On this episode, we talk with Micah Lehman about overcoming a heart defect.
[MUSIC]
You're listening to the Dudes and Dads podcast,
a show dedicated to helping men be better dudes and dads by building community
through meaningful conversation and storytelling.
And now, here are your hosts, Joel DeMott and Andy Lehman.
Here we are, here we are, we're here.
So here.
I don't know if I've ever been more here than I am here right now.
That's, I don't even know what to think about that, Joel.
I'm not sure I'm so here.
I'm not sure.
So here so hard.
Once again, right here all the way.
How many times have you say here in the lessons here?
Yeah. Oh gosh.
Yeah, I'm I'm doing I'm doing good.
How how are you doing, Andy?
Sorry, I just am messing with those earphones
and almost blew his ear out.
I couldn't hear myself much better now. Thank you so much. I'm doing good. I'm doing good.
We, uh, yeah, we're doing good. We're, uh, here's Andy. I don't know. Tell me how you feel about
this. Every year I forget about the month of May. And here's why I forget what I forget
specifically about the month of May. It is when all the things, uh, schedule wise intersect.
There's a lot of overlap. That is true. Cause like you got four H starting. Yep. You have
all sorts of stuff going on.
Various activities, but it feels like those things are in multiple ways are overlapping.
And it feels like may just hits you like a ton of bricks and you're trying to try to clone
yourself, trying to get all to all the places.
And you're, you know, you're, you're asking yourself, is it possible for me to make my
13 year old drive himself?
I mean, just not that I want to advocate for underage driving, but I do.
I do want to, I do want to advocate under age driving.
Hey, everybody, welcome to the Dudes and Dads podcast.
So glad you could join us for yet another episode.
This episode, which we'll get into here momentarily, I would say,
let's just look, it's going to get, it's, it's a deeply personal.
It is close to home, you might say, because it's in your home.
It was in my, it is. It is in your home.
You haven't kicked him out yet. No, not yet.
He's, he's getting into that age.
Micah, congratulations. you're still allowed to live at home. oh my gosh. yeah. so we're super
excited about this episode ready to have a good conversation with Micah. but before we do andy.
Yes, Joel. This episode support comes from Everonce financial helping individuals and
organizations come out faith and finance through retirement planning, banking and other financial
services. More at everence.com/michiana. Securities offered through Concourse Financial
Group. Securities incorporated. Member, FINRA, SIPC.
I've never heard it better. I never heard it better. We're really getting in the sink of things.
So grateful to all of our friends over at Everants. So, Andy.
Welcome, Micah. Thank you.
Hi, Micah. Thanks for joining us. Micah in the studio with us tonight.
I asked if he could go remote and he thought that'd be weird.
Like if we left him behind, left him behind at home.
And that would be interesting.
Dad's going to the studio. Can you please just stay here? We'll bring you out. No, he's here with us.
Micah, it's really good to see you.
Thank you.
Micah, the school year is almost, you had a week left, right?
Yep. Next Friday. There you go. So you're almost, you've almost
done across the finish line. Do you, if you, as looking back on this school year,
mostly a success, do you feel like this was a, this was a good year for you? Yeah.
I went ahead of well. See, okay, right there. Let's just stop right there. Guys, if nothing else,
you can say what you will about the disaster that is public education right now. That's
That's right. You heard me say it, but here's the deal. We are still teaching young people
real things, useful skills. And as Micah has just mentioned here, the boy learned how to
weld. I mean, almost anything is possible now. Really. What I'd like to see, honestly,
Micah, here's what I'd like to invite you to. I think maybe some metal sculpture in
your parents' front yard.
- Just to display it. - Yeah, Christmas gifts from him.
- Really? - Yeah, they were good.
- You welded Christmas gifts? - Yeah.
- Yep. - Gosh.
- Sky's limit for you, young man.
- The forces. - Before you know it,
you'll be welding all kinds of things.
That's super exciting.
- So anyway, welcome to the show. - Thank you.
- And we are talking about a heart defect
that you found fairly recently,
I mean, within the last several years.
Can you start with your story about how you found
about your heart defect?
Yeah, so in 2019, I was, would have been 13.
I went to the dentist and they decided that, I think they just started for 13 year olds,
they started checking blood pressure.
And mine was really high.
