Transcript
Singers: [00:00:00] Knock, knock, hi!
Will: Knock, knock, hi!
Hello everybody, welcome to Knock, Knock, Hi! with the Glockenfleckens. I am Will Flannery, also known as Dr. Glockenflecken.
Kristin: I am Kristen Flannery, also known as Lady Glockenflecken. Thank you
Will: for joining us today.
Kristin: Yes.
Will: For another episode of Glock Talk.
Kristin: Yeah, where we talk
Will: Glock I love it. It’s so fun to say. I don’t know.
I’m glad I chose Glockenflecken as a name.
Kristin: It is a ridiculous sounding name. That is why you chose it.
Will: Oh, it was either that or Dr. Pseudofacodonesis.
Kristin: Yeah, that’s not as fun to say.
Will: Bit of a mouthful. Went with the one fewer, two fewer syllables. Anyway, um, We, uh, have some fun stuff for you today, but before we get to it, we have
Kristin: no fun, no fun at all, zero,
Will: zero fun to start with.
No, actually, you know, [00:01:00] toward the beginning of the year, we always do like a, uh, a big,
what am I trying to say? We do a big planning session, like a,
Kristin: like strategy, God, that’s the word I was thinking of, our business. Our business! For Glockenflucken LLC.
Will: Exactly. That’s it. Thank you for having words whenever I can’t get them out from my brain. So I thought, uh, I, I, I came up with some ideas that, um, are kind of, were on the cutting room floor.
I thought we
Kristin: could,
Will: I could share those with you. For our business. Business ideas. Yeah. Business ideas.
Kristin: Okay. And, uh, remind everyone here, what, what role really do you have Um, in the business, what do you do? Oh, I, oh,
Will: I just, I just make the funny. Okay. That’s me. I, I just bring the, I bring the content.
Kristin: Some of it, yeah.
We do make a fair amount of
Will: Kristen, Kristen runs, runs the show. Yes. She’s the CEO and [00:02:00] COO and
Kristin: I have some help with the operations, but yes. Right, right. That’s, uh, not your We prefer to keep you in the creative roles.
Will: Which is what I’m good at. Uh, organization is not my specialty. Uh, marketing is not my specialty.
In fact, I don’t like to market myself. Um, I’m really bad at it. And so, in fact, before Kristen started, uh, you know, working on the Glockenfleck, and before you came on as, CEO of the company. I had like, a whole bunch of imposter accounts on all different platforms, uh, posting all my content. Making
Kristin: money off of it.
Making money
Will: off of me. Yeah. And, uh, and Kristen came in and cleaned all that up. Uh, which has been great. So, but anyway, I, I thought I came up with some stuff. Okay. Some, some creative stuff. Let’s hear your business ideas. Yeah? Yeah? Can we do this? Alright. Alright. Here we go. First one. Glockenspiel and action figures.
Kristin: Okay,
Will: what do you think?
Kristin: I like it.
Will: You know, like yeah, you go to the store and you see like they’re in the little plastic and they have like their [00:03:00] accessories like we could have the neurologist with the hair and he has like a um, a reflex hammer
Kristin: Maybe
Will: three different reflex hammers.
Kristin: Ooh, and you could switch them out.
Will: Yeah, and people could buy them for their kids and the kids could look at them like, what the hell did you just get me? Uh huh. And they’d explain it and show the videos and then the kids would be like, oh, I guess this is kind of cool. And then forget about it for a while.
Kristin: Uh huh. And they use it to hit their sister.
Will: Yeah. Yeah. Some stuff like that.
Kristin: Yeah.
Will: What else would be it? So emergency medicine would be a good action figure.
Kristin: Uh huh.
Will: Right? Yeah. Get the helmet.
Kristin: Sure. Ortho. Ortho. Lots
Will: of mallets and hammers. What else? Um, Psychiatry might be a bit.
Kristin: Maybe that’s more of those talking dolls, you know, where you pull the string.
That’s psychiatry.
Will: Do they still make those? Like a Woody?
Kristin: Yeah, like a Woody.
Will: Oh my gosh. Oh, that’s so fun. We gotta do that. A talking Woody doll, but the psychiatrist, uh, say they like, uh, How are you feeling today?
Singers: Mm
Kristin: hmm.
Will: Something like [00:04:00] that.
Kristin: Yeah, exactly. Or we could
Will: even do like the nephrologist. Is homeostasis a joke to you?
Kristin: Right? They a lot of them have little catchphrases that you could.
Will: Oh, I like that. Yeah. What up bone, bro?
Kristin: Yeah, uh huh Sorry about your bean buddies.
Will: Sorry about your little bean buddies. I didn’t mean to hurt your little bean buddies Yeah, I like that. I think we’re on to something. Yeah,
Kristin: we gotta find
Will: out they still make those types of toys
Kristin: It’s a good question.
Will: Pull the string and it talks.
Kristin: Yeah.
Will: Yeah
Kristin: Okay, so that’s pretty a pretty good idea. At least for the creative. Profit margins questionable. Okay So for the
Will: business standpoint, maybe not. Yeah. All right, here we go. Glock and Fleck in the movie
Kristin: Oh boy.
Will: Huh? Huh?
Kristin: Uh, say more? They’re making
Will: movies, they make movies about anything these days.
So we go up to Netflix. Uh
Kristin: huh.
Will: Be like, Hey Netflix.
Kristin: Netflix?
Will: Let’s do a thing. Like, just give us like, I, I could do it for 50 million dollars.
Kristin: Okay. All right. Okay.
Will: So, where they give us a bunch of money [00:05:00] and I just, I play all the characters in a movie. Okay.
Kristin: Okay. So you want to. You want Netflix to pay you 50 million dollars for your YouTube channel.
Will: Oh. Better quality. That already exists. Higher quality though. Like we get the good cameras. The good cameras? Not the iPhone. Like the, whatever the good ones are.
Kristin: Yeah.
Will: You know where you like, you see the movies and it looks nicer than my videos.
Kristin: Correct.
Will: Yeah. You think we could go up to Netflix with that?
Kristin: I, I think you’re gonna need um, a plot.
Will: Okay.
Kristin: First of all. Okay.
