Speaker 1 0:03

Welcome to the healthy matters podcast with Dr . David Hilton, primary care physician and acute care hospitalist at Hennepin healthcare in downtown Minneapolis, where we cover the latest in health healthcare , and what matters to you. And now here's your host, Dr . David Hilton,

Speaker 2 0:20

Welcome episode seven of the podcast. I'm your host, Dr. David Hilton. Today. It is going to be a real treat because we're gonna talk to somebody who's not only a professional at speaking to the public, but is gonna tell her own story. We're gonna welcome. Jordanna green, who is a radio personality, although she got started in TV and I'm gonna let her her tell her story, but she is currently the co-host with Paul Douglas of the Pauler Dan show on w CCO radio here in Minneapolis. Drive time three to 6:00 PM, Monday to Friday. Jordan, thank you for being here. Thank

Speaker 3 0:53

You for inviting me and the doctor . This is weird because I'm used to interviewing you.

Speaker 2 0:58

I know. So for the past year or so during the PA pandemic , you have invited me to your show talking about COVID and I'm used to answering your questions and now the tables are turned. So , uh , thank you for doing that.

Speaker 3 1:11

I'm a little nervous.

Speaker 2 1:12

You're a little nervous. I'm a little nervous because I'm in the presence of a professional media person where I, I dabble a , a little bit more

Speaker 3 1:21

Use that word lightly. My right it's just radio. I always say on the radio, we're not saving lives. It doesn't really matter. It's just radio because at the end of the day, if we have a bad day, it goes in radio heaven and it doesn't matter anymore. A little different for you.

Speaker 2 1:33

All right . So tell us, Jordan, you are currently for the past decade or so on WCC radio. Tell us how you got to that point. Dun didn't you start out in TV?

Speaker 3 1:42

I did. In fact, I , uh , grew up in New Jersey and I went to Syracuse university, the new house school specifically for broadcast journalism. Um, and that was great. And then I sort of traveled that road that you did in the nineties, if you wanted to be a broadcaster. And I always wanted to be a reporter and a news anchor. That was always my goal. So even as a young girl, I knew that to what the plan was. So after college, I moved to New York city and I was what's called an AP or really an intern and associate producer. I made $5 an hour. I took the bus back and forth from my parents' house. And back to New Jersey. Yes. Yes. Okay . Where in New Jersey at home Parsippany

Speaker 2 2:17

Parsippany,

Speaker 3 2:18

It's Northern Jersey. It's about 30 miles west of New York city . Okay.

Speaker 2 2:21

I don't think I've heard of Parsippany.

Speaker 3 2:22

You're probably, we haven't .

Speaker 2 2:24

I've always dreamed of living in New York though.

Speaker 3 2:26

There you go. Don't

Speaker 2 2:27

So you're an associate producer in New York making five bucks an hour, five bucks an you're you're making it big.

Speaker 3 2:32

I was working in what's called creative services, which is like promotions. And every night after my work hours there, I would walk up to news and I would say, do you have anything for me to do? Do you have , you know, I'd go into the newsroom and I'd go to the executive producer. Do you have, you want me to write anything I can do? And after a while they started having me write some teases, you know, coming up next, you know, Splitsville for Ben and Jen , all that stuff , uh , that you see on TV news, or at least you did in the nineties. And finally, when months later, when there was an opening, they hired me as another AP, you know, or they called it a PA production assistant and I made seven 50 an hour. So I was really rolling in it. And I would go out with reporters after , um, when they got an assignment, I would beg them to take me with them, which was probably illegal because they were union and I was not. And I would try to get the cameraman to record me on camera here. We're at the zoo where three monkeys escaped, live reporting. Jordanna green. You know, I would like pretend to do a , a whatever story they were on. I would record it. And then late at night I would sneak into the edit bay and I would edit my own story to put, to create a resume tape.

Speaker 2 3:36

You had some hood spa back then I'm telling you

Speaker 3 3:39

Was too dumb to know I was doing something illegal and I was driven. So

Speaker 2 3:43

I , I that's called being goal directed. I think,

Speaker 3 3:45

I think so. I think so. I think , um, and I think it was also in that time. That's how you did it. So they gave young folks like me, a little lax when they saw me in the edit bay, they might have turned away. So , um, so I , after that, I did, I got, I got hired a job in new , in New Jersey, at a station called R N . It was my first reporting job on camera. And I shot a report. I edited all my own stories. It was called a one man band. Now they call them multimedia journalists, but it's basically a cheap way to get one person to do three people's jobs. And , um , I learned a ton, a ton because it , I , I went on my own stories. I found my own stories. I reported, I shot, I edited, I did everything. This

Speaker 2 4:24

Was TV,

Speaker 3 4:24

This was TV. It was a great job until it wasn't until it got too weighing on the soul. All , all of this time, I had been sending out resume tapes to other markets because I knew I, I couldn't be a beat reporter anymore. It was just too hard, but I wanted the , like a specialty job and it was meant to be that I got a call on my mother's. Um, it was the voicemail on my mother's, you know, voice box at home. I used to have voicemail lines, you know, she pushed the button and , and it was this news director from Wilbury, Scranton , Pennsylvania, who said, I unexpectedly have an opening as a , a health reporter, medical reporter. They had a beat, a medical beat at the time. Was I interested now? I had, I had driven out to meet her months earlier, even though she didn't have an opening, it was a market I wanted to work in. Um, and she's like, I don't have an opening. I said, I know, but I just wanna meet you. And it turned out to be worked out in my favor. So we moved to, to Scranton , to east Strausberg because husband was working in New Jersey still. So he would commute an hour east. I would commute an hour west and we'd meet in east Rosberg Pennsylvania at night. Oh

Speaker 2 5:29

My gosh. That's a heck of a way to get your marriage started. So did the new job promise , uh , to be less soul sucking ?

