Swain Sinus Show Dr. Ron Swain, Jr.

 
In this episode, host Stacy Wellborn talks with Dr. Ron Swain, Jr. about managing your sinus issues, ear-popping, and your overall health with some simple and smart travel tips when flying on an airplane. Learn some proactive measures to prepare for the sinus and head pressure many travelers experience with the takeoffs and descents associated with air travel. So, before your next flight listen to this show, pack some gum and make sure you bring your own water. Happy flyings, and we're hoping you have clear skies and open sinuses.

Need an Appointment or Sinus Consultation?
Call Dr. Swain’s staff at 251-470-8823 or schedule an appointment here.


Never miss a new episode of our show.

Please subscribe to our show on iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher, and any other place you find your favorite podcasts.
If you haven't already, please review us on iTunes! It's an important way to help new listeners discover this show: iTunes.com/swainsinusshow
Get to know Dr. Swain on facebook, youtube, and here.


Sponsor:
Premier Medical Group | Eye & ENT Specialists - Mobile, Alabama 36606

When your ears are ringing, that's the cochlea saying it's not happy. - Dr. Swain
In this episode, Dr. Ron Swain, Jr. and host Stacy Wellborn talk about hearing aids and when you or your loved ones need to consider them. Hearing is such a crucial tool for communication and having a high quality of life. Dr. Swain explains the "ringing" in your ears, how to start a conversation with a patient to consider using hearing aids, how innovation has changed these medical devices, and the best ways to protect the hearing you have now. Dr. Swain encourages people not to back away from their hearing loss and to consider looking into these innovative medical options to improve their overall quality of life easily. 
Need an Appointment or Sinus Consultation?
Call Dr. Swain’s staff at 251-470-8823 or schedule an appointment here.


Never miss a new episode of our show. Please subscribe to our show on iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher, and any other place you find your favorite podcasts.
If you haven't already, please review us on iTunes! It's an important way to help new listeners discover this show: iTunes.com/swainsinusshow
Get to know Dr. Swain on facebook, youtube, and here.
Sponsor:
Premier Medical Group | Eye & ENT Specialists - Mobile, Alabama
 
 

In this episode, Stacy and Dr. Ron Swain talk about the diagnosis, causes, testing, and treatment of hearing loss.
"I see kids that have ear infections from swimmer's ear. I see adults that have been shooting rifles. I see older people who have ringing in their ear, or they tell me they just don't hear as well as they used to. So, having a hearing problem is just part of being a human being. Whether it's from a viral process, genetic problem, ear infection, trauma, or if it involves an inner ear tumor hearing loss is treated by an ENT doctor. And, it's something that we have good treatment options for and l Iove to be able to see and help people who have these problems." - Dr. Ron Swain, Jr.


Need an Appointment or Sinus Consultation?
Call Dr. Swain’s staff at 251-470-8823 or schedule an appointment here.
 
Never miss a new episode of our show. Please subscribe to our show on iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher, and any other place you find your favorite podcasts.
 
If you haven't already, please review us on iTunes! It's an important way to help new listeners discover this show: iTunes.com/swainsinusshow


Get to know Dr. Swain on facebook, youtube, and here.

Sponsor
Premier Medical Group | Eye & ENT Specialists - Mobile, Alabama

In this episode, Stacy Wellborn and Dr. Ron Swain put away the science, sinus jargon, and medical insights to reveal some things about his chosen career and daily life. They talk about what it’s like to be a sinus surgeon, a doctor’s son (and grandson), a family man, a man of service, and when it’s time to be a patient’s advocate. Plus, Dr. Swain shares his views on faith in medicine, managing the rigors of a doctor’s schedule, and some advice for anyone wanting to become a physician. We don’t want to give any spoilers, but Stacy and Dr. Swain both shed a small tear or two in this warm and personal installment of the Swain Sinus Show.
 
Big Questions:
What influenced Dr. Swain to become a doctor?
What role does faith play in medicine?
What was medical school like?
How is residency different than medical school?
How do doctors keep up with the latest medical advancements and technology?
 
Need an Appointment or Sinus Consultation?
Call Dr. Swain’s nursing staff at 251-470-8823 or schedule an appointment here.


