Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to the Healthy Matters podcast with Dr. David Hilden , primary care physician and acute care hospitalist at Hennepin Healthcare in downtown Minneapolis, where we cover the latest in health, healthcare and what matters to you. And now here's our host, Dr. David Hilden .

Speaker 2: 0:21

Hey everybody, and welcome to the Healthy Matters podcast. I'm your host, David Hilden , and today we have a very special show, a bonus episode. We are recording here in downtown Minneapolis from Hennepin Healthcare , also known as the Big County hospital in Minneapolis. And we're gonna be talking to Dr. Gla Fln and Lady Gla Fln , otherwise known as Will and Kristen Flannery, you know them from internet fame. But I just wanna start this out before I even introduce our guest by saying that when I told a colleague in the hospital hallways this morning that I was gonna be doing this episode, they smiled and they say , will you please say thank you, <laugh> ? Will you say thank you to these two? Because they got us through the pandemic. So Will Kristen , welcome to the podcast. Thank

Speaker 3: 1:06

You. Thank you so much. Good to be here. Thanks for having

Speaker 2: 1:08

Us. Now. Will, I'll start with you. You know, I, I started out my career making barcodes as an electrical engineer, so I'm a wee bit of a nerd. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> you on the other hand, sounds like you were a standup comedian first.

Speaker 3: 1:21

Yeah, well, I was be because my barcode making activities just didn't pan out, so I had to do something else.

Speaker 4: 1:29

He was always a nerd, though,

Speaker 2: 1:31

To be free . Were you a nerd? Were you , were

Speaker 3: 1:33

You , no. Yeah , yeah , I've seen the pictures. I did. I always thought , uh, I would go into medicine or like science or something , uh, really going back to like, probably early high school. And I started doing standup as a senior in high school cuz um , my best friend was the funniest person I know. He , uh, was surreptitiously going to comedy clubs at night and not telling anybody about it. And he told me about it and he was like, Hey, you should do this with me. It's , this is , this will be fun. So I , I did it. I , so I went, I didn't tell, my parents didn't tell anybody. We'd go and like a Wednesday night and we were 17, or I , he was 18, I was 17 at the time, so I couldn't be in the comedy club past a certain hour. There were like laws against that for minors, I guess. And so I got to tell five minutes of jokes at like, you know, seven 15 in the evening on a weeknight to an audience of like eight people, three people. Yeah . Yeah. It's like really , uh, not the primetime comedy club going hours, but it was so much fun and just being around other funny people and riffing off each other, writing jokes together, just being in that atmosphere. And I wasn't that good at it. No one's really good at standup when they first get started with it. But , um, it was just a really fun hobby that I wanted to, even though I wanted to go into medicine, I wanted to continue doing this really as a hobby because it's making a career outta standup comedy is , um, I think in a lot of ways easier than becoming a Doctor <laugh>. So Kristen ,

Speaker 2: 3:06

Did you know Will at that stage? I mean, was he funny?

Speaker 4: 3:10

Um, no, and I'll let you decide which question that's an answer to . No . Um , no, I did not know him . <laugh> , I did not know him in high school. I, we met in college , um, about halfway through , um, our university experience. So I , I wasn't there for the comedy club days, but I was there by the time I met him. He'd been doing it a few years and he would, you know, do open mic nights on campus, things like that. So I did see a few of those and yeah, I thought, I thought he was funny. And by this point, you know, I've heard all of his jokes so many times that yeah, it's, you know, now I'm more like a , he'll tell me a joke and he'll say, that's funny. <laugh> , right? Like , yeah,

Speaker 3: 3:49

Okay, <laugh> ,

Speaker 4: 3:50

That'll work. People will like that <laugh> , you

Speaker 2: 3:52

Know, I think you had a better dating strategy than I did because you wanna know how to kill a conversation at a cocktail party. Talk about barcodes, barcodes,

Speaker 4: 4:00

<laugh>, <laugh> .

Speaker 2: 4:02

Yeah . You know, that's the end of that. Uh, you know, and yeah , I didn't feel like it was terribly meaningful work, although it probably is, but that's why I chose to go into medicine then. And so then Will, did you know, you wanted to be an ophthalmologist? Because it's a wee bit dorky and I, I talked to our ophthalmology chair here after he had just come and taken some glass outta some kid's eye. And so it's important, but, you know, did you always know you wanted to

Speaker 3: 4:23

Do that? No, I did not know I wanted to be an eye doctor. In fact, when I got to med school, I had no idea what an ophthalmologist was. Could you

Speaker 2: 4:29

Spell it? There's too many hs. It's

Speaker 3: 4:31

Way too many Hs. It's, it's , uh, the key to spelling ophthalmology is to just , just add an extra consonant every so often and you'll eventually get there <laugh> . But it's , um, I , my, my advisor in med school was , was assigned to me, was an ophthalmologist. And so I remember asking her like, the second week of med school, like, so what do you do? That's eyeballs. Right? And that was really the beginning. And she, she told me, she's like, you're gonna go away for a while . You're gonna think about doing all these other things in medicine, then you'll come back to ophthalmology because you realize that, that it's, it's clearly the best thing in medicine. And objectively that's absolutely true. Like, no , there's, I'm sure there have been studies in like JAMA and everything about how ophthalmology clearly is the best specialty. Uh , I don't know . I'm in private practice. I don't pay attention to literature anymore, but , um,

Speaker 2: 5:17

Yeah, you don't have to, you don't , you know , I , the ophthalmologist saved my life because I've got about 12 things wrong with my eyes. And when I was two, I had like a lateral rectus muscle problem that, I don't know, I think they tied it into a knot or something. And now I can see again <laugh> . So, you know, it was life changing for me. So , uh,

Speaker 3: 5:35

Yeah . What are you then

Speaker 2: 5:36

I find out they put, are

Speaker 3: 5:37

You a little farsighted? Are you a little farsighted? What are you? Oh ,

Speaker 2: 5:39

I'm a little bit of everything. <laugh>. Look , I , I got a lazy eye. I got, I don't know, I , I forgot what the muscles are. I'm an internist <laugh> , but I , but I got a laser eye. I'm colorblind, I have a refractory problem. I think my eye's the shape of an egg or something like that.