Speaker 3 5:37

Yes, it was. Cuz it was like a , a nine to five and it was medical reporters . So doc, I was, I people like you, I was going to doctors' offices. I was going to clinics. I was talking to patients and I was covering news that was helping people. You know, when I covered the wound clinic in Scranton, Pennsylvania, there were people that, that called me cuz it wasn't, we didn't really have access to email. Then that called me and said, Jordanna you're you saved my life. I have diabetes. And I thought I was gonna have to live with this wound on my foot forever. I didn't even know. So it was a very , uh , rewarding job that I had.

Speaker 2 6:09

I've often thought that about, about healthcare as a career. And it's what I do. And, and as I was , uh , chatting with you earlier, or I used to make barcodes for a living and although I think it's probably important for the world that we have barcodes, it is probably is it's the economic engine, blah, blah, blah. But, but , but healthcare is when you're part, you are really part of the intimate moments of people's lives the most joyful times and , and some really rough times. So if you are telling those stories,

Speaker 3 6:36

It was

Speaker 2 6:37

People of Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey. I think it , it it's meaningful work.

Speaker 3 6:42

I mean , and it was, and that will forever be, I mean, I think I made $25,000 a year and I, because it's never the money people don't go into what I do for the money. You know, there are very few Katie Kirks of the world. And, and um , even though that was my aspiration, I knew why I had to do the hard stuff and move away from home and, and , and do the work. So it was a great job. I loved it. But after two years I got a great opportunity to move to Indianapolis and start a morning show. And I had the anchor spot, they offered me the anchor spot and that was also a dream. They didn't have a morning show there. It was great. And I loved Indianapolis. It was great. It was just , um, a great time at this point had signed with an agent out of New York city, which is what we did in that day when we were television news reporters and anchors. And he called me once and he said, J uh , there's an opportunity in Minnesota. And they would like to meet you. And I said, Ezra, hold on. And I went into the second bedroom where my husband had a map of the United States. And we were putting in all the places that we traveled and I'm like , huh , where's Minnesota.

Speaker 2 7:39

Yeah, this isn't on there. This isn't where you were thinking of going , wait a minute. This is God's country. Right? You were moving your way west towards the promised land of Minnesota.

Speaker 3 7:50

Oh , you could say that. But what I said to him was Esra. That's like Canada, there's no way I'm going there. And remember I am a college graduate. I should have been able to find Minnesota. Yeah.

Speaker 2 7:59

But you're from New Jersey. And I don't think that they , people in New Jersey are thinking too much about Minnesota, although they should.

Speaker 3 8:05

They absolutely should. But you're right. I was from New Jersey and the goal was eventually to get back to the New York market. And these were flyover states. And I was like, I was already in indie doing my time. And they flew me in, in January of all of all times. And I fell in love. And so it was another opportunity to build a newsroom from the ground up again. I was the evening anchor now, which is sort of the , the promised land of jobs. Like if you're the evening anchor you've, you've made it. Yep . And you know, they offered me some money and my husband was like, let's go, let's go. And we did.

Speaker 2 8:33

I remember the Fox 29. Um , I remember all of that. Thank you. That's when you start to get on our radar here in the soda a little more, now you do radio.

Speaker 3 8:42

I do. Yes, I do. And I, I worked here , uh , Rupert Murdoch bought our, our station and then he bought channel nine, which was up PN and then switched the affiliations. And , uh , it sort of dwindled from there. And , and in 2006 they canceled the network altogether and they fired all of us anchors. Um, but it was probably the right thing cuz I, my heart wasn't at it anymore. Like the reporting job I had in New Jersey, I felt like I was, I don't know . I , I guess tattle tailing every night and my heart wasn't in it. So , um, it was a good opportunity to try something new, but it was terrible opportunity to leave a job. I mean, I got fired so they fired all of us. So I didn't have an option. Um, but it was the beginning of the recession and that was really hard. Nobody was hiring. Nobody was expanding. Everybody was cutting back. People were getting fired. And Dr . Hilton , I was outta work for five years. Wow. Out of work for five years, you know, thankfully we had moved here. I had two children already. Um, we bought a house, my husband was working. He had a good job. Um, but we struggled and we suffered and it was really hard during the recession. We had, you know, two small kids wanted a third. It was just really hard. So a lot of things unravel during that time. And I was outta work, like I said for five years. But when I say outta work, I'm always doing projects cuz I imagine much like

Speaker 2 9:59

You, you seem like a bit of a

Speaker 3 10:00

Go getter. I can't be still. Yeah.

Speaker 2 10:02

I doubt you were just watching TV all day long every

Speaker 3 10:05

Day. It was the era of reality TV. And although I didn't really know anything about reality TV, I knew how to produce television and, and write . And so I was reaching out to contacts, to produce shows, to create shows for things like the travel channel and Bravo and all this stuff. And um, I learned more about that, that I needed a celebrity to build a show around. Well, who's a celebrity in Minnesota that I had access to. I thought , uh ,

Speaker 2 10:28

Paul Douglas. So you hooked up with a meteorologist.

Speaker 3 10:31

He said to me, you know, we're launching a national weather network. Do you wanna come and launch it? And I just looked at him. It was my first job offer in five years. And I said, yes. Mm Yeah . Um , Dr. Hilton , did I know anything about launching a weather network? Absolutely not. I had no idea what I was doing. Somehow. Paul believed in me and it's still on the air today. I'm proud to say they moved the operation to Denver, but still on the art today.

