ALS - To The Moon And Back Episode 13

ALS to the Moon and Back — Episode 13

This episode kicks off the way all great conversations do…

With smugness over a 10-minute morning routine and a deep philosophical question:
👉 Can you feel better after just 10 minutes?
Answer: no. But you can feel superior. And honestly, that counts. 

Then we get into it…

Somehow (as always), we cover:

•  Teeth, mercury fillings, and why Lisa now has a gap — with a surprisingly good backstory 
•  The wild world of dentistry when you’re navigating ALS 
•  Why your body sometimes knows before your brain catches up 
•  The absolute chaos of modern healthcare access (great… if you can get it) 

And yes… we absolutely detour into:

•  The manosphere 
•  Social media influence 
•  Politics, privilege, and the occasional rant that probably needed to happen 

This episode really circles around one big idea:

Pay attention to what your body is telling you.

Whether it’s:

•  a gut feeling in a medical appointment 
•  something not quite right physically 
•  or just that quiet internal “this isn’t it” 

Teeth matter more than you think

This episode goes deep into something not talked about enough:

•  dental health 
•  inflammation 
•  toxins 
•  and how all of that may connect into bigger systemic issues 

Also, because this is our podcast and we do not stay in one lane:

•  A very proud dog mum moment (Ony absolutely smashing it 🏆) 
•  The realities of breeding vs temperament 
•  Why dogs might just be one of the best emotional support systems on the planet 

And then… the real moments

•  A tough day physically and emotionally 
•  What happens when pain, fatigue, and everything else collide 
•  Letting yourself cry instead of holding it all together 

And one of the most beautiful lines of the episode:“That which you cannot say must be cried out.”

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Welcome to ALS to the Men and Back. I'm Lisa Wright, and my dear friend Portia Turbo joins me each week, and we're trying to do one each week. We'll see how we go. We try and be honest, very ridiculous on a regular basis, and it's a conversation about living with ALS. But we also end up talking about travel, art, perfume. We also talk about ALS again, the treatments, the timelines, the science, the humour that keeps us sane. We talk about what's hard, what helps, and how to keep living fully in the middle of it all. So if you're joining it, please subscribe, share, and leave us a review. If you really hate it, that's okay. Just pretend you never heard of us. Thank you. Here we go. Ah Hello, how are you? Decidedly gorgeous this morning.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Well, do you know I've I've just noticed that I matched my curtain.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Oh, you do?

SPEAKER_00 1:14

It's a whole I've done a whole thing for you. Yes, indeed.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Hello, Lisa, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Hello, babe.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Well, I'm I'm a delight.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

I have uh I have a really boring story to tell you about this new thing I'm doing. And I might have told you last week. It's the uh Star jumps. Yeah, morning 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

I have done it every day.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

This is week two.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

And you're feeling better for it?

SPEAKER_00 1:44

No, don't be ridiculous. It's just 10 minutes.

unknown 1:48

My God.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

But I am walking around a bit more up myself because I've done this stupid thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

Yeah, you can be a bit more smug.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Well, is that possible?

SPEAKER_02 2:00

I love you. It's such a good mix of smug and curiousness and humility. It's a great combination.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Yay! The trifecta.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Yeah, the triple threat.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Hey.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

I noticed something different about you.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Is it the gap in my teeth?

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Yes. Tell me the story, my love.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

Oh, you should see the other bloke up. Yeah. Some racist over at Barrel decked me for being rude. No, it's love.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Decked me for telling the truth.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

So people with ALS are notoriously. Um, I don't I don't think I had bad teeth. I have spent a fortune on fixing my teeth over the years.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

But um, the integrative GP that I see wanted me to see her holistic dentist, who he is an absolute delight. Shout out to Craig Wilson at Sydney Holistic Dental, absolute beautiful man, and you know, really, really good dentist. Like I had a root canal, and if you're out there in ALS world going, why did she say yes to a root canal? Because we know they're not good, but um, but he suggested we try and save a molar at the back. But this all started a few weeks ago. I think you were overseas, and um and anyway, rather than just go fishing about and x-raying my mouth a hundred times, he wanted me to go get a CT scan. And did you know, Forsha Turbo, that the woman who is the associate prof who reads these is considered one of the best in the world. We have some great medical services in this country.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Yes, we do if you can get them.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Yeah, yeah, true. And so when I first saw um Craig Wilson, he suggested I go up the road, get a CT scan, and um this lovely technician from Argentina, he spoke to me like this throughout the whole city.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

I don't think we're allowed to do that anymore.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

It was very sexy. Can I do it if it was sexy? Well, I had to bite down on this thing in my mouth while they said it was sexy. Oh, you've got to think about it as sexy because on the day I was sitting in a chair, I was a bit stressy about going. Um I don't get too worked up about going to the dentist, but with ALS, everything shifts, you know. You're you're more likely to have a coughing fit or swallow when something goes the wrong way. So you don't want to be sitting there, you know, someone playing around in your mouth and it would all go wrong. Oh God, this is just going downhill fast. So anyway, um, out of that report, there was a tooth, and I'm gonna get a bit juju, but when I meditate, these teeth along the upper right in my mouth um have not felt great. And um, and anyway, he said, you're absolutely right, you've got a root canal that has never really worked. I kind of knew that from the day I had this root canal. Um, and he said, You've already had it treated once. He said, That means that it's very unlikely that it's going to be treated twice and succeed. And so he said, Well, I think we need to pull it out. And he said, two teeth back from that is one of my teeth that has mercury amalgams. And we've talked about mercury in teeth before here. Um, and he said it needs a root canal. He said, Let's do a temporary, because you know, when you they do a root canal, they do the root canal and then they leave it sit before they fill it, just to make sure the um infection's gone. So we've done that, and it's not saying that the tooth won't be pulled, but we're giving it a shot.

