BLOG | dyauthorandspeaker

Davis Young
- Jan 25, 2022

DY: In Just a Few Words (#67)

Her skills under pressure blew me away.

Last Thursday evening was a big night for the daughter of good friends. We’ll refer to her as Amy. That’s probably appropriate since Amy is her name.

In less than a half hour when you throw in breaks for commercials, she scored a close to $38,000 windfall on the national network show Wheel of Fortune. She will quickly find she has friends she never knew before as well-meaning volunteers step forward to tell Amy they would be glad to help her spend her windfall. I’m one of those well-meaning friends.

She competed against another woman, as well as a man – both good contestants, but no match for her on that night. Amy was smart, quick and gutsy as time-after-time she was the first one to solve the puzzle. To put it mildly, she was in control and spot-on with the right answers.

I confess I’m not a regular Wheel of Fortune viewer, but this was must-see TV for me if only for one night. Amy’s father, Steve, has been a best friend for 65+ years when we joined up in high school and roamed all over central Jersey. To this day, we think of ourselves as the original Jersey Boys. I was in Steve’s wedding party. Today, Steve and Gail live in Ohio near us and remain great friends.

Steve and I each graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Small world. Guess what? So did Amy. Trust me when I tell you that Amy’s big win this week proves once again that girls are smarter than boys, especially when boys major in beer drinking. Amy’s transcript would blow either of ours away. Her father and I are lucky we were not competing against her on Wheel of Fortune. It would not have been pretty.

Lots of people experience 15 minutes of fame. Amy, smart and nice girl that she is, got a well-deserved 30 minutes of fame. Good for you, Amy. I'm sure your family basks in your reflected glory today and every day.

Good for you, too, Gail and Steve. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

DY: In Just a Few Words is a blog that comes out when something needs to be said or every Tuesday - whichever comes first. Davis Young is a communications professional who adds 50+ years of experience and perspective to issues of the day. His emphasis in DY: In Just a Few Words will be humor (a touch of sarcasm here, a pinch of facetiousness there...). Once in a while, he will touch on something a bit more serious - but hopefully not too deep or depressing.

This blog is a product of DY Author & Speaker LLC. Feel free to quote content with attribution. Respond. Agree. Disagree. Share the content with your friends. Heck - even invite him as a speaker for your group! Enjoy!

Davis Young
- Jan 18, 2022

DY: In Just a Few Words (#66)

When's the last time you actually read a medication insert?

Two Tuesday’s ago, I went on a mini rampage about the cost of drugs. I wrote about how funding for huge advertising campaigns is built into what we pay for medications - both prescription and over-the-counter.

A friend of mine agrees that pharmaceutical advertising expenditures are way out of line and pointed out the irony of many of these ads. The thing about these TV ads for pills I find so amazing is the focus on all the potential side effects.

So, today let’s talk about the advertising of side effects.

Go pick up a prescription and the pharmacist hands you a companion piece of paper which is not exactly a confidence-builder.

My friend offered this hypothetical example. POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS: WHAT ARE SOME SIDE EFFECTS THAT I NEED TO CALL MY DOCTOR ABOUT RIGHT AWAY? This drug is for hair loss, but you may experience loose stools, bad breath, stuttering, heart arrhythmia or a green rash.

He was not far off.

I recently received a prescription for a new drug. The small type size made it difficult for my old eyes to comprehend. The printed piece from the pharmacy alerted me to how seriously dangerous this drug might be to my health. HMMMM! When I think of a drug that might endanger my health, I think of cocaine. Not a statin.

My doctor never said a word that I might be risking my life to take it. I mean I’m lucky I’m still alive. The first shot over my bow was when I decided to look at the warnings. Tell your doctor or get medical help right away if you have any of the following signs or symptoms: signs of an allergic reaction like rash, hives, itching; red, swollen, blistered or peeling skin with or without fever; wheezing, tightness in the chest or throat; trouble breathing, swallowing or talking; unusual hoarseness or swelling of the mouth, face, lips, tongue or throat. Signs of a urinary tract infection like blood in the urine, burning or pain when passing urine, feeling the need to pass urine often or right away, fever, lower stomach pain or pelvic pain. Memory problems or loss. Weakness on one side of the body, trouble speaking or thinking, change in balance, drooping on one side of the face, or blurred eyesight.

And, feeling very tired or weak. Feeling confused. The risk may also be raised if you take this drug with certain other drugs or if you are 65 or older. Sometimes a severe muscle problem may lead to kidney problems. Rarely deaths have happened. Call your doctor right away if you have abnormal muscle pain, tenderness or weakness (with or without fever or feeling out of sorts).