Will: Okay.
Kristin: You know, I think you gotta have, like, an actual movie, not just a bunch of clips.
Will: Do we have any movie writers out there that would be willing to help come up with a script for the Glockenfleck in the movie? Probably need a better name.
Kristin: I don’t know. Glockenfleck
Will: in the movie?
Kristin: It reminds me of, like, the Bee movie. What? You know? Which
Will: was an amazing success, I
Kristin: hear. A box office hit.
Will: Um, okay, maybe just Glockenflecken.
Kristin: I wanna, I want, I’m gonna give this one a, [00:06:00] uh, a maybe because I need more information. It really depends on what the movie is about. Okay, here
Will: we go. All right, here’s another one.
Um, Glockenflecken Conference. It’s like a medical conference, but we host it.
Kristin: And people learn what, exactly?
Will: You know, um, I haven’t thought that far ahead. It could be like a, um, we could still do CME, but, oh, here’s an idea. We have, um, Uh, people from different specialties, they give talks about other specialties besides the ones that they’re in.
Kristin: For CME.
Will: No.
Kristin: No good. What CME?
Will: Like, I’m sure people would love to hear me give a talk about like, uh, like transplant medicine.
Kristin: I don’t think they would.
Will: No, you don’t think that would be a proof for seeing me? You know what they could
Kristin: do? They could talk about their own specialty for other specialties, right?
Like, like how you [00:07:00] have kind of an ophthalmology talk for non ophthalmologists of like, here’s what you need to know as an emergency medicine physician about eyeballs. That
Will: makes a lot more sense than what I said.
Kristin: Yeah.
Will: Okay.
Kristin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and then maybe there could be something like entertainment here and there.
Will: I like that. Yeah, emergency physicians, they do love hearing me talk about Eyeball stuff right the knock knock I episodes.
Singers: Yeah,
Will: all the emerge like I get I got a lot of messages from emergency Like this is all the information that I get about eyeballs.
Kristin: Yeah,
Will: so I think you might be on very scary
Kristin: But what what other specialties?
Right, but I mean, maybe that’s what they’re learning. That’s what the CME is about. It’s more if it’s like a science communication, healthcare communication. We need better healthcare literacy in this country and one facet of that might be doctors being able to explain to people outside of their field, even if there are still other doctors.
Let’s just start there. We could do,
Will: we could also have like a Here’s how you to make your, your, uh, presentation funny workshop.
Kristin: Yes. Right. We could, right. We could [00:08:00] speak about speaking.
Will: Yeah.
Kristin: Yeah. And have maybe some other experts.
Will: Dr. Glockenflecken’s tips for making PowerPoint funny.
Kristin: I know, I know,
Will: but
Kristin: I want a conference for everything they don’t teach you that you do need to know as a doctor, you know, some business stuff, some presentation skills, right?
Things about
Will: the foot.
Kristin: Things about the teeth, uh, yeah, lots of holes in the medical education that we could try to fill in. What
Will: exactly is bone marrow? No one really knows. No one knows. Yeah, it’s
Kristin: a mystery that science will never solve. Okay, that’s one.
Will: Here’s another one. I’ve got a couple more for you.
All right. We host a Spelling Bee.
Kristin: Do they have to spell Glockenflecken? Is that the I don’t, I don’t see this as a business idea yet, but I don’t know. Oh, no, no. Sell me on it.
Will: No, this is just fun.
Kristin: Oh, you said business ideas.
Will: Well, that’s the same thing, right?
Kristin: No. Oh. A business makes money.
Will: Okay.
Kristin: Otherwise, it’s just an event.
Well, we could, you know,
Will: like a registration fee to be the [00:09:00] And what you would win, if you won, would be spelling bragging rights.
Kristin: Okay. I’m gonna say that’s not your best idea. Okay.
Will: You guys people wouldn’t like us like a medical spelling bee.
Kristin: You’re maybe as an entertainment idea That might be a good podcast episode.
Like all
Will: the specialties Like pitting them against each other and we’ll see like which specialty is the best spelling specialty. You
Kristin: know, it’s gonna be rheumatology
Will: Can be ophthalmology.
Kristin: Can you spell any words outside of ophthalmology?
Will: I could try.
Kristin: Mm hmm.
Will: Spondylolisthesis I could give that one a shot.
Kristin: I’m just saying I’m it could be fun Okay, but I don’t know how viable it would be as a business idea You
Will: Okay.
Kristin: Okay.
Will: All right. All right
Kristin: Maybe it’s maybe it’s one of the entertaining events at our medical conference.
Will: Okay, there you go. That’s like it like an evening Yeah, like drunk spelling bee kind of thing,
Kristin: right?
Will: Okay. Gotcha. All right. I think we’re onto something here So you just need a little brainstorming session here. All right, how about this? All I wrote down was the Oscars but make it medicine [00:10:00] Like what I don’t know what that is. I feel like it’s something
Kristin: Like some kind of
Will: awards?
Kristin: What are the profit margins on the Oscars?
Probably not great.
Will: Okay. Could sell ads?
Kristin: I think that’s all you can really sell. Commercial breaks? Commercial breaks, yeah. What would you do? Awards for
Will: Oscars but make it medicine. You
Kristin: want a gala.
Will: Oh, yeah, but you give awards for like best, you could do like some social media stuff like best educational, you know feature on X on something.
Kristin: Yeah. Yeah. Do you think that would make it more likely for doctors to be on social media if there were some awards involved?
Will: Where you could like put it on your CV?
Kristin: Fancy award ceremony where you can impress your peers. I’m gonna
Will: say yes, but probably the correct answer is no. And my last, uh, uh, thing is a [00:11:00] musical album.
Let’s, let’s, let’s make, uh, make some music. Like a, an album, a CD, a CD. People don’t listen to CDs. What do they call them now? Just albums. What do you
Kristin: youths call the music today?
Will: Let’s do, make an album of, um, like health care sounds.
Kristin: Oh god. No one would want to listen to that.
Will: Yeah, like.
Kristin: That could be used as like a torture device.
Well, hold on.
Will: You know how many times I’ve, I’ve been making a video, and like, it’s set in a hospital setting, and I’m like, oh I need to get some You just
Kristin: need some stock audio.
