Hear 4 : Rachel Sindaco

Living with Multiple Sclerosis and ocular melanoma, Rachel has faced challenges that would shake even the strongest among us. From navigating the unpredictability of MS to confronting the life-altering reality of eye cancer, her journey has been anything but easy. Yet through every setback, hospital visit, and moment of uncertainty, Rachel chose hope.

What makes Rachel’s story so remarkable isn’t just the battles she’s fought — it’s how she’s fought them. She refused to let illness define her. Instead, she leaned into gratitude, humor, and an unshakable belief that every day still holds purpose. She continued to uplift others even while enduring her own difficulties, proving that strength isn’t about denying hardships — it’s about rising in spite of it.

If you would like to get Rachels book: From a kick in the head to a kick in the ass, You can find it wherever you find books (Barns and noble) and Amazon!

Link here!

Transcript

0:03

Hey, I'm Eric and I'm here for you. Okay. I'm gonna get ahead of it right now. You guys might be annoyed with how many times I say I enjoy talking to Rachel Sinco. She has an incredible story, Even more incredible than her story is probably the energy and the positive nature of her personality that she just exudes. It was infectious, it was incredible, and I hope listening to her story and what she's been through, you guys can kind of get that. I know it's a little bit difficult, you know, in the podcast forum because you're not really talking to her or seeing her face to face, but trust me. Being able to speak with her and. Kind of listen to her words, where she goes through what could be and what is these life changing moments, but she addresses them in such a positive way that it just becomes a fall off. You just think of it like, oh, okay, this is something she has, or something she deals with, not something that is life changing. And I think that's what is so amazing about her, her story, her adventure, If you want to learn more about her story, pick up her book from a kick in the head to a kick in the ass. It's Rachel Synco, S-I-N-D-A-C-O. We talk more about it in the podcast, so please take a listen to that, but get her book. It is an incredible story. since putting out the recording, I finished it. I'm actually reading it a second time.'cause it's been a little bit of time since I've gone through the whole thing again, so I wanted to read it again. And it is an incredible book. It is funny, it's thought provoking. It's a beautiful story of someone's life. And I truly hope that whoever listens to this goes out and gets the book and really enjoys it the way I did. So I hope you enjoy my talk with Rachel.

Eric 2:00

first off, let me say, I got your book

Rachel 2:03

thank.

Eric 2:03

yeah, for sure. I didn't get it in in hardcover because I was like, that might cost you a pretty penny to, to build, I don't know how. Books work. but, I haven't had the full opportunity to read, through it. I'm basically, I, I wouldn't even say halfway through. I'm, I'm going into it, but, so far this is an incredible story. This is an amazing story and I'm, I'm super excited. I, I definitely wanna talk about, how. Not necessarily just, you know, you're processing, creating the book, but just the, the step by step that got you to it. Because you have an incredible life, dealing with, what you have. but if I can, I wanna start from the beginning, from the original set off, from the kick that led to all of this.

Rachel 2:48

Okay. So when I was in high school, I was a forward in soccer one day after practice I just decided to screw around a little bit and jump in goal and see, you know, could I be a good goalie? And I realized that I was stopping a lot of balls My coach noticed that too, and he had pulled me aside and he said, would you like to try goalie? Because our goalie was injured and we were looking to see if somebody could play. So I said, yeah, that would be okay. And I learned that. I really liked it. I used to like scoring goals against other teams, but it was kind of fun to stop goals. So I played that for several games. In one game, we were playing at high school and nobody noticed that one side had a missing light or a light that the ball must have burned out or something. So during the second half of the game, I was goalie at that end and I had two girls dribbling down, to score upon me, and I decided to dive on the ball. Instead, I got kicked in the head

Eric 3:53

Hmm.

Rachel 3:54

knocked. out. I realized when they had the stretcher there putting me on it and they flipped me over on the stretcher and said, go ahead and spit. You've got blood accumulating in your mouth. so they took me to the emergency room and they said I had a concussion and sent me on my way I was able to play the next game, but my coach said, maybe we won't put you on goal. You know, you can go back to playing the front line. And I said, okay, good. That's great. weeks later, I was in school and I was walking fine, and then all of a sudden my leg stopped working. I'm stuck in the hallway and I'm trying to get up the stairs'cause my class was on the second floor I just started crawling and I couldn't make it up the steps. I was holding on with everything I had, and finally I just sat down. fortunately some, I don't know who it was, I think it was a teacher,

Eric 4:52

Hmm.

