One thing Ive learned is that the videos that get the biggest reaction are the ones where there is an emotional reaction. In May 2020, he went into cardiac arrest in the middle of the night in his sleep, according to media reports. Kristin says. Since pulling back that eyelid of anonymity, "I'm a real person now to people," Flanary says. You've successfully added to your alerts. Although sometimes it feels like the other way around. "Medicine is full of absurdity," he says. Everything from social media to the patient experience to why cataract surgery isnt as bad as you think it is. But at some point you just have to go for it. But thank goodness for adrenaline. Now, he is telling his story so that other men know what to look for and can catch the disease early on. "I feel so heard.". Sarah Cooper, a comedian who rose to internet stardom by lip-syncing to President Trump, parlayed her success into a 2020 Netflix special that was not particularly well-received, and then the election came and went along with her moment. So he found an open mic near Dartmouth's campus, prepared a 10-minute set, and performed for an enthusiastic crowd of 50-60 people. Welcome back to the Doctor Rich channel! That's funny, but it's kind of my passion Let's check out this video! Whenever hes uncertain whether a given joke might go too far, he refers to a simple guiding principle: Be sure to punch up. Ultimately, performing comedy live became too challenging to keep up as my medical career progressed, so I turned to social media. I am Lady Glock Flecking. Things would gradually get a little more pointed, with jokes at the expense of disinterested emergency medicine doctors, overeager medical students, and, in a running theme, well-paid and under-worked ophthalmologists. For Flanary, comedy comes naturally. You can cancel your membership at anytime at no cost. Two weeks before classes began, Flanary got a call: Dartmouth accepted him too. If the IOP remains elevated long enough, glaucomatous optic neuropathy may occur, resulting in primary angle closure glaucoma. Now you're reasserting control over the situation., Fast forward to his fourth year of residency when the Glaucomfleckens found out that Will was one of the lucky 1-2 percent of people with testicular cancer who get it in the other testicle., True to form, he made jokes. Interns get handicap parking, attendings catch the shuttle from the commuter lot. That garnered so many comments from students and doctors. "I've walked out of my home office into some very strange situations," Kristin says. Then, the surprise bills arrived accumulating charges for out-of-network care he received in the depths of his health crisis. On TikTok,. Flanary, 36, has been on both sides of the stethoscope. He started with stand-up in high school, making "teenage boy jokes" wherever he could find an open mic. For nonmedical personnel, Flanarys videos give insight and a few tips in dealing with a world most only see from the patient side. Since then, it has evolved to incorporate satire of the US healthcare system, academic publishing, and the interpersonal conflicts that are pervasive in the medical system. She performed CPR for an incredible nine minutes. 'Its really hard having a diagnosis like that in your 20s because when youre in your 20s, you have this sense of invincibility, like nothing can hurt you, youll never get sick. Please check and try again. That's part of why Dr Glaucomflecken started out as an anonymous account. I may be old. Im really good at finding my own testicular cancer! He laughed. I checked it out and it seemed perfect, Flanary said. 'The second time was much harder,' he admitted. These are things medical students have experienced, that residents have experienced its all relatable.. This interview has been lightly edited for style and clarity. Severe Weather (He has joked, "It's so easy even an ophthalmologist can do it.") And it feels good to be laughing with someone that knows what youre going through and knows the things that have been happening inside your own head that you havent put out into words.. William Sharp. [7], Since 2017, Flanary has raised money for the non-profit organization First Descents, which provides outdoor experiences to young adults who have been diagnosed with cancer. Its wrong, but its also true, said the surgeon. You turn it inside out, you add humor to it, you add your own thoughts to it. "It was almost like stand-up in a way," he says. "I went the much easier route of becoming a doctor." Its just been a very serious field. Q: How did this whole social media gig get started? My mom kicked me out of her 6th grade language arts class. They're using honesty and humor to advocate for widespread CPR training, an overhaul of the way medical systems interact with patient's family members, and insurance reform. It kept me moving.". A: Thats a good example of one that surprised me. Then one morning in 2013, Flanary woke up and felt a lump in his testicle. It was my coping mechanism. Will Flanary, 36, who is anophthalmologist from Oregon City, Oregon, has not let his health problems bring him down. Flanary says he never considered comedy a realistic career option. By this point, he and his wife had two children. Im fortunate to have this nice job that gives me a nice living thats always there, he said. I may be retired. "It was exhausting," Kristin recalls. Paramahansa Yogananda, Written by: [5][7], Flanary created the Dr. Glaucomflecken Twitter account in 2016 out of boredom at a research conference. You cant talk about the problems that you have in your job without sacrificing professionalism. Like many things involving TikTok, the Dr. Glaucomflecken phenomenon was born out of boredom. That likely means television, whether live-action, animation, or some combination thereof. Will Flanary, aka Dr. Glaucomflecken, at home in Portland, Ore. Aye Grsz for STAT Reprints W ill Flanary's days are spent conducting eye exams and cataract surgeries at a private practice. Power of Social Media with Family Physician Dr. Mike | Knock Knock, Hi! Her account, Lady Glaucomflecken, commands tens of thousands of followers on its own. Dr. Glaucomflecken said he didnt want to listen to her 911 call at first because it was too hard to hear. Get app. I started the Dr. A: Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, needs to learn CPR. "He's not very talkative, believe it or nothe's an introvert, he's pretty private, pretty independent," she says. They cant have a sense of humour because thats not professional, Flanary said. "Comedy is a way to assert some sort of power over a situation in which you feel powerless," Flanary says. Q: A lot of the doctors you portray have very specific personality traits. Theres the lackadaisical emergency medicine doctor, eternally clad in cycling gear. But Will's health problems didn't end there. But its a minority most people are just fine with it. Each is deployed as a comedic foil for whatever point Flanary wants to make, whether a high-minded critique of prior authorization or a farcical look at how residency works. 'Life was just more complicated at that point.'. At first, Will wasn't sure what to do, since losing both of his testicles meant he would no longer be able to have children or make enough testosterone, which affects his ability to have sex. If you can laugh over a shared experience, that can bring you together more than almost anything else, Flanary said. The account is named after glaukomflecken, a sign of acute angle-closure glaucoma. Get started by signing in with your Amazon account, Based on your location you have been directed to audible.in. He posts amusing tweets and videos about some not-so-amusing parts of medicine. "It was the dispatcher that I spoke to who recognized what was going on," Kristin says. A: Were kind of boring. As graduation approached, the couple seemed to be going in different directions literally. How do you know the little idiosyncrasies so well? There was no medical explanation for the sudden cardiac arrest. In the pre-op room before his second surgery, Kristin began looking for support groups for her husband. She knows the trauma of being a co-survivor and uses her experience to advocate for compassion for patients and their families. Flanary has loved medicine almost as long as he has loved making people laugh. A: It went well. "It became a way to roast him publicly, basically," she says. That online conference is coming up Nov. 2-4 and allows you to participate in ACEP22 educational content from the comfort of your own home. He wore a portable defibrillator at first and eventually had one implanted. Ankur Warikoo, 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think, Written by: I dont know if the specialty makes the personality or the personality is drawn to the specialty, its a chicken or egg kind of thing. William E. Flanary, M.D. Price. It sometimes allows the environment that we work in to be a little bit more humane I think that patients sometimes enjoy the humor and it makes us a little bit more relatable.. ", Flanary's frequent contributions to the site taught him how to home in on the idiosyncrasies of various specialties. Eyeballs aside, he had found the perfect specialty for him. For Flanary, who survived two bouts of testicular cancer, the videos have been therapeutic, but they have also allowed him to fundraise over US$100,000 for First Descents, a non-profit that provides outdoor adventures for young adults impacted by cancer and other serious health issues. Thats a big compliment to me, that people who are not in medicine still watch, because that tells me my acting skills are decent. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. The duo headed to Hanover. [4] While attending Dartmouth, he was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha. Flanary is willing to take the gamble. But it is all just balls.. But I still know what comedy is. Kristin is a superhero in her own right. To hear more, attend ReSS 2020: Survivorship at 9 a.m. Saturday. In the years since, Flanary has raised more than $50,000 for the organization. Daily Briefing He registered for a Twitter account out of boredom while attending a conference several years ago during medical school and began using it as a surrogate for telling jokes on stage. Will was in cardiac arrest. Since then, it has evolved to incorporate satire of the US healthcare system, academic publishing, and the interpersonal conflicts that are pervasive in the medical system. I like knowing theres an end to my day when you get to go home. A: I dont think of myself as a survivor, really. But she explained that she needed him to listen to it because she needed someone to live in that space with her. [Physically] I recovered just fine, Dr. Glaucomflecken said. "That's kind of the way it works with me with humor.. I learned about the pandemic and how it's really impacted your profession, Dr. Glaucomflecken said. Your membership will automatically continue for 199/month after the first 30 days, and you can cancel anytime. At home, "it kind of felt like 50 First Dates for the first few days," Kristin says, as Will's memory improved. Q&A with William A. Flanary, MD, aka Dr. Glaucomflecken, provides a glimpse into his experience surviving cardiac arrest. Sort by: $36.00. "There are a lot of weird words in ophthalmology," Flanary says of his decision to riff on a glaukomflecken for his internet persona. That continued into the internet era, initially with posts for GomerBlog and now on his strangely named social media channels. In the clip, he issues a reminder to his fellow viewers, "Health insurance companies don't care about you. This is my life with aphasia. OK, OK, send me all your consults, he told the audience. Check it out: He made a full recovery. Thankfully, his wife was able to perform CPR until the paramedics arrived and they were able to resuscitate him. He was diagnosed the first time in his third year of medical school and then a second time in his third year of residency, he said. 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