10 Years Of Suffering from Chronic Illness

We share a raw 10-year timeline of my chronic health issues, from the first night of tachycardia to surgeries, setbacks, and the daily reality of managing symptoms that never fully leave. I also talk about how fear, anxiety, faith, and community shape how I survive and why I keep choosing to show up anyway. 
• the first tachycardia event and the panic of not knowing why 
• endoscopy results, H. pylori treatment, and ongoing GERD and regurgitation 
• cardiology testing, abnormal EKG worries, and being told to consider catheter ablation 
• the emotional trauma around surgery, then learning my heart is healthy 
• Nissen fundoplication, hiatal hernia mesh, and why the first stomach surgery did not hold 
• the LINX device, graduate school decline, insomnia, depression, and constant chest pressure 
• slow recovery through walking goals and learning to calm the mental battle 
• getting saved, navigating COVID fear, and building strength through church community 
• prostatitis, urologist diagnosis, antibiotics, and unexpected symptom connections 
• chest tightness after lifting, an ER dismissal, and using stretching to breathe again 
• sinusitis, nose breathing problems, fatigue, and the compounding effect on swallowing 
• being told to live with it, then choosing purpose, hope, and responsibility anyway 
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Transcript

Welcome And Where To Listen

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to my channel, and welcome back into another episode of the Carlos Granados Podcast. And in this episode, I am sharing a timeline of my 10-year anniversary of suffering with what I will call health issues, but also chronic health issues, I say. So, well, in this video, um, I am sharing my 10-year experience of dealing with a whole bunch of health issues. And I'm gonna give you a timeline. So for those of you who are wondering, um, who care at all about what I've suffered for the past decade, well, I'm gonna share with you how everything started and you know how each part of the timeline plays a role into how I am now with everything that's been happening to me, specifically uh with my health. But before that, I want to thank everybody who has uh shown me a lot of love on my YouTube channel, my podcast channel, of course. If you are watching this video on YouTube, you can watch it in 4K, of course. And um, you can go also support the audio platforms, right? We are on Spotify, uh, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Uh so whichever you're on, go show some love to the other sites. I will really appreciate it. Thank you guys for all the love. Uh and yeah, let's uh let's get into it.

Why This 10-Year Timeline Matters

SPEAKER_00 1:51

All right, so I brought my iPad with me so I can kind of have a timeline and a date on what's been happening and what has happened in the last 10 years. What I'm gonna do in this video is share timelines. I can't really get too specific about those specicular issues. If you have any questions in regards to some of the topics that I touch, I probably and most likely have a playlist for that specific health issue. Uh, or I made a video on on my website, on my website, on my channel. So you guys can you know dig in and see everything on my on my website. I also have it on playlist so you guys can see different types of health issues, different types of topics that I talk about as well uh during all these encounters that I had for for the past decade. So um, but yeah, let's talk about the beginning.

The Night Tachycardia Started

SPEAKER_00 2:44

So this week actually marks 10 years, by the way. It's June 9th, 2016. Um, I had a came back um from working with my stepdad because I was in college at the time. I was working on getting my undergrad degree. Um at that time in 2016, I came back from work and it was about midnight, and there wasn't really much to eat at that time, right? And the last time I had taken lunch was at noon that day. So hey, it had been around 12 hours since I hadn't eaten. And the only thing that was open was McDonald's, right? So I go to McDonald's, um, I eat the food in my bed, which I shouldn't have, and you shouldn't have uh a habit of doing that. But I did, you know, just like most college uh kids. So I eat my food, and you know, I at that point I wasn't big on chewing your food uh very well. I was just, especially after being so hungry, I ate it so quick. And that is when I started going into tachycardia. Now I know what you may be thinking. Oh, it's the McDonald's, it's the food. Some of that had to play a role with it. You're a little right, just a tiny bit though. Because at that moment, my heart went into tachycardia, and to give you numbers, I know my heart probably went over maybe 130, 140, 150s in those ranges, if not even faster. Uh obviously at that time I didn't understand why I was going into tachycardia, but I knew I just was. And I started taking my blood pressure, you know, the the lights on the blood pressure were all red, if not orange. I don't remember very well. But obviously, they were not green and not normal. They were all really, really high. So I try to relax, try to take uh my blood pressure again, and it was still extremely high. It got to the point where my heart was um beating really fast, but it didn't feel like I was having heart palpitations. It didn't feel like I was um, you know, my heart was skipping beats or anything. So I laid in bed uh for some time. I felt like it was getting a little better. And long story short, uh, I went to sleep that night, but in the morning I woke up with a huge headache. I mean, it was terrible. And I don't suffer from headaches. Uh, I know my mom has, and I was like, man, what if I'm you know, I'm suffering from headaches myself, like migraines, you know? And it was a really bad headache, and I knew and I felt like it was because there was a lot of blood flowing into my brain from my heart beating, and I kind of understood that at the time. And that was that, right? Um, so that is where my journey begins, trying to figure out in the summer of 2016 what's happening with me, right?

Doctors, Endoscopy, H Pylori Treatment

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Uh, that summer was really complicated for me. It was really weird. Uh, you know, over here thinking that I may have stomach issues, that I may have heart issues. So, what do you naturally do? You start going to the doctor, right? And I ended up going to a gastroenterologist, and I also ended up going to a heart doctor. So, for the gastroenterologist, I told them about what had been happening and what happened that night. Well, they put me on acid acid reflux medication right away because typically, when something like that happens, you talk to them about food experiences and if your food didn't take it well. They asked several questions, you know, put me on PPIs until I went to see. Actually, this was my MD. Then I went to the gastroenterologist, and then the gastroenterologist, what he suggested in typical fashion, right, of Western medicine, to do an endoscopy. So I ended up getting endoscopy. That experience itself was really scary because I was nervous, of course, to get put under um again in my life. I had to be put under. And what I mean by that, it's put under anesthesia so you can go to sleep, by the way. Um, and yeah, um, something funny that I remember from that time that I was really nervous, and one of the nurses were like, Justin, just think that you're at the beach. Just think that you know you are, you know, your favorite places, the mountains and stuff. And she told me at the time that the your mind, if it's calm, then your blood pressure is gonna come out a little bit better, and you should be fine to go into, you know, uh to go under to get the endoscopy. And it worked, of course, which is you know, I always keep that in in in mind. Uh, so I had the endoscopy. The results from the endoscopy key came back that I had something called H. pylori, um, which essentially is a bacteria in your stomach. I took medications to kill that for about two weeks, and my stomach felt lighter afterwards. So I knew there was something wrong with my stomach, right?

