Flightless Bird: PSA / Farrier Takes Flight
2023-07-11 00:33:54
Hi, I’m Dax Shepard, and I love talking to people. I am endlessly fascinated by the messiness of being human, and I find people who are vulnerable and honest about their struggles and shortcomings to be incredibly sexy. I invite you to join me as I explore other people’s stories. We will celebrate, above all, the challenges and setbacks that ultimately lead to growth and betterment. What qualifies me for such an endeavor? More than a decade of sobriety, a degree in Anthropology and four years of improv training. I will attempt to discover human “truths” without any laboratory work, clinical trials or data collection. I will be, in the great tradition of 16th-century scientists, an Armchair Expert.
Flyless, Flyless, Flyless Bird Touchdown in America, I'm a Flyless Bird Touchdown in America.
How is everyone?
Great.
It's sunny. Oh my god, it's raining here.
Ew, poop.
Are you recording? It's been raining since the second I got back.
Well, it's winter there, right?
It's winter. Yeah, I sort of forgot. I forgot that it was winter and that seasons are different here. And so I arrived back and my friend Dan picked me up from the airport and he parked as far away as possible. Ew.
Ew, Dan. And so we were just walking through the rain for so long. And I was like, why did you do this to me, Dan?
Listen, we are getting way ahead of ourselves. What people need to know is that David is in space. This is our first ever episode talking to someone in space.
We wanted to get ahead of Tom Cruise filming a film in space by doing a podcast in space. And that's what we decided to do.
Well, we figure that you've figured out America pretty well. So now you have to figure out space.
I wish it was this exciting. I really do. I'm so excited by this alternate narrative now.
Do you want to tell people why we're apart? This was sudden. This was not planned.
This is a sudden change. About a week ago, I jumped on a plane and flew back to New Zealand because I'm having some back problems. And it turns out, the easiest way to solve them in the medical system was for me to fly back to New Zealand and use my New Zealand health insurance to get things sorted out. So yeah, I'm in New Zealand. I'm going to have a sort of a minor bit of back surgery in about 10 days now and then do a bit of recuperation in New, Zealand, which shouldn't take too long.
But it would be a good time to talk because obviously our regular scheduling might change a little bit. And also I just thought it's good to sort of talk about my fun experiences with the American health care system.
Yes. I feel like you did this on purpose, so that you could skewer the American health care system.
Because we did a health care episode fairly early on in Flightless Bird, and we had a discussion about it. And I sort of talked to some experts about it, but hadn't really encountered it myself. And we've talked as well a lot about what health insurance I should get in America. And I think very specifically, Monica, you warned me and probably Rob too.
No, I had to warn also Rob. Both of you were on not appropriate insurances for your incomes.
I have since changed mine, though. And your warning was early enough for me. So it would have been early enough for David to change his as well.
Yeah, well, look, so the situation is. I signed up to an HMO plan in America. So I pay about $360 a month. Which is still not a little. No, it's still a decent.
I thought it's a decent chunk of money. So if anything like disastrous happens to me, I'll be fine. And I guess my first encounter with the health system was when I got nipped by that squirrel. And I ended up going into the ER for that. Which, weirdly, I still haven't been billed, for.
Which I'm hoping they just forgot to put them through. Or they're all suddenly going to arrive at once. But let's not worry about that.
Okay, that's for another day.
So you know what happened? At the end of May, I was recording an episode which won't have aired yet. And I'd just been on a flight. And something really weird happened to my lower back. I just had extreme lower back pain.
And I was like, uh-oh, this doesn't feel good. And I'm a tall person who sits down a lot. So I've had back issues back in 2011.. And I was sort of, oh, this feels a bit familiar. And the pain got really bad.
And then it kind of started to go away. And then it came back again. And so when I went back to LA, I called up my PCP, my doctor. Because I should go and see the doctor and see what's happening with my back. And they said, oh, you can see someone in two weeks.
I was like, oh, this is really painful. Two weeks seems like a long way away. So then I went to Urgent Care, which you just pay out-of-pocket for. I think it was $140.. And I went there.
