Power of Social Media with Family Medical Physician Dr. Mike

KKH Trailer Wide

Transcript

Will: [00:00:00] Knock,

knock, knock. Hi. Hello and welcome to Knock-Knock. Hi, we are the Glock Flecking. I am Dr. Glock Flecking. I am Lady Glock Flecking. And we are happy you’re here because uh, we have a wonderful show lined up for you today. Do a lot of people have been asking for this guest? Yeah. Dr. Mike. I don’t know. You may not have heard of him.

He’s, he’s, he is got, he is just, he’s kind of an emerging, uh, voice and medicine. No, he’s, he’s everywhere. I mean, we’ve. And he’s, he does some incredible work. Uh, love watching his videos and, uh, the education aspect of it in particular. He does such a good job with as a family physician. But before we get to Dr.

Mike, um, it is February. It is February. And 

Kristin: what is February? February is American Heart Month. 

Will: It’s other things. [00:01:00] It’s other things. Valentine’s Day. Sure. Sometimes it’s got a leap. Is this a leap year? Uh, what year is it? I don’t know why I asked you as if, as if you like, keep track of leap years. No, 

Kristin: no, no.

Last year would’ve been the leap year. How do you know that? Did you know that leap years wait. Is that right? No, no. Next year is the leap year. Leap years are the same year as presidential 

Will: elections. There you go. That’s how you can remember it. All right. That’s a good mnemonic device. 

Kristin: I it, yeah, I think that’s true.

Don’t quote me, but I’m pretty sure. 

Will: But most importantly, it is World Heart Month. Nope. American Heart month. Oh, American Heart Month. The world doesn’t care. , 

Kristin: the world celebrates in October, but February is 

Will: American Heart Month. American Heart Month. And, um, and hearts are a big part of our story. We’ve talked a little bit about our cardiac arrest before.

Our cardiac arrest. Uh, well, kind of was in some ways it was the two of us. Mine was the only one that short, short circuited. And so, um, it’s, and, and CPR is something we’ve talked about a lot. Uh, one [00:02:00] thing that, you know, I was a physician for about seven years before I had a cardiac arrest. Mm-hmm. . And not one time in those seven years did, in which I was like, thinking about medicine, working in medicine, learning about medicine.

At no point did I think, hey, Maybe my wife who is not in medicine should learn. C p r 

Kristin: never wants talk about you just sort of assume if there’s some sort of medical situation, well that’s your territory. Yeah. You know, and if there’s like homework help or emotional help or literally any other kind of help that, that would be my territory.

But medical stuff we thought you had covered, 

Will: it didn’t work out that way. No. And uh, and so it’s, um, uh, you know, something that everybody should learn. It should be taught in schools. It should on, you know, workplaces everywhere because the effect that chest compressions can have on saving your life is, is incredible.

[00:03:00] It’s huge. Uh, out of hospital cardiac arrest, um, one in 10 survive. One in 10. And if you, if that person receives, um, appropriate chest compressions and effective chest compressions, their survival goes up to about three and a half out of 10. 

Kristin: Well, and depending on how you slice it, it can go even higher than 

Will: that.

The point is though, that is a remarkable improvement with something that is, that is relatively simple. Simple, yeah. That everyone, if you’re physically able to, You can do it. Uh, and um, and, and so it’s, uh, there’s, there’s very few things in medicine that are like that, to be honest, that have that effect on survival.

Um, um, and so that, that’s why it’s, it’s just so important. 

Kristin: It’s very important. And I would also add, um, you know, you, uh, I think there’s a lot of people who are afraid of doing chest compressions because they’re afraid of hurting the person, but um, the person is already dead. Yeah. So you can’t hurt them.

They’re more That’s right. You’re [00:04:00] just giving them a chance at life and better to have some bruised ribs or even broken ribs and 

Will: have a chance. Life broken. All my, somehow you did it without breaking any in my ribs thing I have ribs of steel. Or you’re just so good at chest compression. Are you able to do it just effectively enough?

To where you’d saved me, but not broke any of my ribs. Well, 

Kristin: you’re young and healthy, I think. I think 

Will: that helped. That’s a big part of it. Yeah. You get a little bit more brittle as you get older, but, um, well, that makes me feel young, but if you don’t, thank you. Oh, you’re, I like that . 

Kristin: Uh, but even if you don’t, you know, even if there’s not a good outcome when you gave C P r just, just to try to give that person a chance, you know, um, you’ve done a good job.

That’s all you can do. And, um, you know, I think a lot of the times we talk about, about CPR as a way to save someone. And it certainly isn’t, that’s very important, but, but it’s also important to recognize the people who attempt to save one someone, and it just wasn’t in the cards for that person. Um, so, so it’s always good.

Yeah. You know, just to try. Yeah. Give them, give them every chance they can have. 

Will: So we’ll be talking a little bit about, [00:05:00] um, chest compressions and things with Dr. Mike, cuz he’s done some advocacy work surrounding that and we just had a great conversation with him. So, um, we’re excited about this one. We hope you like it.

Yeah. He’s got a really interesting story. He does. Very interesting. Uh, story. We talked a little bit about social media and just kind of Yeah. A, a wide ranging conversation. So should we get into it? Let and stop. Let’s do it. Just talking between ourselves and actually like, let people hear. Let’s go talk to Dr.

Mike. All right. We’ll be right back.

Dr. Mike, thank you so much for, for taking the time to join us. Uh, I’m so 

Dr Mike: excited and it’s awesome to meet you, uh, for the first time, despite our trajectories being quite similar in the social 

Will: media world. Right. I, it’s like I, I, I feel like I see you all over the place. You probably see me from time to time as well.

And, um, It’s actually, I, I got to make it onto a Dr. Mike video one time , and, which was, which was very exciting. Uh, and, and I, I got one of [00:06:00] the shirts you’re wearing right now, the chest compression shirt, uh, in the shape of a heart. Great design, by the way. I love that thing. Yeah. I wanted in a lady 

Kristin: style.

Will: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Can we get you one? I will for sure. You one. Absolutely. I, I mean, I have one, but not in a lady style. I, I sleep in it every night. You’re too big for me, . It’s, it’s 

Dr Mike: wonderful. Is that like for, uh, educational purposes to make sure that if anything happens, people know to do chess compression?

Kristin: Here’s where you do. Well, I’ve already, I’ve done it once, so I think I could do it again. Yeah. What 

Will: an incredible. . Yeah, it’s pretty wild. And you know, this is, um, this episode will be coming out during, uh, um, American Heart Month. American Heart Month. And, and so, um, yeah, it’s, uh, you, you are, you know, much better at than I am.

She’s had more practice at this point than me as an ophthalmologist at doing chest compressions. But, um, I wanted to ask you, what’s, what was the impetus for, uh, moving in that way, doing some advocacy toward, you know, C P R and, because I [00:07:00] really appreciated seeing that from you and, and I, I think it makes a big difference having physicians in particular, obviously talking about this, who have large social media platforms for sure.

Dr Mike: Um, for me, Venture into social media. Land happened, uh, without a big plan behind it. So once it occurred, I wanted to do something meaningful with it and mm-hmm. that constantly shifted depending on where I was either in my training or coming outta my training, becoming an attending, how big my following was.

