Hello, and welcome to the Gifted Life Podcast, where we have conversations about organ tissue and ideonation and transplantation. You can always find us at thegiftedlife.org. I'm Roy Steele. I'm Joey Boudreau.
I'm Sarah Bligman. Coming up on the Gifted Life today. We'll be talking to a wonderful lady who rose to fame on American Idol and brought donation to the forefront. Find out why here.
We're also going to be talking about how to deal with the exhaustion of in-person socialization. Come up. All that and more right here, thegiftedlife.org. Here on the Gifted Life Podcast, we are so excited.
We have a star joining us. Althea, do not judge my singing. How are you? I'm wonderful.
How are you guys? Good. This is Althea Grace from American Idol fame. That's how you got your start.
That's how we learned about you. How are you feeling today? I'm doing wonderful. I'm wonderful.
Oh, so amazing. We were sitting here in the podcast studio. We were talking about when we first saw you on TV, beautiful, bubbly, smooth, comfortable on camera at 21 years of age. And we're like, oh, we're going to listen to some songs and everything's going to be great.
And then boom, your life story hit. And it was like, you have traveled this journey that you shared with the world and are sharing now with us. And we just thought, whoa, we have to talk to her. So thank you so much for joining us.
Let's talk about that donation component in the little miracle in your life. Yeah. So I have a two-year-old daughter named Lennon. And she was diagnosed with a genetic disorder when she was 10 months old.
And her genetic disorder is called tuberous sclerosis. And it's a pretty rare genetic disorder. Her was an imitation. So neither her dad nor I have it.
So it was just our doctor likes to say that we won the lottery of genetic disorder. And that's what we're going to do. And so I'm going to talk about this. Because it's not a fun, easy road, but it's a beautiful community of people who are so supportive.
But because of her genetic disorder, she has tubers that can grow in any organ system. She was born with brain tumors, heart and kidney. And her brain tumors cause seizures. And she's actually been seizure-free for quite a while.
It's hard to put a date on it, but probably a few months now without any. But the doctors came to the conclusion that her anti-seizure medication caused her to go into liver failure. So in 2020, we basically, we were in front of Chicago. I lived in LA at one point, went back to Chicago, and came back to LA to visit some family.
And literally the day before we were supposed to fly home, she woke up one day and she just wasn't feeling well. She threw up. She was kind of acting a little weird. And I just thought it was normal, like, baby behavior.
They throw up on you all the time. And so we were like, okay, give her a bath. She'll feel better. She had no fever, no other symptoms.
And then, so we decided to still go visit our friends. And we walked out the door of our Airbnb that we were staying in. And she threw up Bial. So it was like, I mean, it was neon.
Like I've never seen anything like that. And that was the first time I was like, okay, this thing was weird. And she started to act kind of funny. So we took her to urgent care, thinking maybe she's having seizures to make her throw up.
And they checked her out and were like, yeah, you need to take her to the Children's Hospital. Like she needs an MRI. She needs to be seen. And mind you again, she woke up totally normal and was just progressively getting worse over the course of the day.
So we brought her to the Children's Hospital in Los Angeles. And by the time we got there, she had it. I was still nursing. She had a nurse all day.
She was really lethargic. She was just kind of like, she's also this kid never cries. Let me tell you, like she has never been a crier. And she was just whimpering.
And my arms, my hands, she was getting stiff. She was lethargic. And so the doctors were like, okay, we need a cat's dead. We need to check her meningitis.
We need to do all this stuff. And I mean, by an absolute miracle, the ED doctor thought to run her liver enzymes. And they were, I mean, I can't remember the exact numbers, but when he came and told me, I was like, oh, this is bad. Like it was, you know, it was really, really bad.
He came in. He's like, I think she's a liver failure. I don't know why. I don't know what's happening.
She also like, she wasn't jaundice yet. And no other things that would indicate that. And yeah, then we ended up spending the next, we spent six days in ICU with her. She, she got immediately put out.
It was like, they told us she was a liver failure. And then within hours, we were meeting transplant doctors. They were evaluating us to see if we were, I didn't know that they do this, but they evaluate like the whole family to see if it's something you can handle, which was, that was my, you know, they're like, ask you us questions about like, you know, what, what we do, what our relationship is like, like all these things. And they put her on the list.
