Latest / Johnny's World / Episode 1-Johnny's Daily Life and History with Cystic Fibrosis

Transcript

Episode 1-Johnny's Daily Life and History with Cystic Fibrosis · Johnny's World

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: High folks, my name is B Dub, Brandon Wally, whatever you want to call me.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I am one of the founders of Johnny Packer Iwear.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Johnny's World Podcast, episode one.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: And today we have our special guest, Johnny Packer, with us.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: So today we're just gonna talk a little bit about who we are, how we ended up here, how we've known each other.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'd like to say this this will be kind of a Mississippi sports adjacent podcast.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll we'll talk about some Mississippi State sports, but we'll also talk about just some random stuff, you know, whatever comes to mind here.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, if you're in this for like just like learning about Mississippi State, you may not be happy.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm thinking that if you just like random talk about stuff that's going on around Starkville, Mississippi in general.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm from Memphis, I mean I live in Memphis now, and just whatever's happening in our lives, I think you'll like it.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be pretty random, it's gonna be good.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: So um, we'll kind of start with some little intros here.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you a little bit about me, then we'll introduce Johnny over there and talk a little bit more about that.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: So um, so I'm like I said, I'm Brandon Wally.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Grew up in Madison, Mississippi, same hometown as Johnny.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I'm an optometrist and graduated 15 years ago, something like that, from optometry school.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Had my own practice for the past several years, and um always really been interested in selling glasses and things like that.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Johnny's always sending me these pictures of you know, Johnny Depp wearing glasses and and all these other celebrities wearing these cool glasses, and he's always like, Hey, where do you get those from?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Can we get some of those?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And and I could never find anything.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was just like you know, it would be these these brands that you can only get like in New York or Los Angeles, and so I said, Well, let's let's see if we can figure out a way that maybe we can start up an eyewear business, and it seemed like it'd be pretty easy, but it ended up taking like three or four years to actually get it to actually happen.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: But we finally got it to happen, and so now we have Johnny Packer eyewear, and so we've got some glasses, some sunglasses, we're gonna have some blue light glasses, which we'll talk more about and all that stuff later.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's kind of how we were led to this Johnny's World podcast as we were, you know, starting to sell these glasses, and I said, Well, why don't we why don't we we just get together and talk more so people kind of get to know more about who Johnny is and who I am and all that kind of stuff.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: So um that's a little bit about me.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about you, Johnny.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit about your life, where you're from, things like that.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we uh we grew up together, went to school together, went to college together, and uh both from Mississippi, Madison area.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, I have uh have something called uh cystic fibrosis.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: If you follow me, you already know that.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't, if you're new to this, then you're learning something today what CF is.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's a genetic lung disease.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Genetic means I was born with it, it wasn't something I caught.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I was born actually um in two weeks from today, it'll be 40 years ago, which is unheard of, absolutely unheard of.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um in a hospital in Mississippi, and uh I was born very, very sick and was transported over to our local children's hospital and uh had emergency surgery the night I was born.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: I had something called meconium ileas, which is the meconium or the bowels built out into my stomach.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: So it made my stomach look really, really big, like I had a tumor or something on me.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's what they thought it was.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so I had emergency surgery that night, last lost half of my small intestine, and they diagnosed me with CF.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: They said that that's a complication sometimes with CF, as they see with infants, is meconium alias.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: So my family didn't know anything about CF, didn't ever have anybody with CF, uh, didn't know about children's hospital.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: No one in my family had ever been sick.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: So uh it was just a wide-opening, eye-opening experience for everyone in my family.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we didn't know we had a children's hospital in Mississippi, but I was uh transported over there.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Long story short, I went on to stay the first eight months of my life in the hospital.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they told my my parents I would not live through the night, and then they told me I wouldn't live through the week, and they told me I wouldn't live through the month, and uh they said he definitely wouldn't live the life expectancy when I was born with someone with CF was 15 years old.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: So at my birth, they didn't think I'd live past teenage years, but they definitely didn't think I'd live to be a kid, you know, at first because they thought I was gonna die, and I kept proving them wrong.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: To this day, my doctor, she's still alive, she's in her 90s now.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um she retired um actually when I was 30, but I still keep in touch with her.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: She still says I'm the sickest baby she had ever seen in all of her years.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it was a miracle.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm a miracle.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm happy to be alive today by the grace of God.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, without God in the hospital and my mom, I would not be here today.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm very, very thankful for that.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: So so uh my my philosophy um in life I've taken through uh Matthew McCon's is just keep living.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: The reason why I always say that and and do that is because exactly with that.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like my situation, I could have died at birth, but you know what?
