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Guest: David Wilkerson @dlwilker5000

Show Notes:

David Wilkerson⁠ and I were introduced by previous guest ⁠Whitney Bevins⁠ (⁠EP 4⁠) at the Indy Monumental expo. She brought him over to me and said, "You have to have David on your podcast." And so I did. And his story is incredible.

During this episode, sponsored by ⁠Previnex⁠ and ⁠Cure Hydration⁠, we talk about:

• The small Indy running community and how he runs with Johanna Kitchell (⁠episode 114⁠) and Matt Ebersole of PBT (⁠episode 89⁠)

• How David and I were connected by Whitney Bevins (⁠episode 4⁠) at the Indy Monumental Expo 

• When David started running because his mom wouldn’t let him play football

• Getting into coaching at Warren Central while he had a job and young family 

• The time he trained for the Flying Pig but only made it to mile 10 of the race 

• How he discovered he had heart problems and getting a pacemaker at age 37

• The day all hell broke loose - February 10th, 2022

• Getting a new heart a week before his birthday 

• How he did a 5K less than six months after finishing cardiac rehab

• Getting connected to his donor’s family and meeting them for the first time

• Beating one of his heart doctors when he ran the Indy Mini after his transplant 

• Between him and his wife they have 8 kids 

• Our shared love of out-and-back courses or runs 

• ⁠The Transplant Games ⁠

• Joining⁠ PBT Personal Best Training ⁠with Matt Ebersole

  ⁠Become an organ donor ⁠

  Sponsor Details:

  - ⁠Previnex⁠ - Use ALLY15 for 15% off your first order

  - ⁠Cure Hydration ⁠- Use ALLYB for 20% off your first order

Episode Transcript:

DAVID WILKERSON

[00:00:00] This is a Sandy Boy Productions podcast.

 

Ally Brettnacher: Welcome to Finish Lines and Milestones, a podcast for everyday runners. I'm your host, Ali Brett Knocker, and if you run, you're a runner and every runner has a story. Join me each week as I share these stories and we celebrate finish lines and milestones together.

This episode is brought to you by Previnex. Previnex creates clinically effective supplements that promote longevity, performance, and everyday health. I have been using Previnex since February of this year, so almost a year now, and I use their gut and green Superfood. Every single day to help with immunity, natural energy, which is really big for me as a runner and a mom.

And I also have been using their Muscle Health Plus, and I am so excited to tell you there is a new flavor in [00:01:00] town.

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So do yourself a favor, go to proven x.com. That's P-R-E-V-I-N-E x.com. Use code ALLY15. For 15% off of your first order. You should also know that Previnex gives back for every order placed. They also send vitamins to malnourished kids in need, so know that you are also making a difference when you support Previnex.

Thank you so much to Previnex for supporting this podcast. so before I get into this week's guest, I'm just gonna ask that you share rate, review the podcast. I'm so excited to see what 2026 and beyond will bring. My main goal is to grow this community and have as big of an impact on this [00:02:00] community as I can.

So sharing helps others find the podcast. And if you know of anybody who should be a guest, please send them my way. Also have some exciting things in the works for next year, which I will update you on as they come to fruition. But thanks for being here. I appreciate you so much. And now without further ado, this week's episode is with David Wilkerson.

David is a transplant recipient, a heart transplant recipient, and I had the chance to meet him in person at the Indie Monumental Expo. My friend Whitney, who we talk about, brought him over and said I had to have him on, and so here we are. Thank you so much again, Whitney, and thank you so much David, for doing this.

I learned a lot about what it means to be a a transplant recipient, some of the ins and outs of that process, the work that David continues to do in that arena, and how he got to participate in the transplant games, how he trained for a marathon that he never got to run, but he hopes to run a marathon perhaps in [00:03:00] 2026.

But I know you're gonna be really inspired by this conversation with David Wilkerson.

Welcome, David. Happy to be here.

David Wilkerson: Good, good.

Ally Brettnacher: So you were just saying right before we hit record that you, you know Johanna?

David Wilkerson: I do.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. How do you know Johanna? So I

David Wilkerson: met her through PBT. Okay. So when I got back into running, I've known Matt Ebersol for a long time. I used to work at Athletic Annex back in the day when it was over I 86 and this You

Ally Brettnacher: did?

David Wilkerson: So I was there many, many moons ago. I knew Matt. Oh my gosh. Very well. I knew we had this group, so when I got back into running, I just kind of reached out and he said, come check it out.

And yeah, so

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. So I

David Wilkerson: enjoyed it. So that's how I met her because we were pretty much running the same pace and I was trying to figure out what pace I needed to run, so.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh, It's such a small, big town.

David Wilkerson: Yes.

Ally Brettnacher: But especially in the running world, it gets to be so much smaller.

David Wilkerson: Correct.

Ally Brettnacher: So how long have you been running with PBT then?

David Wilkerson: Uh, a little over two years.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. Yeah. So relatively new. Yeah. Relatively

David Wilkerson: new. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: So, man, where do we even start? We should just probably start with the fact that, Whitney Bevins Yep. Introduced us. She pulled you over to the Legacy [00:04:00] Lounge, did at the Indie Monumental Expo and was like, you have to have David on your podcast.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. So I've known, known of Whitney and known her probably over 20 years. Kind of crossed over in high school a little bit. I went to Warren Central, she was at Westfield. Okay. And she graduated a couple years after me. But in that circle, the running community is relatively, once you're in it, you're kind of always in it.

Yes. So you always run into people at expos and races and stuff like that. Her eye and just started chatting and she knew a little bit about my story and that's why she brought me. There we go. There's someone you have to meet. I'm like, okay. And I've seen, um, your podcast before, like Robert Jackson, I saw you did his podcast.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm. Yep. And

David Wilkerson: Johanna, so I knew of you, but I didn't know you,

Ally Brettnacher: so, yeah. Well, I'm so, so glad that she pulled you over.

David Wilkerson: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: she's like, Hey, David has a new heart. You should interview him. Holy crap. So, Whitney was actually episode maybe three of this podcast. Okay. Yeah. So we worked together, not at Annex, but at what was Jackrabbit then?

Fleet Feet. Yep. For a short time together. Did you work

David Wilkerson: at Annex?

Ally Brettnacher: Um, no. I have never worked for Annex. although now they are my favorite. Yeah. but Fleet Feet, I worked, we worked [00:05:00] there for like a year together. Okay. And it was funny because when she came in. I was like, Whitney Bevins. We went to high school together.

Okay. Her sister, I didn't know you went to Westfield. Okay. Yeah, I went to Westfield High School and her sister Allison was in my grade. And I knew of Whitney just 'cause you know, they were siblings and she was, I think a senior when I was a freshman. So, anyway, so we, and she's a really good runner and she was a really good runner.

Still is player. Really good runner. Yes, yes. Very much so. So thank you so much, Whitney. Yeah. Thank you Whitney, for introducing us. Yeah. So where should we start? Let's just go back to the beginning a little bit. We've obviously teased the big part of your story. Yep. We have. But you've been running for a really long time.

David Wilkerson: So, yeah, I started running when I was in seventh grade. so I grew up in Warren Township and went to Warren Central High School, went to Creston Middle School, then it was junior high. But I wanted to play football 'cause I always like played baseball and basketball. So it's like, oh, I'll do football in middle school.

And my mom's like, no. She's like, you need to find something else. Tom. Like, I love that so much.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Oh. '

David Wilkerson: cause I had cousins who played football. I was like, oh, that'd be fun for me to do. I always like playing in the neighborhood and playing with friends. Mom's like, no. So I learned about this crazy [00:06:00] world of cross country, had no idea what it was.

Um, show up for the first practice and they're like, all right, we're gonna go run through the woods. And like all, it was fun. I enjoyed it. I've always been competitive. So remember we went through a couple practices, had our first race and like we have our first race up to three K at Franklin Central Middle School.

Had no idea what we're supposed to do during this run. I remember me and my buddies all like cutting people off and like the kids were like, oh, you can't do that. We're like, oh, we, we didn't know. So

Ally Brettnacher: yeah, I quickly

David Wilkerson: learned quick learning page. figured out pretty quick. Did cross country transitioned into track and enjoyed track.

So did like the mile 800, stuff like that.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

David Wilkerson: Eighth grade got pretty good at it. I'm like, all right, this might be my sport. I played basketball too in middle school as well, so I did that in seventh and eighth grade. But I knew once I got in high school it was gonna be hard to do everything. So I settled on the crazy sport of running and have been running most of my whole life.

So,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. And you ran in college too, right? I did, yeah.

David Wilkerson: So when did you run at

Ally Brettnacher: like four year college? I did.

David Wilkerson: So yeah, I was still in high school. I was a decent runner. senior year I finally got to the point where I ran 17 minutes for a 5K, so, which isn't too bad, not amazing, but enough [00:07:00] to be on varsity and, you know, one of the upper kids on my team.

And then track season is kinda when I had my breakthrough. met an individual who actually went to Warren Central named John Fle. Don't know if you know that name, but his son, Gabe Fidel ran for him to Southeastern, won a state title. Oh, okay. John was also an amazing runner at Warren Central. Had all the school records, but he ran at Ball State and he would come back and kind of help out coaching as a volunteer coach.

And my senior year started running with him and me and some other buddies and started improving pretty quick. So had great high school cross country coaches, but then I met John and kind of started improving and broke 10 minutes, in the two mile my senior year. So that kind of

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

David Wilkerson: Opened up some doors for college.

So, yeah. So the coach at, Anderson University, Larry Maddox. Reached out to me, came and watched me run and yeah. So I went to Anderson University and ran there, so

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

David Wilkerson: Had a pretty successful career there. Ran there for a couple years. we made it to the national meet my sophomore year, which was a pretty cool experience.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh

yeah.

Where

was Nationals?

David Wilkerson: That was in, uh, Wisconsin.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. So,

David Wilkerson: yeah, it's a lot of fun. very pay up, very high moment from a running standpoint at that Yeah. Level. Had a pretty good time. Ran [00:08:00] 25, 45 for an eight K, so not too bad. So there was a time when I was pretty fast. I mean, had some good times and trained really hard.

yeah. So then I got, married, kind of young, had kids and basically started working, work was work and I transitioned into coaching when my buddy became the high school coach, for Warren Central for Girls Cross Country and tracks, so. Okay.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. So

David Wilkerson: got, so did you do

Ally Brettnacher: that with your job that you had then?

I did.

David Wilkerson: So at the time I was able to balance both. Okay. And did that for about six or seven years. It sounds like a lot. Yeah. It was fun though. And married

Ally Brettnacher: with young kids at the time.

David Wilkerson: If the kids got to be drug along to some meats and they kind of enjoy gonna, the track meets I'd buying hot chocolate and food and Yeah.

Yeah. Tried to make it as fun for them as possible. Right. But yeah, so it was a lot of fun.

Ally Brettnacher: So what, what was success for you there?

David Wilkerson: Um, we made it to the state finals as a team, which had never been done for, well that's 20 some plus years. Incredible. Yeah. So, yeah. Pretty cool. So we had a great run, A lot of fun.

And my kids got into running, so I actually transitioned out of coaching once my kids got to the high school level because for me it wasn't fair to be a coach. Mm-hmm. And also try to be a parent at the same time. [00:09:00] Like, it was just, I didn't wanna do that to them and put any extra pressure that was already there.

Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. So. Kind of stepped back from coaching. And ironically, at the time that I stepped back, I kind of started training. trained for a marathon to do a marathon. Trained for the flying pig. Got in great shape for it, I was ready to go. And then at mile 10 pulled my hamstring and wasn't able to finish the race.

So I haven't, no, I've trained for a marathon, but I haven't done one yet. So

Ally Brettnacher: David, that is so sad. Yeah, it happens. You know, we all know that some

David Wilkerson: days are good, some days are bad and I was ready for it and just body gave up. That sucks. Sucks. Yeah, that kind of,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah, I'm so sorry. What year was that?

David Wilkerson: That was 2014.

Ally Brettnacher: 2014. Okay.

David Wilkerson: So coach for two more years. And then after that started trying to train for a marathon again. And that's what kind of led to discovering that I had some heart problems.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

David Wilkerson: So I was training for a marathon and just felt awful. Like I would go out and try to run paces that I normally ran and just felt like ran down.

