Latest / Tom's Hirschsprung's Podcast / Episode 139 - With Aimee Morrisby (Part 2)

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Episode 139 - With Aimee Morrisby (Part 2) · Tom's Hirschsprung's Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: You are listening to Tom's Hirschsprungs podcast, a space where
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Speaker 1: we talk openly about living with Hirschsprungs disease. Whether you
0:09
Speaker 1: live with it, care for someone who has it, or
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Speaker 1: just want to understand more, this podcast is for you.
0:15
Speaker 1: Each episode we will explore real stories and honest conversations
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Speaker 1: about a condition that often goes unheard. Thank you for
0:22
Speaker 1: tuning in. Hello and welcome to episode 139 of Tom's
0:49
Speaker 1: Her Springs podcast. I am really glad this morning to
0:53
Speaker 1: welcome back somebody who I think I've wanted back on
0:56
Speaker 1: the podcast. I think it's been for the last couple
1:00
Speaker 1: of years. I think we've been chatting back and forth.
1:03
Speaker 1: and getting this organized. But I am really, really glad
1:07
Speaker 1: to be rejoined by Amy Morrisby. Amy, welcome back.
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Speaker 2: Thank you, Tom. We finally got there. We did.
1:15
Speaker 3: We did.
1:16
Speaker 1: I mean, we were just chatting a little bit off
1:18
Speaker 1: air about how long it's been. And this is, as
1:22
Speaker 1: I said, 139 now. You were episode seven. So you
1:25
Speaker 1: were right at the very beginning of, well, certainly my journey.
1:30
Speaker 1: And I really wanted to do this just to really
1:33
Speaker 1: catch up on how you've been, what's been going on
1:36
Speaker 1: in your life, because that has been incredibly busy, incredibly busy,
1:41
Speaker 1: and obviously you'll get into that. But it's been, yeah,
1:45
Speaker 1: it's been quite a ride over the last couple of
1:47
Speaker 1: years or so. But yeah, what's been happening?
1:52
Speaker 2: It has.
1:53
Speaker 3: And you know, what a joy that it's been too, Tom,
1:56
Speaker 3: to carry on with the relationship as well.
1:58
Speaker 2: We're on opposite sides of the world.
2:01
Speaker 3: I actually love how much we exchange and we talk
2:06
Speaker 3: and we catch up.
2:07
Speaker 2: We've been trying to get back on this podcast for
2:10
Speaker 2: the longest time, I know, but life is just so full.
2:15
Speaker 2: As you said, I've got a lot going on.
2:19
Speaker 3: When we first spoke, I was still in the early
2:22
Speaker 3: days of this new life of mine.
2:25
Speaker 2: I was still studying. I was at uni.
2:29
Speaker 3: For any new listeners, I I was a late bloomer
2:32
Speaker 3: when it came to the old university side of things.
2:36
Speaker 3: So I started uni in my 30s and that was
2:40
Speaker 3: when Tom first reached out. You know, I had just
2:43
Speaker 3: begun my studies and what has evolved and grown and
2:48
Speaker 3: manifested from that corner of my absolutely wild.
2:54
Speaker 2: And yeah, there's so much to talk about.
2:57
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, like you said, you were just
3:02
Speaker 1: finishing studies a couple, it must be about two and
3:05
Speaker 1: a half years ago, I think by now. And you were, yeah,
3:10
Speaker 1: I mean, so just to refresh people a little bit,
3:13
Speaker 1: what were you studying?
3:16
Speaker 3: So I enrolled myself into university when I was 32
3:20
Speaker 3: to do.
3:21
Speaker 2: Health science and nutrition.
3:23
Speaker 3: And it was just so fascinating because I I have
3:28
Speaker 3: obviously lived with Hirschsprung's disease my whole life.
3:31
Speaker 2: I was diagnosed at 12 days old.
3:33
Speaker 3: And for anyone who hasn't heard the first episode yet,
3:37
Speaker 3: I had.
3:37
Speaker 2: A full, complete... Oh my gosh, now I'm having a
3:43
Speaker 2: mind blank. I'm going to have to edit this bit out.
3:49
Speaker 3: I had a total colectomy at seven years old and
3:52
Speaker 3: was left with only 60 centimetres.
3:55
Speaker 2: Of ileum.
3:55
Speaker 3: So I've lived my entire life with just 60 centimeters
3:59
Speaker 3: of bowel. And I obviously am well and looking well now,
4:06
Speaker 3: but that wasn't always the case. And the reason I
4:10
Speaker 3: went into university was because I ended up having to
4:13
Speaker 3: have a hysterectomy when I was 30 because of multiple,
4:19
Speaker 3: multiple surgeries over my life that had just caused so
4:22
Speaker 3: much scar tissue from all of my abdominal procedures and
4:27
Speaker 3: obviously scar tissue grows. It had grown onto my reproductive organs.
4:32
Speaker 3: It caused years and years and years of infertility and
4:35
Speaker 3: fertility treatments. I was fortunate enough to have one of
4:40
Speaker 3: my sisters carry my daughter for me. So at 27,
4:44
Speaker 3: my husband and I became parents through surrogacy.
4:47
Speaker 2: I was well enough to use my own eggs and
4:49
Speaker 2: my husband's sperm. So, you know, we were... We were
4:53
Speaker 2: blessed with a beautiful daughter in 2016. And from there.
4:59
Speaker 3: I just, you know, I got, I fell so unwell,
5:03
Speaker 3: not long off my 30th birthday and all of my
5:07
Speaker 3: surgeons and my medical team made the consecutive decision that
5:10
Speaker 3: it was best to just remove my reproductive organs because
5:14
Speaker 3: I was ending up in hospital so often, just with
5:18
Speaker 3: so much horrific pain. And at the end of the day,
5:23
Speaker 3: it was a very, very long journey to become parents.
5:25
Speaker 2: So it just made sense.
5:27
Speaker 3: To remove the problem, you know, theoretically, now I can't
5:33
Speaker 3: even speak, theoretically speaking.
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Speaker 2: And so we did that.
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Speaker 3: And that was probably one of the hardest surgeries and
5:42
Speaker 3: procedures I've had over my entire existence, because what had
5:45
Speaker 3: actually happened was that scar tissue had grown from all
5:49
Speaker 3: of the adhesions of my, you know, my abdominal surgeries
5:55
Speaker 3: and all of my bowel surgeries and actually caused like
5:59
Speaker 3: spider webs throughout my entire pelvis and my abdomen. And
6:04
Speaker 3: everything was still, was kind of like glued together. It
6:06
Speaker 3: made sense as to why I kept miscarrying my babies
6:09
Speaker 3: as well, because nothing could expand.
6:12
Speaker 2: So all of this scar tissue was just essentially in
6:14
Speaker 2: the way.
6:14
Speaker 3: So It was a very, very extensive surgery and it
6:19
Speaker 3: took three different surgeons.
6:21
Speaker 2: To help get all of that out.