Regurgitation And The Heart Scare

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Uh, but then uh several months later, I started having something called regurgitation, which is whenever I ate food, whenever I ate the food, my food will go back up to my esophagus, and I will start having this pain in my chest, right? And I will have start having this discomfort, really, really bad discomfort, because I would naturally want to swallow back, right? Because it wasn't, uh I will say this, it wasn't vomit and it didn't feel like vomit. It was just your food, you chew it, it goes to your stomach. But because there is a structural problem with me, but food would naturally come up to my esophagus and all the way up to here to my Adam's apple, and I'll have to keep swallowing it, which of course was just so uncomfortable. And I'm thinking, what is wrong with me, right? And during that time, um, every time I would do anything that was uh physical, uh working out, uh playing sports, my heart rate would stay really elevated and I would feel something right in my chest, right in the middle of my chest. At that point, not knowing what it was, and I'm like, man, maybe I have heart issues, right? So went to see a cardiologist. They ran some tests on me. Really weird, that I was getting um a lot of leads put on my chest. Uh, and I think I was doing a stress test. Don't remember if it was an actual stress test, but I know I was getting my heart check very well. And every time I laid down, my heart rate would show um essentially, I think it was normal. But then when I would get up, my heart rate would increase, which is again normal, but it will stay elevated. It wouldn't go, it wouldn't go down. And on top of that, I was feeling that little thing here in the middle of my chest, right? And on top of that, it was showing that I was having an abnormal EKG, right? An electrocardiogram. So when I got the results for that study, they sent me to an electrophysiologist, right? So they are specialists essentially of reading the EKG and maybe trying to figure out what's wrong with my heart in that sense, right? So at this point in my life, let me tell you my state of mind. I was in a nightmare, right? I I'm having trouble doing what I would consider at that time simple, which is something as eating, swallowing, um, something as like playing sports and exercising that I took for granted, you know, for so long. And I'm over here losing weight because I'm trying to figure out if anything is triggering me. So I'm losing, losing weight during this period. So right now, this is 2016, and we're about August of September. Remember, this happened in June 9th, 2016. So now we're at August, September. I promise the timeline will not go this low, but I I feel like the base of everything right now that I'm telling you leads on to what happened in the future years, right? I don't want to have you guys here for 10 hours, but I promise this is important. So around August of September, I go see the electrophysiologist and she sees my results and she's explaining to me what may be happening, and she said these words.

Hearing The Words Heart Surgery

SPEAKER_00 11:26

She said, I will recommend you having a heart surgery, something called catheter ablation procedure. And when I heard heart surgery, I froze. I I completely froze. Picture this. I'm hearing those words coming from the doctor, and she's speaking, and I can't hear her because I'm not listening, right? I'm not listening to what she's saying because I zoned out, because my life flashed in front of me when I heard heart surgery, and I'm thinking, oh my god, I'm gonna, I'm dying. I am dying. Now, 10 years later, that I'm still going, it's a little funny, but in that moment, think about it. I'm 23 years old, college graduate, I have my the life ahead of me, right? I'm having uh the I'm doing the best that I can with my life, learning, you know, everything is just it's going forward, and then bam, I'm running to a wall. So she's speaking, and as soon as she's done speaking, I said, Can you repeat that one more time? Because I what what do you mean a heart surgery? Right? Catherine ablation, what it what is that? And she started explaining to me a catheter ablation procedure. We're going through your artery, uh, through your leg, I believe, all the way to your heart. And we essentially, if there are extra electrical pathways, um, some of them uh it can be SVTs um or WPWs, you have to look that up uh on your own so you can see what that is. But essentially, uh my heart, my heartbeat wasn't flowing right, like the like electricity within my heart is not flowing right. So when that's happening, then your heart uh starts going into tachycardia. And sometimes there's a there's an abnormal heartbeats that happen because of it. Now, the danger in this, right? Uh sometimes if it you let it happen for too long, uh the heart can shock, right? The the the the shocks that it sends, it can sh it can flow in the opposite direction and essentially almost like crash. And remember, your heart beats essentially based off electricity, right? Uh it's electrical pathways, right? That's that's causing it to beat. So if the path are wrong and it crashes in the future, then you can essentially um die from a heart attack, die from a cardiac arrest and things of that nature. And remember, at this point, I'm I'm thinking I'm young, I don't want this to get worse. So I go back to my car and I called my mom and I said, the doctor is telling me that I need a heart procedure. And that was one of the toughest days of my life. I remember staying in the car, and I was after I hung up with my mom, I started crying, and having to come to a realization of dude, your life is changing, and if not, it's changed. And right now there is no answer for this. And it's very lonely, um it's very sad. Um again, you start thinking about your life a lot more and you start wondering like how this happened, and I'm in my car just you know, shedding tears and just crying and not knowing what to do with myself.

