Name: Joe Rogan Experience #1291 - C.T. Fletcher
Uploaded: 2019-05-07T01:30:00.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #1291 - C.T. Fletcher' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-05-07. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #1291 - C.T. Fletcher' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-05-07. Transcript available.

Joe Rogan Experience #1291 - C.T. Fletcher

boom and we're live what's up brother how are you man joe rogan i am so happy
to be here i'm so
happy to see you fuck you've gone through a journey oh man since the last time
i seen is
yesterday was one year from your heart transplant anniversary exactly wow one
year and joe if i
told you it was easy i'd be lying but man it was so worth the journey and ain't
even funny what does
it feel like right now like have another person's heart in your body what does
that feel like well
a lot of times it feels like i actually did die and this is just a dream that i'm
living right now
yep wow this this is uh i think this this would be my heaven you look great you're
still jacked
no no you're not losing any weight oh yeah yeah yeah but i mean you still you're
still jacked you still
got muscles uh you know it's it's such a a fall from where i was you know i
really appreciate that
though but uh i i you know i look at myself now and it's just a you know
fragment of what i used to be
but you know i'm still here that's what's so important to me man well the
ridiculous thing you
were doing you're making videos of you're working out like getting ready and
after your heart heart
operation this you have a heart transplant and you're running in a parking lot
you trip and fall
i'm like jesus man slow down yeah yeah i got a lot of that you just decided
that you were just
going to start pushing from the beginning well uh actually uh my brain was
ready but my body wasn't
did they warn you about doing that did they say it was okay they told me that
you know they gave me
permission to walk and you know me i'm like i've walked shit i can run yeah at
least my mind said i
could run right what does it feel like though like when you like what is the
difference between the way
your heart feels now uh it's night and day you know before i got the uh
transplant it had got
really bad you know really bad i had a flat line two more times uh you know
before the actual
transplant and it was i couldn't go through one another flat line i mean that
would have been
it but uh the difference now i mean it feels uh when you say flat line like
your heart stopped yes
uh-huh yeah whoa and what did they do to start it back up again okay um after i
had this last heart
attack um they asked me to say mr fisher do you want to us to put in a pacemaker
and i mean i thought
about it a lot because my brother my older brother walt had a pacemaker
installed before he passed away
and his pacemaker was actually going off uh when he when he died so i'm like
man it didn't really do
any good for him so i was like going back and forth and then you know just uh
something voice said yeah
go ahead and get it and so i told me i put it in the pacemaker saved me wow so
it went flat like so
your heart gave up and then the what does the pacemaker do exactly it's like a
defibrillator you
know like they have the paddles that give you electric shock you know that's
that's what the
pacemaker does just gives you a little yeah it's on the inside uh you know
inside and it's connected
directly to your heart wow and that sucker flat lines it gives you a jolt wow
yeah did you feel it
no no i was i was dead until we say when you're dead you don't feel nothing man
so you'd blacked out too
oh uh it's not a blackout or uh like you doze off when you're sleeping death is
totally different totally
different and you i knew that i was dead before i i died before a flat line it
was just me and my wife
and at home and i was talking to her just like i'm talking to you and the next
thing all the lights
went out it was like uh one of those old-fashioned tvs i don't know if you're
old enough to remember
uh these black and white tvs yeah yeah that's exactly how it was just a tiny
pulp tiny pinprick of
life yeah and you know that that's it wow it's no you know you you absolutely
know that this is it
and it's not you know this is the irreversible and you you know that it's this
is death and not just
you're not just dozing off yeah you know did you have a near-death experience i
i everything
um the only thing you have the only thing i had time to say was i had time to
uh call my wife's name
but i mean when they say things rush you know everything's like this is it this
is it you know
you're not gonna be able to do this anymore you're not gonna be this is it this
is it the final
finalization of everything hits you like you the you know this is it you know
this is the final thing
this is your last moment on earth and you know it it's clear and i'm like what
do you do be you know
all i could do was say my wife's name and that was it that was it so the the
pacemaker kicks in and
then you come back online it was yeah and it was so that's a damn good
description i mean it was like
i thought i felt like that i had been asleep um for hours it was the best most
peaceful
restful time of my entire life wow and in just a short moment it felt like i
had been asleep you
know for eight hours so rested so well rested so wow and my wife told me you
know it's just a short
period of time but it felt like i had been asleep for eight hours so this
happened twice yes the second
time was in the hospital oh yeah wow so they tell you okay mr fletcher we have
a heart for you yeah
they call me like 2 40 in the morning i think it was so you have to get in
there right now is that
how no no i had hours uh before i had to actually be at the hospital i said be
be at the hospital i think
like six or seven that morning yeah and then you're thinking oh boy uh i was
happy and sad when i got the
call i was happy for myself um because i didn't think i could go through
another flat line but i was sad for
the donor and the donor's family yeah i knew somebody had to pass away in order
for me to get that heart
