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What is From Chair to Chic: Launch?

From Chair to Chic: Launch is a personal diary about becoming a disabled fashion designer with a physical disability, learning the ins and outs of fashion design from the help of the Academy of Arts university in San Francisco, California

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Welcome to A Different Shaped Heart. You guys, remember the saying

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your parents used to ask you, what do you want to be when you grow up? Well, I said a teacher to begin with tried that trick, didn't like that. And now I'm a full time podcaster, which I love. And so not only am I getting a communications degree, but I'm also getting if I had a drum roll machine, would play it right now, but I don't.

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I'm also getting a degree in fashion design which is only going to take me 15 credits to get because I'm halfway I was halfway through a fashion journalism degree in 2019. So I dropped that because life got in the way. So on Sunday, I need to double check. I think it's next Sunday. On Sunday, I start, communications gray out of Grand Canyon University.

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Then in the summer, which is after my hip replacement, not sooner, I will be starting a well finishing a degree in fashion design which means I will have the capabilities to design clothes for people with disabilities. That's my ultimate plan and because so many people in life get disabilities or have disabilities I. E. C. P.

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Example Palsy and they can't do buttons, they can't do zippers, they can't do they can barely do elastic waist. And yes designers have come out with lines geared towards the disabled, but they're able-bodied. And if I say out during this podcast in Deville, that's because I'm still dealing with my hip. Good grief. It's time to get that fixed.

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Oh, wait. I'm getting my hip replacement in thirty days. Yay. Yay. Yay.

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So I can put my foot back on the ground. Jeez. So if I say ouch, that's why. But right now, it's comp. But I want to make a difference in people's lives, not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually.

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And I'm going to get my master's in counseling I've decided because over the years so many people have come to me with their issues in private and I have listened to them. Mean, I've had people burst into tears in my arms. I've had people fall in my arms and look at me, Danielle, and look at me and say, please don't leave me, Danielle. And that's what she did two years ago when I came out to Aspen to see the Challenge Aspen play music and movement. Dan can't play.

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All of a sudden, Danny Young runs off stage. Willie runs into my arms, falls into my lap. Lily. And the running joke is don't fall. Don't fall because when Danielle gets excited and Danielle will agree, she runs and the running joke between her and I is don't fall.

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Well, I said that and she falls directly in my lap and then gives me a huge hug and then looks at me with the sweetest eyes like, Don't leave me. You already left me too long. Don't leave me. So anyway, I want to help people physically, emotionally feel good mentally, feel good dress wise because you don't feel good if you don't dress well. At least I don't.

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I mean I don't feel good sitting here in a t shirt and this is infinite. So I want in the long run to make people feel good emotionally, physically, spiritually and I will do my best to get a Masters in Counseling and have the degree of Fashion Designing behind me so that I can help people in the on the side designing clothes it's gonna be a full time career. Designing clothes is gonna be a full time career because I love fashion and I love looking good but counseling is going to be my part time job along with podcasting along with multi level marketing which is LimeLife by a Cone look me up on that website website consists of makeup and skincare but really this and I'm not kidding when I say this if you Google disabled clothing it's ugly it's unfashionable and I want to make a difference in the world. I want to make cute handicapped accessible clothes for mainly for people close to me like Danielle who who struggles with buttons and zippers. She does well with elastic, but there's not that many cute clothes having to do with elastic.

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And I can't I should really get my degree in shoe design. Quite frankly, there's a school out there that helps you design shoes with my fashion degree. Tell me people because the struggle is real when it comes to FAOs, orthotics, and shoes. The struggle bus is real. I can't tell you how many hours my mom spent looking for shoes that fit over my orthotics.

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Finally Billy's whose orthotic shoe company came out with shoes that fit over orthotics. But ain't it cute? Yes they are cute. But I want to take it one step further and help my tribe out by giving back to my tribe and possibly doing pairing up with Make A Wish down here and let kids do fashion designing as a wish or yeah because this is something I want to do and it's only going to take me 15 credits to finish and so I have that degree coming up. I have my communications degree as I said but it's what do you want to be when you grow up.

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I want to be a fashion designer and I have had this skull since I've moved to Amazon. In fact, I got this skull the second day I was laying in bed with my back surgery and I looked at a friend of mine who's still a friend of mine and I said this is after I yeah I know this is after pneumonia and a twisted bowel and I looked at this friend of mine and I said Susie I feel hope I feel helpless. And she said, When you're healing, you're supposed to feel what you feel. You're healing. You just had a major back operation.