Speaker 2 10:58

So you knew though you knew how to communicate with people and you knew what works. You had already had some, some , uh, well, not some you had already had a career in communicating with people talking to people and then you , and then you got, got in touch with a guy who was already well beloved here was this , but this was a national effort. Was it not? Yes,

Speaker 3 11:16

Correct. Correct. We broadcast that nationally. Uh , and it was digital. So this was new for me. I'm used to terrestrial, you know, using satellites, terrestrial , uh , television. And we were using , um, just, it was all digital. It was all online. That's the way we were sending the shows and they, then the stations would air them on their station. But it was just, it was fascinating. I learned so much, I could barely key it up. I was, my brain was exhausted every day , but I had to learn and I had to create and I had the opportunity to do both. And it was amazing.

Speaker 2 11:45

And now you and Paul are a team together for what? The past five,

Speaker 3 11:49

Six years, five , five years and a year after I started working for Paul , um, they were moving the operation to Denver and I wasn't gonna go at that point. I had three small kids. I wasn't gonna leave. But out of again, out of nowhere, like a God moment, I get an email from the program director at CCO that says, hi , you don't know me, but your name came up at a meeting. We have a rare opportunity for a host spot , wanna have lunch. And I said, if you're buying it, I will have lunch with you because I knew things had to wrap up with Paul and I needed another opportunity. And Dr. Hilton , when somebody offers you your own show and eventually they did, you don't say no to that. Of course not. And I remember going to Paul's office and I closed the door and he goes, you don't have to close the door. And I said, but I do. And he looked at me , he goes, oh no, no , no , no , no, no , no .

Speaker 2 12:33

This is where you were gonna tell him, you're , you're leaving to a new offer.

Speaker 3 12:36

And I told him, and I know this is a podcast, so I can use salty language. And I know your producer will bleep me, but he goes, CCO S me again.

Speaker 4 12:50

And um,

Speaker 3 12:51

I said, I'm Paul . Don said

Speaker 2 12:54

That that will not , he works .

Speaker 4 12:55

He can be salted .

Speaker 3 12:58

I'll never forget it. Wasn't the first time I cried on his couch, but

Speaker 4 13:01

I , uh, you know,

Speaker 3 13:03

But, but I said, yeah, I have to do it. And he goes, I understand. And then I went and worked for CCO. I did a night show for about five years. And I, I also worked the afternoon show with John Williams. And then when John went back Chicago, it was me doing the show, but I wanted a partner. I felt like I needed one. And I thought it would be a good opportunity and an opportunity to bring a celebrity to CCO. CCO said, if you could get him, we're interested. I asked Paul and he's like, really you sure? And then he came in and um, the rest is

Speaker 2 13:32

History. Yeah. Now you're the you . And , and for, for listeners of the podcast, w CCO is , uh , an institution in broadcasting. And I even know what it stands for. I went to Washburn high school, and that's what the w stands for in w C C you know, you know , we're an old mill city, you know, flower, milling and Washburn Crosby company. That's right . Did their radio station back in a long time ago in the day. And it has become , um, over the decades and decades and decades, the premier radio station in the twin cities. And so being the drive time host is a big deal on , on WCC.

Speaker 3 14:08

Thank you. It is a big deal for me, and radio's very different than television. So there was a big learning curve, but you're right. Come June. I'll be there 10 years.

Speaker 2 14:15

And what I love about your show with Paul is that , um, first of all, you're inquisitive and you're curious, and you ask questions of your guests. And so in that sense, it just is , um, it feeds the mind. But what I also find with you and Paul is that you're authentic people. You have fun, and you have fun with people. You laugh a little bit health stories of people. There's a genuine warmth and humanity in your show that I think is really a winning combination.

Speaker 3 14:43

Thank you so much. Uh , that's a huge compliment coming from you. And I , I'm glad that comes across because I, I tell Paul, we don't have to be experts at everything. We just have to be curious and we have to be kind, I mean, that's what I tell my kids. Right? Kind and kindness and truth.

Speaker 2 14:57

Exactly. And that's what comes through. So that's what it all began. But Jordana, you had perhaps one of the most unique last few years , uh , of anybody I know. And so people might be wondering, why am I having a professional media personality on the podcast today? A show about healthcare ? Well, Jordana has had one of the most unique couple of years with her own healthcare . We're gonna talk about that. When we come back,

Speaker 1 15:26

You're listening to the healthy matters podcast with Dr. David Hilton, have a question or , or a comment for the doctor become a part of our show by reaching out to us at healthy matters, HC M E d.org , or give us a call at six one two eight seven three talk that's 6 1 2 8 7 3 8 2 5 5 . And now let's get back to more healthy conversation.

Speaker 2 15:50

So Jordana up everybody. I know you maybe had one of the more unique last couple years during , uh , a couple of years that haven't been normal for anybody, but you were a healthy woman doing your media career. And then that changed.

Speaker 3 16:05

It did

Speaker 2 16:06

Tell

Speaker 3 16:06

Us about it. And unique is a , an interesting way to describe the last few years. Yes, they have definitely been

Speaker 2 16:12

You , maybe would've chosen a different unique path, but you were, and you've been very public about this. You , you were diagnosed with leukemia, correct?

