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Patient Stories, Podcast

“Make It Count:” Dani’s Journey With Severe RA, Acceptance, and Strength

3 weeks ago
62 min read
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Summary:

At 16, athlete Dani Bryant was told she’d be in a wheelchair by 21 due to severe RA. Now decades later, after many meds, surgeries, and setbacks, she’s currently  thriving: running a construction company, lifting at 3:30 a.m., and leading the Make It Count for Dani Foundation, which supports people with rheumatoid arthritis through movement, scholarships, and practical encouragement.

Cheryl and Dani dig into the diagnosis saga, evolving RA treatments, the role of acceptance, and why movement is essential to living well with rheumatic disease. For Dani, “movement” isn’t only physical; it’s emotional, spiritual, and educational. If you’re newly diagnosed, this conversation is a powerful reminder to make every day count.

Episode at a glance:

  • Dani’s Diagnosis Journey: Cheryl and Dani discuss Dani’s journey to being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.
  • How Dani Rebuilt her Life: Dani recounts how she rebuilt her life after her diagnosis by slowly reintroducing weights and working through mental health challenges. 
  • The Importance of Movement: Cheryl and Dani discuss the importance of movement for those with arthritis, beyond physical movement.
  • Make it Count for Dani: Dani and Cheryl delve into Dani’s non-profit organization which provides support and hope for those living with RA.

Medical disclaimer: 

All content found on Arthritis Life public channels was created for generalized informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Episode Sponsors

Rheum to THRIVE, an online course and support program Cheryl created to help people with rheumatic disease go from overwhelmed, confused and alone to confident, supported and connected. See all the details and join the program or waitlist now! 

Speaker Bios:

Danielle  “Dani” Bryant

I was diagnosed with RA 34 years ago at the age of 16. For years, RA dictated my life.  At the prime age of 40, I decided to take ultimate control. I live in the very dry climate of Phoenix, Arizona which has also been a game changer for my health. I own a Phoenix based construction company called THRIVE Construction. In 2017 I founded the MAKE IT COUNT 4 Dani Foundation to advocate, educate, encourage, and inspire those living with RA to MAKE IT COUNT. We provide assistance and send movement packages all over the world to patients.

Cheryl Crow

Cheryl is an occupational therapist who has lived with rheumatoid arthritis for over twenty years. Her life passion is helping others with rheumatoid arthritis figure out how to live a full life despite arthritis, by developing tools to navigate physical, emotional and social challenges. She formed the educational company Arthritis Life in 2019 after seeing a huge need for more engaging, accessible, and (dare I say) FUN patient education and self-management resources.

Episode links:

Full Episode Transcript:

[00:00:05] Cheryl Crow: Yay. I’m so excited today to have an interview that’s been like two years in the making back and forth while we work through our schedules. So I have Dani today to share her story. Can you let us know just really quick, where do you live and what is your relationship to arthritis?

[00:00:25] Dani Bryant: So I live in Phoenix, Arizona, so I would consider that to be the hottest state in the United States.

It’s a dry heat though. And my relationship with arthritis is I suffer with severe rheumatoid arthritis.

[00:00:39] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. And you are known, I should say, for people listening, it’s Make it Count for Dani. That is what you’re known for in the arthritis community. So we’re definitely gonna talk about the origin stories for that and about how your passion about movement and just inspiring others to stay moving.

But first, let’s start like we always do on this podcast with your diagnosis journey slash saga. How old were you when you got diagnosed? What were some of your symptoms and what was that like?

[00:01:10] Dani Bryant: Well, that is the story, right? That is the saga, like you said.

So I was, I am the youngest and the only girl, and I have three older brothers. So there’s four of us, and I was the lucky one that got rheumatoid arthritis. I was a real athlete, right? I followed my brothers around. So, I’m the girl that’s the tomboy that’s trying to be this, just keep up with her brothers.

So I was a really big athlete. I played basketball, I played softball, I played tennis. I mean, you name it, I probably played it. But at the time of the onset with the disease, I was heavy into softball and I was a catcher. So I also am six feet tall now, back in school I was, when I was diagnosed, I was probably about five nine, so I’ve actually gained some inches since then.

But I was playing catcher, so I was constantly in that crouch position, holding my glove, with my wrist. And I started to feel a lot of pain in my wrists and my elbows and my knees and my feet. And I thought it was part of the job because that’s what I was doing. Not only was I playing softball competitively, but I was also coaching softball.

So it was like I had a full-time job. I’d go to school and then it was softball before school. It was softball after school, and it was softball late into the evening.

[00:02:30] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. Yeah. That’s how I was like, that was soccer. Yeah. High school team and then the club team and

[00:02:35] Dani Bryant: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so you’re playing on multiple teams and then you’re coaching you’re running camps for younger girls.

And I really thought it was part of the job, right? Like I’m just running myself ragged and I’m doing all this. And I went to a, we were doing this state tournament and I woke up really sore and I could barely move my arm ’cause I was throwing so much to second base. And so my coach at the time, it’s winter, so the coach is go in the swimming pool at this hotel we’re at, right?

And they get, they, so I go in the swimming pool and I’m freezing, right? But we’re trying to like, loosen up my arm thinking that, I’m just sore from throwing to second base. Well, we finished that tournament, it was a great tournament, but the next day, three days later, I woke up and I couldn’t move my legs outta bed.

And I mean, I seriously, I could see my, tell my body to do something, but my body wasn’t doing it. And so essentially I am now rushed to the doctor ’cause we don’t know what’s going on and they had actually thought that I had either muscular dystrophy, of some sort Lou Gehrig’s disease. We didn’t find out that I had rheumatoid arthritis for months because I don’t think anybody put that I don’t even think anybody put that together.

[00:03:55] Cheryl Crow: And wait, how old were you?

[00:03:57] Dani Bryant: Oh, I’m sorry. I was getting to that. Yeah, I was 16. Well I was 16 when all this, I found out that I had rheumatoid arthritis at 16, but my symptoms started when I was 15. So, and you know about the saga, right? If you’re going in all these different directions and you’re, sometimes you’re hitting dead ends.

’cause, doctors are like, well, is it in your head? I’m like, no I’m really feeling, so essentially I went to a foot specialist because I couldn’t put any pressure on my feet.

And at this point in time, like I only lasted in a wheelchair for a day, and then I’m on walking canes.

And I’m trying to see if there’s a way I can put pressure on my feet. I’m like, is there, what can we do? And he looked at me and he looked at my, looked at all my joints, and he said, has anybody ever tested you for rheumatoid arthritis? And I said, I don’t even know what that is.

Isn’t that an old person’s disease? Don’t you have to be 70? So, and because, well, you’re younger than me, but back in the day we, all we had were encyclopedias, so,

[00:04:59] Cheryl Crow: Oh no, that was me. Yeah. I mean, I’m, I am 43.

[00:05:03] Dani Bryant: Yeah. So you’re seven years younger than me, but yeah, you had encyclopedias back in the day.

[00:05:07] Cheryl Crow: Totally.

