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Wheelin' With Dylan: The Miami Project and Momentum With Alejandro · Numotion Ally Program Podcast

• Leah Holderbaum: you This is Dylan with New Motion. Thank you so much for joining and listening to the Ally podcast. And today we have our segment, Wheelin' with Dylan. And I'm super excited to have on our guest today, Alejandro here in Miami. Thank you so much for letting me. ⁓ Come over here and talk with you today. How you doing? Good, good. Thank you for having me. It's pleasure to do this. Absolutely. Absolutely. The second I met you, I knew you'd be perfect for this kind of thing, know, just talking with one another and some of your background and everything, which we'll get into. I'm sure that, you know, everybody in the Ally program and community is going to appreciate your perspective and find out kind of what you're doing and stuff. Definitely. Let's dive into it. Awesome. Let's do it. So if you don't mind just kind of giving us your background a little bit. Everyone, know, I'm sure when they see me, when they see you sometimes, you know, what happened, stuff like that. if you don't mind, just let us know maybe how long you've been heard and kind of went on. And that's the beginning of the journey because I want to get to what we're doing right now. Yeah, Dylan, was 2017, June 26, ⁓ 6pm. had a I was in a motorcycle my cousin had given me. He lend me his motorcycle. I went to get some cigarettes and put gas on his bike, know, typical 2017 thing for my life. And I got out, I left the shopping center of the tattoo area. I didn't stop at the gas station, I just kept going because I wanted to give a ride to the bike and then coming back on the way, I was doing 80 miles an hour on 7th Street, 35 miles an hour is our limit. And some guy was in front of me. and he stopped to let someone pass and I switched lanes and the lady didn't see me so the edge of the car just knocked me out, flew over. I don't know how many feet, I'm just here, that's all I know. Yeah, well you're here and you're thriving, man. You're doing great. you know, of course, I'm always sorry that stuff happens but it definitely opens a lot of new doors and avenues and stuff like that as I'm sure you can be a testimony to. So if you don't mind, fast forward a little bit. You know, you got hurt. It's unfortunate. We've all everybody. A lot of people are listening to this. We experienced some kind of trauma or something in our life to get us there. But ⁓ I know you started really quick getting involved in the community and doing some different things. But at first, did you just go to like, Joe, was it Jackson rehab? Yep. Jackson rehab, ⁓ outpatient rehab. And then I heard there about ⁓ the Miami project. So I was super stoked to participating in it to be a part of it. I got introduced by, I will never forget, Danielle. She used to work actually in the position that I work now. Great, great, great, great woman. She taught me everything that I needed to know about the studies, anything that I needed to do to participate in the studies, the registration. She helped me with the registration. was from A to Z she helped me through. She was the greatest. And her sister, after that, She was the one helping me with a study that we were doing that had involved mobility and stuff like that. Super great dean I attorney. Great, great people. Two sisters and they're great. They're They're wonderful. That's awesome. And do you mind taking a step back for a second for those who aren't aware of it, because I was even just recently found out more about it. Do you mind explain to us what the Miami Project is and kind of your role in it as well? Yeah. The Miami Project is a research facility. ⁓ with the University of Miami. And they're based on trying to find the cure to paralysis. In the meantime, they're researching every range of a spinal cord injury, day-to-day activity, and how to not only to find the cure, but to also in the meantime live better with it. So we have pain studies. We have fertility studies. We have stimulation studies. We have movement studies. We have cell studies. We have any study that you can think of as of. motion and stimulation. They have it. I love it. It's with Dr. Matias lab. Really, really cool lab. And my role is to get as much people as I can aware of this, you know, trying to get an outreach for them and trying to bring them in, trying to guide them. The same thing that Daniel did with me, I just do with someone else. So it was kind of like a baton passed down, you or not really, but it was pretty cool. It was a pretty cool experience. Once I was told that if I was interested in working with the Miami Project, I don't think I was able to sleep for about a month. I was just eager to get the job. I was calling every day. was like, hey, so did I get the job? Did I get the job? Yeah, that's pretty cool. That's awesome. That's