An Old Joke
April 3, 2011 § Leave a comment
Photo by carroserrano on Flickr. Creative Commons BY-NC-ND.
I like people who don’t take themselves too seriously. This guy with vasculitis in his big toe certainly didn’t.
He hobbled into our studio and sat down in a chair. “So, it’s your big toe’s time for its fifteen minutes of fame today,” I said. “Yeah,” he replied. “But I gotta warn you. It’s not a pretty sight”. This is the opening line for about two-thirds of the patients we see, so I gave him my standard reply: “Oh, we’re used to seeing all kinds of stuff. It’s all in a day’s work for us.”
He unwrapped the bandages around his inflamed toe. Without the bandages he couldn’t put any weight on that leg, so I helped him get his feet onto a gray box so I could shoot the toe from both the top and bottom. There was some more moving around before I was happy with the photos. Unfortunately I didn’t have any fresh bandages to put on, but he said the hospital sock would do till he got back to the ward.
As he was about to leave he turned and said “You know, this whole setting remind me of an old joke.”
A young guy is standing at a urinal in a public toilet when and old man enters. He slowly walks over to the urinal next to the guy. “Excuse me,” says the old man. “Could you please help me open my zipper?” The guy hesitates, but as the man is old and feeble he reaches over and unzips his pants. “Thanks a lot,” says the old man. “I don’t like to ask this, but would you mind helping me get it out too?” “Eh no, sure, I’ll help you,” says the guy and quickly reaches over only to find the old man’s Johnson is full of wounds. “What the..!?,” he shouts. “Yes I know,” says the old man. “Isn’t it gross! I don’t even wanna touch it myself.”
“I sort of felt like you were that unfortunate young fellow in this situation right here,” the patient said.
We both burst out laughing.
The Sterile Eye 
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