The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler - Yannis Pappas - Tale of 2 Coronas

Episode Date: February 1, 2021

My HoneyDew this week is half of The History Hyenas, Covid survivor, and new dad Yannis Pappas! Yannis and I talk about our battles with Covid and how it affects every person differently. As of this episode, I still don’t have smell, I hardly have any taste, I get tired easily and my brain is foggy. Corona is no joke but we sure as hell figured out a way to laugh about it! Stay safe out there y’all! SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube and watch full episodes of The HoneyDew every toozdee! https://www.youtube.com/rsickler SUBSCRIBE to my Patreon show, The HoneyDew with Y’all, where I highlight the lowlights with y’all! What’s your story? https://www.patreon.com/TheHoneyDew SPONSORS: UPSTART Find out how Upstart can lower your monthly payments today when you go to upstart.com/HONEYDEW. That’s upstart.com/HONEYDEW. Don’t forget to use our URL to let them know we sent you LIQUIDIV Grab your Strawberry Liquid I.V. or their other great flavors in bulk nationwide at Costco or you can get 25% off when you go to liquid iv.com and use code HONEYDEW at checkout. That’s 25% off of ANYTHING you order when you use promo code HONEYDEW at liquidiv.com RAYCON Raycon’s offering 15% off all their products for my listeners and here’s what you’ve gotta do to get it: go to buyraycon.com/honeydew. That’s it. You’ll get 15% off your entire Raycon order, so feel free to grab a pair AND a spare...That’s 15% off at buyraycon.com/honedew

This episode of The Honeydew is brought to you by Liquid IV, Raycon, and Upstart. More on that later. Let's get into the do. The Honeydew with Ryan Sickler. Welcome back to The Honeydew, y'all. We're over here doing it in the Night Pant Studios. I am Ryan Sickler, ryansickler.com. Ryan Sickler on all social media. Website for the show is thehoneydewpodcast.com. Make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel, all right?

You're getting audio on Monday, dropping that video on Tuesday, all right? If you got to have more due, join the Patreon community where we're hearing the wildest shit I've ever heard. I knew when we cast the line out to all y'all that we were going to get crazy shit, but I've never in my life that I think I'd hear some of the shit I've heard. So it's five bucks a month.

If you sign up for the year, you'll get over a month of free episodes. It's been a lot of fun. Santa Monica Music Center here where I record. If you need music instruments, music lessons for you, your kids, this is the spot. They have online classes. Go to santamonicamusic.com. Use the code HONEYDOO.

They'll waive the registration fee, and they'll give you one free lesson when you sign up for a package. All right? If you are new to the show welcome if you're not welcome back what we do over here is we highlight the low lights i always say these are the stories behind the storytellers it is a pleasure to bring this gentleman back to the honeydew ladies and gentlemen please welcome back yada's poppers y'all there he is thank you to the what do you call them do heads the

do crew do crew yeah sure double do's double do's yeah so what's up to the crew

it's good to be back you know it's your first time in this studio you were in the YMH studio the first time I was in that one yeah but you know what

this one is nice I hope you like it yeah this one is nice I love you kept the colors you kept the theme you kept the bar table and we've added your own mugs so you like it. Yeah, this one is nice. I love it. You kept the colors. You kept the theme. You kept the bar table. And we've added your own mugs.

So, you know, it's nice. Yeah. You're such a nice dude. Yeah, this is great. Listen, I want you to promote everything. But I want to say, like, I constantly watch your videos. Thank you. Your stand-up's fantastic.

I love seeing you clip it out. But the characters you're doing, shirtless and shit, dude. Oh, God, I love it. Yeah, it's Derek from Florida. Yeah, Derek from Florida. My brother's name is there. Florida, they're their own animal down there. Yeah, they are. Yeah, they just, Florida is just a place.

It's like, I realize it's kind of like America's penis, you know? If you were to do the brain, the brain is kind of like the Northeast, MIT, New York, Rhode Island. They got RIT up there, all those universities. And then you got like the middle is kind of America's stomach, big stomach. That's where we eat. That's our girth. Yeah.

And then Texas is the balls, right? And California is kind of the mental illness, the delusion. No doubt. No fucking doubt. You know what? I hope the Chinese storm Santa Monica. Wouldn't that be funny? No.

That's where we are, motherfucker. We've been stormed already here. But wouldn't it be great? We have been stormed. We don't need any more movements coming in here storming. Oh, yeah. Yes, recently you got stormed. But I mean, I'm talking about a proper invasion, like, you know, storming the beaches of Norman.

That would just be hilarious because I was looking, we were driving down the Pacific Ocean and I was just looking, I was like, wow, China's over there. And I was like,

wouldn't it be great if they just fucking stormed and then they just set up like a captain's quarters at Reith Witherspoon's house, you know? Reith Witherspoon. And then they're like

planning their attack to Pepperdine University and just moved in. I just want them to storm how great would it be if the Chinese storm the fucking TikTok hype house that would be hilarious

that would be hilarious I'd be for that I bet that place is like protected by two three Mossad guys but they would stand for a couple minutes

because Mossad guys from Israel they're tough but the Chinese just got the numbers and they they do have the numbers and they may

they may send a virus first and then do it second what i'm saying is the chinese may be invading now that the vaccine is here that could have been phase one of the plan phase two ccp they're gonna fucking invade and they're gonna invade they want vancouver and they want california it's closer they're not gonna get past the midwest they're gonna get tired walking in like nebraska Ohio. The wild kids are going to walk. The wrestlers in Iowa, those cornbread kids are going to fucking stop them. And Texas is ready. The citizens are ready.

Yeah, you can't storm the fucking capital in Texas. Well, please promote everything you'd like to promote here at the top. Okay, I'm COVID free. You are. Yeah, I'm COVID class of 2020, baby. So am I. Graduated. I haven't even mentioned it on anywhere yeah we can do open hand high fives yeah there it is i had it you call talk all about on this

episode i cough when i laugh but i've got the antibody and i got a healthy dose of it per my doctor me too i got my negative test over there in the office i got my antibody on the phone isn't it funny when you cough now, you have to explain? Because when you cough, you're like, that's the Sour Patch Kid. Because you see people just go like, what's up, man?

Like, I got a cycle. Yeah, are you exaggerating about the... I had it, I had it. Yeah, when you had it? It's really, it's like really this... Wait, promote first. We're getting off on the COVID.

We're going to come back to be live i apologize i'm with you i got it um promoting uh i got a new podcast uh i just started called long days it's just me ranting and it's doing real well it's off to a great start so i want you to check that out of course history hyenas which i plugged last time with me and chris de stefano check that out please watch my special too that's still up for free on YouTube called Blowing the Light. So check that out. And yeah, I just did Rogan yesterday.

Check that episode out. Yeah, congrats. This new podcast I just did, Are You Garbage? Which you should do. I did. You did it? I did.

How fun is that? I loved it. It was so much fun. So that just came out. So check that shit out. And it's good to be back on the Honeydew. One of my favorite people I've met in comedy.

Thank you, man. And we only really hung out on your fucking podcast. That's it. Yeah. But your guy, everyone is just like, he's just a great guy. I don't know about that. You never know how people really feel about you. But we are COVID survivors.

We're going to share our stories here on this episode. I haven't told anybody. And I didn't. I don't know if you did. And I don't told anybody. And I didn't, I don't know if you did, and I don't have anything, I didn't make it public on my social media or whatever, because we had a small, well, you had a small crew too. We had a different small crew, but why don't you start? Yeah, so it's all public.

People know it. Yeah. So. How did it happen? How did you first find out? Okay, so I'll just preface it by going, I just had a baby. Congrats. Not me.

I'm not trans. Boy or girl? It's a girl. All right. Yeah, but you got to say that in Cal. You'll be like, did I have a baby? Yeah, I don't, and my pronouns are hee-haw. No, my pronouns are hee-haw.

And so I did not have a baby. My wife had a baby. I hate when people say we had a baby. It just fucking bothers me. After I watched my wife deliver, I was like, I did not have a baby my wife had a baby i hate when people say we had a baby i just like it just fucking bothers me after i watched my wife deliver i was like i did not have that baby that baby came she had it she had it we have it we have it yeah i like that she had it yeah we have it yeah we have a baby yeah i can't feed that thing with my anything on my body no yeah so that's a you know yeah i mean we should update. They shouldn't even be called women anymore.

