One of my brother’s favorite expressions when he was a college student and later a medical student, was “That really chaps my ass.” A decade later, I added it to my own repertoire of declarations of exasperation.
“This really chaps my ass!” I would say when a lab report or imaging study or medication was delayed, or a nursing order was overlooked, or whatever mishap of the day interrupted what I believed should be the smooth and expected flow of my clinical world. I was a third-year medical resident, I think, and my intern was a good-natured fellow who was doing a Flexible internship.
The Flex positions were for young physicians in training whose sights were set on a specialty such as ophthalmology or dermatology. There were other Flex goals, I am sure, but this particular year in my own training, my intern was a Flex whose aim was a fellowship in Dermatology. He was a cheerful, intelligent and energetic fellow of Czech heritage who had an excellent sense of humor and a propensity for mockery to match.
We had fun during that rotation, but many days brought the inevitable and unwelcomed hiccups that elicited, “This really chaps my ass,” from me. As the weeks of our rotation passed, my intern Paul studied my expressions of frustration – intonation, emphasis, gesticulations, and facial expressions so that he could mock me before I expressed myself. Paul did it with the kind of exaggeration that caricature artists render with pen and paper, and in such a manner that I could only cackle at his rendering as he mocked me. It was a good rotation.
I have thought back on my experiences as a medical trainee many times over the last few decades, and there are some memories, like this one, that always bring a smile to my face.