What the Glaucomflecken?! Urogynecologist reacts to popular TikTok doctor, Dr. Glaucomflecken

Welcome back to the Doctor Rich channel! Today, we’re going to do something a little different — we’re going to do a reaction video to one of the most popular TikTok/YouTube videos on social media: Dr. Glaucomflecken. So Dr. Glaucomflecken is an ophthalmologist — and he hilariously makes fun of all other specialties. And we’re going to watch one of his videos on general surgery. This is the surgeon swear jar. 

Don’t have time to read this post? Watch the video here instead!

[Instrumental music with French words plays. The entire play is done in pantomime with captions, and Dr. Glaucomflecken plays all parts. Dr. Glaucomflecken, dressed in scrubs, winces, and the caption reads “F*ck!” Dressed as an attending nurse, he tells the surgeon, “Um, doctor? Excuse me?”]

Surgeon: What?

Attending nurse [pointing at a jar of money labeled “Surgeon Swear Jar”]: You know the rules…

Doctor Rich [laughing]:

So there’s no way around it — there can be vulgarities and profanities thrown around the operating room. We’d like to say it’s reserved only for cases where it’s a life-and-death matter and we need everybody’s attention — but perhaps (as the swear jar indicates), it happens more often than we’d like to admit!

[Surgeon places several dollars in the swear jar. The nurse nods in approval and carries the jar down the hall, handing it to another doctor.]

Doctor Rich: So what are they going to do with this money?

Attending Nurse: Can you take this to HR?

Doctor Two [puzzled]: It’s already full?

Attending Nurse: Yeah, we had med students this week.

Doctor Rich:

So, yeah, it’s already full — so maybe it happens a little bit more often than we want. [reading the caption] Oh, we had the med student last week! So yeah, there would probably be certain circumstances which would heighten the surgeon’s level of anxiety and perhaps “alter” his language. 

[Doctor Two nods in understanding and carries the Swear Jar down the hall to HR. He shakes out the money into a box labeled “Resident Salaries”]

Doctor Rich [laughing]:

So there’s SO much profanity — that we’re actually going to pay for all the residents’ salaries WITH the swear jar. Okay — that’s pretty good!

[HR Guy takes the money out of the box and puts it into envelopes labeled with various names]

Doctor Rich:

So all the different residents…

[A sad-looking Resident Doctor goes to the mailbox and takes out an envelope marked with his name: “Bill.” He looks in the envelope, shakes his head in disappointment, and marks out his name. He writes the word “Loans” on the envelope and places it in the outgoing mail slot.]

Doctor Rich:

Alright. That’s sad because it’s true! So you know, residents (during their training) go into debt. When you’re in medical school, the average debt is somewhere around $250,000. Then you finish medical school, and you go to residency where the average salary is somewhere around $40,000. But if you divide up the number of hours worked, it’s somewhere around $6 an hour that the residents are getting paid for the entire time that they’re training — which is anywhere from three years to five years (or even ten years!) for some fellowships. And all of that money turns right around and goes to pay off just the maintenance payment on their loans. So you still wanna go to medical school? My kids don’t!

[Video cuts to the Game Time Operation™ video where he competes with his son Colton using the surgery robot]

Doctor Rich: So Colton — what are the chances you wanted to be a robotic surgeon BEFORE you sat in the console?

Colton: 10%.

Doctor Rich: What are the chances now?

Colton: Five. It’s harder than I thought it was going to be!

[Returning to the current reaction video]

Doctor Rich: So now we’ll check out the surgeon’s concept of time video.

[Again, Dr. Glaucomflecken plays all parts]

Surgeon: Anesthesia — I need to add on a case.

Anesthesia: Come on! I was just about to go home!

Surgeon: Oh, it’ll be quick — an hour, tops! 

Doctor Rich:

So there’s always this kind of negotiation/battle going on between anesthesia and surgery. Surgeons always want to add their cases on and, you know, anesthesia wants to be “outsies” by three o’clock so they can get their tee time or whatever. But you know — in their defense — some of these cases can go longer than the one hour that he’s suggesting here.

[Video resumes]

Anesthesia [suspiciously]: An hour?

Surgeon [confidently]: Pff! IF that!

Anesthesia: Fine. But if you go long… you have to do something for me. 

Surgeon [dismissively]: Sure. Fine. But it’s not gonna go long. 

[Caption reads “4 hours later,” and Anesthesia is scowling at the surgeon over a surgical drape]

Doctor Rich [laughing]:

Four hours later!

Yeah, so…

Part of the issue is that surgery is not predictable. I always say surgery is like a box of chocolates. You don’t know what you’re gonna get — and there is no way that you can just quit! You have to finish the case. You have to keep fighting to the end of it and make sure you give that patient an excellent outcome (much to the chagrin of the anesthesiologist!). And I’ve made a video about the interaction of surgeons and anesthesiologists which you can check out here

Surgeon:

This is the worst hernia I’ve ever seen. [giving Anesthesia the side-eye] You’re really gonna make me do this?

[Anesthesia — still scowling — nods] 

Doctor Rich:

What is he gonna make him do? 

Surgeon:

Nurse, could you gimme the phone please? Hi, is this Mrs. Anesthesia? This is the Surgeon. Your husband won’t be making it for dinner tonight…

Anesthesia [raises his eyebrows]: Ahem?

Surgeon… and I have nobody to blame… but myself. 

Doctor Rich:

One of the things that this video is kind of poking fun at is — not only can surgery be challenging, but surgeons might have a *bit* of an ego and they might believe that they’re faster than they actually are. I’ve never (fortunately) had to call Mrs. Anesthesia… but then again, I’m better than everybody else! 

(I DID mention surgeons have an ego, right? Well, you can check out this video here!)

Thanks for watching! Hope you found this fun and entertaining — share it with someone who needs a laugh!