Latest / Giving Pain Purpose with Lyndsay Soprano / CRPS in Remission
Transcript
- 0:03This is Your Pain Game podcast where we talk about the game of living in
- 0:07and with chronic pain and trauma, getting to the heart of how to heal.
- 0:12I am your host, Lindsay Soprano. On the show, I plan
- 0:18on discussing with doctors, chronic pain patients, ballistic practitioners, loved ones,
- 0:23and anybody that is interested in having their voice heard in the chronic pain and
- 0:27trauma world that we live in. So I actually have a pretty freaking killer
- 0:42singing voice, if I do say so myself. I was classically trained.
- 0:47I was an opera major. I traveled and competed all over the place all
- 0:50through junior high, high school, in college, and then I got into
- 0:53San Francisco States Opera Program. And once I got up there, I moved
- 0:57there. I got into it, and I started doing my thing. I
- 0:59decided I did not want to be a thespian, so I stopped. I
- 1:04still sing in weddings and funerals, and you know, I would go in
- 1:08and guests, you know, guest appear if there was some banda's local in
- 1:14La or Orange County that needed a front girl, and I would stand in
- 1:17for. But that was basically I sing in the house and sing in the
- 1:19shower. I sing to my dogs and sing to my sweeting. But I
- 1:22have my choice. Les. I wanted to make sure that I had a
- 1:23job because the scary world of performing and having to serve tables for the rest
- 1:29of your life. Not that that's a bad job, because I value hospitality
- 1:33like nobody's business. I just knew that I didn't want to do that.
- 1:37So I started my marketing agency almost twenty four years ago now, and I
- 1:42have it looked back. But I do have those days where I really wish
- 1:45that I would have pursued my music career and used the voice that I was
- 1:49gifted with, and instead it looks like I'm using my voice in a different
- 1:53way here on this show. And so now that I've given my pain purpose
- 1:57right as my listeners know at this point, being here with you every day,
- 2:01all day, every week, whether you're listening to my show or not,
- 2:05I'm with you because I'm working on it. And the way that CRPS
- 2:07has changed the trajectory of my life is a daily resilience test, to say
- 2:14the least. Yesterday, in fact, I felt like every bone in my
- 2:16body had been crushed and I was just laying on the couch completely and able
- 2:21to function or form sentences. So I'm glad that recording is today instead of
- 2:25yesterday. So anyways, life tends to throw us massive obstacles, doesn't it,
- 2:30you know? And my guest today is no stranger to also belting out
- 2:35some tunes or to CRPS either. So, without further ado, I'd like
- 2:40to introduce you to my guest today, Annie Vander. Hey, girlie,
- 2:45Hey, how are you so happy to see you? She pops up and
- 2:49this She's got the most beautiful smile and she's just such a little rock star.
- 2:53You guys are going to enjoy her and her voice is so sweet.
- 2:55But Annie is now a country singer, but she wasn't always one. She
- 3:00used to own a pet that practice that she was working with, and then
- 3:05she had working at and then she had something happened to her. She had
- 3:07a terrible accident. And she's going to talk about that briefly, and we're
- 3:10going to talk about CRPS. So are you ready to rock and roll here?
- 3:15I'm okay, sounds good. So I'd like to start by talking about
- 3:21your diagnosis with CRPS and your experience with that, how it happened, And
- 3:25then i want to get to the good part about remission, because that is
- 3:29the part of hope that I really want to make sure that my listeners have
- 3:32today from you, especially with people that have chronic illnesses like CRPS that are
- 3:38just so incredibly impossible to treat. Always nice to hear a story of remission,
- 3:42even though I'm a little jealous over here. Well, I'm going to
- 3:45send those remission vibes to you. Yes, So diagnosis, Oh my gosh,
- 3:53that was a relief and terrifying all at the same time. Basically,
- 3:58where to start with it is I fell, which you know, shattered my
- 4:01wrist and my hand was completely sideways blah blah blah, and the killer parties.
- 4:06I was supposed to go on this beautiful Southern Caribbean crew my keys.