They should be called mortal gods. That's what their pronouns are. I love that you see this. It's crazy. So I just had a newborn. So I was kind of run down. So I'll preface it like I haven't been sleeping how it is when you first have a newborn. Of course.

We didn't sleep at all. And are you also extra scared with the layer of you just brought a newborn into a COVID-ridden world. And this is the most vulnerable human on the planet right now. Exactly. Can't vaccinate. Can't do anything yet. Yeah. And six weeks is the crucial point for the immune system.

So pre-six weeks, they're very vulnerable. And also, I was fat because I was hanging out with my pregnant wife and we were fucking, you know, she wanted mozzarella sticks. We ate mozzarella sticks. Listen, let me tell you something. You had a fucking, you know, she wanted mozzarella sticks. We ate mozzarella sticks. Listen, let me tell you something. You had a girl, you said, or boy? Girl. Girl. The thing that getting fat helped me with is when you hold her, you can put her right there.

Yeah. That belly pops out, and it's like a little fucking seat. I'm telling you, Mother Nature wants that for you. It's wild. It wants that for you. It's a positive spin on it. I like it. It's a seat. I that you'll see i'll

go with that you'll see i will also if i could give you any tips and here's number one don't listen to anybody number two don't always carry your daughter on the same side if fuck my backup try to try to alternate because the whole time you're always doing this fuck your whole shit up your whole system's out yeah the people the advice people gave me were like, oh, my God, you're never going to sleep again. It's so hard. It's like, it's hard for the women. They love to do it. I sleep, my mother and, I mean, my wife and my mother-in-law, you know, they do most of

it. My mother-in-law's been amazing helping us out. And like, the baby just wants the mother more for the first three months. Hell yeah. Because the baby's got food. Because we can't do anything. We can't feed it. Nothing, I've talked about it on my album nothing made me feel um less like a man than being in the room watching my daughter's mother deliver my daughter me too i mean nothing made

me feel more like a bitch in my life like what what do i even need to fucking be here for there's nothing i can provide i cut the cord yeah but anyone could do that yeah i i didn't cut the cord because i was they asked me i was like are you kidding like i didn't i'm gonna i don't i'm not a professional cord cutter it's like telling me when you go to a restaurant like go fucking get your i'm like don't you work here that's what you do first of all they don't prepare you for that that you're gonna be part of the delivery they make you work yeah if you haven't had a kid yet just know i held her leg i'm like part of it you hold your leg you hold i'm back here to console yeah he's going holder holder

and then they and then they're like third base coaches which is hilarious and a lot of times i was like an umpire back there yeah they go come on come on i remember the doctor was going that's it that's the push that's the push that's the push come on that's the. That's the push. Come on. That's the push. That's the push. And it wouldn't be the push. So I was like, Doc, can you stop saying that? Because you're fucking with her head. You're going, that's it. That's it.

That's it. That's it. You keep sending people around third and they're getting easily thrown out of home, Doc. Exactly. He's fucking sending everybody. Just sending them everybody. There's not even a play at the plate, man. I was like, dude, you're going to fucking – we're going to lose this game.

Stop sending – it's not fucking – the ball is in the catcher's mitt. That's the push. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Oh, no. I could kind of see the head. And she was going like, oh, my God, get this thing out of me. And I'm standing there. I'm holding the leg.

I'm part of it. It's crazy. It's crazy. You're part of the delivery. So you just go to work. So are you – at first were you – so so wait i got a lot of questions because you had corona and you have a newborn so the new when i got corona she was about three weeks old or four weeks old so it was like so did you leave the house so what happened was we did a podcast me and chris went down to do flagrant two

with uh with akash singh andrew Akash Singh, Andrew Schultz. Andrew Schultz, we were filling in for Andrew because Andrew was at that time writing his Netflix show and he was on a deadline. But they were all at the studio. So they were in one room writing the Netflix show. And then we went into the studio and did the show. in the we went into the studio and did the show so it was me chris akash uh a kid from netflix to watch so we didn't say something wild and ruin uh andrew's deal and um which when you have the high you know you're gonna have to edit with the hyenas and then um and then alex um schultz's producer so there was five of us in there guy Guy from Netflix had it already.

And Chris, Chris is a mute. I mean, apparently, because Chris was with a couple people that had it, slept at their house, in the car with them. In the car. Negative, negative, negative.

And he was the only one in that room that didn't get it. Wow. So I got it. Alex got it. Akash had it. Akash got it from someone he did a show with. Andrew Schultz got it. Marky Gagnash got it From someone he did a show with

Andrew Schultz got it Marky Gagnon got it One of the writers And one of Schultz's guys Who helped him write the show And writes those things He's great And maybe a few other people

Got it that I don't know about Colin Quinn got it from me Damn Yeah cause we had Colin Quinn on the Hyenas Right The day The next day

And I didn't know So cause it takes a couple days And then akash told us when he found out he had it so then i knew colin was gonna get it and colin's you know colin's 60 at this point 61 maybe and he's had a heart attack so like yeah that was also hard for me knowing that you know that's the part the part nobody talks about is how difficult the isolation can be um because you're worrying about the people you've given it to if you know you know and if you have a newborn i was worried like jeez did i give to

my newborn to give to my mother to give my mother-in-law because what are they gonna do they're raising a baby so it was like you know you can't my mom my wife can't stop raising the baby right they'd have to give it to someone else i I mean, it was like a fucking nightmare. So for me. So my situation was I I was going to the so I go every six months to get physicals. My family's always had health history and I don't fuck around. So I go in the week before I give the blood, the urine. I come back the week later. They've got the results. We sit down, we go over everything. Right. So I go in on like a Monday and this is right at like Christmas and I get tested and I'm negative. I'm also negative for the antibody. So I haven't had it and I don't have it.

And then Segura is now in like about to get out of recovery or whatever, but I'm like, hey, are you allowed to have visitors? Can I come see you? He's like, oh, my God, I'd love it. When's the last COVID test you had? I was like, you know, a little over a week ago. And he's like, well, you've got to have one within like 48 hours. And I was like, no problem.

And I take one knowing it's going to be negative, but it's positive. I'm like, no. So then I think, well, there's a lot of rumors out here that there's false positive right because i have no fucking symptoms right so i call my daughter's mother and she answers the phone and i'm like you sound like shit she's like i just left the covid test i'm like well you have it and she's like how do you know i have it i said because i have it she's like but you don't i go i got a positive test and you sound like it so let's go get stella tested so we get our daughter tested she's positive her mom's

positive we had to get a babysitter she's positive and then two close friends of ours positive so there's six of us in our inner circle that got it and you know at this point we who the hell knows you know we're a split family. We have to go back and forth. Everyone has to work. We do. We're very diligent about masks and washing hands and sanitizer nonstop. And, you know, the doctor's like, Ryan, in L.A., it's one in five.

It might even be worse than that by the time this thing drops. And, you know, I'm like, is it airborne in these stores? He's like, yeah. He's like, the thing is, you got tested a week ago here. You have no symptoms. You wouldn't just test yourself again a week later. You're not supposed to anyway. You're clogging up the fucking system.

So there's three to four days where you're completely asymptomatic while you have it. And you don't know. And you're in the grocery stores and the Targets the wherevers and this is the problem this is why we need a vaccine there's not people there's probably some assholes maliciously going out there but most people once they have it they realize oh fuck this has probably been in my system three to four days and i've been 800 so he's like someone could have sneezed in the fucking grocery store and you walk into that. Yep.

Gets in your eyes. Yeah. Or you touch something and just scratch your eye. Boom. Done. He's like, and there's six of you. There's no way to know. So fortunately, and this is what I was telling you, none of us ran fevers.

None of us had muscle aches. None of us had anything in our chests, at least feeling it. We'll talk about that a little bit. You talked a little bit to me outside about the GI stuff. I had diarrhea at first, but also I was drinking this probiotic dairy yogurt, and I was like, I think it might be that, actually. And as soon as I stopped doing that, diarrhea was gone. No pain or cramp or nothing.

Yeah, you didn't have it. You'd know if you had the GI version. My daughter was very mild. Two days of mild stomach aches, but still ate normal. Normal energy, no fever, slept normal, all that. My friend and the sitter, they lost uh sense of smell for like three days and then everyone was mild i had my daughter's mother was like the worst down for a couple days i had a head cold that i would put it a four out of ten you know what i mean like nasal spray and

i can breathe um but after day like four boom smell goes and taste goes i still it's been what a month i still don't have smell at all right now and i can taste because i just farted you can in here because i had it i know you told me before so i was like should i let this oh yeah yeah which has been a great thing about the masks and like because i've been like wherever i shop i've been crop dusting, just going like, everyone's got masks. It's almost like it's set up. The world is almost, you can use your imagination. Yeah.

