Eat Dirt

While on my general surgery rotation, I have seen several cholecystectomies (surgery to remove the gallbladder). Acknowledging that I wasn't all too sure what a gallbladder was before medschool, I am not surprised when patients who come in with abdominal pain are themselves surprised that it is due to an organ who's very existence was unknown to them. One such man came into the emergency department recently, and it was determined that he needed his gallbladder removed. The next morning the patient asked what had caused his pain that had resulted in a need for surgery. "Stones," one resident said. "You mean like dirt?" the patient replied incredulously. "Yes", said the resident. In the hallway, another student and I quickly discussed the absurdity of someone being told that they had dirt in an organ they had never heard of before, but "don't worry, it's been removed". My classmate later went back to clarify to the patient that gallstones are in fact NOT made of dirt but rather of cholesterol and bile. I'm going to attribute the resident's inaccurate response to a misunderstanding of the patient, but can only imagine the patient having been left to wonder just how exactly he had gotten all of that dirt inside of him.

Ode to Robert Munsch

One of my favourite childhood books is "Jonathan Cleaned Up and Then He Heard A Sound", by Robert Munsch. The basic premise is that without reason, the subway stops at Jonathan's home every day, the wall opens up, and a huge mess is left behind. Jonathan is told by the subway driver to talk to city hall, and when he meets the mayor, he's told "if the computer says its a subway station, its a subway station and you shouldn't build your home in the subway station". (To hear Robert Munsch read the story and find out the ending.. click here).

Anyhow, just over a year ago my parents moved and received a new phone number. While they haven't had a subway stop in their home, they certainly get a lot of wrong number phone calls. Infrequently the calls are for a nearby shopping mall, and frequently they are for a government health office. After google-ing my parent's phone number I was quite surprised to find dozens of sites (both the original and other sites linking to the original) that indeed listed the health office as having MY PARENT'S phone number. I emailed the sitemaster, informed him that the number posted belonged to my parents and could he PLEASE fix it! I couldn't help but feel just a little bit like Jonathan and wondered why city hall had put the health office inside my parent's house!