Doctors as Magicians

[sus]

I remember my friend went to the dentist and the dentist said, Aha! You must be left handed. I can tell because you have a higher level of plaque buildup on the side of your teeth that's hardest to reach with the left hand

My friend is indeed left handed, but he brushes with his right always so he can phonescroll. The doctor had noticed his left by another means, and performed a little trick to win authority.

 

[sufi]

I've had that line from the dentist - i thought at the time he'd got it dentisttok dentinsta or something

 

[sufi]

I remember my friend went to the dentist and the dentist said, Aha! You must be left handed. I can tell because you have a higher level of plaque buildup on the side of your teeth that's hardest to reach with the left hand

My friend is indeed left handed, but he brushes with his right always so he can phonescroll. The doctor had noticed his left by another means, and performed a little trick to win authority.

sounds like that friend has muddled up the priorities, or maybe not - i suppose halitosis won't transmit through their screen

 

[IdleRich]

I remember my friend went to the dentist and the dentist said, Aha! You must be left handed. I can tell because you have a higher level of plaque buildup on the side of your teeth that's hardest to reach with the left hand

My friend is indeed left handed, but he brushes with his right always so he can phonescroll. The doctor had noticed his left by another means, and performed a little trick to win authority.

Your friend can't bear to stop using his phone for three minutes so he had to learn to brush his teeth with the wrong hand just to avoid that happening?

 

[sufi]

they should get some OCD - I recognised this behavior in a description of an OCD character i read somewhere

The need for balance → Individuals with Symmetry OCD also may experience a need to make their behaviors feel balanced.

For example, if they are walking, they might feel an urge to place the same amount of pressure on each foot, or if they are sitting at their desk and move one foot, they may experience a powerful urge to move their other foot in the exact same way.

Other examples can include needing to tie the shoe on their right foot to match the tension of the shoe on their left foot, or needing to touch their left shoulder if someone accidentally touches their right one to make it even.

• Touching the left knee to feel symmetrical if something bumps against the right one

This real-life personal experience captures the compulsive need for balance and evening up:​

“If I touch something with my left hand, like a table, I HAVE to touch the same exact spot with my right hand. This extends to the part when and if I scratch my one ear, I have to scratch the other one too (even if it’s not itching) for the same amount of time I scratched the first one.”

They will not feel satisfied or comforted until symmetry is attained, and therefore might spend hours a day completing compulsive behaviors.

 

[Murphy]

Got through a detox courtesy of an old wise consultant

Heroin intake obscene levels and kept jonesing too hard to taper to what the clinic declared a safe limit to detox from. No fuckin way was going below x a day compounded by a near constant sheen = gross. It’s so obvious too. This bloke was nearly 80, worked pt, was an oooooold user in the 50’s and recommended introducing dihydrocodeine to blunt the edge

Two weeks later on reduced mg’s, passed the threshold, got admitted, done. This man knew. Nothing else had really steered patterns for the better - multiple deaths across a decade, o.d.ing on pavement in Philadelphia. No. Dihydrocodeine, Goering’s favourite and I can see the need to feed with stomach cramps = extra grim

Have one from the opposite side of the table that’ll forever haunt me but another time

 

[Murphy]

Dr Gunther von Hagens autopsies had a weird alchemical quality

Of course, a headline grabber but what an education. No-one had shown a human form such a way publicly before. All its respective intricacies and fail points to the extent you could extrapolate causes of future deaths viscerally

Yeah he was a cock but life and death are fascinating and anyone who can break such taboos down educationally is facilitating harm reduction - % of people realise fairly instantly we’re fundamentally just flesh, meat, bone, piping and ducts all waiting to go wrong

 

[Murphy]

“faszinierend, mein schatz”

 

[sus]

Got through a detox courtesy of an old wise consultant

Yes.

I think because of my opening anecdote it's easy to parse the thread theme as quackery, but I'm not so much critical of it as appreciating the psychic necessity of bedside decorum, broadly construed

 

[sus]

And also of course knowing the right potions in a pinch

 

[sus]

@Murphy did you by chance go to the Mütter in Philly, perhaps before or after your concrete dalliance?

Rooms full of human heads hands formaldehyde fetuses saltmummies nine foot colons and skeletal dwarves

 

[sus]

Always loved the stories of Goering at the border with the briefcase, his tongue stained red from chewables. Or was that Sartre and his amphetamines? The celebrity softspots start to blend

 

[luka]

the retired dr colin who lives on the house behind my office was saying to me yesterday that he comes from the last generation of drs that handed out placebos without compunction
have this blue one
if that didnt work we'd give them a red one

 

[luka]

hes writing a book on religion as a placebo.

 

[luka]

theres an essay on naval medicine in the aubrey'maturin days i read too that says it was basically all placebos and blue pills

 

[IdleRich]

the retired dr colin who lives on the house behind my office was saying to me yesterday that he comes from the last generation of drs that handed out placebos without compunction
have this blue one
if that didnt work we'd give them a red one

Consequences of red pilling them turned out to be way more than they had guessed.

 

[sus]

theres an essay on naval medicine in the aubrey'maturin days i read too that says it was basically all placebos and blue pills

Plus emetics. I read that the Lewis and Clark expedition, you can still tell where they camped because the soil mercury levels are so elevated. Their whole course. Popped em like candy as a cureall.

Were they really red and blue? That's interesting isnt it

 

[luka]

the blue pill is famous he didnt say red i embellished he said try a different colour

 

[luka]

but the bluee pill comes up a lot in the aubrey=maturin stuff

 

[ver$hy ver$h]