6:23
Speaker 3: So I had a full hysterectomy in 2020. And as
6:27
Speaker 3: I said, that was one of the most horrific, painful
6:30
Speaker 3: procedures and recoveries I've ever had. So I spent majority
6:34
Speaker 3: of my 2020 in and out of hospitals, multiple infections
6:38
Speaker 3: and A lot of time was spent laying down.
6:42
Speaker 2: It was the year of COVID. So there was many
6:44
Speaker 2: weeks I would be spending in hospital on my own.
6:46
Speaker 3: No one could visit me. I couldn't see my daughter.
6:49
Speaker 3: It just sent me down a, you know, I spiraled.
6:53
Speaker 3: My mental health and my physical health spiraled. I dropped
6:56
Speaker 3: to about 47 kilos. My mental health was just plummeting.
7:00
Speaker 3: But during that time, something happened. And I started to
7:05
Speaker 3: become aware of food for the first time in my life,
7:09
Speaker 3: because obviously I've always just been told to feed, just feed,
7:14
Speaker 3: just feed, feed the body. I have to eat every
7:16
Speaker 3: two to three hours, have to do this, to have
7:18
Speaker 3: to do that, to keep the bowels going, you.
7:21
Speaker 2: Know, all of this stuff. But I was never told
7:24
Speaker 2: throughout my entire life what particular.
7:27
Speaker 3: Foods I should be eating and how they would be
7:30
Speaker 3: serving me because I never knew until I became a
7:34
Speaker 3: university student that nutrients are absorbed in the colon.
7:39
Speaker 2: And I never knew this.
7:42
Speaker 3: And it made sense as to why my entire life, yes,
7:45
Speaker 3: I have bowel disease, but it made sense as to
7:48
Speaker 3: why my.
7:49
Speaker 2: Immune system was shot.
7:51
Speaker 3: I always was, you know, my immune system was just
7:54
Speaker 3: so poorly.
7:56
Speaker 2: All my life. And then, you know, I would catch
7:59
Speaker 2: vomiting bugs easy.
8:00
Speaker 3: Couldn't come in if you had a vomiting bug or
8:02
Speaker 3: anything like that.
8:03
Speaker 2: I fatigued very easy.
8:05
Speaker 3: My salt level and my electrolyte levels were always low, always.
8:10
Speaker 3: And I never knew that you could nourish yourself. This
8:14
Speaker 3: is going to sound crazy, but I never knew you
8:17
Speaker 3: could nourish yourself in a way that could actually improve
8:21
Speaker 3: your way of living and your way of life.
8:24
Speaker 2: By the food that you eat.
8:26
Speaker 3: Because I guess when you're brought up in the medical system,
8:29
Speaker 3: you just think medicine and medicine only. And so I
8:35
Speaker 3: tried to go back to work a couple of years
8:37
Speaker 3: after that procedure and I just couldn't. It turned out
8:41
Speaker 3: that I was also riddled with endometriosis and all of
8:45
Speaker 3: this other stuff.
8:46
Speaker 2: And it was just crazy to me that there was
8:50
Speaker 2: just those.
8:51
Speaker 3: Little things I was starting to find out along the
8:53
Speaker 3: way that I just never knew to be true because
8:55
Speaker 3: I didn't have access to dietitians.
8:57
Speaker 2: I didn't have access to nutritionists. I just, you know,
9:00
Speaker 2: it was just not the part of the world that
9:02
Speaker 2: I grew up in.
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Speaker 3: And although my parents did a beautiful job in keeping
9:06
Speaker 3: me alive, you know, there was just things that we
9:09
Speaker 3: didn't have access to. So I thought, well, I'm in
9:13
Speaker 3: a really good part. I'm in a really good part
9:15
Speaker 3: of adult life. I can afford to step back a
9:18
Speaker 3: little bit and study. So I actually went to university
9:22
Speaker 3: to just learn about food for my own self when
9:25
Speaker 3: I didn't know what was going to transpire from there.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you're, for anybody who's not heard
9:34
Speaker 1: part one, it is a wild story. I mean, I
9:38
Speaker 1: think certainly when I interviewed you the first time, I
9:41
Speaker 1: was a bit naive to sort of, because I hadn't
9:45
Speaker 1: interviewed many people with Hirschsprungs at that stage. And I thought, oh,
9:48
Speaker 1: maybe this is, you know, the way for most people. No, no,
9:53
Speaker 1: it isn't. It is it is a remarkable story. Um,
9:59
Speaker 1: and to think that, you know, usually the bowel is
10:01
Speaker 1: sort of about six, six meters long or so, and
10:04
Speaker 1: you were left with just 60 centimeters. Yeah.
10:07
Speaker 2: And it's called long segment, long segment Hirschsprungs, um, which
10:14
Speaker 2: is extremely rare. Yeah. Extremely rare. Yeah.
10:18
Speaker 3: Uh, so I actually didn't even really know that I
10:21
Speaker 3: had long segment Hirschsprungs until I'm being excited to tell
10:25
Speaker 3: you this story, by the way, until a couple of
10:27
Speaker 3: years ago when my surgeon who saved my life at
10:31
Speaker 3: 12 days old rang me out of the blue.
10:36
Speaker 2: Wow.
10:37
Speaker 1: Just, just out the blue, just to say that you,
10:40
Speaker 1: what type of Hirschsprungs you had? No.
10:42
Speaker 3: So he actually found like, apparently he had still kept
10:46
Speaker 3: in contact with my mum.
10:47
Speaker 2: And this is Dr. Fred Levitsky. He's in his 90s.
10:51
Speaker 3: He has been retired for many years, and he still
10:55
Speaker 3: kept in contact with my mom, with my mother. And anyway,
10:59
Speaker 3: he tracked down my number, and he actually rang me
11:02
Speaker 3: a couple of years ago just to check in, just
11:05
Speaker 3: to see how I was going.
11:06
Speaker 2: He wanted to hear all about my life, and it
11:09
Speaker 2: was just crazy. And then in that point, in that.
11:13
Speaker 3: Phone call was when he told me, You know, you
11:16
Speaker 3: had a long segment Hirschbrands and in all honesty, he's like,
11:21
Speaker 3: we did not think you were going to live. He
11:23
Speaker 3: said it still shocks him to this day and it
11:25
Speaker 3: is still his most difficult case he's ever had to
11:28
Speaker 3: deal with.
11:30
Speaker 1: Wow.
11:31
Speaker 3: Wow.
11:32
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, to think of everything you've been
11:36
Speaker 1: through and think about, you know, the amount of value
11:43
Speaker 1: lost and the complications you had. And, I mean, your
11:47
Speaker 1: story is as much as a medical marvel, it's also
11:51
Speaker 1: a medical mystery, I guess, in terms of, you know,
11:55
Speaker 1: how you were able to survive. But through sharing, because
12:00
Speaker 1: you've shared your story on multiple platforms and podcasts, have
12:04
Speaker 1: you sort of learnt any more about how that happened
12:07
Speaker 1: or is it still kind of a mystery?
12:10
Speaker 2: Do you know, that's actually on my list because.
12:14
Speaker 3: Even though I'm obsessed with nutrition and health and wellness,
12:18
Speaker 3: I'm a little bit of a nerd and I love research.