Speaker 3: 5:55

Yeah, you're, you're the , you're the perfect patient for us. That's, this is great. It's like you were designing a lab Yeah ,

Speaker 2: 6:01

Exactly. To have all of the problems you guys can fix <laugh>. Okay . So, so let's talk a teeny bit about how you got into this career as the gla blackened . Cuz first of all, maybe I was asleep that day in med school, or maybe they never taught it , or I was probably talking in class, cuz that's what I do. But I don't have any clue what Glock plein is. Is it an actual thing? It doesn't sound very Irish and the two of you look awfully

Speaker 3: 6:24

Irish. Oh yes. Well, I am, I don't know if you have

Speaker 4: 6:28

Flannery is a very Irish

Speaker 3: 6:29

Name. Yeah , yeah , yeah , for sure. Uh, Glock flein is an actual thing. It's, which is , which surprises people, they actually think My name is Dr. Glock Flein , which , uh, it'd be a very strange , uh, name for, I mean, a perfect name for an ophthalmologist, but , um, also very strange. Uh, I get people asking , uh, like calling in the clinic, asking just to make an appointment with Dr. Glock Flein . So it is something I have to deal with , uh, very every so often.

Speaker 4: 6:55

Yeah. They argue with the, the person who answers the phone about, no, that's actually Dr. Flannery . No, no. I want Dr. Glock Flecking . Yeah ,

Speaker 2: 7:02

I want the real one. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 7:03

Yeah . But I can, if you're interested , I , I mean, you said we weren't talking about ophthalmology, but , uh, uh, but you don't have to give me much , uh, space to, to just tell you about ophthalmology here. So , uh, Glock flecking , uh, angle closure glaucoma. Have you heard those words before?

Speaker 2: 7:18

That one I remember. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 7:20

Angle flat . It's very bad. Yeah . <laugh> really high pressure inside the eye causes things inside the eye to kind of die and not work so great. And you get these little grayish white flex on the lens that are called Glock flecking .

Speaker 4: 7:33

It's very exciting. Right ?

Speaker 3: 7:35

It's hilarious, right ? It's that is

Speaker 4: 7:37

Great . All your audience,

Speaker 2: 7:37

Like why that's right up there with barcodes. Dude, I think you might kill the , the conversation, the

Speaker 3: 7:42

Perfect name for a comedian. Uh , wouldn't it , wouldn't you think <laugh> ?

Speaker 2: 7:46

I think it is the perfect name. I probably have that condition too, and I just don't know it.

Speaker 4: 7:50

<laugh>. It's

Speaker 2: 7:51

Possible. Maybe you could . Okay . So let's pivot that . Before I do, before I talk about your cast of characters, Kristen , how did you ever think you'd be doing this? So you didn't have medical training, but you have all this advanced training. You went to college, you've got your own career and your own Right now you're like a superhero, which we're gonna get to later. You're a public speaker, you're doing a podcast. Yeah. Did you , how did, did you ever imagine this is what you were gonna be doing?

Speaker 4: 8:19

No, I, I have, I went, my formal training is in social psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Um, and I, I went to grad school for that. Um, and then for a plethora of reasons I pivoted into , um, gifted education and marketing and communications. And , uh, now I'm here. So it's been kind of a , a windy road just because that's how life turned out for me. But yeah, I never would've thought that, that I'd be, first of all talking to, you know, the medical field and secondly doing all of these things. So yeah, it's been, it's been a surprise, but it's fun. I enjoy it. And now I do this full-time, so it's pretty awesome. Wow,

Speaker 2: 8:58

That's so cool. And you play an obstetrician gynecologist.

Speaker 4: 9:02

Yeah. <laugh>.

Speaker 2: 9:02

I bet you never thought that either.

Speaker 4: 9:04

No. Yeah. Very occasionally I show up in , in some glam videos.

Speaker 2: 9:08

So Kristen , you're a social psychologist. Are you analyzing that guy to your right All the time?

Speaker 4: 9:14

I've been doing that for over a decade. Yeah. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> like, I don't know , 15 years now of all times.

Speaker 3: 9:18

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:19

The pathology must run deep. There's

Speaker 3: 9:20

Plenty <laugh> . There's plenty there. Yeah,

Speaker 2: 9:22

There's plenty there.

Speaker 3: 9:24

You should, you should see the things she walks in on me doing. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:27

Recording

Speaker 3: 9:28

These videos, <laugh> . Yeah,

Speaker 4: 9:29

I could, I could write a book.

Speaker 2: 9:31

So let's pivot a little bit and talk about the casting characters that you've created under your al Alter ego. Uh , yes , Dr. Gla Flecking . So first of all, do you, do you make all them up on your own? Did you have a grand strategy or do these just kind of come to you here and there as you go? It

Speaker 3: 9:50

Has come on as I've, as I've gone really, I didn't have like a, like a big , uh, you know, scary looking whiteboard with all these arrows and pointing in different directions. Like I'm some kind of ma you know, evil genius , uh, developing a plan. Uh , it's, it's really been, his

Speaker 4: 10:07

Brain is just very weird. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 10:09

It's , it's really been kinda as like , so basically I started doing the characters whenever I had this series of videos, a first day of med student rotation videos. So I would take a specialty and I would do this, you know, the med students coming on and, and they're talking with the attending. And that was where a lot of the characters got their start. Like neurology, psychiatry, the surgeon, anesthesiology with the shower caps, all these things. The characters have changed a little bit over time. Like initially I have a couple of videos where the emergency doctor was just like wearing a fleece or something, and eventually I turned it into <laugh> , just someone who's perpetually wearing a bicycle helmet and outfit. Uh, and so they, they have changed a little bit as I've, like, thought of more jokes. But yeah, I just a , as I get the ideas at this point, I've hit up almost every specialty. There's a couple out there that I haven't quite gotten to, but , um, uh, they're, the characters are pretty well fleshed out at this point. Do you have

Speaker 2: 11:06

A favorite, now the obvious answer is the internal medicine guy <laugh>. But do you have a favorite? Because that goes without saying, that's objectively true as well. The,

Speaker 3: 11:14

In the internal medicine doctor , uh, is very non-descript. Uh, unfortunately not a lot of , um, defining characteristics there just kind of blends into the background , uh, which I think maybe is a characterization all itself. I think that actually works quite well. My favorite is the sci , like the psychiatrist. I , uh, I love the therapy videos. Um, I don't know, I , I feel like it changes week to week . Like right now, I , I'm doing these rural medicine. I've been, I've done a few of the rural medicine videos and I really like that character a lot. So of course, Jonathan and the, the ophthalmologist interacting with each other is, is a lot of fun. So , yeah . So I

Speaker 2: 11:54

Love the rural medicine ones. Yeah . I have been that guy taking the call from the rural medicine guy that's , there's some guy , there's some farmer in North Dakota whose limb is hanging off <laugh> . And , and it's

Speaker 3: 12:08

Like, and he has to try to finish his fence .

