Weird Medicine: The Podcast - 477 - Down With the Virus Regime

Episode Date: October 28, 2021

Dr Scott, Dr Steve, and NP Mel B discuss the possible extinction of an influenza B strain (yay!), monoclonal antibody treatment (or lack thereof) and its aftermath, foreign bodies found in body cavities, and more! Check out Weird Medicine: The Special Edition (with Tacie) on Patreon at patreon.com/weirdmedicine! Please visit: stuff.doctorsteve.com (for all your online shopping needs!) Get Every Podcast on a Thumb Drive ($30 gets them all!) simplyherbals.net (for all your StressLess and FatigueReprieve needs!) BACKPAIN.DOCTORSTEVE.COM – (Back Pain? Check it out! Talk to your provider about it!) Cameo.com/weirdmedicine (Book your old pal right now while he’s still cheap!) betterhelp.com/medicine (who doesn’t need a little counseling right now?) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How do bumblebees sign their emails? Swarm. Regards. If you just read the bio to Dr. Steve, host of weird medicine on Sirius XM103 and made popular by two really comedy shows, Opie and Anthony and Ron and Fez, you would have thought that this guy was a bit of, you know, a clock. Your show was better when you had medical questions.

Yay! I've got diphtheria crushing my esophagus. I've got Ebola, stripping from my nose. I've got the leprosy of the heartbound, exacerbating my imbettable woes. I want to take my brain now, blast with the wave, an ultrasonic, ecographic, and a pulsating shave.

I want a magic pill. All my ailments, the health equivalent of 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 a 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, no, a podcast. I'm Dr. Steve with my little pal, Dr. Scott, the traditional Chinese medical practitioner

who gives me street grad with the wacko alternative medicine assholes. Hello, Dr. Scott. Hey, Doug Steve. Also in studio, we have N.P. Melby. and female bee. Hello. We'll be talking to you in just a minute. This is a show for people who would never listen to a medical show on the radio or the Internet.

If you have a question, you're embarrassed to take to a regular medical provider. If you can't find an answer anywhere else, give us a call at 347-76-4-3-23. That's 347. Pooh-Hood. Follow us on Twitter at Weird Medicine or at D.R. Scott, W.M. Visit our website at Dr. Steve.com for podcast, medical news and stuff you can buy. Most importantly, we are not your medical providers. Just take everything here with a grain of salt.

Don't act on anything you hear on this show without talking over with your doctor, nurse, practitioner, practical nurse, physician, physician, physician, doctor, pharmacist, chiropractor, acupuncturist, yoga master, physical therapist, clinical laboratory, scientists, registered dietitian or whatever. All right. One thing that you might be interested in, and this is new, is we're going to be doing a Patreon. and the Sirius XM show will be a little different from the podcast, which is free, and then the Patreon will be a completely different thing. So during the times of trouble, which was during, you know, the lockdown, the first year of the podcast, Dr. Scott was banned from the studio, because it's a very close quarters. We didn't know what the hell was going on.

So my wife Tacey was my co-host, and she loves to. to give me shit and she likes to drink and she's you know I'm not a funny person she's pretty funny so people really liked it well we thought we might try and we're just going to try this weird medicine the special edition what the special edition is it will be 30 to 45 minute podcast about three times a month with some other old classic weird medicine stuff thrown in at Patreon. So go to patreon.com slash weird medicine. Check it out.

There's a $5 tier. I mean, I know everybody's paying for stuff now, but some of the stuff we're going to do on there, I don't want just kind of out there. It needs to be behind a paywall. So patreon.com slash weird medicine. Give it a try. Dr. Scott will be there some.

I'm sure DJ Mel B will be there, Lady Diagnosis. We're going to do some more, get back to some more fun things. And there will be a lot more Big Joe on that show. Because it's hard to get her over here when we record this, but it'll be easy to do this because we're going to do it on Saturday. And we might record three shows at once. And then as she continues to drink, every third show then, see, we'll be a drinking show.

I'll be there for that. Yeah, you can just come for that one. That works. Anyway, check out stuff. com. It's holiday season for all your holiday shop and go to Stuff. StuF. dot, Dr. Steve.com.

Click straight through to go to go to stuff. to Amazon or scroll down to see all the stuff we talk about. Oh, if you want stocking stuffers, tweakeda audio.com, use offer code fluid, FLUID, for 33% off the best earbuds for the price and the best customer service anywhere. And then don't forget Dr. Scott's website at simplyerbils.net. You got anything on there these days? Nothing new. Okay, but it's still got some good stuff.

Simplyerbils.net. That's simplyerbils.net. All right. So, yeah, very good. So welcome to the studio. You already saw Scott and me get to yell at each other for 30 seconds. Very entertaining. He's being an asshole.

It is my fault. It always is your fault. It's my show, my microphone. It's true. You are the commander of the console. No, I'm a control freak. I think other people should be a control freak. And so, you know, I just want her to be able to control her own stuff.

That's all. Because it's, you know, I wouldn't want. You didn't see her eyes staring at me begging for help. Yes, I get it. Yes. She was like. So we have a head fight. Nobody cares about this.

This is, you know. God damn, this is about as boring. Yeah, I get it, dude. I get it. Okay. So it'll just take two seconds. You know what? Never mind.

