Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 942: Recording Live from the Hospital

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

There aren't any notes. We talked about Tom's condition most of the episode

This episode of Cognitive Dissinance is brought to you by our patrons. You fucking rock. Be advised that this show is not for children, the faint of heart, or the easily offended. The explicit tag is there for a reason. Normally, I would do a recording live thing, but Tom's going to do it in a few minutes. I visited Tom at the hospital, and I have a recording of him sort of giving an update, and we also kind of did a little bit of cognitive dissonance while we were there. I told him about some news stories that were going to be.

going on. We laughed about him. So that's coming up in a few minutes. A couple of caveats. One, Tom's going to talk about his condition for a long time because he's had a pretty rough go and he's still in the hospital. So I know people are interested in what's going on with him. And so that's what we're going to do. He's going to talk about his condition and how he feels and the different things, the sort of things that have happened to him as he's been in the hospital. So that's a bulk of what we're doing. There is also a portion, like I suggest, that we, where we talk, he and I talk for a few minutes about a couple of stories that happened this week. And it's fun. We actually have a lot of fun. Tom really enjoyed it. He said that made him feel good, and you can hear it at the end of the show.

He kind of says it makes him feel good. The recording quality is trash. It's two road, like little, they're essentially lav mics so that you would put on you. So, but they're, They're not great. They're, you know, but in any case, it's what we had. It's what we had that we could record. Normally, our show is much better produced, and it's just not. There's also no video. I'm not going to videotape poor Tom, who is, in this case, he's been, you know, in a hospital for a very long time,

and he doesn't want to be videoed. And I respect that. Obviously, I wouldn't want to, like, video in his own room either. It just feels strange. So there's no video. It's just audio. There's going to be some kind of abrupt cuts. the hospital, every couple of minutes, something would start beeping or something would start to go off.

There'd be a beeping sound or something or some sort of alert that would have to, someone would have to come in for. He was visited multiple times while we were just sitting there. We only recorded for a little over an hour. And he was visited four times by four different doctors during that time. And that took time out. So there's like multiple times where it'll sound like we're abruptly sort of changing the subject or there's an abrupt piece. where you can clearly note that there was an edit there, that's because he was literally just having someone walk up to his door

and knock on the door, or literally just walk right in. They don't even knock. They just walk right into the door. So I hope you enjoy it. Tom's going to do the intro. We're going to have a whole show. And we also just want to mention that we switched on Patreon.

There was a switch that, a billing switch that had to happen. Patreon forced us to do a billing switch. So that happened. if you're a patron of the show, be sure to listen to a short podcast that I'm going to have that goes on today or it will release. It might have even released already. I don't know which one's going to go out first,

if it goes out before this or after this or whatever. But it's going to be talking about sort of the changes that happened. I already kind of did that. I'm going to talk about it again. Be a short little podcast, don't worry. But in any case, there'll be something there for patrons. Just check your feed. I'll do a little short video for it.

All right, here is a recording with Tom in the hospital. All right, so Tom, we are on location. We're on looking. Do I want to do a recording live? You're my medical correspondent. How you feeling, buddy? Dude, do we want to do a recording live from the hospital? Do you want to try it?

Let's do it. You got to, well, okay, all right, so let's go. Go ahead, go. Recording live from fucking hospital. This is cognitive dissonance. Every episode we blasts anyone who gets in our way. We bring critical thinking, skepticism and irreverence. To any topic that makes the news, makes it big or makes us mad.

It's skeptical. It's political. And it's full of painkillers. A lot of pain killers. So many painkillers. But are they killing the pain or? No, they don't work that well. They don't.

It's not great. It's not great. Let me say, like, it's better than no painkillers. Sure, yeah, yeah. I can say that definitively with some experience. So, yes, but do they, like, actually remove and put the pain over in a bucket that you don't get, have access to? Oh, no, sir, they do not. No, that doesn't do that.

They do not do that, no, absolutely not. So how are you feeling? I know that people are curious about your condition. Yeah. I've been hopeful on the show a couple times, and then my hopes were dashed literally the next day. when I was hopeful on the show. And fucked. So I'm not going to be hopeful anymore.

See, that's where I'm out. I'm not hopeful either. I'm not going to be glass half empty. Like, well, but if there's two half empty glasses, then that's a full glass.

If you think about it, it's also an entirely empty glass right next to the full glass. And that's the only one you can reach. Because the full glass is on the top of the refrigerator, and you can't get it. Sure. Okay. Yeah.

No. So I feel pretty. rough, to be honest. So, yes, I feel like, I feel pretty terrible. I hurt all the time. And the hurting super duper sucks. The reason that I hurt all the time is, and we got to go through the way back machine, there's a series of causative dominoes, which have clicked. And every time one of them falls, you know, they come in here and they're just like shake their head. And I'm not even kidding. They just shake their head. They're like, we can't believe it either. We've never seen somebody with, you know, such, you know, a series of fucking lemony-snicket level,

unfortunate medical events. I think the worst part about the Domino's is, is that they were directed by Michael Bay and they all explode. Every single one. Just as soon as it falls, it explodes and it destroys 60 more lines of dominoes that all explode. Real quick. What do you think?

Like, if you were to put fucking betting odds on it. Yeah. Because they've made a fucking movie out of them out of fucking, like, everything but, like, like Jenga and Dominoes at this point. At what point would they be like, from the makers of battleship, which we did actually make into a movie. They did make Battleship into a movie.

Comes this season's biggest, most powerful, blockbuster ever. Dominoes. No one would want to watch your Dominoes. I'm sorry. Nobody would watch that. That would be like, it would be like a snuff porn film.

more of this. So I've told the audience already a little bit. So, you know, high level for the, for the opening salvo, and then just to get listeners caught up, maybe you didn't hear it. So I had a disc reherneation at L5S1. So that's the bottom of your lumbar spine, where your lumbar spine meets your sacral. So that's what S1 is. So L5, last lumbar, S1, first sacral area.

So I had a re-herniation into that area, which hurt a whole lot. And I went to the hospital, and they were like, hey, we can do this surgery and basically clean it out, it's full scar tissue. It's all fucked up back there from your first surgery. So we'll clean it all out. Take this piece of bone spra out of there and then pull this piece of disc out of there. Give this nerve plenty of room. You'll feel like a million bucks once it heals up.

Snap it with a towel like you were shining a shoe. Yeah, right. No problems. Yeah. Oh, my, you will. Yeah. I mean, he did say, you know, in fairness, the doctor's like, you know, I do want to warn you. He's like, it's going to hurt more.

The recovery is uneven and it's going to hurt more. He was very honest about that part. So I was expecting to have, you know, good days and bad days as I was recovering from the surgery. And I've recovered from two back surgeries before. I kind of like know what to expect, you know, I know how this road works. So everything was humming along. And I was like, man, this is slow. I don't feel like I'm getting better.