Will: Is that what I’m talking about? Yeah, like, I need the beeps. Yeah, I need the beeps to play during the video. And
Kristin: then I just
Will: go to some random YouTube video.
Kristin: Yeah,
Will: I
Kristin: think this already exists and therefore it is not a Bible.
Will: But no, but as an album Called the Glockenflecken presents Hospital Sounds. And then [00:12:00] we put it on Spotify.
Kristin: Is this like a, like a business suicide idea?
Will: I think this I think there’s a market for it. I think there’s a market for it. I’m just saying, think about it.
Okay? All right.
Kristin: I’ll try not to.
Will: Okay, that’s all I got. That’s all my business ideas.
Kristin: All right,
Will: should we should we get into the episode now?
Kristin: Yes, I just want to I’ve
Will: been thinking a lot about these things. I just had to get them out there and just Feel better or our audience will tell us what they think.
Kristin: Yeah. Hey pitch to us.
Will: Absolutely. What do you think
Kristin: we should make? Oh hospital sounds specifically, yeah, well
Will: just all of them. I want you to like which of those do you guys like?
Kristin: All right
Will: And you can say all of them if you can’t decide which one you like the most.
Kristin: And you can say none of them. I do like the talking plushie though.
That
Will: Oh that is great. I guess it doesn’t
Kristin: have to be a plushie. That was your idea. No wonder I like it.
Will: All right, let’s get into healthcare news.
Kristin: Okay.
Will: Today’s [00:13:00] episode is brought to you by the Nuance Dragon Ambient Experience, or DAX for short. This is AI powered ambient technology that helps the physician be more efficient. And reduce clinical documentation burden. It’s great to learn more about how DAX Copilot can help reduce burnout and restore the joy of practicing medicine.
Stick around after the episode or visit nuance. com slash discover DAX. That’s N U A N C E dot com slash discover D A X. All
right. So, uh, healthcare, I’ve got an update for the change healthcare thing. Not so much an update, just another like grievance.
Kristin: Okay.
Will: Uh, I made a video about this a little while ago and it’s just, so the change healthcare thing, just to recap in like under 30 seconds, again, it’s this payment processing company that just like ceased to work because there was a ransomware attack and so nobody could get paid any money.
And. The thing that I made a video [00:14:00] about, which is absolutely outrageous, is that UnitedHealthcare, remember this is the depressing part of each episode, right?
Kristin: I try to dissociate during this part.
Will: UnitedHealthcare, which owns ChangeHealthcare, sorry, sorry, UnitedHealthGroup, which owns ChangeHealthcare, um, they, UnitedHealthcare, HealthGroup, went to They’ve done it once.
I just saw one news story about this, but I’m sure they’ve done it up to other practices as well. They went to this group in Corvallis, not too far from where we live.
Kristin: It’s a town in Oregon.
Will: Yep, Corvallis, this medical practice was struggling because of this change health care fiasco, right? They were not getting paid, losing money.
They can’t pay, you can’t, you know, if you’re not making any money you can’t survive as a business, right?
Singers: Right.
Will: And, and so they’re like, what are we gonna do? We’re going bankrupt. And UnitedHealth Group came in and be like, Oh, I’m so sorry. I see that you’re going bankrupt. Hey, can we just buy you? [00:15:00] We’ll just, we’ll just buy your practice and we’ll make sure you survive.
What do you think about that? Yes, this is the actual thing that’s happened. And so obviously the regulators, cause anytime you acquire a medical practice, like the state regulators, they, they want to make sure that there’s no corruption or, um, there’s no like, uh, you know, consolidation that’s bad for competition.
Basically, it’s like the Oregon Health Authority, but for different states. They have different, so they, they have to like go through these mergers and things and make sure that they’re on the up and up. And so United Health Group. Went to the those of the health authority in California and was like
Kristin: California.
Will: I’m sorry in Oregon in Oregon and said Hey, we really need you to let this happen because this this company this this practice is struggling We really need you know, you need to approve this this purchase Yeah. Of us, of them, by us.
Kristin: Because of our fault. Because
Will: of our fault. That they’re going bankrupt.
[00:16:00] The thing that we did. They’re going bankrupt because of us, so please let us buy them. Doesn’t this, isn’t this so messed up?
Kristin: Oh, yes. Like, rather than.
Will: Like, it doesn’t sound legal.
Kristin: I know. It sounds like
Will: It’s the mob. It
Kristin: does sound like the mob. It’s the
Will: mob. It’s like a, um, be a shame if something happened to your healthcares, to your group here.
Kristin: Sure would.
Will: Yeah, you might want to just go ahead and let us buy you or who knows what’s going to happen.
Kristin: Who knows? We might just have another ransomware attack. No one can tell.
Will: So anyway, that was, uh, that was a news article I came across. I made a TikTok about it because I was just so, I didn’t even make a skit about it.
Singers: Like, normally I would just do
Will: a skit. I just was talking to the camera, I was like, like, look at how messed up this is.
Singers: Yeah.
Will: Like, this cannot be legal, yet it’s still happening. As of this recording, the change, like, the United Health Group has not resolved this. Like, it’s still ongoing. Maybe by the time this airs it will have resolved, but, um, I [00:17:00] think it’s gonna take, like, a Actual, like, Congress doing something.
This is like the fear with this, this, uh, consolidation of healthcare into like one company, like United Health Group owning everything. Like what happens if their systems go down and then this happens, right? So anyway, all right, I’m done. I’m done. I’m depressing everyone.
Kristin: Okay. Goodness.
Will: Aren’t you glad
Kristin: that
Will: I’ve taken this, this, uh, this path in my content?
Kristin: You have really gone, I was not expecting this detour,
Will: this
Kristin: comedy thing that you were doing to start turning into rants about the U. S. healthcare system. You can
Will: thank my messed up heart. That’s when it all changed. All right, it’s
Kristin: true. Well, I feel like it was that on top of already the testicular cancer insurance battles, right?
Like those were not easy either, right? And then your heart happened and it was just all the surprise
Will: bills We got and I started looking into it and realizing just how widespread and awful it is And I started [00:18:00] making all the videos that the most common response I get from them is You know, it’s funny but Also incredibly sad,
Kristin: right?