- 4:11We were dropping a key off of the neighbor's house, bags at the door
- 4:13Hooper's on the way to get us sixty below in Chicago, and boo down
- 4:16I go so not, you know, and I thought that that was going
- 4:20to be the worst of it, like, oh, we're just going to
- 4:21miss out on this cruise. But no, I was healing fine. Basically
- 4:26I ended up needing a plate and screws and all the things. I had
- 4:29to rebuild everything, and I started pet or ot actually at the time,
- 4:34occupational therapy, and I was doing well for a few weeks until all the
- 4:39sudden things started regressing and I woke up one Friday night and I told my
- 4:45husband, I woke up like just blood curling scream. Doctor reacts raided my
- 4:49arm. And I really didn't realize at the time how much I was regressing
- 4:53in therapy, and the therapist kept saying, She's like, you know,
- 4:57you're doing good. She knew I was doing the exercises, I'm doing everything
- 4:59I'm supposed to do, and it just was she was baffled. So when
- 5:02they re ex rayed my arm when I went back, they said everything looks
- 5:06fine, and I actually ended up with a really fast diagnosis compared to most
- 5:11people. Yeah, her, I'm very thankful. I had an orthopedic surgeon
- 5:15who was familiar with what it was. So I went back to the occupational
- 5:19therapist and you know, she sees my arm again and it's again worse,
- 5:24and then she's like, you need to go back to the orthor I go,
- 5:27don't worry, girl, already did that, you know, so dumb?
- 5:30She I told her. I said, yeah, the doctor said,
- 5:32I have this thing called reflex sympathetic dystrophy or CRPS. She goes, whatever
- 5:39you do, don't google it, and I'm like, yeah, amen,
- 5:43sister, but what do we all do? Yeah? Yeah, well I
- 5:46am already because I literally I wanted. If memory serves me right, it
- 5:50would have been a Monday that I would have went, because I remember it
- 5:54was Friday with the incidet with the dog, so if I had pt,
- 5:57it would have had to be a weekday. So my guess is I waited
- 5:59till Monday, went back to the orthopedic guide, and then went straight to
- 6:02therapy, and I googled it and didn't really have time for it to process.
- 6:08I was like, okay, so I've got this. I guess I'll
- 6:10have to look at this later. And it didn't sink in. And then
- 6:12she said that, and she looks straight at me, and she said,
- 6:15you can't come here for therapy anymore. She goes, because no one here
- 6:17knows how to treat this. She goes, but please don't tell anybody here
- 6:20because I could lose my job. And at this point, my you know,
- 6:26the broken risk. The pain was traveling up my arm and my shoulder
- 6:29starts to lock up. And I don't want to say it's a blessing that
- 6:31you know, because it's not a blessing that you have this at all.
- 6:33But it's rare to talk to someone who actually, which I'm sure you know,
- 6:38knows what CRPS is. I do. I have it full body.
- 6:42Yeah, you get it, and it's that sucks. But yeah, she's
- 6:46like, so the orthopedic actually wrote in order then for therapy, Okay,
- 6:50we're going to do therapy on your shoulder now too, and you know,
- 6:54including my whatever, arm, wrist, whatever. And I did one day
- 7:00there, one extra day and then when I saw the girl through my shoulder,
- 7:04I looked at her. She's doing exercises with me, and she's like,
- 7:08all right, I said, have you ever seen anyone reach remission with
- 7:12CRPS? She goes, We've never even seen anyone here with this, so
- 7:15I don't know. And in that moment, I knew I gotta get the
- 7:18hell out of here. Yes, And that is a message because I have
- 7:23found the same thing that you can actually do more harm than healing if you
- 7:28don't have somebody that knows how to work with CRPS. It is one of
- 7:32the most challenging things that anybody has to work with the people that have it
- 7:35and the people that are trying to help, because everybody's body handles CRPS a
- 7:41little bit different. The way it's going to fire off, the way it
- 7:44flares, the way the places that it's affected, you know, and it's
- 7:46nuts. So make sure that you are fully vetting the people that you are
- 7:49working with that are trying to help your body. I don't care if it's
- 7:53just a knee surgery injury. Anything can happen. Guys, like we've I've
- 7:58been hurt in therapy, I've been hurt by doctors. Just really really be
- 8:01careful. I think that's a really important mess. No, she is,
- 8:05And it's like, you know, and I had been through some other things
- 8:07not CRPS related, years before, and like that was and you know,
- 8:11there's I don't know, I could end up going down a rabbit hole and
- 8:15I don't want to go there. But I think anything medical you have to
- 8:18be your own advocate. But especially with CRPS, it's like because things are
- 8:22just like you said, exactly like you said, you just don't know what
- 8:24is going to set something off. Yeah, you can go up the rails
- 8:28pretty quick, Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah. So the girl that I
- 8:31was an ot with what really stunk was like, you know, we had
- 8:33a good like you know, not that she's a co worker, but I
- 8:37guess essentially they kind of are because you see them, Yeah, they all
- 8:39the time, right, So she was cool to chat with and hang with
- 8:43while we're doing what we have to do to get me better. So I'm
- 8:46like, well, this stinks, you know. So but she said she
- 8:50did some continuing education with somebody who literally traveled the world and taught people how
- 8:56to treat CRPS. And I was like, okay. And at first,
- 9:03what's interesting is this guy took the diagnosis of CRPS away from me, and
- 9:09he's like, yeah, I don't think you have that. I think he
- 9:11was just trying to also get me in a mindset like you're gonna be fine.
