Before you begin, know this...
This post is not a lesson. It is not going to delve into some "deeper meaning" nor how to glean a truth from tragedy. It is just a post exposing my feelings and perhaps some vulnerability. It is messy and convoluted, which does not make for a great read. It is my experience with an imagined slight that happened over a year ago by a man that I do not even know. I wrote this because I cannot seem to let it go. This is a bit of creative writing, or journaling, in order to help me process this matter and move on. If you are truly interested, perhaps you need inspiration to journal for yourself, then please, continue with my blessing. If you are not, then you have been warned about its content.Thanks for your consideration.
July 5, 2017, Joe Rogan interviewed Yvette d'Entremont (former forensic and toxicology scientist), who goes by the handle SciBabe. The interview was typical, or so I'm told, of The Joe Rogan Experience. I held no opinion of Joe's podcast, but had been a fan of Joe Rogan since his days on The Man Show. Joe is also credited as being the best color commentator in the UFC (as of 2013), and I have enjoyed his observations, as well as lengthy tangents, during UFC matches that I infrequent.
This post is not a lesson. It is not going to delve into some "deeper meaning" nor how to glean a truth from tragedy. It is just a post exposing my feelings and perhaps some vulnerability. It is messy and convoluted, which does not make for a great read. It is my experience with an imagined slight that happened over a year ago by a man that I do not even know. I wrote this because I cannot seem to let it go. This is a bit of creative writing, or journaling, in order to help me process this matter and move on. If you are truly interested, perhaps you need inspiration to journal for yourself, then please, continue with my blessing. If you are not, then you have been warned about its content.Thanks for your consideration.
July 5, 2017, Joe Rogan interviewed Yvette d'Entremont (former forensic and toxicology scientist), who goes by the handle SciBabe. The interview was typical, or so I'm told, of The Joe Rogan Experience. I held no opinion of Joe's podcast, but had been a fan of Joe Rogan since his days on The Man Show. Joe is also credited as being the best color commentator in the UFC (as of 2013), and I have enjoyed his observations, as well as lengthy tangents, during UFC matches that I infrequent.
The problem arose when Joe and Yvette began to talk about chiropractic and chiropractors, my chosen profession. They spent a good bit of time, or maybe it felt like that because it resembled the podcast version of a feeding frenzy, criticizing the whole chiropractic profession, as well as degrading the chiropractic education process . At one point, Joe calls "chiropractic medicine" bullsh*t, and brings into question the legitimacy of the "doctor" part of the "doctor of chiropractic". As reference for a rebuttal, I have posted below a comparison of the education between a chiropractor and a medical doctor.
Joe has a pretty horrible personal story about his chiropractic experience. The chiropractor for whom he sought treatment did not make the proper referral for over a year. Joe trusted that his chiropractor was making the best decisions regarding Joe's chiropractic care. The story ends with Joe undergoing spinal surgery and feeling betrayed. As an aside, this is unacceptable, as well as unethical, and the chiropractor should have been disciplined for his breach of care. If a patient comes in seeking care from me with the same symptom's Joe had, which they have, I would be referring them out to a neurosurgeon before 6 weeks time, which I have done. Conservative care is not a place where a patient should get stuck if they are not getting better. So, I understand why Joe is so angry and embittered... I just do not understand why all of chiropractic must suffer your wrath.
Yvette, as I understand it and could be very wrong, left the field of forensic science and toxicology to pursue her blogging career as a self-proclaimed "bust(er) of common accepted pseudoscience". She appears on the news as an "expert", she shows up on interviews, podcasts and any other public forum she can manage. When shes not wrongfully demonizing people or their careers, she writes in her blog, probably demonizing people. At the end of the day, I do not really care about her. Any harsh commentary on this blog is actually not directed at her, not really at Joe either, but I am not wasting another word about Yvette. She's just not worth my time.
Joe's words cut me deep, and the hurt I experienced was utterly and completely my fault. I own that. For some unknown reason, I irrationally assumed, that because I was a fan of Joe's, and considered him funny, a hard worker, and relate-able-ish, that he would be a person that would own his sh#t. My impression of Joe Rogan is that he appreciated his fan base, was pretty good to people, and generally wanted the best for those that work for it. What hurt was that he was not professional in this podcast, he did NOT own his sh#t. He used his podcast as a platform to spread anger and resentment against an entire profession, instead of the one man that deserved it. Joe is a celebrity, he has hundreds of thousands of people that listen to him and follow him. Fcuk! Joe has more fans than there are chiropractors in the world. Joe Rogan's twitter account has 4.2 million followers, alone. He has influence and he used it poorly. He has influenced thousands to avoid chiropractic and chiropractors. There are a good number of Joe Rogan's fans that have commented on Reddit or Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or etc., that they will never seek chiropractic care due to Joe's opinion. Even though it was completely unjust. Can you believe that? Even if they needed chiropractic care from a chiropractor they would not seek it out based on Joe Rogan's bad experience. If a doctor, any doctor, had wrongly induced this many people, he would be brought up on charges for a breach of ethics.