And the doctor there saw me but didn't really touch me or examine me. He just sort of listened to me moaning about being in pain. And then gave me some sort of tablets that were like oral steroids or something to kind of help with inflammation. And gave me some painkillers, some Tramadol. And sort of sent me on my way.
And then it got worse. And then something happened that really freaked me out. And this was probably about four weeks ago, from when we were recording this. And my right leg suddenly stopped working properly. So I had pain shooting down my leg before this.
But then I went to kind of like start walking. And I didn't have strength in my right leg. And that felt super scary.
Yeah.
I was like, uh-oh. Like my leg is shutting down. And that's sort of like a neurological thing, which freaked me out a little bit. Right. And I couldn't stand on tippy toes on my right foot.
And I was like, oh, my God. I'm not able to use my muscles in my leg. This is horrible. So I went back to my favorite place, the emergency room, where I'd last been for my scurril attack. I'm like, I want to go back to my faith.
You went back home. It was like returning home.
It was like returning home. And I was like, okay, I knew this. This is going to be $400 to go to the ER. And what I thought I could get there is that the ER would maybe get me a referral to some sort of MRI just to see what was going on. So I go in there and long wait, eventually get in there.
And I sort of encountered my first weird quirk with the American healthcare system. But they won't give you an MRI without giving you an X-ray first. And it's like this progression.
Really?
Yeah. They will never do it. It's just a thing. And so I said the X-ray isn't going to show up like a problem with my spine. I knew it was like a back disc kind of issue.
So anyway, they gave me the X-ray, and then they wouldn't give me an MRI, because basically I wasn't dying, which is fair. I wasn't dying. And they do this thing with spines where if you're losing feeling in your legs, they sort of say, are you weeing yourself or shitting yourself?
Yeah.
And that's their question. I'm like, no, I'm not. I'm not doing that. I'm like, okay, you don't need an MRI. Just go home, and we can't do anything.
And then did you think to say, yes, I am. I was just embarrassed. But yeah, I am doing that.
I thought about it after. Doing it right now. I thought about it after the fact if I should have just shat myself at that moment and that got me the MRI. But I don't think in that way, and I kind of wish I had, because it would have gotten me my MRI.
Oh, my God. I'm just picturing you sitting there like pushing to see if poop will come out, so that you could just get your MRI.
That concerned look that a toddler has on their face when they're squeezing one out. So I didn't do that. It's so awful. I took the honest route and said, no, I'm not. I still have control of my bladder and my bowels, and I just went home and sort of achieved nothing.
So then I was like, okay, I have to see my doctor about this, because the thing with HMO insurance, which really came into play, is that you need a referral for everything. And so I can't just go and find an orthopedic surgeon. I have to be referred there by my PCP, which in New Zealand we call a GP, like a general practitioner.
Do you know what PCP stands for?
Primary care provider?
Primary care physician. Close.
Physician. Okay.
Two out of three.
Two out of three. Thank you. Thank you. I'm learning. So I called back my PCP and said, I'm really sore.
I can't feel my leg. I'm getting numb. My muscles aren't working. What do I do? And so they got me in sort of a week earlier to see someone else.
So I go in and see them. They then refer me on to get an MRI. But the MRI is going to take two weeks to get. So I'm like, this is crazy. So I just went and paid out-of-pocket for an MRI.
It was $300, which wasn't too bad.
Oh, yeah, this is the sketchy place you went. You went somewhere weird.
It was in Hollywood. They took cash, which seemed strange. But they could see me like a day later, which seemed good.
But they didn't need an x-ray?
They didn't need an x-ray. And that's where I really learned a really important thing about the American healthcare system. Whereas if you pay for something directly, you get what you want really quickly. So I didn't want to wait two weeks for the MRI. Because then it would be like another two weeks to get referred on to an orthopedic surgeon to look at what was going on.
So I went and got my MRI. And then I got my referral to an orthopedic surgeon who was in my network. And I'm like, great, I can go and see an orthopedic surgeon. So that was about a week later. I went and saw this man.