I'm like, well, maybe I'm just getting older, you know, I'm not as young as I used to be. Cool. Yeah, right. So chocolate, you know, maybe I'm getting older, so, but just a couple weeks later still wasn't feeling well, so I finally [00:10:00] decided to go to the doctor. And I go to the doctor because I thought, you know, my stomach was bothering me.

I thought I was having stomach issues. Mm-hmm. And maybe that's why I felt so bad working out and running. Um, they took my pulse and my pulse was 32, which Oh, Rus have low pulses. Yeah. But's like, as you know, but that's really low insanely. So they're like, this is not normal. We need to send you out to the heart hospital.

Something's not right. So I'm like, well, I'll drive out there because I drove to the doctor. They're like, no, you need to have someone come pick you up. We'll get you out there. You're lucky we're not gonna send you out there in an ambulance. I was gonna say, that's what my

Ally Brettnacher: thought when you said that, I was like, oh my gosh, if they put you in an ambulance, that would be, yeah.

So no

David Wilkerson: ambulance. So get out to the heart hospital. And they thought I was having AFib, so. Okay. And you're familiar with AFib? I don't actually know what that means. So AFib, where you kind of get erratic, heartbeats kind of can shoot up and then kind of go back downs. It's an abnormal rhythm. Okay. So a lot of times they can fix that with medication or ablations where they kind of go in and categorize certain scar tissues of your heart to make the.

Patterns go through Better normal. Yeah. I'm not a doctor so it's hard for me. I know a lot about the heart, you're saying? I mean,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. I don't know much at all. Pretend like I know absolutely nothing 'cause I really don't know a lot. So

David Wilkerson: we get out there, they do an [00:11:00] ablation and the ablation work for about 10 minutes.

So they're like, okay, that's not good. So maybe it's not that. So at the same time they decided to do a genetic testing. after the ablation the next day they had me go back in. So what

Ally Brettnacher: for, sorry, the ablation, can they do that? Like non-invasive, or like Yeah, so usually

David Wilkerson: they kind of put you in twilight fever where they'll put you sleep and they kind of go through your groin area.

Okay, okay. So not, they're not like cutting

Ally Brettnacher: open your chest? No, this is nothing worse. Like doing anything. Yeah, it's very noninvasive. Okay. Kind of. So they could do that pretty quickly too. And so they did it and then they waited to see and then, and it didn't take, okay,

David Wilkerson: so that told them that it wasn't AFib, there was something else going on.

So at that point they decided the next day to have me go back in and put a pacemaker defibrillator in. Did the genetic testing and also found out that I had a genetic condition called limb girdle muscular dystrophy. Okay. So it's a form of muscular dystrophy that can either affect your limbs of your body or the electrical system of your heart.

And mine affected the electrical system of my heart. Okay. So it was pumping fine, but the currency to get things to beat was not doing what it needed to. I would get really bad. VTA. So vtac is when your heartbeat goes really high.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. And

David Wilkerson: doesn't go back down. So obviously if [00:12:00] you get over 1 90, 200, you can start going into cardiac arrest.

Yeah. So they put the pacemaker in to keep your heartbeat normal. But then the defibrillator is there to shock you if you need to get shocked. So, okay. So when this was 2017.

Ally Brettnacher: 2017, and when you were running and not feeling right, did you feel it also like in your like heart, like you couldn't catch your breath?

Or like Yeah, so I feel

David Wilkerson: a little like rhythms when I took off, but I was like, eh, it would level out after a while. Yeah. So I kept running through it, Obviously I've had this condition. I found out my whole life, after some genetic testing found out my mom has a similar condition and I have some other family members and cousins.

Interesting. Okay. Who also have it. Okay. So it's a genetic condition that was, passed on that way.

Ally Brettnacher: So, and did your, have your biological kids been tested for it? Yeah,

David Wilkerson: so both have been tested. One of them does have the genes, so we're monitoring that they go every year to get looked at. So we know what to look for in that.

Yeah, that's good. Hopefully down the road there'll be something where they can go in and fix all the genetic mm-hmm. Mutations without anything being done. So,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. And so putting the pacemaker in, that sounds like a big

David Wilkerson: deal. Yeah, so they kind of, that is more like, it's [00:13:00] not super invasive. They're busy.

You kind of cut you open right here, insert a little pocket, and the pacemaker's in there and you just kind of live with this device that's set at like 60 beats per minute that pumps your heart and then it's crazy. So defibrillator. So when this happened, I basically wasn't able to run anymore 'cause because of that.

So we try to run every now and then, but it never felt great. And also, you know. just kind of listen like eh, maybe it's not worth trying.

Ally Brettnacher: Did you ask the doctors at the time?

David Wilkerson: I did ask it and we did a little bit of walk run and you know, but nothing where you're gonna train for a marathon or anything

Ally Brettnacher: like that.

Yeah. So how did you cope with that? That's really hard. After running it was hard. 'cause you know,

David Wilkerson: running your addictive personality. Yeah. So you find other outlets. So I kind of got into weightlifting, started doing weightlifting and things like that. Okay. Other ways to kind of feed that desire that you have with mm-hmm.

That comes with running. So never quite met it, but it was also fun to experience with weightlifting and push my body in a different way that I hadn't done before. Yeah. Did you? Because most distance runners do a little bit of weightlifting, but nothing where you're trying to max out or anything like that, so.

Right. Which I was fun to do and I had a good buddy, you know, help me do that and learn a lot about weight weightlifting at that time. So that was fun.

Ally Brettnacher: I was gonna say [00:14:00] that's a great Yeah. Skill to have and it was, was a great workout

David Wilkerson: and just did more walks and hiking and just stuff like that, so,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. So.

Okay, so after the pacemaker they send you, was that the same visit?

David Wilkerson: I was in the hospital for about three days then. Okay. So it wasn't too bad.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. And then they send you home after that and they're like, yeah, they send

David Wilkerson: you home. They put me on a bunch of different medications to kind of help my heart beat normal.

So, you know, a lot of medications, not always great for your body, but they seem to do the job. Mm-hmm. Really do the job for about, for about four years. So to. Yeah. Well,

Ally Brettnacher: how old were your kids in 2017?

David Wilkerson: They would've been, eighth grade and freshman in high school.

Okay. So, so young. I mean, so, so that's

Ally Brettnacher: scary

David Wilkerson: too, period for them to watch their dad go through that period. Yeah. A big transition period in their life. You know, son's in high school, daughter's in eighth grade. Mm-hmm. A lot of big things going on for them and have to worry about like, what's going on with dad.

Yeah. Like, so yeah. So, yeah. So, you know, luckily I had great, doctors at Community Heart Hospital. They got me on a good plan and pacemaker defibrillator was in medication, so everything seemed to be at bay and everything was fine. So

Ally Brettnacher: yeah, I was like, all right, this is the new, new [00:15:00] norm. Okay. And what age were you when you got the pace and it

David Wilkerson: was 37.

Ally Brettnacher: That's crazy to think about. Yeah. Wow.

David Wilkerson: Yep. So yeah, pacemaker food later at 37 and I mean, kind of changes how you approach things, but didn't really change a whole lot. Just, you know, try to be smarter about what you're putting in your body and things like that. So. Okay. And really, we thought things were good and honestly felt fine, was working out, doing things.

And then Thanksgiving night of 2021 didn't feel great that day, but you know, didn't know if it was just from being ran down, who knew what was going on. Mm-hmm. So when I was asleep that night, I got shocked while I was sleeping by my defibrillator. So usually when you're sleeping, your heartbeat should be pretty calm.

Apparently at some point when I was sleeping, my heartbeat got up and defibrillator had to go and shock me to

Ally Brettnacher: tell you. Yeah. Something to get my heart to beat normal. So that kind of,

David Wilkerson: you know, imagine putting the pads on you to shock somebody. Basically what a defibrillator is, they always say you have like a nurse and a doctor inside you where it's there to Okay, do it.

Ally Brettnacher: That's terrifying. So

David Wilkerson: talk about a way to wake up

Ally Brettnacher: that. I'm trying to think of like [00:16:00] worse ways. I mean, I mean it was, that's pretty scary. It was pretty

David Wilkerson: traumatic. Did

Ally Brettnacher: they tell you like they obviously probably educate you on what to know when you have a pacemaker, but like Yeah, you get

David Wilkerson: educated, you go and get it checked Every year they do tests where they lower it down to your normal heartbeat and then, you know, raise it back up.

So you kind of know, but when you're sleeping you have no idea.

Ally Brettnacher: Well, yeah, and you're like Thanksgiving, like you're just like, yeah. Holiday, you're probably in like a food coma. Sleeping. Yeah,

David Wilkerson: you're dead asleep and you talk about a way to get woken up. Okay. So it's like boom. So it's like whoa. So then what do you do?

So call the doctor. Do you call it like nine one one or, uh, there's like an emergency line that you have. Okay. When you have that device. So no, it wasn't a point where they wanted me to call 9 1 1 'cause it wasn't one of those things where it like shocked you multiple times. Okay, so that's

Ally Brettnacher: when you're supposed to, okay.

Correct. So still seems pre, I mean, yeah. So it was very traumatic, very scary.

David Wilkerson: Like, you know, you always think about that. You always hear that sound in your head. So, I mean, you've been shocked before. Correct. Yeah, maybe like, I'm like trying to think about, so imagine getting in shock within like times a hundred.

Like just exempts you, people always say it's like getting kicked [00:17:00] by a horse. I don't know what it's like to get kicked in the chest by a horse, but, but can't imagine it being worse than that, so, geez. Yeah, so call the doctor. they had me come in, they did some tests and they wanted to go in and do another ablation.

So I had the ablation a few years ago now. It was time at this point they said, you know, we received, you know, the pattern where things are flowing through is not going as it should be. Mm-hmm. Maybe we can go in there and get some of that scar tissue to kind of move out where we can get things pumping better.

Heartbeat normal, shouldn't have those problems. Mm-hmm. So went in for the ablation. So this is in December, so, okay. So

Ally Brettnacher: did you, so the night that it happened. They had you come in like the next day or a few days, days later. So they

David Wilkerson: got me on some medication to kind of help with the rhythm. There's all kinds of these different medications they can give you to kind of help with your heartbeat.

So,

Ally Brettnacher: but weren't you, I mean I would be so scared. Yeah, the whole, those few days you're like, am I gonna get shocked again? Yeah, I mean,

David Wilkerson: so with a device you get a little monitored home where you can kind of do a scan and they can kind of see the activity on what's going on. Okay. They can see if you're having any irregular heartbeats or is this a one isolated incident?

So they could see I was having some, you know, few isolated incidents but not enough where they [00:18:00] wanted me to come in right away. They wanted to see if the medication would work and also, you know, during the weekend it's harder to get things in. Wasn't an emergency per se 'cause it wasn't happening often.

But still, I still, yeah, still the whole weekend you scared? Still? Like the whole

Ally Brettnacher: time you're just like, please don't,

David Wilkerson: so this is this early December, so go in the hospital, they do the test and they take me back for the ablation and we go in. they do the best they can. Um, it seemed to work. So, you know, I'm in the hospital for a few days, get out towards the middle of the month at home, recover, and thankfully I have a job that allows you to have the flexibility with working from home and

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, that's good.

Yeah. I didn't even think about that part of it. Very

David Wilkerson: thankful for that. Yeah. So I was able to work from home while I was recovering and in the middle of the month thought I was good enough where I could drive to work now go in, see my coworkers Christmas times, you know, all the festivities that came with that.

Yeah, everything's happening. So, so middle of December I'm driving into work and just driving down the road downtown and got shocked while I was driving. so Oh my

Ally Brettnacher: gosh. Luckily,

David Wilkerson: most people, most people when they get shocked sometimes pass out. I never passed out for some reason. I don't know why or how.

I think someone was looking out for me. Yes. [00:19:00] So, wow. So I still pull over the parking lot at work. have some You still made it all the way to work? I made it to work. I was pretty close when it happened. Okay. I was right by the Conrad downtown. I work close by there, so. Okay. Yeah. So, man, get to the parking lot, have some individuals come and pick me up.

We go back out to the heart hospital, we kind of knew the drill at this point, like they're gonna wanna see what's going on. So get out there. I'm there for a few more days. More medications. There's different things they can do to try to help keep things at bay. More medications. Geez. Yeah, different IVs.

