Hey, folks, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. We are back on We are back on track, which means that I am going to be indrawing all the podcasts from now on. Our last one we had a little bit of a It didn't go so well, but it might have been the best one.
It was so us last intro, just because I started and then I wanted to stop because I didn't like how I sounded, and then I got all flustered, and you made the suggestion that we just keep going, and everyone could just see that I'm not the person who should start podcasts, and it worked well. I was going to say, you know, when some people just aren't good at folding laundry, you know.
How do we get there? Now we have to.
I'm saying, when you know you're not good at something, and then you say, see I'm not good at it, then you don't have to do it anymore.
Okay, but why did the folding and the laundry come into play?
Because that's what men do. They're like, I'm terrible at folding laundry. I can't fold on you're not in that category. But a lot of guys will just deliberately be bad at something, so they don't have to do it anymore.
Oh what I was referencing, that's not another thing.
That is a thing, like what a thing?
Like what dishes and laws?
Yeah, they're not good at it. They don't know how to do it.
What was that? We were out with a friend last night. We had a wild night last night. We did and I don't know it's it was wild because anytime we go up with this particular friend, it gets interesting. And I don't you know why we keep saying this. It's not a it's not a secret. Charles Barkley is a very good friend of mine and we've gone back seventeen years and he's been doing a CNN show for the past several months. So now I get Chuck in down every week.
So Wednesday nights are usually lit. Wednesday nights are lit. Yeah, and they get crazy. It attracts other people and you're having in a moment where you're like, how is this my life right now?
Yeah? So we had that last night and we didn't want to go Chuck. You'll hear us sale on this podcast everyone every almost once a week, like, oh I got a friend in town, we might have to go out tonight, and sure enough, yesterday was a cold, rainy, nasty day in New York. We had a long, very just busy day. And man, he said, yeah, nine o'clock.
It's on nine o'clock, nine p's that's a late night for us.
We ate dinner at seven. We had a couple of drains, sweatpants. We were done. Then we go out. He tells us me this at a place and the plate the restaurant. Actually there, they have more than one. They have more than one. Vocation didn't specify which location. So we're in the rain. We go to the wrong restaurant.
Yep.
Have to get back in an uber and go to the real place. I can't. I started telling all that because you made me think of something about the folding of the clothes. He made some comments last night that were wildly offensive about what men and women should do in the house, and to your point about the folding of the laundry. As a man, I am ocd as you call it, Yes, and so I prefer to do
things my way and to fold things my way. You're better at it, truly, But in my place, I would rather have my bad folding situation.
And it's one of the many things I love about you.
That I would rather do it poorly than to have you do it correct. Okay, I applaud that I do wash the dishes. I don't know I've what else? What do I pass off on you?
You don't pass off anything on me. I think you actually really are self sufficient, which is great. You could do a better job of cleaning up after you give yourself haircuts. But that's a little gross good and I'm not going to clean that up and you haven't asked me to.
Is it gross? It just hair? Why is it? That's That's the one thing that when it leaves your body, it's.
Fils and hair and hair. When they leave your body, they are disgusting. I don't want to be near them.
I'm putting my fingers through your hair now as we talk. But if this is in my shower, ill exactly all right. So that's that was our night in our day now has a lot to do. We've talked here ropes plenty about some health struggles that we've had, some minor, some major. Some of yours have been documented as more major. But everybody has little this and that around the house. I don't know how well of a job we do. We talk about men a lot of times in this situation.
If it ain't broken, ain't bleeding, we ain't going to the doctor. Period. And you've seen this probably play out with me in ways you didn't appreciate.
Yes, men are like that for sure, and I'm actually like that too. Some people get one pain and go straight to the doctor and want to know what it is, and I think that's amazing. I'm the opposite. I don't want to know, and I'll put it off until it becomes a problem big enough that I actually am forced to go. And everyone I think it's whether or not you're a warrior or not. Are you a warrior?
I don't know, am I? I don't know.
I don't think you are. I'm not a worrier at all, and so therefore I always assume it's going to be fine, which is actually really bad when it comes to staying healthy.
Sometimes it's been working out great for you.
I'm still here. I'm still here.
That's what you're going with.
Yeah, made it to fifty one.
That's not what I meant. But look at the house. What are the basics? Advil and band aids, that's kind of it. What else is an emergency kid around your house.
So I actually have antibiotics just because when I travel internationally and also because I am immuno compromised slightly because I'm missing lymph nodes. I do have I do carry. I do carry antibiotics with me. I do I have zipro.
You have two EpiPens.
I do have EpiPens too, because what else. I definitely like to carry some acids around just in case you eat something you don't like, doesn't sit well with you.
Wow, Okay, I don't know how well most people do. I think at the house we try to when something's going on. I think sabine the little ones kids. It might be a little different where you have the tendency to just rush to the emergency room, but you don't. I mean, that's just parent. You just kind of have that and you kind of want to do it. But a lot of people try to avoid the emergency room. Someone has to do with money. Some of it has
to do with it. Yes, the coverage, you have the fear of going in there, But there are times you need to get to the emergency room. Or maybe you should just have an emergency room doctor on standby that can maybe answer some of your questions, and that's what we're trying to get at.
To me, that sounds a lot more digestible to me. Yes, and so we are very very lucky to have someone many of you may have already seen on TikTok and on social media, doctor Dari along. She goes by doctor Daria, but she is joining us from one of our favorite favorite places in the world, Atlanta, Ga. So, doctor Daria, thanks for being with us.
