If you’ve been following the blog for a while by now, you know the drill. I browse around YouTube and find a video which might cause ASMR symptoms in those lucky enough to feel such symptoms. For others, I hope it proves relaxing enough that, if you were listening to it and trying to sleep, it might prove to be helpful.
If you’re new to the blog, welcome, as an explanation the outcome of each one of these articles is a review of the video (and possibly some associated videos) and ultimately a playlist that contains the best ones.
Each week I also review and weed the playlist, so that some of the videos that have not stood the test of time are removed from that playlist. But in case you miss them, I have an archive list of such videos to enable you to find them again.
This week the video commences with an image of a textbook so I think it safe to assume it is all about education. It appears the basis of study is going to be a textbook called Macleod’s which is probably some kind of medical bible to those in the know about such things.
Macleod’s Examination of the Hand
This is just over six minutes long so it isn’t going to be hanging about. We have been used to videos which are substantially longer.
There is a title telling us all about it: “Video taken from Macleod’s Clinical Examination 13th edition By Graham Douglas, Fiona Nicol & Colin Robertson”
One key to the professional nature of the presentation is a nice comprehensive set of notes: “New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition
This video demonstrates clinical examination techniques, as described in Macleod’s Clinical Examination. The textbook with access to the full set of videos is available at http://www.elsevierhealth.co.uk/macleod More info about the director www.iainhennessey.com”
It is possible that Elsevier Health may be worthy of a future review.
The video itself is a bit strange. I get the sense that the voices don’t actually belong to the participants, either that or it is just subtly out of sync. The first time I saw the beginning, I was convinced that they were artificially generated images rather than real people. But given we will not be watching, but lying there worrying about that meeting first thing and distracting ourselves with the soundtrack, that will almost certainly go unnoticed.
It is a video designed for education and therefore is heavily narrated. Fortunately, the narrator has quite a good voice. Not as good as Shane Brun, but pretty good nonetheless.
Part way through the sound abruptly cuts off as if the narrator intended to continue and there is instead a few seconds silence. It has the feel of a bad edit.
There are way too many terms in here for me to attempt definition of them all – in any case this isn’t a medical blog.
However:
Crepitus noises occurring on movement of a joint.
Sinovitus – swelling of the joint.
The custom with this blog (once the one video has been viewed) is to take a look at the channel which it is from, and determine if there is other ASMR-y (official term) material available there.
The channel is called Farsight Channel.
It contains fifty-nine videos and five playlists as at today’s date.
With this quantity of videos, it has now become customary to choose one playlist and to stick with it. However, the playlists which might be of interest are twenty-four videos long. That seems a bit much and will most probably test your patience.
Therefore, the established route is to find videos featuring the same medical professional or the same “patient”.
This, still leaves us with a long list. In this case I think we can choose between two playlists:Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition
and
New! Macleod’s Clinical examination 13th edition
and then focus on the patient (who only appears in a subset of the videos).
Taking the first playlist, we find the patient occurs in the following:
Macleod’s Gastrointestinal Examination
Here we establish that the medical professional is “Ben”. Although given the strange “dubbed” nature of the soundtrack, he could be anyone at all and for our purposes I do not suppose that it matters.
The notes state “Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition
Sample of DVD content available with Macleod’s Clinical Examination 12th edition. A further 24 DVD quality clinical examinations available with the textbook and on student consult. The 13th edition has just been released and its content found at New! Macleod’s Cl…
More info about the director www.iainhennessey.com”
There is also a comment on the channel: “The character of the bowel sounds is unlikely to be changed by palpation. Bruits will also not change. Hutchisons, Tally, Ford and Macleod’s textbooks examine in this order and it is standard exam convention (in the UK). However, tailor your examination to local practices for exam purposes”
It is quite remarkable for a professional video series that comments are permitted at all (we have seen how brutal comments can be).
From the comments we can see that other ASMR fans have found this one before.