Like normally it's about 120, I think over 80.
Mine was 180 over, I think I want to say 120 or something like that.
It was pretty high.
dangerously high. So my mom didn't really think anything about it. I mean, she like,
because it was one of the grist ones, like, so they're not very accurate. So she just figured
that it was a malfunction in that or something. And then she was reminded a couple of weeks later,
because here at church, we had, they were doing blood pressure things for like free
readings. And so she had me go do it again. And it was about the same. It didn't go down at all.
So then we went to my, what was it? It would have been your normal doctor. Yeah, my normal
doctor. Um, what all did he can't remember exactly? But, um, he basically, I mean, he
took it, but he was, I forget what he said exactly. But yeah, he wanted to do some. Yes,
he didn't. Okay. So he didn't think you're here or anything going on with my heart. So,
he did hear like a murmur over my kidneys.
So he was going to have us do it like a test.
It would have been like a catheter through my leg.
And well, that sounds fun.
Yes, it would have been.
Word would have.
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
Um, so we get there like, I had to wake up insanely early because it was like all
the way in South Bend and that was, I think I will assert there.
The thing was that like, I want to say seven or eight.
Yeah.
And so then when we got there,
I had gotten all in the gown
and everything was ready, like mentally prepared for it.
And then the doctor or the guy who would have been doing it
was like, I don't really think we need to do this today.
And so we kind of left that angry
'cause it's like, it's my life we're talking about.
- Sure, right, yeah.
- Like, I would be, I'm very mad about that.
- Yeah.
- But yeah, where was I then?
So then after that.
- And then, yeah, then we went back to him
and he also was mad, the doctor, my local doctor,
was mad about that for obvious reasons.
And so then he sent me to the cardiologist at South Bend
and she had me do some tests like an EKG
And then I think it's a echocardiogram.
So and then like one of them were, I don't know if it's the echocardiogram or
what it is, but they basically do an ultrasound of your heart.
Um, and they saw some, don't exactly remember like what it was, but, um.
Well, so what I remember, the one thing that I remember from this was the image,
like the 3d image of Micah's heart, but all of all of the, um,
Like his heart had, like his body was trying to, his heart was trying to overcome the fact
that it had, that there were, well, my super technical, there were issues, right?
That there were issues.
Right.
So specifically with blood flow, right?
And so that your heart had, so do they see that early?
Like was that an indicator to them?
Like when they started kind of, or did that happen later?
Well, that happened, I think.
That happened like the day before I went to surgery.
Yeah.
So they found through this process that there was definitely something wrong.
Gotcha.
And then I was basically diagnosed with a bunch of different things.
I think it's called like the Shones Complex or something.
One of the things being the co-writtation of the aorta.
So explain to our audience what co-writtation of the aorta means.
Google maps.
That's a big word.
So the aorta is the main artery that takes blood flow from your body.
It kind of does like a candy cane shape.
goes up and then goes down to the bottom half of your body.
And so in a co-rectation,
the artery starts to shrink down in the spot.
So typically that artery is about the size
of your pinky finger.
Mine in that spot was, I think they said it was a typical--
- It was like a typical ballpoint pen.
- Ballpoint pen, yeah.
- Like that's the diameter of what it was.
And so yeah, that was--
So it's restricting blood flow,
thus the elevated, extremely elevated blood pressure.
- Yep, it was high in my top half
and then really low on my bottom half.
- Right, because your heart was trying to
push a bunch of blood through.
- It's like when you take a hose and you pinch it off.
- Sure.
- That is basically what happens.
So you'll have high blood pressure
or high pressure in one half
and then really low in the rest.
- So had there been other symptoms
that you had experienced?
that you didn't have, like you had some other help things
that had happened before,
that you didn't really have an explanation for.
What were those things that were connected to it?
- One of my major things, which still kind of happens,
but not as much now are like migraines.
I get like the visual kind, they're a pain.
Like I still get them like during the school day
or whatever and I have to go home
or right before this podcast.
- Yeah, actually.
- Oh geez.
- Yeah.
So that was one of the major symptoms that we had
And they were like, I would say about 10 or so a month.
So it was like a lot.
- Pretty disruptive to like a lot of things that you,
'cause surprise, surprise,
Micah being part of the layman family,
he's a pretty active young man.