Hijay, thank you.
All right, doctor Daria, help us. What'll we're gonna get right in. We'll talk about your viral videos and things you've talked about. Let's jump right in for everybody listening. What needs to be in that cabinet at the house. Everybody needs, Like everybody's health situation is a little different, but the absolute basics that need to be in there, advil and band aids. That kind of covers it, right.
Yes, I love how Amy was like, I got some antibiotic, I got some I got some ivy fluid.
Well, I do have some pampus there.
I mean, what all do you have in there? No? But so yes, I always say, you know, have a non non steroidal anti inflammatory like hypoprofen, motrin something like that, and you need to have that in whatever formulations for your ages, like adult children's invent You know, I have ten, seven and eight month old, so I have all the
concentrations steeda menifin. I also then throw in yes, you get your band aids, get your gauze, get something for allergies like a benadr because did y'all know that if you start to have an allergy coming on, you want to actually take that as quickly as possible because you want to snuff out that histemininergic reaction. So you don't want to say, oh, we're having an allergic reaction, so
somebody run at the pharmacy to pick up padrill. You want to take it faster, so always have that in there too.
That's great, Can I ask there?
Because someone told me A lot of people probably deal with this. I was told this finally years ago. But I had some very bad allergies that caused a post NAVS drip. Ended up with a call fro and an infection. It was just nasty and it lasted for months. Never did anything but drink water and just deal with it for months. I was told the Clarton I take don't wait until allergy season. Start taking just pop one every day while you're fine, and then when allergy season does come,
you're gonna be Okay. That seems to be working. But is that the advice?
It's exactly right, son. People they wait until like they're like you said, you just look the noses draining and you're behind the eight ball by then. So if you know you get allergies every year, start a few weeks early to take your anti allergy metachin.
That And I've seen it work with you and I had never heard that before. And mine's about to start, so I should probably jump on the Clearton train very soon.
Here what Claton train?
I'm I'm going to jump in with a with a big question, Doctor Daria, what is your most important life saving advice to the average person?
Ooh, most important? I mean, let's just go to the top, Amy, Like, let's just find the number one thing I would think it would be. Actually, no CPR. Know what to do if somebody needs CPR, and that includes I count in their CPR, drowning, choking. Take a course, like literally physically go take a course. Practice on a dummy. Know what you're going to do. Because as an er doctor, people say like, how do you say so calm in an emergency?
It's not that I'm anything special or magic. It is that I have practiced, so I know if somebody is choking or comes in from a drowning or in cardiac arrest, I already know what I'm going to do. And I think that especially for parents, but everybody listening. If you know what your plan is ahead of time, that A helps you save somebody's life in the moment, and B it gives you peace of mind because you're less scared about it and thinking about all the scenarios.
On the CPR thing. I think a lot of people and you're right, I've had a course over the years at some point, but that was in college a long time ago. I don't know if a lot of people will take the time to go do that. So in case they don't, I know you recommend that, But in case they don't, what is a can you give a quick or brief or tell them to go to a YouTube video? What can you tell them to still kind of get up to speed if they don't take the time to go take a course.
Yes, absolutely, those are some of the videos that I create TJ. That's a great question because yes, best case scenario, go take a class. But if you're not going to, or if you did ten years ago or five years ago, you're not going to take a class every year, that's fine,
watch a video refresher. So I do a video repressure on like how to use an AED, because just that those defibrillators that you see, you see them in the mall, in the grocery store, to help people be to demystify them and understand how to do that, how to do CPR TJ. When you learn CPR, it was probably still doing mouth to mouth. We don't do that anymore adults. You just do compression only. So here's what you need to know. You do you see somebody there collapse there down,
somebody go gets to see AED. You start CPR to the beat of the BEG staying alive, and you just do that until the AED comes and then until nine one one arrives. It is that simple. But exactly that's why I make videos for how to handle a child choking or infan choking, all of those, so that people can come and at least watch it and have an idea of what to do.
I love that you say know what you're going to do in case of because I know when I when my kids were little, choking and drowning, those were my two biggest fears, and it was just what would I do? How do I handle it? How do overcoming panic? Is simply by being prepared? Correct.
I think it's two things. I think it's being prepared and then when you're in that moment no matter what, we all have the like oh bleep moment just taking a break, and me like I know what to do, Okay, I can do this. So it's those two things. It's being prepared and then when you're in the moment saying I prepared for this, I can do this, focus taken care of it.
And one of you were, I mean, this is also very timely. We were looking at some of your videos and some of them have gone extremely viral. And the one that really is interesting is something that happened just a short while ago, the bridge collapse. We all saw it happen in Baltimore, and I think almost everyone listening here has driven over a bridge and has had that worry, like what would happen if something hit this bridge or my car went into the water for whatever reason, there
was an accident, and it crosses your mind. It's so extremely rare, Teajer. You looked up the.
Numbers, right, yeah, I mean we're talking again. If it happens to you, then you would think it happens a lot. But we're talking to a few hundred three to four hundred, by the estimates, of people a year that die in a submerged vehicle. So obviously we know it doesn't happen that often, but so many of us feel like it could happen to us, especially after we see something like happen in Baltimore.
That's right, So you put up some tips on TikTok, and I believe that video got thirteen point five million views, which just shows that people want to know what could I do? What should I do if this happens, even though it's almost assuredly not going to It's interesting to see you tapped into this fear that we all have, even when it's so rare, we still want to know. So what is it that people should know? And I also just want to know why you think people really reacted to that so strongly.