I feel like every day is like not better than the day before in any demonstrable way. And I'm trying to find metrics I can use to prove myself right or wrong. So I'm doing things like, you know, timing, how much time I get standing or walking before I have to sit down. I'm trying to be optimistic. Because, you know, I want this to go. My brain is like, you just, you need. this to go well. You want this to go well. And then I got like several Fridays ago, many Fridays ago now. I don't know how many Fridays ago now. Four or five, I think. Four or five Fridays ago now.

It's fucking crazy. I have no sense of time at all, Cecil, none. I start having a fever. So I had this headache, and I'm not a headache guy. So a headache for me is a very unusual occurrence. I get a headache maybe once every few months. I just don't get them very often. So it's very notable and I had a very strong headache, a really powerful headache. And so I told Haley, I said, hey, I'm just going to lay down

and close my eyes and go to sleep. And I got to call this one a day. I'm like, I got this headache. It won't go away. Just going to go to sleep. She's like, all right. So then three o'clock in the morning, I wake up and I try to move my left leg

and it is like, I've said this before. I'm going to say it again a couple more times. It is an astonishing amount of pain. I can't express because I lack the words how much it hurt. I had this crazy pain in my left leg where I have the nerve pain. It was all nerve pain. Like any attempt at movement, it's not even that I couldn't move at Cecil.

Like any attempt at movement was more than I could even think about bearing. So I was like, we have to call 911. I can't do anything. I'm at a straight 10 out of 10 and I can't move this thing. So this is actually kind of funny. So they send the firefighters out

and the ambulance crew and all that stuff. They're all in front of the house making a big fucking drama thing, you know, that I'm sure the neighbors were excited about at three in the morning. And they get up there and they're like, all right, so how are we going to get you down? And I was like, I don't know.

I figured you would know. And they're like, well, can you walk? And I'm like, I can't move. I literally can't move a muscle in my left leg without screaming. Like, I cannot do it. I said, I thought, I thought you guys would have some kind of solution for this. And like, well, we have this chair and like, it's made for these, because I have like six

steps in a landing and a turn and six steps. So, like, we have a chairlift, but it doesn't work in your situation. We have to get you into this chair. If we can get you into this chair, then we carry you down from this chair. And I'm like, all right, well, let's do that. but I don't know how, I literally don't know how to get my leg to even be not in this position. I don't know what to do. I'm completely stymied.

And like your ability to think when their pain is that high has, it's completely gone. Like you can't problem solve. It's wild. Like if somebody was like, what's two times eight, I'd have been like fucking 46, I have no idea. I'll kill you. That's the answer. That's how bad is. Wow.

Wow. Like, no problem solving ability. when the paying gets that high. So finally, it's like, all right, we're going to give you some fentanyl and see if that gets to the point where we can get you into this chair. So they give me fentanyl, which I'd not had before.

And it did let me get into the chair with a decent amount of yelling. It was excursiating to get into this chair. And then, dude, then it's wild. Then it's like the trust fall of all trust falls. Because you've got some dude in the front of this chair which is just a chair like it might be a medically

graded chair in some way but at the end of the day it's a chair with like extra handles on it right and a guy behind you with presumably handles on this medical grade chair and they just pick it up and they just walk you down the stairs

like you're a piece of like IKEA furniture or something and they're like just trust us we know how to do this and I'm like okay and they're like don't reach out and grab anything like people reach out and grab stuff and that's when the mistakes.

Yeah, that's when people fall. Sure, yeah, you know. So it's wild. Like, you're just, like, being carried down these steps, and everything, every movement is just, like, lightning bolts of pain through, and it's crazy. And, like, it's kind of, like, nerve-wracking that they're going to drop you. But, of course, they're professionals.

They didn't drop me. They were wonderful. And they trans, then they transitioned me over into the gurney, and I'm still on the fentany. So, like, it hurts. It's like a motherfucker, but we were able to do it. So then I'm into gurney. And then they tell me, like, we're going to send you to this hospital, hospital A.

And I was like, oh, actually, like, I called and I asked if I could specifically be brought to hospital B. And they're like, no, we can't. We got to bring in a hospital A based on your address. That's just where we have to take you. And I was like, oh, then that's where you have to take me. I guess I'm going to that hospital. So we head over to Hospital A.

And I learned this about fentanyl, too. it's super super super short acting. So it's like over that fast, huh? By the time we got me into the chair, out of the house, onto the gurney, loaded into the, into the ambulance itself,

and maybe five minutes down the road, it's completely gone. Wow. It's crazy. Yeah. It was an effective pain relief in that like there was literally no way that was going to get done without it.

But like, it's, Just it doesn't last very long at all. That's wild. Yeah, I never knew that about it. Just as an experiential aside. Sure. So, you know.

And also as an aside, I've had a lot of opiates through this experience. I know I've said it before. I do not understand the appeal. Literally zero positive, euphoric, just nothing. Like, no, I didn't even get like a swimmingist. So, like, it's just, I don't understand. And I know things hit different people, different ways, you know, but for me, I'm like, this is not a drug of like recreation.

I can't understand it. So to each their own. Yeah. For me, yeah. Doesn't hit you the right way. They don't hit me right way either. They make me sick. Yeah, they make me sick too.

They make her vomit. Yeah, they make me sick. So then they bring me to the hospital and they're like, yeah, you've got a pretty good fever brewing up here. And you just had surgery recently. So, you know, we've got to make sure that you're not septic. and we got to make sure that you don't have like an infection where you, where you, I know. Well, listeners to the show will know because I've mentioned it on the show, but.

Yeah. So they take all the blood that I've ever had and then they find some old blood, I guess, that was laying around somewhere. Like an old sock, they squeeze out. So they take a, like just an absolute like, just all the bloods. Sure. All the blood. It's fine.

And then I'm laying there and they give me some pain meds. And it is like nowhere, near close enough to the pain meds that I needed in order to make this tolerable. And then they all just kind of walked away for a while. Because in the background, what they're doing is they're figuring out that like, hey, this guy had surgery at this other hospital like a week ago, and he is fucked up. And he is 100% septic.

And we are definitely not treating him here. So they're working in the background to have me transported to the hospital that I had my surgery at, my first surgery at. They're not telling me any of this. I'm just realized that that is definitely what they're doing. Meanwhile, what I'm doing is losing my mind. I'm screaming. You're in pain. I'm an intense pain. It's like a 10 or it's a 12 out of 10. It's an amount of pain that like I can tell you definitively I could not handle. Like I don't know. that like, and screaming doesn't do anything and yelling doesn't do anything, but you sort of just do it anyway. Sure. And I don't know why.

Like, even as I'm doing it, I'm like, this is not effective. This is not doing anything. But like you also just feel like an animal caught in a trap. Like, it makes you just absolutely lose your mind and feel panicky because you want to get out of your body. All you care, all I cared about was like getting out of my body. There had to be some way to like get up. out of this, you know, some way, and there's not, and so you just endure it, but, like, I would say just definitively, like, I did not handle it. And there's that phrase, because a nurse

here said it to me. Like, you know, remember, God doesn't give you more than you can handle, and I'm like, uh, yeah, a hundred percent. Sure, yes, he does. Sure, yes, he does. Like, I did not handle that. Yeah. Like, I didn't die from it. It didn't stop my heart. Yeah. From beating. But, like, if you consider handling it, maintaining your sanity, I would say definitively, I was not, I was not a rational person.