Like in the movie Life is Beautiful, where he was telling his daughter all the funny stuff and rearranging why they were in the concentration camps. In my mind, to make it happier, I was going like, everyone's wearing masks because I fart a lot. So this is, like the government was like, Giannis' ass is so fucking fumed out, everyone's got to put up my... And that made me smile. That made me happy. That's good. Comedy cures everything. It does.

It really does. It really is a natural drug. And it's needed. So I can tell you I can taste sweet. I can't tell you what the fuck it is, but I can tell you something sweet in my mouth. I can taste minty. And I can feel spice and heat. I can't smell a fucking thing. I can taste minty and I can feel spice and heat.

I can't smell a fucking thing. I can't smell weed. The other night I was cleaning the bathroom. It's a good time to eat pussy. That's too far. Good time to eat ass, bro. Good time to eat ass right now. That's wrong. Big ass. Not everyone's got fumes. But I'm cleaning the bathroom and I've got bleach and I don't... I have a daughter

now. I gotta stop with that, right? Listen, there's enough. Your daughter's already heard. They're going to hear everything we've ever fucking said. That's what I think. And use it against us. When I have to go in for parent-teacher conference, I'm going to have to come in

and be like, my dad puts a wig on and goes, das seh. Das his career. Oh, God, it's going to be a weird... But my eyes start burning. My throat starts burning. And I realize,

oh, fuck, I can't smell the bleach. And that's what's killing me in this bathroom. I'm like, holy shit. So it's, you know, at first I was like, this might be a false positive. Then I was like, oh, five other people got it? Oh, yeah, I got it. And then when I lost my smell, I was like, boom. So it's been, and then I told you, I'm very diligent about this shit.

I went and got the antibody test. I have it. I got very diligent about this shit. I went and got the antibody test. I have it. I got a healthy dose of it. But they said they did see some nodules on my lungs and shit that might be scarring from it. So I got to go back in like six months to a year to see what that's all about. I don't know when this shit's going to come back. But I'm alive. I'm well.

I'm right here. I'm able to provide. And I almost feel bad because I know there's so many people that had this, and you're going to tell your story. You were bad. And so many lives have been lost. But I asked the doctor, and Lana, who owns the store here, her cousin was, like, head of COVID admissions at UCLA. And we were like, if I'm kind of bad but my daughter's mild, can I make her more sick? And she's like, nope.

If you all have it, you have it. Right, because it's the reaction, your immune system. What actually makes you sick is not the virus. It's how your body reacts to the virus. The virus wants to live. So that's why viruses mutate down to kind of live, you know, they want to live. You know, you got like cold viruses and shit like that that want to live in you. The thing is, this is so foreign to our immune system.

We're like, what the fuck is this? And that second wave of inflammation for some people is really bad. So it's ironic that sometimes people's immune systems have a strong response, and that strong response makes you sick. Right. Ironically, sometimes. Yeah. response and that strong response makes you sick right ironically sometimes yeah i um you know i

don't know whatever these nodule scar things are whatever but also my doctor was saying like i haven't he said all up just till a couple months ago he goes i couldn't find a patient with corona then seasonally it hits and he goes now one of two things and i'm not a conspiracy guy but we're either calling everything corona or he goes i haven't had one regular case of influenza now we may have eradicated or at least pushed it down with the diligent washing of hands and mask wearing and and maybe that's it or maybe everyone that's got a sniffle, whatever, is called Corona. I don't know. But, yeah, we were – so the four of us quarantined together.

We decorated for Christmas. We sat there in our night pants. We fucking ordered food in. We made shit. We watched every movie you could think of. I had my daughter like 10 of the 15 days um we would wear the doctor said get out and get vitamin d we'd put masks on and stay away and just go get sun but i was telling you we walked one day for like 15 minutes i came home i took a three

and a half hour nap takes it out of you i did dishes and i was down for an hour and a half but um we would drive around at night because we all had it. We're in the car together, windows up, and we'd drive around and look at Christmas lights. And listen, COVID brought your family closer together. It was a COVID Christmas with a COVID crew. It was a cozy COVID Christmas. I hate to say that.

I mean, we weren't feeling great, but we were like, we're good. People are way worse. We're fortunate. And it was also this little reminder that, honestly, this is all you need right here. It's not about any of these other things. Your health is literally everything. And especially, I'll bet you're sweating it when you've got a newborn. You want to be there for your kid.

You want to see all these moments and be a dad and shit. Yeah, it's got to fuck with you. Because the worst part of it honestly was the anxiety of waking up every day is it in my chest right all right i'm good i'm good i'm good today and then wake up again and we had a little you know marks on the wall we're banging them out like day four day five boom boom boom it's like jail time yeah trying to get out you know i call my doctor and he said everybody was sort of like you, pretty mild. He said he did have a guy test positive for 45 days. Is that in the GI?

Do you have the GI version? Because the GI version lingers longer. It lingers in your GI tract. They wouldn't let him go back to work. So CDC says 14 days, get back out there. Even if you don't have smell, whatever, you're not contagious. But this guy had to test for work and he said he had a patient was 45 days it took him to get uh a negative test yeah but that whoever that

have a company that is stupid because uh that exactly yeah the yeah you're they've they've changed it now to seven days oh really yeah they're the safest we are the safest people to be around yeah we are the safest people and those who've been vaccinated. But they say, I think it was 10 and then it was 7. Come out of quarantine at 10 and now they say 7. Okay. So they know that's when your body generally beats it and you're not contagious anymore or has beaten it to the point where it's not contagious anymore. Those positive tests that linger for 40 days or whatever,

those are usually people who have GI symptoms and it lingers. You know so much about it. I know everything. And so the amount of doctors I talked about, I have a doctors i talked about cousin and loads like one of the greatest doctors and so it lingers but it comes up positive because it's like dead basically dead virus floating around and the test is so sensitive that it picks it up so so tell me everything that's wait can i tell you this is so yeah so me wanting to visit segura is how i found out i even fucking had it or i never would have got tested until my daughter's mother said something and if everyone

was fine again i'm out there for a you know whatever a week with this shit and not even knowing it until all of a sudden i'm like hey i can't smell oh my god right that's that's one of the telltale signs which i i didn't have that. You didn't? My smell was obfuscated by the pneumonia. Because there's like, you got pneumonia. I had double pneumonia. All right, I'll tell the whole story. Whole story. So we do the podcast.

Then I go home. I drive home. So I'm with my daughter without a mask. So I've been exposed. I have COVID at this point, unbeknownst to me, which is how everyone is when they first get it, obviously. Unless you imagine having that superpower. Fuck, I got – what a useless one.

It's good for like one day. That's your one – you're like, that's my superpower is I know I have COVID specifically, this disease that will be here for a pandemic and then be gone by vaccine. But anyway, so I went home i held my daughter greatest feeling in the world obviously three weeks old you're probably kissing her and smothering her with saliva and everything my wife is there my wife uh my wife her mother we're all there my house is not that big i'm there then uh next day we go uh me chris uh our producer we go to chas palminteri's

house and we shoot something there uh an episode for our history hyenas unbeknownst to me he had it already his son chas had it he's older did he do well with it he did fine all right yeah his symptoms were that bad he had it his son had He's the greatest guy, by the way. He had it. And I'll tell you about that afterwards. He was like talking to me on the phone and helping me through the anxiety. Wow. Because the anxiety stayed.

That's what I'm saying. That anxiety. Plus the level of having a newborn. Like, oh, my God, could I kill my fucking newborn child? Like, I'm over here just having those feelings myself right now. Well, you're an empathetic guy, so a lot of people don't get that right away. But that was a big part of what I was going through. That was a huge part. Huge part of what I was going through was every day,

every minute felt like an hour because I'm going like, how's my baby? How's my baby? How's my baby? And then also, am I going to see my baby again? When I started getting sick, and I got real sick, and then the anxiety compounded on top of that. And then when you go to the hospital,

the way they treat you kind of is like a soldier a little bit. Cause they're dealing with such so much stuff that they, and they can't tell you, you're going to be okay. I went to the hospital. I did. Yeah. I know I'm going out of order and everything.

It's okay. I'm just, you had it bad. Yeah. So then I, after that, I go back home again. So that's two days I'm home with them when I have it. And you've been in a hospital now, or you?