- Yes, I am.
- A lot of things going on.
So yeah, we'd get in the way of that stuff
on the regular.
- And so,
- Um, where was I at?
- Well, they discovered, yeah,
and they discovered the fact that you had this.
- And so then another symptom I had,
which was the fact that I would lay down
or whatever, sit down on the couch, watch TV.
I would stand up and sometimes my legs would just give out
'cause there wasn't blood flow to them.
- Jeez.
- Yeah, and I just thought that that was kind of normal.
Like, when you like stand up and like you get like,
kind of lightheaded and whatever.
like after his surgery, I remember him saying,
oh, like I don't feel like he didn't even realize
that that wasn't even normal.
- Gorgeous.
- Because he didn't know.
- So you had known that feeling,
that sensation for the majority of your life really.
- Yeah, well, I mean, honestly,
so I mean, this would have been something he was born with.
- Yeah.
- And most people who have this,
like I think that they either fix it by like two years old,
or you end up dying of it.
- Yeah, I think it's like one year,
But yeah, it's pretty quickly they fix it.
And for some reason, no one ever caught this in Micah.
- Hmm, interesting.
Until one day you went to the dentist's office.
- Yeah, of all the places of the dentist.
- Which I mean, obviously so forth, like, you know,
and again, the practices of, you know,
the dentist's office and place like this,
the whole idea there was that their,
I think American Medical Association or whatever it is
is trying to find more places that you come into contact
with some sort of medical professional
where they're doing that to screen for that sort of stuff,
to catch things.
So that's actually where that policy actually
like really ended up in your favor, right?
'Cause at least begin kind of the,
even though it was a little, took a little while to get going
kind of began the process of discovery for you.
- So now that dentist does it for everybody,
every patient that walks through the door.
- And they can tell the great story.
- Yeah, they do.
- The Michael Layman story, why we do it, right?
I was there one time recently and they took my blood pressure and mine was a little bit
high at the time and they're like, yeah, we had this kid one time.
Yeah, it's mine.
It was my son.
That's me.
Yeah.
That's great.
So you went to the cardiologist in South Bend.
They basically said, this is a big problem.
And then what did they do?
She basically said, she's sent the case down to all of the surgeons at Riawea Hospital.
cardiologist down in India and said that like they meet on like a Thursday or whatever
and all of them will sit down and discuss this case. And then like that Thursday or that
Friday or whatever, mom got like an email or whatever from the cardiologist and they
were like, yeah, you're going down to surgery in like two weeks. So that was.
Yeah. So then you essentially had not, you didn't have open heart surgery.
No, it went through, so it goes through my side and my back.
Do I show it?
- I mean, you can if you want, but.
(laughing)
- It's kinda weird.
Yeah, I would say about 12 inches from my side here,
my ribs, all the way up to my back.
That was not that painful, surprisingly,
when they did it.
- Well, then they essentially deflated your lung.
- Yeah, they deflated my lung, went through my side,
deflate on my lung and then to get to the heart and then fixed it.
And also, I do want to say this to anyone who is listening or watching us live, go
ahead and put your comments.
if you have any questions for Micah, go ahead and put them in the comments.
Yeah.
and we'd love to give them to the Micah.
So, was this one of the situations like, so is, is this one of these deals where the
doctor is doing the operation directly or is doing it through some sort of other mechanical
mechanical process. I don't think I know. I do remember going back into the operating room,
but there was so much going on that I didn't, or at least the room that they had me put in at first
to like put me to sleep with the mastigia, but I don't remember. So what is it exactly?
Are they putting something into you into the side of him? So, I mean, essentially the surgery,
And actually, my ecology does, like, what were they, what did they do during the surgery?
Like, what do you mean? Okay.
What was it? How did they fix that?
They basically cut out that, I think it's two or three inch section in my aorta
and placed in this artificial, almost like fabric mesh synthetic thing.
It looks like a vacuum hose.
Yeah, it looks like a vacuum hose. It's like my nickname, I guess, right on the house is that,
like vacuum hose man.
(laughing)
Part vacuum hose I guess.
But it's a lot more expensive than a vacuum hose.
(laughing)
But so that thing is about, I wanna say,
one or two inches that they stretched it to make it,
like they could have put like a child size one in,
but I would have had to go back and get it replaced
like soon after and they just like put the adult one in.