great. And you know what? That's something that I've been kind of introduced to and the fact that, first of all, I didn't really know much about a spinal cord injury. I got hurt. That's just the truth. I think I may be had heard about it. I don't think anybody does. Right? you don't know until you know. And then once you know, once you're in it, you realize that even like a lot of these doctors don't really. Right. So like my primary care doctor that I have, like a lot of the times, like I did have stuff. Nice guy, great guy, very smart. Did not know much of anything about spinal cord injuries. And that is just common in general. lot of people aren't super aware of it and it is something that's a lot of unknown about it. How complicated is nerves or like our neuro, like everything that has to do with nerves. We truly don't understand the regeneration of cells itself. It's just, yeah, it's mind blowing. I think it's. Especially for someone who just gets injured, because you know once you get injured, there's all these doctors trying to like pump information about what's going on and you're like, well hold on, I have medication on me, like I can't even process what you're saying right now. I need this written in paper so I can then go and read it. Yeah, it's a lot to take in at the beginning. And I like what you said that the doctors don't know. I think who knows the best what's going on is you because it's your body. If you pay attention to it and you learn how to listen to it, you're going to know what's going on with your body. That's a great point. know one thing that my mom pushed me hard to do when I first got hurt was like advocate for yourself. And I've never been the type to really do that when it comes to like health stuff. Because I got hurt. I know you were 21. I think I was 19. I was thinking about my health. My health was fine. Nobody me advocate about my health. I don't know. And then you you do assume, oh no this guy who went to school for seven years is going to know better than me. Which hey they know a lot. But it's true. At the end of the day no one knows your body. better than you because you kind of have to adjust and you know you're living with it every day and stuff like that. I think they know I think they know which door to guide you to but you just have to be the one wouldn't open it yeah you know go through everything. I remember when I left the hospital I told my mom I'm not taking any more pills. Mom's like you're insane you're gonna go through so much pain I'm like yeah that's fine yeah not gonna. So there was nights that that would wake up biting my fingers because it hurts in my back or the spasms were hurting my muscles in the back or the brand new surgery. It was, I couldn't sit in a chair for more than five minutes. I had to be laying down the whole day. Yeah, Yeah, it was tough. And how long did that last? the first couple of months there or? So the first doctor told me if you ever want to have a chance at walking again, get off from the bed. And I was like, ⁓ okay. So I started sitting in the bed five minutes. Then I'll lay down, then I'll wait five minutes and then I'll sit down for 20 minutes. Until I started sitting for eight hours straight and I was like, okay, yeah, I'm I'm never going back to bed. There we go, good, yeah. Sorry. So you're very independent. Yep. Great quality of life, like that. And that's something that we love to talk about in the Ally program is how people found their independence. know, everyone does it in their own way and their own timeframe. Do you remember? when you really started just getting, maybe it was from the get go, everyone's different, but when you were, motivated like, hey, it's time to live life again. Yeah. I never stopped thinking about not living life. I never stopped and said, okay, yeah, and I can do this. No, I never, never, never. think, uh, is it, is it necessity? Yeah. Necessity is the mother of all inventions and some people need to be bored in a room to actually figure out what it is you need to go out there and do. And it's not like sit there and think about what you're going through or be sad about it, acknowledge that, OK, I'm here. There's nothing I could do about it. The best thing I could do about it is have patience and work through it. And if everybody in my family supported me and was there for me, how selfish would it be of me to just lay in a corner and not want to get up? They sacrifice hours of their jobs. They sacrifice. sometimes even their own money, you know, to make your meet and stuff like, how am I going to be selfish? be like, nah, yeah, I'll live like this my whole life. I started driving a year after I got injured, after I got injured, sorry. And then two years after I started going to school. Oh, nice. Yeah. Awesome. That's good. So what do you go to school for? Right now I'm, I stopped, but right now I'm going back. I actually have an