And specifically this advocacy around chest compressions came about because I would watch the medical dramas react to them on my YouTube channel and constantly I would see them not do chest compressions or do them terribly reach for the defibrillator during a systole, and I would lose my mind yelling at the screen.

And it became the mantra for the channel. And somehow it now has transitioned into working with the American Heart Association and getting these, uh, [00:08:00] CPR kiosks all across the US to getting people to learn how to do proper c. 

Will: But also have you, have you managed to make a change in Hollywood? Has it ? Do you feel like you’re having an impact there,

No, absolutely. In terms 

Dr Mike: of the quality of the, I, I, this is a fun fact. I was very close to being on the show, good doctor, but, uh, because of the second wave of the pandemic, uh, they had to call off shooting and it was like two weeks quarantine that you would have to fly up to Vancouver and do it. So I missed out on that opportunity, but I would’ve been in the back yelling chest compressions, even if it didn’t make sense in the.

Will: Just telling how to do it appropriately to two inches deep. Yes. Come on. Faster, slower. It’s, it’s really, uh, all over the place with that. And, and, you know, you, and you talked about our kind of divergent, our paths kind of on social because I, I’m the same way. Like, I didn’t set, set out to generate the following.

In fact, for me, doing the videos and stuff was just, we were locked down in the pandemic. And, um, I, I didn’t really have anything else [00:09:00] to do. We had to close down our clinics and everything and, and started making videos. But you and I, uh, we actually, I think we graduated residency the same year. You’re 2017, is that right?

Yes. Yeah. All right. Mm-hmm. and, um, and, and so you are practic. A practicing physician? Yes. What is your clinic schedule like? I’ve been dying 

Dr Mike: to know, yeah. I work two to three days a week, depending on the week. And uh, one of those days is usually a precepting day where I’m mm-hmm. watching over residents, teaching procedures, whatever may be Yes.

That given day. And then the other day I’m taking care of the patients that I sort of picked up throughout my residency training. And then also seeing patients that are overflow that would like to see their physicians that are in our practice, but they don’t have appointments available and they have an urgent need.

So I come in and fill that need. 

Will: And were you, was it for you in med school? What, were you family medicine the whole way? Or did you kind of, you know, well, med school go between 

Dr Mike: different things. I guess it depends where in med school we’re [00:10:00] talking about. In the first two years, I was really interested in surgery and thought that was the field for me.

I was good with my hands. I was a big gamer. I saw the future. Mm-hmm. of the Da Vinci robot being in my future and. As I went into my third year where you would do your clerkships in surgery and I scrubbed into like 60 procedures, I realized it wasn’t for me and I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

So a lot of the times the things that we envision to, uh, happen in certain specialties don’t actually pan out, which is why when I speak with med students, I’m like, please go and work with a doctor during one of their shifts just to see what they do so that you don’t have a, a misconception of what their day-to-day is like.

Because medical dramas are also responsible 

Will: for that misinformation . That’s right. And, and also in working with actual, you know, doctors practicing in those specialties is, is seeing the, the mundane parts of their job. Like what are the things they’re dealing with day in and day out that, that you, that may not be as exciting, but you, you can [00:11:00] still stomach it and you know, uh, exactly.

Be okay with doing that. So really what I’m trying to get at though is why on earth did you not choose ophthalmology as a career ? 

Dr Mike: Uh, honestly, I wasn’t smart 

Will: enough for it. Oh, oh, come on. Now. Did you, did you ever get to do a, an ophthalmology rotation, did you? No. 

Dr Mike: In fact, I openly say I think I have a video coming out this week.

My two biggest weaknesses of the human body are the teeth. Like if a patient comes in and says, eyes wrong in my mouth, I have no idea what to do. And then the second is the eyeball. 

Will: Um, so I’m sure that you, you’ve had so many experiences. You’re in an interesting field taking care of, uh, every single part of the human body, which sounds terrifying to me as someone who specializes in something that’s two and a half centimeters long.

Uh, and so, um, uh, I’m sure you have some stories for us. There’s 

Dr Mike: a lot of stories. I mean, there’s a lot of things that go wrong. Um, and as you said, it’s a field where every day it’s humbling how much you don’t know. [00:12:00] Mm-hmm. and because of the use of resources online, Because of Chachi, p t, dare I say . Now my job has become more about helping patients make decisions, helping them understand medical concepts, guiding them through a terribly broken system, rather than being an expert in a given, um, body organ mm-hmm.

system, what have you. Because everything that I do, as long as I can be a good decision maker, I can get the information and knowledge from good quality resources and then adapt it to my patient. And I can’t tell you how often it is that I see a patient and something triggers my mind about a condition that I think it could be.

I have to look it up and I do it right then and there with the patient in the room, and we almost match up the symptoms and what they’re experiencing together. In order for them to understand why I’m thinking it’s more this than something else. Uh, creating that list of [00:13:00] differentials, creating a plan of why, uh, if this, uh, workup doesn’t work out, here’s the direction I want to go.

And it’s really become a fun field in my eyes. Cause it’s almost like you’re playing detective in addition to being a doctor. Yeah. 

Will: And it’s, that’s something I think a lot of trainees are nervous about moving into the attending part of their career is what if I’m, I’m expected to know the answer, what do I do?

And, and spoiler alert, there’s gonna be so many times whenever you are in that first, I mean, even now, I’m, you know, five, six years out of training. Um, but especially in that first couple years where you, you don’t know, you’re like, well, I, I think it’s this. I, I think I remember what the medication is for this condition or what the dose is.

I just have no idea. And, and what you don’t realize is patients really appreciate. You taking the time either in, in the room there or out outside the room just to, to figure out the right answer. They just, they [00:14:00] want the right answer. 

Kristin: Absolutely. And from the, from the non-medical perspective, I think that’s crucially important what you’re doing.

Um, because we’re moving away from this idea that doctors are just this fountain of knowledge, right? And that’s the value that they bring to the interaction. Well now there’s knowledge everywhere and there’s too much knowledge and not all of it is correct. And so now I feel like, you know, the 21st century doctor is gonna be somebody who is skilled at doing just what you said, of helping people think critically about the information, understand what’s good, what’s bad, how things relate to each other, and how that all relates to your specific case as a patient and helping them go through that thought process rather than just, oh, I have all of this memorized, so just do whatever 

Dr Mike: I tell.

And the sad part is medical school does the exact opposite. Uh, yes. In educating you, uh, to set you up for almost failure. When you walk into that exam room, you’re like, okay, I can tell you everything you need to know about the kreb cycle, but I can’t help you figure out how to get cheaper medications for yourself, 

Will: or I can’t help you with your [00:15:00] teeth.

It’s, you know, it’s not gonna happen. Teeth and I 

Dr Mike: eyeball, I’m sorry. Like I don’t, I just, it wasn’t taught enough and it’s, for me, my multi professors 

Will: are gonna be mad, but for me it’s below the nasal bridge. So you, I think you cover a lot more, you know, anatomic parts of the body than, 

Dr Mike: oh, you know, I actually, uh, had a bad situation happen with my eye where, um, So, you know, doctors always ask each other to prescribe antibiotics, allergy meds, whatever, like minor stuff.

And I had a, a pre septal cellulitis going on, so I looked up to, you had a what now? . 

