Dr. Smak, whose blog posts invariably ring true in my experience and often crack me up, commented today that inspecting used tissues is often instructive. Reminds me of a patient's visit last cold and flu season that sent my staff scurrying for the Lysol.

She came to her appointment for 'sinusitis' carrying a large grocery sack. She didn't, however, save her contents for my eyes only but proceeded to dump them over the front office counter.

"See," she said, indicating at least a hundred used tissues spread out on the surface, "I used all of these in just one day!"