Weird Medicine Healthcare for the Rest of Us

I got this email the other day and thought I’d share it with you.  One never knows who is listening, or the impact one is having.   When I got this, I’d had a shitty day at work and this email made it much, much better.

“Hello, I am a Anonymous Physical Therapist from somewhere in the USA. I am a long time listener. I feel that you are providing a great service to the general public in a forum that is non judgmental, educational and entertaining.

I wanted to share a story that you might appreciate.

I work for a home-care company that provides services to patients (Nursing , Physical therapy, Occupational therapy, Home health aids Etc..)

In this occupation I am driving from one patient’s home to the next patient’s home. I spend 3 to 4 hours on the road every day. Your podcast are perfect for me on the car rides between patients.

I started downloading and recording your show onto CDs. When I was finished listening to the show I would pass the CD to my co-worker Tim ( a male nurse).

This has been going on for the past 15 months…

Which takes me to Wednesday of last week…

We had a Continuing Education Seminar at my work. I got to the seminar room early and took a seat in the back where the presenter would not be able to see me playing candy crush on my I-phone. This meeting had about 55+ health care professionals piled into a seminar room that seated 25 people comfortably.

I took a seat next to an attractive nurse named Sara. I engaged in the normal office chit chat and weather conservation. She took out her lap top to take notes. Among her belonging was a CD titled Weird medicine  #77 butt goo ( in my hand writing).

” OH SHIT ” I thought to myself…. This was one of the CDs that I burned….

“Where did you get that!” I asked

Sara Answered “Oh, I got is from Carol, she gives me a new one every week. It is really funny, have you ever herd of Dr. Steve?”

Apparently unbeknownst to me Tim was listening to the podcast and passing the disks to the nurse Rachel, and she would listen to it and pass it to the nurse Denise, and she would listen to it and pass it to the nurse Jenn and so on..

Others in the room overheard us talking about your podcast…

It was so surreal,, this whole room of people completely ignored the presenter and started talking about your show….
The speaker stopped the seminar because no one was listening …and the entire room started talking about WEIRD MEDICINE with Dr Steve,,,,

More than half the professionals in this room had listened to your show from the CDs that I burned.

I am talking Physical Therapists , Occupational Therapists, Registered Nurses , Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners,  Palliative Physicians.

People were sharing lines from their favorite Weird Medicine episodes. There was two nurses in the corner singing  CITRUCEL…

Laughter overcame the whole room. I could not keep track of all the side conservations… I could only make out muddled words and phrases like CHECK YOUR STUPID NUTS and BIG JO and RURAL ESCORT….

This was great !! The energy is the room was alive with excitement and laughter..

Everyone was having fun talking about Weird Medicine Podcast except for the Presenter, who had no idea, who or what Dr.Steve was…

Your doing a great job with the podcast, Keep up your hard work… Your show appreciated by fellow health care providers. Thanks for all the laughs…

Sincerely,

Anonymous PT”

We have a listener who has been battling terminal bladder cancer since 2011. He’s had to try to continue to work just to keep the lights on despite horrific intractable pain, but hasn’t had a full time job since being laid off in 2012. The last tweet I got from him said “i’m already $100 away from being homeless. At this point I long for the relief that death will bring.”

He has no family who can help him, and he’s alone, suffering in a cold house he may be evicted from soon due to back taxes. He has about 30 days of insulin left, which will cost him almost $700 to refill.

He got better for awhile and we stopped raising money for him; he’s again bed ridden and can’t work. We’re trying to get free hospice care for him but it has been a struggle.

Please donate below, $5, $10, $100, whatever you can afford; 100% will go to RexDart who is known to people on the Interrobang website and on twitter as @rexdart936.

Let’s see what we can do as a group to keep the lights on and some heat going so our friend can live out his days in peace.

your friend,

Steve