Rachel 4:53

I have no idea who it was. I can't remember. they asked me what was going on. I said, I can't feel my legs. So they said, well, we need to get you to the nurse's station. So we had to go back downstairs'cause I made it halfway up. So we went back downstairs down the hallway, got me to the nurse's office. said, I found her in the hallway. She can't walk. the nurse was perplexed. She was like, I don't know. So she called my mom. My mom came and got me. We went to an Army Urgent care, then at the urgent care they said, we need to send you out to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. So they did that, and that's when everything started. They ended up admitting me into the hospital trying to figure out, they thought I had a brain tumor. Which my mom is a nurse and she, I thought she was gonna faint. Well, she kind of did go out, they had to lay her down on a bed,

Eric 5:50

Oh no.

Rachel 5:53

and I was like, okay, there's my mom, she's a nurse, but here we go and I am gonna go get an MRI. And I had no idea what an MRI was, and they took me out into this trailer they put me into this. Big machine. the only thing I could think of that it looked like was, what are those things called? The the black longer? There was

Eric 6:15

Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Rachel 6:17

A big machine. And so They put me out there. Machines are whirring everywhere, all kinds of loud noises. Then when it was over, took me back in after they read the MRI, they said it's not a brain tumor. So my mom woke up and she was like, yay, it's not

Eric 6:34

Y.

Rachel 6:34

tumor.

Eric 6:35

Yeah.

Rachel 6:35

they still couldn't figure out what's going on. So they said they're gonna put me in the hospital and put me on steroids until they could figure it out. the MRI did show, I had a whole bunch of u bs. They called them ebos, unidentified bright objects. They're now called plaques. and yeah, they call them plaques now in your brain, but they were called ubo. I like u bs

Eric 6:58

Yeah, me too.

Rachel 6:59

unidentified bright objects,

Eric 7:03

you breeze through what. To any other person would be a life changing trauma. I mean, it took you less than five minutes to say, yeah, I had this happen. I went to the hospital. They don't know what it was. How were you feeling? Because you were young when this all happened.

Rachel 7:22

I was 17

Eric 7:24

Yeah.

Rachel 7:24

the hospital stay was interesting because it wasn't, all fun because I had to get a spinal tap so that wasn't fun. And then they were poking and prodding at me trying to figure out my nerves They had me doing eye tests, like looking at a screen with these black and white objects on it, that was not fun. But it was fun when my friends came to visit me.

Eric 7:49

Yeah. oh, well, okay. The bright sides, right? again, I imagine, okay, so, oh yeah, there's stuff, there's always that. and your book even says, so you're just a relentless optimist and that is exactly what you are.'cause again, I can't stress it enough. 17-year-old me. I mean, in your shoes, I'm done. My life is over. At that point, I

Rachel 8:14

think that way, but no, no.

Eric 8:20

you,

Rachel 8:21

You're 17 and you're young.

Eric 8:23

ah.

Rachel 8:23

the life ahead of you.

Eric 8:25

But if I go into an MRI and I'm in this giant machine, and they're saying, we have no idea what's wrong with you. You just have these little sparkles, these little white holes there. best of luck. Let's just keep trying some things that's putting me, I'm digging, my grave at that point. you took this. A check on the chin and you said, all right, cool. Well then we're just gonna keep pushing forward.

Rachel 8:49

Yes. Well, if I could have left at that point, I would've, but they had me hooked up to for five days, so I had to stay there for a while. And I believe that the, spinal Tap told the story for them

Eric 9:06

Okay.

Rachel 9:07

I guess I'm still not. I've had two spinal taps now, and they've both been for ms, but think you get some kind of blood in your serum or

Eric 9:17

Hmm.

Rachel 9:19

in there that the way they, determine that it's ms.

Eric 9:25

so you spent the five days there. you get the spinal tap. That's when they sit there and say, okay, we now know what this is. We've determined it's ms.

Rachel 9:35

Yes. But they also said that they could. Transverse myelitis that they were gonna call it transverse myelitis

Eric 9:44

Okay.

Rachel 9:46

they had no medicine for, well, they had ms, but it was on a lottery system. And they said, chances of me getting it are gonna be very slim. So to go out into the world on my own when I get my own insurance. It would not be a great idea to label me with multiple sclerosis.

Eric 10:06

Yeah.