I would say maybe maybe a good 70 percent pretty much everything except for your skits
Singers: Yeah
Kristin: of the glock and fleckin stuff mine and yours is rage based If you really dig
Will: you guys like down in
Kristin: there
Will: You guys like the rage based content or the non rage based like that’s
Kristin: really what fuels us to do all of the advocacy work That we do is like
Will: you just want to make a change you want to change something Because you’re
Kristin: pissed off that it is this way I think rage
Will: is an okay place to come from with regard to advocacy You got to control the rage because when you’re like angry right at people has to
Kristin: be productive.
It’s got to be
Will: productive Productive whatever that means. Oh boy. Okay. All right. That’s your fun at parties. That’s your change health care update Yeah, we’re just going around to hear about what happened. Let me tell you about this vertical integration [00:19:00] thing Who’s consolidating with this and that? All right.
That’s your healthcare update. All right. So, um, let’s see, you know what? Why don’t we take a break? Okay. Yeah, let’s take a break. We’ll come back. We need a stiff drink. Because we got, we have a debate. Okay. That we need to engage in. And we need to be prepared. Okay. So we’ll be right back.
Oh, Kristen, do I have an AI platform to tell you about?
Kristin: Ooh, tell me.
Will: Yeah. It’s called Precision. This is the first ever EHR integrated infectious disease AI platform.
Kristin: That sounds fancy. Yeah. Well,
Will: one of the hardest things in infectious disease is, is like figuring You know, figuring out what to do with all the information and it’s always coming at different times and figuring out what works best for the patient.
Kristin: Yeah.
Will: Well, this automatically highlights better antibiotic regimens.
Kristin: Ooh, I would imagine that helps with antibiotic resistance.
Will: It does. To see a demo, go to precision. com slash KKH. That’s precision spelled with an X instead of an [00:20:00] E. So, PRX. C I S I O N dot com slash K K H.
All right, we are back and it’s debate time. I don’t have a good name for this segment yet, where we just like both. We we choose a topic and then we each argue on the other side of that topic Okay, also known as a debate
All right, so here’s the topic this is actually something that we have not argued about but been on Opposite sides of before having kids during medical training slash education It’s
Kristin: a big one. So this I think a lot of people in our audience You are thinking about this or have thought about this. So I’ll take you guys
Will: back to our third, my third year of med school and Some of the conversations that we had.
Kristin: I have to get [00:21:00] this. This is driving me crazy. Ow! Oh
Will: man. What
Kristin: the heck? It was just poking out. You just plucked an
Will: eyebrow hair. God.
Kristin: It’s driving me nuts.
Will: Is that what it feels like when you do that
Kristin: to yourself? God. Now imagine going to the salon and you get all of them out at once.
Will: I would just let it, let it go.
It’s horrible. Just wild and crazy eyebrows. Well you
Kristin: end up like that.
Will: It really bothers you whenever I do this. Don’t
Kristin: do that!
Will: Whenever I I
Kristin: can’t handle it. I
Will: have my eyebrows go in the wrong direction. Don’t do it. I
Kristin: have to fix it, and you know that. I
Will: fixed it. I fixed it for you. Okay. All right. Let’s Okay.
So
Kristin: Okay, kids!
Will: You So, why don’t you start on your side of things? Because you’re the one that came to me when you were in med school. You’re like, We need to have a baby.
Kristin: Okay. So, so I’m arguing the side of pro having kids during training and you’re going to argue why you should not have kids during training.
Correct. We’re going to debate, not argue. Okay. Um, [00:22:00] okay. Well, yeah, that’s easy because that, that is what I thought about. Um, for us, it just happened to be the right time because I had this two year gap where I was done with my school, but you were not done with your school. And we lived in the middle of nowhere and I wasn’t.
There weren’t a lot of job opportunities, and I also didn’t, I was pivoting, and I wasn’t quite sure which direction I was going to pivot in, so it just made sense, like, I’m just sitting around waiting for you, might as well do something productive, we know we want to have a family one day, so hey, here’s a window.
Singers: So
Kristin: that was our particular story. Um. I think there is, this was advice that we were given that was good advice, which is, um, kids, there is never a good time to have a kid. Like if you’re waiting for a good time to have a kid, there’s never a good time to have a kid. A kid will always completely disrupt your life.
Will: Yeah,
Kristin: that’s just the facts, right? Like
Will: it does how you love them.
Kristin: Yeah, this has [00:23:00] nothing to do with like most
Will: of the time
Kristin: Emotions about your children. It’s just true Like there’s now this tiny thing you have to keep alive that can do literally nothing for itself except for urinate and
Singers: defecate
Kristin: and yeah, and so you That’s just, you know, not great for your schedule or your social life.
Um, so there was that. Like, there’s just not a good time. So why not do it when you feel like doing it? And then, you know, residency was the same. It was like, once we had one kid, well, we didn’t, we personally did not want to just have one kid. We wanted to have at least two. We wanted to give them the sibling experience.
And so then it was like, well, I’m only getting older. It’s only going to get more difficult for my body. Uh, especially my weird hypermobile body. So we just kind of felt like the clock was ticking on, on making this [00:24:00] feasible. Right. Um, Then I would say it’s also it’s a good thing we did because you ended up having cancer
Will: and losing the ability.
Once after
Kristin: our first kid you lost a testicle then after our second kid you lost your other testicle so then there’s no way to. My body
Will: was saying let’s stop doing this please.
Kristin: Exactly it was but see if we hadn’t done it then we would have missed our our window to to have biological children that were a combination of us.
Will: That’s true. It would have been, um, more expensive because we did bank. Yeah, but again, like that’s,
Kristin: that’s no guarantee. All right,
Will: all good points. So when we were talking about this initially, I was like super not into it.
Kristin: Oh wait, I have one more point I have to make, which was I told you, look, right now We don’t have any, like, extra disposable income to go do, like, [00:25:00] fancy vacations or travel the world or, you know, go out and do a bunch of anything.