No, no, no. This is the beginning. Oh, gotcha. I'm sorry. I'm going back to the beginning. After Chaz, after we shoot with Chaz, right? And they all had it, or else I would have given it all to them. Good.

Right? Chris, again, didn't get it. So as you know, Chris DeStefano, my podcast partner, somehow didn't get it. Who you sit next to. Yeah. I think he didn't get it because he's admitted on the podcast that he's had chlamydia a bunch he calls himself chrissy chlamydia so i feel like kovic showed up and i was like get the fuck well you know you go to an elevator and it's packed and you're like i'll just take the next one yeah kovic showed up was like this one's already full and just went to me.

Yeah, I mean, you know, in his past, he's good now. You know, he's got another kid on the way. God bless him. But in his past,

you know, kid's got some time. Yeah. So, then we go the next day and shoot an episode in the studio, our studio in Brooklyn, which is where I ended up quarantining,

which also was a horror story. And we shoot it with Colin Quinn. Okay. So we shoot that episode. And then the next day we get a text from Akash going, fellows, I'm really sorry. You know, I was feeling a little run down. Like yesterday I went and got tested.

I have COVID. So I was like, fuck. And I just knew, you know, when you know, you're like shit. We were sitting there talking in the closed room. Like that's how you get it. You know, that's like why shit, we were sitting there talking in the closed room. Like, that's how you get it. You know, that's like why it comes on in the winter. It's like everyone's inside talk.

I was like, fuck. And we were sitting there for an hour and a half. So, but I didn't feel it yet. So I just decided, all right, I'll get COVID tested tomorrow. Let me drive home because it had been a couple of days. So I'm like, maybe I didn't get it. You know, when I get home, I put a mask on. I tell my wife, like, yeah, let me just – I didn't want to –

I was just like, let me – and then – Here, slide that mic a little closer. Sorry. And then whatever the timeline was, and then I take a shower, and I'm feeling like a little weird. It's a weird feeling I can't describe. This is within two days? No, this is now three days or four days.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. This is three days, almost four because it's nighttime of Wednesday, right, or something. So it's a weird feeling. The first symptoms were weird. It was like a burning here, like a little burning. And then just like I'm in a dream, like a little like, whoa. And then I took a shower and then I took my temperature. And when you take a hot shower afterwards, your temperature is a little higher.

So the guy was like, I think I got a 99.9. That's not a fever, right? And I take it again, boom, 100.7 or something like that. And I just was like, fuck, I'm out of here. I told them, I packed, I left and I drove straight to our studio, right? Because there's still a bed there. It's my old apartment.

So I kept it and we just used that. So I went there and then I got a COVID test in the morning. He, I felt fine that morning, felt fine. He took my temperature when I went to get the COVID test, the doctor, No fever. No fever, nothing. I ate a bagel. Appetite.

Took a nap. I woke up, saw the text. You're positive. Damn. I was like, okay. And then he's like, you have a finger thing, an oximeter? I was like, no. He's like, all right.

Let's see how you feel. Just tell me how your symptoms are as we go along. First night, fine. I sleep fine. Watch some movies. Order food. Full appetite. Fine.

But you're by yourself away from your daughter. By myself away from my baby. Worried about that. Like that, oh my God. Did I give it to them? Did I give it to them? Did I give it to them? Did I give it to Colin?

And so that's when the worry starts, right? So that's just anxiety. So now you're like, fuck, I gave it to Colin. Fuck, I gave it to Colin. I gave it to my baby. I gave it to my baby. Right. But you knew for a fact that you gave it to Colin? And so that's when the worry starts, right? So that's just anxiety. But now you're like, fuck, I gave it to Colin. Fuck, I gave it to Colin. I gave it to my baby. I gave it to my baby. But you knew for a fact that you gave it to Colin. I just knew that since we're sitting in the apartment and we did an hour and a half, it's

like, it's probably, we switched seats at one point. He used the microphone. I couldn't see how he wouldn't get it. You make a great point because I'm very fortunate. I told Ash, our numbers were getting out of control here. And I was like, look, we work for ourselves. I don't want to be working during the holidays. Let's get enough episodes ahead, and we'll chill.

So we were able to shut this down, and I know it didn't come out of here, which is also pretty awesome that every person that's come in here has been honest and fortunate, too. We're fortunate because it could have been during that period where they didn't even know they had it, but not one person's had to call me and tell me. So I'm very fucking lucky for that.

That's great. Yeah. That's great. But it's also, I hear you guys got a crowd of people in there, too. Yeah. We had a crowd of people in there. And, you know, it's unfortunate because that's the problem. It's like this is what makes it a Sophie's Choice.

It's like we got to make a living. You know what I mean? It's like so everyone's struggling with the Sophie's Choice of like I got to make a living. But COVID what I mean? It's like, so everyone's struggling with the Sophie's Choice of like, I got to make a living, but COVID, I don't want to give it to anyone. I don't want to get it. It is a very dangerous and unpredictable. It's Russian roulette.

I mean, it's a real thing. And most people it's mild and the symptoms are mild, but it's also scary because you don't know who you gave it to. And you don't know, they don't know for sure what the long-term effects of this thing are. That's right.

That's what I'm waiting to find out. Yes, it doesn't seem bad. The latest studies I keep reading is like, this seems like it's okay. It seems like people who recover, but there are some long haulers. And of course, they're usually older. They have some other conditions,

but they'll never know. They'll never know for sure until years go by. So that's a whole nother story. But anyway, so I drive straight to the studio, straight to the studio. I'm, you know, first day, second day. The only thing is the anxiety of who did I give it to? Did I give it to Colin? Did I give it to my baby?

Did I give it to my wife? Did I give it to my mother-in-law? But you're still feeling all right. Still feeling okay. I'm going like, this is going to be a breeze. People are calling me. You know, there are a few doctors called, you know, like my wife's father is a doctor. He's not a doctor in that field, but he's a doctor. So he's like, you know, that a few doctors called, you know, like my wife's father is a doctor. He's not a doctor in that field, but he's a doctor.

So he's like, you know, just be careful. You know, this thing, it's unpredictable, which made me nervous. In retrospect, I wish he didn't fucking call me. My doctor said the same. He goes, listen. You don't want to hear it. What are you on? I go like day four or five.

He goes, all right, all right. He goes, well, this is where it gets tricky because this is where it sort of can take a turn. But I really believe that if you're only with these symptoms right now, you're going to probably get through with that. And I was like, fuck. And that's where the mental fuck comes. Exactly. It's that second wave now they call of inflammation that comes day three to seven, somewhere in there, usually three, four, five. And that's what happened to me.

Bang. And it's weird. Did you wake up like that? Wake up. Or it was like in the middle of the night I woke up. And the symptoms were different, like every day, every hour. It was weird, man. So you went from just a fever was really the only thing first? Fever came back. Fever would come back harder at night. Of course, you feel the fever more at night because you're just laying there doing nothing. The fever would come back harder at night. Of course, you feel the fever more at night because you're just laying there doing nothing. And my fever was not that bad.

100, 101. You know, Alex, the producer, had it 104. Damn. 104. Whoa. That's dangerous. Yes. And he had it for days.

So it started with that. And then it starts with this. I remember the back pain was like back pain so it's like difficult to sleep and lay down and the ache was this back pain just weird back pain then the dry mouth was so dry like dry and then um and then the stomach kicked in and that was the worst those were my main symptom and then the weakness fatigue the sweating my liver enzymes for some reason got elevated. Everything. Yeah. It attacks a lot of different, some people it attacks their brain and kills tissue. It attacks you. You can attack your heart, obviously attacks your lungs. That's the common one. I mean, I went and got a scans and x-rays

on my lungs. That's how they saw the nodules. I went and got a scan on my heart. I went and got, you know, gave the blood for the for the antibody, and I got it. I've already tested negative as well. I just wanted to get that. I've got everything you could fucking have right now. But knock on wood, I mean, I hear these stories. There's a lot of different stories. I know someone who's paralyzed from it.

Paralyzed? They don't know if it's permanent i know someone else uh whose doctor friend was intubate was in the icu intubated for two months so these these things happen it happens it's legit yeah all these people it's not retarded yeah it's just retarded fucking it's real um and it's It's like Mark McGuire is to a baseball player. This is to the flu. Yeah, that's fair enough. This is like the flu on steroids.