Quotables & Tweetables:

I grew up around medicine. It was always kind of in the back of my mind. Then when you get old enough, you start kind of thinking about, "Okay, what am I going to do when I grow up?" And I liked the concept of doing something to help somebody else. - Dr. Ron Swain

The hard part about being a physician is that it's a life of service. Like everything else, some days it's easier than others. - Dr. Ron Swain

The good thing or bad thing about medicine is that you see people at their most vulnerable. - Dr. Ron Swain

It's very humbling to have people come in and look at you and say, "I've got a problem. Help me with this," and that you're going to cut them open or put them to sleep and they're trusting you with their lives or their child's life or their wife's life to try to help them. - Dr. Ron Swain

When you got out of medical school, you know a vocabulary, you don't know how to practice medicine. That's what residency's for, where they teach you how to go and be a doctor and actually take care of someone. - Dr. Ron Swain

There's a lot of time, effort, and money spent on educating a physician. - Dr. Ron Swain

"You'll never quit learning" that was the one of the wisest things I've ever been told, because you've never seen it all. Even when you think you've seen it all, you've never seen it all. - Dr. Ron Swain

It's a big field and there's a lot of lot of need. But I think people have this perception that it's an easy life. It's a hard life. - Dr. Ron Swain

There are days when we're operating and I'm in surgery, and there are days that we're operating in surgery and then have clinic afterwards, and then there some days with just clinic. Invariably it seems I'm always behind. - Dr. Ron Swain
 
Our office trys to be respectful of everyone's time, and no one wants to come to the doctor and and have to wait. I'd almost love if we could have like just boutique appointments. You need a two minute visit, you need a 20 minute visit, you need a 40 minute visit. - Dr. Ron Swain

I think you have to have a strong faith that there is some greater being involved. For me, I have a strong faith in God.  - Dr. Ron Swain

Seeing how someone is put together and the struggles that people have individually, the only way you get through that is a belief in a higher power. The only way I get through that as a belief in a higher power. - Dr. Ron Swain

If a student thinks they want to go to medical school my advice is to decide what you want to do and don't give up.  - Dr. Ron Swain

Don’t let anyone tell you can’t get into med school and finish. You can do it. You just got to decide if you want to do it bad enough and what it's going to take. - Dr. Ron Swain

As a doctor, you're the patient advocate, and sometimes you have to fight the fights that they don't know how to fight. Sometimes you have to get them involved and you have to educate them

In this episode, ENT physician Dr. Ron Swain, Jr. and Stacy Wellborn finish their in-depth discussion of antibiotics and antibiotics resistance. Dr. Swain talks about the difficulty of diagnosing allergies or sinus infections during cold and sinus season, and all the pollen in the air just makes matters worse. Finally, someone explains why you shouldn’t drink alcohol when taking antibiotics and why you should finish the full prescribed dosage and days. Plus, what the heck are probiotics, prebiotics, and why you should take them with your antibiotics?

What you will learn:
The difficulty of diagnosing an allergy or a sinus infection. When an antibiotic is diagnosed and when it will not. Why antibiotics and drinking alcohol are not a good mix. The difference between antibiotics, prebiotics, and probiotics. Why it’s smart to take a probiotic supplement when taking antibiotics. The reason why you should ALWAYS finish your full antibiotic prescription. The most common antibiotic side effects.

Need an Appointment or Sinus Consultation?
Call Dr. Swain’s nursing staff at 251-470-8823 or schedule an appointment here.
 
What you should communicate with your ENT physician:
Describe the specific symptoms you are experiencing. Provide a complete history of the symptoms. Discuss other medical conditions that you are currently managing. Mention any allergies that you may have to medication, esp. with antibiotics. List any other medicines you are presently taking by name and dosage.  
Quotables and Tweetables
There are some medicines that you can't take with alcohol because they have severe side effects. Like everything else, it depends on what the antibiotic is, what the chemical is that you're taking, and obviously, how much partying one is going to do. - Dr. Ron Swain
A lot of the complaints people have with garden variety antibiotics is GI upset, is stomach upset, and if you're having a lot of alcohol that certainly can aggravate that as well. - Dr. Ron Swain
When somebody comes in and they're sick, sometimes is it allergies? We're trying to figure out. Is it do they have a cold? Or do they have an actual bacterial infection? And sometimes it's really hard to tell. - Dr. Ron Swain
If you're looking at the pharmacology and the microbiology of a bacteriostatic antibiotic, you want to have that antibiotic for a certain period of time to make sure that you have eliminated all of the bacteria. - Dr. Ron Swain
How we induce antibiotic resistance is number one, not being good stewards of our antibiotic. - Dr. Ron Swain
When you don't take all of the medication when it's been prescribed and the bacteria get enough of the insult to be able to recover from it, and they come back stronger. - Dr. Ron Swain
Prebiotics are foods that try to help bolster the immune system. - Dr. Ron Swain
Probiotics are bacterial supplements that will replace any of the bacteria that you have in your colon that are being killed when you take an antibiotic. - Dr. Ron Swain
The antibiotic does kill the strep in the in your throat, it does. But that antibiotic will also affect the other bacteria in your colon, and so that helps with our digestion. And so when you wipe that out, you can leave yourself open to other harmful bacteria that can get into your colon. - Dr. Ron Swain
The idea of a probiotic is to avoid potential problems with side effects from the antibiotics that you're taking. - Dr. Ron Swain
With antibiotics, the goal is to kill the bad bacteria that are making you sick, but ultimately it's killing all the bacteria. - Dr. Ron Swain
Probiotics would be something I would recommend anyone taking antibiotics to help balance the good and bad bacteria in their digestive system. - Dr. Ron Swain
If you're on an antibiotic, I think most physicians will agree that we'd want you on something to try to help minimize the GI side effects. - Dr. Ron Swain
A patient visit is kind of like a conversation, and not all conversations c

