The Farmer Pain Scale

What happens when a farmer voluntarily seeks medical care?

[@DGlaucomflecken]

Don’t worry, the farmer is fine, just had a tiny little aortic dissection. Drank some pepto bismol, went home and finished the fence. It looks real nice.

[@anzot6903]

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

[@evick80]

@@anzot6903 both, simultaneously

[@lilbatz]

LEGEND!👍🔥💪🐮

[@laxattack032]

Pfft. Only one aortic dissection? Last week Darryl had aortic dissection that was THIS big.

[@pballfan]

AHHH, why is this example of a joke a reality? I knew a Fireman who literally had a heart attack, thought he had heartburn for a couple weeks, continued on with his daily routines, then died. The guy walked around with a failed heart for two weeks before involuntarily going...

[@7oClockNews]

Can't discount the farmer who's wife made him come in, because odds are that leg has been broken for three weeks and only now is it starting to affect his productivity. But like, only slightly.

[@snsnplpl]

In the previous 3 weeks he was being dosed with the 5 year old leftover antibiotic from when the sheep had a prolapsed uterus. Once the med drawer is empty, you gotta go to the doc...... or the co-op.

[@shondiaevans12]

So many of us are in rural communities. You NAILED it!

[@lilbatz]

​@@snsnplpl Co-op FTW💪🔥👍 MY Dad would dose himself with co-op antibiotics in the 1970s. He had insurance, but why waste money?

[@undineskrastina9787]

I'm feeling like a farmer once... even though I live in a city w 600k population. But I did walk on a broken leg for 2 weeks once and only went to an ER after my mom made me do it 😅

[@KM-rt5jj]

@@undineskrastina9787 but why?

[@grayscalegalaxies376]

Literally most of my family are farmers/rural workers and the accuracy is astounding. The “I’m here, ain I” struck fear into my heart. He didn’t. Finish. The fence.

[@MrPicklesAndTea]

It bloody means he has to go back and start work on the fence again, who the hell wants to do that twice. Better severe pain than the mental fatigue of leaving a chore undone.

[@latifoljic]

Only a man in deep, real fear for his life would stop building his own fence just to go to the hospital

[@teresamcmurrin8672]

My Dad was a welder and maintenance mechanic, but he grew up on a farm. This video is true to life. Back when I was a senior in high school, he'd been feeling poorly for around a week or so, then one day actually stayed home from work. We were scared spitless. You KNOW my Mama piled him into the car right away and took off like a bat outta hell (that was the way she normally drove, but still...) He went into a coma about 5-10 minutes later. (About halfway to the hospital--a good 30-40 minute drive--he came to just long enough to criticize her driving and went right back out again.) Undiagnosed diabetes, blood sugar in the "why aren't you dead?" range. That was his first time in a hospital in his entire life (he wasn't even born in one!).

[@truck_0097]

@@teresamcmurrin8672 My mom had similar case of blood sugar going to "why aren't you dead yet?" level. Grew up in rural area, now living as a housewife. Thank god she lived through it.

[@vangu2918]

Yes! I was terrified he'd already flatlined.😳

[@doctoraus74]

As a Doctor in rural Australia...this is spot on!! We had a farmer DRIVE his 4x4 to the hospital after having kickback of his chainsaw...through his Chest! Or another farmer who fell off the back of a semi truck loading grain who completely shattered his ankle...on a Friday. He came in on the next Monday....because he didn't want to make a fuss and he thought it would get better. Tough as nails.

[@sammykenny]

My father’s arm had been bugging him and he just kind of ignored it and insisted he was fine until one day he was replacing our front door and his bicep muscle just straight up detached from the bone. My stepmom had to threaten him to get him in the car to Urgent Care.

[@sgc8536]

My Grandma, in her late 70s at the time, dropped boiling pasta water on her leg. That was friday at 4.30. Waited till monday to go get treated for the burns because she 'Didn't want to be a bother to the nice girls at the clinic since they usually close at 5' Neither the nurses nor we were impressed, but that's rural Australian attitudes for you. Country old folk are some of the toughest people alive.

[@strangelic4234]

My cousin had a heart attack when he was plowing. He had to finish of course, it was just pain after all. Finished, went home, called an ambulance, coded when the EMTs were in the doorway. He survived and stopped smoking. It's been 25 years, still plowing.

[@downburst3236]

Farmers like these made Australia proud when they fought in WW2. Even Erwin Rommel, the famous German field marshal, spoke highly of them and feared the Australian troops above all others.

[@keek6542]

​​@@downburst3236I bet if one got shot they'd just get up and go, "The hell was that?" and get back on charging to the other trench.

[@simbelmyne1277]

My friends Dad, an 80+ year old farmer, got burned while fighting a fire. The paramedic asked his pain out of 10 and he said 3. The policeman in attendance said this man is a farmer and called the air ambulance. He was airlifted to a specialist hospital two hours away. By the way he made a full recovery.

[@coney2010grads]

3rd degree burns don't hurt

[@smuganimeface6247]

​@@coney2010gradsNo but the second degree burns around them are agonizing.

[@jambonmusical2689]

​@@smuganimeface6247just get third degree burns on your whole body, easy fix

[@themfinggoat2445]

The cop understood

[@x1heavy]

I had gotten crunched by a large object in the dock while dealing with my 18 wheeler. Ambulance carted me out to ER. "Whatcha Pain Level?" ow. *Wipes tears. Sir I need a number. Not from me you dont. Ow. Make hurt stop. **Needle of good stuff** Now Sir what is your pain level? Cloud nine.

[@azareligarcia541]

No farmer leaves an unfinished fence unless they’re actively dying.🤣 So accurate!

[@satakrionkryptomortis]

wont be surprised if the tell death to fck off and come back once they are finished.

[@Kivlor]

Yeah, no way I'm leaving the dang thing so my cattle can get out. I'll finish it first, then see if I still feel like I'm dying.

[@polyfloralhoney]

@Hunter oh thank God, there's a sour person being smug for no good reason

[@breadbread4226]

I am only leaving an unfinished fence if I didn't count on finishing it today in the first place and don't have animals there.

[@TheGhastlyGuardian]

"You think we have two pharmacists here?" That line really brought me home to the country. Gotta love when an individual got enough skill to take care of nearly anyone around them.

[@khanwebb172]

You don't have animal pharmacists... Animals use the same medications that humans do just different scales, you get your drugs from a regular pharmacist anyway he just isn't knowledgeable on the subject

[@katarh]

@@khanwebb172 Honestly pharmacists who work in veterinary hospitals are pretty badass. I saw one grab a calculator and rip off the correct meter's squared calculation for a cat without even referencing the equation (and then she double checked it just to be sure. I later made sure we added that into our software, including species specific K constants.) They're constantly juggling around units and dosages in their heads. The local one even maintains a compounding pharmacy license so they've got the rights to mix up a custom batch of combo medicine for a sick horse, in an apple flavored syrup.

[@IntegralKing]

what's your pain level on a scale of 0 to moo?

[@tammyt3434]

Frankly, if they're trained in vet med the humans are just another species. A fussy, loud mouthed species.

[@Cara-39]

​@@khanwebb172 I learned this many years ago when my dog and I were on the same antibiotic, her for an upper respiratory infection and me for strep.

[@epixeltwin]

Physician here who had a nearby rural area during training here. Can confirm this is legit 100% accurate. Especially the wife thing. If a farmer comes into the hospital by himself, even without complaints, you have to presume he Is premortem. And you will be right most times.

[@haineko1989]

That's like a hyperbole of men in general, the only thing that can incapacitate a dude is a common cold - when they have a heart attack or saw off a leg better have a wife to drag him to the ER or it's never happening 😂

[@Aryasvitkona]

​@@haineko1989except it's actually not hyperbole for rural older guys. If they decide to go to a hospital voluntarily you better rush them into surgery and find out what's wrong THEN because if you wait you'll likely have a new body for the morgue. Other hospital workers have commented here. It's not hyperbolic. One guy fucked his chest up with a chainsaw and still just leisurely got himself to the hospital despite probably being presumed dead by his injury alone.

[@peterw8400]

Some people are saying this is just barely exaggerated: they are wrong. This is not at all exaggerated. Country guy myself (also trained as an EMT); I had a neighbor whose 75 year-old father (at the time, this was years ago) had to have exploratory surgery done on his gut, when they checked his appendix, it wasn't there. What they found instead was a big cyst made of scar tissue. When asked about it, he recalled being in "pretty bad" pain maybe 20 years before. Then it got really bad, then less bad , but then he was really sick for a while (so sick that he couldn't work for almost a week, which he was clearly still ashamed about). His appendix had ruptured, and then healed, untreated.

[@Klyttorius]

Human bodies are incredibly adaptive. And our minds have far great control over them that most like to think. If you truly and honestly believe 'I'll be alright' and you don't stress, there's a good chance you will heal. If you think 'I'm dying, I'm sick' and you're scared and worried, theres a greater chance you're going to hurt hard. Placebo and nocebo are the only words I can think to describe it properly, but it's very real. The old generation, particularly labor workers all have a massive strong belief, or 'knowing' that they will be alright and they will heal. That 'knowing' massively helps their body to heal.

