Hello and welcome to the gifted life podcast where we have conversations about organ tissue and eye donation. I'm Lori Steele. I'm Joey Boudreau. And I'm Sally.
What's up? I'm Sally. Unfortunately, Sally can't be in studio. Why?
She's still dealing with all those issues from the flood four or five months ago now. But still has a smile on her face. Still has a upbeat personality. Still Sally.
I'm her. I said, you know, I'm gonna come to you if something happens to me. I want to follow your lead sister. So we missed her here in the studio, but no she is getting her life back whole, which we want to help her do.
On this episode of the gifted life podcast, Lots to Come. Maybe you watched on January 2nd, the Rose Parade. Did you see the donate life float? Did you see the Louisiana floor graph?
We're gonna take you kind of behind the scenes here on this podcast. Incredible. And then we'll be talking to a special guest, a donor mom who says donation has helped her help others. We'll tell you more.
That's a great story. Sally will continue her conversation by phone today on anxiety around the holidays. And as always, we'll be honoring a hero. And so much more here on the gifted life.
What do we ask of you? Please help us spread the word. It's easy to do. Absolutely.
You can find us on iTunes, Google Play, PocketCasts or whatever your favorite podcast app or just find us on lopa.org. Slash Podcast. It is that easy on Facebook. Donate Life, Louisiana.
A lot of what we talk about. You'll see on those social media sites. Maybe you tweet, maybe you're on Instagram at Donate Life, LA. We typically don't show what food we're eating.
Talk about what's happening at the community. So you can join in. We also have a hotline and we have a new jingle sung by. We do have a hotline.
Not quite as hot as Sally's hotline, but I thought he was really gonna say this. But what's that podcast number? It's 504648347. That's 5046483477.
It kind of sounds like you wanted to do a little singing there. But we want this to be interactive. You could do this in your jammies. You could do it at one in the morning.
You can tell us your story. Tell us about your donation journey. And we may share that here on the gifted life. And this is about education.
This is about learning. This is about spreading awareness. And you could be part of that team. Ready to get going?
Let's do it. In our community segment, we want to focus on the Donate Life Rose float that just happened. It's called in the Rose Parade January 2nd. What a sight to see in so many eyes on that float of heroes.
It's such a beautiful thing to watch as it was this time. And fortunately for us, we've been able to sponsor a hero there at the Rose Parade for over a decade now. Which is incredible. And on that float is what's called a Flora Grapp.
So I didn't know what that was before this float in the donation world. But basically you take a picture of the hero. And then this hero's image is placed on a plaque. And his image is in all plant material.
It looks just like them. It is something to see if you hadn't seen it. It's very inspiring to me. That's my favorite thing to watch.
But the hero on this float is Ricardo Buck Brown. And you said we get to sponsor a hero family. Yes. And I've been fortunate enough to be able to see an unveiling for a couple donor families before.
In our own Shalan Caraway, formerly known as Shalan Lachley. She's got married. And grads Shalan. She was able to catch up with Buck's family.
Ms. Benita Wilson at that moment that she first cast her eyes on that image on that floor graph. I can't wait to listen. Let's check it out.
All right. Well, I'm here with Ms. Benita and her son Ricardo was a donor. You said five years ago.
Five years ago Sunday with exactly. Can you tell us a little bit about Ricardo? Ricardo was born a twin. They were pre meets and they really didn't expect him to Leo his brother passed after 14 hours.
And I just felt like he took on the street love his brother because he didn't let anything stop him. He had cerebral palsy. He played on the basketball teams baseball teams, even during the high school football team, which I was like, Oh my God, they're gonna kill him. They're gonna break his bones.
But he was happy. He was a happy boy. After graduation, he was like, Oh, so I told him, you're gonna go to school or you're gonna get a job. So he came to street point to the Diesel driving Academy, got a CDLs, got hired driving a saltwater truck and was happy to see could be about it.
