. That's really cool. So I have a lot of questions and I know you have more of the story to tell, but I do want to go back. So you say Widowmaker. or did you have clogged arteries? Nope. No. Okay. No clogged arteries. So your heart just stopped.
It just, it just, it went into hyperspeed. It went to 240 beats a minute and it just wasn't pumping. Just, yeah. And so mine was electrical problem. They have a plumbing problem, which is your arteries and your plaque and all that stuff. And then you have the electrical problem, which is mine. And my electrolytes were perfect. My potassium was perfect.
That the doctors were scratching their head and their butts at the same time and said we don't know and the weekend before i'd ran 22 miles okay and then did you were you a healthy eater yes ma'am yes okay so healthy eater uh exercising vigorously healthy weight yep okay so this is actually a great example because it could happen to anybody and uh one of the things i'm constantly trying to convince people of, and you're the exhibit A of it right now, is that you have to prepare your body
to do battle today because you never know when illness or injury or sudden death may arrive. And you are going to be so much more likely to rebound and recover quickly and efficiently if you are strong, healthy fit going into that crisis. And that's your message right there is if you had not been running, you likely wouldn't have survived this thing. And if you did survive, you wouldn't be the same man you are. That's correct. A hundred percent. Yep. And I believe that's what you preach anyway.
Right. You try and encourage us all not to be sedentary and just push that box of cookies away and get off the couch. Even if you have five minutes, You know, here's one of your little tidbits of health is every day when I brush my teeth, I'm balancing on one leg. Hell yeah. Working that core. That makes me so happy. Yeah. I take those snippets. There's a lot of good advice out there from you and others that, you know, I just, I use it.
And I can tell you're so ambitious about your health and really enthusiastic, which goes a long way. I mean, obviously it saved your freaking life. You could be there. You could be there just drooling and having somebody feed you and change your diaper right now. Or you could be back up living your life in a very large, exciting way because you were strong going into your crisis because you were healthy. I mean, it's just it's it speaks.
It speaks volumes about who you are. And thank goodness you've made the choices you've made, David. Yeah, yeah. I'm really thankful. And, you know, being in the hospital, most people, I belong to a group called Cardiac Athletes. And there's just a lot of us that have been told that you're done. You know, you guys are now cardiac cripples and you shouldn't be able to do any of this stuff. But, you know, we're banded together to prove them wrong.
We're bringing awareness that even though we've suffered cardiac arrest or heart attacks, that we can come back from this stuff, especially like you said, if our lifestyle was a healthy one going in, it can still be a healthy one when we come out. Yeah. Yeah. Far more likely to have good chances of full recovery if you're healthy.
And it's, it makes me sad for people who are, you know, overweight, out of shape, unmotivated, and then they get hit by the bus or, you know, They fall down the stairs or they get a disease and then they're screwed forever because they were already in such dire straits without injury, right? I mean, if you're in dire straits and you haven't even been hit by the bus anymore. Oh, my gosh. Game over. Game over.
Game over. So when you went down, when you went to lie down in your bed and you started vibrating, do you remember that? Do you have any memories of those? No. Nothing. I'm a quick go-to-sleep guy. So I'm like that busted Kewpie doll. When you lay me down, my eyes go just like that. And I'm out. So I have no problem falling asleep. So when I laid down, that's all I remember until I woke up and just before I woke up, seeing that vision of the wall and what's going on.
In order to do CPR effectively, you have to slam on a person's chest. Were you bruised? Did you have any rib fractures from CPR? I know you're going to ask that one. I had three different firemen on me. I had a nurse that was 4'11", squash me for like 10 minutes, and I did not get one broken rib. Wow. Lots of water in shape, you know, and I was afraid of that. Was I sore? Oh, man, was I ever sore? I had to hug a pillow every time I sneezed or coughed, but nothing was broken.
What was the remedy while you were in the hospital? What did they do for you? Oh, wow. I was in the hospital for a short time compared to most. And after I wiggled my feet down there in ICU, within two hours after they removed the ventilator, which I thought I had COVID because it was a COVID year. And I thought I was in the hospital for COVID. My eldest daughter comes and I said, do I have COVID? And she goes, no, pop, you had a heart attack. And I said, what?
She goes, a heart attack. She goes, the fireman brought you here. I said, were they cute? I was coming out. I was coming out of my meds. So they took me upstairs that day on a Monday, Wednesday afternoon. Back up. So they took me upstairs on a Monday and I recovered up there. I got some sleep and no food. Tuesday morning, I woke up and I called my wife and she goes, what's the matter? Is everything okay?
And I said, well, yeah, everything's fine. I said, but you know, Max, which is my dog, I said, he's got to go to the groomer today. And she goes, oh, that's not going to happen. The good thing was, is that my memory was still that sharp. That's great. Yep. And so So Wednesday, the PT nurse came through and she made me walk down the hall. She goes, can you walk down that hall and come back? And I said, sure, I can run down there and come back. She goes, no, we'll just walk.