We’re just, like, stuck in this house. We study, we buy the bare necessities to get by, and rinse and repeat for five years. So when kids are little, they don’t remember any of that. They don’t care. If we’re doing things, not doing things, they don’t, they don’t need a lot at the younger ages, you know, they’re not like involved in activities and all that yet.
So I was like, well, let’s just get that part out of the way. Like we can afford that part. And then by the time they get older and they can go do all that stuff and they don’t, do have the ability to retain memories, then we will have more, like, income to be able to go because we’ll be further along in our careers.
And, and, then we will also still be relatively young. When they are out of our house. And so we will still have many years of health left to be able to do things on our own if we want to, or with them. We get more years [00:26:00] with them and get more years
Will: of
Kristin: our youth where we have disposable income, relative youth.
By that, I mean, I’ll 50.
Will: Okay, decent points.
Kristin: Okay, now I’m done.
Will: Um, I would say The the money argument where like if we don’t have any money might as well have kids like that could easily be An argument against it sure because it just also adds more stress Like so much more stressful to be able to afford diapers and formula and and baby baby stuff baby crib um And all the other things, those are the only three things I can think of that require a baby.
I thought you were
Kristin: making my point.
Will: So um, if we had waited a little bit longer when I was actually making an income, um, and you were making an income because you weren’t working at that time either, then it would have been just We wouldn’t have to subsist on student loans, [00:27:00] basically, is what it came down to.
And so financially, it would make, the better, I think the better financial decision honestly would have been to wait. If you’re looking at potential cost over the course of your life.
Kristin: I’m not arguing that it was cheaper, I’m just saying, well, they’re not going to remember all this anyway. Sure. We’re going to be able to pay back the loans.
Will: Okay. Okay. That
Kristin: was my thinking. All
Will: right. The other, um, big one that I can think of is at the time. And maybe this is just like the people that we knew nobody else was having kids Right, so
Kristin: you know what? I hear I hear lots of free babysitters
Will: But also there was just less of you know, we missed out a lot of you know being able to a big part of going through like med school and residency and Those types of whenever you’re in your you know early, mid, late twenties [00:28:00] is there’s a lot of commiserating happening.
There’s a lot of camaraderie being built and it does throw a little wrench into that type of thing, uh, to have. A child that you have to keep alive, right? So and we just weren’t on the same level as the people that we knew, the people that we’d grown up with, right, who were having kids a lot later than us.
Kristin: Counterpoint. Now those same people are just now having their kids and they have preschoolers and babies and I laugh and I laugh and I laugh.
Will: Okay, but then we could have gotten our kids together and they’d be on the same None of us live in the
Kristin: same place! Because as we’ve mentioned before, you have to move everywhere in medical training, so we’ve all split up.
Will: Alright. Um, it’s hard to refute a lot of your arguments.
Kristin: We were younger, we had more energy.
Will: Even though I was reticent at the time, like now it’s hard for me to argue this because I totally agree with you. [00:29:00]
Kristin: I know, obviously the decision like I’m glad
Will: we did it the way we did it. It was just really hard, uh, in the moment.
I mean, it’s going to be hard regardless. That is
Kristin: my argument. It will always be hard. It’s just what kind of hard you’re going to be having. Right, you know, but also I can’t imagine being this age now and having to stay up all night with a baby Like I don’t know if I can do it. Like I’m just older and that’s harder.
We
Will: did with our first one It
Kristin: was horrible.
Will: She she would not let us put her down. Like she had to be bounced and rocked She
Kristin: was a particularly
Will: and we couldn’t afford one of those sleep one of those like 2, 000 bassinet
Kristin: rock the
Will: baby and and basically is it’s like a External womb, you know. Um, and so we took shifts, you, me, and your mom.
My mom
Kristin: came to help out because we were so strung out. Mine was
Will: 2 to 5 a. m. every night. I would just sit there and rock, and I would watch Burn Notice. That was my show. Yeah. Just a [00:30:00] big blur.
Kristin: Yep.
Will: Like a nightmare.
Kristin: Right. So imagine doing that now. Oh, man. Like, at least then you were like 27 years old, you know?
Will: Yeah. That’s true. It would be a lot harder. You could recover
Kristin: faster.
Will: But now I’m also an ophthalmologist, and so I’d have a little bit more time. But still. Yeah. Still. That’s what I’m
Kristin: saying. It’s, it’s gonna be hard no matter what. There is no good time.
Will: Yeah.
Kristin: It’s, the way it’s gonna be hard will be different at different points, but it’s never not going to be hard.
So have kids, everyone! They’re great.
Will: They’re wonderful when they’re not stealing your identity. And, and which we covered last episode, last time we did this Glock talk. Um, yeah, it’s, it’s, uh, there’s always something new that comes up. So, you know, but I’m in the end, like, again, I think it’s fantastic. We did it earlier.
I’m glad you talked me into it because now I don’t have any testicles left.
Kristin: Yep.
Will: Yeah, I don’t have any, I can’t, I cannot make any more genetic material. Correct. So, there you go.
Kristin: We got rid of the banked sperm.
Will: We did, we got, I, I, we kept it [00:31:00] for, um, probably a couple of years.
Kristin: I gotta tell you something. I knew the entire time, I think I even told you, it’s a, it was nicer about it than what I’m about to say, but it was a, uh, waste of money to do that because I was not gonna have another kid.
Like, I could not do it. I kept telling you, like, My body can’t do this again. And then it turned out to be true like later on I got scans and things and I’m like, oh, yeah My spine’s a big mess.
Will: Yeah,
Kristin: so
Will: So we can’t and it was expensive too to bank sperm. Yeah, but
Kristin: I think it just helped you psychologically You know, when stuff like that happens, you feel like everything is out of your control and that was something that could still be in your control.
So, I felt like that was worth it. It did
Will: make for a very interesting experience when I got to go to FedEx and have the poor FedEx worker notarize my sperm destruction form.
Kristin: Yeah,
Will: be like, Hey, I got some semen. Can you help me get rid of this, please?
Kristin: I hope that’s [00:32:00] not how you phrased it.
Will: Oh, well, who else am I gonna say?
