We've all heard the words "Murphy's Law" at some point-and most of us have probably cringed at the thought of what that phrase might have in store for us at some time in our lives. I thought I might share my most recent encounter with Mr. Murphy in an effort to relate to what others might have experienced. So here goes...
I just completed my Pediatric rotation (the first of many that will make up my 3rd year of medical school) and was ecstatic that I'd managed to finish up without becoming extremely ill. I had a couple of days where I'd experienced GI symptoms as a result of exposure to the plethora of "bugs and colds" that make up the germs of little kids, but still felt fortunate that it wasn't more serious. This didn't last long, however.
It began Friday afternoon with a few sneezes. By that night, my nose was completely congested, the tickle in the back of my throat that I was hoping was just residual from sneezing grew to a heated, swollen ache, and my right ear was throbbing from the buildup of pressure behind my tympanic membrane. I was miserable. My boyfriend - who has recently graduated from medical school - offered to "doctor" me back to health. This made me feel a smidge better - as my roommate was out of town and I hated to be sick and alone. So, I was quarantined to his bedroom in order to prevent the spread of my sickness and he camped out on his living room couch where he was in earshot of my stuffy requests for soup and orange juice.
My genius boyfriend, who many used to refer to as "Doogie", just completed his M.D. at the age of 25. He recently decided to pursue his Masters in Business Administration and, as a result, would be attending orientation the next morning (Saturday).
I slept well, once I finally got to sleep, and awoke to find that he had already left for orientation, which was fine by me since I was feeling somewhat better. I let Lucy, our 1/2 rottweiler-1/2 black lab, out for her morning duty in the backyard. When she didn't ask to come back in within the next 30 minutes, I decided to check on her. The back gate had been left open from where my boyfriend was doing yardwork the evening before and, sure enough, Lucy had ventured out into the neighborhood. My brain was working slowly and was foggy from my sickness. I threw on my flipflops, grabbed my cell phone, and ran out the front door. Lucy, fortunately, had only made it across the street and was sniffing curiously around the ditch. I called her and she came running back quickly - she's very obedient. It was only when I turned to let ourselves back into the house that I realized I'd locked the door. What was normally a great habit to have picked up backfired on me. I was now stuck out in the heat, dizzy, and sick with no spare key. I locked Lucy in the backyard and proceeded to call my boyfriend.
Unfortunately, his phone had no service and I was put straight through to voicemail. Our friends who live down the road were out of town for the weekend and, with his neighborhood being fairly new, I didn't know too many of his neighbors. I called home to at least let my mom know what was going on in case anything happened. I'd planned to call a family friend that lived nearby to pick me up so that I wouldn't have to endure the sweltering heat, so I let my mom go and promised to update her on my situation. At that time, my phone died...
I was sweating, had just crawled out of bed only a few minutes before, and looked the part. I sauntered over to one neighbor's house and rang the bell only to be greeted by his yellow lab. He was also out of town for the weekend. So I tried another neighbor's door and... success! He opened the door and peered at me curiously. I felt a little delirious from the heat and the chain of events thus far and did my best to explain all that had happened: the dog running out, locking myself out of the house, my cell phone dying, our friends being out of town... I'm still not sure if I made any sense, but he offered to let me use his cell phone anyway. I was able to use 411 to look up the number of the construction manager who built the house and, luckily, he had a spare key. I spent about another 30 minutes in the escalating heat until he showed up. I was so relieved. After he let me in I let Lucy in the back door and we both flopped down on the couch. Not 10 minutes later, my boyfriend pulled up. He'd gotten my message and my mom had also called him to see if he'd heard from me. He had immediately left orientation to check on me. I was happy to see him - almost as happy as I was to be back in the air conditioning. He made sure I had everything I needed for the rest of the day and then went back to finish up orientation.
I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, but I have yet to learn what the logic was behind that day's plot. Perhaps it'll come to me. Until then, I'll keep my eyes open for Mr. Murphy to roll around again.
