Hello, and welcome to the Gifted Life Podcast, where we have conversations about organ, tissue, and eye donation and transplantation. You can always find us guys at thegiftedlife.org. I'm Laurie Steele. I'm Joey Boudreau.
I'm Sarah Blakemore, coming up on the Gifted Life today. We'll be talking to one time American Idol contestant who's using his transplant store to help others. He's here with us on the Gifted Life. And we're going to talk about the difficulty of honesty.
Ooh, I'm honest. All that more right here, the Gifted Life. Hang on guys. We're going to start out this segment a little different.
We have something for you to listen to that ties to our special guest. Our special guest has allowed us to play you his new song about celebrating hope called Hope is Rising. And here it is. Here on the Gifted Life podcast, we are thrilled.
Maybe I shouldn't sing because we have a professional Scott McIntyre who is here on the Gifted Life. How are you? I am doing so well. I love the singing introduction.
I'm glad to be here. Okay, and it's joking around us better than mine. I love it. Great.
So we got to know you a little bit because you know you're on this like little TV show, right? What was that called Joey? American Idol. Oh, a big TV show.
Tell us about that. Tell us about that. It was such a great experience. Growing up, I had dreamed about what it would be like to make music for people someday.
I didn't know if it would be in my backyard, just for myself or if it would be for crowds of people. But I just really had a love for expressing my heart through music. And as my life unfolded, I was given a story that I could definitely sing about with a lot of ups, a lot of downs, a lot of pain, a lot of suffering, but a lot of endurance. And so it really worked well.
And I just, when Idol happened, it really gave me an amazing platform to be able to sing about things that are important to me and obviously, organ donation being one of those. And I love that. And I think that's why we fell in love with you all obviously talented, right? Like to get to that level, like you've got to bring it and you bring your best game, which was amazing.
But then your story, like you're so humble. And then you want to use your story to help others. And in my book, like that's just amazing. So that's what kind of drew me in and that we're talking is kind of cool.
So you mentioned a transplant journey, which is why we invited you here on the gifted life. Thanks for accepting. Let's talk about that journey. Welcome and thank you for the kind words.
You know, if people are wondering right now, if anyone doesn't remember me, I was the blind pianist from Arizona at the time and maybe that'll jog someone's memory. But it was awesome. Ryan Seacrest tried to high-five me. That's right.
I'm never going to let him live that down. I wouldn't. Yes, that's good. That's a funny part of it.
I don't care. I could care less. But that's what's so cool about you. You're just kind of one of us, but you have this extraordinary talent.
Well, you're right. It definitely, yeah, I saw a lot of people. I saw some people change through the process and I saw other people that stay the same. And I hope I'm still just one of you guys.
I'm just honored to be here. And yeah, going through the transplant experience, I think anyone listening who's been on any side of that and you guys would probably agree, it keeps you very humble. I haven't met from the transplant games to donate life events to working with various companies over the years that are involved in this gift of life. I don't think I've ever met anyone that's prideful.
And I'm sure there's always an exception to the role, but I can't think of anyone. I can't think of anyone that I've met in the organ donation circle who has not been humbled by it. I used to do so many events for the organ donation community and help raise awareness and all that. And just the stories are incredible.
You can't really leave the same way that you came when you attend a luncheon for donor families or anything like that. So I started just traveling around with a tissue box. But it's powerful. And so my own story, just that same story of death to life, of finding hope in the midst of hardship thanks to the selfless act of someone else.
My first transplant was before American Idol. Maybe you remember that, maybe not. So it was the wife of my piano teacher who donated her kidney to me and saved my life. She barely knew me.
But every time I try to thank her, she just says, well, it's something I could do. And I hear a lot of stories like that just so humble, so selfless. That kidney lasted for eight years. And then I was put back on the waiting list after American Idol, after traveling to places around the world to sing and really my career taking off.
I faced it again. And the second time around, I was very humbled to get that phone call again that a living donor had been approved to give their kidney to me. But that time it was actually an anonymous living donor. It was someone I had never met, never done anything for who decided they wanted to save my life.
And they never watched American Idol, by the way. They were not in the middle of the battle. Beautiful. But they heard about my need.
And she said in the back of her head, she had something to say, why couldn't it be you? Why couldn't it be you? And it wouldn't go away. So she called the hospital and out of all the people that underwent some amount of testing, including my wife, Christina, this stranger was the best match.
