Weird Medicine: The Podcast - 427 - Big Jo's "Covert" Operation

Episode Date: October 22, 2020

Dr Steve and Tacie discuss healthcare in a libertarian world with Sorinne Ardeleanu, independent candidate for President of the United States. Despite differences in approach to health care, common ground is found. Also Big Jo's SARS adventure. Check Out: stuff.doctorsteve.com (for all your online shopping needs!) noom.doctorsteve.com (lose weight, gain you-know-what) Get Every Podcast on a Thumb Drive (all this can be yours!) hellofresh.com/weird80 (fantastic meals, cooked at home!) feals.com/fluid (premium CBD, delivered to your door!) wine.drsteve.com (get the best deal on wine…delivered to your home!) expressvpn.com/weird (defeat "surveillance capitalism!" Ensure your privacy!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you just read the bio for Dr. Steve, host of Weird Medicine on Sirius XM103, and made popular by two really comedy shows, O'B. and Anthony and Ron and Fez, you would have thought that this guy was a bit of, you know, a clown. Number one thing, don't take advice from some asshole on the radio. Your show was better when you had medical questions. Hey! I've got the period crushing my esophagus. I've got Zabalibon. I'm dripping from my nose.

I've got the leprosy of the heartbound exacerbating my incredible woes I want to take my brain out and clasped with the wave an ultrasonic, agographic, and a pulsating shave I want a magic pill all my ailments, the health equivalent to citizen cane

And if I don't get it now in the tablet I think I'm doomed then I'll have to go insane I want to requiem for my disease So I'm paging Dr. Steve. It's weird medicine the first and still only uncensored medical show in the history of broadcast radio, now a podcast. I'm Dr. Steve with my little pal Tacey.

Oh, no, why is your microphone off? Did you turn it off between recordings? Hello. I got an important phone call. So, hello, everybody. Hello, everyone. This is a show for people who would never listen to a medical show on the radio or the internet. If you've got a question, you're embarrassed to take to your regular medical provider.

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Dot, Dr. Steve.com. stuff. stuff. com for all of your... Okay, so here's the thing. Okay. I have a premonition, right? Yes.

That I'm going to interrupt a presidential candidate. Let me see. Being introduced. Oh, wait a minute. Boy, that wasn't good. There we go. You suck, too, today. Check out stuff.

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FLUID and get 33% off and if you want to lose weight with Tacey and me not me I had Chinese today did you really well that's okay with noodles and rice But on Noom, you can do that. And then tomorrow you get right back on the program again, right?

So Noom, N-O-O-M dot Dr. Steve.com. It's very forgiving because it's not a diet. It's a psychology program. It's a way of love. You get, it is. And I am fully incorporated into my life. I'm not perfect. I still binge on stuff, but now I'm binging on rice cakes instead of snicker bars.

So noom. Dot, Dr. Steve.com. And my counselor, because you get a counselor, she and I. are going to be working on why I must binge when I'm at home. I never binge anywhere else. Your wife is her fault. It could be. It could be that, actually. And check out Dr. Scott's website at simplyerbils.net.

So the reason I laughed when I said the numbers is because I've never really seen it through someone else's eyes before. And we actually have a true presidential candidate on the line. I can't hear you. Sorry. I just remembered Beck has baritone. Okay, all right. So always life intrudes when you're trying to work, but that's okay. So on the line, we have Serene Ardelliano.

She's an independent candidate for president of the United States. Her parents fled communism in the 1970s in the pursuit of freedom, and she's interested in creating a government that is limited but logical and complements natural laws to protect the rights of the innocent and to promote prosperity. Thank you, Madam President, Ardelyanu, for being on Weird Medicine. How are you today? Hello. Wow.

Hi. I'm excited to connect with you both and see where this goes. I think that we can inspire and empower a lot of people today. Well, I think so, too. And I really, I have some questions for you because you're immersed in this stuff. And your views seem in line with the, libertarian party, or that, you know, they're libertarian views. You believe in small government, but you're liberal socially.

And this is a medical show, and I like to focus on health care some. But something in your bio sort of struck me, aren't the terms logical in government mutually exclusive? They don't have to be, and they shouldn't be. I think that the best government is a logical one, and that's, really what I hope to, you know, one of the things I hope to bring into government is logic, because right now I feel like it's very emotion driven. Yes.

And that's what got us where we are today. And that's not working for most people. Yeah. I just see on one side of the aisle, this person likes this. So then therefore we have to hate that. And on the other side of the aisle, the same thing. And so how in the world do you bring logic into that? because, you know, for me, the formula that I ascribe to on this show a lot is politics plus medicine equals politics.

There's no medicine that comes out of that. It's just all politics. And if we're doing things, let's say in the hospital, if we make a decision that isn't patient-based, it's a political decision. And if we make a decision that isn't constituent-based or population-based, it's a decision. political decision. So how do you create a logical environment in a situation that we, as we have today? Well, one of the things that I do with people is I flip the script. I asked them how they would feel if whatever they are supporting was reversed onto them. Because a lot of people don't seem to see their own hypocrisy

where if you don't agree with them then you're the bad guy or they won't listen to you but it's like wait a minute how would you feel if you got treated this way and so it does help you know and sometimes I'm very specific with my examples where you know to make it personal so that they can really understand like they wouldn't like that so then why is it okay

to treat others this way if they don't like it themselves you know, making it personal, it helps significantly, but also, you know, helping people feel like you're not attacking them that you understand where they're coming from, but you also want to help them essentially get out of their own way because many of us have self-destructive tendencies that we're not even aware of it. Yeah.