I don't want to sort of say any name, because I don't want to get sued, because I know America likes doing suing. But I like to refer to this man as sort of like a Dr. Death kind of character. Oh, my God. He was about 80..
He wouldn't look me in the eye. He looked at my MRI and basically immediately said, you need a spinal fusion and a discectomy. And we need to do this immediately. And I just didn't trust him. He had such a terrible bedside manner.
Yeah.
He jumped straight to doing a fusion, which is a really full on thing for a spine. Like. I'm only 40.. You don't really want to be fusing things, if you can avoid it.
Yeah.
Oh, my God. That kind of freaked me out. As a sidebar, they forgot to charge me my copay of $65.. And then they called me afterwards saying I needed to pay by check. because they don't do any kind of.
I had to write a check and mail it in.
Oh, my God.
Just a whole other weird side of America.
Well, oh, God. Okay.
So I see this orthopedic surgeon, but he's pretty terrible. So at this point, I called up my primary care provider again because I wanted to get a referral to another guy. And again, they're like, you can't see your PCP for another two weeks. And I'm just at this point, I'm just going, this is insane. I just need to find someone.
What's going on with your leg at that point and your back? Are you in pain?
My leg. at this point, my pain has gone away completely, which is great. But I'm walking with a fairly pronounced limp and I get really tired in that leg because my muscles aren't working. And if I stand on my tippy toes on both my feet, you can see my muscle in one leg. I think I sent you guys that video.
You can see like my muscles in one leg working and then the other leg, they just turned off, which is freaky. Like, you know, I'm pretty active and that was really scary.
I'm surprised they wouldn't do an MRI just to check neurologically. Like, that's so weird. I guess the pooping is the only way it would be neurological.
Yeah. Pro tip, if you want an MRI and you go to the ER to get one, definitely just poo yourself, because then they'll rush you through.
Or, even better, have a seizure.
Or have a seizure.
Then they're done, that. It works.
At this point, I'm getting really frustrated with my HMO plan, because this whole referral thing is just driving me insane. And the one person they did refer me to, I just didn't trust this guy. He was just bad vibes, bad vibes. Wanted to go to the most extreme type of surgery straight away. He was a baddie.
So I was like, right, I'm going to just pay out of pocket and get someone, an orthopedic surgeon who's really good, and he will know what's up. And so I did that. I found a guy who would see me, who was in private care. And for $1,000 cash, he would do a consult with me. He'd look at my MRI and tell me what was up.
So I went to see him and he was amazing. It was almost like he'd stepped out of a film. He was really handsome.
Oh, what's his name? Is he single?
Really? I don't know if he was single or not, but he was beautiful. He was really, I trusted him instantly. He had a great bedside manner. Very clean.
He was in like beautiful scrubs, and I really trusted him. He was wonderful. They were white.
Oh, my God. White scrubs is ballsy.
He's an angel.
Beautiful teeth, beautiful skin. Everything about him was just amazing.
My friends are not doing a good job finding out if people are single.
It's not what I jumped to immediately, because I was mainly concerned about my silly leg.
Oh, my God. You're so selfish.
I know, I'm so selfish. But this guy blew my mind and he looked at my MRI and he didn't say I needed a fusion. He said I needed a disectomy, which is a really minor-ish bit of surgery where they shave a little bit of disc off. Because what was happening basically is that my nerve in my leg that sort of feeds into my leg, my S1 nerve root, is kind of being like crushed between two of my lower vertebrae. And so to free up some room, I just need a little bit of disc shaved off.
I was like, great. This is a great consult. I trust you. I would love you to do the surgery. I go home.
His office sends me a quote of doing it out of network and it was $17,000 for the procedure. And then every additional night in hospital was $8,000..
Oh, my God.
There's a world where I could do that and it would be a horrible financial hit, but it would be possible for me. But the thing I didn't like is that if anything goes wrong in that surgery and they have to do something else, and then your costs just balloon. And I couldn't take that risk. And so about that point, I was like, I'm just going to fly back to New Zealand. And I'm lucky enough in that I kept up my own insurance here while I was gone.