Speaker 3 16:20

Uh, in the, in the spring of, of 2020, it was right when the , uh , uh , pandemic occurred. Um, I wasn't feeling well, but you know, doc in the, in the spring or, or late winter is when everybody in Minnesota feels bad. Our seasonal effective disorder is raging. Oh , we haven't seen the sun. We haven't been outside. So usually by March, I'm low on vitamin D we're depressed. And I was feeling very lethargic. I, I was having trouble focusing. I was having trouble sleeping, all of these things. And I went to my doctor and I said, I need some help. I don't feel myself. I'm having concentrating. I told them all my symptoms was having some , um, like hot flashes, almost like night sweats. And my doc's like, oh, you're probably in menopause. They did some tests. No, it was not in menopause. I'm like, Hmm , interesting. So I went on and on like this for a few months. And um, at some point I took a walk around the lake and I I'm a , a , um , an in-shape person. I do a lot of yoga. I do a lot of cardio. I try to take care of myself and I couldn't make it all the way around the lake, which is a, you know, a three mile walk. It's nothing. And I called my daughter who was at home and I said, can you come pick me up? And I, and she did. And she was freaking out. And I said, I'm just feeling tired. So I started doing the series of doctors. I called my, my doctor. They sent me to a therapist. That person sent me to a shrink. Maybe I had a D D . They sent me back to my OB. They sent me back to my primary care and my primary care doctor. Um , it was somebody I hadn't met and we were doing telemedicine. And he said to me, well, you know, my wife has all these symptoms. You're probably just depressed. I'm gonna write you some Lexapro.

Speaker 2 17:54

Okay. So I've, I'm , I've been cringing in the last about 60 seconds, as you've been telling that you were shuffled from one to another, to another, a specialist to this, so that, and , uh,

Speaker 3 18:05

And , and I wasn't depressed and I didn't have anxiety and I wasn't in, and really nothing was, they couldn't find anything wrong with me. So this doctor says, I'm frustrated now. So this doctor says ,

Speaker 2 18:16

Understandably. Yeah,

Speaker 3 18:17

Yeah . Um , well, you know, you're probably just depressed my wife's about your age and she's got all those symptoms. So I'm gonna write you some Lexapro. And I felt angry. And I said, I'm not depressed. I don't, you know, and then he said, well, I'm sensing a lot of animosity on this call. And I was so frustrated that I was in tears. And I said, fine, just fine. Write the Lexapro, if that helps fine. So I started taking it and it didn't help. And I was noticing some bruising on my body and I was ignoring,

Speaker 2 18:46

Which is not a feature of depression. Nope .

Speaker 3 18:49

And I was worrying the bruising on my body because being a medical reporter in my past years, I knew it was a little more serious. And , um, finally, one night the bruising got bad. And then I saw the red, red dots on my body. They were like these tiny red dots on my body. And I was like, you know what? This isn't normal. So I show my husband and he goes, you know, let's go see Al Zein remember for Al's Alexon Al's Alex , may he rest in peace? May his memory be a blessing? Um, he is a , the husband of my good friend, Sue Alexon and was a dermatologist here in Minnesota. Everybody knows ALS Alexon . So it was a dermatologist here in Minnesota. For years, we drove over, they live near, we drove over and I said, Al, what do you think this is? He goes, well, this could be because of your new meds. Um, he goes, but Jo tomorrow, go get some blood work. Just do a regular blood work. Like they would ,

Speaker 2 19:32

Yeah . This , this is screaming for some blood work, right?

Speaker 3 19:34

Nope . Nobody told me that, you know, so go get some blood work. Uh, that was October 20th, 2020. I went and I got the blood work in the morning and then went did my day was in bed, took a sleeping pill, cuz that was the only thing that would help me sleep. And somebody wrote that for me, took a sleeping pill at 11 o'clock at night. My husband's phone were cuz I turned mine off and he said , it says, I'm trying to reach Jordana. Is this her husband? And he says, yes, what's going on. The doctor says, you need to take her to the hospital right now. And he goes, babe, you gotta hear this. So puts me on speaker. And I said , um , took the sleeping pill. I'm tired. I'm going to bed goodbye. She says it was a , a woman doctor. Um, Jordanna you're at risk of a bleeding emergency. Your platelets are at 18 or 19 and I don't feel comfortable with you sleeping in your bed. I go, I've been sleeping in my bed already for months. And I've been feeling like this for months. Today is no different. I'll go in the morning if you want. It's

Speaker 2 20:25

Interesting. What got their attention was a lab value, which for my medical , uh , listeners out there, they're all going, Ooh , platelets 18 is 18,000 is very, very low.

Speaker 3 20:34

Yeah . So my husband was having none of it. He was already dressed and he's like, get in the car. We're go right now. Okay. I said, fine. We went, I got in and they admitted me. And because I had eaten dinner, they couldn't do, what's called a bone marrow biopsy, which is to check my, my blood , uh , in my bone marrow. The next morning I stayed overnight. The next morning we did the surgery a few hours later, the doctor came in and he says, I , I still remember this. I was at Abbot. And he says, I have to tell you that you have leukemia. And I know when people hear you have cancer, it's shocking and overwhelming. But doc, I feel like I knew, like I, I just looked at him and I said, okay, what do we do now?

Speaker 2 21:20

Yeah. I was gonna ask you, what did, what was your first thought then? But somehow, somehow deep inside, do you knew that all this other crap that you were going through with all these tests and visits, wasn't really getting at what it was. It sounds like

Speaker 3 21:34

Because when you're sick, you know, something is wrong. If, if you're in tune, like, you know, something is wrong and not everybody knows. I , I don't mean to say that people know their diagnoses before. It often is a shock for some people. But I was having these symptoms for six months,

Speaker 2 21:46

A hundred percent patients know their bodies. And I often say , um, my pediatrician friends , so do their parents, their parents know their kids better than you do. And so in medicine I had a patient just tell me this past week, she says, doctor, I know my body, this isn't normal. And for any healthcare professional listening who doesn't listen, when a patient tells you something is not right. They're right. Yeah .

Speaker 3 22:08

That's facts. That's

Speaker 2 22:09

Truth . That is facts. So you heard this.

Speaker 3 22:12

So I heard it.