Definitions again
Palmar erythema: Redness of the palm of the hand.
Spider Naevi – enlarged blood vessels in the skin with the appearance of a spider.
Xiphisternum lowest part of the breastbone.
Ascites – accumulation of fluid in the abdomen.
Gastroparesis – slower than usual passing of food through the stomach.
Hypoalbuminemia – low levels of albumin in the blood.
Macleod’s Knee Examination
The notes state “Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition
Sample of DVD content available with Macleod’s Clinical Examination 12th Edition. Further videos are available with purchase of the textbook or online at student consult.
More information about the director www.iainhennessey.com”
Now we discover that the patient is called “Abby” (I imagine that there are many spellings of that name and I have probably selected the wrong one). As pointed out previously given the nature of the video this is in all probability not the “patient’s” real name in any case.
Definitions:
Genu valgum – knee misalignment.
Tibial Tuberosity – an image is best for this one:
Macleod’s examination of the Hands (joints)
The notes are: “Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition
Sample of DVD content available with Macleod’s Clinical Examination 12th Edition. Further videos are available with purchase of the textbook or online at student consult.
More information about the director www.iainhennessey.com”
Definition:
Vasculitis – inflammation of the blood vessels.
Rheumatoid nodule – swelling normally near a joint.
Bouchard’s nodes – hard bony growths associated with arthritis.
It’s probably wise to let the medical terminology wash right over you or it may be easy to convince yourself that you have all kinds of nasty conditions. The odd comment with some of these videos seems to indicate the occasional viewer is heading down just such a rabbit hole.
Macleod’s examination of cranial nerves 2,3,4 and 6
The dubbed soundtrack is definitely off with the way the people are behaving in the video, it’s as if they are artificial people. But that surrealness only comes across if you are actually watching it. Here we have a medical professional “Amy”, who like “Ben” is probably not Amy because the desire from such videos presumably is anonymity. Perhaps the voice has been electronically masked to the same end, at points it is so clipped that the participants seem abrupt or as one commentator states – robotic.
The notes with the video state “Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition
Macleod’s Clinical Examination video. Demonstrating clinical examination technique as described in Macleod’s clinical examination. Textbook and accompanying video available in full quality at http://www.amazon.com/Macleods-Clinic…”
The comments indicate that the narration is “boring”, however, in terms of relaxing for sleep, I think the narration track is actually pretty good. Obviously every video should be the quality of Dr James Gill in an ideal world, but I’d say this set has been consistent so far and I see no reason to exclude any of them from The Procrastination Pen playlist.
Macleod’s Thyroid examination
The final video for this post and a very brief one at two and a quarter minutes. The channel has been a consistent resource so we will be back, I think.
The notes state “Macleod’s Clinical Examination Videos 12th Edition
Thyroid examination from Macleod’s clinical examination
More information about the director www.iainhennessey.com”
I am almost convinced now that the people in these videos are artificially generated, the only way you’ll spot this when drifting off to sleep is the odd intonation of the voice and the very clipped interactive manner which to a real person would probably be deemed to be rude.
In terms of sleep though I think it is consistent – almost monotonal – and relaxing. After all, you will not be actually watching, unless sleep really isn’t happening for you and you need something to distract you from the fact that you’re lying awake and you’re in the office in only three hours’ time…
The Procrastination Pen playlist for Farsight is here:
The overall playlist for all videos featured on the blog so far is here:
I have been working through that playlist repeatedly and some of the videos that were members have now fallen from favour. If any of your favourites are in there you can find them here in the archive list:
Quite often the videos getting removed have no faults other than occasional equipment noises which can get irritating on repeated listening.
The playlist of items that are great for ASMR (but contain an age verification function), usually a great way to interrupt your listening in the middle of the night, is here:
I hope that you find the playlists restful and that you get a good night’s sleep.
Hope to see you again back here for the next blog article.
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Until next time.
Photo by Shona Macrae
The Procrastination Pen 