May 5, 2024 • 12 mins
Ever been side-lined by a BJJ Knee injury? Joey pulls back the curtain on finding the right healthcare guru for your injury and the unexpected journey of rehab—one that's filled with as much laughter as there is pain. Navigating Australia's healthcare system sometimes feels like a sport in itself, and not the fun kind. The second half of the conversation goes into the complexities surrounding MRI scans, Medicare, and the sometimes laughable experiences at bulk billing clinics. Whether you're a seasoned veteran in the game of medical imaging or just learning the ropes, these anecdotes offer a play-by-play that's equal parts informative and entertaining.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
yes, indeed, here we are.
So, man, we've been talkingabout a few different things and
you had mentioned recently youhad gone for an mri.
Do you want to talk about this?
Well, yeah, I think I last weekI shared the um copton knee
injury, right, yes, yeah, soupdate on that.
When did it happen?
(00:21):
It happened last tuesday, soit's now just over a week.
I um, yeah, I saw my cairoimmediately that day.
He said, oh, I think it's anmcl thing.
Then I chatted with you thenext day and you were like, nah,
bro, you're like.
You were feeling, you're like Ithink that's meniscus, yeah,
and then I was like I thinkyou're right, jt, just walking
around, I could feel it.
(00:41):
On thursday I went to oneinstance where I did not want to
be right.
I was like I hope I'm notfucking you know, six and one
half dozen.
The other right In some ways, Iguess.
No, maybe not yet, because MCLwould like if it's a minor
teratorepair, but yeah, meniscusis potentially surgical
intervention.
So I went to my physio on theThursday.
(01:02):
I booked in with him and youknow, for you listening like we
always talk about havingdifferent practitioners for
different reasons, my chiro isreally good at like, if I got
some back stuff, I got someshoulder and neck stuff.
If I need quick relief, I'll gothere.
But if I've got likeparticularly in a knee or like
(01:23):
particularly in a joint that'snot my torso, sure, you know and
if it's something that I'm like, no, there is something wrong
here.
There's a couple of those.
I don't just need an adjustment, I actually need to fix
something.
My physio is always the guy andhe helped me a lot with my ACL
rehab and whatnot.
And so I went to him and he dida few checks and he said,
brother, it looks like meniscusto me.
(01:44):
Let's get an mri.
So we know what's up, yeah, so,um, the mri thing.
This is a journey in and ofitself because there's so much
different, like here inaustralia, right, we're
fortunate enough that you canget an mri at like many
different places.
Medicare chip in a little bit.
Medicare will, yes, depending,okay, so.
(02:06):
So Medicare will chip in Ifyou're under 50, that's the
first condition.
You have a referral from a GP,like from a doctor, and the
injury occurred, okay, in, uh,in one event like.
So it's an acute injury, it'snot a chronic, yeah, but even
(02:29):
that said, sometimes you canfulfill those things, but
depending on what the gp haswritten on the referral,
sometimes that makes itineligible.
Oh god, yeah, and so you'll gfucks, yeah, and so you could
pay anywhere from 350 to kind of$500 for an MRI which, you know
, it's this big, fuckinghigh-tech machine, it takes 30
(02:52):
minutes.
It's like, fair enough, it'slegit, yeah, and you know, it's
not the kind of thing that Ithink you should be doing every
year.
No, right, no, so it's specialcircumstances.
But with that said, so Ithought, all right, well, I've
had plenty of MRIs over theyears.
I've been to GPs.
I'm going to go to the doctorand get a referral.
(03:13):
And you're like, well, I'lljust go to like a bulk billing
one, which, for those who don'tknow, bulk billing here is, we
have Medicare, which is agovernment-funded medical system
that covers a lot of things.
You go to certain doctors,clinics where the entire fee is
covered by medicare and they'recalled bulk billing clinics, but
they typically don't care toomuch.
No, that's like get you in, getyou in, get you out, yeah, get
(03:36):
you out.
It's the numbers game.
You know, it's not the fuckinghigh level, you know, and
sometimes you don't need that.
But what you find with the bulkbilling one, sometimes you'll
go there, you'll wait in thewaiting room for two hours and
you see a doctor who's shit.
