Conversations Doctors Hate

That's good. Yeah. You should start working on your pivot points for meeting all these people.

Well, I don't think I. I don't need to study to.

Yeah, you gotta prepare.

Hi, everybody, and welcome to the podcast. This is Generations md. My name is Stephanie, and I'm joined.

Here by my colleague, Dr. Sarah Davis.

Who is also my mother. Hi.

Hi. Happy summer. Happy Fourth of July.

You're chippy and cheery, aren't you?

I always am.

You're always chippy and cheery. Sometimes I might doubt that, but, you know. So what's going on? What do you have to talk about today?

Well, okay, I have a little bit of a rant starting out.

Hot.

Hot. I'll get going on my rant. Okay.

Is this to me, about me?

No, no. This has nothing to do with you. This is gonna happen to you, though. So when you're with a group of people and you're, like, sometimes meeting new people and people find out that you're a doctor, there are certain things that they like to ask you, which is totally fine. I mean, that's just, you know, when you find out somebody's a lawyer or an accountant or whatever, like, you just make.

I can't say I have a ton of questions for accountants or lawyers.

I guess that's true. I don't really. Yeah, I guess I don't really have questions for them. Yeah. I don't know. Whenever somebody does something, whatever you find out, you try to. You try to be engaging, which is. That's totally fine. But for some reason, and I don't know, maybe this has always happened, but I feel like it's gotten worse. And maybe it's partly that I'm getting older and the people that I meet are getting older, but people love to tell you about all of their ailments and medical problems, and I don't mind. It's not that I am upset by this or anything, it's just that if they think that that's an interesting conversation to me, that's about the last thing that would be interesting to me. And I also don't mind. Okay, let me just back up and say the. Sometimes people want to ask you for medical advice on things. I honestly don't mind that. If they. If they're just like, hey, you know, I just want your opinion on something. But it's kind of interesting because the people, like, your really, really good friends, like, never do that. They could be on death's door, and they're just like, well, I didn't want to bother you like, for example, my mom had Covid back in like 2021. Didn't tell me about it for like two days. And then she said, well, I just thought, I tell you, I have Covid. And I'm like, well, mom, you know, are you taking Paxlovid? And she's like, well, no. But I called Kaiser and asked him if I should take it and they haven't gotten back to me. I'm like, mom, it's covered by. I mean, at that time, the government was covering the cost of it. It's free. It was like free at any pharmacy. I said, I'll just send in a prescription for it for you. And she's like, well, I don't know. I'm like, yes, just take it. Just take the medicine. Well, you know, I don't want to trouble you at all. Like, it's going to take me 10 seconds to get online and send in this prescription for you. So, I mean, the caveat, kind of like for your really good friends, your parents, your children, they can always ask you medical questions anytime. For other people that I don't know as well, I also don't mind if they want to ask me like for a second opinion or something. But those types of things are best done. You know, they could like text me or email me or sometimes contact me and say, hey, I have this question for you. Can you call me when you have a minute? That's perfectly fine. What I don't want to do is get cornered while I'm at a party having a good time with somebody being like, oh, you're a doctor. Okay, well let me ask you this. And then go into a 30 minute, really detailed story about their particular thing and what they think that they should do. And could I call in a prescription for them or that type of stuff that's just like, I don't want to do that. The other thing that I don't want to do is hear a long, drawn out story about like, well, so I was having this shoulder pain and, you know, it was getting a little better and so I saw a physical therapist and it seemed to be improving, but then it got worse again. So then I went and got an mri. Well, then I went to the orthopedist and then I had an injection and then I did this and now it's doing just fine. But take that story and stretch it out over about 30 minutes. And those stories are just, I guess I don't know if that's just what they want to talk about or if they think that I'm truly interested in that story because I'm a doctor. So I really want to hear about every ailment that they've ever had.

I have a couple things to say.

Okay, go ahead.