It's the very bonds of flu. It's the fucking Barry Bonds of SARS. And my doctor said, look, it's here to stay. And I go, it is? So I was asking him about that too. And he goes, well, COVID-19, we're going to get immune to that. But it's's gonna mutate like influenza does and it's gonna be covid22 or whatever the fuck year it is next and then we're

gonna need one for that yeah and that and that you know it's here to stay my brother's a scientist and uh works for the army and he makes corona in a lab they actually create it so he's got to know some shit about study it and he was saying that he was just going it's a bioweapon from by ccp here's the thing he they got to it before we did damn it these motherfuckers um he really believes how you react is strictly just your body type it's it like there's no like there's rumors that what is is it, type O is immune. So I don't know if that's true. He's like, it's just, it's what you said. It's exactly what you said.

It's just how your body handles that virus. I would, the analogy for me is like it's Russian roulette with one bullet and like an eight chamber, ten chamber gun. So would you play Russian roulette if, would you spin it and do? So it's like the chances are greatly in your favor that you're going to get through it and be okay. Almost everyone lives, 99%. It's got like a 1% mortality rate or something. It's hovering around there. So this is not killing us like the Spanish flu. It's not killing us like the plague.

It's not killing us like smallpox or whatever used to or whatever else. But history repeats itself, and I'm hoping within the next two years it's the roaring 20s of this generation coming out of a fucking plague. It will be. It will be. It will be. We're about to end that, and by summer this will be over, I believe.

I hope so. Distribution will speed up. It will be a combination of herd immunity, vaccine distribution. Well, this city is about to be one of the safest places to be in the world. It's so filthy here. We're all going to have it in the next three months. It's going to be the perfect time to visit L.A. Yeah.

So we'll get through it. All COVID comedians, come on out and do the do when you're out here. Come out and see my show. Yeah, people will be barking on the street. Come see the show. Stand up. Everyone's got the antibodies. You know, it's, COVID comedians.

So then, yeah, it hit me bad. That's when it started, about 3-4, boom. Let's take a quick break and tell you about our first sponsor, Liquid IV. Now, one of the goals I have for myself this year is to stay healthy, and I will be doing that with the help of my favorite hydration product, Liquid IV. With one stick of Liquid IV and 16 ounces of water, you get two to three times the amount of hydration as plain water. Liquid IV has incredible hydration flavors like watermelon, lemon, lime, and passion fruit. And they recently launched strawberry. Imagine a freshly picked

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freaking out? At that point, I was too sick to look at my phone. Really? It got to a point where I couldn't watch TV and concentrate. I was so nauseous. I can't imagine what people go through. Did you throw up or any of that? I threw up. You did. I couldn't get any food down. So I was throwing up just yacky, just going, ah, and nothing was coming out. And yeah, it's just like water was coming out.

And then I was sweating, sweating, sweating. I don't know what the sweating was about, but it's part of the fever, the disease, the way my body reacted. So I was drinking water. And I just, the mistake I made was I drank way too much water and I got what they call hypotremia. What the fuck is that? You drink so much water, you're getting no salt because you're not eating anything and having diarrhea, which dehydrates you. So without the Gatorade, here's a tip. If you have diarrhea like bad, drink gatorade it just makes you safe make sure you get that sodium make sure you get those electrolytes which you need i was telling you and this is not

a shameless plug but liquid iv is a sponsor what's up liquid use that shit and i'm telling you during that the whole time they had you know i thought that some i thought they were just different flavors at first when i first got them but when i looked at them i was like oh this is for energy this is for immunity so i would take the zinc the vitamin d um my doctor's like you know we don't know but vitamin d is very seems to be very important for this but i've been taking like a super vitamin d where it's just one a week and my vitamin d levels have been off the charts right they were all good charts he's like hey mate mate you know my doctor's legit he's like look man he goes why would you want to get the vaccine i go to be protected he's like you what you just did what you just went through is

better than any vaccine right because it's nature's defense i go but doesn't the vaccine last like a year like the flu he goes no he goes look i we don't know he's like i'd love to tell you it's an annual vaccine but it could last three months, look, we don't know. He's like, I'd love to tell you it's an annual vaccine, but it could last three months, six months. We don't know. Right. So tests, if you're really that worried about it, test in a few months. If you still have the antibody, just wait. And then when you don't have it, then get the fucking vaccine and ride it out.

The last test they did at MIT looks good for people who have strong antibodies. Which we have. Yes. It looks good. Eight or nine months, they still have it. So they're extrapolating for that, that maybe this will last years. And even if you don't have the antibodies, I think it's the B cells or something that will recognize to produce those T cells. So they think the memory, your immune system's memory, as they call it, will be pretty good

in most cases. There's a few cases not. There's always exceptions cases not there's always there's always exceptions but it look it's looking good do you get any like i know my heart's good because i've had every fucking scan you can have ekgs but do you get like i get these weird like little pains that like ping through it and probably anxiety i mean did they take a look at your heart yeah everything's fine but i'm saying i i've heard about palpitations and stuff with covid and shit like that i was getting like uh lightheaded when i stood up but that's probably just getting older or anxiety anxiety is such a big part of this thing especially if

you're a comic it was the worst part we think too much to begin with and we're in our own heads to begin with and we're just besides like guys like joe rogan who can kill you with their bare hands and a few others we're a bunch of like pussy people who are like, you know, overthink, want attention. We're like little babies. So as a comedian having this, that made it worse. I think too much as it is. I have an anxiety problem as it is. So this was just like, holy shit.

I'm worried. And then there's the thing like I don't want to die. No, I know. I'm not ready to go. The best thing that ever happened to me just happened to me. Now you have everything to lose. And then I'm going like, fuck, I'm going to die right when I have a baby. And then when you get COVID, your brain, you start to fucking hallucinate because I wasn't eating.

So this is the bad part of what happened to me is I lost my full appetite. I could not eat a thing. The thought of eating disgusted me. I couldn't eat to the point where I would not eat a thing. The thought of eating disgusted me. I couldn't eat to the point where I would order a chicken soup. I would, I had to chew the chicken for like an hour, like fucking 10 minutes till it's like, and then I couldn't even get it. I would have to push it down with water. So that made me drink even more water. That's what gave me the hypotremia and I'm having diarrhea and I'm not sleeping. What does hypotremia do to your body? So hypotremia means

the water, you're drinking too much water and nothing else. And so it dilutes the sodium in your blood. You can't hold on to sodium. It's like you're peeing everything out and you're just unbalanced and your sodium levels dropped. And that's where the danger to me came. So I was really sick with the fever,

which got up to 102 at some point. Unbeknownst to me, until I went to the hospital, I had double pneumonia. The worry and anxiety from- You had double pneumonia plus coronavirus? Well, the double pneumonia, pneumonia is just, what pneumonia means, it's a fancy word for inflammation and fluid in the lungs. So COVID causes pneumonia. So it's COVID caused pneumonia. You can have a flu that causes pneumonia. You know, bacteria can cause pneumonia or a virus can cause pneumonia.

Things cause them, but it's inflammation in the chest. So it's not in addition to COVID, it was caused by COVID. Copy that. So I'm feeling weird like day six. Fucking weird, man. Like I've never felt before. My brain is weird.

I'm calling myself we at this point. Like hallucinating. And the thing that freaked me out, Ryan, I'll be honest with you. Yeah, I call myself we, which point like hallucinating and the thing that freaked me out ryan i'll be honest with you yeah i'm calling myself we which is like i guess that's my pronoun i was about to say is anybody rocking the weed and that freaked me out because i'm like i'm like i'm going like am i losing it who are you talking to just yourself give me an example what you're saying with me and i at this point i wasn't looking at my phone i I was too sick. Every time I looked at my phone, I felt more nauseous.

Every time I looked at Twitter and saw news, it made me more. We got to stop looking at this phone. Yeah. So I stopped looking at the phone. Exactly. We got to start looking at this phone. We got to get some sleep because I wasn't sleeping. Like, we got to get some sleep.