It was, I was being an asshole. But I was, you know, like a. said i just would like for everybody to be able to control their own headphone volume but scott was trying to be a gentleman and help the damsel while somebody else was trying to get these in the crazy cameras well that is true the cameras a little head you have a little tiny head i do have a that is true my wife has a little tiny head too so you two would get along just well just fine and uh p or n p m l b has done two shots of what what tequila is that let me see it i don't know Whatever you gave me.

It's Luna Zool. Yum. Ooh, reposado. Okay, very good. 40% out of my volume. Oh, geez. I'm telling you better speed to show up. Yeah, okay.

We've got to get out. I got a third one poured. She's not going to be vertical for long. No point in being nervous because it's just us and, I don't know, 100,000 people listening to us right now. Is that all? That's all. You ever take. Hey, so we should probably just get into it then.

why you're here. And then I know you, I asked you to bring a medical story. Dr. Scott, I sent a bunch of them to him and then we're going to take some medical questions. I didn't have time to download any, but we got a million of them that haven't been done yet. Right on. And most of them, non-COVID, by the way. But we wanted to, you and I are going to do a video together. Yes. Wait a minute. Yeah. We're one on TV. Yeah. As soon as the show is over after she does her fifth shot, Scott, you're the videography.

Oh, shit. I may need a shot for this. All right. This is 2021, Harvey. I don't need to shut up with that kind of stupid shit. But we are doing a video together. We are. We got the script the other day. And it has to do with the tale of two COVID cases. And what this is really about is the fact that 30% of people who are eligible for monoclonal antibodies, which keeps people out of the hospital and keeps them from dying. not 100% of time, but way more than if you don't do it,

are only 30% of people who are eligible are actually getting it. Right. And you have a story of woe, and I have a story of ultimate triumph. So why don't you tell your story first, and then we'll contrast what happened to the two of us. I have never been so sick of my life. Well, you are young and healthy. I am young and healthy.

Except... I have autoimmune disorders. Okay. And you don't. I don't have to say what they are, but you do. I do. I do have autoimmune disorders. Okay.

So I got COVID, and the first... Do you know how you got it? I do. You don't have to name any names. It is my mother. She loves me so much that she gave me her COVID. She just had to share it with you. She is precious.

Yeah. And she gave me the COVID. Gave you the covert? Yep. That's what Big Joe called it. Well, I've got covert. Yes. And because I was in public and was a way.

and was away from everyone else. Yeah. But sitting next to my mom and felt like that was safe and I took my mask off. Sure. Shouldn't have. Well, she'd have left it on in public. No, but you understand. I mean, you're a nurse practitioner.

The mask doesn't protect you from getting it from somebody. It protects other people from getting it from you. She didn't have one on either. Yeah. Well, there you know. So she was not having any symptoms at the time. Of course. Yeah.

She was fine. She started having some symptoms the next day. Okay. It was two days after that that I started having symptoms, so three days after I had contact with her. Yeah. Three or four days. And I started and it hit immediately. My nose was running like a sugar tree just constant.

Fever immediately, body aches, and I went to bed. I was in the bed for four days. Now, did anybody at this point, did your primary care know that you had COVID? at this point? That was on a Friday. I called them first thing Monday morning. Okay. You called them first thing Monday morning.

And had a televisit phone call with the doctor or with the nurse practitioner and never once mentioned the antibodies. Oh, okay. Well, right. You know where I'm going. Right. So you told them on, it was really, okay, so Friday evenings when you got sick, right? Friday evening. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, before.

four evening, so it was 48 plus. It was less than 72 hours. It was. Okay, so you have this visit, and what do they say? They told me, they sent me in some steroids, told me to get some mucinex, some vitamins, and to take those, and just symptom management. Really, some vitamins? Some vitamins. What vitamins would those be?

C and D. Okay, D I'm okay with, because that was sort of common parlance. Yeah. All right. They tell you to take zinc? Yes. Oh, they did? They did zinc.

Well, all right. And magnesium, plus I take a multivitamin anyway. Yeah. So I kept taking it. Okay. And then what happened? I got sicker and continued running a fever. I think I ran a fever for like seven straight days.

And just kept getting sicker. The cough started getting bad. And that's when I started having trouble breathing. It was about day five or six. Day five or six. Okay, so day five or six, you start having, quote, unquote, trouble breathing. What does that mean? I was just getting real short of breath every time I'd get up and even just walk to the bathroom, very short of breath.

Do you have a pulse oxymeter? I did. It was in the low 90s. Give yourself a bill. Okay. So in the low 90s, a couple times got down to like 88, and that's when I called the doctor again. Okay. So on day, and what day was that?

That was on Thursday of the next week, Thursday morning. Okay, so we're talking right around the seventh day, six day. Okay, so it's day six, you call them, and your oxygen saturation, which for people who don't know, your oxygen saturation is something that we can measure multiple ways, but the easiest way to do is with one of these little meters. It passes a red light, and it can tell. from the, basically, the color that's reflected or, I'm sorry, transmitted through your finger, what, how much oxygen is your blood is carrying.

Right. And normally, it can be 100%. I mean, it can be 100% if you're on oxygen on room air. It's going to be somewhere between 96 and 98%. Right. Okay. It can't go higher than 100. No.

Okay. So yours was down in the 88, which is when we see people with emphasis. Zima and stuff like that that are having a problem, we see those. So this was not normal. No, they told me to use my albuterol inhaler. Okay, so albuterol being an inhaler that is a beta, what we call a beta agonist, that opens up the airways in people who have asthma. So you had asthma, too?