Will: Pre septal cellulite. I 

Dr Mike: would leave it to the expert 

Will: to explain. Yeah. So it’s, it’s an infection. Uh, so the, the septum, the orbital septum is a very important part of the structure of the eye. Okay. It separates the back of the eye, so the space behind the eye uhhuh from the space in front of the eye.

Okay. And so a pre septal cellulitis is an infection basically, of the, I’m falling asleep, so I’m sorry. This is very exciting. Uh, the precept [00:16:00] cell is an infection in front of the septum. Okay. Basically, it’s like not quite as, Orbital uhhuh infection behind the eye Sure. Is really bad. It’s hard to get back there.

Yeah. It’s hard to get back there. And so the Sept, that’s why the septum is very important. So if it’s an infection in front of the septum, it’s still a big deal, but it’s easier to treat. Not as like potentially, you know, deadly. Right. Yeah. So, so you had a pre septal cellulitis. That’s, I had. People are learning.

I’m glad people are learning about this today. That’s good. It’s 

Dr Mike: a good eye condition. . And this is to show you why doctors are bad doctors, uh, bad patients themselves. Mm-hmm. , what did I do? I looked at antibiotic spectrum, what I should use. For pre septal cellulitis, and it was double coverage of antibiotic A and B.

One of them happened to be, I think, Benin or amoxicillin on its own, and I asked my friend who’s, I did residency with him, I said, Hey, can you prescribe this? I have precept cellulitis. He said, sure, no problem. He sends it through. I take it two days later, I’m in a huge rash and I’m wondering [00:17:00] like, where did I get this rash?

I’m going through all the differentials and I completely forgot I’m allergic to pen. No , like how do I give myself the medicine that I’m allergic to? Like you would think I would goodness, a better doc. Meanwhile, for my patients, oh man, anytime I’m about to prescribe something, it’s two questions. Yes. The first thing you ask allergies, what pharmacy do you use?

Right. But for myself, never asking that question, 

Will: we are the worst patient. Did did it get better? At least it did get better, yeah. You got, you got something different, I’m guessing. Yeah. Yeah. I’m glad you recognized it. 

Dr Mike: Actually, I, I think I’m misstating the number of days because I have a, a rare delayed hypersensitivity to, uh, the penicillin.

Back in the day, I had mono and my dad gave me amoxicillin. I broke out in the rash, and ever since then, I have this delayed immune hypersensitivity that like four or five days after starting penicillin, I start breaking out in a small rash, and it progressively gets worse, even though I’m off 

Will: of it. Well, I would say that you probably won’t make that mistake again, but who [00:18:00] knows?

I know. I don’t know, but I, you know, I’m with you when it comes to being a, a bad patient, I, you know, have to be reminded to take my medication. Oh, yeah. His 

Kristin: response to everything is, it’s fine. 

Will: Well, you know, it’s, you get this, this skewed view of the world. I think a little bit, if you’re not dying, then it’s fine.

as a physician, because, you know, it’s, the, the minor things seem very minor, but to people who are not in medicine, the minor things can be a big deal. Right, of course. And or at least you just don’t know. And so, yeah, whenever like my kids like, oh, I have a stomach ache. I’m like, you’re fine. It’s okay. So 

Kristin: compassionate, shake it off.

Such compassionate care, , 

Will: it’s not, I would not advocate that as a way to be a, a parent. It’s not the best thing, but I, that’s what I’m here for. I think it’s my curse as, as a physician and having seen a lot of. You know, crazy stuff out there. 

Kristin: Right, right. Your barometer’s a little skewed, I guess, 

Will: so. 

Dr Mike: Well, you guys have a good, balanced approach to it.

I’m curious, are either of your parents, doctors who [00:19:00] did that to you as well? Because my dad definitely did that to me, being a U s Sr doctor? 

Will: Yeah. No, no. Neither of our parents are in medicine. So I was, I was a first, my 

Kristin: grandfather was a physician, but he was a, you know, he’s a grandpa, so he’s a lot more, you know 

Will: Yeah.

We’re talking very old schools, like, like sixties. 

Kristin: Yeah. But he was, um, he, he’s actually, he invented the mighty vac, the vacuum extractor that people use in, um, labor and delivery. Wow. So, I don’t know. I feel like he, he had a good, you know, compassionate approach to us when, when something would 

Will: happen. But you, so you see, yeah.

I know your doctor, your dad was a, um, physician. In the US Russia, sorry, you said Yeah, in Russia. And then also it must have made for an interesting upbringing. 

Dr Mike: Yeah, big time. Because he not only was a doctor there, but when we immigrated to the United States, he went to medical school and residency all over again, and I was now 10 years old.

So I got to watch the whole journey. Most kids are young when their parents are going through that, and it firmly placed rules that I’m not allowed to do poorly in [00:20:00] medical school with an excuse because he said, Hey, I did it twice in a new language. So. Right. You can’t say a test was hard . 

Will: That’s right.

You could, it doesn’t matter how many quizzes on the Kreb cycle you have to take, you’re gonna pass them. Yeah. And you gotta 

Kristin: cheat sheet. You already got to see it once, so. 

Dr Mike: Well that is, I don’t know how much I was paying attention to the Kreb cycle at age nine, but 

Will: having, having, you know, having gone through med school and residency, I honestly can’t imagine like doing it over again.

That is, that is so impressive. Yeah. A different language. I mean, I mean, yeah. That’s a 

Dr Mike: question I have for you. What would it take. For something to go wrong in this country that you would leave, go learn a new language with $0 and do residency all over again in medical school, what would it take? What would have divorce 

Will: for one?

Yeah. We’d have to . Yeah, that’s true. I’m not doing that. Again, don’t think my family would be up for it. So that’s, that’s the first thing, . Okay. I, I’d have to be [00:21:00] guaranteed a position in ophthalmology, cuz I feel like at least, you know, it’s, I guess depends on the language, but you know, if it’s, uh, there’s a lot of Latin background, right?

For, for a lot of what we do. And so depending on the language, it might be like accessible but still extremely difficult. Um, I, I don’t think I could do it. I don’t know. I, I don’t know what it would take. Um, but what were the conditions I have to ask for your, for your dad to make that. 

Dr Mike: Yeah, I was so young that I didn’t really have any say or knowledge about what was going on in the moment.

Now, when I would ask, he would point to the current geopolitical situation going on in Russia and the, the terrible atrocities that are happening in Ukraine because my father was actually born in the Ukraine and then moved to Russia for his studies. At that time it was U S S R, so it was all one country.

Mm-hmm. . And he would say the corruption is terrible. Um, there was anti-Semitism. He was concerned about, he didn’t think my sister and I had a future there. So he essentially came here for us [00:22:00] and, um, went through that whole journey. And I can’t, again, I can’t imagine what it would be like for me to do that in another country right now.

Kristin: Yeah. That is the answer. You know, that’s what it would take is if, if your children’s lives were going. That’s true to be. Mm-hmm. . Very negatively affected. I think parents would do just about 

Will: anything . And it’s just really impressive that, uh, you know, to make that leap with a family, you know. And, and, um, I’m guessing you got a lot of, did you get a, any exp how old were you actually whenever you came over six to you’re six, do you have any recollection of, you know, being in hospitals, going to work and seeing that environment?

Is that because you’re pretty young? Not in Russia. 