We got to eat some. And then I'm talking to myself. And then I realize, like, holy shit, we're social species. I haven't been around somebody and I'm sick now five days, six days. That's what I'm talking to myself and then I realize like holy shit was like we're social species I haven't been around somebody and I'm sick now five days six days with this you start that's what I'm saying freak out we were so glad we had we're able to be around each other like why not that makes a difference you know it made every bit of difference and I was in the studio yeah and there's nowhere to walk right I had nowhere to work there's equipment everywhere so I'm getting out of bed and I'm like walking like this Just back and forth in the hallway

That's the only room I had So it was a horrible place to quarantine I'm all by myself And that was part of it too A lot of it was mental But then I started to feel weird man Whatever day This was the day before Thanksgiving

So this is when I was sick Around Thanksgiving Also I got Rogan booked I'm supposed to go like The next week So I'm hoping to get better anxious to get better to go because it's my first time doing it so i'm like i want to do rogan you know it's fucking and um and then this one whatever day it was i'm calling myself we i'm fucking starting to freak

out we got to get better we're gonna be doing rogan we're gonna be doing rogan and i'm going going who the fuck am I talking to? Who am I talking to? And then the fear that you're losing it overcomes you. Am I losing my fucking mind? Look, I have this blood disease too where I can't. It's called factor five. I'm prone to clotting. And I can't sit for more than 90 minutes without getting up and moving.

And so I can't just sleep like that. I can't. I have got to get up so i every night i would set alarms on on the alexa and shit and get up and just walk the house and stuff and just walk out on the balcony and shit because it's all we could do so that anxiety i'm like fuck yeah because the thing i we didn't want any of us to have to do was go to the hospital right we did not because out here is fucked. Like a friend of mine works in the industry and he was like, look, there's plenty of fucking ventilators. I'm like, could you get us? He's like, I could get them for you if you really need it.

But there's plenty of them. He's like, the thing you don't have are the beds. Right. And he said they took them to the hospital out in like Baldwin Park or wherever the hell he said it was. And they took them out back and showed him the freezer trucks with dead bodies because they can't. It's crazy. In L.A. it's like New York was, but worse.

But you guys got better because everyone got it there. Yeah, but it's bad now. Back again? I think it's like 5% again. And Long Island I think is 10%. Damn. The rates are high right now. I don't think it's as bad as March was,

but I spoke to a doctor friend of mine actually this morning who works at a hospital in Brooklyn, and he said the ICU is packed. He said the ER has plateaued. So it's not good. It's not good. So I'm sorry. We got to get better.

Rogan's next week. Yeah. So I asked. You're a week in now. Huh? You're about a week into this now. You're halfway there. No,

I'm about day four or five. Now are you doing a 14 day, right? 14 day. Quarantine? Yes. I mean, I'm sick.

That's what it's supposed to be. Like 14 if you have it. Now they say seven. I can't even believe it's cut in half already. One day without a fever. Yeah. So the thing is, if you don't, if you get to day seven and you have one day without a fever, they can say you can come out of quarantine. It used to be 10.

Right. And then the quarantine period was like 14. So now the CDC says seven. That's their – I didn't know that. Yeah. That's their new thing. But seven to 10 is what they say.

But the important also is one day without a fever. No symptoms, no fever. And no symptoms, no fever without the aid of ibuprofen or any of that. Without the aid of Tylenol. That's important to say as well. That's what they say. That's the official CDC policy on it now. So this was about day three or four, you know, day before Thanksgiving.

And how old is your daughter? Are you like two months? At this point, she was three months. Yeah. You got a brand here. Wait, no. She's three months now. What did I just say?

She was weeks old. I'm sorry. She was weeks old. So she's three months. Weeks. She'll be three months and a couple days. God. So this was now almost two months ago.

So I have like a three, four week old baby. Three, four week old baby. Jesus Christ. An absolute newborn. Four weeks old. The most vulnerable person on the planet. The most vulnerable. More than senior citizens, more than anybody.

Yeah, because the crucial point for the baby is six weeks where the immune system kicks in. So my nerves are through the roof, man. Now it's effect. Now I'm feeling it. I'm thinking about it. It was brutal. And I felt so sick, man. This is where I got the most scared.

I'm on the toilet and I feel lightheaded, weak. I haven't eaten. And then I've never felt what it feels like to have this low sodium level, unbeknownst to me at the time, it feels weird. And if it got any lower, I'd be in trouble. And I'll explain in a second. So I'm on the toilet. I'm going like, something's wrong. I text the doctor. I go, I think I'm going to call the EMS, man. He goes, don't worry. You know, he goes, don't freak out. You're anxious. I know you're at, you've been anxious during this whole thing. I've been texting him a lot. You know, every second I was like, you know, my finger hurts. So he goes, he goes, it's cool. He's like, just replenish what you're losing. Try to get something down. You know, it's hard for him to do this via text I get it

and as he was looking my eye he was like checking my he was like tell me to check my oxygen and because that's where it really hurts you is when the oxygen dips

and your lungs are fucked so my oxygen remained good so he's like just replace the fluids because he's thinking I'm just having diarrhea you know now they actually know

that corona dehydrates you so much that it's one of the common things that happens that your sodium levels drops. So if you have the GI version, drink fucking Gatorade and just get crackers. You got to get something down. Or the liquid IV. But you need electrolytes. You need sodium.

Yes, you do. You need it. So, but I was like, I just. Soup broth, all of it. Just suck it down. Just get it down. Sooth broth, chicken soup, Jewish penicillin. Get it down.

Force it down. But make sure you're getting it. If you have diarrhea, on the safe side, it's like you need Gatorade. It's just to be safe, just have a Gatorade. A little water, a little Gatorade. I didn't have any Gatorade. So I was like, fuck it. I'm calling the EMT.

Even though he was like, don't worry. I was like, I feel weird. I just called them. They came. They checked my numbers. So your numbers are good. Even though he was like, don't worry. I was like, I feel weird, I just called them. They came, they checked my numbers. So your numbers are good. Blood pressure was okay. Heart rate was okay, whatever.

So they're like, you really wanna go? Cause they're probably just gonna let you go. And then they go, it's up to you. You know, I would just ride it out. And one of them, one of the guys was like, I had it too. I was where you were. I know you feel like shit, but you know, you'll be all right. Your numbers are good.

But if you wanna go, it's up to you. So there was this moment where I was like, like, should I go? I almost said no, but I was like, it was one of those moments in my life where I got lucky. I could have said no. I was almost said no because the doctor's telling me I'm going to be fine. Not his fault. He doesn't know I'm not drinking Gatorade. We didn't specify. He's doing a million things. He works at an ER um my oxygen's fine and much like these guys also they're going like you're right but both of them don't know how much water I've been drinking they don't know the specifics and how little I've eaten how much

diarrhea I'm having so I just made a decision I just said fuck I just said I don't care what it's gonna I have insurance but I'm like I don't Like, let me just go and have them check. I just was like, I had a bitch moment and that bitch moment could have saved my life. And I'm not exaggerating because what I found out is my sodium levels, when I got there, they took my blood and then they were like, holy shit, your sodium's real low.

That's what made them do the checks x-ray. That's where they found I had double pneumonia. And it was COVID was causing all this shit. But- Damn, and you would have been staying home dying. I might, I had double pneumonia. And it was COVID was causing all this shit. Damn. And you would have been staying home dying. I might. I would have went into a coma. When your sodium levels get very low, you could go into a coma.

You could die. Damn. So one of the nurses told me if I didn't go to the hospital, I could have been in the ICU. Or I could have been dead. So it's scary as fuck to think about. And so it was just a decision so my advice would be don't freak out have the oxygen thing if your oxygen goes i don't even know about that yeah that's a common thing so it's like and this is no bullshit what i'm saying is all like this

ain't fucking i'm gonna you're not this is the truth this is positive of this shit you get the oxygen monitor it's a little finger thing you can get it on Amazon and you don't want to freak out, but like every four hours, you know, just check, especially if you have like a cough or, you know, if you have any trouble breathing, just check. And if it's like 89 or 90, go to the ER, just go. Because that's, that's trouble. If it dips below 95, that's trouble. And, um, and also Gatorade and and shit so i had what they call the gi version of it which some people get these bad gi symptoms where it gets into the gi track and that diarrhea dude that version is painful like if you get it bad like i got it is it it's painful dude it's like pain and cramps and like poison you feel poisoned your body wants to get nothing to do with that

virus it wants it out. And it reacts bad. And the inflammation and they just try to your body's just trying to get it out. And your coughing the whole time that you threw up.

You didn't have a cough. But you threw up. I was actually there was nothing to throw up because at that point I couldn't get anything down. It was all liquid. I was drinking soup

like sipping it and like pushing little bits of chicken down. And at this point, I'm starting to get loopy. So I don't even know how to take care of myself anymore. You know, at the hundred and three feet. And I'm going around smelling candles and weed and bleach. And I'm like, I can't smell any of it.

