Disease Proof

• Digital Doorway is bracing himself for the impending wave of flu vaccinations and the panic that comes with it:

As the patients' panic calls begin to pour in, I do my best to quell fears, subdue the masses, and fight to get my hot little hands on enough vaccine to inoculate the thirty or forty most vulnerable of my caseload. Failing my ability to adequately meet my patients' needs, I punt, sending them to any and every flu clinic that I can locate in the city.

• Uro Stream does it again, here’s a funny post about the five types of people that come in to see a female urologist:

The White Rabbit: These patients actually don't request me specifically, they just want to be seen ASAP by the first available physician (which oftentimes is me). They don't seem to be aware of the concept of Time Management and Planning, and are always running late but wanting to be seen now.

• Surgeonsblog offers up an intimate—and almost poetic—account of what surgery means to him:

Part of you is gone at the moment, but I'm here, I know you now. You trusted and let me in, you opened your belly to me, and I entered with force. I'll stay until it's right. It's what I must do. You think you'll never touch me so intimately as I've touched you. But you have. You have.

• I guess no matter the job or how much you love it, you can still just have one of those days. Mommy Nurse Wife and 25 talks about it:

Tonight is one of those nights I leave-no run from--the department and never want to show my face there again. It was so busy, with very sick (and might I add, heavy) patients. It was one of those nights when I felt I was just putting out fire after fire but not really taking great care of my patients. I hate that feeling.

• About a Nurse is a proud Filipino nurse, but she’s got some stern recommendations for her fellow countrymen:

I mean, if somebody says he cannot make out a word you say because of your heavy accent, don’t take it personally. it is more likely the truth, and although truth usually is hard to accept, it does not change the fact that it is still the truth. what is so wrong if another person does not clearly understand you? is that supposed to be embarassing? next time, speak clearly, ask if you are getting through, and acknowledge the fact that you will never be able to speak and sound like an american, because you were not born here.

• So, are you superstitious? Dr. Deborah Serani takes a look at superstitions. Apparently even apes believe in them:

We humans are not alone in superstitious beliefs. Superstitious behavior has been documented in modern apes by anthropologists Jane Goodall and R. Schaller. And psychologist, B.F. Skinner noted superstitious behavior in pigeons he studied. Interesting, huh?