12:23
Speaker 2: I absolutely love it. But, and I'm sure you have
12:25
Speaker 2: found this.
12:26
Speaker 3: Too, Hirschsprungs is incredibly difficult to research. The studies on
12:32
Speaker 3: Hirschsprungs are incredibly low. And this is why I'm looking
12:37
Speaker 3: forward to getting over to the UK because it's actually
12:41
Speaker 3: more common in your country than it is in mine.
12:45
Speaker 2: And also in the States as well.
12:46
Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to getting over to the States because
12:49
Speaker 3: I would love to get into some medical advocacy work
12:52
Speaker 3: and I would actually love to work with some researchers
12:56
Speaker 3: and find out.
12:58
Speaker 2: Like, I just want to know.
13:00
Speaker 1: It would be absolutely amazing. I mean, with the conference,
13:04
Speaker 1: I know we chatted a little bit before about the
13:07
Speaker 1: conference that I went to a couple of weeks ago
13:09
Speaker 1: in London. And I always thought it was one in 5,000
13:13
Speaker 1: because that was always the number that was given. But
13:17
Speaker 1: they said there that it's about, in the UK, sort
13:19
Speaker 1: of one in every 3,500. So it is, you know,
13:23
Speaker 1: you're right. It is probably more common in certain places.
13:28
Speaker 1: I mean, and there's people I've interviewed who, you know,
13:32
Speaker 1: their dad has it or their mom or, And then
13:35
Speaker 1: they have it and then their children have it. So,
13:37
Speaker 1: I mean, that's three just in one family. So that
13:41
Speaker 1: covers another 10,000 people or whatever. So it is, it's, yeah,
13:47
Speaker 1: it's really, really interesting how it all kind of works out.
13:51
Speaker 1: But speaking of kind of the UK and touring, you
13:57
Speaker 1: are touring for a specific reason because you have something
14:01
Speaker 1: else to share.
14:02
Speaker 2: I do, I do.
14:03
Speaker 3: So I'm very, very close to publishing my memoir, which
14:07
Speaker 3: I have wanted to do for a very, very long time,
14:10
Speaker 3: but it just, it never felt like the right time.
14:13
Speaker 2: And I know that we're told, you know, there.
14:16
Speaker 3: Is no right time, but there kind of is when
14:19
Speaker 3: you're doing something like this.
14:21
Speaker 2: And it makes sense to me now why it never
14:25
Speaker 2: felt right. And I just had so much.
14:27
Speaker 3: More to live and learn before I put pen to paper.
14:31
Speaker 3: Because the last six years of my life, I'm 36
14:36
Speaker 3: years old, by the way, the last six years of
14:38
Speaker 3: my life have been the most transformative of my entire
14:43
Speaker 3: 36 years. And now I know why there was just
14:48
Speaker 3: that part of me that was like, just keep waiting,
14:50
Speaker 3: just keep waiting.
14:52
Speaker 2: Because there was also the fear of time.
14:54
Speaker 3: Anything can happen. You can be taken from this world
14:56
Speaker 3: at any point in time. And I would hate for
14:58
Speaker 3: something tragic to happen. And I never wrote the book.
15:01
Speaker 3: But I never felt that. It was always, no, there's
15:05
Speaker 3: just other things I need to learn first about myself
15:09
Speaker 3: and about, you know, and about my diagnosis and about
15:12
Speaker 3: how I can actually turn my pain into purpose before
15:16
Speaker 3: I put pen to paper. And, you know, as you
15:19
Speaker 3: said before, it's been a very busy couple of years.
15:21
Speaker 3: And the last six years have been, yes, very transformative
15:26
Speaker 3: in terms of rediscovering who I am, but who.
15:31
Speaker 3: But who I am with Hirschsprung's disease. Because when you
15:34
Speaker 3: live with it your entire life, it's just a part
15:37
Speaker 3: of you. You don't study it because it's just a
15:40
Speaker 3: part of you. You've known it for your entire life. So,
15:45
Speaker 3: you know, as a 20-something-year-old, I'm not researching Hirschsprung's on.
15:50
Speaker 2: Google.
15:50
Speaker 3: I'm traveling and trying to have babies and building businesses
15:54
Speaker 3: and trying different careers.
15:55
Speaker 2: Like I'm off doing that kind of stuff.
15:57
Speaker 3: Because when you're compromised as a child, you get to
16:00
Speaker 3: adult life and all you want to do is try everything.
16:02
Speaker 3: You want to do all the things that you couldn't
16:05
Speaker 3: do when you were younger.
16:06
Speaker 2: So I was busy. I was busy trying to have fun.
16:09
Speaker 3: But yeah, when I was forced to lay down and
16:14
Speaker 3: really then became quite physically compromised, I thought, no, this
16:18
Speaker 3: is where I need to start learning about Hirschsprungs and
16:21
Speaker 3: finding out as much as I can and how can
16:24
Speaker 3: I help other people, not just with Hirschsprungs, but with
16:28
Speaker 3: chronic illness in the scheme of things. And that can be,
16:33
Speaker 3: there's millions of chronic illnesses and there's actually a lot
16:38
Speaker 3: of different strains of Hirschsprungs as well. There is people
16:42
Speaker 3: living with Hirschsprungs who have lived with it their entire
16:45
Speaker 3: life and don't know. You know, there's just, it's crazy
16:49
Speaker 3: how some people are literally living with it and Here
16:52
Speaker 3: I thought just that anyone who has Hirschsprungs has only
16:56
Speaker 3: 60 centimeters of of ileum and a stoma.
16:59
Speaker 2: That's all I grew up thinking.
17:01
Speaker 3: I didn't know that there was Crohn's disease. It's almost
17:05
Speaker 3: like a brother to Hirschsprungs.
17:09
Speaker 2: It's crazy. It's all these things that I didn't know.
17:12
Speaker 2: And I just, I was all of a sudden inquisitive.
17:16
Speaker 3: So I have spent so much time educating myself, learning
17:20
Speaker 3: about the human anatomy in terms of What happens when
17:23
Speaker 3: you're missing these major organs?
17:24
Speaker 2: It's not just in.
17:26
Speaker 3: That area of the body, but how that affects people physically, mentally, emotionally.
17:31
Speaker 3: It compromises not just one part of your world. It
17:36
Speaker 3: compromises the entire world. So when I kind of reached
17:43
Speaker 3: that point that I came into this year specifically and
17:47
Speaker 3: I just knew, I just thought, no, it's time.
17:50
Speaker 2: I feel like I've I've lived a million years.
17:53
Speaker 3: I've lived one million years is what it feels like.
17:57
Speaker 3: And then, you know, I studied and now I help
18:00
Speaker 3: other people. I have a beautiful business that helps so
18:04
Speaker 3: many different people.
18:05
Speaker 2: From different walks of life. And it's time to get
18:08
Speaker 2: it out there. So I just started writing.
18:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, well, you've got plenty to write about.
18:16
Speaker 1: You're not going to be short on content. So how...
18:21
Speaker 1: How long roughly is it sort of taken you to
18:25
Speaker 1: write the whole thing?
