Lest you think that I don't observe my own health habits, here's the latest. I've developed a juicy head cold since I got back from South Dakota, so perhaps I got in the line of fire of infected droplets from Mr. Sneeze-in-the-hand who passed not five feet away from me at the Rushmore Memorial. On the plus side, however, I logged well over 4,000 steps* at the office today, leaving the exam room every time I needed to sneeze or cough and then, of course, washing my hands. Unfortunately, I joined the chunky mom and child in the Keystone, SD restaurant by snacking through the day on Milky Way bites (dark chocolate covered!) and chips.

My bro', whom regular readers know as a strict grammarian and my sharpest critic, wrote a limerick in response to my previous post:

A very old guy in Custer
Said it's not beer that loses your luster;
Read your own blog,
Be a stick, not a log,
(And drink coffee to make certain, buster.)

Last week, I received an endoscopy report (complete with color pictures) on one of my patients who underwent the test two days prior to evaluate her upper abdominal pain. She had a mass in her duodenum that looked scary, like something you might see growing on the Great Barrier Reef. The comment section of the report said "Pt. should call the office in 7 days for the report."

Seven days waiting for a biopsy report? Sounds like the week from hell as there's nothing worse, I think, than waiting for test results on a mass found where no mass ought to be. An hour later, the path report came over the FAX--no cancer!! I called her to let her know, although I advised her to call the GI doc to find out what the next step should be. Her response reminded me of a line from Dennis Prager's "Happiness is a Serious Problem":

"...ideally, we should awaken every day and be as happy about our good health as if we had just received the wonderful news that a lump was diagnosed as benign."
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*I wear a pedometer every day. I'll refund the co-pay of the first person who shows up in my office for their physical wearing one! People tell me all the time that they don't need exercise as they 'run around all day at the office' or 'park at the end of the lot.' I've often wondered how many steps are involved in said running and parking.