I met her six weeks later, and she was 27 years old at the time. She has three wonderful kids. She's been a single mother. But just an amazing person who gave more.
And so I look at these two transplant experiences in my life. And it's just an amazing picture of God's love, just of sacrificial love for someone else. But you don't really find many places in the human experience. It is truly the gift of life.
And we talk about that. And knowing that you endured, especially before the first transplant with dialysis, a lot of people, they may know someone on dialysis, but you lived it. And you know firsthand the challenges and the complications and everything that comes with that. It had to be an amazing thing.
I would assume, how did that make you feel on the first one, even when you found out that someone was going to give you the gift of life? Yeah, it's really like, and I want to be careful when I say because there are people on dialysis, I'm sure listening. And it's great that it can prolong life and actually give us that bridge to hopefully a better life again. But in some cases, no.
In some cases that's where it lands, but at least you're alive. It can be a dark time, but it can also be better than the alternative, which is death. No, it's a true little bit. It's a little bit of a facetious there.
But I've walked through it from both ends. And I remember when I started dialysis, it was, it actually was a relief because I had become so sick that I couldn't even have enough strength to really sing or play the piano in my own living room for any length of time. I just couldn't push air through my vocal cords for that long. I was exhausted.
I just kind of in a helpless state and your body starts to shut down. The toxins just build up and build up. And so when I started dialysis, I felt great. It was like I could eat so much again.
I could eat whole pasta dinners. And I'm not going to start talking about food because then we'll just. He knows a song. Yeah.
But it was a great thing. And then as it goes on, as anyone during it right now would probably say it can be difficult. And it's not great for your body long term and it wears on you. And so I kind of settled into that quality of life.
And it wasn't a great quality of life. But I thought it is a quality of life. And I had that fear, which seems kind of irrational to anyone on this side of it now. But never having been through a transplant before, I knew that it would change my life in some ways.
And some of those are good. Some of those are tough. Having to take medication for the rest of your life every day. And it's a different life.
It's not a cure. It's a treatment is what the doctors told me. You could think of it like that as far as a transplant. And so I didn't know.
It was this big question mark. And I kind of hung on to death a little bit. And didn't even, wasn't even sure I wanted a kidney transplant. And I asked for it.
I can tell you, I'm so grateful that God led me down that path so that I could experience the sweetness of this selfless act by another person. You know, just someone, forget about me for a moment, but to think of a kidney donor giving, in my case, a living donor, you know, sacrificially giving so that I could have something better on the other side, not for them, but for me. It's really amazing. And yes, I had to kind of walk through the valley of the shadow of death there to use the metaphor.
But there was abundant life that I didn't even know about waiting on the other side. You know, and sometimes when we, you know, it's hard to see it when we're in the trial, but we can be stronger. We can be more joyful. We can be more grateful for having suffered through a trial rather than never having faced it at all.
I think that's that's so true. You're so calming. I can listen to you. I know you have a new venture and I was just looking at the title Enduring Hope.
Man, I can hear that. I can hear that from you. Tell us about it. Yeah.
You know, it's, yeah, it started out as a television special, which is still airing in different cities each week around the country. You can watch it online. You don't have to try to catch it. It's airing.
It's kind of random where it airs. Some of them are national. Some of them are local, but you can go to scottmackintire.com slash Enduring Hope. So it's got MacIntire, M-A-C-I-N-T-Y-R-E dot com slash Enduring Hope.
And you can watch it there, but something else that came out of it was this weekly podcast we're doing since we're on a podcast here. I'll mention it. Yeah. But it's the same name.
It's called Enduring Hope. And you can listen wherever you listen to podcasts. But we're trying to, you know, we talk a lot about faith on the podcast as it ties in with Hope because, you know, me being blind, I mentioned earlier on, you know, sometimes every step I take, you know, on the sidewalk is a step of faith. You know, I'm trusting that the ground's going to be where it was the last time.
You know, I'm oversimplifying that a little bit. But, you know, when I'm trusting my wife, Christina, to guide me around a new place in a new city where we might have a concert or an event, I'm trusting that whoever's guiding me is not going to run me into something. That's faith. Anyone who's had a loved one pass away and been able to courageously make the decision to give the gift of life out of that tragedy to bring hope to someone else in the most painful moment of their life, though.
That took faith. That took faith to kind of look beyond the situation at hand and say, this is so painful. And yet I'm trusting that something good can come out of it for someone else. But also for a lot of the donor families I talk to, you know, you can never, that's such a hard decision to have to make.
