Latest / The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast / Almost Famous In Depth: Cam Ayala

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Almost Famous In Depth: Cam Ayala · The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: This is Ben and Ashley I almost famous in depth.
0:05
Speaker 1: This is a very special episode. We've been doing these recently,
0:08
Speaker 1: UH and they've been a lot of fun for Ashley
0:10
Speaker 1: and they've kind of replaced the in depth episodes that
0:13
Speaker 1: we used to do. UH. Now we are digging into
0:17
Speaker 1: some contestants, some more current contestants, also some past contestants
0:20
Speaker 1: who have a story to share. UH. Today we're gonna
0:24
Speaker 1: welcome cam Aala onto the podcast to share about his
0:27
Speaker 1: recent amputation and his long standing battle with the disease lymphidema.
0:35
Speaker 1: We're also going to talk a lot about how the
0:37
Speaker 1: show handled this because here's the truth of it. Actually,
0:39
Speaker 1: I don't know if you feel this way. I remember
0:42
Speaker 1: his time on the show. I remember him talking about
0:44
Speaker 1: having pain. I don't remember it sitting in very deeply
0:48
Speaker 1: with me or understanding exactly where the pain was coming from.
0:52
Speaker 1: I don't think when he was on the show it
0:54
Speaker 1: was ever explained. And I want to get to the
0:57
Speaker 1: bomb that because I don't. This is when I saw
0:59
Speaker 1: that he got his leg and amputated. It was kind
1:01
Speaker 1: of a shock to me that it was this severe.
1:04
Speaker 1: In this series, to be quite frank the only thing
1:08
Speaker 1: I really remember from his time on the show on
1:10
Speaker 1: Hannah season is ABC Cam? Yeah? Remember that was his
1:16
Speaker 1: tagline ABC Cam, And I don't remember what it stood for?
1:19
Speaker 1: Now all do you remember? I don't. This is what happens.
1:26
Speaker 1: You know, like everybody thinks that everything is going to
1:28
Speaker 1: be like such a huge thing and people are going
1:31
Speaker 1: to remember storylines forever, and then three years removed, you're like,
1:36
Speaker 1: I remember one thing, but I do remember Cam as
1:39
Speaker 1: a as a person, as a character, Um, who's definitely memorable,
1:45
Speaker 1: and now he has um a story that he really
1:50
Speaker 1: wants to get out there because there's a lot to
1:53
Speaker 1: what you a lot to him that you didn't see
1:56
Speaker 1: on the show. Let's bring him on. Here is Cam
1:59
Speaker 1: Aala Cam. Hello. How are you feeling? Your surgery was
2:04
Speaker 1: just a matter of weeks ago? M hmm, yeah, about
2:08
Speaker 1: three weeks ago, and UM, I'm doing pretty good. There's
2:11
Speaker 1: definitely some daily challenges and things on this journey that
2:15
Speaker 1: I'm finding just by trial and error. I've only had
2:19
Speaker 1: a couple of falls so far, but other than that,
2:22
Speaker 1: the community has been very supportive. So I'm blessed for sure.
2:26
Speaker 1: Let's let's start back at the beginning. So for those
2:30
Speaker 1: who maybe need to reminder you're on Hannah Brown season
2:32
Speaker 1: of The Bachelor at uh during that time, you spoke
2:37
Speaker 1: openly about your battle or your life living with lymphedema. Uh.
2:44
Speaker 1: You had mentioned it caused a lot of pain at
2:46
Speaker 1: that point in time when the when The Bachelor aired,
2:48
Speaker 1: how many surgeries had you had on your leg? Yeah?
2:51
Speaker 1: At that time, I had had fifteen surgeries, Uh there
2:55
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen. So yeah, it's It's been going on
2:57
Speaker 1: since I was eleven years old. So it's something that
3:00
Speaker 1: has been a part of my life and something I
3:02
Speaker 1: can't really not talk about, especially when you have a
3:05
Speaker 1: romantic partner, just because of the physical implications of of
3:09
Speaker 1: having surgeries and stuff. So I felt that it was
3:11
Speaker 1: very necessary to be transparent with Hannah sooner rather than later,
3:15
Speaker 1: because I mean, as you and Ashley know, oftentimes in
3:18
Speaker 1: that journey, you can go on a group date or
3:21
Speaker 1: even a one on one that can get physical, and
3:25
Speaker 1: at that point, I hadn't been on any dates that
3:27
Speaker 1: were physical yet. So it was just kind of the
3:29
Speaker 1: elephant in the room for me that I wanted to
3:31
Speaker 1: be very transparent with Hannah and see, you know, if
3:33
Speaker 1: that's maybe a red flag for her maybe she isn't
3:37
Speaker 1: ready yet to be with someone who has a chronic
3:40
Speaker 1: disease like I have, because you know, there's times with
3:43
Speaker 1: I've had sporadic infections, I'm getting, you know, emergency surgery,
3:47
Speaker 1: and then the girlfriends I've had in the past go
3:49
Speaker 1: from everything's all great and the next thing you know,
3:52
Speaker 1: they're being my caretaker as I'm learning how to walk
3:54
Speaker 1: again and kind of go through that whole recovery process.
