Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Is Noise Ointment a Waste of Time?

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

Just in time for The Prom season, Justin and Dr. Sydnee bring your weird summer medical questions! Do other citrus fruits affect medication, or is it really just grapefruits? Why do hiccups happen so sporadically? Do carrots actually give you good vision? Can a broken finger fully heal by itself? Plus, an update on vaccines in the United States.Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/Transgender Law Center: https://transgenderlawcenter.org/

Sawbones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, this one is about some books. One, two, one, two, three, four.

Two, three, we came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert.

We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert.

We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. We came across a farm in the middle of the desert. Hello everybody and welcome to Sawbones, a marital tour of misguided medicine. For the mouth. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Sawbones, a marital tour of misguided medicine. I'm your co-host, Justin McElroy. And I'm Sydney McElroy. And I'm tired of it. I'm tired of doing musical, making musical magic. I don't want to do it anymore.

It's a lot of fun. It's just a lot of work. Yeah, that's why we missed last week. Do you understand that? We're too so busy making magic. That was actually like, it was my fault. I was on tour, I forgot. Yeah, you're on tour and I was at rehearsal every night

and raising our children and being a physician. Yeah. So I was doing all those things, but you were on tour. So you did one thing. That's why you're my shero. No, we're sorry we missed last week. We're very happy to be back this week. We are in the midst of directing and producing

and building set for and designing and painting, yada yada yada, a musical called The Prom. Yeah, it's really good. And I'm gonna do this plug right up top. I'm gonna say, hey, if you this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, or next Friday, Saturday and Sunday, will come to the Huntington and Ritter Park Amphitheater, you can come, there's a pre-show at 7.30?

Seven. Seven? It's at seven. It's at seven? Just check the website. It's at seven. Okay, we got a pre-show at seven? We weren't in charge of that.

That's not our department. And then our show starts at 8.30. Bring food, bring a chair, bring drinks, bring whatever you want. It's a really good time. It's a lot of fun. We'll be there, come say hi. People come in to every single one of these shows

from all parts all over and they have a really good time. I hope to see all of our friends from Columbus and all parts unknown, Cincinnati. We've had people vote in color. Is Cincinnati parts unknown? No, parts unknown is separate from Cincinnati. Right, I was gonna say. That's like a chiller coffee.

Other scene names, Ohio cities. I feel like for those of us living in Huntington, Cincinnati is known. It's big. It's where you go for Kings Island, it's where you go for Great Wolf Lodge, it's where you go for concerts when you're young and you live in Huntington.

It's a big, fun musical. It's a great story. We've got so many really good performers in it and it makes me cry every night and it makes me laugh several times and I think you're gonna love it. It's a really beautiful story. It's great for Pride Month.

Again, it is an outdoor amphitheater, so if you come bring a blanket or chairs or something where you'll be sitting on the grass. And an umbrella. Just in case. Just in case. Just in cases. If you wanna get tickets, and you do,

go to, you're not gonna believe this URL said, you're finding this out for the first time, you ready? Heartprom.com, H-A-R-T, is the name of the group. H-A-R-T. Heartprom.com. Yeah, and I should mention Justin and I don't make money off of this. We don't get paid for doing it.

It's volunteer, we do it. We just want you to come cause it's a great show and our actors worked really hard and we want you to see this great show. we do it. We just want you to come, because it's a great show, and our actors worked really hard, and we want you to see this great show. That's it. That's the benefit. And when people come from far away, and they make a big deal about us,

it makes the cast think that we are a big deal. So it's for Justin's ego. That's what we need. We don't need money, we need. We need, yeah, thank you. Anyway, this week into next, please come out. It's really fun. We need the support.

We need butts in seats so we could use your presence. Your presence would be a great present. Thank you. All right, Sid, what else we got to do today on Sawbones? Well, Justin, we're gonna answer some of your weird medical questions is what we're gonna do. Mine? Not yours. Finally.