And this happened with Rayleneactually I don't know if she saw
a doctor who was shit, but thedoctor was like what's up?
And she's like jujitsu kneethis and that I need an MRI.
(03:57):
Doctor's like no, you don'tneed an MRI.
And she's like no, no, like goget a fucking ultrasound or
whatever.
So she had to do that.
Then she had to go back and go.
Ultrasound was a waste of time,god.
So I called my gp who's who'snot bulk built, who's your guy
because he's a good one, yeah.
And they're like yeah, we cando a telehealth appointment.
(04:18):
Like in two hours from now.
He'll call you and deal with it.
Cost me 98 bucks, right, but Ididn't have to fucking wait for
two hours.
I didn't get bad information.
He goes what's up?
I go man knee, physio thinksit's meniscus, it's catching and
clicking.
I need an MRI.
He said I'll write you afucking referral for that.
Managed to book in on a Sundaynight, 6.30 pm on a Sunday, wow,
(04:39):
yeah.
And again, here's the fuckingthing when they give you the
referral slip, the referral slipis from a particular company.
It's often from, like spectrumimaging, ah, yes, and it's like
the doctor just uses it becauseit's a handy notepad, yeah, and
on the back it has all of thelocations for spectrum imaging,
right.
But what I'd never done is justgoogle it, like mri's near me,
(05:02):
right, and there's all theseother companies that offer it
for sure.
So, anyway, I found one, got inquick.
I'm waiting for the results, soshould be in maybe today or by
the end of the week.
Okay, fingers crossed, yeah.
So my suspicion is is that it'storn meniscus.
It's going to require a surgery, which, you know, there's a
(05:23):
really I find it a reallyinteresting kind of mental Like
I really have a strong view on.
Like you should be strongenough and equipped enough to be
able to handle things in anatural sense.
Sure, as soon as you go to havea surgery, you're now just like
(05:45):
there's nothing natural aboutthat anymore.
No, you're getting anesthetized, someone's going inside your
body and making changes.
Yeah, and it's like fuck, thatdoesn't align with the ideal
that I have of myself.
Yeah, you know, and I'm sureyou can feel that too.
Yeah, I get it.
Fuck, if you can avoid it, it'sgreat, yeah, like even aside
from the fact that it isactually dangerous to be cut
(06:07):
open and to be anesthetized andall this Risk of infection.
My auntie nearly died.
She had to go to the hospitalfor a procedure and they're like
oh, don't worry, we just got toput this thing in your arm and
she got an infection from thatand that nearly killed her, even
though it was some routine shit.
You know, we've got a goodmedical system, but cutting your
body open is fucking dicey,dude.
(06:29):
My greyhound died from gettinganesthetized.
Like that does happen veryrarely, right, that you sign a
thing saying like I realizedthat I could die, you know, from
the fucking side effects ofthese drugs.
Anyway, unlikely to happen,I've got a podcast to record so
I'll push through.
If it gets to that situation,of course they'll check your
medical and they'll be likepodcaster, give him the good
(06:51):
drugs, don't Clear, don't Bringhim back, bring him back Clear.
But so, but yeah.
So, all that aside, it's likeyeah, philosophically I'm like
fucking surgery man.
I've already had two of them.
Well, actually I've already hadmore.
I've had my fucking it's funnyright Two hernia operations,
sinus operation.
Yeah, it's cool, you know.
(07:11):
You know they rack them up.
So you're like and once westart to get older and the
plastic surgeries come in, we'rejust gonna fucking the
facelifts, the resilient butt,lift the fucking cauliflower
reduction or cauliflower ad, I'mgonna go, I'm gonna go with it.
Yeah, I'm gonna go with thesilicone implants on my right
ear to balance them out.
Fuck man, it gets, it does get.
It does um kind of build upover time, doesn't it it?
(07:32):
It does.
And you're like all right, well, you know, whatever, like, I
guess you know, the reality is,if we're going back to, you know
, this ideal of mine, which isshouldn't need to have surgery
in a natural environment.
One, I probably would have beendead by now, probably, right.