Didn't have to worry about it then.
- Yeah.
- But.
- Yeah.
And so then my veins and arteries decided, or not decided, but will grow and did grow
around that synthetic piece.
Well, and in fact, actually even before that, and this is what Joel was like earlier, is
that there was a picture that they had taken.
And before that, like other arteries had stuff had grown up around it to kind of help the
blood flow.
As what it would, the first time I saw it without really any context when I saw it is
like clearly a heart, but there was like your heart had grown like tentacles.
Yeah.
Like they're all these extra, like they're clearly like,
I had never seen a photo of a heart like that.
With all these other art, basically like to overcome,
your body was, which is just the absolute most amazing thing.
- Yeah, it's amazing how that body does that.
- Like your body was like, hey, not enough blood here,
we're gonna grow other means by which to circulate blood,
essentially.
But if, yeah, if you would look at it, you're like,
you're like, I'm no medical expert,
but I have never seen a heart that looks like that, right?
So, I mean, honestly, as a parent, I think, like, I was scared for you.
Like, I mean, I couldn't let you know that.
Yeah.
But like, I was like, we, this happened so fast.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, really, from the time...
From the time we found out to like the time that the surgery happened,
I think I found out that like the high blood pressure in like late September,
maybe early August, and I had everything fixed in the,
about the end of August of 2019.
So yeah, I mean, it was really was, I mean, a matter of weeks that it happened.
It was like boom, boom, boom as parents, you know, all the important
departments and everything, things and, you know, driving to Indian back and,
and like, I knew God had it in his hands.
You know, I knew that this is, but like for us as a parent,
I mean, we were just super grateful for the dentist for doing this because,
I mean, you were 13. Yeah. And this is normally caught when you're two or under, under two.
Like when you're born, right? So they test for it. Right. And for some reason it didn't get caught.
And so for us, we're just super grateful for the dentist to be able to, you know, doing that.
So thank you, Troy and Vonda. Thank you, Troy and Vonda.
Springer dental, not a sponsor. But we're grateful for them. Yeah, we're grateful for them. And so,
You know, it was pretty quick.
How were you feeling when you went in?
I mean, were you at any point like scared or?
I mean, definitely when I first found out, I was like, "Oh, cool.
I kind of have something special."
And then like as I went more and more about it, I was kind of getting more nervous about
it.
And then when we found out that I needed surgery, I was nervous for having surgery, but at
the same time, like really relaxed.
And then like the day that the surgery happened, like I was probably the calmest person in
that building.
Really?
That's interesting.
And I didn't have any medicines for like calming in me, except for when they put like, put
me to sleep.
They had like laughing gas on me, but like just before they put the anesthesia on.
But other than that, they were like no calming medicines I took.
Yeah, that's interesting.
Yeah, I remember just pre-op being with your, well, having all three of you in the room
I was your youth pastor at the time and friend.
Thank you. Yeah. I like to believe that your parents would have invited me. I mean, if
I didn't have the religious, the religious responsibility, but yeah, I mean, I would
say to your credit, Michael, that's the one thing I remember is you being pretty calm
about it and your parents also in the room trying to be very calm. And like basically
it was a matter of just getting you out of that room onto surgery before they could like,
I think, because they obviously, you were doing, you were really, I mean, you were a champ,
like doing, doing so well. And I know as a parent, you're like, I do not want to introduce,
I don't want to introduce my own stress onto them, you know, right before that. And,
and they did, they did super well, but there was definitely this, this sense of like,
once you're out of the room of like, well, here's, you know, now real, like this is reality.
That's like the longest time too because you're as a parent, you know, your kids going under
and they're having this pretty major like heart surgery for real.
It is his heart.
Yes, it's the heart that they're working on.
And so for us as a parent, you know, for me anyways, it was like, yeah.
Like the slightest thing that tickled my heart or anything, I could have instantly like gone
under cardiac arrest.
Well, and what was also amazing though is you were only, how long were you in the hospital?
I think they said to be prepared for about two weeks.
I was in there for about a week.
So six days, a week, somewhere in there.
That's pretty...
I mean, given...
And that's just, I mean, the amazing thing about medicine these days, given the very
serious and like intensive nature of all of that, the fact that you can be out so quickly.