And so they walked me down. They held my arm to make sure I was steady. And we got by the nurse's table. And the nurse at the time of the floor was Wendy, a great nurse. And they told her, they go, Mr. Gere has free roam of the building. He can go wherever he wants. He's not going to be a fall hazard. And that was on Wednesday. On Thursday, my cardiologist at that hospital came through, Dr. Reddy, and he says, we're going to do a couple of steps on you. We're going to check your plumbing.
We're going to check your electrical. He goes, I'm the electrical guy, but there's another doctor who's going to come in and check your plumbing. So they take me and they do all this stuff up in there and I don't have any plaque. Everything's clear like a whistle. Wow. So he goes, well, it's an electrical problem. So that's when he said he wanted to fit me with an ICD, which is an implanted cardioverter defibrillator. And it sits right here on my collarbone. Okay. And is it tiny, like a port?
Yeah, it's just a little battery pack. You know, I could show you right here. It's nothing bigger than a silver dollar. Okay. It just goes right there. That's like a port. Yeah. And then it's got one lead that goes into my ventricle and runs through one of the arteries, and it sits in there. And the settings are below, anything below 40 and anything above 180, I will get a shock like an AED would give you a shock. Have you had a shock?
No shock. And I just saw my technician for a checkup, my yearly checkup, and I asked her about that. And she said, you will only get a shock between those ranges if, Your heart drops below 40 and it starts not beating or goes above 180 and it stops beating. If it stops beating, then you need a shock. But I have never gotten a shock. And we will be right back. Are you looking for the perfect gift for a loved one battling cancer?
The Cancer Comeback series by Fitz Kohler offers hope, inspiration, and practical guidance. With your healthy cancer comeback, my noisy cancer comeback, and the Healthy Cancer Comeback Journal. These books are a lifeline for all patients and survivors. Right now, you can order autographed copies at a special discount. Show your support and help a loved one go from sick to strong. Visit Fitzness.com today. That's F-I-T-Z-N-E-S-S.com. Fitzness.com.
We're back. So I have friends with pacemakers, and they have been, they said it's like being kicked by a horse. They boom in their chest and it makes them a little loopy for a little bit. It's disorienting. Yeah. And so I've been told by my doctors that should I get a shock? And even though I feel good, I should go in anyway, just so they can make sure. Because you can get another shock. You know, things can happen we don't know. And so it's just best to get it checked.
Wow. So you've had a life-altering experience. You've seen the light. You've walked away from the light. Thank goodness. Not ready. You've impressed the nurses with your ability to walk, run, remember. Thank goodness. I mean, your health paid off in spades. Every run you took pre-cardiac arrest was an investment in survival. Do you think about that? I do believe that.
I could dwell back on it and just say, because, you know, the fear that my wife has and the doctors not knowing is they thought maybe I was overworking my body with running and that this might have caused that. And I said, well, show me somewhere in a study where that could be proven and I'll buy it. I said, but I have no idea at all that it was my health that kept me from expiring. Yeah, for sure. I mean, what else could it be?
Like we talked about just a few minutes ago, if I was sedentary and my heart was just a big blob of jello, I wouldn't be able to come back. And I walked out. I didn't even go out at the hospital in a wheelchair. I walked out the following Sunday. I had my ICD put in on Friday, October 1st, and I walked out on Sunday. So how long did it take you to get back to running? Yeah. Oh, that was fun. I was ready to go right away. And my cardiologist said no.
She said I could walk. So it was like the first three weeks of short walks. And then the fourth week, I could walk a little, jog a little. The second month, she cleared me to run no more than six miles and not a pace faster than 12-minute miles.
And so we're talking, I had it in September, and she cleared me to run a 5k actually a 10k in february of the following year so that's 2022 so it took me about five months to get back on horse well it sounds like you were already getting back on the horse up until that i mean just and then what about strength training and and the other aspects of fitness i didn't do any strength training during that time because i was uneducated I heard you talk about it,
but I just said, you know, I'm not educated enough. Now I'm educated and I'm working it into my system. And like I said, on social media today, I did my first 25, 25, 20, 25, and my body felt it, you know, it felt it. So, yeah, good. It's good pain. So I'm going to do my second sets of 25 this week, probably tomorrow, because I feel better today. Wonderful. Yeah. I mean, obviously cardiovascular exercise via the name, so good for your heart and lungs.
And I mean, it sounds like that was a real secret to your success there, but life has the ability to punch you in the face in other ways too. And being strong, physically strong, obviously leads to resiliency too. And that's, you know, I'm, I won't. When we're much younger, we're really focused on our appearance, right? And then all of a sudden you hit an age and you're like, oh, I just don't want my back to hurt or my hip to hurt.