I would have made, you know, crazy wild decisions. I would have, I would have fucking sold my fucking children into slavery. You to confess to anything. Right. Like,

I mean, it's just like the shit to get out of that that you would do. Like later, when I've, on reflection, I've thought about this, because you and I have talked about,

like, why torture is so irresponsible and how it's like a bad, you know, methodology for gaining information. And I thought about this on reflection later. And I thought, I'm sure other people have been through worse. I don't like the comparative pain thing. I can say it's not the Olympics. Right. Yeah. Nobody's giving you a medal. Right. And like nobody, there's no way to like compare a human experience. Yeah, it's a subjective experience. Yeah. Are your orgasms better than mine? I'd fucking shut up. Yeah. That's my, just shut up.

So, like, what I can say, though, is that I would have said literally anything about anybody. If they had to put something in front of you and been like, is the bomb here, you'd have been like, yep. Yep, sure is. Yep. Is that the answer you want? Does it stop this? Yeah, because I'll say it. If it stops this, I will say whatever needs to be said.

100%. And, like, anybody who thinks they wouldn't. Let me tell you. I got some news for you. You fucking would. You just would. Because if it's not this level, then there's always a new level. Sure.

There's always something else that can be done to hurt you. So I thought about that and I was like, God, what a privileged life somebody must have led to not have experienced in the entire course. But I think about how old these fucking senators are and these congresspeople are. And I'm like, have you never been through? like searing horrible pain. My favorite story about that is man, Kyle, when he said waterboarding wasn't torture and then he got waterboarding and he quit in 30 seconds.

Yes, and then he came back out and he's like, it's like, it's torture. It's 100% torture. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. The thing is, is the moment people are involved in that, they immediately change your mind, but this is the problem with the, of course, the problem with empathy and the problem because if you, those people, they can't experience it.

Exactly. So if they don't feel it themselves, they don't know. And so, yeah. And like, and it just strikes me like, okay, you've never actually been in a kind of pain that you would do anything to escape from. Sure, sure. You know? So, and I'm glad.

I hope most people are never in that position, you know? Like, I don't want people. I like, I like, in caveat it because you're like, most people. Because there are some people. You're like, no, I kind of wish that they had that. Yeah, there's some people. Sure. There's a handful of people that was like, can you, I'd be like, yeah,

fucking click my heels together and make that happen. Trade that, trade that up. Here you go. Yeah. You know, I'm not a nice person. Yeah. You are. Like, you're the best of us.

And like, I'm just over here like, yeah. I'd wish it. That's the worst experience. I'd wish them into the cornfield. Yeah. Vwop. Yeah. All day.

So you're at a hospital A still. So they got to transport me to hospital B. They move me to hospital B. So, and like, and this is all the same day. It's all, so then they move me to hospital B. And like being moved is not a good time. It's not. Yeah.

So I'm still. mostly unmedicated, right? So I'm still, like, waiting for help. And they're like, they have to shift you with, like, basically, like, sheets that they pick up and they move and they try to keep things as like gentle as they can keep them, but not everything is the same shape. And, like, it just sucks so much.

It sucks so bad. And driving around sucks so much. Interestingly, not like the bumps for me. It wasn't like it bumps. You'd hit a bump. I'm like, that's something. But it's turning. Oh, yeah.

Because when you turn, your body naturally has to like kind of flex its core in order to maintain the shape of you. Sure. And anytime I would have to maintain any kind of like rigidity or core or anything was just like a really rough time. So it's about a 30 minute drive, give or take. So they drive me about 30 minutes to the next hospital. Then they get me to, they get me right away. They get me to a room. I'm like, okay, good.

Somebody's going to see me. Finally I'm going to get seen. thank God, right? I'm like, I'm excited. They get me, and I know everybody on the floor at this point, because I've fucking been here forever. So like, they get me here, they put me in a room,

and the nurse comes in and says, I'm so sorry to tell you this. And I know the nurse, and the nurse is looking at me with this look on her face. And I'm like, what, what is wrong? She's like, you didn't come in through our emergency room. You came in through the emergency room

of a different hospital. So that means that you don't have any orders from a doctor here. So there's no order for pain meds, there's no orders for anything. She's like, I can't give you anything. And I was like, well, how soon can somebody see me? And she's like, I put in a request, that's all I can do.

Jesus Christ. She's like, I'll walk around and see if I can find him. And like, but he could be on any one of like two floors. Jesus Christ. Like, and this is a big hospital. So there's lots of floors. There's lots of places. Lots of places to be.

And the nurse does not really have time to walk around. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. The nurse has a job to do. I think she just said that to be like, nice. So I wait several more hours for somebody to put in orders, and then they got to put the orders in, and the pharmacies, you got to fill them, and then they got to bring them. So I'm like six hours from the time I called 911 to the time that they actually, like, get me real medication, like a real actual dose of, like, knock me the fuck out medication, which is all I was like, just turn me off. I just need to be turned off. So they do that. So then I'm just here. And we were trying to figure out, okay, so what the fuck went wrong?

You know, did I re herniate, blah, blah, blah. So, but I have this fever for more cowbell. I have this fever. I have this fever and it's pretty evident that I have an infection. And so they're like, well, we think you have some kind of an infection. we don't know where it came from probably outer space randomly an infection appeared

we certainly don't want to say that it came from the surgery anyway you have an infection and I'm like yeah I get that that's why I have this like fever I'm sweating bullets you know I'm like I feel like complete ass and this hurts you know

and they're like we're going to act swiftly and hang a bunch of antibiotics or whatever, keep these painkillers, like, going. So it's like, okay, let's do that. And then we're going to get some more pictures, you know, get an MRI.

So then, like, they do the MRI. And, like, when you're in a position like mine, an MRI is, like, not a chill, cool thing. Yeah, no. Because you've got to stay still

for a long time. You got to stay still laying on your back. Yeah. And, like, being perfectly flat on your back, even though they did put a bolster for my legs up, but laying perfectly flat on your back on a heartish surface that is still healing from the incision side and everything.

It's like, that's not great. It's super sucks, right? It's super sucks. So I was like, okay, let's do this thing. So we do this thing. We get through the MRI. It's a teeth gritter, for sure. We get through it.

And then they come out and they're like, yeah, well, it looks like there's some, you know, pocket of fluid over here. and you definitely have an infection and we're just going to go ahead and no herniation, no disc reherniation. We're going to go ahead and treat that with some more antibiotics.