Two, maybe I wouldn't be deadnow, but I'd be dead in a few
years.
So I'd have a sore knee for thelast few years of my life.
(07:53):
Yeah, no big deal, right?
So in that way, it's like yeah,you just copped your injuries
and then you, you didn't livethat long anyways.
So I guess now I'm like well,I'm planning to live for at
least another fucking 85 years.
Sure, so let's get a littleclean out.
(08:19):
Well, here is my question foryou, and obviously it's based on
what the professionals say whatis your stance?
Are you cut it out andtherefore quick recovery, back
to business or stitch it in,based off what they say?
So my understanding is thatthey tend to go one or the other
(08:40):
, based on the severity of thetear and what I want to do.
So, as my physio put it to me,he said look, if you've got a
big tear, like a bucket handleor something similar, they're
going to want to stitch it down.
Okay, because it'll be too muchtissue to cut out.
He said, however, if it's asmall tear, they're just
probably going to cut that off,smooth it over and you're good.
(09:02):
So in that way, I'll probablygo with I'll.
I'll see what the surgeon says,I'll refer to my physio and
I'll get in touch with justinlang, who's the knee guy down
here in caring bar, and make adecision based off that.
But the two very different pathsof recovery, yeah, oh yeah.
So if you go with the stitchingdown, it's long.
Yeah, it's three, which is thesame thing that I had done with
(09:24):
my acl rico, right, so that wasthree months in a knee brace.
Yeah, and you know, physio'slike you're probably six months
before you get back on the matsbecause you're waiting for the
scar tissue to grow over thestitches.
Yeah.
So, yeah, you know, obviouslyreally hoping it's just the
latter and they can just shavesome shit and I'm back in the
(09:45):
trenches, golden, yeah, look, Ithink it's such a hard thing,
man, because it's.
Yeah, you know you're goingdown this path, you've got to do
what you can.
You make the decision forwhatever you feel is best for
you.
But it's the way it was alwaysexplained to me is that you've
got these brake pads and onceyou start to lose them, like
(10:06):
lose bits of them, then theexposure of cartilage to
cartilage is greater and that,if you know, or bone to bone,
bone to bone, you know you'relosing.
The more you lose, the lessbrake pads you got.
And then you've got no brakepads, yeah, and then Arthritis,
yeah, chronic pain is a big dealand all kinds of stuff.
(10:26):
And it made me go, holy shit,meniscuses are so, they're so
important.
Yeah, what the fuck?
So, yeah, man, look, it's atough situation to be in.
I hate to see it, man, but, um,fingers crossed, it's only a,
it's a small ditty.
Yeah, look, you know I'm not.
I've kind of gotten past thatthing of like this fucking sucks
, whatever.
And I'm just like, ah, whatever, yeah, great part of the
process, you know.
(10:47):
Next steps, um, keep us updated.
But yeah, on that I think thatyou know.
We know a lot of people who had,say, this sort of scenario
years ago and back in the daythey used to just fucking cut
out the whole meniscus.
Right, they go, let's just ripit out, yeah, and without
realizing all the problems thatthey're going to expose your
knee to now, or not caring, yeah, exactly, whereas now I I do
(11:09):
think that they're a lot morewell, depending on the surgeon
you go to.
They're a lot moreunderstanding of, okay, we can
remove it, but there is adownside.
And so, like when I had my ACLreco, they're like what is it
that you do?
Because what you want to dowith your body is going to guide
the choice that we make here.
So in that way, I'm like Ithink they've come a long way.
(11:33):
Yeah, I mean, I feel reallypositive about it and I think by
the time either you or I haveno meniscuses left, we'll just
be able to grow them.
Yeah, yeah, we'll just sprinklea bit of DNA on it like a wet
sponge, leave it in the balconywindow and, just like little
sproutlings, there's my newfucking meniscus.
Yep, just slot it in, just opena little.
(11:55):
There you go, knees fixed.
Imagine man, once the fuck,once they figure out, isn't it
amazing that it's like, of allthe shit we can do, yeah, you
know like, go to space, all thatshit.
You know fucking AI andwhatever.
No, we can't make meniscuses.
You're not part of thebillionaire club, sorry, you're
Jeff Bezos.