Rachel 10:06

we're gonna label you with transverse myelitis. And every time I would have a flare up, they would just put me on a three or a five day course of IV steroids

Eric 10:16

Mm.

Rachel 10:17

and it cleared it up. That was fine.

Eric 10:19

Okay. And that was from 17 and on. Is that right? So

Rachel 10:25

steroids that make you all big and muscular.

Eric 10:28

that's a shame.

Rachel 10:29

I know because I would actually go to the gym and I'd be like, yeah, I'm gonna build up my muscles while I'm getting my steroid infusion. And my doctor said, it's not that kind of

Eric 10:39

Ah, man. Two birds, one stone. That's,

Rachel 10:43

I was thinking of.

Eric 10:44

oh man, you're so close. You were almost there.

Rachel 10:47

I was hoping.

Eric 10:49

So can you explain to me, now, it's 17, right? And you're obviously incredibly optimistic and you say, great, now I have this, this is just who I am. Now let's move forward. Life goes on as is because you mentioned obviously in military quite a bit, and in the book you were, a child, in the military, so you bounced around quite a bit.

Rachel 11:15

yes.

Eric 11:15

I can imagine how, being 17, bouncing around in a military household and then this diagnosis, it just gets difficult

Rachel 11:26

No, get difficult because I kept it hidden. The only people that knew about it was my mom and dad and my sister, and my doctors.

Eric 11:35

really.

Rachel 11:35

I just, yeah, we decided no one needs to know about this because then multiple sclerosis, there wasn't much known about it, People still today are like, so what exactly happens with ms? You would think we've come a long way, but there are some people out there that think that contagious.

Eric 11:55

Oh.

Rachel 11:56

I'm like, oh, come on, man.

Eric 11:58

Well, I was about to be my ignorant self and say, well, I don't know Ms. Completely. but I know you can't catch it. I know you can't catch it. So.

Rachel 12:07

right. But I mean, most people know that it's just something that affects people's legs or arms or eyes or whatever, but I can't breathe on you and then you get a mess. It's not that way.

Eric 12:24

You seem to be doing pretty well with it, so

Rachel 12:27

I'm lucky'cause there are some people that aren't so lucky. And I think that because I got it when I was 17 years old, it was something I grew up with. People that get it now at my age, and I might be in my fifties, I might be in my forties, I might be

Eric 12:44

knows. Nobody knows. we could never know.

Rachel 12:48

Yeah. Well, I've had it for 37 years,

Eric 12:50

No, we could never know. Math is difficult. I wouldn't stress it.

Rachel 12:54

I think that if. people jump into it at a bad stage when it hits them, it hits them, not easily. Even Christina Applegate, she got it just within the last five years, and she went from being able to act and walk and do all that kind of stuff to wheelchair and struggling. And so I was fortunate not to get hit with it that way.

Eric 13:25

Yeah.

Rachel 13:26

grew up with it.

Eric 13:28

Yeah. Which it seems like that's just the better plus alternative at that point.

Rachel 13:32

I think so.

Eric 13:33

yeah. It.

Rachel 13:35

And if you kind of put it in a box and put it in the closet, that's what I did for the longest time. It seemed to work for me.'cause I still went to college and played soccer

Eric 13:45

Wow.

Rachel 13:45

for a year, and then I joined a sorority and I couldn't do both.

Eric 13:49

Then you, yeah, and then you have to party. You have to,

Rachel 13:53

absolutely.

Eric 13:54

so that's perfect because I was curious, now, you know, 17, you're going on with your life. What's the rest of your life? Look at this point. you're in a college, you go play soccer there, which again, seems a little dicey for, if it were me, I'd be like, oh Ms. It's always in the back of my mind. But you went out there full force.

Rachel 14:13

Yes. No, it was never gonna be in the back of my mind. The only time it landed. in my view, was when my legs would start acting up a little bit. I still went to the gym every day.

Eric 14:27

happened?

Rachel 14:28

would lay low. friends would call me and say, Hey, what are we doing? And I would say, I'm just, you know, I'm not feeling real great today, so I think I'm gonna take a day off. And then I would call my neurologist and the next time I would go home. Because my college was four and a half hours away from my house, and so then when I go home, they would get me hooked up on the steroids for a couple of days and then boom, I was back to normal. The steroids really did their job.