Speaker 2 22:13

And this is like 24 hours after you got , went into the hospital

Speaker 3 22:16

To get the blood work from Al EIN . Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 22:19

Six months of messing around. And then within 24 hours of, of that platelet test now, you know this

Speaker 3 22:23

And I said, what do we do? And the doctor said, okay, well this is where it gets tricky. And my, her husband is sitting in stunt silence. Um, and I said, what , what do I do? And he said, here's the deal. You have a kind of cancer that we're not equipped to treat here. He said, you have TCE a L L and again, form of leukemia. But he said, it's normally a pediatric leukemia. And he said, I've only seen it once in adults in my career. So I wanna want you to go somewhere else. And I was very grateful for that. He was a great doctor and he said, I , you need to get different care here. So he said, you can either go to the U or you can go to Mayo. And that's when my husband went into overdrive on the research and that , you know, he , that's where he was awesome. And, and looking up the doctors and who's the bone marrow specialist and knowing everything. And he said, okay, we in a male .

Speaker 2 23:10

So , and that's what you need to do there. You know, I have been practicing now for some 20 years, I've seen all kinds of leukemia. I have not had a case of LL because I see adults. I'm aware of it. I know it's out there. I have adults. Who've had it as a child. But , um, it is generally , uh , more common, much more, much more common in kids. And you need to than go to somebody who knows what they're

Speaker 3 23:31

Doing. My own kids get a lot of mileage out of this that I have a childhood . Do you have they're ? Well , you're an infant. It's because you're so immature. It's cuz you you're , you're a baby. So they make jokes about it all the

Speaker 2 23:41

Time. You got the kids cancer ,

Speaker 3 23:42

Right? You're such a baby mom

Speaker 4 23:44

Grow up.

Speaker 3 23:46

So yes, that's what we did. They granted me , uh , Mayo had a bed for me. And remember this is during the pandemic. So this is Nove . This is ,

Speaker 2 23:54

This is 20, 20,

Speaker 3 23:54

October 21st, 2020. So now it's during the pandemic and

Speaker 2 23:59

We have vaccine yet and nobody knows anything about COVID as much as we were trying to out , what's the latest science and it was evolving weekly. We didn't know

Speaker 3 24:08

You were probably already on my show. I was talking

Speaker 2 24:10

Twice a

Speaker 3 24:10

Week . Yep , exactly . Talking to me about this. And um, I, they , I said, can I go home one night? I have to explain this to my children. I , they , nobody, you know, they don't even , they've been asking where I am. I told them I have a I'm at a doctor's appointment and it's a long time. Like they , I have to explain this. So they said, you can have one night. So I did, I , I went home that the next, they kept me over more tests and they, they went , I went home the next day and explained everything to the children. We had one dinner and the next morning my husband and I were on our way to the Mayo. And that was it. And then, you know, for my treatment, you're familiar. Um , it's you have to be hospitalized for my kind of chemo. So I was in the hospital for a month that first round and they thought I was gonna need a bone marrow transplant, which often people in my situation do. And , but it turned out, luckily that I responded so well to my first few rounds of chemo that they didn't, we didn't go to bone marrow. We did eight full rounds of inpatient chemo. And I'm in two years of maintenance right now, two years of maintenance drugs, which means I don't have to be hospitalized. I just go for an infusion once a month and uh , take pills , uh , chemotherapy pills. And I have 18 more months of that right now. But doc, I was in remission after my first treatment. And that was very positive, which

Speaker 2 25:26

Is , is the one of the best prognostic indicators of leukemia. Thank you. Do you go into remission and when and uh , early remission or after your first round or early in the course of it is, is what we look for. And that is what things are looking good. So you are a survivor you're living with it to , but before we get into your current, you know, how how's it going now? What did it feel like? Um, to get poisoned? I mean, because we , we often tell people what is, what is chemotherapy and , and , and in all honesty, it's a controlled poisoning because we need to kill those cells. But sometimes the, the poison, the chemotherapy doesn't know which cells it's killing. And so people get all kinds of side effects , uh , some get more than others. Some get, you know, tummy problems, O others get to kind of a fatigue. Others, you know, you lose your skin and your hair. And they're like, how did that feel to you both physically, but emotionally to get chemotherapy.

Speaker 3 26:23

It felt like all the things you said, you know, I lost my hair after the first round. Again, the kids smiled as we shaved my head and tried to make a joke of it. And, and you know, I wasn't so attached. I was fine with it, you know? So we tried to cause

Speaker 2 26:35

You're in radio now you're not on TV

Speaker 4 26:39

So much easier. No Botox, no makeup ,

Speaker 2 26:42

No joke a teeny bit , but please

Speaker 3 26:45

That's what got us through. That's what got you. You have to laugh. Right. You have to, otherwise you

Speaker 2 26:49

Have to , so you and the kids did the hair shaving.

Speaker 3 26:51

Yes, my husband did it. And because we were in, that's a teen R

Speaker 2 26:54

Bit emotional even just to hear about it.

Speaker 3 26:56

Yeah . They , they FaceTimed me. So they, it was emotional. Oh , it was in

Speaker 2 26:58

Rochester.

Speaker 3 26:59

We tried to. Yeah . And remember doc , one of the hardest things about, there was a lot of hard things about chemo and, and leukemia and all cancers. Um, but this was during the pandemic. I couldn't have any visitors when I was allowed to have visitors when I was first, you know , um , admitted my husband could come, but once a day for a certain amount of time, but a few weeks in the nurse came in and said, come protocols are changing. There are no visitors allowed. Now I was hospitalized with, with no date on when they were gonna release me for my first induction. It wasn't like, okay. In 30 days,

Speaker 2 27:33

30

Speaker 3 27:33

Days, yeah , no, this was at least a month. And when they told me that even he couldn't come, I just, I cried because it is so isolating. And we couldn't people in my situation, we couldn't leave our floor. We weren't even allowed to have live plants. You know, cuz we were very sick. So we couldn't leave the floor. I, I could bar there's one window. You're in a bubble on now for sunshine. Exactly. And I know it kept me alive and I'm grateful, but it made it harder that I couldn't have visitors and it was scary and awful and hard on my kids. All of a sudden mom disappears for a month. And even after that, I had to stay in rock Chester because every day I had to go back and get these shots from my neutropenia, which means I was very at risk for infection. So I spent very little time at home that, that year. And that was really hard for my kids and me.