It was less than three weeks after he really started driving on his own that he had his accident. And so had y'all ever talked about being an organ donor? Never. I found out after he passed that he registered in February and lost his life.
And I you just got to see your son's amazing Florida. Can you tell me what were your thoughts when you first laid eyes on it? As I told the guy from the news station, when I saw it, it reminded me of this picture that I have on my shirt. But this kind of guy was always funny.
He kept us rolling. He was just happy again. So when I saw it, it's like, this is reality. It was perfect.
It was perfect. It was beautiful. It really is. It's an amazing, all the little seeds that they put together to make the picture.
And I think it's just amazing. A little thing that's a ginger. Yeah. A silver.
Good. I cook with this stuff. Now my son's face. Yes.
Never. Never. Never. So we're going to Pasadena.
Yes, ma'am. Pasadena on my way. Oh my gosh. Can you tell me, like, is this your first time born in California?
This is my first time when I was a little girl. I always heard about California and I always wanted to go to California. And no idea what I was going to do in California. But I wanted to go to California.
Well, and now you get to go to California and see your amazing son on that big old float on a national stage. That must make me want to cry. We always cry. We always want to cry together.
So how happy is he is right now? He has to be. He has to be. He has to be.
He has to be. He has to be. He has to be. He has to be.
He has to be. Here with me right now is Mr. Wanda. And she is a books kidney recipient and she is so excited because she is going on adventure with Ms.
Benita Wilson, who is at B ups mother. And she is going to Pasadena are tying. She needs so much to be able to spend time with his mother and his family as we pay homage. We pay homage to him.
Such an amazing, I've never been to California. Gosh, it's gonna be amazing. It's gonna be amazing, I've never been on an airplane. You're my work with him.
Anyway, I'm so excited. It's a trip for the first, okay, so I'm very, very excited. And I can't wait to hit the ground running. Another one.
So let's go back prior to your kidney surgery. What was life like, just waiting for your gift? I suffered diabetes for 30 years. So my doctor, he didn't want me to be on dialysis.
So he said, because it would be imminent. September of 2010, I began the evaluation process and I was listed late March, never had it to be on dialysis and only on the list for 11 days. 11 days. 11 days.
And it was not a very long week and I matched perfectly. Is that not a miracle of the marriage or? It's a miracle. It's just a miracle.
It's just a miracle. Yes. And so now, what is life, like aside from the fact that you get to go to Pasadena with Miss Benita, who is absolutely a firecracker and incredible, but what is life like now that you're not suffering? It's amazing to be able to go to my doctor appointments and they tell me how well I'm doing.
I went to Tulane for my five year appointment because I go every year and when I got there, my doctor was like, he was the one, you're the reason we get transplants because you take such good care of yourself. Well, you know, you don't get a kidney in 11 days. It'll be a perfect match. So you have to take care of that.
So somebody died. Buck died so that I could live. So I have to take care of myself and by skipping, you still living on. I'm excited.
It's a wonderful. I get very good reports from the doctor. It was like a perfect match, you know? Every since the day.
I matched, never happened. That's a word, really. I'm just, I just couldn't believe it. Miracles do happen.
They do. I'm the one. I'm so excited and I can't wait again to just be there, you know, licks and everything. Helping to decorate the flow and to know.
The most amazing part of it is that Buck will be there in a sense. Yes, he will. Yes, he will. He'll be there.
He'll be there inside of it. So yes. I don't even know if they're worse to describe this experience. But I'm very, very blessed and fortunate to be able to honor but our Louisiana.
That's right. I love Louisiana hero. Yes, he's our hero here. My hero.
Buck is my, you can have Buck is my hero. Yay. Miss Wanda, thank you so much. My pleasure.
Gifted like podcast audience. I'm getting the best hug. Oh, yes. Yes.
Mm. Thank you again, my bad. Thank you, my baby. It's so great to hear from both Buck's mom and his kidney recipient and then to find out that this is the first time we were able to send both a recipient and the donor family there to LA for this Rose Parade.
