Paul DeWyse, AVP of Business Consulting Midwest with Alloya, suffers from a rare disease that was slowly destroying his lungs. With patience, love from his family and an amazing gift from a donor, Paul received a new lease on life that he takes advantage of every day. Listen to Paul’s story of hope on this episode of “Money, I’m Home!”

 

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00:06 Lynne Jarman-Johnson: Money I’m Home, well come on in. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union, and we are taping on location this week. It is with the Detroit Future Summit 2020 for CUES. And joining us today is a very special guest, Paul DeWyse. Paul, you’re with Alloya. Tell us a little bit about what you do, and so glad to have you here today.

00:26 Paul DeWyse: Well, great, great. It’s nice to be here. I am a, basically sales manager for Alloya, I oversee sales reps in five different states, and I’ve been at Alloya about 21 years now.

00:38 LJ: What’s Alloya?

00:39 PD: What’s Alloya?

00:39 LJ: Yeah.

00:40 PD: Alloya is corporate credit union, so we’re, kind of, a bankers’ bank, but a credit union’s credit union. We’re very similar to the Federal Reserve Bank, and we work with … we have 1,400 credit union members, and these credit union events are just great because all of the … all the credit unions are here, so it’s a great time for us to get out and see our clients.

01:01 LJ: Well, it’s really interesting. I met you here. This is how I first met you at the CUES conference, and I clearly remember two years ago, I was standing in the area … There was a presentation going to be starting, and our Chief Lending Officer Steve Owens, literally started jumping up and down, and it makes me tear up. He was so excited, because he was telling everybody, “Paul gets his lung transplant today. Paul gets his lung transplant today.” And it was just an amazing … yeah … it chills …

01:47 PD: Gives me goosebumps.

01:48 LJ: It does.

01:50 PD: Yeah.

01:52 LJ: Tell us about your journey. A lung transplant you’ve had, and you’re sitting right in front of me.

01:56 PD: Yeah, yeah. Well, I’m a successful lung transplant so far. The first year was a little rough on me. The procedure itself went well. I was out of hospital in two weeks, but …

02:10 LJ: Wow.

02:10 PD: Yeah, which is pretty … it’s not normal. A lot of people stay in for a month or two or so, but yeah. I just happened to get really good lungs that took right away, and I was able to breathe on my own from the minute they put the lungs in. I wasn’t on oxygen anymore. I used to be on oxygen 24/7. I had a really rough … It was a really rough life for a while. I couldn’t walk from here to the wall without being totally out of breath, but yeah. The journey … I mean, the first year, a little rough, a little sketchy. I had a couple of different operations. It caused a couple of other things. It cost me. I had to get a foot of my colon removed that year and had to have a colostomy bag and stuff, but I’m through all that and it will be two years tomorrow.

02:54 LJ: Tomorrow?

02:54 PD: Yeah, yeah.

02:55 LJ: Oh wow.

02:56 PD: That I had my lung transplant, and yeah. It’s just a great celebration for me because the last year has just been awesome. I am a totally new person. I can go out and play racquetball. I ride a mountain bike. I golf now. I couldn’t hardly do any of that stuff anymore … I could not do any of that anymore, and they gave me one to two years to live, and so …

 

03:20 LJ: So you literally were just waiting…

03:23 PD: Yes.

03:23 LJ: How does that start? And what diagnosis had you had to …

03:27 PD: Yeah. Well, I have a rare lung disease. I still do even though I have new lungs. I still have a rare lung disease because it comes from the liver. So the liver does not produce something called Alpha-1 and Trypsin. That’s the disease I have, very much like emphysema. Slowly kills your lungs from the bottom up, and emphysema is from the top down, it just slowly … It’s a fatal disease. You either die or you get a lung transplant. That’s a double lung transplant, and that’s all you can do. And so luckily, I made it to the point where I could get a double lung transplant.

04:00 LJ: So how old are you now?

04:01 PD: I’m 57 now.

04:02 LJ: You’re 57. I’ll tell you, honestly, the health … You look so vital.

04:06 PD: Oh thank you.

04:07 LJ: And healthy.

04:07 PD: Yeah, yeah.

04:07 LJ: What’s your regime?