But I can tell you the people that we're given the strength to say yes to organ donation. It's kind of a salve for them. You know, it's kind of a, it even helps them as they look back on their loved one to know that, yes, I would never wish for this. But look at the life that my loved one was able to bring to another.
Look at the legacy. You know, so we talk a lot about that. And, you know, we talk about my transplants on the podcast and being blind, but it's really about helping people find not just hope, but enduring hope, like you said, but, you know, hope that can last through suffering, that can endure through suffering. You know, because I think we all have a tendency to just say, oh, you know, it's tomorrow is a new day, right?
You know, if today is hard, just wait till tomorrow, you know, fresh start, put, you know, put your past behind you all that, you know, some of those are good things. But if we can redefine suffering, if we can learn to be joyful in the midst of the trial, that's really life changing. And that's what we're trying to help people think about with the podcast and during hope. And my wife and I do it together each week.
It's really short too. It's five minutes. So you must keep it very digestible. But that really changed it for me when I realized, you know, I don't have to wait for my circumstances to get better in order to enjoy the blessings around me, you know, in order to make a difference, in order to inspire people.
My first transplant, I was just excited to get through it. You know, it was like, man, I, you know, God brought me through the hard thing, you know, but the second time I really learned you guys, I was a little bit older. My wife helped me with this too. But in life, we don't always get the kidney transplant.
We don't always get the cure or the easy, you know, solution or the healed relationship right away if ever in this life. And so, you know, that's one, we have to come to terms with that. But too, we got to realize that our joy is not dependent on those things. And so the second transplant, man, I just tried to be present, you know, I had thoughts like, man, if I can just get through the three days in the hospital, then I'll be good.
If I can just get the catheter out, you know, anyone listening, well, though, what I'm talking about, I'm not going to elaborate. But I caught myself thinking those things, you know, wanting to skip past the hard stuff. And I said, no, no, no, no, no, wait a minute. You know, Scott, you need to be present in the hospital, even when it's painful, even when, you know, it's the hardest part of the transplant experience.
We're not going to skip past that this time. We're going to see, you know, what has got to have for me in that moment. Man, what a great message. Amen.
Yes. So a lot of our donor families talk to us and they love to be surrounded by recipients and they're listening to us and they're listening to us and they're listening to us and they're listening to us and they're listening to us and they're listening to us and they're downloading your podcast and they're using your story like what a gift for all of us. And Kudos to you for mentioning your wife a couple of times. I'm going to give you credit for that.
But you live life with her. I understand you're expanding your family. Like what great lessons, like because of these gifts, here's what's happening in my life, not only professionally, but personally, this family is growing and we're working this out together. Yeah, we have a five-year-old Christian and a daughter Stella who's almost one and a half.
It's amazing because we weren't able to have kids before my second kidney transplant. The kidneys, as you guys know, they interact with a lot of the systems in the body in some different ways and they're needed for a lot of things in addition to beyond just filtering the blood and all that. But in a way, my kidney donors not only gave me the gift of life and gave me my life back, but they allowed us to create new life. It's just a very tangible way to say, literally, just look at our kids.
They wouldn't be here without that life-saving gift. And so in a very real sense, I can look at physical things. Look at them quotes for me. I can look at physical things in my life, real life that's around me and say this is because of what my donors gave to me.
Their gift is going far beyond just themselves. That's something I extend out to life in general. I don't think any of us can really know the impact that one self-evacct for someone else can have on the lives of many people. It's truly a legacy.
We talk about it. And they were able to give you that legacy that's going to be going on and on and on for much longer than you and you and I and all of us are around. So that is when you think about it like that. It's not just you that they gave life to.
It's your kids, your grandkids and everyone after that. Exactly right. It's amazing to realize that. And just man, I think of both of my donors.
I think of the second story, my second donor, the anonymous person that is now a dear friend. Just saying yes to that prompting by making that decision. She literally changed the legacy. I love it.
Your kids know how cool you are? Still got a young, huh? You know, at some point I'm going to have to go back and play all the American Idol episodes for my son. Right.
You know, I'm pretty cool. But it's really cute. I think he wants to make an album now. I was going to ask if they were following in your footsteps.
Yeah, exactly. But it's really cool to kind of involve him. I mean, he definitely knows that he knows what I do and about the music and speaking and all that. And he knows it's about changing lives.