unknown 6:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Yay! Yeah, I know, it's not good. 25% down, yeah. And he is such a clever dentist, he said. He goes, I prefer to use a fine drill and drill around the outside of the mercury amalgam, yeah, and then it all comes out in one piece, which it freaking did. Thank God. Yep, so they put um like a hose over your nose, they filled it the air, they gown you up, they um used uh like a mouth stamp, so they completely isolate the tooth. It's very, very well done, and oh, with a beautiful view over Hyde Park.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

So right, yeah, gorgeous. Well, my dentist, my dentist has a view over the harbor.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

Oh, I'm outdone.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Uh so it's Macquarie Street, so it looks over the uh yeah, the con straight out.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

Okay, so we headed down near there. Yeah, it's a beautiful old building on the corner down there, and I can't remember the exact corner, but it's right down near Mitchell Library, and it's really old, and it only goes up about six stories.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

There's a few of those.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Oh, it's gorgeous, yeah, beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

This the one that my dentist in is called Bland House, and after Bland, the um architect who did all that very bland architecture, which is where we get the name Bland from.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

Is that true? Wow, I've learned something new today.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Oh, I've got something else new for you. Yeah, he won't do um root canals because the this is what he says. Uh because the um the pimple behind your tooth, the abscess, yeah, eats away at the tooth, leaving all these little holes in the tooth, which aren't actually holes, they're just kind of striations.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

They call them.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Which is then where the bacteria builds up and grows, which means that you can almost never make sure that stays clean.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

And that's what's happened to me. Yeah, right. And um I like the sound of your dentist because there is a growing body of thought. There is no such thing as the safe root canal.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Right. So he does periodontal work and pulls it all apart and cleans it all without going through the tooth.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

So he's been fighting for 25 years to keep my teeth in my mouth because I was obviously a drug addict for 25 years. Um and during that time there was a there were huge bouts of depression where I just didn't clean my teeth. So my gums are terrible.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

Porsche, when you say you're a drug addict for 25 years, yes, is that like you now go to Al Anon?

SPEAKER_00 9:32

No, I just got bored. Yeah, it was a phase 25 years. It was so it was all part of partying, yes, and it wasn't and it wasn't so I was never pushed into it at 14 years old. Yeah, at 14 years old, yeah, we were looking for acid. Yeah, so we went to the exchange hotel, 14 years old.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Oh my god, ask the bar stuff, where can we get acid? Where can we get acid?

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Well, magically appeared.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Wow, yeah. At 14, yeah, you did go to a private school, public school couldn't afford that. I said to people over the years, the only difference between my school and your school was that we could afford better drugs.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Truth, yeah, this is truth in reporting, finally. And and less choices. Yes, the private school system has less choices for its students.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Oh, it's uh it's a big one, isn't it? That access to drugs. And you know, you think now what would you say to that person that provided 14-year-olds with acid?

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Thank you. Yeah, yes, yeah. Seriously, what a life.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Yeah, and you didn't die, you didn't step in front of traffic, you didn't to be fair, lots of my friends did die. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

AIDS, drug overdoses, suicides, yes, yeah, choices that they made while they were high.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

And Mark was in the navy, and in the navy he could sell the 70s in the navy, spent quite a lot of time on his knees in the navy.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Sorry, everyone.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

But Mark lost a number of people. Um mainly to um car accidents. They would that most of those kids that were joining up as um as apprentice sailors, so Mark was an engineering sailor, they would drive home on the weekend and they'd have 48 hours off. They had to be back on base by midnight on Sunday night or something stupid. And they would drive at ridiculous speeds for enormous distances in overpowered cars as 17-year-olds, and they died.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

Wow. Now that's a sad story.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

It's a sad story, but uh, what makes it even sadder is if you've lost one apprentice and then now you're gonna lose two, three, four, five. What the hell was the Navy thinking? Like that's an that's a risk, massive risk.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

I feel like they're weeding out the bad eggs.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

Oh, I don't know. Their parents probably didn't think they were bad eggs.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

No, I under I understand that, but so I have this theory about why there are so many dickheads now.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Because we are legislating media, social media is why there's so many dickheads.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

No, because we have been legislated to a nanny state, and dickheads can't be dickheads anymore, so they've all survived.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

Oh my god, I watched speaking of dickheads, I watched uh about 30 minutes of Manosphere. The um I've heard of this it's on Netflix, and Justin Threw um went and it is Justin Threw.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

So yeah, yeah, and um and he goes in and he talks to them and I and he's so good at it. But I'm sitting there looking at it, and these are guys that they're making a ton of money marketing themselves and marketing products to 14-year-old kids who look up to them and they're out parading around making truckloads of money, endorsing products that they probably wouldn't touch themselves. Um, and they're hanging out with women who somehow are benefiting from all this. And um, like in one scene, this guy, his girlfriend is there, and he's going, Yeah, she'll go clean up in a minute, she'll go clean up. And I'm seeing this going, this is insane. And they're hyper-groomed guys, um, homophobic, transphobic, racist, and proud of it. And Mark Zuckerberg, who owns Instagram, is more than happy for this to be something on his platform because he doesn't believe in censoring anything except, I don't know, his his rational thought. Rational thought, yeah. And um, and this one guy, he's there going, oh yeah, I want lots of wives. I'm gonna have lots of wives. And his girlfriend comes in, she goes, I think we'll have to talk about that. And he goes, Oh, it's well, he goes, the next year I'm gonna be really busy with work, so it's not happening in the next year. I just went, okay, so immediately your whole manosphere thing is your girlfriend's going, Yeah, that's not gonna happen. You're going, Yeah, yeah, we're gonna be too busy to do that anyway. Just like and said to me about three times, because he was in the kitchen, he won't watch that shit. And I'm sitting there and he goes, Your face looks like you're sucking on something sour. I do not hide my feelings very well, Portia, as you well know, and I'm sitting.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