[00:05:07] Dani Bryant: So we go to the library and we’re looking at these pictures like, and they’re telling me my body’s gonna end up being all curled up. Well, that is kind of what was happening. I literally couldn’t move my arms. I couldn’t hold a pencil or a pen. I literally, it’s almost like I went crippled overnight, but it had basically lasted weeks and weeks, and it just got progressively worse and it just hurt to move.

So what happens when it hurts? You don’t move. Right. Because we’re in so much pain and as it I consider myself to still be a child at that age. Right. I was only 15, 16 when all this was starting.

[00:05:47] Cheryl Crow: You are definitely,

[00:05:49] Dani Bryant: and mind you, the other big factor in this is that I was on my own. So, I was basically trying to survive on my own.

My mother was not in the picture. My father had relocated to New York and I was stuck in Tulsa, Oklahoma with a lady in her two kids. So I was now navigating this medical, what was going on my own. And so to get to the diagnosis is the foot specialist offered to do a blood test.

’cause I said, well, I can’t afford to do a blood test. And he said, well, I’ll take care of it for you. And that’s how I found out that I had the RH factor in my body. So the blood test came out positive and then I went to go see my first rheumatologist about a month later, who basically was the worst person in my entire life and said that I’d be in the wheelchair by the time I was 21.

[00:06:45] Cheryl Crow: Wait, let me do math. What is this? In the nineties?

[00:06:48] Dani Bryant: 1991.

[00:06:49] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. I mean that is the reality for some people with severe rheumatoid arthritis before the current era of biologics.

[00:06:58] Dani Bryant: Totally. That didn’t last very long because I left Oklahoma I was, I mean, he obliterated my life. Okay. That’s, when you talk about the saga and how it, my saga went all downhill from there.

I mean, I met depression, unlike any depression I’d ever met in my life.

[00:07:14] Cheryl Crow: So he told you like, you’re sitting here, like you’ve been looking for answers. Your podiatrist or the foot specialist tells you that your blood work was positive, you need to go, you probably have rheumatoid arthritis, let’s go see a rheumatologist. And so you walk in the rheumatologist and they’re just really like down in the dumps about it, right?

[00:07:31] Dani Bryant: Oh, I mean, I brought in, so Cheryl back in the day, I was quite the athlete, so I had a binder filled with news articles about how, about all these newspaper, the newspapers would come and do articles on me because I was just a diehard athlete and I took that binder with me and said, I need to get my life back here because I’ve gotta be able to go play college sports and I wanna go to the Olympics.

And I tell this guy this and he is it’s not gonna happen. I mean it’s basically that’s how the conversation was. Hard stop. Yeah. You need to prepare to be in a wheelchair and so I literally believed him. I mean, I remember crying and crying for days and yeah, it was awful. So.

[00:08:19] Cheryl Crow: The fact that you had no one there to help you, like as an adult. I’m just so, I wish we could go back in time and give you a hug and show you what your life would end up being.

It’s just wow. I’m so sorry.

[00:08:32] Dani Bryant: I mean, but again, and that’s why I’m sitting, where I’m sitting today and everything that I have evolved to be and become after going through that pendulum. This disease is such a pendulum. All chronic illnesses are a pendulum shift. You get this horrible news and you literally.

It you believe these powers to be these doctors. I mean, you go to them, they’re your experts, right? Like we, we really do listen to these doctors as if everything they say is gold. And so, and who else did I have to turn to? Like you’re just saying, right? Who else did I have to turn to ask and to find out, so it’s been quite the journey since then. So,

[00:09:16] Cheryl Crow: Well, and I’m just thinking now, I know both of us do a lot of outreach and education and inspiration, I guess you would say, on the internet, on social media and that’s one of the major pluses of social media now for patients, is that we can immediately connect to somebody you could see.

Oh, Dani’s able to do, weightlifting and she’s moving and Cheryl’s swing dancing. And yes, some people, their disease does progress and they’re treatment resistant, and sometimes that people are, they’re still able to craft like a thriving existence for themselves, even quote unquote, if they’re in a wheelchair.

And it’s, you mean it’s, yeah, there’s a whole bunch of ableism within that kind of fear of, using mobility aids like a wheelchair and stuff like that. But it’s just, you had no representation at that time. You didn’t have any ability to see another 16-year-old, 17-year-old, young adult being able to achieve the, what your goals were.

So, yeah. How did you cope? I mean, how did you, was it just put one foot in front of the other day by day?

[00:10:17] Dani Bryant: No, in all honesty, I didn’t cope very well back then. I I abused the medication that they gave me because I was, I wanted the life, and let’s be realistic in school, like kids are not very nice.

All right. And I started out, I was a popular athlete at one point in time.

And then all of a sudden I couldn’t play sports anymore, and I’m literally hobbling down the hallway. So now I’m like, oh, what’s wrong with her? I’m that girl. And it didn’t go well for me. The lady I lived with at the time there was a lot of alcohol in the house.

I had, I got introduced to alcohol. I did whatever I could. I compromised my life. I, it didn’t go very well. It was, and then in shortly after, in 1995, so four years after that diagnosis, it was literally just a tangled, twisted nightmare I was living in.

I made my way to Phoenix, Arizona where my brothers had lived.

I was the only one left in Tulsa at the time. Okay. So with the diagnosis, and then I made my way to Arizona where I would then have an epiphany that the only person who could change this was me. So it was almost like a shift overnight. So I had a dream, I could see myself doing things, and it was the very next day I walked into the gym and I started lifting three pound weights with three with tears in my eyes.

By the way, I used to lift a lot more than that, but I had to start with very little weights and I had to start all over again. Yeah. And that shift happened, about six months after I arrived to Phoenix, Arizona in 95.

[00:12:02] Cheryl Crow: Wow. And I mean, I think there really is, I mean, there’s so many people I’ve talked to who are, have a history of being a strong athlete who get these diseases, and I don’t know what it is, but you know, there is that tenacity, that inner drive, right.

To push your body in a positive sense. Right. And, but it, you’re, it can be so hard to not be able not be able to do it how you used to be able to, but I’m just giving you so much credit for taking your, taking your health in your own hands,

[00:12:32] Dani Bryant: yeah. I mean, and it, I mean, Cheryl took a long time to get to where I’m at today, right?

Yeah. I wasn’t always this person who was, promoting movement and doing all this because I didn’t have that mentoring right in my life to begin with when I first got sick. I was just trying to survive, to be honest with you. Yeah. And yeah, even in a dark cave that I felt like I was walking in for a long time.

[00:12:57] Speaker 3: Yeah.

[00:12:57] Dani Bryant: I always tell everybody that the shift didn’t really happen. The shift that I am, the person I am today didn’t really happen until about 10 years ago in my forties,

[00:13:05] Cheryl Crow: Well, okay. Wow. I wanna normally I, I ask people what their treatment journey has been, and I, when I say treatment, I mean, often people are put on the medications, which I’ve been on for 22 years, since my diagnosis, at age 21.