Yeah, we have to achieve consensus at some point. I mean, I do that. When I have a family meeting, our goal generally for medical decision-making is to achieve consensus. And that just seems to be, well, I've got more numbers than you do. And, you know, so we're going to do this thing. But we have less numbers than you. So we're just going to make your life difficult.

So I don't know if you know much about my background in health care. But I do not subscribe in a one-size-fits-all model. And one of my mentors and colleagues, Dr. Bruce Lipton, he's one of the first people in history to clone stem cells and he found out that our DNA is just a blueprint and he's still very active today and he talks a lot about the placebo effect and the nocebo effect and I do believe that that plays a huge part in somebody's experience in the health care system if somebody believes that you know that their doctor really knows best and they have their faith in what their doctors suggest that they're most likely going to have positive results or whatever the

says, versus if they don't, even if somebody else has a positive outcome, the same exact circumstances, they're not necessarily going to have a positive, you know, outcome. And so I think it's really important to respect that and understand that, you know, our beliefs do play a role in our experience with health, with achieving health, maintaining health, and so forth. Absolutely. You can't separate mine from body. No, and that's really why I want to impact health care, so that doctors start, looking at the entire being, not just at symptoms, not just at the body, but understanding, because I believe that the majority of diseases are actually functional and not organic or

structural. And so if you address it from that perspective, you're bound to truly heal people, or rather help them heal themselves, versus just putting a band-aid, you know, and just alleviating some of the symptoms at the expense of something else. Right. I think that most of my colleagues, if they're honest, understand. that about 80% of our patients would probably get better if they never saw us. But it's the other 20% where we really can have an impact.

You know, it's hard to cure an appendicitis by waving palm fronds over somebody, although I could probably make their cold feel better if I do that. Because they'll get better in two weeks, or if I give them medication, they'll get better in two weeks. But, you know, you've been called the healer in chief. So let's, I mean, let's get a little bit deeper. into health care, because I really wanted you on for you to teach me a couple of things. And this is my sort of core issue I have. I'm probably the only libertarian that you've ever heard of that's in favor of single-payer

health care. But it's because I see people come in and they have to, they get cancer. I work in a cancer institute part of the time. and they get cancer, they have to get chemo every week or every two weeks or whatever. They lose their job, and then they can't afford their house payment, so then they take their pain medicine and sell half of it so that they can make the rent, but then they're suffering. And then when I have people that actually have insurance,

I send in a prescription, and of course it's denied because it's not on their formulary, and I can't keep the 30,000 formularies straight in my head. So for me, if the patients all had the same insurance company, it would be advantageous for them. But my problem is I don't have any confidence the government can fairly and efficiently manage it. So how do we provide care that people need so if they don't lose their house, for example, if they have to take chemo without involving the government and do it in a way that's in line with our sort of libertarian values? Because I struggle with this one. it is a difficult conversation to have i actually wrote an article about it a few years ago in the

huffington post about how to attain perfect health and um one of my other mentors and colleagues dr burney seagull i don't know if you're familiar of him but he was in a similar line of work as you until he retired and he found he was a surgeon and most of his patients had cancer and he found that many of these people were brokenhearted and that you know again the cause of the cancer was functional in most cases, and that by giving them a different perspective, by giving them a reason to look forward to life, to enjoy life, that they were able to recover. There's somebody that's still active. So I also, I'm a chiropractic school dropout.

I went to Life West for a minute. But Dr. Joe Dispenza, I don't know if you're familiar of him, but he really talks about neuroscience and epigenetics and just how people are able to heal from cancer. cancers and other various diseases that most Western medicine tells you is not curable through essentially lifestyle changes, starting with mindset changes. You probably know this. You know, our brains are the greatest pharmacist in the world. Yeah, I don't disagree with that.

And so when you feel fear or anger or worry or any negative emotion, you release toxic chemicals into your bloodstream, and the more you feel these negative emotions, you start to release them over and over, right? And so they're not getting, I think the right word, you know, metastasized or, you know, they're not getting eliminated properly, essentially. And so it's, it's a lot of people are holding on to this negative energy, which expresses itself as disease and can turn into cancer. And I had very severe PTSD for many years where I was in and out of the hospital, severe pain, spasms, ulcers, lost my voice, could barely walk. And it was all psychosomatic. You know, I try, all kinds of drugs and treatments, and it wasn't until I started, you know, I'm just going to say

getting right in my head, learning to love myself, but I got better. And, you know, even chiropractic was just a Band-Aid I realized in retrospect. It was not actually addressing what was wrong with me. It was essentially just a way to manage symptoms. Sure. I don't disagree with you in any way that stress and, you know, negative thinking, all those things, let's just pile that into a big pile and call it stress, that it is a risk factor for disease. Absolutely. I have not seen evidence that you can, for example, cure stage four cancers through anything other than, you know, Western medicine. For example, the abscopal effect for melanoma.

This is an effect where someone that's got metastatic melanoma, they have a tumor in their hip that's causing pain, and you relieve the pain through, say, radiation, and that exposes the immune system to these proteins. And all of a sudden, you know, a week later, they have no melanoma anywhere. It's a complete utter cure. And we can't induce that in, in a consistent way.

