Comments

Episode-1988- Listener Calls for 4-20-17 — 21 Comments

  1. On the urban rural fringe, one thing to be aware of is “Extra Territorial Jurisdiction” (ETJ). I don’t know if this is common around the country, but in my home state of Nebraska, cities and villages (towns) have have extra territorial jurisdiction over unincorporated lands within a certain radius of city limits. Within this ETJ, even though they are out in the country, property owners must adhere to the city or village zoning and building codes. The assumption is that new developments within this zone will eventually be annexed and as the city/village expands, so does it’s ETJ. Taxation without representation?

    • Yep, not just Nebraska, I know a subdivision developed outside city limits, but the lots became pricer and harder to sell when a nearby city stepped in and required certain curbs, roads, etc in a rural area where the county roads going to and from are so much less than what they required the developers to build

  2. Reminds me of the old joke – “What do you call the guy who graduates medical school at the bottom of his class?” “Doctor.” If something goes horribly wrong at the hospital or office, it’s a bad day at work for the doc but it’s life or death for the patient. I was prescribed warfarin for the rest of my life due to a blood clot from a car accident. Turns out the second doc said I should never have taken it at all and to stop immediately.

  3. Growing up in Alaska in the 80’s and early 90’s I had some kind of hybrid canoe with a squared back called a ‘Scanoe’ that I used all the time on the lake next to my dad’s cabin. I think it was a little bit wider than a regular canoe and much harder to capsize, and a great little boat for fishing. But the great thing about it was the square back that was perfect for placing a small motor (I had a small rechargeable electric one). The whole setup was pretty easy for a 10-11 year old to handle, and easy enough for paddling when that became necessary or convenient. I don’t know if they make them anymore, but there’s got to be something like it still being made.

  4. Man, that memory of my solo childhood fishing and Jack’s childhood stories definitely is a jarring contrast to current times… back then from I think age 9 I was allowed to go out on my own on the lake. My dad made me wear a life-jacket and be home by dinner, but aside from that I was basically unsupervised almost all the time. Fast forward thirty years to today though, I think my dad doing that same thing would have child protective services called on him… even in that Alaskan urban-rural fringe where he used to live. But back then, it was perfectly acceptable. Same with riding my four-wheeler in the woods solo from age 10. I thought it was great, and my dad made sure we had helmets on and told us to stay off the main gravel roads. But today some blue-hair or other douchebag would probably whine, “what if it breaks down miles from home?” or “what if it tips over?”. Well, both actually DID happen; I spent a couple hours pushing the four-wheeler home in the first case, and in the second case, after admiring the big bruise on my arm and the slightly bent handlebar on the four-wheeler, I pushed the four-wheeler back upright and continued riding.

    I really want my kids to have a taste of that autonomy and freedom, but the growing nanny state mindset makes it difficult (at least in many parts of the U.S.). Maybe we should have a listener contribution show: “‘Unsafe’ stuff we did as kids that was once considered socially acceptable”. I bet some of the Boomer and Silent Generation listeners have stories that would make some of us Gen-Xers look like pikers 🙂

  5. excellent show Jack. Another thought and a second on TheMidwesterner comment on the fringe is what is called in my area the “PJ” or police jurisdiction that is outside of the city or town. The only regulation the town may have in this area is the subdivision regulations (no zoning regulations). This PJ may go to half way to the next towns city boundary and that would be the next towns PJ (typically maybe 2 miles).

    The fishing story reminds me of one of my best fishing days. I tried to keep a 1959 35 horse motor going for years and it died on the lake one day and the breeze drifted me towards shore so I just set anchor. Turns out I was on top of an fishing honey hole where every cast was a fish. People would pull up right next to me and catch nothing. I just landed fish until I had a limit and was able to get a tow into the ramp.

  6. I used to work in the IT side of the medical industry, and I can’t even tell you guys just how spot on Jack is about how doctors prescribe drugs based on what pharmaceutical rep did the best job rubbing elbows. It was unbelievably gross to see, and a big reason why I’m glad I walked away from that world.

