Glad to hear you're health is good. ;)

The quote's pretty cool too.

"The mind is like a parachute, it only works when it's open."

Speaking of funny doctor quotes:

A couple of years ago, I caught some vile respiratory bug on a return trip from Europe (I'm pretty sure I caught it on the plane). The bug eventually turned into pleurisy, so I was referred to a specialist.

He said, "We'll know for certain when the blood work comes back, but I'm sure you just caught a Eurobug on your trip. We'll know when we see the microscopic images."

I walked right into it: "How can you tell from the images?"

He said, "Oh, that's easy -- the viruses will be wearing little tiny French berets and smoking little tiny French cigarettes."

Smartass doctor.

--Socialist With A Gold Card

My last doctor was uptight, rigid, and really scary, I always felt dread fear when I had to see her, but for some reason I felt obliged to use the experience of my office visits as some kind of spiritual test. In casual conversation I referred to her as "my Nazi doctor".

On my last visit to her office, a post-operation check-up, she asked me how I was feeling & I told her very well, that the operation had gone better than I had expected. Upon hearing this, she pressed her lips together and started flipping through my files. "What operation?" she asked.

Aghast that she didn't even remember that I was operated on and didn't seem to have a clue what the problem had been, I tried offering her some hints. "You know, the one you set-up at the Ft. Saunders Woman's Health Clinic."

"I never referred you for an operation," she said tersely.

"But I was right there when you talked to them," I insisted.

"Well, somebody," she hissed in a very paranoid voice, "must be using my name over there."

Finally after more details from me and a lot of shuffling through papers, she seemed to get a grip on herself.

"Oh," she said, trying to pat her hair down. "Now I know what you're talking about. I did make a referral to that clinic, but they were only supposed to do an evaluation. I never authorized anything."

After grabbing the little packet of medical papers I always carry to my doctors, the one that had all the brochures she had given me about the procedure, including what to do before and after the operation, I slipped off the examining table and fled.

I have a new doctor now, and he's real nice. He even remembers me when I come in.

Tuesday's New York Times has an article with more cautionary tales about this matter of communicating with doctors: Study Says Chatty Doctors Forget Patients

As the article indicates, conventional wisdom says that doctors should try to connect with patients -- for example, if they have the same condition as a patient, say, "I understand because I have it, too." But researchers found that it doesn't work out that way:

Four out of five times when a doctor interjected personal information, the doctor never returned to the topic under discussion before the interruption.

One of the researchers was a victim of this phenomenon herself. She said:

"I went to my doctor recently, and I realized after I left, when I was in the parking lot, that I had only asked one of my two questions because my doctor was telling me about his trip to Italy."

-- Ellen Smith