Mike check, mike check, let's do it. What up, though, and welcome back to I'm growing man, shaman john d in the building. Um, I want to say good morning, and it's been like a long time since I've actually been out. I've been comatose for the last six days with some type of virus Definitely gave me some excruciating pain that I've never experienced before, but today is my first day out of bed rest and how to get some episodes done, and I wanted really to talk about this because this experience let me know, on so many different levels, that I can improve my health.

I'm really big on what I put in my body and I'm not putting the right things in my body because I'm the only one that gets sick in my house and I know I work at a school, but at the end of the day, I get sick at least once or twice a year now, and that wasn't the case, and I think it's all started when I started to really watch what I put in my body. So I need to figure out what I can do to increase it, to reduce the amount of times I'm getting sick. It may have a lot to do with me working in a public school system. I get it, but I need to figure a way out around that because I'm I lost a whole week with my kids and testing is coming up and that's our March Madness. That's what we've been working for, and this last week just took me out. We did have a mistake during my medication, though. I'm really big into health and my wife's best friend is pretty big in health and she told her to just boil some ginger in a big pot and let them drink all of it and it'll flush out of my body. And I drink about 70 ounces in probably a half a day. So in my head, I'm going to be okay. I'm drinking fluids Excuse me, you can hear me, I'm congested, but I'm drinking plenty of fluids, taking medication, staying inside the bed, taking a shower like once or twice a day because I was sweating, and then probably by the fifth day.

So I did the ginger on Tuesday. So I got sick Saturday, but the ginger cart came on Tuesday, wednesday, tuesday night, 8 pm to 8 am. Wednesday morning was the worst 12 hours of my existence and I couldn't figure it out, so I ended up looking up online. You're not supposed to have more than two to three cups of ginger tea a day and I had ginger raw tea. When I tell you, I looked it up and it was like it could give you diarrhea and gas, like it wasn't much the diarrhea part, it was more so the gas, because it wouldn't release and it was almost like a I don't know.

I was having baby contractions where, like in the middle of the night, I was just screaming like hell and I was crying in my face. I was like, oh my God, what am I doing? And I kept thinking about, like God, what did I do to deserve this pain, pain? There was a part where I was going through the pain and I was like I'm gonna meditate. Yeah, that didn't last too long. Um, I tried several times and it's just, the pain was just so bad and I kept like looking at myself, comparing myself to like navy seals you know how they be going through excruciating pain and I was like I am not a navy seal, dude, and the way they do mind over matter is unbelievable, excuse me anyways. Um, the way that they they take on pain.

I commend any and everybody who's able to take on pain and just take it. I couldn't do it. I've had tough situations in my life, but this is what I wanted to do. I've been doing studying on Buddhism, confucianism, taoism, the big three religion, any type of spirituality where you can become one in yourself, and I was seeing people who go through the toughest pains, but you don't know it because they're doing it silently. And I really did try. So I commend all of you who are on that next level of being able to remove physical pain from your mental capacity and be able to just take what you need to take, because I definitely woke up my household a few times throughout the night. I think my wife was extremely scared because I don't think she's ever seen me in pain that way and my eyes was watering. I just wanted to stop. So I just again I wanted to shout y'all out. But be careful. Those of you that drink ginger tea or have not been exposed to ginger tea, don't do more than two to three cups a day. I wouldn't even do three cups, just do two cups. I'm not really for sure what it does, the benefits of it, but I know if you over consume it, you won't get any of those benefits. So please be careful on how you do that. So please be careful on how you do that my symptoms were changing throughout the day, I mean throughout the week.

One day it would be chills. Well, chills stayed majority of the time. Out of the six days I was cold four of them for sure Congested a lot of phlegm trying to remove it, ilegm, trying to remove it. I'm still trying to remove it. When I woke up this morning I promised I was clear and then I started washing clothes and cleaning up the room, disinfecting things, and I just got fatigued.

