How many endocrine disorders to you see represented in this nurse clip art?

This is not a GiggleMed image. And it’s probably not meant to be funny.

You know that phenomenon of looking at someone and secretly wondering about their medical disorders just based on looking at them? We all do it and we rarely talk about it. It’s not really appropriate to bring it up outside of the health care setting.

Well, the same thing happened the other day when this clip art image was posted on a NPO sign outside of a patient’s hospital room. One endocrine disorder immediately jumped out, but on closer inspection, there are several. You can see the answer here, on this Endocrine Humor - Poster Child graphic.

As you already know, Chart Farts® are medical chart bloopers (or medical malapropisms) where someone means to say, write, or type something else, but the end result has its own funny meaning. There are lots of ways for you to go through the thousands of Chart Farts® available from GiggleMed.com… there’s a Chart Farts® email list, a Chart Farts® web page, several articles, Chart Farts® Twitter posts (tweets), and even Chart Farts® shirts, mugs, and gifts.

Every so often, this blog will post some of the most recent funny charting errors submitted, as well as, revisiting some of the classics from the Chart Farts® collection. Here are some for this November. Enjoy:

• Left mane disease
• She’s a COPDer with a significant tabasco history
• She had postop decomposition
• Right floor pain
• Sputum culture: moderate growth normal vaginal flora
• Admission diagnosis: EtOH Plan: sobriety
• Slightly calcified unit
• History of A-fib, new onset
• Cranial nodes intact
• Admission diagnosis: suicidal Plan: creative alternatives in am
• Upon examination of the hospitalist, the patient was nauseous
• The patient tolerated the procedure well and left the operating room in good position.
• Allergies: a few
• Allergies: KNDA
• Pukomyst
• His moth has carcinoma
• ingestion heart failure
• CPAPnea
• SocHx: likes to go howling with his friends

Get Chart Farts® on Twitter:

The following is a story submitted to GiggleMed’s Embarrassing Stories:

(East Coast, US) I’m a Physician Assistant for an open heart surgery program. I am primarily responsible for the workups before people go to the OR. As part of the workups, I have to check patients’ teeth before they have valve surgery - since bad teeth and gums can become a source of bacteremia.

Anyway, because of the timing of the transfers into our hospital, it is often quite late that I have to call the oral surgeon for a consult. And he lives about 40 minutes away.

The other night, I called him at about 6:30 PM, well after his office hours were over, for a patient with particularly disgusting teeth… They were broken, looked like they hadn’t been brushed in several months, with chunks and assorted color smudges all over them.

The oral surgeon obliged and came in that night for the consult… only to call me at around 8:00 to tell me that the guy had dentures. He said, “I came here to remove some teeth, do you want me to remove his dentures?”

(Got an embarrassing moment you want to tell us about? Send it to funnystuff[at]gigglemed.com or post a comment on our Embarrassing Stories page. Keep it clean, though.)

Ok, there aren’t many words for this one… just weird. Check it out…

Here are some possible titles for this funny ultrasound video:

• Water Breaks, Baby Hydroplanes
• NASCAR Babies Make Daddy Proud
• Who Needs Air Bags When You’ve Got Mom’s Placenta?
• World’s Youngest Mario Kart Player
• Maybe This Explains Mommy’s Gas
• Amniotic Fluid As An Alternative Fuel Source
• So, Where Does The Seat Belt Go?
• All The More Reason To Wear A Helmet
• That OB Doc Better Get Here Fast
• Gotta Go, Gotta Go, Gotta Go!
• Rare Incontinence Mechanism Caught On Video
• When Kegel Exercises Are Rendered Useless
• Thought of more? Post them in the comments below…

Comedy Central investigates home surgery kits, statin commercials, doctors’ credentials, and cheating death in this funny medical news video spoof. They do a great job of getting to the bottom of the 1980s projection that there would be a doctor glut due to managed care.

Imagine a FaceBook or a MySpace that centers around a theme you enjoy… You obviously find health care humor amusing or you wouldn’t be on this page, reading this post. GiggleMed.com is dedicated to relieving stress and burnout for health professionals through the use of humor. But why should you just wait for us to make something funny? You can add to the medical humor world yourself, by posting stuff you find funny or interesting. Here’s how…

It’s GiggleMed’s Medical Humor Social Network through a service called Ning. Here’s how it works. You join for free, choose a user name, and then start building you page/profile with easy-peasy built-in widgets.

You can set up a fully customizable profile with a funny photo, some basic information and everything you’ve contributed to the network. Your “friends” within the medical humor network can subscribe to your material and posts. Or they can just browse your profile and see what you found funny.

You can create groups inside of the social network around hobbies, interests, affinities, geographical locations and more. Imagine the fun you can have with old nursing school buddies, medical school friends, colleagues within your residency program, or other workers in your hospital.

You can get people talking. Start a discussion on any topic and watch other members respond with posts, photos and attachments.

Upload original footage or share videos from popular video services like YouTube, Google Video and Vimeo. You can see GiggleMed videos here before they are released to the public. And you can post your own. No complex scripts to learn, no programming languages to sift through… all easy clicks to have your friends laughing.

You can post photos and organize them into albums. You can show off your photos in galleries or slideshows.

You can use a Medical Humor “network badge” to display your stuff on your MySpace profile, blog or website. And you can share photos, videos and music from the social network on your Facebook profiles.

It’s a lot of fun… join today.

• When will I be able to write myself prescriptions?
• I found the MCATs to be easier and easier each time I took them.
• Who will drive us home if we are too tired post-call?
• Paternalism is ready for a comeback.
• Under what circumstances can I call in sick?
• What are the minimum requirements for me to graduate?
• To be honest, I just want drug rep pens.
• That’s what nurses are for.
• When will we cover generating multiple streams of income with cross-referrals and owning our own diagnostic equipment?
• I love the smell of [insert body fluid here] in the morning.
• Have they started making Cliffs Notes for medical texts yet?
• I don’t have a problem with being on-call, but every so often I’ll have to check in with my parole officer.
• Of course, after med school and residency, they’ll have to have insurance.
• DNR… doesn’t that stand for “Do Not Respond?”
• Does the 80-hour limit apply to med students yet?
• How often is lunch provided?
• The voices told me that this is the place that all would be fulfilled.
• My favorite blogs are GiggleMed.com and Med School Hell.
• In addition to being a shaman, I am working on a book that exposes the perils of the Western
  Health-Industrial Complex.
• Antibiotics. Antivirals. Antifungals. Anti-this. Anti-that. When are we going to live in harmony with these bugs?
• It wasn’t really drug-dealing… Let’s just say that I was self-employed.

Here’s a prettier version you can print (but with a slightly shorter list):

Got some of your own? Post them in the comments below…

It is not often that an MRI is helpful in diagnosing or ruling out psychiatric illness, but this one sure does…

Who the heck let that other guy in the MRI machine?!

A patient comes into your office and complains of hearing voices. Before claiming it’s a hallucination, you better make sure no one is actually saying something to the patient. And if they are, for God’s sake, don’t let them follow the patient into the MRI scanner.

I’m not sure who these people are, but I am sure they either raided the drug sample closet or lost some sort of costly wager… nurses, medical secretaries, techs, and physicians who will probably one day regret posting this thing on YouTube. It’s funny, but in an I’m-embarrassed-for-them sort of way. Check it out.

Got one like this from your office or hospital? Tell us about it.