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The Placebo Chronicles: Strange but True Tales from the Doctors' Lounge
True Tales of the ridiculous, the silly, and the just plain weird cases doctors face—lampooning the medical bureaucracy that makes practicing medicine and getting medical care such a headache.
Doctors have a sick sense of humor. This is the deep, dark, and hilarious secret of the medical profession revealed by the irreverent Dr. Douglas Farrago in his popular satirical magazine, Placebo Journal —affectionately known by its thousands of fanatic readers as “ Mad magazine for doctors” and called, by U.S. News.com , “raunchy, adolescent, and very funny.” Now, in The Placebo Chronicles , Dr. Farrago has compiled the best of the most outrageous and uproarious true stories to come out of the ERs and examination rooms of doctors all over the country.
Submitted by actual physicians, these are the stories they tell each other at cocktail parties and in doctors’ lounges, trading sidesplitting and truly unusual tales of their most embarrassing medical moments, the grossest things they’ve ever seen in medicine, their favorite Munchausen patients, and much more, including “The X-Ray Files”—mind-boggling anecdotes and images of the oddest foreign objects doctors have removed from patients. Not for the faint of heart, the humor in The Placebo Chronicles is brutally funny—just what the doctor ordered to guard against the ill effects of an M.D.’s worst the Medical Axis of Evil, a.k.a. drug companies, HMOs, and malpractice insurers.
Fully illustrated with fake advertisements—for pseudopharmaceuticals like OxyCotton Candy and Indifferex (the mediocre antidepressant)—this refreshingly honest collection invites doctors and patients alike to share the laughter, a liberal dose of the very best medicine.
Doctors have a sick sense of humor. This is the deep, dark, and hilarious secret of the medical profession revealed by the irreverent Dr. Douglas Farrago in his popular satirical magazine, Placebo Journal —affectionately known by its thousands of fanatic readers as “ Mad magazine for doctors” and called, by U.S. News.com , “raunchy, adolescent, and very funny.” Now, in The Placebo Chronicles , Dr. Farrago has compiled the best of the most outrageous and uproarious true stories to come out of the ERs and examination rooms of doctors all over the country.
Submitted by actual physicians, these are the stories they tell each other at cocktail parties and in doctors’ lounges, trading sidesplitting and truly unusual tales of their most embarrassing medical moments, the grossest things they’ve ever seen in medicine, their favorite Munchausen patients, and much more, including “The X-Ray Files”—mind-boggling anecdotes and images of the oddest foreign objects doctors have removed from patients. Not for the faint of heart, the humor in The Placebo Chronicles is brutally funny—just what the doctor ordered to guard against the ill effects of an M.D.’s worst the Medical Axis of Evil, a.k.a. drug companies, HMOs, and malpractice insurers.
Fully illustrated with fake advertisements—for pseudopharmaceuticals like OxyCotton Candy and Indifferex (the mediocre antidepressant)—this refreshingly honest collection invites doctors and patients alike to share the laughter, a liberal dose of the very best medicine.
- GenresMedical
208 pages, Paperback
First published April 12, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 7, 2021
An insightful romp through the daily lives of doctors. And here I thought it was just sick people that went through that system. Learned about some very important topics in this book (that should be given out to every medical student, if it isn't already), not the least important of which was the existence of the medical term Munchhausen. Which made me ponder my last ER visit in a completely different light.
While I sat there waiting to see if my entire Poison Ivy ridden forearm was infected by some random bacteria (it was continuously oozing through 10 layers of gauze), I was across from an individual who had come in for what appeared to be broken toes (runner was off, bloody foot in a ER blue towel/guaze). At first he appeared to be just a normal baseball cap, multiple gold chain, trash talking 20 something. Until he started asking (politely moaning) the triage nurse, when he was going to be seen. The pain was unbearable. He needed something for the pain. Every 30 minutes.
Thinking that they just don't make kids like they used to (like that gentleman with a fence stuck in him), we both sat there for the requisite 3 hrs before finally being shuffled into the "treatment" rooms. And as luck would have it, we both were placed in the same general area again, this time separated by curtains. For privacy of course. As he sat there being looked at by the doctor, he went into accelerated pain mode. Moaning about the pain, as if the hydro pole that he kicked on the way to the hospital, was now pinning his appendage to the floor. When the doctor told him, that he could give him some Tylenol for the pain, the kid outright exclaimed that he needed something stronger than that.
"We normally don't give any pain killers for broken toes..." the doctor trailed off.
I didn't hear what the doctor promised him, but whatever it was, it placated my new found ER compatriot and the doctor wandered off to fill out some prescription. Gold Chains then took out his cell phone and started a 5 min dialogue with his homie, laughing and giggling and carrying on like he was watching an SNL episode.
I read Douglas's book after that visit. I've visited many an ER in my life. Some life threatening. Others, not so much. But the book certainly gives the layman a hilarious view of stuff we never really hear about. Unless we happen to witness those incidents ourselves.
Munchhausen!
While I sat there waiting to see if my entire Poison Ivy ridden forearm was infected by some random bacteria (it was continuously oozing through 10 layers of gauze), I was across from an individual who had come in for what appeared to be broken toes (runner was off, bloody foot in a ER blue towel/guaze). At first he appeared to be just a normal baseball cap, multiple gold chain, trash talking 20 something. Until he started asking (politely moaning) the triage nurse, when he was going to be seen. The pain was unbearable. He needed something for the pain. Every 30 minutes.
Thinking that they just don't make kids like they used to (like that gentleman with a fence stuck in him), we both sat there for the requisite 3 hrs before finally being shuffled into the "treatment" rooms. And as luck would have it, we both were placed in the same general area again, this time separated by curtains. For privacy of course. As he sat there being looked at by the doctor, he went into accelerated pain mode. Moaning about the pain, as if the hydro pole that he kicked on the way to the hospital, was now pinning his appendage to the floor. When the doctor told him, that he could give him some Tylenol for the pain, the kid outright exclaimed that he needed something stronger than that.
