Triptastic FAILS (and WINS!)

I've been tripping over my right big toe a lot when going up and down stairs lately. This morning's ascent FAIL resulted in coffee and water all over the top steps of the apartment. Pro: carpet is of a "salt & pepper" pattern, so it's not readily obvious. Con: there was carpet involved.

Every other week we interact with standardized patients to practice taking histories and building patient rapport, etc. One of elements of a history is going through the patient's Past Medical History. This is to include any chronic conditions, illnesses out of the norm during their childhood, immunization status, etc. The question that I meant to ask was, "Have you ever had any illnesses that have interfered with the quality of your life?" Given time constraints and standardized patient dynamics and pressure to succeed, stuff doesn't always go so smoothly. So what really came out of my mouth was, "Have you ever been sick with something that's really messed with your life?" Immediate embarrassment ensued. Doctor/patient communication FAIL.

Know what else is a FAIL? The fact that there is no coffee kiosk at my medical school (though we are graced with truly tremendous vending machine coffee--65 cents for a latte! Charming). How is it POSSIBLE that some local coffee- and tea-oriented business has not secured a contract to extort money from the approximate 2,500 students + faculty that access this campus?? Maybe I should.

Conversely, two WINS:

1. Former Oregon Governer Kitzhaber was on campus on the 1st to present a lecture about the changing face of healthcare in the 21st century. He calls this the Unfinished Business of the Baby Boom generation. You can view the lecture here. I highly recommend doing so.

2. Those of you who are intimately aware of my family's history will recall the Great Leg Trauma of 1993 that resulted in my dad being more or less chair-bound for about 8 months. He since has resumed walking without the use of a cane and is now featured as a permanent case study in Western University's gross anatomy curriculum (keyword "bone salad"). Working on trying to get a clip and the permission to view it at Pie-Heaven.

For recap, if you aren't getting the FAIL/WIN references, check this out.

In other news, Matt came home from Amarillo, TX about a week ago armed with some wild work-related stories and is recovering from his 3rd COPS stint. The production company informed us recently that they "have enough episodes" and have shut down production 2 months early. This has a pretty profound impact on all the crew, since generally the 4th venue of every year typically results in a savings account windfall used to weather the off-season. Not a huge deal for us, but is very much a big deal to the guys who are sole breadwinners for families of 4 or 5. It is important to note that COPS has never ended production early in its 22 years, using the philosophy, "I don't care if we have enough episodes, let's see if we can get better episodes." So, there may be more to this than meets the eye. Consequently: TV Production FAIL.