So I mean that video, you're right, and what kind of wild across all of the platforms, social media platforms, and what it actually started from is I was driving across a bridge with my husband and my kids in the car. You know, again, as an er doctor, I it is my job to think of all the things that can go wrong, and not to sit there and fixate on that, but to say, okay, so what would I do? I mean, I do that. I'm on a plane and I think if they call me overhead, what
am I going to do at resources? Who's going to watch my kids? If somebody's choking? What do I have? You know? I remember, I know the exits. I'm always thinking about that. And I was driving over the bridge and I thought, you know, that's a scenario that I don't know what to do. Yes, I've taken care of people who have come from a submersion, but in the moment, I don't know, And as a mom that made me worried it. As an er doctor, I was like, I
need to know. So I started reaching out to you know, firefighters, police officers, kind of first responders and started kind of planning do them. This was like a month or two ago, and then there was a story of a woman who had drowned in a lake, which is really far more common. That's so we see more, you know, far few people drive off a bridge and you know, land in the water.
Then you know, just drive into a lake, or they drive in a street that's flooded and they don't realize how deep that puddle is and their car starts to build with water. So I had posted that, and then yes it was posted. It had done very well before the Francis Scott Keybridge, and then after that, of course everybody was looking and I think what it was, And now I'll get to the tips. Is a get an
er doctor. I want you to have a plan, and I want it to be simple, because when you are scared and you are panicked, you're not going to remember my thirty step process. You're gonna remember the three things I told you or the one thing. So that's what I always do, is what's the plan? How to keep it simple? So for that one, it's swak and I
did not make up. The mnemonic is from a guy who's actually studies car submersions out of Manitoba in Canada, and so it's seatbelts off, window open, and that pretty much happens at the same time and then get out. And then he's added c in there to say, you know, get the children out and get your oldest out first, mainly because he said, you know, if you are trying to hold your toddler and then undo other kids seatbelts, you're not going to get anybody out. Versus you get
your oldest child out, they can fend for themselves. They can hold on to the car for a second while you get the other ones young as done, and then you just swim out. And so another key thing he said is that, especially newer cars, you cannot rely on window breakers, so literally, as soon as you can get those windows down.
We've done stories over the years about such a thing, and I've used a window breaker live on TV before, and we've done demos. So it's always not work.
That one time. Were you the one I remember trying to get it to break? It works? I've seen that happen on my television too, which is actually a good thing to remember. To your point, doctor Darian, they don't always work.
No, I bought one. I had bought an entire set for all of our cars about three months ago, and I'm talking to this guy and he's like, yeah, I think they probably won't work. Just in case.
You mentioned planes, and your theme here always is just know what you're going to do, have a plan. We just happen to be. Always think about this on the plane, about a medical emergency, like what I would do if I wasn't okay, or if somebody next to me wasn't okay, if somebody I'm traveling with. We happen to land the other day from a five plus hour flight from LA
We get back at eleven o'clock at night. We land, and the pilot comes on and says, you can't get off the plane because we have someone on board was having a medical situation and we all had I know, people were frustrated and just have to sit there. Don't know what the person's issue was, but they eventually got them off and we got off. But when you're in a five hour flight, a four hour flight, a three hour flight, and you're thirty thousand feet and how do
you prepare? How do you think ahead to a medical emergency you might have, or your loved one might have, your child might have. How do you prepare for that scenario which could be almost anything. And then you hear an announcement is there a doctor on board? All right? And then we're in the whole airplane movie situation and it comes to Leslie Nielsen trying to save the day. We don't want that, y'all.
And this is one of those nearest I remember being pre med and thinking like when they call overhead, is there a doctor on board? You know, I'll be like el Wood to be like, yeah, oh fabulous, I'll come in with my cape for once you're actually that person and you're like, h come on, let there be another doctor on board. I'm here with my three kids. But
just this little story. And my husband and I were flying back from I think Denver's Denver or Vegas or something was somewhere out there, going back to Boston and we had just you know, ten minutes up in the air, and they said, it's there a doctrunboard. Now, incidentally, my husband is an orthopedic surgeon, but so is. He started being like here, she's right here, she's right here. So of course I go and I stand up, and my husband's like, call me if their shoulders dislocate. Super helpful,
So thanks love. And it was actually a gentleman who was having a seizure and of course, you know, traveling with people who barely knew him, so nobody knew what is his You were like, that's me fine. Me as an er doctor, I'm used to having almost no information. But so on the flight there was a neurologist, this is like a bad joke or something. A neurologist, a your ologists, and an EMT slash surgery intern who was also a diabetica. It's like said, these people walk into
a bar. No, so the you know, the neurologists wanted an MRI. I was like, again, thank you so much, please go have a cocktail. I'll call you if I knew you. The neurologists flent and sat back down to you because they knew they could be helpful. The e MT surgery intern was great because the airplanes are so limited. So this guy actually had his own glucometer and I was like, great, can you check this guy's blood sugar? And I remember being so surprised when I opened up
the plane and I've actually the plane medical kit. I've actually done some posts on this because the FAA made some rules of what needs to be on planes, but it was done. I think about it. You know, I did this post about a year ago, so, but it was done like several years ago, and then since then they've made some new voluntary updates, but not all the
airline have to follow it. And I remember opening up this medical kit and I was like, there's oral lasix on here, like, great, if I need the guy to pee in six hours, that's going to be really helpful. But otherwise it wasn't useful. So what I really learned is if there is a medication that you think there is a chance your family member might need, like you said, you keep epibeds, harry them in your purse because you really cannot rely on that onboard medical kit to have
what you might need. So if somebody has seizures, even if they're not regular, harry whatever. You know, if they have migraines, whatever, their kind of abortive medication is, carry it with you in your carry on.