Speaker 2: 12:09

He should go in , in fact , he should get on a chopper and come and land on a roof and have our guys sow his leg back out . Well, you know, the cattle need to be milked. Yeah. Christ gotta come in . You did that. You nailed that

Speaker 3: 12:21

<laugh> . <laugh> . Yeah. I got a lot of good feedback on the rural medicine. You know, I did my residency training in Iowa, so I, I took care of a lot of farmers. I visited a lot of kind of rural areas. And so that is , um, partly from my own experience, just, you know, taking care of patients in that type of community

Speaker 2: 12:42

Is Jonathan based on a real guy. And for listeners, if you don't know Jonathan, you need to go online. You need to check out the videos, you need to go, you need to , you also need to listen to knock, knock high . You need to subscribe to the podcast on YouTube.

Speaker 3: 12:56

Yes.

Speaker 2: 12:57

But, but you need to go learn about Jonathan because in Jonathan , in the holy grail of medicine is to have a scribe to do your stuff.

Speaker 3: 13:05

That's my loyal scribe, Jonathan . That's

Speaker 2: 13:08

Right . So do you have a scribe or did you , is

Speaker 3: 13:10

This made up ? I do . I , no, I do have a loyal scribe. Absolutely. That's, that's part of , uh, US healthcare is that in order to be efficient and actually enjoy the time you spend at work, you have to have a scribe. That's how it works in this country. <laugh> , uh, I do have a scribe. So Jonathan is based on the first scribe I ever had. Uh , his , his name is , uh, Luis actually. And he is now a tech, so he's no longer scribes for me. He's, he's a brilliant, brilliant guy. And so I based it off of that. He's a little bit quiet. Yeah.

Speaker 4: 13:42

It's funny cuz he , I don't know that I ever heard him say one word the whole time I would come and have appointments

Speaker 3: 13:48

And things. He's, he's very just done . He's very , he's very quiet. He just, he gets, gets to the work done. He's very efficient. And so I based it off of Jonathan and initially the first couple of videos that had Jonathan, he actually spoke. He , but the joke is, and in the content that , uh, Jonathan mastered the art of being seen but not heard. And so , uh, and so the , the ancient scribing art of being seen but not heard. And , um, and so now he, he's like this almost mythical character who has , uh, the power to do almost anything in medicine , uh, very quickly, very efficiently,

Speaker 2: 14:24

Including saute garlic for you and doing an entire orthopedic clinic. I understand <laugh>

Speaker 3: 14:30

And surgeries , he , he can take over , uh, when the, when the surgeon needs a break, he just steps right in. Uh , because why should anesthesia only get the breaks? Exactly . Maybe the surgeon should get a break too, and Jonathan steps in and just finishes the job. Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 14:43

I'll hail the Jonathans of the world. So listeners, you know , uh, and , and the producer of our podcast actually, name is Jonathan, and he's sitting right over there and he's putting his, his hands up <laugh> . I , but I'll hail the Jonathan's other world. Uh , you know, you've nailed that. So , uh, so specifically as well, I walk into the clinic and there's a lot of scribes and I'm, I'm doing my best to like, introduce myself and say, hi, what's your name? But they're very quiet

Speaker 3: 15:07

<laugh> . Yes, yes. They're very quiet. And , uh, I actually have had people come up to me who are former scribes. In fact, one of them was named Jonathan . And , um, so I, I have heard from actual scribes named Jonathan . Uh , they have told me that , that I have changed their life. <laugh> now for the better, for the worse . I don't know , they kinda left it at that, but , um, I'll just assume it's for the better <laugh> .

Speaker 2: 15:33

So do any of the specialties just, are they mad at you? Like , uh, like have you, have you offended anybody sufficiently yet ? <laugh>

Speaker 3: 15:41

Yeah , sufficient. Uh , uh, a little, a little bit. Um, every specialty's a little bit different with how they react to being made fun of. I never really like go super hard at a particular specialty, you know, it's all, I try to make sure I don't leave people feeling like I took advantage of them or, or just like really denigrated their, their specialty or their purpose as physicians in a particular specialty. That being said, there's some specialties that do handle it better than others. Primary care, family medicine in particular. I , I get the most negative feedback on that characterization, and I kind of get it, you know, they're, they , they are, I think, taken advantage of just by the healthcare system. Uh, and they, I think feel like they're looked down upon by other areas of medicine as less worthy, or I don't even know it . It's, and so basically they just, they're, they have this, this sense that they're that kind

Speaker 4: 16:44

Of an underdog.

Speaker 3: 16:45

They're the underdog of medicine. Yeah. And so, yeah . Yeah , yeah. Go ahead. I think they're a little, they , they just , uh, so it's a little bit , um, difficult I think for them to see somebody like me who's, who's a surgeon and you know, as a surgical field, you know, making fun of them. And so I I, I never like get mad that they're mad at me , uh, because in the end I trust the characterization. Like it's, there's truth to all of these characters, right? And

Speaker 4: 17:10

It's meant to be a sympathetic character,

Speaker 3: 17:11

Meant to be a sympathetic,

Speaker 4: 17:12

They're working really hard and are very competent. And the system is just making it nearly impossible for them or anyone to do a job like that.

Speaker 3: 17:19

That's the idea. And so it's, and as long as I come across that way , uh, I , you know, I, I stand by the character, but I, I, and it's not, it's not everybody, it's just, I always get, it's noticeable. I , I get a few more comments, but it happens with other characters as well. You know, there are some neuro neurologists that are maybe aren't too happy. Yeah , that's

Speaker 2: 17:38

A neural one I was wondering about that . That makes sense. You know, I, I'm internal medicine and maybe it's because I simply lack enough , uh, as an internist enough emotional intelligence to know if I'm being made fun of, you know, I don't know <laugh> , but , uh, I actually think you're just shining a light on a , and I do primary care , uh, as , as well as hospital work. And I think you just nail it. But I could see why some might take a little offense, but you're not really, you're doing satire on a profession. Right. It doesn't strike

Speaker 3: 18:04

Me as particularly

Speaker 2: 18:05

Judgmental .

Speaker 3: 18:05

Exactly. Yeah . And , uh, and yeah , I'll tell you, one of my favorite personal favorite videos , uh, um, was one of the , uh, internal medicine rounding videos where you're, you know , talking about , um, ordering Lasix and , uh, you know, there's, you know, a , a non-zero percent probability that that could help, you know, we have to, and they're going back and forth. And , uh, I love, I love making fun of internal medicine rounding. It's just, well ,

Speaker 2: 18:31

We , we do , we do round for about four hours, you know, and I go on that whiteboard and I start scribbling out hyponatremia. I've got all these, you know, 20 years worth of wonderful knowledge, and we're gonna talk about that hyponatremia until the, the med students are over here drooling. They're asleep, they're drooling. And then the residents are giving me this eye roll . They're ordering stuff on somebody else. And I'm still droning on about hyponatremia. So you and it

Speaker 3: 18:56

Hours , you just come alive. You come alive. You , it's , it's ,

Speaker 2: 19:00

Yeah . You know , that you lived for that . There's nothing sexier than hyponatremia. I mean, come on.