They’re like, they’re very professional. I was like, get my manager? Yes, of course. And the police come. Which is the button under the counter. Yes, right. So, uh, yeah, and I was, I was fine with that. You know, I got to the point where, yeah, I was like, you know what? I think we’re Our family is complete, so.
Kristin: Yeah.
Will: Anyway. Yeah,
Kristin: and you got you have baby fever. You still I still got baby fever. You really like the babies, yep. And I just could not be happier that I do not have a baby. I
Will: love a good baby. That baby smell?
Kristin: The baby smell is great. The
Will: little rolls on the wrist? I love
Kristin: to snuggle a baby and then hand it back to the people responsible for it.
Will: I just babies are
Kristin: They are. I’m glad that I’m not responsible for one. That’s all I’m saying. That’s good.
Will: I already have to wipe this dog’s ass. I don’t want to wipe a human’s ass. Right.
Kristin: Exactly. We’re done with that for
Will: now. People are like, what are you talking about? We’ll get to the
Kristin: other end where it’ll [00:33:00] be like, older.
Will: So, um, alright. Well, I, I, I don’t have a lot of great ideas. Arguments, I guess. I think it all
Kristin: comes down to just do what is right for you and your people, your family, your partner, whatever. Yeah.
Will: Really. And then if you’re, there’s no one, right? If you’re waiting for the right time, good luck.
Kristin: Mm-Hmm. .
Will: You know, I think there’s a lot wisdom.
There’s always a reason not to do it. That wisdom,
Kristin: if you want to do it, when it feels right to you, just do it. There you go. And it’s gonna be hard, but you’re gonna do it anyway.
Will: All right. That’s our life advice. That’s our having kids, uh, life advice there. That’s supposed to be a debate, but it wasn’t really that great of one.
That’s okay. Yeah. Hopefully that helps somebody out there. There’s going to
Kristin: be other, just cause we did it this way doesn’t, we’re also not saying you have to do it that way. Like there’s other families where the other way made more sense for them. It
Will: also helped to be in a very supportive a residency program.
A ton of kids in residence. Like all the residents? Yes. Like
Kristin: the residents collectively.
Will: Yeah. We, there were many children. A very [00:34:00] fertile group. We were, yes. .
Kristin: There was, uh,
Will: probably at one point gotta be like 15 kids between all the residents, which is Oh, all the
Kristin: re yeah. Which
Will: is very unusual, uh, in, in a residency program.
Right. So, um. Which made it did make it a lot of fun to like get all the kids together. Yeah,
Kristin: that was fun I remember like the Easter egg hunts at your program director’s house Super cute.
Will: All right, so we got one more little thing to do here. Okay, I thought we could try to educate a little bit
Kristin: Okay,
Will: so we’re gonna do organ of the day
Kristin: organ of the day
Will: Mm hmm.
I’m gonna tell you
Kristin: teach me
Will: about An organ called the omentum.
Kristin: That’s a fun word to say.
Will: Omentum. And there’s a greater and a lesser omentum.
Kristin: Oh.
Will: Omentum. See, the reason I chose this one Would you
Kristin: rather be the greater or lesser omentum?
Will: Oh, greater. Of course. Much more powerful. Oh. Absolutely.
Kristin: Okay.
Will: So I, the reason I chose the omentum to teach you about today is because that is something I didn’t even know existed until I got to [00:35:00] med school.
Kristin: That’s like
Will: one of those things, like you’re going through anatomy, abdominal, it’s in the abdomen. And all of a sudden the professor’s like, uh, and then here is the, the greater omentum. You’re like, what? That’s a thing? It’s like a little curtain inside your abdomen.
Kristin: Oh.
Will: Yeah. So it’s a. Is
Kristin: there like a stage show in there?
It’s a,
Will: it’s a, yeah, that’s right. You can lift it up and see, here is the pancreas. The greater omentum. This is a two leaflet hammock of fibro fatty tissue that extends from the stomach down to the colon. So it’s like having
Kristin: trouble envisioning this. Yeah,
Will: so it’s like a little a little mesh curtain That’s basically really what it is like a little mesh curtain that just sits on top of your organs.
So if you were to Make an incision and open up the abdomen.
Singers: Yeah.
Will: Once you get into like the, the space where all the organs are, the peritoneal [00:36:00] cavity, Yeah, the first thing you would see is this, this curtain.
Kristin: A little layer of tissue. A
Will: layer of tissue, and you can like fold it back.
Kristin: Okay. You
Will: can like fold it up.
Keep
Kristin: your organs in there.
Will: Yeah, just kind of help protect your organs right there. What kind
Kristin: of elasticity does it have?
Will: Um, I’ve never, I’ve never seen someone like try to stretch it. So I don’t know. I’m
Kristin: thinking of pregnancy.
Will: Elastic it really is. We were
Kristin: just talking about kids, so.
Will: True. And So, but it does have some functions.
Kristin: You didn’t answer the question.
Will: What was the question?
Kristin: How elastic is it?
Will: Uh, on a scale from one, like what? Elastic compared to like a rubber band?
Kristin: Like, can it stretch?
Will: Sure. I don’t know. You
Kristin: don’t know. I don’t
Will: know. I really don’t. So let me tell you what it does. You never
Kristin: know the answers to any of my questions.
You just
Will: don’t ask the right questions.
Kristin: I ask interesting questions. Okay,
Will: so the functions of the greater omentum. Fat deposition, So it’s got
Kristin: fat in it.
Will: Yep. Um, it also has immune [00:37:00] functions, like immune system. Yeah. So it has like macrophages and things that will, you know, it’s like protection. It’s like the, the immune system protection of the, of the cavity in there.
So if like, you know, bacteria theoretically can get in there and, and then your, your momentum will attack it.
Kristin: How does it do that? What kind of, what kind of immune stuff is in there?
Will: So if you have an infection or a wound inside the abdomen, if you were to open up the abdomen, you would see that the omentum, it actually travels to the area of infection, like a little organism.
Kristin: Do you mean that it like, It grows an extension of itself to over there? No,
Will: it moves itself. Okay,
Kristin: that’s different than what I was picturing. Isn’t
Will: that crazy? It’s like a little thing inside that’s like, alive.
Kristin: That’s creepy.