so i felt real bad about that so they put it in you you wake up what does that
feel like
um it felt like uh
um being born again a rebirth another try another go at life
wow yeah i get another start another chance at it my set ain't over
wow so from the moment this they have to open you up right oh yeah they do that
chest spreader thing
and uh and what is all that like well uh of course i you were out yeah but when
you wake up and you look
down you're covered with stitches right i mean it must be a giant scar right
you know what they it's
they are so good now though that you know i i have a scar but consider that
this is my second time being
split open you know the first time uh in 05 when they uh put a metal valve in
uh i flat line during that
uh operation three times on you know on the table during the the operation
itself uh so
me and flat line you know five flat lines i think i'm at my limit man
wow so um i seen the scars they had to take the pace the pacemaker out they
took the metal valve out
of the well they took the the old heart had the metal valve in it so they took
the old heart out
they put in a new heart and uh it's just man it's uh unbelievable because
before a shower would kill
me if i took a shower i'd be done for the rest of the day a shower yeah a
shower would kill me for the
rest of the day and i had a seat in the shower you know uh how would a shower
kill you oh man it was
that that amount of physical activity and you know uh how you know people take
taking a shower for granted
but that amount of physical activity would kill me i'd be wiped out just for
washing yourself yes for the
rest of the day man it was so you were hanging by us well yeah definitely
definitely it was you know
kill me you know and my wife was opening jars for me yeah here i am former
bench press world champion
and i got my wife hey baby could you open this jelly jar for me wow yeah it's
uh humbling humbling very
big time big time how long did you have to stay in the hospital for um we went
in the hospital
not very long i mean we got out of uh we went straight to in intensive care
they keep you there
for like three days but i think i was probably released um within two weeks
total wow yeah and then
are you using a walker are you walking fine like i wouldn't say i was walking
fine but i was walking
just walking slowly oh big time big time slowly yeah i was crawling along wow
and how long did it take
to you for you to get to where you're at like now like now i'd have no idea
that you had a heart
transplant really well i appreciate that no when i saw you i mean you look very
happy oh i am happy you
look like like you're glowing i'm extremely happy just to be alive when you
come that close to dying
i mean every day is just a blessing man if people ask me how you doing ct i'm
blessed man i'm sorry i
got no complaints legitimately blast oh yes no complaints whatsoever man i'm
doing i see i want to
see i want to hug joe i'm so happy to see you i'm so happy to see you too man i'm
alive wow because we
you know last time i was on we talked about um me needing a transplant and i
needed the transplant and
now i'm back i had it and the first uh six months were rough yeah the first six
months after it was like how
so uh the jelly jar opening the jelly jar just not being able to do you know
normal things i um
the first thing i tried to do was walk so they had me walk around i guess a
city block and then a city
block joe when i first tried to walk around a city block i'd have to stop
probably 12 13 times
and take a seat and get up and try to walk and it was it was killing me man my
you know my wife would
slow down she'd slow down and walk with me and i see you know it was such a
struggle and i'm like you
know what i don't give a damn how long it take me i'm gonna make it and i'm
gonna make it so just keep
keep going and what kind of activity are you out able to do now a year later i
i am uh lifting again but
very lightly i'm able to do you know the machine and stuff from the tin uh i
think i've been able to
do that for the last uh two months so when you say lightly is this by doctor's
orders oh yeah the doctor
i can't do anything you know without them approving it first yeah except the
run in the parking lot
they didn't approve yeah my mind was like oh yeah you can do it my body was
like leave me out this
yeah so what what holds you back in terms of like lifting weights like why do
you have to go light
my strength is just nowhere near what it used to be the strength is still you
know i can tell that uh
you know i have a long way to go but you know just to be able to do anything so
i get i get in there
and do it i do what i can that's what i tell people all the time man if you can't
uh you know do what
you want to do at least get in there and do what you can do yeah it's better
than doing nothing yeah
so now do they have you on medication to make sure that the heart doesn't get
rejected by your body
most definitely and people are out there who've had transplants i know that
they're like oh man yeah
i take about 21 different medications every day yeah 21 different medication
and what are the side
effects of the stuff um they used to be worse but now you know my uh feet are
swollen pretty much every
day um something uh in the medicaid kind of kicks my arthritis i have arthritis
too so it kind of kicks
in the toes are stiff you know and pretty much every day but when i compare the
side effects to the
what could possibly happen which is death the side effects ain't i'll take them
now will you have to take this medication forever uh it gets less less and less
when i go back
this month back up to palo alto where they did the transplant um they're going
to take off about
four or five different medications so i'm a year out now they less and then the
further you get out
the less medication and thinking eventually we'll get down to two or three but
you'll always have to
take something oh yeah definitely and is this because your body doesn't
understand why it has someone's
heart in it um for a while that's that in the beginning like that's well i'm
taking 21 now it's because
you know uh to keep the chances of rejection down why why do bodies reject