You know, music used to be more of an artful thing for me and it still is in some degrees. But along the way I really shifted year by year over these past 10 years or so. Just from music being an art or artful to music being purposeful first. And so everything I do with it, I really try to focus back on why I'm doing it, you know, what impact can I make in the lives of others.
Rather than it just being a cool song or a cool art piece, which is great. There's some artists out there that are much more artistic than me. But what can this do for someone? What's the life change that this can bring about?
And so I've really started to use music as a tool in that way just to help others find hope hopefully. Well, your story is resonating with so many. But I just keep going back. Like you have these children who will grow up knowing that you should just help another human.
Like that's the right thing to do. That's the good thing to do. And what a legacy. That's powerful.
Yeah, it is interesting to hear my son talk about my kidney donors. You know? It's kind of weird. But in an amazing way, in his own way, he knows, you know, he's just very matter of fact right now and he has a lot of joy and like I do, he's very exuberant.
But he knows that I wouldn't be here if my donor had not given me her kidney. And I'm not sure exactly what he thinks about that, but I know he's amazed by it. I love listening to proud parents. Scott, you're amazing.
Thanks for sharing your story. Thanks to your wife for all that she does and for you guys working together. Thanks so much for your time. Guys, if you're listening, you want more.
You heard about all of his exciting projects. You got MacIntyre.com. MacIntyre is M-A-C-I-N-T-Y-R-E. Thank you so much.
On the Get to Life podcast, we take a moment from mental health. Yeah, honestly, Sarah, what are we talking about? Good segway. Alright, I like that.
Okay, guys, can you both describe a time? You don't have to, but think of a time when you told the truth, but it hurt you. Yes. Yeah.
Well, I mean, yeah, a lot of times, like, it's only so far you can go with honesty in certain situations. You know, you got to have some limitations if my wife says, hey, you know, does this make me look fat? I'd say, of course it doesn't. But you know, sometimes, you should have worn out the outfit.
Oh, Joey, Ashley, don't listen to this episode. He's being honest, though. We got a lot of input on that. But I have a hard time because I don't want anybody to feel less than after a conversation with me.
So I tell him kind of what they need to know maybe to help in that situation, but I don't want them leaving feeling less than. That's my problem. Yes. I mean, that's the thing.
I don't know. It's a balance. Yeah. And I think, you know, in the context of like, there's some new research out there with students.
And it shows that students who have more generous attitudes towards cheating or plagiarism actually show higher levels of distress and sadness. So we can all think of a time when we were students or maybe we're at work and we're like, it'd be so easy to just like, you know, kind of copy that or paste that. I was so worried to get in trouble. Like if somebody's going to get in trouble for like a minor, it's going to be me.
Like, I just always believe that. And so that kind of held me back. Yeah. It's been a lot easier.
Like I was very consequences, like I was consequence based on my thought process. And so knowing that if I get in trouble, then this didn't get kicked out of nursing school. I did not get this. So the big picture.
So those are the negative consequences, but we all know too that sometimes when you're honest, you're not going to get a positive response back. So there's stress and difficulty in telling the truth as well. But what we do, what I believe is that honesty is a characteristic of your heart and your strength. So while it might be more difficult to tell the truth and be a little bit honest, it definitely comes with feeling a little bit more pure, a little bit more truthful and you're stronger because of it.
And we know that sometimes making the right decision is not the easy decision. That's the truth. I always say, you know, the end of the day, I got to lay my head down and sleep sound like that's my goal every day. So I'm going to do anything to step outside of that.
But man, it's tough during the day because some things do need to be said and Joey and they're lying. They're at stake for a whole company. So that is difficult to deal with. Just like a lot of thought process during the day.
But I think when you have those really honest conversations and you tell the truth to someone, it leads to more a positive relationship. In the end, when you're telling the truth, when you're being honest to one another, it strengthens those relationships and you have more positive interactions. So I think really what I want to come out of this conversation is to have conversations with each other about how difficult it can be to be honest, but how good and bad things have led from that. But if we're all being truthful and having that dialogue about what it means to tell the truth, it's going to lead to stronger connections.
I learned a long time ago on a Game of Thrones, a con snow. Oh, well, here, like this is a great source. Life lessons. And he said, if I've been the knee to hurt, then I've lied and it compounds another line and a line where does it end?
So if I'm not truthful in every moment, then what good am I? Yeah, I totally understood that. Exactly. Exactly.