[@peterw8400]

No offense, I can't agree with this take. There's something you seem to be saying that I think might kinda miss the point. Placebo effects and positive attitude help, but saying you can change how your body works, internally, with your mind is sounding a little Dr. Oz-ish. There's an unspoken facet to these stories that I suspect the country folk get, and it now concerns me that other might not. When we laugh about what people like this have endured, it is because they are lucky, and toughened by their labor, and of the two, mostly lucky. We laugh because the situation is absurd, not because it shows the power of mental toughness. Yes, old farmers are incredibly tough, because they're the one's who made it there; the old ones by definition are the tough ones. The country graveyards are full of the ones who didn't get lucky: the 19 year old who didn't bother seeing the doctor when he had trouble breathing while mowing hay, who collapsed from a pneumothorax next to his truck at the gas station. The forty-year old who died of a minor and treatable heart attack that he ignored the pain of for six hours until he keeled over. I knew two separate old men, growing up, who died face down in a field surrounded by cattle, not family, because they didn't think they needed to worry about their symptoms. This is to say nothing of those who suffer permanent damage that they didn't have to. I know a family where father and son both lost an eye, twenty years apart, doing the same dangerous thing because they didn't think they had the time to wait for help. I never got to meet my paternal grandfather because he'd been kicked in the spine by a mule in a logging camp in the thirties, and used the only available painkiller: whiskey, until it killed him in his early fifties. There was another guy who lost his leg because he let a gash get infected and just kept going until he literally couldn't stand up anymore. This last thing also nearly happened to me, and I was lucky to survive and not lose the limb. When i finally got treatment, it was almost too late, and remembering that this had happened to someone else I knew is why I bothered to get treatment at all. These are all true stories, and I have these and dozens of other stories like this from either my childhood or my medical training. The point here isn't that this suffering is somehow noble, it's bad, and it makes treating these patients really difficult. I think that's the point being made in the video. edit:for flow and clarity

[@Amanda-C.]

@@peterw8400 Thank you. Believing you can heal yourself with the power of your mind may feel empowering, but it's also crazy dangerous, because it's not always true.

[@tvtitlechampion3238]

Aren't bodies amazing, though? We have these evolutionary-tested vessels (well, a lot of us) that can allow us to be untrained, unconscious, and neglectful to what a body requires. I'd add that it's something of a miracle to find doctors that can be pro-active and not just reactive. The guidance I've received about some of my conditions have been a shrug or drugs. I get that the profession still has a steep learning curve to undergo, and that doctors by and large care about being competent (at least, not getting sued), but if these are the leading authorities, the setters of the health narrative, there is much room for improvement. Between that and a stress-induced need to prove worthy of making a living, no wonder most people elect to 'tough it out'.

[@kingstonsteele7820]

@Sam Wallace Yeah, lol And I know statistics for rural communities is sparse, but this guy is full of it or at least has incredible confirmation bias Graveyard of young ones is an enormous exaggeration

[@armynurseshark]

As a nurse who deals with a lot of old farmers- this may be the most on point video you’ve ever done.

[@TN-rf7nt]

As a rheumatology patient, I can very much identify with the Farmer Scale of Pain. Dr. G needs to do more vids about rheumatology--even other doctors are very poorly educated about our daily struggles!!

[@thatmeme1360]

As a farm boy who deals with old farmers. Yes. You could be having a brown and red river flowing down your leg and you better damn well finish that fence.

[@crashsparrow6943]

My father told me some elderly woman around here went to the ER and told the person in reception that she got injured, in the most nonchalant way possible, then proceeded to SHOW HER SEVERED TOE IN HER HAND.

[@wabi_sabi_vida]

Read an ask reddit that told of a farmer who would get dizziness and chest pain on and off. One day he staggered back and accidentally touched his electric fence. After that, he noticed the chest pain went away. So any time he felt that funny chest pain, he would go touch his electric fence. Turns out his chest pains and dizziness was because he was having runs of vtach. The fence had cardioverted him and he had been cardioverting himself ever since. As a cardiac nurse, I found that to be horrifying, amusing, and incredibly clever all at the same time.

[@circl3trees351]

@@wabi_sabi_vida Imma try that the next time i get chest pains! (To be serious, NO I AINT DOIN THAT. I'll walk to the hospital like the American I am.)

[@CHSEnviroSci]

Farmer's son here. Grew up rural. The accuracy of this is unmatched. My Dad and his brother (my uncle) had a farming business together from birth to Dad's passing at 66. In the early 90's my Dad started looking like the gray hulk... ended up getting open heart surgery and a *SIX WAY* bypass. I didn't even know that was a thing! Dad went back to the doctor a few months later and cleared to "lift lightly"... Dad asked about tractor weight for the front of our 2370. Doctor asked, "How much does that weigh?", "150 lbs." "150 lbs?!?" "Each." "Well... does it hurt to pick it up?" "No. I usually carry two to balance though." "Ok... if that doesn't stress you out or hurt, go ahead." God almighty were he and his brother strong. Fast forward 17 years and Dad is having a lot of mid-major health problems. He's out working, by himself, on a belt for a tractor. A wrench slips, falls into the belt, flies out and hits Dad in the head. Knocked him out cold. He woke up God knows how long later, turned the tractor off, then went back to work doing other things. Mom noticed a bruise but didn't say anything until it was so big and blue it was impossible not to say anything. He told her about what happened... it was 4-5 days after the incident. Still lived another couple years until he had a coronary. Another time, my Uncle said his leg hurt. Drove himself to the doctor, got taken to the hospital. He ended up being there a few weeks via blood clot. They had to take a portion of the skin out of the side of his calf. He was supposed to get a skin graft but kept putting it off. He sprayed the *open wound* with antiseptic, packed in gauze, wrapped his leg, put his bibs back on, got right back into the combine. He lived another 6 years before a massive stroke got him at 82. The worst part was, my Grandma, their Mom, outlived 3 of her 5 kids... and she passed a couple years later at 101. What a bunch of badasses. I kinda wonder if those three saw me and thought, "Are we sure he's ours?" haha

[@alastairatcheson1407]

F 150lbs, our tractor weights are 88lbs each and that's plenty.😅

[@jennymunday7913]

I bet they're proud of you. They're probably happy that you're doing what you like. You can be a badass too, its just not farmer badassery.

[@Arto257]

As a farmer's boy myself, and as someone who was stopped from going into it by my father, they work that hard so you don't have to. It's a father's dream to see his son doing better in life than he is.

[@reaverkai]

​@@Arto257luckily my father is very supportive of me and my brother in this regard too. He loves what he does, and we come from a few gens of farmer families on both sides, but they don't pressure us at all to work the family business

[@Farazormal1]

environmental science is important to make sure that world is still farmable in 100 years. I almost went down a similar path, I'm from a dairy farm and when i first went to university i studying environmental management. Life took me down a different path though. Might take over the farm in a few years after I've finished my new degree and done some more travel if i find a partner that wants to move to the middle of nowhere hahaha

[@anelson1419]

Oh god this is so true, my grandpa came in early from chores, sat down in his recliner and told my grandma he was feeling “sore” and would finish knocking in the fence posts tomorrow. She immediately panicked, called my aunt to force him to go to the hospital. There we found out he’d managed to get his boot stuck, and when he twisted to get out he broke his leg and that triggered a heart attack. One quadruple bypass later he was dragging his ass back out to the pasture, cast and all, to finish setting fence posts. Country folk are wild.

[@ChrisMorray]

Damn... That's some different kind of crazy. Props to grandpa for bearing through that, glad he got the help he needed.

[@VexingRaven]

Why are farmers always building fences?!

[@queenofthecapes]

​@@VexingRaven Since no one replied: fences are vital for keeping predators away from livestock (and also livestock away from crops). They are also susceptible to wear and tear, which creates weak spots for animals to exploit. You soon need a whole new fence.

[@Aryasvitkona]

​@@ChrisMorrayit's not even different kind. This is just rural old guy syndrome basically. (Old as in anything 40+ in this case). You'll struggle to find farming men who aren't like this. An EMT in another comment said that if a call came in for someone for themselves at a farming address, it was lights and sirens. 4/5 times lights and sirens was the right call. That should tell you enough.

[@nightstargill]

My Grandfather was the pharmacist for animals and people in his small village. He was also the doctor and photographer.

[@thesabiqoon4178]

Love this!

[@gritskennedy5007]

And town postman when old Sam wasnt feelin up to par...and here and there minister of the peace.

[@nightstargill]

@@gritskennedy5007 I wouldn't be surprised. He did so much for the village. ❤

[@ch4.hayabusa]

We should be weary of applying New England staffing requirements to Alaskans and Midwest folk, but also developing countries. Having easy access to a PCP is much better than running all the small ones out of business and leaving Jim Bob with no one to call.

[@Sveiksmobile]

And on Thursdays, the judge, too! 😁

[@OhSkyeLanta]

Working for a hospital that serves 6 small towns within a 100 mile radius, this is so accurate it hurts

[@shondiaevans12]

Doesn’t it make you feel pride to see Rural Healthcare discussed- even in this forum. Great job, Doc!

[@UNVIRUSLETALE]

but how much does it hurt? on a 1 to 10 scale and on the farmer scale

[@OhSkyeLanta]

@Dave Smith wtf is that supposed to mean lol

[@wendy645]

@Dave Smith Maybe in the Midwest or Eastern states, but here in Bumblefart AZ, driving 100 miles takes you through only about 6 small towns, too, and most are only on *some* maps. I work at such a hospital. Nearest other hospital is 76 miles away, but it's only open M-F 10-4. Know why? Because folk got chores to do. 🤷‍♀️

[@zytrax7713]

So who's your hospital's Texaco Mike?

[@justv7536]

My dad and my grandfather were working on some plumbing once. They were using an angle grinder. This was long before I was born, grandad must have been, somewhere in his 50's I reckon. Anyway, grandad was cutting away a piece of pipe when the angle grinders blade snaps and shoots up the length of his arm, gouging about 20mil deep at its deepest and running the entire length from his wrist to his elbow. My dad went to call an ambulance but grandad said to him, "don't worry, I'll drive there, you finish the job okay?" So he got up and wrapped a T-shirt around his arm, and drove about, 50 minutes to Frankston hospital. He walked into ER and said he'd cut his arm pretty badly. The nurse asked him how bad it hurt on a scale of one to ten and he said, "aw... Pretty bad." That's the Australian equivalent of probably being shot a couple times. The nurse said she would have a doctor see to him as soon as possible, and told him to take a seat. So he walked over to the waiting area and sat down and started to read some of the books they had there. Almost two hours go by and he's still sitting there when a nurse walks up to him and says, "is this James?" To which he replies, "yes, is it my turn now?" I'm a calm manner. The nurse says it is, and asks to see the injury, to which she is horrified at the sight of. "Sir, you need to be put under for stiches right now!" She exclaims, to which he nods as that seems about right. "Why didn't you say something about this sooner!?" "Well, I said it was pretty bad."