So one, I'm already getting. I've already gotten health questions even when I was a pre med in college and knew absolutely nothing. Even in high school, you're like, oh, your parents are doctors. So let me like ask you this question. My friends have always done that. But two, I also think other people get older, like, they don't really have much to talk about either.

Yeah.

And like they kind of that, like, yes, obviously they're going to talk to you about it more because you're a doctor. But also I think, like, they don't. Like I hear old people talk about their back pain all the time, even if they're not asking for like a medical opinion.

Right. Yeah, right. That's a little painful. I don't know. I mean, I guess we all do it, but I don't know, I think somehow, I mean. No, like, nobody wants to hear that.

Yeah, it's not, it's just.

It's not an interesting conversation. And I guess if you don't have much else to talk about, I guess I can see how you end up talking about that. But yeah, I don't. You know, I think it would be. I would like to just kind of like scroll when they're having that conversation? I have done that sometimes in conversation. Well, you know, dad does this when he's talking about like projects around the house and he and his buddies sometimes start talking about doing yard work or things like that. And when they do that, I just say, next subject. Scroll fast. Scroll past this. This is not a conversation that I want to hear at all.

Well, I guess. Do you get those questions from, like, my friends? Do people start going into their stories?

No, no, they don't do that.

They do ask a lot. A lot of my friends ask you questions about being a doctor and stuff.

And that's perfectly fine because you like talking about yourself. That's right. Let me talk about me. I don't want to talk about them. I want to talk about me.

That's why you became a doctor.

Wait, it's not really. Right. But truly, like, I wouldn't mind, especially young people. I mean, I really don't mind if they want to ask me, you know, stuff about medical issues or, you know, what, what they should be doing about this or that. Like, I don't. That I don't mind at all. It's more when it gets into the really specifics of like one particular person's problem that I'm kind of like, yeah. And a problem that has already resolved. Like, why did I need to hear this whole story? And now it's better. It kind of reminds me a little bit of people's stories about, you know, getting their flights delayed somewhere. I was recently. I mean, and again, there's lots of those stories you can certainly tell if the story is just like a couple of minutes. Sure, go on. Or if there's something very unique about the story. Somebody was telling me one recently where the person was like, had been traveling for like 48 hours, was getting on the very last leg, was like about to like the plane was landing at his destination and turned around and went back to the airport that he had taken off on. Okay, that's, that's pretty brutal. But that's a, you know, that's a unique story that I've honestly never really heard of somebody having that happen. That's fine. But the story of. So then we were at Terminal E. Well, then they moved our flight to Terminal C, so we had to get on the train and go over there. And somebody was telling me one of those stories recently. It was like a 30 minute story and it was just a play by play of getting delayed. I felt like I had been through the whole.

Yeah, no, like, like whenever that happens to me, I'm just like, oh, yeah, it was terrible. We did this, whatever, one minute, two minutes. But then it's like, okay, done, like moving on, moving forward. Especially like, obviously, like you would, like, if I was going home, then I would tell you about like what happened or whatever. But like, this isn't a subject that I want to bring into any conversation because that was a bad experience that I don't want to talk about it anymore, I don't want to relive it. And like, that's it.

The person you're telling it to, they don't want to live the misery. And again, everybody's had that back.

Yeah, everyone. Yes, yes. This is like the people who have just like common things happen to them and they make it into such a bigger deal than they are when it's just like normal human experiences.

Dad said that to me one time when I was complaining about something. He said, well, it's really hard being a person.

I saw some TikTok about this and it was just like someone's just like, I can't think of examples, but they were like, well, then I went to go make myself a sandwich and I was out of lunch meat.

Right.

This only happens to me, of course.

Similar thing. I'm like, well, I had terrible traffic. Yeah.

Yeah.

