E27: Special Episode with Carlos & Amanda

Transcript

Hello, you beautiful people. I am JR. And I'm Dee. And we're here to share our sexy stories and experiences. If you're not 18, this podcast is not for you. And if you are, please go visit LifestyleLinks.com. That's L-Y-N-X. Hello, beautiful people. Well, welcome to this special episode of lifestyle links podcast yes we get asked all the time about carlos how is he doing what's going on our chair nation And while I talk to them occasionally, we don't get into specifics.

So right now live in the studio guess who we have here carlos and amanda yes and it's actually on the eve of the share nation gunnison party exactly tomorrow yep we'll be getting up early and bright and early. So it's July 11th right now. Exactly. So July 12th, we're having a, actually they're sponsoring a Shear Nation event at Gunnison Beach in New Jersey. And you'll be there, right? That's why I'm here. I'm still here. Amanda, you too, right? Yep. In all your glory. Yeah. Mm- wanted Carlos to tell us about his progress and how he's feeling. Yeah, all that. Tell us what's going on. Okay.

Well, I couldn't make, as you guys recall, the Marty Twa event. Remember? Yeah. Our annual. We've been doing that for 12 years, and it's always amazing. Amanda and i were actually coming in flying home from tulum mexico uh we went there for you know an extended trip dealing with spirituality and stuff um but the interesting thing about it is that we were coming home for marty marty toa but the reality is i suffered an accident over there right it was a minor scooter accident. Wow. Just a minor bump.

And what had happened was that bump turned into a shattering of my rib cage, which is quite unusual. Sure. Twelve bones fractured. And painful, I can imagine. Very painful. I actually had a couple of, what do you call it, vertebraes? Yeah. The spine collapsed and everything. But I still was coming back. I mean, I did go to the ER over there. In Mexico. Yeah, yeah. And the healthcare there was fantastic. But they took x-rays. That's all they did. That's it. It was fine. Right. And I figured, let me just get home and stuff like that.

Get Mardi Trois out of the way and then go to my primary doctor and go check it out. Well, I never really made it to Mardi Trois. I really just the airplane ride alone, just the change in the pressure, the altitude and all that. The altitude and stuff. And I noticed it when we had a layover. Remember, Amanda, we had a layover in Dallas, was it? Where I think I couldn't walk. We had to get a wheelchair from that point on.

And even to make it to the next plane, he couldn walk anymore he realized something was in his heart rate we were checking it the whole time yeah it was like so it was time to go it was time it was time to go to emergency and when i went into the emergency room about i think it was on the 26th of february uh next thing you know i stayed in the hospital there for 40 days wow okay so it was a big you know i did send you flowers but they would not let them in the room nope stayed in the hospital there for 40 days wow okay so it was a big you know i did send you flowers yeah they would not let them in the room no um ultimately the diagnosis that came and this is all part of the educational part of it right you know right you know cancer you know there's so many types of cancer out there and i'm i was so unfamiliar with mostly all of them however i've always been aware you know we as share a lot of people who, you know, breast cancer is a big deal.

Prostate cancer is a big deal. Pancreas. So cancers are real. So we really should not feel so awkward as to being aware and talking about these things, right?

You know, so maybe this was just like one of the things that just had to happen for me to kind of find myself in a conversation that can just discuss things a little bit more than just how to lifestyle sure you know we need to learn how to be healthy right and how to have checkups and stuff my diagnosis was called multiple myeloma it's a mutation of a protein in your body it kind of like suffocates your bone marrow so i stopped producing red blood cells and white blood cells wow and once you start stop producing white blood cells your immunity starts creeping downward.

And your bones, it's my bones, of course, they start to deteriorate. Right. And the first sign of this type of cancer are fractures. Okay. So I caught it at the worst time, which is like shattering of 12 as opposed to understanding it, you know. So I did sit through 40 days in the hospital. And yes, I was aware about your flowers. And there were so many people that sent packages. The packages, other packages did come. And cards, obviously. And cards, yeah. Well, because everybody knew you weren't there. I was supposed to go. He made an announcement.