So that seemed to do the trick for a little bit, but at that point, um, they realized that I needed another ablation, but it was kind of a risky one and they felt like I needed to go see a specialist. So actually we reached out to a specialist in Phoenix, Arizona.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

David Wilkerson: Wow. And kind of made plans for this individual to come out in January to do the risky ablation.

So pretty much the whole month of December I was in the hospital, celebrated New Year's Eve the hospital, so, oh. Just knew the hospital walls very well. Geez. And so you just, like, you watch the ball drop from your hospital bed. Yeah. Pretty much. When you're trying to sleep the best you can in a hospital.

Ally Brettnacher: Ugh.

David Wilkerson: So,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah, that's rough. So [00:20:00] Christmas in the hospital,

David Wilkerson: I was home for Christmas, thankfully. So. Okay. A few days later I was back in the hospital. Okay. 'cause I started having more of the rhythm issues. I didn't get shocked though, thankfully. So, yeah. Wow. fly out to Arizona, towards Martin Luther King weekend.

get out there and already having started having problems as soon as we got there with filling the erratic beat. So when you have a pacemaker in you, it kind of tries to do these therapies to pace you out, and when it does it, you can fill things vibrating in your chest and it, so it kind of helps level your heart out.

So we do the ablation. Um, they take me off all my anti rhythm medications because we're like, we got it. I'm confident. We got it hopeful. We got it. So fly back home. first part of February, started working out again. go back into work, which was great. Hadn't seen my coworkers since November. Yeah, so it was great to kind of see them.

we go out to lunch as a team, so it's like, all right, things are getting back to normal. I come home that night, I go to the gym, I work out like, all right, starting to feel normal. So, I wake up February 10th, I kind of call it the day that, oh, you know what? Broke loose.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

David Wilkerson: So I wake up February 10th.[00:21:00]

Middle of the night and I could feel the thing kind of pacing out like, all right, something's about to happen. So I got shocked, like, all right, so I go to the bathroom. There's things you can try to do to try to get your rhythm back normal, like, you know, holding your abs like by fight down. Interesting.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

David Wilkerson: Got shocked. Three more times. So at this point, three.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh. So we call

David Wilkerson: the doctor on call and they're like, well, you guys know the drill. It's either, you know, we can have an ambulance come get you or we can drive so somebody can bring you in. Okay. We just decided to drive. We knew the drill at this point.

We knew how long it was gonna because to get there by the time we waited for the ambulance, yeah, just get me in. So get the heart hospital, getting examined and get shocked One more time. So, so yeah, quite the, quite the way to start the day. So, and then after I got shocked the last time, which ironically, um, one of my doctors from Community Heart Hospital was actually like kinda holding my hands saying, all right, we're gonna get through this, like, you'll be fine.

And the individual kind of took the shock as well. So first time that the doctor ever said they took a shock intentionally. 'cause they knew their patient was about to one and they wanted to. So, yeah. So super. Super powerful. You know, the doctors do that kind of stuff, so that's wild. And I've [00:22:00] since like, become friends with the two doctors that I was really close with at Community Heart Hospital.

We go out to dinner and stuff, so that's kind of cool. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, so at that point, shocked. One more time, and then this, after this point, things kind of become a blur for me. So,

Ally Brettnacher: geez, I'm just like half inch, half in shock, huh? Great. Pawn alley. wow. Yeah, I mean, I, I also just was thinking like, you know, they always say like, men can't experience what childbirth is like, and then I'm sitting here thinking, well, shocking.

Like I whole body, I have no idea. But if it like, is crazy enough to like, make. Some people pass out. Yeah. Like it sounds, I mean, it's short

David Wilkerson: lived though, where childbirth is a prolife, so Yeah,

Ally Brettnacher: that's true. But um, so yeah, so, wow. Okay. So, and then, are you married to your first wife at this time still? I was, yeah.

Okay. So, yeah. And so she was there, were your kids there? So she

David Wilkerson: was there, my daughter was not there, my son was at school at IPI. So obviously they knew what was going on. You know, my daughter's a senior in high school, so everything that goes with that her senior year and then son's a freshman. Yeah. So, you know, they're trying to [00:23:00] get used to things.

So Yeah. I mean, so very traumatic for everyone involved. So,

Ally Brettnacher: yes,

David Wilkerson: always, always think about that. 'cause it very much is very sensitive, even still is sensitive.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, right. So, okay, so then that happens. Your doctor takes the shock and then you're still conscious, but it's a blur. So I'm still

David Wilkerson: conscious at this point.

I think they decided to gimme some drugs to kinda help me relax, because when you're high strung, as you know, your heartbeat goes up. Heartbeat goes up the chances of getting shocked again. And you know, your body can only take so much of that.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah.

David Wilkerson: So at that point, I think I was given some drugs to kinda help me relax.

And I think that at that point they agreed they wanted to kind of put me to sleep a little bit to get my body to relax.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Which

David Wilkerson: kind of makes sense. That way they can do some tests, find out what's going on, so agreed to get put to sleep. And then after that, I think that's when I don't know much. So there's a part of this story that I really don't know much about.

Yeah. And I'll explain why here in a second. So when they put me to sleep, um, my body kind of took a turn for the worse. That's, so your heart has an ejection fraction. I don't know if you're familiar with that. Mm-hmm. But like most normal people are anywhere from probably 55 to [00:24:00] 65. And I'm not a doctor, so if I get that wrong, don't blame anyone who's watching this.

Everyone listen is like, okay, sounds good. So mine started pluming in, was in the thirties and it started plummeting further down in the teens. So your ejection fraction is what controls the pump of your heart. So the less that gets your heart, but it's different

Ally Brettnacher: than your pulse, it's different than your pulse.

It

David Wilkerson: controls the actual muscle, the pumping of your heart. So as your ejection fraction gets lower, you're on heart failure. Yeah. Your heart's not beating. Yeah, yeah. Your heart's not beating, it's not performing the way it needed to perform. Yeah. Okay. So when I got put to sleep, body started kind of giving out and at that point the doctors had mentioned back in December that, you know, I may need to transplant one day.

Something to think about. But it's something that, okay, like you're in the hospital. That's not words you'd like to hear per se. And like, yeah, is that really a real thing?

Ally Brettnacher: And you're like 41 ish. Yeah, 41.

David Wilkerson: So like, well he said that could be years down the road. Right. So, so when I got, my body started taking a turn for the worse, at that point, the doctors at the Heart hospital said, you know, I think it's time to consider the transplant option and what that would look like.

So I got Lifeline from Community Heart Hospital [00:25:00] to IU Methodist downtown.

Ally Brettnacher: wow. Yeah. That's scary. So were, do you remember that?

David Wilkerson: I don't, I've always wanted to go on a air or a helicopter.

Ally Brettnacher: Helicopter. Great. Never have done that yet. So

David Wilkerson: maybe again I will. But yes, I got Lifeline via helicopter to IU Methodist.

Now the only thing I do remember. And this was after I woke up. I remember getting wheeled off the helicopter. Yeah. And I hear one of my former athletes say, Hey, I think that's my former cross country coach from high school. Oh my gosh, what? So could I have been dreaming? I was on a lot of drugs. Come to find out later, I wasn't dreaming.

That individual actually was there. That gave, he came to our response, she came to our room a few days later and said, I saw you get off the he Hey coach. Yeah. Like I was there when you got off the helicopter and it was like, see I didn't make this up. Like that's wild. Yeah. So get to iu and at that point they're trying to figure out next steps, what they need to do.

my body was basically given out. They didn't know how I was going into step to shock. They didn't really quite know what was going on, but I took a turn for the worst, about as worse anybody can. So at that point, they put me on ecmo, which I'm not sure if you're familiar with ecmo. I've heard that

Ally Brettnacher: term

David Wilkerson: ECMO was used a lot with COVID [00:26:00] patients.

Ally Brettnacher: That's why I've heard it. Yeah. So they put it in

David Wilkerson: you and it kind of tricks your body to make things. Okay. So I got this surgery that I don't remember any of this, so Yeah. I was giving ECMO. Then I was also given a balloon pump, which imagine a healing balloon. So they put a pump okay. Balloon inside you and it's basically pumping your heart for you.

Geez. Then I was also on a vent, so I had the highest forms of life on anybody. Could have. Doesn't sound good. Yeah. So from what I understand, the next four days were kind of hit and miss. At one point my family and friends were told to tell me you could buy they and the guys was gonna make it. So yeah. So things were not looking great.

Gosh. So, you know, so four days of my life I have no idea what happened. So I miss a Super Bowl that year and everything, so, geez. So yeah, so I wake up, um, four days later and kind of wake up and they're like, you know, I think my body started improving. I think the ecmo, what it does, it takes the blood outta your body, oxygenates, it puts it back in.

So it kind of tricks your mind to think everything's okay. So I think on top of that and everything else that was going on, I started to kind of come to a little bit where they felt comfortable to take me off the vent and. Wake me up to see what was gonna happen next. So [00:27:00] yeah, they wake up and they say, Hey, do you know where you're at?

I'm like, uh, community, heart Hospital. I had no idea where it was. They're like, no, you're at IU Methodist. And they kind of, geez, that's so scary to wake up. So this point, you look down, I'm laying flat on my back and they're like, you can't sit up higher than 30 degrees because of the balloon pump and like the way your body needs to be angled for that.

And then I have this big ECMO thing, which, and it, it was a huge like tube basically. So if you ever wanna look it up, look up a picture of it. Geez. Yeah, I know. I'm like curious. Yeah. So they wake you up and they kind of tell you what's going on and say, you know, the next step is we're gonna get the ECMO out of you, so we're gonna get that taken off, which is another surgery to go in and get this done.

Like, okay. And then, you know, we're gonna start talking about a heart transplant. And I'm like, what? They're like, yeah, I mean you, there's no way you can get outta the hospital without that. so I had no option. Like my heart has basically given up. I mean, the doctor at IU said she's never seen someone's heart give out so fast and so quick the way it did.

Ally Brettnacher: And then have

David Wilkerson: you survived that? Yeah. So I think between everything they did with the modern day medicine, like, you know, and, and I am a believer, so I think, you know, yes. God had a hand in it [00:28:00] as well. So, yeah. So yeah, so they tell you this, I'm like, okay, so what does that mean? I mean, I know what it meant.

Like I knew someone had to pass away for me to get that. So struggle with that at first. They at least have someone in the hospital come in and kind of talk to you about that. And yeah, it makes you feel better. But still, you know, like it's

Ally Brettnacher: weird,

David Wilkerson: you know, organ owners had someone's final dying with to help save lives, which, you know, I get that.

But so I knew what it meant, right? For me and for the others impacted, right? So they start doing all the paperwork and it's a whole process. They interview your doctors, your dentists, they look at everything under the sun, your insurance, I mean, you name it, they kind of look at it, they wanna make sure you have, you know, a close network of people to help support you if you need it, like transportation.

So, yeah, because you need all the help you can get, so, yeah. Yeah. So got approved for the transplant. So I signed the paperwork on February 21st, so, which is pretty cool.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

David Wilkerson: So, yeah. So now you're laying there and you're like, okay, so how long is this gonna take?

Ally Brettnacher: Right? Like, I feel like in like TV and movies you're like, I don't know, people like, wait around a long time or, and some people

David Wilkerson: wait years.

Yeah. So I mean, am I gonna be laying in this [00:29:00] bed for years and Remi remember why I'm laying in this bed, I'm laying flat. They would come in every 30 minutes and kind of rotate you on your side, a hotdog, just see your body and get bed sores. So yeah, so I'm like, okay, how long am I gonna be laying here waiting for this?

I've been in and outta the hospital since December. Yeah. So, yeah. So I remember asking one of the doctors, he's like, oh, you'll probably get one within a week. I'm like,

Ally Brettnacher: what? A week?

David Wilkerson: Yeah. What? So yeah, so I got listed as a level one A. So with a transplant list, it goes from like a level one up. So like if you're at a five or below, if you're at a five, it's gonna take longer.

Okay. So the further, are you down the list?

Ally Brettnacher: One A sounds like top. Yeah. So I

David Wilkerson: was at top of the list. Yeah. So because of the life support that I was on, my condition it, it put me out there. Yeah. But it's a whole thing, like they look at your blood type, they look at antibodies and your system like. Somehow I had chickenpox as a kid and when they did the antibody test, it showed that I had never had anything.

