u know rhonda. that's why i hate seeing doctors or any sort.
because i hate knowing that there is a slight possibility that i
might be the joke/discussion topic at their dinner table that
night. or the night after. or whichever night it is that people
require 'entertainment'......
i mean...i had this psych prof. and he's a psychologist by day,
prof by night. a great guy. but in class, he will sometimes give
examples. and the person he's telling us about most probably won't
know that people are discussing abt him in class. but....then i
started thinking...what if...pple started to discuss about me like
that in class one day too??
and stuff that you tell doctors are usually/sometimes relatively
private >.<
It's a way of dealing with the stress of the profession.
Kinda like some patients think that surgeons should not listen to
music whilst operating, but when I did my attachment in the
Operating Theatres, I realised how strenuous it was for the
surgeons to keep that level of concentration for that many hours at
a stretch and so, whatever turns them on!
Confidentiality is still maintained because the people remain
'faceless'. It used to bother me until I realised that hell,
gossipping is a very natural part of life. It's inevitable
that we talk about one another. That's part of what life is
all about. The daily grind is sometimes proferred a little
lubricant in the way of pleasant diversions like gossips,
analogies, anecdotes, etc, all of which involve some
unfortunate person or other.
Someone out there is the subject of my jokes, just like I am the
subject of someone else's jokes.
I'm no longer sensitive to such issues. I can imagine how
certain patients / colleagues will talk about me. *winces and
squirms... but hell, it goes both ways! 
Sometimes, I think, "Hell, they must think
I'm a paranoid schizophrenic!", guffaw about it for a while, then
move on to the next interesting thing. 
