Why It's Important To Share Your Story

I heard a very wise person at one time, say when you are going through something, take really, really good notes. A good thing or a bad thing when you're going through life, as you go through life, take really good notes, meaning journal. Journal out the experiences of your life. Here's the thing, somebody someday is going to go through something that you are experiencing right now. They're going to need your advice, your help, your opinions. You're going to have all these great notes, because you took notes When you were going through these experiences of how you handled things, how you felt and how you handled those feelings Your stories matter, sharing your stories matters. It matters a lot to the people around you. When you share your stories with people, you are sharing courage, you are sharing encouragement, you are sharing light at the end of the tunnel for someone who is going through the tunnel that you've already gone through.

When they can see that you've already gone through it, and you've come out the other side, and you wake up shining and smiling and ready to face the day, They know they can survive the hard time that they're going through.. If you survived, they can survive. Sometimes our stories are funny, and we share them to bring laughter and joy into people's lives. But if we never share our stories, we never talk about things, we don't realize them. We don't realize that others are going through the same things. We start to think that we're the only ones like I'm all alone in experiencing what I'm going through. That feeling of being so alone can be so weighing on us, it can weigh us down, it can make us feel like like nothing matters. Like we don't matter and nothing could be further from the truth. You are valuable. You woke up this morning breathing that makes you the most valuable person that exists. Share your stories. When I was diagnosed with cancer last December, December 13 8 p.m. at night while decorating the Christmas tree. I'll never forget that, I will never forget when I was diagnosed with that cancer when I was diagnosed with it. I immediately started to share about it. Because this is this is what I learned. My brother was diagnosed with cancer in 2007. He died in 2010. He was very open, sharing with us what he was going through there were times my husband and I would stay at his home and help him with laundry, watch movies, all of those things. We got to experience it with him. But my brother was very open in talking about what he was going through the good, the bad and the ugly.

The experiences in the hospital the experiences when he had colorectal cancer, when his bowels would just let loose at nothing. He would wake up in a hotel room and have to call the front desk and say can I please carry my own laundry down. He would share these stories though, with a funny spin on them. Because this is what he learned as he shared his stories when he put a funny spin on them it helped others who are going through some of the same situations. He's not the first person to go through chemo and radiation. Twice his cancer came back quickly. He's not the first person to experience this, and he won't be the last. But here's the the huge difference. Watching my brother go through cancer. He taught me how to live while he was dying, no matter how bad the chemo and radiation got he would share his stories and he would put this funny spin on it not to make it small. When he was going through. He had stage four metastatic cancer. He knew it was serious. He also knew that if he put put a funny spin on it and shared what he was going through, it would help him and it would help the people who were listening to him, he got that. That's what we are talking about today. So I am going to share with you an experience that I had. That was not fun going through it. But looking back now I can find all of the funny moments. I broke my arm. I broke my arm on November 7 of 2021. I broke it right at the humerus right underneath the shoulder no cast, it's just a it's just a sling that's more like a straight jacket because I can't move my arm away from my body. It's very restricting, but it's helping the arm heal. It's helping the bone heal. Fast forward a couple of weeks from the seventh and I had a colonoscopy scheduled in the preparation for a surgery that I had scheduled to have my ovaries removed because of the Lynch syndrome that they also found when I was diagnosed with cancer.

So we had to have this colonoscopy done in a very quick timeframe, because they were making sure I did not have more colon cancer before they went into take my ovary so the colonoscopy had to be done. So we got home from our two week trip to Georgia where I had broken my arm first day of the vacation. We got home on Saturday night, we picked up the colon prep on Sunday. And we and I was just started at noon on Monday, I have been through so many colonoscopies in my life because of our history of colon cancer. And nobody knew why we do now we know that we carry this Lynch syndrome gene, but nobody really knew why for generations why so many people died of colon cancers and uterine cancers and, and these cancers that are related to lynch syndrome. So I've had colonoscopy since my 30s. Because of the family history, I've gone through multiple preps last December, I had three colonoscopies in the space of a couple of weeks. Because of the because of finding the cancer, they brought me back in with a two day prep to make sure there wasn't more where they did find more. And then they did another prep before the surgery. So I've had, I've had multiple, multiple experiences with these colon preps, the one I started Monday was not what I was expecting, and it's not what I'm used to this prep, just it kicked my butt. I started drinking this stuff down. You know, you have to drink an eight ounce glass every 10 minutes and it was a gallon.

