Dr. Grumpy: "Hi, I'm Dr. Grumpy. I'm a neurologist and..."
Mr. Stroke: "IT'S SATURDAY! FUCK OFF!"
Mrs. Stroke: "George! Calm down!"
Dr. Grumpy: "I'm sorry, they said..."
Mr. Stroke: "IT'S SATURDAY! FUCK OFF!"
Mrs. Stroke: "Sorry, doctor. He can't help it."
Dr. Grumpy: "I understand. What happened?"
Mrs. Stroke: "Well, he was fine last night, but since waking up this morning all he's been able to say is..."
Mr. Stroke: "IT'S SATURDAY! FUCK OFF!"
Mrs. Stroke: "... like that."
Dr. Grumpy: "Anything else you've noticed?"
Mrs. Stroke: "No. Why does he do that? He's actually very polite."
Mr. Stroke Jr.: "Yeah, normally Dad would never swear."
Dr. Grumpy: "Well, the stroke has affected the speaking part of his brain, so even though he may want to say something nice, the damaged part can only produce a few words, like..."
Mr. Stroke: "IT'S SATURDAY! FUCK OFF!"
Mrs. Stroke: "This is so awful!"
Dr. Grumpy: "That's true, you're absolutely right."
REALLY old SNL fans may recognize the humor in my last comment, but no one in the room, or the nurse outside, did. Which is probably good.
12 comments:
Bwahahah...okay, I'm going on the short bus to hell laughing at this.
Also the young Bill Murray was HAWT!
LD50 Rat
Well, I'm not old enough to remember SNL from that long ago (I watched in the early 90s), but as the former patient of a neurosurgeon, I definitely know about the value in keeping a sense of humor to lighten what can be a terribly serious situation... sometimes the silly comment or warped line of thinking or bad joke (on the doc's part) kept me from going off the deep end from nerves/stress.
Of course, we all know it's not funny for the patient, but that kind of gallows humor has probably kept many a healthcare professional from offing themself over the horror in the situation.
I love getting stroke patients who can only say crass things or swear profusely - makes my day just that much more colourful!
What I want to know is, what's he gonna say tomorrow?
When I was on my 3rd year surgical clerkship in medical school, we had a postop visit on a patient who, years before, had suffered a stroke getting a cardiac catheterization. (Sadly, the heart cath was clean.) Since then, all he could say was something like "Baw." He had a wound drainage tube from the surgery and when I checked him, we noticed the collecting bulb had fallen off and he had serous drainage all over the place. He said, "Oh, shit." I said, "Oh my gosh, Mr. Smith, you just said Oh, Shit. Can you say it again?" He answered, "Baw." It sounds funny, I suppose, to tell the story, but it was one of the saddest moments I remember in medical school. The poor guy was verbally trapped. I feel sorry for your nice patient who never swears who now says "Fuck off" all the time. It must be torture for him.
That is true. You ARE absolutely right. And, I can still laugh about SNL, especially sequences I never understood the first time around.
lol
And I'll bet you were just as deadpan as he was!! As tragic as it is, one must keep a sense of humor. My late grandmother had a number of strokes. We were fortunate in that she didn't curse and that her temperament wasn't affected until the very end, but it definitely helped to keep a sense of humor. Especially since she lived a long time and died in peace living at my mother's house.
Of course, the scariest part about that was when she and my late grandfather were helping my parents buy their house. There is one room papered in a deep maroon with white flowers. "Peggy? You can't change this room. This is the room where I'll come home to die." And so she did.
I loved that skit!!
Although he suffers from "quadlexia"
Sad, but somehow funny too.
Was it Saturday?
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