Right, at home.
And yeah.
So, you have this surgery.
Here's the thing I remember about you after the surgery.
You started growing like crazy.
- Yeah, I was like short.
My brother Eli, who was younger than me,
was pretty much most of, since I would say about,
since he was about 11, 10, 11, was taller than me.
And then I started catching up
and was a little bit taller than him.
And he said he got worried about that.
I was gonna be taller than him, like good.
But he's still taller than me now.
But that's just because I'm older.
- He got the tall jeans in the,
I don't know where you got them.
Yeah, it's an I'm I just I'm interested in what recessive gene
they use the embracing.
So there's.
Yeah, you so you started experiencing.
I mean, all these things it was kind of there were there were new parts to your life
like what you're experiencing physically with within your body.
Do you feel like.
Like as you as you kind of reflect on this experience,
you know, your dad said earlier, you know, God has, God has purposes. There's purposes for this,
you know, this for you. What, as you, as you have reflected, like, what does it feel like has been
accomplished within you as a, as a person, you know, with, with this whole process?
I've definitely grown in with my walk in Christ since then. It was a major, like, event in my life
that help shape who I am as a Christian and as a person in general. So yeah.
I would imagine there's few things that compare to having your life put on hold,
so to speak, like that, but then also being reminded of how fragile life is.
Because like you said, I mean, any number of things, your dad said it earlier, which
this is, I mean, this is the hard thing.
Either they catch it early or it kills the person.
So by God's grace, you lived to age 13.
13 times I could have died.
Yeah.
Like, any, gosh, any number of things, especially you being as active as you are.
Yeah.
I felt like I was always able to catch up and stay active and running with it.
So basically you were like, it's really like you had like just superhuman powers to overcome
the things you were going through.
Like before I definitely when I was running, I could get tired really easily, but like
I could, I felt like more like a short distance type of running.
Sure.
I mean, I'm not a runner in general at all, but definitely as I've gotten older, I'm
definitely not.
Well, because you're a sensible person, who runs for fun?
Let's just be honest.
Yeah, I'll get it.
Then after that, I could run a mile or not quite a mile, but like half a mile or so,
and I could not get tired.
Yeah.
And so, like normal 13-year-old kid.
Yeah.
And I wonder, like, I mean, so, so had this had this process like had it had it strengthened
your heart in some, like in some ways?
I mean, was, were there, were there, you kind of like felt, I mean, I would just imagine,
I mean, going from pre-surgery to post-surgery and now a massive amount of more blood can
literally flow through your body and your heart.
Like, I just have to imagine that that is a significant, like that's a significant difference.
Yeah, it is very much.
Yeah.
Yeah, there's, yeah.
It's just, it's really, it is an amazing thing.
It's a testimony of, obviously of God's provision and His goodness.
And I think, especially like with your guys' family in particular, like, you know, it
has been one kind of one unique medical thing after another.
And I think, yeah, it's just, it's an interesting thing to see how, how, what has come of that.
What, you know, and, and, you know, Micah, I just, I appreciate your, your attitude.
I appreciate the young man that you are because I think you're, you're a good example of,
like you, like you said, someone who can, who can look to God and say, okay, I see,
I see the growth that happened through this.
And I see how it could have like a hundred different ways could have gone differently.
Right.
A hundred different ways could have gone differently.
And you know, having more, I think having more young people.
And again, when you're young, it's hard.
It's hard to know how fortunate you are.
Right.
Like it's hard to know like the good things and, you know, and being young and being your
age is as hard enough as it is.
I've been reminded here recently of just some interactions that I've had with a lot of boys,
you know, your age and, you know, it's a, it's a pivotal time in life, right? It's like,
there's a lot going on and there's, you know, a lot of decisions that are, that are coming your
way important, you know, important things. Do you feel following, so here's, here's maybe,
me, this is an interesting question. At least it's interesting to me. Do you feel like,
like I feel like you're kind of, I would say like you're kind of, you're not a risk adverse
person. That's like, I would say that you're a risk taker. Yeah. Yeah. Much to your parents.
It should grant. Do you, do you think that's related to this? And it would to like to your
medical history at all? Do you think that has some sort of influence on it? I mean, definitely.