Ablation Results And Emotional Whiplash

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Um so in December 2016, I ended up having this surgery, and this is why I'm taking my time with this. The first six months to a year of my journey is because these were the times that a lot of not only physical but emotional trauma took place. Because when I went into the surgery, when you have a heart procedure, uh, and I think when you have uh surgeries in general, but I think specifically for heart procedures, because it's a very delicate organ, even though the surgery has a high success rate, um it was very hard signing papers where you know, maybe some of them for liability, or some of them, who is your will? Do you have a will? Do you have a spouse? You know, who do we contact? All these, if it if it goes wrong, papers sign off. And I'm signing them. And um I remember my mom and my grandma being there, and when I was getting, you know, taken away, they're just like, you know, say bye to your family. And I said bye to my family, and I felt very at peace. Um the night before, there had been my stepsister and her husband came to pray, and some of the church members from my the church that my mom goes to, uh, they came to pray to our house. And remember, I'm not saved at this point, but obviously when things go south in your life, south in your life, what do you what do you do? You look for for Jesus, right? Because if these are your moments and this is it, uh you're trying to make sure you go to the right place. A very hypocritical out of me, and very hypocritical out of a lot of human beings. I understand. I I I get it. Um, but that was me at the time. And I felt very at peace. I don't know if I was very at peace because maybe this could be it, uh, or very at peace because you know the Lord had put that peace on me. I would like to think that it's it was the Lord that was there with me, and that I wasn't too nervous, but I was I I remember afterwards feeling that anxiety um and and the feeling of being um very uncomfortable because of the papers that I had to sign saying bye to my family. It's just a lot of mental trauma. Well, long story short, the the surgery itself lasted about two hours, typically supposed to last about three to four hours. But when I got out of the surgery room, the doctor told my sister that they didn't find anything, that they tried to make that electrical pathway come out, and it did it. And it and it showed that my heart was healthy. So we I went through all of that just to really, really find out that my heart was healthy and that my heart was not the issue and that it was not the problem, right? So, what does that lead to? Back

Nissen Fundoplication, Mesh, Hiatal Hernia

SPEAKER_00 18:43

to my stomach. Fast forward this whole year from June 2016 to July 2017, I ended up having my first stomach surgery, which was called a Nissan fund duplication procedure, right? Nissan fund duplication procedure, essentially they wrapped your stomach around your esophagus. So it creates like a belt and it reinforces that area. So when I swallow and I swallow my food or any drink, then it stays in my stomach, right? Unfortunately for me, I was very naive. I didn't do my research on that surgery as much. And that doctor put a um something called a mesh in my hiatal hernia because I had a hernia. So essentially, hiatal hernia is when you have a hiatus in your diaphragm and where your your esophagus is going uh in you know into your lower into your abdomen, right? From your chest cavity to to your abdomen, and I had a hernia. That muscle reinforces the opening and the closing when you swallow things, but mine was weak, therefore, I was having problems with regurgitation and acid reflux. See how it's making sense now? It's coming together. So that mesh, um, I didn't know this at this point, but wasn't really recommended as much by other doctors. But in my case, I had to go with this doctor because that was the only surgery, that was the only insurance that I had, right? So my fault was being naive, believing that this surgery was going to heal me, right? My fault was believing and not doing my end of the research and maybe giving it some time before I ended up getting the surgery. But because I had been a year dealing with this, I kind of wanted my life back. And I was like, let's get it over with. Let me get my life back, let me go back to living, you know. And unfortunately, that wasn't the case. I came out of the surgery, uh, my heart wasn't a tachycardia for like hours. And long story short, I lasted two years with that surgery. So from July 2017 to July 2019, literally almost to the date I had to get that surgery, my first stomach surgery reversed into uh now uh the device that I have in my in my in my LES, which is your lowest sophyroosphere, which is called a Lynx device. It's a Lynx device, is uh almost like a magnet and a bracelet that it's supposed to open when you swallow, and it's supposed to close uh when you're done swallowing or eating or you know, um drinking anything. Well, during that time, uh you know,

Symptoms Spike During Graduate School

SPEAKER_00 21:50

that period, I was in my master's program and around tw around January 2019, before I had my second stomach procedure. It got so bad to the point where I couldn't walk from the garage parking lot to my classroom. And it was about two to three blocks. And you know why? Because whatever was happening in my chest was causing my heart to go crazy and it will stay high. And for reasons I didn't know why. But I believed it was because of the surgery that I had. But now I'm going into um you know surgeries, and it still continues to happen. And I'm just like, man, nothing is working and nothing is helping. So from January 2019, I'm sorry, I think I said 18 at the beginning, but January 2019 to July 2019. So January 2019 to July 20 uh 19, it got to the point towards the end that I was essentially feeling like I was dying. I started suffering from major anxiety. I mean crazy anxiety. Uh depression was kicking in. Uh again, I feel like I was just living to suffer. You know, I was essentially feeling like I was dying. I couldn't sleep more than three to four hours a night because there was so much pressure in my chest that I felt every single day that in the middle of the night I couldn't sleep. So I couldn't sleep. I was tired, fatigued all the time. And essentially, I can't do anything because my heart starts going um really crazy uh and into my heart beating a lot. Uh, couldn't eat the foods that I wanted. Uh, even if I ate correctly, I still had problems. Everything was just bad. I mean, lowest of lows. And I ended up having that surgery. I had to make a lot of hard decisions that time too, because a doctor uh told me that, you know, he he didn't believe that the stomach issues were was causing my my my heart issues. And I'm like, I know it is, like in my heart, I know it is, and I went against his say. I said, listen, just do the surgery, do it the best you can, and let's see where we go from there, you know. And I remember going back, um, taking and these are the moments where I'm telling you the mental trauma. I remember going into the surgery that day, and I'm thinking, again, I'm thinking, I think I'm gonna die. Like today, I think I'm gonna die in the operating room. Um, because I I don't know if I have the strength to make it, I don't know what the doctor is gonna touch inside of there. I don't know if my heart will react correctly during the procedure. I have no idea. And I'm looking outside the window. Uh and it's crazy because I think about it, and sometimes I see this in movies, but I'm laying my head on the window and just looking, going down the freeway and just looking at the trees. Um looking at the trees pass by and just wondering, like, man, like what if this is it? Um what if like this is this is it again, and and not to be negative, but I'm telling you, man, when I'm telling you that I was suffering so much, I I could stay here and speak to you guys for the next 24 hours about simple experiences because I'm leaving a lot of things out. Um, but that wasn't the purpose of the video, right? To to get into the needy greedy because I've talked about this uh on my channel already. But yeah, just those moments that are really tough and really difficult that feels like this is it. And um I went into the surgery, came out of it. The doctor said that it was great. He removed the mesh from my from that area. Um my heart was beating uh a little fast when I got out. I remember not as bad as the first one. And and and yeah, so 2019, uh summer 2019. This is where I'm gonna speed up the timeline a little bit because now we're getting into uh some of the years that you know doesn't take a lot of of time in the in this in this uh video