We all know the names, penicillin, Z-pack, Amoxicillin, and Bactrim and we have been taking them for as long as we have been breathing, but do we really know what antibiotics are, how they work, and what they do to our bodies? Antibiotics, in a nutshell, kill bacteria, the bad ones and the good ones and if you have a viral infection no amount of antibiotic treatment will be any help and ultimately can be detrimental to your overall health. In this episode, Dr. Swain teaches Stacy all about antibiotics, how he prescribes the right one for a diagnosis, and why prescribing a patient an antibiotic (or not) is one of the hardest things he has to do every day. Plus, Dr. Swain explains common, and severe antibiotic side effects, allergies, resistance, and why there is not a one size fits all approach to prescribing these life-saving drugs.

Big Questions?
What is an antibiotic, and how do they work? How many types of antibiotics are available? What is an antibiotic allergy and what are typical reactions? What are the common and severe side effects for antibiotics Why it’s beneficial not to take an antibiotic on an empty stomach? How does a doctor know which specific antibiotic to prescribe What are the three most common type of bacteria? Are doctors prescribing too many antibiotics and why is this dangerous? What is antibiotic resistance?  
Need an Appointment or Sinus Consultation?
Call Dr. Swain’s nursing staff at 251-470-8823 or schedule an appointment here.
Quotables & Tweetables?
I would name the show to antibiotic or not to antibiotic because that is the question that doctor's face all day long. - Dr. Swain
If I'm going to err, I'm going to err on giving this person an antibiotic because I don't want my patients to get sicker. - Dr. Swain
Viral illnesses will not respond to antibiotic treatment. - Dr. Swain
An antibiotic is a chemical that we use to kill bacteria. We use some antibiotics, they have different properties, obviously for killing different types of bacteria for different kinds of infections and some antibiotics actually have anti-inflammatory properties. - Dr. Swain
Sometimes we use antibiotics because they have a specific biochemical pathway that we use to decrease inflammation. - Dr. Swain
The easiest way to think about antibiotics is in terms of different categories. There are penicillin-based antibiotics. Then there are cephalosporin antibiotics, there are lots of those. And then there are fluoroquinolone antibiotics, and there are lots of those. And so we have antibiotics that are classified into what they do, and then in terms of those families. - Dr. Swain
The Food and Drug Administration is really vigilant about making sure that there's not an antibiotic that has side effects that need to be monitored or observed and they just need to make sure the drug is safe. - Dr. Swain
Sometimes people can get severe reactions where they even have their skin started peeling off or have trouble breathing or have the swelling of their throat or their mouth or their tongue. And so those are obviously the more severe reactions, but it can vary. - Dr. Swain
One of the common side effects of just taking antibiotics is to have your stomach upset sometimes, or you get a little bit of nauseated. That's just a side effect of taking the medication. - Dr. Swain
We tell people don't take an antibiotic on an empty stomach. You always want to take it with food to kind of buffer the GI side effects with it. - Dr. Swain
Basically, this chemical that you're taking goes and attacks the bacteria, and it does so in different ways. It can kill the bacteria. There are bacteriocidal antibiotics, where it kills the bacteria, and there are bacteriostatic antibiotics that kind of prevent the bacteria from growing. Depending on the situation, you would use a different kind of drug. - Dr. Swain
The three most common types of bacteria for those is usually strep pneumonia, Moraxella catarrhalis, and Haemophil