So it almost like reset my entire system, which actually helped me when it came time to get the transplant.

Ally Brettnacher: It, that's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, so wild.

David Wilkerson: I got the phone call in the hospital 'cause they, they say, you know, make sure you have your cell phone handy. They actually will call and tell you that they found a heart freak.

So I got a, [00:30:00] a call on the 23rd. Okay. So it was like, less than four days later they found me a heart.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

David Wilkerson: So, yeah. So I remember my doctor came in the next day and I was like, you look a little tired. He's like, well I had a lot of hearts to look at for you last night. So that night he had like 17 different hearts to kind of look at and determine like, which heart I should get.

Ally Brettnacher: That's crazy. Again, they

David Wilkerson: based it on height and weight, like what your body's like blood type. So, so many things. Can hearts

Ally Brettnacher: be like, do you have to have a heart that's from another male?

David Wilkerson: Not necessarily. It would have to be a really tall female for me to get it. That's a common question. Okay. 'cause it's, I never even thought about it.

Yeah. Very common question.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

David Wilkerson: So like a shorter male could potentially get a female's heart. So. So many things go into it.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's crazy.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. So they found me a heart. They were gonna do the surgery on the 24th of I think some weather impacted them being able to take the airplane to get the heart.

Oh, to get the heart. Yeah. Luckily, us being in the Midwest, we have a big range, a big radius of hearts we get to choose from. So like it definitely helps, I think it's like a thousand mile radius Wow. That they get to choose from so they can fly to these different locations. So super [00:31:00] helpful to be in Indiana where we live.

Yeah. So, yeah, so, heart was agreed on, everything was signed and you basically sign a contract when you get your heart saying, you know, you won't drink alcohol, you won't smoke cigarettes, you won't do illegal drugs. Which I'm like, where do I sign? Like, not me sign. Yeah. Like, whatever you need me to do, I will do it.

Yeah. So, wow. So, February 25th is the day that was scheduled to get my heart. So they came that morning and start prepping you and getting you ready. And you know, they give you like Gatorade and power to drink because they a little bit of electrolytes in your body to kind of help you. Get through it because it's a, as you can imagine, it's a very intense surgery.

So,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. So when it was time to get will back, never been so scared in my entire life. I know. It makes,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. Yeah. That's really hard.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. So it was kind of cool because all the doctors and nurses are wearing red and they're in the hallway. So as they're wheel you through, they're clapping for you.

'cause you're getting a new heart. That's cool. So for someone who passes away, they do what's called a donor walk. Mm-hmm. Where you see that. So they do that, but then on this side they do it as well. And it was kind of cool 'cause when I, I didn't realize that that's on my way through there. The anesthesiologist, he knew I was a believer, so he stopped and [00:32:00] prayed with me, which kind of helped calm me down a little bit.

But still, like, yeah. When they went me back there and they turn the lights on, imagine lights like this, the wave, like, you're like, okay,

Ally Brettnacher: lights, it's, yeah. I mean, I'm

David Wilkerson: shaking like, I mean, never been so scared in my entire life. Like, because, you know, it's, it's gonna go one or two ways. Like I'm gonna make it through it or I'm not.

Ally Brettnacher: How, I mean are, I don't know if you know the stats on that, but like for people getting new hearts. What's the percentage of those that take and survive? I survive? I think it's depends.

David Wilkerson: There's so many factors that go into into it because it's like they tell you not to Google stuff. 'cause when you Google it, it can say anywhere from one year to four years to 10 years.

But I know people who've had their hearts for 20 plus years. Yeah. So yeah, it's hard not to play that game. I will say the most critical time is the first year. Okay. That's what I would the first six months. The first year. That it's so critical. Yeah. So, yeah. So yeah. I mean you think about all that things when you're laying in bed, staring at the ceiling, like Yeah.

So, yeah. Yeah. So get put to sleep. And I told my doctor beforehand, I was like, Hey, if I'm breathing on my own after the surgery, I don't wanna be on the vent very long. [00:33:00] Like I've been on a vent for so long. Like, I was like, take me off. 'cause it hurt your throat like this. I hated it.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. So

Ally Brettnacher: can you talk, you can't talk while you're in vent?

David Wilkerson: Not really, no. No.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, no.

David Wilkerson: If you could, I don't remember ever having to talk with it on Yeah. I was usually asleep when they had me on the vent. Yeah. So, um, went through the surgery. I think it took. Seven, eight hours. I'm not quite sure the total time, but, they wake me up, he takes me off the vet and, you know, first thing I'm thinking is like, okay, like I'm alive.

This, yeah,

Ally Brettnacher: this seems like earth still. Like I'm looking around like, okay, this looks familiar. Yeah. Like, I

David Wilkerson: know the nurses, but my body felt different instantly. Like, I've never felt blood pumping through my body like I had before. So I never knew how bad my other heart really was until that one. Wow. Like, obviously you, you just had this major surgery, you're not feeling great, but like, I felt blood pumping different, instantly weird.

So I'm like, okay, like with my fingers and stuff, like, all right, I'm, I'm alive. Like, wow, heartbeat, working as expected. My doctor comes in and like always been a competitive person and this [00:34:00] was like pretty quick. So one mistake I did make was getting off the vent so quick because I got super sick because of the anesthesia.

Still hadn't Oh, passed my system yet. So anyways, as I'm

Ally Brettnacher: super sick, you're like, vomiting. Vomiting. Oh,

David Wilkerson: yeah. Which I'm all worried, like, am I gonna hurt something? Like I just had this. Right. That's true. I had,

Ally Brettnacher: I, sick after getting my tonsils out. Yeah. And I was starting, so, you know. Yeah, yeah. It's like an awful feeling.

Not fun. Am I gonna make things worse? Yeah.

David Wilkerson: But as I'm doing this, getting sick, the doctor comes in and my surgeon out there was amazing, like simply amazing. He comes in and he's like, all right. He's like, you're off the vent, your heart is pumping. He's like, I want you outta here in less than a week. So as someone always being competitive, I take that as a challenge.

I'm like, all right, challenge accepted. Yeah. So it's like, all right, it's time to get to work. So the next day they have you sitting up pretty quick. So once the nausea passed, the next day they want you to sit up and remember, I hadn't set up right for a long time. Like it had been three weeks almost.

That's crazy to think about. So the first time I go to sit up and stand up, they're like, all right, you're gonna feel all these different [00:35:00] like sensations. Your body hasn't set up

Ally Brettnacher: awful.

David Wilkerson: So. Horrible. But I get up, I sit in the chair and I'm like, can I go back to bed? They're like, no, you gotta stay here. So, oh gosh.

Yeah, they sit you up in a chair and they have you stand up. They kind of slowly get you into it, but I mean, they move fast, so, so yeah. So once I was up on my own, so you're in the critical care unit at iu, and then once you're ready to go, there's a transplant unit you go to, so, oh, okay. Got to that unit pretty quick and they're like, all right, we want you to start walking.

So like, heartbeat's going strong, things are looking good, and they're getting more of the IVs outta me. 'cause I mean, at one point I think I had over 30 plus like things in my body going through me.

Ally Brettnacher: Gosh. Yeah. That's great. And like sensors probably too for your heart. Oh yeah. Like just, yeah, yeah. You name it.

Yeah.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. So yeah, so they start, you walk in and I'm walking with a walker and like, I mean, I'm walking slow, like slow. 'cause you're, you have to learn, I mean, you're teaching your body how to use this new heart again. So, and I just made it a challenge to start walking more laps every day. So, kind of funny, I got my heart a week before my actual birth.

So kind of cool. [00:36:00] Yeah. And there's some other fun facts we'll share as we go. Yeah. So yeah. So I started walking laps, pushing myself. Friends, family would come in,

Ally Brettnacher: walk with you. Yeah, yeah. Walk.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. We would walk laps. Yeah. And I got faster and you know, slowly did more each day I would write down on the board how many I did and the nurses would kind of keep track you.

So we made it a game. So, yeah. Right. So

Ally Brettnacher: you're like, okay, can I do like one more lap tomorrow?

David Wilkerson: Yeah. Yeah. So it just started pushing, moving my body and was out of there in nine days. So almost made it the week. Nine days. Yeah. So pretty close. So yeah. So get out. Wow. So when you get home you're kind of on lockdown basically.

Like you're kind of in a bubble. Right? That's what we were talking

Ally Brettnacher: about before with like germs and just, yeah, so like

David Wilkerson: germs, like, I mean we had hand sanitizer everywhere at the house. We had someone come in and clean all the vents, like, I mean, you name it, like people couldn't come over, like family and friends couldn't come over like so like, yeah, but I'm home.

This is

Ally Brettnacher: after, this is after COVID. So people kind of like, correct. Sort of been through that protocol before, but, and ironically,

David Wilkerson: COVID helped, I think, make it easier with wearing a mask and stuff. 'cause I had to wear a mask everywhere.

Ally Brettnacher: Right. Which people now like don't even think twice.

David Wilkerson: Correct. So it made it easier from that standpoint.

But yeah, when you get outta the hospital, they have [00:37:00] you back the next day. ' cause you go to, it's called Col. It's a, a group at IU where they kind of help you learn. They work with transplant patients with lungs and hearts. So you're kind of there to learn how to use your heart, work your body, start working out again.

Okay. So you're there every day for two to three hours a day, walking. They have you doing like weight stuff. Like wow. You name it. So like, that sounds exhausting. It was very exhausting. But it was amazing because it helps push you and it shows you that what you can, and it shows you what you can do. Yeah.

There's no can't. You can do anything. Yeah. I remember like the second weekend, one of the, one of the doctors, or not one of the workers there, he's like, all right, we're gonna skip laps. I'm like, I can't skip laughs. Am I gonna hurt something? He's like, you're not gonna hurt anything. He's like, your heart is perfectly fine.

So we started skipping laps and like. Started walking faster. So finally, it's like

Ally Brettnacher: skipping would be harder than running almost. It was harder. I hadn't skipped in a long time. I don't even know, like, besides

David Wilkerson: coaching, like doing like a skips and bs, stuff like that.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, yeah.

David Wilkerson: So, yeah, so graduated from Colt pretty quick and then, they have, you go through cardiac rehab and it was like cardiac rehab, which was three months long.

Ally Brettnacher: [00:38:00] Okay.

David Wilkerson: Is where we started with the whole idea of running again. Wow. And they told me I'd be able to run again. I'm like, I'm not gonna be able to run again. Like, there's no, like, how

Ally Brettnacher: like, well, I can only imagine the way that you're feeling at the time. You're like, there's no way I feel, I mean, horrible.

David Wilkerson: All the emotions.

Yeah. You feel bad and you know, when you get a transplant, there's so many pills that you have to take. Like all you, you're always taking anti rejected meds your whole life. But then there's all these other antibacterial medicines you take. Like, I mean, I think at some point you're taking 30 or 40 pills a day.

Yeah. You're on a high dose of steroids when you first get out. Mm-hmm. So it's like your body has gone through a lot. Yeah. But you need this 'cause you know, you don't wanna reject this organ.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. It's a whole process because at first you're going every two weeks to get checked for rejection. And how they check for rejection is they go through your neck and pull a little sample of your heart to get it tested.

So Okay. So you're doing that for the first six months. Geez. So, I mean, it's a, it's a process, but they have it down to science and they're so good at it. Like, wow. I mean, all the transplant centers throughout the United States are amazing. I mean, they all have it down to where it's, [00:39:00] it's a whole process.

Ally Brettnacher: Well, it's like a whole nother world, like it saying before. Yeah. I mean, it's like, had no idea. That's just, yeah. Mind blowing. How long were you at Colt? How many

David Wilkerson: Colt was about, it was less than a month.

Ally Brettnacher: Less than a month. Okay. And every day?

David Wilkerson: Every day? Yeah. Wow. Every day for two to three hours a day. So I would take my protein shakes and protein bars and Yeah.

And I, I mean, even before my transplant, I had a good buddy who would bring in protein shakes and sit and talking. I think, you know, nice. Pushing the protein and getting the energy in me really was instrumental in my recovery. Yeah. Just being smart about what I was putting in my body. It was funny 'cause my doctor, my surgeon's like, oh, you ought to go get five guys when you leave outta here.