It's just amazing. And I can't wait to hear more about their experiences there. Went together. I love it.
I love to hear that. We hear a lot of our donor families and recipients say, we're family now. We're family and we've got to experience this together. So we're going to invite them back on the podcast.
I always love talking to these families, hearing from these families when they come back because it's such a whirlwind of an experience is what we've been told like you have to go there and they're going to do their best to fill us in. So that's going to be coming up on a future episode of the Gifted Life. At this point on the Gifted Life podcast, we want to introduce you to one of our friends. Absolutely.
Her name is Risi Gilmore. And I have to tell you, hey, Miss Risi. Hi. One of my first volunteer trainings.
I was sitting on the side of you and you were telling us your story, your journey. And I could not breathe because I was in tears. And I just couldn't imagine the strength that was inside of you. I was just blown away.
And then everybody in this room and at LOPA, I think, feels the same way. Right, Joe? Absolutely. So Risi wants to.
She's been to quite a bit of our events and been able to tell her story. And it is very powerful. Yeah, just an inspiring woman. And so that's why we are so pleased to introduce you to Miss Risi.
She is now at Maddie's Footprints, which we're going to tell you about a resource for lots of families out there. But Miss Risi, the way that we know you here at LOPA is that you are the mother of a hero, right? Right. I sure am.
And so it was a two-year-old little cutie petootie named Clint. So can you tell us a little bit about Clint? Oh, yes. He was a particularly healthy, normal, beautiful, vibrant, two-year-old little boy.
And he ate browned in our front pond right out of his second birthday. And that was back in 2008. That's correct. 2008.
And so when it came to donation and this two-year-old sweet angel, which I love hearing you light up talking about him, we can hear it. But that was back in 2008. So donation to you at that time was what? What did you think of that?
Well, I have always been like this. I was a donor. And have been ever since I went and got my driver's license. And always promoted and believed in organ and tissue donation, but had never given much thought as to whether or not my children would be donors.
And of course, that's just something that, until we're kind of able to make that decision ourselves, it's not something that families typically talk about. It's kind of a taboo subject. You never want to talk about if something bad happens to your child. So I think, in the beginning for us, it was a tragic death.
So when we got the call from LOPA, that moment of it caught me off guard. I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that he had passed away. But luckily, in a brief moment, and I had to make a, you know, I told the lady, I said, I'm going to have to call you back. And it was a two minute conversation.
And we had been and I looked at each other. And we said, we're donors. Why wouldn't our kids be? And so we made the call back.
And through the midst of tragedy, it was the best decision we could have ever made. And that's what I wanted to ask you. That was back in 2008. So the donation, help your family in your journey.
What would you say donation meant to you? Donation gave us hope. It gave us quick purpose. It allowed us, you know, quent with a normal two-year-old boy who already had that age.
He loved all the superheroes. Batman, Spider-Man, Superman. And I know if I had a back-to-do you want to be a hero, he would have said yes, because he would have related that to being Superman. So it gave us complete hope that we were doing something good for somebody else.
It's the ultimate gift. It's the most unselfish gift that you can give to a complete stranger. You sound like a strong, just loving mom. We love to hear that.
And actually, Risi is going to tell us more about Clint coming up in our hero segment. So stay tuned for that. We do want you, with all of your knowledge, with all of your experience, to tell us about Maddie's footprints, because that's where you have landed. And it's like you're using all that you went through to help others heal, right?
Tell us about Maddie's footprints. Well, I say that I spent eight years in training for this job. I definitely knew that I wanted to do something with Clint's legacy and be able to continue to help parents who have suffered loss. So this summer, I ended up receiving a position here at Maddie's footprints.
It started off that I was the event coordinator, but I have been able to deal with families that are going through similar loss. Maddie was established in January 2010. And it was established in memory of Ms. Madeline Noel McGrew.