appointment tomorrow. I have to go back to VR. I'm going to, I'm, studying psychology, clinical psychology. awesome. So I know vocational rehab is a great resource. helped me with my schooling. One of the first things I did after PT was like, all right, I gotta get back to school. And for those who aren't aware, vocational rehab does help you kind of, I guess, get employed and kind of get back on your feet in a way. That's funny to say, Not to the extent that we'd maybe want them to, but ⁓ yeah, know, schooling and I mean, they paid for my hand controls for my car and everything like that too. Yeah, yeah, they're paying for my brand new wheelchair. ⁓ hopefully. But I'm pretty sure I'll get accepted. I had hopes all the time. I think I should. Awesome. So, um, you start working with Miami Project about how long after you got hurt again? You remember? Six years maybe. wow. Six years. Yeah, I've been working there for two years. Okay, awesome So you found yourself there eventually and what what do you like about? You your job what you do because I think I'm calling a job But you said you know, you're a stoke for like a month So it's obviously more than just like a ⁓ got a clock into a nine and five. Yeah What about it? Do you people like it? appreciate the people I am I like to consider myself an individual who can communicate and get to people in a very different way than many others I have seen can do. I'm not saying that it's anything special about me. It's just that I've always, since I was a little kid, it was always easy for me to talk to people. was never... Like I could have an uncomfortable conversation with anybody and I'll be asking the uncomfortable stuff. I have no issues with that. ⁓ That's one thing I like about it. I love working with the people. Surprisingly enough... Science is pretty cool man, I was never into it. I was always into more reading, lecture, history. But science is pretty cool and the way that they expose it, the way that they express it, the way that they see the science, to me is mind blowing. It's true, they can break down the most, the most things to be more smaller and smaller pieces. You're like, I love this. I like the people I work with. My team is great. The education and coordination part of program, it's... It's awesome. It's awesome. The people there you work with, the you learn, the people you see, the potential of people that you see. You meet people that are on the lowest. And I love that. It's not because I want to feel proud of that or I want anybody to glorify that. No. But I really like when I talk to someone that just got injured and then they come back to me and like, dude, you helped me so much, brother. You helped me see that. And I'm like, dude, I'm glad. I hope you can move forward. become greater than anybody. I have people come in, you they get injured, I go see them and then the wheelchair, but then a year passes and I see him walk again. He comes into my office walking and he's like, Oh, I didn't want to come because you know, I'm walking. I was like, dude, you're insane. That gives me hope. I gave you hope at the beginning. Now you're giving me hope. So no, no, no. By all means. I think I clap for everyone until it's my turn to be clapped for. Yeah. That's sick. Awesome. I'm happy to hear that you and So when someone gets hurt and typically they're being Jackson or Lynn rehab, I guess you guys really call it, they could be a week or two in of just suffering a spinal cord injury probably. They can be pretty fresh at first. Yeah, weeks. I've seen people days. you probably meet so many different types of personalities. How do you address that? been hurt for what you said I'm sorry eight years eight years so you got you got some experience on you I've got some like I was when I tell people I've been hurt for six years I'm always kind of like stutter I'm like ain't no way it's been six years I know but time flies like that now we're the veterans out of nowhere right it's like now we now we're supposed to know what we doing no I still don't but I'm still questioning still have some questions and stuff but now you come in like hey you know, this is your perspective, you've been dealing with this for a while, these people are still trying to process everything, like they don't even know what's going on, I'm sure. But how do you kind of like address that and kind of get like a conversation going with people? It's about attitude, definitely about attitude. A lot of people are scared to open up to people who are not in the wheelchair. And I tell that to the nurses, at least the ones that I know. I tell them that a lot of times, it's like you can go in there and you can ask them any question that you want, any uncomfortable personal. Easiest question and I'll go in there and I'll ask them a very uncomfortable question and they're going to answer me because they don't see they can't say to me you won't understand. I