And here’s more: Call your doctor right away if muscle problems last after your doctor has told you to stop taking this drug. Very bad, sometimes deadly liver problems have happened with this drug. Call your doctor right away if you have signs of liver problems such as feeling tired, upset stomach, or stomach pain, light-colored stools, throwing up, or yellow skin or eyes. Severe muscular problems……

That’s a lot of caveats. Give or take one or two, that’s about 50 pretty specific warnings. I actually saw one the other day for another drug that said if your heart stops you should definitely seek medical help right away.

So, to fix one medical problem, I apparently need to subject myself to dozens of potential others and possibly death.

I’ll bet that it took some government guy an entire afternoon to put that list together. Hey, Joe, we’re light on a couple of side effects I’m working on for a new drug that combats itchy skin. I’ll trade you two feeling confused for one each of throwing up and muscle weakness. Deal?

Think about why some people don’t trust doctors (or vaccines) or bureaucrats creating long lists of potential risks.

Not once in close to 83 years have I ever had any doctor suggest I read the warning info when I pick up my script. I’m all in favor of timely warnings for consumers, but perhaps selecting a Top Twenty list of most likely risks would be sufficient. My new drug of the week contains 50 warnings.

How many risks did I have to read through before I got to the comforting words that rarely deaths have happened? Scary. Yikes.

I sure don’t want to be one of those people who matter-of-factly says one morning that I slept really well last night but when I woke up this morning I was dead.

Enough of all this. It’s time for my afternoon pill.

In the meantime, I hope my friend gets that green rash under control. One should never minimize a green rash. It may be a sign of something far worse.

Davis Young
- Jan 11, 2022

DY: In Just a Few Words (#65)

Next year can only be better. Right?

Today is January 11. You may think anything I have to say about New Year's Weekend (Eve or Day) is stale news by now. But, this year was a real doozy and I have decided the story needs to be told.

My weekend started Friday the 30th of December and concluded late Monday, January 3rd.

Boy oh boy, did I start the weekend fired up. December 30 was going to be the day of the greatest upset in football history. A very vulnerable University of Alabama team was going to be on the wrong end of the score with the undefeated University of Cincinnati. I was so excited to tune in that I could hardly concentrate on putting Christmas decorations away. Surely people would talk about this game for years. More than 650,000 maskless fans would forever claim they were there in person to see it happen. Wrong. Bama stomped all over Cincy.

Oh well, New Year's Eve was on the docket for Saturday. The weekend could still be salvaged. I had very much been looking forward to a party we were to attend. Fueled by a little fire water, this would be a great opportunity to do everything Dr. Fauci says not to. I got all ready to go to the party when I remembered we had cancelled several days earlier, thanks to COVID. So, Karen and I had a glass of wine, a quick dinner at home, watched a couple of Dr. Fauci interviews on TV, and took a nap ahead of the popcorn ball drop in nearby Chagrin Falls - which we slept through. What's better than a traditional New Year's Eve dinner of a jalapeno burger? And a long winter's nap starting about 10:17?

Sunday was another doozy. More Christmas decorations to pack away. They’re so much fun to put up and such a drag to take down. We then checked in with our Detroit family on their COVID status (thankfully still negative, but worthy of quarantine). A small gathering several days earlier ended with seven family members getting COVID. Years from now everyone will laugh about this. But, it sure wasn’t a fun way to end 2021. And it delayed our trip to Detroit to celebrate the holidays. Maybe Dr. Fauci knows more than I thought he did.

Never, ever give up. We had one more chance to get something positive out of New Year’s Weekend on Monday. Still in the NFL playoff hunt, our Cleveland Browns headed off to tangle with the ever excellent Green Bay Packers. You guessed it. The Browns stunk up the place. It was a huge disappointment as we had been subjected to months of hype about this being our year. Footnote: the Browns have never played in a Super Bowl, much less won one.

But, hope reigns eternal. Wait til next year. COVID will be gone. Putin will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for pulling back from the border with Ukraine. There will be no forest fires or floods. The Browns will win the Super Bowl on a 79-yard field goal as time expires. Did I mention I was going to win the lottery? It will be a perfect world. Count on it. You heard it first right here.

That’s my four-day New Year’s story for this year and I’m sticking to it.

P.S. One HUGE New Year’s weekend bright spot was The Ohio State - Utah game on Saturday. It was fantastic entertainment right down to the end. Back and forth, non-stop. I live in Ohio and my famous ancestor was the founder of the University of Deseret that is today the University of Utah (or as one of my Utah cousins calls it UU). Well, on Saturday, Ohio State was a smidge better - just a smidge - than UU. But, they both stood tall.

Complete the information below to get an email when new blogs are posted.

You only need to subscribe one time to be added to the list. Thanks!