[@PseudoSarcasm]

Heh, I've spent a few days in Frankston Emergency waiting room

[@susanuyeda740]

My farmer husband was so sick I doubted we could attend our daughter's White Coat ceremony the next day 4 hours away. I insisted on taking him to our PCP. He passed out during a chest X-ray causing a stampede of paramedics. Later at home I put him to bed and left to get antibiotics and an inhaler. I returned to find our truck fully packed with all the furniture he had hand made for her life as a med student. Today she in a very smart internal medicine doctor who works nights in the ICU and understands acid-base physiology. I still make all of my husband's medical appointments.

[@cmcapps1963]

Reminds me of my grandfather. Only thing more important than the farm is their little girl...no matter the age

[@hiitsme6639]

Husband's farmer grandpa was in his tiny town mowing, reached in to clear debris and cut off about 1/3 of each of his fingers on that hand. Wrapped the hand in his kerchief and drove his manual truck to the closest town with a clinic. Somehow despite being on blood thinners he didn't bleed to death. Doctor kept all instruments in a cup of blue sterilizing liquid and just swirled them around looking for something that could work. Grandpa asked if he would be able to play the piano. The nurse said, "Sure. I think after healing you could play." He said ," It's a miracle! I could never play before!" Most pleasant man I have ever met in my life.

[@afterburn2600]

That's a sense of humor I can appreciate. My grandfather was told he had 24 hrs to live and upon waking up the next morning he told the nurse he was kind of unhappy to see her since they said he'd be gone. Similar to your manual driving story, my father-in-law sliced through all the tendons in his dominant hand and drove his manual truck to the hospital. Farmer folk are seriously tough and stubborn.

[@williamrosenbloom215]

@@afterburn2600 oh my god that's horrific

[@gubbstrutthihi]

My grandpa had a similar accident, just his pinky remained. The man then proceded to go home to change before going to the hospital. Cause "you have to look nice and proper if you're gonna se a doctor".

[@agailparsons]

My dad wasn't a farmer but was an old school telephone lineman until he retired. Same pain scale. Bad ladder caused him to fall from a pole on his hands and knees in the middle of nowhere. Broke 3 vertebrae in his lower back. He drove most of the way to the nearest hospital until the pain was too much (probably from the shock wearing off) and then his work partner had to drive. He recovered and did phone work and eventually installed internet until he retired. If he complains about anything health/pain wise it's bad.

[@katykatmeow5159]

This reminds me a bit of something that happened to my dad. He was cutting twine with a pocket knife when a calf kicked him and the knife went clean through his hand. He decided that instead of bothering anyone, he'd just wrap his hand in his shirt and drive himself half an hour to the doctor. When he walked into the office the receptionist nearly screamed because there was so much blood on his shirt that she thought he had been shot. There's also the story of how my dad's dad lost a finger in a baler and instead of going to the hospital, he just carried on with his work. He then just put his lost finger in his shirt pocket as a cruel surprise for his later to be ex wife, my grandma, to find while doing laundry

[@johnswanson2600]

When I was a volunteer EMT in a farming community it didn't matter what the complaint was; if the dispatcher gave a farm address and said they were calling for themselves, we responded to it lights and sirens. 4/5 times it was the right call.

[@lilbatz]

"I can't walk on my foot" Gas gangrene right up to the hip.

[@123shansun]

@@lilbatz I regret searching for that infection, oh GOD the images it brought up were ........ GRAPHIC as hell!!!!!

[@johnswanson2600]

@Dave Smith Fairly common in less densely populated areas. And it was good experience. I'm a full time paramedic now.

[@leadpaintchips9461]

@Dave Smith Ya, most rural communities just can't afford to pay to keep most emergency services staffed fully, so they rely on volunteers to help their community.

[@bkane573]

That’s the standard EMS is designed to be volunteer BLS with als meeting them in route when needed, which in truth is rarely.

[@tver4789]

On my great-grandpa's 90-somethingth birthday, we showed up to see him and couldn't find him in his kitchen or living room. My mom went upstairs to check (we expected the worst) and he wasn't in the house. We go outside to see him picking up huge rocks from the field next door because "The young guys will ruin their equipment if they run over these" He ended up beating COVID a few years later as well. Farmers are TOUGH

[@christinafreeman2997]

We were in Cardiology case conference this week, and we had a patient who was a farmer. The phrase "Did you use the farmer pain scale?" was actually said in reference to this patient! 🤣 So I asked if he finished the fence. Everyone laughed! 🤣💕

[@nopenope5203]

As a farmer, I have to agree with this video. Had to fix a fence once that a tree had fallen on. Was using a chainsaw to cut the trees when it got tangled in vines and whipped into my leg. Got bit pretty good but I needed to get that fence fixed because this property was an hour away from home and cows were going to get out. So I finished it, drove back to town and went into the walk-in clinic. I kept trying to help the nurses stitch my own leg and it was annoying them because every time I touched any of their bandages or the like they either had to throw them away or resanitize them. I eventually had to literally sit on my own hands to stop myself from habitually reaching out and trying to hand them their stuff when they needed it. From then things were only difficult because they were laughing so hard at the absurdity of the situation, because when they asked me why I came in to their clinic (as in them specifically and not someone else) I misunderstood and told them "I know chainsaw wounds are incredibly dirty and can kill ya if you don't clean 'im, but we used the last of our antiseptic a few days ago on a prolapsed cow so I had to come here."

[@buddermonger2000]

if you misunderstood then what was the real question?

[@nopenope5203]

@@buddermonger2000 they were asking why I picked their clinic over one closer to where I was working about an hour and a half away. Like, "why did you drive 90 minutes to visit a walk in clinic instead of going to one closer to fix my injury as soon as possible." I think they wanted to know why their clinic was so appealing? This was a couple years ago so the fine details are a bit foggy.

[@buddermonger2000]

@@nopenope5203 That's actually pretty funny

[@theinternetidiot]

Absolute legend, I always wanted to live on a farm... but my city boy ass wouldn't last!

[@sally8708]

@@nopenope5203 “Got bit pretty good” is how I know you actually are a farmer. I live in a city now, and I remember saying that to a friend when I was describing the time I sliced a bit into my hand. She asked about the scar, and I told her I was messing around with a knife, but when I said that, I got a puzzled look. And then she said, “Your cat did THAT??” 🤣

[@katenoelle198]

As a rancher's wife, I have to say this is so damn true. My husband would have to be damn near on his deathbed to not get the job done. Flayed his hand open? Just wrap it in vetrap and deal with that later. Back went out and can't walk? Who cares, just stay on the horse. The only time he ever bothered going to the hospital was when he hadn't been feeling good and we made him go in. Turns out he had appendicitis and it had been ruptured for four days. Guy is not normal.

[@potato1341]

Man was walking around for 4 days on a ruptured appendix and only found out when he was made to go there??

[@danielmoulton4117]

@@potato1341 My wife insists she'll never be able to get me to the clinic while I'm still conscious. I proved her wrong though. When I broke 11 ribs, I actually made her come meet me at the barn and take me in. I guess I'm only an apprentice farmer going into my 63rd year.

[@christajennings3828]

I went a week with appendigitis before my brother finally convinced me to go get it checked. According to the doctor, it feels like appendicitis, but is an inflammation rather than an infection. I was too busy, figured I had pulled a muscle or something, and it would get better.

[@johnh8546]

My father had a heart attack for 2 days. Was still working while his heart was failing. They had to put stents in 2 of his arteries but apparently he feels 15 years younger now lol.

[@AllieSierdsma]

Can’t let the cows get out

[@ashleywilliams5450]

On my ER rotation we had an older gentleman come in who was kicked in the back by his horse. Seemed to be completely fine, was sitting on the side of the bed in the ER bay appearing to be ready to leave at any moment. The X-RAY came back, he had bilateral scapular fractures. One of the rarest fractures to have because it takes hella force for that to happen. He must’ve been a farmer…

[@Baker_king12]

Lol I remember my dad being this way. Our neighbor down the road was a nurse practitioner so the only way to get my dad to go to the “doctor” was for my mom to invite her over for dinner and just bring up his health problems subtly through dinner conversation. Lol she would almost script out the conversation ahead of time so he didn’t realize he was relaying symptoms to his physician. Then our neighbor would be escorted outside they would have a chat and my mom would come back in with some prescriptions. Good fun.

[@MaryDunford]

😂👍

[@MrJolaf22]

Paramedic from rural austria here, we had a farmer who fractured his tibia and fibula while on the field and when we asked how bad the pain is, he answered: "Its okay, i walked for a good 5 minutes before calling." so yeah its accurate.

[@chocolatefrenzieya]

I mean it was just a fracture, not a break, after all. pfft.

[@samuelkhanna]

We had a farmer who got run over by his tractor and broke his pelvis really badly. We found out later that this had happened in a field 3 gates away from his farm. He drove the tractor back to the farmhouse. Each gate he got out the tractor crawled to the gate, opened it, crawled back to the tractor, drove it through and then crawled back to close it again.

[@markodenbrett4363]

@Dave Smith both

[@Bonglibear]

Tis but a scratch

[@meganasp1498]

He likely was in shock. (Also in health care here). Very common for your body to panic and cut off feelings on your behalf when it's gone thru something traumatic. Heck, when I broke my arm a few years ago I didn't feel anything for the first few days.

[@AlloftheGoodNamesAreTaken]

Former farmer here. I can attest to the truth of this entire skit. You really captured farm culture in these few minutes. “Did he finish the fence?” Definitely an important assessment question. :D

[@bruninjesus4496]

I couldnt read your comment without listening to a stong southern accent right after you said “Former Farmer”

[@LaMiGrAFrAnK]

@@bruninjesus4496 I tell you what

[@samboyd1828]

if the answer is no, there's not an earthly force that can keep that man resting

[@war13death]

The only reason a farmer doesn't finish the fence is if something else that needs taken care of immediately comes up.