And so in America, I was paying $360 a month. In New Zealand, I pay about $220 New Zealand dollars four times a year.
Oh, my God.
And for that, that covers amazing. I come back and I can basically get into surgery in a couple of weeks. I landed back in New Zealand on Sunday. And on a Monday, I was getting an MRI.
Oh, my God. Well, I'm glad. I'm glad. But also, yikes, America. Yeah.
Your doctor texted you about surgery the next day?
I'm directly in touch with everybody. The other amazing bit of trivia is the orthopedic surgeon I have lined up in New Zealand, he looked at the MRI I got in America. And he was like, this isn't good enough. Like, we can't read this well enough. Immediately made me go, oh, both Dr.
Death and the surgeon that I really loved, that I paid privately for. They never said the MRI is a bit fuzzy and isn't good. Well, okay. Which is terrifying.
We can look at this a couple of different ways, though. Because now I feel defensive of America.
No, hit me.
That perhaps the New Zealand, well, I shouldn't say that before you go into surgery.
No, hit me. No, because you never know what's going to happen. No.
Okay. I won't.
I know where you're going with it.
The doctors in America are so good. Like, that wasn't hard for them to read.
They could just sort of read through the haze, through the bad signals of the MRI.
Or maybe the New Zealand doctor, just, like, needs to get his eyes checked.
Yeah, he needed glasses.
Like, make sure he gets his eyes checked before he does surgery on you.
Look, that is, that's a possible take. It's not one I'd go with. But the other, you know, I got this MRI on day one. And then they followed up being like, we want to be really specific about this. So, come back.
And we're going to give you another MRI. Oh, my God. This time with dye. So, they injected me in my vein. And that basically lit up my blood.
And everywhere the blood flowed. So, they could see, like, what in my spine was, like, connected. What was disconnected. Wow. So, I got two MRIs.
Oh, my God.
Two for the price of $0?.
I felt very, very cared for. And as a big disclaimer, I should say that I'm in New. Zealand. I'm super lucky in that I have private health care. There's also a public health care system in New Zealand, which I could use.
And there are good stories from the public health care system here. And there are some really bad stories where people don't get cared for. Okay. A little bit like my experience in America. You know, delays in care.
Right. Big waiting lists. All that kind of thing. So, I'm having the privileged good version of New Zealand health care where I'm going private.
I see. I see.
But the difference is this feeling in America that I just found so interesting is that when I paid for things, I got it straight away and felt really cared for and looked after. And just the level of care was really, really high and really, really good. When I was in my HMO land, it was like fighting to get the scans. The scans I needed and the specialists I needed. And I had all the time in the world.
I stopped writing the show. I was spending so much time on the phone. And I was just imagining if I was someone with kids or a job that wouldn't let me be on the phone on hold for three hours a day. I know. I'd just fall through the cracks.
It was really a big eye-opener.
Yeah. But, I mean, I guess isn't sort of what you're saying a little bit, is you're kind of doing that in New Zealand too. Like the reason that you are able to get in so quick is because you are paying. You're not going through the public system, which is free in New. Zealand.
But I guess the difference is what you're paying. Paying for private is so much more affordable in New Zealand. Yeah.
Paying for private here is so much cheaper than in the United States. Yeah. You know, I sort of looked at a similar plan to what I'm getting here in New, Zealand. And it's more like 900 a month. Yeah.
Whereas in New Zealand, I'm getting that for 200 New Zealand dollars. A quarter. A quarter. And of course, that's cheaper. Remember, that's like 80 American dollars.
Wow. And it's better care. You got better care for 200 a quarter than you were getting for 300 a month.
Exactly. A hundred percent. And even, you know, and I've had back stuff back in 2011 in New Zealand. I've been through our publicly funded health system. And, you know, I saw doctors within a couple of weeks.
And I got the care. Yeah. We've got less people. We, you know, we all put money into a pool that all goes out to health care for all New Zealanders. And I'm a big fan of that system.