04:10 PD: Well, I take a lot of medicine now because of the lung transplant, and I will for the rest of my life. All kinds of anti-rejection medicines and different things that counteract the other drugs and stuff. So I take about 30 pills a day, but I’m lucky there, too, because it does not affect me. I just take them and go on, and my day now is … It’s just amazing. I work out pretty much every day. I go to the gym. I’m very active; like my wife tells me “You need to settle down.” [laughter] She’s like “You move too quick. You keep bumping into things, and you just like drop stuff and you go, go, go” and I’m like, “I know I can’t help” because my donor was 29 years old; so I have 29-year-old young lungs. So it’s amazing. Yeah. And they had to be a perfect fit. They had to be the right length. They had to be the right blood type. I have a rare blood type and all that stuff, so it all just work out so well.

05:01 LJ: What a miracle.

05:02 PD: It’s a miracle. It’s a blessing, and I feel so blessed. It’s just amazing. Yeah.

05:08 LJ: We talk often on finance to fitness. When you look at life and you … and you truly looked at life as there might be an ending here.

05:20 PD: Oh yeah.

05:20 LJ: And you would see it. What are the things you think that … or were there things that you just realized, “Boy, why did I take that for granted?”

05:29 PD: Yeah. Well, everybody takes breathing for granted, and if you were in a position like I was, it … terrible. You just can’t even imagine what I went through just walking. I was so embarrassed and all that stuff, so breathing …

05:45 LJ: You were embarrassed?

05:47 PD: Yeah.

05:47 LJ: Why?

05:48 PD: Well, because I had to walk so slow that … and people that didn’t know I had this disease. I hid it very well on purpose because I’m a sales guy, and I have to go to credit unions, and I have to talk to people, and I have to go to events and walk around. And I just hid it very well because I … I just wanted to continue working, that was the thing.

06:08 LJ: Why and also what? I wanted to be normal.

06:10 PD: Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. I wanted to be normal. I somehow squeaked by and worked until my last day, as you said, I was at this event at midnight going in for a double lung transplant, and it was just the best thing. [laughter]

06:27 LJ: Tell us about your colleagues and the experience of those that you work with. And seriously for me, I look at you and I just grin because I really was a part of that moment in a peripheral way, and even for me it was just incredible, so I can’t imagine the colleagues that you work with day-to-day.

06:51 PD: Yeah. They were all great. First of all before the transplant, my close sales reps that I worked with, they were so good to me. They would, like at these kind of trips, they would take my luggage to my room for me. I get a little bit teary eyed on that kind of stuff because they were just so good, they were just so good to me and helped me out. My employer, Alloya, has been amazing. We did a fundraiser after I got back to work, a year after, and we raised $5,000. And I was able to donate it wherever I wanted, and of course, I donated it to U of M Hospital because they were just the best hospital to get a lung transplant. They were just awesome. And so, yeah. My employer and all the people I work with, yeah. They are amazed because they saw me at my worst, they really did, and nobody can believe it, but I had some good, very good people to work with that were very understanding. Even our CEO was amazing. He just was very good to me while I was out. [chuckle]

07:51 LJ: So you mentioned fundraiser. When you look at a double lung transplant and the healthcare industry the way it is today, that has to be impactful and stressful when you think about finances?

08:04 PD: Oh yes, yes. So before I had my lung transplant, I had three scenarios: One scenario, if I made it through everything was successful, just the way I wanted, that was the best one. The next one was, okay. I might be disabled for the rest of my life because most people don’t go back to work after a transplant, too. And the third one is, what if I die? So I had three different scenarios, three different plans, financial plans down for my wife and my girls. I have three beautiful daughters. My goal was to make it through so I could walk ’em down the aisle. I will be able to do that now, so it’s pretty cool. So financially it’s a good thing for very good insurance because it’s like a million dollar operation.

08:46 LJ: A million dollars?

08:48 PD: A million dollars.

08:50 LJ: When you say that of the three plans, how was it that you worked with your … Did you have someone who helped you with that, was it a sit down with your wife? How transparent and open are you? I mean it’s gotta be something weird … it’s incomprehensible.

09:10 PD: Yeah. It was just mainly between my wife and I. We never really shared our plans outside of the house or anything. It’s a pretty rough stuff to talk about, “Okay. If I die this is what you gotta do. If I’m disabled this is what you got to do, and if I come through with flying colors, this is what we do.” [chuckle]

09:29 LJ: And that’s what you’re doing.

09:30 PD: And that’s what I’m doing, I’m living life. One huge thing that I learned from this is like you said earlier, live it up, live life. All the small things anymore, stupid little arguments and stupid little work things add nothing … It doesn’t mean anything, life is just… You gotta live, be with your friends, be with your family and be happy, so that’s what I’m doing and that’s my new motto.