It's like that YOLO, whatever.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's like definitely coming near to death has like
helped realize like I could die at any point.
Yeah.
So if I'm gonna like risk it, why not?
Yeah.
I'm already gonna possibly die.
Like why not take the risk of getting hurt already?
Yeah.
I mean, I mean, you've overcome a massive heart defect already.
Let's wail.
Yeah, what else could I do?
What, why not?
Like I definitely I'm turning 18 at the end of this year.
I want to like either get a tattoo.
I like where I like where this is going already.
Skydiving.
Oh, both.
Both. Why do you why do you need to check one?
Yeah, yeah, I would think your dad would be
let's do both.
Encouraging you toward both.
Sounds good.
OK, I heard it by the end of this year.
Skydiving and another tattoo.
Let's get it done.
Yeah, Andy, I'm wondering like what if you
how does one how does how does a parent
handle a risk taking child.
Like given what Micah has been through,
'cause you could definitely understand
like his perspective on life, right?
And all of that.
In a world today where if we could,
it feels like so many parents
wanna bubble wrap their kids and I get it
'cause they're precious cargo,
we love them, we care about them,
we don't wanna see undue harm come to them.
At the same time, we want to see them live life fully and learn how to take risks, hopefully
calculated to a point.
What has been your thought, like your perspective on that?
Well, I mean, I definitely never really thought of it the way that he just said.
I never really thought about it the way that this is because of the fact that he almost
died.
Like, like I guess I never really thought about that being the reason,
one of the reasons that he's risk.
Would you say risk?
Not. Well, he's not risk adverse.
Redverse. There we go. Yeah.
I mean, I think you still like went to protect your kids.
Right. I still want to be like careful when I can.
Like I don't want to go and like jump off a cliff without a parachute.
A hundred. You're not crazy.
Yeah.
Yeah. Right. Right.
like definitely I calculated in a way like.
Yeah. And, and, you know, maybe a desire, maybe a desire to just get the most out
of each experience, right?
An adventure seeker, maybe.
Yeah.
In a way.
What's, what's a big adventure?
Okay. So we've said, we said tattoo and skydiving.
I say, why not get a tattoo while skydiving?
It might not turn out exactly how you want it to.
What are the goals for you, Michael?
What other what other big kind of big hairy scary kind of things have you thought about?
I love the sport of Formula One racing and motor sports.
I think it would be awesome to like get a ride in a open wheel car.
It could be Indy car, something like that.
I mean, yes, they're G forces and I'm not supposed to have like a lot of pressure.
And that's what I have a lot of pressure on my chest.
But yeah.
So my question is, because this is the thing that I've heard about all of the people that go into test rides in,
in, within like Formula One, Indy,
are you excited about wearing the adult underwear? And that's really what I want to know.
That's what I want to know. Yeah. That feels like,
I feel like as when you do, like if you do something that, that intense and really that, like that manly, let's just call it what it is.
The way that you are have to be brought slightly back down to earth is having to wear adult diapers, right?
Yeah, I think so. I mean again, their necks are in that sport
Their necks are so thick because of the amount. Yeah, the only thing that's like yeah free to move besides their hands
So it's like everything is trapped in so their necks would do that if they didn't like go to the side if they didn't yeah
It's amazing. It's amazing people like they are athletes in the in the most in the in the truest sense
of what it takes for physical stamina and all of that.
And a lot of times with the Formula One,
they travel around the world.
So it's a lot of times it's in like the Middle East drinks
where it's hot.
They're already in this race suit that's fireproof.
And so it's extremely hot.
They're undergoing like so much forces.
They're athletes.
so long story short, Micah is going to get in a race car.
That's what I've learned.
Ian says adult underwear, crying emoji.
Ian, there's nothing.
And there's nothing, there's, I was gonna say,
there's nothing funny about it.
(laughing)
But there is clearly, 'cause I'm laughing about it.
For those of you that do wear adult underwear,
I wanna just say, just complete, no disrespect to you.
- Yeah.
- Zero disrespect.
- Micah, is there anything that you want to say,
like anything that we didn't touch on tonight?
- Yeah, a couple of things.
the one, the best thing to get you like better in a hospital, chicken noodle soup.
Oh, nice.
Always the best.
Nice.
And second, I really appreciated all like that.