Yes, we have plenty of them.
(12:15):
We're just pulling them out ofthese young children in Honduras
.
He didn't need it.
No, they just, you know, playsoccer with his other leg.
That's right, perfect, allright.
Keep you updated on the nextchapter.
Please do See you guys.
yes, indeed, here we are.
So, man, we've been talkingabout a few different things and
you had mentioned recently youhad gone for an mri.
Do you want to talk about this?
Well, yeah, I think I last weekI shared the um copton knee
injury, right, yes, yeah, soupdate on that.
When did it happen?
(00:21):
It happened last tuesday, soit's now just over a week.
I um, yeah, I saw my cairoimmediately that day.
He said, oh, I think it's anmcl thing.
Then I chatted with you thenext day and you were like, nah,
bro, you're like.
You were feeling, you're like Ithink that's meniscus, yeah,
and then I was like I thinkyou're right, jt, just walking
around, I could feel it.
(00:41):
On thursday I went to oneinstance where I did not want to
be right.
I was like I hope I'm notfucking you know, six and one
half dozen.
The other right In some ways, Iguess.
No, maybe not yet, because MCLwould like if it's a minor
teratorepair, but yeah, meniscusis potentially surgical
intervention.
So I went to my physio on theThursday.
(01:02):
I booked in with him and youknow, for you listening like we
always talk about havingdifferent practitioners for
different reasons, my chiro isreally good at like, if I got
some back stuff, I got someshoulder and neck stuff.
If I need quick relief, I'll gothere.
But if I've got likeparticularly in a knee or like
(01:23):
particularly in a joint that'snot my torso, sure, you know and
if it's something that I'm like, no, there is something wrong
here.
There's a couple of those.
I don't just need an adjustment, I actually need to fix
something.
My physio is always the guy andhe helped me a lot with my ACL
rehab and whatnot.
And so I went to him and he dida few checks and he said,
brother, it looks like meniscusto me.
(01:44):
Let's get an mri.
So we know what's up, yeah, so,um, the mri thing.
This is a journey in and ofitself because there's so much
different, like here inaustralia, right, we're
fortunate enough that you canget an mri at like many
different places.
Medicare chip in a little bit.
Medicare will, yes, depending,okay, so.
(02:06):
So Medicare will chip in Ifyou're under 50, that's the
first condition.
You have a referral from a GP,like from a doctor, and the
injury occurred, okay, in, uh,in one event like.
So it's an acute injury, it'snot a chronic, yeah, but even
(02:29):
that said, sometimes you canfulfill those things, but
depending on what the gp haswritten on the referral,
sometimes that makes itineligible.
Oh god, yeah, and so you'll gfucks, yeah, and so you could
pay anywhere from 350 to kind of$500 for an MRI which, you know
, it's this big, fuckinghigh-tech machine, it takes 30
(02:52):
minutes.
It's like, fair enough, it'slegit, yeah, and you know, it's
not the kind of thing that Ithink you should be doing every
year.
No, right, no, so it's specialcircumstances.
But with that said, so Ithought, all right, well, I've
had plenty of MRIs over theyears.
I've been to GPs.
I'm going to go to the doctorand get a referral.
(03:13):
And you're like, well, I'lljust go to like a bulk billing
one, which, for those who don'tknow, bulk billing here is, we
have Medicare, which is agovernment-funded medical system
that covers a lot of things.
You go to certain doctors,clinics where the entire fee is
covered by medicare and they'recalled bulk billing clinics, but
they typically don't care toomuch.
No, that's like get you in, getyou in, get you out, yeah, get
(03:36):
you out.
It's the numbers game.
You know, it's not the fuckinghigh level, you know, and
sometimes you don't need that.
But what you find with the bulkbilling one, sometimes you'll
go there, you'll wait in thewaiting room for two hours and
you see a doctor who's shit.
And this happened with Rayleneactually I don't know if she saw
a doctor who was shit, but thedoctor was like what's up?
And she's like jujitsu kneethis and that I need an MRI.
(03:57):
Doctor's like no, you don'tneed an MRI.