18:27
Speaker 3: So I took a bit of a different approach. So
18:30
Speaker 3: they say when you write a book, it's just, you know,
18:33
Speaker 3: you've got to carve out time, write when it feels good,
18:36
Speaker 3: all this kind of stuff. And it can take some
18:38
Speaker 3: people years. But given that I know my own life
18:42
Speaker 3: very well, I thought, you know, how hard can it
18:45
Speaker 3: be to sit down and write about your own life?
18:48
Speaker 3: It's not like I've got to try and make the
18:50
Speaker 3: story up. I just know the story. So I actually,
18:55
Speaker 3: because I am, if I'm in my environment, I can't concentrate. And,
19:00
Speaker 3: you know, I'm also a mum and a woman. So
19:03
Speaker 3: I'm constantly doing 50 million things at once. Whereas my
19:06
Speaker 3: husband was like, you need to just get out of here.
19:09
Speaker 3: So I jumped on a plane when as far as
19:11
Speaker 3: I could, I went down to Sydney and And for
19:14
Speaker 3: 10 days, I just wrote.
19:17
Speaker 2: I just wrote. And in 10 days, I wrote 60,000 words.
19:24
Speaker 2: I just kept going. I just kept going and going
19:26
Speaker 2: and going.
19:27
Speaker 3: And isn't it incredible that there's many pockets of my
19:30
Speaker 3: life that I don't remember because I was either heavily
19:34
Speaker 3: medicated or extremely unwell or, you know, it was just
19:37
Speaker 3: a bad year.
19:38
Speaker 2: You know, who remembers what happened in their sixth year
19:41
Speaker 2: of life?
19:43
Speaker 3: But I tell you what, something my book coach did
19:45
Speaker 3: say to me is, she said, when you start this process,
19:49
Speaker 3: you will just be blown away at what comes and
19:54
Speaker 3: it was so true I just started writing I wrote
19:57
Speaker 3: a timeline obviously my birth year right up to where
20:02
Speaker 3: I how old I am now I wrote down all
20:04
Speaker 3: of the major events in my life which there's a
20:07
Speaker 3: few and then just went year by year and just
20:11
Speaker 3: filled in the gaps. But the things that came to
20:14
Speaker 3: me were deep.
20:16
Speaker 2: They were deep.
20:17
Speaker 3: I was remembering procedures that I'd had when I was
20:20
Speaker 3: younger that were excruciating. I went back into medical rooms
20:26
Speaker 3: as a child that were really scary. So it was
20:30
Speaker 3: a very deep and emotional and exhausting process.
20:34
Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong.
20:36
Speaker 3: But the best thing I did was take that 10
20:38
Speaker 3: days and just get it out.
20:41
Speaker 2: I just got it all out on paper.
20:44
Speaker 3: It didn't matter to me at the time, whether it
20:46
Speaker 3: sounded right or whether the spelling was good. That's not
20:48
Speaker 3: my job. My job is to just get it on paper.
20:53
Speaker 3: So I did that. When I got back, that was
20:55
Speaker 3: back in May. When I got back, I just got
21:01
Speaker 3: straight into Google and just started Googling publishers, editors, PR managers,
21:08
Speaker 3: anything to do with book writing I could find until
21:12
Speaker 3: I actually found someone literally down the road from me.
21:17
Speaker 3: So I'm in the Gold Coast and my production manager
21:21
Speaker 3: is in Brisbane and it turns out she's been doing
21:26
Speaker 3: this for years and years and years and she runs
21:29
Speaker 3: her own business and she has editors and She has
21:31
Speaker 3: cover designers. She has all of these beautiful people that
21:34
Speaker 3: you need when you're publishing a book. And I signed
21:37
Speaker 3: the contract and we got to work. Um, and the editing, yeah,
21:42
Speaker 3: the editing process has been a, probably the most difficult
21:45
Speaker 3: part because you've got to read and read and read.
21:47
Speaker 2: You've got to read and edit, read and edit. You
21:50
Speaker 2: get to a point where you're like, Oh my God,
21:51
Speaker 2: who's going to want to hear this? Because you've heard
21:53
Speaker 2: it 40,000 times.
21:54
Speaker 3: Um, But it never gets old reading some of those
21:59
Speaker 3: moments where you just think, how could a human go
22:02
Speaker 3: through that?
22:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
22:04
Speaker 1: Because this, I mean, there's two really good points you
22:08
Speaker 1: make there. One, obviously, going through your own story. Because
22:14
Speaker 1: some of it, and I think the brain does this
22:17
Speaker 1: to a certain extent, that it does black out certain
22:20
Speaker 1: bits and pieces. And when you then relive that, it is...
22:26
Speaker 1: It's incredibly emotional. I mean, even when I wrote my
22:31
Speaker 1: own story, just a few paragraphs of it, not a lot.
22:35
Speaker 1: It still brings back a lot of things that you
22:38
Speaker 1: thought that you either don't think about anymore or that
22:43
Speaker 1: you didn't know existed. And then you realize they have
22:48
Speaker 1: and you think, wow, how did I do that? I mean,
22:54
Speaker 1: it must have been a lot of times like that.
22:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, especially when I was younger. So my first seven
23:01
Speaker 3: years of life were the worst because, you know, not
23:05
Speaker 3: only was I little, but also it was the 90s. And,
23:10
Speaker 3: you know, medicine has come a long way.
23:14
Speaker 2: We can say that.
23:16
Speaker 3: Modern medicine has definitely come a long way. But I
23:18
Speaker 3: was born in 1990 where no one really knew what
23:21
Speaker 3: Hirschsprung's disease was. So it's almost like I was the
23:25
Speaker 3: trial and error.
23:27
Speaker 2: Child.
23:29
Speaker 3: And you would not even believe this, two weeks before
23:32
Speaker 3: I left for Sydney, my mum was like, oh, I
23:36
Speaker 3: found this yellow folder. You might want to take a
23:40
Speaker 3: look at it. And I'm not even joking you. I've
23:42
Speaker 3: got photos of it because it will go into the book,
23:45
Speaker 3: but it is all the handwritten letters from my doctor
23:48
Speaker 3: from when I was born. All the triage notes, It's notes,
23:54
Speaker 3: it's faxes, it's notes he's written to fax to other
23:57
Speaker 3: surgeons to get medical opinions. It's discharge notes, it's admission notes.
24:04
Speaker 3: There's a note there a couple of days after my
24:07
Speaker 3: mum and dad got married, I actually had a seizure
24:11
Speaker 3: and on their honeymoon and there is notes in there
24:14
Speaker 3: about that seizure that I had.
24:15
Speaker 2: I was in life support for a few days. I
24:18
Speaker 2: was airlifted to Brisbane. It's like all of this is
24:22
Speaker 2: in there. It's just crazy. And it showed up two
24:26
Speaker 2: weeks before I left to write my book.
24:29
Speaker 1: Just fate would have it.
