At my hospital, the students and residents in Internal Medicine have a daily noon conference. Usually, another resident or fellow presents a case study or research that they are working on and there is a Q&A at the end. The topics are actually pretty interesting and helpful, especially when you're a baby med. student trying to glean every morsel of relevant information for your shelf (ahem).
Anyway, these lectures always have catered food, which is an incentive to be there and a huge cost-saver (I'm looking at you, DC, with your $7 lunch sandwiches!) Sometimes the food is just a sandwich and chips, but as we found out this week, tacos, lasagna, and even an Indian buffet can be served.
Except...
Have you ever tried to eat Indian food while sitting in a tiny auditorium seat with a very large, 6'3" classmate sitting next to you? Plus, you have to balance your Indian buffet and drink on a miniature pullout desk attached to the seat? Let me just tell you, there is going to be spillage involved on that white coat.
The first drop of chicken tikka masala that fell on me was noticed. It dotted the edge of my sleeve and I quickly took prophylactic measures by draping myself with napkins. Later that day, though, I had my head resting in my hand in the team room when I smelled something...lunchy. When I looked down, I realized that the entire arm of my other sleeve (the one that had to reach over the plate) was stained with curry! (And that I had been seeing patients like that all afternoon.)
The other med. students had also showed off their battle scars at an earlier afternoon lecture, but at least they had noticed.
One would think that it was bad enough that I didn't see one stain, but oh no. This afternoon, I got this text message, when I was at the hospital:
As you know, though, The Lawyer both knows how to run a household and loves his experimentation. So, it was no surprise that one of his tasks for Saturday was to try to get the curry stains out of that white coat.
You guys, I seriously cannot care for myself! I am like a small child! Why is the hospital trusting me with other peoples' lives! If The Lawyer wasn't there doing damage control 24/7, I'd be a hot(ter) mess!
As for the stains, yes, I did come home to a crisp, sparklingly clean white coat. However, since there is no evidence of this alleged spinach-like pocket stain, we can't be really sure that it was actually real. Let's all just pretend that it never happened.
4 comments:
Dude, those desks are TINY. I know, because my classmates and I ended up WEARING our chicken tacos at journal club. I hear you,
And when you get time (hah!), check out my latest post. #indianparentals.
Cute cute cute! My theory is you can't give 100% to everything so you give a large percentage to patient care and a much, much smaller percentage to say, keeping your white coat clean. Can't win em all :)
I've NEVER understood why they don't just give out bowls instead of plates at these things. Not like that would have helped in this situation... but maybe.
Lol! Girl, when I was working in DC, I spilled coffee on myself every morning. Every morning. My coworkers started watching me walk ever more gingerly to my desk, just to spill once I was sitting down.
My theory is, the harder you try to stay clean, the less likely it is that it will happen, so I just gave up. Of course, once I finally get to wear my white coat somewhere, it might be a different story!
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