But, there’s also, I mean, it very broadly saying, lifestyle things that have, what are some of the things that have helped you? Obviously movement is one of ’em. We’re gonna delve like deeper into, of course. Yeah. But you were diagnosed at such a unique times. It was right before the biologic era. I don’t even think methotrexate was on the market in 91.

[00:13:40] Dani Bryant: It was on the market. So I was taking, I started with Plaquenil. Arava. Do you know what that is? So it was a big horse pill. It was like as big, it was literally like an inch huge horse bill.

I had gold. I was on gold injections. Yeah.

[00:13:54] Cheryl Crow: They don’t do that anymore, but

[00:13:55] Dani Bryant: nope. And then and then I was on eight pills of methotrexate.

And I had, I’ve had some, and I’ve tried so many drugs through the years, but life didn’t take that shift until biologics. And then I was first introduced to Enbrel, which I would be on for, I probably was on Enbrel for about five years with a methotrexate combo at the time.

So I took eight pills of methotrexate for probably about 15 years.

And I literally I credit my lung disease to methotrexate.

[00:14:28] Cheryl Crow: Oh, no.

[00:14:29] Dani Bryant: Yeah. Like we with all of the specialists that I’ve had, we really feel as though the methotrexate had adverse effects with my lungs.

[00:14:37] Cheryl Crow: I’m so sorry.

[00:14:38] Dani Bryant: So anyways, I, in, when I turned 40 on my 40th birthday, I woke up. So I’ve had my left wrist is removed and I’ve had, so I’ve had six major hand surgeries total. My, my thumbs are currently fused. Okay. And then I have fake joints in my right hand, and all my flexing extension tendons have been redone in my right hand.

[00:15:01] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. Wow.

[00:15:02] Dani Bryant: Okay. So I had all of those surgeries done between 2013 and 2015 . so in 2015 is when I turned 40 because I just turned 50 in 2025. So the morning of my birthday, I woke up and I do, I still have my right wrist, and my right hand is my dominant hand. And I woke up the morning of my birthday and I was sobbing and it felt like my wrist was broken.

You know that onset that’s so nothing leads up to it. You just wake up the next day and you’re like, why do I feel like my bones, why would I feel broken?

[00:15:37] Cheryl Crow: Someone hit me with a baseball bat overnight. There’s no other explanation. Yeah.

[00:15:41] Dani Bryant: Yeah. And so I woke up that morning and I had already been.

My rheumatologist that ti brought up Rituxan or yeah rituxan to me. ’cause I had failed Remicade. I had failed so many treatments biologically.

[00:15:55] Cheryl Crow: They failed you. I like to say they failed you.

[00:15:58] Dani Bryant: Yes. Yeah. They failed me because I developed anaphylaxis with Remicade.

[00:16:03] Cheryl Crow: Oh no.

[00:16:04] Dani Bryant: I started at the very beginning and then every allergic reaction got worse and worse until the third dose when all of a sudden I had to get rushed to the hospital.

So did not go well, but luckily for me, I lived two miles from the hospital, so there was that.

[00:16:19] Cheryl Crow: I went in this almost exact same trajectory as doing that. I went enbrel, then Remicade then for me, Orencia, then Actemra, then now Xeljanz. But it’s interesting. It’s very common for those listening, that you can’t get too attached to one medication regimen. ’cause sometimes it’ll work. I talked to someone the other day who’s been on the same medication regimen. It’s been putting her disease in remission for 15 years. Other people, it does it for a little while.

Like five years here, three years there, six years there. But then somehow your body just decides to work around it somehow. So anyway, yeah.

[00:16:51] Dani Bryant: Yeah. And I’ve been on, yeah. So I went I mean, I’ve really. I’ve played with so many of the different biologics. I was on Enbrel for a little while. I quit Enbrel, then I went natural for three years, then I went back on Orencia, then I went on Humira.

I get, I’ve tried, you name it, I’ve probably been on it.

[00:17:07] Cheryl Crow: You’ve had a buffet, a smorgasbord.

[00:17:09] Dani Bryant: Yes. Yes.

And then when I was 40, they talked to me about Rituxan. And I was extremely nervous about Rituxan, but I had reached out to other patients, through through, local connections that I had.

And so, and I had heard of some of their success, but I was scared. ’cause I think everybody gets, everybody’s scared of a biologic, right? Like a drug that’s treating lymphoma. Like it, I think these patients get very nervous about these drugs that were at one point in time obviously combating cancer, so, and Rituxan is still used for cancer patients.

It’s used in a different dosage. It’s just different Right.

[00:17:49] Cheryl Crow: With methotrexate, like it’s not considered chemo at the doses we use for, right. Yeah.

[00:17:54] Dani Bryant: So I, so basically I finally signed to try to, I finally got approved. So my birthday’s in April. I took my first dose in May 10 years ago. So in 2015 I finally did a first dose of the Rituxan and I signed my life away at the time.

Now in my company’s new, my, my construction company, which I own here in Phoenix, Arizona, is new. So I’m really young at, running this construction company and so I did the first round of Rituxan and then it’s a 14 day apart. It’s two rounds, 14 days apart, a thousand milliliters. So the next time I went in to get the drug, they forced me to sign a document that said I was gonna be responsible for $39,000.

And I sat in the hallway as an adult at 35 or what? I’m, no, I’m sorry, it was 40 crying. ’cause I didn’t know how on earth am I gonna pay $40,000 to pay for this this drug.

[00:18:55] Cheryl Crow: Well, and that’s the whole way that shouldn’t have been happened that way because no one in the United States that I’m aware of is paying the price of these drugs because the drug companies provide needed blind assistance. ’cause they’re making so much money on these. So they’ll give you a copay card and there’s a whole, you just have to sign up. Like I, every single one of my meds, I’ve had a copay card through the drug manufacturer. Pfizer, whoever it is.

But they don’t, if they don’t explain that to you, you freak out. ’cause yeah. Costs hundreds of thousands of dollars by the end of the year. Yeah, I’m so sorry. Yeah,

[00:19:26] Dani Bryant: so true. And I am, I do have a copay card for Rituxan, but at the time, I was literally going into this a little blindly apparently.

I said, well, why am I having to sign this? They’re like, well, insurance hasn’t approved it. Yeah they basically said that it hadn’t been approved yet. And I’m like, but I, well, I can’t afford to pay this. And it was I mean, I signed the document anyways, and, I end up paying about, even today, I end up paying about $8,000 annually or out of pocket, I’m sorry, $8,000 per round.

Because now before it was 39,000, now it’s all, now it’s $64,000 for me to get this drug. Now I am still on the name brand. I cannot, I’ve tried a biosimilar, biosimilars didn’t work for me. So, a couple years ago I had a big fight with a biosimilar because unbeknownst to me, they gave me a biosimilar.

Two months after I thought I got Rituxan. Two months later I’m having like major pain and I’m like, what happened? And it was because they tried a biosimilar. It didn’t work for me.

[00:20:29] Cheryl Crow: Oh, that’s unconscionable to not give you informed consent of that.

[00:20:32] Dani Bryant: Exactly and I was livid. And so, and I, there, I was calling the hospital.