    The bad doctor experiences, particularly the story about a doctor that suggested that Jack’s wife might have MS, are always infuriating to hear. I’ve got a bad doctors story that is tough to beat, however!

    A million years ago now I dated a girl in high school who, seemingly at random, would have all these really strange symptoms where she’d go numb, have motor skill problems, and other scary things. Doctors were quick to diagnose her with early stage MS, and put her on a cocktail of drugs she’d effectively need to take the rest of her life. Even then, the symptoms never really went away, which the doctors explained by saying the drugs aren’t a cure, they’re just to try to keep it from getting worse.

    We eventually broke up, and went our separate ways. Years later I saw her pop up in the comments of a friend of a friend’s post on Facebook and reached out to see how she was doing. Long story short, a few years ago when doing CrossFit was the coolest thing imaginable, she hopped onboard that bandwagon and in the process cleaned up her by eating a real strict Paleo diet.

    Like magic, all of her MS symptoms vanished. Turns out she had some sort of gluten intolerance and the way it was manifesting itself was by affecting her nervous system. All the doctors she dealt with when she was first in the process of being diagnosed with MS never thought to try modifying her diet, or testing for Celiac. Instead, they just “solved” the problem with a fist-full of pills.

    She handled it all way better than I ever would, as I can’t even imagine how angry I would be if I had spent half of my life taking pills I didn’t need every day, fully believing that one day I’d likely be completely disabled by a disease I didn’t even have.

    Like the MacGyver car fixes episode, I bet you could do an entire podcast on nothing but similarly insane bad doctor stories from listeners! Anyway, as usual, great show, thanks for all you do.

  7. I found the segment about millienials teaching their kids hard skills. I was at HomeDepot to return some items and pick some other stuff up. I paid for my stuff and went back out to my car to go home, I turn the podcast back on and started to pull out of the parking lot when the caller started talking about buying a 4×4 and some nails, that’s when I remembered that I needed a box of screws. I circled back to my parking spot and went and bought a bucket of screws. Thanks for the reminder caller and thanks Jack!

  8. I have a friend who has ms. He saw several different drs, including a big medical center in Houston. They all said it was in his head. Reading about his condition, he thought it must be MS, and next time in emergency room, he told them I think it is MS and they tested and yes it was. He continues to do his own research and shares various tests and data with his doctor.

    Scary story is from a doctor, he was quite ill, seemed like a bad flu first. He was in and out of the hospital, his family was worried that he might die. The hospital told him it must be his gallbladder, and if they didn’t remove it right away he probably would die. He was very ill that day, not thinking straight and let them do the operation. Condition didn’t change, some days better than others. He asked them to do a certain blood test for what he thought was the issue the first day he was admitted. They would not do it at first. Later they did the test but lost the results. On a better day he checked himself out and had his office draw and test his blood. Yep Epstein-Barr virus. Meanwhile he has no gall bladder (which was healthy) and a huge hospital bill. I do know he was reporting their incompetence and contesting the bill.

    A friend of my told him they took her dad to an extended care clinic. They said it was infantigo and gave treatment for that. He got much worse, saw his regular doctor who said it was the worst case of shingles he had ever seen. The man died not long after.

    Or the lady who had a painful bone spur on the bottom of her foot, doctor said there is nothing we can do because you aren’t diabetic. Over the next few years, along with walking less, walking differently do to the pain, she messed up her hips and knees. Hip replacement anesthetic almost killed her. Her doctor (different one) said why wasn’t the foot fixed? So she was scheduled for that operation and the anesthesiologist said not without an ok from her heart doctor. What heart doctor? For your heart condition. Looking at the chart from her hip replacement surgery, it shows the heart condition. Heart doctor could not see her for several months. They stopped and restarted her heart and things seemed to be fine, week later she was worse, much swelling, paper cut caused water to squirt out of her body. Ambulance ride later they determined her heart did not stay reset. Within a couple weeks with proper care, she had lost over 60 lbs from all the water she was retaining.