Say hi, it's so smart. You know you just mentioned that. And I remember doing one of the scariest stories to me because I had just done this with my daughters. How many people go, you're on vacation, you think, you know, you're not thinking about a medical emergency. But I covered a story about this this woman and her daughter, a
family going snorkeling in the Bahamas. Right, they go on a boat, they go forty five minutes out, so you're not near any sort of medical help, and a shark attacked her daughter, and no one even had a tourniquet on that boat. And so they were advocating for boats and places around the world to make sure they have the correct medical equipment there in case the unthinkable or
something that's possible could happen. But to your point, when you're going anywhere outside of you know, having a hospital nearby, it's something you should think about to bring with you, to pack with you. Like I would never have thought to make sure I have a tournique. I mean, what
do you suggest people bring with them. You don't want people to overthink it or go overboard, but what can you bring with you either when you're traveling on a plane, by train, you know, on a boat somewhere remote where you know you're not going to have immediate medical attention.
Yeah, well that's a great question. I always have a little bit of a first aid kid I take with us. There's my basic one. No matter where we're going, I'm going to have, you know, tunnel eiderprobe and congestion medication some you know, Benadryl, some band aids. Just because I'm there with the kids, I don't want to have to find a pharmacy. So first it's just your base, which is like, if there's a little minor illness, how can I treat it? Just to not be inconvenience, That's always
kind of what I'm taking. Then beyond that, when you were saying, Okay, now I'm going someplace where I will have less access, Now I need to bring something additional. So depending on where you're going. So sometimes if you're going to different, you know, undless developed countries, you may need to bring antibiotics just in case somebody gets you know, you're already prepared. You got your zipro amy yep.
I send my daughter to Mexico with zipro yes.
Exactly, so you might you know, talking to your doctor before you go, like are we going to need that? You know, in my own family, I travel with, you know, suture material in case somebody gets a cut. Not everybody can do that, but you can travel with things say okay, what's going to temporize so I'll have pain medication, congestion allergy medication. I'll have lots of gauze. Yes, if you really are going someplace where you could fall, get a fracture, get a cut. Sure you can take a turn to
guet if you're really trained and doing that. But usually most places, just having a lot of pressure, you can use a god, you can use a T shirt. You don't have to take as much. But that's kind of like my basics that I would be taking.
Will a doctor give you I mean, I guess I'm asking, I'm looking at you, robot, I got a doctor. I don't know why I'm looking at you. Will the doctor if you explain where you're going. Will a doctor give you an antibiotic ahead of time?
A lot of times travel clinics will. And you're not saying like, hey, give me an antibiotic, give me a Z pack in case I have a runny nose. You're saying, I need, you know, anti diarrheal medication in case I get this. Really, you know, bad illness, and I'm someplace where I can't get to a pharmacy.
And there are some people, like I suggested, who are immunocompromised or who do have an extra underlying condition. Where they know. If something happens and I can't get to a hospital by X y Z, I need to make sure I have this in my pack. And so everyone has to talk to their doctor about that, obviously, specifically as to whether or not you need that.
If you especially if you have specialized medications that you need to take, don't really on them being available where you're going to be going. If you're going out of the country, they may not even have the same medications. So I always say, also take extra whatever your prescription medications are taken, enough for a week or two, just just to have it alongside.
Doctor Daria, what do you recommend I think about this Sometimes I'm just all around New York. If anything ever happened to me, a medical emergency of some kind and I'm incapacitated, I'm not with a friend or loved one, with Robock, with my daughter, and there's some information that needs to be accessed in my phone, and the right first thing somebody might want to do is look at
my phone and try to call a loved one. Of course, you call nine one one if it's that serious, But should we make is there anything we can do with our phones to make sure if we have an emergency and we can't open it for someone that they can have access to our phone to maybe find out if we have some medical issue or find out who they can call. Is there anything that can be done there?
You can, I mean some people advocate saying, you know, put in their ice like in case of emergency, having that. Sometimes Apple will let you set an emergency CA contact that e MT can access. You know, for the most part, when I have a patient who has something critical going on, if they're coming into the ear I'm looking at the patient. I'm not looking at their phone. So it may be something that you know, a nurse to me would try to look at later. I wouldn't stress a ton about that.
But that is something you could do, is put in those an emergency contact or I see, just in case you do have somebody who is going to try to look for it.
Doctor Daria, what is the number one reason why most people come into the emergency room?
Oh? Wow, Well it depends, can I give it a sure? And number one? That depends. So of course there are things like you know, there are a couple of buckets. There are things like traumas, car accidents, falls, you know, any number of things there there are, and then there are just symptoms that people come in. They have scary symptoms. You know, they have chest pain, or their child has a weird headache or you know, vomiting, any number of things.
That's a beauty of the RS. You never know why somebody's going to be coming in, and of course the number one reason differs by somebody's age, so you just really never know. They can come in for anything, anything ranging from you know, somebody something awful to somebody just being scared and not knowing. And that's one of the things I love about the ER is it kind of get to meet people where they are for whatever reason brought them in.