Speaker 2 28:14

We had that conversation at my hospital in downtown Minneapolis, weekly, the visitor, the visitor question. And, and it it's, it , it was um, difficult for hospital systems because I remember being on, I was a little bit opposed to the visitor restrictions at the time. Um, but we, we have a , a group of, of hospital leaders deciding, and I , and there's a risk and a benefit to everything we do in medicine, everything, every pill you take, there's a risk and a benefit. Every treatment, every drug, everything you do, there's a, in a benefit to putting in a no visitor policy. The, the benefit is, is infection control. Obviously we're trying to keep the COVID out of vulnerable people, but there's a risk to it too. There is a risk of isolation and what are we emotionally doing to people? And what are we doing if they don't survive, which was a big deal. And so I said, I think in about 10 or 20 years, when we look back on that time of 20 20, 1 of the things we're gonna think about is did we do the right thing on visitor policies? Because you are SA stadium a little bit there. What we were thinking, how is this gonna affect real people who are isolated?

Speaker 3 29:19

It was hard. And I remember looking, I don't remem it's such a blur, you know, because I was so sick and I was so pumped for

Speaker 2 29:26

Were live tweeting or something from their live Instagraming. I don't know what you were doing, but I ,

Speaker 3 29:30

Me , maybe my first round, I

Speaker 2 29:31

Saw you on a video from a Rochester

Speaker 3 29:33

Hospital. At some point I did the show with Paul from my hospital bed . But that was probably in much later rounds. Remember I did eight rounds and I had to be hospitalized for each round. Yeah .

Speaker 2 29:41

You , that first one that you weren't thinking of doing one , your show I

Speaker 3 29:44

A mess . No, no, no. And I had , I took two months off of work. I had to, I , I had to, I was so sick and they made me sicker, you know, with the meds. But I remember that first time and when my husband couldn't come, I, I didn't do this on purpose, but my stopped eating, you know, I was not hungry anyway from the meds, but I stopped eating and the nutritionist would come and threaten me. And they said, Jordanna , if you don't eat something, we're gonna, I , we feed you. And I was like, no, no, okay. I'll eat, I'll eat. But I would forget. Or I , I would, I just wouldn't do it. I was , I was maybe 90 pounds and I wasn't doing it on purpose. I was just that that's when I needed that Lexapro . Exactly . I was depressed. Exactly . You know? So , um , and , and then when they said, when they said this to me is when it , it sunk in, they said, your ticket out of here is food. You eat and we will let you leave

Speaker 2 30:31

A good grief. I think I've said that to patients, not maybe in those exact words I said, but, okay. The last thing keeping you here is the fact you're not, that was it .

Speaker 3 30:39

That was it. And I said, and I wasn't hungry. I , I ate whatever I could find, whatever was in sight. And people send me tons of food in the hospital. They were really great kosher food was delivered to me. It was fantastic. Um, and it was good food, you know , well , not necessarily hospital food and I ate. And when they saw that, when the time was okay, safe for me to leave, they were like, okay, you , you can go, but you gotta come back in a week for another the month .

Speaker 2 31:02

And , and many of our listeners to the podcast are not listening from the twin from Minnesota. Um , Mayo clinic, as , as everybody has heard is in , um, you know, is some of the best healthcare in, in frankly the world. It is about 75 miles from the twin cities where you live of Minneapolis St . Paul region. So when were you able to be in 75 miles away and not able to leave? When were you able to see your kids?

Speaker 3 31:24

Um, the , after my induction and a few weeks of, of neutropenic shots , um, they let me go home for a week. They did. So I went home for a week and, and we just had to be really careful the kids, you know, with the masks and everything. So I did, I got a week break before my second round, so yes, I got to go home and see my kids probably, you know, at some point in

Speaker 2 31:44

December and you've had eight rounds,

Speaker 3 31:46

Correct. I'm done. Now.

Speaker 2 31:47

It is. So you are in remission, correct. And you've been able to get back to your show. Yes. You've been able to get back to life a little bit, a little bit more normal, and then COVID , so how ,

Speaker 3 32:01

Um,

Speaker 2 32:01

In what is the relationship between you , you and leukemia and COVID, oh my

Speaker 3 32:05

Gosh. Before that, even though doc, it was November of this year and I , you know, I'm home, I'm doing my show. I'm just in my maintenance treatment. I got a pneumonia I got, and I was admitted to Abbot for a week because, and , and my, the infectious disease doctor and , and my hematologist oncologist said, like, what is a bacteria? It's called Rawia , it's, it's normal and regular people. Like people have it in their mouths and in their body. But in leukemic patients, patients, it can be very dangerous and it caused an pneumonia. And I was having these high fevers. So I was hospitalized again in November for about a week. Thank God I recovered from that. Then , um, we actually,

Speaker 2 32:38

We freak out whenever anybody who's a cancer survivor gets some weird infection and, you know, I never treat people with that kind of pneumonia. We have other kinds of pneumonia, but that's something that's a weird that we, we freak out a little bit in the medical community,

Speaker 3 32:52

But, but know that my hematologist oncologist at Mayo was like, okay, this is something we see in your specific leukemia. So he's like, he told me don't freak out. We see it. And, and he was in, you know, coordination with my infectious disease doctors here and, and it worked out. Thank God. And then of course we made the mistake of actually trying to visit my mother and parent , my and father in Florida, the first trip we haven't seen him in two years, everybody,

Speaker 2 33:15

What that a mistake? Well,

Speaker 3 33:16

Because we got COVID , We go to Florida and the whole family gets COVID and then we give it to my parents and we come home and we all have COVID and I mean, thank God it was oon and

Speaker 2 33:28

That's how we roll. Now. One person gets it and everybody gets it.

