oh how they torture me

why is it that, when i have all the hospital records in front of me, and i ask the patient, ' how are you feeling since you've been home from the hospital?'  the patient immediately launches into a long and detailed accounting of how they were out shopping for a dress for their sister's granddaughter's eighth grade graduation party when they realized they just didn't feel right but they didn't want to leave until they had purchased a dress, but then their arm went numb so the clerk called 911... and so on and so on until eventually, now ten minutes into their fifteen minute appointment, i hear my self saying, 'so how are you feeling since you've been home from the hospital?'

we are very attached to our stories.  i am, too.