Which we see. Yeah, one line leads to the next. So if you can, yeah, yeah, and just reflect on yourself and be honest with yourself as well. And trust goes in there too.
Like, you know, are you going to be listening here on your end too? Right now. Yeah. Last to think about, I need to have a separate conversation with Sarah.
If you have a topic you'd like us to cover, just email us, it's easy. Info at thegooddelife.org. All right. And our question and answer segment, Joey, I want you to answer this one for us.
If a person is famous or rich, can they get an organ before a regular Joe and or Jane? I even knew the answer to that one, Joe. Yeah. Well, of course, we've had the question.
We're all asked the questions many times, of course, when people find out what we do, you know, you'll have someone saying, oh, I want to get put on the top of the list for a liver or whatever, since I know you. And of course, my answer is the standard. Well, it's good that you know me and we're partners. We do.
We do. But unfortunately, regardless of how much money you have, who you know, who knows you, we see the list that comes up. And it's based on how sick you are, proximity, geography, things like that. We can't just skip to someone we know or someone who is famous or someone who slid us a couple hundred thousand under the table.
It doesn't matter. We have to answer to every single, every single time that we don't follow the list exactly as it is, we have to answer to what's called the MPSC and you know, to UNOS, essentially, which is a network of organ sharing who's in control of the list and all that. And when I do, when I mention the fact that we will jump it for one reason or another, that's the only acceptable answer is because it would have gotten buried otherwise. In other words, if someone, something happened to a recipient last minute and now we have to reallocate it, but we can't exactly go to the next person on the list because they might be in another state in those situations.
Of course, exceptions are made. And that's it. Those are the only exceptions. Yeah.
Well, some regs. All right, guys, you can go to our LOPA resource page to learn more about LOPA about donation. So LOPA.org slash fax is where you can go. And maybe you have a question you'd like us to tackle here on the gift of life.
You could do that too. We love you to call us 504-648-3477. Every episode of the gift of life we honor a hero. Today's hero is Brenda Myers.
And we learn about Brenda from her family. A wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, and friend left this world in 2005 as the result of a stroke and brain aneurysm. She gave so much of herself throughout her life that it seems so natural for her to make the decision to be an organ donor, a decision that she made in the late 70s. She was always extremely adamant about her wishes to be a donor.
So when the time came for her family to be questioned about donating her organs, the decision had already been made by her. Brenda's family is very proud to know that her liver, kidneys, and corneas went to five different recipients in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Mexico. And they are very sure that she would be pleased as well. She never met a stranger and touched the lives of everyone she ever got to know.
And you can see how Brenda's family honored her with a quilt on our website, LOPA.org. Go under Heroes and our Quilt section. And now we pause and say thank you to Brenda for the gift of life. And that is going to do it for episode 182 of the gift of life.
Thanks for listening, guys. Remember, you can register anytime as an organ, eye, and tissue donor at register me. Not a work. Special thanks to Scott McIntyre.
What a talented and overall wonderful human being. Pain and fall with and inspiring others through his music and his podcast. And how great was that life lesson that he gave us be present even through the most difficult of times? Oh, it resonated with me.
Because we always think about rushing through those hard times, getting them over with, but pausing and just living in the moment is really going to, you can find meaning in it. I just thought he was great. And he was on the gift of life. Previously episode 75, he linked his talents for the Rose Parade, which is always awesome.
We heard his song, Hope is Rising. You can find that anywhere, right? Yeah, Spotify, YouTube. I just found him.
I love it. And one of the lines in there, every step is a step worth taking. I just love it. We love him.
All right, guys. The best place to find us is at our website, thegiftedlife.org. You can listen to any of our episodes on our website or wherever you like to listen, whether it's Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeartRadio. If it's Apple, please leave us a five star rating.
Review, subscribe so that others can find us. On social, you can like our Facebook page, the Gifted Life podcast. We'd appreciate it. You can also follow us on both Twitter and Instagram at GiftedLifePod.
We ask that you go out and do something you would normally do to help us make life happen. For one team. This is a production of LOPA, or the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency. The Gifted Life is hosted by Lori Steele, Joey Buudro, and Sarah Blakemore.
Our executive producer is Kirsten Heis, producer is Shalom Caraway. Intern is Rebecca Rannam, and we are recorded, engineered and mixed in our Covington, Louisiana studio by Troy Perez.