Eric 14:54

Wow, that's incredible. And so you, and, and all through college, right? You told nobody you lived a regular life. I mean. It, MS isn't going to destroy your life unless it's a progressive, heavier thing and you get it, as you mentioned, and, and it just hits people harder. I'm, I shouldn't say that. It's something that is destructive to an everyday life. Obviously that's not the case because you lived an incredible life day by day and you managed it very well. My thought is. You know, you, I get, I can't shake it. You got it at such a young age and you were able to mask it and go through life, like there was no problem. And you know, here you are in college, you're partying, you're having a good time. in all of that, did you ever run into anybody? You had MS as well, did you have conversations with other people or was it something that you were just like, you know, I'm just going through this. It's living life and not really training anything else.

Rachel 15:56

I was living life. I didn't know anybody. I knew one person, she was an older lady that had MS and she wasn't on any medications, and I knew that one person was crawling around on the floor. She couldn't really do anything, and I told my parents, I'm not gonna be like her. As soon as a medication I can get on medication, I will get on medication. Until then, I'm gonna forget about it. In college, I didn't know anybody that had ms. it was not, ever a topic of conversation.

Eric 16:31

Well, I don't imagine people shutting off the rooftops. I just,

Rachel 16:34

No,

Eric 16:35

I know.

Rachel 16:36

back in 1990.

Eric 16:37

Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Rachel 16:39

Right, and, and think about back in 1990, I, I didn't have a computer. I'd have to go to the computer lab. There weren't online anything,

Eric 16:49

Yeah.

Rachel 16:50

and I would certainly not take to the newspaper and put out an ad. You know, within the LA next 50 miles have ms. They'd wanna sit down and talk. is not what I was gonna do. But I have joined a lot of Facebook pages. I've joined a Reddit group. You know, they have multiple sclerosis Reddit groups and Facebook groups. Now, I don't sit there and constantly focus in on that because not one to continually think about it. And I know there are some people that are on that every day asking questions It, those forms are okay to ask questions about how people are dealing with it and such, but I don't like it when people go on there and start asking medical advice. Because I just wanna say to them, get, get a neurologist, get with your doctor. This is, if we don't have a MD or do, this is not where you wanna get the information. You can ask us about what medications we taking, how it's working for us. But MS is. Called, and I don't really care for this name, the Snowflake drug, because No. Or this Snowflake disease.'cause no two people with MS are the same. You're not gonna have the same symptoms. So no two people, I mean, I might have a bad left leg and somebody else might have a bad left leg, that the same symptoms aren't gonna occur

Eric 18:20

yeah,

Rachel 18:20

individual.

Eric 18:22

The medical system, the way that it's kind of set up. I don't know that it's necessarily good for people with MS right now. I believe there's a lot of, I mean, you had to go through a lottery system and they decided, not worth, throwing your name into that hat for insurance down the line. But do you think that it's progressively gotten a lot better now that we've kind of understand MS more, that people can kind of readily trust the healthcare system and the providers to say, okay, we can help you, along with this journey.

Rachel 18:54

I absolutely think that it's better now because there are so many medications out there. I first went on my first medication in 2001, was on a trial and it was actually for the shot, the actual injection, because I would have to inject myself It was fine, but it was not the best medication I had been on. So my doctors put me on a different medication and this one was gonna be an intermuscular. Sorry,

Eric 19:25

Okay.

Rachel 19:25

The other one was sub. Yeah, I know. I thought about that. So the first one was subq and the second one was, intermuscular. And that was, I thought, better than the subq.'cause you only had to do that. once a week or, yeah, the Avonex was once a week, but then my body built up negative antigens, so I had to go off of that. then I went on to Copaxone, which is also a subcutaneous one. It worked fine, but I hated it because after a while my legs started looking like a mogul.

Eric 20:03

Oh.

Rachel 20:03

they started Yes. And I started, The shots were metabolizing any fat that I had, my legs. So I was like, okay, I wanna go off for this one. And they had a, a. Oral medication and I thought, oh, I think I wanna try that. that was when I, wanted to go, it was Gilenya. so my doctor said, okay, well you've gotta go see an ophthalmologist. And this is when I went to see an ophthalmologist and they looked at my eye and they said, hold on, I've gotta get another ophthalmologist to come over here. And I said, oh, you guys are seeing optic neuritis. I have optic optic neuritis. That's. part of ms. we know what optic neuritis is, but I just want somebody else to look. I'm sitting there thinking, okay, it's optic neuritis, what are you guys doing? and then they said, you know what? We have to send you to a retina specialist. We just want them to look at something.

Eric 20:59

Hmm.

