Anonymous Doctor

I think I went on a date last night, with another intern. I'm not sure it was a date. We'd met during orientation and had a very brief conversation. Then I ran into her as I was leaving the hospital yesterday. It seemed like we were both just going home to eat dinner alone, so I asked her if she wanted to grab a bite. And so we did.

And all we talked about was the hospital.

Her patients, my patients, how tired we both are, how intern year sucks.

Is this really all I'm able to talk about anymore?

I guess we had an okay time, but I really hate doctors. They're too intense. I need someone less intense. I need someone who has something else going on in her life. Of course, when am I ever going to meet that person? The only people I'm going to meet are doctors.

And patients.

One of the wedding announcements in the New York Times yesterday (my mom reads these things and e-mails them to me) was about a doctor marrying the granddaughter of a patient.

"The couple first spoke in May, 2007, on an elevator at Beth Israel, where Ms. Feldinger’s paternal grandmother was hospitalized. Dr. Geller was very kind, Ms. Feldinger said, and offered to occasionally check on her grandmother."

But here's where it got odd:

"Dr. Geller soon asked Ms. Feldinger for a date, and she promptly sought counsel from her grandmother, who nodded yes. But the death of Ms. Feldinger’s grandmother set back plans for a first date."

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but if the grandmother had said she should go out with him, they wouldn't have just said she "nodded yes." I think the Times had to phrase it this way because I don't think this grandmother-- on the brink of death, it seems-- could do anything more than nod her head.

So I'm not sure how much counsel she was able to give her granddaughter, or whether she was even lucid at this point. And maybe she had bigger things to worry about than the weird doctor asking her granddaughter on a date.

Then again, maybe I ought to be doing the same thing, scouting out patients' families looking for people I should ask out. We could go on our first date in the hospital cafeteria. Of course, if I were a patient, I'd probably be more interested in the attendings than the residents. They make actual money.