[@darkracer1252]

@@bruninjesus4496 be more respectfull. he said FORMER farmer. that means he's atleast 110 years old now

[@thecraftycyborg9024]

When my gallbladder went ultra wonky and I was sent to the ER, I told the doc I was a 6. I was in the fetal position from the pain. He just stared at me then walked off. He barged back in a few minutes later with my chart. “You could have TOLD me you have CRPS! Now I know what pain scale you’re working on! I’ll go get meds, be right back.” My mom and I burst out laughing. CRPS is the most painful disease known. I regularly feel like my bones are broken and I’m on fire. After 18 years, I’m quite used to it and my scale is all kinds of messed up.

[@Mortablunt]

I have some neurological issues, migraines, and a couple old combat injuries. I've shocked several docs by now that not only am I not on opiates, I also refuse to get a prescription for them. I do get prescription strength ibuprofen, though.

[@annebruecks7381]

​@@Mortablunt Ibuprofen is a miracle drug!

[@firstnamelastname9237]

That was not the explanation I was expecting

[@GoldenSkeeter]

The CRPS pain scale goes up the 20 because our baseline is like eight out of 10 often

[@GoldenSkeeter]

You can be prescribed ketamine for CRPS Also bulk CBD isolate helps me for $5 per 1000 mg

[@basedokadaizo]

as someone who has lived in southern US for all his life, there is nothing more scary to hear than "your uncle stopped building his fence to go to the hospital".

[@1seanv]

This also fits older construction workers. My dad was shaving the corner of some drywall on the edge of a doorway one time and he was really reefing on the knife with both hands. The knife broke free of the drywall and came slamming down into his thigh through his blue jeans. I was in the same room and did not see it happen, but I heard the brief scream. I don't remember how he stopped the bleeding but he drove us home and then went to his bathroom. A little while later he shouted for me to come in and take a look. Mid-thigh under his boxers was 1" + long gash in his thigh. Because of the force he was using to shave the edge of the drywall and the angle the drywall knife came down when it slammed into his thigh, it had torn the skin as well as punctured it. The injury was approximately 1.25" long, half and inch wide, and you could see down into it probably half an inch. That was the first time I saw the clear division between outer and inner skin, bodyfat layer, and underlying muscle. It was gross. Perhaps even grosser because by then he had cleaned it and stopped the bleeding so it was almost unreal how it looked to me. He calmly grinned at me as I stared at it. He then proceeded to grab his sowing goods - a needle and some thread, some peroxide, and got to work. I didn't stay to see him sew it up, but within half an hour he was walking around in his bathrobe like nothing had happened. Perhaps a slight limp. That was some Rambo shit to me at 14.

[@thesysop4998]

Holy hell

[@raspberrytiara2626]

14? wow

[@wrongfootmcgee]

Still is some Rambo shit Top Tier S ranked Power leve way overl 9000 ...All that

[@JoshAllenberg]

Only half inch deep into the thigh? Eh that's not so bad as long as the artery isn't hit. Just bleeds a lot and won't stop, which is the most annoying thing. I have many small scars from construction. My most recent one is actually not related to work. I was bleeding my bike brakes and decided to spin the wheel so I could line the calipers up with no rubbing. I nearly took the tip of my finger off when the disc brake arms wedged my index between itself and the caliper. If I was spinning the wheel any faster I would have lost much more than a chunk of skin. I guess that's why you're supposed to take the wheel off

[@Ieatpeople2]

I watched my dad cutting some trim with a circular saw, and in between cuts he would set the saw down. Well, one time he set in on his thigh instead of the ground (he was sitting on a bucket). The guard had stuck back, and the blade hadn't stopped spinning yet. It went right thru his jeans, and 1-3/4" deep (the depth the blade was set to, luckily it wasnt set deeper). Made a 5.5" long gash. Laid his thigh open like a fillet knife. Missed everything important somehow, and it barely bled at all. He stitched it up himself before my mother got home, changed his pants, and kept working. That was 25yrs ago, and it hasnt given him any trouble since.

[@jbradymd]

I've been in rural Emergency Medicine for many years - too funny and too true at the same time! Had a farmer who lost his arm at the elbow in a hopper. While the others went to find the arm (he did not because "I knew it was no GD good"), he went inside to get a cup of coffee because he knew we wouldn't let him eat or drink once he got here! Thanks for the laughs, it really helps.

[@thegracklepeck]

*chuckle* sounds like something my dad would do. Don't you deprive that man of his coffee!

[@brounwynsmith848]

Ho-ly shit

[@foreverxfall]

I wish i could be this hardcore

[@lydiademarek]

This is my and my fiance's favourite comment!

[@grandmasgopnik9642]

Damn if that’s not the most accurate of my time in the rural ED. Had a man with a sawblade through his hand with the same thing. He just said not to call his wife till he was already in the ER because she was gonna be pissed that he’d hurt himself again.

[@izuksammy]

I knew a rancher who cut his femoral on accident, made his belt into a tourniquet, and then drove an hour and a half into town, opening and closing the gates by himself. I knew another rancher who got bit by a rattle snake while cutting wood. He didn’t want to leave the pile so he continued loading it up and drove home. He didn’t want to go to the ER all dirty, so he took a shower and put on fresh clothes. On his way into town, he figured he should have one drink or two at the bar since he was all cleaned up. After a couple hours, he said he felt fine and enough and never did go in. Both stories are 100% true.

[@hariman7727]

I don't doubt it. Old farmers are made of sterner stuff than most. I've gotten fillings done with no anesthetic, but that's still only a fraction compared to Old Farmers.

[@shaynehughes6645]

Man's blood could make antivenom if he was willing to go to the doctor and donate it

[@tiny99990]

The rattlesnake most likely didn't inject any venom with the bite, especially if it was just the first time it struck, venom is a generally valuable resource that can take a lot of energy to produce comparatively speaking, so, using it when a simple strike is enough makes the most sense, the only time rattlesnake would use venom with an initial strike is if it was young and inexperienced, or a baby and completely clueless with how to moderate the injection of venom altogether.

[@daltooinewestwood6380]

@@tiny99990 I had no idea a snake could just choose not to inject venom with a bite

[@jasonhuntley7371]

​@Daltooine Westwood yeah a snake will generally only inject venom if it either A: doesn't think it can escape the predator or B: wants to kill and eat what it's biting Otherwise it's a waste of time and effort that could potentially cause it to starve

[@nquisitiv3471]

My grandparents used to be farmers and they are crazy. My great uncle had fluid filling up his lungs AND mold growing INSIDE his lungs and it took him losing consciousness to actually get him to go to the hospital. Even then he would constantly fight the nurses and be disagreeable about everything. My grandma fell off of a stool and broke her pelvis and has a huge open wound on her hip. My parents were busy doing something with my little brother at the time so she WAITED HOURS UNTIL THEY WERE DONE They are ridiculous

[@sam7479]

I know a rural doctor who once told me a lot of his patients come to the office complaining of ADG - Ain’t Doin’ Good. And he has to figure it out from there.

[@TPishek]

Livestock veterinarians similarly often get “ADR” cases... Bessie just ain’t doin right

[@bezagebremedhine5102]

😂

[@tvtitlechampion3238]

The rural version of House!

[@CenlaSelfDefenseConcepts]

@@tvtitlechampion3238 would be a good show but Hollywood hates rural people so every patient would turn out to be some kind of monster to be shamed and ridiculed instead of just a farmer that needed help

[@tvtitlechampion3238]

@@CenlaSelfDefenseConcepts so...the rural version of House

[@buck_up]

This was literally my grandpa. 80yrs old, loading up the silo with corn and broke his back. Finished the job, loaded up the wagon for a delivery to the co-op and stopped by the hospital on his way back home. Lol Dude had to get 4 vertebrae fused together and while at it found out he had blood cancer and shrugged it all off in a couple months. Makes a point of picking me up every time he sees me to prove how strong he is... Proud to have his blood in my veins but disappointed that I am a fraction of a man he is.

[@buddermonger2000]

yeah that's about how I feel with my grandpa (though actually don't have his blood in my veins)

[@benrichey2593]

Holy crap when you said “shrugged it all off in a couple months” I assumed you meant that he died. Then I realized he was still alive and beat cancer in his 80s. He must be one hell of a guy, happy for you that he’s still around.

[@bowband2.097]

A fraction of something big is still pretty large

[@samreid6010]

@@benrichey2593 dying would have gotten in the way of chores

[@NeroBloodfire]

If he has blood cancer and you have his blood in your veins. Might wanna look at it.

[@snakeinthegrak8969]

My grandpa was a farmer and I can attest to all of this. Be it from the countless times he super glued me so we could get back to what we were doing, pushing stuck fish hooks all the way through my skin to clip them (so we could get back to fishing), or agreeing to me taking my training wheels of my first bike at 5years old so I could learn how to ride on our gravel road because I wouldn't stop asking. I have many scars because of spending time with him and I adore every damn one of them. RIP grandpa, you gave me the never quit mentality I have today.

[@danielmoulton4117]

Scars, of which I have many, are tattoos with better stories attached to them.

[@bobcostas9716]

As far as the fish hooks go, they'll do the same thing at the doctor's office too. The only difference is they'll give you a shot of local first (which costs god knows how much) that hurts as much as getting the hook pushed through. Better off just doing it yourself and saving fishing time and a couple hundred bucks. If you're worried about infection just spray some bug spray on it.

[@nikiTricoteuse]

As a New Zealander this and the stories in the comment thread had me in stitches. So true of many old school rural folk here too. They certainly didn't have the time or the inclination to go swanning off to the Dr for just any old thing. I grew up rural and on weekends, once we'd done our jobs we went bush for the rest of the day. The only thing that got us home again was; too dark to see, too hungry to last or A LOT of blood. I remember trying to teach my newly arrived townie friend to ride her bike in our carpark (we had the local pub). She fell off and cut her head on the gravel. Bled like a stuck pig but, by our standards it wasn't that bad. She was crying and wanted to go home so l walked her back across the road and knocked on her door. Her mother opened the door and fainted dead away on the doorstep. I remember standing in the doorway looking at crying friend and her mother crumpled on the step and thinking, Good God, do grown ups do that? That's no use at all. Had to go back across the road and fetch MY mother who was clearly made of sterner stuff.

