Radiology 101

The aside: a good reason to turn off the microphone when dictating.

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Thank you, Gary (who claims his partner did this- yeah, sure)!

But wait! There's more!

The dreaded A-word has now come to the medical field.





Yes, we now have artisanal control cardiac catheters, for all your heartfelt needs.


Within a few minutes of the catheter showing up in my mailbox, a friend of mine who's currently in Portugal sent me this picture, to show that the problem continues to spread across the planet.

Monday night, 11:58 p.m.

Tap, tap, tap

Dr. Grumpy: "Mmmmph... What time is it? What's up, Craig?"

Craig: "I can't sleep."

Dr. Grumpy: "Are you okay?"

Craig: "Something is bothering me."

Dr. Grumpy: "What?"

Craig: "Did people at Target have to work on St. Patrick's Day?"

Dr. Grumpy: "Um, I guess so. They were open. This is why you can't sleep?"

Craig: "I don't think it's fair. They only wear red shirts at work, so won't people pinch them? For not wearing green?"

Long pause

Dr. Grumpy: "I'm sure for St. Patrick's day they're allowed to wear green pins or something."

Craig: "Oh. I guess that's okay. Thanks! Good night, Dad."

Specialists

Dr. Grumpy: "Hi, Leigh, good to see you again. What brings you back in?"

Mrs. Skin: "Well, my internist told me I needed to see a dermatologist about this thing on my shoulder."

Dr. Grumpy: "Um... I'm not a dermatologist. I'm your neurologist."

Mrs. Skin: "I know, but I wasn't able to get in to one this week, and you had an opening. So I figured I'd ask you about it instead."

Weekend reruns

This afternoon I saw a great little old lady, sharp as a tack, who got dragged in by her overprotective daughter, and was NOT happy about it.

The daughter was one of those huffy types who tried to answer every question for her mom, even though the old lady was clearly fine, independent, and a helluva lot brighter then her offspring.

Mom tried to talk around her, but the daughter just wouldn't let her answer my questions, even when asked directly of the patient.

Finally, when her daughter interrupted her for the millionth time, Mom looked at me and said, "You'll have to forgive my daughter. Normally she wouldn't be accompanying me to doctor visits, but 52 years ago my diaphragm broke."

Of Flies and Men

Okay, for those of you live under a rock, you missed THE BIGGEST SCIENCE STORY OF THE DECADE yesterday.

Now, we humans are what biology types call vertebrates. Like birds, snakes, fish, turtles, and horses, we have spines.

Invertebrates is the really big group out there (97% of animal life on Earth). It includes flies, spiders, lobsters, coral, squids, and lots of others.

From what we know, we branched off from them roughly 535 million years ago. So with our last common ancestor being PRETTY OLD, you'd think we wouldn't have a lot in common.

But, apparently we do.



(Drosophila, by the way, are flies)


As published in the journal Science yesterday, if you take a bunch of horny male fruit flies, and deprive them of female companionship, they turn to consuming alcohol as a coping mechanism.

Now, anyone who knows a guy, or is a guy, is aware that this behavior clearly exists in human males, but it's interesting to find it in a life form fairly different from ours. Of course, I'm not sure if this has been tested in closer relatives, like dogs or chimpanzees. So it's possible this is some odd vestige left from 535 million years ago that's persisted in only 2 species.

Granted, I think it's unlikely there were any bars open then (although one near Big State University when I attended it may have been, as I don't think the bathrooms had been cleaned since trilobytes had used them).


I'm left with a few questions:

1. Is this where the rejection line "buzz off" originates?

2. Do flies have flying-insect-based porn flicks to turn to? If so do they feature stars with names like Jenna Erecta?

3. Who the hell thought of studying this in the first place? Where did they get funding? And how did they keep a straight face while asking for a grant?

4. Does this somehow relate to the fact that fruit flies have the longest sperm on Earth (2.3 inches each sperm! I SWEAR!)*

5. If the sexually satisfied flies are the ones hanging out on dog shit, and the deprived are the ones getting shit faced, which is worse?

6. Did anyone do this on female flies? When sex-deprived do they go shopping?


And last, I should add Mrs. Grumpy's comment that this proves males are a lower state of evolution than females, and simply haven't changed much in 535 million years.


* If knowing this fact ever helps you win millions on Jeopardy, please remember who told you. I take Paypal.

