my hero wonder woman over here our show today is cardiovascular screening and other types of screenings that people can get that are not always covered by insurance is but that  and interesting and we're just going to talk about those types of screenings where they offer how much they cost certain people why insurance companies don't pay for it and i know all of that stuff will be no insurance companies don't pay for lots of things today luckily for me they've been paying and that's good i'm glad to hear that but we want to be that of cardiovascular vascular screenings i've had just about everything under the sun and then some well that's good to know and it's been covered good that's great but we decided to do that show because i went to get a type of cardiovascular mesler screening that is not necessarily done regularly and you said hey why don't we do a show about that yeah and that interesting it was it was the angio screen which is the name of the new the new thing new so it's something that you can do actually try to predict if you have some kind of problem before you actually have an event occurred you know i think you are much like a heart attack or stroke right yeah which is very good you don't need a prescription from your doctor or anything to get it you can just make an appointment pay out of pocket and get it up is there a reason why it's not covered by insurance you know yes i found out i asked they said that parts of it like a five part test and parts of it would be covered by your insurance company if you fell into a certain risk category right so if you were having some kind of problems or you hit a certain age and you read family history of heart disease stroke or a tax you were smoker or you had high blood pressure that they couldn't control different things like that they may send you for one part of this tab it's justified and they want to sure but if you're the average person and they're just wondering do i have an aortic aneurism is my blood flowing through my legs right right and you can't they won't pay for that they don't care if you're curious or not or you're worried or not if you don't fit the profile to get it done right they don't want to pay all that money to have it done right so the interview screens what types of tests so that mass measurement ok and they do all that fifteen minutes or less well it was forty nine ninety nine has not been not at all it took me a long because i had doctors from head to toe looking for i and then my arm from the i v with they they dissolved but they cause the one in your arm yeah ok yeah luckily for me knock on wood i didn't have any problems they didn't find any plaque in my vessels ok oh aortic aneurism my blood was flowing really good in my legs which i was glad to hear because i have a family history of peripheral peripheral artery disease especially in the legs so i was worried maybe my blood wasn't flowing ok well it was and carotid arteries they check so they can see if you you know your blood is flowing you have blockages there  great thing because a lot of people don't realize they have blocked carotid because what happens is a little piece of the plaque breaks off and then goes up into your brain the blocks a vessel do you have a stroke and then it's too late then i mean once you find out that happens you can't reverse it right so that's why these tests are good because if they found something concerning the nurse explained to me you get referred to a doctor right away yeah they would start doing all the cardio and the vascular work ups and medication you needed so that you didn't have the heart attack or stroke which i had is a phenomenal thing yeah and it literally it was fifteen minutes you walked into this facility when they had four people working on you with the same time which was a little overwhelming it would have thinking if i had been in an accident or i came into a trauma center this is probably what it was like they had somebody on my back somebody on my arm somebody on my leg somebody happened me down doing on i was like whoa but i guess that's how they get it under fifteen minutes or less as how soon did you get your results right then ok they give you a disk even when you leave and a color printout of all eighty to sections of as well as yeah so that ok and they had said you know do you know that you have a very large one and i said a large fire word or not to a large hole in the thyroid ok and i said no and they said you better go to an end of chronologists right away yeah so i did yeah and now i'm having all kinds of testing done i just recently had a alter sound done ok and tons and tons of blood work and i went this morning to get the blood work done so you know weeks i should meet with the doctor again and find out what's going on ok so but had i not had that test i might not have found it as quick as i did yeah so that's that was a good thing too yeah did you have anything incidental ever found when you had a test somewhere and you go for one thing but they find something else no i mean since stroke i have every test a thousand times like i had to wear a cardiac monitor for a month because they were because right now they don't know  caused my stroke a small percentage of people they can't figure it out because everything i had like no risk factors i mean i don't have high blood pressure my cholesterol was good you didn't smoke i don't smoke don't take drugs did anybody in your family ever have a stroke i meant to ask you that you're aware of even like genetically down the line maybe that you didn't even know personally my father had a mild stroke but they t p d it and it went away so other than that you didn't have high risk factor so they thought like i didn't have a thing which is a lot but they checked my heart and they looked at it from the front they looked at it they did a that they did it e g right where they do my mouth they go in and they look at they look at the front of your heart they look at the back of my heart that was ok and so they say they pretty much threw their hands up and said we have