Speaker 3: 19:05

That's amazing.

Speaker 2: 19:05

So, what's next for , um, for both of you in terms of the, the social media and the, the, the speaking of the publishing, you've, you are the hosts of Knock-Knock Kai , and I'd like you to talk about that, how that started up the, your newer podcast. Yeah . And then what's, what's next for the Glock Flecking cast of characters? Do you have a Netflix video coming up? Do you have a <laugh> a movie? You know , talk about those if you could,

Speaker 3: 19:30

Man . Well, right now we're spending a lot of time, you know, with the , the podcast , uh, you know, getting that off the ground. It's now, we're about 15 episodes into it. Been doing it for, I think , since January been published together . And it's, it's been a lot of fun doing that together. Uh , the purpose of the podcast is called Knock, knock High with the Glock Flecking . And it's a way for, for people who wanna listen to, to me talk for like, longer than 90 seconds. And , uh, I

Speaker 4: 19:58

Don't imagine there are many of those,

Speaker 3: 19:59

But okay . Maybe not <laugh> . Um, and so, but it's a way we, we bring on , uh, physicians and other people in healthcare , uh, and it really just shows like a more human side to, to practicing medicine. And so we have people bring stories from their , usually it's from their training, cuz that's when all the great stories happen is from like, residency and med school. And , um, and we, you know, play, do activities, play little games, and just in general just show a fun side of the profession occasionally touching .

Speaker 2: 20:29

So where do you find your people? Because I just, I looked through some recent episodes of Knock Knock Eye , and here, here we have an episode about naked patients in the emergency department. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , we have an episode about ruptured spleens. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , we have an episode about the rural medicine. Who does your, do you just, how do you find your topics? Because that's a , that's a bunch of good topics.

Speaker 3: 20:50

Well , by virtue of what I do on social media, I, I've, I've developed a lot of connections with lots of people. And so , um, I'm going through and just, you know, people I think would be fun to talk to and , uh, have some interesting things to say, interesting stories. And a lot of them I'll reach out to, we have , uh, a team of, of producers also that, that help. And they're looking on social media seeing, you know, who we could bring on to , to talk about , uh, yeah , we're looking for someone to talk exclusively about hyponatremia. If you're, you know , we could do , could do a solid two hours, if that's enough. Oh ,

Speaker 2: 21:25

Well if I cut it back, if I cut it back, we could get it down to two hours. I think I need , but you know what ? You might need the intersection of barcoding in medicine.

Speaker 3: 21:34

There you go. Oh yeah. Oh , you know, it's funny, I have done a video about barcodes. You know, I , it was, it was , uh, bill had to take a specimen down to the lab and there was a lot of , uh, 2D barcode related humor in that one. Wasn't one of my , did

Speaker 2: 21:47

You agree with that ? Was there any humor involved in the barcode video?

Speaker 3: 21:50

<laugh> , I gotta say, it wasn't one of my more popular videos <laugh> , so, you know, sorry to say. But , uh, yeah, so the, the podcast is , um, and, and it's awesome doing it with Kristen too because , uh, Kristen brings a non-medical,

Speaker 4: 22:05

Non-medical, yeah. I kind of have a , an inside out view of it. Like, I've been along the whole ride since we met in college. So I've been there through med school and residency and the whole thing. Um, and so I've obviously picked up a lot along the way, but I'm not actually in medicine. And so , um, you know, I, I think bodies are gross. So I'm pretty, pretty squeamish about it. It's true . Uh , and also I, I kind of bring that non-medical perspective of like, you , you guys know, this is a very weird job, right? Just, just wanna make sure everyone doesn't lose sight of that.

Speaker 2: 22:35

You actually put needles in people's eyes, which is warped. I just wanna say that's what to know . Everybody should do that.

Speaker 3: 22:40

Well, she's got an eye thing. Like it's, I

Speaker 4: 22:42

Hate, it just makes me sound squeamish. Yeah .

Speaker 3: 22:45

So I , I can't, I can't talk about eyeballs, so you

Speaker 4: 22:47

Can't, yeah. In residency, he'd always have his textbooks open and it would be these horrible pictures. I can't scroll through his phone, even if I wanted to. Maybe

Speaker 3: 22:55

Subconsciously

Speaker 4: 22:57

Disgusting eyes.

Speaker 3: 22:58

Maybe that's why I do all these different characters, because I can't be myself. I can't talk about eyeball. That's

Speaker 2: 23:03

Right. You can't, you know , you know, if you guys want to talk about it, we could talk about this, but about the marital harmony here, you know, if that would be helpful,

Speaker 4: 23:10

He finds a way to sneak it in. Don't worry about that . I'm listening <laugh> .

Speaker 3: 23:15

But what do we have? Let's see. Uh , you know, we , we have lots of ideas of things that we, places we want to take all of this. And

Speaker 4: 23:22

Yeah, I just started full-time. Um, you know, we, we made an official business out of Glock m plucking , and now I'm doing that full-time. And until we're kind of getting a lot of things tidied up behind the scenes and, and in place for some exciting future directions. But , um, yeah, right now the podcast is a big focus. Um, we wanna keep creating videos. We'll see, you know, we've, we've thrown around some ideas about , um, making some longer form videos that involve the characters and, and see where that might go. Um ,

Speaker 2: 23:54

Do you have a connection at Netflix? Is that Oh, yeah. Yeah . Is that something that type with a CEO of

Speaker 4: 23:58

<laugh> , they have a barcode guy over there that you could connect us. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2: 24:01

Exactly. That's what you need. You need Atu , you need the Netflix special <laugh> . I bet you've already thought of that, but if not, I I only take like a 10% cut if that happens , you know , for , for the finder's fee . For that listeners, we are talking with Dr. Will Flannery and Kristen Flannery, a k a Dr. Gleen and Lady Gleen . And we are, are gonna take a short break and when we come back we're gonna shift gears and we are gonna talk about a medical situation that happened in their family Kristen's lifesaving role and what you might be able to learn from it. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

Speaker 1: 24:38

You are listening to the Healthy Matters podcast with Dr . David Hedon . Got a question or comment for the doc. Email us at Healthy Matters hc m e d.org or give us a call at six one two eight seven three talk. That's 6 1 2 8 7 3 8 2 5 5. And now let's get back to more healthy conversation.