I called my rheumatologist and I love my rheumatologist, but I was like this was haphazardly completed. You guys didn’t talk to me about this. How did I know that you were giving me a bio simm? I had no idea until I then was having bout with insurance and realized I got this invoice.

So,

[00:20:57] Cheryl Crow: oh my goodness. But is it working well?

[00:21:00] Dani Bryant: It is working really well for me. I mean, that’s what’s, that’s what’s been the catalyst of where I’m at in my life today and everything that I do and how I do it is because I believe that I have found the perfect regimen in my life. Right. The combination of eastern and western medicine.

’cause I do believe in science and I do believe that, I do believe in these medications and I believe that, I need to be on a drug to help me combat this disease. As a primary. I believe that, well,

[00:21:33] Cheryl Crow: And I’ll just say for especially people working in rheumatology, these medications are, and I say this often, but just for anyone who, this is their first episode.

That now, in the year 2025, they’ve been shown overall at the population level, when you take large groups of people that they are so safe and effective at this population, at putting the disease into remission, which rheumatoid arthritis, if uncontrolled is associated with a seven year reduction in lifespan.

So even though it’s not as like life threatening as cancer, it is all, it is not immediately life threatening, but it long term in your lifespan, it is that they’re so safe actually and effective that it’s considered unethical to run a randomized control trial trial with an unmedicated control group because you’d be denying someone, especially at the critical period at the initial diagnosis.

But and what else was I gonna say? Oh, and. And the rheumatologists are seeing, they’re actually having totally different conversations with the patients now than your pediatric rheumatologist or adult, whoever they were. Whatever their training was, obviously it wasn’t good enough, but they, now they’re telling kids, yes, this sounds really scary when you look at the side effects, but we’re seeing the numbers of kids going into remission.

The numbers of kids who are able to play football, play basketball, dance. We’ve got people on Broadway, do you wanna I’m a swing dancer. Just as an example, that these medications have really given people their life back. So I always just try to help provide stories of the success stories too, backed with the data because as you said, so many people are really nervous about taking the medication, but as you said, it’s not either or a medication or Eastern, or lifestyle techniques.

It’s a both and you can add in. Why not add things that are also gonna help your body, like exercise and other practices. So, yeah.

[00:23:21] Dani Bryant: Well, I hear, I totally agree. I totally agree. And that was such a great explanation as to what is currently happening in our world. I mean, I’m not a hundred percent in remission.

Like I have pain every day, but the pain is so much more manageable in my life than it was 10 years ago.

[00:23:37] Cheryl Crow: I truly, and for me it’s almost like a case study that was like, I was diagnosed now I was diagnosed with adult rheumatoid arthritis ’cause I was 21. I’m not sure if they, back then when you were diagnosed, they used to call it juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

The name has now been changed to juvenile idiopathic arthritis, which is just because it’s actually a different disease process. And especially with, I know you have jaw involvement. The jaw is often affected in juvenile idiopathic arthritis not as often affected in adult rheumatoid. Not that it can’t be, but yeah.

That. Oh, sorry, I forgot what I was going with that. Oh, I just wanted to sprinkle that fact in that’s what it’s, that’s what it’s called.

[00:24:12] Dani Bryant: Right? Right. And the idiopathic, just like you were saying, so because I was misdiagnosed so much early on, I mean, I, yeah. And, but I do believe that people believe that JRA is oh, for juveniles, but it’s not the same disease.

So I’m so glad you mentioned that, because I get that question all the time and I’m like, no they’re two different diseases. So that’s,

[00:24:39] Cheryl Crow: that’s exactly why they changed the name ’cause it was so confusing.

[00:24:42] Dani Bryant: Yeah.

[00:24:42] Cheryl Crow: I mean, however, no matter what you do, people are still confused, but at least it’s a little bit And they’re actually had, Zach Spinosa from Forge Fitness in Canada?

[00:24:50] Dani Bryant: I don’t know him.

[00:24:51] Cheryl Crow: You guys are like peas in a pod because he was super athletic too. He not only got JRA or juvenile JIE at 16, then he had this very rare complication that’s actually 30% deadly, 30% death rate from it called macrophage activation syndrome.

I just interviewed him for the podcast last week. I’m just like, ugh. Oh wow. You guys got a top? And he runs a gym called Forge Fitness and it’s all about he, so he got, he survived, like he went from 180 pounds to 110 pounds, like with this really deadly complication of juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

And now he does a lot of weightlift. So I’ll connect you two.

[00:25:30] Dani Bryant: Oh, I’d love to be connected with him. That’d be awesome.

[00:25:32] Cheryl Crow: Yeah, because he’s, but you’re also passionate about like spreading the word about the importance of movement. And I would, that’s why I would love to if hear more about how you started the Make it Count for Dani Foundation and what your mission is there cause it’s so beautiful.

[00:25:47] Dani Bryant: Thank you so much. So, in 2007 is when I finally went public with my disease. So I started speaking and I first started with, foundations that they have here in the United States that talk about arthritis. And so I started there and would put together events and teams and stuff like that.

And it was always my, on my heart that I wanted to do something for other patients because I had received anonymous help at times. Again, I was on my own. I didn’t have a whole lot of money and there would be people who would come out the woodworks, who would essentially fund things for me, whether it be just food on my table.

So it was always on my heart to do that and when I started Thrive Construction, after I got my business up and running, I essentially just said, you know what? I really wanna put together a nonprofit that I could touch lives with. And so I hired a marketing company. I went to go see a lawyer. I put together the 5 0 1 C3 for the Make it Count for Dani Foundation, which advocates, educates, encourages, and inspires those living with rheumatoid arthritis to always Make it Count.

And I really started this mission because like I had mentioned early on about the pendulum of the disease can take us to places we never thought we’d go, but we really have to believe that we can always be on the other side of it, right? Because hope is always possible, but it has to live within yourself.

And so the make it count for Dani Foundation came together because I wanted to give people hope on moving forward. So sometimes movement isn’t just physical, right? It’s emotional, it’s spiritual. It can be educational. It’s, we have to be able to accept where we are and keep going because it’s easy to, hopeless and to be the woe is me and the victim of, our chronic illnesses.

And so I really, I mean, I didn’t, my platform didn’t start, Make it Count for Dani was always my handle, even my personal handle on Instagram. And then when I started the foundation. Then, which just happened, eight years ago. We’ve basically been a foundation for eight years. Well we’re going on our eighth year, I should say.

My marketing department was like, well, you really have to, your handle, your personal handle has to be for, make account for Dani Foundation ’cause it only makes sense. And so I’m like, oh, really? So I had to like. Well actually, if you scroll all the way down of my thousands of posts, you would actually see some of my early on of my personal stuff.

That’s what I did

[00:28:30] Cheryl Crow: too. That’s so funny.

[00:28:31] Dani Bryant: Yeah. I mean, although the platform is me everything I’m doing and what I’m promoting, a lot of it are the videos of me like doing these crazy things because I’m crazy.

[00:28:44] Cheryl Crow: Well, you’re yourself. And that’s, I think it takes all kinds and I think that’s what people respond to is authenticity.