She was status one A. Thank God I did not look up what that meant until after. And so they had her on the transplant list for two days. And she was on dialysis, like ECMO, she was intubated.
She was in a coma. She was, you know, not sedated at all. And after two days, they actually took her off the transplant list. They told us she was too sick to have surgery.
There's a point where she, she had like two central lines and arterial line, PIV is like all the stuff in her arterial line was to watch her blood pressure and there was a point where I saw it hit 40 over 18. And I was like, is there even blood pumping in her butt like half of you hit that low? And we took her off the transplant list for two days, put her back on once they got her stable enough. And on January 15th, 2020, we went, we were sleeping in her ICU room.
And I remember sitting by her bed and being like, you know, the doctor told me she wasn't going to make it. I sat by her bed and I was like, I love you. It is okay. If you're not, if you don't want to hang on any longer, like, I'm, it's okay.
Like I'm going to be okay. You do what you got to do. Went to bed and within two hours, our nurse woke us up and she's like, Hey, I have a phone call for you. And I was like, okay.
She has me, her nursing phone and they're like, we found a liver. It's high risk. There was a history of like intravenous drug use. And I woke her dad up and I was like, it's high risk.
I'm saying yes. I don't care. And I was sure. Well, and then aren't you early twenties?
Yeah. I'm going through this roller coaster with you. And I'm like, Oh my goodness. Like, what is happening?
Like, did you know about donation? Like what's going through your heart and your brain? Yeah. I mean, I had London when I was 19 and then I turned 20.
She got diagnosed with her genetic disorder and already that kind of like split my world upside down. I was like, Oh my God, I had this like perfectly healthy baby. Sorry to backtrack a little bit. I didn't know I was pregnant with her either.
I thought it was seven months pregnant. Wow. So like, I'm young. I didn't know I was pregnant.
I was like, okay, I'm having a baby. I had this perfectly healthy baby. I was actually, I took her on the road for a while. She got diagnosed with this genetic disorder.
And now they're like, okay, your baby's going to die. She doesn't get a liver transplant. And actually back in my grandmother passed away in 2012. So I'm not even like the early 2000s, my grandma had a liver transplant.
But very similar thing. It was like, she was actually, she abused alcohol, killed her liver and was at the very, very, very bottom of the list. And she actually got a liver that was, I believe high risk as well. And that's the only reason she even got it was that nobody else wanted it kind of a thing.
And yeah. So when I told me that my one year old was needing a liver transplant, I was like, but like old people get liver transplants. Like I was a college get liver transplants. What are you talking about?
Yeah. So it was, this was a brand new thing to me. I recently looked at the stats too. And she was one of 500 liver transplants, pediatric liver transplants last year.
So that's crazy. I think, you know, two, two children every day of last year got a transplant. So I'm a new father myself, you know, I have a six month old and I'm in my late 40s with my first baby. And I've been in the transplant world in the donation world for 18, 20 years and I'm very inspired and in all at the way you were able to process and handle everything that was thrown away because I can tell you firsthand, there's no way I would be as strong as you in that same situation.
And it's incredible hearing you talking about it. Thank you. I'm wondering. So of course you had the experience with your grandmother in the past.
But again, you were young, you were a child at the time. So obviously understanding the entirety of transplant and donation and how that works, you know, wasn't really at your forefront back then. I'm wondering when they told you that she would need a transplant, if, you know, like how difficult was that to process for you, you know, knowing that it might be a baby that's going to be dying, you know, and all of those things that go with that. Yeah.
I think that the, you know, it's a very, very helpless feeling. You know, like when they told me she was in liver failure, immediately like, I'm also, my dad's, my dad's in science. My dad has a degree in chemistry and I've always been very, you know, like, I was raised by like two highly educated people who very much so are like, research and like, you know, they like to know everything about everything. So, you know, immediately I'm like, okay, what can we do?
What can we do? Cause because I was the other thing, they had no idea what the cause was. And, you know, at least when you know what the cause is, there are other things that you can, you know, try to do to slow down the process. Right.