But the fact that we can do it every once in a while means we could do it every time if we knew enough. And I do think, obviously, stress management would play a part in that. But I'm, you know, so I don't know that I agree. I am a Western medicine. I'm an allopath. You know, my specialty is palliative medicine. And I haven't seen spontaneous cures with people who have, for example, reached acceptable. or change their diet and those kinds of things.

But I do know that stress can cause disease. I'm not 100% sure relieving stress will relieve that kind of disease, particularly, you know, cancer that's spread. But, you know, that's a conversation we can have. Yeah, no, and also I feel like if somebody's gotten to that point, it's pretty severe. And it would take a significant mindset shift, lifestyle shift, you know, to achieve something like that.

I do believe it's possible. but something I was thinking about as you were speaking, because I have met people that have had cancer and, you know, gone the traditional route with chemo and so forth, and then they get it again. And then they go through the chemo again, and then they get it again. And so to me, that's the indication that they're still doing whatever is creating this disease in their body. So have we really helped them? Yeah. Well, of course, from our standpoint, we would say, well, they've got a genetic predisposition that their immune system is missing these cancer cells when they keep. But, you know, in the end, it may all be the same thing. We'll see. You know, we used to call trees trees, and then we learned about xylem and flowem and then DNA and cell walls and all that stuff. And then, you know, we delve deeper and deeper. And then you come back and you say, yeah, well, this is what a tree is.

And we still call it a tree, but we know so much more about it. So I'm looking at an article right now that says work stress and the risk of cancer, meta-analysis. This was in the International Journal of Cancer, and they said that they didn't find association between work stress and risk of prostate breast or ovarian cancer, but they did find a huge difference in work stress as an important risk factor for colorectal lung and esophageal cancers. So I do think from a preventative standpoint, we could agree that reducing people's stress would reduce the burden of cancer. answer. Even if we don't agree on how to treat it. Would you buy that? Oh, completely. And again, I appreciate having different perspectives. Of course. I mentioned, you know, one size doesn't fit all. Yep. And for some people and for most people, the path that you are sharing is the path that they do believe in and that they

choose more. But I do believe, you know, like I want to treat the entire being. I don't want to just treat the symptom. I want them to thrive. You know, I want them to overcome whatever they're going through and actually enjoy life and not just be hanging on by a thread. You know, that's part of my vision. And I believe that we're getting there, but it takes time, you know, how do you measure faith, for example, with the placebo effect, you know? Right. How do we do it? We just can't. But we do know that it works sometimes. Sure. If people think that the placebo effect is just something to be poo-poohed. I beg to differ because every single study that we do must correct for the placebo effect. That's how powerful it is. There isn't a validated study in this country that's looking

at the efficacy of some treatment over the other that hasn't subtracted out the placebo effect, which tells you that it's a very powerful effect. Yeah. You know, I think about just you were talking about correlation of stress and certain types of cancers, you know, when I had ulcers, it was because I had lost somebody very near and dear to me. And I had a lot of anger and a lack of forgiveness and patience with myself. And I didn't realize it. You know, it took me a while. And it's like, well, as soon as I started to be forgiving with myself and to be more patient with myself, I got better. And that's what a lot of people don't understand. You know, to some people call it new age. It's like, no, there is a correlation, but it's not easy.

to track these things because not everyone's going to be honest if you if you're a doctor you know they're not going to tell you what they're really thinking or you know and they're alone time and so you have to guess and it's just you know it's it's an interesting part of health i think that we are venturing in but i do know quite a few people that are you know they've been around much longer than i have and they've been doing studies and you know like i mentioned the biology belief. It's a great book full of peer reviewed science. I don't get anything for recommending this book, but it's me a lot. Well, we minimize stress at our risk in medicine for sure, and not recognizing it or paying attention to it is a mistake. I absolutely agree with that.

And something I'd like to turn you on to is my friend Nanaia Reeves from Trip.com is It's t-R-I-P-P.com. They have a virtual reality stress reduction program that is incredible. And I had her on my show before, and so our listeners know about it, so I won't belabor it. But it's basically a 3-D virtual environment where you're taught breathing exercises, and she's genius because she gets you to gauge what your mood is beforehand. And then after you rise through these levels, and then the last level, you're floating above the earth. And Nenea is saying, you know, look, there's no boundaries. You know, we're all one and all this stuff.

It's the greatest thing in the world. And at that point, I don't care who you are. You're totally buying it. And when it's over, then you rate it again. And so she's got tons of data that just shows that this thing really works. I would love to see more people have access to that. and that's the kind of health care I'm interested in that's peripheral to what I do

handing out medicine and doing consults and those kinds of things because I think those kinds of things can be valuable there's no question about that. Oh, yeah, and your brain can't tell the difference between what you're experiencing, you know, in your fully waking state or not, you know, whether it's a fantasy or reality,

if you're really in it, it's as if you're actually experiencing in the here and now, and back to our brains creating chemicals, it's going to create really positive healing chemicals when you are in that state of being. And so, like, I'm really excited about where virtual reality and all that's going, because we can heal a lot of people if we develop the right programs for them to feel healthy even when they're not. I totally agree. So we agree that stress and having a president that would, would be somebody that we could all have some confidence in on both sides of the aisle, which is the great thing about libertarians, because there's something for everybody there, would decrease the stress in this country to a significant degree.

