Medical school interview day. Butterflies in my stomach. One shot. I had to nail this.
Dr. Harrison asked me what if I told you there was a correlation between ice cream sales and drownings. What would that tell you.
Not much, I told him. Correlation doesn't imply causation.
Years later, my first total hip in practice. A gentleman who had seen a spine surgeon before me. The spine surgeon recommended a major spine revision.
His pain was mostly in his groin. Significant limp. A cane. Walked slowly. Seemed unbalanced.
I got radiographs of his pelvis and hip. His entire femoral head had disintegrated. Disappeared. He didn't have one.
The patient wasn't skeptical. But he'd been told the spine was a big problem, so he figured they were both issues.
Let's do your hip first, I told him. Then we'll think about your spine.
A lot of scar tissue. A lot. Micro steps forward. Two and a half hours.
As I walked out of the room, Bobby McFerrin's Every Little Thing Is Gonna Be All Right was playing.
He told me later the hip surgery helped him a lot. He had the spine surgery anyway. It helped him a little.
Both were real. One was significantly more symptomatic.
Life isn't black and white. If someone says they know 100 percent what caused something, they usually know nothing.
This week, when something keeps going wrong, ask what else could be causing it before you fix what's in front of you.
The good thing is, the real cause is usually there to find if you keep looking past the first answer.
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Good Thing Monday goes out every Monday. One story, one good thing.
Tell me your good thing this week. I read every one.