24:33
Speaker 3: And that's what I mean by I always knew there
24:36
Speaker 3: was a reason that I had to wait. And I
24:39
Speaker 3: just never knew why. Just write the damn book. Just
24:42
Speaker 3: write the damn book, I'd say to myself. But internally,
24:46
Speaker 3: I just knew there was a reason I had to wait.
24:48
Speaker 3: And some of these notes, going through them, was really
24:51
Speaker 3: difficult to read.
24:53
Speaker 2: Really difficult you can.
24:54
Speaker 3: See that there's language within these facts documents where you
24:59
Speaker 3: can tell the doctors just really didn't know what was
25:02
Speaker 3: going on with me or why i was even alive.
25:06
Speaker 1: Yeah i mean that that that is the um that's
25:09
Speaker 1: the peculiarity of it that i mean because your heart
25:13
Speaker 1: shrugs is is so severe and rare It's really kind of, yeah,
25:22
Speaker 1: a medical mystery, kind of as we said at the beginning,
25:25
Speaker 1: a medical mystery. But brilliant though.
25:30
Speaker 2: Unbelievable. Unbelievable. So Dr.
25:34
Speaker 3: Fred Leditsky actually rang me about 12 months ago to
25:38
Speaker 3: ask for my permission to put me in contact with,
25:41
Speaker 3: would you believe, another patient that he still has contact
25:44
Speaker 3: with from the 90s.
25:45
Speaker 2: There's a boy that.
25:47
Speaker 3: Was born with Hirschsprung's disease, but not in the severity
25:50
Speaker 3: that I had. He has gone on to live a
25:52
Speaker 3: life without.
25:53
Speaker 2: A stoma, fortunately. But sadly, this gentleman and his wife.
26:00
Speaker 3: Had a baby last year and it was born with
26:04
Speaker 3: long segment Hirschsprung's. They found only 65 centimetres of ileum
26:10
Speaker 3: that had working ganglion cells. That's only five centimetres more
26:14
Speaker 3: than what I had. And the baby was incredibly, incredibly unwell.
26:19
Speaker 3: It was about three months old at this point when
26:22
Speaker 3: he had Rang Min by the time they got the diagnosis.
26:26
Speaker 3: And the parents didn't know what to do. They just
26:31
Speaker 3: didn't know what the quality of life could look like
26:32
Speaker 3: for this baby. They wanted to know, you know, what
26:36
Speaker 3: could life look like if they kept pushing and asking
26:40
Speaker 3: for more answers and trying to get more answers.
26:43
Speaker 2: And I said, of course, pass on my details.
26:44
Speaker 3: I'd be happy to show them what 60 centimetres of.
26:47
Speaker 2: Allium can look like.
26:50
Speaker 3: Of course, every case is different. And I never ended
26:53
Speaker 3: up hearing back. And I got a phone call two
26:55
Speaker 3: weeks later and unfortunately that baby passed away because it
27:01
Speaker 3: just wasn't enough. It wasn't enough.
27:03
Speaker 2: And in that moment, in my.
27:06
Speaker 3: Whole 36 years, was the moment that I realised that
27:10
Speaker 3: it is an absolute sin God-given miracle that I am
27:13
Speaker 3: literally here. And it was literally like, even though I
27:18
Speaker 3: know how sick I am and I know the extent
27:20
Speaker 3: of my condition and my Hirschsprungs, but it wasn't until
27:24
Speaker 3: I'd heard those words come out of his mouth that
27:27
Speaker 3: that baby had died that I realized how bizarre it
27:32
Speaker 3: is that I am here.
27:33
Speaker 1: Yeah. And not just here, though, are you? Not just here,
27:39
Speaker 1: you are also thriving. You know, you're not just, and
27:43
Speaker 1: this is another reason why I really wanted to chat
27:46
Speaker 1: to you again, because you're not just, you know, living
27:50
Speaker 1: and surviving. You know, if anybody didn't know your Hirschsprung's
27:56
Speaker 1: condition and just knew you as Amy, the nutritionist, Amy,
28:01
Speaker 1: the wellness practitioner, you know, they wouldn't know necessarily that
28:07
Speaker 1: you had this because they'd just go, oh, yeah, she's
28:10
Speaker 1: doing really, really well. you know and and i think
28:13
Speaker 1: that's that's the other the side of her sprungs that
28:18
Speaker 1: because there might be people who you know listen to
28:22
Speaker 1: this or um follow your instagram who didn't know you
28:27
Speaker 1: had her sprungs and just sort of came across you
28:30
Speaker 1: know but it's one of those conditions where it can
28:33
Speaker 1: be hidden quite a lot um and people maybe don't
28:37
Speaker 1: see the other side of it which is again a
28:41
Speaker 1: couple of posts you've done sort of recently that have
28:43
Speaker 1: seen where you have sort of showed the other side
28:46
Speaker 1: um of sort of you know yes to the sort
28:50
Speaker 1: of outside you know you're doing this that the other
28:53
Speaker 1: publishing the book and you're doing classes and etc and
28:56
Speaker 1: then on the other side you know then the sort
28:59
Speaker 1: of her sprung side and the fatigue and all of
29:02
Speaker 1: that stuff so i think that's also been something i've
29:06
Speaker 1: been following as well you shared both sides which I
29:10
Speaker 1: think is makes that sort of really real and honest
29:13
Speaker 1: and I.
29:14
Speaker 2: Think that's where I really am leaning.
29:16
Speaker 3: Towards I've you know being my point of difference as
29:19
Speaker 3: well as you do you tend to follow these beautiful
29:23
Speaker 3: advocates advocating for whatever condition they've got but that's all
29:27
Speaker 3: that's on their page and that is so fine there
29:30
Speaker 3: is nothing wrong with that they are just as inspiring, honestly.
29:34
Speaker 3: And I follow a lot of those kind of accounts
29:36
Speaker 3: because they inspire me.
29:37
Speaker 2: But I really, really want to be a part of that.
29:40
Speaker 2: to advocate for those who do want to do.
29:44
Speaker 3: Just more than survive they want to live they even
29:48
Speaker 3: though they've got their chronic illness or their condition or
29:51
Speaker 3: their whatever it is I want people to know that
29:54
Speaker 3: they are not that diagnosis They are not their diagnosis
29:58
Speaker 3: and there is more to living than just.
30:01
Speaker 2: Trying to survive every day.
30:02
Speaker 3: And we are allowed to have hopes and dreams.
30:05
Speaker 2: We are allowed to have careers.
30:07
Speaker 3: We are allowed to wake up every day and say,
30:09
Speaker 3: I want to be so rich that I want.
30:10
Speaker 2: To take my whole family over to Italy.
30:13
Speaker 3: We should be able to have those hopes and dreams
30:17
Speaker 3: and desires just as everyone else without sharing constantly just
30:23
Speaker 3: what the bad days look like.
30:26
Speaker 2: Because that's not fun to share. First of all, I
30:29
Speaker 2: don't want to share.
30:30
Speaker 3: I don't want to share that, you know, halfway through
30:34
Speaker 3: teaching a class the other day, my bag was leaking
30:37
Speaker 3: and there was nothing I could do about it.
30:39
Speaker 2: I just had to roll with it and improvise.
