My doctor has a sense of humor. This seems to be a shockingly rare commodity in doctors. I’ve met lots of nurses who were funny — some downright hilarious — but very few doctors with anything like a sense of humor. But this doctor, our doctor, has a charmingly twisted sense of irony. He appreciates us. Because we can be funny too.

So there we were. Garry was there for his headaches and I was there because my knee is wobbly. I also needed to talk about medication because I’m taking some of it very differently than the way it was prescribed and he needed to know about it. I also wanted to know when he thought I would know more about my infusions.

We went through all our stuff. Finally, I asked the big question: “Why are my toes swollen? It’s not my feet. JUST my toes.”

He looked at me. Then, he said with dramatic flourish: “Because you are old.”

And I said: “Thank you. I needed that.”

We all started laughing. Because he pointed out he just never gets to SAY anything like that because no one takes it as humor — but he knew we would. There’s always an undercurrent as you age. Whenever the doctor points out something positive, there’s that pause … and then he says: “For your age.”

In this case, we skipped all that and went directly to “You are old.” So finally, I know why my toes are swollen.

Categories: #Health, Anecdote, Humor, Medical humor

Tags: Health, humor, Marilyn Armstrong, Medical humor