Laughter...

I've used humor as a coping mechanism my entire life. I would be far less sane if I hadn't. There is humor to be found in every part of life, and yes, sometimes it can be dark. Sometimes it can be juvenile. My philosophy has always been "Life should be laughed at as often as possible. It deserves it." Just last night I had a patient with a brand new colostomy. She loudly passed gas through the ostomy and we both jumped in surprise. She said, "HA! I never know when it's coming now, and I wouldn't have warned you even if I had!" We both had a good laugh. To clarify: I would not have laughed at all had the patient not started. That would have been unprofessional.With one little fart joke, she showed me she was trying to cope with a huge change in her body in a healthy way. She seems to have good humor about her condition, and so does her family. It made me feel like she'd be ok.

LOVE this! ^^I had a male patient tell me that thankfully, he would never have to sit on a cold toilet seat again, nor strain. And his wife piped up "Indeed, but I am not sure you will remember to EVER put down the toilet seat now!" Too funny.

laughter: essential to survival, let it spread!

Sometimes work is like walking into someone else's nightmare. It's either laugh or lose one's mind.

After I administer insulin, I ask the patient, "Did it hurt?" and the patient invariably states, "No", or "No. It didn't hurt at all" to which I reply, "Me niether" and we both laugh at this innocuous joke. (By the way, I only do this once per patient for the obvious reason.)

I work in the locked psych unit in our hospital's ER doing the psych admissions. If we did not laugh, we would probably run screaming into the night!!