And then he was like, at the end of the day, he was like, I need you here with me. It was too scary. It was too soon. You know, meaning like I didn't even, there were so many decisions going on. Just three days in the hospital, and they were probing me. I felt like the Borg. It was not something that I really wish anyone to go through and stuff like that. I needed my wife. It's important to be at every single ShareNation event. I've always been at every single ShareNation event, but this is the time where the universe just said, take a Yeah. Take a break and get yourself figured out.

So tell us then, you started on chemo. Yeah, and radiation. Okay. So it was the radiation and chemo. It was a simultaneous thing. This lasted for 40 days in the hospital. Okay. I got out actually on April Fool's Day. There you go.

Let me tell you something about anybody who's ever stayed in a hospital for that amount of time you really can start to deteriorate in the hospital yeah uh what do you mean by that well in other words the longer you go in a hospital you think that you're getting well but you actually could be getting worse because you're not really moving you're not walking anywhere you know you're not you're not seeing sunlight right just the vibration is it's okay it's meant to it's not really meant to to be long term and i think like anything after the third week i was struggling i must say i was relying on a lot of social media posts facebook my wife visiting of course because she couldn't stay with me really no well i could at first at first until they realized that i had this multiple myeloma then then i went into like this quarantine type of protocol you know at first they didn't know what it was so i had to go through and i had to behave i had to go through all of that stuff but i had to just search and deal with getting and rehabbing myself and i was able to do that now so so after the 40 days yeah 40 days you came home but you were still doing radiation and chemo after coming home chemo just chemo just chemo yeah the radiation was very successful in my spine and i was able to start walking again because there was a time within those 40 days especially the first two and a half weeks okay where i could not walk gotcha all right like my you know like it instantly happened like it's got to be scary it was freaky i couldn't walk to the bathroom i couldn't go it was it was so painful and if i wasn't just loaded on all of these kinds of you know hard medications and stuff keep in mind here's a person myself that i i have a problem taking aspirin right you know what i mean or tylenol i'm not even that that's not even me so in order to function all these iv hard drugs but so then the radiation the radiation got you to the place where you were able to walk again i must say and i've always always told amanda that who my radiologist it was it's another doctor renowned out of of boston and stuff beth israel that woman really really zapped and saved boy oh boy i i give her credit yeah her name is dr stevenson i have a really good medical team by the way yeah yeah but she really was able to you know get to the root cause of what was causing that that severe pain and it's gone like i haven't experienced it since those treatments so now you have the other pain but now so you came home and you continued on the chemo yeah chemo is is uh you know that's that's a weekly thing okay however it's manageable and then so how long have you now been doing chemo and how long have you been home i've been home since april 1st okay good and i go four months yeah correct right this is not really that long no if you really think about it right yeah right right it's we were just talking about that i was like man it was just a little over 120 days maybe a little bit more not that long right so for the progress it's tremendous now just not to get too deep into the science of it but when i walked that hospital, there's a measurement.

There's a number that measures the amount of cancer you have in your blood. My number was over 8,000. Let's just put that number out there. Today, it's 37.5. Wow. Do you see where I'm going with this? Yeah. Now, remission, somewhere around the 15 to 26 range. So you're on your way. You're on your way. You're very close. Very close, right? Yeah, yeah. So is it a suck to continue to go and get my chemo shot every single week? Of course it is. That it went up on your break. It went up maybe just a little tinker. What I'm doing is I'm doing multiple shots. In other words, it's not just one shot.

There's one type of chemo shot that's targeting multiple myeloma the way it thinks. And then there's another type of chemo that's dealing with the cellular structure. I don't know. It's just too complicated for me to really worry about. I think it's at a point where in my medical care, you have to kind of trust and surrender to the medical team and see where the statistics are or where things are and how you feel and stuff like that. Thank you. So people, you can't see it. We can see him. He looks like Carlos. He looks like himself. There's nothing different about him at all.

That was not the case. That was not the case a couple of months ago. Easy. Amanda has nursed me back to. Oh, she's such a good nurse. She really, really is on top of people, like the people who come around earlier on, you know, like who can visit me, who can talk with me, who can breathe on me.