Rebuilding With Steps And Mental Battles

SPEAKER_00 26:42

today. But 2019, I start on a journey of trying to heal as best as possible. I feel like the surgery went well. I started eating uh some foods here and there, my body's taking it well. I'm like, okay, so now I start walking outside, and my goal was literally to walk a thousand steps per day. And then once I hit a thousand steps, I was trying to um I was trying to see if my heart will go into tachycardia or into this fat, fast heart rhythm, right? Uh, over a hundred. So I would walk, you know, I would walk and then I'll and then I'll stop, you know, uh after 500 uh steps and then a thousand steps, and I'll just relax. You know, just breathe. All right, cool. Take it slow. And I felt like sometimes it was gonna get into it, but then I'm like, what if it, what if, what if now my anxiety, like what if now I'm okay or I'm doing better and it's healing, but I need to just relax because these these moments can be really tough, you know. So I'm trying to conquer the mental battle. So the next week I went to two, three thousand steps. Then the next week I'm like, all right, we're we're gonna we're gonna hit 5,000 steps per day, by the way. I'm trying to hit it per day. So I know that whenever I have to walk a distance, right? Because I'm thinking about goals here. Can I walk three blocks now? Can I walk several blocks? Can I walk a mile? Because now I can go out and I can be with friends or family and walk wherever I want to go. And and and I won't get into this heart going crazy issue. I will just um I will just be okay. Now I'll still be feel pressure on my chest, but it won't be that crazy. So until to the point where I got to 10,000 steps. So and this this was at the time where um I was still going to school and things of that nature. And then uh around 2020, then COVID started hitting and stuff. So all this, all of this was happening, right?

Faith, COVID Fear, Finding Community

SPEAKER_00 28:51

And in 2019, uh I met a great friend. Her name is Sarah, and she and her family and some of the people she knows is the reason why I ended up getting saved, right? November 9th, 2019 is the day that I got saved. Uh so shout out Wait, do I have that? Wait, all right, all right, all right. Sorry, I had to chat. I had to. Um, and that is where my spiritual journey began, or the attempt to, you know, because that is another story. Um, but in 2019, uh the end of 2019, uh, no, I'm sorry, 2019. Yeah, the end of 2019, I ended up getting saved. Then 2020 happened. I ended up starting I started working uh for the federal government. So I got my first big boy job. You know, now I'm able to walk now, eat some foods that I didn't do in the past. So things are coming back up, right? Back to normal, by the way. Not like exceeding, just trying to get back to somewhere. So then COVID happens, and for the and for a whole year, I'm inside because I'm suffering from health issues and chronic health issues. I'm trying to recover from things, and now I'm hearing that COVID causes shortness of breath, which I'm having you know, chest problems already. Because remember, I told you it causes chest. What I had was have what I had was chest problems and chest tightness, and and then you know, COVID, you hear it's you know, it's uh you can't breathe, and some some people are in ventilator. So and and remember, I'm not spiritual strong at that point, so I am oh my, I'm like, I can't believe this. Everything is shut down. So for the whole year, I was in fear, and I am not afraid to admit that I was in fear for since December, no, since March 2020 till till the end of 2020, because I ended up catching COVID uh at the end of 2020, and obviously it didn't kill me because I'm still here, right? So once I got COVID, I'm like, oh, I caught it, and I was I I felt like crap for several days, if not weeks, but I went through it and I got through it, and that is when I started exposing myself more to people and then trying to enjoy life the way it was meant to be. So at this point in my life, I'm about 27 years old, going into 28. And uh during this period, I got into more involved with church because of a small group uh in my life. And I had a I met a lot of great friends through the small group. Uh, my faith increased. I shared a lot of my my journey, my health journey, my spiritual journey. Just built a lot of friends in this group that was faith-based, and I needed that in my life. You know, uh, I really did. And then I started getting involved in church and started serving and in 2021, from 2021 to like till till the beginning of 2021 till June 2024, my life felt manageable. That three year span felt manageable because now I was traveling with the small group, you know, which I was afraid to get on planes because of my health issues at one point, really fearful of that. Um, and because of the small group, I started building a lot of courage. So we started traveling, we started going, doing this, going out. Uh, I was living my life now. Keep in mind my chest and my gastro issues, I felt they felt okay, just manageable. It wasn't, I didn't give my life back, but it was manageable, you know. I'm sleeping a little better. If I stretch every now and then and maybe did some breathing exercises, I'm handling things better. And I'm like, I'm doing it, you know. I'm I'm I'm trying to get back to what I can. And during that time, that's what I was doing, right? And then um, so for three years, uh I was it was manageable. And don't get me wrong, I still ended up going to hospitals uh because I had you know scares, some scares, but it wasn't what it like what it was before, right? So um I'm able to eat again the foods that I wanted to and things of that nature. And let me stop right there because I missed something important now that I'm thinking about thinking about it.