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Anybody could die at the next breath.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody has no one, no one knows when their time is up, especially with someone like me with CF.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's made me realize because I always wondered, like, man, why was I why did I have CF?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Why didn't someone else?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: Why did God give me that?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I've learned through the years that I think part of it is to that I can appreciate each and every day, uh, which we all should appreciate it, but especially when you when you're born with a terminal illness and that everyone says you're not gonna live, it's uh it makes you another appreciate every single day.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: And and uh my goal in life, my mission in life is to spread spread uh hope for people, especially people with CF families.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: I've done that many a times or people in the children's hospital, but just in life, you know, to that and I always say that now and all times, now times, all times, just keep living.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that's true because whatever you're dealing with in life can knock you down, get discouraged.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to be health reasons, it could be anything family, money, any situations like that, job.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: But always look at the brightest, bright side of things and know that things will get better.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh can't can't get worse, right?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: It can only go up, especially in the times we're living here now with this pandemic.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody's depressed and can't get out, and just real bummed out.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, I was I've always laugh and tell people I'm I'm bored for the bored, I was born for this type situation because I I didn't leave my house for the first four years of my life because uh when I did come over from the hospital after those eight months, um I couldn't be around anyone, and and uh uh so I stayed indoors.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: My first few birthday parties, we had people come to the windows to celebrate birthday with me.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I've uh I've I've seen this happen from a long, long time ago uh today.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: But uh so that's a little bit about me.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um I worked at uh uh I still do uh I help out the children's hospital at Larry Batson and Jackson and uh started working there after college.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: And um the reason why I started working there is ever since I was little, we have uh we would always have fundraisers, telethons, radio thons, where we would raise money uh through um telling our stories to doctors, nurses, um, people at the hospital on TV and on the radio for different fundraisers.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I ever since I was little, they would my mom would bring me up to the hospital and I she'd share my story.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: And as I got older, I got to share my story with everyone.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: And uh as I said, mainly a way to uh let people know that this hospital here, not many people know about it, but you definitely, if you don't, if you've never been sick, you don't know about the hospital, but but uh to know that we were very, very blessed and thankful that it was within the Jackson metro area because if we lived out far off, I mean it worked out perfectly in our situation, but but uh a lot of a lot of people weren't that fortunate enough.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: But but uh we do have something now, Ronald McDonald House on campus where you your families can stay if you're not from the area.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we were like I said, we were very blessed to have that.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: But but going back to these fundraisers, I started doing that, and then I majored in public relations at Mississippi State, and then I did an internship after college at uh at Disney World, and then they asked me after that to uh start working at at the hospital and kind of being a spokesperson, uh PR, telling my story, just helping raise money.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and I've done that.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh recently, the past couple years, I moved uh moved back to Starville, Mississippi, where Mississippi State is, where I went to college and been a Dowhard Bulldog fan my whole life.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I started going to the doctor in Birmingham at UAB because they have an adult cystic fibrosis program there.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: And at the time my health had deteriorated a lot to where when you when you have CF, what it is is the mucus inside of the lungs thickens up to where you can't breathe, you're coughing, you're it's strangling for breath.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's a it's an ordeal where you have to do breathing treatments and all sorts of stuff uh just to stay alive.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: And and uh there was no cure for it.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: So my my my health was dwindling down every day.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we have to do these breathing machine, the breathing test called pulmonary function, it measures your lung function.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I was borderline to transplant, and uh, and you have to be living within two hours of the transplant facility in order to get the transplant.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: So um Star Water Birmingham is exactly two hours away.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: So um from my door to the hospital door is two hours.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it made sense to move back here.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and I started going ever since I moved back here, I'd actually been hospitalized three separate occasions in my first year back.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: But thank goodness something happened last year that changed my life along with many other people with CF.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: There had been a drug that I had tried numerous times to get into the trials, but I could not do it because my lung function was not good enough, even though I had been healthy enough.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: And uh um, but anyway, it it I was healthy enough.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: I say that as where I could continue on working out, carrying on stuff that people with my lung function, they their normal person probably would not have been able to do, but I've just been dealing with this CF for my whole life.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: My body has gotten used to low lung function.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, this drug came out in October of uh 2019, so I've been on it over a year now, and it is a game changer.