Phone bill

Mr. Library: "Here, I brought in several articles about my condition that I downloaded off the internet..."

(hands over 3-inch-thick notebook)

Dr. Grumpy: "Okay."

Mr. Library: "And here are the office numbers of their authors. As you can see, they cover several major universities around the globe. I'd like you to call and discuss my case with all them."

Mrs. Bojangles

One of my elderly patients has just gone downhill recently, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why.

So I had Mary bring her in.

I learned that for the last 12 years she based when to take her medications on when her dog asked to go out and pee, which was apparently pretty regular.

The dog died last month. So now she doesn't remember to take her pills.

I wanted to cry.

Mary's desk

Mary: "Dr. Grumpy's office, this is Mary."

Mrs. High-Maintenance: "Yes, I need to make a follow-up appointment with Dr. Grumpy."

Mary: "Okay, we can see you tomorrow, at 1:15 or 3:30."

Mrs. High-Maintenance: "No, that won't work. I can only do 10:30 in the morning."

Mary: "All right... What about Friday at 10:30?"

Mrs. High-Maintenance: "Oh sorry, it has to be a Thursday. I work at our downtown office near you every other week, so I guess that would mean a 10:30 only on Thursdays that fall on odd-numbered dates."

Mary: "Hang on... Well, the next time we can see you then would be, um, Thursday, April 5."

Mrs. High-Maintenance: "I need to be seen sooner than that! Can't you just re-schedule someone else?"

Mary: "No, we can't do that. It's not fair to other patients."

Mrs. High-Maintenance: "Well, you could be more flexible."

Today's featured item

Yes, the product you've all been waiting for: Now a starving vegan can eat her own purse, and not feel guilty about it!

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It's made from "animal-friendly faux leather" (i.e. PLASTIC).

By this standard cell phones, pens, and credit cards are now part of a well-balanced non-animal-product diet.

I should also note that anything called "Sacs of Life" brings a different kind of bag to mind.

Thank you, Kim!

Fax machine fun

Dear Dr. Talus,

I'm sorry your patient's cheapshit insurance doesn't cover podiatrists.

But that doesn't mean I'm going to start doing foot surgery.

I'm a neurologist. So please stop sending referrals like this to me.





Thank you,

Ibee Grumpy, M.D.

Love and marriage

Dr. Grumpy: "When did you call paramedics?"

Mrs. Leg: "Let's see... the numbness started around 10:20, and by 10:30 the leg was very weak. I couldn't use it to stand or walk or anything, so I asked Bill to dial 911."

Dr. Grumpy: "That's when they were notified?"

Mrs. Leg: "Well, no. He got up and brought me the phone during the next commercial break, then I called."

Sunday rambling

I've touched on this before, but after getting dragged to "The Lorax" today (and no, I didn't like it. The 1971 book, or 1972 TV cartoon, were far better and more to-the-point) I noticed the same issue.

When I was in high school Quiet Riot released a cover version of Slade's "Cum On Feel the Noize" that was a smash hit. It also got censored (at least where written displays of its title were shown) because of the first word's spelling. So in stores you'd see the single (yes, folks, 45 rpm) with an attached piece of paper saying "Come" partially covering the name.

And today, where is this obscenely-spelled piece of music being used? In a movie trailer for "The Pirates! Band of Misfits" a children's claymation film cumming, I mean coming, out this Spring.

In another preview was the less controversial (unless you're Harold Camping), but still very 80's, REM song "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)" being used in the trailer for "Ice Age 4: Continental Drift".

So, the take home messages from the movie today are:

1. Any book that takes less than 20 minutes to read is unlikely to be made into a decent movie. They simply have to add WAY too much extraneous material. And this usually includes a few musical numbers.

2. The 80's will never die. Music, leg warmers, and all.

Random Sunday pictures

First off we have this post-holiday sale on "Christmas Deluxe Chanukah Candles."





Next we have this dumpster. I'd like to see the opposite, a company called "Inaccurate Trash Removal," that randomly hauls off your car, patio furniture, kids, etc.






Here we have a marketing survey on coffee, asking if people like it to be called "artisanal."





And (my favorite): if you can't afford the new iPad, or even a used one, there's this device. It's battery life is virtually inexhaustible, it can be carried anywhere, and is cleverly made from organic materials to help conserve metal.





To operate the gadget you'll need a special stylus...