I had a huge box of gifts that everybody that knew me pretty much donated.
That was nice because even after I was opening gifts, it's like Christmas in August.
That was what I think.
I'm so glad you said that because that's something I remember.
Things like this, things that occur like this where you are reminded of really the
great community that's surrounding you, the people that love you, people care about you.
Good stuff.
I'm so glad that we get to sit here and talk about this now and that we can have this kind
of conversation because, yeah, it can be scary stuff, but there is something to be said.
for, for any of our kids, any of our kids that go through, that go through hard things of it
really being an opportunity for them to, to develop that, that those, those can become
opportunities for, you know, I look at Micah and I see somebody who has got some things that he's
some intentionality that's in life in a, in a day and age when young people are just feels
like they're kind of, it can be push and pull that each all different kinds of ways, right? And
And this kind of this sense of like, oh, I'm not sure where my life is going sort of thing.
Micah, i'm just very, very encouraged by the intentionality that you bring to life.
And I think that's, that's a product of the journey that you've been on.
So good stuff, man.
And Micah, thank you for sharing your story, buddy.
It's one more insight.
Yeah.
So you had, you had made kind of an analogy.
You were super good at analogies earlier.
So can you tell me the analogy with your heart?
So the way I would see it is that like we're all born with a heart defect of some sort.
It's sin, but like mine is a physical heart defect, but also like a mental or whatever
heart defect.
Spiritual one.
Spiritual, yeah, that one.
And like the only like surgery and like the best surgeon is Jesus and like that's just
the best way to get rid of this heart defect.
Yeah. It's always a good reminder that the physical things, there are a spiritual counterpart
to that, right, Joe? And that's a good analogy.
And the first time I thought about that was about a year ago when our youth group was
going to do a mission trip to Alaska. And so we were preparing our testimonies. And so
that was just a part that we thought about.
Yeah, that's a natural one, right?
It's like it's a major event.
So yeah.
Yeah.
Well, it's like, let me tell you about my heart, both spiritually and physically, and how
that story intersects.
That's so great.
That's really, really great.
Micah, you were like no other guest, though.
Oh, here it comes.
You're going to get the.
Now it's time for the dudes and dads pop quiz.
All right.
That's right, guys.
If you've never joined us, the pop quiz of the time that we just randomly throw things
at Micah that have nothing to do with the topic of heart defects.
Sounds good.
And we just get to know him a little bit better and he has no idea what's coming.
So sweet. I will go first.
Micah, what is your favorite gadget?
Gadget. Oh.
I'm really big into survival.
And so you are.
Yeah, that's another major thing about me.
True.
So I think it was for my birthday.
My aunt got me this thing called a scotch eyed auger.
It is basically an auger that has a eyelet on the top
that you can fit a stick through.
And so it's about, it makes it a one inch hole.
- Okay.
- So it's used for like bushcraft making tools
and like ladders and--
- You can auger your way through just about anything.
- And then so you can just whittle a stick down
and use it as a hand auger.
- Love it.
I thought you were gonna say the,
so today, I come home and Micah is building
Yeah.
A bed for his van.
Oh, yeah.
Like, they loft basically, like he's got it up and so you can slide things underneath
it.
Uh-huh.
Yeah, I think you're gonna say that.
The van is currently sitting out in the parking lot with it in it.
So...
Micah, can I just ask you a question?
Because I'm just piecing a few things together.
Number one, you are a scout that has a cabin by a river.
You have a van that you're putting a bed in.
Will you be living in a van down by the river?
That's what I need to know just so I can prepare myself.
Possibly.
Yeah, okay.
I see the wheels turning.
Okay, my question, Micah, let's just put it out there.
Favorite Formula One driver?
Oh, that's hard to...
That's hard to...
Oh, here it comes.
So when I first got into Formula One, which is about a year ago, so I'm a newer fan, sadly,
My favorite driver, I never got to actually see him race.
His name is Kimmy Reichenan.
He's from, he's like a Finnish person.
- He finishes things.
- Yeah, yeah.
He's from Finland.
- Ding, ding, ding.
- He's from Finland.
So he always raced, or recently he's raced under,
or yeah, he raced under number seven,
which was also Michael Schumacher's number
when he was at Ferrari,
which he also, Kimmy also raced at for a different time period.