Why did you have an inhaler? I've had asthma for a really long time. Okay. So asthma and autoimmune deserals. or disorder. So Thursday, they started talking about getting me the antibodies because I mentioned it to my provider. So you brought it up.

I did because a good friend of mine. Okay. A good friend of mine told me I should. Who was that? Oh, me? Give yourself a bill. All right. So they scheduled me.

So, yeah, you called me and said, I'm sorry. sicker and shit and I said go get the antibodies you need to have the antibodies right so then you mention it to them and then they go oh okay right so they got me scheduled for first thing Friday morning Friday morning yes so this is a week into it yes okay so the limits 10 days 10 days okay so I go to get my antibodies the next morning um they could not get an IV on me I was still running a fever um at that point my That's a long time to run a few days. Yeah, I was miserable.

I was so confused. But at that point, I think my blood pressure was 70s over 40s. My heart rate was steady in the 40s. There was a couple. What? You were Brady Cardic? I was very Brady Cardi. I just used a bunch of jargon because we're in the same thing.

Brady Cardia means slow heart rate. And it's defined as a heart rate lower than 50. So that is abnormal. Did you walk in there? I did. Barely. I was exhausted. Yeah.

So they get me in the chair and hook me up to all the things. And at that point, they were asking me questions about my disease progression. You know, how things had gone over the last week. Why did you wait so long? Right. You know, why I still had a fever. And at that point, whenever I was talking, my oxygen was dropping down, the lowest it got was like 78%. Oh.

percent and when that happened the heart rate went down into the 30s and then they said and I saw the monitor and I thought this is it yeah and this is this is where it goes back so if you had not been yakin your heart your oxygen saturated would have been saturation it was steady in the 80s oh it was still in the 80s right so they still wouldn't have done it no okay so they wouldn't do it because I was just thinking you know if you hadn't been ratchet jaw on maybe you could have gotten the infusion but anyway I'm getting ahead of the story. So go ahead. So at that point, they wouldn't give me the infusion.

They couldn't get an IV started anyway. Yep. They sent me to... You know, you don't need an IV to do these. They talked about doing it sub-Q. Yeah. Okay. So you can do it subcutaneously, meaning that you do four injections in the abdomen under the skin. So, yeah.

They decided that that might not be the best idea. Yeah, no. Because they were terribly afraid I was going to crash. So they were getting ready to call an ambulance. I told them my mom was outside. my sweet, caring, giving mother. Who also has COVID? Who also has COVID?

Was outside in the car. Breaking isolation, but you do what you need to do for your kids. Yeah, she stayed in the car. She just drove me to the facility and stayed in the car. So I told him she was in the car and she could take me. So I just got in the car with her and she drove me to the hospital. They called the emergency room, told them you were coming. Yes, they did.

We got a COVID positive patient coming and she's close to crumping. Yes. And then what? So they brought me in, gave me some fluids, which helped put me on oxygen, which also helped. As soon as they put me on two liters of oxygen, I came up. I was back up in the 90s with that. So that was when they called my doctor and got everything set up for oxygen at home and let me go home because I would not stay. These are folks, well, and they, listen, these days particularly at that time when we were getting.

crushed with COVID cases. They were sending people home with oxygen who normally we would have admitted. So I'm suspecting they might not have wanted to admit you in the first place because you are otherwise young and otherwise healthy and were stable otherwise. That's a little touch and go. So you never did get the antibodies. I never did get the antibodies. Yeah.

So what you don't know is when you were going. to the hospital, I was calling some people and saying, listen, if she dies, there's going to be hell to pay. Well, I appreciate that. My kids do, too. I was kind of, I think on the phone. Because I was a little worried at the time. On the way to the hospital, I was on the phone with you.

And I think those were my exact words. Yeah. Don't let me die. Yeah. Yeah, well, like I had something to do with fixing that. But anyway, the good news is you are young and healthy, but are you back to normal? No. Okay.

So how long has it been? How long has it been? It has been since the end of August. August? August. So the end of August. So let's just say first September. So all of September and now all of October.

Yes. Because we're recording this on October 27th. And what is not normal? My voice for one. Yeah. I thought that was just your sexy smoking voice. We're going to get me for your vocal fry, but that actually you can't do anything about it. No, that's it.

This is me. This is me now Your voice doesn't normally sound like this Not quite, no So your voice, you can deal with that Because your voice actually sounds pretty hot now I say we need a singer for a band A Christy, a female voice

Can you sing? Because he sure can't No, it's bad Then you'll be great Okay, well sure You too will be perfect We need to get it right in Do a duet with sky

Our harmonies will be perfect As long as everyone's deaf We might be on to something We might, after this is over, the people who are listening on the live stream, we might try that. That's right. Yeah, she'll have her a third shot. Actually, Scott has really got a great voice. He just needed some trouble.

I really do not. We have one more shot to Keel and you think you will. Anyway. That is true. Please stop bullshitting. Okay. So, yeah. So your voice, what else?

It has caused inflammation in my thyroid. And so I'm waiting for. an appointment to see if we're going to leave my thyroid in or take it out. Really? Yeah, my thyroid, like all my hormones, the T-SH and my free T-4, everything's a little off. He's still on steroids? No, not on steroids anymore. Did you gain weight or lose weight with all of this?

I've gained weight. Okay. Probably because of the thyroid. I know I did. But, yes, I've probably gained maybe 10 or 15 pounds since I had COVID. Yeah. I still can't smell real good. No.

No. You can't smell. But I can taste. Gained weight. Okay, good. You can taste. Shortness of breath? Occasionally, if I really push.