3:57
Speaker 1: So I definitely wanted to be up front with her
3:59
Speaker 1: about that. So just for all of us and educate
4:02
Speaker 1: all of us, um, and we're gonna get into your
4:06
Speaker 1: life now and your process through the Bachelorette and kind
4:09
Speaker 1: of using your platform now to share this, But can
4:11
Speaker 1: you explain lymphoedema to our audience, to Ashley and I
4:16
Speaker 1: where it came from. Kind of give us the high
4:19
Speaker 1: level overview medically of what this is and where it
4:22
Speaker 1: came from. Sure, and it's a pretty complex condition, so
4:26
Speaker 1: I'll make it super high level. So really, there's two
4:29
Speaker 1: types of lymphonema, primary and secondary. Right, I have primary
4:33
Speaker 1: because I was born with it, so that's um just
4:36
Speaker 1: a genetic part of the disease. And then second dary
4:38
Speaker 1: lymphonema comes secondary to some sort of trauma. Can be
4:42
Speaker 1: surgical trauma really common and breast cancer patients. So you
4:46
Speaker 1: may have heard of women they've had breast cancer where
4:48
Speaker 1: they remove lymph nodes under their arm, or they've had
4:51
Speaker 1: basectomese chema radiation. When that lymphatic system is compromised through
4:56
Speaker 1: any of those forms of trauma, they can then develop
4:59
Speaker 1: secondary lymp the ema. I was born with it, but
5:01
Speaker 1: I didn't start swelling until I was about eleven years old.
5:05
Speaker 1: So really for anyone, we all have the lymphatic system.
5:09
Speaker 1: It's parallel with our Our venous systems are veins. So
5:12
Speaker 1: if your lymphatic system gets compromised in any way, then
5:16
Speaker 1: you can develop lymphoedema, which is unfortunately a progressive disease
5:20
Speaker 1: and currently there's no cure for it. And the common
5:23
Speaker 1: symptoms you'll see in patients they just develop really bad
5:26
Speaker 1: swollen limbs, so can be really bad swollen arms for
5:29
Speaker 1: the breast answer patients or patients who are lower extremely
5:32
Speaker 1: their legs can get up to ten times larger than
5:35
Speaker 1: their unaffected limbs. So it's it's pretty painful too, and
5:39
Speaker 1: you have to manage it daily so it's not just
5:41
Speaker 1: something you can just forget about and pray that it
5:43
Speaker 1: goes away. It's something that requires daily self care. Do
5:47
Speaker 1: we see that also with extreme obesity. Absolutely, So I'm
5:52
Speaker 1: sure people who may have seen that show. Sorry I
5:56
Speaker 1: was gonna say it, but I didn't know if there
5:58
Speaker 1: was like enough tack to that kind. I meant, so, no, No,
6:01
Speaker 1: you're one accurate, And that's actually a lot of people
6:04
Speaker 1: who may not know what lymphedema is or they don't
6:08
Speaker 1: have a loved one that has it, they see the
6:10
Speaker 1: show like that, and I'd say over Dr nels Arden's
6:14
Speaker 1: patients on that show have secondary lymphedema due to their obesity.
6:18
Speaker 1: And coincidentally, I used to call on doctor Now because
6:21
Speaker 1: he's in Houston where I live. So when I was
6:23
Speaker 1: selling lymphedema pumps professionally last year, that was one of
6:26
Speaker 1: my accounts. So that was interesting having the reality TV
6:29
Speaker 1: come full circle. He seems like such a character, that
6:33
Speaker 1: man isn't phased by anything, not a thing, and the
6:36
Speaker 1: way you see him on TV is exactly how he
6:38
Speaker 1: isn't realized. So then to your story, you go on
6:44
Speaker 1: the show has obviously we just mentioned that three weeks
6:49
Speaker 1: ago you had your leg amputated. Was this always uh,
6:53
Speaker 1: something that you believed would happen at some point or
6:57
Speaker 1: did something switch here recently you said this is now
7:00
Speaker 1: the option we have to go after. Yeah, great questions. So, um,
7:04
Speaker 1: when I was out there in twenty nineteen, uh with Hannah,
7:07
Speaker 1: at that point, I had fifteen prior surgeries. I had
7:11
Speaker 1: been told in twenty sixteen, so three years prior to
7:14
Speaker 1: me being on the Bachelrette, the amputation was, um, probably
7:18
Speaker 1: a solid option for me. But when you hear that
7:21
Speaker 1: and you're like an athlete like I am, and like
7:23
Speaker 1: you are been and I'm sure Ashley too, you want
7:26
Speaker 1: to do everything and you're well you are a winter
7:29
Speaker 1: game weren't you in Winter Games? Oh? I was very
7:31
Speaker 1: athletic there. I guess it's relative, right, It's okay. I