[@sminthian]

"To hell with it" actually means that this is taking too much time, so he's going to try to fix it himself. It usually involves some combination of: alcohol, a welder, duct tape, and lots of aspirin.

[@phoebegilliland8897]

And a ratchet strap as needed.

[@ZawZaw-yb3nf]

in Australia, our version is "Fuck it" lmao

[@QuinnHarleyQuinn]

You forgot lightbulb and or match!

[@cecilj4129]

This combo is also frequently employed by the handymen, who are holding a candle to farmers in the category 'if they go to the hospital they need to be actively dying'

[@serenawalker6563]

My husbands uncle pulled a wart off his face then cauterized it with a lit cigarette.

[@Burnie1601]

Yep - Once went out to a rural, out of hours, GP led facility for a transfer to the district general hospital. On arrival the nurse practitioner greeted me with "I'll warn you now, he's a farmer, and he's come in because he's been feeling a bit under the weather and a bit out of breath for a few days" I jokingly replied "so how dead is he then?" and she replied "Sats of 53%, resps of 40, pulse of 170, BP 92/40. He's on 15L of oxygen just to get him up to 90%. He's asking if he can just make his own way to the hospital tomorrow after he's finished sorting the cows out" 😳😳😳

[@food.fighters.]

how the hell was he just walking around with all that??? most people would have serious trouble being 90% or below but he was just walking around w 53%???? farmers rly are something else

[@MDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMD]

Well the cows aren't gonna sort themselves.

[@Burnie1601]

@@food.fighters. Ya!! I was wondering to myself how he was still conscious - but it was accurate too, great waveform trace, desaturated on any exertion. He described himself as "just feeling a little out of puff"

[@braceletlife28]

😮😮😮

[@teslawhite]

When I finally went in with covid, after the last cow calved, my O2 was 71. I felt sick but not as bad as when I had the flu and mono at the same time so I waited it out.

[@cw4608]

LOL I farmed for nearly two decades. This is so on point and understanding the farmer mindset should be a requirement for all doctors and other health care professionals!

[@joanneb3524]

This is so incredibly accurate. One day I called my aunt and uncle....they operate a sheep ranch. My uncle says the phone won't reach the bedroom where my aunt had been "nursing a twisted ankle" for 3 days. Within an hour I was on the road making a 200 mile trip to see for myself. Um...yup...good call to bring first aid and immobilization supplies. One look and I knew that ankle was busted. She screamed as I put a compression thingie on it and secured her leg to a board. Got my unkle to help pour her into the car. Raced to the ER 30 miles away and after a looksie by the doc went straight into surgery to pin her SHATTERED ankle. I drove back to the ranch and told my unkle he was a butt-head. I stayed while she was in the hospital and about a week after that. Their daughter flew in from out of state as soon as she could to takeover.

[@SraTacoMal]

"Is Leroy a pharmacist for humans or animals?" _"*And."_ "Excuse me?"

[@keeganjones6311]

Unless I'm horribly mistaken (and living in the southeast, I might well be), a pharmacist is a pharmacist. Their training revolves around humans, and that can cause some friction or confusion when vets write the prescription, but a prescription from a licensed provider is a prescription. Veterinarians have every ability to write a prescription for their patients to be filled at a client's pharmacy of choice that physicians do.

[@jima1135]

I immediately answered out loud, to myself: "Is Leroy a pharmacist for humans or animals?" "Yes."

[@BRMedic]

My first cardiac arrest save as a Paramedic was the same way. Rice farmer drove himself to my station with his family in tow. "Indigestion" for 3 days, only came in because the family made him. Arrested 5 minutes into transport having a massive MI. Shocked 4 times, got helicoptered to the city, 2 stents, and all he was worried about was going hunting

[@bluesteel8376]

Well, life's not worth living if you can't go hunting.

[@Sabi1234567890Asdf]

I can say I've been in a similar spot. Was at work a week before opening day for hunting. Broke my foot clean in half. I just looked at my boss and said f*** I just broke my foot. He didn't believe me but put me in a taxi to the hospital to be safe. I casually walked into the ear. They didn't believe me. 6 hours later yep I have a broken foot. Asked the doc if I could go hunting the following week he looked at me as I was special needs and said no. Went back to work the next day and boss immediately put me in a taxi home. Came back the next day and boss took my key and drove me home and said I can't come back for 6 weeks. That was a nice worker's comp paid hunting trip.

[@ulibredulli]

@@bluesteel8376 and huntin season ain't year round, gotta get goin

[@acebilbo]

God, this is golden. My Dad was a logger. Got in a disagreement with my brother and fell, breaking his leg. Local private doc put a cast on. When my Dad got tired of the cast and the doctor figured it was time to come off, out comes the chainsaw. Still remember my Dad sawing that cast off with his chainsaw. It was kind of impressive. I was pretty young, about 12.

[@myprophet1]

I'm the daughter of a logger also. Grew up in the 50's and 60's. Lots of farmers around also. Many ppl of this breeding die the way they want. I also refuse to be a professional patient when it's time to go.😊

[@stringchz]

My dad also cut timber, he's almost 50 now and that man was still felling trees when he started having heart issues. It took my mom fussing at him and having 4 young kids at home to finally have him go see a doctor. He was around late 30's to early 40's when the issues started, turned out he had a hereditary heart condition that he knew about but always put off until it nearly killed him.

[@jrlito2777]

Most accurate video ever. My dad is an old school farmer/construction worker. Fell off a 3 story building, cut his head open while falling and bouncing off a shade. Kept working was forced by the foreman to go to the clinic. Once in the clinic he left because the nurses where taking long and drive himself home. I get the call from the clinic and had to force him to go and get 15 staples on his scalp. After he tried to crazy glue his scalp by himself. Different breed!

[@xingwei8331]

my family medicine instructor once said, farmers are the toughest people, and good luck with telling them to put on sunscreen.

[@damien678]

They really, REALLY should though... my grandpa was a gardener for decades, always wore sunscreen a big hat and long sleeves, and he still died of skin cancer. Granted, the Australian sun kinda Hits Different since there's a gap in the ozone layer above our continent.

[@dubious6718]

Sunscreen is for kids.

[@vanntooot]

Good luck with telling them to actually replace the dressings on the 8cm lacerated wound you just sutured on his foot without lidocaine because anesthesia is too expensive and he "drank a whole liter of gin anyway before I got here"

[@lilbatz]

​@@vanntooot my Dad used terpin hydrate w codeine for anesthesia. So mad when the FDA pulled it off the market.

[@cassidyallengar]

@@damien678 mine died the same. My dad recently got a LOT of skin cancer removed, mom made him do it. He currently is now where hats and long cloths. Idk if he is wearing sunscreen.

[@marierobertsdahl3022]

As a farmer's daughter, sketch is so true. My Dad went in because he didn't feel good" and ended up having an appendectomy. Doc reamed him for not coming in sooner. Dad said it "wasn't that bad..."

[@carmeltabby]

Same here. My farmer father hasn't been to a hospital for himself......in the 30 years I've been alive actually.

[@spoopyvirgil4944]

Reminds me of the Ben Brainard story he told about his farmer grandpa. Man flipped a plane, broke his back, flipped it the right way over, towed it back inside, drove back home, and needed his wife to force him to go to the hospital. I think there was an extra layer of endurance in there though because this was a florida farmer man.

[@imherzenspandauer6468]

This is so accurate. I come from a rural area and when i worked at the hospital multiple people told me the story of the farmers daughter that was run over by a tractor. She drove to the hospital herself and presented herself at the front desk with the marks of the tire over the left side of her body.

[@blackdandelion5549]

As a farmer's daughter you need to understand she was able to get up and get on so there was no need to stop the tractor when things needed doin. I know farmer's daughters other than myself who have put off medical care and would have simply not gone in for a "sore arm" = broken arm into the elbow. The worst for a farmer's daughter was a full sternum fracture where medical care was put off for a fortnight. She slept sitting up and couldn't lay down due to feeling like she couldn't breathe. She still had to do all of her chores and it was after falling behind on them more and more and more when she was the hardest worker that she finally was taken in to see the doctor and found out her sternum was fractured and it's why her chest really moved up and down when she was breathing. She was maybe 15 and it was her inability to shovel manure and do her chores in a timely manner that got her taken to the doctor.

[@thenoisyninja]

Im just here for all the rural doctors checking in, sharing anecdotes

[@gavinsullivan9015]

Me too! I knew the replies were going to be excellent 😊

[@timmholl9238]

Same.

[@starry2205]

Lol 50 comments deep here

[@barbaragreiner4232]

Me too! Old retired nurse here from NY, NJ area.. I love reading about the stoic farmers at harvest time ignoring their MI or wounds.. Better than some of the ED occupants with the sniffles!

[@swamp-yankee]

Me too, it reminds me of my kin.

[@jeffb957]

Years ago I was the feed and farm supply guy. I called the doctor's office, and left my route to go see the doc. The doc was doing the workup, and taking a long time about it. I said "hey doc, I still have half a load of feed to deliver. Can we speed this up?" Doc said "I can hear liquid gurgling in your lungs, and your oxygen saturation is too low. You clearly have walking pneumonia and need to be in bed at least a week. I said," but doc, the farmers are counting on me. Animals have to be fed." Doc looked at the nurse and said, "call Mike at the feed mill and tell him this man is too sick to work, so don't let him till I say different." 😂🤣😆 this video seriously reminded me of that incident.

