FACE PLANT

As the last blog was rather disgusting and graphic and has you never thinking of the frosted delicious cereal the same way, I shall share this story with you as a picker-upper. Coming from the family that I do, I don't often experience embarrassing stories. I was taught at a young age to laugh it off with everyone else. Well my clinical group LOVES to point out embarrassing things that I do and say. It doesn't bother me a bit, but I thought I'd share a few of the things that they bring up often, starting with the least embarrassing.
One of my first weeks of clinical this semester I had a patient who seemed kind of down in the dumps. I knew he was the type of patient that was a jokester with all of the sarcastic remarks he made. He called me into his room for the most ridiculous of things, just because he could (ie. scratch his back). One time he called me in just to ask me, "So, what is it that you do anyway?"..my response "Well, I do all of the things a nurse would do." (sounds good so far). "Well, what's that?" "Oh, you know, I give medications, I take vitals, I do assessments.." still not enough for him so I continued..here it comes..WORD VOMIT "I wipe butts." I got a smile from him which is what I was looking for, but I had forgotten about the other patients in the room and the other nursing students. Everyone outside the curtain was laughing at our conversation. I wasn't too concerned about them until I heard a voice from outside the curtain say, "AND.." This voice was my clinical instructor... SO I then continued on "and I, uh, chart andI .." so on and so on. I kept listing bc I got nervous about my instructer hearing me. My friends bring that up often. But not as often as this...
Back in the first semester of nursing school I was still nervous and trying to fit in. I was just starting to make friends and feel somewhat comfortable with the demands of the program. A few of my friends and I went to subway in the school cafeteria after class. We only had a short time to eat because we had a lab we had to go to. So after the group picking on me because I am quite the target for a good joke, we were getting ready to finish up and head back to the nursing building. I decided I was going to go back inside to refill my drink and everyone else said they'd meet me around the corner from the picnic tables. So.. I go in, fill my drink and walk out the front door of the cafeteria. Here I see the group kind of leaving me. I got a bit excited and tried to walk faster. Not watching where I was walking (because I was watching the group) I stepped off the pavement where this little palm tree is and face planted to the ground! My cookie in one hand flew out of it's package and into the dirt. The cup in the other hand was crushed when I tried to break my fall. My backpack is flipped over my head and I am in complete shock over what had just happened. I looked around to notice there was a large group of people standing by the wall just looking at me and laughing hysterically. I thought quickly and grabbed my ankle (even though it wasn't hurt) and started cursing like a sailor! If I was hurt, it would make them feel bad, and be less embarrassing for me. I look up again and see one of the guys with his hand out towards me. I reached for it for help to get up and he pulled it back. It was then that I realized that he was only POINTING at me not trying to help me. I am even more embarrassed at this point, really flustered and still fumbling to get up (backpack still flipped over my head). Got up and limped away(bc of my fake injury) seeing my friends in the far distance and still hearing the roaring laughter from the crowd of people. Out of the roar, I heard one girl strugglig to say (because she was still laughing so hard) as I was walking away, "Are you ok?". I tried to respond but all I could do at this point was lift up my hand to her, attempt to smile, and just cry. I finally caught up to the group of nursing students. They found me covered in dirt, with skinned knees and hands, a bright cherry red face with tears rolling down my cheeks, and with out my drink refill. I told them the story because they were all concerned (for a whole 5 min) and then we joked about it as we went into lab. Many people had asked what was wrong because I still was puffy and red from crying and still had bloody knees. I was still pretty embarrassed for about a week afterwards. Then I got over it and photoshoped a picture of me falling and sent it to my group of friends. From then, I've been the butt of most jokes.