But I guess what I'm not understanding is how do we deliver health care to all these people in this country who need it? And without involving the government, if we want to fix the problems that I enumerated at the beginning of this, which is people losing their houses and then losing their insurance and now they don't have anything, and then they're selling their pain medication. What's the mechanism for actually delivering the things that you've been talking about? I think it starts with cutting back on a lot of legislation, and I know that sounds scary to some people. But for example, part of the reason I dropped out of chiropractic school is because I was going to be between like $300,000 and $500,000 in debt by the time I graduated. And I just wanted to learn how to adjust people to help people feel good. I didn't even want to do it for money. I just wanted to do it.

Right. And I'm like, this is ridiculous, you know. And some of the things that I had to learn and memorize to become a doctor of chiropractic weren't things that I would actually need to know in my practice. Right. And so I feel like there's a lot of politics involved in our health care model that makes it expensive for people to become doctors, which makes care expensive. And I feel like we should really look at results. And, you know, I have many friends that are chiropractors and most of them do not take insurance. And you have to pay out of pocket for them.

But they're cheaper. Yeah, and you get results. Yeah, we have a friend who, well, he's on this show. I was hoping he could be here today. And he went to traditional Chinese medical school in Houston. And so he's four-year. He's not just some person that took a two-year class. And he does better than I do, but he doesn't take insurance.

And he charges probably a third or a quarter what I charge for an office visit. Because, you know, you identified something. If you go to, let's say, chiropractic school or medical school or anywhere and you want to practice for free and you walk out of there with a $300,000 debt, you can't practice for free. No. You can't. No. You have to pay that money back, so you have to make money somewhere. So, okay, so leaner, but then what's the mechanism for delivering health care?

In other words, is the government get involved or is it private industry? I know the anarchist. My anarchist friends say that we should have, you know, private police instead of government-funded police. I honestly think that would be a lot worse, but, you know, that's one of their stances. How do we – what's the mechanism for getting people their health care paid for, I guess? I don't think that government should be involved because it's turned into a business because of their involvement. I do think that if it's privatized, that people will have more options and that it will be more affordable. I also believe, you know, part of my platform is reducing taxes.

And so if people are holding on to more of their money, they're able to choose how they're spending instead of spending it on things they don't really have a choice, you know, like something they don't agree with. And there's a lot of different pieces to it, but essentially it's just getting government out of it, giving people, more options and looking at different approaches I kind of alluded to it but suggestive therapy is a very effective way of helping people with functional disease and I believe that if we change the way that we treat people again looking at the entire person not just the body and not just the symptoms like to understand well why are they experiencing this you know what is it that they're doing that causes them to experience this pain in their life, this disease in their life, and let's change it.

But here's the challenge, because I'm really honest about it, is that most people prefer to take a pill or have a surgery or whatever instead of do the work. So, you know, and I mentioned it before, it is a mindset shift, and it has to come from the top because whoever's on top gets the attention. And, you know, like it or not, we are, most of us are, subconsciously following, copying the behaviors that we see around us. So you would encourage insurance companies, for example, to pay. Because right now, my friend, my partner that's here, he can't get an insurance company

to pay for his services, even though demonstrably his patients feel better and their quality of life has improved, but he can't bill an insurance company. So you would encourage insurance companies to pay for some of these other. other mind-body things that they're not paying for now. Is that one of the things that's what I'm encouraged but not require? Got it. You know, and I, like I mentioned, I know a lot of chiropractors and some of them are expensive and, you know, it varies on where they are in the country.

Sure. And I know many of them do pro bono work too because they have the freedom to do that and they want to help people and I don't believe that any of that's going to change. I believe they'll be able to do more of that if they don't have to pay so much. you know, to become doctors. Right. Or to pay for working with insurance companies. We have to, we have a whole second floor at the cancer center that does nothing but

interface with insurance companies. And so we charge a lot more than Dr. Scott does. But I'm not 100% sure we're making more than he does because we've got this huge overhead. So I kind of, I actually see where you're going with this to some degree. and it's a lot of work for you to do that you know it's a lot of work for you to do that it's kind of it makes you wonder you know like is this the best path but I think that for right now it is like I don't believe in a radical overnight change because I don't want to leave anyone behind I believe this has to be a gradual thoughtful and you know consider it change that we do

that we don't leave people without that we have people step up that that offer better solutions. And, you know, I'm an idea person, and I can come up with very specific solutions in certain fields where I feel I'm an expert in. And in other fields, I believe it's really important to have conversations with people that are much wiser than me that, you know, have been around longer,

and come up with solutions together. And that's part of the reason that, you know, I'm not super specific is because I don't know all the nuances, you know, all the nitty gritty. Now, this is a first for a politician, to say. So I'm going to give you some applause just for saying you don't know everything.

I appreciate that. Well, I think we all have to realize that nobody knows everything and that we need to talk to each other to understand what works and what doesn't and just focus on the things that do work and make them better. Yeah. Well, you're listening

to Serene Ardellian, who is an independent candidate for President of the United States and you ran for initially to run on the Libertarian ticket, but Joe Jorgensen is now running on that ticket. So right now you're a write-in candidate, so this is sort of an ethical or a moral choice for people. But if you're going to write her in, you've got to write in, you've got to spell her name right.

Is that correct? That is correct, yes. So that's going to be hard with a Romanian name like that. So, but let me spell it for everybody. S-O-R-I-N-N-E, A-R-D-E-L-E-A-A-N-U. And I'm going to, I'll put your name in the title so that people will, you know, see it on their serious exam or on their, on their podcast app. Thank you.