no idea how this happened right that's terrible i mean it's so good that they didn't find a big problem but name so it sounds good yeah wow so if you don't have a clot in problem when you go on friday then that pretty much is then everything they could possibly ever check and mate they checked me would say check me twice well that's it you're gradually you're in a small percentage we have no idea what caused it i hope you played the lottery since then and you should because if you have that kind of those odds i mean i would be playing the lottery back to eating  terry's so now we're going to those are some of the cardiovascular vascular screenings you said you had dopplers head to toe your head about the monitor yeah what other kinds of they do bloodwork they look at your cholesterol and stuff like that and i definitely can tell you what risk factor you are for cardiovascular yeah and if you're diabetic that increases your risk yes true is there any other scans or like and so i have a reason for right reason now you would have tried to get any of those tests done before you had your stroke they probably would not have yeah i would have had to pay for it out of pocket because i know that any risk factors that heart thing was two thousand dollars wow the heart monitor that i had to wear for a month and you never went out of rhythm you never do you know infected any problem with you know because they said it's like instantly monitored like while i'm wearing it twenty four hours a day someone's monitoring it off site right twenty four hours a day and it all gets saved like into a computer right check it and if there was a problem they would immediately call the doctor if they saw anything nothing nothing unless they were on their lunch break or they were nothing at all that that's not funny but probably possible i'm sure  so let's see we know well what what tests generally like when people go for a physical yeah what tests generally get done that are included by insurance for a physical were regular doppler usually because that's not included in part of the price that that in the right company will pay for their it is really unless you have a mess there's a reason to do it right can they really hear you think yeah yeah if they're good and they know when you're listening for they you know if you haven't a clue so then they could send you for the doppler yeah that would be like your next next step so if your doctor is not taking the stethoscope and listening by your my doctor listens say i'm you know i thought back to some doctors i've had in the past and yet when i've had like what they call a physical i i don't remember some of them doing that really now maybe because i was young or younger at the time but i mean are they supposed to do it for everyone pretty much you know young people could have problems nowadays there's kids but high cholesterol and high blood pressure so yeah to kind of watch yeah and chest x rays are generally part of it but not always not always unless you have a history of smoking or you've been coughing and stuff like that so there's really not much to a physical honestly right now wit pickens so they don't do a whole lot to people think it's this big process and they get worried if they have to go into the doctor for a physical but they don't really do a whole lot so it's not something that you have to be concerned about and something you should make sure you get at least once a year yeah but when you go in even if you went in for a cold kind of doctor does almost all of that anyway in the exam minus the e k g yeah so you know listen to your heart  cover most insurances will cover of once a year physical pain because that's preventive right you had a lot of people don't get it or use that yeah which is terrible yeah but it's important because you can catch a lot of things very early yeah so i mean you believe in preventative screenings don't you yeah but you and you were going for all of your physicals and yaps and test before all this happened anyway so it doesn't always prevent things right but you can try especially when you're one of the minor percenters like me yeah it's made for majority of the population not patty part of the population right i think they're going they've got new there's a lot of new technology and new things that are coming up like the virtual colonoscopy what do you think about the virtual i personally would rather have a virtual colonoscopy than a regular one you've had regular ones they're not fun no because who you follow but you the put the prep is horrible yeah see i'm not looking forward to that when when i get to that that golden age where you're supposed to go get them done i 'm a little nervous i don't want to do it so i was looking into a virtual colonoscopy and actually they say now that there are quite a few insurance companies that are really paying for it ok because they're finding that they are pretty reliable now of course if they see any polyps or problems on the virtual colonoscopy which is which is a cat scan type of film you have to go then have a regular one so they can go in and biopsy it so you may have to do it twice and then you may have a problem with your insurance company then but if you get a virtual and they don't see anything you're good to go no prep no disgusting bathroom twenty four hour issues and so i would rather go that way they said they're still arguing there's some states even that are making it mandated that insurance companies have to pay for it because more people are getting it done really well because people so many people and they get very nervous so they just won't do it and they said that there's too many colon cancer cases out there now that area that should be caught earlier so if they maybe make this kind of test they'll both of people and insurance covers it it's even better right because then if somebody says well hey i just have to go have a scan and i don't have to pay out of pocket for it i'd probably do that instead of all that other stuff so hopefully that continues that trend and more and more