"CHD"

Because I believe Wednesdays are THE worst, and because I love telling stories about my friends doing ridiculous and embarrassing things almost as much as I love telling those same stories about myself, here is a tale to lift your spirits on this here "Hump Day".

The following scene took place last Friday during one of my patient case study groups. To further set the stage, there are 8 second year medical students (myself included) and one facilitator, a clinical faculty member, sitting around a table. It also happened to be our first meeting of the new case block. Which means it was our first time with this facilitator. Hooray for first impressions.

Thirty minutes and one physical exam into our session, my good friend "H" was writing our list of differential diagnoses on the whiteboard. In his mid-Friday afternoon blur, he wrote "CHD," incorrectly merging the acronyms CHF (congestive heart failure) and CVD (cardiovascular disease). Our case facilitator, Dr. E, called him out and asked him what "CHD" meant. To which he promptly responded, "Sorry, I guess my hand is just used to the D."

Immediately my face turned bright red.  I tried my best to stifle the 8th grade boy laughter that was bubbling up and noticed a couple of my other group mates were clearly doing the same thing. All the while, H, having realized what he had just said turned around and sheepishly corrected his mistake while whispering, "Oh, dear God," into the board.

Despite my best attempts to remain professional, ultimately our facilitator realized something was up. When she asked me (at this point I was bright red, with tears streaming down my face) if I was ok, I croaked that I was fine and managed to regain my composure. For the remaining hour and a half, H and I couldn't look at each other. And no matter what I thought of (dying puppies, the world running out of chocolate, VEEP never returning to TV) I was still on the verge of cracking up.

It was. Just. That. FUNNY!!!

So, Happy Hump Day everyone! May your day be free of humiliating experiences. But if you do find yourself in a precarious situation, I hope you are able to become one with the inner prepubescent junior higher in all of us, and laugh inappropriately in front of your superior. :)