And she's like no, no, like goget a fucking ultrasound or
whatever.
So she had to do that.
Then she had to go back and go.
Ultrasound was a waste of time,god.
So I called my gp who's who'snot bulk built, who's your guy
because he's a good one, yeah.
And they're like yeah, we cando a telehealth appointment.
(04:18):
Like in two hours from now.
He'll call you and deal with it.
Cost me 98 bucks, right, but Ididn't have to fucking wait for
two hours.
I didn't get bad information.
He goes what's up?
I go man knee, physio thinksit's meniscus, it's catching and
clicking.
I need an MRI.
He said I'll write you afucking referral for that.
Managed to book in on a Sundaynight, 6.30 pm on a Sunday, wow,
(04:39):
yeah.
And again, here's the fuckingthing when they give you the
referral slip, the referral slipis from a particular company.
It's often from, like spectrumimaging, ah, yes, and it's like
the doctor just uses it becauseit's a handy notepad, yeah, and
on the back it has all of thelocations for spectrum imaging,
right.
But what I'd never done is justgoogle it, like mri's near me,
(05:02):
right, and there's all theseother companies that offer it
for sure.
So, anyway, I found one, got inquick.
I'm waiting for the results, soshould be in maybe today or by
the end of the week.
Okay, fingers crossed, yeah.
So my suspicion is is that it'storn meniscus.
It's going to require a surgery, which, you know, there's a
(05:23):
really I find it a reallyinteresting kind of mental Like
I really have a strong view on.
Like you should be strongenough and equipped enough to be
able to handle things in anatural sense.
Sure, as soon as you go to havea surgery, you're now just like
(05:45):
there's nothing natural aboutthat anymore.
No, you're getting anesthetized, someone's going inside your
body and making changes.
Yeah, and it's like fuck, thatdoesn't align with the ideal
that I have of myself.
Yeah, you know, and I'm sureyou can feel that too.
Yeah, I get it.
Fuck, if you can avoid it, it'sgreat, yeah, like even aside
from the fact that it isactually dangerous to be cut
(06:07):
open and to be anesthetized andall this Risk of infection.
My auntie nearly died.
She had to go to the hospitalfor a procedure and they're like
oh, don't worry, we just got toput this thing in your arm and
she got an infection from thatand that nearly killed her, even
though it was some routine shit.
You know, we've got a goodmedical system, but cutting your
body open is fucking dicey,dude.
(06:29):
My greyhound died from gettinganesthetized.
Like that does happen veryrarely, right, that you sign a
thing saying like I realizedthat I could die, you know, from
the fucking side effects ofthese drugs.
Anyway, unlikely to happen,I've got a podcast to record so
I'll push through.
If it gets to that situation,of course they'll check your
medical and they'll be likepodcaster, give him the good
(06:51):
drugs, don't Clear, don't Bringhim back, bring him back Clear.
But so, but yeah.
So, all that aside, it's likeyeah, philosophically I'm like
fucking surgery man.
I've already had two of them.
Well, actually I've already hadmore.
I've had my fucking it's funnyright Two hernia operations,
sinus operation.
Yeah, it's cool, you know.
(07:11):
You know they rack them up.
So you're like and once westart to get older and the
plastic surgeries come in, we'rejust gonna fucking the
facelifts, the resilient butt,lift the fucking cauliflower
reduction or cauliflower ad, I'mgonna go, I'm gonna go with it.
Yeah, I'm gonna go with thesilicone implants on my right
ear to balance them out.
Fuck man, it gets, it does get.
It does um kind of build upover time, doesn't it it?
(07:32):
It does.
And you're like all right, well, you know, whatever, like, I
guess you know, the reality is,if we're going back to, you know
, this ideal of mine, which isshouldn't need to have surgery
in a natural environment.
One, I probably would have beendead by now, probably, right.
Two, maybe I wouldn't be deadnow, but I'd be dead in a few
years.
So I'd have a sore knee for thelast few years of my life.
(07:53):
Yeah, no big deal, right?
So in that way, it's like yeah,you just copped your injuries
and then you, you didn't livethat long anyways.
So I guess now I'm like well,I'm planning to live for at
least another fucking 85 years.
