So, I've been pretty sick...

Summary

In this heartfelt video update, Dope shares his ongoing battle with various health issues that have kept him away from making content for almost a year. Despite facing difficult and often misunderstood medical conditions like spinal neuritis, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome, he is working hard to maintain positivity and hope. He discusses a new project he has been working on with Brian from Team Edge, a unique Minecraft series on their new channel, Legends. Furthermore, he pleads with his audience not to feel sorry for him but to pray for his recovery and appreciate the things he is still able to do. Dope's story is a genuine account of resilience in the face of adversity, aiming to rekindle his passion for creativity amid life's unpredictabilities.

Highlights

• Dope's battle with chronic health conditions kept him from making videos for almost a year. 😷
• A unique Minecraft series was launched with Brian from Team Edge, emphasizing cinematic storytelling. 🎬
• Facing conditions like spinal neuritis and fibromyalgia, Dope reveals a personal struggle with widespread inflammation and pain. 🤕
• Dope emphasizes the importance of transparency and sharing his journey, hoping to inspire and bring hope. 🌈
• He requests prayers and understanding from his audience, stressing the importance of mental and physical health. ☮️

Key Takeaways

• Dope opens up about his health journey, revealing struggles with conditions like spinal neuritis and fibromyalgia, impacting his content creation. 🏥
• A brand new Minecraft project on a channel called Legends has been created by Dope and Brian, promising cinematic and story-driven yet organic gameplay. 🎮
• Despite the challenges, Dope is committed to finding joy and continuing his passion for storytelling through innovative content. 🌟
• He acknowledges the difficulty of his situation but emphasizes gratitude for what he can still do, asking viewers for prayers rather than pity. 🙏
• Transparency with his audience about his health is a step towards acceptance and future planning, even with uncertain health outcomes. 💪

Overview

In a candid update, creator Dope shares the personal battles he's been facing with an array of health-related challenges such as spinal neuritis, fibromyalgia, and chronic inflammation. These conditions have caused significant pain and hindered his ability to produce content consistently. Despite feeling overwhelmed, he detailed his resilience in managing these issues while attempting to maintain a positive outlook on life.

Alongside sharing his health journey, Dope introduced an exciting new project with his colleague Brian from Team Edge: a cinematic and story-driven Minecraft series available on their new channel, Legends. This venture represents creativity and collaboration at its best, merging fun, organic gameplay with advanced storytelling techniques that are sure to captivate audiences, whether they are keen on Minecraft or not.

Dope is not seeking sympathy but rather understanding and support from his audience, expressing gratitude for the ability to engage with life, albeit in a modified capacity. He calls for prayers to aid in his recovery journey, aiming to balance transparency about his challenges with expressions of hope and joy, fulfilling his desire to create and connect meaningfully with his viewers.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction The chapter 'Introduction' opens with the speaker acknowledging their hiatus from video creation, noting it has been almost a year since their last video. The speaker candidly admits that the video title is not clickbait, suggesting an honest and straightforward discussion. Despite not having a fully prepared script, the speaker has a few topics they wish to address, indicating a blend of spontaneity and planned discussion.
• 01:00 - 04:00: Collaboration Announcement The chapter titled 'Collaboration Announcement' begins with the speaker addressing the potential for abrupt cuts in the video, explaining that it is due to the removal of overly personal content. Before delving into personal health updates, the speaker shares exciting news about a collaboration project they have been working on. Along with Brian from Team Edge, they have invested significant effort into creating something new. However, the chapter cuts off before more details are revealed about the project itself.
• 04:00 - 08:00: Minecraft Video Plug The chapter discusses the creation of a Minecraft video that took four months to produce. The creator hints at sharing more about the production delay due to health issues later in the video. Unlike typical Minecraft videos, this is a '100 days Minecraft video' in hardcore mode, with unique elements that can only be fully appreciated by viewing it.
• 08:00 - 12:00: Health Journey Begins The chapter titled 'Health Journey Begins' discusses a new channel started by Brian and the speaker, focusing on creating engaging content with a cinematic storytelling approach in Minecraft. This new channel, 'Legends,' emphasizes real, unscripted gameplay while maintaining a narrative-driven format. The creators aim to deliver authentic and enjoyable content that combines the fun of organic Minecraft playing with the depth of cinematic storytelling.
• 12:00 - 18:00: Past Health Issues and Diagnoses The chapter discusses Brian's initial experience playing Minecraft. He is tasked with collecting wood to make his first tools and learns the difference between various types of wood such as oak, birch, and pine. The narrator expresses some concern about keeping Brian safe in the game's hardcore mode, indicating they are not constantly supervising him but ensuring he is not in immediate danger. The narrative humorously depicts Brian's novice actions and mistakes during the game.
• 18:00 - 24:00: Experience with Medical Professionals The chapter delves into the author's experiences with medical professionals, blending personal anecdotes with broader reflections. It humorously notes the peculiarities of gaming worlds, like a floating tree in Minecraft, and hints at the unexpected nature of some medical encounters. The text reflects on patience, unexpected pauses, and the unreliability of certain expectations, whether in gaming or in dealing with medical situations.
• 24:00 - 30:00: Coping with Chronic Conditions The chapter 'Coping with Chronic Conditions' focuses on the emotional and psychological aspects of living with a chronic illness. The speaker encourages viewers to watch a long video linked in the description, promising an impactful story that is worth the time investment. The speaker expresses pride in the content, highlighting its potential to resonate with viewers over time, regardless of immediate view counts.
• 30:00 - 36:00: Gratitude and Acknowledgments The chapter 'Gratitude and Acknowledgments' discusses a creative project that the author is very proud of, likening it to a personal magnum opus. The chapter invites readers or listeners who enjoy or are curious about Minecraft, or parents wanting to connect with their children who love Minecraft, to explore this project. It is suggested as an enjoyable experience for both adults and kids, highlighting its universal appeal.
• 36:00 - 41:00: Future Plans and Conclusion This chapter wraps up the content by highlighting the diverse elements that have been covered: intense drama, meaningful interactions, and silly, goofy moments. It acknowledges the blend of cinematic and organic gameplay experiences, particularly in the Minecraft context. The speaker seems passionate about the content but expresses uncertainty on how to start the concluding thoughts, emphasizing that the whole journey was not linear.