Prostatitis And A Surprising Trigger

SPEAKER_00 33:36

In 2019 and 2020, I actually started suffering from prosthetitis as well, which this is a sensitive topic. So if you're um hmm, how do I say this without saying it? This is a sensitive talking that I'm gonna talk about my prostate and my private section. So maybe you might want to move forward until things are more happy. But I started suffering from prosthetitis, which is the inflammation of your prostate, right? And by the way, if you're hearing that noise upstairs, because uh there's kids upstairs, and what a time for them to come and start you know making a lot of noise around here, anyways, um and essentially every time I would ejaculate I haven't spoken about this in a minute. Every time I will ejaculate, if you have had intercourse or if you have had if you play with yourself if you have masturbated in the past, is what I'm trying to say, and you felt the energy of an orgasm, you know that it's very strong. Now I know what you may be thinking, Carlos, you're Christian, amen. But you know what? The Lord gave me a body, and this is my anatomy, and I'm part of what the Lord made me, so we can talk about it. Now I'm not I'm a Christian, I'm not perfect. Christians aren't perfect. That's the reason we seek Jesus. So even after I got saved, of course, I had and have problems with um what I say problems, but there's still, you know, your body and the flesh asks for you know the the other gender and stuff. But if you have before experienced what an orgasm is, then you understand that it's very strong, and then you feel that all over your body. So when I used to orgasm, when I used to ejaculate, right, whether it was through intercourse or or or masturbation, because of my prostate, and I don't know how this is connected to this day, but the prostate was inflamed, which would connect to the nerves, and in my stomach, it would I would literally go into tachycardia and my heart raising up to like 150 and 160, and probably even more beats per minute every time I would ejaculate, and I had no idea why I was having back pain, I was having uh uh leg pain. Uh, I was like, what is happening? Like, what's happening with me? So then one day I talked to a nurse through my friend Sarah that she knew, and her husband had been going through similar things that I've been going through, but she literally said, I know what you have. You need to go to a urologist, you have prostate problems. I said, prostate? How can the prostate I knew I felt like you know things were going something you know wrong down there, but uh at the time I hadn't been sexually active, um, if I'm being honest, for a very long time because of my health issues. Remember, uh everything's adding up. So I ended up going to the to to to the urea urologist. He does a prostate exam and not the most pleasant experience, I I would say. And when he went in, I remember yelling. Yelled, he pressed down on my prostate, and that's when I truly yelled, you know. I was like, dang, bro. I was like, dang, doc, like, you know, take me on a date first, you know. You know what I mean? Like, yo, like I'm sorry. Like, yo, this is the first time we meet. What you doing? But he ended up telling me right away, you have an inflamed prostate. We're gonna give you medication. I took that medication for the first week, and afterwards, my problems went away. And those are one of the most beautiful days of my life. Thank you, Lord, because I was at a loss, you know. I didn't know that your prostate and your gastroissues could have a correlation. And if your gastroissues are off or wrong, or you have an excess amount of bacteria, things of that nature, it can end up affecting your prostate. Now, this is not, I don't think this is researched very well. But from the people that I've talked to and from uh some of the things that I've read online through uh groups and stuff, there's something that's happening that affects men like me very often because of that, which I had no idea. So I got put on antibiotics, things got better. Now that itself is another journey, but I had to go through that as well, dealing with things of my with my private parts, you know what I mean? And people thought when I used to tell them that if I had um um erectile dysfunction, and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, my brother. Listen, it's not UD, you know, it's not UD. I'll promise you that your boy's still going strong, and I have strong um blood flow. We're good in that area. It's just what happens when you get to the climax is the problem. But the getting up and and you know that I'm like, dude, I feel like shoot, I'm in my prime. So that was an issue, and I didn't mean to to go on a side quest here, but that was also part of the problems that I suffered, which I've also have made a lot of videos on my channel. So now we're at 2024 uh at this point, and this was where another um wow, we're almost at 2026 here. We're at 2024, and I start uh mid-2023.