Dr Mike: Not in Russia. In, in the States there were days, like in residency you would bring your child to work day and I would 

Will: come along. I was gonna ask Yeah. . 

Dr Mike: Yeah. Like my does is residency in, in a hospital that no longer exists. And when I went there, um, I remember going to the on-call rooms and be like, this is so cool.

It’s like sleepaway camp. Meanwhile, like, this is not 

Will: sleepaway Camp , this is like a, it’s like a [00:23:00] prison cell of a call room, right. And, uh, well it goes to show 

Dr Mike: it’s beauties of the eye of the beholder. You know, I was a kid that looking at bunk beds and seeing how exciting it is. Meanwhile, that’s true. He’s 45 years old.

living in a bunk bed, 

Will: so, right. Yeah. I honestly, it’s a, um, uh, you know, I can’t think of many things that would make residency more difficult, but bringing your child with you, to work is probably gonna be up on that list. , my God. Yeah. I don’t, I’m sure you’re very well behaved at all times and didn’t, you know, cause any, you know, commotion kept your hands tears.

Dr Mike: I was only invited for an hour or two before they had to get rid of 

Will: me when it was, when, when it was necessary. And what, what kind of medicine did your dad practice? Family medicine. He was a family medicine too. Okay. All right. And so when, when you said you, you’re very interested in, in, in surgery at first, was there a moment really when you decided, okay, this is, uh, this is not for me.

I, I want to [00:24:00] go family medicine route, or I want to go kind of a non-surgical route? Yeah. 

Dr Mike: For the time that I was in surgery, I was slowly starting to lose. The points that I was initially awarding surgery as my main specialty. And then when I did my family medicine rotation, which happened to be in the community health center of my medical school, I fell in love with the relationships that those doctors had with their patients, that it seemed more real, it seemed more connected to the human sitting in front of you.

Um, there was that continuity aspect where you got to witness your treatment actually making a change in someone’s life. Um, there was, you know, should talk back and forth between the doctor and the patient in a good way, whereas when I was working in surgery or maybe some of the sub subspecialties, it seemed very transactional and quick and just in and out.

Here’s what you need to know, and I gotta run over to the next patient. And it, it never seemed fulfilling for me as a person [00:25:00] of where I derive happiness and fulfillment from. So I knew that family medicine was for me based off that first rotation. 

Will: The, the shit talking. That must be a New York kind of thing.

Probably. Yeah. I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t get a lot of that, uh, in Iowa where I was practicing. Uh, or at least, uh, in a, in residency. Yeah. Iowa, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s different type of vibe I would say between, 

Kristin: they pride themselves on Iowa. Nice. So that . 

Will: But I, I love that too, being able to have that relationship with a patient to, uh, now you probably get more time with your patients than I do.

And um, but the longitudinal aspect of it actually is, is there’s a lot of overlap there between, you know, what you get in family medicine and ophthalmology. Cuz we’re, we’re seeing patients throughout their whole life, um, and providing their eye care. And it, it’s, um, it’s really great to, and what I tell, what I tell students and residents is, um, especially with regard to humor, when you’re building a [00:26:00] relationship with a patient, even if you only have five minutes, if you can share a laugh, If you can have that back and forth where you have the emotional response of, of, of laughing at something together like that just fast tracks your relationship with that patient so much.

So even if it’s like five minutes you are, you’re so connected there. And, um, and so humor. You know, shit talking in, in, in, uh, in New York or, you know, dad jokes in Iowa. It, it, you know, it’s . It’s so true. It’s kinda what it’s, 

Kristin: did you do the thing that most teenagers might do where you say, oh, my parents are in family medicine.

I’m never one anything to do with family medicine, and then you go off and turns out life has a way of kicking you right back into where you said you’d never be. 

Dr Mike: Yeah, I would, well first of all, my dad would try and steer me away from family medicine. He’s like, reimbursements are great and there’s a lot of problems here.

Maybe this isn’t the specialty for you, but, um, I would always be like the [00:27:00] nickname Dr. Mike came from when I was a teenager, my friends would come to me with sports injuries and I would tell them what to do based on what my dad told me to do. So it it, I was already practicing as a family medicine doctor without a license.

So I probably could have gotten in trouble. Then , I was like, you got a stretch. Right? , 

Will: well, there’s so much there. There’s, there’s so much you can offer. You know, from the field that you’re in, and I see that in your content, you know, you’re, you’re addressing, there are so many questions that, that the general public has about their own bodies, about their own health.

And so you’re so in such a prime position to be able to offer that advice or information that’s a trusted source of information, which is, um, obviously something that the society is struggling with, right? Is finding those trusted voices. And I feel like you, you certainly provide that and, and you’re, you’re, you’re focused a lot of your content on, on giving people that [00:28:00] opportunity to hear from somebody who, you know, you can trust what they’re saying.

And, um, and I, that’s why I think, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, social media is so important for physicians to be really actively involved in, and it, it can, it’s not always easy because there’s a lot of. Difficult things about social media, you know, a lot of negativity, um, especially toward physicians on social media.

So what would you, what advice would you give to young physicians who are just starting out on their medical journey in how to approach social media? 

Dr Mike: I think it’s a very messy space. Especially for medical professionals, like if you are someone who just makes comedy content and you don’t have a medical board watching over you or patients that trust you and respect you, it’s a lot different versus when now you’re someone who is treated as an expert or carries some level of certification.[00:29:00] 

So you have to be really careful of how you communicate online. Even the, the line you mentioned earlier with patients in a room and making a joke, and if you could get that joke to land in the first five minutes, it instantly improves the doctor patient relationship. At the same time you say the wrong joke, it doesn’t land correctly.

Yes, no. Done. Faster way to 

Will: destroy a patient. You’re done . Totally 

Dr Mike: agree. But now extrapolate this magnitude to every joke you say now gets seen by a million people. And within those million people are individuals who like you, dislike you, don’t care about, you share a completely different mindset or life experience than you.

So it, it becomes very difficult to expect young physicians or anyone in the healthcare space to do well in this space without messing up because it’s nothing about, it is human and you’re gonna make mistakes. And the analogy that I like to give is almost, you know, to the safest driver, I promise you, if a police officer follows you long [00:30:00] enough, you will get a ticket for driving on the line, not turning correctly, not showing the blinker early enough.

And on social media, if you’re a healthcare professional, you have essentially a squadron of people following you all the time. So you’re bound to make a mistake and slip up even if you’re trying your best. So you have to be aware of that, ready for it. Um, have things in place to, uh, adjust and adapt because it’s an unforgiving place.

Sorry, I give warning more than I give information 

Will: when it comes to No, I, I totally understand. You know what you’re saying. It’s, it’s, um, being able to mitigate those mistakes by, you know, and as someone who’s been through it and is still going through it, and myself as well, you know, trying to show, I, I try to show the mistakes I’ve made.

It’s like, look, this, I did this and this was the backlash I got, and you probably shouldn’t do what I just did. And so trying to help, uh, you know, younger physicians learn from experience because it’s, it is [00:31:00] not, um, there, there’s no like formal education in how to. Be on social media as a physician, but it’s so incredibly important because that’s where patients are.

Yeah. Right? Yes. They’re, that’s where they are. They’re, that’s where people are getting their information. And so if, so, 

Kristin: if you’re not there just leaves a void for misinformation. 

