The “Punch” Line

Q: How do you get a room full of little old ladies to all use obscene language at the same time? A: Yell “BINGO!” When elderly patients blurt out obscenities, most of the time it takes everything I can do not to laugh out loud. No offense intended. I just get flashbacks of my mom sitting and putting her fingers in her ears while watching scenes in certain movies or seeing her gasp in shock if an F-bomb catches her off guard. I don’t expect to hear obscenities from someone who just rolled by me with a walker. For example, a while ago I posted a story about one lady from a nursing home who caught me off guard with an MF-bomb. But this post came about from another patient encounter that made me reflect about how the things that doctors say to patients can affect a patient’s perception. Enter the elderly patient who hobbled past the nursing station and into a treatment room with the help of her walker. As soon as we saw the chief complaint of “rectal pain” pop up on the tracker, everyone hoped it was a hemorrhoid and not a stool impaction. The other doc pretended he didn’t see the patient go by and headed into another room to see a different patient. I put my name under the “assign doctor” tab and went into the room to see her. “Hi! I’m Dr. WhiteCoat. How can I help you today?” “I’m having pain in my rectal region, doctor.” Then her husband jumps in “She had surgery to fix a fissure a few days …” Esther got upset. “You let ME tell him, Herb. ...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Tags: Patient Encounters Source Type: blogs