Just to let you know, Doc can learn from the student too. Julius has gotten in the habit of giving folks a package insert on new start drugs. He goes over the basics then asks them to read up it and get back with us if they have questions. It covers a lot of ground in a hurry.
His recent contribution was the spark for this post. Today I’d like to post a Julius rule. I’ll tell more of mine later. Rule number five is to make learning fun. I have always believed that, but Julius is young and has taken the concept to a new level.
The other day we were at lunch and Julius said, “You know Doc, I wish I had my dart board here for lunch.”
“Dart Board?”
“Yeah. At home I have one in the apartment. Some of my buddies come over at night and we toss darts after we cook on the grill.”
“Is that like one of those man caves they talk about?”
“Yeah, exactly. Could we have one here?”
“Darts at lunch? I don’t know man.”
“Hold on a minute.” He went out to the car. In a minute he was back. “Look here. This is how I memorized the hyperlipemia guidelines. I call it the Simvistatin Dart Board.” The bull’s eye had the number 70. “See, if your patient is diabetic you want to hit the 70. (An LDL of 70 is the goal for a diabetic.)
“Son, that is the coolest teaching aid I have seen in some time.”
Before you know it we had the hyperlipidema dart board up and running. At lunch Julius and I invent clinical scenarios, decide on the correct LDL goal indicated, and take turns at darts.
I held a dart and poised to throw. “O.K. Julius, my patient is a 67 diabetic, and status post coronary artery by-pass. What’s my target?”
“Trick question, Boss. By the time the next guidelines come out 70 ain’t gonna cut the gig. Like blood pressure and golf, go low.”
“You are a good kid.” I winged my dart past the coffee maker. “Bull’s eye!”
Julius laughed. “Never bet against old Docs at golf, darts, or bubble tests.”
Our lunch break is usually 20- 30 minutes and we’ve taken to darts for half of it. We went all out. We’ll order a bacon swiss cheese burger basket take-out from Lou at Harvey Billiard and Bowl. We put some of those frosty beer mugs in the refrigerator to pour up our Co-Colas in. We even got a dish of dish of cocktail peanuts and took to betting nickels. We left off the swinging doors though. I think Corporate has a rule against alteration of the physical structure. After a week we’d memorized every algorithm known to the Heart Association, and had gotten dang good at dart tossing too. Hm. Makes me wonder if we’ve got room for a pool table.
Last night when I got home Marfar asked how my day was.
“It was great hon. Me and Julius are having all kinda fun.”
“So, what did you do?
“Oh, today we went to a bar and threw darts.”
She gave me a sideways look and smiled. “Whatever winds your clock, dear.” She knew there was no point in asking.
Dr. B
Dr. Tom Bibey: Stories of the Bluegrass Music Road 