Weeks Away From Death... Unless This Works!
In a Nutshell
Lori, severely limited by peripheral artery disease, blood clots, leg swelling, and poor circulation after a 2019 fall, faces tissue death without intervention, compounded by vaping, Pepsi addiction, and carb-heavy eating. Dr. Brewer clears her kitchen of junk food, enforces quitting vaping, conducts an ABI test revealing critical blood flow issues and a 20-point arm BP discrepancy, and launches a free 6-month program with leg-strengthening exercises (6-8 reps calf raises, knee squeezes), personalized nutrition, and coaching. In two weeks, she drops 18 pounds from 229 to 211, quits Pepsi and vaping cold turkey, gains energy, and walks 110 feet—proving commitment reverses decline.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
It's erroring out. You can't get blood supply to tissue. It can and will die. I'm very concerned. Have you ever worried that the real threat to your health is something that nobody's ever even checked? It's a fear that many of us share. Missing the one clue that could change everything. Lorie's story is a powerful reminder of how easy it is to overlook the signs until it's too late or hopefully almost too late. That's why I'm here in Capron, Illinois, to find out if Lori's been told the complete truth about her disease. You may be missing something, too, that you still have time to turn around.
Hi. >> Hello, Lori. >> Yeah. How are you? Ford Brewery. >> Nice to meet you. >> Good to meet you. Doing very well. >> Her name is Princess. >> A. Is she a sweet girl? >> She protects her mommy.
You guys ready to get started? >> I'm ready to get started.
It was unbelievable on the way out here. We're just an hour from Chicago and yet we're way deep into the heartland. In 2019, I was walking into a client's house where I was taking care of and I stepped down and she had a bag of clothes laying there and I went down. She couldn't walk after that. She couldn't do nothing. She fired me cuz I couldn't do my job anymore. She was in so much pain. I drove. My legs would go numb when I'm driving. Can't do the things I used to do. We used to travel a lot. Go on the motorcycle. Go to the fairs. Walk around the fairs. That's things I can't do. I can't shop at a store without the electric carts.
It was my father's birthday party. We went there. By that day, my leg was like this big. Her left leg got so swollen. Never seen anything like that before. And I said, "That's a heart problem. We need to go." So, we went to the emergency room. She had a blood clot in her leg. They went and got the blood clot out of her leg. That's when they found out that her ascending abdominal aorta both sides were both plugged. So that's when she did the peripheral axonal whatever on both sides she did that iliac but they both plugged up and then they plugged up within a month. In Madison they told us if we do surgery on you 50/50 chance that you're going to survive. So we decided we're not taking that 50/50 chance. We're not going to do that.
I own the world and I can't give what he needs. So, thank God he loves me for me because if it wasn't for him, I probably wouldn't be here today.
What are you doing in terms of lifestyle? I sit right there and I watch TV and I drink that Pepsi and eat those fried potatoes. Who doesn't like pizza? Who doesn't like going out and having a fast food quick restaurant meal and get along your day. It's very convenient. You her pusher. Yeah. But you did that anyway. You went ahead and fixed bread or and I'm from the south, so we fix meals. We don't prepare them. That included the potatoes and the French fries. Everybody's got their cut off point. Everybody's got their stopping point. And until they hit rock bottom, until they decide that they want to do it, they need to do it. It's really hard to make somebody do something they don't want to do.
Do I want a water or don't want a Pepsi? Pepsi wins every time.
Will she take on this fight? Will she develop the commitment and do it?
I usually only get in the refrigerator for one thing. Well, two things. Ice. Don't mind our refrigerator. We just cleaned it out. and my Pepsi. So, you see, I have Oh, I lied. I have four Pepsis in here. I have to be totally honest with you. I'm going to leave one Pepsi here forever, but I will want to finish those.
When I was at Hopkins, we did research on drug abuse. And one of the things we found is if the thing you're addicted to is nearby, that's when it's hard. It's when it's not accessible that it's so much easier. But Lori's choosing to say, "I want to have some of it around all the time because I know then I can deny it." That scares me. I've already gotten the team up here. It's an investment for us to do this. I'm making a commitment to you and I want a commitment in return.
Do I get to finish my two Pepsis I have in there? No. No, you don't. Okay, let's go through the kitchen.