Will: Exactly. Yeah. And so, um, you know, uh, it’s, we all need to be out there in some way. Don’t have to be telling jokes or wearing stupid costumes like me, but you could, you could actually be, you 

Dr Mike: know, no, I think that works best because that is not, you’re not only where people are a k a social media, but you’re also there in a way that’s relatable and interesting and engaging, uh, because you could be there and give really dense.

Scientific book information where you’re just reading a book, but how many people are gonna relate to that and how well is the algorithm gonna reward that content to show it to more people? So it’s about being effective just as much as it is actually having a presence there. E e, even in, uh, I think right [00:32:00] before our graduated residency in 2017, I wrote, uh, an op-ed for the A F P where I said that the absence of quality evidence-based physicians is gonna make for a misinformation disaster.

And I could not have been more accurate three years down the line because there weren’t enough doctors putting out good info. Yeah, there weren’t enough people challenging those thoughts. And as a result, it created chaos. But at the same time, I understand why doctors don’t want to be there. It’s so toxic.

It’s not rewarding at many times. It’s very tricky, as you know. That’s 

Will: incredible foresight though. Nice job. . He is 

Dr Mike: fortune. Well, I mean, I think a lot of people were predicting it, but I was very passionate about 

Will: it, so. Yeah. Yeah. Well, uh, let’s take a quick break and then uh, we’ll be back with Dr. Mike and we’re gonna play a little game here.

All right, Soll. Be right back. Kristin, you know that as an ophthalmologist I don’t tend to get excited about stethoscopes. I do know that, yes. But I have around my neck the Echo Health’s 3M Litman Core Digital [00:33:00] Stethoscope. This thing is incredible. It’s got active background noise cancellation up to 40 times amplification.

That’s pretty impressive. It. I could practically hear the individual myocytes talking to each other and I 

Kristin: have one too. And mine is rainbow. Yours as much cooler than mine. I know. I might just wear it around the house with its noise cancellation so I don’t have to hear you and the kids. 

Will: That’s fair. Yo, this thing would be perfect gift for anybody in healthcare.

What? So we have a special offer for our US audience. Visit ecohealth.com/kk and use code knock 50 to experience echo’s digital stethoscope technology. That’s eko o health slash kk h and use knock 50 to get $50 off. Plus a free case, plus free engraving with our exclusive offer.

All right, we are back with Dr. Mike. And, uh, uh, Mike. We’re gonna [00:34:00] play, uh, a, a little game. This is, it’s, it’s very simple. This is, um, uh, it’s ophthalmology. Is this 

Dr Mike: simple for an 

Will: ophthalmologist, it’s, no, it’s simple for a non ophthalmologist. So, just to, just to make sure we give everyone the right perspective here.

Non ophthalmologists get very little formal training or education in ophthalmology. And it’s, you know, it is what it is. There’s, there’s a lot of parts of things in the body that you gotta learn. And so, you know, there’s only so much time, but, um, eyeballs, as we’ve already mentioned, is, is one of the things that kind of falls by the wayside a lot of the times.

And so I got conjunctivitis. 

Dr Mike: Yeah, corneal 

Will: abrasions. Well, you’ve already thrown out precept cellulitis. You’ve already thrown out precept cellulitis, so you’re already, uh, you know, better than 99% of non ophthalmologists, I would say. All right. Um, and so, Here we go. Here we, I, I, I I, I have 10 questions for you and Oh, no.

Okay. It, it’s, it’s okay if you don’t know the answer or this is, this is for education. Can I phone a friend? Can I, [00:35:00] can I make a referral? No, you absolutely cannot. There are rules here, Dr. Mike. Okay. Ophthalmology trivia is very serious. This is absolutely very serious business. Um, alright. How many eyes does the typical human being have?

We’re starting off very, very basic. All right. I’m gonna, you know the answer to that. Very good. Very, I didn’t say average person, because I guess that would be a slightly less than two. But, um, two is how many eyes a typical person has? Name three. Make a trick question. . I would’ve, you would’ve been, yeah. I was trying to be, I, I wanted to be nice to you though.

Okay. Mm-hmm. , because this might be a little bit difficult as we get along. So, name three anatomic structures inside the eye. Cornea, 

Dr Mike: conjunctiva, 

Will: sclera. Good. Those are three, three structures in the eye. Um, all right, next question. Question number three. What is an ophthalmologist’s greatest fear? Vine. 

Kristin: Ooh, good.

Ooh, that’s an 

Will: excellent answer. Good answer. But no, the answer is, uh, responding to an in-flight medical emergency, . That 

Dr Mike: is, didn’t you [00:36:00] say you hate vine so much, and it’s like your biggest fear? It 

Will: is. It, uh, I might have said that I do hate vine more than anything else in the world, but I, I fear it. I don’t fear it.

We’re just mortal enemies. That’s all. But that was a, that was a really good, really good guess. Mm-hmm. . All right. No. Responding to inflight medical emergencies is the ophthalmologist greatest, understandable fear in life. I had to do that, and that is an objective answer that is, uh, I think published in the New England Journal.

Kristin: Hold on. Pause. You had to do that before. 

Dr Mike: Yeah. I had to save, uh, a gentleman’s life on a transatlantic 

Will: flight. Oh, I did, I read about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Dr Mike: He didn’t have a, an EpiPen and he was going into Phylaxis and we had to MacGyver epinephrine from the cardiac epinephrine that we had on board with a needle like this thick.

Oh my God. And good luck doing epinephrine conversions. Oh god. One 1000th on a plane with no wifi . Oh my god. So 

Will: I just gonna, you just, you did it and you helped hope for the best. I mean, like that’s, well, he was dying otherwise, so Yeah. [00:37:00] You had to do something, right? Yeah. I gotta do something. Were you the only person that responded, or did you have 

Dr Mike: help?

Uh, there was a plastic surgeon, but there wasn’t much utility from that. 

Will: I would’ve gone with you. Okay. Yeah, it’s 

Kristin: a good thing he was there, not you that Oh, yeah. That guy got 

Will: lucky. If, if you and I, if I had responded with you, I’d been like, look, I’m here for moral supports, . All right. You just let me know.

Is the patient, is they, are they wearing contact lenses? I can handle that, that aspect of, okay. Pop those out. All right, let’s do next, next question here. Um, what is the leading cause of blindness worldwide? Um, 

Dr Mike: I would say like diabetic 

Will: related, diabetic retinopathy, maybe. Retinopathy. Good guess it’s cataract, actually.

Oh, wow. 

Dr Mike: Cataract, well, Mr. Bistro did this, I probably should have known that. . 

Will: Yeah, I 

Dr Mike: did see that. He’s, he’s 

Will: What’s your take on that? I’m curious. Uh, I mean, I think that, um, it is a huge cause of reversible blindness in the us. Um, that’s, and that’s really the kind of the, the sad thing is worldwide it is a [00:38:00] huge cause of blindness, but it’s also so treatable.

Like we do, the average ophthalmologist does like 500 cataract surgeries every year. And so it is, everybody gets cataracts eventually. And we need, we, we need a, obviously in this country, but worldwide it’s a much bigger problem, I would say. So I, I am, anytime Ophthalmology’s in the news, you know, cataracts, whatever, I’m big fan.

