Not long ago, but not recently, a new patient came to see me. It was his first time in prison, and that brings its own sets of stresses and strains. But given his diagnosis of achondroplasia, his need for additional medical assessment was indeed genuine. Achondroplasia does often result in certain musculo-skeletal difficulties beyond the basic dwarfism it causes, and he did have certain signs of thoracic outlet syndrome, a painful but not harmful condition.
I did my best to educate him about the syndrome, and what he needed to do about it (exercises, mostly). He was still quite concerned that prison would not be able to accomodate his needs, but in my medical opinion we were quite capable of giving him what he needed, if not what he wanted. He left mildly assuaged, but still anxious.
It wasn’t long before he put in a request to see me again, raising more concerns about his situation. After discussing it with the nurse, I agreed to put him on my schedule.
When he arrived for his appointment, he came into my office, and I closed the door. I asked him how he was doing.
His response: “Doc, I’m not happy.”
I couldn’t help it. I really couldn’t. The next words out of my mouth were:
“Well, which one are you then?”
:eek::eek:
Fortunately he laughed. So did I, and I apologized for the remark, and he accepted it.
I suspect he set me up with that irresistable straight line!
[sub]PS: anyone mentioning HIPAA gets pitted. This is no HIPAA violation[/sub]