    I am thankful for the pediatrician who treated my youngest who was born with Group B strep infection. I am thankful to the PA friend, visited his clinic after returning from a long plane ride (other side of the world) because a calf muscle was very tight, painful. It was blood clot, not a cramped muscle. More tests. Blood thinners. He told me that if I felt any pain in my chest, problem breathing, don’t even call him, go straight to emergency room, had me promise to do so. Woke up the next morning, chest hurting some, not too bad, but there. Did not want to go to emergency room, but kept my promise. I now had several small clots in my lungs which also caused pneumonia. Saw two doctors in hospital. First one found the clots in the lungs but not the pneumonia. 2nd doctor found that when checking to see why I was not improving after a day. Laughed when I read the admission report, telling how pneumonia shot not recommended as I was not at risk.

    I’ve learned to question doctors, appreciate those who listen and even ask your opinion as to what is going on, explain things. Who will admit when they don’t know something.

    Sometimes we think doctors must have all the answers, and expect them to prescribe something to fix issue so we didn’t “waste” our money. Medical industry is quite happy to cater to those thoughts.

    Educate yourself. Learn to ask questions the right way. (If this was your child what would you recommend as a father/mother instead of medical opinion often provides more insight)

  9. To the lady dealing with the side effects of Cipro, I know exactly what you’re going through. I dealt with similar issues in 2015. I got a cold that turned into pneumonia. My doctor prescribed levofloxacin, which is in the same class of drugs as Cipro. I learned later that she never should’ve prescribed that. It’s like dropping a nuke, when a .22 would’ve done the job just as well. Anyway, after the 2nd day being on this horrendous drug, I developed severe insomnia, muscle/tendon pain, anxiety, panic attacks, night sweats, and my heart would beat so hard and fast I night I swore I was having a heart attack. I (foolishly) finished the whole bottle of levofloxacin. It was only after the fact that I learned about the class of drugs called fluoroquinolones; Cipro and levofloxacin are in this class of drugs.
    The symptoms continued for about 2 months. I’m normally a very laid back person, but I developed serious, serious anxiety. I almost quit my job because I suddenly couldn’t take it anymore. Thank God I stuck it out, because after about 3 months, the symptoms SLOWLY started to subside. I think it took about 6-8 months before I could say I was 100% again .
    These horrendous drugs should be taken off the market – do some research on the side effects people have from them!
    To get over it, I focused on eating the most nutritious foods I could get, probiotics, fermented foods, cut out sugar, take vitamins, etc etc. Basically just tried to make my body as healthy as I could. I’m not a doctor, but I really feel like these drugs nuke your gut bacteria, and it just takes a while to build it back up.
    Anyway, just wanted to share my experience and hopefully give you some hope. I believe its a temporary condition and you will get over it, it just takes some time. But when you’re in the middle of it, it feels like you’re going crazy! You’re not – its those damn drugs!
    I know I will never, never again take a medication without fully understanding the potential side effects!

    • Found this article and thought of this episode: http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/880276
      They studied the risk of antibiotics used in pregnancy and the risk of miscarriage in pregnancy.

      Cephalosporins, penicillins, clindamycin, and nitrofurantoin were not associated with an increased risk for spontaneous abortion. However the antibiotics listed below and there risk are a different story:

      Drug Odds Ratio(Confidence Interval)
      Azithromycin 1.65 (1.34-2.02)
      Clarithromycin 2.35 (1.90-2.91)
      Tetracyclines 2.59 (1.97-3.41)
      Doxycycline 2.81 (1.93-4.10)
      Minocycline 2.48 (1.54-4.00)
      Quinolones 2.72 (2.27-3.27)
      Ciprofloxacin 2.45 (1.98-3.03)
      Norfloxacin 4.81 (2.05-11.26)
      Levofloxacin 3.28 (1.73-6.24)
      Sulfonamides 2.01 (1.36-2.97)
      Metronidazole 1.70 (1.27-2.26)

  10. Austin. Listened to your “vent” a few times over. If you’re looking for a friend that knows the feeing lets find a way we can chat! -Pat

  11. On the blood patch Mrs. Spirko did not receive, I do not wish that on anyone. And Jack might have understated how bad this is.