Back To The Gym Then ER

SPEAKER_00 40:34

Going into 2024 and mid-2024, I started lifting weights. I started going back to the gym a little more. I felt I was feeling myself. I'm like, okay, I can do this. So I started getting big, you know, muscles, getting muscles, nothing crazy though, not squatting like I used to back in the day and stuff like that. That would have been terrible, even more terrible in my chest. But I started benching, you know, benching um again, uh, which is bad decision, by the way, because of putting all that pressure on my chest and my muscles and and my core, uh, lifting, you know, more weights, which I really shouldn't have done. But I was I was feeling myself. I'm like, I can do this, like I'm I'm getting there, you know. Like I'm even though listen, to this point, I still have um pressure on my chest and chest tightness, right? It's never gone away. It's just I was man again, I was managing it a little bit better. So one day in June 2024, again, June, I don't know why the summer, dude. Summers, I I really I don't know what it's like a hit or miss with me, but most of the times is a miss. Something about summer, dude. Just you know, I can tell you even going back to my personal life when I was like 15, 16, 17, summers, I just hated summers because everything that would go wrong in my life were in the summers, bro. Like crazy. Almost reminds me of that movie, What What Did I Do, or What Did You Do Last Summer, or something like that. Like, what's happening? So, um, summer 2024. Wow, I keep getting stuck on that part, but yeah, 2024. I end up going to the ER because I'm having chest tightness. This chest tightness has gotten to the point where I'm taking a deep breath and I can only go essentially like halfway. So I'm trying to take a deep breath, and I can't take a full breath because there's only chest tightness and it won't um expand. Like my lungs wouldn't expand, my chest, my my ribs wouldn't expand. And I'm I'm like, oh my god, this is something new. I haven't experienced it. So I end up going to the ER, I end up getting checked. Um, I get the heart, uh the blood work done for the heart and everything else, my checks, X chest x-rays and stuff like that. I'm sure that the doctor saw my history of everything that I've had and what was wrong with my chest cavity and my abdomen and stuff like that. And then the nurse came back and she said, Um, we're gonna dismiss you. And I said, dismiss. Like, I can't breathe. What do you mean, dismiss? I can't breathe. Like, you know, I need to stay here because if something happens, at least you guys are here. She's like, No, the doctor said that you're okay, that nothing's wrong, and that, you know, maybe just try to take some deep breath. And I'm like, oh my God. So I started sobbing. I started crying, and I felt bad for the nurse because obviously she was she was a um uh an ER nurse, right? So she didn't know what I what was going on with me. She didn't know the 10, you know, the at that point, the eight years of suffering that I've had up to that point. She didn't know anything any in any of that. And I'm just like, I can't believe this. I I'm here I go again. At this time, I'm I think I'm uh I'm I'm checking out. So I'm crying. And I'm crying. And she she starts actually tearing up with me because she saw how bad I felt. And it wasn't like a cry of like, why can't you do anything? It's just more like a cry of like, here goes again. Here goes life again getting to me. Here goes my sickness and my health issues again. And I'm just very hard. Very, very hard. And uh I always appreciate that nurse for having sympathy because I appreciated that. And I grabbed my papers, my release papers, and I when I went on my way. On my way back home, I started thinking about my life again. I can't breathe, by the way. I'm over here because I can't take a full breath. So I feel like I'm suffocating, you know? Wow, I had to take a deep breath right now. And um, oh wait, let me let me check if uh somebody's calling me, but I think we should be good. Give me a second. So random number. But but yeah, so I'm on my way. I'm feeling like I can't breathe. And I'm in my head, I'm like, can I go to another hospital or where can I go where they can actually check my chest thoroughly, you know? And I'm trying to think, and I'm trying to think. And at that point, I'm just tired, you know. I'm like, life one, I I can't, I can't do this. And I'm at that point in my life, stronger in my faith. And I just decided to go home. I decided to go home. My family was all in the kitchen. In order for me to go to my room, I have to go like open the garage door, see the kitchen, and then to my left, and then have to go downstairs, right? Because I live in the basement. And obviously, I'm crying, and my family sees me, and my mom asks, What's wrong? And I start crying. I didn't tell them, you know, they just knew something was wrong with me, obviously, because I was crying. I went to get my water bottle, went downstairs, and I just laid there and I accepted my faith. And I said, This is probably it for me. And if I'm gonna die anywhere, I'm gonna die at home. Now, all these times that I'm telling you that I'm gonna die, it may sound silly until you have to go through it. Until you have to go through it. Trust me, it's not very silly in those moments. It truly feels like you're losing and you lost the fight, and having to come into terms with what at that point felt like it was my faith, it's a very hard and uh it's very traumatic, very hard pill to swallow. Um, and it's um it's very tough. So I'm laying at that point, June 2024, June 2024. And obviously, I start crying, they start asking what's wrong, and I'm like, I don't know. I just can't breathe. And telling my mom I can't breathe, telling everybody I can't breathe. And long story short, when I start crying and crying and crying, the muscles and the nerves in my chest start opening up. You felt this before, right? You start feeling this relief when you start crying, um, this tension, um, you know, shifting. And I started feeling that. And I started coughing, and things start opening up, and I'm like, wait, something's happening. So, to tell you all that, I spent hours on the floor, and some of them crying, and then others stretching, so I could literally stretch my chest and stretch whatever I can so I could start breathing again. Started finding out that maybe probably all the weight lifting that I was doing was contracting a lot of my muscles, was getting uh very, really tight to the point where it affected my chest cavity. And that is what caused that problem, you know, that time. And it kept happening, but not as bad for the next year or so. And it still happens to this day, except now because I believe is more of like the pressure in my chest and the discomfort and the muscle tension and muscle tightness. I constantly work and do things so that doesn't happen. And luckily for me, it hasn't really happened again to that extent to this day, but it does creep up on me when I start feeling that same feeling, and it's really, really, really bad. So that period was another time, and then one of the last things that I'll leave you guys off with is um winter 2024 going into 25.

Sinusitis And Constant Breathing Strain

SPEAKER_00 49:12

I ended up catching a cold, and whatever was in that cold, I it ended up giving me sinusitis, right? So sinusitis problems seem silly too until you can't breathe through your nostrils and you figure out how important your nostrils are to your breathing. So for a whole year, and since then, I have had high sinusitis on top of everything that I just mentioned previously, and I can't breathe through my nose correctly. So I'm having to mouth breathe a lot, and it's so, so, so exhausting that it causes you extra fatigue, especially at night, because you're supposed to breathe through your nose as a human being. You're not supposed to breathe through your mouth, and all sorts of things, things started adding up to that. I started having even more um uh swallowing problems. Uh, I started feeling like there was a lump in my throat because the muscles in my chest, the muscles in my uh shoulders and in my neck are compensating because I can't breathe. See, it compensates because I can't breathe. So my muscles are trying to pull extra air into my lungs and I can't. And I've had to deal with that since you know, for about a year and a half now, which has been another experience that has been really debilitating, if I'm being honest. So, you know, now I have the acid reflux. I've had the experiences and traumas from two other surgeries. Well, three year for counting the heart procedure, and then countless of studies, countless and countless of studies, countless of hours of spending at the hospital, uh, countless of days where you just feel like, dude, I can't do it anymore. I'm tired, I'm fatigued. I it sucks to be like this, it's hard. And um I don't understand it. I don't understand how. Which is something that I have to come into terms with. Luckily for me, um, this has um created uh created me to have and and and kind of obligated me to have a better relationship with the Lord.

When Doctors Say Live With It

SPEAKER_00 51:58

Because when I've gone to doctors now, you know, for the most part, they sent me home. The last doctor that I talked to him about my health issues and my my stomach issues and my my my gastroissues, he's like, listen, dude, you just gonna have to just essentially live with it. You know, there's not much we can do. If you keep looking for surgeons, one of them is going to touch you, and what and that surgeon could even mess you up even more than you are now. We're telling you that things look good and that for the most part they look good. You know, I don't know what else to tell you. Walking out of those meetings and those conversations with surgeons like that hurt your soul, not your heart, they hurt your soul because that they are essentially telling you there's nothing we can do. You're just gonna have to deal with it, you're just gonna have to live with it. And listen, it's not their fault. Um, it's just you wish that something more could be done. And it's hard to constantly try to live, live. Remember, this is the these are health issues, these are health experiences, but on top of that, I have to do life.