She was the daughter of Travis and Lori McGrew, our founders. In a routine ultrasound, when I think Lori was 32 weeks pregnant, they found that she had clear markers of tricingomy 18, which our birth abnormality is that are basically incompatible with life. So as they prepared for the birth of their baby, they also had to possibly prepare for the death. And Maddie didn't end up passing away.
And Travis and Lori were very diligent in wanting to give back and wanting to pay it forward and help families that had suffered same type of infant loss. So they established Maddie's footprints. And the vision of Maddie's is to help families who'd experienced miscarriage, still birth, or infant loss. We basically lead people in the right direction, provide them with bereavement resources, counseling.
We offer these families financial assistance for end-of-life expenses or even medical expenses. We just believe that in the midst of the worst time in your life, the last thing that you want to have to absorb is the financial burden. So this is where Maddie steps up and is able to offer some of that relief at a very desperate time. That's amazing work that you guys are doing.
I've been following Maddie's footprints because I went to Maddie's funeral. I was close friends with Lori and Travis throughout this ordeal. And to see what they've done through such tragedy, I remember how much help, you know, grief-stricken. Everyone was, you know, them, their friends, family, to see what they've done and how they've been able to pay it forward.
It's amazing. Like I said, it is amazing. It's tough to go through that and then come out and help so many others. And, Reese, just on social media, feed some of my friends, go to certain events that you guys have out in the communities to spread awareness, to spread the word.
But I feel the emotion from these moms who are there for a purpose, right? Absolutely. We always say this is not a club that any of us would readily find out for. But in the midst of the group, you learn strength amongst families that is just amazing.
You know, beautiful, beautiful people. You form bonds that are unbreakable. It's been a beautiful organization of amazing people. And unfortunately, death, infant death, it doesn't stop.
I used to say, you know, I wasn't the first and I won't be the last. But I can certainly help the next person that comes along. That's what Maddie is about. And it's about a group of people being there for each other and really providing the right source of support right when you need it.
So, Maddie's footprints originally started out supporting more right in the Lafayette, of course, right around Lafayette. But you guys have grown it now to where you're helping throughout all the Canadian and then some, right? Correct. We serve over 10 parishes.
And to date, we've actually served over 760 families. That's pretty powerful. And you know, we always say one person can make a difference. That's what happened, right?
So we want to offer this as a resource. We want to let folks know about it. We appreciate you guys being a partner out there in the community. If folks want to learn more about Maddie's footprints, maybe participate, where can they do that, Risi?
They can go to www.Maddie's footprints.org. And our phone number is 337-534-4209. And to make it even easier for you guys at lopa.org on our website, there is a link to Maddie's footprints under Neo-Natal donation. Risi, we appreciate you sharing your story.
We appreciate you helping these families. We appreciate Maddie's footprints. And we look forward to learning more about Clint coming up in this episode of The Gifted Life. Well, thank you all so much.
I appreciate it. These are those moments where you're still able to be a mom, you know, and tell a story. Well, you're a good one. And we appreciate you.
Thank you. In our family support segment, we are continuing a conversation from our last podcast here on The Gifted Life. And Sweet Sally joins us by phone as she is still in flood recovery. Hey, Sal.
Hey, Lori. Hi, Joey. Hey, Sal. This time we'll be tackling the relationship between anxiety and depression.
That's right about anxiety. We had previously had talked about stress and anxiety, but now we're going to talk about the relationship between anxiety and depression. And the interesting thing is that no one really knows exactly why, but, you know, depression and anxiety can occur together, which seems a little bit odd, but 85% of those with major depression also were diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. But, you know, to put this in its proper perspective, as I had mentioned during our last conversation about this, it's like that black cloud that just hangs over your head.
And we know that when one's depressed, emotions such as hopelessness, despair, and anger are usually present. However, a person with anxiety disorder usually experiences fear sometimes panic attacks or anxiety in situations. You know, where most of us go, oh, well, you know, we might be a little stressed over this, but we don't feel anxious or threatened by the situation. But, you know, mental health professionals, these two disorders often go hand in hand, but they are considered in our profession that they're the fraternal twins of mood disorders.