30:42
Speaker 3: You can't, like you just, although it's inspiring and it would,
30:47
Speaker 3: you know, it would get the clicks and all this
30:49
Speaker 3: kind of stuff.
30:49
Speaker 2: I don't want to share that side of my life
30:52
Speaker 2: all the time.
30:53
Speaker 3: I want to show that despite what I have been
30:56
Speaker 3: through and my crazy diagnosis, that I still can be
31:00
Speaker 3: successful and do everything that everyone else can do.
31:05
Speaker 2: Yeah.
31:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
31:08
Speaker 2: Exactly.
31:09
Speaker 1: Which is, again, that's where we're sort of on completely
31:12
Speaker 1: the same wavelength because those are the types of people,
31:16
Speaker 1: like yourself, I wanted to find when I started this.
31:20
Speaker 1: People who would go, well, actually, yes, this happened to
31:23
Speaker 1: me and it wasn't nice. but I can still do X, Y,
31:27
Speaker 1: and Z, which I love.
31:28
Speaker 3: 1000%. And I can't wait to get over and like
31:35
Speaker 3: once my book is here, like it's being published in November,
31:38
Speaker 3: but the big goal is to get into other countries
31:41
Speaker 3: where Hirschsprung is a little bit more common and meet
31:44
Speaker 3: more people like yourself and advocate in that way as well.
31:48
Speaker 2: I want to be at medical conferences.
31:50
Speaker 3: I want to stand up in front of people that
31:53
Speaker 3: think that if their baby is born with 60 centimeters
31:55
Speaker 3: of of ileum that's working and that's it that nothing's
31:59
Speaker 3: going to happen for their child i want them to
32:02
Speaker 3: see what's possible yeah definitely and same goes for same
32:07
Speaker 3: goes for the doctors as well i want the doctors
32:10
Speaker 3: to see what's possible.
32:11
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah because again it's it's it's a condition that
32:15
Speaker 1: as a doctor you're not going to come across every
32:17
Speaker 1: day you know or year Or even every five years,
32:21
Speaker 1: you know, it is by definition, it's a rare condition.
32:26
Speaker 1: So it is going to, yeah, you're not going to
32:29
Speaker 1: necessarily come across it or certainly come across a lot
32:32
Speaker 1: of people or like, you know, like you've seen and
32:35
Speaker 1: I've seen, there are completely different stories, you know, all
32:41
Speaker 1: across the world. It's like you said when you were
32:43
Speaker 1: growing up and I thought the same thing as well,
32:45
Speaker 1: that when you have Hirschsprungs, well, everyone's like me. We
32:48
Speaker 1: just all have the same thing. But it's just not
32:51
Speaker 1: the case, is it?
32:54
Speaker 2: No.
32:54
Speaker 1: No.
32:54
Speaker 3: And a lot of people probably don't realize either that
32:56
Speaker 3: Hirschsprung is more common in males.
32:59
Speaker 2: Yeah.
32:59
Speaker 3: And that's why it wasn't even considered when I was
33:03
Speaker 3: first born because I was born a female.
33:06
Speaker 2: Yeah.
33:07
Speaker 3: Yeah.
33:07
Speaker 1: And that's the other thing I hear from people as
33:11
Speaker 1: well because I think it's about four to one ratio,
33:13
Speaker 1: male to female. It's crazy. Yeah. And there are... So
33:19
Speaker 1: many women I've spoken to have Hirschsprungs where it's just
33:22
Speaker 1: ruled out because they said, well, you're a woman, you
33:24
Speaker 1: can't have Hirschsprungs. Well, that's just not true.
33:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. That's right.
33:30
Speaker 3: My goal is to get more awareness around the world
33:34
Speaker 3: for not just Hirschsprungs, but for Hirschsprungs in women, Hirschsprungs
33:39
Speaker 3: in women, because on top of that, then a lot
33:42
Speaker 3: of people don't realize that when you have Hirschsprungs as
33:45
Speaker 3: a woman and you're having to have multiple surgeries, Well,
33:49
Speaker 3: then what those surgeries then do to the reproductive organs,
33:53
Speaker 3: which are amongst all of that surgery.
33:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, hugely.
33:59
Speaker 3: It wasn't something I ever considered. I was only ever told, oh,
34:02
Speaker 3: I don't know if you'll be able to have children
34:03
Speaker 3: or not.
34:04
Speaker 2: That's all I was ever told. I wasn't told anything.
34:06
Speaker 3: Else that, you know, all of this pelvic surgery and
34:09
Speaker 3: abdominal surgery that I've had could be affecting my reproductive
34:13
Speaker 3: organs along the way.
34:15
Speaker 1: But through your case and... Yeah, through your case and
34:18
Speaker 1: your research, obviously you're then able to help, potentially help
34:23
Speaker 1: women in the future.
34:25
Speaker 2: That's right.
34:25
Speaker 3: And I say to like a lot of women who,
34:28
Speaker 3: I have women that have Hirschsprung's disease from all over
34:30
Speaker 3: the world come into my DMs all the time. And
34:34
Speaker 3: I always say to them, if you are young, get
34:39
Speaker 3: your eggs checked, get your ovaries checked.
34:42
Speaker 2: Not because you want to have that in the back
34:44
Speaker 2: of your mind. Oh, I don't know if I'll be
34:46
Speaker 2: able to have children.
34:47
Speaker 3: But because there's beautiful things now like IVF, so if
34:52
Speaker 3: you're young and you're in a reasonably good state of
34:57
Speaker 3: health and are able to get some eggs collected, why not?
35:02
Speaker 3: Just things like this that fortunately because I met my
35:07
Speaker 3: husband young and we were able to start IVF young,
35:11
Speaker 3: otherwise if I never met him, look how unwell I
35:15
Speaker 3: was when I was 30. Because that scar tissue had
35:18
Speaker 3: grown so far down and created so many issues.
35:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. It would have been a very, my daughter
35:24
Speaker 2: wouldn't be here.
35:25
Speaker 1: No, no, but it does, like you say, you know,
35:29
Speaker 1: planning early and thinking ahead in the future has been,
35:34
Speaker 1: you know, lifesaver.
35:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
35:40
Speaker 1: But you mentioned earlier as well about touring. and about
35:45
Speaker 1: going there to various places with your book tour. Would
35:50
Speaker 1: you like to talk a little bit about that?
35:52
Speaker 2: So the book will be published in November, which is
35:55
Speaker 2: very fun.
35:56
Speaker 3: And I plan to do a little bit of touring
35:58
Speaker 3: in Australia when the book is fresh. You know, the
36:03
Speaker 3: big cities, Sydney, I'm in Gold Coast, so it'll be,
36:06
Speaker 3: you know, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, all of those beautiful, fun places.