You should 

Dr Mike: do a reaction video to that, that would do really well on YouTube 

Will: that Yeah, maybe I will. That’s a good idea. I should talk, I mean, I gotta take advantage of when eyeballs are in the news, right, exactly. When people are talking about it. So is 

Dr Mike: is, um, cataracts, the leading cause worldwide and also us, I’m curious.

Will: Uh, it is a reversible vision loss. Got it. I would say it is the leading cause of vision loss, but blindness is kind of a subjective term. So true. Um, it’s, I would say yes, it is still the leading cause in the us but it’s just easier to get it treated in [00:39:00] this country than in a lots of places. Got it. Not medical insurance, notwithstanding, obviously facts.

Um, all right. Next question. We’re gonna do a little good or bad. All right. Artificial tears. Good or bad? Good. Just good or bad? Good. Good. Vine? Bad. Bad. Very bad. Also, clear eyes is on the vine spectrum as well. No. Clear eyes. Sleeping in contacts. Very bad. Bad. Very bad. Very bad. Choosing ophthalmology as a career.

Amazing. Very good. It’s perhaps the best choice you could possibly make in medicine. I, I don’t know, family medicine. Close second. I don’t know. You know, I, I just, you know, I’m a little biased. All right. Next, what is the name of a disease where High pressure inside the eye results in loss of your visual field.

Glaucoma. Very nice. High pressure inside the eye. Results in loss of your peripheral vision. Glaucoma. All right. We have two, two questions left. 

Dr Mike: Cotton woo spots. Sorry. 

Will: [00:40:00] Oh, was that the next, that was it. You got it. I’m not even gonna ask the question. The answer was cotton Woo spots. All right. What is an ophthalmologist second greatest fear 

Dr Mike: having their heart stop in the middle of the night.

Will: He’s playing, he’s playing to the, to, to my, he’s playing to the, to my, yep. Mm-hmm. to my emotions. Fear crowd. Uh, it’s not a bad guess. No. The, uh, it actually is relatively close. The answer is hospitals. Hospitals. Oh, why? We don’t, because we don’t like to go there. Dr. Mike, they don’t remember anything about it.

We don’t, uh, the hospital think about it. It never closes. It’s always open even on the weekend. And as an ophthalmologist that it, um, it conflicts 

Dr Mike: with the lifestyle selection, 

Will: you think it does a little bit. And it’s, uh, I, I chose outpatient medicine for a reason, so we just, we try very hard not to go there.

You know? We’ll help, but honestly, we have, we have somewhat limited use in the hospital. You help in the way that, 

Kristin: like a kid helps you bake. 

Will: Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I’d say so. Uh, . [00:41:00] Yeah. Appreciate the analogy. That’s good. Okay. Hospitals. All right. Um, and then, um, a patient reports that is the patient, uh, uh, situation here.

So, okay. Let’s see. A patient reports that they have been seeing flashes of light. And a burst of new floaters. Do you have floaters? I, I don’t. Do you, have you ever had any floaters? Should I Little things floating around in your vision? No. Do you have you wear When I got 

Dr Mike: punchers face while, uh, boxing?

Yeah. Yeah. 

Will: I have halos. You have halos? Okay. Maybe a little astigmatism going on. I don’t know. Very. A lot of 

Dr Mike: astigmatism. My vision’s actually terrible. I was gonna ask you for some advice on that. , 

Will: what do you Uh, I He’s not wearing the glasses. You’re not wearing glasses? Yes. When, when we have guests that wear glasses, I like to guess their glasses prescription, but, oh, interesting.

Dr Mike: I publishing. I should have told you ahead of time. I don’t even know what they are, so I’m bad at that. again, I don’t know what those numbers 

Will: mean. You didn’t know your own fraction. Penicillin allergies. What is fraction? Um, so flashes of light and a bunch of new [00:42:00] floaters. What is one possible diagnosis?

Flashes of light. What do flashes of light represent? I think I know. You probably know just cuz you hear me take phone calls. I know, I think I’ve known 

Dr Mike: all of these. Did you really? You couldn’t ask me something about like retinal detachment or macular. That’s, that’s it. Yeah. You did it. Oh, okay. , but what don’t you have total, total loss?

Will: No. Sometimes, uh, retinal detachment, uh, can be you, you do sometimes have a curtain coming over your vision. Yeah. That’s like the classic thing. That was my, but yeah, that was good. Yeah. Curtain. Uh, but a lot of times people will have flashes of light because that’s the retina, kind of the initial detachment.

Okay. Causes these big flashes of light. You got it. Well done. Look at that. I, you didn’t even need to use up to date. No, we didn’t. You know, I, you know, more ophthalmology than you give yourself credit for. So I thinks, 

Dr Mike: because sometimes on YouTube videos I have to look stuff up about it. 

Will: That’s, that’s actually, that’s 

Kristin: something I, that’s the only reason he knows anything too.

Yeah. I 

Will: know that’s, [00:43:00] that’s scary. Oh, you know, it’s, it’s actually, you know, whenever, cuz you know when, when I’m playing these different characters and different specialties, like, I don’t know anything about cardiologist. Yeah. 

Kristin: Not ophthalm. Very smart ophthalmologist outside of that. Oh yeah. 

Will: Outside all the way.

I’m talking about like neurology, nephrology. I don’t, I don’t, the further I get from med school, the less I know and so, uh, I have to actually do a lot of research. Um, so I’m actually maybe a little bit smarter about like, systemic medicine than I used to do. You must be, see social media makes you a better doctor.

It works. Um, well, uh, that, that was ophthalmology trivia. Thank you for, I 

Kristin: have a a very impressive question though. Oh yeah. I wanna know. Dr. Mike, what do you think of his family medicine character? Oh, 

Dr Mike: oh, I love it. It’s me, . Had I not had social media, because I’m very lucky in. I, I pretty much work for free as a, as a family medicine doctor because of how lucky I am with social media.

But had I not been able to dictate, you know, I want longer with this patient because, uh, [00:44:00] again, I’m here for free. So I want longer to be able to help the patient. Mm-hmm. , I would have to be seeing, uh, a new patient for anxiety depression in 15 minutes, where five minutes are reserved for vitals. Now I have 10 minutes to find out who they are, what’s going on in their life, create some sort of meaningful relationship, give opt optimal treatment options, describe the options, have some sort of rapport to see if they understand it, and it’s, it’s a disaster, it’s impossible.

Healthcare system. So I love your family mask. I actually just, I remember you were getting some nonsense on social media about that, and I remember tweeting and being like, that’s ridiculous because Yeah, we, we have to speak 

Will: out, shout against. That’s, that’s the one, the one character that I, people, it’s a little divisive.

Uh, there’s a little bit, it’s the most divisive character, I would say. And I, and I think, and I’ve listened to all the feedback, and I think in the end I try to portray family medicine as a little bit of a sympathetic figure just because of how overworked and underappreciated [00:45:00] you are. Um, and I just, I.

It’s just that feel primary care is taken advantage of in a lot of ways in our medical system. And so I think the reason for some of, a little bit of the backlash is just because like they see someone that’s kind of making fun of family medicine, but not really. And it just, I think it strikes some people the wrong way.

