Monday, March 17, 2014

Sunday night call check-out

Dr. Grumpy: "Next is a lady in room 835 who I saw for diabetic neuropathy. I started her on Qualex, and..."

Dr. Brain: "Any exam findings?"

Dr. Grumpy: "No reflexes in the legs, and impaired pin & proprioception in the feet. I ordered some labs..."

Dr. Brain: "Proprioception? Don't you mean 'passive joint position sense'?"

Dr. Grumpy: "Okay. In room 753 is a guy who came in with an acute stroke..."

Dr. Brain: "Wait, this is important. You aren't answering my question. 'Passive joint position sense' is a much more relevant term, and you really should use it."

Dr. Grumpy: "Whatever. Anyway, the guy in 753 is weak on the right. I started him on Aspirin, and an MRI is pending. You'll need to..."

Dr. Brain: "So why do you say 'proprioception' ? The correct term should be 'passive joint position sense."

Dr. Grumpy: "Because it's shorter. In room 734 is a lady with seizures who..."

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

He's right, you know. "Proprioception" should be reserved for the ability to know when your head is up your ass.

Patrick said...

He probably had a lot of time to read his textbooks, being stuffed into his locker every day for being a pain in the distal colon.

brent said...

It may be shorter, but it is harder to spell!

CholeraJoe said...

He probably also refers to xrays as Roentgenographic films.

Lizard said...

gotta respect a man who will gladly sacrifice clarity and communication just to be "right" in some odd way.

Did you stuff him into his locker?

Ivan Ilyich said...

Having had impaired proprioception, I prefer that term. I can testify that it's definitely weird, deserving of a weird name.

Moose said...

Speaking of medical trivia: aspirin is no longer trademarked in the US and does not need to be capitalized.

The things I learn at my job.

Unknown said...

I bet he blogged about you and how doctors just don't care anymore. :)

Sarah D said...

So, he perseverates about propioception?

Anonymous said...

Passive joint position sense and proprioception aren't even the same thing: proprioception is both active _and_ passive joint position sense.

Anonymous said...

That's the same reason I say "water" instead of either "hydrogen hydroxide" or "dihydrogen monoxide".

Anonymous said...

I think you shoulda named this guy "Dr. Sheldon Cooper".

RehabRN said...

We use proprioception all the time here at the Hotel, Grumpy.

You can come work here at any time. ALL of our people have some sort of proprioception issue, so you'd do just fine!

Vi said...

Hey now, Dr. Brain could be a woman. (In which case she would still be being unreasonable.)

 
Locations of visitors to this page