I was like shortness of breath. That was a part of it too. Like on the third day I was having extreme shortness of breath. That was a part of it too. Like on the third day I was having extreme shortness of breath Cause, I guess, cause I had been laying down for so long, my back was hurting, but when I got up it was like I couldn't move too much Cause I was like I couldn't breathe. I had a real tough cough. I was wheezing. Golly, please delete that part out. Yeah, I was wheezing and overall, just, I was in and out of sleep majority of the week Just hoping that I would wake up and it would be gone. By the grace of God, last night I was able to go to sleep pretty early. I woke up about one o'clock and I was like I'm ready to go to work and unfortunately can't go to work because we were off. Today Spring break has started, so that was a complete blessing that I had enough days to actually recuperate.

But one of the benefits of being married is that if I had to do this by myself, I probably somebody would have just came looking for me, because what my wife was, the way she ran the household. We have two kids, she has to work, they have after school things and I was dying and we have two dogs and she operated as if it was just like clockwork and she did tell me she missed me. That made me feel good. But overall I can just say, like my wife, she nursed me back to health and the blessing that she's a nurse, but she hasn't been on the floor in years. You know what I'm saying. So she was doing research, trying to do whatever she could to prepare me. Now we have a medicine cabinet as if we're a baby pharmacy. So whatever, if anything happens in this household, we have it. We have a large supply of it, um, but I want to thank her because she allowed me to just recover a lot of times before my mind.

I'm like I got to get back to work and I did. I woke up every morning like sending work to the kids so that they could practice just fundamentals of stuff that we've been doing and that was tired and exhausting in itself. But now, like I'm just so blessed that my wife, um, she got me back here. Um, so those of you that are doing it alone, I am so sorry that you weren't blessed with an opportunity to not go through that, because that is tough. Um, like it was so tough.

I told my wife. I was like, hey, I love you if I don't wake up. She's like don't be silly. I was like, no, I want you to know my last words if I don't wake up. It's like you never know, and then I'll tell my kids you know, I love them too. It's just like you just exaggerating dramatic. It's like that's not taking things for granted, like I just want you to know. Like if this is the last time you heard me, at least let those be the words. I don't want you to be thinking like are you dramatic? And then I die. So that was crazy because I was just in and out of it.

But I want to tell you about kids, though. My kids did not care at all. The only time I saw my kids is if my wife told my kids to bring me some medicine or refill my water or bring me some food. They did not come looking for me and I was thinking like, would they have gone looking for their mother? Of course they would have. And then I was like dang, how significant am I in this household. I'm like I guess we're just used for different reasons.

And it bothered me in the beginning, because I've had this conversation before, like hey, I'm in a house, like y'all can check on me to say hello, and I think that they're just not present enough to care at the moment when I was sick, you know, I know that if I died that they would be hurt and traumatized, but I don't. I guess I need to do something more being present in their life to let them know hey, when I'm out of your life, you know you can check on me, and I think I need to say that more because I do. I recognize a lot of older people. They look for young people to check on them. They want that and, being that, I'm becoming the older person. Now I need to just let them know my expectations, because I got a phone call recently from my mother and she was so bothered that I was not available last night.

I told her the night before. I said I've been sick and we have been communicating like an hour, hour and a half each night. Now, mind you, this has never happened outside of the last two weeks, week and a half, week and a half. Now I'm going to go two weeks Because when I got sick I told her I couldn't. I wouldn't be able to talk as long. And then last night she called me and she left a voice message. I missed it. I didn't check the voice message, but I called her back and said hey, mama, I'm sick, if I don't talk to you tonight, I'll talk to you tomorrow. She sent me these messages.