insurance companies will pay and then colon cancer will go down considerable and then maybe we'll get to the point where you don't even have to have a colonoscopy anymore they'll be some magic way to take it out and to treat the polyps so that you don't have to go through all that because it doesn't sound like fun i've never had one yet and i'm dreading it but what other screenings do you think are important that people don't really get done or insurance companies don't pay for like mammograms yes well most digital mammograms are now covered right but there's three d mammograms and out there that aren't covered that they won't pay for right and now they're trying to say that a lot of women can't have a mammogram every year right they want them to go like every other year or every three years or not which is stupid yes my my doctors don't believe in that they said you should have one every year so they write my script every for one every year we go for a check up and then there's the breast m r i which is out there which is extremely sensitive to detecting breast cancers especially in women with dense breasts right not covered by insurance really yet i actually know people who have very dense breasts they had problems their doctors wanted them to have this test their insurance company said no the doctors had to write letters and fight back and forth and in some cases they were allowed to have them in other cases they were told no really i mean it's a it's ridiculous just cover the tast let somebody get checked if they have insurance and they need a test of their doctor says they need a task they should pay for it yeah insurance companies and their denials don't get me started and we come here for another ten shows therapists were on my side and they would fight with the insurance company to give me the the extra time and what i needed it's all about saving money yeah it's crazy it's sadly not about helping patients and giving them what they need there's also genetic testing yeah there's there's a whole trend now where a lot of insurance companies are covering certain testing they're saying that there's been a new trend and there's a lot of genetic testing different genetic testing even to find out because certain cancers are so genetic like melanoma does and different other cancers that if you are that high risk for getting it they want the genetic testing so they know exactly how to screen you and insurance companies are not agreeing to pay for it and it's thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars so gerty patients couldn't even possibly even consider to pay out of pocket because he wouldn't be able to afford it i'm just curious all that blood work from the he would tolerate just they took out i think they left b they two cells it took up twelve tubes  blood come out of me because i would pass out so i go like this the whole time that they're there taking my blood and she's like are you ok is i'm like i can't see any comment out of me or around going to be laying on that floor and i told naomi is they have to take me out for a steak dinner to jumpstart my my blood production again i know that that's a lot of blood did you feel funny after all that blood being taken out light headed or strange or anything lighter you're in the one percent of medical mystery population so you probably didn't feel it you probably felt better know in u but i have a doctor's appointment first thing friday morning and so then we'll have the results and we'll know yeah and if that's done then you get a clean bill of health and all bets are off you're just a medical miracle yeah i went to my door with surgery yesterday and i had appointment with her so she says i'm doing great and she said i'm good for another year wow so you know back to you know for another year yeah pretty amazing yeah and how are you feeling otherwise while we're on the topic i mean as far as your your head goes and surgery and walking and moving and all that stuff how's everything going the viewers want to know i do from my bow tie i need to get my botox on my arm and my leg and that helps with the movement of the muscles and all of that because my muscles are so tight what it does is it decreases the specificity and my doctor says i have a lot more movement but because the muscles are so tight the botox will help that's good and how long is that last how up like three months do you ask them to give you a little injection in the lips of the i said when i was in rehab the first time i had it done i said this is the youngest looking armed ever see and they head and everything is here all fine and well my hears grow now yes it is and there's no sensitivity in problems like on your scalp or because i mean you had some major yeah i still have it still get sensitive yeah yeah but you're getting there you're way further than anybody thought you would be that's for sure i'm starting a walk by myself a little bit without without a cane or get in the car with them and let them drive i think when we when we do not want to bring her my helmet i think somebody needs to videotape that i'm not kidding that that that video is going to go viral you know i put this on because you drove like a just the coming down from that but you should have somebody videotape that if you could that would be amazing for sure so i'm sure everybody is very happy to know how well you're doing and how amazing because a lot of people have been following your journey and that we were able to get on this update make it see for themselves just how incredible you really are and cooking and cooking so you know you even cook that much before hand so now you're cooking so what are you cooking i mean these wonderful spice cookies they asked the week ok that's made the whole place smell like thanksgiving oh i didn't get any going to give me the recipe and i'll make amazing so i'm being told that's all the time we have for today ok but thank you very much for coming back and being part of the show i couldn't wait in fact i told my one therapist she's going to be binge watch us this weekend