So I have one last question, and this may take a minute, but, you know, one of the greatest health concerns in the country isn't really a design. disease, it's poverty, and it affects diet, accidental death, trauma, access to medical care. What's your solution? So I grew up really poor in American standards on food stamps, welfare, Section 8, financial aid. That was what got me through the beginning part of my life. And, you know, my parents are still struggling, you know, but they have found a way to make peace. And what I've learned, especially through my journey, is that if you prioritize correctly, that you can thrive.

But again, this isn't these, we're not being taught these values in the mainstream. We're being taught to pursue things that don't help us. Because whenever I had really severe PTSD, one of the first changes I made was to my diet. And I went to eating all organic and whole foods. and what I did was like I just started buying things that were on sale and I wasn't being so picky and I just realized okay fresh fruits and produce that's what I really need the most of to eliminate toxins and fill myself with nutrients and you know it's it's about adaptation you're doing the best of what you have where you are but also like you know striving for better striving for more because I am I don't I don't say this with any disrespect to my parents I love them dearly they work very hard too hard But, you know, I'm in a much better position than they are because I've made very different choices. But I've had to work very hard to where I've gotten to change my circumstances. And I've realized that, you know, and I believe this is a very libertarian view, and this is also, you know, kind of a natural laws thing.

We reap what we so. And if we make smart decisions, they're going to pay off for us, but we also have to make certain sacrifices and recognize, like, what's really important in life to, thriving and for me it's really just having food in my belly having a roof over my head and having love in my life but that wasn't always the case yeah i used to be a material girl you know i used to try to keep up with the joneses and because that's what i you know i hate those joneses but you know what i mean like many of us have the wrong values yeah you know we always have money for you know as women a handbag or a pair of shoes but somehow we don't have money to eat right and it's just it's recognizing like what really matters and recognizing well if I make this sacrifice today and if I invest in myself this way that in the long run it will pay off and we you know it's basically delaying gratification and making yourself number one I believe that anybody can overcome their circumstances I've I've done interviews myself in the past where I you know I've been the interviewer with people that have overcome so much more adversity than I have and it all

all comes down to the mindset and recognizing that, you know, we've, dreams are earned. They're not just handed to us. If they are, they don't last. Well, this took a left turn, and I'm very interested in what you're saying. That's very libertarian. And so you're mixing this libertarianism with this sort of love thing. And I kind of like it. I got to tell you.

So I'm really glad that you came on. the show today. You're our first presidential candidate. And let me give out your name again. It's Sorin Ardellianu. Her name will be on your pad data, independent candidate for president of the United States. And she is also known as the healer in chief. And I really appreciate you being on the show today. And let's keep in touch. Thank you. It's an honor to connect with you. And I'm grateful for where the conversation went. Yeah, me too. And I think you have an uphill battle when it comes to getting this country interested in critical thinking, but I can't say anything, but I applaud the effort, absolutely.

Thank you. Okay. Okay. Take care. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Well, there you go.

So, yeah, we've never done anything like that before. I just really wanted to have her on because she was such a fascinating character. She used to be on Pat Dixon's show a lot when she was running for the libertarian libertarian nomination or whatever, you know, to be the candidate. So I think it's really interesting because she kind of has some of these hippie views, and then all of a sudden she's talking about personal responsibility, and they're really just straight libertarian ideas. So interesting.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed that. Tacey, we got some new face masks. Oh, and not only did we get fast. but you got a little prize. I got a prize. I got a cup. Is that what you call it? No, I don't, it's like a water bottle, but it's insulated. That's what you call it. An insulated water bottle with my name on it in hot pink. And then on the other side, that weird medicine logo that I adore. But anyway, it was a very nice gift, the nicest gift I could have gotten last week. Yeah. And it's exactly what I needed. And I just really want to see. say thank you. So let me give him a plug. It comes from Bob Seidel. Golly, Bob. I'm sorry if I got your last name, if I butchered last name. But he has a company called Party Shots. And what they do normally is they go to golf outings and corporate events and then do foursome photos like of the

golfers. And then they, he puts them on things. And but he does other stuff too. And he's the one that makes our face masks. So check him out at Part T. Shots.com. It's P-A-R-T-S-H-O-T-S-H-O-T-S dot com. Anyway, really nice guy. Nicest present ever. Yeah, that was really cool. He was thrilled that you liked it, too. Yeah, I really did like it. All right, good. Okay, so this is the other thing that's happened. And I'm glad that you all have hung in here with this political talk that we had, because now we're going to have fun. While we were in on vacation, The day after we got on vacation, or we got there, your mother calls me and says,

can you turn up the thermostat because I'm cold? And I'm like, okay, well, you're cold? And she's like, yeah, I'm having chills. And she just, it was like pulling teeth. Well, are you sick? Well, my nose is real dry. And then it's like, well, okay, your nose is dry. The roof of her mouth hurt.

And I'm coughing. You're coughing. Yeah, but I always cough. So anyway, I had her take her temperature, and she called you and said it was 100. And I'm like, okay, you got to go get tested then. And then she called me, and I said, so your temp was 100? She said, well, it was 99. I was just rounding up.