And he was obviously kidding me. He loves five guys. He was obviously kidding, but yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. So it's just funny. So yeah. Yeah. You're like, oh yeah,

David Wilkerson: so did Cole did, started cardiac rehab and at that point is when we was like, maybe we can start running again. That's crazy. So, so yeah. So yeah, so I started walking, running, and I mean, when I first started running, it was not fast.

I mean, and that was a big mind shift too, because you know, I think all runners think back to where they were 10 years [00:40:00] ago or 20 years ago about pace. And at this point it was just, I was just thankful to move my body. I didn't care how long it took to be alive. I mean my

Ally Brettnacher: being able to,

David Wilkerson: yeah, when you go through something like this, it changes your mindset on how you look at life.

Like the stuff that I used to worry about and get all frazzled about. Just so insignificant. Like there's so much more than You

Ally Brettnacher: still have that feeling.

David Wilkerson: Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, I wake up every day, my feet at the floor. I'm grateful. I mean, obviously we all have hard days. Life is hard. Yeah. Life is never, life is not easy.

Yeah. You, you know how that is. Yes, I do. Absolutely. I mean, I know I've been given an amazing second chance of life. Yeah. So I'm doing everything I can to honor my donor and their family, and then this live life and for my family and friends too. Mm-hmm. So,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah. Let's talk about your donor Yeah. And their family.

David Wilkerson: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Because that's a pretty cool story too, that ties into Yep. Another thing we we'll talk about.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. So I guess we finished up with cardiac rehab. did a 5K in November. So less than six months. What? After the transplant, we did a 5K. Wow. So which one? out by Eagle Creek. It was something at the YMCA, I [00:41:00] can't remember the name of it.

Okay. But got two of my doctors from Community Heart Hospital to do it with us, and then That's so fun. All my good friends and some girls I coached before came and did it, so that's really special. Yeah. So we did a 5K. It wasn't, I mean, it was fun, but you know, the day before the weather was 60 and this was in November.

The next day we show up, it was 32 and snow and sleet. But you know what? We did it like the worst weather you could think of. Yeah, it was kind of cool. One of my former, cross country coaches, Dennis McNulty, was, came to the race and he got to be on then announcing at the end, like, here comes David Wilkerson and heart transplant.

So it was kind That's really cool. A cool, that's really cool. Circle moment. And it was a goal, it was a goal in cardiac rehab to say, okay, I wanna do a five cable for the year's over. Wow. So did that

Ally Brettnacher: with plenty of time to spare. Oh yeah.

David Wilkerson: It was fun.

Ally Brettnacher: We enjoyed that.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. So I was like, all right, well maybe we can start thinking about a half, but maybe that'll be a little bit down the road.

Geez. So at my year anniversary, I got approval from my transplant team to go ahead and train for a half and do a half. So that was a big goal. But in the meantime, we'll talk about the donor family. I sent a, I wrote a letter and sent it at the end of December to the, the [00:42:00] donor family. So the way it works is we have to reach out.

You have to write a letter, but you have to be very specific with a letter. You can't give out a whole lot of details. You can give out your name, but you can't give out like, Certain things about you where you're from. Like it's this very vague, very vague letter and the hardest letter I ever had to write.

'cause how do you think someone enough knowing that they lost a family member that helped save your life? It's

Ally Brettnacher: cra it's crazy to think about the words that were so, I mean, it

David Wilkerson: took me weeks to write this letter. Mm-hmm. And it wasn't super long, but it's just like, because I would get emotional every time I wrote it.

And like, and it's one of those things like a lot of people, a lot of recipients send out a letter and they never hear anything back. So it's one of those things that's like, I'm honestly gonna write a letter, how can I not? Yeah. But you never know if you're gonna hear out, hear back. So I sent out the letter end of December and then was it end of March?

And I had got some mail and I didn't open the the mail right away, but it's from iu. I was like, oh, it might be a bill or so statement. I don't know what it did joke. I'm just gonna say, I mean, I had a lot of correspondence with, yeah, I was at IU Methodist a lot the first two years. You're there a lot now the further that you get, the less you go.

Which is really weird because it's one of those mind [00:43:00] trick things. It's like, well I don't see anybody like. Am I Okay. But yeah. Right, because it's good I'm not seeing anybody because I'm Okay. So yeah. But yeah, so yeah, so opened this letter and it was from my donor's daughter, and it's basically saying, Hey, my name is Autumn.

We received your letter. You know, it means so much to us to see that you're thriving and being there for your kids, and like this is giving us great through joy and helping us recover.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

David Wilkerson: And then you can sign a paper to agree to exchange contact information.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh, that's cool.

David Wilkerson: And it's a whole thing.

Like Indiana Donor will tell you, like, once you sign this, we cannot be responsible for anything that could happen. Because sometimes I guess some families can try to do things that aren't always, I guess, ethical, from ethical standpoint. Like you wouldn't think that, but some people think like, oh, maybe they need to send me money, or they owe me this because they, that their family member saved your life or something.

That's,

Ally Brettnacher: that is kind of strange to think about. Yeah. Yeah. But there's this release thing we

David Wilkerson: signed and so we both agreed to sign it and apparently they got the release paperwork super quick because I got a text message like the next day after I signed the p. Yeah, that kind of started the process. So I started to learn about Autumn and her [00:44:00] dad and her family.

So they're from, uh, Piedmont, Alabama, which is an amazing little small town in Alabama. And at that point, um, we agreed to a phone call and her and I talked and you know, I'll never forget the first time that I answered the phone and she said, you know, she has that southern accent, which is amazing. Like, he's like, I wanna apologize for the way I sound.

I go, I go, you sound amazing. Like, yeah, I love it. This is incredible. Yeah. So exchanged some pictures and just kind of started that relationship. So during the process, I kind of learned a lot of Autumn's story, her story with her dad. her parents got a divorce at a, a very young age, and her dad wasn't really part of her life growing up just due to some things that were going on with the family.

So luckily she had an amazing, um, stepdad who adopted her down the road. But, later on in life, she wanted to get to know her dad, so she kind of reached out and started the whole part of getting to know him again.

Ally Brettnacher: Mm-hmm.

David Wilkerson: So, which is great. I'm glad she got to do that. So during that process, they got to know each other.

he went to some of her sporting events, they hung out great. Fast forward a few years later when she was 18 and her dad was found unresponsive. obviously Autumn and, her grandma get the phone call, they go to the hospital to see what's going [00:45:00] on. things weren't looking great. They, they've worked really hard to bring him back to life, which I guess harder than they usually do from an e EMT standpoint, from what I understand.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. Yeah.

David Wilkerson: So they're at the hospital, things aren't looking great. And then, you know, it was at the point where someone had to make a decision on what was gonna be the next step. So he wasn't an organ donor, but in some states, next of kin can be the ones to make that decision if the individual never really gets married.

Yeah. So luckily, autumn made an incredible decision that I'm not sure I can make at 18 to donate her dad's organs and not only saved my life, but saved other individuals' lives as well. Geez. Yeah. So, yeah, so, you know, her dad is my hero, Brandon, but Autumn is also, you know, my hero as well for making this incredible decision at the age of 18 that.

I wouldn't even have, I don't know if I could have done that. Yeah. I would like to think I could have,

Ally Brettnacher: but yeah. Yeah. So, right. And that, yeah. It's a very brave young woman. Yeah. So that's in, that's incredible.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. So I found out, so I got listed on the 21st, February 21st. That's the same day she signed the paperwork to agree to donate her dad's organs.

Wow. So, bunch of [00:46:00] weird little Yeah. Things like that. Yeah. Ironic things. Yeah. And I found out that, you know, my birthday's a week after my transplant. His birthday's a week after mine. We were born the same year, a week apart. So they got me a heart one week younger than my previous heart.

Ally Brettnacher: That's which I can't make any of that up.

Right. Yeah. That's like, that's pretty insane. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

David Wilkerson: So started a relationship with them, um, got to meet them in Nashville that summer, so did the mini marathon. Wow. Okay. Which I guess, I dunno if you wanna talk about that or not. Yeah. But yeah, so a big goal of mine was I always watch the mini marathon on TV if I'm not doing it.

So at home, during my You do. That's fun. During my home at home, after the transplant, during recovery, I couldn't go or do anything. So I'm sitting there watching on tv. Like I told my friend, I go, how cool would it be if we did this? Like next year? He's like, I'll do it with you. So, and that's John Fend and another buddy, Ben Huddleston did it with me as well.

Wow. So we're like, all right. That was the goal. So got clearance by the doctors to train for it in February. So yeah, so we ran the mini. Went Okay. didn't feel great, but did it. I had a goal of breaking two hours. We just missed that, but that's all right.

Ally Brettnacher: That's [00:47:00] all right. You did it. We were close. I know you're so competitive, so I'm sure it was, sorry.

It was a big accomplishment

David Wilkerson: to do it. And then one of my doctors that I have now, was there, he ran it and he got upset 'cause I beat him.

Ally Brettnacher: I saw when I watched one of the videos when I Googled you, it was funny 'cause he's like, yeah, he beat, he says he beat me. You know? Yeah. It's pretty good. So we kinda have

David Wilkerson: banter back and forth now.

I love that so

Ally Brettnacher: much. What a cool relationship to have.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. So very blessed from that standpoint.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. And did you, were you coached during that training cycle? No, not

David Wilkerson: just, I, my buddy John Fle kind of helped me kind of prepare for that. And I knew kind of what to do from years of running and just, yes. The goal on that was just to finish, just to get, that was the number one goal.

Just get it done. Like obviously I had a goal of trying to break two hours, but like, you know, I did it. That's all it meant. And we were super, it was like 2 0 1, so it was close. Yeah. So you're like, okay.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. So we did it close enough and so would that have been what, 2023. Okay.

David Wilkerson: So did that in 23. met the donor family in June in Nashville, Tennessee, which was simply amazing.

So I got to meet, the daughter, her grandma, which is my donor's mom. And then, the daughter, Autumn's, well their husband now, they've [00:48:00] since been married, so Wow. Yeah. So I got to meet them. What was, where did

Ally Brettnacher: you meet? Where did you go? Like a restaurant

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David Wilkerson: What was, where did

Ally Brettnacher: you meet? Where did you go? Like a restaurant or,

David Wilkerson: um, we stayed at the same hotel, so Okay. I, my kids went with me and obviously a lot of mixed feelings going into it.

You don't know how it's gonna go. Like, are they gonna like us? Are they gonna be like,

Ally Brettnacher: is it gonna be super awkward?

David Wilkerson: Yeah. So, and I think, you know, it was definitely hard for [00:50:00] all of us, even her, like, you know, I found out after the fact, like her coming off the elevator to do that. She was really nervous and Yeah.

And I, I brought a necklace for her and the mom, like a heart necklace,

Ally Brettnacher: so. Oh, that's so sweet.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. And I also brought a stethoscope so they could listen to the heart, so that's really cool. Super, super powerful, super emotional. So all those sat there and talked, went out to dinner. It's like we hit it off as soon as we said hello, like.

Couldn't have asked for it to go any better. That's amazing. Yeah. So I mean, I have a whole other family now. Right. And I am that super close with like, yeah. So yeah, we met up, hung out that weekend, said our goodbyes, and then kind of went home, but still continue to communicate.

Ally Brettnacher: That's really, that's, I mean, I wonder how many people get to meet.

That's

David Wilkerson: very rare. I think some people never hear back

Ally Brettnacher: like I'm, which is crazy to think about too, 'cause I'm, I know whatever they went through was really hard, but,

David Wilkerson: but I think if you put yourself in their truth, that is hard and, and loss is hard and sometimes it takes a long to recover. But for them, I think, you know, with the relationship they had, it was a way to help them.

They've told me it's a way to help them kind of heal [00:51:00] and see something good come out of this. Yes. So,

Ally Brettnacher: yeah.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. So became connected with them.

Ally Brettnacher: Did they meet anybody else? Any of the other organs?

David Wilkerson: They have not. They got a letter back from one other one, but they've not met anybody else yet. Okay. So, yeah.

Which other organ. I think it was a kidney or liver that got, yeah, that's so,

Ally Brettnacher: I mean it's just, 'cause it's like, yeah. How many organs do you have in your body?