Rachel 21:00

So they said, we made you an appointment. Go ahead over there. I went by myself. Eight hours later, I was hearing mass and tumor and all of this kind of stuff, and by the time I left there, they said, we think you have ocular melanoma, which is a rare and aggressive eye cancer. We're sending you up to Will's eye Hospital, we'll call you when we have your date set and eight hours. had to drive myself home

Eric 21:32

Oh.

Rachel 21:33

I got home and I'm still reeling about what they had told me. I went back into the retina specialist so I took my husband and my dad so that they could hear what he was telling me. Then we went up to Will's Eye Hospital and I went through another eight hours, but fortunately I had my husband with me. And by the time all was said and done, they said, okay, you do have ocular melanoma. want you to go home, pack your bags for four days, come back on Thursday and you'll have surgery. put a a, it used to be called a radio plaque disc. I'm not sure if it's still that, but they had the disc made with the proper seats, the radioactive seats behind your eye. sew your eyelid shut, and then on, I think it was Sunday or Monday, they take the little disc out of your eye and send you home. And you just hope that it works.

Eric 22:30

He just hope that it works.

Rachel 22:33

it did.

Eric 22:34

and it well, yes it did. Wow.

Rachel 22:39

imagine that. Imagine getting a disc put behind your eye. How does that happen?

Eric 22:43

I think you're gonna tell me they just popped your eye out.

Rachel 22:47

No, no, no. But that's what I thought they would do. And then I was like, do they cut into my eye? But no, it's full of Goops. It would all goop out. So that can't be, and so the best I can figure is that they, because I have never asked them,

Eric 23:03

Oh

Rachel 23:04

they do slide it behind your eye and sew it there and sew it onto the back of your eye so that it's over.

Eric 23:11

wow. I mean, your guess is as good as mine. I won't Google it. I'm not gonna look it up. I will trust you.

Rachel 23:17

want to because I actually have done

Eric 23:20

Oh no.

Rachel 23:20

I do have pictures of, because when you go in there, they put this clamp on your eye so you

Eric 23:26

Oh.

Rachel 23:26

blink and it holds your eye open. have you seen the movie Saw?

Eric 23:30

Mm-hmm. Oh.

Rachel 23:32

So imagine all the creepy things that they used to do with people. Imagine a big clamp attached to your eye, holding it open, and then they do stuff. Even when I'd have to get shots in my eye, they would put that on your eye so that you wouldn't blink.

Eric 23:46

Still optimistic. Are you? It's Very, very impressive. Yeah.

Rachel 23:51

That was 15 years ago. I'm still here.

Eric 23:53

another good point. 15 years ago, you know, you're still very young, right? this is back to back where you have 17 and then, you know,

Rachel 24:02

I was 39

Eric 24:03

39.

Rachel 24:04

when I got the eye cancer.

Eric 24:06

still very young. And that has to hit you like a ton of bricks.

Rachel 24:11

I was worried that I wasn't gonna see my 40th birthday. I was like, I'm never going to see 40. I'm not gonna see my kids. Graduate from high school, go to college, get married. was so worried about that, but here I am.

Eric 24:28

how in the world are you still so positive? With everything that's, I mean, you, ms and then, ocular melanoma and you're going through, to be fair, some people say, oh, you've had a good amount of time in between both of those things, but you live with ms. And that diagnosis at 39, it's. heavy. That's a lot. And there's always the fear that, oh, there's gotta be more, there must be more coming. You know, if this rare thing came outta nowhere, what else is there? not to put that fear into you, because obviously you're beating the odds. you've won it every turn. but how are you staying so positive in, the world that we're in right now, how are you so positive through all this?

Rachel 25:14

Well, let's face it, if I didn't have ms, would I have even found the ocular melanoma? So we may not be here having a conversation if I didn't have ms.

Eric 25:27

So, you wrote, as I mentioned earlier, a book about the entire process through the whole thing that you've been dealing with. Do you, when writing the book, did you kind of hope that would reach anyone specific or just anyone in general that would be willing to hear the story or you were like, Hey, I want a specific person to read this and understand like this. If you have ms, if you do face these, any type of struggles, read this and understand it's far from over.