    I had the same thing happen about 1992. I was fine the first day after, probably due to the painkillers from the procedure still in effect. I was ready to drive back to college. My parents said no dice, you are staying one more day. I was even roughhousing with some young cousins, I felt fine.

    Well……..next morning I could not walk 10 feet without needing to throw up from pain. If I am exaggerating it might be that I could not walk 5 feet. I mean I felt awful. Maybe worst ever in my life. Tried to get up all day, same thing, Stand up, Pain. Vomit. Lay back down.

    Could eat nothing, maybe some soup. IIRC the best I did was to sit up bits at a time to watch MNF, local team playing and had a decent almost comeback. I considered myself on road to recovery.

    Nope. At least as bad next day. Had to lay down in back of car as my parents took me back to the doc (one of those old full-size wagons, so at least I could lay down.) Getting car sick though and still the brain pain. Had a vomit bowl and garbage bag since I was still a disaster.

    Get to doc office, might be the quickest turnaround in a doctor office in history. I don’t think I even sat down, one look the guy said get him the hell out of the office and to the ER across the street, they would call ahead for us.

    So worked up they had to give me 2 or 3 times the usual shot to relax me. Eventually fixed things.

    But trust me, that is something you never want. Hope Mrs. S did not have it as bad as I did.

    • But just don’t bitch because Lisa says

      “Most people do just fine.”

      Just shut up and accept that you are not most!

      Please know that is angry sarcasm directed at Lisa and not you.

  12. Jack, RN for 31 years here. People are placed on and taken off blood pressure meds all the time. Just because someone is started on meds does not mean they must be on meds the rest of their lives. Just does not happen. Also, blood patches are not normally done for for a routine spinal tap. Most people do just fine. Only when there are complications such as a leak or extreme headache is that considered because it is an invasive procedure which carries a risk with it.

    • To be blunt, this guy, http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/episode-542-lessons-from-my-friend-howell-dodd one of my best friends I ever had died at 42. Why, he went on and then off BP meds that likely he never needed. So don’t try telling me shit about how dangerous on and off of BP meds is.

      Secondly do you know what, “Most people do just fine” amounts to?

      What you are trained to say, what you believe because you are trained. MOST? EFFING MOST?

      You people think 80% is most, and well it is, it is also fucked up that 20% end up fucked up and you people just fall back to most on everything.

      The number of people I have heard from out of this audience that say they or a loved one had this issue with a spinal tap tells me most isn’t good enough.

  13. Mike from Missoula with the canoe comment…. Would it be weird to meet up and grab a beer? Moved here last year with the wife and still haven’t met many people. This applies to others in the area as well.

  14. Modern Medicine- If you don’t take charge, you will be scammed, and in all likelihood your health will suffer. Several years ago I met up with the cholesterol scam. Here is an engineer, that also met up with the cholesterol scam and decided to actually be quantitative about it. https://youtu.be/jZu52duIqno
    I did not spend as much money as this fellow is apparently spending to demonstrate the fraud, but I did spend some money on my own NMR lipid profiles.
    What this fellow in the video demonstrated, but does not state, is that every drug trial ever done supporting the sale of statins is complete rubbish. If the drug companies had accounted for what this fellow is doing and measuring, or what I did for that matter, they would not have a product. Even as corrupt and incompetent as the FDA is, the statin drug would never have been approved.

    Statins account for more than $40B per year in this country alone, and may be approaching $1T world wide. Medical quackery is worse than it has ever been.

  15. Just heard the podcast and wanted to say how nice it was to hear about the “millennial teaching his kids hard skills.”

    I’m in my mid-40’s so I’m generally clueless when it comes to what’s going in with kids, but I do see the stereotypical millennial syndrome from time to time. Obviously, you don’t have it.

    I think what you’re doing is awesome and I can’t thank you enough for doing the work to put some good kids out into the world.