So that's your mom. And so she went and got tested, and lo and behold, she called us up and said, well, I've got the covert. Yep. Worst vacation ever. Yeah, it was pretty bad. behavior. She isn't going to hear this part. We're going to call her here in a second to see, because we haven't had anybody on that actually had it yet. And her behavior was pretty egregious. And then I hear her, well, I'm in the kitchen, and she's just hacking in our house because she was, oh, did I forget to say she was house sitting? Yes, she was house. And she's just hacking trillions of viral particles all over our house. Trillions.

So had to get her out of the house, you know, the day, two days before we came and then we hired someone to come in in a hazmat suit and sterilized the house. And I still had to pay her for a house sitting, even though it cost us a ton of money. You know, it was a net deficit on that one. But anyway, let's get your mom on the phone. Okay. Oh, and then, yeah, she called, she called me one day and said, well, I'm having chest pains. And it's like, well, Joe, then you need to go to the emergency room. Then she got mad.

She's like, well, Steve, I have chest pain every day. You know that. And it's like, well, then why did you bring it up? She's something. It was like that all week. It's like that your whole life. So let's let me see if I can figure out how to call her real quick. Uh-oh.

Let's see here. No, I don't want to block her. I want to call her. Do we not now? No, we still do Let me just dial it Hang on a second, everybody Hey, Tacey

Let's see Okay, hang on Oh, we can just do this Okay, I'm putting in the I'm sure Serene's listening to this And saying, what the hell Show is this, this guy?

Yeah Very unprofessional Let's see Well, you were professional for her Was I? Okay Enough Yeah

Okay I wasn't freaked out over baritone but turns out he doesn't have it oh no i forgot to tell you yeah his baritone teacher has covid and he hasn't come back yet okay oh i thought that was joe okay here's joe oh no number you entered is not god dang it okay hang on everybody sorry let me try this again um say something, Tase. What? Normally,

I would have had this all queued up, and I thought I did, and it just didn't work, so. Is that right? I'll have to bleep that out. Remind me. Oh, my God. 3854, remind me to bleep that out. Hello?

Joe. Yeah. Hey, hey, it's your son-in-law and your daughter. And we are recording our show, and you already gave consent, so we don't have to go through all of that. So walk us through when you first realized you were sick, what you felt like so that people kind of have an idea. Well, I felt like I had the flu. I had just gotten the flu shot, and that's what I felt like I had, was the flu. Gotcha. So you just had your flu shot, and then you kind of felt crummy and said, oh, maybe it was the flu shot.

And then when did you know that there was a problem? When I got up that morning, couldn't do nothing. Yeah. I was real weak and had no strength, nauseated. And I was supposed to work that morning, and I called him, and he said, You can't come in until you know. And I said, well, I'm positive. It's the flu.

And then when I called you, you said, go get tested. Yeah. And I went and got tested. I got dressed and got tested. It took them three, four days to let me know. And the time I knew I had it, I was full blown. Yeah. I was into it big time.

So when you say you were into it big time, what kind of symptoms did you have? Real weak, nauseated. sick at your stomach, I had the sore throat, I had the jerks, the diarrhea didn't start until I started eating, and then the diarrhea started. I had a bad, bad cough. Yeah. And a fever. So your doctor called...

A finger? Oh, a fever. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. I'm sorry. How high did your temperature get? 102. Oh, my goodness. I don't think you told us that.

I didn't. Oh, okay. Well, well, there you go. Oh, you were trying to spare us while we were on vacation. I know what you two are like. I want you at the hospital. I can hear you say it. But I called the doctor and I told them that I, well, no, I take that back.

Dr. I called me and said, Gwen, you have got COVID. Yeah. And she sent me to mess, and you told me to get a thing for my finger, for my breathing, and I'd already had my thermometer. I don't know why,

but I had my thermometer with me. Oh, yeah. And so I kept eye on my breathing, and I kept an eye on. At the temperature. Yeah. So she gave me medicine for my cough. She gave me...

Sounds like it's working great. Yeah. Well, it's not as bad as it has been, Steve. And you know that. Yeah. But... I can't think of the name of the medicine. Which one?

Dexamethazone. Yes. You take two the first day. And then after that, you take, and that helps you chilling, because you chill with this. And after that, you take five more. Yeah. And then after that, it stays in your system five to ten days. Yeah. So even though I finished up yesterday, which it ate my stomach. all the pieces. It will do that.

For people who are listening, Dexamethosone is a pretty powerful steroid. And when you take it orally particularly, but even IV, it can irritate your stomach. Because it's a stress hormone and stress irritates your stomach. So that's the simple. But it worked.

Yeah. It got a hold. The chill started going the way. The temperature started going the way. I'm still weak. And thinking about food until you gave me some of that nausea medicine

thinking about food. Like this morning when I was talking to you on the phone, I was just about to lose it when I hung up with you. Because we were talking about food. Yes. And of course, you know, my first temptation was when you said, oh, if you talk about food, I'm going to get sick as to start going, oh, mayonnaise and ants, but

I resisted the urge. Oh, if you had done that, I would have lost it. because I do not have this I don't have it so people who have COVID-19 illness the CDC says that they should isolate so people who have it isolate people who have been exposed quarantine so people should isolate 10 days after the onset of symptoms so your onset of symptoms was Sunday then you went to Sunday that's seven and then Monday Tuesday Wednesday that's today is 10 so you can come out of of isolation tomorrow, even though you're still coughing, as long as you haven't had a fever in the last 24 hours. I've not had a fever in three days or four days. Now, the people in your house have to quarantine for 14 days since the last time they had close contact with you.

