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Abstract
Sometimes it feels as though my brain is juggling so many competing details, that one stray request from a patient-even one that is quite relevant-might send the delicately balanced three-ring circus tumbling down. From her perspective, this is probably the most important item in our visit, but the fact is that she's caught one of my neurons in mid-fire (the one that's thinking about her blood sugar, which is segueing into the neuron that's preparing the diet-and-exercise discussion, which is intersecting with the one that's debating about initiating a statin). Most doctors are reasonably competent, caring individuals, but the overwhelming swirl of thoughts that we must keep track of leaves many of us in a perpetual panic that something serious might slip.