You know, what do you see person? Not necessarily a percentage, but an idea. Of course, if somebody's in a car accident, if somebody had some trauma, they come to the er. Of course they're going to be admitted, that's one thing. But for the folks who just walk in, who are a little scared, who are a little nervous, or something doesn't feel right, how I guess how often is it that those people say, hey, you're okay and get sent back home versus people actually catching something that's serious.
You know, you'd be surprised. There are people who walk in who are like, hey, just not feeling so great that you put the heart monitor. I'm like, sir, you have a heart rate of two hundred and twenty. Oh, that would explain why I don't feel so hot. Like do you have any idea when this heart rate started? No, but I've been feeling like crap for a week. Like great, sahkay, you're staying. You're gonna be staying with me for a while.
And you might have that you know, you might have a mom who or a dad who brings in their child and they're like, you know, they just they weren't looking right. And sometimes, you know, you give that child some you see the minifin and thirty minutes later, their fever's done and they are running around like a bansheet, jumping up on all the beds, and you're like, okay, they're good, have a popsicle, have a good night. And then that you know a child right next door that
the parent may have said the same thing. You give them the medicine and their fever comes down, they're still not better, and that kid were going to be, you know, doing more tests, You often cannot tell. People can be stoic, people can be scared. People can be scared, but they're scared about something that I'm worried about, something totally different for them. You often cannot tell. That's what kind of makes it tough about the er is you know, it's
finding the needle in the haystack? Is who's you know, find this sick? Like? Who? Figuring out who is the sick person is part of our challenge.
Would you tell us, doctor Darien not to try to make that determination on our own because those conversations happen in homes right before they head to the emergency room. Should we go? Is it serious enough? We're gonna look silly if this is just a little minor headache, this is no big deal?
Right?
How how can you coach people through that debate before they even get to you?
Right? So, of course everybody's gonna have some degree of that debate. Nobody nobody ever wants to come see me in the er, and I try not to take offense at it, but like nobody ever wants to actually be there. I get it. So, but I always say, you just kind of at a certain point you have to it comes down to your own gut. No, people, do not please do not Google, do not AI, do not chat, GPT your symptoms. There was a study that came out recently of like asked me AI their symptoms. It was
it was so bad. It was just so dramatically awfully kind of advice that it gave you, So do not do that. Somewhere I have a mug that says, like, do not confuse my medical degree with your Google search, Like, just don't. That is why, like I try to create content on that too, like sprained your ankle when to go to the er, your child hit their head when to go to the er, Because I know as parents there's just so much noise, and I'm trying to simplify
it for them. But in the end, if it comes down to something that you think is worrying you, that you are afraid to sleep on because you're afraid, you know that something could go wrong tonight if you especially, like I always tell a parent, like if you just say, my child's not being themselves, that's the sixth the vital side. If I have a parent, you know their child's temperatures, find their heart rates, fine, they're everything. My parents like
I know my kid and this they're not behaving like themselves. Okay, valid, I'm going to start looking at that child and try to figure out what's going on. So I could give you all the rules in the world. Of course, if you have chest pain, shortness of breath, you can't do your normal things. You can't complete a full sentence, anything, can't stop vomiting. Yes, all all of those things, but never forget if you just are worried, you can't get an answer and you're scared. That is why we are there.
Twenty four to seven.
Wow, I saw one of your other viral videos was about your own heart palpitations, and it struck a chord with me because I was sure I was having panic attacks. I was sure I needed to do and I'm sure I do need therapy still always, but I was just assigning it to a mental condition. And I had a friend of mine and say, no, you actually don't look right. And so when they did my EKG, I ended up having a dangerous rhythmia, end up having an ablation heart surgery from it. But I was convinced that I was
just having panic attacks for weeks. And it's one of those interesting things because you went through this too as a runner. You started realizing that you were having an elevated heart rate, but you didn't realize just how how elevated it was. I believe you said you had tech acardia or a version of it. How do you know, like that one of that's I think it's a very common thing. You can have anxiety, you can have panic attacks, you can have or you can actually have a heart problem.
How do you distinguish between the two?
Yeah, yes, you are so amy. I did not realize we're like soul sisters, were having our tactic cardias and our oblations. You had an ablation too, Yeah, multiple ones, Yes, and you're right. I developed a crazy heart condition in twenty twenty and it was during COVID and I'd been taking care of a lot of COVID patients got super sick and and it had never been so sick before. And then all that summer I'd go on my runs
and I would have these episodes. It would it would get so bad, like I had to sit down because I had chest pain, shortness of breath. But you know, I had a good amount of like probably denial, probably er doctor Hubris and being like I'm forty what could be wrong? Even though I know I know so much
better than this. And finally, one day I took my heart rate at home and it was two hundred and seventy and it was something called ventricular attach pardia, and as an er doctor, I just like I knew there was no good response and no no benign cause of that. So it was, you know, in life kind of really
changed for me there. I know, Amy, you had your own medical scares, breast cancer all, and it's like that moment where you know, the next eighteen months I was hearing doctors talk about me and you know, cardiac arrest and sudden death and getting shocked on the side of the road. And I always tell people though, like you don't know what the cause is until you've gotten it evaluated. So I don't want people if you're having a lot of palpitations, I don't want somebody sitting out there and
saying it's probably anxiety. I would much rather they come in, whether it's to the er or to their primary care doctor, because usually if they come in with palpitations to the ear, their pop patients have stopped by the time they get to me, so then they're trying to like It's kind of like you go to your mechanic when your car is making noise, but it's no longer making the noise, and you try to like repeat the sound and it
doesn't work. But the best thing is, I say, go to your doctor, get a twenty one day monitor, wear that, get an echo cardiogram, you know that way you're wearing the monitor. When the pop patients come on, you press a little button. It knows to record it right at that moment. Your doctor can then say, okay, here are your symptoms, here's your AKG, and they might say, holy goodness, when you had those symptoms, your EKG was wild and
we need to intervene. Or they'll say, you know what, you were just having some sinus tachycardia, which means it's either anxiety or this is something else medical, like thyroid or something. Let's check all those things off. If we rule everything out, then we can safely say it's anxiety and amy. I'll have patients who come in and they'll say, you know what, I was having tach acardia, but I know it's due to my anxiety because I've had that work up, so I'm Okay, Now like that gives them
a peace of mind, and then that's fine. If you tell me that, then that's fine. But don't just ascribe it to anxiety until you've actually done the work out.