Speaker 2: 25:01

We've talked about your medical career. We've talked about your comedy career and how the two of you have launched on this enterprise , uh, about the gleans . Let's turn to your personal life to the degree you want to. And Kristen , maybe you could tell the tale of what happened to Will both in his , he had a cancer diagnosis as well as a cardiac arrest that happened just a few years ago. Could you tell us about it?

Speaker 4: 25:28

Yeah, so , um, every time we had a child, we have two children. And every time one of them turned, you know, was about one year old, he thought it would be fun to celebrate with , um, cancer <laugh> . So he got tested as can do cancer ? Yes. A year after our first child was born while he was in medical school. And then a year after our second child was born, while he was in residency, he got testicular cancer in the other testicle. Not related, not a response to treatment the first time. None of that. Just that lucky, I guess. And then to top it all off, the day after Mother's Day, he's got a thing about like holidays, I think. Yeah . Uh , the day after Mother's Day in 2020 during a global pandemic, he thought it'd be fun to die. And so he had a , a sudden cardiac arrest in his sleep. Uh, and I woke up, it was about 4 45 in the morning. Um, so I was in a pretty deep sleep at the time, but he started making really loud noises that, again, I am not in the medical profession in any way. Um, and so I just, I was coming out of a deep sleep , I was groggy and it sounded kind of like snoring. So I just kind of like pushed him over to try to get him to stop, you know, <laugh> . But it continued and, and just some other things were a, a little bit off from what might be normal. So , um, eventually I figured out eventually it was probably like 15 seconds or something, but it felt longer. I figured out that this was an emergency situation. I didn't know what was going on exactly, but I knew I needed to call 9 1 1. And so I did. And they told me to start chest compressions. Um, and so I did C P R for 10 minutes. Wow. Um , I couldn't move him off the bed, so I just had to do it there on the bed. Thankfully I have a bad back. So we have a firm mattress. <laugh>.

Speaker 2: 27:14

Yeah . Cause we put boards behind people. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> .

Speaker 4: 27:17

Exactly. Yeah. So I did 10 minutes of C P R before the, the paramedics arrived and then they took him off. You know, they shocked him I think five times before , um, they got his heartbeat back and then they took him off to the hospital. Yeah. So that was, that was not so fun. But I was glad I was there. Sometimes I had to travel, you know, I had a job at the time that sometimes I had to travel for work. So I was really happy that I was not traveling <laugh> on that day and otherwise

Speaker 3: 27:45

I'd have to do it myself. That's right.

Speaker 2: 27:47

Yeah , exactly . You would've been doing it yourself. I would've

Speaker 3: 27:48

Worked out. Well be hard to

Speaker 2: 27:50

Tell Jonathan. A lot of us unconscious <laugh> that Kristen , that's an exceptional, an exceptional tale. So I personally in this hospital have done cpr, I don't know , 20, 30 times it. Um, usually I'm surrounded by 20 people. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , who are highly skilled professionals. There's a respiratory therapist and maybe an anesthesiologist, some guy in a bike helmet who's doing an in intubation. That's right . And I'm doing cpr and often the patients do okay, but sometimes they don't, even in that setting mm-hmm . <affirmative> often the patients literally don't survive. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, especially with 10 minutes of C P R . And I'm looking at a guy who looks mostly neurologically intact, almost

Speaker 4: 28:31

Like's debatable, like

Speaker 2: 28:33

95% . Yeah . Yeah. <laugh> , you know, but that is an incredible outcome cuz now you're really in internal medicine territory with cardiac arrest. So I assume he had some kind of ventricular fibrillation or some cardiac arrest, but you maybe didn't know that at the time. How did you ,

Speaker 4: 28:49

You know,

Speaker 2: 28:49

Do that? How did you know to do cpr? I

Speaker 4: 28:52

Give all credit there to the dispatcher. Um, I had no idea, you know, it was May of 2020, so my mind immediately went to Covid . He was making these respiratory sounds that, you know, I learned later. Were obviously agonal respirations, but, but it just sounded like a breathing thing to me. So I went to Covid , but she was the one even, you know, I , I did put my head on his chest just, I don't know , at a reflex or something, just to see like what's going on in there. And I didn't hear anything. Um, and I couldn't see any movement of his chest to show, you know, respiration. But even like a part of my brain registered that, but a different part of my brain didn't know what to do with that information. Like , that doesn't make any sense. You know, it didn't click. Um, and so the dispatcher is the one who really, who knew what to do and what was going on and, and she walked me through, you know, instructions and all of that. And so I, I really credit her with, with saving his life. Cuz if it had just been me and she had not been there, I wouldn't have known to do that.

Speaker 2: 29:47

So did you have like the cell phone right next to you on the bed on speaker? Or how did you do

Speaker 4: 29:51

That ? Yeah, she told me to put it on speaker and put it nearby and, and so I, I just put it on, I think, I don't know, the pillow or something next to his head and, and was doing chest compressions and the paramedics later we met up with them for a little reunion afterward. And , uh, one of them said that I was, I don't remember doing this, but I must have gotten down, put my feet on the floor, basically over the bed, you know. Um, and he said that my, I was pushing so hard with the chest compressions that my feet were coming off the floor. So I was basically just jumping on him, trying to get him

Speaker 2: 30:22

Give like the talk <laugh> on how to do it . You know , we have all these tricks to tell people, you know, do Staying Alive the BG song, do it . Yeah .

Speaker 4: 30:29

And that doing that was going through my mind. I'd heard that before, so I

Speaker 2: 30:31

Had You heard that. Yeah . Whatever you're doing, you're probably not doing it fast enough or hard enough. And it sounds like you were like jumping on a trampoline. Well, we

Speaker 4: 30:38

Had just signed a mortgage the month before, so there was no way I was letting him out of there. Yeah,

Speaker 2: 30:43

Exactly. <laugh> . Yeah . I'm glad that was going through your head and actually putting your ear to the chest. You know , it was a couple years before my time, but that's why the guy invented the stethoscope, so they didn't have to do that anymore. <laugh>.

Speaker 4: 30:57

Yeah. But I should have come into the prop closet and grabbed one, but I That's right.

Speaker 3: 31:01

Hate got it . That's right .

Speaker 2: 31:02

Does he even have one? Will you even have a stethoscope? Just , just as a

Speaker 3: 31:05

Prop, just strictly for skits. Yeah , that's, that's all I use . It's a toy

Speaker 4: 31:09

<laugh> . That's

Speaker 2: 31:09

One of the Fisher Price ones that they have at the nurses' stations that you literally couldn't hear a jet airplane and you're supposed to listen to, you know , that's, that's right . So Will , do you remember any of this? What do you remember, what's the last thing you remember going to bed?