David Wilkerson: Um, quite a few. I don't know a lot. Kidney, heart, liver. Like 10, I dunno. If's that many. Yeah. I don't know. Well, and that's the thing with being a, so you just think about, so as a donor you can donate also like tissues, so it's not just your main organs.

Okay. There's skin issues, your cornea. So there's so many different things that you're able to donate because of

Ally Brettnacher: that. Yeah. So,

David Wilkerson: yeah. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, I mean it's amazing what organ donation can do and how it's saved people's life. Like some people who get like certain surgeries for their needs, they get like, you know, cadaver bones and stuff like that.

So there's so many things your body can be used for. Yeah. Yeah. So sign up to be an organ donor if you're not an organ donor. Right. Obviously a personal preference, whatever you wanna do. But Yeah. But I

Ally Brettnacher: mean, after hearing this, it's kind of like, well for me I'm like just Yeah. Why? Yes, a hundred percent. A hundred percent.

David Wilkerson: But I mean, I [00:52:00] understand people feel the way they feel and I understand that as well. But yeah, be an organ don. If you're not an organ donor. Yeah. Check. Yes.

Ally Brettnacher: Do you just go to, what is the website for that?

David Wilkerson: I think if you to go to Indiana Donor Network you can there, but I think you'd probably go to like unos.com or just Google it.

Yeah, just

Ally Brettnacher: Google. I wanna be an organ donor. And

David Wilkerson: whenever you go to get your driver's license bit, you can do it there too. Yeah. They always where I, I'm

Ally Brettnacher: sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David Wilkerson: And let your family members know that as well, so.

Ally Brettnacher: Right. That's amazing. And it's really interesting to me that Autumn had to like, had the opportunity to make that decision because I didn't know that that was a thing.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. So the way it works is a lot of states have a group that kind of goes in and helps facilitate some of that. Like in a donor, donor network does an amazing job of facilitating when something happens to someone, they go to the hospital, kind of talk people through the process what it's gonna look like.

Mm-hmm. If you've ever had the opportunity, go look at their, office off Guyon Road. Okay. And check it out. It's a beautiful facility, but they honor people who have passed away. Like they have like this big tree and like pictures and like Oh, that's

Ally Brettnacher: interesting too. So they do

David Wilkerson: an [00:53:00] amazing job of honoring those individuals and kind of walking through the process and really kid gloving them to help 'em.

They do programs for kids who. Parents pass away, like they do like camps and stuff. So they do all kinds of amazing stuff. Wow. We could have a whole separate process. Right. On just that Indian network. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Right. That's, so did you like immediately become in involved with Indiana? So I did. I

David Wilkerson: wanted to be involved right away, so I reached out to them, went to a little training thing and became kind of an advocate for them.

So yeah, I'll go to work at Little Expos. I've done a few speaking engagements. I think I'm gonna be doing more in the future with them, so.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And that's how, like, it sense back to the beginning, that's how Whitney you were at working the Indiana Donor Network booth at the expo. I don't think I said that earlier.

Yeah. And when

David Wilkerson: I worked those, it's always like a family reunion. 'cause I always see people from the running community that I, you know, you get to meet so fun just like you, when you go, you can see all the different faces and people you know, and like Yeah. So it's always

Ally Brettnacher: fun. So

David Wilkerson: much

Ally Brettnacher: fun.

David Wilkerson: Like, I enjoy that camaraderie of the, that's what's great about the running and walking community, the fitness community in general.

Mm-hmm. It is a community, like it's there.

Ally Brettnacher: Yes. Yeah. Yes. And so on [00:54:00] this, were you like signing people up to be donors? Yeah. Yeah. We just kind of

David Wilkerson: advertise it. We share our stories, like if people wanna sign up, yeah. We also, if you're already signed up, you can win prizes and stuff like that. So we do stuff to make it fun.

We do the Indians game, like they're throughout the whole city. They just got Tyrese, Halliburton to join them as a one of the spokesman. Wow.

Ally Brettnacher: That's a big deal. That's huge. Yeah. Holy cow. Yeah, so, wow. So are there other, like outside of the Indiana Donor Network and the own relationship that you have, are there other like pockets of communities of like, yeah,

David Wilkerson: so runners with, you know, after you go through the process, you learn that there's so much stuff out there.

Like, IU, for example, has a transplant support group that meets once a month, which was very instrumental for me at the very beginning just to learn from other individuals. It was a lot of lung recipients, but still just to hear their story and what they've gone through. But then even like Facebook, Instagram, like there's so many different communities and groups.

You can be a part of that for like-minded individuals who understand it. Yeah, because it's, it's hard. Like you can, a doctor can tell you what it's gonna be like, but until you go through it, you don't know. I've actually gone to the hospital and talked to a lot of people on the list [00:55:00] to kinda explain to them what it's like, what it's gonna be like.

So it's cool to kind of give back in that way. Yeah. Well, especially

Ally Brettnacher: since you were like, probably would've loved to have somebody Yeah. Oh yeah. Give you some insights. I didn't have time to do that. Well, yeah. Yeah.

David Wilkerson: Mine went so fast. Where some people are waiting months. Yeah. You know, years. So if they can understand what it's gonna be like and for their family to understand what it's gonna be like.

Yes. Because I think in your head, you know, as a family, I think my family was prepared that I wasn't gonna be able to do anything. But as soon as I got home, I wanted to get back to normal as quick as possible. So I was up the next day like making my own breakfast, like doing things like I didn't want to, like I wanted to get back to normal.

Yeah. I went back to work like three months after my transplant. Wow. And like, luckily I have an amazing boss who let me work from home. Right.

Ally Brettnacher: That had to be really hard for, I mean, 'cause they're like, okay.

David Wilkerson: Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: It probably hasn't happened to anybody that worked there before. No. I mean,

David Wilkerson: they were amazing. I mean, the whole step of the way with helping with, you know.

Any insurance claims, disability, like whatever I needed. Like they And

Ally Brettnacher: who, who do you work for?

David Wilkerson: Uh, one America Financial. Okay. There you go. We gotta get, we gotta shout 'em out. Yeah. Big plug for one. America Financial, although they're now

Ally Brettnacher: not the mini marathon sponsor anymore, they're, we still help out, but still.

Yeah, [00:56:00] yeah,

David Wilkerson: yeah. We are sad that went away, but we put our, um, we're doing other things now with like USA swimming and stuff like that, which is huge. So,

Ally Brettnacher: well that's even more special that the year you did it, you did the mini It's the One America Marathon. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So

David Wilkerson: it was fun. One America did a little writeup on me, and so it was kind of cool.

Yeah,

Ally Brettnacher: that's really cool.

David Wilkerson: And then Lucy Dobbs, I don't know if you know that name. Yes. But she also works at One America, so. Oh, she does. I didn't realize that. We both got a little plug at the same time. So

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, she just qualified for the Olympic trials at, the Monumental,

David Wilkerson: so, yeah. So yeah, it's a whole community there too, so.

Yeah. And they've been simply amazing to me, and my team has been great, so. Wow. Yeah, I went back to work pretty quick and then. Joined PBT that summer. Okay. And also met my new wife that summer, so,

Ally Brettnacher: okay. Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk. Which was amazing. Let's talk about that. So you've been married now a year? Little over a year, yeah.

Little over a year. Yeah. And you have eight kids. Tell me that together. We have eight kids. I'm just like, holy. So

David Wilkerson: I have two of my own and then she has six. But together we, they're all our kids. Like they, I mean our, the way our families came together, I couldn't have asked for it to go any better. Like simply just amazing kids.

Amazing family. So, yeah. So her and I met at Chili Water [00:57:00] Brewery. I was there just her brother plays in a band called Dysfunction Brass. He plays a trumpet.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

David Wilkerson: So fun group. They do anything. You name it, they do it. So I was just there, like I was living downtown on my own thought like, you know, I'm gonna go watch him play.

We went to high school with each other. We're an orchestra. Oh,

Ally Brettnacher: that's great. And band and stuff like that. Wow. Crazy. Okay. So

David Wilkerson: I went to watch him play music and I was just sitting there by myself and her parents walked in and, you know, I think they saw one of my news things online, but I've known him for years.

Her dad comes over and says, Hey, you want to come sit with us? I'm like, no, I don't wanna bother you guys. Like, I'm, I'm fighting. Hi. Come over and sit down. So went over and sat down and joined them, and about 20 minutes later, Jenny walked in. So always known of Jenny. Wow. So knew of Jenny in high school.

Jenny was a couple years older than me, so I was a freshman, but she was like a junior, So too afraid to talk to upperclassmen, but we all knew who Jenny was. So, so, yeah. That's so cool. So she came in and her and I just kind of started talking and, you know, organically just started forming a friendship and a relationship and yeah, it led to something beautiful, like one of those things where someone walks in, you're just like, wow.

Ally Brettnacher: Like,

David Wilkerson: yeah. So yeah, she walked in and you knew her.

Ally Brettnacher: [00:58:00] I think what's so cool is that you had a relationship with her family, correct? Yeah, because that can be, you know, that can be hard. Oh, absolutely. You might not get, you know, I hit the jackpot, thank the Lord. but not everybody does. And so the idea that you had this amazing relationship with her family.

How cool is that? Yeah.

David Wilkerson: She walked in and was like, whoa. Like one of those moments, like, okay. Like I hadn't seen her in years. I mean, it'd probably been 20 plus years. Wow. So yeah, we just started talking and just became friends. And then over time just started dating and fell in love pretty quick. And I mean, I knew after our first date that she was the one I was gonna marry.

Like I had no question whatsoever. I even asked her, I was like, you know, if this isn't serious for you, I need to know. 'cause I don't wanna waste your time or my time. Right. Because I really like you. I like being around you. Like we're very, very like-minded. So yeah. So yeah. Yeah, we hit it off, got engaged and got married.

Wow. And we've been go ever since. We keep ourselves busy.

Ally Brettnacher: And remind me how old are all the kids?

David Wilkerson: So they go from 28 to eight. So at home we have an 8-year-old and a 13-year-old. And then my daughter, who's a senior in college is kind of in and outta the house as well. And all the other kids are pretty [00:59:00] much on their own coupled in college in Bloomington.

Okay. We have one who recently moved over to Australia for a few months to kind of live over there after he graduated. Whoa. And figure things out. Okay. So super proud of that.

Ally Brettnacher: That's cool.

David Wilkerson: And then, Our son lives in Greenfield. And then, the other one is down in, Nashville, Tennessee.

And we're about to gain a new daughter this weekend 'cause he is getting married, so.

Ally Brettnacher: Oh my gosh. Yeah. That's wild.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. And then my daughter's engaged and she's getting married next summer, so we have a busy stretch coming up.

Ally Brettnacher: Whoa. Yeah. Okay. So Nashville getting married this weekend. Yep. That's gonna be, that's, yeah.

We're gonna

David Wilkerson: leave this afternoon for the festivities to start and kind of get there and get settled and be fun. Excellent. Yeah. Yeah. So couldn't have asked for two families to come to better together anymore. Like all the kids get along great. Like, it's been a really big blessing. Yeah. Couldn't have asked her to go any different.

Does

Ally Brettnacher: Jenny run where you said you okay, so wait, you met, did she run in high school?

David Wilkerson: She ran track in high school. Okay. So. And then she still runs. She still runs? Yeah. Okay. She likes trail running more than she does the roads, so Okay. She's trying to get back into that. She trying to rope you into the trails.

Uh, I like the trails. I mean, I'll run on the trails. I don't like racing on the trails.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

David Wilkerson: I always trip [01:00:00] on the roofs.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I, I haven't, I've, I don't know, I'm tempted to do more on the trails 'cause it is a different, it is different atmosphere

David Wilkerson: and it's better for your body.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. But I just, I love the roads, so I love roads too.

I'm such a road race and I love out

David Wilkerson: and back loops I could do out and backs all day long. Me too actually. I love, I know if I go out 30 minutes I gotta turn around and go back. Yeah. Some people, I really hate

Ally Brettnacher: that loop. I really like going out and back.

David Wilkerson: If I do loops, I wanna stop.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. It's like, eh, I don't need to go anywhere.

I can do like one, like if I do, I have like a four mile loop. Yeah. That I know. That's fine. But I still, I really do like an out and back. I do too, like put me on

David Wilkerson: the monon or we, I live on the far east side, so we have the pin trail, which is. Nice too. Okay.

