Well, maybe not sex. But it is true, and happened in medical school.

We were in the first year of medical school in New Jersey. Students were grouped into fours for their various rotations — medicine, surgery, etc.

At the time our group was in psychiatric rotation at a mental hospital in North Jersey. In the group were Jerry, John, Howard, and myself. We all had our individual personalities, but Jerry was the most colorful. He also was married, with two children. He had trouble getting into the apartments for indigent people; they told him he was too educated. He finally convinced them by saying although he had more education than 99% of people, he earned less than the lowest 99%.

So he entered a brand new facility for the indigent and invited me over for dinner. I was amazed at the building, which was spanking clean. And even more amazed when I revisited a year later, only to find the building totally trashed, smelling of urine and other unmentionable things in the elevators, and generally uninhabitable.

But back to my story.

Jerry’s trademark at the time was a pipe. He never went anywhere without it, and it was always present in his mouth. I should mention that at the time pipes were very much in vogue. I tried one for a time, but realized one can never speak when smoking a pipe — they will not stay lit unless you constantly draw on them. For me, this was short-lived.

At the psychiatric hospital, we were all given patients. In that era of medical education, taking a history from a patient was considered the most important thing; then physical examination, and last laboratory evaluation. How that has changed today? I cannot remember when I last had a physical exam from a doctor. Today everything is done in the lab — either blood work or a procedure. I was diagnosed with Paget’s disease of the bone three years ago; I have seen my endocrinologist once — at the initial visit. Now I see a nurse practitioner — who does my lab work. So far I am doing well.

So taking a history at that time was the most important thing. And then a physical exam. Personally, I still think it is important. In medical school, on my surgical rotation, we made daily rounds with the residents and intern. Most of us had never seen a young woman on rounds. We were in a poor neighborhood of a medical institution in a large city, and most of our patients were either old, or very old, and some even older.

When it came to pass there was a young woman patient, who was also attractive, we were naturally interested. We only had six women in my class, and our group was all male.

However, on my surgical rotation, we made rounds on all the patients; except the only one we were really interested in. Whenever we made rounds, our little group of medical students, interns, and residents passed this young patient by.

Interested in medicine as we all were, we asked the junior resident why we never made rounds on that patient. After much cajoling from us, he finally told us her history. She came in with abdominal pain. The Chief Surgical Resident promptly made the diagnosis of an acute surgical abdomen, took her to the operating room, made a large midline incision, and found — nothing.

He never took an adequate history or did a physical except to examine the abdomen.

Unfortunately, the patient had pneumonia, but since he never listened to her chest, he missed the diagnosis.

Wait, it gets worse. Postoperatively she was walking around the ward, started coughing (did I mention she had pneumonia), and dehisced. This means the incision opened up, and she had to go back to the operating room to put her bowels back in.

Wait for it! She had pneumonia, and the incision ruptured again, only this time they had to reinforce the incision with wire sutures. So she ended up with 3 unnecessary surgeries and an ugly midline scar — all because no one took an adequate history or listened to her lungs.

Ok, I know you are all wondering where the sex is.

Back to psychiatry and Jerry. We were all envious of Jerry because the patients we were individually assigned were old and then older; they were the very patients you see in old movies about psychiatric hospitals. Except for Jerry, who was assigned a 26-year-old gorgeous, sexy, intelligent woman.

You are probably asking how did this happen. Well, so were we. And this is the story.

The law in New Jersey required anyone who came to the emergency room and, since it was a medical school hospital, a complete history was taken. One of the questions was, “Have you ever considered committing suicide?” If you answered yes (remember, this was NJ), they had to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital for at least six weeks and could not be discharged. How many of you would answer yes if anyone asked you if you ever thought of suicide?

The day after Jerry took a history (including a sexual history) from his patient, we were all surprised when he showed up without his ubiquitous pipe.

So Jerry told us the following story. His voluptuous patient’s husband had recently died. Feeling depressed, her husband’s brother came over to console her, she was feeling vulnerable, and she ended up having sex with him. Now she was still depressed, feeling guilty as well, and she ended up in the emergency room — at our medical center hospital in New Jersey.

A young intern took her history, and when she answered the question, “Did you ever think about committing suicide, she thought about it, and said, “Yes.” Then an over-aggressive resident decided she needed to be admitted. Can you imagine how this perfectly normal woman felt?

We were all fascinated by Jerry’s story but still were wondering where his pipe was. When we questioned him about it, he said, “Well, I was asking about her sexual history, and while she was telling me the vivid details, I got so excited I bit right through the pipe stem!

What does this have to do with skincare; well, not much. But I remember seeing a comedian once years ago. During his routine he stopped for a little while, and then laughed and said, "I just told myself a joke. You're having a good time, but I should have a good time, too."

So I took a little time to have a good time myself, which is important in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I enjoyed reminiscing about a funny incident in my past. Humor in your life is very important. Never stop laughing. It makes the day go faster. 

And use BARE SkinCare; our products will make you look radiant, and that will make you smile.