So uh I haven't watched very much of him, yeah, but we watched the Wespera okay sting. Oh wow, just the way he maintains his calm. He's amazing, like to ask because his his need is to get to the next question, yeah, and needle people into responses. Yeah, it's I found it very uncomfortable, but really, really uncomfortable, yeah. But there were some laugh out loud moments.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

Oh, this has got a few laugh out loud moments, but my laughs were more incredulous than funny because the level of influence these guys wield is staggering, and they're making a lot of money, and and still they're awful, yeah, yeah, awful, awful, awful and unhappy. They're not happy people, and they're flying down to Mabea in Spain to strut about the streets, and I if the Spanish government decided they can all bugger off back home, I wouldn't blame them, you know. Stay in your South End London or wherever the hell you come from, you know.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

It's I'm happy that the world allows people to live that that life, yeah. Like I feel like it's awful, but they're we don't ever have to deal with them. Like ever.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

Yeah, um I've got granddaughters, and I think what happens when they have to come across these guys that have been reared on this kind of hang on.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

You have a granddaughter who is granddaughter of Lisa and daughter of Olivia, they will say fly away, blowfly.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Yeah, I know, but you know, like we've had this conversation before, but what happens when those guys decide to go down Oxford Street on a Saturday night in a group?

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Well, it's empty now anyway, so I hope to have a good time.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

You know what I'm saying, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:46

No, no, I understand. Um, are they the act out dudes? Like or are they one was one was talking about beating up gays.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

Well, he wasn't beating up gays, he was um going out finding people that he believed to be pedophiles and forcing them to eat dog food on camera. Wow. Yep, and he's having jail.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Right. Like but neither are the pedophiles because they're running America.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

Well can we talk about the fact that Pauline Hanson went to Mar a Lago and spoke there? Can we talk about the fact that she opposed Edward Pocock's um mining tax, mining export tax? She works Eugeno, Ryan, huh?

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Of course she does.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

I know, but can I and you know, I do understand dissatisfaction. I don't understand that people will vote for something so clearly against what their values are. Have you looked at America? I've looked at Australia. I've got better, I've got more faith in Australians.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

We we voted we voted in Scott Morrison. I know he won the lottery the first time, but we voted him in.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

We voted in Tony Abbott. These are not good people.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Yeah, the dark ages, remember that.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

And I think we'll look back on the second coming of Albanese and be like, what the hell?

SPEAKER_02 19:27

It just strikes me that they waste these opportunities. They could be doing some really cool things right now. Of course. They could be doing some amazing stuff. Agreed. And there's a reason why one nation got, what was it, 22% increase in their vote or 22% of the vote in um South Australia? It's because Albanese is not doing the job.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

But then people are so disenfranchised from liberal that then they they don't want to see them either.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

But it's kind of what I find quite sad is people will use their vote in a way that is against their best interests. Like we see this all the time. If you don't know, vote no, I think that one will go with me forward for a very long time in just how disappointed I can be with the Australian public. Sure. If you don't know, freaking find out. So the rest of us did.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

So I have a girlfriend who I think is very intelligent.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Who kept saying, if you don't know, vote no.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

Kept not going to find the um the information, which was all out there, really simple to read.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

Yeah, very available.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

Yep. Uh and when she was attacked by her team at Trivia, um she pulled me aside and she said, Porsche, do you think I'm ignorant? And I'm like, actually, you're not an ignorant person on this. But you're choosing to not understand this.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

Yeah. And that's what upset me. I had someone that I know out in the dog community, the dog training world, call me out on uh, you know, I take offense that$80 million was spent promoting this. Not I take offense at the fact that the original inhabitants of the place we call Australia aren't included in the constitution.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Sure, you know, and have been treated abhorrently since day one.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

Now, it wasn't gonna give them the power to walk in and take over the country, it was simply a voice. It was a voice to parliament.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

And do you remember the big thing about the car park at Bondi would

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

I would so hilariously now the council's put the cut apart.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

This is where we sit right now. In fact, um oh what's that gorgeous guy? He's a sports commentator, Indigenous bloke, Tony. Someone. And anyway, um I'll send you the link. It's so funny. It is him interviewing an Indigenous guy on White Australia. Okay and he says, but it's a comedy skit. And he says, um, he goes, yeah, he goes, I'm here to talk about White Australia. He goes, because um, like I'm an Indigenous person and it's perfectly within my rights to talk about them. And and you sit there, and it's just so blatantly obvious, just that arrogance, it's probably not even ignorance, it's arrogance. It's both. Yeah, it's white privilege, but two words.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

That's what on display.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

On display. And I guess this is where I start to lose faith. I've got, like I've said in previous episodes, friends that live in the UK really feel that the American right-wing lobby um have marketed social media very heavily into the UK, and that's what we're witnessing now, and people are buying it, Paul Klein and Sinker.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Let's also remember where our news comes from.

