| I'm probably long overdue for an update. So here it is.
Hello. I'm still alive. Work is busy. Life is good.
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Okay, that's all I've got for now. See you in a month. |
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| There's an old parable about a man who couldn't bear the weight of his cross anymore. He came before God and pleaded his case. "God, I'm so wearied by the burdens in my life. The cross that I have to carry is just too heavy," the man begged. "No problem," came God's gracious response, "Just lay your cross down here in this room and pick out whatever cross you feel like you can handle." The man put down his cross and began to explore the massive room, which was filled with various crosses. The man marveled at how big these crosses were. Some were so huge, he couldn't even see the tops of those crosses. Finally, out of the corner of his eye, the man spotted a tiny cross leaning against a wall. "There, that's the cross that I choose!" the man exclaimed confidently, pointing at the small cross. "My son," God replied, "That is the very cross that you brought in." |
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| Random thought of the day: How come no one ever dresses up as Santa Claus for Halloween? |
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| I celebrated my birthday at home with my folks. Hard to believe that the last time I did that was 10 years ago. |
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| Forgive me if the following post makes me sound like a totally insensitive jerk. I'm post-call, chronically sleep-deprived and a little bit delirious at the moment. And I just have to say that sometimes, my patients crack me up.
There was one lady who was admitted for altered mental status due to what we believed was a side effect of her medications. She initially came in profoundly encephalopathic, but her mental status gradually improved after several days. Nonetheless, her speech was still fairly confused at times. There was one morning when I went in to round on her and asked how she was doing. "I want to go home," she replied. I nodded sympathetically and assured her that as soon as her delirium cleared up, we would send her home. "You don't understand," the patient continued, "You see, I have to get together with my husband, and we can't do it here." And by "do it," she was of course referring to the horizontal Macarena. Hey, at least she had the presence of mind to understand that doing the big nasty in a hospital bed was highly inappropriate. (Do you hear that, Dr. Izzie Stevens?!?! And people wonder why I get so riled up whenever I get asked if my life as a doctor is anything like how it's portrayed in Grey's Anatomy.)
Then there was the elderly gentleman who we were evaluating for normal pressure hydrocephalus as a potential cause of his dementia. I saw him during my rounds and asked him my standard battery of questions to assess his mental function: "What's your name?" "Where are we right now?" "What's the date today?" "Who's the President?" In response to the last question, the patient stared at me with a confused look on his face. "Am I pregnant???" he asked incredulously. Clearly, he had some hearing deficits too. And no, he most assuredly was NOT pregnant (though it certainly would have made for an interesting case write-up if he were!).
They ought to make a TV show called "Demented People Say the Darndest Things." |
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