So my story is a little different. It is. I'm, what, 30 years older than you are. At least. Right? Yeah. Yeah. No, not 30.

Yeah, I think so. I'm 66, so you don't have to say, but I'm okay. You're 20 years older me. Okay, 25, 20. A couple, yeah. I'm 27. You don't, I was thinking you were like in your low 30s, but. Oh, are you sweet?

No, for real. Well, I'm just terrible at it. If they hired me at the carnival to gauge people's weight, I would just be giving prizes right and left. They would lose so much money on me. But I always think people are younger than they are. But I could have just let that compliment lie, and I just had to ruin it by saying that. But anyway, you do. You look to me.

It's very young. So I'm 66. I did get the antibodies. You did. Really, day one, if you think about it. Within the first 24 hours, I got them. And because I was in the Pfizer trial, what we have is this diary that you have to fill out. And the diary has to be filled out once a week.

As a matter of fact, I need to do it today. And I'll do it while. Not now. No, no, I'm going to do it wrong before we're talking. Yeah, it'll just take two seconds. Multi-tasking. Oh, no. Yeah, I'm multitasking.

Oh, no. Oh, the cameras are crashing. Here it is. Way. Yeah, the stupid cameras. So it's really just a one-question survey, and it asks me, have you experienced any of the following? A diagnosis of COVID-19, fever, new, or increased cough, and so I'm going to say no. I click next, and I click save.

Now, so the Pfizer trial, they weren't. looking to see if people were infected. They were looking to see if people were sick because they never, that I remember, yanked me in to just do a PCR test because that's how you would tell if people had asymptomatic disease, right? And maybe there were a couple of times that we had to come in it for a routine visit and they would test us. But other than that, what they were really looking at was this diary.

And the diary, I was telling him I wasn't sick. wasn't sick, wasn't sick, until I was. And the day that I said I was sick, they called me right away. He said, oh, you answered yes on this. We need to get you in. And I said, okay. And so I had to drive over there. And I had a fever of 103 and drove over.

And this was day two. I found out 4 p.m. on Monday that I had it by 10 a.m. on Tuesday, I was over there. They brought the PCR test out for me to do. I did it in my car. And then they tested it. They did it 20 minute, found that it was positive, and said, do you want the antibodies? And I'm like, well, hell yeah, I do.

Now, this was my wife's birthday, by the way. She had the shittiest birthday. That night, you know, here I am. I'm still, after you get it, you feel like shit. You still have a fever. Yes. And she's like, I'm not even opening my present. So my birthday is the week after, so we celebrated our birthday.

on the next day, on my birthday. It celebrated both of ours together. But anyway, she took me up, and they did the four injections, felt like I'd been hit by a brick truck or a Mack truck or a ton of bricks. I mixed a couple of metaphors there, and they said you're going to feel like shit after you get it. You might feel worse before you feel better, and I absolutely did. I felt like a pile of crap.

I had myself isolated up here in the studio, and then I have a room down there with a bathroom. I put up a sheet and just kept us separate. But the next morning, five in the morning, 17 hours after getting the antibody injection, I woke up and I looked at the ceiling. I said, what is wrong? And I was like, wait a minute, I feel normal.

That's awesome. And I've told this story before, but it probably bears in this context telling it again. And my fever was gone. My temp was 986, and my oxygen saturation, which had started to drop. It never got below 95, was back up to 99 on room here. And then, you know, I didn't miss a day of work. No, you kept working from home. I did.

I did telehealth from home, and I did meetings and stuff like that. So, yeah, I didn't take a single day. of sick leave. So a little different. How long were you out? I was out of work, what, for three weeks? I think two and a half, three weeks. Yeah, so you did the ten days and still just weren't ready to come back.

No, I was exhausted. And then when I did come back to work, it was all I could do just to get through the day. I came straight home and just crashed. I was exhausted. So the moral of the story is if you meet the criteria for getting these, you should get them. and primary care providers that are listening to this, think about it. This is the problem. They didn't think about it in you because you are young and healthy.

They were like, well, we just give her zinc and stuff. But really, you met criteria day one because of your autoimmune disorder. Now, my mom. And your asthma, really? My mother and her husband, she is 70. Okay. He is 80. Yeah.

They both got sick, you know, the same day. Yeah. Their physician ordered it for them. The day that they showed up to get the, I'll see, they. Oh, I remember this story. About day five. Which is still, in my opinion, too long. The earlier we do this, the better.

Because I'm wanting to think it was Wednesday when they tested positive. It was early the next week when they went to get the medicine because that's when I went down there. Yeah, we've got to work on streamlining this. Getting everybody in. So they showed up to get it. was way, way, way too sick. He left there in an ambulance because he was crashing. My mom, they did give her the injections and she had them in her abdomen because she didn't want to wait because she wanted to get the hospital with him. And he was, he got in and they wanted to

intubate him immediately. And he refused being 80 years old. He just said, absolutely not. They did bipap on him and he was on that. By Pap is not. non-invasive in ventilation where it's a mask and you get a good seal and then there's pressure in and pressure out. Right. So they put him on that and he was on that for days. Yeah. And he was in the hospital for two weeks, I think, almost before they let him finally get home. And he's still very weak.