Speaker 3: 31:21

Uh, last thing I remember was earlier that afternoon. Nope . Taking my kid on a drive already . Drive around. Wasn't that the same day to try to get her to calm down? Uh ,

Speaker 4: 31:33

Well I guess that was Sunday. Yeah. Yeah. And this was,

Speaker 3: 31:35

I remember. So yeah, she had some kind of meltdown that day, I don't know. And so I , and

Speaker 4: 31:40

It was Mother's Day.

Speaker 3: 31:41

It was Mother's Day. So I had, I put her in the car just to drive her, just to get her out of the house basically. And , uh, that I remember where we drove Oh , okay. That day. And that's, it was a

Speaker 2: 31:51

Lovely Mother's Day gesture.

Speaker 3: 31:52

Yeah. It really was. I think so <laugh> that

Speaker 2: 31:55

Was , most mothers on Mother's Day say , what can you get, get me for Mother's Days ? They take these kids outta here.

Speaker 3: 31:59

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4: 32:00

That started, we have a tradition in our house of Mother's Day and Father's Day are the high holy days of our house, because on those days you don't have to do any parenting. And so if the children start just misbehaving, you remove them. Perfect . Yep .

Speaker 3: 32:13

But to anybody listening, parenting is great. Yeah . It's love it . It's fantastic. <laugh> . Absolutely. There's no downside to it. Uh , there's

Speaker 2: 32:21

None whatsoever. You know, what you can do is your kids are little. We used to just Velcro our kids to the wall, you know, you put 'em in a Velcro vest, that's so , and then you just so smart stick them up there and they cut great . And they think

Speaker 4: 32:30

It's fun and Yeah .

Speaker 2: 32:31

Oh yeah. It's perfect. Win-win. It's

Speaker 4: 32:32

Perfect.

Speaker 2: 32:33

Do you , so then did you have any, you know , maybe you don't wanna tell us all about your personal medical history, but did you have have any warning whatsoever? You just went to bed normally that night?

Speaker 3: 32:41

Just went to bed and then , um, I woke up in the ICU like two days later Yep . Without any underwear on, so Yeah .

Speaker 2: 32:50

Yeah. As , as happens, you know, and it was , as you know what it was,

Speaker 3: 32:54

I didn't know what was going on.

Speaker 2: 32:55

It was probably Jonathan who cut off your underwear in the emergency department. I'm

Speaker 3: 32:59

Sure it was. Yeah . Yes. No , I

Speaker 2: 33:00

Or a guy in a bike helmet.

Speaker 3: 33:02

That's right. And the first thing I remember is just feeling confused. Uh , I , and honestly, the first thing I remember was talking to, to Kristen , uh, I think on the phone at that point, later on in the iPad, we had a conversation, but I remember the sound of her voice and like, the tone of her voice, kind of like just talking very matter-of-factly.

Speaker 4: 33:24

Like very measured, careful.

Speaker 3: 33:26

Yeah . Like you're in the hospital, they're taking good care of you. That , and that was, you know, and slowly I, I learned what had happened to me. I still have a lot of patchy memory around that time though, so there's , there's still a lot. I don't, I get the timeline wrong all the

Speaker 4: 33:40

Time. Yeah . That's my pet peeve when people ask him about all that. Cause I'm like, he doesn't know he had amnesia. Yeah .

Speaker 2: 33:46

Don't remember any of that . Maybe that's the body's natural reaction to have amnesia. You , you don't need to remember in that. Yeah . I

Speaker 3: 33:51

Mean, she lived through every second of it, and so I Yeah , I

Speaker 4: 33:55

Remember.

Speaker 3: 33:55

Yeah. So in , you know, in a lot of ways it's the , that story, I'm glad you had Kristen tell it because it's, it's her story more, you know, in a lot of ways. Um, especially that the actual trauma itself, the event.

Speaker 4: 34:08

Yeah. And that's something I talk about a lot. I mean, he , he of course has his own side of the story , uh, what it's like to be a survivor of sudden cardiac arrest. But , um, the event itself, he did not experience, you know, he was unconscious. Um, his body experienced it, of course, but his, he doesn't have any memory of that. He didn't, he wasn't conscious during it. He didn't, he didn't encode any of that in his, you know, neural activity. So , uh, for me though, that was, I'll never forget, you know, that was the most traumatic experience of my life. And , um, you know, I watched him turn blue and purple and gray and I listened to his body thump really hard on the floor with the first shock. And then I couldn't stand to be down there anymore. So I went upstairs and I checked on the kids and I was just, you know, hoping that they were not gonna be coming out of their room with all the noise going on. Um, you know, all those things. I packed the hospital bag. I , I did all the things and, and I remember all of that. And a lot of times the people who respond to out of hospital cardiac arrests or, or any other, you know, critical illness, the family members, the people who witness it, there's nothing in the system to account for them or to help them. Um, and so I really try to speak out about , um, you know, these co patients or co survivors of these really big medical events because in many ways it affects them just as much, if not more than the, the actual patient who it happened to.

Speaker 2: 35:36

I, I have one other experience in our hospital where we had a , a , a nurse, a registered nurse training for a triathlon and had a cardiac arrest in a Wisconsin lake while she was swimming. Her father was in the boat and mm-hmm . <affirmative> and pulled her in there and did C P R . So that is the only other case that I'm that familiar with, where a person has to do that act on a loved one. And it's not , uh, for listeners, this is a serious message that I think you all should learn. And I'm gonna ask Kristen to probably say a similar message, you need to learn how to do C P R , you need to learn bystander, c p r . It's no more of the mouth to mouth stuff. It's not all that stuff. You just need to push on the chest. What is your message, Kristen , to people about , uh, about knowing what to do because you didn't know, but you just acted? What would you like to tell people? Yeah .

Speaker 4: 36:24

Um, I, first of all, I would say, you know, don't be scared. You can't hurt them because they're already dead. And if they are not, and you don't need to be doing CPR on them, they will let you know. So there's no, you know, there's no need to be afraid of, of actually, you know, hurting them because you might break a rib or two , but a broken rib is better than being dead. So there's that. And then also, you know, you don't have to, getting certified is great, and if you can do that, definitely do , uh, but you don't have to. Even if you're not certified, you know, you can watch a YouTube video. It's not a complicated maneuver. Just watch something to learn how to do it. Everybody should know how to do it. Um, and then I also always want to point out that bystanders make a huge difference in the survival rate for people who have a cardiac arrest outside of the hospital. It's, it's like ridiculous statistics. They, they basically oversimplifying it. They just, they don't survive if there's no one there to do cpr. And if they do cpr r a lot of them do do survive. So you can make a big difference. But if we are going to ask people to be bystanders and, and lay responders to , um, sudden cardiac arrest, then we also, I think it's incumbent on , um, the medical profession to also make sure that there are supports in place for the people that do that. Because most of the people in that situation are not gonna be medically trained. They're not gonna be prepared for what they've seen. They're not gonna be used to seeing things like that. And often it's gonna be on someone that they know. And it's an incredibly traumatic experience to witness it, let alone to be the one doing it. Um, so, so definitely I think we need both. We need people to learn C P R and we need supports in place for people once they have performed c p

Speaker 2: 38:05

Your message alone is a gift to our listeners about that. Thanks . That message alone. Now, what have you told your daughters? Are they aware of what happened?