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: The doctor said it would be a game changer, and I was because I've been in clinical trials before that did not go so well, and I was like, I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but uh it it's everything the doctor said and more.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it has changed my life along with everyone else with CF.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we used to cough all the time.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: I barely cough now.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: My lung function has gone up uh over 20 points, so it's back to where it was right when I got out of college, which is over 15 years ago.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: My weight has gone up.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: People with CF have a hard time gaining weight because I have to take pancreatic enzymes because uh people with CF do not digest the fat absorbed in their food.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: So uh it's a tough time gaining weight.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: And plus, with my situation where I lost half of my intestine at birth, that even makes it harder.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then I have CF diabetes, um, that's another form of diabetes that starts with older people with CF because the insulin in your pancreas, your pancreas is just screwed up pretty much along with your lungs and it quits producing insulin.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: So at pretty much everybody with CF in their older age, which for me in the 30s is old for CF.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so I got diagnosed with that a few years ago.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of a lot of stuff contributes to making weight gain really very hard.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: And uh this miracle drug named Tricafta not only bumped up my lung function 20 points, but I gained 20 pounds within a year.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm back to where I was way in almost 15 years ago and breathing uh just about that as well.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's changed my life, and hopefully it has kept me off the uh lung transplant list for the foreseeable future future, along with other people with CF.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: So it's uh it's something uh it's I laugh all the time and tell people they're like, How you doing, man, during all this pandemic?
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, man, I feel great, the best I felt in over 20 years, but now I can't get out of the house.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's like what the heck, you know, the the timing, but I'm I'm so thankful to have this drug because think about it.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: If I did not have this drug in the pandemic yet, I mean I'd be really, really I'm scared to begin with.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'd be very scared.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway, uh yeah, I've always been fascinated with uh with Hollywood and celebrities.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I always wanted to be living out there and working in movies and stuff.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I've just been one of my passions that has intrigued me.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I've been able to be on a I have been out there multiple times, been on a show with Matthew McConaughey, and then I've uh formed a good friendship with uh John Schneider from the Dukes of Hazzard, who that was my childhood hero growing up and used to love the show.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: And he is a co-founder of Children's Miracle Network, which is the Children's Hospital in Jackson, is one of the 180 uh Children's Miracle Network hospitals in North America.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I got to know him a little bit through that, and then he moved to Louisiana a few years ago and opened up a film studio and invited me down multiple times and um and cast me in some of his movies.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: We just started up a good friendship.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so kind of living the dream, man.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm getting to do uh stuff in movies that I've always wanted to do, and uh not having to uh go far away from my doctors at the same time, and and uh so I can and and and I get to be on on TV on on uh on movies with my with a guy that I looked up to as a kid.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: I even named my my dog after him.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: And uh you follow me, you've seen Bo everywhere.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: He's my golden retriever, he goes everywhere with me, and uh so uh yeah, kind of kind of full circle.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's a little bit about my life, and uh, and so like Brandon said, we'll we'll we'll be talking about stuff.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh like I said, uh being a star while I never missed any Mississippi State sporting events, but now with this pandemic, I can't ever go, so I'm watching them on TV just like everybody else.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: But um, we'll talk about the sporting events, we'll talk about stuff happening on in town, talk about new restaurants.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: I love trying out uh foods and different restaurants around town.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll talk about I don't want to interrupt you here, but yeah, if y'all don't if y'all don't know Johnny, he can eat.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like we we used to go to uh the Hamels Buffet uh or Woods family restaurant back in uh in in Ridgeland, Mississippi.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean Johnny would make two or three trips, you know, to the buffet line, and you see him, you know, what are you like one 165, 170, something like that?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like you you got this this little skinny dude, and he's like he's putting it away out there, and uh and so we we got a few stories about that.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Dreamland barbecue.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think you uh oh man, do we had some experiences over there a little bit?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: So uh so we yeah, probably don't want to get into that in the first episode, but maybe we we can uh yeah, we'll we'll get into all those uh episodes.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, but yeah, yeah, like I said, with people with CF, you have to eat, you have to eat.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: And me being as skinny as I was, people would always look like there's no way he can put that away.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd go back for another another round.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Now go back for the art, where's this guy putting it?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: I've always been a been a huge eater and then not gaining weight.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Some people might like that.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: I wish I could be like that.