You know, these are really important things while my immune system catches we we made sure that we were very healthy too we were supposed to see each other a couple of times and you were like i'm not really feeling well don't i still had a cold right exactly you were like no let's not do a trip yeah exactly you see and that's that's all that's all that's important let's see you guys are back to like dancing a little bit here and there yeah and bowling right yeah. So that's great. But you know what? That was very important for my mindset. Sure. I just said, I like to bowl once a week.

Amanda and I are in a league and stuff like that. And I felt like, wow, I was part of a team, of course. And I had to abandon that during my winter care and stuff like that.

So it's a thing for me just to get out and to just go and do that be human each week yeah yeah and the dancing is because if anyone knows amanda oh amanda's a ballroom lover and of course in order for me how's his dancing is dancing okay is it good yeah well he did that for your birthday right it was amazing he took you dancing yeah and i had a birthday dance and i got to dance with with all our dance people right well that's just a thing like now can i bust the moves like the way it was before february but you're it sounds like you're getting back there yeah i just have to just do it a lot more You did a lot more than two songs.

That's true. That's true. So it's about taking steps responsibly. And that's really all this is. So I could put this behind me already. We're so glad you're back. We're so glad you're back. And he's going to do that long walk into Gunnison. We offered a wheelchair. He's like, no, no, I'm good. No. We'll see what happened. It'll be fun tomorrow. Hope everyone is going to come. You do have a handicap sticker, though. That's true. Oh, good. Thank you to the state that I live in, the state of New Hampshire. They were like, yeah, yeah, you get one. No problem. Yeah.

But they only gave it to me for six months, though. Well, in reality, what happens at Gunnison is that you and I are going to get dropped off and amanda and jr are going to go park the car oh okay and then yeah it's not a bad walk it's not bad we get the queen and king treatment so let's talk about the other thing that people are asking questions about which is future share nation so we have september 5th and 6th in the books, which is the detention, little schoolgirl thing on Friday night.

Considering it's September and everyone's going back to school, I think that was a really good bonus event for Friday night. That night there's the speed dating, which we're going to host a speed dating on Friday night. You guys are. Then on the next day is the pool party. With Marky Mark. With Marky Mark. Right. And we're going to host a pool party. In J.R. and D. Yeah. And we're going to have Bob of Teddy Love Adult Toys there on site. He's going to be giving prizes away. Prizes out at the pool. That's true. For our games and stuff. So he'll be there. And Amanda.

And let's not forget the car wash. That's right. Well, she wants to really work the car wash. I do. Amanda's going to work the car wash. But then then we may have Amanda is also volunteered to be a model of the body jewelry. Because Teddy Adult Love Toys has some beautiful body jewelry. We may have to have a private viewing of this prior to that. Preview party. Well, all I know is Amanda wants the car wash. Do you want to help make the selection? Yes. Exactly. He wants to pick body jewelry. And then that night is the white party. Right, which...

well all i know is amanda wants to help make the selection yeah exactly he wants to multiple selections body jewelry and then that night is the white party right which uh just on the 6th you're right just keep in mind even as a bonus just because we have a jam-packed uh saturday all day right we still don't cut corners we still throw well we still throw the comedy show at night too okay you know it's not like we pull it's like Amanda and I feel, you know, while we're already giving people all this kind of entertainment at the pool, let's scale back. No, we're about just giving it all.

Giving it all. So we're bringing our three comedians. And I heard something very interesting last night that at the comedy show, one of the comedians is the female singer in my band. Yeah, from next stage. She's going to be there. Yay! Wow! She's actually really good. That was for you to mention instead of me. But you know what? Yes, I understand. She is. She is actually, I mean, she's a beautiful singer.

And I always have these conversations with her because, you know, she sings other people's material, but when she does her act as a comedian, it's all her she has to right it's all original content and let me tell you something we have an agent by the way who really does a tremendous job at recruiting for open-minded people people who can you know just kind of come and give the content that's going to be appropriate for us well she knows us so but she did it on her own in other words yeah she did it on her own so she's got to have a spicy side to her which i know oh yeah she does yeah we had a gig last night she told me oh that's awesome i feel like we had her before yes okay yeah she's funny yeah she did the thing about the the eiffel tower with her husband and this and that yeah.