And then I really like to live a long time. And it really is the magic pill, don't you believe, fitness? I do. I do. It is. And seeing how effortlessly you can do an angry up is a motivation for me. And that's my goal this year is to be able to get an angry up in. That's so great. I'm not going to take my pre-videos now because I look really stupid. No, you got to do them. Oh, my gosh.
And if anybody doesn't know what an angry up is, or you got to just get on fitness Instagram or the hottie challenge on Facebook. But I made up that exercise. I mean, golly, I don't. It's within 10 years. But I read a statistic that says people that can get off the ground without using their hands are, have a longer lifespan. I thought, oh, well, I can teach people how to do that. You know, we can do that. And I don't know, I lied on my back and I stood up
without using my hand and it was hard. And I was like, okay, what am I going to call them?
And I was like, oh, angry, like angry it makes me angry getting up and anyone who i taught seemed to find out find that they made them angry too but they are hard they're really hard they're really simple there's nothing to them skill wise but it's so meaningful to me to see so many of you going okay this sucks that looks really hard been i'm gonna try anyways and and just watching the people hoist and get stuck and still share the video of themselves getting stuck,
just it shows there's a lot of humility there and a lot of willingness to... Commit to something and celebrate progress. It's just, you guys make me so happy. So happy. It's just, it's hard to keep coaching us there, coach. And we'll, we'll, you know, you got to lead by the example. And like I said, those angry ups are, they're intense. And, you know, of course, my legs are more muscular than yours, but it doesn't mean squat.
Cause I can't do an angry up. wow uh it's yeah yeah keep working on it you will you will. It's going doing your squat angry down that's pretty painful too so that's right right on both ways they're so good for you abs and back and hip flexors and glutes and quads it's a little bit of goodness for your whole body and i love that you're doing the strong 25 challenge it's, I think by the end of the end of January, you're going to be able to touch physically
touch parts of your body and go, Ooh, that's, that's better. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm hoping for. And it's free. There's people that charge for this stuff and you're giving it to us for free. Right. Right. You know what? I, uh, I never want a dollar to stand between you and being fit. And And so corporations, I sucker them into paying me money for services. But you guys, yeah, taking money from you guys is really not a thing for my advice.
Not going to do it. Not going to do it. I love you all too much. So what's next for you? So you've recovered, you're fit, you're back to running, and you're doing angry ups or at least trying. What's next? So for this year, I've already signed up for three half marathons, which is the Red Tail Trail half in Castro Valley here in February. I'll do the Surfer's Path in April. Then I'm going to Europe for three weeks where we'll be going to England, Ireland, Scotland, and France.
And then, of course, I'm doing Monterey at the end of the year. Wonderful. That's pretty much it. And do you and your wife ever look at each other and just talk about your survival? What a big deal it is that you made it through that? All the time. All the time. And I always tell people that don't know, I said, this is my queen. She saved my life. Same with my daughter. I said, if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here. Yeah, for sure.
They definitely, they took the action necessary. And what people need to know when it comes to CPR is you should do it definitely. don't worry about hurting a person because them just dying is way worse than them being bruised or having broken bones, right? Correct. And like I told my wife, I said, there's no such thing as poor CPR. I said, just get going. And sadly- The most of the people that die from not getting CPR at all are women because people are afraid of the boobs.
Oh, gosh. They're afraid of the boobs. So I personally am not. I'm CPR, AED, first aid certified. And if some male or female is down, I'm on it. I'm on it like a fat kid on cake. I don't care. Well, I was on a plane a few months ago and a woman, she had a cardiac arrest and they pulled her into the aisle. And her shirt was open and she had a bra on, but I look back and there was her bra and they were slamming on her chest.
And thankfully we were told once they got her off the plane, they made an emergency landing in, I don't know, some part of Texas, but we got word that they got it. They got a pulse, but they were doing CPR for about 45 minutes. And it was impressive because there were medical professionals and they were slamming on this woman's chest, which of course would make someone think, oh no, she might be hurt. But really the real threat there was she might be dead.
So CPR always. And then those AED, man, they make it easy on you. They're computerized. They talk to you. They tell you step by step. So hopefully everybody never lets fear dictate their willingness to save a life.
Because I'm sure it scared your wife and daughter to do that to you, But it was the only right thing to do Yeah, My daughter still has a little PTSD from it Like if she'll hear me snore Or you know anything like that Just there's some things that will Trigger her But my wife she's pretty much clear of the woods And she knows. And she knows I have this device. This device is my airbag. And Raphael is going to take care of me. Is that his name, Raphael?