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And so I have had this skull since April 2024. Did I pursue it in April 2024? No. Did I pursue it in 2025 when I had my knee surgery? No, I did not because I was focused on my knee.

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Did I pursue it in 2026? Yes. After my hip replacement? Yes because I can sit and sew and do and hang stuff on mannequins with help. Yes.

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And I'll hire a seamstress to help me As long as I can design clothes and be able to sit in my wheelchair, yes, my ultimate goal is to design clothes that work with wheelchairs and g tubes and all the tubing that comes with disabilities. It doesn't necessarily come with mine, but it comes with a lot of people's, including the dear friend of ours which I won't mention. But I just feel like I need to do this. This is a calling that I've had for years and my don't listen to your parents. Well, listen to your parents, but when they tell you to be a teacher, yeah, and then you move to the worst teaching state in the country?

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Yeah right. So I always wanted to be a journalist and I always secretly wanted to be a fashion designer because I always loved design plans. I mean I've always loved Louis Vuitton, big fan of Louis Vuitton and a big fan of Clisson Dior, big fan of Dolce and Gabbard, big fan of all that. So I yeah, and I want to get back to that along with living and breathing and getting back in that interest rate because I feel like along with podcasting, with counseling, me getting invested in counseling will help people. I just want to help people in the long run because and my ultimate goal is to donate cute clothes to the women in homeless shelters and rehabs who are rehabbing from back injuries and hips primarily back injuries because when you have a back surgery your life turns completely upside down and one of the of the things they say when you have a back surgery because of scoliosis and they put the rods in your back for six weeks no twisting no bending no lifting.

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Well the rehab clothes are absolutely ugly. The pants are too big, the tops are ugly, I always bring my own stuff to rehab and try to look cute. At the end of the day, I wear rehab issues pants, that's okay because everyone else is wearing rehab issues pants too. And but I want to look cute in rehab and now you got to remember rehab is p g 13, No short shorts, no tight skin tight leggings because older guys are now and older women are now and they deal with a lot of strokes, they deal with a lot of dementia, they deal with a lot of injuries, they deal with knees, they deal with hips. They are starting to deal with CP because of me.

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But I primarily want to give back to the community of rehabs up and down the Valley Of Phoenix because rehab clothes that are ugly and I want to make them cute and no zippers, no buttons. I want to make it easy for caregivers and I have a podcast coming out to follow me on this journey of getting a fashion degree and my first first clothing line will be for well, one of the pieces will be for Danielle because Danielle was the main one that inspired me to do this, believe it or not, because she struggled with buttons and due to CP. And I watched her struggle with snowboard pants and buttons and I'm like, why can't we make cute snowboard pants with elastic here, honey? And so that's what I'm gonna be doing in summer and also getting my communications degree, also getting a hip replacement, also getting working on a podcast, working on 2,000,000 podcasts. So I will be, a little bit busy, but my main focus is my health aka my hip replacement sorry for the coughing attack aka my hip replacement and my schooling.

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That's gonna be my main focuses because school and my hip replacement and yes I will tell my professors on January 12, do not get a hold of me. Do not get a hold of me. Do not say my assignment is late to me until the end of the week just to take a week off and get used to this new hip. And my philosophy with this new hip is it's going, because it's a man made hip, it's going to wear out but it's not going to be worn out because of CP. CP will lovingly take care of it.

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Yes, CP you will. You won't eject the hip because of my tone and CP will lovingly accept it and lovingly take care of it and Danielle will send me all the good vibes in the world no longer with everyone else. So CP you can't eject the hip because of the tone and so there's going be a lot of self talk, there's going to be a lot of in my mind, I can't do this, but I will tell PTs, Yes, I'm ready. I'm ready to go. They will get me up and moving 100% after surgery just because of lungs when I had my reconstruction knee surgery they got me up and hopping to a bedside commode.

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When I right after surgery one hour after surgery and yes I was still in the anesthesia brain and yes in my mind I said I can't do this. I am still in the anesthesia brain I want to go back to bed But of course it made me hop, of course I tilt the PT yes. Like I always do, I always push myself a little bit harder. But I have a bunch of pre ops next week. I have my pulmonologist pre op.

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I have pain management. No, infectious disease. Infectious disease is not a pre op per se. It's just to check on GD, C. Diff, goddamn C.