I'll have to remember that joke. We'll tell you guys next time. But she's really a nice person. That's the thing. I love her personality. So anyway, let's just wait for the... And then so after that, there's other Cher Nation. Well, there's definitely Halloween. Halloween. Which is what? October 31st and November 1st. Correct. And then 2026. Right after that, there's something in New England. Oh, yeah. That's true. Oh, there's a whole other list. There's another whole list in New England. I didn't want to give you those dates. Well, that'll be on the website. Right.

We put the New England events. But for 2026, there's like five different events that are going to happen, right? Right. And you know what? I got to tell you, that's just for New Jersey. But you know what? Amanda, because obviously in my absence, Amanda has kind of taken the, what do you call it? The horns of the bull. Of the reins. Right. Exactly. And you know what? This is really important. And because it's important to talk about New Jersey and the tri-state area, right? Right. But New England is such a huge part for- Huge. And they're great people. We've been to those. Exactly.

And you know what? There has been a deficit in New England, of course. Because a lot of this has to do with the politics of hotels. Sure. It's just a big deal. A lot of people don't really need to waste their time understanding those complexities. But they are very complex.

Really, I didn't really have much to do with it because I was dealing with hospital stuff amanda came out with five or six contracts for new england as well next year for 2026 and jersey's right there with i think it's five yeah yeah because you have there's an event in february and then one in may and then one in july and then one in september and then one in october right so it's like you know i just have either ones for um new new england oh nice so it's gonna be so yeah so you know uh carlos will be through the grace of the universe right you're so close to remission yeah i am i mean like maybe even by next week however yeah i think amanda has kind of you know spoken to me you know my wife is right you know it's very important i can't really do things the way i was doing it before meaning like you know being involved compulsively with every single thing we have such a great team right uh it's very important amanda wants me and her you know both of us to actually spend more time with our guests you know what i mean like like for example i'd love to sit through and watch and participate at a lifestyle links hosted pool party yeah you see what i'm saying what I'm saying?

I don't have that opportunity because I'm dealing with so many organizational things, right? The organizational stuff, it's fine. I'm there and somebody else can handle that thing. I was going to say, let me handle it. Let me handle it. I'll go with it. I did last event. The whole event last event. I think he wants her in the beach chair next to him. That's true. I do want my wife next to me. I am very into my wife. You have great staff, great security people. They can handle the minutiae stuff. They can handle the daily stuff. Yeah, they can handle all that stuff. Yeah, but you don't need to.

You can sit by the pool and have a cocktail.

Exactly know what it's a beautiful tomorrow at the beach and stuff like that yes yes so you know i'm grateful how's that you asked if i'm back you know like i just had to really take care of myself right yeah cool i'm grateful we're grateful that this can hopefully soon be in the past though that you know i could just you know i don't want to live by it does that make sense you know you want it to just be an experience exactly it's something that i'm going through i'll always just be aware of it you know it can happen to anyone but you know i think we as shared nation shouldn't be awkward and uh stigmatized over and you know what the when you'd have that go fund me i was amazed at the outpouring of support and the number of people that contributed.

I think it raised over $10,000. Thank you very much, everyone. That was tremendous because I got to tell you, when you're facing these types of chemotherapy sessions, the co-payments are not your typical $20 co-payments. There are $140 each time, and you're doing two or three visits, what the hell am I supposed to, you know what I mean? Like, you know. Well, how are you supposed to work? Yeah, yeah. I mean, you can't, yeah, exactly. And the same thing, I mean, how's Amanda supposed to work? And she can't.

And because keep in mind that at a time, at a time where, where myself in my recovery, any type of, if Amanda was around anyone who would be sick. Then she couldn't come. She could actually bring that home to me. She almost had to be quarantined as well. And she pretty much was living... She's been living a life that way. You know, a lot of people don't realize that. But that was her commitment. But it was just such a kind thing. Somebody did it. Who put the... Was it Nathaniel. That's right.