And so, you know, I had no idea what was causing it. So there's no way to slow down that process when you have no fix. And so for me, it was like, you know, I, not to negate, not in any way to negate a father's role, but there's something like, I mean, literally biologically and chemically that, that clicks when you have, when your mom and you give birth and you have a baby. And so, you know, every single time we've gotten these like terrible, you know, these scary diagnoses, it's like something has always just kicked in where I'm like, okay, this is what we have to do.
Like, how do we do it? What do we do? Like, now being a year and a half out, there's some, now it's things have come up where I'm like, okay, like I need to like, you know, go to some therapy and do some healing and like let go of some of that PTSD that like in the moment, I just didn't cross, like I just was like, okay, I can't think about, you know, myself, like I was not putting my oxygen mask on first. And you know, in that saying, like I, in that moment, I was like, all right, what do I do for London?
And so when they told me she was a liver failure, immediately I was like, okay, livers regenerate. I can donate what partial livers? Like, let's do it right now. First of all, they were like, you know, we strongly discourage the parents who's going to be taking care of the child post transplant, they didn't want to donate.
But then also like, Lennon's liver was 95% corroded. And so she needed a full liver. And I remember that, you know, when they told me that it was like, I was like, so baby has to die, like, you know, like somebody else has to lose their baby for me to keep mine. Like, you know, how do you reconcile with that?
And it ended up being an adult actually who passed away. And so they basically, you know, shape her liver, an adult liver, back down to an infant size. And funny enough, actually, when she came out of transplant, they were pumping her full of enough sedation that would like knocked me out for a week. But because she has this adult liver, it was working so much faster.
But there was still definitely like, you know, she's too young to have these feelings. But like, for me, I feel like I had survivors guilt, if that makes sense. It wasn't me who survived or went through it. But, you know, being the pediatric ICU is a terrible place to be.
I never want, it would been there three times now, three separate days. And I never want to step foot in one ever again. And they were, my whole family flew out and spent the week in the hospital with us. And this was just prior to COVID, by the way.
So we got so lucky that this happened three months before COVID started. So I was able to have my whole family out here. And, you know, it was like our family, like 15 people all day, every day at a table in the cafeteria next to two other families doing the same thing, you know? And two of the other families that we were spending time around that week lost their kids, but we were there.
And like the kid in the room next to us died while we were in the hospital. So I mean, not like, yeah, all of the things that go along with, you know, it's like the greatest joy in the world for them to save your child. But there's a lot of guilt and like sadness that also comes with that, for sure. So many things that you discussed, we've discussed or that happened to you.
We've discussed on a number of episodes and they all happened to you like at one time. You know, you know, you talked about her getting so sick and being a status one, a, you know, and for the listeners, you know, basically that puts you at the top of the list because you are the sickest person that's of that size at that time in the nation. So you have hours to live and you talked about, you know, her decompensating, you know, the point where your blood pressure, her blood pressure was 40 over 18 and then she was too sick to transmit because of course we've talked about it before, you know, you have to be strong enough to be able to survive the surgery itself. So, you know, people think, well, if you status one, a, you should stay on the list, but you know, you have to actually get pulled off for an inactive for a minute, you know, until you can get strong, stronger again.
And then you talk about the increased risk thing, which is interesting because I have so often like when people, people contact me because of my role, you know, so I'll get, I'll get contacted by random, not random, but different people in the community of friends that family or friends, friends that know that I'm in the donation world and they ask me, you know, look, I have to be put on the list. What do I, you know, what are the big things that you would suggest and the first thing I tell everyone is say yes to increase risk because it's scary. And what it is, it's increased risk for receiving an organ that may have hepatitis B and HIV. And but the thing is we do testing that cuts that window down that you may be infected down to just a week or two.
You would have had to, like the donor would have had had had, have just gotten infected within the past few days. And then it transmit. And then of course, as we all know, you know, now, you know, if you can live with HIV, right? You know, imagine Johnson still alive, you know, my favorite basketball player of all time, 1992, you know, 1991 to 1992 is when he found out and I thought that he was a death sentence and he's still doing great.