7:36
Speaker 1: appreciate that you called me athletic. Looking. Okay, you had
7:40
Speaker 1: a kid and you look amazing right now, So you're
7:43
Speaker 1: you're an athletic type, right. Um. So basically I was
7:49
Speaker 1: doing everything in my power to avoid amputation. I was
7:52
Speaker 1: eating healthy, I was working out, I was wearing my
7:55
Speaker 1: compression garment, doing all the things that the doctors told
7:57
Speaker 1: me to do, and it was actually the knee replacement
8:01
Speaker 1: that I had last year that really was like the
8:05
Speaker 1: straw that broke the camel's back. Unfortunately, the surgeon used
8:08
Speaker 1: the wrong size hardware positioned it wrong. So ever since
8:12
Speaker 1: last year, as I was going through physical therapy and
8:14
Speaker 1: working with a personal trainer, I was just in a
8:16
Speaker 1: living hell, so much pain every day. So I got
8:19
Speaker 1: a second opinion when we saw the x rays, like,
8:21
Speaker 1: oh boy, yeah, that was a botched knee replacement. So yeah,
8:27
Speaker 1: instead of going through the revision process, which would required
8:30
Speaker 1: three additional surgeries, and with my history of chronic infection,
8:34
Speaker 1: amputation at that point was pretty much inevitable. So at
8:37
Speaker 1: this point I was like, Okay, thirty three, I'm single, Um,
8:41
Speaker 1: now is a good time to just kind of get
8:43
Speaker 1: it over with so I can make that transition and
8:46
Speaker 1: to a new lifestyle so that when the time comes
8:49
Speaker 1: for me to start actively dating again and hopefully get
8:51
Speaker 1: married and have kids, I'll be really comfortable and ultimately
8:55
Speaker 1: competent in my prosthetic leg and just in that new lifestyle.
8:59
Speaker 1: So that's really what led to it, was just those
9:01
Speaker 1: chronic bouts of pain for the past year after having
9:04
Speaker 1: that new replacement, that was failed. This is uh obviously, Um,
9:19
Speaker 1: you are learning now about this new life. Uh in
9:23
Speaker 1: the front of you, what have you learned so far?
9:27
Speaker 1: You know you are single, you are wanting to date.
9:30
Speaker 1: You are an athlete. I think I saw somewhere. Tell
9:32
Speaker 1: me if I'm wrong and I missed it. But you
9:34
Speaker 1: are trying to get back on the basketball court. You
9:36
Speaker 1: are trying to get back to doing the things you
9:39
Speaker 1: loved before the leg was amputated. What are you what
9:44
Speaker 1: are you figuring out? Like? Where is your mind at? Yeah?
9:49
Speaker 1: Like I was saying, it is an adjustment every single day.
9:51
Speaker 1: Like so even now, um, just standing on one foot.
9:55
Speaker 1: This is my my right leg and now you can
9:57
Speaker 1: see my I call it for a stump. This is
9:59
Speaker 1: my my residual limb here. So having to put all
10:03
Speaker 1: of my weight on my left leg all throughout the
10:06
Speaker 1: day until I get my prosthetic leg, I don't realize
10:09
Speaker 1: how sore and how tired I would be things like
10:12
Speaker 1: brushing your teeth and refilling your water bottle. Like right
10:16
Speaker 1: now I'm using these four arm crutches. So I have
10:19
Speaker 1: to get really creative and just literally think one step
10:23
Speaker 1: at a time to navigate and then to answer your
10:26
Speaker 1: question about you know, returning to the basketball court. So
10:30
Speaker 1: last Tuesday was my very first time in a wheelchair
10:33
Speaker 1: for wheelchair basketball. So I got out there and it
10:37
Speaker 1: just it felt like I was at home. And though
10:39
Speaker 1: it's a very different than an able bodied person running
10:42
Speaker 1: up and down the court, instead you're wheeling and you're shooting,
10:45
Speaker 1: and a lot of the rules are very similar to
10:47
Speaker 1: regular basketball. So it's amazing to have an opportunity to
10:50
Speaker 1: pick up something that was one of my biggest passions.
10:53
Speaker 1: I even play basketball in college, so doing it now
10:57
Speaker 1: from a wheelchair and being in that community is just
10:59
Speaker 1: something that's gonna take a lot of work, a lot
11:01
Speaker 1: of learning. But um, you know, lord will and if
11:03
Speaker 1: I make the Paralympic US men's team, the next games
11:06
Speaker 1: are in Paris, So that's that's my that's gonna happen.
11:13
Speaker 1: I was just thinking that before you set it out loud. Yeah,
11:16
Speaker 1: So hopefully I'm engaged or married by then, so I
11:19
Speaker 1: can have a wife in the stands cheir me on.