And I was like, okay, great, sounds good. Day or so goes by, the pain is still unrelenting. Like, it's crazy the pain is so bad. I'm still having, like, I've got septic. so I'm having all the symptoms of being septic. So those include something called the rigors. The rigors is where you've got this bacterial load that has metabolites, and the metabolites of that bacteria trick your hypothalamus into setting your temperature set point at 103 instead of 98.6.

so your body knows its set point temperature as 98.6 because your hypothalamus tells your body that's what it should be. It's basically like the thermometer in your house. You know? So it's my thermometer, instead of being set to 98.6, gets set to 103, which makes you start to immediately shiver. And then the shivering turns into this violent, convulsive, almost seizure-like activity, which is, phenomenally painful, especially after back surgery, especially with something pushing on this nerve. It's just a crazy experience.

Over the course of, for some sake of something approaching gravity, I've had seven of those events over the course of the last, I don't know, 21 days, give or take. And three of them were bad enough that they triggered a rapid response call because they can get so bad that all your blood is pulled into your skeletal muscle

and then your heart or your blood pressure drops dangerously low and then your heart rate you become tachicardic your heart rate goes like through the roof and it can become very dangerous that doesn't sound good yeah it's not great

it doesn't sound like it's chill and cool it's not chill and cool at all it's it's it it is very much like having I was talking to one of the doctors It's very much like having a grand mal seizure, experientially. It's like having a grand mal seizure without like any brain activity.

So the shaking, the convulsing, the inability to control your muscle activity, everything and your whole body starts shaking. So when it's over. They don't call it Grand Mall anymore. It's Mall of America now. Trump changed it.

That was pretty good. That was pretty good. So it's like, I'm like, That's a fresh hell. I didn't know that was something that we could do. Yeah, no, you didn't, like, hey, is there anything else I could do that would hurt me and really suck? Yeah.

So that's something that can just happen at any time. And so, and it's still something that could happen at any time. Yeah, and you said they were diminishing but still happening, right? So I haven't had one now for several days. I don't, but I'm still having fevers. So until I stop having fevers and the sweats, I don't think I'm like out of the woods with these things yet

so like I can't really like go home because if they happen at home it could kill me at home sure that's not like it's unlikely at this point but like it is not impossible they're also part of the reason I've actually asked Haley to just hang out with me

on the phone since I've been here I've asked her to stay away because like I don't need her seeing that shit like it's a lot like that's a crazy experience and they're not short-lived experiences. It's not like I have like the shivers for five minutes. It's it is a long-lasting convulsive event that like the only thing that stops it is like a shit ton of Valium and a shit ton of dilauded both together and they just basically just

turn you off. The Valium is a very strong muscle relaxer in addition to having other effects. is a very powerful muscle relaxer. So that with the dilauded kind of turns you off and knocks you out. But they last however long they last. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So they don't, it's not like they give you the shots or the injections, and like it's like 20 seconds later they turn off, you know, if they last how they last. So you know you have this infection, you know, this fluid,

and then they decided surgery? Yeah, so then they said, they come back and they said, we actually want to sample a little bit of the fluid behind your back. Because when you're septic, the best thing to do is to find out specifically what it is that you have. You can find out from a blood test or whatever, like whether or not you have a gram negative or gram positive bacteria. But you really want to sample the actual infected like material tissue, fluid, whatever it is. You want to sample that itself.

Because if you can get the actual organism, you can isolate it. And then, and this is super interesting, then they actually will see by putting it in little cups. Yeah, they'll like target it, right? So what they'll do is they'll say, like, how effective is this med? Yeah. Oh, no, it's resistant to this med. How effective is it with this med? Oh, it's very sensitive to this med.

So they can find what medicine. Yeah, if it's the best. I mean, it's like literally like trial and error. like control group shit. But it's like trial and error in a cup instead of in my body. That's preferred, which is way better. So I'm like, yeah, let's 100% do that. So they go in and they pull some fluid out, which super chill and cool.

That's fun. Yeah. Not super chilling cool. I think we all got that. I think we all understood. Let me say, like on a scale of like bad experiences I've had recently, this is like I was late at Starbucks once. But like on a scale of bad experiences, you might have on a week that isn't like this, that

is just like a regular week, you would put that fairly high up there. They figure out exactly what organism it is. They figure out exactly what it's sensitive to. They had already been using that antibiotic already, which was great. So we didn't have to make any changes. They had already been using that one already. So that was good news. Turns out it was sensitive to disinformation, which is crazy.

It's insane. and I'm just like, I've been telling you, motherfuckers. Fine, I'll just open Facebook. So, yeah, so like, they find out that, like, okay, it's, you know, it's specifically it's this issue. Yeah. But also, and so they, they want to, like, open my backup and do a washout.

So I said, okay, let's open my backup. Let's wash it all. out. It's a second surgery. Not super excited about that, but I'm excited about the idea of washing it out. And I'm excited because like after the washout, I'm kind of led to believe that I'll feel a lot better. That once you get all this infected material out of there, I'm going to feel a lot better. Like, okay, I'd love to feel a lot better. Yeah, feeling a lot better sounds great. That's kind of the goal here. So they opened me up and they wash the whole thing out. And it turns out back, it's a fucking mess back there. Because I've had a fucking infection for, you know, almost two weeks raging in my back.

It has damaged the Dura, which is the hard, like, leather-like material around the spine. Yeah. It covers your spinal cord. Right. It had damaged that so badly that they couldn't get a stitch through it. That material had been damaged by the bacteria. The bacteria had basically, eaten all of that up. And so that was just gone. So they were going to have to replace it with a synthetic material,

which turns you into a robot, by the way. I just want you to know. Awesome. You're like T minus one. I am. Being a cyborg is the worst. Oh, my God. Why did you go?

Ow, my back. Why did you install that program called Hertz, Hertz, Hertz. Hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts. And it's spelled the wrong way, too. It's not H-E-R-T-Z. It's, yeah. Yeah, so that's, that's totally fucked up. So everything back there is all fucked up.

They can't get a stitch. They have to basically put this glue material on there and kind of glue me back together. Sure, yeah, that sounds great. I think they probably scored some great stuff back there. You know, some W-D-40. Go to the, go to the hardware store, go to the guerrilla glue section. Yeah, right, exactly.

Get one of the chapstick gorilla grilla. get a fucking fucking mazel get a guerrilla next time they open you that do is a letter opener so so they do this washout

and you know they pack it full of antibiotics and all this stuff and I'm going to stitch them back up again so I got humpty dumptied you know back back up again and I wake up and like well it's still fucking hurts

but that's okay you know second surgery in two weeks, I expect things to hurt. I'm still keeping a chill, man. I'm still keeping a chill. And I think, like, honestly, for the most part, I was still keeping it somewhat chill.

But I was, like, also emotionally having, like, kind of a really hard time with this whole thing. I was kind of having, like, a lot of moments where I was just breaking down and just really struggling with this, like, just the totality of this experience has been, And again, I'll just say it, it's been too much.

Yeah. You know, it has been too much. Like, I miss my family and my wife and my, you know, my life, my ability to walk and stand and sit in a chair. You know, like, these are like things I really liked doing, you know? Sure. Those are big, big deal things. I get it. So, you know, we're just now going to, like, we're going to wait and see how you feel.

