Case Report: An Unusual Presentation of an Incomplete Sentence

Excerpt

He wanted to finish seeing the patient. He wanted to keep typing as he listened, but the middle of the sentence either disappeared or never appeared in the first place. He closed one eye, then the other. He knew enough to do that. But the sentence would start okay, and end okay, then nothing in the middle. He made sure his glasses were on straight. He took them off and wiped them with his tie. He tried tilting his head as if looking around the corner of the sentence to catch the middle off guard. That worked about as well as looking behind the mirror. He kept talking to the patient, open-ended questions mostly, and then listening. This particular patient always had a lot to say and usually at this point in the visit would ask for something a little stronger, something to get through the night with. While trying to listen he couldn’t help asking himself how long is the window of intervention for a new stroke? Not long enough, looking at his schedule that afternoon. Or trying to look. Whatever was going on, it was not conducive to good listening. Since the problem was not in either eye it had to be somewhere in the brain, which was not a pleasant thought, not that he was thinking too clearly. Thinking about his thinking, he noticed he could still be mindful, or at least half mindful. He thought about asking the nurse for an aspirin. That might buy some time. …