Well, you ask them as if they're yours, but that's, no, they're not yours. But before we do that, I did want a brief update. I promised I would try to any major health medical, medical health science, you know what I'm saying, news to share and just make sure people are aware of what's happening. I would say the most important thing is that the Secretary for Health and Human Services, RFK Jr., on this just happened on June 9th, fired all the members of the Vaccine Advisory Committee for the CDC. So, what does that mean?

So, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, A-C-I-P, is the panel of experts that's made up of epidemiologists and pediatricians and vaccine scientists, infectious disease doctors, all the people who know about vaccines. And it is a panel that is, it is appointed by administrations, by presidential administrations. Many of the members of the panel that just got fired

were appointed by the Biden administration, which I think is what he's trying to use as his criteria for firing them. But it is not, in essence, it is not a political body, while it is appointed by- None of this should be political. No, it is not political. These are people who know about vaccines

who then convene meetings to decide what our immunization recommendations as the CDC should be. So that is where we get the childhood immunization schedule. So you can look that up online. There's a schedule and it's color coded. And if you're this age, you get this. And if you have these, whatever, you get this. And it has, you know, you can look up this, and if you have these, whatever, you get this, and it has,

you know, you can look up this chart. This is where these charts come from, this panel of experts meeting regularly to make updated recommendations when there are new vaccines, when there are new pandemics, for instance, to add them or change them depending on the needs of society at this time. So he fired them all, saying that it was because they were politically

motivated and that they have ties to big pharma and financial conflicts. A lot of this is not true. A lot of this is conspiracy theory based on RFKs on personal beliefs about big pharmas, undue influence on vaccines specifically, and the absolute myth that physicians make a ton of money off of having you immunized or that someone is making tons of money. Obviously, people who make vaccines make money off of immunizations. But generally speaking, this is not the profit center of medicine. There are those. It is not immunizations.

Anyway, they've all been fired. There is a meeting later in June. No new members of this panel have been appointed yet. He stated that this meeting will happen. I think it's on like the 25th or something. I don't know how the meeting will happen when we do not have anybody on ASIP at the moment. So he will be, the president will be appointing them.

I'm thinking a bunch of hastily appointed people who do not know what they're talking about specifically planted there with the intent of making our country worse. That's it, that's actually, there's not, yeah. No, I mean, we have to imagine that they will be people whose views on vaccines align with RFK Junior's, which is that he is a vaccine denier.

He consistently undermines the science and evidence behind vaccines that says repeatedly they are safe and effective. So obviously everyone is very concerned. I think this is very alarming. It doesn't change the facts about the vaccines, right? What like we've still the immunization schedule that stands should still stand.

And we can certainly continue to recommend that as healthcare professionals and as parents, you can make those and guardians, you can make those choices. I think the concern is going to be that if they're not covered by insurance because they're not recommended by the CDC, then you can't afford them perhaps.

And perhaps these pharmaceutical companies stop making so many because if nobody can afford them, it's not worth making them. So you can see where there is concern. In the meantime, I would not make any healthcare decisions. I would not trust this new panel at the moment to make good decisions for us, but we will see who is appointed. We can make our own decisions at that point, but I do think that's worth being aware of.

Can we update? Yeah, we will update once new panel members are appointed and we know who they are and what they're, and there are no beliefs on vaccines. There's science and there's evidence and they're safe and effective. So let's answer some weird medical questions. I got a question for you.

Hi, Dr. Sydney and Justin. I'm working my way through the backlog of sawbones and recently listened to the grapefruit episode. I was wondering if other citrus fruits affect medications in the same way. When I was a kid, I had to take iron supplements, but apparently wasn't absorbing them well, so the doctor told my mom to give them to me with orange juice. What about lemons and limes? Should folks on medications be wary of all citrus? And then that's from Katie, and Katie doesn't ask about the obvious question of rickets,

but I will, and scurvy, but I'll be the one to ask. Well, those are related questions, yes. Everybody's wondering about scurvy. If we cut them out, what about our scurvy? Well, yes, we should. Cut out the limes, the scurvy will follow, that's what I say. That's true, Justin.

Well, I mean, there are probably other ways. There are definitely other ways. We could get vitamin C. They sent me back in time. We can get vitamin C now. If they sent me back in time to Pirate Times, I would do the scurvy thing, and everybody would be like, that's my dude.

Like, this guy, we're gonna start a whole religion around this guy, what a genius, what else you got for us? This garbage thing was great, what else do you have? And I would go, so I would really try to be like, ah crap, I should have remembered other stuff that was easier to remember. Like look for, there's some trees around that cure malaria if you guys can find them.

Why, if you're going back in time anyway, why wouldn't you just take these, like why wouldn't you take antibiotics with you? And- Because I'm not gonna find them. Why, if you're going back in time anyway, why wouldn't you just take these, like why wouldn't you take antibiotics with you? And- Cause I'm not gonna get them hooked on it and then I don't have any more. I don't know how to make more. I went back in time, I can't go back and forth.

The limes is easy. Cause I can be like, you guys heard of limes? No? Ah, crap. Okay, well limes is from another country. You go get them, you don't get them anymore. Well, I think if you're gonna go back in time, I mean, the lime thing is good, that's a good one.

But also like, wash your hands and water can carry disease if it's not clean. I know what they did to the guy who said wash your hands. I'm not gonna end up like Civil Wise, I don't need that. Listen, the lime guy wasn't, I mean like, that was a problem too. And look, we're still arguing over fluoride, Justin. This stuff never ends.

Man, hey gosh, too true. So, you know, I had never thought, I know grapefruit is an issue. We've done a whole episode on how, because of the things in grapefruit, it can interact with some medications, and we've done a whole episode on it. The other one that I knew was an issue was cranberries and warfarin.

Warfarin is a blood thinner, also known as Coumadin. You may have heard it. Anyway, it interacts with a lot of things because vitamin K can counteract it. So you have to worry. Anyway, cranberry and warfarin was one. So I think those are the only two that we consider like really clinically significant

and worth warning you about. Now, that being said, I looked this up. There are other fruits that can cause interactions. A lot of citrus fruits, but oranges, pomelos, pomegranates, grapes, apples, as I mentioned, cranberry. There's a lot. I mean, also in like jams and concentrates, juices, all these things technically do have components that can interact with medications.

Now none of them in such an amount that we consider it worth warning you, right? We don't tell you like, hey, when you start your medicine, stay away from pomelos. But it is interesting, like potentially, I guess if you had a diet, this would be one of those things, this is like a house case. If somebody comes in and their medicine,

suddenly they're becoming like super therapeutic or not responding to their medication anymore. And then you found out that they like went on some wild pomegranate only diet and they've been eating nothing but raw pomegranate for like days on end. Pomegranates? But I think barring that sort of hyperbole,

generally speaking, we don't consider the other ones a problem, but they do, they do. There is a potential for interactions, but not to the extent of the almighty grapefruit. Thank you, thank you. Hi, Dr. Sydney. How come sometimes you don't have the hiccups for months and then you get them like six times in two days?

Or is it just me? Is there anything you can do to prevent hiccups? That's from Tired of Hiccuping from Kirsten. So I really liked this question because I read it and Cooper had had, I don't know if you noticed this, Justin, she had hiccups. A lot. Like three times the other day. Yeah, it was crazy.

So generally speaking, and we've done, I know we've done a whole episode on hiccups, I love talking about hiccups, because the best thing about hiccups are hiccup cures. Yes, I have lost some of my taste for this, I think because I fixed hiccups. So, as someone who has solved the, let's call it hiccup issue,

I get a little bit insufferable when the topic comes up. How do you solve, how do you cure hiccups, Justin? Do you want me to skip right to the real answer, like the true final solution to hiccups? Well, the question wasn't how do you cure hiccups. So if you'd like to go ahead and tell us how you, I was gonna talk about how you prevent hiccups. Oh, well, if you mess up and you get them.

Yeah. You bend over, and I think we've probably talked about this before on our last hiccup thing, but since then I've solved it. This is permanent. You stand up. Okay, imagine yourself standing and then you pour yourself a cup of water Okay Now you want to bend over as far as you possibly can like you want to fold yourself in half, right? As much as you can right and now that you're doing that you're gonna get the cup

You're gonna bring it down to where you're at and you're're gonna drink it from the wrong side, from the side that feels weird to drink it from right now. But you're gonna basically drink upside down, and when you do this and you take a few gulps that way, your hiccups will be gone. That's not a threat, Sydney. It works every time. Sydney, have you ever seen it?

Back me up, don't be suspicious of me, back me up. It does work, it does work. No, it works, it works. Well, I can't, I don't have the science to say every time. I don't have the science to say that. I love that, no, no, no, I love that. You do the science thing, I love that, I love that for you. So there are, generally speaking,

we know hiccups are these little spasms of your diaphragm. Big muscle, helps you breathe. Why would you get a bunch of them back to back? Well, they can be triggered by things like if you eat or drink really quickly. You get air, like an air bubble. Yeah, so like that, yeah, so when we talk about, when we talk about hiccup prevention,

one good way to prevent them is to slow down if you're eating or drinking. You can also, there are some things that tend to be triggers like carbonated beverages or alcohol, for instance. And so if you're getting a run of them back to back, like did you drink that day? I mean there may be some sort of, there's probably some sort of extenuating factor

that would contribute to you getting hiccups a bunch, whereas maybe you don't for a while because you're not engaging in whatever that behavior is. But we don't have, but there's not like, there's no physical element of this where like air is trapped somewhere, right? Like the fizziness is not like... No.

Because it can feel that way, but it's not. No, it's not like that. It's just, I mean, because they're typically they're harmless, they're temporary, they come randomly and they go randomly, or you use Justin's Surefire Hiccup Cure and they go away. It fails. And it's not, I mean, if they are persistent, if you get hiccups and they do not go away, there can be other more insidious causes and you should go get that checked out.

Generally speaking, that's not true about hiccups, right? I don't want everybody to freak out about hiccups. Most of the time, hiccups are entirely benign, but there can be, and I mean, even like we find it associated with times of like great stress or like stress activation could lead to more spasms of diaphragm and more cases of hiccups. So these could all be reasons why maybe you have

a bunch of hiccups for a couple of days and then you don't have hiccups for a long stretch. Generally speaking, again, don't worry. Not a problem. Most of the time, hiccups are entirely benign and will go away on their own. Or if you wanna try what Justin recommended, you go for it. Next question.

Well, Justin, I would love to answer the next question. What? But before we do that. We had a lot of preamble, didn't we, Sid? Yes, we must go to the billing department. Let's go. The medicines, the medicines That escalate my cough for the mouth

Okay, next question. Hi, Dr. McElroy and Justin. I've been wondering about antibiotic ointment. Does it actually have any effect in keeping cuts from getting infected? Should it go on things other than cuts like rashes? When, slash, how often should it be applied? Let's do that one first.

This listener had two questions, and I wanna take them one. They're both good questions. Okay. Okay. This is something that I find really fascinating and I actually I talk about it a lot in the work I do at Harmony House because antibiotic ointment can sometimes, I think we take that for granted that a lot of us who are housed have a tube of some sort of over-the-counter

antibiotic ointment in a drawer, a crusty tube in a drawer somewhere. Rusty old tube. You know, you know you do. Also check the expiration date. I'm not big on expiration dates in general. I don't really pay attention to them much. A lot of them are nonsense. I mean, a lot of them are just made up.

I mean, literally made up. We've talked about this with medications too. But when it comes to gels and liquids and creams and things like that, they do other things. It's not just about the medicine in it. They did the other compounds. Or yeah, you look for, it's a real eye-opener when you start, when you learn about that little like 12M

or however many months symbol on a lot of the things that you open like that? There's a symbol just like- Or like makeup and stuff. Makeup, yeah, specifically. Let's like throw it away. Throw this away. Well, and for makeup, they can like harbor bacteria

and stuff like that. The tubes, the creams, they do weird things. So like check those. Anyway, also maybe you don't need antibiotic ointment. So this is an area of medicine where we've kind of evolved our thinking. We often will just jump to, if you get a superficial cut or scrape,

go grab your tube of, and some brand names you may have are like Basitracin or Neosporin, or you may have like the generic brands of antibiotic ointment, triple antibiotic ointment, that's very common. And you throw some of that on there to prevent any bacteria from accumulating in the cut or scrape. However, we now think that you probably don't need that,

and in fact, yes, in fact, you may actually have a reaction to some of the components that are in triple antibiotic ointment specifically that would be counterproductive, that would actually cause some inflammation in the cut and slow healing. You've been banging his drum forever. Since we've been together,

you've been having me put antibiotic ointment on. Well, most of the time it won't do anything bad or good. I mean, none of us react to it. You can understand me feeling a little bit misled by that. I understand, I understand. Well, this is a new area of medicine. I had read a study where they head to head, if you use plain old petroleum jelly,

Vaseline petroleum jelly, versus antibiotic ointment on a cut, what heals faster, and there's really no improvement with the additional antibiotic in the ointment. The thing that helps you most is the vehicle that the antibiotic ointment is delivered in, the petroleum jelly. That seems to be the thing that is most beneficial

to put on a cut to help cover the area, to seal in moisture, to prevent external things, germs and dirt and whatnot from getting into the cut. That seems to be what is actually beneficial, not so much the antibiotic component. And like I said, there are specific things in the antibiotic ointment that some people have reaction to like Neomycin or Polymycin.

And in those cases, you may actually be making things worse. Plus there was a more recent study that suggested, I thought this was really interesting. This was a study from 2021 that was looking at, do we need some of the bacteria that are in the cut to help it heal? Like is there some bacteria induced skin regeneration via IL1B signaling is the name of the study.

I don't expect you to go find it and read it. But the point is- I already read it. So I wouldn't waste my time with it at reading it again. It's gonna be boring out of the ending. Maybe some of those bacteria actually help a little. So like when you get a cut or scrape, you should wash it out like we always recommend, right?

We go wash it out, especially if it was dirty, go wash it out. Go wash it out. But if it's just a superficial cut or scrape, you may not really need antibiotic ointment. Some petroleum jelly would probably be fine. Just a barrier. Yeah, and we may be evolving our thinking

that moving forward, and we may be evolving our thinking that moving forward, and that's a lot easier for me to recommend to people, I have lots of packs of that that I can hand out to people and say like, hey, you don't necessarily need to keep coating this in antibiotic ointment. Once it's cleaned out,

once the initial cut has been cleaned, you can just put this petroleum jelly on it. So this is an area of medicine we're evolving. I'm not saying throw away your antibiotic ointment. I'm not saying everybody go clear out your, obviously if they're not saying eat it. No, I'm do not eat it But we may at some point have a standard recommendation You know what just put petroleum jelly on it and most of the time we don't need that stuff And if you're if it seems to be making your cut worse

You may be reacting to some of the components in it and you don't need it also My mom used to make me eat carrots saying it made my eyesight better. Given that I had to get glasses in the second grade despite eating so many carrots, I'm inclined to believe that isn't true. Can carrots make your eyesight better or at least slow the decline of vision?

Why do we think carrots help with vision, Justin? Well, it's because I've never seen a rabbit wearing glasses. Did you you really? I, Justin. Did I mess up? No, that was great. What what is in what is in carrots? Do you know what is in carrots?

Vitamin D, orange, no, beta carotene, beta carotene D, orange, beta carotene. Beta carotene, vitamin A. Beta carotene or vitamin A. Vitamin A. So yes, that is why carrots have this reputation for being good for your eyesight because vitamin A is in carrots. Now vitamin A is in lots of things, right?

Carrots are one vehicle to deliver vitamin A to you. Vitamin A is in other things. But we need a certain amount of vitamin A to maintain vision. Vitamin A deficiency is a major cause of vision loss across the globe, especially in areas of the world where obtaining nutrition, getting a wide range of foods,

all of your vitamin, all of those necessary components can be a challenge, then we do see cases of people becoming blind because of vitamin A deficiency. So absolutely vitamin A is a big component of maintaining good vision. Now, I think what is interesting, carrots specifically, because whenever we get to something like this, like, okay, so we need vitamin A, but why carrots?

It's kind of like the whole, like, if you need potassium, what do we tell you? You gotta eat banana. Eat a banana, that's what we always say, right? But bananas are not necessarily the most potassium rich food, they're not. There are lots of foods that have potassium. A lot of times people just eat banana.

Yeah, I don't know, I mean, we just go to banana. I think it's like something you could like hand to somebody where like, here, eat this, it's a banana. It's good, most people like it, whatever. Maybe that's why carrot, vitamin A. There, I looked for a study. Is there a study where we've actually looked at carrots, not just vitamin A?

There are tons of studies out there that support vitamin A is essential for vision. Taking vitamin A supplements will maintain healthy vision and kind can help improve vision if you're in it. What about carrots specifically? Specifically carrots. There was a randomized study in 2005 which looked at consumption of 4.5 ounces of cooked carrots six days a week. I don't know why they had to be cooked. It's a lot.

Why did it have to be cooked? I don't know. You wouldn't need cooked. It's a lot. Why they had to be cooked? I don't know. You wouldn't need them. I know you wouldn't need them. Oh God, what's worse? How do you ruin a carrot faster? And they put it up against other vitamin A rich foods, fortified rice, amaranth leaf, goat liver to address.

Amaranth leaf, why is that? I was gonna say, why is that familiar? I think it's from a court of Florida roses. Yeah, I think that's what you're thinking. Yeah, I think that's what you're thinking. And it was specifically looking at night blindness in women who were pregnant. The result was that everything did the same. But you know what beat them all?

A vitamin A supplement. So. Yeah, that's always a problem, isn't it? Vitamins make it so tricky. Well, it's a standard amount. You know exactly how much people are taking. It's easier when we can, the thing, it's why, we talk about this a lot. It's why with like herbal, the idea of herbal medications,

if we can, we don't give you, we don't tell you to eat foxglove if we think you need digoxin because we have synthesized the active component, the digitaus, the digoxin in a lab, and we have just a controlled amount of exactly what you need instead of like eat the plant. Would you mind writing all that down for me

in case I do run into any old timey people, just so I'm like not completely caught with my pants down? So don't, yeah, I'll put, don't eat the foxglove, make digoxin. So yes, carrots are good for you in the sense that they have vitamin A, but as long as you're getting plenty of vitamin A, you don't necessarily have to eat carrots specifically.

And I will say that there is no evidence at this point that carrots will give you like supervision. You know what I mean? Like we're not- What's the point? It's not like you continue, the graph doesn't keep going up. Like the more carrots you eat, the better your vision until eventually you have x-ray vision.

Like that won't happen. But vitamin A is important for good vision. Okay, fine. So is the next question about how you do get supervision? I don't have that answer. I get you supervision. Hi Dr. Sydney and Justin. I have a few weird medical questions,

so feel free to take your pick. Jokes on you, we're gonna do them all. One, when I have a few weird medical questions, so feel free to take your pick. Jokes on you. We're gonna do them all. One, when I was young, during airplane flights, my mom would put Neosporin on the inside of my mind of my brother's nostrils to prevent us from getting sick. Was this doing anything at all, or did I endure that gross goo up my nose for nothing?

Well, I thought in light of our previous question, Justin, you would be able to answer this. Uh, it's just a barrier. In light of our previous question, Justin, you would be able to answer this. It's just a barrier. Yeah. Well, and also, I don't know what that would do. I don't know what that would do. I wouldn't know.

Neosporin has antibiotic components in it, as we've talked about. They can kill bacteria. But if we're worried about viruses. Your mom was wasting your time, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I don't know that that would do it. I don't have a reason that it would hurt you. I do think it is interesting.

There is a protocol we use, so this is related. This isn't this. I don't recommend to people to do this. I don't know what it would do. But there is a protocol we use if we think someone is colonized with MRSA, commonly called MRSA, methicillin-resistant staph, lacaucus, aureus.

Less commonly if you're just trying to stunt on your podcast. It's called that. I tell people it's super staph. When people are like, I'm really scared of MRSA, it's a staph infection that's really resistant. Oh, that's a good,

so you make it a little bit easier for, less scary by calling it super staph. It's just, it's staph, it's a staph infection that's really resistant. Like a super, oh, that's a good, so you make it a little bit easier for, less scary by calling it super staph. It's just super staph. Okay, thanks. It's just really hard to kill staph. But we have antibiotics that kill it. I have lots of antibiotics that kill it. Don't brag.

I have buckets of it. Stop bragging. Buckets, don't worry. But there is a protocol we can use where we take a specific kind of ointment, not Neosporin, Neosporin won't cut it. We use something, a prescription, Mupiracin, or Bactriban is the brand name.

Sounds like Basitracin, but it's not. It's called Bactriban, it's a Mupiracin ointment you can put inside your nose. There's a specific protocol we follow. You do it a couple times a day for five days. And anyway, that will help reduce the amount because that's where MRSA lives. It lives inside your nostrils.

And so if you do this, hopefully we could decolonize you. There's also a newer swabby thing they do in the hospitals. But the point is we do that and that does reduce the amount of MRSA in people and can sometimes decolonize them. Then those of us who work in healthcare often end up colonized again, wah, wah. But that is a use for a type of antibiotic ointment

in your nose. However, knee is born on a plane in your nose, I don't really have a good reason for. Sorry. But there's another question, maybe this one, and listen, don't feel bad about your parents' waste of your time. If my dad has wasted so much of my time and continues to, don't feel bad, that's' waste of your time. If you're, my dad has wasted so much of my time

and continues to, don't feel bad, that's just parents for you. Well, and we come from the generation of kids where like, I don't know about you, Justin, but I was given dimetap all the time. Our parents didn't have the internet, so like, they were just going off of whatever they heard from at the grocery store, I guess.

Yeah, and like, that wasn't good, I mean, we know now, we know better now. When I was a kid, I was playing tetherball and I severely jammed my finger on the ball I didn't tell anyone to go to the doctor for some reason and my finger was swollen for about two weeks I know you can't diagnose anything, but I'm feeling like I might have broken my finger I have zero mobility issues now is it possible for a broken figure to heal fully on its own? It is yes if you if you have a non displaced fracture It can heal on its own meaning that like the bones are all still where they need to be

There's just like a crack or something. Yeah, they can't heal on its own. I do not recommend that I don't I don't recommend that I think my fingers broken. I'll just see what happens I will say that it you probably did just jam it more than likely I don't know can't say can't say but it is quite possible that it was a jam or what I what we call here in West Virginia Stove a stove you stowed your finger when you when you compress The joint very quickly, you know, I mean you can you can picture what I'm you're jamming the tip of your finger on something It like stretches those you know what it is to jam everything around the joint and it can, sometimes it can even tear them

if it's a hard enough jam or stove. And it can take a while to heal. It can be quite painful and it can, you know, temporarily limit some of the mobility. You can have swelling, all of that, and then it will heal in a couple of weeks. So it could have been a jam. It is possible.