[@Otokogoroshi]

My mom is dating a farmer and his hip has been bothering him. I've been pressuring him to see a doctor and this video is so freakin' accurate. It's like pulling teeth to get them to get medical help! Soldiers are almost as bad. My dad tore his tendon and I went 'Go to the doctor' and he said 'Nah I'll just take it easy' two days later the tendon detached and he had to get emergency surgery. He refused to take the pain meds and I only managed to get him to take the occasional Naproxin. Admittedly I'm not that much better either. Even though I have pretty good health insurance right now I'll do 'wait and see', but I do always research the symptoms so I can come to the doctor with a detailed explanation of what's going on. So far I've pre-diagnosed myself with 3 different issues that tests later revealed to be accurate lol I haven't been wrong yet! (It turns out when you have one auto-immune disorder you're likely to develop ANOTHER ONE and then I recently learned you're at higher risk for LYMPHOMA, weirdly doctor never mentioned those two details to me)

[@cara-seyun]

Ironic, since soldiers usually have free healthcare

[@sotired7453]

I have to laugh at this I’m a farmer and my G.P told my son we usually don’t come in unless our arm is falling off. While waiting to have 4 of my vertebrae fused a few,months ago I,had to split and bring wood to the house and stack it and a whole heap of other jobs cause after the surgery I wasn’t allowed to lift over 2 kilo I could feel my husbands eyes burrowing into my back every time I,went outside making sure it didn’t lift anything or climb so yes this sounds so right 🤣🤣

[@DrAletia]

I made an Autralian Rural Patient Pain Scale'. It ranges between 'yeah...nah and 'yeah, a bit' To be 'yeah, a bit', you have to still be stuck in the auger or actively on fire. A STEMI is about two thirds up the scale at 'maybe, but only if it's not harvest season.'

[@ZawZaw-yb3nf]

"Stings a bit" is basically an 8 or 9 on the normal scale lmao

[@classicambo9781]

Tell my son to 'Make sure the tank tap is off in the back paddock' is impending doom 😂

[@LaceV]

Lol I remember going in with a broken nose and a gash over the nose -(couldn't stop the bleeding and close it up with steri strips at home), I'd caught a gate to the face and asked how much pain I was in and was like 1-2 maybe so was like yeahish

[@sarahcunha7607]

Sounds like my grandpa. He has a ranch, was working on some stuff, saw a bull charging at him, ran, but still got hit *over the fence*, but he landed on his feet and kept on working. Oh and he had a nasty gash on his leg (his leg hit the fence) that he wrapped in his shirt bc it was bleeding too much.

[@69ne1]

This just sounds like a regular man! Take wisdom from your grandad

[@sheepmellow]

@@IndependentsForTrump Damn, because he was healthy, maybe he was just real in tune with his body and instincts?

[@zilvoxidgod]

OOOOOOOOh everything wrong with american culture started with farmers, I get it now.

[@DoctorSantaPhD]

@@zilvoxidgod yes...everything wrong with American culture...okay. whatever you say.

[@Sam-pv1hz]

@@zilvoxidgod wtf are you even talking about?

[@KahavaveCAPIPI]

My uncle Ronnie was officially a carpenter but mostly did handy man stuff. Two episodes I remember about him always stick out. The first and more minor one was when he was using a nail gun he nailed his hand to the wall, asked me for a claw hammer, pulled the nail out, wrapped his hand, and continued working. As far as I know he never went for medical treatment. The more major one was when he was working on a roof. He fell off and broke both his ankles. He then proceeded to crawl to his truck, get in, drive himself an hour to a hospital, got out the next morning, and while he couldn't do any real work while his ankles were healing he did drive out to sites with some of his employees and direct them.

[@bluered3228]

My dad was born on a farm in South Dakota during the Great Depression and you just described him perfectly. He passed a few years ago and this made me laugh and cry at the same time. Thanks.

[@tomsellers9468]

I'm 69 now. 3 years ago I fell at work and had severe leg pain, but tried to keep working. Bosses said go home. That was on a Saturday. Live alone. Mostly sat in my recliner with bad episodes of hip, knee and leg pain. Surprisingly, struggled with moving my right foot. Called a knee specialist on Monday morning and made appointment for Tuesday morning. Suffering pretty good and had to call out of work. Tuesday morning, I used a clean broom to help my stability until I got to CVS and bought crutches. Saw the knee doctor and had x-rays. He said my knee is fine, but you have a major fracture of right hip. Told me to see a hip surgeon friend tomorrow. He asked who was driving me around and I said I was. Drove to appointment Tuesday and Ortho Doc immediately sent me to Roswell Wellstar. Had total surgery workup in the hospital and surgery on Thursday. This was during Covid. Great Ortho Bro and great outcome. Moral of the story is you don't have to act like John Wayne all the time. Get help earlier than later.

[@tomsellers9468]

Forgot to mention it was a total hip replacement for right side. Thank you BCBS.

[@Wawagirl17]

"Moral of the story is you don't have to act like John Wayne all the time." Wise advice, well fucking said.

[@TheBaldr]

I had gall bladder sludge, the first attack I really did nothing. The second attack I went to the hospital, but recovered before they could find anything and thought it might be GERD, the third attack was so painful, but I ignored it because I thought it was GERD, I could have had an infected Gall Bladder and died. The forth attack I was puking, so I went to the hospital, this time my Gall Bladder was infected, the pain medication did nothing. Got my gall bladder removed that day. Don't ignore pain.

[@jacobbatchelor7877]

And the mental gymnastics you used to extract that moral from that story are what exactly?

[@tomsellers9468]

@@jacobbatchelor7877 Get help Jacob. Somebody cares for you.

[@lukejones6742]

This is very accurate my grandfather who was a dairy farmer once had a cow lay down on him,so he beat it off of him with a stick then he went back to his house and called an ambulance he then got cleaned up and put on some nice clothing. When the medical team arrived they said ”Sir one of your lungs has collapsed three of your ribs are broken and one of your vertebrates is out of alignment, you need to be airlifted to the hospital“(or something along those lines) he then told my dad and his uncles “if you boys don’t take care of the farm and cows while I’m gone, I’m gonna send you to the hospital for a lot worse.”

[@chipworrell6025]

That is the same for loggers, carpenters, and pretty much anyone that lives by what they make. My father in law has been a woodcutter for 60 years. Tree sap is their favorite wound bandage. I've actually used a spider web to stop a cut from bleeding. Works fine.

[@gatergates8813]

Wet concrete stops bleeding pretty well too, or a bit of tobacco from a cigarette sprinkled onto the wound, or you rip off a piece of your shirt and tape it. Many different ways to skin a cat, as they say

[@Azenatrail]

This is so true, my dad is a farmer in his mid sixties and it was really hard on his body, he had to get both his knees replaced at 50 and then 7 or so years later slipped on a patch of ice and fell ever since his left knee wasn’t the same but it wasn’t until 2 or 3 years ago that his knee really started to bother him and he tried to get it looked at but the surgeon absolutely refused to see him because he ‘didn’t work on overweight patients’ so for the next 3 years my dad and our GP tried everything in the book, meds diets, to get my dad to lose weight but it didn’t work despite my dad literally starving himself, his body simply refused to let the weight go, finally a year or so ago he was getting out of the grain truck after a day of work and collapsed. Both my brother and myself where nearby and it took the both of us to get him in the house. It was the middle of harvest and he had to take a couple days off due to the pain then got up and continued to limp his way through harvest. When harvest was over a few months later he went in to the doctor found out his femur was broken, our GP then took the X-ray and shoved it in the surgeon face basically demanding he take my dad and fix his implant since the brake was likely due to a faulty implant. The surgeon grumbled and took my dad my dad then when he open up the knee he immediately shut up and realized he fucked up big and was at liability, turns out my dad was walking on a absolutely destroyed knee implant for over half a decade a timeline he purposely delayed and as a result likely made worse. His knee was eventually an easy fix but that didn’t excuse the sheer amount of time my dad was forced to live in extreme pain. My dad actually looked into legal representation but was advised against it the amount of money he would have gotten wouldn’t matched the hassle and legal fees so he unfortunately dropped it.

[@ffwast]

When my grandfather the farmer was 95 years old or so he had a bunch of fluid drained out of his chest because he was getting tired too quickly when he was working. We joked he might be finally slowing down a bit in his old age and he said "well I'm not 85 anymore". The doctor told him to take it easy and not exert himself much when he got home,so he rode the lawnmower over to where he was going to dig a hole instead of walking and was still faster with the shovel than I was. And this was after he retired so it was a lot easier for grandma to get him to go to the hospital. We knew he'd be too stubborn to die of natural causes if grandma could actually take him to the hospital,and it turned out we were right. He'd have lived over a century if he'd lived a day but grandma had a brain aneurysm so she just had a headache and was gone,so grandpa just laid down and passed away too.

[@chocolatefrenzieya]

Oh, my goodness, brought a tear to my eye. I have a feeling they blessed your life.

[@georgina-a]

I was chuckling away, reading your comment, and then I read the end and got a little lump in my throat. I'm truly sorry for your loss 💕 They sound like incredible people - it must have been amazing to have them as grandparents. As hard as it must have been to lose them, it sounds like their passing was quick (rather than long, drawn out and awful). Try to take comfort in that, as they were two strong, independent people who stayed that way until the end. Sending a hug and best wishes ♥️

[@irisfilmproductions]

That's so sad and sweet tho, like The Notebook "Wife's gone? Guess I'll die too 👴🏻"

[@brounwynsmith848]

Awesome. Sweet about grandpa following grandma but feel sad for your loss. Kinda cool people your grandparents seem like..

[@ecmirand21]

That was like a Pixar movie. I wasn’t prepared for tears.

[@evanlucas8914]

My uncle is a farmer. He was using an angle grinder one day and sliced open his thumb down to the bone. Like a good inch long laceration on the inside of his thumb. He didn't go to the doctor. He washed it out with soap and water, closed the wound using 3 dabs of super glue on the skin, placed a square of guaze on it, wrapped it in duct tape, and then took a dose of Vicodin that was leftover from my grandma's knee replacement the year before. He has a wicked scar but no loss of mobility in his thumb.

[@reneekelly2193]

Omg this sounds like my MIL 😂

[@chocolatefrenzieya]

Dang, was he a corpman?

[@raphaelledesma9393]

He’s very lucky that no tendon was sliced. The chances of mobility if that happened and treatment was delayed is markedly decreased.

[@evanlucas8914]

@@raphaelledesma9393 that's basically what I told him. He shrugged and grunted. 😅

[@phillip7731]

I mean idk if the superglue was a good idea, since I have no idea if it leaves the wound again like medical glue, but you can glue cuts if stitching it isn't possible. If he didn't cut a tendon it should actually heal pretty well.