So I started drinking it. And pretty soon, I'm sitting on the couch under a blanket watching Grey's Anatomy because I'm late to the game. I'm only on season seven. I've Grey's Anatomy going and I'm drinking this drink eating some popsicles between because it has a taste really, really, really bad. If you've never had a colonoscopy, the prep the Golightly prep is horrible. It's the only one I can use because I have only one kidney. And it's the one that's least harmful on your kidneys. So I started this prep, I'm drinking it away watching Grey's Anatomy. And I realized I'm really not feeling good. Like at all. It just got worse and worse and worse. I felt like I had a vise around my stomach. And I keep drinking this stuff and keep drinking this stuff. And I finally was like, I can't drink anymore. It felt like someone had this metal ring around my stomach. And they were just squeezing it as tightly as they could. And so finally it was like around six or seven at night. I've been drinking this prep since noon, trying to get it all down should be all done.

But I couldn't possibly drink anymore because of how it was just affecting me and my head started aching like a migraine. And finally I'm like, Okay, I'm losing it, I raced to the bathroom, and I'm vomiting up this prep. But understand some of the prep made its way through. And you know what the prep is supposed to do is empty your colon, which I only have half of right now. And I don't know if that has something to do with it because I hadn't, I'd have my large intestine removed in January of this year. So I'm I'm at the toilet, I start vomiting, well, here's what happens. You're vomiting and it's coming out the other end at the same time. It was just I sometimes I wish that I'd had a video camera on me because looking back, it was probably hysterical. Because every time I would vomit, the the muscles in my stomach would seize up, I'd get stomach cramps, and that would happen and then it's coming out the other end. At the same time. It was one of those moments you never want to repeat on your in your life. But looking back and this is probably why it struck me as funny. I heard my brother tell these stories over and over again when he was going through his chemo and radiation. And when he would talk about these times where you just don't know what to do, because you don't have time to grab a bucket. What do you do? What do you do you got you can either put your face on the ball or you're sitting on the toilet, you know what I mean? Like there's not two openings. And it's just you're trying to decide no What do I do? And looking back it was just it was funny. And we've we learned to find the funny when I was done vomiting up all this prep, Gabe and I just started laughing at the at the ridiculousness of the situation. Unknown Speaker 9:11 I ended up sleeping on the couch all night long trying to finish the rest of the prep, which I never did. So I get to the hospital in the morning I explained the situation. I told them what was going on. And the doctor comes in and he says well, and I knew this was coming. I knew this was coming well, you're going to need a couple of enemas. I've been through this before it is not delightful. They bring this bag of water in, they shove it up into your intestines and then you have to hold it while you run to a designated bathroom that's just for you. And they come in and they check it to see if it's clear enough for your colonoscopy. This was my morning, the day before Thanksgiving.