Speaker 3 33:32

Geez . Wow . It was fine to have it all together. We had it all together. I of course, had to be hospitalized for a day because anytime I spike a fever, I have to go to the hospital. Yep . Um , and I did, it was new year's day. So happy new year. Thank you very much. 20, 22,

Speaker 2 33:44

Starting it off. Right. Were your blood count? Are your blood counts normal again?

Speaker 3 33:47

Unfortunately, no,

Speaker 2 33:48

They're not there yet.

Speaker 3 33:49

And, and I have they've in , in October, they pulled me off all my maintenance meds because my blood was not recovering my white blood cells, my red blood cells on specifically my platelets. And to do chemo again, you, you need platelets above 75, 70 5,000. A normal person would have 140,000 to be normal at minimum. Yep . To be normal.

Speaker 2 34:06

That's at the low end of normal.

Speaker 3 34:07

Right. I mean, I had been down to three at one point. And so it was, I was in a dangerous precarious position. So to continue maintenance, he said, you need your platelets need to come up. And I have blood work done twice a week and they never got above 60. And we just had a conversation the other day. And my doctor said, I think that they are never gonna go higher than that. And that happens sometimes where your body is permanently damaged and it's never going, the platelets will never recover. So we can no longer do the full maintenance treatment on you. My maintenance treatment is called PO it's , uh , three chemotherapies. And , and then steroids, which function like a chemotherapy. How

Speaker 2 34:44

Does that feel for you?

Speaker 3 34:45

Uh , that was really scary. That was really scary because he said it this way. He said after leukemia patients who do the two years of maintenance have a 40% chance of the cancer coming back, he said, without maintenance, you have a 60% chance of the cancer coming back.

Speaker 2 35:01

So it's more likely than not , um , without the maintenance.

Speaker 3 35:04

And that sucks. Yeah. And that's not a great thing to hear. And, but I don't, I , and I said to him, while we were deciding what to do with the maintenance, I said, you know what, Dr. Williams , I don't envy your decision. I cause whether to do it, whether I wasn't gonna do it, I wasn't gonna make that decision or myself. I said, I trust you. You guys are the experts. There's a team at Mayo . You, you tell me what to do and I'll do it. And so what we decided was instead of the formats that I would normally take that were harsh and were killing me , um, you know, even in maintenance, he said, we're gonna do two of them. It'll offer you a little protection. And , um, and that's how, and that's how we're proceeding. And I was supposed to be scheduled for my first chemo infusion today, taking a little longer, cuz insurance gets in the way of some of that stuff. But hopefully I'll be starting my first infusion , um, within a week or two.

Speaker 2 35:53

So we talked earlier when you were, when you were first , um, you were taking Lexapro, which is an antidepressant and you weren't, you didn't have a mood disorder at that point, but, and , and you don't strike me as probably do now either, but I don't, but I'm not gonna make a diagnosis here, but it strikes me as that. You probably don't now and yet. And yet, certainly this has to be an emotional roller coaster for you. How can, how has your , um, mind and your mood and been affected by this physical thing, which can be somewhat formulaic for the doctors. Okay. We're gonna give you these drugs. We're gonna check these numbers. It's about , um, you know, we're gonna check , do all these lab tests and, and here's how you're doing with your cancer, but how are you doing with your mood and your, your wellbeing?

Speaker 3 36:42

Thank you for asking , um, cancer changes you. I , I know I can't speak for anybody else. It changes your perspective on life. It changes your attitude about life. And, and I hope that doesn't sound too cliche, but it really does. So , um, it's changed me for the better two of appreciate and to do the things that I wanna do right now and to appreciate all the little stuff and to give myself a break. If I don't accomplish the 20 things on the list in the morning, it's okay to get through five of them or one of them it's okay. So I'm much kinder and gentler to my own body. And I'm so grateful every day from my body that it lived through all of that to , and , and I'm still standing today and I'm still functional, little bit of brain fog, you know, a little bit of, lot of , um, side effects, but I'm okay. Um, it, I am not depressed. I don't feel depressed. I never wonder why it happened to me. Of course it would happen to me. Lots of people get cancer. Why not me? Um, so I , I'm not angry. Um, I ,

Speaker 2 37:42

How C how can you not be

Speaker 3 37:43

Angry? I'm not angry. I, I feel lucky I'm alive. I'm lucky. I'm grateful that we have care because doc 50 years , 60 years ago, I would've been dead already. I would've been dead. And I think about my children and I think about my life . I still have things I wanna accomplish. And yeah, maybe I feel crappier. Maybe I don't have the stamina or the endurance and my body feels very different now, but I am grateful every single day that I'm still alive. I also know that that can change very quickly. So I'm trying to do all the things, all the things that I, I think I wanna do, you know, that I think that, oh, I'll do that next year. I'm trying to do all the things . That's it? That has definitely changed me. And sometimes I feel, look, sometimes I have really dark days and dark moments and I think, oh , look at me, I'm a mess. I can't do this anymore. I can't do that anymore. This has affected me this way. Um, I think we all have moments like that. I don't know that that's cancer. We do . I think that's being human. Um, but no, I, I, I feel way more grateful, not angry at all. Um, because I lived, I lived and I know I have another 18 more months of treatment know I'm not out of the woods and I know that this can come back, but I lived here. I am

Speaker 2 38:59

Perspective. Jonette what a perspective. So you have over your career, told the stories, two millions of people about everything from, from what's going on in the streets of Ville, New Jersey and New York city to Eastern Penn Indy . And then here for, for many years in Minnesota, you've been telling the stories of other people. Yeah . And millions of people have heard that. How has it been like telling your own story, because you've done that over these two years, and it's been a gift to your listeners. If I might say to hear someone who is such a great communicator in a genuinely, you're just an authentic person. So you've had to tell your story. How has that felt?

