OK I have my own grim hospital humor to share.

Years ago my wife had stomach surgery to remove a tumor. After the surgery, she had to walk around the nurses station to get her digestive tract moving again. I helped her do this, walking with her and trying to keep her alert.

Now for those of you who have never seen someone who had invasive digestive tract surgery, there are several complications. One is that your gut feels like it's about to split open so every time you have to flex those muscles, it hurts like hell. So she always walked with a pillow on her abdomen pushing in the entire time.

So there we are, she's got one hand on her IV set, one hand on her pillow. I don't remember how the subject came up but I made some innocent comment on how I mistakenly thought for years that the Japanese national anthem (she is Japanese) was titled "Hey You", a mistranslation on my part that I figured out only several years after living there.

We were just passing the nurses station when I said this. My wife began to giggle, and cry at the same time, as the laughing hurt like hell. Nurses start to stare at me, then begin to glare at me. My wife never forgot this, she loves to tell the story, so I figured why shouldn't I tell it for a change?