And this is believed to be caused by a malfunction in brain chemistry. You know, generalized anxiety is not your normal apprehension that one feels safe, you know, right before a job interview or maybe doing the podcast. And for reasons only partially known, fear seems to be a constant companion. And that results in that brain fight or flight mechanism when it gets activated, even when no real threat exists.
And for many people who are going through this, that feeling of being in danger just never goes away. It's constantly with them, which keeps them anxious about what's going on in their life. But they cannot identify a particular event or situation that causes it. And I think too, that's not only a tremendous challenge for people who do experience this, but for the mental health professional they may be seeing that's treating this disorder.
I think too, that like alcohol and barbiturates, depression, anxiety can be a very deadly combination when taken together. And what I want to recommend to people is this. If you find yourself experiencing these types of systems, please reach out for help. Don't think you need to go through this all on your own, because there are folks out here that want to help you get through this and help you see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
For more information about this, please go to www.lopa.org. Go to the Family Services tab and then click on the Support Resources tab. And we'll have a lot more information that you may research on your own. Or you certainly may call us on our hotline, that number is 504-648-3477.
Excellent. And if you have questions, maybe you want Sally to tackle a certain topic, you can always talk to us through email info at lopa.org. At this point in the podcast, we are honoring a hero. We're kind of changing things up on how this story is rolled out to you.
This time, fortunately, we have Miss Risi, and she's going to be able to honor her hero and our hero, Clinton Ryan. In 2008, our family suffered a devastating loss. My two-year-old son, Clinton Ryan, drowned in our front pond. Faith with my worst nightmare, I had no idea what was going to lie ahead of me.
But that same evening, we received a call from Lopa, Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency, asking if we would be willing to donate. I was taken back by the phone call, and I did my best to process this request, but I had to even ask if I could call them back. I knew that I was a donor. I had been a donor ever since I've received my driver's license.
But I'd never given much thought, you know, as to whether or not my children would be donors. But thankfully, sound judgment came through in a moment of despair, and luckily, we said yes. And it was through that one decision and through that simple three-letter word that my journey changed. My first year was basically spent just existing.
It was an accomplishment to brush my teeth and my hair. But I knew that no matter what at end of year one, I wanted to find a way to emerge. I knew me. My goal was to find Clinton's purpose.
I remember the day that it hit me, and I figured out what we wanted to do, and that was to educate people and to work in tissue donation. I was caught off guard when I received a call, but it soon became clear to me that the work in tissue recovery is a very time-consuming. The window of opportunity for successful recovery is small, though decisions should be made quickly. If more people would talk about this, then a decision could be made ahead of tragedy.
I understood that most parents wouldn't ever want to harbor on negatives, or even veer off and think about the bad, what-is. But to me, it was simply more just about educating. When you become a new parent, we research the best car seat, not because we anticipate getting in a bad wreck, but because we want our baby safe. That makes us good parents.
We begin to talk about a will, who will raise our kids if something should happen to us, not because we anticipate that we'll prematurely die and leave them abandoned, but it's because it's something we do because we're responsible parents. We teach our kids to learn to dial 911, not because we think we'll ever have to use it, but we want our kids to be equipped with resources that could help save a life. How are any of these topics any different? So my goal was to simply get new parents to determine whether or not their children would be donors.
I understand it's a personal choice, but why not decide early on instead of when you're in the third of the tragedy. The decision that we made to say yes resulted in an amazing testimony. It gave me the chance to uncover current's purpose. I was able to get involved with LOPA and I never looked back.
I started to begin an educating family. A couple of years later something amazing happened. We were actually able to meet one of Clint's recipients. Clint gave the gift aside to Joseph and Joseph was a kind, tender and wonderful compassionate man.
He adored Clint and he was so thankful for his gift. It was truly one of the happiest days of my life when I stared into Joseph's eyes. That felt that a part of my life had been given back to me in that one moment. It was then that I knew that I had found Clint's purpose and it was just beginning.