SPEAKER_02 23:33

Well, yeah, yeah, murder. Yep, murder. And I as we've said before, I've been very um I've been very disheartened that Rochland Murdoch could be as right wing as his father. I used to think it was a bit cute back in the day. I don't now.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

I think it's a bubble.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

Yeah, well, Pauline Hansen daughter, her her daughter is um campaign manager. I think she earned has a role like that.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

For whom?

SPEAKER_02 24:10

Pauline.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Alright.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Yeah. So on that note, let's talk about teeth. Let's talk about something like ALS.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Um I want to talk about your teeth. So why do ALS people have uh less luck with teeth?

SPEAKER_02 24:26

There is it's not that they're having less luck. They probably have had like again, if you view ALS as a syndrome rather than uh, oh, you've got ALS, tick a box. Right. Um, if you've got ALS, there's a guy in the US, he said people with ALS usually tick about 12 of these things on the list, multiple root canals, um, abscesses on teeth, and I know probably three or four ALS reversals. So, again, if I refer to an ALS reversal, it's someone who is documented through Duke University as a reversal. So um I just want to clarify that because a lot of people will say, Oh, well, it couldn't have been ALS, and we've joked about this before. If you don't die, it was an ALS. Well, yes, it was ALS, but ALS is an extremely complex and difficult illness, but not every person dies from it. And we need to keep remembering that. And cancer, yeah, exactly. And so, anyway, um, there's a guy, Steve Sherry, he said that he didn't start to feel better until he got his remove. Um, if you think about having that level of anaerobic bacteria percolating around in your jawbone, that sends off toxins. These bacteria have metabolites just like every other cell in your body.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

And they poo in your body.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

Yeah, they do. They send off these things into your body. Um, we know that, you know, for example, there's an island somewhere in the Pacific where um culturally they were eating cycad seeds, and those seeds produced a neurotoxin that was triggering ALS in people. Shut up! Yeah, so true. Up in the front of the side. Well, the seeds? Cycads, you so you know those beautiful cycads and they have the one we've got here, it's got really hot pink seeds, and um and that's a warning in nature, yeah. It kind of is, isn't it? And they're crushing them up and using it, however, they're using it and um getting ALS in really large, large numbers. Uh French Alps, there was another cluster where um culturally the people would go out and harvest mushrooms at a certain time of year, and again, not everybody got ALS, but those who are probably genetically prone to it got ALS.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

And I think because of the mushroom they were harvesting all the time, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

The mushroom um that they're harvesting as neurotoxic chemicals in it. Now once ALS gets going, it's really hard to turn off.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 27:13

And most people that I read about who have been able to reverse their symptoms, it's something like I was listening to this beautiful man on the weekend. He was diagnosed at 71. Amazing. Um, he's 81 now, and he said it was seven months before he noticed one improvement. Your central nervous system is incredibly deep, it's incredibly packed away. Um, it's behind the blood-brain barrier, and bridging that is really hard. But um, Mercury, this I was listening to a doco the other day, and this well, actually, it wasn't, it was a webinar, and the guy who was presenting he said in his belief mercury was the second most toxic metal on the plant.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

Wow, after lead.

SPEAKER_02 28:06

I don't know what was the first, probably something like plutonium or something like that. Yeah, but but lead can actually get packed away in bone. I know that it can affect your IQ, so it must have something to do with your brain as well. With me, I've tested moderately high to mercury, cadmium, lead, and tin, I think. And these are all things, and my dentist who look, he's a holistic dentist, but he's not going to just say anything for the sake of it. He said those are all metals that are composite in fillings, yeah, right. Yeah, and he actually made the comment to Mark. He said, every time Lisa is bitten down on something since she went in, there's a flash going into her body and it lays down in your brain. So we know we know that with ALS, Mercury is a massive one. A lot of people undergo collation therapy as part of their reversal. Um, but none of this is slow. Like a lot of people will start to see things that are slightly better while they continue to deteriorate in other areas because you know, and this is why I'm hopeful that the drug trial that I'm on will help the um the dendrites to grow again, which is what they're expecting to happen. So I'm day nine of dosing on that today, and I feel fine, haven't noticed anything different. But um, so with the dentistry, multiple people. There's another guy, Steve Sherry. He said that he didn't feel better until um he had a lot of teeth out in America. Like everything else, dental care is incredibly expensive. Sure. Um, and it's not cheap here either. No, it's not, it really isn't. And the dental clinic over at Barrel, the wait list is horrendous to get in if you can get in.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

Really? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:10

But it's just the resources for these things, and I think I just wish that we could see that poor dental care um is at the top of a lot of things that happen afterwards. Right. Heart problems, you know, neurological problems. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

Well, they also say that um uh the the bad bacteria can cause you get uh Alzheimer's and dementia.

SPEAKER_02 30:38

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 30:38

Yeah, because it travels straight up to your brain.

SPEAKER_02 30:42

Yeah, yeah, straight up to your brain. And so getting your teeth sorted. One of the things though, um, if you do decide to go get your mercury amalgams out, you need to actually see a holistic dentist. You need to do it carefully. Because for me, at the moment, like I was shattered yesterday, and that is seeing one of the best holistic dentists, you know, available. Um, and I have three more of these fillings to take out. That's with me doing everything I can to stop, you know, the flash of mercury that inevitably goes out into your body.

SPEAKER_00 31:23

Can they do it overnight?

SPEAKER_02 31:26

I'll have you in there.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Yeah, because I had my wisdoms all out overnight.

SPEAKER_02 31:31

I think I think with me, what it is is um, and I don't have massive breathing issues, but they're there. Um, you know.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Getting these things out seems to be more important than breathing.