[@LisaMarieFord]

Holy cow is this accurate! This could be my farming family. Unfortunately the doctors around here don’t understand us and our pain scale. They either can’t understand how we can “deal” without pain meds or dismiss MAJOR health concerns because we’re not asking for them all the time.

[@teslawhite]

My closest story as a farmer is also being a raptor surveyor. Checking a goshawk nest the mother bird severed my ear half off. Put pressure on it, went home, had dinner, then drive the hour to the hospital afterwards where they did a fantastic job sewing it back on. Can't even see a scar.

[@DocWales]

Extremely accurate. I had a farmer attend ED with his thumb facing 90 degrees in the wrong direction. He caught it in a gate 2 weeks prior and had been waiting for it to get better by itself. Only attended after significant nagging from his wife.

[@thatmeme1360]

What we do do without the love of the mother and the wife... probably drop dead in a field...

[@GovenorMcLovin]

Living on a rural farm in Iowa. Yes. In the dentist office there is even a chart for how to talk to rural people and how reluctant they are to come in.

[@brounwynsmith848]

WOW. You are the real deal. Interesting

[@brounwynsmith848]

Incredibly interesting

[@AhmedFathy-lt6wl]

I work as a dentist in a rural community in Egypt. People don't come unless they're in really bad pain and wanna be done with it, or if it's their child giving them headaches. Otherwise they don't come asking for conservative treatments.

[@tvtitlechampion3238]

SEND ONE OF THOSE TO WASHINGTON D.C.!

[@madmatt2024]

So... How many times have you had a "Billy Bob tried to pull it out for me but he couldn't quite get it" case?

[@rebeccaholt644]

As the offspring of a farmer and a nurse, I feel this deep in my bones. Nicely done.

[@callumadams8364]

This is so true, I heard a story of a farmer who did not think of calling an ambulance, he just drove himself to hospital when he was impaled by a spike and acted like it was no big deal

[@amgoudman]

As someone who worked in a rural hospital, there are stories. One time a colleague of mine brought in her partner who was stung by a wasp or a bee - to which he's severely allergic. He went into anaphylaxis. She knew it would take too long for the ambulance to get there as they lived outside of town, so she threw him in the car and drove him in - holding his head up with her other hand to keep his airway open. Thankfully he ended up being okay.

[@tvtitlechampion3238]

There are stories, and now videos. Recently saw one taken from hospital CCTVs of a person suffering a heart attack getting driven into the ER by a SO, where a nurse hopped on the gurney the guy was on and started some intense CPR, while rolling into the intake lobby. He turned out okay, too.

[@tammyhines1585]

I hope to see more of Rural Medicine. I'm so glad there are people to do Rural Medicine.

[@juniper2346]

Yes! Love the profession, and these skits are hilarious

[@crazyratlady3115]

Work in a rural hospital. Had a patient come in a few months ago with a leg wound. When he came in it was sloughy, cellulitic, absolute mess. Us: "So, how did this wound start?" Him: "Hmm, well, back in the 70s..." Turns out it was a chronic leg ulcer, he'd been dressing it himself as it healed up then broke down over and over again for literal decades and he only came in because he thought it might be a bit infected.

[@benjaminmorris4962]

I don't know how this man is able to perfectly portray every kind of human, but damn he's got everyone pegged in all of his videos...

[@zelousfoxtrot3390]

My grandfather's last words were literally : "Louise, (grandma), I'm feeling better, we don't need to go to the ER." He dropped from the heart attack 1 minute later, they watched him slip away about an hour later, never having woke up. I feel this.

[@Andrea.A00]

One of the ICU doctors came in one day with a maxipad on his hand. The wife told us that he cut his hand with a wood saw and did the suture himself, "See that old piece of paper on the wall, that says I'm a Doctor". I'll miss the grumpy old man, he died on January 🥺

[@josephtheoracle3344]

to put stitch yourself one handed, now thats a feat.

[@Andrea.A00]

@@josephtheoracle3344 I think he used his teeth lol. He was the best in mechanics and electronics, help me study the Ohm's law and adapted an ambulance ventilator to the AC current for an emergency intubation (we didn't have any "proper" respirator/ventilator free)

[@josephtheoracle3344]

@@Andrea.A00 damn

[@dude-e]

@@Andrea.A00 DAMN, that's some OG shit right there. May you rest in peace, old man

[@Ocean_Man]

@@Andrea.A00 Old man does indeed sound like a proper legend

[@Pillow_Princess]

Too accurate. My grandpa had a heart attack while he was working on the farm, so he got in his truck and drove himself 50 miles to the hospital. They kept him there for nearly two weeks and had to do surgery on him twice. It was that bad. ... He drove 50 miles in that condition.

[@cathycaswell]

Thank goodness for a farmers' pain threshold or we may not have farms! As a farmer's daughter, I see this in my family! A trait that is passed on! Farmers know the value of maintaining fences, tractors and cattle ... but are conditioned to believe they need to power through. I have learned that on the health maintenance side, learning to notice what bothers me and shift the triggers feels much better. Most of us have come to recognize the value of pausing to take out the splinter rather than ignoring and living with it. We can learn to do this with stress triggers as well.

[@SexyDalton]

Even if you don’t work in a critical access hospital you should still ask middle-aged men if they came in voluntarily or if their spouse brought them in. I work PRN in a critical access ER and that is always part of my assessment

[@queenbunnyfoofoo6112]

You're not kidding. If my husband volunteers to go to the hospital, I know it's bad.

[@barb8335]

@@queenbunnyfoofoo6112 I quickly review his Will if he even volunteers to go to his primary.

[@queenbunnyfoofoo6112]

@@barb8335 😂😂😂Truth!

[@grumbles]

I feel like one is a bad sign, and the other is a REALLY bad sign.

[@gindaburra]

@@grumbles yeah, but which one lol

[@kas7145]

Reminds me of this funny story/letter: Dear Ma and Pa: I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled. I was restless at first because you get to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m. But I am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing. Men got to shave but it is not so bad, there's warm water. Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food, plus yours, holds you until noon when you get fed again. It's no wonder these city boys can't walk much. We go on "route marches," which the platoon sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it's not my place to tell him different. A "route march" is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks. The sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot. The Captain is like the school board. Majors and colonels just ride around and frown. They don't bother you none. This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don't know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don't move, and it ain't shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don't even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes. Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain't like fighting with that ole bull at home. I'm about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake . I only beat him once. He joined up the same time as me, but I'm only 5'6" and 130 pounds and he's 6'8" and near 300 pounds dry. Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in. Your loving daughter, Alice

[@Birkenzwillies]

Best thing I have read in a while! Thanks!

[@kevin28115]

Looooool

[@adamandsarah]

Bahahaha! What an amazing letter.

[@Klerkules]

Old but gold

[@Darchias]

It's a great short story, wonder what kinda job she signed up for.

[@nooneyouknowhere6148]

My great uncle was 86 and mowing a lot in the village for a widow to keep her from getting a ticket. Mower clogged up with grass. He reached in to pull the grass out and lost 2/3 of a finger. I asked him what he did and he said " i wrapped it up with my handkercheif, finished mowing, loaded the mower up and on the way home stopped by the rescue squad to ask one of the guys to look at it. "

[@anepicotter4595]

This is a good video. It reminds me of my grandpa who died actually just around the time this video was posted. He grew up on a farm and was raised as a farmer. He left the farm as a young adult but I think he never stopped being a farmer. One day he fell. My grandma insisted that he go to the hospital but he refused because it was just a fall and he wasn’t even hurting. He went to sleep and woke up with a headache then went to the hospital. A week later, he’d passed. It’s possible that he’d be alive today if he’d listened to my grandmother but that’s who he was. Even as he was old and weak, he seemed to stand so tall and he was stubborn. It felt as if even his body was too stubborn to be old. Like he refused to be pulled down by something as simple as time. It seemed like he’d live forever. It now seems sort of right. That he’d die with the same stubbornness he always showed

[@Joy21090]

I am so sorry for your loss.

[@ColliCub]

Two farmer great grandfathers died on the job, well in their 80s. One carrying a fence post up a hill with his son, the other packing eggs with his wife. Both instances, the son and the wife turned away momentarily, then turned back to find them on the ground… or at the bottom of the hill, in the fence case. 😏 Both cardiac arrests, both dead before they landed. Most importantly, both were also suffering from a raging case of SOB syndrome - ‘stubborn old bastard’ syndrome.

[@tvtitlechampion3238]

The case for a 'good death' can be made as a twofold criteria: suddenly, without pain, and surrounded by the people they loved. Thing about SOBs is the conviction that it's better to die on your feet than a lingering, prolonged suffering on your knees.

[@er6730]

@@tvtitlechampion3238 Yes, I would say they're lucky. Unless, of course, it was something easily treatable, then they should've gone in. I'm not a farmer, but I come from that type of people, and I do have a very real dread of hospitals. How much better to die at home while being useful than to be trapped in a bed in a room far from home, and tortured until you die? On the other hand, often that torture is exactly what will help you get better and it's for the best to go through it. I can see both sides of this!

[@JerGol]

Great way to go, I'd say.

[@AmoralSupport]

This is completely accurate. As soon as you said "he came in by himself" I was like this man is having a dissection, we're going to need a helicopter and a lot of pepto bismol.

[@Marielu127]

Seemingly that's a typical description for many farmers/members of rural communities in the world - 100% how many patients come in here and the same pain scale/emergency signs. Also, is always helpful when the nurse from the same area is on shift and knows his whole history, even though he's never been in a hospital 😂

[@KajiinSkyrim]

How Is this so accurate, you perfectly described my 85 year old grandfather that still hasn't stopped working every day despite his multiple very concerning medical conditions.. sometimes i wonder if the job Is actually the only thing keeping him alive.

