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Laughing on even the tough days

By Father Dennis Meinen
View from the scooter

The art of medicine consists of keeping the patient amused while nature heals the disease." (Voltaire)
 
According to Paul E. McGhee, PhD, "Voltaire (and your grandmother) recognized long ago that humor and laughter are good for you. You've probably noticed yourself that you simply feel better after a good belly laugh. The problem, of course, is that your sense of humor generally abandons you right when you need it the most--on the tough days."

For example, a man gets hurt on his scooter. Fortunately he has a cell phone and calls 911 for help. Man: "Operator, operator, call me an ambulance!" Operator: "Okay, sir, you're an ambulance!" Do 911 operators have a sense of humor? Should they? One of those "tough days" occurred recently just as I was about to go on night call at the hospital. I had just received a new scooter from the VA (Veteran's Medical Center – Thank you for your taxes!). Normally I back my scooter up the ramp and onto my van so I can later simply drive down the ramp and proceed on my way into the hospital. This time the outgoing chaplain called me 15 minutes earlier and told me there was a "Code Red" in the Trauma Center. In my rush to get going I pulled up the ramp into my van with my new scooter. BAD MISTAKE. When I got to the hospital, I pressed a button which opened my side door and lowered the ramp. Fine so far. But as I backed my scooter down the ramp I suddenly had an astronaut-upside down-space capsule-kind of feeling. As I backed down the ramp the back end became heavier and the lighter front end ROSE UP SO I WAS VERTICAL, MUCH LIKE A MISSLE! Everything in my basket was now on the parking garage floor. A family on their way into the hospital quickly reversed course and ran over to help "settle down" my scooter and me and help pick up my scattered "tools." My black clothes picked up every bit of dirt on that parking garage floor! That wasn't the end, either. When I got to the night call room I COULDN'T FIND MY KEYS. I re-traced my scooter tracks and searched and searched but no keys. The next day I found out that one of the ladies put my keys in her purse, thinking they had mysteriously jumped out of her purse when she put her purse down next to my "humorous disaster." According to WebMD Health News, Dec. 3, 2003 – "Did you hear the one about the guy who couldn't take a joke? The problem was a real no-brainer. His brain was just wired funny." I known mine is wired, humorously- if not upside down.
 
Later, one of my night calls was to a critically ill man. His kind family had stopped to help settle down a priest and his vertical scooter earlier that day. I'm sure he knows now…