This is what i'm saying you know i just woke up the sound guy the guy that does the sound he's so great because his heart is so big and he's like wow you know like you're gonna really very quickly i mean like so many people yeah it just goes to show like how many people love you guys so now there's something that that'll happen that the next phase of this is is remission as you know and i want to get there right sure and then there is there has been discussions about you know not to not to get so deep with it but you know i just want to be transparent about it because you know like it's fair i don't want to keep secrets that you know we don't keep secrets with each other right we shouldn't do that uh then there's some things i should keep private between my wife and i but this is very very important there has been discussion in this whole universe about cancer and recovery and remission for myself something was called a transplant a stem cell transplant which would keep me in remission incredibly longer wow like we're talking there's some people that are going into five seven ten years and you know you know if you really think about it that's the goal keeping you in rem right?

So to have a stem cell transplant, that's going to be a very important decision that I'll have to make. And, you know, I don't think I'm going to be ready to make that decision in 2025. Right. Because it will require 30 more days in the hospital and then 90 days completely quarantined, like in a hotel. Like the boy in the bubble. Correct. Yeah.

yeah however however what happens after that then you have to start after 120 days so it's another 120 days basically and i want to catch a catch a break from all of this right right now yeah right 120 days then then you have to since you lose all of your immunity then i have to go through all of the vaccinations again and you know you know because you lose everything from measles mumps oh really yeah yeah you're wiped out you're completely wiped out you have no immunity so you have to go through that and you know so even beyond 120 days you still are at risk so you're talking six months right and you know so that's a commitment yeah sure but if it extends your life no you know if it extends my life yeah well you know you.

You have to weigh that. And I have to weigh that and stuff like that. But we're not there today. Right. What I'm saying is that is a consideration. Yeah. But then here's the catch. You're thinking about GoFundMe and stuff like that. Yeah. You know, which helps when you're just locked out for, you know, 120 days. How do you afford six months of nothing? Right. Yeah, sure. Do you think about it, guys, guys. So you've got to make all these financial decisions. But we're not there right now. And if I make that decision, then I'll just tell everybody because I'll have to.

Because people are going to know I'm not around. But it's for good reason. However, for now, I'm around. Exactly. And you're going to be at the beach tomorrow. And then we have a September party. Yeah, that's right. And then we have the October party. We have a birthday party we're going to after the beach, too. After the beach. There's Long Island Connections. You know, there's a few people there. One of our attendees and promoters, his name is Dennis. I'm just giving his first name a shout out. And he has a beautiful wife. Showtime entertainment, I think. Yeah. Yes. And you know what?

So I, you know, we're not going to just come in and know that, you know, they're having his 50th birthday party and not be there. That's so cool. It's important no matter what. But you still can't stay up that late. No, I don't can't stay up. Amanda's going to put me to better. Exactly. Well, this was great. I really thank you for coming because everyone wanted to know how you are and you're doing great. Do I sound like myself? Yes. You sound, you look like, you're doing great. You're almost remission. Share Nation is alive and well. Yep.

We got the great parties coming this year, parties coming next year, New Jersey and New England and the GoFundMe thing was great. Thank you everyone that donated to the GoFundMe. That was really amazing. From the bottom of my heart, really, I know who you are. It's just, it's powerful. It's so humbling that I can tear up right now, so I don't want to talk about it. I'm patting his knee, so he's okay. So for everyone that's been asking us how Carlos is doing, I hope this helps to answer your questions and resolve anything emotionally that you have about Carlos and Amanda as well.

And we'll see you all. Thank you for us. We'll see you guys soon. Thank you for you guys, too. You guys really for doing this and for you know, this is the first time I've actually spoken publicly, you know like besides my post on my personal Facebook, you know, this is the first time sitting down, having a true public talk about it, you know. It's very healthy. And thank you for sharing it with us. Thank you. We appreciate it. I miss everybody. I miss everybody. And until next time, bye-bye, oh, you beautiful people. Bye. Bye. We'll see you next time.