She says she knows I'm sick and then she just like flips on me, like like I'm doing it on purpose, like I'm not calling her, and it kind of made me feel a certain type of way. And my wife reeled me back in because that's what she's really good. She was like your mother is really concerned, like my mother said some mean things to me, like like, if you don't call me back, don't call me anymore. And I was like, oh, you can't be talking to me like this. And my I was like, oh, you can't be talking to me like this. And my wife was like, hey, you don't know where she is right now. Mentally she's worried about her son. She has not heard from you. You guys have been talking a lot lately, a lot more. If you're not available, she overreacts, just like you. And I was like I'm tripping. She's a lot older, you know.

Um, we're in the process of trying to move her here. So it's like what can we do to convince her that it's a good idea? Because she has a husband, but neither one of them can take care of each other because their body is like a bag of bones. One of them fall over the other, one can't help the other one because the other one's so decrepit and we would like to move our mother here. So that's the plan. Anyway, we're trying to convince her. She's like what am I going to do here? I'm like whatever you want, except work, don't worry about money, don't worry about eating, cooking or nothing. Just come and just like try to enjoy your grandkids. You know, let's build a relationship we never had when I was a kid, you know, just trying to convince her, but you know she's been in her practices for a very long time and to convince her it's I don't know. Uh, I don't know if I have the right words yet, but we're gonna see her this week because my daughter is turning 18. So that is another episode I would like to go into.

But just be more proactive when it comes to what you put in your body. And this is one thing too at this age I'm 47. And I told my friends I'm sick, and it was like you've been to the doctor and I'm like nah. And it was like man, you too old to be not going to the doctor after two or three days. And I was just like, hey, right, but I thought it was going to be one of those things where you just take some medicine and in two or three days you're going to be back at them. That was not the case. I did end up going to the doctor with that.

But don't wait until the last minute to go to the doctor. I don't know I'm a bad example of it, but I won't do that again. Like if I feel like something's wrong. I'm not saying overreacting to something's wrong, but where I need some medication or I need to be looked at, I need to get a professional opinion. I'm gonna do it. And I haven't been. I haven't. I haven't ever one ever been the one to want to go to the doctor.

Because, you know, my father always thought well, he always said like if you ain't bleeding or like if you ain't dying, you don't need to be going to the doctor. And I'm not afraid of the doctor, I'm not. I just I'm bothered by wasting my time because all they're going to tell me is take this medicine and stay in a bed. And I got to pay a co-pay for you to do what I was already going to do in the first place. But what if it isn't something as simple as that? Let them determine that, because I did not go to school to say that this is the best way to do things. So shout out to my friends who told me I need to get my life together and go to the doctor and take that more seriously. And I will. That will not happen again, and if it does, it'll be by accident. But me and my wife have discussed that.

From now on, I need to be more diligent about my health if I'm going to do the things that I say I'm gonna do. Recovery is here, probably got a couple of days before I'm fully a hundred percent. The weather has been a little weird here in Michigan, but the sun is out and spring is coming and I'm excited about it. Um for sure, what was I about to say? Yes, I lost like nine pounds too.

Uh, I did not want to lose my nine pounds this way, but it was majority water weight anyway. Like I drink like 100 ounces of water a day and I am at the weight that I was aiming at, but now I have to maintain it. I'm pretty sure I can maintain it. But I did want to say that you got to be careful. I lost nine pounds in six days and that's a lot. That's a lot of pounds. So I'm going to be very mindful of you know how this weight gets back on me, because I know it's going to come back.

But, like I said, I've oh yeah, I didn't even tell you guys I've uh, you know, y'all already know I'm really big on routines, but my routines in the mornings I want I'm gonna start doing these squats, squats, push-ups and flexibility exercises, because to me I feel like at this age we gotta warm my body up and I wake up at 4 o'clock, 3.30, 4. God willing, 3.30,4, but it's always before because I can't get the full amount of sleep. I'm working on that also, but I'm really excited about the things I'm adding to my routine, um, and I hope you guys are finding ways to strengthen what you're trying to produce for later. Y'all make today better than yesterday. Don't worry about anything you can't control. G-a-t-a. Get after that action or that action will get after you. Be great on purpose.