Hepatitis C has a cure and hepatitis B has a vaccine, you know, so the biggest things, you know, so for you, I'm so happy that you were able to say yes to that increase risk because that's what my other statement is oftentimes that's the last offer that you get. So we didn't even think that one, you know, we were right. I mean, told that, you know, a doctor looked me in the eyes and was like, this is probably not going to happen. And actually, I'm planning to go on the, the donor's family actually lives not too far from us.
So I'm going to need them very soon. And like I get like choked up every time I even think about it. Like, you know, what do you say to like mom to mom? Like what do you, you know, what do you say?
How do you react to that? But yeah, it's like, you know, at the end of the day, you know, people, people die and people are going to die every day. And you know, that was about, we had to, we were like, okay, at least if London doesn't make it another baby who's in her situation, maybe can be saved by her passing, you know, so it's like that there is so much beauty in like, because I was like, oh my God, another person's baby has to die. And I'm like, but you know what, everybody's journey is around and it's going to happen regardless.
And you know, that was so meant to be for us, you know, like that risk is so worth the reward. I was like, I'm, you know, obviously also they test the organ right away. Like they know that, you know, there's, there's not those things they'll tell you, you know, if the organ has, you know, this and this and that, the risk is still there. Of course, they can show up later, you know, all those things.
But yeah, it's like, also if we had flown from Chicago, you know, that, that liver that we got out here wouldn't have been available there. It's like all those things line up for a reason and they're meant to be, you know, in that way. And like the, the woman who passed away who went and got her liver, like, she was, she was like a songwriter. She was like in the music.
And artists like all these things where it's like when her parents are telling me this, I'm like, how beautiful is that? Like, you know, the not only, you know, Lennon has like music in her blood, but you know, now also like, you know, this person that's a part of her forever also was like an artist and into music and like, that's just incredible. Yeah. And you mentioned speaking of music because you were on American Idol and you sang for everyone in original song and correct me if I'm wrong, but did you, didn't you write that song while you were in the hospital with Lennon?
Yeah. Yeah, I wrote it actually. I wrote it right after the first time we got out of the hospital. So our first day was three and a half months long.
Our second day was about a month and a half and then like, you know, intermittent. So we talked about that. But the first time we came home, she actually came home. I basically like, like the only other thing now that I can think of that I want to do besides music is actually nursing because when she came home, all the scores and the terminology.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's like, there are things that I had to do at home that the nurses on the floor didn't even know, like didn't even learn how to do those things in nursing school. You know, it's like, so she came home with a central line and was getting all of her nutrition via IV nutrition when we went home.
And you know, she was still like, she was still sick after her transplant. Like she still had, she had major complications. She would have a really hard time. And the song that I wrote was like, you know, I had started it in the hospital thinking like, you know, Lennon is not going to make it.
And these are all the things that I would have done with her that I wish I would have done with her on the last, you know, if that was our last day together. And then I continued writing and just thinking about how, how like my world flipped upside down where it was like, you know, sometimes when you're a mom, especially when you like, I've always been, I've always been like a stay at home on plus working. So it's like I'm home with her all day, but I'm still bent at night going out and doing, you know, like gigs and things. And you know, like you get frustrated at the parents and times, you're like, I just want to like sleep in until 11 a.m.
Like, like I was at, I was at an event until like three in the morning. I still wake up at eight a.m. You know, I have an alarm clock that goes off no matter what I do. And you know, sometimes you wake up and you're like, I don't want to have to sit here and like pour this material and like take her for the part.
And like, you know, sometimes it's just tedious. And now I have such a different perspective where every day I wake up and try to wake up with a mindset that, oh, I get to wake up into those things. Like I get to wake up and, you know, now, I mean, now it's like being a mom plus being a nurse. So it's like, I get to wake up and do all her meds.
I get to wake up and take care of it. I get to wake up and make sure that she's safe and healthy and happy. And like, you know, I get to do all those things instead of having saying, oh, I have to do that. I love that song.
I think you know Saturday morning, obviously you can Google it because she's everywhere. But you talk about making breakfast, rocking a sleep. And the thing that really touched me and is like, Jill's down the spine when you say, she was on feet because some of our recipient moms babies were diagnosed so little. And I said, we just never knew if we would be able to buy shoes.