SPEAKER_02 31:46

No, but well, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

Then yeah, like yeah, yeah. Mine are all white, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

So I actually feel relieved to have this tooth out. I don't like how it looks, but I'm glad to have it out. Sure. Um, you know, who cares if it if it stops, you know, the the neurons die as a result of this bacteria.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

I agree.

SPEAKER_02 32:10

Um, I'm doing a lot of detoxing stuff as well. Still, um yeah, still it's ongoing. It's okay, but and that will be for a very, very long time. Most people detoxing a 12 to 18 months minimum to get through this.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

Well, I hope it is a very, very long time.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

Yeah, and me too, sweetheart. Thank you. But I did have a rough day yesterday, and I know it was because of all of this, and it hurt. Like, you know, and I haven't taken anything stronger than a panadol since October last year. So what?

SPEAKER_00 32:50

Yeah, see, I can't even stand it. I've dropped a bottle.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

I was one of those people who after the car accident, I used to get so much neck pain um and back pain that I just go, yeah, I'm just gonna take a couple of mesendol.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

And we all right, okay.

SPEAKER_02 33:09

Yeah, I thought, and I wasn't hitting it so hard that I would have said I was addicted to it, but I went cold turkey on it, and part of all this detox is that I have less inflammation, so I have less pain. Well, yeah. One of the great bits the other night is I am having some problems with my left shoulder, which is partly to do with muscle damage and you know, just being 59, I guess. And um, and if I meditate, I can actually get the pain to stop. Not just it stops, yeah, it stops altogether.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

You're like those priests in the in the what's that thing, the Inquisition who would go into this um meditative state and they would cut them and everything, and there's nothing they could do.

SPEAKER_02 34:02

Um, please don't turn up and suggest help me, anyone out there. But I what has been really good about all that is that when I meditate, I'm going, well, if I can make pain in my shoulders stop, I can ease the pain in my teeth, I can slow my ALS down, I can I can make the circulations almost stop. So the circulations are the muscle twitches that go along with ALS. Yep, they're painless, but they they can be a bit annoying at times. If I'm stressed, like yesterday, I don't think I was stressed, I think my body was stressed because you know it freaking hurt. And we had to get up at six to get into the city for a nine o'clock appointment because that was the only opportunity to see him, and then it was like one o'clock back at home, and yeah, it was it was tough, and that's brutal for someone who doesn't have ALS, Lisa. I know, I know.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

And I I I'm finding I don't really let myself off the hook that much, you know, which is why you have been so successful at getting ALS at everything else in your life, thanks, baby, and probably why you're so successful at fighting ALS.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

Thank you. I think um I've got a good team around me, you're part of that.

SPEAKER_00 35:29

Well, I spend a lot of time letting myself off the hook. I'm like, oh fuck it.

SPEAKER_02 35:34

No, I love I love that though. I love that about you. No is a sentence, no is a complete sentence. I think to myself, you know, no is a complete sentence. It's why has it taken till now to be able to do that?

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Because I feel like for everybody we're taught that it's not well we're no, and I think oh, you just said it no, and I think all the time, um it's really hard.

SPEAKER_02 36:09

I know Anthea and I have had this discussion, yeah, Anthea DeSilva, painter.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

Um one of the great loves of our life, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:18

She is, isn't she? She and I have said it's really hard. We were reared to be people pleasers.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

Yes, otherwise, parent pleasers, teacher pleasers, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

I know, I know. Yeah, that's why it's so good to meet people who go, yeah. Yeah nah, yeah nah.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

No, yeah, just uh no, no, no. So I know this is completely left of center, yeah. I'm really excited about this gig.

SPEAKER_02 36:57

Talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

Can I? Do you mind?

SPEAKER_02 37:00

You're in Sydney, get along, it's so much fun.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

So Lockhees at um Leppington. So when we were invited not to come back to Austral Bowling Club at the end of last year, invited not to come back when you got the sack. Yeah, yes, I did, but you know, uh all the people loved it first. So the the players, many of whom have now become our friends that we travel with and do things with, and like seriously, this little community that we met through Austral has become a huge part of our life.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

So when we were looking for a new venue, we decided that we would invite everyone to come along to different venues and have a meal. So everyone was so happy to be able to get together again.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

So twice we went to Lockies with over 25 people just for a meal so that they could hang out. And you know, yeah, we at least doubled the amount of people who were coming to eat and drink.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

So that's worth their while.

SPEAKER_00 38:18

Yeah, yeah. So we showed that we are viable. You're a crew, we are a crew, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

Yeah, it's really cool. So, congratulations on that. I'm really happy. When I saw it, I was so happy. I said to Mark this morning, he said, look what. Yeah, so when does that start?

SPEAKER_00 38:38

12th of April.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

So that's not very far off.

SPEAKER_00 38:43

So that's Sunday as well. It's like two and a half, maybe three weeks away. Hang on, let me hold caller while I bring up so today is the 26th. So yeah, it's two and a half weeks away.

SPEAKER_02 38:57

Oh my god, that gives me two weeks to get my dog ready for an agility trial.

SPEAKER_00 39:02

Wow, it's yeah, they're ready.

SPEAKER_02 39:05

Yeah, they'll come. I hope you'll be ready, but yeah. So can I have Bragg?

SPEAKER_00 39:11

Well, I'd I'd really have the shits if you didn't.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

So uh Oni, my dog that I imported from Ukraine, yes, being culturally inappropriate again.

SPEAKER_00 39:23

Um, well at least you're catching yourself, yeah, yeah. Like like the steps towards change.