said no I understand I've read it I've left studied it I've acknowledged it I know where I am but how do I deal with different personalities everybody is going through it different everybody has different perceptions and only learning from that person will help me next will help me learn. will help me help the next person. So I've met people who are just, go in and I'm like, hey Miami Project, I'm here to speak to you know about some research. Get out of my room, okay, I'll come back tomorrow. And I come back tomorrow, know. Get out of my room and then the third day is like, okay, you can come in, all right, you're not gonna stop coming. So you just might as well just come in. Then there's other people that are just smiling the moment you come in in the room and you're like, well. That takes a lot. I mean, I remember me when I was there. I never cried. I had my mom, my sister, my grandma. I had a lot of female figured in my room. So I was like, no, no, no. There's no breaking down here. And when people see or listen to us, they're like, ⁓ these people have a sad day. ⁓ I've had my sad nights. It's just, those are mine. That's for me to acknowledge. You got to learn about yourself in those moments. ⁓ Yeah, I think the best way to learn about yourself is doing just that. I also went through ⁓ a meditation process for a whole year. was just that. Can you tell us about that a little bit? It was life changing. I think it's what showed me who I really was. I went to this temple, Isha Center of Science Institution in Tennessee. I think it's Chattanooga, but I'm not sure. ⁓ It was a place where it just teaches you to sit down and breathe in and be aware of that you're breathing in and breathing out and counting. Some of them are counting, they're called mantras ⁓ or ⁓ ishas as well. Super interesting things. felt... There was this little program called Inner Engineering. And then it teaches you to go inside within yourself. It took me about a year, a whole year for that. And I felt for the first time in that very long time, saw myself actually seeing myself standing right in front of me. And I felt standing. I felt the pressure in my legs standing. It was the most wildest experience I've ever had. I was crying but it wasn't like crying of sadness or anything. It's just the ecstasy that I felt because of that moment. was like, whoa, what? This is insane. That's crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It took me deep into a realm of my thoughts and my mind that I've never unlocked. That's cool. Well, it's good that you take time to try to learn yourself also, to be in tune with your body, I guess. ⁓ And it's a whole new perspective that we are in now. probably never expected to be in the past, but you do a good job at, like you said, gotta adjust, gotta adapt, gotta move on. Yeah, absolutely, you we'll have our weak moments that a lot of us will probably just keep to ourselves because I know I have felt this extra pressure to kind of be strong for my family, I guess, because you can kind of see everyone kind of breaking down around you. You're like, ⁓ I'm not gonna add to this because if I break down, everybody's gonna break down. You kind of gotta be like the strong force. But it's good to also take care of yourself at the same time and make sure you're dealing with things as well, not just high-end them and all that good stuff. I say that I'm very disciplined with myself. I'm very strict with me, but I'm very flexible with others. Super strict. I don't allow myself. I I slip, definitely. I'm not perfect. I'm not gonna say I do everything at 100%. I don't. I really don't. But... If I enjoy it, best believe I'll give a thousand percent of it. Because it's something that I like. And when I talk to someone one on one, I've had people cry. I've had... ⁓ Today, actually, I got a call from a participant. I gave her some tips on how to help the person, her husband. And she wants to... Crazy enough, I think people see my face and they think I'm hungry. Because everybody invites me out to dinner. They're like, oh, I'm going to invite you to dinner. I'm going to take you here. And I was like, oh, OK, all right. Yeah, no, that's perfectly fine. You know, things like that, man. Like, I don't do it for that. I do it for the fact that, OK, yeah, I showed you a different way. And it worked. You know, always, I will advocate for that if you want me to say, I say, whatever works for you, that's what you say to people. What doesn't work, doesn't work. You tried it. It didn't work. Bummer. But you have other things that work. And that's what I try to teach. ⁓ I think yeah, the body is very important to move but if you want to fly you got to think with your mind Yeah, you got to really you got to move with your mind Yeah, man, it's it's ⁓ It takes well, don't know I've heard from someone very close to me It takes guts and to be where we are and like do what we