- 9:15You're gonna be fine, You're gonna be fine. By the time I
- 9:18was getting better and I was actually able to start going to a regular PT,
- 9:22he's like, so I do think he goes, it's probably a milder
- 9:28form of CRPS and you caught it early, blah blah blah. And he's
- 9:31like, I do think that this is what you have, And I'm like,
- 9:35I'm thinking, why the hell would you tell me that? But every
- 9:37day I would walk in there, he had this thing in a city would
- 9:39just basically be like fear as a liar, you know, And he was
- 9:41just trying to keep me positive and all the things. My mom passed away
- 9:46at sixty one. She fell and had an accident, broke her shoulder,
- 9:50She busted all that a plates pins, the whole nine yards. And there's
- 9:56a day I remember going back to take care of her, and and she
- 10:00was like, Anne Marie. The whole name is Anne Marie. She's like
- 10:03my real name. She's like, you need to She goes, you need
- 10:07to feed me. She was like, I can't use my arm. I
- 10:09go, my mom, you broke your other arm. You know, Like,
- 10:11what's wrong with you? She was, it just hurts, And like,
- 10:15over the course of five years, everything was just like her body was
- 10:18just locking up. And she actually ended up becoming bedridden and no one could
- 10:22ever diagnose her. And then I'm like, I'm sitting here thinking in hindsight,
- 10:26I'm like, holy crap, is this what she had? Kind of
- 10:28a thing? You know, Wow, we'll never know for sure, you
- 10:31know. She ultimately died of a pulmonary embolism. But she was you know,
- 10:35it was like this cocktail of hay meds and sleep aids and not moving
- 10:41and stuff like that, and just and I'm like, oh my god,
- 10:45like, am I going to have any quality of life? So right after
- 10:46the diagnosis and everything, am I going to have quality of life? I
- 10:50lost? And it was a pet sitting dog walking business. I worked as
- 10:54a veterinary technician for somebody else for like, I don't know, for fifteen
- 11:00twenty years or so, spun it off into my own pet care business,
- 11:03and then you know it being out for so long, I just I ended
- 11:05up having to close the doors and so I lose my I lose that.
- 11:11That's huge. So now what am I going to do it for work?
- 11:13Am I gonna live normal again? I was so depressed, terrified, and
- 11:18then the rest, I don't know, It's it's kind of funny. I
- 11:20feel like it's this big blessing in disguise, and like you're doing so You're
- 11:24you're doing your podcast right, which is awesome, and I love that you're
- 11:28doing it. And I'm meeting so many people now and I think through my
- 11:31publicist and stuff like that, and it's like seeing all the positive things that
- 11:35people are doing and trying to help is amazing. So thank you for that.
- 11:39We don't make me cry as on this, so I cry really easy,
- 11:43Okay, So all right, I can't even cry because you're too pretty
- 11:48when you smile, So I cry a nice smile simultaneously. I get it.