And so, okay, fine. So then they get me seated in a chair. I'm sitting. I'm eating. I get this like headache, like, wham, nails me like, what they call a thunder clap headache. It just comes out of nowhere. It's a very powerful headache. And I knew.

I knew immediately. I'm like, no, absolutely. Come on. Come on. No, no, no. And I'm like, yeah, no, this is a shit. And I'm nauseous. And I know, like, I know what this is.

So, of course, what I'm going to say now. is like inevitable. Like I have a cerebral spinal fluid leak. So the, the, when they glued me back together again, basically it wasn't watertight. We missed a spot. So they basically missed a spot.

Yeah, like, yeah, like they're mopping a floor, they missed a spot. So, so like the, there was a leak and I wasn't maintaining pressure in my, in the spine and cerebral fluid was leaking out. And so we were like, okay, well, we have to get that taken care of. You cannot have a cerebral spinal fluid leak. It's very dangerous.

I'm like, okay, well, what do we do? And I already know the answer, but I'm like, what do we do? And like, we got to lay you flat. And you got to be flat on your back. You can't even lift your head to look around for 48 hours. Jesus Christ. And I was like, do you have any idea how much that is going to hurt? Like, an hour in an MRI is a big ask.

48 hours is a lot. You're asking me for 48 of that. 48 times that. You know? Yeah. And they're like, it doesn't matter. We know it's going to suck. And like it sucks to suck.

But you are going to have to get through that. You're just going to have to do it. So that was an intense 48 hours. There's just no way to describe how bad that was. was very bad. You can't do anything. You're helpless. Completely helpless.

Even eating food, because you still have to eat and drink, but I can't. There's no sitting up for it. There are no exceptions to the $40 flat roll. So like, you know, you're fucking trying not to spill shit all over yourself, like trying to drink a glass of water,

like holding it like at a fucking weird angle. Yeah. Because people also just like, they come in, they drop off a tray of food, they just fucking walk away. and you're just like, I got to fix, I got a fucking McGiver this to where it gets to my face, you know?

It's just ridiculous. Like everything about it is just ridiculous. So we get, after two days, we get through this thing and then we do a trial to where they tilt you 10 degrees, 15 degrees, 30 degrees, and then whack, can't do it. And I'm like, come the fuck on.

Like you got to do another day. So all the way back down. So I got to do 72 hours. Total. Completely lie flat, completely motionless. And it's just like all I'm doing the whole time is clock watching when I can get the next met. Like when can say, like how long until somebody will walk in this room and put medication in me so I can go to sleep. Right.

And I totally have this understanding of addiction that I've never understood. stood before because I know now what it means to watch a clock desperate for like drug a drug. Something's got to happen. You got to get me that drug, you know? Because if I don't get it, like I'm going to hurt. I'm going to hurt in a way that I cannot tolerate the idea of hurting. Right. I just, all I wanted to be was unconscious, the most unconscious that somebody could make me be.

That's all I wanted to be. So got through that. Trial it, trial it, trial it. Totally fine. Okay, cool. CSF leak is over. I saw you the day after this happened. So the day you were up, you got up to 90 degrees.

I came to see you. This was last Thursday. Yep. I came to see you, I think. Maybe it was. I don't remember. I came to see you. And I left a message for patrons on that Friday morning.

Yep. And I said, Tom seems to be. and I like knocked on every wood surface. I love you for that. And I was like crossing every finger. I like made my cats cross their paws. It was like a whole thing.

And I was like, I think he's on the mend. I think it's starting to turn around. Because I saw you, you were in good shape. You were actually in very good shape. You're sitting up. I was sitting up in a chair.

I walked to the chair by myself with a walker. We've had a modest setback. We've had a modest setback. Since that moment. Since that moment. So then I'm like sitting. I'm hanging out, I'm sitting in this chair, and I'm talking to my dad, I think, the next day in the morning. And they're like, hey, we got to get you in for some imaging right away.

And I'm like, why? What's wrong? Well, your heart rate is through the roof and you're not doing anything. I'm like, my heart rate's not through that. I look over. And my heart rate's like high one 30s, low 140s. And I kind of wanted to be like, that's not through the roof at all. But I'm like, well, no, it is actually.

I'm just sitting here. Just sitting, it's probably not great. It's not great. Yeah. So, but like my instinct was to be like, I'm fine. Leave me alone. My heart is great. So my heart is great.

But what I have is pulmonary embolisms. Yeah. Because you've been inactive. Because I was laying flat for 72 hours. That's crazy that your blood is just like, we're just going to clot. Yeah. So I, you know. Blood is just like, fuck you.

Extremely. Jesus, dude. Every piece of you hates you. Dude, I, thank you. Like, when you're. blood turns against you. Blood's just like, hey, man,

we're on strike. I feel like they're organizing. I do. I actually feel like these are organized. That's fucking crazy, dude. It's crazy. It is nuts.

So they're going to, they're like, we're basically going to, like, put you on Hepburn, which is a blood thinner. And the blood thinner will over time break down the blood clots. It'll tenderize your meat or whatever.

Yeah. And I'll be just fine. And it's like, you know, I'm not, like, long term, this is not a,

big deal. Experientially. I'm not having any symptoms from the blood clots. But what it does mean is that any kind of surgical option is completely off the table. Can't do that.

Can't do anything. For at least six months, probably a year. Yeah, because you're going to be on the blood thinner for that long. I'm going to be on these blood thinners. Yeah, so that that shit is like off the table.

They did, and they actually found the source of the clot, which is important to do too. Yeah. And it's actually in the best possible place. So I got, I don't know, lucky in that regard. Yeah, you were visited by the clot fairy.

Right. Yeah. And they were like, put it over here. He's already in pain. Don't worry. We're going to give him a blood clothe. I mean, I will steal his teeth later. So I was like, are you fucking kidding me?

Because I'm like, I'm still in so much pain. Sure, sure. Like I am, like, my mobility is incredibly limited. I'm still in just like a mass. amount of pain. So like, what the fuck are we going to do? Like, what is the next step here, guys? Like, how do we get from where I'm at now to anything approaching, like, normalcy and like an actual life? So where are you now? Like, what's, what is it now? Like, what's, what's that? What does it feel like and what are, where are you now and what's tomorrow look like? Yeah. So, like, basically I have a handful of what I

think of as like respite positions. So, and they're mostly like laying down partially, partially inclined. Right now you're at about a 30 degree angle, it looks like. And that's fine. As I start to raise the bed beyond 30 degrees, it puts more pressure on my spine. And the bottom of my spine is so fucked up because of this inflammation and this fucking ravaged, fucking bacterial infected nonsense back there. Like, it's just a lot of pain, a lot of pain.

We're trying to find a pain management protocol that I can live with, that knocks the pain back enough that I can do, like that I can toilet myself, which is not something I can do right now, that I can sit in a chair for at least a couple of hours at a time. And then walk places. Short distances. Like short distances.