Sure, so let's get a littleclean out.
(08:19):
Well, here is my question foryou, and obviously it's based on
what the professionals say whatis your stance?
Are you cut it out andtherefore quick recovery, back
to business or stitch it in,based off what they say?
So my understanding is thatthey tend to go one or the other
(08:40):
, based on the severity of thetear and what I want to do.
So, as my physio put it to me,he said look, if you've got a
big tear, like a bucket handleor something similar, they're
going to want to stitch it down.
Okay, because it'll be too muchtissue to cut out.
He said, however, if it's asmall tear, they're just
probably going to cut that off,smooth it over and you're good.
(09:02):
So in that way, I'll probablygo with I'll.
I'll see what the surgeon says,I'll refer to my physio and
I'll get in touch with justinlang, who's the knee guy down
here in caring bar, and make adecision based off that.
But the two very different pathsof recovery, yeah, oh yeah.
So if you go with the stitchingdown, it's long.
Yeah, it's three, which is thesame thing that I had done with
(09:24):
my acl rico, right, so that wasthree months in a knee brace.
Yeah, and you know, physio'slike you're probably six months
before you get back on the matsbecause you're waiting for the
scar tissue to grow over thestitches.
Yeah.
So, yeah, you know, obviouslyreally hoping it's just the
latter and they can just shavesome shit and I'm back in the
(09:45):
trenches, golden, yeah, look, Ithink it's such a hard thing,
man, because it's.
Yeah, you know you're goingdown this path, you've got to do
what you can.
You make the decision forwhatever you feel is best for
you.
But it's the way it was alwaysexplained to me is that you've
got these brake pads and onceyou start to lose them, like
(10:06):
lose bits of them, then theexposure of cartilage to
cartilage is greater and that,if you know, or bone to bone,
bone to bone, you know you'relosing.
The more you lose, the lessbrake pads you got.
And then you've got no brakepads, yeah, and then Arthritis,
yeah, chronic pain is a big dealand all kinds of stuff.
(10:26):
And it made me go, holy shit,meniscuses are so, they're so
important.
Yeah, what the fuck?
So, yeah, man, look, it's atough situation to be in.
I hate to see it, man, but, um,fingers crossed, it's only a,
it's a small ditty.
Yeah, look, you know I'm not.
I've kind of gotten past thatthing of like this fucking sucks
, whatever.
And I'm just like, ah, whatever, yeah, great part of the
process, you know.
(10:47):
Next steps, um, keep us updated.
But yeah, on that I think thatyou know.
We know a lot of people who had,say, this sort of scenario
years ago and back in the daythey used to just fucking cut
out the whole meniscus.
Right, they go, let's just ripit out, yeah, and without
realizing all the problems thatthey're going to expose your
knee to now, or not caring, yeah, exactly, whereas now I I do
(11:09):
think that they're a lot morewell, depending on the surgeon
you go to.
They're a lot moreunderstanding of, okay, we can
remove it, but there is adownside.
And so, like when I had my ACLreco, they're like what is it
that you do?
Because what you want to dowith your body is going to guide
the choice that we make here.
So in that way, I'm like Ithink they've come a long way.
(11:33):
Yeah, I mean, I feel reallypositive about it and I think by
the time either you or I haveno meniscuses left, we'll just
be able to grow them.
Yeah, yeah, we'll just sprinklea bit of DNA on it like a wet
sponge, leave it in the balconywindow and, just like little
sproutlings, there's my newfucking meniscus.
Yep, just slot it in, just opena little.
(11:55):
There you go, knees fixed.
Imagine man, once the fuck,once they figure out, isn't it
amazing that it's like, of allthe shit we can do, yeah, you
know like, go to space, all thatshit.
You know fucking AI andwhatever.
No, we can't make meniscuses.
You're not part of thebillionaire club, sorry, you're
Jeff Bezos.
Yes, we have plenty of them.
(12:15):
We're just pulling them out ofthese young children in Honduras
.
He didn't need it.
No, they just, you know, playsoccer with his other leg.
That's right, perfect, allright.
Keep you updated on the nextchapter.
Please do See you guys.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.