I heard one of my “trigger songs” this morning. You know what a trigger song is, right? It’s a bit of music that once you hear it, immediately brings back memories, good or bad. Some of those memories might be buried deep in your subconsciousness; hearing the song startles you into instant awareness. I probably have half a dozen of those tunes moored in the sulci of my brain, waiting to be untethered.

The trigger song I heard today was from David Bowie, a number from the early 1980s called Modern Love. It’s a bouncy, danceable, upbeat tune–though the lyrics don’t relate to me in any fashion. So why is it a trigger song for me? Here’s the story.

In the fall of 2005, I had just left my long-time position at Holy Family Medical Center, as the hospital converted from a general hospital to an “”LTAC,” a long-term acute care facility (think very ill patients on respirators.) I had begun my association with UroPartners and my first task, was the creation of a laboratory to process and read urological biopsies–mostly prostate biopsies, but bladder and skin biopsies, too.

The process was long and arduous, as step by step I first went through the design, and then the process of obtaining a contractor, necessary permits, and laboratory equipment.

After a month of working totally solo, and spending sleepless nights wondering if the grossing station I had ordered would fit through the front door (the lab space lacked a loading dock,) I was given a temporary office in the headquarters of a consulting group that was working closely with UroPartners on the integration of the various doctors and facilities that were joining together to form the “super-group.” I was also given a consultant/partner to help me on the business end of the lab set-up and though she knew nothing about laboratories, she was a steadying influence on my efforts.

So where does David Bowie fit into this scene? I never brought a radio to the office, but I did have a computer on which I streamed WXRT, my favorite radio station, into the space while I made my hiring decisions, argued with contractors, and chose paint colors. A quirk of streaming radio in those days was that the commercials that were being broadcast over the airwaves did not stream. Instead of ads, I would hear, over and over, a bit of saxophone from Modern Love.

So yes, when I hear the first few notes of the old Bowie hit, my mind immediately drifts back–and I remember how panicked I originally was, but then I also remember how well it all turned out.

Not all triggers are bad ones.

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Send me some of your trigger songs at chidoc@post.com or comment directly on the post.

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