So, I've been pretty sick... Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 it has been quite a while since I have made a video i think almost a year now actually and this title unfortunately is not clickbait um I didn't really prepare exactly what I was going to say because well for reasons uh I have a couple things that I wanted to make sure I I talk about but for the most part I'm going to be just talking
• 00:30 - 01:00 on the fly from the heart so if there's a lot of disjointed cuts just know maybe I said some things that I later decided that's too personal but before we get into my health and what's going on with all of that I did want to announce that I created something along with Brian yes from Team Edge uh we worked really hard on it for the for the past
• 01:00 - 01:30 um 4 months and I'll I'll get into why it took four months a little later on with the health part of my video but we're really really proud of it um it is a Minecraft video but it's not like every Minecraft video it is a 100 days Minecraft video in hardcore however it's a bit different and the only way I can possibly explain this to you is if you were to check it out um on this kind of
• 01:30 - 02:00 new channel that Brian and I started called Legends uh there's going to be more content there Lord willing of of a similar nature and it is best way to put it cinematic storydriven Minecraft but not scripted so it's actually like fun organic real Minecraft playing but with this sort of cinematic storytelling ability i've I've kind of merged the two
• 02:00 - 02:30 and this is Brian's first time playing Minecraft and here's here's a peek at it i told Brian to collect some wood so he could make his first tools ever do we want oak do we want birch do we want pine what do we want so you just left click it left click it what' I just do and since I was a bit paranoid about keeping him alive in hardcore mode I wasn't watching him every step of the way don't worry he's safe for now but he was doing things like this where he like would
• 02:30 - 03:00 almost break the wood and then just stop for some reason among other things it's going to be t What i got a floating tree it doesn't knock over like the bamboo no no what minus one point for Minecraft if you don't like Minecraft don't go and click on it nobody knows it's there right now so you'll be the first but if you do
• 03:00 - 03:30 click in to the link down in the description below uh give it a shot give it like five minutes it's a long video it's almost 3 hours long but I promise you the story does not disappoint and you know if we've done our job right it will move you really proud of that despite how many views it gets um I'm confident that over the course of time it will get views because I think it's I think it's good i think it's one of the
• 03:30 - 04:00 probably the best things I've ever made so go check that out if you don't like Minecraft at all and you know you don't like Minecraft just don't don't click it's not for you but if you kind of like Minecraft or if you want a way to connect with your kids who mostly probably love Minecraft then this is literally for you because this is sort of like this movie magnum opus that you can actually sit down with your kids and adults can enjoy too um there's
• 04:00 - 04:30 something in it for everyone there's tons of intense dramatic moments there are tons of meaningful moments uh there's more than anything silly goofy moments it's as close to a cinematic Minecraft movie as it is to a organic let's play but I'm going to stop selling that to you uh so let's get into that um I don't really honestly know where to even begin because there really isn't a beginning
• 04:30 - 05:00 so to speak so I'll I'll kind of go back in time i'll give you a brief overview of I don't know what I what I This is so hard to explain i I'll I'll I'm going to try and Sorry I thought this would be easier i'm sick and I don't know what with and I've been sick for a long time my back really
• 05:00 - 05:30 hurts right so I told Brian about it Brian and he's like "The best thing for you for you is to take an ice [Applause] bath." As you can hear he's setting that up for me what if you're done and the rest of today you feel great no back issues no tingling will you never do it again dude I'll kiss you on the mouth if that's the case i don't There's a trade-off here intense amount of pain at all in one point or pain throughout the day any surprise help how do I get my lower back to stop hurting uh I was recently diagnosed with spinal neuritis
• 05:30 - 06:00 so I I'm I got a lot of back pain and my answer to you is I haven't found one yet over the weekend I mean my back's not healed healed i I have paraphformis issues but as long as I stretch and do that i have crazy sinuses in older vlogs you've seen me have that sinus thing i have that right off camera right over there and yeah I definitely took a bit too many Advils and um because I just didn't know what else to do like I went to so many doctors they prescribed so
