43 Comments
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Kaspar's avatar

Here in The Netherlands we've got a cautionary saying:"women visit the doctor, men die."

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John Bayer's avatar

Ryan thank you for this. Especially for us retired military and first responders. Being a tough guy is not tough. Listen to your body it’s usually going to give you plenty of advanced notice; we just have to listen.

Thanks for what you do and thankful you are doing better!

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Aron Bardocz's avatar

Bro don't even think quiting on us!

Please go to doctor regulary!

Respect!

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scott offord's avatar

Get a colonoscopy, now and every 5 years! Catch cancer early!

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Dan Stinson's avatar

Remember they don't catch everything. A clean bill doesn't mean as much as we'd like. I had a colonoscopy a week before I started chemo for Stage 4 lymphoma. It came back clean enough they extended my time before needing another one.

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Rockjaw's avatar

Dude: y’all are spot on - I’ve “almost died” 5x and I just turned 63…. The 1st time was when I was 26, (1988) going to grad school full time at NYU, working nights as a doorman at a NYC gentlemen’s club and as a personal trainer at a “high falutinn” east-side fitness club - got hit in the gut, just below my navel, by a stray bullet frag that was fired by a disgruntled “guest” that we had to evict earlier in the evening… fast forward 10 yrs, subsequent to that, I was working in London UK and working across the EU, Baltics and Nordics and I contracted C-Diff (Clostridium difficile infection), leading to reoccurring diverticulitis (inflammation and infection of small pouches (diverticula) in the colon) resulting (at age 40) in a colon resection (cut out the damaged guts, surgeon hypothesized that this was likely a by-product of the bullet frag episode)…. At age 45, having just recovered from severe sleep apnea, via a repair of my deviated septum, sinus turbinate reduction, removal of my tonsils, adenoids and uvula (the things that hang down in your mouth/throat area) I then underwent allergy testing at the offices of the ENT surgeon who did the other ENT work and whilst doing the usual topical skin tests, I suffered an Anaphylactic shock episode (a severe and life-threatening allergic reaction that can cause a sudden drop in blood pressure, difficulty breathing, and loss of consciousness. It's a medical emergency that requires immediate treatment with epinephrine (adrenaline). They had to do a tracheostomy and the EMTs had to revive me - spent 3 days in the ICU, all steroid-ed up and looking like the staypuff marshmallow man… in December 2017, whilst driving to a client site via I-78 west just past Newark Liberty Airport, my vehicle was side-swiped by some azzphat driving his Subaru wrx at a speed of +100 mph (at 10 am on a Tuesday morning no less), in the local lanes - he hit my suv, spinning me into the oncoming traffic of the far right local lane, whereupon I was nailed by a car, spun into the far right concrete wall, thereby rolling over a few times ending up upside down against an on-ramp foundation wall - crushed esophagus w/ accalessia,TBI with brain bleed and assorted neurological problems - spent Christmas week in the Livingston NJ trauma center(🙏👏) and essentially went on to LTD for a yr, leading to retirement… then, experiencing extreme fatigue, lack of muscle strength and pervasive night sweats, I took my self in for my annual physical exam and came out w/ a referral to an oncologist, ending in a CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia) diagnosis…

All that said, I’ve had a wonderful and privileged life so far and a key learning I had way back in 1988, was that being “tough/strong” doesn’t have to equate to being stupid - taking care of your health is a gift you give to your family and yourself, IMHO

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Ryan McBeth's avatar

Wow. Glad you’re OK.

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Rockjaw's avatar

As I am that y’all used your noggin to get prof medical help and that y’all are using your platform and influence to share your message… y’all are morphing into an advocate platform for non-biased, fact-based global info, life-enhancing common sense and critical thinking… a force for good in a vast wasteland of noise and confusion 👍🏻

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Adrian's avatar

Suck it up buttercup! Does not apply here.

Though I do recommend getting a cat to press the emergency button. 🫡

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Doug Campbell's avatar

Dude! Great video! So glad you actually came to the right conclusion, albeit a bit on the late side!

You do a great job of hiding the pain, but yeah, it might be best to be a bit more of a wuss! :) Take care of yourself, the world needs your reporting!

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Federico Calboli's avatar

My dude, there is a reason why married men live longer than single men.

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David Sutherland's avatar

Ryan, you gotta take care of yourself! You're important and keep us informed on how things really work in the military and you're fun.

I'm 58 and I grew up from a culture of masculinity and of men not complaining...ever. It's time for a new kind of bravery cowboy. You have to be brave enough to know when to get help, when to go to the doctor and when to take a flu / vaccine shot.

Getting help when it's unnecessary is being a pussy. But not getting help when you should is also being a pussy. Know the difference.

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fred's avatar

But did you change your socks?

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James Watson's avatar

Consider this tough love Ryan.

You smoke, you drink, you state you are a runner, but looking at you I doubt you run enough to do anything health wise other than satisfy your own fantasy that you are in shape OR trying to get in shape.

You and your channel will be missed when you die young, so I hope that is some small comfort to you.

As for the medical advice others are giving you, I saw one that should be heeded, the colonoscopy suggestion, but it should be every THREE years because you smoke and drink.

Stop drinking, stop smoking, drop the sugar or you will be dead sooner than a lot of us. It's your life and your dime however, you live and enjoy life anyway you want. Tough love over.

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Dan Stinson's avatar

I learned about this "lethal masculinity' stuff like you, the hard way. I finally decided I should go to urgent care because I thought I was passing a kidney stone. Several tests later I learned I had Stage 4 cancer. Yeah, after six rounds of chemo I've lain on 'ol scratch's porch and looked at death's front door. Thanks to an amazing oncologist, I came back from the abyss. But I learned real fast that we don't understand how little we really know about our bodies and how much more lethal what's in our bodies is than the mean ugly outside world.

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Krijn's avatar

The shot at 2:17 had me gawk... In Dutch we call those 'spiegels' that would be 'Levels' in English. As in waterlevels. Now I can talk about that in depth, but it basically means: Get that guy some antibiotics cause he's developing an ileus... And prep him for surgery just in case too.

Ryan, I'm an Evac nurse in the Dutch Army and have worked in A&E for quite a while. If you have health questions that you need a living thing to talk to: Shoot a DM my way. I'm not entirely dead inside 😁

(And FFS don't Google your symptoms and complaints... Doctor Google is an arsehole!)

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Cosmic Debris's avatar

Yep, I did that whole “this pain will just go away” thing. Lived on Vicodin and Cipro for a couple of years.

And then the proverbial dam broke. I ended up on the floor of my home office. I was in tremendous pain but when I got up it was just to chow down another Vicodin and go to bed.

Thank goodness I knew the symptoms of going into shock.

I spent 11 days in the ICU after losing 2/3rds of my colon. Then six months with a temporary (thank &diety) colostomy and then another week in the hospital to fix that up.

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Jerry Greenwood's avatar

The medication may have only been the trigger for a deeper, as yet undiscovered issue. Follow up, follow up, FOLLOW UP!!!

Remember, the weekend crew in the emergency room don’t necessarily have seniority. That’s why they get weekend duty.

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Jonathan Kaplan's avatar

No matter the age, the advice is valid. 20 or 40 or 50, it's the same: Pain is your body's way of telling you something is wrong. Listen to it.

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