Driving on the 405 at 5pm in Los Angeles. It's like, that's not a story, that's just reality. Now that would be a story if there was no traffic at that particular time. Now that's a story. But you know, when it's like, that's a completely expensive expected outcome. Yeah. So I don't know. Now I feel mean. I'm just kind of like bagging on people and their stories. But the. All of that, it's. I don't know. Well, okay, so let me ask you this. You are probably so flipping it around as far as like people asking questions to people. Because I kind of, I thought about this, like being around your friends. I remembered how stressful it was when everybody was finishing high school and finishing college and everybody was saying to them, so what are you gonna do now? I guess particularly with finishing college. Cause a lot of people do not have jobs when they're graduating from college. They don't really know what they're gonna do. And so I got to where I really tried to stop asking people that, but I do kind. I'm curious. I want to know what people are doing and stuff. But when, but probably when you tell people you're going to medical school, what kinds of things do they ask you that you wish they would stop asking?

First of all, I. This happened like at the wedding. And like other. Like I went to a wedding recently and like was kind of talking to some people, some friends, friends are like, oh, like, what are you up to now? I just say I'm, I'm. I was saying, oh, I'm starting school in August. That's what I was saying. Because also I didn't want to be like, I'm starting medical school. Like, whatever. Normally the next follow up question would be like, what school? What type of school? Yeah, so like, but normally just be like, oh, I'm starting school in August. Cause like, again, I don't, I just like, I didn't. I don't really want to talk about it.

Yeah, really.

I don't really, like, especially right now, I'm just like, I don't have much to say about it. Like, and then again, if people are actually like interested in. If people know a little bit about it and then they kind of want to go into like, oh my gosh, like going through medical school and stuff, like, I don't, I Don't know. I don't really talk about it. So I just say I'm starting school in August, and normally I try to kind of just pivot the conversation to, yeah, this past year, I've done traveling and try to talk about something that I actually want to talk about.

That's good.

Yeah, normally, I guess I'd be like, oh, I'm starting school in August. Like, oh, what time of school? I'm like, oh, medical school. They're like, oh, God, that sounds hard. I was like, yeah, well, this past year, I was traveling a lot and try to pivot to get away from it. But I guess the questions that people ask me are just like, well, I talked about this on the video because people keep asking me, like, what my schedule's like and what I'm doing.

I don't know.

I literally don't know. I have no idea what my schedule is. I have no idea what I'm gonna be doing. Like, I don't know. I mean, like, I know I'm gonna be taking classes and stuff, and, yeah, that. But they keep asking me questions about, like, what the curriculum is, like, and I'm. I have no idea, and I don't want to talk about that.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, it hasn't started yet. You don't need to be. You don't need to be in there.

But it's not like people are asking me medical questions.

Okay. And if they do, you can just make stuff up.

Yeah, exactly. Some friends are like, you're almost a doctor.

I literally have not even started. Exactly. If you would like to ask me about the Krebs cycle or things like that, just go ahead and get into it. But, yeah, I was thinking I had asked one of your friends because they were finishing school in a year, and then I said, oh, well, and then what are you gonna do? And where are you gonna live? And then I was like, I shouldn't have asked that. You know, that's such a big. It's just kind of a source of stress. And obviously, they have some ideas about what they're gonna do. They don't have any firm plans. And I thought, you know, it's probably just not the best thing to bring up, I guess.

Yeah, people do ask me, then, what specialty do you want to go into? Right. And I know, like, at least I have some sort of idea of what I want to do, but some people don't, and they get that. It's always like, oh, what specialty? Like, what people ask me, actually. They're like, what Are you going to medical school for.

Yeah, yeah.

That's what they ask me. And I'm like. To be a doctor. Like, I don't know if they don't. Yeah, I don't think they know either, but I've gotten before. Are you. Oh, like, are you going to medical school to be a nurse?

Yeah.

Like the hot thing or like, like, oh, what? Yeah, just like, what for? They don't really get it and I don't really care. Especially when I was abroad, people did not understand the whole thing.

