Everyday a neurologist has to deal with many serious medical questions. My nurse Annie and I exchange email all day concerning critical patient problems and other important issues.
Here, for example, is an excerpt from an email that Annie and I recently exchanged on a patient who called in for urgent medical advice.
(click to enlarge)
Your posts kick ass qday, dood. What the Hell.
ReplyDeleteI'd advise your patient to get him that buttugly Hawaiian shirt or Budweiser T-shirt he's been asking for since she's going blind and it will no longer bother her.
What did you recommend?
ReplyDeleteWhat is with your patients? Are they that f-ing crazy? Or are you that great a guy that you know them well enough that this is a reasonable question? Or are they are SO neurologically impaired that they can't tell the difference between calling their neurologist's office and calling the men's department at Macy's?
Why thank you, Nurse K.
ReplyDeleteThe store is out of butt ugly Hawaiian shirts. I ran in and bought them out as soon as they went on sale.
HugeMD- you've asked the $66,000 question.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea. People seem to treat my office like we're an information booth. Or the Shell answer man.
I am just picturing poor Annie, shaking her head and saying he's going to love this part.
ReplyDeletewhat should I buy for my husband?
ReplyDeleteDr Grumpy: "give him my bill..."
hahahah
In the late '70's going to see a neurologist was the last option for consultation and diagnosis of cerebellar tumor undetected on X-ray... after a visit to a gastroenterologist (for assessing damage from all the aspirin taken to relieve constant headaches, and vomiting, which led to a diagnosis of pylorospasm), an endocrinologist (for missing periods for 6 months, and 'low metabolic rate'), a gynecologist (for above missing periods), a psychologist (for domestic issues going on at home involving parents who couldn't decide who to blame about the matter and whether it had to do with newly installed gas heater that might be causing carbon monoxide poisoning for the shivering all the time), a podiatrist (for difficulty walking), and finally referral to a neurologist (for the stumbling going upstairs). Guess, people go to the neurologist first thing nowadays whenever there seems to be a problem.
ReplyDeleteThis one hits home. I'm a pharmacist and we, too, get treated like the information booth. I've been known to step outside of the pharmacy and glance up at the signs over our heads (which profoundly say drop-off, pick-up and patient consultation) just to make sure some comedian hasn't replaced one of them with a ? sign! Maybe patient consultation means something more than I was taught it does in pharmacy school...
ReplyDeleteIt's been a rich weekend, humor and personality-wise.
ReplyDeleteI've discovered Scalpel, Nurse K., and yourself in the space of three days.
Guess there's an upside to being laid up with what started as an open fx r tibia.
I work in a pharmacy and we have people who come through the drive-thru just to ask for directions. On particular lady asked for directions to Quiznos and my pharmacist helped her and sent her on her way. She made a wrong turn and felt the need to 411 our store to let us know our "old white haired pharmacy man" was wrong.
ReplyDeleteTomatoes.
ReplyDelete