But it was the first time I've been freaked out by America. But I love it there.
Are you going to come back? I'm getting nervous.
Well, yeah. So I'm going to. My recovery, I think, is going to be. It's not crazy. I think it'll be a couple of weeks where I just need to kind of rest up.
The discectomy isn't a crazy. It's not a crazy bit of spine surgery. So I think I'll be back probably end of August. I haven't been making episodes. So then I've probably got another month where I've got to kind of start catching up and getting flightless birds together.
So our scheduling, there could be a pause.
Yeah, we might have a pause. We might go to every other week for a little bit. We're going to, we're going to play with it.
I've got a few in the can. I've got a few in the can already that are ready to go. So we might roll those out fortnightly instead of weekly, just to pad things out a little bit. I am coming back. I'm just I'm in New, Zealand, because weirdly, it was cheaper and quicker to fly 12 hours to New Zealand for care than to get it through my health insurance in America, which is surreal.
How was your flight? I was anxious about you flying for that long.
I was incredibly lucky in the air, New Zealand. I called them. I said what the problem was. I said that sitting was like a true nightmare for my back and that sort of. the next step of my spine problems would be me shitting myself.
And I said, you don't want that on your plane. Within New Zealand, I've flown so much with them. I had a few upgrades, and so I ended up flying back in business, which is insane. So I got to lie down.
Okay, but I'm sure it still was not that comfortable with like a broken back.
It wasn't a great vibe. No, it wasn't a great vibe. I mean, my, yeah, my S1 nerve is being like severely pinched. And so sitting pinches it more. Feels like my right leg isn't quite my leg at the moment.
It's kind of like a bit alien and feeling a bit weird. And so wasn't a great vibe flying back. And that was another big decision to make was do I want to like spend 12 hours sort of in a bad posture? Like, will that make it worse? But I'm glad I'm here.
It's like it's winter, but I'm getting the surgery that I need. It's not going to bankrupt me, which feels really good.
Yeah.
I love making the show. So it's a bit weird to be out of the loop of that. But I think back priority sort of comes first. And then I'll get back into making the show with you guys.
Health is always number one. And then buy me presents is number two. So remember to bring back some treats.
Bring you back some treats. The other thing, Monica, that I wasn't sure if I should bring this up or not, but I'm back, living in my old flat, which is where I lived with with Rosabelle for a number of years.
The Rosabelle?
Yes. I'm living back with Rosabelle again. She's just down that hallway.
She's nearby?
She's nearby. Yeah. Yeah. I could see if I could. What's the time?
It's 930 on a Saturday morning. What time is it for you?
Oh, my God. It's 930 in the morning. It's 230 on Friday afternoon.
Yeah. It's a Saturday morning.
Oh, my God.
I can see if she's awake. And if you just want to quickly say hello to her. Wow.
I've gone through such a journey with Rosabelle. You know, I was jealous of her. Then I was on her side. And now I'm going to meet her.
Yeah. I'll just see if she might not be awake. I'll just see if she is. Okay. Give me a sec.
I'll see if I can pull her in here. I'm nervous.
Oh, my God.
She's going to have some dirt on him.
Well, ask for three pieces of dirt.
Yeah.
What if she's asleep and he's just screaming, are you awake?
He's just shaking her in her bed.
Ugh.
Okay. She's just putting some clothes on. She's been sleeping.
David, you shouldn't have woken her up.
No, it's fine. That's what happens when you live with people. You know, she needs to. It's 930 on a Saturday. She needs to get into the day.
She'll appear soon.
She wasn't dressed when you woke.
I knocked on the door. I didn't barge in, you know. I'm not crazy. I'll crack an egg on her head, but I'm not going to just barge in there. Wow.
Do you guys have any questions about healthcare or my body or my back or anything?
Yes. What was the lump?
That's my question about your body, and you still have never answered.
I've been through so many things, haven't I? And I almost forgot about the lump after the squirrel attack. Now, this back problem. The lump, seems like such a thing of the past, you know. I know.