But so yeah, he won in 2007, like the World Championship.
That's the only time he did.
Some say that he only won because Lewis teams
messed up in strategy intentionally.
Lewis Hamilton, by the way.
- We're never getting in the stop-talk.
- Yeah, no, we're not.
- So who is your, so that's your favorite?
We're gonna, give me. - Yeah, Lewis.
- Give me, sorry, give me a yes.
All right.
- Okay, I'm just glad we finished that question.
- Oh, finished.
- Ding, ding, ding.
Okay.
- Oh man.
- Thank you, thank you.
- You were waiting for that one.
- I was.
- All right, Micah, which talent would you most like to have?
- Racing.
- Yeah, I could have figured that one, but go ahead.
- All right, Micah.
If money or time are not a factor in this question,
when I say time, I mean,
like you'll get what you hopefully understand the question.
What is your perfect day?
Like what's your perfect day involve?
Like what are the pieces to it?
- So in the morning, it would probably be like waking up
about maybe nine or 10.
- Nice, okay.
I'm definitely a late sleeper.
Yeah, that's great.
That's great.
If I had the chance, I would probably sleep until out that.
And when we don't have school, I'd usually do.
OK.
Except for this summer.
Except for this summer, I'm getting a job.
Gone are the days.
Yep.
And then probably go to lunch somewhere.
What do you have at lunch?
Oh, that's an excellent question.
I really like pretzels.
OK, pretzels good answer.
- Or Chinese, Chinese is good too.
- How about a Chinese pretzel, okay.
(laughing)
So you're sleeping in, getting Chinese pretzel,
and then what finishes the day well for you?
Like what's the thing that you just want
to cap a good day off on?
- Definitely either watching or forming a one race.
(laughing)
- Yes.
- And also maybe sleeping outside
in like a tarp shelter of some sort.
- Perfect, yes, okay, survivalist to the end, okay.
- All right, so since Joel asked about food,
I'm gonna ask you if you had a sandwich named after you there we go. What would be on it? Oh
Turkey definitely
Definitely like turkey more than a recipe for yeah, I'm hot take I
Don't I like bologna, but not as much
So turkey sandwich yep with I would say lettuce tomato and pickle okay
So like subway sandwich it would be with like salt pepper oil and vinegar gotcha
What kind of bread are we talking here Italian urban cheese? Oh Italian urban cheese
So the Italian urban cheese with salt and pepper oil vinegar turkey tomato lettuce pickle is the mica. Yeah, that's the mica
Ding ding ding Michael my final question is
In a zombie apocalypse
Okay
Who's
Who's the first family member to go wait?
And and and who goes who lasts the longest?
Who are you killing off first again?
The entirely fictional but who like if this is the zombie apocalypse show that you're producing
or your family who goes first?
That's a good question.
Reagan Reagan goes for okay Reagan Reagan here's the deal you got a bone up on your
zombie apocalypse survival skills apparently according to Michael okay and then who lasts who
Who lasts the longest?
I want to say Hattie, probably.
He thinks Hattie lasts the longest.
She eats me up.
Oh, like Hattie, you're a survivor.
You're just, you're an overcomer.
And then dad.
As, but as we all know, here's the deal.
It's been shown.
The person that really lasts the Zymepocalypse best shotgun skills.
So Micah.
Yeah.
So, you know, when it comes, when it comes to that, I think you've probably got a good
You got a good chance of not, of not being, having your face eaten off by a zombie.
60, I think 62 out of 100 clays.
Nice. There we go. You're already, you're primed and ready for that.
I'm not even going to tell you my number.
Yeah. That's okay.
That's, I didn't ask for that very reason to save you the embarrassment.
I would say imagine less than 20.
All right. Let's end the show.
Wow. Okay. Wow. Shots fired at the very end.
Hey everybody, thanks for tuning in.
Micah, i appreciate you being here as always.
You can head over to dudes and dads podcast.com for all the spicy show notes and all the details
about each and every episode. You can our caller voice mail. We love feedback.
574 213 8070 to our dudes and dads podcast at gmail.com for the emails that will inspire
taunt us, thrill us all the things, all the things. Guys, appreciate each and every one of
you turn it in yet again and we look forward to seeing you next time and until then we wish
you grace and peace.
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