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Diff again because this doc is insane. He wants to check on C. Diff again and with that being said, C. Diff won't get involved with the knee replacement because I've already called my medical liaison to tell my doctor team when they give me antibiotics to also give me vancomycin to counteract C. Diff because unfortunately any antibiotics you give a person that was a history of C.

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Diff, C. Difficent, colate difficent, or C. Diff for short. C. Diff loves antibiotics.

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So that's fun. So when they give me antibiotics or anyone with a history of C. Diff. Yeah, that's always fun. And I'm being sarcastic because I don't want to be in C.

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Diff mode trying to walk up and down the hallways. No. And that's just that's my hip. And I can't wait to get back to exercise PT like a normal person, shelling like a normal person, going to the toilet like a normal person, all while working on my fashion degree and my communications degree. So this all be fun fashion and communications and counseling on top in the master's degree and then I have to get certified as a counselor but that's going be the easy part And so, and I'll do it from home and help people all across the world.

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And you have to get individual licenses to sign your license here, I'm going to licensed here, I'm go licensed in Colorado and I'm licensed in California because there's a disabled population needs help. There's a disabled population everywhere that needs help but I will definitely license in the Colorado and definitely license in the Arizona, my two home states because finding help down here is like finding help like a needle in a haystack sometimes. I go into doctors and I say look this is what I want and they go patient insisted on a hip replacement and I'm like no patient insisted on feeling better feeling better and wearing cute shoes. Patient did not insist on a hip replacement. Patient insisted on feeling better and didn't want wiggly limbs and didn't want a ball to be gone completely.

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So patient insisted on feeling better. Patient did not insist on a hip replacement. I just took that option because it was best outcome. So my mommy would have fought for the best outcome too. My biological mommy would have fought for the best outcome.

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So sometimes I have to be mean to doxus. Ain't that dangerous? But I want to give back to the rehab society and injury rehab society and I want to give back to women and men especially those who've had spine surgery or spinal cord surgery just to get them cute and feeling good. And then I'll get a a Masters degree in counseling, get certified in the Arizona and Colorado and do things virtually and so I'll make adults feel good physically and emotionally and spiritually and mentally too. So that's all that's all in the front bank.

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And Monday we have a fun, fun interview. Let's talk about this hip replacement. Fun upbeat interview about a certain person going on a Disney cruise and another certain person has to give her the questions. So I'm going to do that tonight and she will be speaking on her iPad. Danielle has a voice but it's a little bit easier to do interviews on the iPad.

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So Danielle will plug it into her iPad so you can hear a computer voice but it's a little bit easier for her to speak because she even though she loves podcasting, Danielle gets a little bit frustrated when people can't understand it. She likes the iPad better but she's going do it with the iPad so watch out the iPad is going to rock and roll and we're going to have fun with this interview and yeah we're going to have fun with this interview so it will be out on Monday. So Monday should be fun and Disney is going to be fun and then I'm working on my other podcast from wheelchair to chic watch and it's my personal journey about becoming a fashion designer and so I'll let you guys know when that's out. And this podcast is about to lose a voice I don't know why but yeah maybe it's time for me to go because I'm about to lose my voice. So Danielle do you want to leave loudly?

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Yeah. Thank you for following us guys and watch out for the Disney Cruise interview and yeah watch out for Wheelchair Toothache the podcast coming out and just watch out for the next big great thing which will be a hip replacement on my end and I'm trying to get everything organized for that. And so as I said, I will be, we call it content from my rehab, not the hospital because the Wi Fi is not good. But maybe if I'm feeling good maybe we can get, I don't know, a podcast out of me the second day of recovery so you can walk with me through a hip replacement just so you know how to support a loved one who's having a hip replacement. I'll let Dan the Ono and maybe we can conquer some trouble like we always do with me in a hip replacement.

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Danielle is going to chase me along with everyone else because I won't be wheelchair bound for much longer but I will send you the wheelchair for long distances and thank you for following us before I lose my voice completely. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys for following us. What Danielle said and we'll be back with Danielle and the Disney interview on Monday as I said and then we'll all talk to you guys leading up to the hip replacement.

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I'll release the speech about CP that I did for my church when I'm under so you guys can hear that and that's when the injury first happened. And then I will also release something in the hospital by myself, maybe with Daniel Young helping me so I can record the phone call, but by myself so you guys can get a progress update and then we'll do a full episode on the second day of recovery so you guys can get a full picture of what's going on. But I am going to let you guys go and I am going to go rest my voice beyond the vocal rest and thank you for following us. You guys bye you guys. Bye.