And sometimes I just say, oh, I’m too like out there, or I’m too extroverted, like I’m too much for people or whatever. But then I remind myself like. You’re gonna be too, you’re always gonna be too much for someone, but you’re gonna be just right enough for someone else.

[00:29:05] Dani Bryant: Absolutely. And and I really pride myself on complete a hundred percent authenticity and transparency.

So, there are times when I get up and I do a daily dose in the morning. So I do a daily dose for 60 seconds. Right. It’s called The Daily Dose of Dani. I do it in my kitchen and I talk about what’s going on in my life. I’m currently at 906 of those. and, sometimes I cry during them because that’s life, that’s real life, and I do believe that the only way I can really touch another person is just being true to who it is, who I am as a person too,

and so I’ve been able to relate with so many people all over the world. I mean. We send out movement packages. So

[00:29:46] Cheryl Crow: I was, you read my mind. I was just gonna ask you about those.

Sorry.

[00:29:49] Dani Bryant: So, no, it’s great. So at my website there is a tab called Friends with RA, and I invite anybody to go there and click on the tab and then you fill out the tab. It asks you a couple questions about RA or about, I mean, I’ve had other people that have other forms of arthritis because there are a hundred forms of arthritis under the umbrella.

Yeah. They’ve gone and they filled this out as well. And then I personally myself, I read every single submission. I write a personalized letter and I send them a package that promotes movement. And this, it includes things in the package like, a towel, a sweat towel and sticker cushion stress balls and hand sanitizer and lip balm and and I’ve literally landed those packages in 13 different countries. So we’ve, I’ve sent out thousands of movement swag items to give people hope. But I’ll tell you, the number one thing they like in that package, what do you think it is, the number one thing that they like in that package?

It’s the personal note that I write them.

[00:30:51] Cheryl Crow: Oh. Oh, well, yeah, that’s, sorry, I didn’t realize you write a note too. I would’ve said that then.

[00:30:56] Dani Bryant: Yeah. I personally write these notes and, ’cause I read what they submit and then usually I ask for their, how they heard about me. So nine times outta 10, they gimme their social media handle.

So I go to their page and I kind of if it’s public, usually I, if people are following me I try to follow them back. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And. So I look at their page so I can see what they’re about, and I read some things and then I literally write them a personal message. Now it’s a lot of work, Cheryl, especially, oh my gosh.

I mean, I used to get, I used to get submissions a number of submissions a month, and so I’d literally have to take an entire day just to write submissions. And I will tell you, it’s pretty taxing on me emotionally as well, because I’m reading these very personal stories that I can relate with. So it’s taking me back years as to how I felt.

But the bit, the greatest gift I can give somebody is making sure that they know that I see them and I understand them, and I definitely have compassion to where they are on this journey. And that’s what the mission is really about, to make sure that people feel seen and heard as well as supported.

And also I wanna give them hope. Like I don’t want them, if they came from being a big athlete, then I want them to still believe they’re an athlete. Right. They just have to maybe do things differently.

[00:32:17] Cheryl Crow: I love that in one of the previous episodes, now I’m forgetting which one ’cause of brain fog. But we talked about how, it’s always the accomplishment of what you are able to do at any given moment of time is a function of your, like the barriers you’re overcoming in that moment.

So, like for me, when I was in high school and I could run a mile in five and a half minutes, that was me pushing my body at that time to, that ultimate amount today, that means running a mile in 11 and a half minutes. That’s just as hard for me today as it was back then, ’cause of where my fitness is today.

And it’s we don’t, we tend to celebrate things based on only what’s the objective measure that Oh, these minutes, you’re twice as slow as you were. I could choose to look at that data and conclude that, but I could also choose to say, wow, in both of those moments, half my life ago and today, I’m choosing to keep moving.

And and I’m doing something that I happen to enjoy. And it’s just, I think that’s why commu, I mean, this is gonna sound like a out of left field, but that’s why that being in community with others who are going through similar struggles, it’s almost like sometimes you can see it easier when you’re complimenting like a friend with wow, that was amazing.

You walked for 10 minutes today and you normally don’t get moving. That’s amazing. Versus, but we tend to be harder on ourself,

[00:33:35] Dani Bryant: oh, totally. And, I kind of beat that with a dead horse. I’m always telling people about really focusing on these little wins.

Because collectively little wins become big wins. And niche measures. Now, you know what, it’s almost screw those, we need to be proud of the fact that every day we’re getting up and we are moving forward with the pain because I’m telling you, there isn’t anybody that I know that suffers from RA that is like a hundred percent pain-free every day.

They’re getting up and they’re making a choice, and they’re choosing movement and there is no doubt I am, I can’t tell you how many people have motivated me by the accomplishes that they have made that they don’t seem, they don’t seem to think are very big to them. But I’m like, are you kidding?

That’s amazing that you did that today. I mean, girl, I can’t even run a mile. Okay. So me running a mile is very difficult.

[00:34:31] Cheryl Crow: No, I know. And I’m talking to my friend Carrie Bradshaw, who literally became the first person with bilateral hip replacements to ever run the Boston Marathon.

And I’m like texting her like, I ran a mile and under 12 minutes. And she’s you go girl. And meanwhile she’s running like 26 miles. Right. It’s like we’re all on our own journeys, yeah.

[00:34:48] Dani Bryant: I mean, yeah. And I mean, in each, that’s why it’s so important that we don’t compare ourselves to others.

Right. It’s so important that we just make goals for ourselves that are achievable and we aim for those every single day to make ourselves better. I mean, that, and

[00:35:06] Cheryl Crow: I really, and you know what, I have to admit now, as somebody’s followed you on social media, I didn’t think as deeply until today talking to you in real time.

This is why it’s great to talk in real time about how moving forward is not just about the physical movement. Like you said, it’s about emotional, spiritual, and educational. I mean, curious, could you talk a little bit more about what that means to you and how you support people in doing that?

’cause that’s just so important.

[00:35:32] Dani Bryant: Oh, of course. So, and I think, there’s no doubt I’m a diehard. If you go to my platform you think that I’m in the gym 24 7, right? I probably do nothing else because I workout or hike a mountain, right? Yeah. And, but the reality to that is that yes, physical movement is part of my every day.

I do, I wake up every day at three 30 and I start my day with movement because it sets the tone to my day. I also go to bed early, Cheryl. I saw you get really bright eyed all of a sudden at three 30 every day. Yeah. And it makes me happy. I’m very, I love the gym, I love the physical movement, but I also believe in meditation.

And I belie, attitude has been a main factor for me. So I have little sticky notes all over the place in my house that remind me of where I need to be with my attitude, because that makes a big difference. I do a lot of reading and I read a lot of self-help or documentary type stuff so I can learn from the challenges that other people have gone through.

And that has also opened my eyes to so many things. And I mean, we grab on to what works for us. And although I realize that attitude cannot change the physical challenges that I have, what I do focus on all the time is what I can do with those challenges.

