Only at a healthcare conference

I spent early this week in Washington DC at the Healthcare Blogging Summit, speaking on a panel.

During the actual panel I got a tickle in my throat and could tell pretty quickly that it was only going to escalate if I didn't do some good coughing and drink some water. So, I believe for the first time in my public speaking career, I got up and exited the room to cough. While out there in the hallway a tall,slender, Abraham Lincoln-esque man (without the facial hair) stopped and asked me if I was OK.

I said I had a tickle in my throat, and he said "let me see your wrist." I could see the letters MD on his name badge, so I dutifully held out my wrist. At first I thought he was taking my pulse, but no, he was kind of rubbing a section of my right wrist.

He looked at me and said "cough gone?"

Which it was.

He smiled wisely, said something like "Lung #7, works every time" and walked off into the sunset.

Apparently acu-pressure or something like that.

And it all seemed remarkably fitting, given I was at a healthcare conference.

Comments

[AmyT]

Hi Elisa,
Man, I was very sorry to miss this event! Was invited to speak, but as I'm (also) on the West Coast and swamped at the moment, a no-go.

Sounds like a great deal with all the docs. Would love to hear more about what you learned :)

[Elisa Camahort]

Hey Amy, too bad you weren't there...although you were cited as one of the three top medbloggers (a question that was repeatedly asked, and that most responders deflected.)

I learned that whenever we step outside our intensely bloggy Silicon Valley existence we will find companies and professionals who are very curious about social media, but still very afraid of it.

And we tend to feed into it by talking about scary mean bloggers a lot. By the end of my panel I had to point out that many many bloggers seek to do good and to help others...and I think it's particularly true in the medblogosphere.

Then I checked my ego feeds and found a post where someone called me names and made fun of me...smack!! There's a lesson there somewhere.