Rachel 25:58

I initially wrote the book, last January, January, 2025, I sat down and I said, I'm gonna write a book and I wanted it for my kids, my two boys and my husband to read, just so that they got a little more information about me. what I was going through. I'm glad that life turned out normal for everybody and that my. chronic illnesses didn't affect life for us, that we still did everything and they were very supportive. Although I didn't tell my kids about all of this stuff until they were in high school,'cause I didn't wanna burden them. Say, oh, I'm not feeling good. So I'm getting some medicine and nurses coming by and putting a needle in my arm.

Eric 26:46

and they didn't, for an instance sit there and think, oh, this isn't, you know? Yeah.

Rachel 26:52

right. And if they did, they didn't. They didn't bug me about it. I'm fine, you know, I'll be at your game later.

Eric 27:02

Wow.

Rachel 27:03

I, but I, so I did it for them.

Eric 27:06

Yeah.

Rachel 27:06

in June, I had some other people read it and they said, you really should publish this. So I went ahead and published it in July last year, you know,

Eric 27:15

Wow.

Rachel 27:15

25. And so it's reached people who. both MS or ocular melanoma, and I've heard from people that don't have any chronic illnesses, but said, know what? After reading your book, I have nothing to complain about. But now I wanna get my ass going.

Eric 27:35

it's incredible to speak with you and I'm so excited to finish this book. Like I said, I've been able to dig into, maybe about the first 40 pages and I'm really kind of, I don't wanna rush through it. You can rush through this book. It's.

Rachel 27:47

the first 40 pages, so you are at. You at? I'm trying to think.

Eric 27:54

Oh, this is a fun game.

Rachel 27:55

I wrote

Eric 27:56

it's basically the beginning of what we talked about in the start where you had. Just got into the hospital. you were getting discharged and the events leading into that. so it's very much the beginning of your story, but like I said, I can burn through this in less than a few hours, maybe two hours. it is a very good read. It is inspiring. It's funny. it's an incredibly good book and I am, very happy that you wrote this. This is an amazing insight Into an incredible life. And you have plans to write anymore? I mean,

Rachel 28:27

No.

Eric 28:28

oh,

Rachel 28:28

in fact, it was funny'cause somebody said that and my husband had said something at one point and I said, all right, I'm gonna write a second one and I'm gonna tell everybody but it's funny'cause I can't remember, I think I did put it there. we were getting ready to get married in Pennsylvania, you had to take a blood test. I don't know why you had to take a blood test. back in 1994 or 95 you had to take a blood test. Don't know why.

Eric 28:57

Okay.

Rachel 28:58

my kids didn't have to take one. And they live in Pennsylvania. But anyway. And I get a phone call at work and they said, Rachel, you have Lyme disease. like, what? Wait, what? I. Are you sure? And I said, because again, I knew I had ms and I'm thinking in my mind, I know Lyme disease mimics or Ms. Mimics, one of they mimic each other or something, I don't know. and they said, no, you have Lyme disease. So I had to, On antibiotics. Then when we, so my husband and I, the day after we got married. We packed up and we moved to South Carolina from Pennsylvania just the next day and we were like, okay, we're moving down to South Carolina. Neither of us had a job, but we were sitting our own way. So we waved goodbye to our families and away we went. I get down there and the Georgia CD, tracks me down and they say, we would like you to come in. And donate blood because we can use your blood to help other people with Lyme disease to some kind of cure or some kind of medicine or something. So I went in to, Try to give my blood to them vein shut down, I think after like the seventh vial. And you know what? We can't draw anymore from you. You shut down. I was like, well, I did my job. Everything I could. Sorry. So I said, so this, this me, and I just go home. They're like, yeah,

Eric 30:39

that's wild. That's incredible. I see now, I demand you write another book. You have to, because there's so many. I feel like you can't encompass someone's life in, you know, an hour, 30 minutes, of course, but.

Rachel 30:54

right.

Eric 30:54

The things that you've said, the small little tidbits that we could delve deeper into. I mean, I have so many questions. why move immediately the day after with no job, no prospects, Lyme disease? You could have, I mean, could you have gone back to donate more blood? Did you want to? There's no need to. Right? you did what you needed to. Your body did the job, and I mean, let's not forget just the remainder of how you ended up. You know where you were going from this point, because obviously the move back and forth, you have a lot going on, so you've opened up a lot more questions than answers, is what I'm trying to get at here.

Rachel 31:28

My husband and I met in March and we got married in September. So in that timeframe, in that six months, we decided we're moving down to South Carolina.

Eric 31:39

Huh? Yep. Of course. Of course. Because why not, right? Some people will say when you know, you know, love is love, don't understand the move, but you know,

Rachel 31:49

Well, he, I, he did plan on going to South Carol. He wanted to his master's degree down there.