Will: So say you have like a liver abscess or something. It’ll like, it’ll kind of migrate over to that abscess and cover it.
And try to, like, protect the rest of your body.
Kristin: Okay, [00:38:00] the way you explained it, It sounded like it’s purpose was sort of to keep the organs in place.
Will: No, it doesn’t keep them in place. It’s, it’s, I think it’s mostly like to, to help limit spread of infection. That’s the biggest thing. Gotcha.
Kristin: I was envisioning something that was like a girdle.
Which is why I was concerned about why it could stretch.
Will: Oh, no, no.
Kristin: Got it. I was wondering why you were so onto stretching.
Will: Yeah.
Kristin: It’s almost like a little, like a little organ itself except it can move around,
Will: right? Okay, it can kind of migrate into those areas and protect the body But it also can also be a macrophage.
Kristin: It
Will: can get cancer though, too. That’s that’s another like bad. What
Kristin: kind of what’s that called?
Will: I don’t know. I think it’s I think I don’t think there’s like a primary omentum cancer. I think it’s it’s a it’s a metastasis, okay So of other cancers can get into the omentum and then you have to have an what’s called an oment Omentum ectomy or an [00:39:00] omentectomy Something like that where they just remove it.
Yeah. Hmm. It’s a fascinating
Kristin: love without it
Will: I believe so you might be more susceptible to
Kristin: immune stuff
Will: like infections and Trauma as well Like if you have a big trauma inside the like an abdominal trauma It’ll go and plug that area and like keep it from Bleeding or something. I don’t know. Right.
Something like that.
Kristin: So what are the, what’s the purpose of the fatty deposits?
Will: I don’t know.
Kristin: You’re the worst.
Will: Do I look like an omentum expert?
Kristin: You just said you were going to teach me all about the omentum. I
Will: feel like I’ve taught you a lot. Like way more than would ever be expected from an average ophthalmologist.
I am very proud of my omentum knowledge. For
Kristin: an ophthalmologist, that was pretty good.
Will: Thank you. I appreciate that.
Kristin: For a former medical student, we didn’t get our money’s worth.
Will: Fair enough. Um, um. Okay, let’s take a break and come back with a fan story.
Kristin: Alright.
Will: Hey, Kristen.
Kristin: Yeah?
Will: Can I [00:40:00] interest you in a Demodex mite?
Kristin: No, you cannot.
Will: Why? Look at, look how cute they are. Little, little beady eyes and multiple legs. Uh, uh, the thorax and abdomen. They’re just so cute!
Kristin: No, I mean, you know, it’s a stuffed animal, so it does have a certain quality to it, but I don’t want an actual demodex
Will: do hang out on your eyelids.
Kristin: Yeah, see, I don’t want them there.
Will: They cause red, itchy, irritated eyelids, sometimes like flaky buildup on your eyelashes.
Kristin: I do not want that.
Will: Well, don’t get freaked out by this, okay? You gotta get checked out.
Kristin: Okay. It’s
Will: eye doctors that we’re used to diagnosing demodex blepharitis. It’s a pretty common disease.
You
Kristin: see these little guys in your little microscopes?
Will: My microscope might not be powerful enough to see this, but I can see the telltale signs of it. That’s for sure. To find out more, go to eyelidcheck. com. Again, that’s E Y E L I D CHECK. COM to get [00:41:00] more information about these little guys that cause Demodex Blepharitis.
All right, we are back with a fan story. Um, I also want to say, like, we just took a short break and I think we really scared one of our producers who’s about to have a baby. Yes,
Kristin: who’s about to have a baby. Like, imminently.
Will: Children are wonderful, Rob. Seriously, like, they’re just, it’s rainbows and sunshine most of the time.
Kristin: 40,
Will: 30, 20 percent of the time.
Kristin: Sometimes. Occasionally.
Will: We don’t try to scare people, but maybe we inadvertently do. Listen,
Kristin: the frequency is, is small, but the weight of those occasions is large.
Will: Of the good times. The happy times. The happy times. Yeah. Yeah. And it carries you through. It’s kind of like, it’s in a lot of ways.
It’s kind of like
Kristin: med school. It’s kind of like med school residency. When you have like a good save. Right. Yeah.
Will: Like in residency, like I, you know, I diagnosed some eye problem and save a patient’s vision. Like [00:42:00] that kind of, that kind of thing just sustains me. For weeks through some really awful things that that can happen, you know, so I don’t know if that helps anybody feel any better
Kristin: We should probably just stop talking about it.
Let’s just go
Will: on now. Okay, so our story today comes from Jen. Jen says when I was a teenager I had a questionably necessary foot surgery to correct a bunion by a podiatrist later convicted of Medicare fraud Super! That’s no good. Before the surgery, an anesthesiologist Oh, that’s just an aside. Oh boy.
That’s not the story. I feel like there’s another story about this podiatrist convicted of Medicare fraud. Before the surgery, an anesthesiologist gave me twilight sedation. Next thing I knew, I was waking up with my foot wide open. But not but numb. It was numb, but wide open. The anesthesiologist told me he had to wake me early because I was wiggling my foot.
I remember wishing for my glasses so I could [00:43:00] watch, but they were in the waiting room with my parent. They magically appeared on my face, so I groggily watched my foot get sewn up. P. S. I never got the surgery on my other foot.
Kristin: That does sound like a story told by someone under anesthesia.
Will: It does a little bit.
Like they had to, I’m not sure, I wonder exactly why they had to wake this patient. Wiggling
Kristin: their foot.
Will: So they had to wait, usually they like put you out even more. Right. So I don’t know. Maybe so they
Kristin: could say stop wiggling your foot.
Will: No, because they should should be like totally
Kristin: Anesthetized
Will: and like not just not capable of moving.
Kristin: Yeah paralyzed
Will: as well, right? You don’t want to move someone to move their foot. So I don’t know interesting But then you got to watch your foot. What would you do in that situation?
Kristin: No, put me out, please
Will: Would you start screaming?
Kristin: I wouldn’t look I just wouldn’t look.
Will: Yeah.
Kristin: Yeah,
Will: I would watch my own surgery I don’t want to I think I would do that
Kristin: do not No, thank you.