It’s been a vehicle for me. As far as spirituality goes, a belief system. A lot of people have, their faith and that faith gets them through so much. So whatever you believe in, I take a universal approach with that because I don’t believe that one religion is better than the other.

And I’m more of a I was part of a religious cult, which is a whole nother story.

[00:37:27] Cheryl Crow: Oh my goodness.

[00:37:29] Dani Bryant: So,

[00:37:29] Cheryl Crow: yeah. So I want a documentary on you, like I’ll watch that.

[00:37:33] Dani Bryant: I’ll have to be like an eight parter. So i, so many people have said, when are you gonna release the book? Because I’ve had so many twists and turns in my life, but luckily for me today I sit in a better emotional, mental space than I ever was before because depression is easy with chronic illness.

It’s easy to go there, it’s easy to sit in it.

And I think, as social media is also a really great place for community, it can also be a really a negative place as well where you’re seeing, you’re not seeing people like yourself. They’re trying to build people up that are trying to continue to say that there are strides with where things are at with our diseases.

And I have to continue that momentum just like you, because I would see these things that were just so detriment and negative, and they would take my, they would take my mental space. Oh yeah, maybe I can’t do that. And it’s no, but wait a minute. So, yeah. So it all plays a part.

The emotional, the spiritual, the mental right. That’s all a big part of how we move forward. And I hope that people will see that when they listen to this,

[00:38:44] Cheryl Crow: A hundred percent. I love what you said about, the, your changing your attitude or examining your attitude and your emotional relationship to your condition. It won’t necessarily, it’s not necessarily going to put the disease spontaneously into remission or something. It’s not gonna change maybe the fact that you have a quote unquote fixed deformity on a certain joint or something, but it changes your relationship to your body and that’s huge.

It reminds me that Shakespeare quote, like nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so I think about all the time. Right? Or I don’t know if you read, so have you read Viktor Frankl Man’s Search For Meaning?

[00:39:17] Dani Bryant: I haven’t read that.

[00:39:18] Cheryl Crow: Okay. I think you’ll love it. It’s along that, along with The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris, which is like an a primer on like acceptance and commitment therapy.

Those are the two big, most influential, like non-fiction books for me. But he says and this is like a quote I’ve been kicking around for my whole experience. I read this in high school, so before even chronic illness, but he says everything can be taken from a man but the last of these, the human freedoms, the freedom to choose our attitude in any situation.

That, that’s what he said. That’s how, I think that’s what he says that, let me make sure I’m gonna look it up. And like Victor, he lives through the Holocaust. And he talked about like this fact that this whole Maslow’s hierarchy of needs isn’t really true. The fact that in Maslow’s hierarchy needs is you have to first have it.

It’s true and not true. Okay. The part of it that’s not true is that it’s saying you can’t even get to the spiritual and the meaning part until you have all those things taken care of, like your basic human needs, which he was saying even in the Holocaust. When we were starving, and obviously I am cannot speak about any of this in any sort of authoritative way, but that he said we still were searching for meaning we were still searching for some sort of fulfillment and purpose.

Okay. He said the everything can be taken from a man, but one thing, the last of the human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances to choose one’s own way. And I repeat that. Oh, I love it. I think sometimes it’s, I think it’s challenging because I do think that there are, like, as an occupational therapist, if I try to think, okay, let me play devil’s advocate there.

Like maybe there are like intellectual disabilities or traumatic brain injuries that make it so that I’m not sure we really understand enough what the human psyche to say that every single human has the complete ability, right to choose their attitude or to influence it. But I think just as a general.

Guidepost to say okay, I have freedom. No matter how much pain I’m in, I have freedom to examine my thoughts around what’s going on and to choose a different way of looking at it.

[00:41:19] Dani Bryant: For sure. For sure.

[00:41:20] Cheryl Crow: What have been some of the, you mentioned documentaries and books. What have been some of the books and that and documentaries.

So I love documentaries too, by the way. We should start our own documentary, movie, book, and book club. What are some of the books that you’ve really loved?

[00:41:33] Dani Bryant: So I just read, as well I’m sure that a lot of people have read Untamed by Glennon Doyle. That’s one of my favorites. Oh. I really loved that book.

Amazing. Yeah. I’m actually looking at I just finished Choose Strong, which is about a runner who was physically abused.

And anything by Brene Brown is I just love her, so it’s, daring greatly. And she’s just, I mean, she’s just so much wisdom.

Right. And she’s probably my very favorite. But I read everything all at once recently. So that’s a documentary. Her name is Stephanie. I did a daily dose on, on that. And essentially she her husband got really sick during COVID. So this was written right after COVID, and they thought that he had COVID, he had like stage four lung cancer big time runner.

He’s from Arizona. And that book was so moving to me on how it was written. So that’s one of my very favorite books. And I just literally, I, a friend gave it to me last year to read. So that would, that would be good. I’ve read a lot of the Benet Brown stuff is pretty big.

Oh. And then that’s bold of you, which is by Casey. I don’t have all my books here anymore. I started packing my house ’cause I’m doing a renovation. I’m gonna be doing a renovation soon.

[00:42:53] Cheryl Crow: Well you can’t work for a construction company without doing your own renovation, I’m assuming.

[00:42:57] Dani Bryant: Casey. Casey Kenny is his name.

And that’s bold of you. Very good. Book about how to handle situations in life and I’ve talked about a lot of his quotes too in my daily doses through, over the last year. So,

[00:43:12] Cheryl Crow: okay. I’ve gotta check that out. The, I would add ’cause it’s on my mind that if you’re thinking about movies, documented movies a one that came out in 2005.

So two years after my diagnosis, this came out. It’s one of the things that inspired me to become a mo an occupational therapist. It’s called Murder Ball. It’s not about murder. Murder Ball is the name of what is called Quad Rugby or Wheelchair Rugby so it’s a documentary about people who’ve men who’ve had, in this case of, although now.

The wheelchair rugby team has actually a woman who is also an occupational therapist. Long story short, in the Olympic team. But it’s men who in this case play wheelchair rugby and go to the Olympics. And, just, I, it was the first time I had seen like para games people disabilities playing sports in ways where they’re just kicking butt, and it was really inspirational. And that’s one I really love. But it’s not necessarily in the vein of Bernet Brown, it’s not like instructing you, it’s more showing you personal stories.

[00:44:07] Dani Bryant: Yeah. I love that. I’ll look it up. I’ll look.

[00:44:09] Cheryl Crow: I’ve already jumped ahead to one of the quote unquote rapid fire questions at the end is that I just had to go on it. ’cause we were talking about the importance of those things. And I’m similar to you, I consider myself like spiritually like a secular humanist, which is the belief that you don’t need to follow a specific, really just faith in order to honor and support, other humans in the world and support and believe that humans don’t necessarily need, and this is my interpretation of it, humans don’t, they can have or not have a belief in a bigger, bigger power. But that, whether you have that or not, doesn’t doesn’t matter. We just, what we need to do is actually help each other.

Do you know what I mean? That’s the word.

[00:44:49] Dani Bryant: I love it. I love it.

