All These Things Are Wrong, and I Am Sorry

• That's a big stuffed teddy bear, there on the right.

 I am ashamed to say that was mine. Poo humor. I am not proud.

• So, I was talking with a friend at work who seems to share my dark sense of humor. I said I was thankful I am not a Haitian News Anchor, because if I had to wake up this morning and report, "There was ANOTHER earthquake in Haiti this morning," I would start to laugh uncontrollably. That's what I do when the going gets rough. When it gets SO bad you think hey, maybe Pat Robertson IS right, that's when there's nothing you can do but laugh. And cry simultaneously. I mean, if I were a Haitian News Anchor I would go off the deep end, because that's how unstable I am. Unstable. Get it? Earthquake? Unstable? Hah! Sob.

• And speaking of Haiti, I just this moment heard Anderson say "The surgeons had no surgical gloves. They couldn't do life-saving surgery because they didn't even have gloves."

So, wait. If I were on the table, ABOUT TO DIE, and a doctor explained to me they could not save my life because I might get an infection and die, there ... I'm afraid there might be words. I might have to use The Tone. Because even given a 90 percent chance I would die, I would say, "So, there's a 10 percent chance I'd live? Sign me up." Were there a 10 percent chance I'd win the lottery, I'd take that too. So I say, do it wrong: drop a pallet or two of water on a crowd, there's some rioting, some die, the rest can live.

Comments

[TravelSkite]

So, first, it's not the poo bear (Pooh for the literary types) that took my attention, but the fairly disgusting hairball thing in the framed photo on the left: just what are you running your fingers through there?

Then, how inevitable is this, you've located an MS thing that's LABILE. Talk about type-casting.

And finally, you on your deathbed using The Tone. I can so see that.

[Tami]

Point you may not have thought of - if I'm a surgeon in Haiti, there is NO WAY I'm risking blood contact with a Haitian. Maybe that's awful of me, but I'm most likely not going to operate on a stranger when there's a good chance that it might kill ME.

[Amy in StL]

Ooo, I was gonna get all righteous about how people used to operate all the time without gloves and how they just washed their hands and yes that did mean disease and....And then I read Tami's comment and she's right you know. Wow, didn't even think of that.

[Candy]

Damn, Tami, way to put it in perspective. I never even THOUGHT of that, but yeah...

[TheQueen]

Big Dot - MY beloved dog, Mac, as a puppy! Chicken-killer!
Tami - Well of course I did not think of that at all, but then again I DID say "All of these things are wrong." I must have known subconsciously there was some reason I was wrong.
Amy - Neither did I.
Candy - We are all three being very patient-centeric.

[gaoo]

'Cause we all naturally think of ourselves being the patient, not the doctor. Yeah, that was a very good point. Not much help to Haiti if you are going to die trying; or even spread disease from one person to the next.

"Emotional incontinence" - teehee. Man, I wish I hadn't clicked on that link: I do that stuff all the time and had no idea it was an actual named disorder!

[Tami]

For the record, I don't advocate against operating on Haitians when actual sanitary conditions are present. It's not the people I have a problem with, it's the possibility of spreading and/or contracting a deadly disease. Just so we're all clear on why I'm awful, I wouldn't want to be condemned for the wrong reason.

[Hot Mom]

The hippocratic oath has a haughty disregard for the surgeon's life. Ideally, the surgeon because a surgeon to SAVE people, not worry about him or herself.

Oops! Sorry. I let myself slip into Ideal World again... Excuse me.

[TheQueen]

Gaoo- Well, why not add that to all the other types of incontinence!
Tami - I think we were all clear before, but you're right, further clarification is always good.
Hot Mom - Well, "First do no harm," doesn't specify the person you might be harming.