Excuse Me

So far I have compartmentalized some aspects of my life and left them out of the blog. One of those is medicine. I really do love it. I am a nerd. I like studying. My best subjects were always science and math. I knew I would have to go into a field that is personal, helps people, and that has eternal value. Many of the people I get to encouter, I would not have the chance to interact with them without my job. Even though I do love it, medicine is certainly it's own crazy world. Mostly I felt that people woudn't want to read about it either because they wouldn't be interested or wouldn't want to know anything about it. I think my mind has been changed by this blog. I stumbled on it this week and I love it! Funny and insightful postings about the day-to-day in medicine. On her blog she noted how often she gets asked "what's the weirdest thing you've ever seen?"...and other questions along the same line. I started thinking about what my answer to this question would be and thought I would share one of the experiences that came to mind.

One day I had to see a young-maybe around 20-man. Although he had a terrible injury, that wasn't the interesting part. His mother was with him and the following interaction occurred in a room where there was no door, only a curtain....near the center of the ER where everyone could hear.

Me: Questioning medical history-take any meds? Any allergies? Smoke/Drink/Drugs? etc
and examining patient in preparation for surgery

Patient: Answering questions and being examined

Mother: (while the above is occuring) Lets out enormous, mouth gaping open, 3-5 second burp
that sounded like it should've come from a 350 lb. nascar man. Then "'scuse me"

Patient: MOM?!?!? (clearly embarassed)

Mother: What? I said excuse me