SPEAKER_02 39:32

Yeah, yeah. Yep. Oh boy, I'm stumbling along. Um, so I have a friend who lives down near Wollongong, yeah, and very early on she offered to help me with honey. She took him out to an obedience trial, and he got a pass first cab off the rank. Got it, yeah. Because he's so clever, which is why I brought him into the country.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

Um I think you brought him into the country because he was gorgeous.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

He is gorgeous, but there's a there, there's a thing about that too. He's not gorgeous in a way that the Shelby people think is gorgeous.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

Well, they're idiots.

SPEAKER_02 40:15

Oops, oops, Portia said that. I didn't. They'll come around and murder me in my sleep.

SPEAKER_00 40:23

They won't, you know. They won't you know.

SPEAKER_02 40:25

Uh-huh. So anyway, um, then on the weekend he went to a rally trial and he won it with 98 out of 100.

SPEAKER_01 40:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 40:37

But not only that, he was 28 seconds faster through the course than the next dog.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

So wow.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

Wow so thank you, Jane Brown, for handling my dog. So how cool?

SPEAKER_00 40:51

So the beauty standard of any dog is very precise. Yes, if you are a show person, if you are a show dog, but that doesn't negate the beauty of all the dogs just because they're not in that tiny little microcosm.

SPEAKER_02 41:13

And Oni is a dog that oozes confidence. Yeah. He he probably doesn't have your classic shalty temperament. Clooney, if you met my Clooney dog, he was very yeah, Clooney was very classically shalty temperament, very friendly, warm, but aloof. Aloof shouldn't mean alarmed and oh my god, someone in the shelter community is gonna come after me. But a lot of shelties are alarmed, they're pupil. And um I think anyone you talk to about Shelties who likes them says, oh, but they're too scared. And they should whippets, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:57

Lots of the whippets that I see are very uh emotionally timid.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

Absolutely, and I always remember Jean Donaldson, who is an amazing trainer in the US, very high profile. She said, if we stopped breeding for a certain look and started breeding for temperament, we could breed aggression out in three generations. I think we could breed fear out very, very quickly as well. And and while look, the shelter community is a bunch of cool people, going to Shelter Nationals is a huge amount of fun. Yeah. But my dog Oni, who is bomb-proof, literally, like 18 of the last 30 nights that he spent in Kviv, they had anti-missile fire going up.

SPEAKER_00 42:47

Wow. So Oni is titanium.

SPEAKER_02 42:51

He is, he is. He's yeah. Um, and I just am so proud of him as a dog. Athletic, he's fast, he's got a structure that allows him to jump really beautifully, he's clever, he is honestly, he's he's like a he's like a gymnast. He's like a UK Ukrainian gymnast with how he can maneuver himself. He's amazing, he's just a cool dog, but he doesn't tick all the boxes for a great show shalty.

SPEAKER_00 43:23

So I you don't want to show him anyway, right? You just want him to run around and live his life and jump through things.

SPEAKER_02 43:30

Yeah, yeah. And I just want him to be happy, have a have a great fun time. But it's interesting because I always thought someone who breeds shelties for dog sports would go, that dog is bloody brilliant, and I'd like to use him. But no. And I actually contacted someone yesterday and she said, No, I pass. Without even meeting him. She looked at his DNA and she just said, No, he's got great DNA. I had him DNA tested. In Europe. But look, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. He's a cool dog. I've actually had his semen collected and it's on ice. Yeah, great. If something happened down the track, I could use it.

SPEAKER_00 44:13

So is there a non-show dog that you could cross him with?

SPEAKER_02 44:20

Yeah, and then he would the way it works is that if I was to do that, I would probably my life would probably be over. But I oh look, the the dog community gets very passionate about these things. Um if I was to cross him with, say, a border collie or oh no, no, no, I'm talking about a non-show Sheltie. A non-show Sheltie.

SPEAKER_00 44:45

I could, um, a non-show Sheltie would have to still have papers for me to register it on the Yeah, I get that, but surely there's there's a female Sheltie out there from a bloodline who is particularly friendly and you can breed for temperament.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

Yeah, I probably could.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

That's how you should be selling it, I reckon.

SPEAKER_02 45:11

Yeah. If I look, one of the things that had always been in the back of my mind was like before I go ended up with ALS, is that I'd probably import an another dog.

SPEAKER_00 45:22

Import a bitch.

SPEAKER_02 45:23

Yeah, import a bitch that had been used um to breed over there or import a pup that I could have. I just have no need for four dogs, you know. So I have three, which is probably two once. Yeah. I love dogs, you know, and that's the big thing about me. Dogs have got me through some of the most god awful times in my life.

SPEAKER_00 45:51

Me too. Yeah, me too. Gucci saved my life more time than one.

SPEAKER_02 45:56

Yeah, absolutely. Go Gucci. And there's days here where you know, you might be going, Man, I don't have many down days. Sure. Yesterday was not a good one.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

But yeah, but you were also really tired, right?

SPEAKER_02 46:10

Oh, shattered. Right.

SPEAKER_00 46:12

So were you actually depressed, or were you just teary and in pain? Oh, I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_02 46:20

Oh okay. But it was like I went to physio and and every time someone would say, Oh, but you know, you're doing such a good job, or something like that, it'd just be grounds for me to well up again. There was a great line that I read recently, and it was that which you cannot say must be cried out.

SPEAKER_00 46:47

Oh, fair.

SPEAKER_02 46:49

Yeah, and I think that's what was happening yesterday. I couldn't name that, but I've decided I've decided very early on in all of this that I'm not gonna stop myself crying anymore. I spent decades trying to stop crying about things. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:07

Oh, I'm a weeper.

SPEAKER_02 47:08

Are you?