- 11:56So I pushed. I pushed through it. Baby, I pushed through
- 11:58it, yea too. So so basically, oh man, where was I
- 12:03with this? Yeah? So, while I was going through all this therapy
- 12:07stuff, my husband and I had a karaoke machine at our house and we
- 12:11had it for parties and stuff and this, you know, we had it
- 12:13from before I got hurt. We love we love to entertain and m I
- 12:18don't remember which party we got it for, but anyway, it was just
- 12:20kind of sitting in front of me and I used to thing and and I
- 12:24didn't even realize it at the time. It kind of became distraction therapy,
- 12:26and then all the reading and stuff and learning more about CRPS and like it
- 12:30stimulates the vegas nerve and like all these benefits it had and I didn't even
- 12:33realize it. So now you fast forward to the point when I am in
- 12:39remission, when I'm done with therapy, even the regular PT and I get
- 12:43a job in a door and window company. And this is November of twenty
- 12:46nineteen. Well now a few months later after after that, what happens COVID
- 12:52No, I'm not working again. So so yeah, and so one thing
- 12:58leads to another during my process, though if I go back again to it
- 13:01was like May early Rejune, right after my accident. I was traveling with
- 13:07heating pads, ice packs, all my meds and all the things. And
- 13:11my husband was like, because not only was my vacation canceled, now he's
- 13:15at home taking care of me. And he was so burned out at the
- 13:18time, but he's like, we need to go somewhere. I'm like,
- 13:20I don't think I can fly, Like I can't handle being at an airplane.
- 13:22So we just packed up the car. He drove me to Hilton Head,
- 13:26South Carolina. We spent time on the beach, and we made we
- 13:28stopped at Vanderbilt, we saw that, and then he goes, do you
- 13:31want to go to Nashville? He knows how much I like music. I
- 13:33said, yeah, let's make a stop and we went to this place called
- 13:35the Listening Room, and I got the information for an artist coach out there,
- 13:41and I just kind of kept in my back pocket, like what if
- 13:43I ever because it's always been in the back of my head, like what
- 13:46if I ever pursued music again? Oh yeah, well now then it was
- 13:50almost a year later, just shy of a year later. I used that
- 13:54email address, reached out. We had this little, you know, phone
- 13:56interview and talked about what I wanted to achieve, blah blah blah, and
- 14:01the rest is history. And here I am talking to you and put music
- 14:03out. It's crazy. So it's like I could either be like, oh
- 14:09my god, that was the worst year of my life, or I can
- 14:11look at it like it was the biggest blessing in disguise. Yeah, I
- 14:16mean, it's it's just crazy how things all happen. But it's one of
- 14:18the questions. She asked me, if you could say something to yourself then,
- 14:22like if your future you like me now, could say something to me,
- 14:26then what would you say. I said, I don't think that I
- 14:28would tell myself that I would be going on radio tours and cut music and
- 14:31doing all the stuff, because I would think that I went insane. So
- 14:39by insane me, okay, an you became a lunar tic, right,
- 14:43Like, yeah, so my real name is Anne Vandermulin and my artist's name
- 14:48is Annie Vander. That's how you find my stuff. But either way,
- 14:52it's like, yeah, you go by Annie Vander now and you're gonna be
- 14:54on country radio and I'd be like, oh, those drugs must get really
- 14:58good later on. So but I think I would just you know, like
- 15:03and I don't remember exactly, I don't think I ordered it exactly like that
- 15:07talking to her, but it was basically like I just I know I would
- 15:11want to say like, hey, it's gonna be okay, you're gonna be
- 15:13fine, you're gonna reach remission, there's better days ahead, and and honestly,
- 15:18even when things work terrible, because I had some pretty unbearable days and
- 15:24I know you can relate, it's uh, I don't know, it's just
- 15:28like even in that, I think, you know, and my therapist would
- 15:31tell me like, some days are gonna be some days are gonna be down
- 15:33here, then you're gonna go up and then you're gonna go away back down
- 15:35for then you're gonna you know, like it's a rollercoaster with it, and
- 15:39but yeah, anyway, I kind of sidetracked when I talked to her that
- 15:43day. I had I must I pulled a muscle in my neck and my
- 15:46arms started to flare a little bit again, and I haven't had any kind
- 15:48of a flair for so long, and I just I don't know how.
