Laughter as Therapy

In order to retain their licenses, nurses have to take continuing education classes. Once I took a class titled, “Laugh! Jest for the Health of it: Therapeutic Benefits of Humor. I actually got credit for this hysterical class. It was taught by a nurse who was a certified clown. Here is one of the quotes from her handouts: "The arrival of a good clown exercises a more beneficial influence on the health of a town than twenty asses laden with drugs.” - Thomas Sydenham, philosopher from the Middle Ages.

An ass laden with drugs – that’s what I was when I was on hep C treatment. Perhaps I should have tried some clowning around first?

Got Liver?

“Good Taste is the enemy of comedy.” – Mel Brooks

Someone gave me a t-shirt that says Got Liver?. I kid you not. At first I was amused, but then I started to think about this. Imagine an magazine ad featuring David Crosby or some other famous liver transplant recipient,  holding an onion, with the caption “Got Liver?” Works for me.

Liver Limericks

Given the paucity of liver jokes, I am stooping to writing liver limericks. Here's one to make you groan:

There once was a man with hep C
who overly liked his whiskey
but one day his liver
started to quiver
and now the man favors green tea

Anyone want to give it a try (writing limericks, I mean-not at drinking whiskey)?

The liver is connected to the funnybone

Reba McEntire said, "To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funnybone." Although I agree with her, she left out the liver. You can't live without a liver. In fact, the word live is liver, which is basically the same word as liver, isn't it? Okay, I am really stretching here. It's not easy trying to find funny things to say about the liver. Have you ever heard a Knock, Knock joke about the liver?

Happy New Year

This week I had a huge shock. A salesperson gave me a senior discount without asking me if I qualified for it. She just looked at me and charged me the lower price. Yes, I am over 55 (barely), but I have no idea what this particular business considers as seniors. If it is 60 or above, I am sunk. Actually, I don't really care. Now if my liver looked old, that would be a different issue. As long as my liver cells are regenerating, it doesn't matter if my face is free-falling into senior citizenry.

Wishing you a happy New Year and lots of new liver cells.

Heppy Holidays

My all time favorite Christmas card was sent to me years ago by my dear friend, hepatitis C advocate, Brian Klein. Santa is visiting the Betty Ford Drug and Alcohol Rehab Center. Everyone is standing around while Santa is reaching into his gift bag and asks, "Who wants a shiny new liver?"

Sometimes we just have to laugh at ourselves.

Waiting for the Doctor

My mother lives in the Southwest. During a recent appointment, the wait for her doctor was excessively long. Bored, she started looking around the office. She found a prayer wheel scratched into the linoleum on the floor. She figured that someone had gotten bored and decided to etch some art into the floor. Either that or they needed to pray.

I told her it was a good thing that she hadn't discovered hash marks on the wall, like one of those prisoner-of-war movies. Once time when I was working at a well-known hospital, a patient had been left in a room for so long that he fell asleep. No one told the doctor that he was in the room. It was Friday and everyone went home. The staff found them when they were turning off the lights. It was a horrible mistake for which there were many apologies.

When my daughter was little and we ran out of things to do, I would blow up exam gloves and do a puppet show. What do you do to pass the time at the doctor's office? Wouldn't it be great if they passed out Nintendos or puzzle books for everyone?