I saw you did a whole tick tock explaining the pathway in the US And I didn't know if you had done that so that if somebody asked you that you'd be like, you know what? I don't have time to answer that. Here, just watch this too.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I did it so people could send it to people too. Because I feel like, yeah, people just don't. They just don't know.

They don't know what the process is.

It's not their fault. Like, whatever. Like, it's just like.

But you just don't feel like doing the whole story.

Yeah, but lots of. What are you going to medical school for? Just like to be a doctor? I don't know. It depends on the context. Sometimes I'll kind of go into it a little bit more. Sometimes I'm just like, I don't really want to talk about this, but I feel like I am pretty good at pivoting conversations.

That's a very good skill. And that's. Honestly, that's what I, you know, this is on me. Okay. This is good. This is a good, you know, therapy kind of session where I'm ranting about these people talking about their medical problems, but really I just have to be better at pivoting the conversation. You know, maybe if they're talking about their shoulder game, I'm like, Or their shoulder game, their shoulder pain, I can say something like, oh, yeah, you know, my shoulder was hurting the other day because I was playing some pickleball.

Yeah. Yeah.

Have you been playing any pickleball?

Yes.

What else do you like to do? Blah, blah. Yeah, it'd be great for me to, you know, tell about how I did this pickleball clinic. And it's really helped my game a lot.

It has not helped her game.

We were playing a pickleball game this weekend and then I got out that I had done a pickleball clinic, to which Thomas said, really? You did a clinic? Like, you should have seen my game before.

Yeah, that's Rough. That's rough.

Yeah.

No, but like, I think especially if people are. I get. I'm better at. It's easier to pivot when people are asking you questions. And like, I'm like, I don't really, like, let me throw this back on you.

Let me see.

Like what? Like, I'm trying to, like, you know, ask them questions because I don't really want to talk, but I guess it is harder if somebody is going into a whole thing about themselves and then you're just like, how do I.

Wait, let me talk about me.

Well, or even just how do you pivot that conversation to talk about them? Some.

Get them to talk about something. Something else. Yeah, yeah, they. I. That's probably good to just have a few things in your back pocket of some of those good spin off questions. I think it's been really interesting doing this podcast and talking to people where we're just asking them about their lives and they're kind of going through the whole story. And I'm learning so much about people, even people that I've known for a long time, which I think is really interesting and fun. And it's something that you just. When you're in that casual conversation, you know, at like kind of a party situation, you just don't really have somebody sit down. You're like, okay, well, let's start from the beginning. Tell me your story. What happened here? What happened there?

I love asking people their stories, though. Just in general. I like to know about people. I hate small talk a lot.

Yeah, let's get to it. Clearly, when I stepped in on your conversation this weekend and you guys were like, well, we're talking about sids. Yeah. Like, okay, that's a really great party conversation.

Well, I mean, we also. Yeah, I guess so. That was.

I was like, womp, womp. Okay. But there are some people that are good at this. We were somewhere last summer and this guy started asking. He, we're sitting at this group at a table and doing just all the regular chitchat, you know. So do you have kids? What do your kids do? Blah, blah. This is what you talk about all the time when you're my age. And then this guy said, so have you ever had a near death experience? And then we went around the table and people told these amazing stories.

Well, I got good at just like pivoting conversations, especially when I was traveling, because you would fall, you'd meet a new person. Then you're like, how long have you been traveling for? Like, where are you from? How long have you been traveling for. Where have you gone? Like, that sort of thing. And like, that was. I don't know, it was just like the same script and like, the longer I was there, I would. I was pretty good at pivoting really quick and just being like, okay, like, I don't. Don't run through everywhere that you've been like, I'm not interested.

Not interested in the list.

Yeah, not interested in the list. Because especially. And then when you're having a conversation with somebody who has been traveling, then a story of, like, them traveling had would have come up a lot. Something that we started doing when we would go around is we would ask everyone to go around and say their Uber rating. And then if someone's Uber rating was really low, then they would have a story about why their Uber rating was low or whatever. Yeah.