Doing Life While Feeling Unwell

SPEAKER_00 53:24

What do I mean by that? I still have to go to work like a healthy human being, I still have to perform like a healthy human being, I have to get up in the mornings, just like everybody else. Even if I don't get good night's sleep, even if I'm fatigued for a week in a row, I have to get up and do what I have to do. On top of that, I have to do life with my family, my friends, right? There's still uh get togethers and and and birthdays, uh, birthdays that happen and family gatherings that I have to attend and I have to pretend like nothing's wrong. Now, luckily, I have a family that loves me. I have friends who are understanding, um, that are loving. But for those that you that don't know and that really, and if you've stuck around this video listening to what's happened to me for the last decade, just know that I always have something going on. I just don't say it. My character and my charisma don't let you know that I'm messed up every day. But when I'm hanging out with you, I can't breathe through my nose. When I'm hanging out with you, I probably didn't sleep well last night. You know, probably got two, three hours. I haven't slept well for a while. When I'm with you, when I'm with family, you my chest is probably really tight and I can't breathe very well, but I'm still there. The obligations of a human being, the obligations that come with chronic illnesses and health issues, it's part of it. And the reason I'm there is because I choose not to let this just beat me and win and me not do anything about it, right? I choose to do it because I also love my family, I love my friends, I love myself because I want those good things for me, even if it comes at a cost, you know? And it's a constant battle every day. If you're listening to my story, um I am probably worse than when you found me and when you met me. I'm probably doing worse. Each year, the time that passes, something else keeps going wrong, um and thing and it gets worse. And it's a new battle on top of my battles, right? Everything that I just told you for the last 10 years, it's an it's an addition to and it just adds up and it keeps getting up. And I have to do life, you know. I still have the same, I still have responsibilities, um, I still have um things that I have to do um with my family and my friends, um, things that I enjoy. Um it just sometimes comes at a cost, and and it comes at a cost of me feeling worse, or it comes at a cost of me having to go through pain, through mental battles, spiritual warfare, uh, you name it.

Turning Pain Into Purpose And Hope

SPEAKER_00 56:52

And I have to continue because it's part of my purpose. Not only do I feel it, but I've also I've been these words have been spoken over me for from so many people that I was going to touch and I was going to change and affect people in a manner that would light them up, that maybe didn't have the strength that I was given by the Lord, that maybe they didn't have the strength that I was given, and and and the warrior that I'm inside, because inside, man, I'm I'm a warrior, I'm a fighter. Dude, I'm telling you, man, I I have a spirit of just fighter, man. And I think the and the Lord knew that, you know, when he created me. So who knows if this is the reason why I'm going through things so I can help others, others, other people go through their issues. The amount of, and I don't share this very much, um, but I will with you guys today. The amount of comments that I get from people thanking me for sharing my story, sharing my vulnerabilities, the amount of people that claimed um that they had no way out, they were thinking about hurting themselves for lack of better words, until they ran into me, until they run into my issues, and they always ask and they always wonder, dude, why why why do you seem so normal? Why do you seem so happy? Why do you seem like nothing's wrong, even though I've seen your whole journey and your I follow your videos, and it it inspires them and it gives them light and it gives them hope, right? Because the last thing I feel like a human uh being loses is hope. And I and I'm able to provide that for them, even though I'm going through my own issues, and that is part of not only my testimony, but that is also part of the purpose that the Lord has given me.