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Trust me, you don't.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's a battle, but uh but yeah, we got we got a lot of uh a lot of funny stories about that, about hitting up buffets and like Paps Place buffet.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta get stories in Ackerman.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're gonna talk about that later too.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we will actually.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: That was probably one of the last places I ate before the pandemic hit down.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: You were actually uh I invited you to come down and we're gonna go play golf and go eat that.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: The world shut down who would have thought that, but uh yeah, so we'll talk about that.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: But but going back to the celebrities and Hollywood, all that sort of stuff.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: So that kind of like I said, I've always been intrigued with uh I always like the glasses that Johnny Depp wore, and I would talk to you about it.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like, man, eat CDs, and and uh so we we uh we you ended up doing all the research and found out a way to uh to make these come to life.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: And and the coolest, the really cool thing about it is that the proceeds benefit the cystic fibrosis foundation.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: So without people giving money to CF Foundation, we would not have been able to get tricafta.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: So and and tricafta only treats 90% of the population of CF.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: So there's still 10% of people with CF who do not have a drug out there.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I before I was able to get on Tricafta, there were other drugs that I was not able to take.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I I know they're feeling, I know exactly how they're feeling right now, but they're determined not to give up until every single person with CF has some type of um some type of treatment to uh to help them.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so yeah, our goal is to uh to raise as much money for CF and to make stuff like that happen for the rest of the population and a great cause to do it by having uh glasses and sunglasses and and uh especially sunglasses will be great time with uh hopefully everybody can get outside with baseball season, I hope.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and uh we're going out fishing on the lake, doing whatever out.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to go to a sporting event, you just walk outside if it's sunny, put them on.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: So uh exactly.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, the glasses are awesome.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: You sent me a pair, got them right here.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there they are.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: They're the uh tortoise color.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and man, they are they are awesome.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: I I love them.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so yeah, I'm I'm really excited about what you're doing with them.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: You can see them right there.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: And uh they look great, and then there'll be styling, and then you'll be you'll know it's going towards a good cause, too.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Not only exactly.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: What do they say?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: When you look good, you feel good, you play good.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly, exactly.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember you were talking about, you know, those those clinical trials and stuff like that.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: We went to that, we went to a Grizzlies game one time, and you were having to like drink that drink like every like couple hours or whatever, and it was like right about the time for us to come to the game, but like you we wanted to go in first, and then uh the security guard like wouldn't let you take that drink in there, and um you ended up having to like we had to like wait outside so you could drink it on like the right time.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Was that was like a trial that's not it wasn't the same medicine as this now though, right?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so back in 2015, uh see with CF, people have uh, like I could say it's it's a genetic disease.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: So uh people have different uh mutations, and uh with the with the mutations, um, there's two of them with people with CF.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's called Delta 508, and that's the number one mutation.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: If you have Delta 508 mutation, you have CF.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: Now, 50% of the CF population have two copies of the Delta 508 mutation, which means uh they've been able their their drugs that have come out in the past that that treated those people that's half the CF population.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Some people with CF have just one copy, the Delta 508 and a nonsense mutation, and I fall into that category.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: So at the time there was no treatment out there available, but they did have a study called uh Adelorin, and uh it was for people with one copy with a nonsense mutation.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I was able to go to Birmingham, that was my first experience at Birmingham, and get into uh clinical trial.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: It was hard to do because I I fit all the criteria except for my lung function number, and I they worked so hard to get me it.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: I barely made it, made the cut, but I got in on it, and uh and that study lasted, I got in uh January 15, and it ran until January of 17.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I was on it for two years.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: First year was uh trial and error, you didn't know whether you had the drug or the placebo, and then the second year of it, um that it was open called open label, which means they did give you the drug, and then um, and then it the study faltered um after in 17 because it wasn't like tricafta.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: I was telling about how I've gained weight, my lung function had gone up.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, with this particular drug, I didn't gain weight, my lung function didn't go up, but I didn't lose anything, so it kind of was keeping me stable.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: But the drug companies did not want to invest all this money into a drug that's not improving people, even though it was keeping them stable.