"We normally don't give any pain killers for broken toes..." the doctor trailed off.
I didn't hear what the doctor promised him, but whatever it was, it placated my new found ER compatriot and the doctor wandered off to fill out some prescription. Gold Chains then took out his cell phone and started a 5 min dialogue with his homie, laughing and giggling and carrying on like he was watching an SNL episode.
I read Douglas's book after that visit. I've visited many an ER in my life. Some life threatening. Others, not so much. But the book certainly gives the layman a hilarious view of stuff we never really hear about. Unless we happen to witness those incidents ourselves.
Munchhausen!
March 26, 2024
This one wasn't even in my currently reading section because it took too long to get through. I read it sporadically sometimes going months without looking at it. Probably been on my nightstand for close to two years now.
Not particularly well written, sometimes downright gross or even inappropriate. Interspersed with fake ads and top ten lists (top ten things a doctor would like to say to patients - that sort of thing) it was a bit of a mess to read.
One thing that did stand out is that Munchausen's seem to be a lot more common than you would think, or is it just more noteworthy?
If you can get it at a bag sale, or for .50 cents I'd say sure, but certainly not worth the $14.99 cover price.
Not particularly well written, sometimes downright gross or even inappropriate. Interspersed with fake ads and top ten lists (top ten things a doctor would like to say to patients - that sort of thing) it was a bit of a mess to read.
One thing that did stand out is that Munchausen's seem to be a lot more common than you would think, or is it just more noteworthy?
If you can get it at a bag sale, or for .50 cents I'd say sure, but certainly not worth the $14.99 cover price.
February 13, 2022
It takes a certain background to find these stories funny, and apparently I have that. There are lots of gross descriptions and some stereotypic docs, nurses, and patients.
July 5, 2015
If you expect doctors to be serious and "professional" (i.e. never laugh at their patients), you should probably avoid this book. These are the best submissions to "The Placebo Journal," which purports to "bring some humor back into physicians' lives" through sharing the annoying and often bizarre stories of patients. The stories range from tracking down John Bobbitt for an autograph-plus (not very medical, but amusing in a very sick way) to several stories of morbidly obese individuals in dire straits to X-rays of many of the very bizarre things people put inside of themselves.
There are some truly disgusting stories that are somehow guffaw-worthy--one I won't go into that has a hard-of-hearing woman confusing the doctor's diagnosis of "maggots" with "magnets," to which she responds, "Magnets? How the hell did magnets get in there?"--and a lot of projectile vomiting stories.
Most of the stories are funny, but in a few there is a definite sense of repressed (or not) fury and frustration on the part of doctors towards the big Two Evils of modern medicine: HMOs and pharmaceutical reps.
The only part of the book I didn't find very funny were the fake ads, which are definitely aimed directly at a medical professional's funny bone. I see the point, but didn't find many of them amusing. Maybe it's because I sat through a Levitra commercial last night with Sparky who tuned in on the 'side-effects' and... Well, it was a moderately embarrassing moment.
This took me about 3 hours to finish, mostly read--ironically--in a doctor's office and blood center, and needed some major copy editing. Oh, well. I stumble over typing "pchysiast" too.
There are some truly disgusting stories that are somehow guffaw-worthy--one I won't go into that has a hard-of-hearing woman confusing the doctor's diagnosis of "maggots" with "magnets," to which she responds, "Magnets? How the hell did magnets get in there?"--and a lot of projectile vomiting stories.
Most of the stories are funny, but in a few there is a definite sense of repressed (or not) fury and frustration on the part of doctors towards the big Two Evils of modern medicine: HMOs and pharmaceutical reps.
The only part of the book I didn't find very funny were the fake ads, which are definitely aimed directly at a medical professional's funny bone. I see the point, but didn't find many of them amusing. Maybe it's because I sat through a Levitra commercial last night with Sparky who tuned in on the 'side-effects' and... Well, it was a moderately embarrassing moment.
This took me about 3 hours to finish, mostly read--ironically--in a doctor's office and blood center, and needed some major copy editing. Oh, well. I stumble over typing "pchysiast" too.
June 28, 2011
Some who have read this complain about the attitude of the doctors towards their patients. Calling them callous or unfeeling because the doctors are grossed out or shocked by certain situations. These doctors are human. We all have bad days at work. If these tales had all been written by one or two people I would be offended and ready to report them to the AMA but these are all tales from different people at different times in their careers. They are funny, sometimes gross and sometimes enlightening.
August 10, 2008
I loved this book. When I bought this book, I was living in the hospital while my dad was admitted and picked it up because I thought that it might be some funny insight into the people I was seeing daily. Not only did it take my mind off of why I was at the hospital, but it had me laughing in a way that only idiots that swallow things like super glue can.
April 12, 2009
This book is a collection of allegedly true stories from doctors. While some of the stories are humorous and a few did make me chuckle aloud, nothing was side splitting funny.
Most of the stories were rather gross, so reader beware. If you don't have a pretty strong stomach, you may just want to avoid this one.
Shelve this one under "entertaining distraction."
Most of the stories were rather gross, so reader beware. If you don't have a pretty strong stomach, you may just want to avoid this one.
Shelve this one under "entertaining distraction."
March 18, 2014
If you like "Untold Stories from the ER", you'll love this book. Every sort of unimaginable gross situation that can happen to a doctor.
I have much more respect for our MDs after reading what they go through.
I have much more respect for our MDs after reading what they go through.
March 4, 2012
I love this book...
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews