Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Your Goofiest Medical Questions: Answered

Episode Date: March 17, 2016

It's #MaxFunDrive time and Justin and Sydnee are marking the occasion with a special episode in which all of your goofiest, most embarrassing medical questions will be answered by Dr. Sydnee. The link to donate? Well, so happy you asked! Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers

Saubones 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. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, time is about to books. One, two, one, two, three, four. Hello everybody and welcome to Sobhones, a battle tour of Miss Guy to Medicine. I'm your co-host Justin McElroy. I'm Sydney McElroy.

It's Max Fun Drive this week and two weeks, I guess these next couple of episodes. That's right, Justin. And we feel like we're dying. Yeah, so Justin and I are pretty sick. We feel like we're dying. We basically what we want at the point we want to get across you before we start this episode is that we're heroes. Every hole. Every hole.

You're just going to say that. Just going to leave that every hole. There. Every hole is a. Just gonna leave that. Every hole. Every hole is a water zone here at Salbo this week. Our daughter got a GI bug last week and it was it's hard as any parent knows senior poor little baby sick. There's an added level to it though because that that's hard and of course she's fine don't worry but But knowing as you watch it happen, that by the time you've already figured out like, oh, that diarrhea wasn't just because I gave her

just a little bit of fruit juice yesterday. It's like serious. Also, time change. But you just know, like it's too late. It's too late. You have it. Like it's in you, it's brewing, it's coming. It came.

Oh, it came. It came, it's coming. It's coming. It's coming. It's coming. The time change also, also boil water advisory for two fricking days. Yeah, that's right. That's right, where we live right now, we couldn't even well now, it's just now lifted. But we couldn't drink the water, we couldn't bathe. I did it anyway, because I feel gross. Yeah, so wait.

I hope I'm okay from that. Man, maybe I'll get super powers. Maybe. I don't think that you're a scientist. Interesting. I'm off my game today. Yeah, I think that's fair. So this is Max Fun Drive.

If you've never listened to one of these before, we do this every year. We're part of a network called Max Mometun. And every year we come to you and ask you to kick in a few bucks if you enjoy the show. We have just like any other plays drive, you know, we have gifts to offer you if you're able to kick in certain amounts of money. And we're going to tell you a lot about that. But for right now, you know, if you've heard enough, you say, yes, I want to support solbones, I like solbones a lot.

You know, you tip a bartender, you tip folks, you know, kick your... A cow, you tip a bartender, you tip folks, you know, kick your cow, you tip a cow. You tip a cow. That's the same. Don't tip a cow. Don't tip a cow. That's me. So tip us, Maximum Fund, and of course, more importantly, network of great shows, Maximum

Fund. So go to Maximumfund.org, forward slash donate and pledge a few bucks. I say what? I'll tell you this much. I'll give you a little hint about the games. The pledge $5 a month, just $5 a month. You are going to unlock a hidden world of bonus content hours upon hours,

nay, days of bonus episodes of all the max fun shows that were just recorded for donors. There's videos on there. Our very special episode this year is a ASMR episode. And if you don't know what that is, you gotta listen. And I research that features a binaural Hadoffonic Audio, Hadoffonic Audio,

of virtual doctors office visit with Sydney McRoy at the end. It's awesome. And I think I hide my discomfort with the whole thing really well. Maximumfund.org for it. So I should donate is the address to do that. Please go play it right now.

But first, we're doing something that kind of different this week. So we are. Yeah. We decided this week that, you know, we wanted to mix it up a little bit for the max fund drive, do something a little more exciting, maybe a little more interactive. So maybe something that didn't require as much diarrhea interrupted research, I would say. It's fair. I'm not gonna admit to that.

It's just, it's been a rough, rough few days, guys. There are a few days, guys. So we thought, every hole, every hole's a war zone. So Justin asks me a lot of kind of random, I wouldn't even say medical questions, sort of just science or gross or body related questions. Kind of just weird. Is this normal? Does this hot, why does this happen? Kind of questions a lot. And I thought I bet a lot of our listeners

have similar questions. Just kind of weird. Again, this is not medical advice that I'm giving. Make that super clear. I'm not. We say this at the beginning, we want to double emphasize for this one. Nothing Sydney says during this episode is medical advice. No, I'm not diagnosing you. I am not treating you. All I'm hoping to do is maybe reassure you about some weird things that are pretty normal

or answer some gross questions just if you're, you know, that you just wanted to know about that kind of thing. So if you're ever really concerned about something, please go see a doctor. Don't be silly, go see a doctor. Don't listen to a podcast, what are you doing? Go see a doctor after you listen to a podcast. So we have some questions.

The first one comes in from Toby who asks, does the PP dance work? Does it effectively suppress the urge to go urinate? Is testing this ethical? Now to be fair, I'm going to make a blanket statement about the PP dance without having seen Toby specific PP dance. So you're asking me to do a little bit of a higher wire act. Like, I don't know. Maybe your PP dance is wrong. May you have different varieties of PP dances. For those who are not familiar with the PP dance, you know, it's when you have to PP. And you just dance around.

You kind of cross your legs and cover your crotch and you dance around. I would say this, whether or not the PP dance is effective, it should not be employed. Why is that? Because if you have to go potty, stop and go right away. That's what Daniel Tiger says. That is what he says. He sings actually. If you have to go potty, stop and go right away, then flush and wash and be on your way. Oh, harmonies.

Really, really, really, echurches. No, but actually great advice because it's not good for you to hold it. And I'm not saying just pee freely. I'm not saying just like you're sitting there at your desk at work or at your desk in class or whatever you're doing, even on your own couch, because somebody has to clean that. And you just think, I got a pee. Sydney told me not to hold it. Really? Sydney, are you? I'm not saying that. I understand that you're not saying this is

medical advice or opinion, but are you literally taking time out of our listeners life minutes to tell them not to pee pants? Is that where I don't know? I just have to be really careful. I'm not endorsing pee pants. Okay, got it. I'm just saying, don't do the pee, pee, dance, go pee. Go pee. It's not good for you to hold it.

It's never, if we tell that to our kids and it's true as adults, it's not good for you to hold it, go pee. Got a question from Rachel. Do I have terrible guts? Because I took too many antibiotics as a kid for ear infections? That's a good question and that's actually I think we're we're going into a little more some some real actual medical territory. So a lot of people worry about antibiotics and about taking too many antibiotics and our

exposure to antibiotics through food and all that, which is a good thing that we're more concerned about than we used to be, because certainly the overuse of antibiotics can lead to resistant bacteria, so big bad bugs that aren't killed by a lot of antibiotics. And it also, you know, you've got good bacteria in your body. Yeah, you don't want to wipe all those out. Exactly. Probatics, right? Right, right. So there arebatics, right? Right. Right.

So there are good bacteria, there are bad bacteria. You're actually, and I think I've said this before on the show, but it still bears repeating, you are more bacteria than human. Yes, there are more bacterial cells and human cells in your body, and you have to nurture those good bacteria. So if you do take a lot of antibiotics, or even just one really strong one, you might wipe out some of those good bacteria, which kind of throws off the balance of what we would call your Bacteria Flora and can mess up your gutty works.

So I would say that from doing that as a kid, is it still affecting you as an adult? Probably not so much. In most cases, that would be the truth. It's still a good reminder that if you do take antibiotics, eat yogurt, if you can. That's a good idea. Octavia like Jamie says. Any yogurt. Or maybe like Octavia.

I mean, there's one that's scientifically proven to help Jamie and Lee Curtis poop. Or just any yogurt. Any yogurt with live active cultures. Like Octavia is a good example of that. You could also consider taking probiotics, but if you're going to take a medication, I would talk to a doctor about that first. But definitely, if you want to try eating some more yogurt,

I wouldn't worry so much about antibiotics in the past. I would empower yourself to judiciously use antibiotics, talk to your doctor about antibiotics in the future. That's what I would say. This is a question from Peastoops, who asks, does that blood bag thing from Mad Max really work? Now, Sydney, I know you have not seen Mad Max for your road. I only intend to.

It looks very loud. Yeah, I only saw it the one time split up over like six feelings. So I don't remember it. Super good. But what I do remember was it's like a post apocalyptic thingptic thing. So there's a lot of sand and a lot of metal. It looked like from the shots during the Oscar. Yeah, that's true. Those are both prominent features in a lot of guitarist's shoot fire. And there are some of the soldiers there have what is

seems to be some version of radiation sickness. Okay. And they have people that they use as quote, blood bags. That's what Mad Max is for at the beginning of the film. Basically to harvest healthy blood out of and into them. George Miller, who created the film is also a doctor from one understand so it was probably based on Some some similar treatments or I mean he might have some idea what's going on here what's could be What's regards to treating radiation sickness, but that's the other

Okay, so our could blood bags be a thing is what you're asking me. Yes You know that actually makes some sense It shows that the author is a doctor because in radiation sickness, one of the things that can be affected if you have enough radiation exposure, I mean, because a lot of it depends on how much you get, you know, how much you're exposed to. It can affect your bone marrow.

And of course, your bone marrow helps produce blood cells. Okay. So if it does affect your blood, your bone marrow, then you're not going to be continuing to make blood cells. And we can use like certain things to certain medications can increase your numbers of white blood cells. But with red blood cells, often we just have to give you a transfusion if you really need them.

So giving somebody a transfusion could be necessary as treatment for the radiation sickness for sure. So it's not quite completely Completely out of control. No, it's not out of control I would worry about I mean, there's more to it like severe radiation sickness depending on how much you're exposed to You may only have a couple days to live and I'm assuming the movie doesn't address that No, they they are treated as half-lifeifes. They only have half-life expectancy of most people. Yeah. So it's not exactly radiation sickness, but I think it's more something that they've kind of adjusted to, I

think. They're the war boys, which is common. Again, I mean, the idea of how I have a year and a half old. Okay, I don't really watch movies Well, the idea of if you are in in some sort of Battalene scenario of having someone who is available to give blood transfusions is not like a crazy thought anyway If you're going to be losing blood. I'm assuming he'd have to be a negative Because that's the universal donor type mean mad max million million. Yes. Yeah. Because then everybody could get, otherwise you'd have to like, type everybody and then match up.

Like you would, I guess, create your little units based on your blood type. Yeah, I'm not, I'm assuming there's not like a lot of like filing and documentation and registries here. It doesn't look like it again from the few seconds that I've seen of it, like at the Oscars. Right. Other than that, though, I really have no reference for this. I wouldn't advise doing that to your friends.

No, they want to appreciate that. No. Just kind of now, okay? Donate blood, though. Donate blood if you can. You should consider donating blood so that then we'll never be in a situation like that. How about that? I have two quickies before we talk about the pledge drive. First comes from my brother, Travis McElroy, who asks, does popping your knuckles cause arthritis? Did every adult lie to me when I was a child? No. And apparently yes. Yeah. No, nothing. The question. No, no, it's not going to give you arthritis. Brittany asks, can you really go into shock if you see your own eyeball pop out of its socket?

I do not know where Brittany got this. This is not a popular myth that I've heard before. Not that I'm aware of, but maybe it's a reference to a piece of culture that we have not ingested. I will say this, if you're, well, I mean, what about that scene in, was that in hospital? Pretty woman. You know, hostile, much more likely. Where the girl's eyeball pops out of her socket. That whole scene is very unrealistic. And she's sort of in a kind of shock. I, here's what I would say, whatever has caused your eyeball

to pop out of his socket, maybe the thing that induces the shock. At that point, shock is only just one on your list of problems. So yeah, because of the eyeball, because the eye, because your eyeball is popped out of its socket, although shock certainly is a dangerous situation. Yeah, I would say that's fine, that it could cross, sure. Sure. Either way, avoid having your eyeball pop out of it. So I'll get you. I know what you're thinking. Man, I wish I could pay money for this content. Well, the good news is, you can.

It's Max Fun Drive time. Once again, we come to you once a year to ask you to help us from the network. We're probably a big podcasting family. And your donations to Max Fun are what help keep the doors open and the lights on. Now a lot of people wonder am I just giving money to a face this organization? No, first off, we can vouch for most of the people in it. They're a pretty fine group of people. Moreover, when you pledge your money, you say what shows you listen to and the shows

that you listen to get the majority of your donations. So it is going directly where you want it to go. Every time you listen, you'll feel great. You won't feel like a mooture. There's another benefit. You'll feel like, hey, I really made a difference here. We got to go 5,000 new and upgrading members. And we have some this year. And we have challenged donors who are going to kick in money

every time you are a new or upgrading donor. money every time you are a new or upgrading donor. Now, if you are a new or upgrading donor, you are going to get some gifts for doing so. And Sydney, my beautiful and talented and brilliant wife is going to tell you about some of this gifts right now. We already talked about $5. Sydney, if I pledge $10 a month to maximum fund, what talked about $5. Sydney, if I pledge $10 a month to Max one fund, what am I gonna get?

Well, if you pledge $10 a month, you're gonna get a beautiful exclusive Max fund bandana. It is again exclusive to the Max fund drive. It, there are 22 different designs, each one based on one of our shows. So you can browse through them, see which one you like best. You know, the Sabah and so on is quite attractive, I will say. They're all original designs by

Megan Lincott. They're gorgeous and you can pick whichever one you want. And again, exclusive to this drive, $15 a month. What about $25 a month or 20? Sorry. $20 a month. At $20 a month, Justin, you can get the Max Fun Adventure Necess necessity collection. And that includes several things, a multi-tool, a hot chocolate packet, a paracore bracelet, and some camping toilet paper, which I find very practical and useful. Now, do I get the bandana, too? Yes, you get all that, you get the bandana, and you get the bonus content.

Whoa, okay. If I can do $35, be a real hero, real mench. If you can do $35 a month, you get a Max Fun Vacuum Zarmus with a travel tumbler. It's very attractive, it's very nice. I am sure you will enjoy it. In addition to the Max Fun Adventure Necessity Collection and the Max Fun Drive exclusive bandana and all the bonus content we already discussed.

There's a there's a secret level to that is it widely publicized but you can donate if $50 a month and join the secret blondie brigade. And I'm not going to hear about this everywhere but if you kick in $50 a month, Jesse Thornhead of Maximum Fun will bake you blondies and send them to your home. I didn't know that. In addition to all the other stuff. You can hear from me though. It's a secret. Secret donor roll. Does he pay good blondies? No, that's the thing. They're poisoned. They're good. I'm sure they're delicious. I haven't pledged that level yet. I'm sorely tempted though just to get in it. So you want to donate. I understand. We so so so appreciate it. It's amazing and it means so much to us. And it's the reason

that like it is allowed me and our family to expand and keep doing other shows and make it make sense for us. You know, just this year, Sydney was able to cut back a little bit at work and spend more time with Charlie and start a new podcast with their sister largely because of donors like you and that and it means so much to us. So if you can, please go to maximumfund.org and click on donate or just go to maximumfund.org for it's last donate. And do it now before you forget

because we all have things that slip our mind. So please, a few bucks, 35 bucks, 100 bucks, 200 bucks, whatever you can do, a secret $50 pledge, one little $5, I shouldn't say little, cause it means the world to us, but a $5 monthly donation is really, it really helps out a lot. So please, maximum fund, or for such donate,

and I have another question for you. But I must warn you listeners at home, this is a question of a genital nature. So if you'd like to skip ahead a few minutes, it will not hurt our feelings. This comes from anonymous who asks, I'm a uncircumcised male that's foreskin is still attached to the end of my penis. I've heard from other guys, there's came to attach naturally or through use. This person uses quotes there as they've chosen this moment to become demure. I have always assumed the part that attached my foreskin to the head of my penis broke

I'd bleed out and die. Am I weird or the self detachers the odd ones? So let me reassure you first. You're not weird. Your friends aren't weird. You're all fine. Nobody's penis is weird. Nobody's penis is weird. These are all fine situations. It is it is normal. Yes. It is common. I should say we should not use ordinary normal. Let's say it's common. Typical. Typical for for the foreskin to detach somewhat from the tip of the penis. There's a little teeny

strip of skin there called the freinulum and over time again just from washing, from pulling back the foreskin to wash or stretching the foreskin or from masturbation or sexual activity. The foreskin getting pulled back that freinulum can stretch and can tear over time. You will not bleed. It's usually just a natural thing that happens to men. But it might not. And that's okay too. The only thing that you need to be concerned about

is that the foreskin is not uncomfortable for you. That you're not, you don't have pain, that you're not trying to attract the foreskin and it's very painful and it's too tight and you can't. In those situations, it can be dangerous, but honestly there's a lot of these questions I've found that there's a lot of questions about this out there on the internet, a lot of men are in the same situation as you trying to figure out what's normal and what's not. And I think it's because we all get so uncomfortable talking about this stuff.

But this is all normal. You're fine. Don't stress. Let's have another bathing suit area question. Okay. This one for the genitipically female from Jessica, who says, thanks for the opportunity to ask some embarrassing questions. Here's mine.

My right breast looks different from my left breast in terms of both size and shape. Apparently this is more common than I originally thought since most of my friends are working with lopsided boobs too. Why does this happen? Is there anything that can make them more even aside from surgery? So first of all, this is incredibly normal. It is probably the default.

The majority of women probably have slightly asymmetrical boobs. So, don't stress about it. Why does it happen? It just does. You know, breast tissue is not uniform. If you have ever felt, you know, if you've ever done a self-breast exam, if you felt you're in breast, you'll notice that you can maybe feel some softer areas and some slightly firmer areas. And the breast tissue isn't all one thing.

They're not like water balloons, contrary to some popular culture beliefs. They're a little bit different, and so it's normal that they would be a little asymmetrical. So don't worry about it, don't lose sleep over it. And I really wouldn't do anything to try to change it. It's the way you are, it's the way most of us are. And I will go ahead and share a pretty embarrassing story, as long as we're all asking embarrassing questions. After when I was 18, I went for my first examination,

back when I was 18, we started getting pelvic and pelvic exams at 18. That's not true anymore. But I did and I had my first breast exam. And I got through the whole thing and I tried to be very adult about it. And then I sat down with my doctor for him to tell me how everything turned out. And the first thing he said to me, the first words out of his mouth were, it's very normal for one breast to be larger than the other don't worry. Like literally the first thing he said. The first thing he said to me when I was 18.

So, there you go. It's very normal. Don't stress about it. Embrace your boobs. I'm sure they're great. Here's a question from Shelley. I work with preschoolers and consequently end of wiping coobies and amounts of snot.

Can you explain exactly what snot is made of and if there's anything you can deduce medically by the color quantity and or viscosity of snot because it seems to come in a wide Array of all three if I was doing this as a remote podcast This is the point at which I would turn off my headphones and take a step out of the room because this is gritty But since I'm here with you, let's just do it. Okay. I'm gonna. I I'm queasy too I would turn off my headphones and take a step out of the room because this is gritty. But since I'm here with you, let's just do it. Okay, I'm going to, I'm, I'm queasy too, but I think that this is funny and interesting. And I'm going to tell you about it's not. Okay.

Okay, so it's not or mucus would be the word we'd use for it medically mucus is secreted by a lot of different surfaces, what we call mucosal surfaces in our body. And it usually has a pretty, it always has a pretty important function. Specifically, if we're talking about our noses, the mucosidic secreted is kind of this mixture. It's like sugar chains with proteins in them. And then it sucks up a lot of water too.

So it's this big mishmash of stuff that is created to trap things. That's the main purpose of it. It's going to trap stuff. So when bacteria and viruses or any dirt debris, any kind of organisms try to sneak their way up your nasal passages, there's a big ol' river of mucus. Just waitin waiting for it. It's helped along by these little cells called silya, these little hair cells that line our nasal passages. And yeah, and other areas of our body. And that can all capture things along with the snot.

And it's very important to protect us. So snot's a really good thing. You need snot. Now, sometimes why is it thicker or why is it thinner? Part of that actually has to do with your hydration status. One thing I'll tell people if they're coming in and they're like, oh, I just feel so congested as are you drinking enough water.

So part of it is that. Part of it, of course, could be if you're sick or if your allergies are flaring up. A lot of people will come in and they'll say their noses are running like a faucet and it's just this clear constant drainage. Sometimes that can be allergies One common misconception is that if you see like yellow or green is not it always is a bacterial infection Not necessarily true. It could still be a virus. It could still be allergies. It could still be who knows whatever But if you don't see yellow or green that also doesn't mean it's not a bacteria, you know

what I mean? Yeah. We used to put a lot more stock in the color of snot than we do. It just has more to do with what's in there, with exactly the composition of sugars and proteins and what kind of debris it has caught that day. It makes sense. So in general snot plays a very important function in your body. If you're worried about the color or amount of your Snot,

I would go check with a doctor. I would say though, here's a reference point for you. Our noses make about a leader of Snot a day. Wow. A leader of Snot a day. So wait, if you're like, if we're, this is a game guy, I'm sorry. If we're, you hear we're this is a game, guys, I'm sorry, if we're, you hear, we talk about drainage sometimes, like, if you take an expectorant or, or you just drains,

you know, whatever drains, it drains into your stomach, right? If it's draining down the back your throat, then you're probably swallowing that. Aren't you just getting the germs that you're to get protective room? No, it's okay. We, don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. expose ourselves to things in order to get immunity to them. Either way, it's probably not harmful because we're swallowing lots of snot every day anyway.

Wow. I have a question from Joanne just a quick follow up. The stomach acid kill you thing gross if my kid eats snot or scabs their own not their equally gross toddler friends. Again, your body has many many lines of defense, whatever stomach acid can't take care of, you have lots of ways of dealing with harmful invaders. And so for the most part, when it comes to eating like scabs and boogers and stuff, it's probably okay.

I mean, again, I'm not advising that. I'm not saying like, so go nuts, go eat all of the gross things that are hanging off of your body at any given time. Why is that your impulse? I don't know. Why do you want to eat them? I don't know.

Why are you talking to me? That is the imaginary person who was dying to eat all the imaginary things hanging off the body. But no, I think if your kids are occasionally doing that, they're probably along with all the other kids who are occasionally doing that. Luckily, our bodies are really hardy. Do you like answering questions like this? Or do you find it like, oh man,

you just really don't know anything. Like you have to step down to the commoners. No, I love answering questions like this. Not just not mine or do you like answering mine or do I ask? I like answering yours. Hey, sure. Yeah. Okay, good. I want to make sure because I don't ask a lot.

No, I love answering these kinds of questions. Travis asked for me. What is in town though? He asks a lot. He does. He texts me too. Yeah, just it's not like he's worried just like he would like some clarification please. I get texts from a lot of members of our family with various medical questions. No, I love these kinds of questions. It actually is why I take so long with patience is because most people have a question or two like this

and I can't help myself. I love the chance to maybe teach a little bit. You know, that's what maximumfun.org is all about teaching, having fun, learning, growing, loving, maybe sometimes finding new friends. Finding new friends, reinforcing the old friendships with a shared love of podcasts. Maximum fun is a really great place and it's a very welcoming place and it's a place where we've been really, really happy for the past few years and we hope that you'll join with us in supporting it. We hope that you'll join with us in supporting it. Your donation goes to

Help fund this network and keep people making cool shows And and also it helps the shows themselves it helps us to Pay for equipment like our we're using new microphones that we got so the show would sound better for you and That is thanks to donors We're able to to do live shows and take tours and stuff because people donate to the show I mean we're able to expand the family of shows Mm-hmm for us quite literally the family of shows that we have that we provide for you So I mean the thing about it is 10 years ago shows like ours Wouldn't and a ago shows like ours wouldn't, and a network like ours, it wouldn't exist 20 years ago, let's say it's probably more accurate, because we didn't have

internet in the way that we do now. And you had to rely on other people to sort of dictate what your entertainment would be. And now we have these specialized channels where you can order up like exactly what you want. And it helps us to make things that are very personal to us and very specific for you. It's targeted so you specifically at home will like it. Not so big group of people can sit down and zone out in front of it. It's for you. We make it for you. And we're only able to do that because you're able to pay directly for the stuff and we're

able to send it directly to you. It is a wonder of living in our modern era, which is, you know, cause quite a few other sacrifices. So let's embrace the positives where we find them. And now you get a chance to do that. You get a chance to say, Hey, I love this. And I want there to be more stuff like it. And I want to show that I love it. And you can do that right now, but going to maximumfund.org, foretouch, donate, even if

you can pledge $5 a month. that means the world, of course, you know, $10 a month, $20 a month, $35, secret, blondie level 50. All of that is wonderful and amazing, but it would really mean the world to us if you just make your, make your voice heard with money, which is a slogan we're testing out for the drive. And you can also feel free to share that link with your friends or family or anybody else you know, you know, just everybody. Yeah, yeah, if you can't get money or if you do and you want to brag about it, share

that link all around. Talk about this, you know, over the, during the drive, we've heard so many people talk about how much the network and the shows mean to them and it really, it's very touching. So if you want to do that, how's spread the word? That is amazing to just tease you one more thing. That bonus content which you get for just five bucks a month, if you go to last year's, it's a commentary track from me and Sydney to play during the last episode of Two and a Half Men. You can just watch them simultaneously. carry track from me and Sydney to play during the last episode of Two and a half men.

You can just watch them simultaneously. It's like a dark side of the moon. They line up perfectly and you can listen to that. And you'll understand the show. And I think me and Justin and I will do what? Maybe a little bit by yourself too. So Max, we'll find out a little for a slash donate. Got a couple more questions for you, Sydney're if you're prepared. I'm ready a

Couple baby questions, okay first one is from Brad my infant daughter has an umbilical hernia I can pop it back in and feel stuff gurgling inside but it pops right back out again supposedly the abdominal wall will close up over its own Over time, but how is it supposed to do that when part of her insides are still outside? It seems like it would be tying off a balloon and that you'd need to push it and tape it down to allow it to close up properly.

That's from Brad. I can understand why it would seem that way. And you're actually to give you a little bit of history on it. People used to commonly try to do that, because that's what a lot of people thought was. Well, obviously, it is going to close up, but we need to keep it down inside while it does. So it was actually pretty common for people to try to tape quarters or some of their kind

of coin over top. A quarter just seems to be the right size. Over top of an ambilicor hernia, you would see that a lot. I have been told by my colleagues that they still see that from time to time. I have not. But that used to be very common place that your doctor would say, I just take a quarter of avert and it'll go away. Now, we don't really do that.

It's not good for the skin to always be covered by something. That's not good for skin health. And what we found is that as, so an umbilical hernia, do you know what that is? No. Justin, by the way, let me clarify here. So we kind of know the idea of a hernia. It's like, do we? There's the okay. of a hernia. It's like, do we? There's the

effect. So a hernia. A hernia is basically when there's a defect somewhere in a muscle. It's like weak or the fibers are a little bit separated. And as a result stuff that should be underneath the muscle pokes through the muscle. And that could be a little bit of fat that like mesenteric fat, which is a kind of fat that lines our intestines, or it could be intestines little bit of fat, that like mesenteric fat, which is a kind of fat that lines our intestines, or it could be intestines themselves. And you can get hernias different places. When we're talking about an umbilical hernia,

we're talking about a hernia right over your belly button. And these actually aren't bad on common with babies. We see these not infrequently. And for the most part, they just resolve on their own. You don't need to tape anything over them. You don't need to push them down in there. I mean, it's good to check to make sure it's still what we call reducible, that it still can be poked down

in there, and that it's not trapped, because that would be a bad thing. That's true for any hernia. But what happens is, as the abdominal muscles close, so too, does that lining over top of it start to retract down. And it all just kind of flattened out. So it should take care of itself beautifully. Usually these things are still monitored by your doctor, you know, so they're checked on periodically to make sure. And there is an age limit

where we start to go, well, maybe we were a little worried about this. But for the most part, well, my personal and billical hernia has not closed over and this is a point at 35 years over you may be a little start to get concerned, right? Yes, at 35, I would start to get concerned. Although at the same time as long as it's still reducible, you're probably still fine. Okay. Okay. Imagine my relief. My dad has an inbilical hernia. Does he? Yeah. Wow. He didn't have one from

birth. He got one later on in life. Okay. And it's fine. I mean, it's really as long as you can poke it back in there. It's fine. I wouldn't stress about it. I see these. This is actually one of the, it was one of the first things I saw when I was right out of a med school and in residency. And it was such a relief because I felt like such a, I got this moment. Like, oh, this is okay. I know that this is okay. I can make these parents feel good. This baby's be okay everybody's gonna feel really good about this situation It was a really wonderful moment for me to be able to say yes just this once everybody lives Everything's fine got another question from Amanda. I'm giving birth in approximately 4.5 weeks

That's four and a half for you not down with the Decimal point five weeks. That's four and a half for you not down with the the decimal. Do I really need to watch a birth video beforehand? I very much do not want. I mean, Amanda, if you're looking for a moment to get comfortable with this whole concept, like this seems like a very good time. It's a better time than four and a half weeks from now. Certainly. Or four and six tenths of a week from now, four point six weeks, that would be a very bad time.

I will say that in general, and I think Justin, you could actually answer a little bit about this too, because while you have not given birth, you went through the process with me. The more you know going in, the easier I think the experience is, because you understand all the things that usually happen, and then you can also start to understand some of the things that usually happen. And then you can also start to understand some of the things that sometimes happen. And it helps you, I think, knowledge is power. The more you understand going into your birth, the better you're going to be able to cope with any deviation from what your expectations are.

Yeah, I very much struggled with the sense before we a birth like certainly at some point an adult is going to come tell me like a that I can't or be like exactly what to do. And it's a really I think it's a you know it was a big moment in my maturing where I realized like no you kind of have to figure it out on your road. And I think taking the classes that we did, we're very, for nothing else, they gave me a real sense of confidence about what we were doing. And it made it naturalized birth for me in a way that like was very helpful because it made me realize like, oh, like lots of people go through this and it wasn't something that I need to be as freaked out about. I think that's very true.

And I think that what you just said, Justin, naturalizing birth is a really important thing for us to do. And if we look back historically, there was a time where probably the female members of your, or I should say, the people who have had children before in your family or among your, your kind of group, your, you know, as we go even further back in your village, would help a younger person through this process. You wouldn't have to, you wouldn't have a video, but they would describe it to the man through all the questions and be able to walk them through.

But birth, especially in this country country has changed so much over time. We've done so much to the process to kind of medicalize it and then also it's different. It's just different. There are lots of different things that are going to happen than what your body is going to just know and feel. So don't take for granted that you'll just understand everything is it's happening, even as a physician who should understand this Intimately just from my training going through classes ahead of time watching birth videos watching different birth scenarios You know, we because that's what one thing I did is I watch different scenarios I wanted to I mean I'd seen C sections and I'd seen vaginal births and I've seen alien

The pops of face- That is not a birth, I wouldn't call that a birth. No, great disagree. And I'd seen births with medication, I'd seen births without medication. And I think all of that was very important so that when I walked in to the hospital on the day that Charlie was born,

I knew at least what to expect. And when things didn't go as we expected, at least I understood what, and why, and how, and that kind of stuff. So. Got one more question from Amy who asks, and I have no idea, so I'm glad you're answering this. How does a person go about finding a doctor?

Like, if I don't have a primary care physician, how do I get one? Do I need to research different doctors? How do I know if they'll take my insurance? Is there anything I should be wary of or watch out for? This is a great question. Thanks. Yes, and I have found that I get this question a lot actually from friends and family. How do you go about? Not from patients I would hope. Listen, this has been great in all. But how do I find a different doctor? I don't find a different doctor. No, not typically. So what I would say is there are a couple of things

you need to know. First of all, Justin, so that I understand from a point of reference. If I say you need to find a primary care provider, a primary care doctor, what do you think I mean? I mean, I'm already too deep-insid. I don't know, it's hard to say. I know you usually say a PCP, which used to freak me out,

but now I like to ask you. I don't usually say a PCP, which used to freak me out, but now I like- I don't mean angel dust, I mean the doctor. I know we're talking about a family care doctor, which is a, what, like how would you describe a family doctor? Sure, so let's start with, there are different kinds of primary care doctors. We'll start with a family doctor's because I am one, and I am openly biased, and I will go ahead and say that

to family doctors, because I am one and I am openly biased and I will go ahead and say that to family doctors because I am one. So if you if you want to find a doctor, I'd start with one of the following. Family doctors are doctors who, you know, we all went to some sort of medical school. We all finished that school and got a degree. Hopefully we should have. All doctors are all family doctors. All doctors.

Okay, got it. Whether that be an MD or a DO. At that point, we attended, if you're a family doctor, you attended a three year family practice residency somewhere. And hopefully completed that, I myself boarded in family medicine and you'll find that that is more and more common these days.

That used to not be so common, but most doctors, I think, are seeking board certification because a lot of hospitals require that honestly. So, which means I passed a test, and I do a lot of stuff every year to maintain that certification. It's actually really difficult these days. So, a family doctor can see pretty much everybody. That means that I see babies, newborns, all the way up to the geriatric population, and everybody in between men, women, I provide women's health, there are family doctors who do OB care, all that stuff, procedures, everything basically. And we can also be referral

centers for you. So if you do have a problem that necessitates some sort of specialist, we can refer you there. We'll do your health maintenance. We'll get your immunizations taken care of, tell you when you need your colonoscopy, all that good stuff. So that's one option for you. There are other primary care doctors

that you can also look for. One would be an internal medicine specialist, a general internist. So a lot of internal medicine specialists will branch out into sub-specialty, so you would look for a general internist to start with. General internists can do basically all the stuff I talked about for adults, so they don't see kids.

You can also, obviously, if you are a child, or you are, hopefully if you're a child, like go tell your parents to get you a doctor. If you're like blank check, you're out on your own. This is how you get a doctor. But if you're a child or if you have a child and you're looking for a doctor for them, you can see a family doctorate. You could also see a PD Trish and obviously who again can do all the stuff I just said except only for kids. I would also just throw in there real quick in the primary care family, our obstetrician

gynecologist, so BGYNs, even though, technically, they're only doing a certain part of, you know, part of health care. You know, they're dealing with delivering babies and taking care of women's health and gynecologic problems. They tend to provide a lot of primary care just because sometimes, you know, women will choose to only go see OBGYNs for a period of their life and not see another kind of primary care doctor. So I think they're part of our family. So these are the doctors you should start with. One of the above. How do I find the right one for me? One thing you want to consider is who your insurance is going to cover. Unfortunately, that's just a really practical consideration you need to know. Usually that information is available online. You're looking for

your network. What doctors are in my network. Yeah, look go at go to wherever you do your insurance management online and they'll have a search usually for his and your in your network. And you can usually search by specialty. So if you're looking for like a family doctor, you can just look. And more and more insurance companies are actually requiring

that you get a primary care doctor to manage your health maintenance and all this stuff. Or though, actually, you have to pay a fine with some insurance companies in the future if you don't. So it's a good reason to get one. That's number one is to, you know, you want it to get covered, obviously. Number two, what I would look for is somebody close to you. I do think that distance is an important factor in this thing. You want to emotionally close. No, not emotionally close, actually, I do think that distance is an important factor in this thing. You want to be not emotionally close. No, not emotionally close, actually, and certainly not familiarly close, not someone you're related to.