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: So uh that's why that faltered, but it uh yeah, I had to carry around a um, it was annoying because the cool thing about tricapta is it's uh it's a pill.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: Take two pills in the morning and one pill at night, and that's all there is.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, with um with Adelauran, it was a uh it was like these sachets, these three little packets, and I had to mix them with water, stir it, and drink it.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I had to do it uh twice a day, uh twice a day, I believe.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: And it always seemed to coincide around mealtime.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that particular game you're referring to.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: I remember we went to go eat somewhere before the game, and then I had to do it after I ate, and I knew the game was gonna be lasting a while, it was gonna be too late, so I had to do it before the game, or I think I was actually during the that's what it was, had to do it during the game, but going through the metal detectors, um, the sachets I could not rip off.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: You had to have scissors to cut them because it was so hard to get into.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember going up to the metal detector though, you can't bring this in, you can't bring this in.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I got to, it's my medicine, I have to take it.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: And they wouldn't let me bring it in, so I had to take it early that night, which they didn't do any harm, did not do any harm to me, thank goodness.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I remember that I had to, there was three three packages, and I had to pour it, and I always had so I always had a a cup, scissors, a spoon.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And a bottle of water with me whenever situations like that happened.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I had to pour and mix it and drink it and moved on.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: But gosh, what a blessing that TriCapt is only a peel because I mean I'd do anything for improvement.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I've been through been through it all.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: It seems like it was yeah, trying to trying to be uh be a uh trying to trying to get something out there, and and that's why the clinical trials are so important for people to try out to see, you know.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I've been been that route.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's uh let's kind of let's kind of shift gears and let's let's give everybody kind of a taste about you know what we're gonna be talking about and and uh some stuff.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I I wrote a couple things down we could we could talk about.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, since uh we're recording this on Sunday, it's it's the playoffs.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, and you know, I I'm a pretty big Saints fan.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: I know I know you like the Saints too.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, being a Saints and Mississippi State fan, we've we've kind of had you know rough rough go of it there, and you know, we got we got lucky there um 10 years ago when the Saints won the Super Bowl.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I and I always said, all right, well, you know, they won it, you know, that's that's it for me, man.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: I feel good.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't care.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then I mean they they were pretty bad for a while after that.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: And uh then it was like 2017, they kind of started turning things around a little bit, and then you know, I start getting a little bit more invested again, and and I and I guess that's kind of what it's like to be like an Alabama fan.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you know, like it's super bowl or bust, and so when they have like these uh these things like that, it's just like it's so disappointing.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: But um I was talking to this guy the other day at the office and he's like, Man, the Saints are cursed, y'all are cursed.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Y'all, y'all just uh, you know, since Hurricane Katrina, y'all got lucky on that because they were, you know, it broke the curse a little bit, but y'all are still cursed, and and uh, you know, I I I kind of I kind of believe in a little bit, it seems like it.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so um I've always been like real superstitious about like stuff that I do for games, and like I I don't won't necessarily like tell everybody what I do, if I especially if I know it's working because it kind of messes it up, but but I I'm gonna take some blame for the loss because I don't know if you can see the shirt I'm wearing.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: I wore the shirt this season every Friday before the game.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I forgot to wear it before the playoffs, so I wore it on Saturday.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought maybe that that I was gonna like you know make up for it.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I think the real the real problem is I I uh you know one of these people, uh, but I don't know if you know the other guy.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: So every time one of these two people posts on Facebook that they're in the Superdome at Saints Luke's, one of those people is Lee Penton.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: So Lee, if you're listening, I know you were you're probably at that game.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the other guy named Todd Rhodis, he he was in um Lions Club with me.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I think Todd has been, I think he told me one time he's been to like 15 games and they've lost like 13 of them.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I know that either Todd or Lee, if you're listening, you were there, you ruined the season for us, and I just want to get that out of the way and get that off my chest.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: Speaking of speaking of Lee Pitton, yeah.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: Anytime I would go to a game, he would immediately and I post, hey, I'm here at this game.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: Jinx, you're a jinx, you're a jinx.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: Every time, no matter what.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: Jinx, jinx, jinx, it's always jinx.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: Not in Jinx, anything, you know.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: But it sounds like what you're saying that he might be the jinx.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think, I think he might be.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: So so Lee, if you want to come on and defend yourself, then uh let us know.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: We'll we'll get you we'll get you in here for an interview.