In the end, it's not Joe's fault for my anger or pain, of course. It is mine! I cannot explain it well, but I think it is akin to some sort of betrayal. I have absolutely no reason to feel betrayed. I do not idolize Joe Rogan, I do not follow him on any platform, nor I have ever even met the man. I do not really care one way or the other about Joe's well-being, or lack there of. However, for some reason his unscrupulous attitude and unsportsmanlike words hurt me. They cut me deep. Here we are over a year later and I am still trying to process his vengeful narrative against my profession... against me.
-Commentary: According to an unknowing mentor of mine, the hurt stems from my own delusions and attachments. The false narrative I have told myself in order to bolster my ego against my own insecurities. He would say that this should not have affected me after all of this time and for some reason I must be attached to my pain and anger. Delusions, or "the demons" as he calls it, stem from the ego trying to protect itself from fear. That attachments are a way of defining ourselves because we do not really know who our higher self is, we are mislead by our own delusions. This leads down a road of falsehoods and self-doubt which inevitably wind up in ignorance and eventually apathy. Apathy being the natural progression from betrayal, which I feel from Joe. As you may, or may not, see this is my dark underside, my insecurities manifested. This is the tough work I am facing in order to become better, the best.-
The sweet-sweet irony is that this unknowing mentor is a business partner of Joe Rogan. Aubrey holds Joe in the highest esteem and often tells stories of Joe's anecdotes and wisdom. His constant reminder is a large reason why this Joe Rogan blog is happening. How's that for irony?
Kevin Sorbo, a hero of mine from the 90's, also has a heart wrenching story about a series of strokes he suffered, one of which seemed to occur after an adjustment with his long-time chiropractor. For those who may have forgotten, Sorbo played Hercules on a T.V. show from 1994-1999. These were formative years for me as I was a high school student and I was beginning to toy with exercise and fitness. I idolized Sorbo because of his character Hercules, his attitude toward his fans, and his physique. In an interview on October 11, 2011, Kevin Sorbo revealed that in 1997, he was 38, he began feeling pains, aches, tingling and cold running down his left arm. He was under tremendous stress to keep fit and he was on a promotion tour for his upcoming film "Kull the Conqueror." Sorbo was checked out repeatedly by doctors on the tour and was given a relatively clean-bill-of-health. The only "rational" explanation was a possible Ulnar nerve injury. He continued to workout heavily and one day he felt a worsening pain in his left shoulder. This is where he went to his long-time chiropractor. In a separate interview, Sorbo says he told his chiropractor not to adjust the neck by hand, unfortunately the chiropractor did anyway. Long story made just a little shorter, Kevin Sorbo was hospitalized the next day where the examination revealed, "severe disruption of blood flow to his lower arm caused by an aneurysm in an artery near his shoulder... Apparently, the aneurysm had been producing blood clots for some time. (He) had blockages all down his arm that were making his fingers cold, tingly, and numb." Sorbo struggled for over two years and then withdrew from film making in order to coalesce. He has since returned to films and movies, but he will not push himself that hard, again.
I tell this story because it hurt me as a chiropractor to hear that one of my own had a hand in the suffering of one of my hero's. Sorbo's life was irrevocably changed. Kevin Sorbo is a professional and a good man, however. He does not criticize chiropractic, he does not even slam the chiropractor. He tells his story just as it is. Instead of pain and betrayal, I feel inspired by Kevin's story. He seems happy and I, as well as all of his fans, want the best for him. As a chiropractor, Kevin Sorbo's story has motivated me to be better than I am; always strive to take the best care of my patients. When I get fatigued by the courses and education I continue to take, I remember that I must be the best, and that comes from better screening of my patients, as well as being a better listener. If a patient prefers or levels a concern about my adjustment technique, I hear them and accommodate. I do all of this because I listened and learned from Kevin Sorbo's story.
I do not feel so motivated by Joe Rogan's story. When I remember his tale, I am angry and bitter because he has reacted like such an ass, in public, as a celebrity, in a closed forum. I strive to be better and to be the best diagnostician, to be the best doctor, that I can possible be, but instead of doing it as an inspired doctor, as with Kevin Sorbo, I have to force myself when I think of Rogan, like a rebelling teenager.
If you have gotten this far, Thank You. You may be asking, "How does this rant relate to health and fitness?"
Great question!
I could offer up some sort of explanation on the processing of emotions, or journaling, or some other such tidbit that I might be able to glean from the blog post above. However, the fact is that I am utilizing my blog to vent. Just to process my emotions by utilizing the tools at my disposal, and maybe, just maybe, inspire someone along the way.
Thank you for reading,
DocBDC
P.S.
This post took over 3 days to write. I spent most of my time deleting the garbage that came spilling out onto the page. I tried to give this subject, which is a dense subject matter for me, ample time before I posted into the world. It remains imperfect and messy. I am not changing it. Even if I come back to it and realize that this post was written in anger and while I was "off-rail", I will not change it. It will remain as a testament to this moment in time in my life.
