Medical Misadventure: Laugh Rather Than Cry

My daughter Cathy and I are best friends. I was to have a minor medical procedure at her hospital and she told us to come to the Emergency Center where she works to fill out paperwork. When we met her outside the hospital EC, she came out with a wheelchair and an armload of warm blankets. She told me to sit down. I said "Cathy, I can walk." But she said "Mom, I want to take care of you. " She put a blanket over my head which framed my face with a little of my white hair sticking out, covered my shoulders and lap with the blankets, put the foot rests down and started to wheel me into the hospital. In my mind, to say this was overkill would be an understatement and besides, I wanted to think these tests were just routine and nothing bad would come of them! The image of me in a wheelchair was not one I liked. She pushed me in the wheelchair to the registration area.

Next to us on the right were an elderly man and his wife. The registration clerk and the man's wife had been filling out paperwork and talking in low voices. The man was quiet but did not appear ill. The woman at the registration desk handed a large sack across the desk to the couple.. Since the wife was busy she handed the sack to the man and returned to the forms. The man looked into the sack, pulled out a quart-sized bottle, and said rather loudly "They want me to drink all of this?" The woman smiled at him, patted his hand and said "yes, a cup at a time - you can do it." He lapsed back into silence. Another few minutes passed and then asked again, same querulous voice "They want me to drink all of this?" The man appeared elderly but not senile. The woman smiled at the man and continued with what she was doing. A third time the man's voice rose, but this time it was a statement "They want me to drink all of this!"

He appeared as stunned by his situation as I was with mine. Cathy and the woman inside our cubicle were friends and talking. When the man said the third time "They want me to drink all of this!" I giggled. I tried to stop and cleared my throat only to start laughing - I knew I shouldn't, I tried to stop but for a period of time I was totally overwhelmed by laughter.

The man's wife looked at me, Cathy looked at me, Cathy's friend looked at me and the man looked at his jug.

Have you ever been in a situation where you thought laughter would be inappropriate yet you started and couldn't stop? Well, that was me! image available at allposters.com

More funny (at least to me) medical misadventures: When Cathy was in nursing school, a person in a support position in one of her classes was stubborn. After talking to me a couple of times, Cathy called the office back and Cathy heard the woman say to someone else in the office "It's THAT WOMAN'S daughter!"

At my doctor's office visit this week I asked a question. It wasn't answered and I asked again - still no answer. Cathy called my doctor and asked the question I asked. She found out! When I called later, I heard the receptionist say "It's THAT WOMAN'S mother." I guess like mother, like daughter

I worked at a university hospital. My doctor was a brilliant, and generally disliked, Gynecologic Oncologist. He knew he was brilliant and shared this information freely. I was allowed to go into the surgical suite on one occasion to photograph an interesting medical case for the doctor's teaching file. The surgical techs and nurses were gathered around the patient waiting for the doctors to arrive. When they walked in, my doctor looked around and said "Where is the #1 surgical team? This is a very important case of mine and I want the #1 surgical team." A surgical tech, who had probably just handed in her resignation, said "The #1 surgical team are with the #1 surgeon sir!" image available at allposters.com