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ER Quote Of The Day

“I started phlegming up a couple of days ago and my tonsils are huge and banging against the side walls.”

Ladies and gentlemen, doctors, patients, scientists, artists and assorted visitors, I don’t pretend to understand humanity, or the human condition.  I don’t know all there is to know about medicine.  But I do know a great piece of prose when I see it.  And this, dear friends, rises to poetry.

Phlegmingly yours,

Edwin

*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*

Healthcare In The US Vs. Europe: Quote Of The Day

My friend and fellow medblogger Peggy Polaneczky, MD had this to say after returning from a medical conference in Salzburg:

We had lots of conversations about healthcare in our respective countries. And all I can say is, despite all the issues we have in the United States, I wouldn’t want to be practicing medicine anywhere else but here. Not when I hear tale of docs whose only way of surviving financially is to take tips from patients who pay to squeeze into the surgical schedule ahead of the cue. Or of abdominal emergencies handled in hospitals that don’t have a CT scanner. And not a single fellow has a microscope in their office, forcing them to rely on gram stain only for management of vaginitis. (A poor substitute for an in office wet prep in my opinion.)

Most of these docs would give their eye teeth to spend some time learning medicine in the United Sates, be it something as simple as an observership or as complex as a second residency. Unfortunately, visa regulations in their countries and ours make this extremely difficult. But all of them will be offered observerships in Vienna and in Germany at the Institute’s expense.

Quote Of The Day: An Observation From Emergency Medicine

Dogs, as a general rule, do not like to be kissed on the mouth by drunk people. 

Edwin Leap, MD

h/t to Grunt Doc .

Quote Of The Day: Justifying Shopaholism

My husband doesn’t like it when I go shopping with his credit card. But I tried to cheer him up about it. I said, “Honey, every purchase is a vote of confidence in your earning power.”

– Joan Horbiak, MPH, RD, at the Dairy Science Forum, November 13, 2008

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