Yeah. Like to the bathroom or something. To the bathroom and then up and down my stairs. I'd like to be able to go upstairs to my bedroom, downstairs to my office or kitchen. It's not a big ask. It's not a lot. Those are my goals.

Yeah. You know, so that's where we're at now. We're trying to find the right pain management to get there. You're still septicemic. I still have septicemia, yep. So you will have those for how long? So I'll be, I'm not, we're not 100% sure. So, and this is kind of interesting too.

So in order to find out if you are, if you still have septicemia and be 100% correct, they have to do a blood culture. They actually just don't redo blood cultures. They usually just give you medicine for, six months or nine months or however long they give you this medicine, follow your symptoms. And if you don't have any symptoms anymore and you've been given this whole course of treatment and you're asymptomatic, then you're got a bittaboo. They patch you on your head.

So I am going to your request. Yeah. Good. You should. Of course you should. Because I'm not a crazy person. No, of course you should. And I appreciate.

Yeah, that's fine. Guesswork like everybody else does. Yeah. But I appreciate more not guesswork. Yeah. you know so so that's a thing that's going to happen for six at least six months at least six at least six months yeah your back is still mostly infected and it hurts yep and you can't move right now yeah so i'm going to go from once we get a basic pain management protocol in place that i feel

comfortable is enough to get me like into a chair and just a handful of basic things um then i'd like to move from here to probably a rehab facility for a couple of weeks. Sure, sure. Because I've lost, I've lost half of me. Yeah. You know, I'm like, I don't know what I look like without my clothes on because I haven't taken a shower in 20 days or 18 days or however long as I've been here. So I have no idea what it look like, but I look at my legs and my legs are like literally half the size that they were before. I've wasted, like I've had a lot of muscle wasting, like an enormous amount of atrophy and muscle wasting. So I can't sit up without like something behind me to support me. I try to like sit up

on the edge of the bed yesterday and eat a meal. And I don't have enough core strength to do that anymore. Sure. Which is wild. Like it's a wild change. It's a wild change to be like, I am too tired to continue to eat this soup. It's fucking crazy. Your soup outpaced you, dude. Yeah, man. I lost the battle of the matzo soup. Wow.

That's what I did yesterday. I lost the battle of the Mazzza soup. The soup is fucking wonderful. I betcha's good. But yeah. I love Mats soup. Oh, it's fucking great. Big fan.

God. So probably a couple of weeks in a rehab facility. And then I'll go home at that point. And then you're going to do your, ultra-marathon because this is the training. Yeah, this is pretty... Dude, it's been ridiculous. Yeah, man.

It's been... It's been something. I can't even believe this all this happened. The crazy part is an outsider who's not like obviously in your room every day. You know, I see you a couple times a week if I can make it up here. And I'll come by...

And let me be fair. Like, Cecil has offered to come every single day. You have offered every single day. There are some days you're in so much drugs or so much pain that it's not a good thing. And I've said no. Yeah, you said, yeah.

Like, you have literally offered, I think, every single day to come over and spend time and to visit. Like, that level of, like, friendship is not to be, like, nobody gets that. I'm so ridiculously fortunate to have you as my friend. Nobody, fucking nobody gets that. I love you too, Tom. I love you too, buddy. Yeah, man. I love you, too, man.

I know you do. So you're hopefully, and I keep doing this because like it's such a, it's such fucking whiplash to be like, hey man, Tom feels like he's getting better. And then like, not. Yeah. That's awful. And it's not bad for me. Let me tell you.

It's not like it's hurting me any, you know, it's like, but it's bad for you. And I feel really bad for you and your family and all the people that support you, that support you and that you support. Right. That's, there's like a, obviously, you know, there's a symbiosis. there between you and your family where, you know, you want to help them, they want to help you. So it's not looking like you're going to be just like dancing out of here very soon. So, but what would you say?

Like, I know that you got a lot of messages from a lot of people and they still keep pouring in. Do you want to say anything to the people who have been sending in messages? Yeah, I do, actually. Um, it would be tough to tell you guys. how much I love seeing those messages, because again, I find myself lacking the words. They're wonderful. You guys have sent me some of the,

I mean, genuinely, some of the kindest, most heartfelt messages that I've ever received in my life. And I'll just, like, I'll be having this like fucking monstrous day, monstrous day of just misery. And I'll open my email, and I'll have an email from somebody,

you know, about how like, you know, it's not just a show, it's done this for me, it's affected my life in this way. You know, I feel like you're somebody I know. I've been listening to the show for so many years. You know, just different messages with different types and different ways of connection. And like, I don't know if that's a pain killer, but it's a really wonderful distraction. Yeah. And like, I'm grateful for them. I really am. I read that message and I'm like, God, I wish you were here so I could hug you.

That's what I often think. Yeah. You know, like they matter to me. Those messages matter. Each, every single one of them, I've read everyone. I've read every patron message, every email. Thank you for them. Thank you.

Because I've had some times, you know, be very blunt. Like, I've had some times in the hospital here, like where it's very lonely. Sure. I can imagine. And, um, and you get some dark thoughts while you're here. You certainly do.

And it's easier to manage your way through dark thoughts when you just got an email from somebody that says, hey man, I've been listening since I was in like fucking grade school. I know I'm in, you know, college,

you know? Yeah. It's just like, holy shit, I've been a part of somebody's life in some way for like all of their meaningful existence. Yeah, it's pretty great. You know? That's pretty great.

I don't know. These things, it does. They matter. And I'm so glad to get each one of them. Yeah. Yeah. So distraction-wise, I know we're not going to do like a full show. Yeah, yeah.

But I do want to relate something because Tom hasn't been, Tom doesn't turn his TV on. No. And he's not really been paying a lot of attention to the news. Yeah. So you miss this story and this happened this week. And I just want to relay it to you so you could hear it. Yeah.

Because it's fucking delicious and amazing. So here we go. So this week, they're grilling Jack Smith on Capitol Hill. So they have a congressional hearing. He's talking. I was literally. really just, I was literally picturing this huge grill. Jack Smith is on and he's just like rotating him like,

Ted Cruz comes in with the barbecue tongs and just flips him over. So he's on at Capitol Hill and he's getting, he's getting questioned by a senator. That's the Republican senator. He's getting questioned by a Republican senator. I don't remember who it was. It doesn't matter, right? Does it matter?

Does it matter? It doesn't matter. Why in the world? They're all fucking clowns, right? Cecil. So this dude has a giant fucking clown nose on and his big fucking goofy curly hair and his fucking giant shoes. They should actually make them past that.

It's like the Republican talking stick. And his fucking squirting flower. So they're asking questions. They say, hey, were you at an Atlanta Hawks game? Now Atlanta Hawks, Tom, I know you don't know what that is. That's a basketball team. Okay. In Atlanta, obviously.

Sure. That makes the name. Atlanta Hawks. And they say, we're at an Atlanta Hawks game on February. I'm going to make a day out of February 3rd. I don't know if that's the date they said, but not what's what I'm going to say. And he says, he stops.

