Send in the clowns

We all know that laughing makes us feel good.

A study released yesterday takes this one step further by showing that laughter actually helps increase tolerance to pain. Published by the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences in Oxford, the study found that the muscular exertion in laughing triggers increased production of endorphins, the brain chemicals that make people feel good.

It tested resistance to pain before and after bouts of laughter, showing volunteers videos and comedy performances while inflicting pain with a freezing wine sleeve over the forearm, a tightening blood pressure cuff or a difficult ski exercise.

(Wondering what kind of people volunteer for this kind of exercise. I've had enough pain, thank you.)

You know instinctively that laughter makes you feel better (I went to the hospital with a collection of "Seinfeld" DVDs), but the study adds a little something more.

Maybe hospitals should send in comedians or at the very least comedy videos along with prescriptions of percoset and oxycodone.

Hospital stay extended

I was supposed to be discharged today, but I have to stay a couple of extra days because a 100.8 temperature snuck in this morning. My temperature has been normal the whole time I've been in the hospital, and it was normal all of today, so that tiny spike is a bit of a mystery.

All of my blood cultures came back normal, so they took me off antibiotics and will just watch me for another day or so to see if I'm OK. 

Nothing eventful has happened, unless you count the hour I spent lying on my side after a physician's assistant put liquid Colace in my ear in hopes of loosening the wax that has been bothering me. She then tried to suction it out; unfortunately the home remedy did not work, so she ordered prescription drops. I can't hear out of that ear. Just get me a crochet hook!

I've been having a good run with "Seinfeld." I watch it a lot, so it's amazing that I often see episodes for the first time. During my winter-spring hospitalization, my friend Barry, knowing that I like "Seinfeld," brought me a tiny wind-up pony that reminded him of the "pony episode" in which Jerry gets into trouble by casting aspersions on pony-lovers. I played with the toy and it made me laugh when it trotted across my table, but I couldn't relate because I had never seen the episode. It was on tonight, and I finally got the full meaning of the joke. 

Last night, I watched the first of the Keith Hernandez episodes, which I had also never seen, and tonight, after I switched channels for my second "Seinfeld," I caught the second part of the Hernandez story.

Yes, this is what it comes down to sometimes. Oh well, it makes the time pass.