The Scope Show

I was having a little throat problem a few weeks ago and my employer's health unit sent me to an ENT doctor for a check up. He stuck a scope down my nose and throat and took a look at my vocal chords and pronounced me fine. Then about two weeks later my health unit doctor called and wanted to know when I could have a biopsy done. The ENT doctor had contacted them and told them I might have throat cancer. Dumbfounded, I asked why the clinic ENT doctor had told me everything was fine? "Oh, Japanese doctors don't like to give patients the bad news," I was told. Why do doctors always call with bad news on Fridays about 4 pm?

The biopsy couldn't be scheduled at the hospital for another two weeks so I went to another hospital in Tokyo and asked for a second opinion a few days later. Another scope down the throat and that doctor told me there was nothing wrong - and showed me the pictures to prove it. But my health unit still insisted I go through with the biopsy - which I did, today. Yet another scope down the throat and another diagnosis of no problem. I got to see my vocal chords live on camera for a third time. Interesting show but it gets old after the third rerun.