do, you keep moving forward and I'm like Human beings are about evolution not devolution I'm not moving forward, moving backwards and I'm not a crab. Yeah, it's true. We don't think I think you're probably like me where you don't really think about it often until you have to sit down and like actually like talk about it. But I don't think much of anything like I'm going about my day. This is just life now, whatever. But it's like funny, sometimes you got to get reminded like, ⁓ yeah, no, I take some guts to be doing what I'm doing right now. ⁓ I remember one time my brother who like, like, went in my wheelchair and was like rolling around like Bass Pro shops just kind of like for fun. But he was, he told me he's like, dude, people were like looking at me like different. He's like, he was pissing me off. And like, he was like, almost like gone to fight. Like he was like, dude, why you looking at me? It was really annoying him. And it's so funny cause it's like, yeah, sometimes I'm like, that guy's kind of looking at me a little too hard. But like, for the most part, you just kind of move on about your day. This is, we're used to like that kind of stuff now, but you know, it does take a certain degree of guts, I guess, but anybody who's a watching they're hesitating, they know how people are going to look at me in a wheelchair and stuff like that. Don't even what the other people think or how they look and all that stuff like affect you. really shouldn't. I know it's something that you do have to overcome. It's one of the harder things I think when you first get hurt in the U.S. public for example. Yeah, it's a little it's different. You get a different perspective. You're shorter now. Shorter, your shoes don't get... dirty right right which they do you got pro which they actually that's a misconception yeah they always be telling me your shoes ain't gonna get dirty actually my shoes are filthy all right now i might not wear out the soles anymore right yeah they're brand new at the bottom for me they're good at the bottom but we're always bumping into crap aren't we like you go out i'm like i'm always scuffing the like the top of my shoes it always pisses me off because i'm like I can wear white shoes. Yeah, how did it get dirty? You didn't even realize. And that about the people looking. Confidence, I'm the tallest man walking in the room. I was aura farming right Yeah, I'm the tallest man walking in the room, man. Walking in the room. But you cannot let other people's own insecurity be implanted into yours, because that'll be a poison. drive you down the hill that you don't want to go down to. And I've been there before. I'm not going to lie to you, yeah, but I think every body has certain insecurities. One or two, three, 10, you know? But for me, it's not that. I can have a regular conversation with a man, and if ever, God forbid, ever comes to scrapping, I'll scrap. I'll scrap if I have to. If I have to, I have to. Preferably not. Yeah, preferably not. I'll avoid it, but if I gotta do it, I gotta do it. I think that's one thing that really gets to people as well in the chair. If they start dating, I'll ram my lady out and some guy says something to them. throw a bottle, grab a cup, throw it. I get in some trouble for some stuff sometimes too. Listen bro, nothing's different. Yeah, nothing's different. like I don't care. The only thing different is perception, it's a point of view. That's it. I'm just looking at everybody's belly button. Yeah, yeah exactly. That's it. get you on my level would be good. Yeah, absolutely. So ⁓ yeah, no, that's that's a good point that you realize you mentioned and you know, you've been hurt eight years I've been sick. So I feel like we've also gone there a lot. Hey, I'm Dylan from Wheelin' with Dylan. And I'm Leah with the CathCast. If you're listening to this, you are already part of the conversation, but there's a lot more to explore inside New Motion Medical Supplies Ally program. And all our podcasts live there too. So if you want to catch past episodes or get the earliest access to new ones, that's where to go. And the podcast is really just one piece. Inside Ally, there's a full library of articles, webinars, and short videos focused on bladder health. catheter use and building routines that work for you. It's also a great place to see how others are navigating things day to day. Real setups, real experiences, and things you might not always hear in a clinical setting. And a big part of that is the community forum. There are subforums for different experiences and stages of life. So whether you're just getting started or have been doing this for years, there's a space for you. You can ask questions, share what's worked for you. or just read and see how others are handling similar situations. It's a really easy way to connect and not feel like you're figuring everything out all on your own. And it's simple to access. If