Eric 31:57

as you do.

Rachel 31:58

I ended up going and taking a class. He never went back to school down there, but I went and took a cardiac care. To get my cardiac care certificate just because I wanted to, not because I was in any kind of medical field, but I decided that that would be a good idea. So I did. And then my job brought us up to Pennsylvania. So

Eric 32:18

Wow.

Rachel 32:19

he went and got his couple of master's degrees. Oh yeah. He likes school. I did not,

Eric 32:28

I, me

Rachel 32:29

the one that went back to school in South

Eric 32:30

exactly. In South Carolina, you're like, I'll just do it. Why not? We're here.

Rachel 32:34

Yeah, I, because I thought it would be a great idea. I was like, oh, this would be great. and it was. I really enjoyed it. In fact, I got a job offer which I turned down to go and recover ice from an accident. But I said, if it's a baby, there's no way I can, you know, people have donated their eyes

Eric 32:52

Oh yes.

Rachel 32:54

If it's a infant, I can't do that. And they said, you don't know who it is when you get called to go and recover them. And I was like, I can't do that. I just couldn't do it. In fact, you know, I had wanted, I went to school to,'cause I wanted to be a nurse to follow in my parents' footsteps. But I can't get past the science.

Eric 33:13

that's the blood for me.

Rachel 33:14

math. I'm more math science. No,

Eric 33:16

There it is. Yeah, that's the answer. Rachel, thank you first off, for coming and running this with me.

Rachel 33:25

And you know, I like to yammer. I'm just

Eric 33:27

Oh, it's my favorite thing about you. you got such a great energy. You're so optimistic, and you have lived an incredible life. And I truly do hope that, you do write another book. I think that'd be fantastic. I would love to see or read more about what your life has been because you've lived an incredible one outside of your MS and the ocular melanoma.

Rachel 33:48

It's all thanks to my support system and everybody around me. Made everything better for me.

Eric 33:53

Of course.

Rachel 33:55

Yes.

Eric 33:55

to anyone listening, please pick up her book from a kick in the head to the kick in the ass. it is phenomenal. Again, I haven't finished it. I know I can blow through it in maybe an hour, hour and a half, but it is so good. It's funny, it is relevant, especially if you have just a little bit of thought of trying to understand what is multiple cirrhosis and ocular melanoma or if you just love a good story, a good life. It is a fantastic book. so Rachel, again, thank you so much for doing this and There is one thing that I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you, for anybody listening to this, let's say that this is, I don't dare to say like your last word, but if there's anybody or any message you want to get out to somebody. What would that be? To anyone listening, whether they have ms, whether they're going through something or just in general? do you wanna say something to everyone?

Rachel 34:44

Just live the best life that you can. Don't let something stop you because you hear it's terrible or you're not feeling good. Surround yourself by the great support system and try to keep marching on. don't ever dig yourself into a hole that you can't get out of, because depression will do that to people. So you have got to try to talk to somebody if you tend to go that way. If you feel like you're usually getting depressed or something, please speak to a therapist or something, but I found that my life is good and it is what you make of it. And just always try to find humor and happiness, even in places that you think you can't find it.

35:44

I can't say enough how much fun I had talking to Rachel. She was a blast and I hope that you guys listening got that as well. I hope that the voice over the podcast, medium transcribed to something of pure joy, pure optimism, and just an overall. Great person. She is awesome to talk to, and I truly do hope to speak with her down the line, and just have a conversation about how her life's going, what she's up to, and, and hopefully she's writing that next book, if not her, at least her husband. That's what I'm banking on. again, if you wanna get her book from a kick in the head to a kick in the ass, you can get it at Amazon, you get it at Barnes and Nobles, anywhere you can get a book, I'm pretty sure. Rachel, R-A-C-H-E-L. Sco, S-I-N-D-A-C-O. Just search that and pick it up outside of that. Thank you guys so much for listening. I greatly appreciate it. Again, anybody listening, I truly hope that you're listening to these and you get a little bit of joy out of it. You kind of get a message out of it and that you feel, a little bit whole. and if you are, please let me know. Shoot me an email here for you. Pod, HEAR. The number four Y-O-U-P-O d@gmail.com. I would love to take all your feedback, or maybe even just wanna come on the show and talk about something. I am more than open for that. So thank you so much for listening, and I look forward to talking to you soon.