09:54 LJ: You know, it’s interesting how many of us, as we’re listening, do we have those plans in place because truly you …

10:06 PD: ‘Cause it could happen to anybody, right?

10:07 LJ: Right, right.

10:08 PD: I mean just something.

10:09 LJ: Just anything.

10:10 PD: You can walk across the street. [chuckle]

10:13 LJ: That’s right, that’s right. As you look at the credit unions that you work with, and especially now, is that something that you really take to heart and help credit union members to say, “Think about this, this is not … This isn’t … It’s real life.”

10:35 PD: Yeah. And I have been able to give a couple of presentations. And actually my employer let me give a big presentation on my whole journey, and that was kind of cool. I was able to show and tell all the employees for Alloya. We have about 160 employees, so it was very cool that I did that and…

10:52 LJ: In those presentations, how important is that financial plan and a life plan?

10:57 PD: Yeah. The financial plan is huge, very huge. I had always made a decent salary and everything, and I’ve always saved on the side because I was diagnosed 20 years ago with this disease. I knew it was going to come down to either dying or that, so it was a big deal and we planned well ahead for it and pumped up the 401(k). My wife kept working as much as she could. She wanted to be a stay-at-home mom with the girls, and she ended up doing that, but she just worked a little more to make a little extra money, so we stashed some money and stuff. So yeah. I do, I live the credit union way all the time.

11:37 LJ: So that was really easy, wasn’t it? In the sense of …

11:40 PD: Yeah. Oh yeah.

11:41 LJ: And when you say the credit union way, what does that mean to you?

11:44 PD: Well you know, credit union people helping people; everything’s better at the credit union. I don’t know, I’ve been in the business for close to 30 years now, and it’s just … Credit unions are credit unions and banks are banks, there’s a major dividing line there, and the credit union way is just a great way. And as a credit union person, the people that work in credit unions the people that are members, they all get it. They’re not for profit. They put their profits back to the members in their pockets for better loan rates and all that stuff. So yeah. I’m very much a credit union believer.

[laughter]

12:27 LJ: So take me back to two years ago and what happened? How does that work? Is there … Do you get phone calls or text nowadays that goes through?

12:38 PD: Oh, it’s a major ordeal. So you go through a year of planning with the hospital. All these classes, all kinds of stuff, and then they determine if you should be on the list or not. So I went through all these classes with my wife and my girls at U of M Hospital, so they knew what was gonna happen and all that stuff. And then I met with list six or eight different people that are part of this team, and then they go off over a few-week period and look at all of my statistics, everything and see if I should be … if they would consider me or if they would put me on the donor list. It was a big thing just to get put on it. And then when you accept to be on the donor list, you have … You can’t go outside of five hours radius of where you’re at, ’cause any time you get that call, you gotta be at …

13:22 LJ: You’re there.

13:22 PD: U of M Hospital in five hours. Yeah. So yeah. That … and after that, they give you the call and they say, “We have lungs for you, can you make it into the hospital?” And that’s when you start shaking [chuckle] and sweating, and … it happened at midnight. I was just getting ready to go to bed here at the casino and …

[laughter]

13:40 PD: “I’m I, what?” And so I called my friend, and he came and took me to my house to my wife and … ’cause I couldn’t drive. I was just like, “Ugh”.

13:49 LJ: What joy, what joy though … you know, scary…

13:52 PD: Oh yeah.

13:53 LJ: Obviously.

13:54 PD: It’s scary because you never know. If you get on that operating table, it’s just … You never know, a lot of people die around the operating table. And the operation itself was crazy. I mean, 20 people inside this room. And they couldn’t leave the whole time that the procedure is going on ’cause of germs and stuff.

14:10 LJ: How long did it take?

14:11 PD: It only took 6 1/2 hours. And they told me, “It could take up to 12.” So they came in the room and … The waiting room after 6 1/2 hours and wanted to talk to my wife and girls, and they all started balling and crying and thinking something happened. And they took them to a room and they said, “It was successful. He’s out; he’s got new lungs.” And I’m like, “Ohh… ” So yeah. They… it was very, very, very special. And my girls, my wife, they were just awesome. My wife never left the hospital for the whole two weeks. She was there, right by my side, and my girls all quit college for a couple of weeks, you know?