Should we all have a way to monitor our heart rate or blood pressure at home?
I want to go crazy about it. No, not unless you actually have symptoms. I think you know, the whole quantified self. We can tend to lose ourself and all sorts of things because everybody's going to have an extra beat here or there, and you don't want to do it if there's nothing, if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it, TJ. But if you have symptoms, then yes, guy would get a monitor, either use your you know,
your smart watch, use a device like Cardia. That's what I used to catch my heart rate and full disclosure. I'm on their board now because I use them, but so just full disclosure there. But if you have symptoms, get a device, get the work up, and then it might be anxiety, but.
At least you know I do that.
It might be your magnesium, it might be your thiroid, it might be something else that we can easily intervene onto to that point.
Yeah, I was you A doctor told me to get one and I was monitoring twice a day when I was having a heart issue back in twenty fifteen sixteen, So I have it. I don't use it now, But to your point, that's exactly why I was got one and was using it because doctor.
Don't How often doctor daria should we be getting and at what age did you start getting blood work done?
Well, it really depends, you know, as women start to go into you know, for the most part, you know, if you're in your thirties and forties, you might need you might need to get anything is like your cholesterol every so often to make sure that you don't have you know, some familigal or some high cholesterol for a reason. That's something we can intervene on you might want to get.
You to invite them in d checked. A lot of the times though, instead of just getting like a thousand different things blood work, talk to your doctor and you kind of get deliberate blood work done based on your symptoms or based on your health or what you're feeling. You know, you have feel really bloated, you might get a GI work up done, but you don't have to
do all those things. So I think, you know, in your thirties and forties, you're gonna check your you know, maybe you write them in DA you're cholesterol things like that. Then once you start to get older than there are regulations for men for their PSA, you know, for women as we start to go in premenopausal, then you may
want to get work up done then. But again I'm not a big believer in just getting all the blanket work up done, but really instead being a lot more deliberate and talking to your doctor like what should I get done now? Of course, in addition, there's like the mammograms, which I know you're a believer in, and make sure you're getting those done regularly. I mean, it's you know, it's just it's a pain. We got to do those
things too. Colonoscopy, you know, it's not just blood work, especially once you get forty.
Oh yeah, it gets really fun once you cross forty, right, it.
Gets real, real, real real.
I got Those are the text of my sister not long ago. My sister does she's doing a half years older. She's sent a random text out of nowhere. Hey have you had a colonoscopy yet? You're over forty five now, like, jeez, this is where we are.
Wasn't it like the Super Bowl? It was like if you knew all the words to that, Yeah, you needed to have a I've got a klenoscopy. Oh didn't I see that?
Are you seeing any trends in the er that are are kind of alarming to you? I know sometimes when even when COVID was first happening, that if VR doctors were reporting they were starting to see people come in with certain conditions and didn't understand blah blah blah. But are you seeing any trends that are concerning you in the the er for people coming in with particular types of injuries or illnesses.
I think post COVID a lot we are seeing, you know, we did see kind of a lot more kind of autonomic or vascular or heart abnormalities simply because of the way COVID reacting. You may have heard of conditions like pots. A lot more people are talking about pots and or have heart palpitations or things like that simply due to the inflammation that we got from COVID infection. So I think there are you know, there's just an increasing discussion
about that. They're also just me be increasing awareness about it too. That's a big other than that. I think we've kind of gone back to where we were. There was an issue for a while with com people were delaying all their preventive care, so they were coming in far later in terms of like later in their disease. We're kind of back reset for that. Now it's just back to like the typical hospital and er overcrowding, which is an ongoing issue and something that that's another soapbox
for another day. You know, we take care of patients in the waiting room and you might have massively ill patients sitting there in the waiting room for eight hours and I can't do anything about it, and it just drives me wild. So that's kind of the biggest struggle that we have right now. It's just not enough beds.
Yeah wow, I mean that's crazy, but it feels like it's been like that for so long, and it got even worse obviously during COVID, Doctor Dry, I want to ask you this. I know we've seen so many celebrities come out and they're talking about their conditions and it raises awareness for a lot of things from cancer to just you know, every day maladies where people say, hey, this happened to me. It might be embarrassing to talk about, but I'm going to talk about it. It raises awareness.
I'm curious what you think the ripple effect is, if it's good or if people end up panicking or getting more worried. We saw Olivia Month come out recently about breast cancer, but I think it was just a week ago. We saw Halle Berry come out talking about perry menopause, but with a very flashy headline because she was told initially that she had the worst case of herpes that a doctor had ever seen, and she got tested, her boyfriend got tested. They were negative. Turns out it was perimenopause.