- 15:52The scariest part is, I don't know how I reach remission exactly. I
- 15:56really don't, because that was gonna be my question, and like, do
- 16:00tell the story of that, because it's hard. But I've heard other stories
- 16:04as well from people that I just talked to in the CRPS community randomly here
- 16:08and there, that they have no idea. Yeah, they're like, yeah,
- 16:11just one day I went into remission and it was like okay. And
- 16:15then they'll get a random little flare and then that fear and that anxiety creeps
- 16:21right back in and they're like, oh shit, this is it. Like
- 16:26now I'm gonna have to start all over again. And that's the crazy games
- 16:30that we play. Last you know, I always bring pain game into it
- 16:33because that's the word. That's a very specific word for my show, because
- 16:37it is a game that you're playing with you're tricking your mind. You're tricking
- 16:41yourself, You're tricking trying to trick the people around you to make them not
- 16:45feel like you feel. Yeah. Yeah, you know, like when I'm
- 16:49walking from my handicap parking space and i can barely walk, I'm like,
- 16:53do they think I'm faking? I'm not fake? You know, just it
- 16:57is a complete mind f all day long. Yeah, thinking about and managing
- 17:02this and trying to keep my beautiful smile and my stellar personality going, you
- 17:07know, and to keep on singing. Yeah, because there's a lot to
- 17:11sitting down at the piano and singing that I've kind of started to stir away
- 17:15from. Any We brought up a really good point about how good singing is
- 17:19for you and the vegas nerve stimulation, all of these things. It's just
- 17:23like I totally forgot about all of the positive things about singing, as well
- 17:26as just you know, being glorious. Yeah. Yeah, and you don't
- 17:30even And that's a thing like like distraction therapy in itself is huge because like
- 17:34you could just sit and be like, oh my god, this hurts,
- 17:37right, and then it puts your mind in your brain In this we're already
- 17:40in a peen loop. Anyway when you have crps. So if you sit
- 17:42there and just focus on like, don't you know, like it just it,
- 17:47just do something else, even it's like in the back of your mind,
- 17:48you know it hurts. Well, it's not in the back of your
- 17:49mind when you're in a flare, but it's no and I'm in a constant
- 17:55flare. I don't have flares. I'm just flare. It sucks. Yeah,
- 17:59if that's us suck, that's I Yeah, that sucks beyond. But
- 18:03here you are laughing and giggling, and you know, like but you're putting
- 18:07your energy in a good place, you know, Like so you choose to
- 18:10be you know, just vope around and give up, or you can just
- 18:15keep pushing on. But you also have I feel like you also have to
- 18:18allow yourself, like when you're just tired and you're done, Like there's there's
- 18:22got to be a balance. And I think what's different for me now is
- 18:26that I am way more aware of my limits. Like when I'm overstressed with
- 18:32something or you know, whether whatever it is, whether it's mental, physical,
- 18:36whatever, it's like, I don't take care of me, my body's
- 18:38gonna be like a few you know, like it's good, it's gonna be
- 18:41done exactly, and yeah, but I don't know, it's like part of
- 18:45me, Like, I know people tell people to do that all the time.
- 18:48I'm like, there's so many people they're they're running this fast paced hustle
- 18:52in life. Why can't my body handle it? And I almost feel bad
- 18:55for that. But then at the same time, I'm like, or was
- 18:57I just doing so much? And that's my way of like, yeah,
- 19:00no, we're not doing this. So I don't think anyone should feel guilty
- 19:04about having to take care of themselves that way. Those are all very valid
- 19:08points, especially the part about you know this self care because and it's something
- 19:14that we talk about. I am terrible at it. I'm better than I
- 19:17used to be. I have really really good months where I'm like, wow,
- 19:21Lindy, you are just rocking it in self care, and then I
- 19:22crash and burn because I'll be like, I'll have pushed myself so hard because
- 19:27I'm feeling so much better, and then I pushed myself so hard that I
- 19:32crash and burn, and then I go straight back into I can't do the
- 19:36things that I wanted to do and that I've been working towards doing and then
- 19:38you get sad, and then you get frustrated, and then you get angry,
- 19:41and then you get depressed, and then you have anxiety about it.
- 19:44And it's this that loop. I was telling my sweetie this morning, and
- 19:47I'm like, I cannot get my feet specifically out of this particular loop I'm
- 19:51in right now. Yeah, it's like intense. I'm like, I and
- 19:55I take pictures of my feet all the time, which but if my twenty
- 19:59year old self could hear me saying those words, she'd think she's crazy too.