So I'm assuming that would have been last Saturday, is that right, before you came over to our house? Or would it be Friday? It was probably Friday, right? Because you came over early on Saturday. So I come over Thursday and she stayed Friday. Okay. So Friday, oh, right, right, right.

So Friday. I left Friday morning to come here. Remember? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I left my, your house Friday morning. No, but I mean when you left to come here in the first place. Oh, that was Saturday. Was Saturday, right?

It was Saturday when you all was, you all were still on the road going down. Right, right, right. So that would, would, but Friday. was probably the last time you had close contact with anybody in your family, right? Because you came over before they got up. Am I right about that or no? Right. And I've not been nowhere. Okay. I've stayed right.

I stayed at your house, and I stayed at my house. So Friday to Friday would be a week. And then so this, today is your last day and Friday would be their last day. So

they need to stay in quarantine until, you know, they can come out of quarantine on Saturday? On Saturday? Yep. Okay. Because they've not been, they're home with me.

Okay. Well, and, you know, it's the reason, by the way, Joanne did not have severe COVID-19. She had mild disease. She never even got into the moderate level because her oxygen levels stayed up the whole time. But they put her on dexamethazone, not because that's what you normally do,

but because she has rheumatoid arthritis, she's already on steroids a lot of the time. So that's the one exception to the dexamethosone role because they really feel like dexamethosone should only be given to people who are in the hospital. But that could change, too. But it seemed to help you. Steve, if they had started treating me, as soon as I suspected I had it, I wouldn't have got as bad as I did. That may be true.

Early treatment of this stuff. I think they're going at it wrong. They need to start treating them just in case they've got it. Yeah. And get it started sooner. Well, the problem is we don't have. And it won't go bad on these older people. We don't have a treatment for outpatient other than dexamethazone, which really isn't indicated for mild disease.

So, but it's coming. There's a drug called fava pyruvier, which is an antiviral pill that I'm hoping will prevent people from, going to, you know, severe disease. But the thing, the reason I wanted you on here is because, you know, it's, we've talked about it on the show that there's no secret that, you know, you weigh more than your ideal body weight, and you have obstruct, you know, sleep apnea, and you have rheumatoid arthritis and you're on, you know, biological medication to suppress your immune system. And still, you just sailed right through this. Totally sailed right through it. You were, you didn't feel good, but you didn't. Oh, I still don't feel good.

Yeah, but. But your oxygen saturation never dropped. You didn't end up in the hospital. You didn't end up on life support. Right. Yeah. So. Right.

So. Right. So I know exactly where I got it and when I got it. Yep. I know exactly where I got it. I know you do, and you can't say it on our show. I know. Okay.

But, and I never go anywhere without my mask. Yep. I've got, I bought a box and I keep them in my car. I don't go in a store nowhere without my mask. And when I got it, I did have my mask on. Sure, because the mask protects other people from you more than it does you from other people unless you're wearing an N95 mask. And that's what we wear when we go into the COVID unit. And so those do prevent me from getting it.

But the regular, just surgical mask or cloth mask is really more effective in you preventing. yourself from giving it to somebody else. Yeah. And you found that you figured that out because that's what happened to you. Well, see, I have that mess, but it hurts my face to worry. Yep. Yeah, no. I had to work when they do the breathing treatment.

Yep. But that's the only time I work because it's so tight on your face. You couldn't worry that 12 hours a day. Yeah, no. It's tough, although there are people that do. Yeah, but I don't think I could. All right. I don't think I'm one of them.

Well, we're glad you're all right. So glad. I was going to play your intro for everybody just in case they, you know what. I forgot about you. If we need to get back. Remember we used to do Big Joe's monthly visit? We need to have you back in the studio and do that more often. Yeah.

You made me look like an idiot. No, no. We did not. People love you, Mom. I don't care, Steve. I know I'm overweight. I know. Who isn't?

I love my job. Yeah. I love what I do, because I feel like I'm helping the elderly people. Yeah. And I don't care. Yeah. Well, there you go. And I'm not looking for nobody so the heck with him.

You're not looking for what? No, man, if you will. I'm happy with myself. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. We need to get you a boyfriend, though. Maybe we'll do a Big Joe dating game again. You do that and I'll ring your neck.

I know. What, you didn't like the Big Joe dating game? Didn't you win a... No, I do not want a... You won half off of any jello item at Piccadilly. Wasn't that the prize that you guys won? Piccadilly's closed. Oh, my God.

Okay. All right, and that concludes our... All right, Joe, we'll talk to you later. Thank you, Mom. I love you, guys. Bye. We love you, too. Bye.

Bye. See you, bye. The queen of the non sequitur. Well, she surely is. She's a good, and I'll tell you that. Mm-hmm. Until she isn't. We need to get her back on here.

I was just thinking of the Big Joe monthly visit, which that was double vasectomy turds idea. And what I'll do is, I think we, that was from September 14th, 2012. Wow. That was a while back. Mm-hmm. I taped that on my birthday, I guess. Right? Didn't that my birthday?

Well, anyway, I'll put it at the end of this episode. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, let's get out of here. We can't forget Rob Sprantz, Bob Kelly, Greg Hughes, Anthony Coomia, Jim Norton, Travis Teft, who went to Disney. And then now he has to quarantine in New York for 14 days because they went to Disney. We love Disney.