you're a New Motion Medical Supplies customer, you can log in with your My New Motion account information and start exploring right away. It's completely free and everything's in one place at catheters.newmotion.com slash ally. Head to the Ally program today and join the conversation. See you there! been able to explore a lot of different things, probably sports, dating, all that good stuff. there anything you'd like to express and talk about? Any sports that you've kind of gotten into that you enjoy? Weightlifting. Now I just started with this guy. I don't know if you know him, Oh, John Marquez. That guy's great, man. We're riding. Yeah, we're riding. We're doing hand cycles. So he's teaching me how to kind of handle it. If you ride motorcycles before, it's not hard. If you don't have that, I don't know, I like that freedom of the wind hitting my face. So I was trying to speed and we were going down the road. I was trying to speed with him. was awesome. shout out to him. He's great for that. As sports, I don't even watch sports, man. Maybe UFC, I'll watch some fights, UFC, but football, basketball, none of that. I had the championship last night. I don't even know. I just heard about it because people were talking about it. I here. Yeah, heart rock, right? Yeah, yeah. But I don't really get into stuff like that. I like weightlifting. And now I'm doing it super soft. Now I'm doing it just to maintain, I guess, whatever. But we gotta be careful not hurting ourselves and stuff. I have no regards for my body. My body, if my mind is strong, my body got to be strong. You have to follow. You're better than me, man. I've gotten into wheelchair tennis as anyone who's listened to this before. I've never been into that. It's fun. But I'll go to the gym and I'll hurt my shoulder. And then I'm out for month or two. And I'm like, man, I never go to the gym again. Because I hate that it held me back from playing tennis. Because I'm just hyper competitive like that. I'm ready to play. And then if I hurt someone, just like, ⁓ man, I should have done that. ⁓ And then how about? ⁓ dating life and stuff like that after a spinal cord injury. ⁓ How have you kind of handled that and do you have any like pointers and stuff like that for anybody who's kind of thinking about getting back into the game? ⁓ man, that at the very beginning as a man is always gonna be rough. As a man is always gonna create so many questions and so many what-ifs. But just like everything in life, that's good. Just go for it man. What's the worst that they can say? No? Or I don't know, just walk off on you? I don't know. It doesn't matter. I mean, if you like someone or something, go for it. You're going to live your life the next day. Let's say you see someone that you want to talk to, but you don't because you're scared, you're in the woods or whatever. might, if you don't take that shot, it's like, damn, I never knew. Maybe she was into me and I didn't do anything. Just Just go for it. That's that's my advice. Just go for it and don't be scared and don't don't be scared of rejection You know, come on. We biggest rejection ever so You know don't think about I mean again don't Even now as in my relationship. I still have some insecurities I gotta balance that out cuz I can't bring too much of it but I can't cut them off completely because then I'm just become cold and okay, yeah ⁓ You I don't know, I'm walking Syria, I guess. I just not, no man, I think you have to live your life. You have to experience, this is my model. It's all about the experience. It doesn't matter what you do, it's all about the experience. By the way, make sure that we make this the podcast name for this one. It's all about the experience. It's all about the experience. I like that. We're one heck of an experience. You know what? I haven't spot a poor durian injury, I understand. Yeah, there's a lot of things about it that does suck. But dude, you're gonna meet such cool people. I I've got to meet, I met you like not that long ago. I like we hit off pretty quick. I was like, dude, like, see this is what I'm talking about. You know what I mean? Like sometimes you just meet kind of like-minded ones, I guess, who also kind of have that drive and that confidence too. And it's fun. If you notice, man, since you've been in the chair for a while now, the type of people usually like attract like Yeah, we just find each other. just in the most randomest place and we're like, yeah, now we click. We just talk, say three words and we're like, yeah, okay, yeah, now this is cool. This is cool. But then there's other people that you kind of, I don't know if it happens to you, but you kind of have to like, okay, well, let me help you click. You gotta, you can't stay there by yourself. I've nicely pushed people. Yeah. Or mainly, you know. Sometimes I'm pretty mean, you know, sometimes you gotta be a little rude, but sometimes, you know, if