And I'm just I'm curious what you think about You know, everyone's sharing now and it's usually for something good. They want to raise awareness, But what do you think about it? As an emergency room doctor, do you have more people anytime a celebrity comes out and says something, they come in thinking, oh, no, I have this.
M Yes, you're right. There's always a balance. It's kind of like when you're a med student. Every chapter you go through you think you have that diagnosis, so you know you know you're going through the brain tumor the chapter and section year and everybody thought we all thought we had brain tumors for a while, so you know,
so yes, that does happen. I do think it's really valuable though, I think because if you are out of the medical field, like for me in the medical field, even you know, Kate Middleton a pre cancerous diagnosis at age forty, and so many people were shocked, and I
remember I was like, why are they shocked? I see lots of women who are in their thirties and forties with cancer, and so I don't think it's a bad idea for the general public, who'll be aware that yes, it can happen at those early ages, which is why you don't we want to pay attention to the symptoms. I teach try to teach people here's how to pay
attention to the symptoms without panicking. I try to like always marry those two, like how can you hold that duality which is the knowledge that bad things can happen, but also saying I have information so I know when to be aware and to react. So I think that's really important even for everybody listening, you know, just like I as a medical student. Just because you learn about it does not mean you have it. It used to means now you know to look for it.
Do you think we don't know enough about menopause and perimenopause for women. We don't talk about it, and then when the symptoms happen, women like Halle Berry, even who obviously is a very well learned woman, she knows her body, she knows she's an intelligent woman, and yet still we don't know what's happening.
Yeah. I think perimenopause and menopause is an area that we are just now starting to hear about, doctors are talking about, and I think that's wonderful. I mean, even when I did the palpitations video, I had Sony Bill say, you know, I had this at perimenopause and this came on, and so I think it's wonderful. I think we are at the very beginning of being able to say, here are all the symptoms that you can have, here's what they mean, here's when you can just talk it of
perimenopause and menopause, and here's one to seek care. We're just starting to do that. We're kind of you know, where we were maybe in terms of like fertility. Talking about infertility ten years ago is now where we are for perimenopause, and I think that's wonderful, Like, let's talk about it. You know. I think it's great to know that you can at perimenopause you can have that kind of pain. Now women know not to just write it off.
But now, okay, so now let's tell them when you need to go see a doctor for it and what can be done?
What is peru?
TJ just raised his hand like he was in class.
I know, I feel like we're in medical school class. Do I be like my chalkboard, like, now here's a uter if you need.
To the diagram will be helpful. But yes, we talk about MENOPAUGI is one thing. But you say to that point, and I didn't want to sit here kind of embarrassed. But I hear menopause, that's one thing I understand, but it's not talked about to your point enough. We don't talk about perimenopause to the point. So I hear rolling off you all's tongues. I couldn't define what we're talking about.
And TJ, I'm so glad you asked. And to be clear, I was laughing, not at you asking the question, but more how cutely you kind of like raise your hands like teacher. So I think that's wonderful. So menopause obviously not obviously, menopause is when our woman's body kind of ceases to be able to bear children and all the hormonal things. But did that come with that? But that's
kind of how we often think about it. Perimenopause can be a number of years during before that actual finality where you might have hormone fluctuations, irregular cycles, temperature fluctuations, all sorts of things. We're realizing that can happen two three, four years before actual menopause actually happened. So it's that transition period. There is also sometimes people argue, say there is menopause that men go through their own side transitions
at some point. But that's discussion for another day.
Ah what what what age does that start to happen.
We'll get you back on that. We will follow up later on that.
Doctor, we don't have gays like a next you.
Know, doc? Can I ask you? I only have a couple more things for you, and one of them is what do you google? What do you find yourself googling? You know, you know good in hell, Well, you shouldn't be trying to find an answer somewhere on Google to something going on with you medically.
So what so if somebody looks at if somebody looks at my Google TJ, they probably think a mysterial killer. So I'll explain hold on that needs to have contact. Okay, so just realize that's a SoundBite that y'all aren't ones. So as you know, just you know, I'd had my crazy heart stuff, I'd had this scare, I was trying to have another child. I'd dealt with all this infertility and the two really awful scary struggles, and in the end had baby number three, you know, four years later
in July. That's and coming out of that now it's my third child, but he's much younger than my other children. Realizing I needed to baby proof my home and we have to redo everything, and also realizing as a mom that I had stressed about a lot of things with my first two kids that were unnecessary and maybe misplaced stress, And as an er doctor saying seeing the outcomes you have with little children and saying, okay, how can I make child safety baby safety easier for parents and use
it started the outcomes. What are the bad things they want to avoid that I see as an ear doctrine, Let to work backwards to protect them, and those are the things that parents need to do. Again, how can I simplify babyproofing and baby safety and child safety so that baby safe and you as the parents the peace of mind. So I'm working on that course right now.
We're launching it in a few weeks. So if you but every once in a while I'll just do a quick Google search to search and it will be things like top ways children choke or most poisonous things for children, just trying to see what's in the common vernacular. They're like, Man, if somebody looks at my Google search, they're gonna dee bacs is gonna call me. So you'all just know you this is my testimony that that is just be researcher
my Google for my baby proofing course. These are the things that again, as ere doctors, we think of all the emergencies she.
Did, I did.
And calling my lawyers after this.
As an er doctor and a mom, what do you worry about most with your kids?
