Medical Humour Stories

Dissecting HumourBy Nic Andela

Depression, stress, infections, cancer and the gruelling treatments, spinal injuries, war and cultural intolerance, relationship decay and emotional pains seems to involve more and more people we know; and how often do we find ourselves periodically sinking into despair while we contemplate the realities and complexities of today’s living.

My mother developed mouth floor cancer recently and received invasive neck clearance surgery and immediately thereafter developed dire post-operative intensive care complications; following this she was subjected to months of radiotherapy and is now very weak in remission and is depressed, but in spite of all these necessary but dreadful interventions she maintains a joyful sense of humour. I dedicate this book to her and to anyone out there that is suffering from cancer, experiencing anxiety, having problems of any nature and those who are finding it difficult to cope.

Humour has healing properties; it can generate pleasure at any moment in time, it can reboot your mind so you can appreciate the things you have around you and temporarily forgot about, it crosses cultural boundaries and it can reduce stress and tension.

Dissecting Humour is filled with supposed urban legends and we hope these stories will help you escape from reality and allow this bizarre humour and laughter to gain new perspective.

Norman Cousins, in the Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient, suggested laughter therapy and found that ten minutes of laughter could give him two hours of pain-free sleep.

We hope Dissecting Humour gives you a good six hours…

With the fascination of Medicine and a series of related urban legends, together there unfolds a volume of humorous medical short stories, Dissecting Humour.