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My watch stopped … it had to, it's been running fast all day.

According to my latest x-rays, my hip bone is still connected to my thigh bone … Oh, them bones, them bones, them dry bones…

Stanford doctor Jeffrey Norton ordered some x-rays to try to confirm a false positive of cancer in the hip bone. An earlier CT scan showed suspicious activity in the area, but we don't believe it. 

The nurse, nicknamed "Yogi," asked if my hip hurts. Nope. "Let me see you walk," she said, so I did. Wearing a pair of very thin hospital shorts that didn't stay up very well, I sauntered to the door and sashayed back to the table. As the sound of catcalls and whistles died down, she said I walk "just fine."

Actually, she was very professional, as was the other nurse, Cher. What a team they make: Yogi, Cher and friends.

Norton and Dr. David Mohler, an orthopaedic oncologist, didn't stop at the hip bone, though. They also x-rayed my ribs and skull, where they found more "suspicious activity."

Something showed up on my ribs, but I don't have any to spare (although Big Nate's in San Francisco has perhaps the best ribs ever).

There's also a curious spot in the back of my skull, but I've always been soft in the head.

"Does it hurt when I do this?" the doctor asked as he pressed his thumb into the back of my head and then into my ribs. Nope.

The next step is a biopsy of the hip area, but there's nothing to worry about with my ribs and skull, according to the doctors. The conclusion: Doctors will always find something wrong if they order enough tests. 

If the doctors really wanted some interesting x-rays, they should have looked at my shoulders, where I had rotator cuff replacement surgeries and a broken clavicle, courtesy of a Cadillac Escalade that plowed into me on the highway a few years back.

The doctors found my tickalillium, my funny bone, has a bump. They say if I like it, I can keep it.

I'll try to exercise my tickalillium on Wednesday, when Teresa Corrigan visits the Marin Cancer Institute with her special brand of medicine: Laughter Yoga. It sounds like an interesting idea, getting a group of people together to play games, try yoga and laugh.

Laughter Yoga reportedly decreases stress, helps in the release of serotonin and endorphins, lowers the blood pressure and improves joint flexibility.

I could use some laughter after the stress of navigating the churning waters of the medical system.

Corrigan recommends using Laughter Yoga before surgery to reduce stress. It might be a good idea to hold off for a while after surgery, however. The abdominal muscles are sore and you don't want to bust a gut laughing.

Laughter really could be the best medicine. Just remember, "better a trophy than atrophy."