Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Some things never change
Still reading Charles Bukowsky’s sort-of-memoir Ham on Rye, and I was struck by his description of clinic at LA County Hospital, circa 1936. The patients all had a little slip of paper stating their appointment time: 8:30 AM. If you didn’t check in at 8:30, you were out of luck. You would come in and you would sit. And sit. And sit. If you left and they happened to call your name, you were out of luck. If something came up and the docs were seeing an ER patient and couldn’t come to clinic, you were out of luck. And God help you if you had something interesting — then they’d bring all the other residents and med students by to gawk at you, and they’d talk about you like you were a side of beef.
During my time at LAC, it was much the same. Yeah, even though 60 years had passed . . . And I can’t say that we were any more empathetic than our 1930s counterparts. We did the same thing. Once, when I was a med student on my dermatology rotation, I saw a teenage boy with pearly penile papules (warning — photos!) I told him that I didn’t know what this was, and I would have to bring in my attending to look and tell us both what he had. He clammed up. It was difficult enough showing ONE guy his dick — now he’d have to show two?
My attending came in, exclaimed, “BY JOVE! It’s pearly penile papulosis!” (He may not have said “By Jove”) and disappeared from the room. The boy and I were mystified. And then, to both our horror (his more than mine), the attending returned trailing three med students, two of whom were female.
Great teaching case.
And if that didn’t thrill ya, I bring you a little video I like to call, “Fv(K with me, will ya?”
D.
