Thursday, June 01, 2006

Ah, clinic

A new marker has been reached in my search for unique individuals. Today I met a woman who, I'm convinced, was capable of talking while inhaling through her nose. There is literally no other way she could have accomplished the remarkable feat of talking, without a break, for twenty minutes straight. If I hadn't been overwhelmed by the demands of an insanely busy schedule, I would have let her keep going, just to see how long she could keep it up. As it was, I kept waiting for her to take a breath so I could interrupt, but she never stopped. I finally had to apologetically cut her off mid sentence.

And another contender for the “most embarrassing moment in med school” has been reached, right up there with performing my first rectal exam on the teacher/model who had an ‘fro 2 feet across, a beard rivaling that of Billy Gibbons and who lectured in the most lisping, stereotypically homosexual voice ever, and who managed to critique my technique mid exam. But I digress.

I don’t know if anyone else has had this problem, but sometimes, it’s tough to tell if a baby about 6 months old is a boy or a girl, right? Now picture your doctor, or at least, the med student pretending to be a doctor, walking in, and making that mistake right off the bat. I knew from the chart it was a girl, but the appearance of the kid shocked me enough to cause me to revise what I was saying, just in time to embarrass myself. That probably makes it worse, but I can’t help it if the kid looks like a boy, right?

Probably unfair. I think I should be excused, since the kid was stripped down to her diaper and had an androgynous name, but mom didn’t really forgive me.

2 comments:

Nathan said...

:)

thebeloved said...

*grin* I remember so many times I had trouble guessing kids ages at the swimming pool. Those kids don't let you off the hook either.