- 20:03My phone is filled with pictures of dogs, pictures of my sleep,
- 20:07my sweetie sleeping and which is not creepy. We call him sleepers because he
- 20:11sleeps everywhere. And um, and so we've got sleeper pictures, dog pictures
- 20:15and feet pictures. That's it. Oh that's funny. Well, I can't
- 20:22meet me on the dog thing there because I think I've got I don't know
- 20:23how many literally thousands and thousands of thousands I had to buy more storage on
- 20:29my phone because they were like, yeah, sorry, yeah, I's like
- 20:32we're full, but um, but yeah, I know the self care is
- 20:34very important, and I know that it's easy to throw that phrase out,
- 20:37but it's so hard to actually focus on you, especially when you're a people
- 20:42pleaser and um, which is me all day and I know that I am,
- 20:47but like yesterday, for example, I did legit. My part of
- 20:49my CRPS is I've got like really my bones really really hurt. So it
- 20:56always feels like like I'm just skeleton anyway, but I feel like I'm I
- 21:02feel like somebody like runs Bulldozerer over me, or like drop bowling balls on
- 21:06my feet, and I just feel like I'm always buzzing with this weird heats
- 21:11and like tingly and it's not good tingle. And I feel like I've little
- 21:15worms, hot lava worms running through the veins of my legs and my feet
- 21:18all day and night. And it's just gotten the point where it's like I
- 21:22don't know how. I don't know how I show up, but you do.
- 21:26But I am I and I'm well, I'm attempting to kick but that's
- 21:30for sure. But it's just like so many things that we take for granted,
- 21:34we need to stop and when we're feeling like the world just has gotten
- 21:40us down and hurt, our bodies are hurting. That was me yesterday.
- 21:42I had to just cancel my day yesterday, just what I had to do.
- 21:47And everybody's very understanding, and it is what it is, you know.
- 21:52I'm just like, I could not form sentences yesterday, and I could
- 21:56not walk. I was only in my wheelchair, and I just I was
- 22:00like, I have to eat pot and sit on the council and that's what
- 22:04I did. So I'm just like, and because I took that instead of
- 22:10pushing my way through and getting myself even more upsets stress wise with my body
- 22:15and going, well, you can do it, lindsay, No, I
- 22:17couldn't. Astly, I could not participate in life, yes, And that's
- 22:19where and that's where like when I was doing the therapy stuff so I used
- 22:23to before the singing and before like when I was working for the fat Practice
- 22:29and had my own business. I also my husband and I ran a triathlon
- 22:33team as well. I did all sorts of all sorts of stuff and super
- 22:36active. And I remember him trying to get me, He's like, you
- 22:40know what you should try to Like when I was starting to feel a little
- 22:41bit better, he's like, why don't you try to swim? So what
- 22:45is my dumbass too? Yes, I get in the pool. I think
- 22:48I only did four laps. He said, I meant go across and do
- 22:51one lap. I couldn't walk for like forties. I don't like, I
- 22:55don't know. Maybe it was in forties, maybe it was three days or
- 22:56whatever. But I went to therapy whenever my next one was. It might
- 23:00have been a day or two after. And I remember my husband he actually
- 23:06left work to come and just like because they didn't know how they were going
- 23:10to get me out of there. I was passing out, like literally losing
- 23:11consciousness because the pain was so bad. And you know, but I'm like
- 23:17in my head, I'm like, why shouldn't I be able to do this?
- 23:19You know, Like I'm like that was nothing, and you know,
- 23:22and it wasn't that long ago that I did it. He goes, your
- 23:25body, these like things are different now, and they kept saying it's okay,
- 23:30it's okay that it's different. He's like, give yourself some grace,
- 23:32you know. So it's yeah, So it's there are things that you take
- 23:37for granted and and I you know, and I need to remember sometimes or
- 23:40like you said, you know, if you've talked to people in remission,
- 23:41it's like I had that flare a couple of months ago, and it was
- 23:45like or I guess only about a month and a half ago, and I'm
- 23:47just trying to put it out of my brain. But it's like, you
- 23:49know, yeah, it is. It is a mind game. And I
- 23:52think that's why. Like when I was in therapy too, he's like,
- 23:55you don't have this and I'm like, okay, yeah, I don't know.
- 23:56I don't you know, and I'm like why, you know, why
- 23:59did you say that to me? And then I was really not to say
- 24:02bummed, but I think that was his way of kind of driving home the
- 24:04point of like, you know, you've got this kind of mind over matter.