He's not on oxygen when he sleeps. Yeah. But that's it. And he was never on oxygen before. And you're not committing a HIPAA violation because these are. family members and i did not treat him yeah right and also they gave you permission to talk about yes so uh yeah wow crazy now all three of you had been vaccinated though right yeah yeah so it happens and the fact that all three of you are alive may have something very significantly

to do with the fact that you had cellular immunity even though you might not have had humoral immunity and uh our our listenership is they're pretty sophisticated so So they understand the difference between cellular immunity, which are the memory B cells and T cells and those things that will remember this, but take a while to generate the ability to kill viruses, and then antibodies that are just floating around, and that's humoral immunity that can prevent you from getting infected in the first place. So, all right, good deal. Have you had your booster yet? No, not yet. You have to wait 90 days, right? 90 days, so planning on it next month.

Yeah, I have to get mine, I think, December 7th because I had my infusion on September 7th. So, here you go. For your booster. Yep. I got mine last Friday up. Good. It whipped my ass for about 24 hours. Did it?

Oh, mother. Yeah. I wonder if it's going to whip my ass as bad as the shingricks one did. I don't think so. No, I don't think so. No, mine was 24 hours pretty much. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was four days without shingricks.

Eish. But it's, I recommend people get it because it's better getting shingles in your eye. Or anywhere else. And then post-thropetic neuralgia, you know, the pain that can persist for years, if not the rest of your lifetime, in your eye. Because that's one of the places you can get it. Now, and then Dr. Scott and I are always talking about how getting the cystoscopy when you're a male sucks so bad. but we still recommend people get it if they need it. It wasn't that bad.

It just sucked. Yeah. You know, I mean, it sucked really bad. But the reason we talk about that is more because it's hilarious that the urologist, you know, the endoscope, the cystoscope before they jam it in your penis. And they, all that does is make them feel better. It doesn't make us feel better. No, it doesn't help.

No. Anyway, you guys have a shorter run, so it's not so bad. It's still not pleasant. Have you had one? No. Oh, well, then you don't know. All right. Let's see.

Okay, and you guys brought some stories, right? NPMLB, you were going to bring a story. What did you bring for us today? Well, what's the strangest thing you've ever found in a vagina? The strangest thing. That would be Dr. Scott's penis. Yes. Yes, but only...

I deserve that. Why would I find that? That joke doesn't make any sense. Unless it was severed. Oh. Yeah, that'd be weird. Okay. So I have found some things.

Mostly old tampons. That has happened. where people will have intercourse when they are having their period sometimes, and they'll just push the tampon up and say, oh, I'll take it out later and then forget about it. Right. And then the next morning, they'll put another one in and take that one out, but they leave the old one in. And you can usually tell that that's happening because the smell is horrid. Outrageous.

Worse than C-diff. Yeah, and when you. Yeah, it's kind of a sweet smell. Yeah, C. diff does kind of have sort of a sweet, shitty smell. What we're talking about is Clostridium difficile or Clostridium diffically, depending on how you pronounce your Latin. And it is a, you know, it's a bacterial infection in clostridium difficile in the bowel that causes a thing called pseudomebrinous colitis. Don't worry about what that is. But it does have a distinctive smell, and there are some nurses and some ID people.

And a few of us that have been in the business long enough that can tell it just by smelling it. Oh, yeah, you can walk down the hall. Yeah, and you know there's a CDF. But anyway, so, yeah, it smells worse than that. Worse than that. Yeah. Terrible smell. Yeah, it's just a rotten.

I can't describe it. No. Like, you know, there's protein, sort of rotten protein smell and just the odor of, you know, 10,000 times worse than any bad breath you've ever smelled. If there's, you know, horrible dental carries, which really kind of the same thing. But it's caused by anaerobic bacteria mostly. Yes.

And it just has a gray black slime on that tampon when you finally remove it. Yes. And then that takes care of it. Once you get rid of it, and the vagina can take care of itself. So that's probably the worst thing I've ever found. Tell us your story. Most interesting thing.

Yes. Hang on one second. Hey, can we get some music for this? please yeah absolutely oh thank you now i'm ready now i'm right now i'm right now oh thank you a coke bottle cap okay oh okay tell us this story so now is this somebody did you read this or is this a true story okay so you heard about it right i heard about it okay tell us so we got to be careful a male and female patient come in I'm concerned that they may have contracted an

STD and wanted to be checked. The male complained of lesions on the tip of his penis. Okay. And one of those looked at to see if maybe he had something. Okay. She complained of a discharge and an odor. Okay.

So, after the patients were separated and the exam took place, the lesions on his penis appeared to be abrasions, which was really strange. and he, you know, had no idea how they got there, but were not like herpatic, weren't wart looking.

Right, so they weren't caused by herpes. They didn't look like genital warts. That's right. So then the exam took place on the female. Yeah. Where the Coke bottle cap was discovered. Interesting. Yes.

So come to find out, they didn't have an STD. They were both accusing each other of cheating. Yeah. Yeah. Didn't have a CD. Can you imagine? Gee, Louise. Putting, you know, having intercourse and abrading your penis on a Coke bottle cat?

How'd that get up there? Do we know? No tailing. Okay, sat on it. Maybe she was showing up and she was showing how she could open the Coke bottle. That's what I wondered, though. That's what I'm asking. Instead of a beer bottle.

Can you imagine trying to be able to do that? That'd be very difficult to do. It'd be funny. It'd be frightening as well. It would be. Oh, my word. Yeah, if you could do that with. your vagina, that would be frightening.

That is true. Why would you want to? It's hard to do. Show off. I've seen people do it with their teeth and it takes a lot of force and I would not recommend that. That's a horrible thing to do to your teeth. Wow.