Well, be careful cuz that poodle I don't eat that stuff. You don't eat that stuff? No, I don't eat that. That's not mine. I can tell you I have never heard that one. Is that my stuff? Uh-huh. And I've never heard anybody used to be your stuff. Yeah. Used to be. Oh, used to be. Okay. This is mine right here.
Chris, I think we're going to need two bags. That's not big enough. No, I'm not taking all this stuff. But I can tell you from looking around here, you're going to need a bigger bag. What is this here? The only thing that bothers me is my Hormel chili and my Rotel for my hot sauce. Chris, you and I talked about this Hormel chili. Yeah. And as you said, it's got a lot of carbs in it. Yeah, that's what that's. So, we need to get rid of that.
This kind of stuff, this is the kind of bag we needed from the beginning. Yeah. Spaghetti. Lasagna. Oh, wait a minute. Oh, yeah. That's Margie's. We can get rid of that, too. She doesn't use arythritol. That's fine. Stevia, that's everything in there is probably healthy. Elus is the only thing I use. All the other stuff I don't use anymore.
A lot of people would say, "Oh, no, no, no. You need to not have any kind of sweets." My taste needs to grow up and be more adult, but it ain't there yet. You're breaking my heart on this one. How come I'm breaking your heart? Cuz I already had it planned out how I was doing it over here in this pile over here. I got to dump it out. Go ahead. Let me see. Dump it out. Did you read my lips? Don't watch me. You guys are bad.
I have to tell you, I'm impressed. I know that last one hurt cuz I know what you had told me. No, I'm okay with that. And I remember it. But I'm going to put an empty bottle in there, though. That's good. I know it ain't the same. No, but I know it's there. I got mixed emotions. On the one hand, she did great. Her voice was telling me, "I can do this." But on the other hand, her face was kind of hurting.
Might as well take a knife and stab me in the back. My plan was to drink two of them and save one in the refrigerator just to look at so I wouldn't drink it. So now I'll crave it cuz I don't have a Pepsi.
How about cheese meat? Meat meat meat grass-fed cheddar and more meat. Okay. Where did Lori go? Come back. You will be on my list. Those can go. Pizzas. Yeah, those are mine. Oh, I'm so glad you told me about this. Talk about a stash. I'm fine, but Chris is counting every dollar you put in there. Well, I understand the dollar thing, but let's go back to the same thing that can go. And that is the worst way to waste this stuff is to eat it and damage yourself with it.
I think that's it.
What we're going to be doing is offering you six months of care for free. You'll be working with one of our coaches. You'll be working with me. I'll be your doctor. We'll be covering your labs for 6 months. We'll be working with you to make sure that we can help you solve problems that you may run into. You're going to make me cry, but that's okay.
Before we come up with a plan, we need to see what she can actually do now. Cuz you hear things like, "I made it 30,000 steps." But not really because that was the machine doing it, not her. So, we need to know what she can actually do.
You want to walk around the block with me? Uh, yeah. Come on, Doc. Well, this is the block. Come on, Doc. Let's walk with me. So, I can only do it for so long. I think that the fact that she can go do a couple of walks around the block inside the house, it's good. Nevertheless, she's not able to walk outside just yet. So, there's definitely something wrong in here. What we need to know is how much blood flow you have left.
And to do that, we do a specific test called the ABI. So, we have a little bit of swelling. Cuz I haven't had my feet up all day. Any pitting? Just a little bit. We're going to measure the blood pressure in both arms and we're going to write them down. The highest systolic number from the ankles divided by the systolic number from the arms. Whatever that is. Systolic means the first blood pressure number. The one that appears on top. Okay. 153 over 75.
Can I tell you something? Let's go. Okay. Real quick. So initially I was worried about the blood flow on the legs but after seeing that where there's a 20 point difference between the blood pressure on the right arm compared to the left arm I'm really concerned. This could be probably even more severe than I thought.
It's erroring out. I don't think it's going to hit it. So let me translate some of this for you. It may have been confusing for me to say this is a very serious condition, but the bottom line is if you can't get a pulse and you can't get blood supply to tissue, it can and will die. So, we're in a very serious state with Lori. She doesn't seem it until you actually start pushing and testing. I need to speak with my team tonight and tomorrow morning. We're going to come up with a plan, but I'm very concerned.
The oil that is in the device that they use for vaping has products that are harmful. One of them they use for like a food additive. The other one's formaldehyde, which is used when you preserve dead bodies. And the other one is a weed killer. So whenever you're vaping, you put those ingredients into your lung and it can cause damage that basically eats your lung tissue away. So when you compare that to cigarettes, it's not better for you than cigarettes.