SPEAKER_00 47:09

I'm a full-on weeper. I do it in ads sometimes, it's so embarrassing.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

I did it the other night. Oh my god, I'm so embarrassed to admit this. Virgin River. So Mark actually likes Virgin River on Facebook. And I kind of like it because you just know it's just gonna be the same sappy shit, and it's gonna be fine. Everything, everything works out in the edge, you know. There's no metosphere people in Virgin River. And anyway, I'm I'm sitting there, and there was at the end a baby is born that is about to be given up for adoption that they know has to go off for cardiac surgery, and the scene with which this young couple surrender the baby, and the mother walks off to get into the paramedic ambulance, and I was a river, I was crying my heart out, and I was going, for God's sake, Lisa. Anyway, yeah, that's so good.

SPEAKER_00 48:14

It's it's the best catharsis of them all.

SPEAKER_02 48:18

I I love Clarissa Pink Coller's Est. She wrote Women Who Run with the Wall. And if you don't want to read that book, I suggest somebody listen to it because she narrated it probably about 20 years ago now, and her voice is like honey. Oh, like being massaged, it's just fantastic. And she says, Tears are a river that lifts you off the ground and carries you to somewhere new.

SPEAKER_00 48:46

Well, there you go.

SPEAKER_02 48:47

Yeah, so you're getting all the one-liners out of me this morning.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

Well, thank goodness, because I didn't know any of these.

SPEAKER_02 48:57

Hey, um, I think our podcast with Katrina was great.

SPEAKER_00 49:01

Oh, good, excellent. Yeah, I enjoyed that. That was fun.

SPEAKER_02 49:05

It was really good fun, and I learned things about her that I didn't know. I didn't know that she would flight attendant.

SPEAKER_01 49:12

Yeah, right, great.

SPEAKER_02 49:13

There she goes. So um, she's doing really well, and I think she's really happy that that episode is out in the world.

SPEAKER_00 49:21

And and how's the feedback been from it?

SPEAKER_02 49:24

Really good, yeah, really, really good. And and I think that one is an important one for anyone who feels like um they've been unwell and they don't know what the symptoms are saying.

SPEAKER_00 49:37

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 49:38

I love that part where she said, when you you asked her, um, how did you know? And she said, because of the way my body was responding. And I thought that was cool. So if you're sitting in a medical appointment and you've got someone telling you something and your body is responding, even though your brain is sort of going, I don't know what day it is, I feel just feeling well. Listen to that. Yeah, trust your gut. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 50:09

Not just not just in the medical or the bus.

SPEAKER_02 50:12

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:14

At the shopping center.

SPEAKER_02 50:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:16

Your body constantly tells you.

SPEAKER_02 50:17

Hey, did you get to the pool this week?

SPEAKER_00 50:20

I did get to the pool this week. Yeah, I did. I didn't swim very much because it's been quite a while since we got in the pool.

SPEAKER_01 50:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:29

Uh, but I also did an aquaerobics class on Monday night, which I love. I love it so much. And um, actually, today um I'll be walking a lot.

SPEAKER_02 50:42

Where are you off to?

SPEAKER_00 50:43

Uh I'm going in to have lunch with a friend, and then I am selling some perfumes to another friend. Amazing. Then I have some free time. Can you believe it? I'm gonna have some free time. So I'm thinking of dropping down to the art gallery to walk through some of the free stuff just to have a look, and then dinner with Jin and his tattooist, the other Jin. Um we're going to Lidcombe for Korean. Yum man.

SPEAKER_02 51:16

Got some great ink, Yin. I don't know why I know that. Maybe you've posted up photos.

SPEAKER_00 51:21

Oh, yeah, it's beautiful. It's all his family done in animals, they're they're Chinese or their lunar zodiac.

SPEAKER_02 51:31

And vivid.

SPEAKER_00 51:32

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:33

So vivid, the colours.

SPEAKER_00 51:34

Yeah, and she's amazing. So she he wanted it so beautiful that it was like five full days or six full days.

SPEAKER_02 51:44

It looks like it though, don't you think?

SPEAKER_00 51:46

Oh, I agree, I agree. Although now that he's so sunt the last time we caught up with her, she was like, What have you done? Because it takes it takes away the highs and lows.

SPEAKER_02 52:01

Oh, really? It sort of flattens it out a bit.

SPEAKER_00 52:03

It does, it does. So in the next few years, we're gonna have to get him back in for just touch-ups.

SPEAKER_02 52:11

Wow, yeah, you know, um, Mark and Raina, like Raina Anthea's partner, have been talking about getting a dragon tattoo for their 60th birthday, which was four years ago for a long time.

SPEAKER_00 52:28

Well, come on up and see Jin. She's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 52:31

She does sound good.

SPEAKER_00 52:32

She's at uh the one on the way down the road to Bondi, that is the old second oldest tattoo parlor in Sydney now.

SPEAKER_02 52:44

Second oldest.

SPEAKER_00 52:45

Second oldest.

SPEAKER_02 52:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 52:48

She bought it a while ago.

SPEAKER_02 52:49

I think she's selling it now, but um really yeah, there's uh um another like on the downside of tattoos, um, there is a lot of talk about tattoos and ALS. Yeah, it's on the list. And that's not and it's not saying that people with tattoos are gonna get ALS. What it is is that if you are prone to ALS, it's probably a high risk factor.

SPEAKER_00 53:16

Do you have tattoos?

SPEAKER_02 53:17

No, I don't. A lot of people with ALS do, but I think what we're gonna find is that toxic overload is an issue, but that toxic overload is incredibly individual.