Ally Brettnacher: Are you part of the Pensy Running club then? I am

David Wilkerson: not part of that yet.

Okay. So I might join it, but I'm just so busy.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I just recently met Alyssa for the first time. Okay. over, monumental weekend and I had just been seeing that club kind of come into its own. It's certainly, yeah. They just started like in the last

David Wilkerson: six months,

Ally Brettnacher: which is crazy. It seems like it's going really well.

Yeah. But I didn't even know what the pen, I didn't even know that was a trail. Yeah.

David Wilkerson: It's a really fun trail.

Ally Brettnacher: Is it like the Monan? It's a page. It's pretty much like

David Wilkerson: the Monan. Just not [01:01:00] as far, I don't think. Okay. But it goes pretty far out.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's really cool.

David Wilkerson: Like you can get 10, 12 miles in pretty easily, probably more.

Nice.

Ally Brettnacher: And so, okay, so you did the mini Yep. In May of 23. And then what other races have you done since then? So the fall of

David Wilkerson: 23, I did the monumental half. Okay. So did that with a couple buddies from high school. Ben and Kenny. So talked about Ben earlier, but known these guys since seventh grade. Ben said he was gonna do it with me and then Kenny kind of jumped in and did it with us as well.

So, okay. Goal was to break two hours on that one and we did, we ran like an hour and 50, I think there you 51 there. You got it that time. Happy about really gonna get it this time. It was good. I had to walk, run towards the end. I started cramping up a little bit. Just learn some things in preparation. But yeah, you know, with this heart, like I will say the first time I went running on my own, like super scared, like, I don't know, just, you know, you have your heart, you know, these aren't always super accurate.

Sure. Especially with your heart after a heart transplant, like it doesn't always register, right? Mm-hmm. So, getting used to new paces, that's why I joined PBT 'cause I kind of wanted to like just get some more structure.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

David Wilkerson: So reached out to Matt, joined that group, met a lot of great people. [01:02:00] Met Johanna.

Started kind of running with her. Yeah. Helped her prepare for her marathon and stuff. So, yeah, so did the monumental, went well and then decided to start training for the caramel half, which. The caramel have, I don't know if you've ever done that course, but that course I have. I like it. That's one of the prettiest courses I've ever done.

Yeah. Like it was beautiful. It's a little healing on the backside, but it was fun. Yeah. So I did that with my buddy John Fle and we broke an hour and 40, so ran an hour 39 shees. So super happy with that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So applied myself, trained a lot harder. Wow. Started trusting my body more. The further on I get, the more confidence I think I'm getting.

Yeah. So, yeah. So did that April of 24. Okay. And then the next goal was to transplant games, which I didn't know was a thing.

Ally Brettnacher: I didn't know that was a thing till you, so, yeah. So what the transplant games

David Wilkerson: are, it's every two years. Okay. And it's in a different state every two years. And it's basically where transplant patients, also people who are like living donors and then family members kind of come together and compete in, you name the sport, they have it, they have a basketball, they have pickleball, track and field 5K.

So

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. [01:03:00] It's like, all right,

David Wilkerson: I'm gonna do the transplant game. So I signed up to do the 5K and then the 800 and the 1500 on the track. So I was like, all right, let's do this like. So kind of shifted my focus towards faster stuff, getting ready for that. So yeah. Yeah. So we did the 5K and the 5K is a community thing, so family and friends can do that too.

So the whole family got to do it. They walked, ran. So we had a big group and it was in Birmingham, Alabama, which

Ally Brettnacher: I think is really cool. It was like a super

David Wilkerson: full circle moment with the donor family being from Alabama. So they got to come and be a part of it, cheer on, and we went there early during fourth July.

So we got to go to their house and hang out, have big cookouts and like, hospitality, like southern hospitality is, I mean, they roll out the red carpet, like all their family comes over. I got to meet like Brandon's uncles and just family members and hear stories and see pictures and like, so that was like super cool to do.

Yeah. So yeah. So did the 5K. Um, I won my division for that, so I got a gold medal and then two days later got to do the track races, which luckily they moved indoors. 'cause with it being in Alabama and being hot Oh yeah. Putting a bunch of transplant patients outside in the heat. It's not a [01:04:00] good idea. It's not a good idea for anybody.

No, that would be really bad ally. Yes.

Ally Brettnacher: Right, right.

David Wilkerson: So we get there early and I get a message from my college coach, cross country and track coach saying, Hey, he lived like an hour and a half there, like, I'm gonna come over on Monday and cheer you on to the games and be there. Would that be okay? I'm like, yeah, I haven't seen him in probably 20 plus years.

That's

Ally Brettnacher: wow. So yeah,

David Wilkerson: so Coach Maddox came over and like we just got to catch up and be present and just share stories and like have a picture of him on the sideline. Someone took of him with a stopwatch out, get ready to time me. I was going. So like, yeah, so first race was a 1500 and you know, ran a pretty good time.

Like, like I said, I think broke six minutes in the mile. So if you did the equivalent with a 1500 time, yeah, it would've been breaking six minutes for the mile. So that was huge. And then come back a couple hours later and ran the 800 and won. Won that one. So I got three gold medals of the transplant games, which was super cool.

Ally Brettnacher: okay. Yeah, so it was fun. That's super cool. Yeah. So where are your medals?

David Wilkerson: They're at home.

Ally Brettnacher: You have display? Oh yeah. My

David Wilkerson: wife bought me for Christmas. One of those little things where you hang all your medals. Good. So since my transplant, I've been hanging up my [01:05:00] metals that I'm doing and collecting stuff.

Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: So, wait, so before you had your transplant, had you done any races? I don't know that we talked about any race. With coaching,

David Wilkerson: you kind of get busy where you don't really have time to, because during the seasons you're like, no, like I trained for the flying pig. That was a big focus. Right. And then kind of got hurt.

But during the season it's, my goal was to run with the top girls and get them ready. So yeah, I'm helping girls break 19 minutes, break 20 minutes. So yeah, my job was to help push them along with the other girls too. But my main focus was more that was that, yeah. The top varsity kids.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Well and some of those times, like you said, you weren't feeling that great either.

Yeah. So, so it didn't

David Wilkerson: make sense to go sign up for. I would do like, you know, they used to do the polar, like I've done the polar run before. Okay. And the jingle bell run downtown and stuff like that. So yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

David Wilkerson: I was just training to train and coaching kids, so.

Ally Brettnacher: So now you've got all these, this medal club.

Yeah. So getting back into

David Wilkerson: racing is different. I still get nervous like I did 20 years ago, which I guess is good.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. So the transplant games were in. Was that 24. 24. Okay. So they'll be next year again. Yep.

David Wilkerson: So they're gonna be in Denver, Colorado in 26. Okay. So that's gonna be the next big [01:06:00] goal coming up if you wanna talk about goals coming up.

Yeah. So did do the monumental with my daughter a few last month, which was fun. I was helping pace her. Oh, that's her goal was run. I was

Ally Brettnacher: gonna ask you if any of the kids ran. So

David Wilkerson: my daughter wanted me to help pace her, so I helped pace her. Her goal was to run between nine and nine, 10 pays. She was great through 10.

And then the wills fell a little bit, but I was super proud of how she finished it and she did great.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. I think she'll do another one down the road too. But yeah, so the next big goal for me is to probably do a half this spring.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay.

David Wilkerson: But the main goal will be to shift focus, to get ready for the shorter stuff.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

David Wilkerson: I have a goal to try to break maybe 21 or 20 minutes in a 5K, so, okay. So it's a big goal, but I think, I think it's doable.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

David Wilkerson: I like to push myself and see what I can do. And then obviously the 800, 1500 of the transplant games.

Ally Brettnacher: That's

David Wilkerson: Wow. Yeah. And being in Colorado, that's one of my favorite places to go.

Like, I dunno if you've been to Colorado, but I just, I was

Ally Brettnacher: born there actually. Really? What part? Yeah. Aurora. Okay. Yeah. So Denver area. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So that's one of

David Wilkerson: my favorite places to go on vacation to and like Love it.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I don't get out there. And if I actually for a short time [01:07:00] worked for a marketing agency based in Denver.

Okay. And so I got to travel there for work, which I loved and now I miss, 'cause I have a cousin in Boulder and I love Boulder. yeah. It's just a magical place. Yeah. We went there

David Wilkerson: in July of 23 and so I took my kids and then my daughter's, fiance and my son's buddies all went to Colorado for vacation and we gotta see Taylor Swift fire out there, so Oh, well

Ally Brettnacher: added bonus.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. I somehow

David Wilkerson: got in the lottery to get tickets and I was able to buy tickets at the normal price. I could have sold those tickets for a lot of money, but I didn't. Amazing. I know. We did the same

Ally Brettnacher: thing. I didn't sell 'em. Ours were like a hundred bucks a piece. Yeah, we

David Wilkerson: got, it's crazy. We were like 15 rows from the floor and we got 'em for like get Outta

Ally Brettnacher: town.

It was under like 250 bucks. That's amazing.

David Wilkerson: I could have sold 'em for a

Ally Brettnacher: lot. We were in the nosebleeds. There it was the best. Yeah. And

David Wilkerson: it was one of the, the coolest shows I've seen, and I love going to concerts, love music. Mm-hmm. I play guitar. Like I used to be in a little acoustic duo that used to play music at like breweries and wineries and stuff.

So I love music. Wow. The whole production was just as you know. Amazing.

Ally Brettnacher: Yes, absolutely Amazing. Being at Altitude, does that impact you at all, like your [01:08:00] heart?

David Wilkerson: It didn't when I was out there in 23 running. Yeah. So obviously we'll get out there a few days beforehand and kind of like get used to it. Mm-hmm.

I'll probably spend some time extensively running in the heat. Yeah. Getting used to that too. So I think if you give yourself a few days to get acclimated, it should be fine.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, for sure. That's exciting. Yeah.

David Wilkerson: So that's the next big goal in 26. It's, wait,

Ally Brettnacher: and that's in the summer? Yep, it's in July, in

David Wilkerson: actually end of June,

Ally Brettnacher: so, and are you registered for anything in the spring when it comes to the half?

David Wilkerson: I haven't yet. Okay. Yeah. I would like to do the caramel half probably. Yeah. So we'll see. I know this

Ally Brettnacher: year they, you know, it would be a big year because they had to cancel last year. So, or this year.

David Wilkerson: And then I'll also do the run 3 1 7 stuff again too. Okay.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, I did see that. You, you've done those? Yeah, I was an

David Wilkerson: ambassador for them and I'll be an ambassador again this coming year, so it's a lot of fun.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. I did, the race in broader Pull this year was on my birthday, so I did that one. I don't usually, I, I've done the West Carmel one 'cause it's super close to my house. Yep. but I just, I struggle. I could do, I would love to do 'em all. I need to get my kids old enough to do them with me. Um, it's hard with kids.

It's hard with kids.

David Wilkerson: And that was part of the thing with running on your [01:09:00] own when you have young kids is it's hard to exclusively train and then do races and that kind of stuff. Yeah.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. So, and I joke, I was like, I'm trying to stay married. Yeah. That's important. So my husband's golf league is on Thursday nights, which is when all the, so I'm like, yeah, you gotta let him have that one.

You know, he, he does that. Well, that's important. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So. I keep myself busy. So are you, so we kind of, we touched on the fact that you trained for a marathon and then didn't get to finish the marathon.

So how are you thinking about, you know, longer term stuff or do you wanna run a marathon? So I've

David Wilkerson: been given, I was given the clearance last year, so I go to the doctor every February for like a yearly appointment now. I go every, that's like my big one Every year you go in This year I get to do a stress test, which I'm kind of excited to do the stress test where you get on treadmill.

Okay. You learn, you can learn more about, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I've been given the green light to do a marathon. It's just a marathon is a big time commitment and it's sometimes harder having a family with kids and stuff. So just,

Ally Brettnacher: I mean, yeah. You know,

David Wilkerson: so, but yeah, I think that's gonna be the goal. I'm thinking maybe monumental of 26.

Ally Brettnacher: Okay. So

David Wilkerson: I think after I get done with the transplant games. Give myself a break and then kind [01:10:00] of jump into the training for that.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Okay. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So like next, next year. I think that's the goal. Maybe

David Wilkerson: I would love to do one. I wanna do one. Yeah. I mean I've done the training before. I know what it's gonna feel like.