And the 

Dr Mike: way that it’s, the way that I see it is they have absolute reason to be hurt because that’s the field that’s kind of lost its way and hasn’t been rewarded in terms of celebration, at least, uh, based on the specialty. Yeah. So they’re hurt, but they’re displacing their anger at, at what’s going on with the field at you, who is not the person that is deserving of the anger.

Will: Oh, well, I appreciate that. And, uh, I, I personally really like that character. It’s one of my favorites, so Me too. . All right. Well, let’s, um, do you have any, uh, uh, well, actually we’re gonna go into some family, uh, some fan stories real quick. Yeah. Listener submission. Yeah, we’ll be right. But we have two, [00:46:00] two, uh, fan stories, so, uh, we’ll be right back with those.

All right. Let’s get, we we’re, we’re keeping Dr. Mike on with us for this listener mailbag. Um, and that was actually suggestion from Josh Andrews 68 39 for suggesting that, so that you can, can react to it with us about these. Uh, and so we have two stories. The first one comes from Efrat, and this is, this is just kind of a sweet, this is a, a nice little thing here that really gets to caring for, um, you know, older.

So he says, Efrat says, I’m a medical intern doing a rotation in family medicine today. I took a very sweet 92 year old’s history while doing a physical, he mentioned that I’ll probably hear his heart murmur with no history of a cardiac disease. I asked him if he ever looked into the murmur and if he knew the cause of it.

He responded with, I did some tests and everything looked fine. I guess it’s because I met my wife 50 plus years ago and fell so hard in love that I’ve had a heart murmur ever since. [00:47:00] Aw, Aw. When I finished the h and b, he told me, thanks, Efrat. I’m very proud of you, . That’s 

Dr Mike: so, do you know where my dark comedic mind goes with that

Where 

Will: I love dark lights? Mine. So please tell me. 

Dr Mike: Okay. That his wife stressed him out so much. He became an IV drug user. Got it. Bacterial endocarditis, and then developed a heart murmur. But that just escalated. That’s a comedic mind. That’s not what actually happened. 

Will: Mike, that was the rest of the story.

Did you? You gotta let me finish these things. 

Kristin: He has excellent foresight. 

Will: Wow. You’re like a fortune teller today. my goodness. . But if that’s, that doesn’t like tell you that you gotta, you know, you know, work with this patient population. That’s why I love older adults so much. They, they just will pull stuff like that out of their hat.

Uh, okay. fan. And there was no endocarditis associated with it, which is great. Um, alright. Amazing second story comes from Cass. So Cassidy worked as an MA in her dad’s [00:48:00] surgical office and clinical office to build up some experience before starting PA school. Uh, and she was taking out a patient’s stitches after a laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

And her dad had already explained to the patient that he had to lay low for a couple of weeks to let the abdominal muscles heal. No heavy lifting, no strenuous exercise, all that stuff. Well, this patient was apparently too embarrassed to ask my dad a very serious surgeon with very little time a pressing question.

So he asked me, the ma and his daughter of about the same age. Hmm. Um, I’m getting married soon and do you know when my fiancee and I will be able to have sex again? I had never had anybody ask me that before. So I said I’d ask, and I had asked my dad for the patient and he said, I don’t care what he does, as long as he doesn’t pull his stitches free, tell him if it hurts, he needs to stop

That’s, uh, you know, it’s funny and I had read that story initially. I I, it brought me back to the one time I actually had a patient ask me [00:49:00] after cataract surgery this one time, if there, it was okay to have sex after cataract surgery. And, um, that was as close to a, a sexual history I think I’ve had in quite a while.

So what was your advice? Uh, I, I said you can’t lift anything more than 30 pounds, that which, which is, that’s just my standard, like postop instructions. And I let the patient, uh, just extrapolate, just decide what that meant for them. Okay. Yeah. Um, 

Dr Mike: but, uh, I, I could see why you want in that 

Will: direction. Yeah.

Uh, you, you probably have a lot of, a lot more sensitive conversations around sex than I do in my line of. For sure, 

Dr Mike: and also I unfortunately have to do a lot of pre-surgical, pre-operative clearances for cataract surgery, and for some reason, all of these ophthalmology practices require EKGs and all of these things that are not mandatory.

Will: Was I really hoping you weren’t gonna bring that up because it [00:50:00] is a bit embarrassing for No, it’s okay. Now I will say, like, I never send people for EKGs. I, I, honestly, I wish that would go away. Now I do send people for cardiac clearance. And the argument you’ll get, by the 

Dr Mike: way, one thing Exactly. Cause you use lidocaine and you’re worried about arrhythmias or something.

Will: Uh, it’s, it’s, well, listen, our surgeries, there are minimally invasive surgeries. Last almost six minutes. All right. How do, how, how am I supposed to know if a patient can tolerate minimal sedation with that? It’s five milligrams of verse said it, not, not, not five one milligram. But anyway, I was gonna say, um, you’re putting people to sleep.

Uh, yeah, that’s, no. Yeah. We don’t want that. We don’t want that. Um, but one thing I, I changed at my practice with social media is I stopped saying cardiac clearance, and I started saying a pre-operative risk assessment. Mm, okay. Which I guess just I, can I give you a better one? What’s that? Oh, please.

Dr Mike: Pre-surgical optimization. That’s good. That’s good. That’s what these are. That’s [00:51:00] good. Yeah, it’s, I can’t prevent the patient from having risk, but I can lower their risk by optimizing them for the surgery. 

Will: I love it. I love it. And it’s got a nice positive spin on it too. Yeah. And everybody, if you’re an ophthalmologist listening to this, stop ordering the preop EKGs

Or what is, what good is that gonna do? It’s it, you know, we don’t need that. All right. Well, thank you to, uh, Efrat and Cassidy for your stories. You can send us yours, knock, knock high@humancontent.com. Dr. Mike, thank you so much for being here. Um, and so before we go, uh, I wanna say, you know, thank you for the advocacy again that you’ve done around chest compressions.

As someone who has been saved by chest compressions, that’s a big deal and we need more physicians talking about it because there is, there are very few interventions that have the kind of success that anybody can. And that’s, that’s, um, it’s such a valuable thing. So thank you for focusing on that. And I 

Kristin: would just add my 2 cents that I’ve always gotta add when we’re talking about chest compressions, [00:52:00] which is, you know, don’t forget about the people that do the chest compressions, because often those are not trained medical professionals.

Those are just everyday people and often they’re doing it on their loved ones. That’s a very, very traumatic experience. And you see and hear and feel things that you are not prepared to. Um, and right now there’s just not a lot of support out there for, for those people that, that do that. So don’t forget about those people and, and providing the support that they need as well.

Dr Mike: You’re absolutely right. 

Will: So tell us, what, what do you have coming up? What do you want people to know about. Check 

Dr Mike: out my podcast where we interview interesting folks, um, from non-health space. We have athletes, politicians, actors, comedians, really exciting conversations about not just physical health, but mental health as well.

So I’m really excited about the podcast called The Checkup with myself. 

Will: I’ve, I’ve, I’ve seen, uh, some clips of it on social media. It’s, I I saw the clip. You did? Uh, you posted one recently. [00:53:00] Um, with, uh, oh my gosh, the name’s blanking. Tony Hill. Tony Hale. Yes. Tony Hill. See what you, that was amazing. That was awesome.

