A nurse said: "We all play a game called Interesting Things I Have Found in Obese People�s Rolls of Fat."

"So far I�m sitting in third with a fork, second place is an ICU nurse who found a TV remote, and the winner is an ER nurse who found a tuna fish sandwich."

Quoted in a WaPo article called "Nurses make fun of their dying patients. That�s okay," by Alexandra Robbins, who has a book called, "The Nurses: A Year of Secrets, Drama, and Miracles With the Heroes of the Hospital."

Robbins says:

I learned that some units have a dedicated �butt box� for items retrieved from patients� rectums � glass perfume bottles, an entire apple, etc. � though after Indiana nurses pulled out a G.I. Joe, the real unfortunate hero assumed pride of place in the nurses� station.

Her point is that usually the jokes are about "situations and symptoms"...

But even when patients do become subjects of derogatory humor, we shouldn�t rush to criticize medical professionals for using it. Bioethicist Katie Watson suggests that kind of humor may result when health-care providers feel powerless to heal. �Derisive joking does the unspoken work of reframing physicians as blameless for their inability to help,� she wrote in 2011 in the Hastings Center Report....

Humor has a place in hospitals, even if it�s dark, even if it�s derogatory � as long as it isn�t cruel.... Humor is a way for nurses to empower themselves and to unite with one another, determined and defiant, against disease and injury...

... and rolls of fat.