Lunch, Lunch, Lunch

I saw a huge jar of peanut butter at Costco and thought of Mike’s hospital lunches.  The hospital crowd can attest to this better than I can—but I’m pretty certain Mike had a highly restricted diet all those years working at KGH.  Aside from lunch rounds sponsored by drug companies or end-of-the-rotation lunches ‘sponsored’ by the supervising attending doctor—Mike mostly ate peanut butter sandwiches.  That’s a lot of peanut butter when you consider 7 years of medical residency preceded by a year and a half as a ‘clinical clerk’ medical student…

From the cafeteria he would typically buy slices of whole wheat bread, several mini-packages of peanut butter, a piece of cheese, an apple, and a yogurt.  When I found out about this routine, I would periodically ask why he didn’t bring his lunch to work?  Did he want some leftovers from dinner?  Surely he needed some variety!  With his bags crammed with a huge binder of coveted ECGs, his laptop, palm pilot, stethoscope, cell phone, (and later iPhone), pager, etc, etc. the food never quite made it into his bag(s) as a priority.  He was often leaving for rounds first thing in the morning, running backwards, waving, without enough time or energy to scrounge up something more creative and actually carry in all the way to work. 

Sometimes, others would offer to buy him lunch while at the cafeteria.  As I understand it, he would accept the offer—but still buy the same thing!  I hear this was a point of amusement for some…  With Mike, it was never about the money.  Rather, it was about ‘sticking’ to what he liked best J (pun intended…).  And there are many other examples of how he stuck to this philosophy in life.  Why deviate when you have found what works best?

When he started his fellowship in electrophysiology, he was given a little office space (more akin to a small closet).  He was thrilled to have a space of his own to retreat and read between cases, even if it was also used for storage.  He was also excited to have somewhere to store his own jar of peanut butter and stash of MacIntosh apples:  life’s simple pleasures.

Lucas was eating ants on a log a few days ago—which is peanut butter slathered on a piece of celery, topped with raisins (ants).   Maybe this should be Lucas’ new lunch routine…?  Emily just recently had her first taste of this peanut buttery goodness  (gobbling up the coveted raisins, licking off the peanut butter and discarding the celery).  The ants go marching 3 by 3, hurrah, hurrah…!

(There is no doubt in my mind that Mike would be joining into this song by the second bar…)…