• 06:00 - 06:30 many things it didn't work and Advil was the only thing that like took my swelling down i took it for too many days in a row i got an ulcer whatever it is it's incredibly painful and it's debilitating and I'm not trying to put on moments of dramatic pause i swear I I literally just can't think straight today usually I can actually which is uh which is a um
• 06:30 - 07:00 I forgot what I was gonna say which is a boon I should say because I can't why didn't I choose today dude the one day I have brain f brain fog brain fog brain fog brain fog brain fog is not that is is not that serious well it's it's pretty serious it's it's not the most serious part of of whatever is going on inside me right now but brain fog is basically an indicator of brain inflammation and uh that's sort of
• 07:00 - 07:30 a common theme across whatever I'm dealing with is massive inflammation all around all over all the time tlddr I think I have some genetic mutation that does not allow me to properly process toxins of any kind and I think that I've been storing them for a decade i have you know about I guess
• 07:30 - 08:00 I'll start with the timeline now um I I I I don't really want to get into like nitty-gritty details here because yeah some of it's personal and all but for the most part everyone in their mother thinks that they have some sort of cure or answer like oh why don't you you know become a vegetarian or oh why don't you try this one supplement or why don't you um you know go get more sun or I know
• 08:00 - 08:30 why Matias it's because you don't do this or it's because you do do this i just want to dispense with it all because the truth is is like you just don't know i don't know and I'm living with it it's a really hard thing to cope with not knowing i don't know if you guys recall but maybe about 5 years ago I came down with costendritis pretty severely costocchondritis is like inflammation of the intercostal muscles of your rib cage and it is incredibly painful and for about 6 months I thought
• 08:30 - 09:00 I was going to die so Matt you've have you have Costco matt explain what Costco is to the audience costco is a store that you buy things in bulk okay he just bought pain in bulk i bought pain in bulk when I got back from uh getting dental surgery major dental surgery i was like out for like eight hours super super stressful on my body right and on my mind because I had I'd already been diagnosed with like high blood pressure stress in my life accumulated to like a a breaking point like an intense
• 09:00 - 09:30 breaking point and I now know that um I developed fibromyalgia i see commercials about that so hit me with what that is too fibromyalgia is a pain disorder i went to urgent care and ER and and multiple times and they're like "We don't know what's wrong with you we don't know what's wrong with you." And I ironically was diagnosed by a bot for me it's most likely an inflammation disorder if not an inflammation disorder then inflammation due to just being
• 09:30 - 10:00 toxic and I don't say that in some sort of figurative sense i say it in a literal sense i I'm lit literally my body is hyper toxic if you're a follower of me from the beginning beginning like you even watched my vlogs there's literally a year of vlogs where I couldn't get off my easy chair i just got back home from my doctor's appointment in which I got a
• 10:00 - 10:30 second opinion and the doctor seemed to say complete opposite stuff as my last doctor he seemed to think if this physical therapy doesn't help then it's just going to be chronic back pain for the rest of my life i had inflammation in my lower back i I think I've told stories of this i don't know my memor is gone so that was fun consistent um brain inflammation didn't know what brain inflammation was but evidently brain inflammation can make you crazy so that's fun yeah I don't really like getting into that that much but um it
• 10:30 - 11:00 makes you emotionally unstable from my own experience I believe that um it's not so crazy to think that being bipolar is due to brain inflammation from toxic overload because that's been my experience because you you could literally name OCD OCPD ADHD autism yes have it and I don't really like to wear those as monikers or badges that was a period
• 11:00 - 11:30 in my life where things started to really derail in my life more complications more health conditions more issues started slowly shutting things down closing things by the grace of God I closed things i will tell you I know it was unpopular but for me and my family boy was that the right move oh my goodness gracious was that the right move quick break this is editing with eyes i know a lot of people down in the