What is your Uber rating?

I think mine's like a 4.9, but some people had like a 5.0 and stuff. And then they like. But then we'd be like, how many Uber rides have you taken? And stuff. So.

Yeah. Yeah, that's good.

Yeah.

I think I remember somebody saying that, like, being very concerned. Like, it gets kind of stressful if you've got a five star rager.

Oh, yeah.

You know, you're just. I think those people are always trying to get somebody else to call the Uber.

Yeah, exactly.

Cause they're just like, I don't want to take a chance.

Yeah.

What else? I remember hearing a podcast about somebody who had. It was the daughter of this podcaster who wrote a book about like 20 great questions to start a conversation with somebody. I have not bought the book. I don't know what those questions are.

I don't think I need the book.

No, you could write the book.

Never said that. But I think I'm chilling.

But it's good to have those things.

At the ready because I think also that's gonna happen, like when I go. When I start medical school, school and I start meeting all these new people, it's gonna be the same thing. Just like, oh, like, what? Where'd you go to undergrad? Like, why did you go from.

From Texas to Clemson.

Clemson.

Oh, my gosh.

That same question. I stopped answering it. I was like, I'll just. I don't know. Yeah, literally. Next question. I don't really know. And then move on.

Yeah, that's good.

Yeah, I. I just like, I got that. Yeah, Just. That was some. When I was meeting people at the wedding, they're like, oh, Texas and then Clemson. I'm like, what made you go to Clemson? I. I don't know. I literally don't know. This is the way it worked out.

And yeah, moving forward, I've noticed that in our interviews with various people, you know, you can tell. Everybody has told their story. You know, when we're interviewing these doctors and they kind of have their story of like, okay, you know, I went here for undergrad. And then they always kind of have a little bit of their story of why they became a doctor. It's always like, you know, I was interested in science and then I had this medical problem and then I just decided to become a doctor. And you can kind of. You can just sort of hear it laying out. But sometimes people have something that's a little.

And like, you can pinpoint. That's what I think that I'm good at. And why I enjoy interviewing people is I try to like, pull out, like, aspects of things that other people might have not have asked them or just like the things that they might want to talk about. Like, it. No one wants to. Yeah, no one wants to talk about why they chose that undergraduate university or whatever. But like, or maybe they do and like, figuring out if they want to talk about that or not is important to know.

I think that's good. And you know, when we're talking to people, we just kind of. We gotta kinda go through the story as the background to get to the things that we really want to talk about. But yeah, I think that's good. Yeah, you should start working on your pivot points for meeting all these people.

Well, I don't think. I don't need to study to.

Yeah, you gotta prepare.

Not gonna prepare. I'm not gonna pre study to meet people.

You know, maybe have some. Somebody asks you something, you're like, well, hold on, let me check my notes. Yeah. But yeah, just because I've been meeting new people at our new lake house, I think I need to work on my stories a little bit more.

Maybe you're the problem.

That can't be.

All right, new segment is. Is this normal? So this is on R. Is this normal? People posted this rarely. Anybody comments. So they're kind of just posting into the bliss.

But into the bliss or into the abyss.

Abyss.

You're right.

Someone said, looks like an audio air, but it's just my brain question mark. Sometimes when I watch something like, like start a video or movie, I immediately think the audio is off. From the picture, it looks like the actor's mouth are moving out of sync. But if I take a second and stare at the video. Eventually my brain will correct itself and everything line up.

I think that's more of a tech issue.

Yeah, that's what I think.

I think it takes a little while and then. And then it catches up. Yeah, I don't think it's their brain, so.

But is that an actual thing?

