Medical Humor

I read medical records all day long. Ok, not all day, but a good part of the day. That means that I understand medical terms and use them quite frequently. One of those is when someone has heart bypass surgery. The medical term is Corornary Artery Bypass Graft--or CABG, pronounced cabbage, for short.

Once upon a time, when my mom had to go into the hospital, I had to fill out the medical forms for her. Did you know that you have to complete the same forms no matter how soon you filled them out? She was in the same hospital about 2 weeks before where I had to complete the forms, and I was told that they had to be completed again. You'd think they would have record of it since it was the same hospital!

Anyway, I got to the section about previous care and surgeries. I knew my mom's medical history pretty good (after all I just completed the form 2 weeks previously!), but couldn't remember when she had her CABG. So, I turned to mom lying on the gurney (she was conscious and aware, thank you) and asked, "Mom, do you remember when you had your CABG?" She thought for a moment and said, "Honey, I think your dad and I had sauerkraut last Thursday." Since I was the only one that really understood medical terms, she and dad couldn't figure out why I was laughing so hard that I was crying.