Okay. Well, that is an odd one. Usually the answer is I sat on it. That's the fiction that we have agreed between patients and emergency room. people that if you come in with a Coke bottle or an aubergine or a carrot or a zucchini, could I name more fruits? Banana. A banana up your ass and you can't get it out.

We will accept that you sat on it if you tell us that because nobody wants to really know how that happened. Right. We know how it happened. but we'll let you save face by saying that you sat on it. Light bulbs. I've seen light bulbs. The weirdest thing I ever saw on an x-ray was 12 Barbie heads shoved up somebody's ass.

And now this, yeah, this was a stock X-ray. I'm not violating anyone's confidence because it wasn't one of my patients. This 12th Barbie. Well, if you're going to stuff that up here. Well, if you're going to do one, you might as well do 12. Go for it. Yeah. Go for it.

So anyway. crazy. Okay, that's a good one. That's a good one. All right, what do you got, Dr. Sky? I sent you several. I don't have anything good. No? No, no. Actually, we have a couple good ones. That's a comment on the things I sent you. I get it. A couple. We have a couple good ones. Okay. There was one about the STD. You have that one? Yeah, the Donovan. Donovanosis. Well, okay, that's ruining the surprise, but yes. How the hell did that ruin a surprise?

Because you're telling everybody what the person had. Well, like they're going to know, it is a sexually transgender. Maybe I had something lined up when you said Donovanosis to play lime and the coconut or something. Oh, okay. Okay, let's start this all over. It's okay. So in Britain, they have a sexually transmitted infection that is, it's a flesh-eating bacteria. Yeah, and I guess they present to the emergency department with some infected wounds,

and they do a little scrape and find this crazy thing called. Yeah, I actually don't have anything lined up. Donovan knows. I was just saying I could have. Right. And it's great. That's what I said. I might have had something.

Oh, hellfire. I'm just effing with you, asshole. Don't worry about it. It's called Granuloma Inguanals. And the thing is, is that there's nothing new about it. No, but it sounds horrendous. I know. And they have been having these clickbait headlines saying flesh-eating sexually transmitted disease.

It is not. It is not flesh eating. No. It is, it looks like it is, because Dr. Scott talk about what it looks like. Well, all I can tell you is what it says here. It looks like ulcers, bloody sores. around on the genitals and it just, I guess, it looks awful and feels probably worse. Yeah, it's slow-growing open lesions directly on the genitals in both men and women.

Now, one in ten people will have ulcers in the area around the genitals and the anus and even, of course, in the mouth. And they're usually painless at first, which makes some people think they have syphilis because they know that starts as a painless lump. But syphilis will usually start as a shanker, which is a lump that then debilis. divides in two and then divides in four and then divides, you know, further and then disappears eventually. And then you think it's over, but it ain't. No, just like Lyme disease.

Yeah, it hides for a while and then comes out later and really Fs you up. But they start as firm-raised bumps. We call them nodular lesions and then they split open into lesions. Now, could you get flesh-eating bacteria from this? You certainly could. if your hygiene is bad and when these things open up and the right bacteria get in there

it could be a problem did you get the four types of Donovanosis, Dr. Scott? I didn't know if you had that in that. No, I did not. So there's four types. One is ulcero-granulomatosis. This is the most common.

They're beefy, red in appearance. I hate it when they use food analogies to talk about these things. I remember, oh, this, you know, this abscess is about the size of a tangerine. Well, that was the end of my eating tangerines for a while, you know. So don't use, please journalists don't use, don't use food analogies. But anyway, beefy read an appearance, and it gets granier, and then lots of tiny blood vessels, and then they usually don't hurt, but they bleed easily.

And then there's the hypertrophic ones, and these look uneven, and they're usually completely dry, but they look more like warts, but they're not. And then there's the necrotic ones that grow deeper into the skin, and then there are these ones that are fibrous that looks like scar tissue. I just looked it up. Yeah, okay. Oh, you got a picture of it? Oh, it looks horrible. Yeah, it's horrible. Yeah, Google image that one.

Yeah, that can't feel good. Yeah, just donovanosis. and then the bacteria Klebsiella granulomatosis infects this area, and that's what causes it, so it is a bacterium. And Klebsiella is a shitty one. It causes blood infections and urinary tract infections and people that are susceptible to it. Anyway, all right?

That's a good one, Dr. Scott. Give you one of these. Give yourself a bill. All right, what else you got? Oh, and did they talk about the treatment in that one? Yeah, amputation. Oh, shit. I think if I had a penis and it looked like that, I'd probably want to cut it off.

Yeah, but if you take a Z-Pack, it'll get better. That's the great thing. Ziphrmising cures everything. Azithromycin. Do you want to do the flu strain being being? That's a good one. You and I have talked about that. Yeah, actually, that was our couple of shows back.

We tried to prove our shows that there have been a couple good things to come from COVID. Yeah, this is one of them. Yeah, and this is one article of Dr. Steve found the other day, which was the pandemic, may have driven a flu strain into extinction. And they said, don't be too happy just yet because it'll take a season or two to come with the final. Yeah, if there's one person out there, infecting somebody with it. Kind of determination. But it looks like influenza B, also known as the Yamagata.

Yeah. Is one of four strains regularly included in annual flu shots. But what it looks like is because of the COVID and our social distancing and masks wearing, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, that may be gone away forever. And one of the things is there's no animal reservoir for this. Right. If it has no host, it has no life, which is cool. That's only infects humans. Keep it to yourself.