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: And um, but uh so so I don't know.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I used to have some superstition about Mississippi State.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we we wrote about that a couple weeks ago in the blog.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: I I was like that for basketball games.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: We had um, I think I wrote about we used to have to listen to Justin Timberlake for the games, but also we had like a specific order we had to sit in at the basketball games, and uh the Rick's rowdies people they were always messing us up because like we had to get there and get our seats, but they'd always try to run down there and and get into their seats, and but we had to sit in like a specific two or three rows, and we had to all there was like four or five of us.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: We had to be in a line every game we lost, like we were out of that alignment, and so I I've kind of had to just like allow myself to to not uh think about that as much because I can get I can get pretty messed up.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: I saw on Twitter the other day, uh you I think I might have sent it to you, or you sent it to me or somebody, the line for that Kentucky game in 2004.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh oh yeah.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: Remember that line from the Brian building all the way?
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: We were we were in that.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh we had Barn Hill and a couple other people got out there at like 5 a.m.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: or whatever, and I was like, Y'all are crazy, y'all don't have to go out there that early.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it turned out like it was a good thing they did.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because uh because I mean there was a line to get tickets that week, and then the line to get into the game that week, too.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, the good old days.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: I really thought we're gonna beat Mississippi.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna beat uh Kentucky this year.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: I know they're losing everybody, Kentucky's losing everybody to do it.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's like man, it's we it's something about a curse with them too.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: And curse.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, you know, the basketball team is just it's so up or down, like I just can't figure them out.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they looked I thought that they were gonna get killed.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, old Rose Bowl was saying Alabama is like the best team in the league and they're gonna kill us.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, we we hung around, yeah.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: We hung around.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's uh I was like Alabama, they get to be good in football and basketball.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: What's up with that?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Share one up with us, right?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Every time I watch it, I feel like at least when we're on offense, it's like you're playing that game like tip in or something like that.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's like they get down there and they and they they miss a shot and they're like bouncing around like three or four offensive rebounds, and they just miss all the shots, and uh it just seems like we never get into a rhythm and we look pretty decent on defense.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was laughing when I watched the game last night.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, I I I I had never um after the 04 game at Coleman Coliseum when we were at that game and you were there together, I've never been to a game there again.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: That actually in 05 I got offered a ticket and I was uh I'm not gonna go.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't go.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: Thank goodness when we lost by 30.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, after that game, I was like, I'm never going back to this arena ever again.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, why would I go back?
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: Because it was like that you can't, that was the best ending ever to a Mississippi State basketball game I've ever been to.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I actually tweeted that out last night uh when I was watching the game and tagged uh Shane Power and Timmy Bowers in the tweet, and they both uh they both uh responded back.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, what a what a what a year that was! What a game, man.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I just remember this Alabama fan in front of us taunting us.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: He was like every time he shoot a three, every time you do that in their face, and then went to overtime.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: It was like 50 or 60, and he was like by himself, yeah.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: And he was nowhere to be found when that game went to overtime.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, nowhere to be found.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I remember wanting to say something to him after the game, and we looked up and he's gone.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I remember us running around the concourse, cheering, jumping up and down.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: I remember John uh Pitts, he was there, he was he was screaming, woo! Like it was so funny, Mississippi State.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: Woo, you damn right.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, what a day, man.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: That was just like gosh, so yeah, I'll never I'll never go back to Coleman Coliseum never again.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, that place is literally a dump, too.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's awful.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it it really is.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if they've improved it since then, but I don't think they have.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't know how.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they get all that money from football, like you would think they'd do something with it.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: Let's say put it all in a football program.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um so any any tide, roll tide people out there.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you're listening, let us know you know what's the deal with that, what's what's the status, let's know about that.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's uh it's uh it it's it it yeah, it's crazy how they're they're good this year.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: So what's next?