Not that I know of. Although I will say it is amazing the corrections that your brain can do, especially with regard to sight. Like, I had this retinal detachment. And when you've had a retinal detachment, basically it was described to me as like when you, you know, when you take out aluminum foil right out of the. Off the roll, it's like nice and smooth, right. But if you crumple it up and then you try to smooth it out, you never can get all of those wrinkles out. It's always like a little bit wrinkled. So if your retina comes off from the back of your eye and then basically they tack it back down with lasers and then with surgery, which is what happened to me. I mean, I had a tear and then they. And it was detached, so they. They tack it back down. But what happens? I mean, I was very lucky in that I still have. My vision is quite good. But for the longest time when I would look at things, like I would look at, you know, something that's supposed to be straight, like a light post, but there was this bend in it. But I knew that there wasn't a bend in it. But, you know, I look at it and like, oh, my God, there's just like this bend in this. In everything. I mean, every line was, you know, off a little bit like that. And it was quite frustrating for a while. But then as time has gone on, it's been, what, six, seven, eight years? Something like that. And now my. I mean, my retina hasn't changed. It's still like giving whatever signals. But my brain has figured out, no, I know that that line is straight. And so when I look, I mean, if I really look carefully, I can see like this little tiny micro bend. But my brain's like, no, that's not. That's not true. And so it's quite amazing.

Your brain is smart.

Figured it out. Figured it out. So, yeah, so that was my long winded thing of saying, I think that person has a tech issue. We'll need to call tech support. Let's call Ryan. He would love that.

Okay, we'll do one more and then we'll wrap it up. This is person did a long thing, but I think I Can summarize it.

My shoulder, pretty much.

So the title is Excessive Sweating after Cooling down after Exercise.

There was literally a Seinfeld episode about this. Really? Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.

They went roller skating.

Oh, no.

Okay, so I'm currently at the skating rink, and it's very hot. Blah, blah, blah, blah. They went skating, and then they would sit down after skating, and they would cool down, and then all of a sudden, excessively start sweating everywhere. And it was burning hot, and even their eyeballs seemed to burn. Then they would get up, and they would skate a little bit, and they'd feel a little bit better and sit down, cool off, and then start excessively sweating again. Hmm.

That is a little strange. I'm not sure. I thought they were just saying, like, you know, sometimes people get overheated, they sweat a whole bunch, and it just takes a long time to really cool off. And the Seinfeld episode was because sometimes you try to take a shower right after exercising, but then it doesn't take. And so then you're still sweating afterwards. Yeah. And that's what happened to George. He was sweating and sweating, and then people thought that he was lying about something because he was just sitting there, like, sweating. So I don't know about that one. I think that there could be some sort of thyroid issue or something going on. I mean, if it's only happening in that very specific circumstance, I find it hard to believe that there's something metabolic. Yeah. Like maybe you're just still hot and you just haven't cooled down enough. Then I think they go skating, and then they're getting some wind on them, and that's cooling them off some. So I feel like they just kind of need to sit in some air conditioning, put some ice on there. I really bet it's fine, but can't say for sure.

They said this is the whoa, whoa, whoa part. I was skating for a bit before sitting down because my feet started to hurt. Parentheses my skates are too small, but I can't afford new ones, and I had to get out of the house. The skating rink is the only place within walking distance.

Yeah, this is like a typical patient history. Then a lot of aside about they really needed to get some new skates and blah, blah, and you're like, wait, wait, wait. And then you. Then you were having chest pain after this. Right. So let's. Let's go back to that. People give a lot of, you know, a lot of information. And, yeah, you have to kind of keep saying, like, okay, so back to the subject. Doctors are accused all the times of interrupting patients. Like every eight seconds or something, we interrupt them. But if we didn't, it would take, like, three hours to get, you know, two minutes worth of information. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but still, you know, sometimes you gotta. You gotta just.

Thanks, guys, for listening. Follow us on Instagram @GenerationsMD. Tick tock @GenerationsMD and we will talk to you next week. Bye, guys.

Bye.