Our bodies do heal breaks on their own, but I would not count on that. If you think something's broken broken go get it checked out How quickly do veins heal after an IV slash blood draw last year? I was having a weird medical problem as a result I had two separate blood draws over the course of two weeks my skin had healed over between each blood draw But I wondering if my veins healed just as quickly It seemed odd to be poking so many holes in such a short time period

I think so there's two different things. One, if we're talking about like a standard venipuncture, which means you just inserted the needle through the skin into one side of the vein, took blood out of it, and then pulled it back out. The intima, the lining of the vein is gonna take like a week-ish, depending. There's some variability person to person,

and caliber of the needle and all that stuff. But it takes about a week to heal that hole. The thing is, you're almost certainly not going into the same exact place. You may even use the same vein, but you're not going to the same place in the vein. So it takes about a week for the intima of that to heal up. Now, obviously, it's not gonna be bleeding under the skin

continually there right like it clots over at this at the site so you're fine. It can take a little longer if the vessel is blown so I think that's another thing to consider then that is when it would what do you know what that means when we say the vessels blown No So instead of it's a tube right your veins a tube Instead of going into one side of the tube and coming right back out and that's it. We Poked all the way through. Okay, we poked a hole all the way through the tube. Does that make sense? Yeah, and then you can start having you know oozing under the skin

That's where you get bruising and swelling. Bruising and oozing. Yeah, and it's, you know, it's no fun. Again, that's gonna heal on its own, but that can take a little longer. So that can take, you know, 10 days, maybe even two weeks. But generally speaking, it takes about a week for it to heal. But you got lots, the veins, you got lots of space on there. So don't worry about it.

You can have multiple blood draws in a week and it's okay. You can always switch arms too. You know, Sydney, I don't know that Leah intended for us to ask all three of her questions, and in a way, Leah, I think we may have created too thorough of a biography for you by doing all three. It feels like, I feel like I have really a complete picture of Leah as a person.

I didn't really think about it. I thought they were all really good. They're all great, Leah, but it's just like, I feel like I know you so well at this point. You know what I mean? Well, I'm sorry. It's very intimate. Leah, if that was too revealing, I'm really sorry.

It was a, those were good. You gotta find questions that are interesting, weird, but I'm also not getting specific, right? Because I cannot be, this isn't just for you, Leah, this is for everyone out there, I cannot be your healthcare provider. That's you, Leah. Interesting, weird. I can't,

because this is a podcast. Sydney says, here's Sydney's review of you, Leah. It's interesting, weird, and non-specific. So thank you so much. No, they're thoughtful and clever and interesting. No, I mean these are good. They were all solid questions. You're all solid people.

Thank you. All our Sawboners are the best podcast listeners. I don't call you that. Justin calls you Sawboners. I refuse. Hey, once again, we're doing our show, heartprom.com, it's H-A-R-T, come on, see it. And it's this weekend and next.

And next weekend, if you are closer to Columbus, sorry, we're all over the place, if you're closer to Columbus, you can come see Sawbones before my brother, my brother and me, if we're gonna be performing there in Columbus, Ohio on, let me tell you the exact date, that's no problem for me, I'm a professional. It's June 19th, 7 p.m.

You go to bit.ly forward slash McElroy Live, bit.ly forward slash McElroy Tours, not McElroy Live, I made that one up. McElroy tours. You can come out and see us. And we'll be there. Thanks to the taxpayers for using their song, Medicines as the intro and outro of our program. And thanks to you for listening.

That's gonna do it for us. Till next time on Sawbones, my name is Justin McElroy. I'm Sydney McElroy. And as always, don't drill a hole in your head. All right! Maximum Fun, a workaround network of artist-owned shows, supported directly by you.