11:22
Speaker 1: But if not, you know, whatever, whatever the case, maybe
11:24
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do my best every day to to work
11:27
Speaker 1: towards that goal. Okay, So now that you have had
11:31
Speaker 1: that leg immitated. It was that the only part of
11:33
Speaker 1: your body that was affected by olympodema. Do you or
11:38
Speaker 1: do you have to worry about showing up somewhere else. Yeah,
11:41
Speaker 1: that's a great question. So earlier I was talking about
11:43
Speaker 1: how there's primary and secondary lymphidema. So when you have
11:47
Speaker 1: primary and like me, when you're born with it, oar
11:50
Speaker 1: lymphatic system is throughout our entire body, and it's one
11:54
Speaker 1: that is so understudied. So the medical community is still
11:57
Speaker 1: trying to wrap their brains around you know, what is
11:59
Speaker 1: the progression for patients. So a lot of questions I've
12:03
Speaker 1: been asked through d m S after I got the
12:05
Speaker 1: amputation is like, oh, they cut off your lympid ema leg,
12:08
Speaker 1: your lympidium is gone. Well, it's not like a cancerous
12:11
Speaker 1: tumor or other things where you just remove that part
12:14
Speaker 1: and it's gone and you're healthy and you're good. So
12:17
Speaker 1: we just don't know if the lympid ema is then
12:19
Speaker 1: going to progress to my left leg or up higher
12:23
Speaker 1: in my core and you can even get lympideum in
12:25
Speaker 1: your head and neck. But me staying on top of
12:29
Speaker 1: it and having a great care team in place just
12:32
Speaker 1: to monitor it. Ever since I've had. The surgery is
12:34
Speaker 1: really going to be the best thing we can do
12:37
Speaker 1: is just to keep a close eye on it and
12:38
Speaker 1: prevent anything from from being complicated. But truth is, we
12:42
Speaker 1: just don't really know, unfortunately. But I'm not going to
12:44
Speaker 1: let that fear of the unknown prevent me from living
12:48
Speaker 1: my new life and being athletic and doing things I love,
12:52
Speaker 1: like going to concerts and hiking and and all that stuff.
12:56
Speaker 1: It's just now I just have to be a little
12:57
Speaker 1: bit cautious that if there's something that feels wrong. You know,
13:00
Speaker 1: our bodies are our best sensor, so being in tune
13:02
Speaker 1: with that and then being able to speak up to
13:05
Speaker 1: my medical team if if something comes up in the future,
13:08
Speaker 1: you know. So, how's the pain now? I mean, I'm
13:11
Speaker 1: just curious. Is the pain gone? Is it? I mean,
13:14
Speaker 1: you got your leg amputated. I have to imagine maybe
13:18
Speaker 1: you're still healing. Yes, so, you know, just three weeks
13:21
Speaker 1: out of the surgery. Um, so there's still some of
13:24
Speaker 1: that natural inflammation. But this is the thing that I
13:27
Speaker 1: did a lot of research before the amputation, and I
13:30
Speaker 1: read a lot and I talked to several other AMPU
13:32
Speaker 1: key patients about this whole thing. Called phantom pain, and
13:36
Speaker 1: it is terrible. So basically, uh see my residual in
13:41
Speaker 1: here on my right legs. So throughout the day I
13:44
Speaker 1: will just sporadically feel like my right ankle is on
13:47
Speaker 1: fire or like a stabbing sharp pain, and so instantly
13:52
Speaker 1: like your brain tells you, you know, reach down and
13:54
Speaker 1: and you know comfort that area, squeeze it, or sometimes
13:57
Speaker 1: I get phantom sensation where it's not painful, is just annoying,
14:00
Speaker 1: where like my ankle or my toes will itch, but
14:03
Speaker 1: I don't have those toes or ankle anymore. I mean,
14:05
Speaker 1: I've heard of this before, but just crazy. It's really
14:10
Speaker 1: I've done you right now. It is absolutely real, and
14:12
Speaker 1: every antike experiences it in some capacity. The hope is
14:17
Speaker 1: that over time it will minimize and decrease, but honestly,
14:20
Speaker 1: that's been the thing that has just been dreadful because
14:22
Speaker 1: they've given me some pretty strong pain meds and it
14:24
Speaker 1: doesn't really affect it at all. I'll be sleeping and
14:27
Speaker 1: I'll wake up in the middle of the night and
14:28
Speaker 1: I'll go to grab my my right ankle because it's
14:31
Speaker 1: just throbbing in pain, but there's nothing there. But what's
14:34
Speaker 1: really fascinating is there's things like mirror therapy where I
14:37
Speaker 1: literally put a long mirror one of those ones you
14:40
Speaker 1: hang on a door in between my legs. So I
14:44
Speaker 1: looked down at the reflection of my left leg, but
14:47
Speaker 1: my brain is telling me that I still have a
14:49
Speaker 1: full right leg. So it's really it's really bizarre. And
14:54
Speaker 1: that's honestly been the biggest like surprise to me is
14:56
Speaker 1: how severe that pain is when I experienced that throughout
14:59
Speaker 1: the day. So that's an adjustment too. I have to
15:01
Speaker 1: account for um in my day to day life moving forward.