14:45 LJ: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

14:46 PD: Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. Pretty amazing stuff. I give U of M so much credit, I just can’t even believe it. My scar; I hardly even have a scar. They open you up from one … Under the one arm to the other arm, and just flay you open, and I go in and … did you know that lungs are only hooked up three different spots in your …

15:06 LJ: No.

15:06 PD: Yeah. One goes as a bronchial tube to your trachea and the other two are arteries to your heart.

15:13 LJ: And that’s it.

15:14 PD: That’s it. So they go in …

15:15 LJ: It seems so simple, doesn’t it? [laughter]

15:17 PD: It does … They just go … They clamp them off … And when you … Once you’re out, they cut them and then they put another lung in and they actually hand sew those three things together.

15:28 LJ: Wow. Wow.

15:29 PD: Yeah.

15:30 LJ: Good for home economics class, right?

[laughter]

15:33 PD: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. It is the most amazing experience I ever had, and of course, it’s the biggest life event ever. Marriage and kids, fit up there too, but … Yeah. It’s crazy.

15:45 LJ: Wow, it’s just an amazing story, and thank you so much for telling it today.

15:50 PD: You’re welcome. It’s … I like to tell it because it gives other people hope too, so I …

15:55 LJ: Absolutely.

15:55 PD: I would give a few presentations at support groups here and there …

16:00 LJ: Right. Right.

16:00 PD: And help people to know that they can make it through it and stuff, so. Yeah.

16:03 LJ: So we love to wrap up our podcast with a question about your own personal financial journey and a time that perhaps someone or something happened that it was an aha moment for you.

16:16 PD: Okay. Well … Unfortunately, unlike my kids that I started them out with a 401(k) at 18, nobody ever told me about any of that stuff or how important it was. And I just … I lived pretty crazily back in the day when I was 18 and stuff, so. So at about 25, I sat down with my stepdad and he was showing me … He’s like, “Paul, you need to be on a budget. This is … This is kinda what I do.” And he showed it to me and he was like, “You would be amazed if you start investing just a small amount, whatever you can and keep adding to it, that you’ll have a lot of money by the time you’re retiring.” And he showed me the 7% rule and all of that stuff. And so from that point on, I’m like, “Man, I gotta do this.” And so I started …

17:04 LJ: At 25 even?

17:04 PD: Yeah. At 25.

17:05 LJ: Which is still young. A lot of people …

17:06 PD: It was young. Yeah.

17:07 LJ: Still don’t. You know?

17:07 PD: You right. Yeah, yeah. So at 25, I said, “Okay. I gotta start doing this.” And I was putting $50 a month in the 401(k) or something.

17:14 LJ: Right. But …

17:15 PD: But I just kept adding to it. And so that part of it was awesome. And yeah. I still think they should do those kinds of things in high school. I really do. They should educate kids way more on like what a mortgage is, how you do all that stuff. Because I learned that the hard way. I bought a house and had to go through my own…

17:34 LJ: Right. Learning to budget and … Yeah.

17:36 PD: Thinking process and … Yeah, but they don’t … You don’t get taught that kind of stuff. So unless you have a parent or somebody close that are a financial advisor or something, you just don’t learn it. So I did learn at a young age, and I … Thank God I started putting away. And I got life insurance right away, because with this disease; it’s a fatal disease. I can’t get any life insurance anywhere.

17:56 LJ: Right. Right.

17:57 PD: So. Good thing I was smart enough to have a $100,000 policy.

17:58 LJ: Right off the bat.

18:00 PD: Nothing major, but right off the bat without anything; so that they can never take it away from me, so…

18:03 LJ: Right.

18:04 PD: Yeah. So yeah. Financially, it’s been good, and I have about three different credit unions I belong to, so I got money here, money there. [laughter]

18:11 LJ: There you go, there you go. [laughter]

18:11 PD: Yeah, yeah.

18:13 LJ: Well Paul, thank you so much for joining us today. It’s Money I’m Home. We’re at the Future Summit 2020 with CUES. And as Paul just said, if you’re thinking about saving, walk right into your credit union or a credit union near you, because I’ll tell you what, the one thing that we do is we really do try to get everybody on the right journey, and we’d love to help you out, too. Money I’m Home, and I’d like to thank Paul, and I’d like to thank Jake and Aaron for the production skills that we’ve got here. Listen in next week, we’ll be back. Thanks so much for joining us. Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union.

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