you're cool with them, which I normally get pretty cool with people pretty quick if I can, I'm like, I be a little bit of a jerk. Come on, bro, you gotta do that. Actually, I just had someone on the podcast a week or two ago and he's actually my like one of my closest friends now. When he first got hurt, you know, his brother's pushing him around and maybe I was too, this was too early, but I'm like, come on, bro, push yourself, you know, like, and then he saw me transferring and. breaking down my chair and stuff like that into a car and he was like, I want to do that. And so I was there for the first time doing it and he got the casters stuck under his car. It was so funny. Like we still joke around about it. Um, but it's awesome because now he's pushing me to do so. He got me into tennis years later. So this is just like how it goes. You know, you just kind of pushed each other to, one day's one day you got the energy. One day I got the energy. We got balanced. Yeah, man. It has to be, especially if you're boys. Yeah, exactly. I have a lot of people I know in Walters. I have some friends in Walters. But most of the people like now, the Carolina trip I just had, there's a bunch of walking people, man. Yeah. Carrying me up down the mountains. We're sliding off mountains and stuff. Nah, it's cool, man. I didn't slide off. I didn't slide off. I wasn't in the car then. but it's all about the experience, man. telling you. It's all about saying... Be more open to, I think if you're yes to life, life gives you more possibilities to yes. If you're no and negative and this and that, life, you're closing your own doors. So I've skydived, I rode bikes again, I'm trying to get on a horse, nobody wants to give me a horse. So, get this man a horse. Who wants to go adaptive horseback riding? And I know it's a thing. I know it's out there. I've seen it. Now I gotta go figure it out. Look it up. I've seen it. I you to go do it. Now maybe I'll go with you. Yeah, we'll It sounds dope. We talked about it. My mom actually, she grew up on a farm and rode all these horses. you want talk about how great it was. I'm like, shut up, dude. Like, I wanna go do it. So, we gotta figure that out. There's something. And there's gotta be something to Florida. It's Florida. Florida's there. Horses are everywhere. Even if it's in Texas, I'll fly to Texas. We're gonna go. I gotta ride a I wanna ride a horse. We're gonna get Alejandro on a horse. Definitely. In 2026. Let's do it. Go find me here. Nah, I'm joking. But, nah, that's awesome. It's great to meet people like you with an open mind and everything. And also people who are helping others when they first get hurt. Because I think that is, it is... hard and like you made a good point of like sometimes you're not going to listen to a nurse or someone and the person that helped me the most was a peer support guy I was in Shepard's and he'd been hurt for 15-20 years but he was traveling the world practically playing sports had a couple girlfriends and I was like alright bro! No, no, over time, over time and it just really gave me light at the end of the tunnel. And that's what you are. genuinely. You're like at the end of the tunnel. I've been told sometimes, because in my business, I'm typically going in a patient's room to talk about catheters. That's just the nature of the business. But like, dude, like we don't even talk about it right away. It's like, hey man, like, how you doing? How you feeling? Like, ⁓ how's therapy going? Right? And to be honest, they actually normally bring up the whole bowel, bladder thing, which I even do, because they're honestly very interested. on you've been doing this for six years how the heck am I gonna do this? Because it's kind of like maybe a little overwhelming. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. But as you know it ain't that bad once you get used to it right? It's not. Yeah once you get a good control of it you gotta again like we were talking outside you know I like patterns I like behavior. Yes. Once there's the body reacts and behaves patterns so if you teach it those patterns it'll accommodate to those patterns so you'll go into the bathroom will be so much effortless. And it's easy, it's very important though to get your bowel, bladder management under control because like it can affect your quality of life if it's, if you kind of don't got it locked down. If you don't have a good, you know, regimen or maybe the right catheter that's working for you. You act something like that happened with you, right? You had like a normal. I had the no bag of catheters. We're not in the eighties. I will go to, so I will be, let's say, and FYI, Miami, city of Miami, I'm sorry. I would pee in a bar drinking and I'll be like, I don't fit in the bathroom. So I wouldn't have a bag because if I just don't fit in the stall, it's fine. I could just be there in the bathroom and pee in the