The Prayer That Reframed Everything

SPEAKER_00 59:12

And I I would I would have loved that maybe this wasn't my route, but who knows? You know, one day I said this prayer to the Lord. I went to my to my parents' church, the church they go to, um, they they have a different denomination. Um and I attend I attend a non-denominational church now, but at the time I went to church and I knew I wasn't doing things right in life. You know, I was I was about this happened, by the way, several weeks or several months. Um, and it's been and it happened for years where I used to go to church and I said, Lord, I said this prayer. I said, Lord, one day I want to end up in heaven. I want to be in your kingdom. Now remember, I wasn't saved, I wasn't really a follower. I really have that connection with the Lord. I grew up in church, but that personal connection I never had. And I said, Lord, I I life can get worse, and it's and sometimes it feels empty inside. And one day I just want to end up with you. You know? I don't want to go to hell, I want to I want to be in heaven. And I and I said, do whatever it takes for me to one day end up with you. Do whatever you need, whatever needs to happen in my life, so one day I can I can I can enter the the kingdom, you know? And I go back, my my pastor talked about this um back in the day, uh, Pastor Dennis from from Victory, and I go back and I listen to to a sermon that he spoke about where if you give the Lord the keys to your heart, if you meet him halfway, right? If if if you open your doors, because he's a gentleman, he will knock and is your you have to open that door. And when you do, he will come in, and you've given him essentially saying it's not your will, it's his will. Your will be done. Do what you need to do, do how you make it happen. But I'm giving you essentially the keys to my heart so you can do your work through me. Right? Well, I don't know when if when I said that prayer, and I know I meant it from my heart, I don't know if if that is what led to this. Now remember, and I want to say something important. I don't believe that God did this to me, that the Lord did this to me. That's not how it works, but the Lord does use bad things, He uses sin, He uses negative things and turns them into good and turns them into a purpose and a purpose for his kingdom, and that is what I think what happened with the health that the health issues that were that I was probably going to go through at that point in life were probably coming anyways, right? Um, I don't know, but when I gave him my life, before any of that happened, he chose and he churned all that pain, all that suffering, um, everything that I was about to go through, and he started chipping away at my flesh, my human life, um, my spiritual life, right? And started shaping me, shaping me until I found somebody and my story, and I end up getting saved, which I will talk in my channel one day, um, how that happened. And and then I started following the the journey and then the purpose. And then this at this channel starts opening up, and I start talking about my health uh issues, and and I start opening about opening about life, sharing my vulnerabilities because that I believe that is a gift and that has been spoken over me. And I start searching and reaching a purpose in life that purpose was meant for me, and to share that light to others, which I try to do to the best of my abilities in making these videos and inspiring people with my life. Um, and hopefully changing, you know, the the greatest satisfaction that I receive is that I know, I know this for a fact, not only because it's been written in my YouTube section, but I've reached so many people all over the world through the last seven years on my YouTube channel, and maybe the last four, maybe the last, well, the last eight years on my YouTube channel, and I've taken this a little bit more serious as the time passes, but I know for a fact that I have saved a life, saved a life. I don't think only spiritually, but physically. I believe that I have helped through through the power that the Lord stills in me, that that he works uh through me with, that I've helped others not harm themselves. And who knows if that one person or those people one day, you know, will work and and have that same um coming to Jesus moment where they can go out and not only talk about the Lord or talk about their experiences or talk about their testimonies and save other lives. Who knows if that person or you know, maybe their children or their grandchildren one day become uh a doctor, you know, that heals the issues that I'm suffering from. Maybe when I'm not alive, you know, maybe when I when maybe when I'm no longer here. Anymore, but one day it could happen. Who knows? You don't know. But I like to think and I like to believe that that's part of the journey. That maybe that that sister, that brother, that mother, that father, they gain some hope from my journey, from my suffering, you know, from from the battles that I'm going through, that I'm sharing, that they maybe wouldn't have heard anywhere else. Right. I like to believe that the Lord's purpose for my life has been that. And hopefully I know that I've tried to the best of my abilities to make that happen. And that I hope that I continue to do so and and honor him that way. I still have a lot of flaws and issues that I continue to battle with that I would never negate. Um because I am a very flawed human. But all I know is a step at a time, a day at a time, you know, and I hope that I continue to share whatever comes my way in the future. I just know it's been hard. It's very hard to pretend sometimes, you know? Like everything is good. It truly is. Unfortunately, sometimes, you know, your friends and your families are not understanding of your issues, and they will never get it. You know what? It's not their job, it's not their job to get it. Um, but this is why you have to you have to always come to something you believe in. And I never impose my faith on other people. If anything, what I like to do is show people what what the Lord has done through me. Um that the reason that I'm here today, and you know, that I continue to battle him is because I believe in something that's bigger than myself. I believe that the strength that I have up to this day is a supernatural strength because I don't even know why I would want to keep fighting and living like this if I'm being honest. If it wasn't for something that's that the Lord put at me, you know, that the Lord has given me, and um it's not easy, and and you know, I hate getting like this in front of the camera, but at the same time, I know I know it's part of my vulnerability, and I don't like to hide things from you guys. I've always told you that I like to be transparent with my life, and this is part of my life, um, it's part of my journey, and I just hope that um by listening to this podcast, that you have kind of had a better idea of what the last 10 years have been. I know I didn't go into crazy detail, but I have in other videos, and yeah, it hasn't been easy, it truly hasn't. Um I hope I've inspired somebody um through my walk to think that I don't know how long I'll live and also continue to to suffer like this because it is suffering, it's not just living. Sometimes I call it surviving, you know, it is survival that I um that I have to do every day. I just hope that I continue to make um my Lord proud to continue to do his work um in my life and to see that light in others, so others can see that light in me, um, so I can reflect that, you know, and um whether you believe in him or not, I just want you to see that you know my strength doesn't just come from me and it's all because of him. And yeah. You know what? I need it that I needed that. I feel like I hide I hide that part a lot from families and the closest people in my life. I hide the fact that I I suffer every day and I just say I'm okay. And that everything's gonna be good, but every day it's a it's a battle for survival in my life. And uh I hope that me sharing this and me sharing this vulnerability truly does something to somebody who needs it. I pray that it touches the people that need it. Um I truly do. Um, prior to making this video, I was kind of dreading it and dreading making it. And the only reason is because I know it was gonna take more than an hour, and that it was gonna really take a toll not only on my on my physical, but my mental state because of how hard it is. It reminds you of all my traumas, my daily traumas. Like I told you, man, I could literally talk about this for a long time. It's been so much, it's been so, so, so much.

Keep Fighting, Gratitude, Closing Words

SPEAKER_00 1:13:25

And I'm tired and I'm fatigued and just one thing on top of the other. But we're still here, and while we're still here, I have to remind myself that it's a blessing and that I have a purpose in my life, and that the battle is not done, and that one day I want to reach the gates of heaven, and I want to hear, uh, well done, my good and faithful servant. And now I'll rest then. Now I have my peace then. But until then, we have to keep fighting. There's no choice, right? Whatever motivates you, let it motivate you. Um, you know, sometimes your bad was not even about you. You know, sometimes it's about your family, your friends, the people that sacrifice things for you, the people that believe in you, um, the people that trust you, that have given so much for you. And you have to remember that, man. You truly do. Um, you truly, truly, truly do. Yeah, I think I'll I think I'll end it there. I could um keep going, but I think I'll end it there. I love you guys, Jesus loves you. Um I want to public publicly thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for my life, for this journey, even for the health issues um that I go through today. I he's given me so much, he's saved me from so much, and I know he loves me, and I know that there is a purpose I have to serve here. Um, and I'm gonna strive to continue to do that while living, you know, with your purpose. Uh, I think that's a beautiful thing. Um, yeah. Thank you, Lord. I love you, Jesus loves you. I hope you guys really uh took something out of this video. Maybe you got to know me a little better if you've came into my life in within the last 10 years. Um if you've known me before then, you've known how much I've changed. Maybe two different Carlos's that you have experienced in your life. Um, but I just hope maybe you got to appreciate you know the story. And and you know what? If you're not dealing with anything crazy in your life, well, thank the Lord every day, man. Thank him every day. That you know it's a privilege that you have good health, that you're not suffering from a lot of things every day, and that you're you're getting to do life the way it's meant to be, right? So that's a blessing. Don't you forget that, and um be grateful every day. As always, family, take care of yourself, take care of each other. Um, and see you guys in the next one. Peace and love, family. Deuce.

unknown 1:17:08

Thank you, Lord.