If you walk out here and be able to shoot on their feet. And so I was like, Oh my gosh, like, so your song, you're up on stage. And it's like familiar to people, you know, across the country, the things that you're going through and things that you're singing about. And I assume that's part of your therapy too, is writing and performing and singing.
Absolutely. I mean, the songs that I wrote, there's another song actually that I wrote that like, I actually wrote it during that first week that she was sick. Like before the transplant before we knew she was going to get one. Like when I thought that she was just, you know, dying.
And I was sitting there writing this song and I had no idea like, normally I'm so clear headed about what I'm writing about. And I was writing the song and I was like, I don't even know what this is about. Like, I'm so confused like where this is coming from. And I realized basically like the song with the song is called LA County.
And it was basically being like, I felt like I was channeling Lenin and I was singing from her perspective. Or she was being like, you know, being in LA has never been anything but scary and hard. And maybe this one time being here can become a blessing and like, please just like bring me out of this, you know, this pain that I've experienced here. Yeah, so it's been a really, it's a, I always say I'm like, I don't know what the heck people do who don't write songs or don't have like a creative outlet.
Because like for me, that's, I mean, that's the way that I'm able to like fully process the things that I'm experiencing. And then I know that she's still little, but have you thought about how to help her honor her donor, understand donation? Are we to that part yet? Yeah, so we, it was a donate life posted about like donor remembrance day the other day.
And so we actually, when you walk into my apartment, there's, there's this like blank wall that's small, it's maybe like two feet wide and it's right in between like the hallway in the kitchen. And on that wall, the only thing hanging up on the wall is the frames, the letter from the donor's parents. And it was a letter from them with a picture of her. And we have that hanging up on the wall.
And like around that wall to you, I like to do like daily affirmations with London. And so I'll write them out and talk about them and I'll put them, put them up on the wall like I'm sticking us. And just every so often, you know, I'll bring London up to the, to the frame and just be like, do you know who that is? And kind of tell her the story and the other day when it was donor remembrance day, I woke up with her and just like told her about the story.
You know, I don't know how much she understands yet. But I just, I want to start that conversation early too. You know, because the other thing is so many people will like, I like to post pictures of her with her stars and like with her, her, you know, she has like her big surgery scar. And she has all these scars on her chest from her central lines and she has a G tube and all these things.
And I remember when she got her transplant people being like, oh, that poor girl like that nasty scar. And I was like, I told my friends and family, I was like, you know what, I say this in the kindest way. I don't want you to say that anymore. I don't want you to speak that way about it because the thing that I like to talk and start the conversation now with Lenin is like, that scar that you have because I have surgery scars.
I have, I had a C session with London. So I have a nice big scar from that. And I like to talk to her about that. It's like, you know, starting young, starting with her being so young, having her understand that what she went through was beautiful and like, absolutely incredible.
And yeah, I mean, if she doesn't understand it yet, at least just always having that open conversation with her so that she can, you know, really understand like the beauty of what she went through and not many people go through that in their life. And, you know, she's a baby and also to, you know, she was one when she had her transplant and the likelihood of her needing another one day is high or, you know, needing other interventions to deal with having transplants deliver or high, you know, she went into rejection this year when she got sick. And so, yeah, and definitely like keeping that conversation with her very open and very honest already now. I love that.
Y'all are so cute. She's cute. You're precious. Just let it all.
We were having a bet in here about her name. Was she named after anybody famous? Come on, come on. She was named after John Lennon.
I told you. Yeah. I had a list of names, actually all musical names, funny enough. I had, if she was a girl, Lenin or Marley, we were a couple of my parents, I was named Marley as well.
And that's right. Got that name. So, Lenin or Marley, she was a girl and then she was a boy, Miles, for both Miles Davis and Buddy Miles. And then Jude, after pay Jude.
Hey, Jude. Yeah. We all sing, not as great as you sing. I have to agree with that.
But what are you guys up to? I'm assuming she's on an upswing, we hope, and then what's going on in your life? Yeah, she's doing really great. She still has like, you know, just post, honestly still post transplant things to deal with.