• 11:30 - 12:00 comments are going to ask like "Why didn't you talk about this why didn't you really include us in this process you know if you knew you were sick?" And for the most part most of my doctor visits almost everything it was implied or inferred or directly spoken to me that it was all in my head by so many different medical professionals almost in I would say almost in every single visit and it wasn't until this next bit where I knew no something's actually wrong last year my body
• 12:00 - 12:30 crashed and I was bedridden for months i literally couldn't get out of the bed and I And I don't mean like I was too sad to or didn't want to i mean like I couldn't even lift my arm uh I couldn't lift a single like I couldn't lift my arm like fatigue chronic fatigue syndrome had taken over me and I know some of you
• 12:30 - 13:00 might be struggling with chronic fatigue syndrome um as I do as my brother has as he's communicated um for those of you that don't know uh most people don't know exactly what's going on with chronic fatigue syndrome uh because there can be a ton of different reasons why someone could basically stop producing energy in their cells and for me one of the one of the massive blessings I had in getting chronic
• 13:00 - 13:30 fatigue syndrome was that I didn't have brain fog um unlike my brother uh who had tremendous brain fog brain fog again brain inflammation you can't think straight amongst other uh conditions and so the reason why it was a blessing that I didn't have brain fog is because pretty much the only thing I did when you know for that for those months straight was deep dive research deep deep dive research this was after I had already tried every health food
• 13:30 - 14:00 journey you name it i couldn't stop my body crashing so when it crashed I didn't have brain fog i was able to research research research research and through that research um I was able to discover that chronic fatigue syndrome typically not always but typically is due to a either an inability for your body to
• 14:00 - 14:30 absorb or process thamine which is vitamin B1 and so I began to experiment with meggaosing thamine and then getting all into the complicated co-actors of thamine and I I took a short break because uh there were gardeners all around and uh and they were barking i think they were just having
• 14:30 - 15:00 fun but it was like right outside my window and I was like "All right I'm trying to set a really dark mood here and they're ruining it with their jovial barking." I'm not trying to start a dark mood i actually didn't really want this i wanted this to be kind of like a happy video and to like kind of share joy but I I'm not so sure that's possible in this particular instance to like um talk about this stuff and be like "But it's awesome." My crash happened around last July and I
• 15:00 - 15:30 had been experiencing severe pain all of these diagnoses that I've gotten have all been like "Nope he doesn't have that nope nope nope nope well the only thing that's left is this." And it's like kind of like all the diagnosises is I've gotten like costendritis is a diagnosis of of elimination same thing same thing with fibromyalgia because like they don't really know they don't like dude nobody knows anything that's what I'm
• 15:30 - 16:00 learning is that like not that doctors don't know anything there are some incredibly smart doctors but there are a lot of doctors that are just towing the company line you know what I mean they're like "What drug can I give you today?" You know and it's like I I went to this one doctor and she she told me to eat bok choy she said "You gotta eat bok choy." Bo choy
• 16:00 - 16:30 dude my problems aren't going to be solved by eating bok choy all right this is obviously systemically deeper than bok choy genuinely I think she just didn't understand and I think she normally treated people who were killing themselves with like their diet or their their practices and so it's like you know eating some fiber and eating some veggies isn't like a terrible thing if like you literally only drink Diet Coke you know what I mean so it's like it's not always bad advice but it's like I'm
• 16:30 - 17:00 I'm I'm looking for like something like much more specialized and focused on like these particular issues so test after test after test I first thought I had Limes disease but test after test after test was negative i'm I'm still not sure I don't but you know because I've been bitten by a tick multiple times i've gotten nutrition test after nutrition test and uh deficient in a host of vitamins like critical ones i
• 17:00 - 17:30 confirmed uh with some methyl methylation panels that I have quite a few methylation issues in my DNA um my genetics now I'm going to uh I forget the technical term but uh a new doctor they work with your genetics so I'm still waiting back for uh my actual like hardcore DNA genetic test to like identify all the different sort of pathways in my body that are broken that are not functioning because that's what