I mean, it's colonoscopy done. The thing is, they come in and they said okay, we have to put this whole bag in your intestines. I just looked at this bag and I said I only have half a large intestine there's no way All of that is going in, we did our best. Then they had this bathroom that was designated just for me. So they get done. Now I've got a broken arm. So I'm trying to they're they're doing the prep where she says, Can you roll on to your left arm? I'm like, yeah, no. So we finally figured out how we're going to do it. She's She helps me out. She's holding my mouth shut and we run you race. If you've ever had an enema, you race to the bathroom, and we open the door, and the toilet is already clogged. And I was just like, now what do I do, and I'm just looking at it. I'm looking at her and she said, we'll have to go to another bathroom and like, you can run to another bathroom. I'm sitting here, right here with half the enema bag inside of me. So I sat down, I have to ring the bell. She comes in, she goes, Oh, I think we're going to have to do more, where they got another bathroom where they stuck the sign on that this was only for me. And they I came in we repositioned on the bed, they do the second part of the enema bag, the second half of it, we get to the thing, we open up the curtain, my surgeon is standing there going well. Are you ready? And I'm like, No. As I'm racing down the hall to the next one, they open the door. And it's a it's a bathroom. It's a geriatric bathroom. Now I'm only five one, I'm looking at this thing, knowing I need to get to this toilet quickly. And I go and I'm trying to get onto it. I couldn't get onto it, I finally sat down and my feet are dangling. I could not reach the floor from this toilet. And I was just sitting there and I started laughing hysterically at this could only happen to me this, this could only happen to me. So I'm sitting there were laughing and I finally rang the bell and the nurse came in she goes, I think that will be sufficient. And I was like it's gonna have to be between last night and today. I know I'm laughing hysterically. But I'm laughing to keep from crying. I was trying to find the funny and I was creating the funny I was just imagining what I sat there after a night of this horrible prep. And then the two enemas and sitting there at a toilet that I had to race to get to I could barely climb up onto my feet are dangling. And finally I was just like, we just need to get this done.

I seriously just need this whole thing to be over. So we went in, the surgeon came in he talked to me. We went in had the colonoscopy. And then he came in and we talked about my arm. And here's the thing, I survived. I survived. And the more I started talking about this, the more people started telling me they had had situations like this. They had had experiences like that, but they were too embarrassed to talk about it too embarrassed. Who wants to talk about colonoscopies and poop and enemas? Nobody really, it's not. I mean, well, nurses and doctors, it's great conversation to them, right? It's not a conversation, you would just kind of bring up Hey, but here's the thing, it needs to be those conversations that we bring up. Because I am not the only person who has had a bad experience with a colon prep. I'm not the only person who's ever gone in for a colonoscopy and ended up with an enema. And I'm not the only person probably who's gone run to the bathroom, only to find a clogged toilet. I am not the only person this has happened to. But here's what I know, if I don't share my story, then other people who face the situation after me don't know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. And we can make it funny. And we can look back at the experience and laugh. My husband and I are on the floor lay on the floor rolling on our way home from the hospital and I'm telling this story. And then we get home we sit down and I'm telling him the story. And we're just we're just rolling laughing over. Right? How could how how does all this happen in the space of less than 24 hours? Well, it does. And it's funny, and it's okay. And it's good to share it. Because when we share it, we give others permission to share their stories.

Even if it's about colon preps and enemas, and broken toilets. Even if it's about gross stuff, we get to share it and we give other people permission to share their stories because we're helping each others. Number two, it helps others know they are not alone. And you are not alone. You share your stories and people go oh my gosh, something like that happened to me. We give each other permission and we know we're not alone. And three our experiences help others with confidence and courage and clarity and hope and joy. When you open your mouth and you share your stories, we know we're not alone. Others know they're not alone. We're more connected. You don't have to bottle it up all inside. And I don't believe you should use your stories. Use your voice and then you get to help others you get to offer that joy in that hope. So I would love to know leave your comments and let me know what are your stories that you are going to share this week you are going to seize the confidence and the clarity and the And the chutzpah to share your stories in order to give others hope. I'd love to hear your stories. I'd love to hear your feedback. I would love to hear what you are going to use your voice to share. If you see the banner at the bottom, I have just released a freebie called Stepping into your big life. That is three steps you can take in the next 24 hours to start living your big life.

The life you were created to live, which is partly sharing your stories. Grab that free download at coach Carrie Vee comm backslash step into your big life. freebie. Grab it today. Let me know what you think. I can't wait to hear from you to talk with you again. Share your funny stories. Even if you don't think they're funny. Share them. Find a positive spin on what you're going through. Help others give them courage. Give them joy.