The following is a real conversation between a doctor (Dr A) and a patient (Mr X). The lines in italics are thought bubbles above Dr A’s head

Dr A: Hello Mr X, I hear you are having nose bleeds again. Its almost certainly due to the leukaemia, preventing your body from making any platelets

Mr X: Yes doctor, you are right. It always happens when I have no platelets and then I blow my nose.

Dr A: Do you have a cold? Why are you blowing your nose?

Mr X: No, I dont have a cold. I blow my nose so I get rid of the bacteria, so I dont get a cold.

Dr A: What the hell??!! Ummm….Mr X, please dont blow your nose. Because you cant get rid of bacteria like that, and all you are doing is giving yourself nose-bleeds! You almost died with your last bleed, as it wouldn’t stop bleeding!

Mr X: But you always fix my nose bleeds. So, no problems!

Dr A: Walk away, because I am not going to win this argument!

Dr A returns half an hour later to see if the nose bleeds have settled down.

Mr X: Yes, they have settled doctor, but the bleeding starts if I get up and walk around. Here, I show you…

(Mr X proceeds to get out of bed and walk around before Dr A can tell him not to. The nose starts to spurt again.)

Dr A: Great!

Dr A spends the next hour trying to stop his bleeding

Moral of the story: some people are hell-bent on proving Darwin right. You can only stop them from doing it so many times