It was so long ago, you might as well tell us where it was.
It was between my belly button and my upper thigh. It was sort of somewhere in that kind of region.
By your penis?
The main thing is the lump. The body's an amazing thing. The body, I think, reabsorbed the lump. And God knows where that lump juice has gone. Ew!
The lump got sucked back in.
And, you know, bodies do. They do repair themselves. And I'm super curious. I mean, this back thing is a bit weird because the surgery will unpinch the nerve. But what all the surgeons told me, actually, so far that I've spoken to is that I might not get all the feeling back.
Like once you've crunched the nerve for long enough, it sort of stays a bit deactivated. So there's a chance that I might be a little bit limpy for years and years, or maybe the rest of my life. Or with enough rehab, I might be able to get the signals firing again as they should. Like. it is sort of a serious thing in that this isn't going to magically just wake up my leg.
My leg could always be a little bit dead. But I guess that's life in your 40s, maybe. Like your body just starts to do some things you don't want it to do, right? Like you had your cholesterol thing. You know, we've all got things.
Rob's too young. He's too juvenile for anything to have happened to him yet.
Yeah, not yet. But I think you're going to go to PT when you get back. And it might take a while, but I think you're going to be back to normal eventually. And you live in my dad's sim. And so, you know, I think it's going to be okay.
That's what I like to think as well. And I think the power of positive thinking is so important, isn't it? It is. You can't get down in the dumps. You've got to be forward thinking.
You've got to think we're going to get on top of this thing.
Do you think maybe it was karma because of the egg?
Okay. I do. You know, I'm not going to knock the concept of karma entirely. Look, something's catching up with me. And it's either age or karma.
It's one of the two. And I don't want to spend too much time thinking about it because it's too scary.
Okay. We're going to move past that.
I mean, this is my first good, like, weird health scare. Like, it's just weird when your body... I guess, like, Dax, has had, like, stuff happen to him, hasn't he? He's been, like, torn apart. He's been, like, crashes and sort of been, like, stitched back together.
again. I haven't really experienced, like, oh, here's part of my body that stopped working properly. It's, like, a weird thing when, like, this vessel, you're stuck in, starts declining, I suppose. But, again, that's just what happens when you get older. It's, like, what next?
I know. We really do take advantage of these bodies. Yeah.
Oh, Rosabelle's here. Oh, my God. Okay. I'm going to give her... I'm going to get a seat for Rosabelle.
Yeah, get her a seat.
And I'll give her an earpiece.
Make sure she can be near the mic.
Listen, if you like.
Oh, no. I have low battery right when Rosabelle showed up.
I just thought if you had any questions for Rosabelle, she's here. And I thought it would be an opportunity for you to query her about anything that you want to know. Hi, there.
Hi. It's nice to meet you.
It's so nice to meet you. We've heard so much about you. And David always throws you in our face when he's trying to make us jealous about how close you guys are.
That's true. Well, she might debate that.
We've heard all that he's put you through as well.
Yeah.
Yeah. I really appreciated the apology that you gave Monica in that other episode.
Yeah. We're on the same team now.
Yeah. Exactly.
But also, Rosabelle, you're not traumatized anymore by the egg scenario, right? You're through it.
Don't gaslight her. Rosabelle, you can speak for yourself.
You know, what David wanted me to do this morning was to crack an egg on his head. And I just would never do that to somebody that I care about.
Of course you wouldn't. Of course you wouldn't, because you're not a psychopath.
I thought it would be a good symmetry for the show. If suddenly Rosabelle walks in, it would be like good laughs on a podcast. Suddenly I've got egg on my head. But Rosabelle saw beyond that and was like, I'm not a bad person and I'd never do that. Which made me think I'm still a bad person, because I think that's a good idea.
I'm with you, David. I think it would be good for her to smash it on you.
Oh, the pranksters.
You sure you don't want to?
Maybe somebody else could do it on my behalf. Just people in the street.
