We medical folks can be a strange group. I’ll admit it. Doctors and nurses discuss sensitive and delicate matters among ourselves with the same comfort others do sharing a recipe or discussing a recent sporting event. It is just the way we are. Here’s an example:
Many years ago, I was at an Air Force Medical Group promotion party and I ran into one of the medical group’s GYN nurse practitioners. I will call her Linda for our purposes here. We had a mutual patient, a young woman with a terrible affliction—vulvodynia, chronic pain of the female genitalia (vulva). When I saw Linda at the party, I pulled her aside privately to discuss our mutual patient’s care. We discussed her case for a few minutes and Linda excused herself to get a drink at the bar. Another gal, one of our nurses, came up and asked:
“So, what were you and Linda talking about?”
“Oh, not much really,” I jokingly replied. “Just vulvas.”
“Oh! Does Linda have one?” she asked.
Choking on my soft drink, I stammered a bit–“Ahem . . . I don’t have personal knowledge of that, but I am certain she does.”
“Hmmm,” pondered the nurse. “That’s weird. I thought for sure she had a BMW.”
True story.
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