Ep. 68 | Just Like the Movies/Headache from Hell

MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries

Wondery | Ballen Studios

True Crime

4.7 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Just Like the Movies”

A popcorn factory worker comes down with a painful, frightening rash on his arms – and then, he struggles to breathe. He and his wife are convinced something at his job is triggering these seemingly unconnected symptoms. But nobody believes them… until other workers start getting sick, too.

“Headache from Hell”

When a man in Orlando, Florida begins experiencing severe headaches, he figures it’s the same chronic migraines he’s dealt with for years. But this time, the pain won’t go away, and it turns out he’s dealing with something much more serious – and more revolting – than a headache.

Follow MrBallen's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes publish for free every Tuesday. Prime members can binge episodes 65-72 early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Wondery+ subscribers can listen ad-free--join Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members. You can binge episode 65 through 72 right now and add free on Amazon Music. Download
0:06.4	the app today.
0:11.1	In the winter of 1999, a middle-aged man rolled out of his bed, scratching at his hands and
0:18.6	reaching for the lotion by his bed. He'd been battling dry hands
0:22.2	since the summer, but these past few days, it was like his hands had been burning. He rubbed the lotion
0:28.2	into his hands and up his arms as he shuffled down the hall to the bathroom. Once he was inside,
0:33.3	he closed the door behind him, so he wouldn't wake up his wife, and then he turned on the light
0:37.6	to get ready for work. The man grabbed Vaseline out of the medicine cabinet, hoping that it might
0:42.9	soothe his skin better than the lotion had. But as he began working a glob of it into his hands
0:48.7	and his arms, he felt loose skin flaking off between his fingers. Then he looked down into the sink, and he saw dozens of what at first looked like inch-wide paint chips around the drain.
1:00.4	The man instinctively looked up at the bathroom ceiling, hoping to see that maybe the paint was just chipping,
1:05.8	but it looked perfectly normal.
1:08.1	Then he glanced at the mirror, and he saw his arms were completely covered
1:11.9	in strips of peeling skin up to his elbows. And where the skin had fallen away into the sink,
1:18.5	his forearms looked red and raw like uncooked meat. Now the man was really getting worried.
1:24.8	He thought he just had some dry patches. But now he looked like a snake
1:28.6	shedding his entire skin. What in the world was happening to him?
1:41.2	From Ballin Studios and Wondry, I'm Mr. Ballin, and this is Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries,
1:47.0	where every week we will explore a new baffling mystery originating from the one place we all can't escape, our own bodies.
1:54.4	So, if you like today's story, the next time your house sitting for the follow button,
1:58.8	turn on one of their faucets, and then just leave.
2:07.4	Unless you're a massive hypochondriac, you very likely don't go through life thinking about all
	...

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