Last Laugh

In the Jocular Vein

The operation was a success

I'm an anesthesiologist. While interviewing an elderly woman before her second cataract operation, I asked her how she had done with the first.

"Not too well," she said. "I was allergic to the anesthetic."

"What kind of reaction did you have?" I asked.

She showed me her arms, covered with solar keratoses. "They're all broken out," she complained.

Her daughter, sitting next to her, said, "Mother, you've always had those. You just couldn't see them before."

—Milton Evangelou, MD
San Diego, CA

Last Laugh.

Medical Economics

Jul. 11, 2003;80:108.