Yamagata lineage of influenza bee only infects humans. That's right. infant only infects humans. And Dr. Scott and I discovered this. I mean, we weren't the discoverers of it, but we discovered it for ourselves. We hypothesized. Yeah, when we were calculating why we weren't seeing flu cases. And we calculated in the beginning of the pandemic what the infectability of COVID-19 was.

And one person can infect 2.4 people with the old school. you know, COVID. Now it's up to between five and nine with this delta variant, which is what you and I got. But at 2.4 people, well, it turns out influenza, we looked it up. It's like 1.2. It's half of COVID-19. Well, when we have an influenza pandemic, at least in the most recent days, like 2009, we had one, we didn't do anything. Right. But the social distancing and the mass wearing and the washing of our hands and all the things that we did to modify the course of the COVID-19 pandemic just totally destroyed this influenza bee strain and good. Yeah, so be.

Every thing that infects humans, I mean, viruses can kiss my ass. They don't do anything good. Can you think of one good thing? Well, I mean, we came up with some maybe good things that came from the, from the, from the pandemic but the viruses themselves they just they infect other people and multiply to what for what to what end they're not trying to go to outer space or learn about new dimensions so that we can get the hell out of this universe when it finally you know goes to heat death all of those things we're not doing anything they're not creating art screw them be gone death to all

pathogenic viruses. And I had somebody email me, well, you know, you don't want to do that because some viruses are good. And it's like, okay, well, show me. And there have been some mutations. There is viral DNA in our species DNA. So they probably had something to do with some mutations that happened to us. Maybe they were good.

Maybe they were bad. Maybe we'd be super geniuses now for one for the dumbass viral DNA in our DNA. But so I even say. that it was. That's not what I'm talking about. Influenza, what good does it do? COVID or any of the coronaviruses just decrease productivity. And you know what? These effing viruses, all coronavirus is even the quote unquote good ones that cause common colds. They still kill people. Yeah. Kill about 10,000 a year is what's estimated. It might be higher than that. We never tested for them before. It was just that some viral pneumonia killed them and nothing we can do.

about it. This is some bullshit. War on all viruses. We got rid of, okay, this is two down, Dr. Scott. Smallpox and influenza B. Yamagata strain. You know, that's two down about a jillion more to go, but we need to get rid of them. Start slow. Start slow, Dr. Steve.

Do you think the Star Trek universe, do you think they have viruses that attack humans in that thing? We all want to live in Star Trek. That'd be fun. It's cool. Go to Mars, because Mars is cool. All right, enough with my soapbox, but it just pisses me off these viruses. Fuck COVID.

Yeah, thank you. Okay. Which, yeah, you're really sticking your neck out like I am. Ooh, he's really taking a stance. He's good. I like it. So, am I going to have to get you an Uber? Are you okay over there?

I got kids. What number is that? Four. Four. At least somebody's counting. I got you back, sister. You're fine, yeah. But remember, you're your own control freak, so.

I am on. And I can reach my own volume button. That's right. That's right, Dr. Scott. My arms are long enough. All right. Where are we? You got any more?

Should we do some, you want to do some questions? We can do some questions? Did you have another one? No, the guy Ryan on YouTube did have a good point. Okay, what's that? Real quickly, he was talking about the Cleveland Clinic study done showing the intranasal steroids do help stop the transmission of COVID. That makes sense.

And I think that the fact that I used intranasal steroids from day one also protected me from losing my sense of smell. And I found a study on that, and they thought they agreed. It was a very small study. They thought that that helped. You know why? Yeah. Because I do.

Yeah. No, I mean, do you want me to tell you real quick? Yeah, no, yeah. Yeah, it says, they say what happens is that steroid blocks the ACE-2 receptor sites inside the nose. What? Which is, which is what, which is where the SARS-COVID enters those cells. Yes, of course, yeah. And then when it enters those cells in a, then it's transmitting all over the body.

So just by blocking some of the cells in there. They're saying that corticosteroids block the ACE-2. inhibitor, I mean the ACE receptor? Yep, the ACE2 receptor, that's correct. Okay, all right. They're not saying, but the great thing is they're not saying it's a cure for, but what they're saying, that does help, but it also really emphasize the importance of the nasal mucosa and transmission of viruses. But you know where I got it. I didn't get it from my nose.

No. I got it from my eye. Yeah. Yep. And I didn't stick my stupid finger in my eye either. I had somebody, you know, spewed COVID. Not me. Viruses into my eye even with full personal protective equipment on because that's the one vulnerable place.

So now if you could, if I had been wearing swim goggles, I might not have that one hurt, right? That one I felt just a little bit. Mmm, yummy. There you go. And when she takes another shot, Dr. Scott, you should go to that three shot. I got it. I'm already on it. All right.

Oh, okay, are you? Okay, what I'm seeing is the two-shot. It's a little delayed. We're still working out this camera thing, y'all. We're working on it. So those that are listening to this on the radio, we are broadcasting to a live audience, which is kind of fun. It makes it feel more, I don't know, I have a different energy. A live audience, so they could call right now.

Yeah, they could. And they're actually talking to me via. Yeah, Dr. Scott stays in touch with them. and if they have any questions, Scott, throw them at us. Let's do one of these. Number one thing, don't take advice from some asshole on the radio. All right. Let's see here.