[00:44:50] Cheryl Crow: Yeah, I love it. And yeah, it’s I don’t care what you believe in other, as long as you’re not hurting anyone, which unfortunately right. People are in the name of their faith. But yeah. And oh, the other thing, okay, I like to hyper fixate on what people are saying and then delve more.

One of the things you said one of my favorite words, which is acceptance, which used to be my least favorite word. So you said, we have to accept where we are and keep going. If I type that down, right? What has, I’m just cur literally, I didn’t prepare for this question, but what’s your relationship to the idea of acceptance been and how has that changed over time?

[00:45:25] Dani Bryant: That’s hard. Acceptance was really difficult for me with the disease because I didn’t wanna believe that was my life.

[00:45:32] Cheryl Crow: Yeah,

[00:45:32] Dani Bryant: Living with rheumatoid arthritis, I didn’t, I just thought that, that isn’t me. And early on, like you, when we were going through those encyclopedias and seeing those photos we’re like, there’s no way in hell this is happening to me.

And I fought it and like I said I digressed and was just, I was such a negative person without acceptance. I really was. Because I was like, no, this isn’t, I was furious and angry and once I became to, once I discovered that acceptance was actually the key to the part of me finding my new life, okay, this is where I’m at.

Okay, so this is gonna be a part of me. Now it’s time for me to define this disease instead of the disease defining me. ’cause that’s what was happening, right? When you don’t, that’s what I feel strongly about. When you don’t accept it and you’re trying to just battle against it and battle against it, it’s working against you negatively.

Because it takes us, it again, it takes our mind to a place of resistance instead of, okay, well here’s where I’m at and now I’ve gotta learn to be better for it. And, being an athlete, being a hardcore, committed to my sports, I think that also helped me. Today once I was, once I accepted the disease, because I have felt so much stronger because of it.

And I’ve heard that a lot from the community too. People who resonate with my story when they’ve done their submissions, they’ve literally said, ’cause I, one of the questions I ask is, how has RA changed your life in a positive way? Because I think it’s important that we focus on that, how is chronic illness changing your life in a positive way instead of a negative way?

’cause it’s easy to point out all the things that it’s doing against you, but let’s focus on how is it changing your life in a positive way? And people are saying, I never really, truly knew how strong I really was until I had to accept RA and live with it every day.

[00:47:40] Cheryl Crow: Yeah. I mean, sorry, I’m just like, yes, I’m nodding.

I’m not, I’m nodding in a way that doesn’t hurt my neck. I have neck pain from a chronic neck, pain from a car accident years ago. But yeah, no I think, what’s the, I call it the acceptance paradox. What’s so, yes. It feels like the word acceptance if you’re like, I’m very stubborn. Okay. I’m stubborn and optimistic.

My husband and I will say that we’re both stubborn, optimistic. It’s taken us to the best places in our life, and it’s taken us to the worst places in your life. My life. Because if you are optimistic to the point of delusional, but you’re too stubborn to admit that’s not working for you.

That what you’ve decided to not give up on as, let’s say the, what I don’t wanna give up on is this idea that I could have a quote unquote normal life, a life without RA at all. That is not the life we get. We just don’t get it. And I, it’s hard for people to accept ’cause it feels, they’re like, they clinging to it so desperately.

But it’s, and it feels like to let go of that attachment would mean to be giving up. But actually when you do the paradox is that you are set free. But I don’t know how to explain this to you, but because it did not make sense to me until I actually was willing to do it. And it was after like, hours of therapy.

Have you ever gone to therapy? Speaking of therapy?

[00:48:55] Dani Bryant: Oh my gosh, absolutely.

[00:48:57] Cheryl Crow: Okay, good. Because, not good, but I’m just mean if you did, I’d be like. How did you get through everything you’ve been through?

[00:49:04] Dani Bryant: I wouldn’t have survived. I mean, there I have an incredible therapist and yeah, it’s, she’s worth her weight in gold.

I mean, it’s very expensive, but she’s, yeah.

[00:49:13] Cheryl Crow: Did she teach, because that’s how I really had to have one-on-one help to get my head around acceptance. I kept being like, I always feel like I was that, like that line in Zoolander where David Duffy is this is why the history of male models make good assassins.

And he gives this long explanation that Derek Zoolander is like, but why male models? And he’s are you kidding? I like literally just told you that that’s like probably how my therapist felt like week after week. But I, it was like once I was willing to really accept it, then it opens you up to a life with this condition and without fighting it all the time, it just

[00:49:47] Dani Bryant: agreed

[00:49:48] Cheryl Crow: Yeah, agreed. It’s just I’m, I, so I hyper fixate whenever anyone mentions acceptance, I was like, let’s talk about acceptance.

[00:49:53] Dani Bryant: Yeah, for sure.

[00:49:54] Cheryl Crow: I’ve talked to, so as an occupational therapist and an allied health provider, I’ve, talked to at conferences and stuff to other, like counselors, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and some of them will say that we don’t even, even if we’re practicing acceptance and commitment therapy, which is known as act, that’s the therapeutic approach that I find the most helpful for my RA overall.

It’s kinda like of mindfulness and traditional cognitive behavior therapy had a baby. They say we don’t even use the word acceptance with our patients because it’s they’re too resistant to it. But I’m I’m on now, I’m on like a charge of like changing the public relations for acceptance.

Like we are gonna change how people feel about acceptance so that they’re willing to look at it,

[00:50:34] Dani Bryant: I agree. I totally agree with that. Yeah.

[00:50:37] Cheryl Crow: Any, anyway, well we, we’ll have to do some sort of acceptance campaign, but totally. Also, and well, it’s about ACT is great for many other reasons.

But actually I’m not gonna, I don’t wanna get into that. ’cause I wanna make, use our last 10 minutes together to get through some of the rapid fire quote unquote questions. But was there anything else you wanted to say about the Make it Count for Dani Foundation or your story?

I mean, I know we could record hours and hours, but is there anything else on your mind?

[00:51:00] Dani Bryant: What I mean, other things that we do with the Foundation is we do provide college scholarships to younger patients who have been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. We provide, modalities and things for people.

I just I just did a partnership with Barefoot Science, so I do shoe inserts for people. So I handed out about 12 pairs of shoe inserts last month. So people are trying those different patients who are suffering , some foot problems. And and I really love the science behind Barefoot Science.

So, I’m doing what I can, where I can and usually when I start a conversation with another patient, I can figure out what they need. So we’re here to help, right? And we’re here to provide and offer solutions that will make life a little bit more palatable, living with rheumatoid arthritis.

[00:51:48] Cheryl Crow: That’s amazing. And I think it’s just, it’s like this, I’ve heard this phrase, I’m not, I can’t take credit for it, but turning your pain into purpose, it’s just such a beautiful example how you’ve done that. So thank you. I’ll put links, I’ll put links to everything you’ve discussed in the show notes which are always on like the Arthritis Life website.

But you know, to the rapid fire questions, what are some of your, I mean, everything you’ve said would be useful to somebody who’s newly diagnosed, but is there something in particular you’d like to say to someone listening who might have been just brand new diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis?