If she doesn't stop vaping, she is going to lose her leg. It's cold. Cold. Can't feel my toes. What happens if you keep vaping? It's going to die. All that work that we just talked about just goes right down the drain.
I know. Ask Chris. When I say I'm going to do something, I usually do it. So, tell me how you're going to do it. When it comes time, I'm going to throw this in the garbage and be done with it. But then I'm going to carry an empty one with me because it's empty. So that way I feel like I have it in my hand because when I quit smoking cigarettes, I went nuts because I'm used to having always something in my hand. So then instead of play on my phone all the time. To keep my hands busy. That's why I have a craft room. That's why I have diamond dots because that keeps my hands busy all the time because I can't walk around and do the things that I should be doing.
What if I said, "I think it's time." I'm going to say, "You're full of BS." No, don't take that away from me. I already got everything else. Just let me keep this for just a little bit longer and I promise you I'll do it. 10 minutes. How are you feeling? All right. You're lying. You're not feeling all right.
You're welcome. You know that's a good money sitting in your hand. That's okay. Worst way to waste it would be to smoke it. I know. Now don't be smoking on that when you leave me. I can guarantee you a whole lot.
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So, Lori, what we want to do is to have a clear plan for you. One of the major issues we need is to make those legs and those glutes stronger. We have a clear plan for exercise that you are going to be able to do I hope every single day. They're very easy to do. We're going to start slow. I'm going to show you how you can do right now two or three of those exercises. And then we'll go with the rest. And as Dr. Brewer said, you're going to get a group of health coaches helping you out throughout the way.
I'm going to demonstrate the exercise. I want you to do it with me. Okay? Very, very easy. So, you just need to do six to eight. If you can do a little bit more, do a little bit more. They're going to be activating your muscles and your legs and your hip. After you do those, we're gonna get you in a specific ball that you can put between here the knees on the knees to get some traction. And you're going to do this with the ball right here. Do it with me. You're putting your knees closer one than the other one. And you're going to start feeling all the movement right here and on the back of your leg. Like that. Easy peasy.
And then we're going to do calf raises. Sitting down. Go on your toes. I do that over there all the time. Yep. It's the problem with the couch is that you're like, "No, I'll sit up." So, just sit down straight. Okay. Perfect. We need this position like I do a lot. Want to see those calves? Good. Like that. Push a little bit more blood flow. I can feel when I tighten this muscle up. Exactly. And that's going to happen in multiple ways. Helps with the muscle strength, helps with the blood flow, but also helps with blood sugar.
Whenever you think like, I can't do this. Think about I want to go outside.
And the other half is just how you're going to eat. We know eating it can be hard. So we just created a specific plan for you. I want you to take a look at it and you're going to be in close communication with the team so they can help you adjust. We wanted to make it as easy for you. It's calculated based on what you need to do the stuff that you have to do.
I'm really hard on things because I don't eat avocados. That's okay. I don't eat spinach. And if you try a couple of days and you say, you know what, this is not for me. We'll find an alternative for you. But I want you to try at least once. See what happens. He's my cook.
I'm very cold, but I'm in a totally different place than I was two days ago because I was expecting to come into somebody who had a BMI of 40 and was in total denial. She was not.
I'm such a big fan. I'm already missing Chris and Lori. And Chris transitioned from being an enabler to being a major help, a major force in helping her get where she needs to be. I'm going to check in in a couple of weeks. How is it going on with the vaping and the carbs? It's gone. It's gone. How about the Pepsi? It's gone. You know, it's gone. You see me dump it out. She honestly doesn't miss the Pepsi. Because she's drinking water, of course, but electrolytes, the lemonade electrolytes kind of makes up for it. She'd been using this as her vape. This was my vape at first. So, I'd stop vaping and click on this. So, it's a hand thing. It's gone now. So, she don't even use that anymore either. So that's extremely surprising to me. I haven't been grouchy either.
Have you lost weight? Well, when you guys were here, I was at 229. Today, I weighed in at 211. So, I've lost 18 pounds. Lord, 18 lbs. I tell you what, Lori, you're doing a heck of a lot better than Dr. Vega did on his four day. Well, I told you I was committed. And she's also said a couple times, "I can't believe how good I feel." Yeah, I do. I can't believe how good I feel. I've had more energy to 110 ft.
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