Speaker 4: 38:15

They are, yeah. Yeah. Doing CPR on him was the hardest thing that I had to do up until, you know, I don't know , an hour later when I had to go in my kids' room and tell them what had happened. And, you know, they were eight and five at the time, so I had to think of a way to do that in an age appropriate way. At that point, we didn't know if he was going to live, live. And even if he did live, we didn't know if he was going to have, you know, neurological function or remember us or remember himself or any of that. Uh, so I , I didn't have a lot of good concrete information to give them other than I said, you know, dad got sick and he needed some equipment that we don't have here to help him. And so they took him to the hospital and they're gonna help him. And that's, that's all I knew for sure. <laugh>. So that's what I told them. And, and you know, as we got more information over the next day or two , um, I, I tried to share it with them in age appropriate ways, but of course they grow and they, they, their brain develops, you know, as they grow and they understand more and more as that happens. Um, and so it's not really like, it wasn't this discreet event of we told them and now that's done. Now we keep telling them , um, they understand more about it as they get older and then they have different questions. And so then we address those questions and so they do know what happened. Um, I think there's still more realizations that will occur for them for many years, but , uh, but they're handling it really well. Um , I think this sounds weird, but I think it helped that he had cancer twice when they were very, very little. Right. They're just used to dad having these weird things happening. Hopefully

Speaker 2: 39:49

Third time's a charm though. You're done . I sure hope so. Well enough. Okay . Dude, you know, you've had your three things.

Speaker 4: 39:56

Yeah . I mean, there are other ways to get attention. Come on. Yeah,

Speaker 3: 39:59

It's true. There

Speaker 2: 40:01

Are other , you know , and, and seriously may of 2020, I was wearing the same n 95 mask for like the , my third month. It had fungus growing in it, I'm sure. But we had one , we treated it like gold. And so, you know, this Were you , were you trying to get out of the pandemic? That's what I want to know. <laugh>,

Speaker 4: 40:18

<laugh> , you know , he's that afraid of heading to the hospital as an

Speaker 3: 40:22

Ophthalmologist man . Yeah. I'm , I'm , my utility during a respiratory pandemic is somewhat limited as an ophthalmologist. So

Speaker 2: 40:30

Did you learn about the healthcare system from the other side? Now are , are you a Oh yeah. Are you a , a big proponent of our healthcare system and our payers and all that?

Speaker 3: 40:38

Oh. Uh , what do you think? Uh , it's , uh, uh, oh ,

Speaker 2: 40:40

I bet it Wait , I bet it went swimmingly well,

Speaker 3: 40:42

It went great. Yeah. No, it was , uh, because of what I had to go through, what we all had to go through. You know, everyone's so happy right. When you come home from the hospital. Right. And we were, we were, it was, it was awesome. You know, I had to got to hug my family again who couldn't be in the hospital with me during covid . And , um, and then the medical bills start coming and it's never just like one bill, right? It's, it's like you get a bill every like two weeks and, but sometimes it's an explanation of benefits from your insurance company. It looks kind of like a bill, but they say it's not a bill and then you get another bill. Is that reflected in your explanation of benefits or is it not ? Because

Speaker 4: 41:18

None of it says what it's for. It's not like it's itemized. So it's , do I

Speaker 2: 41:21

Have to send this amount in or something

Speaker 3: 41:23

Else ? Hang , wait, have I already paid this one? But this one looks like a different bill, but it kind of looks the same as the others. It's so needlessly complicated. Yep . And it's, it was hard for me as a physician to, to navigate this. And so what it taught me was just exactly what our patients go through. And it really resulted in a sea change in my, in my content and my comedy. Uh, that's when I started doing more satire related to our health insurance , uh, the health insurance industry or just healthcare in general. And so, and I've been doing that now for a couple years , uh, really going after these health insurance companies really hard because it's a, a huge problem in so many different ways. And I've have this never-ending supply of content that I could mine from our healthcare system. Uh, because there's just so many problems that make it challenging for physicians and patients.

Speaker 4: 42:22

I think our first taste of it was when they , you know, the shenanigans that they get up to was , uh, he of course was unconscious and in an ambulance and we didn't have a choice about where he went. They just took him to the closest hospital. Oh, that was your first mistake. The hospital was covered. It was in network, but the internist, am I using that word Right? The doctor in the icu , several of doctors he treated him was not in-network Yeah . Within the in-network hospital. And meanwhile he's unconscious and I'm not allowed in. So how are we supposed to have any control over any of that ? I

Speaker 3: 42:58

Didn't check. I didn't check before. You didn't check before you went. I didn't check before I went. Unfortunately, they

Speaker 4: 43:04

Didn't cover his bills . And

Speaker 3: 43:05

That was didn't design

Speaker 2: 43:06

The healthcare system. This is exactly what you wouldn't design, in my opinion. You know, and I work at a county safety and a hospital where half the patients are non-English speaking or they, or they're , uh, from another culture or they're poor or they're, they're not, they don't have a place to live. And , uh, I can't imagine navigating that when hearing what your experience was and two highly educated people.

Speaker 3: 43:27

Yeah. And, and so, you know, I, I had a lot of surprise bills and since then, now surprise billing is technically outlawed. You know, you're, you're not allowed to balance bill . Well , they still have surprise Bill. Yeah. You know, but that's just one thing, right. And there's so many different , uh, of , of aspects of our healthcare system that need a massive overhaul, especially when you see the perpetually rising profits and revenue of, of UnitedHealthcare and Aetna and Cigna and all these things. Uh, and so , um, it's a line of content that I really enjoy making and I'm gonna keep doing it because, you know, I don't know if it helps. I , I think it maybe , hopefully it has some kind of impact at least to just inform people like, this is, this is what this problem is. Cuz people outside of medicine, you know, these are like kind of shadow organizations in a lot of ways. Like all these pharmacy benefit managers and, you know, these are, these are things that I think are, these large corporations are purposely trying to obscure from the general public. And so we know a little bit about it as medical professionals, but by making these videos, I I'm , I'm trying to make it accessible to a larger general audience so that everybody can understand, oh, that's, that's going on and wow, that's a problem. And oh man, this is really funny. That's, those like the three things I've tried to up ,

Speaker 2: 44:55

I can't tell you

Speaker 4: 44:57

Rely on that obscurity, you know? So I think it does help just, just educating people that these things happen and in such a palatable way. And I think the more people share their stories, the less these companies will be able to do these tactics in the ways that they do.