You're saying Christmas carols. The only problem is like a slight cough. Jingle bell. Jingle bell. Jingle bell. Rock. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

You had a cozy COVID Christmas. So our experiences are kind of the range of what can happen. That's right. I had. But look, again, though, just because you had it and you got through it doesn't mean you're out of the woods. Here's the other thing. You're not bulletproof. You can still be infected from the time you had it until the antibodies built in your body all right which takes about 30 days

um you know and what is it a three percent chance or some shit like that you get it again or whatever yeah it's very rare but it does happen are we immune to the new mutated virus i don't know i look i can't tell i know that i know that the vaccine looks good for the all the strands um so yeah so wait what okay so now do your your wife her mom do they ever get it they didn't get it man and your daughter didn't get it didn't get it okay now with a newborn like that do they even suggest a test or do they just suggest a monitor i don't know i don't know what they do with it did you ever you didn't test her like nasal swab or no she um but your daughter your i'm sorry your wife and her mom negative the whole time my baby no they didn't even test

they just had no symptoms my wife actually i mean my mother-in-law recently went and got a blood test and tested for the antibodies no antibodies so she So she didn't have it. So if she didn't have it, my baby and my, I don't think anyone had it. They had no symptoms. The days went by, you know, so it was like, everyone's okay. By the, by day 10, if there's, there's another thing that doctors know now by day 10, if you have no new symptoms, you're going to recover. Oh, no new symptoms. No new symptoms on day 10. Or if you have no symptoms 10 days after being exposed to someone, you don't have it. Right. Or if you had an NRA symptomatic, it's over. So you're good. You're not contagious anymore day 10 for sure. They say seven, if you've had it seven day, one day, no fever. 10 days after you've had it seven day one day no fever 10 days after you've been exposed if nothing

happened you've never had it so i knew they were good what point do you feel that you start to turn the corner like roughly what day so i'm in the hospital and that's the weird thing that's what i learned about that i was at the beginning of the rush so like it wasn't crowded yet but it was starting to get i was part of that initial rush so this was right about before thanksgiving this was the day before thanksgiving went to the hospital i spent thanksgiving in the hospital so they kept me overnight they checked my blood every four hours and also is your family freaking out at home by the way now you're in the fucking hospital little by little i was contacted i didn't contact any of them yet because i and i wasn't looking at my phone and i told them while i was getting better that i had it and uh, no, I mean your wife and her mom.

They're freaking out. Yeah, they're all freaking out. They're all freaking out, especially when I went to the hospital. They were freaking out. That's what I'm saying. Now it's getting worse, obviously. So to get your sodium levels up, they got to do it slowly. They can't do it quick or else it'll shock your body.

So they kept me overnight and slowly IV dripped me with sodium. And then every four hours, they took blood to measure it. And then also, because of the double pneumonia, they did tests for the clot. They checked for the clots. They checked to see if there was another bacterial infection that was causing the pneumonia, whatever else it could be. So I was good on everything. And I spiked 102 there. And then they were like, you can go.

And then they gave me a wheezing for wheezing some fucking inhaler and that was it in case you had some wheezing never had the wheezing really and then I went home and I was home or to the studio back to the studio and I was freaking out I wanted to get out of the studio this is when the story gets good so I'm sorry I'm just getting to this point this is when it gets good

so then I'm like then I think I'm at the point where I ate at the hospital they gave me an Ativan which calms you down and I felt back kind of good then I'm like, then I think I'm at the point where I ate at the hospital. They gave me an Ativan, which calms you down. And I felt back kind of good. Then I get home and I just start freaking out again. I start freaking out. I had a little more diarrhea. I had one more night of diarrhea.

And then I was talking to my cousin-in-law, who's a doctor, one of the smartest guys you ever know. And he's like, when you're spasming at the end, when your asshole's just kind of like doing this, but nothing's coming out, that's usually when you're done. It's got everything out. So he's like, you're probably at the end. Now your body needs to recover. He said, the body's good at doing one thing at a time.

So it's either fighting Corona or resting, but it's not doing, your body can only really do one thing good at a time. So now a lot of people, when they're recovering, they're actually recovering from the fight, the fever and all that took all that out of your body. So it's like, that's why you still feel sick. It's just, your body's going like, I need rest. I need to recover from this shit. So I was still feeling shit at this point. I think a lot of it was anxiety and just like, and I was like, I got to get out of here. I can't stay here anymore. I can't stay here one more second. I'm freaking out. I got to get out of here. Right. I can't feel like a leper anymore. I'm alone. I need to be

taken care of. I can't make my own fucking food. I'm alone i need to be taken care of i can't make my own fucking food i'm ordering food you know they're bringing me chicken soups i still didn't have an appetite though or even a psychological appetite um and then now i'm scared to drink water because like i don't want to drink too much water so i'm scared of that so all this that my anxiety is kicking in so i call paul verzi who i live like very close to him and his wife have had it. His kids have had it. So I make a plea and he's such a good friend and his wife, he is, I mean,

he's like my best. I mean, he's like top level friend. He's like, for me, he's probably my best friend now. He, and he's been for a while,

but he's up. He's one of my best friends. How do you quantify that shit? But just the, what he'll do for you as a friend. So he spoke to his wife and they said, we'll take you. We'll take you. We'll give you our bedroom. You can quarantine in the bedroom and we'll be in the rest of the house. And you know, they're kids and should go

into school. So it's like having someone with Corona in the house that, you know, that's a, it's a big deal. But I was probably done with the Corona at this point, because now we're at day seven or eight. So this is mostly anxiety and I need to just recover from resting. I think I'm done. I didn't even have a fever before I went there. That was another reason why I was like, I think no more fever, but I feel like shit. I just psychologically got to get out of this fucking studio. I can't have Corona and be staring at the fucking history hyenas logo anymore.

Imagine you were sitting here. I was just about to say I would rip this place apart. And all you were doing was looking at this neon thing and you were sick in your stomach you would hate the color neon i would trash this yeah i was like i can't look at chris di stefano's fucking face for one more second i can't deal with this fucking stupid office britta i don't have a kitchen in that apartment because it was so small it's just like it's like a wall in the fucking, in the living room is the kitchen. So there's no, I'm stepping over lights and cords.

I'm sick to my stomach. I gotta get the fuck out of here. So I took an Uber. Me and Paul live like an hour and a half outside of New York City. This is in Brooklyn. I took an hour and a half Uber. And at this point,

I still got the sweats. I even had like elevated limber enzymes like into December. But all the rest of my blood was fine and my symptoms were fine. Just these elevated liver enzymes lingered for some reason. Something pissed my – the infection, COVID like pissed my liver off or whatever. But it kept coming down. So I drive an hour and a half up to Paul's.

They put me in their room. Nice thing. I take pop of tylenol for whatever reason because i think it's like gonna help me sleep i sleep a couple hours i wake up fucking weak scared anxious i can't get rid of it and uh they were home they were home him and his kids then they were like we got to go to my mother's house they left so i'm alone in the house i'm checking my pulse my heart rate's high tachycardia it's like uh over 100 and i'm like started freaking out so i'm a comic i fucking i

call the emt again i call the i call the ms again they take me in another fucking they take me in another ambulance you got two yeah my wife sees it because you got to pass my house to get to paul's house she comes running with no shoes on no socks she's like that's my husband what's going on is he okay is he okay? Is he okay? I'm sitting in there, like, tired again. They got the IV in me. They're like, he's okay. His heart rate's a little high. So, the whole fuck, we live in a

small place. The whole fucking town wakes up. Like, nobody, you know, they're going, what the fuck's going on? There's an ambulance in the Verzi's house. The Verzi's aren't home. You know, they weren't there. They weren't even staying there. They were like, you can stay here.

We'll go stay. So it's like, and yeah. And at this point, I don't even have Corona anymore. I'm just, at this point, I think- You just like to ride. I think I like to ride at this point. I just like the comfort of being around medical professionals because I'm anxious.

And so they get me to the hospital and then they do a cat scan they're just to check to see if there's clotting i think that's why they do the cat scan and then they're like fine but the doctors freak me the fuck out the doctors when i first got in they're like yeah like so what can we do for you sir and i'm like i don't like being called sir in that i want a woman who's just nice like a mom can i not have guys like can i not can i not have these army guys we're just like yeah your legs blown off son because they kind of treat you like that they're like he goes yeah it's a pandemic everyone's sick that's what he said to me and i go i need to be spoken to softly

i'm a comedian can i get somebody who's like a social worker or someone who's a little more empathetic than this fucking guy who goes, yeah, man. He goes, yeah, it's a pandemic. Everyone's sick. That's what he said. Yeah, pussy. It's a pandemic. I know you're not feeling well.