Will: By the way, do you [00:44:00] know, uh the specialty of the doctor who I believe has the record for You Most amount of Medicare fraud?
Kristin: Whoo It was like 20,
Will: it was like 25 million dollars worth of Medicare fraud. This is one
Kristin: doctor and what specialty is this doctor? But I have no way to know.
Will: Ophthalmology.
Kristin: Oh, super.
Will: I think it was in Florida.
Kristin: Wasn’t you, was it?
Will: Absolutely not. I wouldn’t even know how to commit Medicare fraud. So I don’t I don’t even know what that really means But anyway, I guess you’re billing for stuff you didn’t do. I would never do that.
Kristin: That’s bad. No, you’re pretty honest You you were raised with that Catholic guilt. Oh,
Will: I do.
I did have a lot of Catholic guilt growing up
Kristin: Yeah.
Will: All right. Send us your stories knock knock high at human content. com You Uh, thank you all for listening, uh, tell us what you thought of the episode, uh, if you have, again, anything that you want Chris and I to argue with each other about, or commiserate about, or give each other, maybe we should give each [00:45:00] other compliments.
Kristin: Oh, that’d be nice. Yeah? Yeah.
Will: People like non conflict related segments. Can we do it where you
Kristin: just give me compliments?
Will: Sure. Um, there’s lots of ways you can reach out to us, email us knock, knock, hide human content. com and hang out with us on our social media platforms, hang out with our human content podcast family on Instagram and TikTok at human content pods.
And you can also give us feedback. Do you know you can do that? You can give us reviews and feedback if you want.
Kristin: That’s right.
Will: It’s possible to do that. If you subscribe and comment on your favorite podcasting app or on YouTube, we can give you a shout out like at PK Gregor on YouTube said, I really liked this podcast as a med student.
The workplace can be quite discouraging and in online medical communities, people usually just come to vent while the happy doctors stay offline and enjoy life. So it’s nice to hear from doctors talking about medical stuff in a positive and enthusiastic way.
Kristin: Aww, I really like that.
Will: That is so nice, thank you.
Kristin: No, I’m glad that, that, that that’s what we’re [00:46:00] doing.
Will: Yeah, I’m trying. Uh, yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you, at PK Gregor. Uh, also gotta shout out our newsletter. We have a newsletter. Yes, you can
Kristin: find us on our newsletter. If you, here’s the deal. You’re everywhere. Like, your face is too many places. And so I decided Good business sense, but I decided you know what?
Let’s make it easier for the people if they just want to see whatever is new in glock and fleckin land one stop shop one place Comes right to you once a week. Newsletter. There you go.
Will: There you go.
Kristin: And you started writing little, uh, secret stories. Oh, I
Will: did, yeah. That
Kristin: sometimes get released. Where do
Will: people find it?
Glockenflecken. com?
Kristin: Glockenflecken. com slash newsletter.
Will: There you go. Also, full video episodes are up every week on my YouTube channel of this podcast, at DGlockenflecken. We also have a Patreon, lots of cool perks, bonus episodes, hang out with our community here. We could use you. We could always use more people.
Kristin: You know what we need is a plumber. There’s power in numbers. We need a plumber. You need a good plumber in a community. Uh, [00:47:00] what’s good?
Will: Are there any gastroenterologists out there? , we’d love to have you. There you go. We’re, um, early ad free episode access, interactive q and a live stream events, uh, of of bonus upgrades for our live show tickets.
Mm-Hmm, , uh, patreon.com/clock and flake and or go to Glock and plug.com speaking at Patreon Community Parks. We have a shout out. Let’s shout out to all the Jonathan. Shall we?
Kristin: Yes,
Will: yes. Let’s do it. Do you wanna do it or me?
Kristin: You go right ahead.
Will: It’s a lot isn’t it? It’s
Kristin: a lot. I’m being very lazy.
Will: Patrick, Lucia C, Sharon S, Omar, Edward K, Steven G, Jonathan F, Marian W, Mr.
Grendetti, Caitlin C, Brianna L, Kay L, Keith G, JJ H, Derek N, Mary H, Susanna F, Ginny J, Mohammed K, Abiga, Parker, Ryan, Mohammed L, David H, Jack K, Medical Meg, Bubbly Salt, and Pink
Singers: Macho!
Will: Patreon roulette time! Random shoutout to someone on the emergency medicine tier. Shoutout to Natalie H. Thank you, Natalie, for being a patron.
And thank you all for listening. We’re your hosts, Will and Kristen Plannery, also known as the [00:48:00] Glockenfleckens. Executive Producers are Will Flannery, Kristen Plannery, Aron Korney, Rob Goldman, and Shahnti Brooke. Editor in Engineer Jason Portizzo. Our music is by Omer Ben Zvi. To learn about our Knock Knock Highs, I’ve been told to say this, enunciate this, program disclaimer and ethics policy, submission verification and licensing terms, and hyper release terms, go to Glockenflecken.
com or reach out to us, knockknockhigh. human content. com with any questions, concerns, or comments. Knock, knock, hi, it’s a human content production. Hey, Kristen, you know what
Singers: these
Will: little stuffed Dax co pilot dragons make me think of?
Kristin: What? These little stuffed animals?
Will: Jonathan!
Kristin: Oh!
Will: I need to get Jonathan a little hat like this. Yeah, a little co pilot hat. And what if he had wings, too?
Kristin: That would just be a game changer. Yeah, I’m surprised he doesn’t already have wings. You should have thought of that.
Will: Fixing burnout anywhere he goes. [00:49:00] Well, that’s what you get with the Nuance Dragon Ambient Experience. Did you know that?
Kristin: That’s pretty awesome.
Will: 80 percent of patients actually say their physician is more focused with the DAX Copilot. 85 percent of patients say their physician is more personable. And conversational with the DAX Copilot.
It really does make a huge difference in patient care.
Kristin: And in that patient physician relationship.
Will: Absolutely. You just get to focus on what got you into medicine in the first place. Right. You know, not documentation, taking care of the patient. To learn more about the Nuance Dragon Ambient Experience or DAX Copilot, visit Nuance.
com slash Discover DAX. That’s N U A N C E. com slash Discover D A X.