Yeah, that's his name. Why did you choose that? Now, this is funny. I was in the hospital, and I got it the first day I was in the hospital. I chose Raphael because Raphael is an archangel, and he is the archangel of healing. And he's the protector of science and medicine. So all of those encompass what I believe, and I need it. I need my science, I need my medicine, and I need my healing. I love it. I love it. And then how has this experience made you better?
It has made me better. And this kind of goes back to one of the chapters in your book where you talked about when you were doing your cancer and all you could think about is Ginger and your son's name, Parker, and their sweet little lives. And you could only think about them without you. And how they would be growing up without you. That's what I got out of it. So what I've got about my second lease on life is that I don't sweat anything.
I got grandkids that come through here. They make all the noise in the world. They're tearing up the house. Whereas prior to this SCA, I used to freak out. I'd have to knock it off, sit down, behave. Now it's like, go ahead, do whatever you want. We'll get it later. Yeah, laid back, way laid back. Yeah, it does. It does lighten your load, doesn't it? It does. Fitz, I'm telling you, I don't sweat the small stuff anymore. It doesn't matter anymore.
I don't care what people think. I don't care what they say. You know, you like me or you don't like me. I don't care. Yeah. I'm not here for you. You know, I've got friends that are all over this world and in different countries, and we seem to get along just fine. Yeah. And you're one of them. Wow. I'm so happy you were here. I'm so happy I'm here.
And yeah, I mean, I, I sarcastically drop in the thanks cancer quite often, but in some regards, I mean it, you know, I mean, I would never go back and redo it. Giving me the opportunity to flip the switch and not have cancer. You betcha. I would not have cancer, but I can't undo it. So, you know, if I've chosen not to live better because of it or with despite it, then shame on me.
And I'm glad you are not crying over spilt milk and you are enjoying the sounds of your grandchildren squealing and screaming because those are beautiful sounds. How lucky are you to have those grandkids, right? They're noisy grandkids. They're wonderful. And, you know, my son lives up in Northern California and he's got a little acreage there. So they got chickens, goats, and pigs and, you know, it's, it's wild out there. So we just have fun, you know, we just have a blast with it.
Yeah. It sounds like you have a life worth, worth living. I'm so, I'm so glad you're able to continue on with it. So as you know, with the fitness show, we've got two big, big asks at the end. So number one is our communication tip of the show. David, what is your advice for people to connect with others better? I think the best way to communicate with people, especially if you're talking to them, is to look them in the eye. Yes. We used to do that when we had COVID.
You don't have COVID anymore, so just keep looking people in the eye and give them your full attention. If you don't understand it, repeat it if they're telling you something. That way they know you're engaged. Brilliant. Brilliant. Simple. I love it.
It drives me crazy when people just randomly look elsewhere when they're talking to me and i feel like look at me please i'm over here so spectacular tip and then song of the show what you got who's your who's your artist and your song and people are going to listen while they're running and they're doing angry ups this is yes this is one of my all-time old-school motivational songs it's on my playlist and it's by deaf leopard and it goes back to their on through the night album and
it's called stage fright okay that's i recognize that one look look it up you'll love it all right deaf leopard you can't go wrong with deaf leopard so stage fright everybody yep yep yep take a listen actually so you commented a couple weeks ago when i published the spotify my fitness spotify playlist and wasn't it you who reached out and said hey i the 80s rock.
Helped you through the end of a run yes perfectly too i was up in the hills and it was funny because it started with journey and then just went to deaf leopard van halen it was just cranking it was perfect nice i'm like i'm patting myself on the back i'm glad it worked out there's a mishmash right you can get some rap you can get some disco i'm glad you got the 80s rock when you needed it yep and you have some country in there it's all good yeah i love it all i love it all you didn't have
your friend in there though which friend oh god no no what's her name the stallion. Megan. I don't have any Megan Thee Stallion on my list. No, I didn't hear any. I didn't go deep enough, I guess, but I don't think you do. Okay. Okay. I'll double check. I will look into it, but I adore you. You really are a bright spot in my days when I see you're, it's at MarineDad5. Is that your handle? That's me. Maureen Dad 5 on Instagram. And yeah, you're just, you're such a delightful
go-getter and you're always working so hard. And it's like everything good in the world wrapped up in one human. So thank you for being a part of my world, David. Thank you for coming in. Thank you. It's the show. Thank you, Fitz. And you know, I know I speak for everybody when we say we love you too. It means everything. Thank you. Okay, David. So you got to look in the camera and with gusto, tell everybody to get to work.
Listen everybody get to work love you bye bye thanks fitz hi this is rudy novotny the voice of america's marathons we all love how much running has benefited every aspect of our lives so much so that most of us only wish we'd started sooner wouldn't it be wonderful to give the opportunity to children of today well you can the morning mile is a before school walking and running program that gives children a chance to start each day in an active way while enjoying fun
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