15:04
Speaker 1: But again the hope and prayers that it does minimize,
15:08
Speaker 1: and it should because the surgery I did was was
15:11
Speaker 1: pretty in depth and basically they take those nerve endings
15:14
Speaker 1: once they amputate, and they reconnect it to my handstring
15:17
Speaker 1: so it can help fire off those nerves so I
15:21
Speaker 1: don't just have crazy fanom paying for the rest of
15:23
Speaker 1: my life. The body is so interesting, isn't it. In
15:27
Speaker 1: modern medicine is amazing. Just the fact that like they
15:30
Speaker 1: reattached those nerves, It's wow. I'll have one more medical
15:36
Speaker 1: question actually for you before we talk about how the
15:41
Speaker 1: Bachelor production handled your well, what would you call it.
15:46
Speaker 1: Is it a disease? It is a disease. Okay, So
15:51
Speaker 1: do you plan on getting a prosthetic. Absolutely, yeah, And
15:55
Speaker 1: that's one thing I'm really excited about. I should be
15:57
Speaker 1: getting that by hopefully, if everything goes right, in the
16:01
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks, hopefully by mid August, because basically
16:04
Speaker 1: right now, I just had my stitches out last Friday.
16:07
Speaker 1: So this whole residual limb, I'm wearing actually compression garment
16:11
Speaker 1: on it now to help control the swelling. So then
16:14
Speaker 1: once that's controlled, they then will do a mold of
16:17
Speaker 1: my residual limb and then that is what ultimately is
16:20
Speaker 1: going to be used to create the socket to move
16:23
Speaker 1: the new leg. And it's robotic, which is really cool,
16:26
Speaker 1: Like next to my iPhone. I'll be plugging in my
16:28
Speaker 1: leg at night. So if I go on a road
16:31
Speaker 1: trip or go anywhere and I forget my leg charge,
16:34
Speaker 1: I'm kind of s o L. So I gotta be
16:36
Speaker 1: smart to to bring that. But yeah, it's a process
16:38
Speaker 1: to get the prosthetic, and so I'm absolutely getting one
16:41
Speaker 1: of those, and then eventually I'll get one of those
16:43
Speaker 1: running blades that I can start jogging again. I haven't
16:46
Speaker 1: been able to jog in like six years because of
16:48
Speaker 1: all my knee surgeries. From what I understand, we did
17:01
Speaker 1: a little research. I looked up a little bit before
17:03
Speaker 1: we came on for as little UM researchers. There's been
17:08
Speaker 1: into lymphedema. The the advancements and prosthetics is incredible, like
17:15
Speaker 1: over the last fifteen years, and these these prosthetics are
17:20
Speaker 1: allowing people to live and do what they did before
17:25
Speaker 1: or maybe if they were born without limbs, to you know,
17:28
Speaker 1: run and to play. I just watched UM right now,
17:31
Speaker 1: there's a golf tournament going on, uh for I don't
17:35
Speaker 1: know if you play golf, UM, but it's a golf
17:38
Speaker 1: tournament going on for anybody with a physical disability or
17:41
Speaker 1: a mental disability. UM. It's by the U. S. G A.
17:45
Speaker 1: It's an incredible tournament. But there's many people out there
17:48
Speaker 1: with no legs or one leg or partial legs, and
17:53
Speaker 1: they are incredible, like like just I mean, I can't
17:57
Speaker 1: keep my balance with two legs I was born with.
18:00
Speaker 1: They are swinging out of their mind. They're hitting a
18:02
Speaker 1: three yards in the middle of fairway. So I'm I'm
18:05
Speaker 1: excited for you in that realm. Well, as actually mentioned,
18:09
Speaker 1: UM we do want to talk a little Bachelor here
18:11
Speaker 1: with you. Uh, well, and then with kind of your thoughts.
18:14
Speaker 1: I know your faith is something very important to you.
18:16
Speaker 1: You've been on a few podcasts here recently as you've
18:18
Speaker 1: shared your story about your faith. We didn't see a
18:22
Speaker 1: ton of that being mentioned on the show, but that
18:24
Speaker 1: just kind of how the show works, right. How do
18:27
Speaker 1: you feel like the community around you, including the Bachelor community,
18:31
Speaker 1: has responded, um in support of of your recent procedure. Uh? Yeah,
18:37
Speaker 1: so just high level, I think the community in general,
18:41
Speaker 1: just the general public, The outpour has been amazing. Uh.
