#1291 - C.T. Fletcher

Joe Rogan (0:03)

Boom, and we're live. What's up, brother? How are you?

C.T. Fletcher (0:05)

Man, Joe Rogan, I am so happy to be here.

Joe Rogan (0:09)

I'm so happy to see you.

C.T. Fletcher (0:11)

Fuck.

Joe Rogan (0:11)

You've gone through a journey.

C.T. Fletcher (0:13)

Oh, man, since the last time I've seen you.

Joe Rogan (0:16)

Yesterday was one year from your heart transplant anniversary.

C.T. Fletcher (0:20)

Wow. One year, and Joe, if I told you it was easy, I'd be lying.

But, man, it was so worth the journey and ain't even funny.

Joe Rogan (0:31)

What does it feel like right now? Like having another person's heart in your body? What does that feel like?

C.T. Fletcher (0:35)

Well, a lot of times, it feels like I actually did die, and this is just a dream, that I'm living right now. Yep.

This is, I think this would be my heaven.

Joe Rogan (0:47)

You look great. You're still jacked.

You're not losing any weight?

C.T. Fletcher (0:52)

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan (0:53)

Yeah, but I mean, you're still jacked. You still got muscles.

C.T. Fletcher (0:58)

You know, it's such a fall from where I was. I really appreciate that, though, but I look at myself now, and it's just a fragment of what I used to be, but I'm still here. That's what's so important to me, man.

Joe Rogan (1:13)

Well, the ridiculous thing you were doing, you're making videos of you're working out, like getting ready, and after your heart operation, you have a heart transplant, and you're running in a parking lot, and you trip and fall. I'm like, Jesus, man, slow down.

C.T. Fletcher (1:30)

Yeah, I got a little tired of that.

Joe Rogan (1:32)

You just decided that you were just going to start pushing from the beginning.

C.T. Fletcher (1:36)

Well, actually, my brain was ready, but my body wasn't.

Joe Rogan (1:42)

Did they warn you about doing that? Did they say it was okay?

C.T. Fletcher (1:46)

They told me that, you know, they gave me permission to walk. And, you know, me, I'm like, walk? Shit, I can run.

At least my mind said I could run. Right.

Joe Rogan (1:57)

What does it feel like, though? Like when you, like, what is the difference between the way your heart feels now?

C.T. Fletcher (2:04)

It's night and day, you know, before I got the transplant, it had got really bad, you know, really bad, I had to flatline two more times, you know, before the actual transplant. And it was, I couldn't go through another flatline. I mean, that would have been it.

But the difference now, I mean, it feels...

Joe Rogan (2:25)

When you say flatline, like your heart stopped?

C.T. Fletcher (2:27)

Yes.

Joe Rogan (2:29)

And what did they do to start it back up again?

C.T. Fletcher (2:32)

After I had this last heart attack, they asked me, they said, Mr. Fletcher, do you want us to put in a pacemaker?

And I thought about it a lot because my brother, my older brother, Walt, had a pacemaker installed before he passed away. And his pacemaker was actually going off when he died. So I'm like, yeah, it didn't really do any good for him. So I was like going back and forth. And then I'll just, something before he said, yeah, go ahead and get it. And so I told him, yeah, put it in, and the pacemaker saved me.

Joe Rogan (3:05)

So it went flat, like so your heart gave up. And then what does the pacemaker do exactly?

C.T. Fletcher (3:10)

It's like a defibrillator, like they have the paddles, they give you electric shock. That's what the pacemaker does.

Joe Rogan (3:17)

Just gives you a little jolt.

C.T. Fletcher (3:18)

Yeah, it's on the inside, inside and it's connected directly to your heart. And that sucker flat lines, it gives you a jolt.

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (3:28)

Did you feel it?

C.T. Fletcher (3:30)

No.

Joe Rogan (3:30)

No?

C.T. Fletcher (3:31)

I was dead. Until we say, when you're dead, you don't feel nothing, man.

Joe Rogan (3:36)

So you'd blacked out too?

C.T. Fletcher (3:40)

It's not a blackout or like your throws off when you're sleeping.

Death is totally different, totally different. And I knew that I was dead before I died, before a flat line. It was just me and my wife at home. And I was talking to her just like I'm talking to you.

And the next thing, all the lights went out. It was like one of those old fashioned TVs. I don't know if you're old enough to remember these black and white TVs. Yeah, yeah. That's exactly how it was.