You want somebody that you can get to in a pinch if you're sick, that you can go see. So I never think it's very practical to have a primary care doctor that's two hours away if you have closer options. The other thing I would say, the other consideration, is just because they're a doctor that's listed as they're in your network and they're close to you, doesn't necessarily mean you're going to click with them, you know, because it's a very personal thing, finding a primary care doctor, somebody that you get along with. So I'll see this happen a lot, like on Facebook, I'll see people kind of crowd sourcing.

Hey, I'm looking for a doctor, Are there any good ones in this area? And I see tons of responses. I think that's one good way to kind of feel out your friends and family. Do they have a good doctor? Ask around for people that you know. Who do you see? You know, a lot of times your friends and family are seeing doctors that they love and they can give you those names and you can go see them too. So I would ask. What about doctors that you like hear sometimes like you can't get in with them or like they're too busy, is that a thing or like you can't get out on with new people or. So sometimes a doctor will have so many patients that they're taking care of that they'll have to stop taking new patients, which basically means they can't because you have to see patients,

we need to see patients periodically for follow-up visits. Imagine if you're continuing to add more and more new patients, eventually you'd be scheduling people out for years. You can see XM reviews for today. Those people need to be cycled back in XM over time for a year and eventually the mass pistols up. Exactly. So sometimes that you run into that, but usually if a physician's

office does tell you that they can tell you about a provider nearby who maybe isn't. The good news there, though, is if they don't have lots of spots up and up, that means they're keeping all these people alive. So that's great. If they got a lot of, if they're like, oh, we just got a new opening in today, that's a doctor you got to be worried about. And that's a good point. And it is very common too. I know it's definitely in our office where even providers who maybe already have all the patients in their panel of patients that they can sustain.

If it's a family member of a patient, we usually make exceptions for that. So if it is somebody that one of your relatives is seen and you'd kind of like to go, like the whole family be able to go to the same doctor, that's a very common thing for me to see mom, dad, kids, grandparents, aunts, uncles, everybody. If you're in that situation, let them know because they may make an exception for that too. But I

would ask people you love and trust to what doctors they see first. I would put little stock in a lot of those ratings websites. They're all out there and you're welcome to search them and they'll just tell you, you know, based on patient reviews, what are the good doctors in your area? But I'd be really careful about that because I mean, people who are dissatisfied are much more likely I have found. It's just anything, right? Like not just doctors, it's just, you know, just anything. You've got doctors any it just you know just anything Yeah, I had a bad experience here a lot more likely to leave a better view exactly and and even if you've even if you see a lot of good reviews

Again just be just from my own little searching not even myself just providers in my area It doesn't necessarily mean that this is the best doctor in the world or the best doctor for you Maybe they're just tossing out junk like candy. It's like five stars. I didn't say that. You never know. Perkys, those dannas, those flip flips. I love them.

All of them. It's five stars. It's very, very much about a fit. You've got to find the right doctor for you. Ask around, ask people, ask people who have your same, also like your same feeling about health care. You know, like, do you like to talk to your doctor forever? Because if you do, maybe I'm the right doctor.

Yeah, or maybe please, I like my wife to come home, please don't go to her, please, I beg of you. That's gonna do it for us on this very special episode. One more plea, if you like saw bones, if you wanna help us make saw bones and be part of the saw bones team, go to maximumfund.org and click donate.

If you do $5 a month, you get those bonus episodes for $10 a month, you get a cool handkerchief or bandana. I'm not sure which is which, but a bandana sounds much cooler. They do look really cool. There's individual designs for every podcast and you should get ours because it talks about plenty on there There's a and the adventure kit has hot cocoa toilet paper and multi-tool and the paracord bracelet for $20 a month and If you can kick in $35 a month, we're gonna thank you with all that stuff plus a cool thermos

So more than that though, you're helping to make good stuff. And you're going to fill the world with with with more good stuff. That's something you can do right now, right the second, go to maximumfund.org and click on donate. We'll have one more max fun drive episode. I guys have been fun. I'll let's do this again. Yeah, I'd be happy to. Well, I'll tell you what, if you got questions like this, email them to us, so I'll have them as maximum fun.org. If you're getting enough good ones, maybe we can do another one next week. Yeah, again, we're not going to diagnose or treat anything.

But if you got some weird little questions, you know Justin, the root of the word doctor actually comes from the word for teacher. So I did not know that. This is kind of like right there in my wheelhouse. Perfect. Well, folks, that's going to do it for us. Thank you so much.

That address one more time is maximumfun.org. Thank you for listening. Thank you. If you've already donated seriously, we cannot thank you enough. It has changed our life demonstrably. And it is all thanks to you. Yeah, Charlie thanks you too.

Yeah. She loves having her mommy around a little bit more. So thank you, bless you and take care of yourselves. And again, if you can't give, that's okay too. That's life, we get it. But if you can, it means a lot. Maximumfundadol first, I should know that. So until next week, my name is Justin McRoy.

I'm Sydney McRoy. And as always, don't drill a hole in your head. Alright! Maximumfund.org Comedy and culture, artist owned. Listener supported.