18:45
Speaker 1: It's started with a week before I had the amputation surgery,
18:48
Speaker 1: I did an interview with People magazine with Kathy Bates
18:52
Speaker 1: because she's the national spokesperson of the limpiting, a nonprofit
18:55
Speaker 1: that I work for, the Kathy Bates v Kathy Bates. Yeah,
18:58
Speaker 1: she's a good friend of mine because she has a Yeah,
19:02
Speaker 1: she's she's an amazing lady. And and really after that article,
19:06
Speaker 1: and I did an Instagram post the day after my amputation,
19:09
Speaker 1: like showing my my residual LIMB for the first time,
19:13
Speaker 1: and um, from there, all the other big media outlets
19:16
Speaker 1: started to run with that story, and that was honestly,
19:20
Speaker 1: like the first time in three years that I've gotten
19:24
Speaker 1: like positive press. Because when you're the villain, if you will,
19:28
Speaker 1: on your respective season of really any reality TV show,
19:32
Speaker 1: not even just the media, but just the direct messages
19:35
Speaker 1: and the cyber bullying that went on, and the impostor
19:39
Speaker 1: syndrome and me believing that I was a villain and
19:42
Speaker 1: all these things that complete strangers were saying about me.
19:45
Speaker 1: So getting that clarity and that closure of really having
19:49
Speaker 1: my story told accurately UM has meant the world to me. Um.
19:54
Speaker 1: Even Hannah Brown, who I hadn't talked to since the
19:57
Speaker 1: day she eliminated me over three years ago, you sent
20:00
Speaker 1: me a pretty long direct message apologizing for, you know,
20:04
Speaker 1: not handling our conversation better. But you know how it
20:07
Speaker 1: goes in that environment, especially lead. I can't imagine Ben,
20:11
Speaker 1: the amount of I don't want to say producer manipulation.
20:14
Speaker 1: But you you're getting a lot of people barking in
20:16
Speaker 1: your ears, and you have all these different relationships are navigating.
20:19
Speaker 1: So unfortunately me opening up about my lympidyma Hannah, and
20:24
Speaker 1: then ten minutes later Mike Johnson telling her that I'm
20:26
Speaker 1: making up this medical sob story to get a pity rose,
20:29
Speaker 1: and then being sent home that night, and then the
20:32
Speaker 1: public just labeling me as you know this this creepy
20:35
Speaker 1: guy who told this you know, medical story that didn't
20:40
Speaker 1: even make sense to people because they edited out me
20:42
Speaker 1: saying lymphoedema. Right, so the general public didn't even know
20:46
Speaker 1: that I had this disease because production was to edit
20:49
Speaker 1: that out. They never said the word lymphoedema in the show.
20:53
Speaker 1: They edited out every single time. And I even had
20:55
Speaker 1: a T shirt made for The Bachelor in Paradise reunion.
20:58
Speaker 1: I told the producers said, look, I am wearing a
21:01
Speaker 1: shirt that says I have Lympathya google it so you
21:03
Speaker 1: guys can't censor me anymore. This is a disease. I
21:06
Speaker 1: don't know why I'm getting this kind of treatment. I
21:08
Speaker 1: show up to The Bachelor in Paradise for union, I
21:10
Speaker 1: wear the shirt, and when we see it live the
21:13
Speaker 1: next night, they literally have it blurred out like it's
21:16
Speaker 1: some sort of curse word. Why do you think that is?
21:18
Speaker 1: I mean that feels I mean, look, it's reality television.
21:25
Speaker 1: It's for entertainment, and I feel like all the contestants
21:29
Speaker 1: are personified to something, right, and so they had me
21:35
Speaker 1: labeled as some sort of villain, and so they didn't
21:37
Speaker 1: want to give me the platform to bring awareness to
21:40
Speaker 1: the disease that I have that effects over ten million Americans.
21:43
Speaker 1: So I just feel like it was a missed opportunity
21:45
Speaker 1: for the network to have representation. You know, we talk
21:48
Speaker 1: a lot about diversity and inclusion. I don't think that
21:52
Speaker 1: just should be limited to your ethnicity or your sexual orientation, right.
21:57
Speaker 1: I feel like people with disabilities like I have should
22:00
Speaker 1: have just as much representation in there, or at least
22:02
Speaker 1: an opportunity to spread awareness. And that was robbed for
22:06
Speaker 1: me every single time I was on the Bachelrette, Bacher,
22:09
Speaker 1: and Paradise in any reunion shows. So part of it
22:12
Speaker 1: been may have been that production didn't understand how severe
22:16
Speaker 1: of a disease that it is. And I feel like,
22:19
Speaker 1: now after I have the imputation, you know, the proof
22:21
Speaker 1: is in the pudding, they see like, Wow, he really
22:24
Speaker 1: wasn't joking around or saying the sob story so Hannah
22:27
Speaker 1: would feel sorry for him. So yeah, that's kind of
22:30
Speaker 1: how I might take on. And I don't want to
22:32
Speaker 1: be angry and bitter towards the franchise. I mean, I've
22:35
Speaker 1: I've had those thoughts, but that doesn't really get you far.
22:37
Speaker 1: And obviously, if I didn't even have the experience, we
22:40
Speaker 1: wouldn't be talking here on this very popular podcast. So
22:43
Speaker 1: I'm blessed just to even be able to come back
22:46
Speaker 1: and have these kind of discussions. Did they talk about
22:49
Speaker 1: it in casting? Did anybody ever see your leg? I mean,
22:53
Speaker 1: as you guys both know, we go pretty in depth
22:56
Speaker 1: with the physical and medical history, so I was very clear.