- 24:08And so I did the pop thing too. I was the guy was
- 24:11a total jokester and a friend of mine, but he's like, and you
- 24:17need to go home and just smoke a bowl and I'm just like, okay,
- 24:19whatever. And then so the therapist he goes I think he's right,
- 24:23I think you do, and I was like, what you know. He's
- 24:26like no, seriously, and he's like and that poor guy's wife was just
- 24:30diagnosed with cancer herself, and he's like, she's going to go. You
- 24:33need a medical card in Illinois at the time. You did. Yeah,
- 24:36He's like, she's gonna go get her medical card. So next week I
- 24:40did. I did that and he did. So we used an app called
- 24:45Recognize. I don't know if you're familiar with that one, and we did
- 24:48mirror mirror therapy and I thought he was crazy with that one too, and
- 24:52I'm like, Okay, this isn't real therapy. But that was tricking the
- 24:56brain into thinking like, yeah, your left hand can wor you know.
- 25:00So it's yeah, yeah, it's all the pain game, like it totally
- 25:03is because it's did it. Yeah. This is a full time job over
- 25:07here for sure. Yeah, it's the longest game I've ever played. I'm
- 25:11exhausted. Yeah, I know. I want almost seven years here. And
- 25:17so I'm frustrated that when I first started having pain in my right big toe,
- 25:22when my first toe just went yeah, we're just not gonna be working
- 25:26correctly for you anymore. I wish I would have immediately gone somewhere, like
- 25:30to a physical therapist, but I didn't, and then it spread to both
- 25:33feet pretty quickly, and then it was like whoa, okay, and then
- 25:38it's just you know, weave and its twisted sister, way up my bod.
- 25:41And it's frustrating and it's exhausting, and but doing what we're doing here
- 25:47is so worthwhile for me. It is my soul food. It feeds me
- 25:52to see you today and to talk to you and to have met you.
- 25:55And I mean all these incredible people like you mentioned earlier that are doing doing
- 26:00podcasts with in relation to sharing their stories and sharing their traumas and being so
- 26:04vulnerable with me and trusting me with their stories and and my my smart assness
- 26:08and my depravity and what have you. You know. And I always like
- 26:12to thank my listeners too, because I wouldn't be sitting here if it wasn't
- 26:15for your ear holes. Yeah, so thank you for joining me and keep
- 26:22listening to her. Thank you, Yes, and that is that is a
- 26:26direct h thank you. That's what I met. Gosh, use your words,
- 26:32Linday. Yeah. No, let's talk real quick about you and music
- 26:37before we before we wrap up here. So I love your story from like
- 26:41karaoke to COVID to country music, like it's so amazing. It's totally crazy.
- 26:45And I love the karaoke part of it because I used to go to
- 26:49karaoke all the time, Like, there was a crew of us that would
- 26:52always go and it was so fun because I was always, like, you
- 26:56know, one of the ringers. So it was really fun to always be
- 26:59good. Yeah, get it, unless you've had a couple of drinks and
- 27:03then you don't sound that great. Listened from my experience, like maybe you
- 27:07shouldn't have had that vodka any more than you had already. I don't drink
- 27:11that crap anymore anyways. But um So, your chart topping single was called
- 27:15Falling into Nashville, and I love that because it's so happy based on your
- 27:19story that you were telling about how you guys just you didn't want to fly
- 27:22and you just got in your car and you just drove and you kind of
- 27:25fell into Nashville. It's like, yeah, it's so cute. It's such
- 27:27a wonderful song. And I know you've been working on some new materials,
- 27:32so give us a little chit chat about that. Yeah. So my new
- 27:36single Tonight, which if that's about, actually it's the love story between my
- 27:41husband and I. I was friends with him for like five years and it
- 27:44was kind of we went on dates here and there, and I knew if
- 27:47I ever dated him for real our friendship was going to either end or we'd
- 27:51be married. We're twenty three years married now, so well something worked.
- 27:56Then, yeah, something worked, and so there's that one. Um.
- 28:00And then I've got music coming out in the summer. UM, don't ever
- 28:06release date just yet. UM. And that's gonna be a fun that'll be
- 28:08my first like super fassy song that'll be out. UM. So I'm so
- 28:12excited about that one. I'm playing a character in it and it's gonna be
- 28:17just like, I don't know, a girl power kind of song. U.
- 28:21So yeah, it's I'm I don't know, We've got so much.