I don't think so. And they're like, were you in Atlanta on February 3rd? And he's like, and he just stops. He's frozen. He doesn't. Yeah, right. And they say, and I'm going to let the cat of the bag the guy says. He says, I'm going to tell you that this is the day after the Fannie Willis affair broke in the news.

And she was taken off the case or whatever. They started the sort of inquiry and the Fannie Willis. Did you go see her the day after and go to an Atlanta Hawks game? And he's like, no, I did not. He's like, and they're like, were you in Atlanta at all that day?

And he said, well, I might have flown through Atlanta sometime, but I don't think I was there that day. And they say, well, what about this text message? And they literally, I'm not even kidding you when I say, they held the text message up for four seconds, and then they pulled it back down.

It's giant palposed, and all dramatic, hold this fucking text message up. and it has something on it. He doesn't even have a chance to fucking read it. And then like hold it up. He's like, and they're like,

you didn't know we had these, did you? And then they pull it back down real fast. And so he's like, why didn't get a chance to read it? And then he's like, and so then this senator is like,

you were in Atlanta at the Atlanta Hawks game on this day. We, you just perjured yourself. You're a fucking dirtbag. He calls him a dirtbag. I'm not even kidding. Calls him a dirt bag. He says he's a lying dirt bag

on congressional record. Jesus Christ. Senator, time ends. Amy Klobuchar, who I'm not a huge fan of. Right. Yeah, because she sucks this. Klobuchar says, Can you put that back up so we can actually see it?

The witness hasn't had an opportunity to even look at it. And then she says, I was a prosecutor. And I would never just hold something up like a flash card and then put it down. So they hold it up. And he reads it. And she's like, she basically is like, what does that even mean? Like it doesn't even look like anything. But then Jack Smith says,

Oh, I know. You know what? February 3rd, I think I was at, I saw Caitlin Clark at a basketball game in Maryland. I was at a basketball game, but it was in Maryland. Right.

It was the Maryland team, whatever team that is, versus Caitlin Clark team. And then Klobuchar's like, would that be the Iowa Hawkeyes? Is what she says. So it was the Iowa Hawkeyes. was not the fucking Atlanta Hawks.

And it was in Maryland. And he wasn't anywhere near where they said. And there's this amazing moment on PBS where they're zooming in to another senator. Katie Britt, who was doing, Katie Britt was one of the people who had said, like, she had done like the post, where they do the state of the union. She had done one of those post state of union. So she's one of like the darlings. Her face, Tom.

They zoom in on her face. And she's just sitting there like, her face is wide. Her mouth is agape because they fucking four season total landscaping this. Like they went to go see the Atlanta Hawks and they wanted to stay at four seasons and they saw the Atlanta, they saw the Iowa Hawkeyes at four seasons total landscape. It's fucking amazing. So the whole gotcha was you were in Atlanta at this time. Right.

Yeah. First off, that's nothing. Like who cares if you're in Atlanta? Literally doesn't matter. He could have went and hung out. with her. It wouldn't matter. But that's that, so that was the big joke. That was the big joke this week. It was amazing to see. If, when you're better, then you see this, you will love it. Every second of it, it's delicious. And then the guy, as soon as it's all over, is like, I stand by my words.

Oh my God. Why would you stand by your words? It's the best, dude. Your words were nothing. It's the best, dude. It's the best. Did it, did the text message say? It just said, guys. It said, hey, I think it even said, like, what seat are you in? Like, that's what it was about. It was about seats. I don't even know how they got Hawks because I didn't really get a chance to see the text because the text was, like I said, a flash card. So I don't know. That's amazing. It's insanity, dude. That's what they're resorting to. It's the best. It was got nothing. It was so good. It's all over the news this week. And it's the funniest shit you've ever seen. It's genuinely fucking hilarious. God, I fucking love that so much. Oh, my God. I love it for him too. I love it for him.

they are so they can't find their ass with two of hands like they are the least competent it's the best dude what are they even doing with jacksumail like what what is they just they they think he's the focus of their ire because he supposedly was going to try the president for crimes and so to them that's an inexcusable sin yeah so they're just going after him and that they're hoping because nothing else is working it's going to rile up the base enough to get them to vote because that's That's why they want this to happen now because everybody's stuff. I filled my car up yesterday. It was almost $100.

That's insane. That's insane. It's insane. It's insane. Even during the worst of Biden, it was like 70. Yeah. So it's like it's insane. It's the amount of money is insane now.

So what is happening is people are afraid of the Republicans are afraid of what's going to happen. It's probably going to be a bloodbath. Sure. It's going to be a fucking absolute. They're worried about it. Yeah. So they're trying to, they're trying to stir up any of that culture stuff that they can.

It's so funny. It's like, I don't think anybody gives a shit about any of that shit at all. Yeah. I'm sure there are some. I mean, sure. But they were already, the people who all care. They weren't going to vote anyway. Exactly.

Exactly. There are like all the people that you're actively working to try to like get out to vote, they care about the things that they've always cared about, which is their money, their wallet. Like what's in, what's in this for me? Yeah. Well, like you fucked everybody so hard. It's the worst.

It's the worst. It's the worst. You can't unfuck this thing. It's done. Like they woke up, their ass is sore all night. It's done. It's so funny because they need to have these people. They have to have these people that are so caught up in the sort of, I mean, sort of the demigod

worship that is Trump worship, that they have to stir up that crowd. Because here's what I think. I think even those people are starting to get, I do too. I think they're starting to get pissed off. So they're trying to do anything they can to be like, remember how he was persecuted? Do you remember?

And so they want these sound bites. And if they can make the most spurious connection between him and Fannie Willis, then it's a home run for them. Because it doesn't mean anything if he was with her. It's like, who cares? It doesn't matter. But they're going to try to make this connection

to be like, you were there, you were coaching her, you were doing all this stuff. you guys are in cahoots, that's why she brought that case, and that's why you're here, and that's why you brought these other cases, and you guys were all in whatever. But then so then they could say that in all their little, you know, talking head moment on Fox News, but they can't even do that now. They didn't even get that tape.

What they got was four seasons total landscaping. So it's so perfect. It's so perfect. I am worried, though. And the reason why I'm worried is not because I don't think that the Democrats will win. I think there's a good chance that they'll win. Yeah. But I just don't think they can do anything.

I think what the problem is is that they're going to be stuck sort of doing not a lot for the next couple years. And there's not going to be a lot of reprieve because I think all the levers have sort of been covered through all this executive order stuff that they'll have to strip that away. And in order to do that, you need a willing person in the executive seat. And they won't have that. And they don't have a willing court. Right. So even if you have those levers of power, one, you're not going to have 60 votes to call anything. Right.

And two, you'll be stuck. with sort of budgetary stuff and that it might not even pass. So expect while they might win, it's not going to get better before it gets worse. And then what they'll do is they'll say, see, they were in charge of one branch of government. They didn't do anything, so you need to vote us back into power, et cetera, et cetera. So it might even, might be great in the next two years. Who knows? But I think that they'll probably win this bit.