Feeding issues that we're still working on. She has a G tube and we're just really focusing on getting her to a place where she can, I hate the word normal, like get to what her normal will look like. And get, you know, whatever that's going to look like for her. And, but, you know, she's absolutely insane.
She's like the most rowdy two year old ever. She dances all day long. She just wants to do parkour all over my apartment and she's an animal. And then for me, I guess, even the big thing is trying to like overcome the pandemic.
And hopefully get some shows going soon and not holding out too much hope for this year. But really starting to get back into the swing of things, put out some more music. Yeah, just trying to put out a lot more music for everybody. We are fans.
We want to follow you. If our listeners also want to follow you, support you. Where do we send them? Everything is Althea Grace music.
It's like Instagram, Facebook, all that good stuff. I want to try this one with Althea Grace music. Awesome. We'd love to have you guys back when Lynn is talking.
We'd love to talk to her. Goodness. We would love to do that. Follow your career as well.
Thanks for taking the time. Thanks for putting donation on the World Wide Stage. We just thought you were perfect. Awesome.
Thank you guys so much for having me. It's really beautiful to American Idol has really allowed me to connect with so many people who understand this world. So I'm really honored that you guys asked me to come on and that you guys are doing this as well. It's really beautiful.
On the gift of life guys, we always take a moment for mental health. Yes, and I'm eager to find out what Sarah's got prepared for us today. Oh, what is it Sarah? Okay guys.
We're going to prepare for our post-pandemic socialization. It's coming here. Are we excited? Are we normal or regular normal?
It's going to be a totally new normal because I think we're not going to, I don't think we're ever going to go back to like how it was before, but we're going to see some similarities, including in-person socialization. In-person. What? It's going to be so awkward at first.
I think we all forgot how to converse effectively in-person. Why are you looking at me? Why are you looking at me? Well, it's true.
It's happened. It's happened. Exactly. It's really hard.
And I think not just, you know, like socialization, but I think we have to recognize that a lot of technology that we weren't using in terms of when we're remote communicating is it's back. We're going to have to get up a little bit earlier to get ready, to go to work. It's going to take a lot of energy to get to this new normal that we're about to experience. And I'm really excited about it.
But I think I was hoping to give you all some tips on how to pace it out a little bit so that we don't burn ourselves out and get exhausted right away. Ready for those. So first is to just recognize that it is there's going to be some extra energy. It takes to be in-person and socialize again.
So just recognize that and give yourself a little bit of a break. Take it one step at a time. Start small. We're about to have to do small talk again.
Do you want to remember that? Yep. I love it. I mean, I'm so excited.
You're so good at it too. Well, because I'm tired of the zoom and the virtuals and it's fun to be able to get back and have normal conversation to me. It's challenging, especially working, you know, again, we work in regions and not seeing some staff that I would have normally seen multiple times a year. And there are some that I was hired over a year ago that I haven't even really met in person because of everything with the pandemic.
So I can't wait. Yes. It's not as overwhelming for me because I feel like just everybody's in the same boat. Like everybody's in the same boat.
You know, we're all the same level. And so we are all going to have those wrong pains, right? It's not as overwhelming. I guess not that I think about knowing that we're all going to be taking it one day at a time.
But essentially, like we've, you know, are mentally we have adjusted to conversing remotely. And so now I think just recognize that that it's going to be some exhaustion. There's going to be a lot of, I guess you're going to be tired from talking physically in person and all that stuff. So give yourself prioritize some downtime.
Prioritize some time that you don't have to converse too much where you can, you know, just kind of check out a little bit and know that that's okay. We're all going to experience it at one point. The need to check out a little bit. So just recognize that and just talk about the process, especially with kids.
I feel like young kids during the pandemic had a lot less stimulus than we had when we were growing up because we were out and about in the grocery store. Lots of sounds, things that we had the kids today aren't going to have. So just make sure you talk it through with them, tell them how, you know, it's a little bit overwhelming for you as well. Make sure that they know that they can verbalize their feelings, if they're feeling overwhelmed to tell you by all the stimulus they're receiving.