Nice job. Yeah, 

Dr Mike: he’s awesome. And such an empathetic soul. So it, it was great sharing that story 

Will: with him. It was a good conversation about Jessica 

Dr Mike: compressions when someone That’s right. Should stop chest 

Will: compressions. So Yeah. Yeah. Important stuff. Uh, and then, you know, if people, if you look hard enough, you can find Dr.

Mike on social media. It’s, you might really have to dig. It’s a little bit tough. Uh, he is out there in the corner of the internet, um, . So check him out on, you’re on YouTube. You’re pretty much everywhere, right? Instagram, YouTube, Twitter. Well, thanks again for your time. It was a pleasure talking to you.

Appreciate 

Dr Mike: you guys.

Will: Well, that was great talking Dr. Mike. Yeah, that’s good. Yeah. Uh, it’s, um, uh, He’s got such a, a, a big following and I like what he’s doing, you know, with education in particular, um, to Yeah, it’s so important. Yeah. Especially to a non-medical, you know, audience 

Kristin: and stuff. And like you said, [00:54:00] it’s not always easy to do.

You get a lot of pushback and a lot of criticism and the internet is not a very friendly place sometimes. So kudos to him for, for sticking it out and doing that. Yes. 

Will: You got, you gotta have a thick skin and, um, and especially, I mean, his, his platform, he’s got, you know, 10 million subscribers on YouTube and so I, you know, I can imagine, you know, there’s a lot of stuff that he has to deal with, you know, with that.

And so, um, but anyway, yeah. That was awesome. Yeah, good talking with him. Uh, thank you for the stories also. And if you have your own stories to share, we would love to hear ’em, uh, have you thoughts about our conversations with Dr. Mike or other guests. Um, you know, what’d you think about ophthalmology?

Trivia? Do you want me to subject more guests, , to answering questions about eyeballs because I would love it. Please tell me to do more of that. Uh, there are many ways to hit us up. You can email us, knock knock high human content.com. Visit us on TikTok, YouTube, Twitter. Uh, uh, uh, we [00:55:00] have, uh, you can hang out with us in our human podcast, human Always Said, human.

Human Content. Human Content Podcast, family on Instagram and TikTok at Human Content Pods. Uh, thank you to all the great listeners leaving wonderful feedback and reviews. If you subscribe and comment on your favorite podcasting app or on YouTube, we can give you a shoutout. So we had, uh, nuts about medicine, uh, nuts About Me.

Great name, that’s about medicine on Apple said, thank you for humanizing what has become a non-human. Um, of healthcare, of our healthcare system. And thank you for getting the most depressing field of medicine out of the way on your first podcast, . 

Kristin: That being, you might be referring to, uh, the oncology podcast referring 

Will: to Dr.

Dr. Des, Dr. Des and the oncologist. That being said, having lost both parents to cancer, we’d need more. Dr. Dess and I could not absolutely agree more. Yes, sometimes where it’ll be sillier on this podcast, sometimes it’ll be a little bit more serious. I like to give you, cuz that’s what medicine [00:56:00] is. Yeah.

Honestly, that’s what life is. That’s what life, that’s what everything is. Uh, a little bit of serious, a little bit of fun. All right. And, uh, a full episodes of this podcast are on YouTube every week at my YouTube channel at d Glock fl. Uh, also join our Patreon Tons of Cool Perks bonus episodes where we react to medical shows and movies.

You can hang out with, uh, members of the Knock-Knock High Community. We are active in it. I, I posted a video answering some questions last week. Uh, it was great and love interacting with everybody over there. Early ad free episode Access, interactive q and a livestream events. Much more coming as well.

patreon.com/glock flein or go to Glock and flein.com. Speaking of Patreon, community Perks, we have new members. New members, Derek in, um, RA ra, sex RA six something. Uh, I’m sorry if I mispronounce these, you know, they’re, they’re handles. I, I’m not sure, you know, I do my best. I do. My, Amy and Shannon [00:57:00] also shout out to the Jonathans.

We have a pack of Jonathans now. Patrick, Lucia, c Sharon s Omer. Edward. K Abby, h Stephen, g Ros Box. Jonathan f Marion, W Doc, Mr. Granddaddy, Caitlin, C Brianna, l and Becky. 

Kristin: I love that we have a Jonathan named Jonathan. 

Will: Oh, that’s true. We do. Jonathan. Named Jonathan. Uh, it’s, it’s a little bit meta. All right. Now for Patreon Roulette, this is, uh, you know, for people who sign up as an emergency physician on our Patreon, uh, you, we will shout you out a random member of, of that tier.

So, uh, Patreon Roulette. Here we go. That’s my, that’s my drum roll. Yeah. Yeah. Is that pretty good? That’s pretty good. That’s pretty good. Shout out to human. Why human? Why? I hope I’m saying that correctly. Human. Why? For being a Patreon. We appreciate you. Hope you’re having a great day. Uh, next we have diagnosis improv.

So this is a new thing we’re [00:58:00] doing. Uh, so, um, I, I, if you’re so on Patreon, if you’re, I think it’s the pediatrician, Uh, if you’re the, if you are a pediatrician on our Patreon, uh, and you can send us a word, a made up word, any word you want that’s safe for work, and we will read that word and try to come up with a diagnosis.

Ooh. Or a definition or just basically, what is that word you just gave to us? And so we have one today, uh, from Omer. He gave us the word proctor. Nostrum proc. Nasstrom nostrum. It does, that does sound like a medical term. It does. 

Kristin: What do you think? It’s, I think it would be when your butt grows a nose. 

Will: Hmm.

Kristin: It’s a condition that’s in which you have a butt 

Will: nose. Oh. That would, um, is, is it a functional nose? Well, or 

Kristin: is it, or is it like, it don’t think you want a nose, [00:59:00] like a tumor on your butt. So I, I, I don’t. I don’t know. It doesn’t seem good. I don’t, I don’t think it’s desirable. 

Will: Nose on your butt. Oh man. What the, what a bad place to have.

It would 

Kristin: be bad . 

Will: It would be unfortunate. I’m just gonna, I like yours better. I was gonna go with Proctor nostrum being that, um, that everything you smell, uh, smells like, but smells like butt , , like that. Like somehow all like the neurons that go from your olfactory, you know, uhhuh system to your brain to somehow get rewired into butt smell.

Kristin: Yeah, that also would be unfortunate. Neither related 

Will: conditions. Proctor Nostrum. There you go. Thank you Omer for that. Thank you all for listening. We are your host Will and Kristen Flannery, also known as the Glock Flecks. Special thanks to our guest today, Dr. Mike Varshavsky. Our executive producers are Will Flannery.

Kristen Flannery. Aron Korney. Rob [01:00:00] Goldman. Shahnti Brooke. Our editor and engineer is Jason Porto. Our music is by Omer Ben-Zvi. To learn about our nun knock highs program, dis class singing it nun knock highs because I cuz I like the intro so much. It’s a good, I sometimes sing it. That’s a good intro. Um, uh, to learn about our program, disclaimer and ethics policy submission verification, licensing terms and HIPAA release terms, you can go to guam plugin.com or reach out to us nun knock high@humancontent.com with any questions, concerns, or jokes.

Yeah, you can send us jokes. Mm-hmm. , I’ll always love a good joke. Knock, knock High is a human content production.

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