I started out just being a supportive husband. Then my wife and I began doing the DDPY program together in February 2016. Kim had ordered the DVDs and we attended a couple of classes at the Performance Center. This was it, we had finally found a program that wouldn’t send Kim backward on her journey to get healthy. And we loved it.

In March we participated in a workout that was taped at the Performance Center that was led by DDP. Afterward, we met Dallas and Brenda. It was at that time that we scheduled an appointment with them to discuss Avalon Water and/or alkaline water for wellness systems. We scheduled the appointment for the second week in May. We had also just booked The DDPY Retreat for November to the Dominican Republic. We kept working the program and every day we became stronger.

In late February Kim decided to follow her dream of being a DDP why instructor and quit her job and start training for her certification. I supported her decision to do so. I loved it that we were becoming stronger and making great progress on the program. Then our lives as we knew it completely stopped.

April 21st began like any other day until I collapsed and fell over on the floor in more pain than I had ever felt. We rushed to the emergency room and after several hours of tests, they discovered that I had a perforated colon and I was in need of an emergency surgery. Ten hours past before I went back for surgery. The surgeon told my wife he couldn’t promise her that I’d make it through the procedure. The surgery took several hours. They removed 8 inches of my colon and attached a colostomy pouch. Following my surgery, I went into septic shock and almost lost my life. I spent the next week in ICU and I know that the doctors didn’t think that I would pull through this. I heard them say just make him comfortable. I could see the worry and concern on my wife’s face. She never left my side. I told my wife not to worry, I am strong and I will not die. Thanks to Dallas I will rise to the power of believing. I can and I will get through this. I told my wife in the hospital do not cancel the DDPY retreat in November. We are going and I will have the colostomy reversal surgery before that.

After 11 days in the hospital, I asked Kim to go home to get out of the hospital for a while since she had not left my side. She had not left the hospital since the day we got here and slept in a chair next to my bed the entire time. I remained in the hospital for the next 17 days. Before going home they inserted an IV attached to an infusion bag with antibiotics to combat the sepsis infection. The next 13 days I had to go back-and-forth to the infusion center to have my IV line cleaned and new anabiotic bags attached to my IV. When I came home, I had a colostomy pouch and an open incision from my navel to my lower abdominal region. I had lost 39 pounds in 17 days.

Being septic is an experience that’s hard for me to express. I felt horrible and very weak but I was blessed to be alive. Going home was a relief but we faced many challenges. While in the hospital our medical insurance had lapsed. We had lost our health coverage. Kim had just recently quit her job and we only had one income, mine, and now I’m sick and I’m out of work. I was in need of a home healthcare nurse but without medical insurance they wouldn’t come to our home. I had an open incision that required daily cleaning and repacking with antibiotic gauze. I had a colostomy pouch I didn’t know how to remove and replace or how to live with it. Kim became my 24-hour nurse. She had to learn how to care for me and clean and change my bandages. She also had to help me with my colostomy pouch because I wasn’t able to take care of it myself. We never allowed these challenges or obstacles to hold us back. We faced them and found a way to overcome each one.

Living with the colostomy pouch made simple things that we do every day complicated. Things like bathing and sleeping became complicated, as I couldn’t get the PICU line or my colostomy pouch wet. I had a PICU line IV attached to an infusion bag on my right side and I had a colostomy pouch on my left side, so sleeping was very difficult. This was a life-changing experience but I knew it was only temporary and together we would get through it.

The weeks that followed we lived on a 4-hour schedule around the clock checking my vitals and oxygen, cleaning my open incision, and changing and cleaning my colostomy pouch. All the antibiotics I was taking were making me feel sicker. I wanted my health back. I wanted our lives back. I missed our normal life. I missed being close to Kim and I missed our DDP YOGA workouts together. I told my surgeon before leaving the hospital that I planned on getting this colostomy pouch off of me within six months. He told me with my level of infection and sepsis that it would be impossible to do the reversal in anything less than a year. Before leaving the hospital we posted a video thanking Dallas Page.

It was really hard to get through. I had a lot of pain and I felt sick every minute of every day but was still so very thankful to be alive because I had just lost my mother to sepsis a few years prior. Within the week after going home late in the evening Dallas called me. He said “Hey bro we have an appointment the second week in May are you going to be able to make it? I have something that I want to share with you." I said absolutely yes, we will be there for our appointment. We kept our appointment with Dallas just one week out of the hospital. I still had my PICU IV line and my infusion bag w/ antibiotics on my side and an open incision in my abdomen and of course my Kim by my side. We sat down with Dallas and he educated us about GMO’s in food and gave us a list of videos to watch to educate us about GMO’s in our food in the United States.

We went home and started watching the videos. The first thing we did was clean out our kitchen. We completely started our lives over. We eliminated everything from our diet that causes inflammation in the body. It was at this point that we began eating 100% organic clean. I had to follow up with my surgeon every two weeks after being discharged from the hospital. I remained septic for a total of 31 days. Every time that I saw my surgeon I said I want my reversal surgery within 6 months. Again, my surgeon responded that that wouldn’t be possible to do the reversal that soon. Kim was concerned that we should cancel the DDP YOGA retreat that was in November. I asked her not to cancel the trip and assured her that we would be able to go.

After just a few months of eating GMO-free, dairy-free, gluten-free and organic I had my three month check up with my surgeon. My surgeon was shocked. He thought I looked great. I told him it was our new lifestyle and diet and we only ate organic and clean and no dairy, no GMO‘s, and no gluten. My surgeon’s response was that food didn’t have anything to do with my healing and recovery. Wow, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. How ignorant a response was that? I reminded him that I wanted my reversal surgery. He reminded me it will be impossible because I couldn't have healed this quickly. We agreed to have a colonoscopy procedure performed to see how my colon was healing. We scheduled the colonoscopy for three weeks later in Sept.

Before having my colonoscopy I told the G.I. my story and to be prepared to see one of the cleanest healthiest looking Colons that he had ever seen. By the time I had woke up in recovery, my G.I. had already called my surgeon and told him that I was healed enough to do my reversal surgery. After just five months and 21 days I had my reversal surgery and my colostomy pouch (BOSS) was removed in October. This was just in time for us to be able to go to the DDP YOGA retreat in the Dominican Republic in November with my survival scars absent and without “the BOSS” on my side!

During my recovery and healing period, unfortunately, I couldn’t do the DDPY workouts with "the BOSS" on my side, so I focused on eating clean and walking every day. Doing the DDPY program made me physically and mentally strong enough to live through my life-threatening medical crisis. Eating clean, organic, dairy-free, gluten-free, GMO-free cut my healing and recovery time literally in half of the time my surgeon had projected. I have learned that my body will heal itself better and faster when I eat clean. So thank you Dallas, not just for the DDP YOGA that made me physically and mentally stronger, but also, for teaching us the truth about GMO’s in foods and eating clean! Living my life 90% and LOVING it!! BANG!