Okay, Rosabelle. While we have you, can you give us... David, don't stop her. Can you give us two pieces of dirt on David?
Oh, what genre of dirt?
What genre, Rob? Any.
Dating. I think dating. Maybe a dating one, would be good. We don't hear a lot about that.
I'm not happy with this one.
It doesn't have to be dating, because he might get actually upset about that.
Has he talked to you about his friend Hayden and how they always love to wrestle?
Actually, yes. And I'm going to clap for you for David, because he has, I guess, been vulnerable.
Well, that's not the dirt. I mean, I guess that's quite open knowledge that he wrestles with Hayden. But they did have a wrestle once at a friend of ours house and wrestled so violently that they smashed a hole in the wall of the house.
David. And did you pay for it?
I actually haven't. The dent is still... My head put a big dent in our friend's wall and I haven't fixed it yet, actually.
Do you intend to, do? you think?
I was hoping not to. But maybe now this has come out, maybe I should repair Eddie's wall. That might be a good idea.
Well, now you've saved some money from going to New Zealand for the surgery, so you can use the extra you would have paid for the wall.
I should actually note that Hayden came over last night and as he was leaving the house, I was sleeping. I went to bed early and he left and he came into my room and poured water on my head. We're all pranksters.
So that actually happened because they wanted me to go into your room while you were sleeping and smash an egg on your head to wake you up. And I said that I didn't want to. So he got, he was on my side and he was like, well, I'll do something. Okay, but he couldn't find the eggs because he looked in the fridge and he was like, there are no eggs in here. And I didn't tell him that they were just around the side on the countertop.
Wow. This is an amazing ding, ding, ding of all of our episodes smashed into one.
This is perfect. This is incredibly perfect. And you get a sense of the dynamic and what I live with here in New, Zealand. And I'm not always the bad guy.
All I'm getting is that Roosevelt refuses to do anything mean to you.
Yeah, it seems like you've treated her very poorly, for how nice she is to you.
You probably have a point.
People treat you appropriately.
That's fair. That's a good way of putting it.
Okay. It's been good, Roosevelt. Thanks so much. Bye, Roosevelt. Bye, Roosevelt.
Nice to meet you.
That's my little update from New Zealand. A little explanation of why our scheduling may change slightly in the next couple of months. But flightless bird remains. It'll just be slightly disrupted.
Stick with us. We might be shifting a little bit, but we'll be back to our regular schedule soonish.
Yes.
We're all sending you really healthy, positive vibes.
Yeah, keep us updated.
I will keep you updated. I'll see if the anethetist or something can take a photo of my open spine and send it through to you so you can have a little look.
Can you bring your recorder for when you wake up?
Actually, I'll see if I can. I haven't had general anesthetic before. Have you guys had it?
I just had it for egg freezing.
Oh, right. Yeah. No. It's that thing where, like, I thought it was going to be like sleep. We sort of drift off when you wake up, but apparently it's just like jumping.
You don't get any sense of time passing. You're just like, you're gone. And then you're like, oh, has it happened yet? And they're like, yeah, you're through the other side.
It's really cool, actually.
But you've been awake for like 15 minutes by the time. you remember. For my wisdom teeth, I asked for my teeth and I don't remember at all.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, it just isn't there. Yeah, I'm so curious. I guess it's like as close as you get to dying, but you wake up again. Like it is like death. You're just sort of gone.
Okay.
Or you could do a more positive spin and say it's like time travel.
Okay. This is fair. I think we're being positive.
We're trying to be positive throughout this process.
You know, that's a really good point. It's like time travel and you just suddenly bounce through time. And so I will try and get a recorder going so that I can be recorded in those sort of 15 minutes of nonsensical ramblings that I won't remember. That's a really good idea.
Amazing Easter egg for our listeners. Okay. Well, we love you and we're sending you good vibes and keep us updated. We have a bunch of episodes coming at you guys pre-David in New Zealand, and then we'll do a check-in after that.
Yeah, that would be good. I miss you guys, and I'll talk to you very soon.
Okay, bye.
Bye.
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