22:59
Speaker 1: I had even get a doctor's note signed off that hey,
23:02
Speaker 1: he can do this journey, so they were all aware
23:05
Speaker 1: of it. I just don't think they understood the severity
23:08
Speaker 1: of it and how much of an impact it's played
23:10
Speaker 1: on my life. I mean, the night before I told
23:12
Speaker 1: Hannah at that party, I was like in tears with
23:15
Speaker 1: three different producers and I don't want to talk about this.
23:18
Speaker 1: This is something that's very sensitive to me. But like, no,
23:21
Speaker 1: that's your thing. Because every contestant has a thing, right,
23:24
Speaker 1: some sort of backstory that makes them, you know, uniquely them,
23:28
Speaker 1: and that was mine. And so when I go and
23:30
Speaker 1: I do that, it was then used against me, and
23:33
Speaker 1: then they don't even air the disease, and then I'm
23:36
Speaker 1: labeled as this guy who's desperate looking for a pitty rose.
23:40
Speaker 1: Can this might be one of the I mean, there's
23:43
Speaker 1: been a lot of unfortunate events that have happened on
23:47
Speaker 1: this show, and unfortunate things, And I've always been a
23:53
Speaker 1: protector of the edit because typically, at least in my experience,
23:58
Speaker 1: that edit isn't always that far off of the behavior
24:01
Speaker 1: of the person. And I've always said that, and some
24:03
Speaker 1: people get really angry at me for saying that, but
24:06
Speaker 1: that's just my experience. But this is one of the
24:12
Speaker 1: one of the times that I'm sitting here and um,
24:15
Speaker 1: I don't have a lot of words to add to this,
24:17
Speaker 1: because this is really unfortunate. Uh. And especially I remember
24:20
Speaker 1: your time on the show and you were I mean,
24:23
Speaker 1: I remember when you you came out and said that
24:25
Speaker 1: you had suffered with severe pain, uh, and that it
24:28
Speaker 1: didn't it felt like, you know, you're getting a pitty
24:31
Speaker 1: rose because of how it was being seen. Now to know,
24:34
Speaker 1: you know how many years forward and you've had your
24:37
Speaker 1: leg amputated, You've still struggled with this disease. Uh, And
24:41
Speaker 1: now you're sitting here and having to almost explain yourself
24:45
Speaker 1: and get catch people up on what was existing six
24:48
Speaker 1: years ago. Uh, is really unfortunate, and I can't imagine
24:53
Speaker 1: the toll I was angry at some of the very
24:56
Speaker 1: small things that didn't affect my life at all that
24:59
Speaker 1: I got did it as Um, I can't imagine what
25:02
Speaker 1: you've been holding onto for six years as you've been
25:04
Speaker 1: trying to explain this. I mean, you think of the
25:08
Speaker 1: thing that you're most self conscious about, sorry, I'm getting
25:11
Speaker 1: emotional thing about you. Think of the thing that you're
25:13
Speaker 1: most self conscious about, and a thing that has sidelined
25:18
Speaker 1: you from playing the sports you love, sidelined you from
25:23
Speaker 1: getting deeper into relationships hopefully leading to marriage, and a
25:27
Speaker 1: thing that has impacted your career, and all of a sudden,
25:31
Speaker 1: you're in this environment and you are opening up to
25:34
Speaker 1: basically a stranger because Hannah was essentially a stranger to
25:37
Speaker 1: me at that time. And then just to have it
25:40
Speaker 1: the whole narrative completely turned around and used against you.
25:45
Speaker 1: Has is something that gave me really bad PTSD that
25:48
Speaker 1: I had to do with a lot of therapy too.
25:50
Speaker 1: And then to answer your question you kind of alluded
25:52
Speaker 1: to earlier, I wasn't strong in my faith in twenty nineteen, Um,
25:56
Speaker 1: so That's why that wasn't part of my back story.
25:59
Speaker 1: It was after the show, going through severe depression, going
26:03
Speaker 1: through having to not participate in social media, and then
26:09
Speaker 1: obviously COVID hits, so that through a whole another layer
26:12
Speaker 1: into complexity for everything. So it was really when I
26:15
Speaker 1: hit rock bottom that I re reignited my relationship with God.
26:19
Speaker 1: And you know, it was the church I go to
26:22
Speaker 1: in Houston that you did the podcast with the Maybe
26:24
Speaker 1: God podcast with Eric. He really helped me in those
26:28
Speaker 1: moments of darkness. And so now finding a way to
26:31
Speaker 1: turn tragedy into triumph and having that whole faith over
26:34
Speaker 1: fear mentality that has been my coping mechanism to let
26:38
Speaker 1: go of the past. And all I can do is
26:41
Speaker 1: control how I approached my recovery and try to be
26:45
Speaker 1: a beacon of hope and inspiration to other patients who
26:47
Speaker 1: have lympid ema or our amputees and to show that
26:51
Speaker 1: when you fight through it and you have you know,
26:53
Speaker 1: God on your side or whatever you believe in, that
26:56
Speaker 1: you can still go on to live an amazing and
26:58
Speaker 1: fulfilling life. And that's that's my north star. I'm I'm
27:01
Speaker 1: ready to just you know, move forward. You're creating. Uh,
27:05
Speaker 1: you're creating a story that I believe many people. You know,
27:08
Speaker 1: we say it here often because life gets complex and
27:11
Speaker 1: there's a lot of things that happen. But if one
27:14
Speaker 1: person can feel less alone from the story that you're sharing,
27:17
Speaker 1: and this whole thing has got to be worth it.