36:10
Speaker 3: But I am desperate, I am desperate to get over
36:13
Speaker 3: to the States and over to the UK. And I
36:18
Speaker 3: have planned it around the time of Rare Disease Day
36:22
Speaker 3: and also International Women's Day. Obviously, they're two very significant
36:28
Speaker 3: dates that relate to me very well, not just as
36:31
Speaker 3: in because I'm a Hirschsprung's advocate, but also because of
36:35
Speaker 3: my profession as well. and the ability to deliver what
36:40
Speaker 3: I know from an educated standpoint to also a lived-in
36:44
Speaker 3: experience standpoint. So I am in the process of trying
36:47
Speaker 3: to secure some speaking and interviews and just all of
36:53
Speaker 3: the things I'd love to do two weeks in America
36:55
Speaker 3: and then followed by two weeks in the UK. So
36:58
Speaker 3: dates that I'm looking at are definitely late February, early March.
37:04
Speaker 3: So um, I'm very much looking forward to, I've, I've
37:08
Speaker 3: got a meeting with my PR team next week and
37:11
Speaker 3: they're going to start reaching out to, to different, to
37:14
Speaker 3: different parts of the world and see what we can
37:16
Speaker 3: pull together. But yeah, my goal is to get the
37:18
Speaker 3: book into, into the US and to the UK market
37:22
Speaker 3: because that's where Hirschbrunn's is predominantly.
37:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, hugely. And I think just probably because of the
37:29
Speaker 1: people I've spoken to. I know I'm UK based, so
37:32
Speaker 1: I'm probably going to be speaking to more UK people.
37:34
Speaker 1: I speak to a lot of people in America as well.
37:36
Speaker 1: Cause again, it's, it's, you've got reach over there, the
37:39
Speaker 1: charity you've got, and you've got so many cases of
37:44
Speaker 1: Hirschsprungs over there as well. Um, I don't know about
37:50
Speaker 1: other countries and whatnot, but certainly UK and US, like
37:53
Speaker 1: you said, very, very prevalent. Um, And we'll have to
37:57
Speaker 1: organise the next Hirschsprungs event around late February, early March
38:00
Speaker 1: in London.
38:02
Speaker 2: Yes, we will.
38:04
Speaker 3: And I think too, like I was saying to you before,
38:07
Speaker 3: that being a woman with Hirschsprungs disease, tying it around
38:11
Speaker 3: that International Women's Day, it just made sense. And obviously
38:16
Speaker 3: Rare Disease Day.
38:17
Speaker 2: I mean, why not?
38:19
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
38:21
Speaker 3: And plus the time of the world. I'm not coming
38:23
Speaker 3: to anyone's country in the middle of winter. So.
38:27
Speaker 1: Don't worry. It'll still be cold when you get here.
38:29
Speaker 1: Don't worry.
38:30
Speaker 2: That's okay. I can deal with cold, but not freezing cold.
38:33
Speaker 2: That sounds fantastic. Yeah, big things coming and bigger things coming.
38:41
Speaker 2: And yeah, it's fun. I love it. I love it.
38:45
Speaker 1: You can be my next celebrity guest speaker.
38:49
Speaker 2: Oh, I will be there. And we can do it
38:51
Speaker 2: in person.
38:52
Speaker 1: That would be incredible. That would be incredible.
38:55
Speaker 2: That's the best part. I'm a really in-person person.
38:58
Speaker 3: It sounds like a mouthful, but it really is.
39:01
Speaker 2: And I was even speaking to an.
39:05
Speaker 3: Organization over in Vegas and they do a huge conference
39:08
Speaker 3: each year. And when I was pitching to them that, look,
39:12
Speaker 3: I would love to come over and speak, I was like,
39:16
Speaker 3: I will come over.
39:17
Speaker 2: And speak like in person.
39:19
Speaker 3: I don't want to be on the big screen in
39:22
Speaker 3: the Zoom.
39:23
Speaker 2: No, you can't.
39:24
Speaker 1: Feel the same energy. No, it's not. It's not. I mean,
39:27
Speaker 1: I've had the last couple of Hirschsprung's days, we've had
39:33
Speaker 1: guest speakers and one came from another country, Zoe Colletti
39:37
Speaker 1: came over from America, an actress from America. And she
39:42
Speaker 1: just happened to be in London filming. And then... made
39:46
Speaker 1: her way to Liverpool and became the guest speaker there.
39:49
Speaker 1: And that was incredible, absolutely incredible to meet her in person. Oh,
39:53
Speaker 1: of course. Brilliant. So, yeah, I totally get that experience
39:58
Speaker 1: of being, it's different meeting people in person than it is.
40:03
Speaker 2: It's an energy.
40:04
Speaker 3: It's just I'm an energy person and just being in
40:07
Speaker 3: the same room and the same vicinity of anyone that
40:11
Speaker 3: you're trying to connect with or even just because I'm
40:14
Speaker 3: telling a very, personal story um you know doing that
40:19
Speaker 3: in in person to people who are literally there to
40:23
Speaker 3: to learn from you and to be inspired and motivated
40:26
Speaker 3: by you it's got to.
40:28
Speaker 1: Be in person yeah yeah exactly.
40:31
Speaker 3: And I'm a hugger I'm a hugger so I'll hug
40:34
Speaker 3: everyone same.
40:36
Speaker 1: Same same it was exactly the same two weeks ago
40:39
Speaker 1: exactly the same two weeks ago but yeah I mean
40:42
Speaker 1: that the certainly the idea is to do more Hirschsprung's
40:46
Speaker 1: events in the UK when I was speaking to the
40:49
Speaker 1: guys who were organizing it and to do it in
40:53
Speaker 1: various different places so if we can organize another one
40:56
Speaker 1: we'll crack onto it straight away if we're going to
40:58
Speaker 1: organize it for February March but if we can organize
41:01
Speaker 1: it for February March that would be yeah that would
41:04
Speaker 1: be great I've done it before I can do it
41:06
Speaker 1: again absolutely.
41:08
Speaker 3: You can oh my gosh we look we've done way
41:10
Speaker 3: harder things we can do this Exactly.
41:13
Speaker 1: Exactly. I'll be able to coordinate some people in some
41:16
Speaker 1: place before so we can do it again. But no,
41:19
Speaker 1: I think that's, that's incredible. And I can't wait for this,
41:22
Speaker 1: this book to come out because I mean, I know
41:26
Speaker 1: we've done a couple of podcasts now and I've listened
41:29
Speaker 1: to a couple of your other podcasts with people who
41:33
Speaker 1: are way more famous than I am. Way more famous
41:36
Speaker 1: than I am. In country. But, um, Yeah, and I
41:43
Speaker 1: can't wait for this because I'm sure there's going to
41:46
Speaker 1: be lots of bits and pieces in there that will
41:48
Speaker 1: be relevant to everyone with Hirschsprung's. Really, really relevant.
41:55
Speaker 3: And just anyone with chronic illness who... One thing I'm
41:59
Speaker 3: really passionate about is people who live with chronic illness
42:03
Speaker 3: and have been dismissed before.
42:04
Speaker 2: That's a big thing for me.
42:08
Speaker 3: I mean, I haven't been dismissed about Hirschsprung's, but I
42:11
Speaker 3: was definitely dismissed along the way about different things.
42:15
Speaker 2: And I talk about that in the book and it's
42:17
Speaker 2: not nice.
42:18
Speaker 3: Yeah.