[@tiny99990]

It is, in fact, the only thing keeping him alive my 87 year old grandfather is much the same way, he still drives his giant motorhome round and finds busy work to do where he stops, when he is parked at his home (which he doesn't sleep in because he stays in the R.V. he really just bought the house so he could park his R.V. for free in town where a majority of his kids live for a few months out of the year) he goes out and works on the actual house, fixing it up and whatnot, last year he tore off the roof and reshingled it (he used to build houses and roof them too) practically by himself... the shingles were delivered and placed onto the roof by the company he bought them from... he replaced the siding, mixed and then laid concrete, tore up the floor in one of the rooms and then braced some sagging floor supports then redid the floor... he did have someone do the carpeting because he doesn't know how to do that, but still... I know the moment he decides to stop moving and working he is a goner... hopefully he is stubborn enough that it won't be until he is 110... maybe 120 that's when I'll be approaching the end of my life.

[@mdml0]

Haha. Do wilderness medicine docs next 😆. Conferences are crazy. Everyone trying to outdo each other with their stories. "Yeah I tried to intubate someone while climbing Everest." 🙄

[@toastpoint]

I dont like that they used the word "tried"

[@OttoG]

It's going to be a little harder when you're using a hydration bladder tube after safety pinning their tongue to their lip.

[@UrbanAves]

Got my WFA last year and some of the stories my instructor had omg

[@june6445]

@@OttoG someones been watching dr. judy klein :)

[@GuacJohnson]

Fun fact: My Uncle Marty (a farmer of course) used to like spending his leisure time mowing, both his 72-acres and an elderly neighbors in the middle of nowhere Connecticut. He once checked himself into the ER after experiencing "mild discomfort" for 2 straight days: the man's appendix had burst who knows how long ago and didn't bother him enough to warrant addressing till it progressed to the point his stomach lining itself was inflamed. He lasted 5 days in the hospital before asking to check himself out, thankfully the family was able to force him to stay (though not without a good bit of heated arguing) for the full treatment and the man was back on his tractor first thing after being discharged (didn't even step inside the house)

[@skipj5480]

The question about his wife making him come in at the start had me in tears. This is so accurate.

[@naominekomimi]

As a farmer's daughter, this literally made me cry laughing. You nailed us exactly!

[@alk1654]

Still remember the diabetic 60 year old who came in a week after his foot was stomped on by a cow. He had left his boot on the whole week since the stomping because he 'knew it was gonna be bad' and kept working. Think he only came in for his diabetes meds and we ended up amputating his foot.

[@shondiaevans12]

When we are surrounded by people who choose not to work- farmers and rural healthcare workers are a very special breed!

[@Wheagg]

The most efficient human who ever lived.

[@suzbone]

@@shondiaevans12 why you gotta slag unrelated people off, to elevate others?

[@chocolatefrenzieya]

Oooh ouch. As a horsey person, I can relate to not wanting to take that boot off. :(

[@Wheagg]

@@chocolatefrenzieya haha, got stepped on by a horse once, but luckily full weight wasn't on yet when I yelped so I was completely fine and unharmed. Horse felt really bad about it though

[@bjornronaldson6017]

I can relate to this in so many ways. I am not a farmer, I am blacksmith, though I do raise some of my own food. Got my thumb pretty good cutting some green wood a few years ago and finally decided I needed stitches after I bled through the bandages I wrapped it in and had blood pouring down my arm. Scared the bejesus out of the poor receptionist when I walked in covered in blood and said I need stitches for a machete wound.

[@tvtitlechampion3238]

To be fair, it's not that often a horror movie comes to see you, when it's usually the other way around.

[@rosiepone]

they need a better receptionist then cuz I've had someone shamble in with multiple stab wounds and didn't panic lol

[@bjornronaldson6017]

@@tvtitlechampion3238 truth

[@war13death]

Should've used bread and sugar to stop the bleeding. Then you can simply super glue the cut and you're back in business.

[@MigusRandomness]

Accurate. I grew up on a farm (and still assist on occasion since my dad has advanced to 62), and the rule is essentially that if you're not dying, nothing is broken, and/or are able to finish the job, it's most likely not not worth the hospital bill. Given the fact that he's also a chemist, we rarely ever saw infections either since he always knew how to quickly clean a wound and/or treat other ailments with basic ingredients and seal it with a butterfly bandaid; "Pop an ibuprofen, do some stretches, and sleep it off. You'll be fine. If it hurts worse tomorrow, we'll consider help then." I still turn to superglue on occasion if I happen to slice myself since I personally hate bandaids. Thank God we all had all of our shots too (especially tetanus). 😂 As a sidenote, it can be seriously dangerous to be negligent of bodily ailments. My father recently has been getting treated for kidney stones (one of which is the size of a marble and requires surgical intervention) whilst my mom was negligent for years of her lungs when she noticed that she was finding herself short of breath. Long story short, Mom had blood clots in her lungs and legs, and has had a couple of strokes (her brain aneurysm now has a stint) over the last 3 years - She's going to be in recovery for the rest of her life. Meanwhile, Farmer Dad is going to hopefully (finally) acknowledge that calling a nurse is necessary and acceptable whenever something inside him doesn't feel right. It's free to call a MD or a pharmacist and ask questions if something feels off, so please don't ignore your body if it's telling you that something's wrong!

[@trevorhanson6295]

That is so spot on.... When my dad (born and raised farmer) had his first heart attack, he was working on his truck at his work. He stopped and walked over to the gas station (doubled as the local hang out spot) and ran into our neighbors. He said "he felt off..." Our neighbor said he looked like a walking corps, and they rushed him to the hospital. Ended up having a triple bypass........

[@keithklassen5320]

My dad was a farmer. I remember one time when I was 8, I got a deep burn on my back about the size of my forearm. My dad wouldn't take me to the hospital because "that's where the sick people are". I got infected and feverish, he just made sure my bandages got changed. I can still see the scar and I'm 39. Edit: his dad was also a farmer, and he lived to be 93. For the last few years of his life he hardly ate, and wouldn't explain why or talk to anyone about it; my grandma was very upset with him, especially since she started noticing that he winced sometimes when he did eat. Turned out he had esophageal cancer for ages, and by the time they forced him to see a doctor it was faaaaar too late for anything but palliative care.

[@roesi1985]

Yeah, same with my dad. He had problems with his bladder for years, but never went to the doctor. When he finally went (not because of his bladder, but because he got sick with pneumonia), they found out that he had prostate cancer and gave him a year to live. He died exactly one year after. During this year, he liked to tell the story of how the doctor had asked him (at 75 years old) why he was so strong and whether he exercised regularly, whereupon my dad answered: "Exercise?? I'm a farmer!"

[@InternetRando42]

I’m marveling about the eating less “for years” part. My stepdad got esophageal cancer and, WITH TREATMENT, was gone in 9 months. The fact that the man lasted for years with it is a testament to farmers’ constitutions.

[@akabga]

Probably lasted until he was 93 because he avoided the doctor.

[@charlesmckinley29]

My grandad was 88. Prostrate cancer went up his spine to his shoulder. They forced him to go to the Dr. when he couldn’t raise his right arm.

[@ThirdLawPair]

@@InternetRando42 Prostate Cancer can be very slow in its progression. My Great-grandfather got it when he was very old and they didn't even treat it because at that point he was more likely to die of old age before the cancer took him.

[@kayep6189]

Please give rural medicine its own series! the farmer is gonna say to not go to all the trouble but I think he deserves the recognition!

[@maryjoseph5452]

Huge respect to you...for focussing on the most important section of our society........God bless all the medical practitioners working in community... I know cos I did my diploma nursing in a rural,tribal area of Odisha which is a state of India

[@infidelviking8805]

My grandpa was a rancher all his life. This is so true. Worked everyday of his life. On his last day here on earth he told my uncle his shoulder had been hurting and then collapsed and died. He was my hero though. Never met a tougher man in my life. Can’t imagine the pain he must have been in to only brush it aside like it was inconsequential and then die from it….miss him every day. But yeah farmers and ranchers are a different breed for sure.

[@solaris9426]

Did the autopsy reveal what ultimately claimed him?

[@ryanhagan4946]

I'm a veterinarian in a rural area, and I was working on a sole abscess for a cow at one point when the cow kicked and I ran the hoof knife into the bones on my left hand, hitting a couple of arteries. It was sharp enough it actually bit in and stayed in the bone initially. I wrapped a tourniquet on it (made from my t-shirt I had been wearing) and put a bandage on it, then drove myself about 55 minutes to the nearest ER to get it checked out. Worst part was then having to discuss (i.e. Argue) with the radiologist they consulted with that there was indeed a bone fragment that would need surgery in there; he was adamant I was fine, and I said that the orthopedic surgeon would be calling me back as soon as she was out of surgery so I could come back for a surgery. She got out of surgery, and about 15 minutes after I'd headed home she called me to set up the procedure for the next available time. Anyways, just want to say I love these videos, especially this one. My girlfriend sent it to me since it describes my family (we've been ranching for 4 generations now), and this is so accurate it hurts.

[@MrTaylork1]

My grandpa was a cattle rancher all his life. Had a quadruple bypass and, when he woke up from surgery, fought with the doctors until they allowed him to just manage the pain with a couple tylenol. He didn’t even want a prescription for an opiate just in case.

[@tiny99990]

your grandfather was a smart man to refuse the opiates

[@jeanjaz]

That generation was very afraid of opiates and getting chemically addicted to them.

[@sirllamaiii9708]

​@@jeanjazrightfully so

[@incrediblymai8362]

As someone who’s come from a long line of farmers and ranchers on both sides, this is so true! I only ever go to the doctor’s if I’m required to get a vaccine or a yearly check up or something, otherwise we go the ‘tough it out’ route

[@heatherjohnson1569]

Completely accurate. I was visiting my friend just hanging out. When a kid ran in and said Joe said he needs to go to the hospital. Both her and I stopped in our tracks. This is not a man that goes to the doctors let alone a hospital. We asked what happened. The kid said he had been kicked in the face by a horse while trying to reshoe it. We kicked into high gear. The doctor said all the bones were shattered in his face, but said when the swelling went down that the bones would settle back into place. Joe said great and left without pain meds and went right back home.