27:19
Speaker 1: I mean, this whole life that we're living has got
27:21
Speaker 1: to be worth it. I believe there's gonna be many.
27:24
Speaker 1: As you mentioned, ten million people within the United States
27:27
Speaker 1: suffer with limited lymphadema. I don't know the number for amputees. Um.
27:33
Speaker 1: We're excited now to watch your journey moving forward. We
27:36
Speaker 1: want to see we are. We're here to see and celebrate.
27:39
Speaker 1: You gotta come back on if you do make the
27:42
Speaker 1: Olympic team, but we'll be we'll be tracking that journey
27:46
Speaker 1: along the way. I want to ask you one one
27:49
Speaker 1: more question. It seems like love is definitely a high
27:53
Speaker 1: priority for you, and so is sharing this lymphidema journey.
27:59
Speaker 1: Would you ever go back on Bachelor in Paradise interest
28:02
Speaker 1: the show again? Oh? It would take a lot, because
28:11
Speaker 1: I I was promised redemption in Paradise the first go around. Well,
28:15
Speaker 1: they can't hide your story. Now you've told your story. Well, yeah,
28:19
Speaker 1: and I can't hide I could hide the limpid ema
28:22
Speaker 1: by just doing all the stuff that I knew to
28:24
Speaker 1: keep the swelling now, but I can't hide an amputation,
28:28
Speaker 1: especially out in Paradise. I'm not gonna wear jeans on
28:30
Speaker 1: the beach every day. But I honestly I doubt the
28:35
Speaker 1: production team would even reach out to me for that
28:37
Speaker 1: to be an opportunity. But if they did, that would
28:41
Speaker 1: be something I'd have to really pray about. But honestly,
28:43
Speaker 1: I feel that I know that God has a plan
28:46
Speaker 1: for all of this, and all the pain that I've
28:49
Speaker 1: gone through is not for for nothing. There's definitely something
28:53
Speaker 1: for that. And uh. One of my other big milestones,
28:56
Speaker 1: and I talked about this with with Ta Natasha on
28:59
Speaker 1: click a couple of weeks ago. My milestone is in
29:03
Speaker 1: mid September. I'm going to Red Rocks for the first
29:05
Speaker 1: time to see a concert and I'm seeing Lauren da
29:08
Speaker 1: Lauren Dagle. That's my like celebrity crush, and she's a
29:12
Speaker 1: woman of faith too. So you guys happen to know her,
29:15
Speaker 1: you want to put in a word for me, that
29:16
Speaker 1: would be awesome. I can see Red Rocks from my
29:19
Speaker 1: house right now, sitting here looking out the window. Yeah,
29:22
Speaker 1: so I can see Red Rocks. I'll drive by, Uh,
29:26
Speaker 1: send the send the message to Lauren see if see
29:29
Speaker 1: if magic can happen in the air at Red Rocks
29:31
Speaker 1: that night. It's a beautiful place, Yes it is. I've
29:34
Speaker 1: never been, so I'm excited. For sure you're gonna have
29:36
Speaker 1: a great time. And when you're there, I'm nearby, So
29:40
Speaker 1: make sure you say hello Camp. Leave you options open.
29:45
Speaker 1: It's my only thing I'll say. If the show wants
29:47
Speaker 1: to have you back, you can tell a pretty powerful
29:49
Speaker 1: story uh and uh on the show. But if not,
29:53
Speaker 1: we just look forward to you telling your story through
29:55
Speaker 1: whatever avenue you see fit. If you're interested in more,
29:59
Speaker 1: we out a lot today from Cam. But if you're
30:02
Speaker 1: interesting in kind of hearing some of the other podcasts
30:05
Speaker 1: he's done, He's posted about him on his social media
30:08
Speaker 1: that Maybe God podcast was a great podcast that dove
30:11
Speaker 1: a lot more into the faith side of this whole experience.
30:15
Speaker 1: So you can check that out. Um, But until next time, Cam,
30:18
Speaker 1: thanks for coming on the almost famous podcasts and sharing
30:20
Speaker 1: your story. Wish you the best and we know the
30:22
Speaker 1: future is very very bright for you. Thank you. Thanks man.
30:26
Speaker 1: Thanks Ashley. I really appreciate you, guys. Thank you appreciate you.
30:31
Speaker 1: Follow the Benn and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast on
30:34
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.