Depends my age, But it's interesting, Amy. One thing I really I didn't know. And in researching the baby proofing course, the number one cause of death in a infant under one is death while they sleep, not cause not call including kids, but literally suffocation in their crib or you know,
wherever they're sleeping. And I realized if you can make your baby sleep space safe, that accounts for eighty two percent of all infant deaths in that first year, which was just kind of mind blowing to me to say, Okay, if I can just help parents get a safe baby space. We're worrying about all the other things that we're doing, outlet everything for your child, you know, plug all the outlets, do all things, but let's focus on the baby sleep space. And that was just it was like, that's eighty two
percent of the first year. That's huge. So things like that, you know, and so in the first year it's that you know. And then of course we're in the process with a pool. I always worry about pool and water safety, their kits. Those are one of the things that kind of for children under one, it's a bathtub. For children above one, it's a pool or a lake. So always making sure you know that your children know how to swim. Early I was really surprised from the car submersion videos.
So people so they don't know how to swim. And how can you get your kids not just comfortable in the water, but actually knowing how to swim. I always because you see kids with swimmy's and doing things. I say, I want my child to their skill needs to match their level of comfort. So I do not put my kids in the pool and a swimming because I don't want them to feel comfortable in the pool unless they
can swim. I want them to feel, you know, adequately uncomfortable until they can float over on their back and float to the edge.
That's Daria. If you were given the power, I don't know if you could wave a wand or you were given power by the we're meant to change everybody's behavior. There are a lifestyle change that everybody could make that would severely reduce the number of er visits you get, that would reduce the number of times people end up in the hospital with some issue. What lifestyle change for all of us would you recommend we all stop doing
or do less of or do more of? What lifestyle change would you give to every single person out there?
Off the top of my head, I'm going to say, looking at your phone while driving, oh wow, because wow, I'm going to say that. And making sure that your kids are in the right car seat.
Wow.
As the two things there. You know, looking at your phone while driving because either you can hit somebody or you know, the most heartbreaking cases I see in the er is like the person, the patient in front of me, who is now so injured. They didn't do anything wrong, they were hit by somebody else, and you know if potentially if they'd been looking up or been more aware, could they have avoided that versus Also like looking at your phone, and you can cause an accident. So that's
the first. And also if you're looking at your phone and your kids are watching, then when your kids are driving, they will be looking at their phones. So that's it. And then working in the pediatrics er, the number of kids who you see who get injured in a car accident, who if they had been properly restrained in the right car seat, in the right area of the car. I
hate that. I hate that because that's something that would have been preventive, and I hate it for the kid, and I hate it for the parents because the parents feel that guilt that they did not do that, and often those parents who thought they were doing the right thing, which is why I do so much on social media to help parents know what they need to be doing.
You said the right space in the car. Where is the right space in the car?
So for children twelve and under, that's in the second row, and you know, and that also means we see parents do things like they turn the car seat around too soon. Your children's vertebrae is just not formed in the first couple of years of life, so they need to be backwards. You know, they're not cramped. They need to be backwards. Their spines can't handle it. Or you see kids who aren't in a booster and you know, they're just not large enough for the seat belt to adequately take care
of them. I took care of a little guy who had literally ripped his kidney because he was not in a booster and the seat belt hit him at the wrong spot. So those are the ones that are heartbreaking, are the ones this was. All accidents are technically preventable, but things like that are really preventable. And that's that's what I really hate.
No front seat before the age of twelve. Yep, we're actually thirteen thirteen, okay, so m hm.
And so when I see little kids get in the front seat, also driving me crazy, trying me crazy, put them in the back, put them in the back, and put them in a booster for goodness sake. I don't care that they don't like it. I did have some people say they showed their kids were arguing about riding in a booster, so they just showed them my video, Like great, make me be the bad guy. I am happy to say. Blame it on doctor Dharia.
It's so interesting because I thought you were going to say something about smoking salt, drinking salt, salt diet. But the truth is you're an er doctor and you see emergencies, you see accidents and car driving in a car is probably the most dangerous thing any of us do at any point. It is.
It's the one that's most dangerously in that moment. Yes, salt smoking, at all of those, So get said a lot. I felt like those we needed to shed some love on other things. But you know, cars are can be killing machines. Like they are. They are wonderful things, but they are also so dangerous, and people forget that because we drive so common doctor.
Daria, that's a great no, no, no, you gave us something to think about that we don't think about enough in that yes, you could cause an accident by hitting someone, but you also aren't paying attention to avoid somebody hitting you, and then you're giving some bad habits to some bad drivers that you're raising in the backseat.
We're seeing it that, yes, yeah, no, I mean we see it with people walking going down the escalators. We were subway folks and we walk, so we see you know, everyone is just on their phone and I will actually I will say I'm guilty of it too. But when you see other people just we're walking, that's dangerous enough. But in the car it's happening too. We're just you know,
we're not seeing it as much. So I think that's such a good reminder of what a very preventable situation by just putting that phone away, whether you're navigating and using ways, or you're messaging or whatever, it's it's not safe. There's no scenario in which it's safe.
There is a car. Accidents happened so so quickly that you can't look down for a second.
Well, we want to thank you, doctor Daria. Long Harvard and Yale trained emergency physician. It was so great to be able to talk to you and hear your advice for so many of us who can do things better, and just be reminded of what we can do to prepare. I think that's one of my biggest takeaways is if you're prepared, or at least you have some semblance of knowledge about what to do when or if that moment happens, you're ready to do it. So thank you very much, doctor Daria, Thank.
You Amy, thank you t J. It was such a pleasure for you both.
I'll email you about menopause.
Give me a call. Hop you see TJ.