Pigging out
QUITE RECENTLY we've taken to exploring other places for dinner, our way of escaping the round-the-clock strain of being in the hospital. Nothing can parallel the impact of food in bringing us together. Some blocks like movies or parties or traveling—but throw us any food, and we're happy. We're making the best of what little time we have, relishing each night when we don't have to stay awake for 24 hours. After all, hard as it may be to believe, the era of the short, relatively light rotations—that is, Ortho, Rehab, Ophtha, and ORL—is ending soon. We encounter each other in the daily grind of hospital life, and we probably know a whole lot more about each other than we should—for instance, our bowel movements for the day, which remains a favorite topic of morning conversation. But eating out in a relaxed restaurant does wonders. People talk openly, share their frustrations and, better yet, humiliations. They talk of past and present relationships, present and futu