He's like, yeah, he had it. He pointed to the other doctor. He goes, yeah, he had it. He just came back 10 days. And I'm like, yeah, but me, I just want to feel better. Make me feel better. Tell me I'll be done tomorrow. And they're like, it could be three weeks.

It could be three months. I go, three months? Three more months? I can't take three more months of this shit i can't feel like this for three months he's going all right relax we'll check it out they don't make you feel better they just say hey go home rest you'll be over they just look at your heart they look at me go you're not gonna die or they don't think you're gonna die and they send you home but they don't make you feel better at least me i needed someone to go you're gonna be okay and this is when you're gonna be okay and you can stay in the hospital and we'll take care of you because you're a

fucking pussy that's what i needed someone to say to me that's what i was hoping someone was gonna say but uh they didn't do that so they released me there and then my wife doesn't want me to come home yet because of the baby and everything so i go to a hotel i sneak into a hotel and don't tell them i got covid or that i had covid so i almost felt like a french spy or something i walked in like holding it all together i'm having a full-blown anxiety attack i'm tired i'm sweating like i'm just like yeah i'm here yana's pat but here's my driver's license i'm like shaking i check in i have campbell's suit my wife's bringing me like leaving at the door soups.

So for like two days, I'm living out of a microwave. In my mind, it is a split screen of us driving around with Christmas carols looking at lights and you in the back of an ambulance. We should do it. Your wife fucking rocks. We should do a cartoon of this where it's your story versus mine. So hear those sleigh bells

ring-a-ling, jing-jing-jing-a-ling. And I'm just sitting there going, ah! Look at the Grinch, kid. Look at the Grinch. Yeah, we had different experiences. We sure did, dude. It's, and then they kicked me out of the hotel because of course I called the EMT

two more times when I was there. No, you did not. I did, I did, yeah. I called him two more times. Yeah. I'm going to have a $100,000 bill. It's just, I think I called, so total. Oh, and I called him one more time in Brooklyn.

So two, that's the Sour Patch Kid. That's the Sour Patch Kid. So I called him twice. That's the call to the EMT. Two, three, four, five times total. In two weeks? No, in a couple days. I thought you meant the whole thing.

No, a couple days. The days where it was the worst. Then why'd they kick you out? Because I called the EMTs twice in one night at the hotel. At this point, it's just anxiety. They just came in and checked you? They came in. They gave me my numbers. They looked at my oxygen. And this point, it's just anxiety. They just came in and checked you? They came and they gave me my numbers. They looked at my oxygen, and they were like, you seem fine.

You sure you want to go? But the last ones told you that. I know. So I was fearful, but I kind of didn't feel as bad as I kind of knew, hey, I'm not sleeping at this point. I developed this fear of sleep, which was weird. At this point, I had a hunch. I was with you on that.

I was scared to wake up every day with new symptoms and shit right chest every fucking day i was scared of that it's scary when the doctors go we don't know there's a lot we don't know we just just keep resting and what they all basically said is if there's any new symptoms or if you have any trouble breathing come back to the hospital that That's all they really said. They're like, there's nothing we can do for you, basically. Like, it's got to run its course. So that's kind of scary. When you go to the hospital and they tell you what it is and they tell you how to cure

it, that's a good thing. So you call the guys and they come back again. How far apart? Even worse, it was two women. So I felt even more like a bitch. Well, you should have felt better. Yeah, because I was like, can you guys carry me? They're more bigger dicks than the guys are.

Yeah, they were like, yeah. And they were the ones who came the second time, so they probably sent the girls because they knew, like, hey, this guy's called earlier in the night. Just go there and fucking, you know, because they couldn't carry me in the stretcher, so they knew I wasn't going to go. They probably sent the ladies and shit.

So then the hotel was just like, you you gotta get the fuck out of here for that yeah so then they call they they they they they the front desk asked the emt as they were like what's going on they're like he's got covid so then they called like this department of health or whatever and they're like now you have to stay here two more weeks no in the room so i'm like i gotta get out of here so i call paul verzi again. I'm like, you got to bust me out of here. So they almost didn't let him in. He just like came up to my room. I left like half the shit in the hotel room.

I grabbed like two bags. He carried them and he just whisked me out of a side exit and brought me into, my wife let me stay in the basement for a week. It's like he broke me out of jail. Hustled you out of the hotel she was the hotel owner is like this old indian woman was screaming at him because it's a small hotel up by where we live she's like fucking screaming do you have your credit card on file they just hit me with those charges they hit me i haven't even looked i'm god yeah i mean this was like now two months ago i'm

probably down a couple grand there i mean who the fuck knows at that point i just wanted to feel healthy again and i tell you once i got healthy it was sort of like my own christmas carol it was kind of like i made up with all my friends who i had been addicted to or i had a fight with i had a new uh appreciation for health while i was sick i was like i will give up my entire career i'll give anything just to feel healthy because without health, you can't enjoy your daughter. And then my family, I have a new appreciation for my family and everything because of COVID.

And that scary thought, I haven't told you, this is what really freaked me out. There was a moment when I was feeling really sick where I thought this thought that I'd never thought before, which was, is the only way out of this to feel this way is to die. And that freaked me out. Once I had never thought before, which was, is the only way out of this to feel this way is

to die. And that freaked me out once I had that thought earnestly, because that's how sick I felt. Like it was never going to get better. Yeah. I was like, is that the way this to end how I feel? Because it's never going to get better. And that set me for a mental spiral too. So it was like, it was really like a living hell for two weeks. It was really bad, man. So what was it like when you first got to hold your daughter and kiss her again oh my god i cried i'll bet i cried yeah i got back into therapy i got to admit klonopin i got prescribed klonopin which helped me the first couple days i took it

i went to sleep i still sweated a lot and then i stopped taking it after like three days and i started to sleep and sleeping normal again and slowly feeling better again. It all felt good. But holding my daughter again, nothing like it was the, it felt like, I mean,

God, it's just like, I won. Nothing can compare to it. It was like me winning the Superbowl or like, you know, getting a letter. Like none of that means anything you know when you first step when letterman was big getting a letterman or a new face or a half hour you know i had half hour i remember how that felt you can't even compare it it's like comparing michael jordan to someone who's a d3 basketball player

yeah i mean dude that's why nothing means anything to me anymore except my daughter and my wife. That's what I realized during our Corona Christmas while you were down and out. Oh, you were healthy by then because yours was Thanksgiving. I was healthy by Christmas. So you got to have Christmas with your first Christmas ever. All right, look at that. You missed your daughter's first Thanksgiving, but you got the first Christmas. I didn't.

It was the most special one. It was weird because my in-laws, I spent it with my in-laws. Then we went to my in-laws' house, which was great. I recovered. He's a doctor. It was nice to be around him. He sent me to his friend as a follow-up. So it was just nice to be around a doctor, and he was telling me, you're fine.

That was reassuring. But he kept saying, like, ah, this doesn't feel like Christmas. Everyone was kind of negative on the corona because we're all quarantined we didn't get to see the whole family and i kept going this is the best christmas of my entire life and it was yeah this was the best christmas of my entire life we didn't get i didn't get to see any of my family i didn't you know but that i was healthy and around my wife and my daughter again after what I went through. This will be the best Christmas I will have. The Christmases from here on out will all be – it's all downhill from here.

No, it's not. I will never have a Christmas as good as that Christmas. You wait until your daughter finds out about Santa Claus and all that shit. You never know what life's going to throw at you. I'll ruin that for her. I'll be like, he's not real. You think we're done with pandemics? I don't know.

I hope. Yeah, but I mean. Brother, I'm glad you're well. Thank you. Thank you for coming here. Sorry I spoke so much, man. Please. I was here to see.

I wanted to get mine out of the way at the top because I knew it was nowhere near yours. I'm sorry that you went through that, but I'm glad you're all right. We beat it. We've got the immunity. We can get back out there, brother. Yeah, let's go. Let's tongue kiss or something. I'm down.

We can. Promote everything one more time again, please. Yeah, History Hyenas, Long Days. Go to yannispapascomedy.com. You can watch the Long Days episodes. Those are my two podcasts, History Hyenas and Long Days. Watch special please it's free on youtube called blowing the light and um and that's it man great yeah uh thank you all for tuning in as always ryan sickler dot com ryan sick on all social media we'll talk to you all next week Thank you.