Not worth that. Holly from Florida. Louis Johnson, Paul Off Charsky, Eric Nagel. that girl Chowdy, Martha from Arkansas, Roland Campos, Sam Roberts, Pat Duffy, Dennis Falcone, Matt Kleinshmidt, Dale Dudley, the great Rob Bartlett, Bernie and Sid, Ron Bennington, and Fizz Watley, whose support of this show has never gone on appreciated. Listen to our serious XM show on the Faction Talk channel series XM Channel 103,

Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern, Sunday at 5 p.m. Eastern, but on demand and other times at Jim McClure's pleasure. Many thanks go to our listeners whose voicemail and topic ideas make this job very easy. Go to our website at Dr. Steve.com for schedules and podcasts and other crap. Don't forget, stuff.com. Until next time, check your stupid nuts for lumps. Quit smoking, get off your asses and get some exercise. We'll see you in one week for the next edition of Weird Medicine.

Goodbye, everyone. Thanks, days. Are you getting me to sound like a hillbilly? Are you getting me to sound like a hillbilly? Come on in and set a spell. It's time for Big Joe's monthly visit. Oh, God. and welcome back it's big joe's monthly visit hello joe how are you just fine you've been doing

anything interesting since last time we met no okay good i've uh i did hear that you had a peeping tom in your neighborhood they think we've got one is that right now what what's he doing apparently looking through windows like i said the other night if he wants to look at this fat body he can look at maybe he likes them big boobs big boots big belly big gut that's prophetic we were talking about some of your recipes that you had and we were wondering about your chili recipe if you could tell us a little bit about your chili recipe Steve makes fun of my chili but it's good chili I mean, it's for hot dogs, and you make it out of two cups of water, a pound hamburger, fry it and get it real, all the grease and stuff off of it, and a small tube of that chili corn carne, and he makes fun of it, but it makes the best hot dog. So first you start with chili.

Yes. So that's the first, the way she told it today, it was the third ingredient, but the main ingredient in your. your chili recipe is chili. But you add hamburger meat and chili powder and salt. What cracks me up is the first time you told us this recipe and we were making fun of you and your boyfriend was making fun of you and he brought this lemonade. And we're in the mountains and I'm like, man, this lemonade's really good. And I said, Johnny, how do you make this?

He said, well, first you start with that lemonade that you get at this store. And here he was making fun of you for having chili be the first ingredient in your chili. Well, I don't care who makes fun of it. When we have hot dog sales, it sells like cockcakes. We've made $3,000 in just one week over that hot dog chili. Well, let's play Big Joe trivia. Oh, yeah, right. All right.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask you some trivia questions, and you answer them best you can. And if this is stupid, I'll erase it. All right. You ready? Question number one. What is the name of the coffee drink that they sell at McDonald's? Flopped. I mean, I mean, take it back.

Oh, Steve. It's okay. Take your time. This isn't Jeopardy. There won't be a buzzer. Flopé. There you go. Flopé, exactly right.

Okay. Took me forever and get that down. Flopé. I probably still don't say any right. Oh, what kind of cheese do you use in lasagna, the white cheese? What's the name of the white cheese? Monterrella. Okay, what's the other white cheese that you put in in lasagna?

I do make good lasagna. Yes, you do. I don't know the name of it. I just know the box. The stuff that's sort of like... I know. Pauvay. provide well i don't know the stuff that's in that i know what it is it's cream and it stinks

after a while it's kind of like cottage cheese right i put cause cheese in it too all right um what is that name pervette we'll save that for next time you think about it yeah what's the name of the movie with will smith and tommy lee jones with the aliens in it I don't know. Came out this year. Oh, the falling skies? No, that wasn't the one I was thinking of. It was the one with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, and they fight the aliens.

Predators. There you go. All right. I like that movie, too. I like weird movies. Now, we've been watching a show, not the one that we're watching now, but before this, about England during World War I. And what is the name of that show?

Oh, God. We only watched 26 hours of it. It's not Hanover. It's Downson. Downson Abbey. Oh, she got it. I thought you were going to say Down syndrome. I'm sorry. Take that out. You came so close to saying Down syndrome.

It took me a long time to get that down. Guys, I just watched a show. I don't watch the name. All right. We've got a few questions for you, and then we'll wrap this up, okay? These are called in questions from people. All right, let's see.

Hello, Big Joe, are you ever? That's Steve. Hello? He's kidding me. A kid. Big Joe. Would you all believe he's got that on my ancient machine? Everybody just dies like.

She won't talk to me. She won't. I can't tell her. All right. Didn't fool you with that one. No, you did not. I'm a trucker, and I like them women with them big old tin. And I wonder if you got them through the leisure area.

About four times a month. And I was wondering if I can tell that's me. Yes, I could tell that to you. No doubt. We got the Big Joe's Fried Bologna T-shirts coming out. And I want people to. be on the lookout for that. And it's got a cartoon of Big Joe by Fluffer Nutter.

And he is a guy named Matt Hoffman. He goes by the name Fluffer Nutter on the internet. And he does all of our logos and stuff. And it's got Joe with this big fried bologna sandwich. It says, five pieces for a balanced diet. So make sure you check out our merchandise at, riotcast.com or at cafepress.com slash weird medicine. And Joe, thanks for coming.

And let's go watch a couple more episodes of Down syndrome. And then, all right, we'll see you next time for Big Joe's monthly visit. Thank you.