bag. But since I don't, I'm like, okay, I'm going to the back of the restaurant. I go to the back of the restaurant and just pee in there against the wall. I won't say the restaurant. I've marked my spots. The dogs go by and they know. This is a different dog. Different kind of dog. Yeah, no, mean, and then you were introducing the closed system catheters, the ones with the bags, right? So listen, if the straight caths like work for you, that's great. Like that's the thing that we were talking about. Like everybody's different. So just because I do one thing and you do one thing, it doesn't mean that, everybody else like this is the Like we all do things differently we transfer into cars differently like I've seen so many different things But you got to find what works best for you ⁓ The cool thing with new motion medical supplies we could actually we offer free samples. So if anybody's kind of Thinking you know what maybe that catheter situation is kind of holding me back from maybe going out in public because they're afraid of you know kind of doing what you're talking about, going out to some back road alley and, you know, leaving your mark, you know, stuff like that, which is fine. Like, trust me, I've been there and done stuff like that as well. ⁓ But if it's holding you back in any way, you want to make sure that you do everything you can to improve your quality of life and, you know, getting your bowel and bladder management under control, I feel like is one of the first steps, to be honest, as a spinal cord injury, because you don't want it to be constantly on your mind. I remember For a long time, all I thought about was where am going to go to the bathroom? How am I going to do it? How long is it going to take? all that stuff. I'm happy to say I don't even think about it too much anymore. Yeah, man. I hear my friends are like, travel? Travel? Where? Let's go. Yeah. Let's go. I mean, you were just in Carolina for a couple days. Yeah, let's go. about it twice about it. Now I'm thinking about Colorado. Yeah, I got a couple of plans for this year. Did you have to do skiing or no? I want to go I used to be in Colorado I used to stay over there in Colorado so it was pretty cool but I don't know about skiing I've never done it yeah in Colorado they have adaptive I'm going where which mountain winter park winter park yes I'm going go to winter park tomorrow no definitely I'm going to fly tomorrow though I think I'm going on the fall I think I'm going on ⁓ Somewhere in October. Time in October. October, okay. I don't know how the whole snow thing works there. Like when you gotta go for like skiing. You know better than me if you see you from Colorado. No, no, not from there, but I was, I was around there. ⁓ you were there for a little bit. But bro, I might've said this on the podcast before, but it's for me personally, it was the most freeing experience I've had since the spinal cord injury because you're on the slopes and you're just like, you just feel like you have free control. The wind is blowing and you're just on this mountain and you're like, it was fun. And they teach you. They have an adaptive course thing. So somebody will be tethered on the back of you. And then I think you pass these certain steps. And then you can kind of do stuff on your own. ⁓ Very fun. The only reason I don't do it more is because I'm in Florida. It is a costly thing. You fly and you don't do all this stuff. But if I one day, I hope to make it a yearly thing. It's fun. Yeah, it's cool. do ⁓ dude. OK. OK. anyway. ⁓ Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. I don't want to take up too much of the time here, but it was great to meet you and we love to hear what you're doing with the Miami Project. That is so cool. I can only imagine, you know, your situation, you're here in Miami and now you're able to be a big part of that and really be a big part of people's lives and helping them along the way. And like you said, you're seeing them along their journey. Maybe one day you're seeing them and maybe they're kind of depressed and then maybe a year or later they're walk in or maybe not. That's not the key to happiness as we know, right? They're rolling around, but now they got a girlfriend, they're driving, they're back to work or they're back to school, right? So it always takes your mind out of things. that's awesome. That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for having me. Yeah, it was a great time and we look forward to maybe having you on the pod again another time. We always like to have part twos every once in a while. So We're next time we're gonna talk about horseback riding because you're have done it. Yeah, maybe talk about Colorado or something. So we got a lot or your schooling. You're a busy man. got lot of going on. Gotta keep the mind busy. Got you. So we'll follow up with you and thank you so much for coming on today. Thank you so much.