I've been wanting to do this one for a little while. Hey, Dr. Steve. It's Albert from Albuquerque. How are you doing? Good, man. How are you? Great. Hey, listen, I wanted to, I was just listening to you,

and you're talking about Suboxone related to opioids. Okay. And I happen to have, you know, a relation. or someone I know that has an issue with, had an issue with heroin. Okay. And it's successfully gotten off a heroin with the use of methadone. I think that might be the same as Suboxone. I'm not sure.

It's not, but we can talk about it. Despite, you know, her getting through this, she's done great. It has an impact on your dental situation. So she's got issues with teeth. And I've seen this quite a bit. And, man, if we could figure that out, Because the stigma of getting off of heroin is bad enough. God bless the people who can.

But then to be kind of scarred with kind of that badge of the recovery, I think, is... Well, I wonder if she was doing more than heroin. If she were doing methamphetamine, you certainly... Yeah, you get constriction of the blood vessels that feed the teeth. And also... But the other thing is, it can happen with heroin as well, Because when you are just strung out, you're not taking care of your teeth. It's the last thing you're thinking about.

Right. And if you're sleeping with your mouth open, your mouth dries out, and then, you know, it's bad. So one thing is there are some programs in some places that will take people who have no money. Because usually when you get that bad, it's hard. You're not making any money. and can work on their teeth and do cosmetic dentistry on them or just fix their teeth. Let me just talk a little bit about the difference between methadone and suboxone. You want to take this one?

You know. Hell, you're in this field. No, you don't want to. No, you're too wasted. Snockered. Probably not a good idea. Just another tequila. For the one who is impaired to talk about methadone and suboxone.

But methadone is an opioid, aka a narcotic. and the common parlance. People think that it blocks other opioids. It does not. It is a pure, what we call mu-opioid agonist, but also has other effects, including the delta opioid receptor, which is probably what gives it its potency.

And it also works against a receptor called end. methyl deaspartate, which is the NMDA receptor that's not aproposite of this, but it is involved in neuropathic pain or the pain from nerve damage. So people with severe nerve damage from cancer or cancer chemotherapy

that can't be treated with anything else. They've tried deloxetine, which is the drug of choice, or gabapentin, which is on the list. They've tried all these things and nothing works. Sometimes a very low dose of an NMDA receptor blocker, which would be

methadone will actually help them. So that's what methadone is. The reason the federal government uses it in these methadone clinics is because it's dirt cheap and it has a long duration of action. So they could use transdermal fentanyl patches if they wanted to, but they're like 10, 15 bucks a piece. Or they could use extended release oxycodone, which is known. is oxycontin, but it's crazy expensive. This stuff's just dirt cheap.

That's really what's good about it. Now, Suboxone is a combination of two drugs, naloxone, which is an opioid blocker, and buprenorphin, which is what we call a combined agonist antagonist. So if you give that to someone while they are high on an opioid, it will kick them into withdrawal. Not because of the naloxone, though, because that doesn't go through the GI tract. but because the buprenorphine will not compete with the heroin, for example, and it will knock them off and then it will cause withdrawal. But if the patient is just a little bit dope sick and you give it to them, oh, now it'll hit those receptors the right way and they'll feel good. And that's why they'll use it.

And you say, well, both of these are still opioids, yes, but they're getting them under controlled, in a controlled environment. they're not copping on the street anymore they can get it and you can maintain them for a long time the reason the naloxone is in there is if you shoot it up now the naloxone will work and it'll it'll prevent it from working so anyway so there you go very interesting stuff and I hope that your your family member will get the help that they need with their teeth and that they stay off the stuff and I'm very proud of them for doing that all right well I guess we get out of here. I've got to get Dr. Scott to what are you doing?

Hot yoga. High yoga. Really? No, it's not hot yoga. It's just, it's G-N, technically, Y-I-N-Y-N yoga. What is that? You sit, stretch, meditate, let just things get really long. Okay.

It's wonderful, and there's no. I have my first out of, no effort to it. First and only out-of-body experience. No, not only, but my first non, non-induced out-of-body experience. doing yoga. And it was on TV. It was that guy on the Oprah channel.

What was that O or whatever? Oh. Yeah. And what was his name? I don't remember. Ah, crap. But he's on YouTube. And he played kind of funky music and stuff.

And he did. He was real funny. And he had some people that could stand on one foot and then take their knee and put it up against their ear. And, you know, with their foot, the other foot, went straight up. And he had other people like me that just were just, but it turns out what the yogis will tell you is that even if you just try to attain those poses, you'll get the same benefit as the people who are actually doing the poses. See, I do those poses, but I don't call it yoga. Oh, okay. Well, time for us to get out of here.

Look at the hour. It's good late. Well, and, you know, I hate to sound like that, but it's now all of a sudden become. a, what do they call it, a hostile workspace. So I don't want to get in trouble later. We can't forget Dr. Scott. Thank you, Dr. Scott. N.P. Melby, you're a delight to have in the studio. We can't forget Rob Sprantz, Bob Kelly, Greg Hughes, Anthony Coomia, Jim Norton,

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Listen to our SiriusXM show on the Faction Talk channel, SiriusXM Channel 103s, Saturdays at either 6 or 7 p.m. Eastern, Sunday at either 5 or 6 p.m. Eastern, I don't know. On demand. Listen to it on demand. That's the best way to listen to it. That way we get credit for it. And other times at Jim McClure's pleasure. Many thanks 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 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 thanks for having me thank you for coming

thank you dr scott things will be all right thank you Thank you.