Monday morning, I’m unlocking my office door after being gone for a long weekend. A patient, is leaving his therapist’s office, walking down the hall towards me.
“Dr. Kumar, Dr. Kumar, I have something to tell you: Relax! … By the way, that’s what they said to Anne Boleyn right before they cut off her head!”
He kept walking, rounding the corner to leave the building.
“Is he trying to tell me something?” I say out loud.
“Maybe you’re going to get the axe!” a colleague said, who happened to be walking by.
The patient came back.
“Dr. Kumar, I have something to ask you that I’ve always wanted to know. Not that I’ve lost sleep over it or anything, but I think you may know the answer. Tell me: where does it hurt, when you get guillotined? In the neck? Head? Or in the body?”
“I don’t think there’s time to feel pain,” I said. “Once the spinal cord is severed it’s over.”
“Oh, of course!” he said. “That makes sense. I’m so glad I asked you. What a relief.”
What I didn’t say, but that occurred to me later, is that this is why one would need to relax. If you’re tense the blade could have trouble cutting through the muscle and executioner may need a couple of tries.
-2/23/2016
Dr. Blue's Mid-life Musings 