[00:52:21] Dani Bryant: Well, this comes up a lot ’cause I get all these direct messages.

Again like I was saying a little bit earlier, it’s. I wanna have compassion for where they are. And because everybody’s start can be so different, everybody’s pain can look so different. And so I wanna have compassion and again, make sure that they know that I do see them and that I’m here to offer them some help and assistance in order to believe that there is the new life available to them.

Right. We have to make some adjustments. And really truly, it’s just like on your website, you give all these tips. There is so much great information out there that if we can try to just keep that attitude to where I understand being down in the dumps about the diagnosis, but I just don’t want you to stay there.

And so what I’m always trying to do is pick people up. It’s why I tag them in a video or I do some, a new person who’s maybe asked me one question and I’ll tag them in a video because I want them to know that I listened to what they wrote, I listened to what they said, I read what they wrote, and here’s something for them today.

And so, hope is powerful and any faith that you have or the faith in yourself is also very powerful. And we have to believe that we can do this. We can keep moving forward, finding balance in our lives with living with the disease. And that’s truly the most important thing that I can instill in anybody who’s been newly diagnosed and being open to what science has available to us because it’s huge.

[00:53:59] Cheryl Crow: Yeah, I love that. And I was just gonna add, I remember something I was gonna say earlier about the relationship between in, in, in the science, pain science right now, everyone who works in pain science, as far as I’ve learned from and heard at conferences and stuff, is in agreement of the overall bio psychosocial framework of pain.

Pain is not just about signals from, a nerve ending from your toe up to your brain. Yes, that is part of it, but it is heavily influenced by our social environment, social stressors, and our emotions. And so it really truly is. It’s not just. Well, all pain is processed in the brain to begin with.

So, doing things changing your attitude truly can change your relationship to pain and your pain perception itself.

[00:54:48] Dani Bryant: Agreed. I, you know what I’m so curious. I’m sure that there was a, an article that came out recently in the New York Times regarding,

[00:54:54] Cheryl Crow: vagus Nerve?

[00:54:55] Dani Bryant: Yes.

Yeah. And there’s also the book out called, the Great Nerve and one of my physical therapists is reading it and everybody thinks, locally, just like I’m sure all of the people that you have in your life, whenever anybody reads anything about rheumatoid arthritis, they send it to me.

Yes. So I had, I literally had 10 people text me the article that was published about the nerve. Right. And then I had Hailey send me a picture. I’m reading this book about the great nerve. I gotta send you these pages about, it seems really promising for rheumatoid arthritis. So anyway,

[00:55:25] Cheryl Crow: that’s no, what’s so funny is it’s al it’s been FDA approved for gastroparesis in certain countries and rheumatoid arthritis.

So I brought up to my doctor three or three to five years ago, I brought up to her ’cause I was like, this is so fascinating that it can work for both rheumatoid ’cause I have gastroparesis too, which is okay, that’s, it’s a sort of on and autonom nervous system where those contractions that move food down my stomach are just five times slower than a regular person for me.

And so I’m like, this is just fascinating that this could work for both. And so I’ve been waiting. She’s it’s not f FDA approved yet, so now I’ve gotta ask her at my next appointment. Yeah.

[00:55:57] Dani Bryant: You never know. Sorry, I had to bring that up really quick.

[00:56:00] Cheryl Crow: It’s so timely.

And I also wanted to ask, I think I might know what this is, but do you have a favorite quote or inspirational saying or mantra for tough days?

[00:56:09] Dani Bryant: Oh, girl, you already know it. I mean, I just Make it Count like every day. So. And I think truly too, people who have experienced what we’ve experienced with the diagnosis they realize that they don’t take anything for granted, right?

Yes. Like we realize so much about life that we don’t take for granted. It can be opening a water bottle. I have to use a water bottle that has a handle on this so I can open it, right? And so yeah, so I’m like every day we just have to Make it Count to the best way, shape, and form we can. Right? And that is, that’ll be my mantra till the day I die.

[00:56:44] Cheryl Crow: I love it. No, and I’ve seen so many people through my like, room to five support groups become part of, your online community too. And I see them saying, I’m gonna Make it Count today. I just love it. ’cause it’s short, it’s sweet, it’s to the point. But it applies so broadly to every situation in life.

So I love it. Last one, this is just a little casual question. What does it mean? I’m laughing ’cause this is. The long question, but what does it mean to you to thrive and live a good life with rheumatoid arthritis?

[00:57:15] Dani Bryant: Well, what does it mean to me? I a better way of saying that. Well, first of all, I love that you’re using the word thrive as well.

I mean, that’s a word for you. It’s a word for me because of my company, but

[00:57:26] Cheryl Crow: Yeah, no, that’s about your construction company. It’s amazing.

[00:57:29] Dani Bryant: It, I think it all starts with the balance of living a great life. The best way we know how, because we only get one chance at it. Right. So, thriving to me every day is getting up and trying my best and then it ends with, to make this day count for me.

So that’s, I mean, that’s everything that I live and breathe on because, when I’m, every day I’m going to work. And because I work for Thrive Construction, I’m thriving.

[00:57:58] Cheryl Crow: Well, and it’s but it really, it relates back to what we’re talking about with acceptance. ’cause it’s like you’re living this like alignment with yes, you have barriers, right?

That you have a something that’s challenging in some ways to live with, but you’re not fighting it every day. Your life is the activation of what’s meaningful and purposeful for you, which is just really beautiful to me. So, yeah. Thank

[00:58:18] Dani Bryant: you. Yeah. I’m just, I’m doing my best. I’m doing the best I can and it’s not, it’s just like the whole thing, like not every day is.

A good day, but I can always find something good in the day, right? Yeah. I can always find something good in the day, and so I do remind people of that all the time too.

[00:58:35] Cheryl Crow: I love it. Yeah. Well I’m gonna be putting links where people can find you online, where they can find your website. There’s also donations ’cause it is a 5 0 1 C3 nonprofit.

I just wanna make sure to shout that out, that people, if they want to support your work, please go to her website and just thank you so much for your time today. I feel inspired and ready. I’m ready to Make it Count today and every day. Awesome talking to you. Yeah. And we accidentally matched so you guys ought to go to the YouTube video.

Just see how we accidentally matched the exact same like shade of maroon today.

[00:59:06] Dani Bryant: Absolutely. I feel like you need some yellow in there, but you got, it’s,

[00:59:10] Cheryl Crow: I was something. I knew it. Yeah. Well thank you again.

[00:59:14] Dani Bryant: Thank you.

[00:59:14] Cheryl Crow: Everyone hope, hope you all go and support Dani ’cause she’s awesome. Alright. I have always have a hard time.

It’s like when you’re starting to say goodbye on the phone and you’re like, bye bye. Like I have a hard time ending the episodes.

[00:59:27] Dani Bryant: Of course. Yeah. I understand that.

[00:59:29] Cheryl Crow: But thank you so much. Whoops. Let me. My video zoomed out on me. Talk to you later. Bye-bye. All

[00:59:35] Dani Bryant: right. Bye-bye. Make it Count.

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