• 17:30 - 18:00 I think is going on and that's what we think is going on because I've started to take um antimicrobial uh herbs and various liver support and lymph node support and all that kind of stuff and it put me out so I've been taking that for like the past couple months and kind of I I I I won't say that I crashed again but it's quite clear that I'm incredibly toxic everything that comes out of me burns
• 18:00 - 18:30 even my tears burn the best way to describe like what I experience is dautonomia where your autonomic nervous system just is completely disregulated it almost feels as though you're coming undone from the inside out i I'll just list all my symptoms here um all the symptoms that aren't I would say overly personal um or just gross you know and I've probably already
• 18:30 - 19:00 gone too deep into the details but like I'm a detail oriented person my body is not working right now it feels like I'm I'm coming undone like I'm being unmade if that makes sense i want to thank Samantha you guys know Samantha she doesn't work for me anymore um but she did for quite a while she has done an amazing job over the
• 19:00 - 19:30 past uh you know couple month or couple months couple years of like discreetly helping me close down the remaining parts of Spellbound and High-5 amidst my uh health conditions most people didn't know anything about this and I honestly wasn't ever planning on telling anyone about this if if I'm being honest i just want to thank Sam for uh I don't know
• 19:30 - 20:00 her loyalty in and being discreet and not telling everyone what I was going through and what was actually happening you know she never was able to give a good answer to all those losers that start rumors um and lies and just attempt to hurt in comments by making up and fabricating like why this and why that and oh Matt's this and oh Matt's that and you know you
• 20:00 - 20:30 know the funny thing that I just realized is that amidst all the rumors all of them all over Reddit or in the comments of of this channel or any other channel you know what's crazy not a single rumor or comment or person guessed this and that tells you something i don't know what but it tells you something my plans were to get healthy
• 20:30 - 21:00 and then resume making content resume telling stories resume creating things uh I wanted to come back strong this is not that this is not that i don't know if I'm going to get healthy and I think I've just begun to accept that and I'm not trying to scare anyone i I just kind of want to communicate where I've been
• 21:00 - 21:30 and why I haven't said anything and so like why now i think it's because the truth is is I have been pretty scared and I'm done i'm done being scared
• 21:30 - 22:00 ah it burns ow i want to share joy and this has taken enough of me it doesn't need to take that as well in order to do that I needed to do this i want to post more often i don't know what I'll post because I don't know what I'm always capable of posting and that's one of the
• 22:00 - 22:30 reasons why that video took four months it probably should have taken half that but like there are weeks where I just couldn't get off the couch and then there were weeks where I could just zone in at my computer and work and just kind of like you know focus mode through the pain and and get something done and so I do know I'm I'm you know with my effort I'm going to attempt to continue making those Minecraft stories i'm I'm really
• 22:30 - 23:00 proud of those and and I I care about telling stories um on this channel I I'd like to upload more um but you got to be patient with me because I don't know what I have energy to make i don't know when I have energy or how I'll get it they won't be scary videos like this or depressing videos if you see content it'll be a good day when I made it i want to thank you for uh I want to
• 23:00 - 23:30 thank everyone who just gave me the benefit of the doubt i appreciate your support and your love and your understanding don't feel sorry for me that is not what this is about don't feel sorry i'm just communicating why I haven't made content and why it's been very difficult for me to do so and just kind of sharing this journey do not feel sorry for me if you're going to do something for me it'd be to pray it'd be to pray because when
• 23:30 - 24:00 all is said and done you know I I can still see i can still hear um I can taste touch I can still play around with my kids um not nearly as much and not always I want to but I can still be with people and love people um I can still lead my family what else is there making YouTube
• 24:00 - 24:30 videos has kind of not been on the forefront of my mind sorry I'm like a little bit more emotional this week has been especially hard uh I literally had a fever two days ago went to urgent care and they were like "You seem fine besides all your symptoms." But uh I appreciate you and I hope I hope to see you again and I hope the next video you know I can bring some joy to your life