And guys, just take a day by day. Give yourself some downtime. I still feel like kids are so resilient and they're going to adjust better than we anticipate. Like we always set certain expectations for kids and then how often do they exceed those?
You know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, we're going for me. But if you have kids with sensory issues, right, you know, know that they're about to get a lot of sensory information that they were not receiving for a year. So just prepare yourself, prepare them. And I think just give ourselves a break and know that, you know that, you know, we have adjusted so much to communication, even Lori, like I know your kids are back in school, but they still have a mask on.
Kids aren't reading lips. You know, the whole, there's going to be a whole different way that we have to adjust our brains back to the full communication style. A lot of the nonverbal type stuff, facial expressions and stuff have been completely taken out of communication and will be reintroduced after a year of nothing. Yes.
For me, it's not even just that. It's like new boundaries, new expectations and things like, you know, right, it's weird. Like, so I kind of do, I shake hands, do a fist bump, you know, people I haven't seen in a year, I want to give them a hug, but I can't, you know, so those are different expectations that, you know, in the past was a normal thing that I've got to reset my brain a little bit because, you know, until this completely fizzles out, you know, we probably won't be that invading that intimate space inside those six feet hugging and things like that. Yeah, I felt bad walking to the first public place without the mask and, you know, it was loud.
It was like, wait, is this okay? Is this right? I know. I know.
I know. It's hard to adjust to for sure. So I'm sure children, yeah, as well, you know, just start small, make sure you recognize that your brain is about to go through some changes to readjust. So just give yourself that recovery time.
Got it. All right, guys, you have a topic you'd like Sarah to cover. All you have to do is email us info at thegiftedlife.org. And our question of answer segment today, Joe, this one's coming your way.
Are there special considerations made in the world of donation when it comes to an adult versus a pediatric patient? It's a great question. And, and yes, there are in the reason is that obviously there are many more adult donors, right, than pediatric donors. Fortunately, obviously there are many less pediatric deaths.
So because of that, the biggest consideration when we're talking about matching is size. Obviously, we talked about, you know, in the past, you know, the matching with blood type and all that too. But then then you get down to size. So if a person is more of that size of a pediatric, a potential recipient, then pediatric recipients are prioritized based on the list, like the list, the policy, prioritizes the pediatric recipients in those situations because they just don't have as many opportunities as adults do to receive those organs.
Well, that makes sense. If you have a question for us, please give us a call at 504-648-3477. In every episode of the Gifted Life, we honor a hero. Today, we honor Austin Richards.
And this comes from his family. Austin was a very loving and giving young man in life as much as in death. He would give anyone the room he slept in, the clothes he wore, the job he had. If he knew, it would help him.
He always took what he was doing and gave 110 percent and did it as well as he could. Some of his greatest loves were fishing and building, and he was always learning. His ventures have brought us many laughs, and he'll always be my honey beekeeper. And now we pause and say thank you to Austin for the gift of life.
And that is episode 163 of the Gifted Life. You can always find us at thegiftedlife.org. And if you're listening and removed to register as an organ tissue and eye donor, you can do that anytime. Register me.org.
Wow. If that didn't inspire special thanks to Althea Grace and sharing Lynn and with us and how I mentioned Wonderful Lady in the beginning, I think I understated that quite a bit. What a wonderful person. She was just so grounded.
She was so much to think in those difficult dark times that she was able to keep everything into perspective like she did. It's amazing. It's the truth. Me as a 40, whatever your old new dad that I am, I can't see me being that mature about that in that situation.
An artist. Yeah. A literal rockstar mom. I live on the big stage too, and she was so comfortable sharing and talking about it and wanting to start those positive conversations, which is what we talk about here on the Gifted Life step.
We hope to have her back. And like we said, Lynn's talking with that big cute just to learn from this family as well. All right, guys. If you liked what you heard, go ahead and follow us and listen on any platform that yields in your podcast.
Whether it's Apple, Google, or Spotify, please subscribe and leave us a five star rating so others can find us. I'm Joshua Schol, Facebook, where the get-to-life podcast, Twitter, and Instagram at Get-to-Life Pod. And we hope that you go out and do something you would normally do to help us make life happen for one big team. Until next time.