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: We good in baseball too, probably.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: Who knows?
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I know.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, um, you know, a couple couple things this week uh that happened.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, they were saying when Trump left office that the Tiger King was gonna get pardoned.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: Did you see all that?
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: They had a they had a limo parked out there for him.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: It was like a stretch, uh, a stretch limo, and uh he didn't he didn't end up getting pardoned, so I was kind of disappointed about that.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he uh I read where he was having it, he had a hair makeup team ready to go.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: The limo was out front and he was ready to go.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: It was gonna be uh entertaining to say the least, man.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: It would have been uh just absolutely amazing.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we could uh maybe like if he got out and have like a a tiger king line of uh glasses or something like that.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he could yeah, yeah, Joe Exotic.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: He'd be uh he'd probably contact you to try to uh promote it, man.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: He'd want to wear it.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: Carol Baskin would probably try to track him down and steal it from him and maybe it's right, and then glasses would really blow up, dude.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody would be like, I want some of them.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: But I've been so for a while.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: What's that?
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: That looks like Joe Exotic's gonna be in the slammer for a while.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I was kind of tuned into that, and then um, you know, sometimes I get on these kicks on YouTube.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: I've been watching all these lava videos where this guy, like, he gets uh I they put like these rocks in there that look like they're from a volcano and they heat them up real hot and then they pour the the lava on stuff.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think I sent you the video yesterday, it's like they poured it into the swimming pool and they poured it in there, it's like real hot, it's like and then like after they get it out of there, like it's burned back into the rock.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so I didn't realize like lava would like turn back into rocks like that quickly.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's amazing.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: So what about that?
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: What about what about that basketball uh gold video you sent me?
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: How cool would that have been to be in the gym to see that happen?
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, yeah, yeah.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so guy like went for a dunk.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was a high school game.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and you know, normally it's just like the glass shatters, but I mean this one like the whole like the the metal from like above was coming down and like it fell.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, luckily nobody was hurt, but it I mean Shaq's never done anything like that.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: So oh man, if we were in the gym and we saw that happen, it'd be like whoo.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the I can't imagine what the sound made all the people scattered.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, it was it was insane.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, um, I think we I think we've probably we've probably chatted for a while, so um yeah, probably a good time to cut off the first episode.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, we'll hop every every week and we'll do that blog and a lot of ways to keep up with us.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: So uh yeah, the website.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: And what when do you when did you say those sunglasses you're gonna get them out sometime in the spring?
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: So they're so they're they're ready.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um this the photographer sent me the pictures the other day, and so she's supposed to drop them back off at my place, I think tomorrow.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we can probably once we get them up on the website, we'll uh we'll get those rolling out.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I got a feeling they'll probably sell out quick, so I probably should go ahead and order some more, but we'll see.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: You can uh you can come into your store, right?
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Right, yeah.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we've sold uh a lot in the office, and uh some people don't realize what they're getting.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then I get so I give them a little card after they buy them, and it says, you know, Johnny Packer I wear it.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: It and it talks about a little bit about the story of them.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: So but uh it'll be good to have this.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: So if anybody's interested in you know hearing more about ours, what we're doing, then they can turn to this and and watch it.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh yeah, well, y'all uh y'all tune in and uh you know if if you you want to talk about anything on here, you can reply to the emails that we send or you know, shoot us a message on the Johnny Packer Facebook page.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh if there's anything you want to talk about, if if you want to be a guest on our podcast sometime, uh bet we could get get some some pretty good cats on here sometime.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, just reach out to us.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's gonna be fun.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's gonna be random stuff we'll talk about, but that's the best part, right?
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: Random stuff, right?
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: But uh awesome.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Johnny.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks for for coming on, and uh we'll yeah, we'll probably get get together uh sometime next week and and do another one of these.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: So let's do it.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: Looking forward to it, man.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_01: All right, see y'all.