SPEAKER_00 53:32

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 53:33

So if you're covered in tattoos, don't panic. But it just seems that, you know, I think we're gonna get to a point where we can say, All right, you're gonna have a blood test. Someone in your family had ALS, have a blood test, and they'll go, you know what? Yeah, you've probably got a 30% higher chance of getting it.

SPEAKER_00 53:54

The markers are there, the markers are there, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:57

Just like the markers will be there for bowel cancer, skin cancer. Well, they're already there, diabetes, yeah. They are. They're just it's just ALS is a little bit of a smaller group.

SPEAKER_00 54:08

Sure, because I'm really upset about this because you know, I'd almost been to every doctor in Sydney to have my digital examination.

SPEAKER_02 54:18

Oh god, I love you. It's so funny. Oh so um we have um a trip to Uluru next week. Oh, I'm so excited for you, and I've been listening to this book, and she's talking about she's a medical doctor, and she's been talking about spontaneous recoveries, and she's talking about how a spiritual pilgrimage, and she mentions Uluru three times.

SPEAKER_00 54:49

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 54:50

I know, right? And I'm sitting there going, how weird, like the things that have turned up in my life as a result of all of this journey that I've been on. I'm going, uh, I'm going to Uluru next week. And she's talking about a spiritual pilgrimage. Now, she's not saying that you go out and you bug the indigenous people out there about, you know, heal me, I'm from Sydney. I need some healing. That's something attach the significance to what you feel it is. Yeah. The ritual that you put on it for yourself. Yep. And I'm working on that one. And I said to Mike, I think I might just go off on my own a bit and I might just have a moment. And he goes, I think you'll need company because what if something happens? I'm like, I'm in an electric wheelchair that is so easy to maneuver, I'm sure I'll be fine.

SPEAKER_00 55:48

But he can be at a distance, yeah. He can do the same thing a couple of minutes behind you.

SPEAKER_02 55:56

Yeah, he could.

SPEAKER_00 55:57

Like that's a pretty sensible safety net, Lisa. I remember like you're in the middle of Australia with some of the deadliest snakes and other wildlife on earth.

SPEAKER_02 56:09

Yeah, but I I can get up to about six kilometers in my chair.

SPEAKER_00 56:13

Yeah, yeah, but but Lisa, stop it. Let Mark trail along five mil five minutes behind you, just in case. Please. So I learned something today that is probably woo-woo, and I don't care.

SPEAKER_02 56:30

Yeah, I don't care. I love the woo-woo.

SPEAKER_00 56:32

Great. So if you like a tree, yeah, take your shoes off, put your hands on the tree, put your feet on the ground, and let the energy go through you.

SPEAKER_02 56:45

I have one here, it's just outside the bedroom window. I'll send you a picture when I Yeah, fabulous. It's a Chinese cedar, which I think is a native, so I don't know why it was called Chinese cedar.

SPEAKER_00 56:57

Because they were the second group of people after the whiteys who came.

SPEAKER_02 57:02

Uh, maybe. It is a beautiful tree. It is, I mean, one of a handful of um of deciduous trees that are native in Australia. It is so beautiful, it has small pink flowers in yeah, and it's and my sheep love the leaves. So they come out and they stand on their hind feet too. No, no, no, no. Yeah, so it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 57:28

And oh, so it's perfectly flat underneath.

SPEAKER_02 57:30

I send you a picture. It is the most beautiful, beautiful tree. Wow. And I'll be sitting in bed in the afternoon sometimes, waking up from a um meditation, and the sun hits it right at the end of the day. Pan, who um is a massage therapist, I see up at Robo, she said to me, one of the things to do is before the first rays of sun hit the tree, go out and stand underneath it. And as the sun hits it, the energy gets pushed down. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:03

Well, now you're gonna touch the tree. Feet touching the ground, no shoes.

SPEAKER_02 58:08

All right, it's on. We get a few leeches up here at the moment, but I think it's been dry a few days.

SPEAKER_00 58:14

Well, you can get rid of them if you have to.

SPEAKER_02 58:18

So Mavs left us. Mafs went to Bob on Monday, and we will miss her terribly. She loves listening to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 58:28

Hello, Mavs. You're a sponge.

SPEAKER_02 58:29

Hey Maffs, you're a hottie. We love you. Um, yeah, I'm sorry, but I'm happy that she's off on another adventure. Sure. She's been traveling for three years.

SPEAKER_00 58:40

Wow, you're an integral part of her journey.

SPEAKER_02 58:43

I feel like we were, and I feel like she's been an integral part of ours as well.

SPEAKER_00 58:48

Good. Yeah, Lisa.

SPEAKER_02 58:50

It's time.

SPEAKER_00 58:51

I love you to the moon and back. That was really fun today. Have a lovely week. Oh, enjoy all the roo.

SPEAKER_02 58:59

Yeah, yeah. We'll maybe we can squeeze one in while I'm out there, maybe if I've got Wi-Fi.

SPEAKER_00 59:05

That would be amazing. Please, all right, all right. Right, you beautiful human. We'll talk soon.

SPEAKER_02 59:11

Leppington um starts on the 14th. And what's the name of the hotel again?

SPEAKER_00 59:15

Lockie's Hotel.

SPEAKER_02 59:17

Lockie's Hotel. That's gonna be so much fun. If you're up that way, get your ass along. Even if you're not, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 59:26

All right, beautiful. Talk soon. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_02 59:30

And that was this week's episode of A List to the Moon and Back. Thanks for listening. And if you can share, like, review, we'll always be incredibly grateful. And we hope to see you next time around. Thanks again.