Speaker 3 39:41

Quite an insightful question. And thank you for asking that. Um , at first it was terrifying because , um , you know, when I announced or I had to leave work, I had to go to the mail. I couldn't do my job. And I had to give a reason why all of a sudden I was off the air . So I was very honest. I have leukemia, I have to go to the hospital and then it was in the newspaper. And then the governor tweeted Jordana, best of, you know, best wishes thinking of you and my kids are like , um , mom, what the heck is happening here? Why is everybody talking about this? Why

Speaker 2 40:09

Is the governor of the state talking about you? Well ,

Speaker 3 40:11

Right . He's been on my show numerous times . He's a wonderful human and, and caring and was very thoughtful. But my, my kids are like, mom, everybody knows what's hap , oh , why are people dropping things at the house? They were like, not embarrassed, but they needed to wrap their brains around that. So we all had to , uh , get very quickly acquainted with the fact that everybody's gonna know everything as soon as it happens. In fact, my kid, even my oldest, I wrote on my caring bridge just a few weeks ago. And she sent me a actually goes, Hey mom, maybe you could tell me what's next in the treatment before the state of Minnesota finds out

Speaker 2 40:40

About it before it's.

Speaker 3 40:42

And I was like, sorry, babe. Yeah. You know, I don't, I don't like to bother

Speaker 2 40:45

That you like that you're dealing with this very publicly,

Speaker 3 40:48

But that has been a gift it's scary. And yeah, you post pictures of yourself when you're bald , because that's real. And I don't want anybody to think that this is easy, cuz it's not. Um, so I have been very honest, but have gotten so much in return the letters and the cards and the emails and the good energy from the people of the state of Minnesota has kept me alive. I truly believe that they have buoyed me in my darkest times. Um, and I feel lucky. I know there are lots of, of people going through this that are not radio show hosts that don't get letters from strangers , uh, of support. And I wish they all did because those letters and their kindnesses and their just the, I can feel the prayers, you know, in , in my dark moments. And , um, it being public is makes you vulnerable and that's okay. But I have gotten so much in return for that. It's like being rewarded for showing you at your worst moments, you know, I've talked about toxic P when

Speaker 2 41:47

You've talked about your, yeah . About your bodily functions. I've heard some of 'em I'm going , I'm just nodding and going , oh gosh, yeah,

Speaker 3 41:55

You get it, you get it. But

Speaker 2 41:56

You're speaking for so many others. So, you know, yeah. Not everybody gets to tell their story who has, who has a , a serious diagnosis, cuz they're not a radio talk show host, but you're telling the stories that so many others can relate to. And maybe just, maybe that reminds the rest of us to reach out to the people in our lives who are, who are walking a tough road right now. And so I think that that alone is a gift to tell your story, normalizes the human experience and allows people to maybe it's so people listening right now, maybe, you know, somebody who's, who's struggling with whatever it might be in their healthcare or in their lives and reach out to them.

Speaker 3 42:33

That's beautiful. Thank you. And , and thank , thank you for saying that. I hope it has helped. It has helped me and I hope it has helped others because there's not much you can do when you're in a bed except to be honest and be truthful and share. And I hope people have felt that they've been along the journey with me and they have helped me and I hope they know that and that if they're on their journey, cuz so many have reach out about their cancer journeys to me that I am with them too.

Speaker 2 42:58

We've been talking with Jordana green. She is the host along with her co-host Paul Douglas on w CCO radio, which you can hear in the twin cities, in the upper Midwest on your am , dial at eight three . Oh . But you can also listen@odysey.com Jordana. How else can people , uh , follow along with your journey

Speaker 3 43:14

Where I post the most is my personal Instagram at Jordana Verde, J O R D a N a V E R D E . Uh , they have a little leukemia log there. They can follow along. They can reach out to me and they can share their story too.

Speaker 2 43:25

Give us that site one more time.

Speaker 3 43:27

Jordana Verde on Instagram, J O R D a N a V E R D E

Speaker 2 43:32

Jordana. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate your time and for telling your story with us today.

Speaker 3 43:38

Thank you, Dr . Hilton . It has been my honor to know you. Thank you for always coming on my show and for your expertise and thank you for having me today.

Speaker 2 43:45

Thanks for listening to everybody. I hope you'll join us for the next episode where it's all Hilton's house calls. So keep those questions coming and in the meantime, be healthy and be well.

Speaker 1 43:57

Thanks for listening to the healthy matters podcast with Dr. David Hilton. For more information on healthy matters or to browse the archive, visit our website@healthymatters.org . And if you have a question or comment for the doctor, email us@healthymattersathcmed.org , or give us a call at six one two eight seventy three . Talk to catch all the latest from Dr . Hilton and the healthy matters podcast. Follow us on Twitter at Dr. David Hilton . The healthy matters podcast is made possible by Hennepin healthcare in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and engineered by John Lucas at highball executive producers are Jonathan Camuto and Christine Hill. Please remember we can only give general medical advice during this program. And every case is unique. We urge you to consult with your personal physician. If you have more serious or pressing health concerns until next time, be healthy and be well .