Speaker 2: 45:12

I hope you keep doing that. Um, I couldn't agree with you more, and I'll bet you are in demand for the healthcare payers and insurance companies for their annual meetings <laugh> , to be like the speaker

Speaker 3: 45:23

<laugh> . Oh yeah. I get a lot of speaking re requests and I've never received one from a health insurance company, so Yeah , I'm sure

Speaker 2: 45:30

I'm , I'm sure they're coming any minute now.

Speaker 3: 45:32

<laugh>,

Speaker 2: 45:34

Do you have , do you have time for a couple questions that we have received from people in our organization? Let's , let's do it , just a couple questions and then , then we'll wrap it up. So you've made a name for yourself by being goofy, <laugh> . Are you that way at home? Will and Kristen , is he really such a goofball

Speaker 3: 45:52

Sometimes? Am I a goofball?

Speaker 4: 45:54

Um, <laugh> , his, his real persona is at home, is very different than, than the characters. Um, he's actually very introverted and very quiet and , um, lives in his own mind a lot. Like it's hard to get his attention sometimes cuz he's, you can only do one thought at a time or one.

Speaker 3: 46:17

I'm not, I'm not a great multitasker. No,

Speaker 4: 46:19

Well , no. Yeah, no, he's, and he's , you know, kind of grouchies <laugh>

Speaker 3: 46:23

Sometimes.

Speaker 4: 46:25

So they say people are, especially with the kids, he can be more of the, the go goofball. Yeah. What

Speaker 2: 46:31

Would your daughters answer that question? Would they say their dad

Speaker 3: 46:34

Is a goofball?

Speaker 4: 46:35

Yeah, I think so. Absolut and one of the things that you are, anyway, yeah, I think that would be on the list.

Speaker 2: 46:40

I hope so. <laugh> . So next question is this, comedy is healing, but in medicine there is a li a fine line between poking fun at the profession and offending people particularly patience . Yeah . How do you balance that?

Speaker 3: 46:55

Well, I have, I have certain rules that I don't violate whenever I'm making comedy. Uh , because this is a , a unique space to be a comedian in medicine because , uh, a lot of aspects of our jobs are very serious. We're dealing with patients lives or except in my case, it's just their eyes. But , um, and so I am very careful, if you notice in my content , I never have a patient character or very rarely have like a, a , a depiction of a patient. And I do that purposefully because it's, I, I am not gonna do anything that will undermine the trust that patients or the general public has in physicians. I , I don't want to damage that in any way. It's already being damaged enough in other ways. Uh , um, and so, so that's why I I stay away from comedy directed toward or even about patients. So it's all specialty to specialty interactions, you know, doctor to doctor interactions or making fun of, when I really ratchet up the ridicule is when I'm talking about these, you know , large organizations that are taking advantage of people, right? Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , because that's still punching up. I'm punching up at these publishing companies or administration or, you know, insurance, insurance or whatever it is , private equity. Uh, and so directing the ridicule in the right way is, is really key when you're trying to incorporate humor into the medical field. And I think that's kept me out of trouble for the most part. You know, I, I've made mistakes every , you know, you can't really do this without like, you know, somebody off or , or saying the wrong thing. And I've deleted videos, I've deleted tweets, and , uh, because it, it didn't, it just didn't land correctly. Or maybe I shouldn't have taken a shot at somebody that I did take a shot at, and, you know, that's being human, you know, it's, it's , uh, it's part of it. And I think as long as you're willing to own up to your mistakes and recognize that it's okay, it's all right .

Speaker 4: 49:02

And we know what it's like to be the patient, you know, and there is nothing funny about , um, being the patient. They're having, you know, the worst day of their life, potentially on a day. That's just another Tuesday for, for the physicians, you know? So that's kind of, I think we both see that as a very sacred thing to be as a patient. And so even if you weren't a physician, even if he didn't have to consider the patient physician relationship, you know, I think making fun of patients and what they're going through is just not something that we would ever

Speaker 3: 49:31

Wanted

Speaker 4: 49:31

Do.

Speaker 3: 49:32

Don't do it. It's

Speaker 2: 49:33

Not like , last question from me. Do you need a job in Minneapolis? You know, because here's the thing , we have an ophthalmology department. Kristen , you could practically run our place, you know , and, and you could be an ophthalmologist. It's a trauma center. So I'm sorry, but he would have to take call.

Speaker 3: 49:48

Um ,

Speaker 4: 49:48

That's a deal breaker .

Speaker 3: 49:50

I, I, yeah . You know, let me check in. Let me look in on that. <laugh> . Yeah. Would

Speaker 2: 49:53

You do that? You know, the weather is fantastic here . It doesn't rain nearly as much as Portland in Minneapolis.

Speaker 3: 50:00

I hear it's nice for at least like four weeks out of the year . Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2: 50:02

We're coming on those four weeks now, <laugh>. It's good . So we listeners, we have been talking with Dr. Will Flannery and Kristen Flannery, also known as, and maybe better known as Dr. Gleen and Lady Gleen , will and Kristen , I just wanna say a couple things. You've given us a few gifts both today and over the past few years. So many people have been affected by your work in a positive way. So the gift of comedy is the first thing I want to say. Thank you for, you have me personally, for these years. I've been watching and listening to you and so many other people I, you maybe know that. But thank you for your gift of comedy. And Kristen , you are an inspiration and a public speaker who is such a good educator and you've given us the gift of that inspiration. And so I wanna thank you for being on our show today. It's been great to have you. Aw ,

Speaker 4: 50:56

It's , yeah. Thank you for having us. Absolutely. It's fun.

Speaker 2: 50:58

It's been great. Thank you to our guests. Thank you for listening. I hope you'll join us next time. And in the meantime, be healthy and be well .

Speaker 1: 51:07

Thanks for listening to the Healthy Matters podcast with Dr . David Hilden . To find out more about the Healthy Matters podcast or browse the archive, visit healthy matters.org. You got a question or a comment for the show? Email us at Healthy Matters hc m e d.org , or call 6 1 2 8 7 3 talk. There's also a link in the show notes. And finally, if you enjoy the show, please leave us a review and share the show with others. The Healthy Matters Podcast is made possible by Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, Minnesota, an engineered and produced by John Lucas at highball Executive producers are Jonathan Comito and Christine Hill. Please remember, we can only give general medical advice during this program, and every case is unique. We urge you to consult with your physician if you have a more serious or pressing health concern. Until next time, be healthy and be well. L .