42:19
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I think that's also, but for people who think, oh,
42:23
Speaker 1: that's just a, you know, 90s thing with, you know,
42:26
Speaker 1: we've moved on. Not necessarily. People I've spoken to, lots
42:32
Speaker 1: of people I've spoken to who have children who are
42:34
Speaker 1: very young and still are kind of being dismissed or, Oh,
42:39
Speaker 1: you're just an anxious mother or, you know, et cetera,
42:42
Speaker 1: et cetera. So that, unfortunately, is still going on. We
42:45
Speaker 1: are getting better at it. And the more awareness we
42:48
Speaker 1: can bring, the better we will get. But I think
42:53
Speaker 1: that's something that's still got a long way to go,
42:57
Speaker 1: I'm afraid.
42:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
42:59
Speaker 3: And while we're on that topic, I'll quickly touch on
43:03
Speaker 3: the fact that something I've never shared on my page, obviously, because... Well,
43:09
Speaker 3: it's personal, but I've never really showed anyone my stomach,
43:14
Speaker 3: the way I look, my scars.
43:16
Speaker 2: I've got so many scars.
43:18
Speaker 3: And being a woman and a girl too, it was
43:21
Speaker 3: something that when I grew up, it was embarrassing.
43:26
Speaker 2: You know, I was different. I didn't look like the
43:28
Speaker 2: other girls. Plus, I grew up in a beach town. So,
43:33
Speaker 2: you know, where not many clothes were worn by girls.
43:36
Speaker 3: You know, everyone was always in togs and things like that,
43:38
Speaker 3: whereas I was always the different one. And when it
43:43
Speaker 3: came to my book, my production manager saying, what are
43:48
Speaker 3: we going to put on the cover? That was an
43:51
Speaker 3: interesting concept because I hadn't quite thought about it. I
43:53
Speaker 3: just thought, oh, you know, we'll put a photo of
43:56
Speaker 3: me and I'll just be smiling and looking well, whatever.
44:02
Speaker 2: And it was actually my husband that said, why don't
44:04
Speaker 2: you show me? the world what you have on the
44:08
Speaker 2: front cover. And it made my heart go. It made
44:12
Speaker 2: my heart go because even as.
44:14
Speaker 3: A young daughter, even as a young child, you know,
44:17
Speaker 3: the thought of being in a bikini or a swimsuit
44:20
Speaker 3: in front of anyone was an absolute no. And there's
44:23
Speaker 3: a chapter in my book about what it's like being
44:25
Speaker 3: a girl and having a bag on your stomach and
44:29
Speaker 3: scars everywhere. It's not enjoyable. I find boys tend to
44:34
Speaker 3: be a little bit more blasé whereas girls we you
44:38
Speaker 3: know we have from a very young age we start
44:42
Speaker 3: to criticize ourselves physically so let's add on that as
44:46
Speaker 3: well it's it's difficult and I think that's why a
44:51
Speaker 3: lot of my childhood and a lot of my teen
44:53
Speaker 3: years and then early 20s I just pretended it wasn't
44:55
Speaker 3: there and that's actually not good I spent most of
44:58
Speaker 3: my life pretending that it wasn't there and I would
45:01
Speaker 3: hide it so when it came to designing the concept
45:05
Speaker 3: of the cover My husband, of all people, was like.
45:08
Speaker 2: No, you need to show. You've got to show it.
45:13
Speaker 3: So it was a very emotional photo shoot last Friday,
45:17
Speaker 3: being in front of photographers with not much on and
45:22
Speaker 3: cameras everywhere. And we got the concepts back last night
45:26
Speaker 3: and it's safe to say that the world's going to
45:29
Speaker 3: know just by looking at the front cover.
45:30
Speaker 2: What the book is all about.
45:33
Speaker 1: Well, from a marketing standpoint... That's exactly what you want.
45:37
Speaker 1: You want a show don't tell. But that, I mean,
45:40
Speaker 1: well done you because that is, yeah, that is incredible.
45:47
Speaker 1: Absolutely incredible.
45:49
Speaker 2: Yeah.
45:50
Speaker 1: That's, yeah, amazing.
45:52
Speaker 3: Amazing.
45:52
Speaker 1: Yeah.
45:53
Speaker 3: It'll be interesting. I've got to hit the publish button first.
45:57
Speaker 3: And we got some other photos just in case because,
46:01
Speaker 3: you know, Once again, being a woman who's deformed, I
46:05
Speaker 3: guess if you would say, you know, that's the word
46:08
Speaker 3: I grew up telling myself. So we'll see what makes
46:11
Speaker 3: the cover. But if that's what it is, then it's.
46:15
Speaker 2: Going to get very real very quickly.
46:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, can't wait. Can't wait for that to come out
46:21
Speaker 1: because it's going to be a heck of a book.
46:23
Speaker 1: A heck of a book. Just from the bits and
46:26
Speaker 1: pieces you told me and bits and pieces I've seen,
46:29
Speaker 1: it's going to be An incredible journey. And like you said,
46:33
Speaker 1: it will come out in November. And when it's out, yeah,
46:38
Speaker 1: for people listening, I urge you to buy it because
46:42
Speaker 1: it is going to be, yeah, it sounds like it's
46:45
Speaker 1: going to be a great story.
46:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's got a heck of a punch to it.
46:52
Speaker 1: Yes, definitely, definitely. But no, thank you so much for
46:55
Speaker 1: doing this. It's been so good to catch up again, finally.
46:58
Speaker 2: I know, I know, I know. I've been so excited
47:02
Speaker 2: for this, so excited.
47:03
Speaker 3: It took us a couple of goes, but we got there.
47:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but I wish you just so much success
47:11
Speaker 1: with the book, with business, with the publishing, and just everything, really,
47:18
Speaker 1: because I can't wait to see. I'll be following. I
47:21
Speaker 1: can't wait to see what's next for you because it
47:23
Speaker 1: looks like it's going to be amazing. Hopefully we'll meet
47:25
Speaker 1: up in person next year or something like that. Look,
47:28
Speaker 1: it's the end of the year.
47:29
Speaker 3: I think we'll be getting a photo together and, yeah,
47:33
Speaker 3: then we can say to everyone that we met in
47:35
Speaker 3: person and we met online all.
47:37
Speaker 2: Those years ago.
47:37
Speaker 1: Be incredible. Be incredible. But I wish you so, so
47:43
Speaker 1: much success with everything. And, yeah, thank you so much.
47:47
Speaker 3: Yeah.
47:48
Speaker 2: Same to you. You're doing great things as well. This
47:50
Speaker 2: podcast is doing more than you think.
47:52
Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
47:54
Speaker 2: Thank you.
47:58
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening and being part of this growing community.
48:02
Speaker 1: If you have enjoyed the episode, don't forget to subscribe,
48:04
Speaker 1: leave a review, and share it with someone who might
48:07
Speaker 1: need it. You can connect with us on social media
48:10
Speaker 1: via Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok under the name Tom's Her
48:14
Speaker 1: Sprungs Podcast.
48:16
Speaker 3: See you next week.
48:29
Speaker 2: Thank you.