So. Yeah. And I'm weird. I enjoy the training part. Like I enjoy getting out there and doing the miles and the workouts and pushing myself. Yeah. Yeah. I have no problem pushing myself by myself. So,

Ally Brettnacher: which is a blessing too. Yeah. To have that, even being part of community like PBT. Yeah. Being able to have the self motivation is

David Wilkerson: great too.

And where I live now, it's always hard to get to the PBT stuff. So like when I live downtown it was easier. Yeah, I guess that's a good point. So, but I still like getting the workouts from Matt 'cause he does a great job of, you know, so I have plenty of resources to get workouts from and stuff like that.

Ally Brettnacher: So, yeah. is there anybody else in PBT who's a transplant? Person. How do, what do I say? Like a transplant recipient, A recipient

David Wilkerson: person

Ally Brettnacher: per a transplanter or trans. I know. I get a lot of people be

David Wilkerson: like, you don't look like a transplant recipient.

Ally Brettnacher: I go, what's a transplant recipient supposed to look like?

David Wilkerson: Totally. Like I've heard that question before. I'm like, well what am I supposed to look like? Yeah. Like should I just always walk

Ally Brettnacher: around with like a heart on my, yeah, because I don't advertise it. Right.

David Wilkerson: I will tell you this, after [01:11:00] my surgery, like where they did this did not hurt as much as where they took the pacemaker defibrillator out.

Interesting. Because that had been in for like four or five years. So all that scar tissue, like I couldn't lower my arm down for a long time. So that hurt worse than this. Interesting. And he did an amazing job on that. The scar's. Amazing.

Ally Brettnacher: And pacemaker. I meant to ask you this earlier. Did when you traveled, did it like set off the machines?

David Wilkerson: No. You'd have to go through a separate through anything. Yeah. Okay. So I don't have one anymore. Don't have to

Ally Brettnacher: worry about it. So you don't have to worry about it anymore. But before you used to have to be like, I have a pacemaker. And they do a special, you

David Wilkerson: show 'em a little card and they'd take you through.

So

Ally Brettnacher: interesting.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. But not anymore. It's not a problem.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's nice. Thankfully added bonus. Um, and then. When you were going through some of your rehab too, you know, kind of touching on the fact that you don't look like a transplant recipient. I feel like also being in cardio, like cardio rehab, I picture like all these old people.

Well, is that, is that kind of the case? Yeah,

David Wilkerson: so in the hospital I lost like 40, almost 40 pounds. So when I came outta the hospital I was like real thin, like this head lost a lot. Wow. Because there was, I didn't eat for a lot of time 'cause they couldn't get some reason I couldn't get fed while I was in that [01:12:00] little coma phase.

Like they had a hard time getting a thing down my neck or throat or whatever, how they would do it.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow. Yeah.

David Wilkerson: So I had to try to gain some weight. But yeah, so yeah, you go to cardiac rehab and it is more, I don't wanna say elderly, but it is a different population. So they didn't quite know what to do with me at first because most people are just walking and they're walking kind of slow and they have someone like me who's like, this guy's wanting to run.

All right, we gotta, let's wait,

Ally Brettnacher: let's do all the stuff. And luckily I

David Wilkerson: had some great trainers there, great workers there that knew what they were doing. They were athletes themselves, so they were able to help kind of push me. And they did. They pushed me, I. So the cardiac rehab was good and plus, you know, insurance paid to go to all the sessions, so why not go to them?

And yeah, I was able to work it out with my schedule where I would go first thing in the morning, then work after that, so. Wow. Yeah. Just another way to get a workout in. Yeah. Yeah. But then I also just would do a lot of stuff on my own. Like after the transplant, I used to walk all the time, like I still walk all the time.

Like there's, there's days that I don't do something. My body feels horrible. Yeah. Which is weird. Like it's just I have to move. Yeah. I don't know, it's from the transplant or just my mind, but you know, there's some days I don't feel like doing anything and I think we all feel like that. Mm-hmm. That's one thing I tell people [01:13:00] is like, there's days you don't feel like it, but you're gonna feel better when you do it.

Ally Brettnacher: Like, yeah.

David Wilkerson: It's still hard.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah, for sure. As a parent, how do you instill the mindset that you've been given?

David Wilkerson: I think I just show, by the way, I act like I don't complain very much. Like I just, I'm more of an action person. Like I want them to see what I'm doing. I never try to say, you need to do this, this, or this.

Like, yeah, I think lead by example, that's really special. And I've always been

Ally Brettnacher: really, yeah. Yeah. Also, you mentioned before you sign like, you know, not drinking alcohol, not smoking, et cetera. So how, how did that impact you, if at all? Like, did you drink a lot before? I didn't drink a

David Wilkerson: lot. I would enjoy bourbon or wine or a iced beer every now and then.

I mean, my last drink was Thanksgiving of 21.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah.

David Wilkerson: I think one of the kids that poured some bourbon, somebody poured bourbon and didn't want it. I drink it. Yeah, that's fine. That's the last drink I had, but I don't miss it. I mean, there's some days like in the winter, especially if you're sitting by a fire and you want like a nice drink to warm you up or something.

But yeah, to me it's just not worth it. And for me it's also like I feel like I'm, I want to be respectful to my [01:14:00] donor Totally. And his family. And it just feels like it's not worth it. But I know some people do and that's totally fine with them. I understand it. 'cause to me it's not worth it. Yeah. Plus, fun fact for you, I'm on less medication now than I was before my transplant.

Wow. So before my transplant I was taking all kinds of pills. Now I just take rejection medicine and a cholesterol medicine and there's like multivitamins and stuff like that.

Ally Brettnacher: Wow.

David Wilkerson: So yeah. So I'm on, always be on rejection med. So all. Another fun fact is a lot of people's organs reject because some people stop taking their rejection meds.

Oh. They start to feel good and assume they don't need 'em. You always need 'em. 'cause you have this foreign object in your body that's always trying to get its way out.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's crazy. So you'll be on that P forever. Yeah. The way

David Wilkerson: they check for rejection now is they have someone come to the house, take my blood and they can test it through your blood.

Like versus your donor's DNA and stuff like that. So. Wow. Yeah. It's a whole process. It's a

Ally Brettnacher: whole, it's a whole nother world. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I can't believe we're already here to ask the end of the podcast questions. Yeah. So the first one is, what is your favorite running song and or mantra?

David Wilkerson: Oh man. And then you'll,

Ally Brettnacher: and then I'll add it. Has, you [01:15:00] also have to add a Taylor Swift song since we

David Wilkerson: running song's. Tough. 'cause I think when I run all different songs kind of get through my head, so I don't know if I have one. Do you listen

Ally Brettnacher: to music while you run? I do not. No.

David Wilkerson: No. Okay. I'm really like that.

I don't like to listen to run. There's a lot of people that don't

Ally Brettnacher: though, now that I've asked that question enough times, people I have

David Wilkerson: on the treadmill every now and then. Okay. But usually when I'm out running on the roads, I wanna be able to hear what's going on around me. Yeah. Just 'cause you never know.

Ally Brettnacher: Totally. But

David Wilkerson: I think the biggest mantra that's stuck with me here lately is I get to do this. I don't have to do it. Because I think it's so easy to think you get stuck where like, I have to do this. Well I'm lucky I get to do it. I'm lucky I get to go out here and walk or run or do any type of physical activity.

Yeah. Because I know what the alternative could have been for me. Mm-hmm. So

Ally Brettnacher: I

David Wilkerson: get to do it, but that's probably my biggest thing. And I don't know the song's tough.

Ally Brettnacher: What's your favorite Taylor Swift song on the new album?

David Wilkerson: I haven't listened to the whole new album.

Ally Brettnacher: What? No. Come on. I'm not a swifty. Well, you went to the concert.

I went That's 'cause my, you're our by default. That's because my daughter loved it. True. We dressed up in everything for that thing. Okay. But you had to. Okay. Well anyway, we'll let that slide. If your daughter hears this, [01:16:00] I'm just kidding. Ah,

David Wilkerson: I like the evermore stuff a lot. Okay.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. So that's interesting.

Yeah. More chill lives. But some of the other stuff's

David Wilkerson: fun too. Yeah. Like we're never getting back together and all those stuff. Mm-hmm. Those are fun.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. What did you wear to the concert?

David Wilkerson: I had like a heart shirt that a coworker designed my whole outfit for concert. That is so nice.

What a great

Ally Brettnacher: coworker.

David Wilkerson: He went to Goodwill and hooked me up with like shoes and a shirt, like a white shirt that had hearts on it. So it was fun. Perfect. That's

Ally Brettnacher: great. That ties it all together really well too. Yeah. did you make any friendship bracelets?

David Wilkerson: No, but we

Ally Brettnacher: got a bunch I bet. And I kind of

David Wilkerson: passed them out to other kids,

Ally Brettnacher: especially with the young kids.

Like I went with my 8-year-old and we, yeah, with my friend and her 8-year-old and people just loved giving the bracelets to the kids. It was cute. I've never seen more moms and

David Wilkerson: daughters in one place in my entire life. Yeah. Yeah. And it was a whole thing.

Ally Brettnacher: A whole thing.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. Absolutely. It was like the screaming,

Ally Brettnacher: oh my God.

So loud. Yeah, it was wild.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. But it was fun.

Ally Brettnacher: So fun. Okay. Yeah, it's hard for me

David Wilkerson: to pick one song 'cause that's Depends on the day. It is. It is hard.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. And the mood, there's like one for every, yeah. Every mood you're in. Yeah. okay. And then next finish line or milestone we've talked [01:17:00] a little bit about.

Yep.

David Wilkerson: So yeah, the transplant games coming up in 26 will be the big focus. Obviously trying to break 21 minutes or 20 minutes for a five KI think is the next big goal. So yeah. So I may do a half this spring, so I would like to do a half, I think this part of the training cycle. So,

Ally Brettnacher: and then when it comes to milestones.

What do you do? Do you celebrate your like heart day?

David Wilkerson: So we do, every year on the anniversary we go out to dinner, but then I also go in for my checkup. I either take cookies or cupcakes to all the nurses and doctors and kind of walk the floor and thank them. Most of them probably don't know who I am.

Yeah. But some of them do remember me, so I always like to give back that way and just let them know how appreciative I am. So I'll go to each floor, pass out the treat. That's so nice to be thank them because I mean, they saved my life. I mean, yeah. I mean obviously, the Lord saved my life too, but like that team, they're just, they were amazing.

I mean, they've seen me at my worst and like, I feel like it gives them hope to see someone who has been successful and like, this is why you do what you do. Yeah. So like doctors and nurses, like always show respect to them.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's really kind of you. [01:18:00] And is is February Heart month?

David Wilkerson: It is.

Ally Brettnacher: That's so crazy too.

Yeah. Yeah. That's what I thought.

David Wilkerson: Yep. All those dates together. All those

Ally Brettnacher: dates right together. Yep.

David Wilkerson: So yeah, we celebrate it. Yeah, the first year was a big deal. 'cause you know, the first year is the most critical year, and then the further out you get, it's still, you still celebrate it because you know those are extra days you're given.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. Yeah. And so this February will be four. Four. Wow. Which

David Wilkerson: is crazy to think about.

Ally Brettnacher: Yeah. That's a big milestone. Yeah. It's really cool.

David Wilkerson: Yeah. 26 is a big year. that my daughter graduates college. She gets married. Like it's a big 26 is a big year. Yes,

Ally Brettnacher: yes. Oh my gosh. Well, I'm so excited that I now know you and get to cheer you on for all those milestones.

So cool. Yeah. I appreciate you having me on.

David Wilkerson: answered. Oh my gosh. Gosh.

Ally Brettnacher: It was, it was really great. Thank you, David. Thank you. And thank you to everybody who listened. Yes. And happy running. Yes.

If you enjoyed this episode of Finish Lines and Milestones from Sandy Boy Productions, well first go to Indiana donor network.org and sign up to be an organ donor and then rate review. Share this episode if you were inspired by David like I [01:19:00] was. and I have one more episode coming out before the end of the year next Friday.

So I will see you next week. Thanks for listening. Bye.