I'm going to win the midterms. I think they could take the house. I think they will take the house. I think that I would say, in my mind, I feel like the House is a gimmy at this point. I really do. I think that's the case. It's theirs to lose.

Right. Yeah, it's theirs to lose. It's exactly right. And when you've got the Democrats, if it's theirs to lose, they'll try to lose it. They'll try to lose it. They'll do their damnedest.

The Senate, I think there's a shot. There's a shot. There's a shot. There's a shot. The thing is like, when we talk about, like, stuff like Jack Smith and, like, you know, Fanny Willis. And, like, I'm like, my brain is like,

that shit is so last season. Dude, it's like two seasons go, you can't? Yeah. Like that shit has been fucking, that shit has been, like, the only people to care about that stuff

are like politicos. And that's not who's out there driving cars and filling them up with $100 full of gas and like, you know what I mean? It's politicos. That shit feels so like, what,

who was, I can't even remember that anymore. You'd have to remind me in order to scandalize me. I feel like the real, like, truth of it has always been kitchen table politics. That's what it's all.

always matter. And the kitchen table right now is strewn with Trump's dog shit. Yeah. Just all over it. Just constantly just shitting on everything. Nothing he does makes any sense. And like it just constantly makes things worse. And the thing is like it's going to get worse between now and November. I think that's, I don't think there's any way it doesn't get worse, not even stay the same between now and November. He's got so much time to fuck more shit up. So much more time to fuck more shit up. You know, mortgage interest rates

7% 7.7. It's like a past 7. And they're going to start and they're going to go up. I think we will see, this is something I follow very closely. I think we're going to see like 7.5,

maybe even 8% interest rates and like people might laugh at me for being cute because we may see 8.5 or 9s. And that's going to stop the housing market. And it's going to basically put a fucking pin

in the housing market and stop it. I know that you're down on Trump about a lot of stuff, but he is doing some important stuff. One of the things he did this week was he had an executive order that renamed Artificial Intelligence Super Intelligence. You're staring at me like you don't believe me, but I'm telling you an honest thing that has actually happened. Oh my fucking God.

I think it's like, guys, I don't want to laugh like heartily because it will hurt so much. I'm like, he called it super intelligence. And then he had all the AI guys, assi guys all around him. Oh. It made your, this is my life. It made your thing ding.

You wanted to laugh and it dinged for you. So anyway, so he's done that. And I know, I'm pretty sure you heard that he renamed Lake Ontario, Lake of America, right? Yeah, you did hear that. That's dumb as shit. He's doing things like that. Yeah.

So, that's great stuff. So I don't know, Tom, when we're going to get a change? chance to talk again, but I'm going to try to make it up here. Maybe we can chit-chat on occasion, at least, and talk to people. Let's see how this record plays out. Because, like, I don't know. Like, I would love to record for the audience. I really would.

And if I am in a position, I'm just not in a position to say until the day of, with certainty, how I'm going to feel on any given day. And that is hard for me to tell the audience. It's hard for me to do the, I mean, Cecil is like the most accommodating human being on the entire planet. He's got so much shit to do and so much work to do. And it's all like very regimented as far as scheduling is concerned. Like he's got to organize his life around like Marsh who has like I don't even know how you guys record.

You guys recorded like 115 o'clock in the upside down or whatever. He's only seven hours ahead. It's not that bad. And he stays up late. That's impossible. He stays up late. He's in night all. So it's good.

It works like. I would love to do whatever I can because it's a. has been actually really nice. This has been a fun time. I know I've been talking about like mostly the horrors, the horrors. They persist. They persist.

But like it's been nice to like actually feel like I'm, I don't know, working again, you know, to some degree. Like being a part of like this thing that we've built together, you know, and like not just like laying here being like,

yep, sure I'm alive for no reason. You know, because like, it is, it's, it's, It's been pretty bad for a while.

So, like, I would love this. Yeah. We'll figure it out if we'll figure it out. We'll see. Because it's not hard for me to do. So we'll see if we can make it work. We'll see if we can do it on occasion. It'd be nice to come up and see.

Obviously, I come up and see when I can, but it'd be nice to get it record out. And I know people would want to hear from you. Yeah, this has been great, buddy. This has been great. I love it. Okay. So that's going to wrap it up for today.

Like Tom mentioned at the A, when he was done, he'd like, to try to do something. I would like to try to maybe send him some stories. Maybe he can get his mind back to thinking about other things other than just being in pain all the time. I'm not going to say anything about his condition or how he's trending. I will say that today felt like a good day, but it has no indication on where he's going tomorrow or the next day. But if it does start to get to where Tom has more good days than bad days, there's another possibility that I'll be recording on location here or if they transfer him to a rehab facility, I might be recording with him there

because he really enjoys it. And he likes to do it. It's literally the thing that we've bonded over for over a decade. So he enjoys putting out a show. He likes the conversations we have. I enjoy doing it too. So we will probably try to put something out. Now, normally we would be putting out a bunch of stuff during the month, but we're not going to be able to do that. But I will try to put something. The other thing I want to let people know is that I definitely, regardless of where Tom is, I definitely will be live streaming the night of the election. So I will definitely be live streaming from this YouTube, the YouTube we have, from the Twitch we have, etc., etc., the night of the live streaming. So if you want to put that on, the night of the election,

so if you want to put that on your calendar, you want to come show up, I'll probably jump on around 8 o'clock central time. That's normally when things start to close different places across the country and they're starting to get some results in. If Tom's around, he'll join me. I have no idea of what a month will bring. But if Tom is around, he will certainly, he and I will certainly be doing it. He would probably be at home.

I don't know if he'd be able to join me for the whole thing. I'm also probably going to reach out to some other people who I know follow politics who are going to probably join in as the night goes on. They'll be joining me. But I'm just letting everybody know the plan right now is to be on for a few hours, three, four hours the night of the election. So if you're not doing anything, if you're just going to watch CNN, you want to come over and watch me and Tom or whoever,

put it on your calendars. We're going to definitely do it. All right, that's going to wrap it up for this week. Maybe next week we'll be back. But we're going to leave you like we always do with the skeptics greed. Credulity is not a virtue. It's fortune cookie cutter, mommy issue, hypno-babelon bullshit.

Couched in Scientician Double Bubble toil and trouble, pseudo-quazi alternative, acupunctuating, pressurized, stereogram, pyramidal, free energy, healing, water, downward spiral, brain dead, pan, sales pitch, late-night info docutainment. Leo Pisces, cancer cures, detox, reflex, foot massage, death and towers, tarot cars, psychic healing, crystal balls, Bigfoot, Yeti, aliens, churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, temples, dragons, giant worms, Atlantis, Dalphins, Truthers, Berthers, Witches, Wizards, Vaccine Nuts. Shaman Heelers, Evangelists, Conspiracy, Double-Speak Stigmata, Nonsense. Expose your sides. your hands, bloody, evidential, conclusive. Doubt even this. Thanks for tuning in.

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