- 28:23I wrote a song It's Gosh when I was one of my last trips to
- 28:27Nashville. It was I was saying, how I want to write I want
- 28:30to write one for my dad, but I want it to be universal,
- 28:33so every daddy daughter kind of you know, like it could just relate to
- 28:37everybody. Because before I put out Falling into Nashville, I had a song
- 28:41trust Me, and that's what that was the very first song I wrote with
- 28:44my artist coach and um, the guy that I got the info in Nashville
- 28:48from. And that's how I and he's the one who we introduced me to
- 28:52my producer. And then it's just I've been so fortunate to meet so many
- 28:56good people in music city. It's it's just not so I can't even wrap
- 29:00my brain around the roller coaster. I'm on in a good way. I'm
- 29:03happy, but I'm just like, okay, just hang on, let's go.
- 29:07So yeah, buckle up, baby, buckle up. But I do
- 29:11love that Falling into Nashville is the one that really kind of is the one
- 29:15that hit the radio waves for the first time. It's if you listen to
- 29:19the words and you know my story, you know, I literally and figuratively
- 29:22fell into Nashville. But I like to use falling into Nashville is a metaphor
- 29:26for falling into music because there's a song for everything, whether it's sad or
- 29:30happy or angry or whatever. It is right for sure. Yeah. So,
- 29:33and it's like find your souls, sing it loud, won't care who's
- 29:37in the crowds, And it's basically like who cares, you know, like
- 29:38I'm doing me? You know, like you do, Yeah, I'm doing
- 29:41me. And then it's found my soul singing here so everyone can hear,
- 29:45Like let the world hear who you are, you know, unapologetically. So
- 29:48that's a song for me that's probably never I mean, I'm not gonna say
- 29:52it's never gonna get old. I mean people think songs get old after a
- 29:55while, probably even my own, like if you hear it too many times.
- 29:57But for me, it's always going to do be this happy, happy,
- 30:00happy song and I don't know that's going to ring through them by heart
- 30:03forever. So and I love that, and I love the message of do
- 30:07you because it really is important. And as we get older, it's obviously
- 30:11easier for us, Like we always always talk to my parents. I'm like,
- 30:15you know, I just don't give a shit about that stuff anymore,
- 30:17you know, because as we're older, we're just like I don't care.
- 30:21Yeah, yeah, what are you gonna do about them? But what are
- 30:22you going to do? Work? So yeah, exactly exactly, I'm not.
- 30:26I am gonna be me and that is that, and I am definitely
- 30:30me on this show and I will continue to be so um. But okay,
- 30:33so we can find our the sweetest little Annie on the planet at Annie
- 30:37Vander music dot com, A N N I E. Vander v A n
- 30:41D E R music dot com and She's on Insta as Annie Underscore Vander and
- 30:48her new single dropped a few weeks ago, so be sure to check her
- 30:52out and follow her on social and support her music career because it's pretty awesome.
- 30:56Oh thank you girl, You're welcome. Is there anything that you'd like
- 31:00to leave our listeners with before we hit the dusty trail here? Um?
- 31:03Now, just like, keep your head up, stay positive and like basically
- 31:07and honestly, I feel like that's you know, it's never gonna get all
- 31:11For me to say it. I know it sounds cliche and whatever, but
- 31:14like, just keep pushing and just keep being unapologetically. You find you in
- 31:18the head games that happen with all this corrap, so you know, focus
- 31:22focus on the good, right and you know, if you can't focus on
- 31:26good for something else, just compliment somebody else, Just do something to make
- 31:30things positive and trust me, it'll come back to you. I love it.
- 31:33Yeah, Yeah, that's it. Well, it has been such a
- 31:37blast with you today and listening to your sweet little voice and your beautiful smile.
- 31:40So thank you for being here with us today. Thank you for having
- 31:42me. It was great, It was so much fun. You are so
- 31:47adorable. It's just nuts. Just pinched me. She's so cute. You
- 31:49are exclusively invited to share this country music filled, graceful vip pain journey together.
- 31:56Let's get to the heart of how to heal with you by my side.
- 32:00Please follow the Pain Game Podcasts wherever you digest your podcast content, we
- 32:05will be there. Visit us at the Pain Game podcast dot com and follow
- 32:08us on all the socials. Thanks for listening to my little VIPs. Catch
- 32:12you on the other side.