It was Clint's purpose, but it was my journey and things started to finally make sense. I knew that someday this experience would be used to help others to provide people with hope. Eight years ago I began training for my position with Maddie's footprints. Although I didn't know it then, I was being prepared for something very special.
It's amazing how Maddie's footprints would help lead me to Clint's purpose, which is now my journey. But now I know it was always God's mission. We never know what side of life we will stand on. Are we going to be the hero?
Or are we in search of the need of a hero? Or are we allowing somebody we love the chance to be a hero? No matter what, at some point in our lives we all have a chance to make a difference and be a hero to someone else. Wow.
Thank you so much, Risi. Thank you. Thanks for sharing your story. Thanks for sharing Clint.
It's amazing. At this time we'd like to pause and say thank you to Clint for the gift of life. Laura, this is the question and answer segment. This time I'm the one asking the question.
I feel like you were trying to mock me, but just a form of flat reality. It is. Okay. So this one came up to us from infuetlopa.org.
The question is, how can I learn more about ways I can participate, contribute, and volunteer this year? Oh, that's a good one. Anybody doing resolutions? Chop hands?
Just me and you, Joey. There you go. What's your resolution? I'm registering again.
Yes. So I know you do a lot of community events. Maybe I have one more to your calendar because you have nothing going on otherwise, right? So we hope that you do something in the new year in 2017 to help us make life happen.
There are lots of ways that you can do that. You can check out lopa.org. You can register as a volunteer in your region of Louisiana. You can sign up for our newsletter.
You have a contribution page. Did you know that? You can visit our events calendar. If you're from outside of Louisiana, listening in, we encourage you to visit the website of the Oregon Procurement Agency, servicing your area, but really it's anything you want to do.
We have a recipient family and they put together family recipes. And in the back of the book, they put a sign up to be a donor page. Here's the information. And then they sold those and then the proceeds came back to lopa.
So it doesn't have to be something that we've been doing. Actually, we like those new ideas. How are you going to go out and make a difference? A lot of people like to use social media, and that's where a lot of folks get their news.
So what can you do? You can share the podcast. There's really nothing that you can't do really to help us make life happen. So all you have to do is want to do it.
And if you sign up to volunteer, then we find out what your comforts are. Maybe you like runs. Maybe you like speaking at churches. Maybe you like schools and interacting with the children.
So we find the perfect match for you. And that's where you can do your most good. So we will find a way for you to help in any way, shape or form, but put that on your calendar in 2017. What will you do to help us make life happen?
It's really easy, right? I got so excited about that one. All right, infot love without order if you have any more questions or you can call us at our hotline 504-648-3477. Our first podcast of 2017 in the books.
2017 accomplished. We feel accomplished. We should have hoverboards. Okay.
Okay. Will you buy us all that? Yeah. Want to give special thanks to Miss Reese Gilmore.
First for sharing Clint's story with us in a way that only she could. And then sharing a little bit about Maddie's footprints and how they help support other families that are grieving, especially those who have lost a baby. Yeah, that was a pretty powerful one. Got to thank Miss Sally G of Lopa fame there.
She is still in flood recovery. They made a point to be on this podcast to help us learn to help us grow. So thanks to Sally. And certainly thanks to Miss Shalom Caraway.
No longer, Lachie Lee. New last name. Congrats Shalom. And Miss Benita Wilson and Duanda, of course, for sharing their emotions of that first time that they were able to see that lore graph above.
Yeah. And we are going to get right on inviting them back onto the podcast so we can hear their experience at the rose parade, which I hear is pretty spectacular. So a power packed get to light podcast as we start 2017. We do want to ask a favor and that is for you to continue to spread donation awareness.
We will help you do that. So Lopa.org is a great resource for you info at Lopa.org. There's something you want to talk about in the new year. And we hope that everyone goes out and does something that they don't normally do to help us make life happen.
Have a good one.