a painful lesson to learn.

While at work on Thursday, I was in a room seeing a patient. I was in the midst of interrogating/ playfully bantering with my patient when I decided to lean out over the sink to get the tools of my trade, an ear speculum and a tongue depressor. Of course it would not make sense for these items to be easily accessible. No, they must be placed in the farthest corner of the room in the most inopportune of places. So, as I extended out over the sink, placing myself in an awkward position, I must have turned ever so slightly...and what happened next was a painful lesson indeed. Something...shifted...in my back and it made it's presence known with a sharp searing pain. I was in the middle of a sentence and I heard my voice catch. I tried to be strong and continue interviewing my patient, but we were discussing the contents of their vomit. As I sat there next to my patient trying to look in thier ears and classify their vomit, I began to feel very...hot...and light headed... and sick to my stomach. So, I promptly excused myself from the room and briskly walked to the employee bathroom where I laid myself on the floor (yes, I said the floor!) and sent up many prayers that I would not pass out or throw up....while laying there pondering what I was going to do about the patient's that I had left to see I decided that maybe I would feel a little less like passing out if I ate something...I mean I had missed breakfast...it only made sense. So, I slowly and carefully stood to my feet and then made my way from the employee bathroom back to the provider office where my desk and my granola bar are. I made it just in time to flop into my desk chair trying to clear my very fuzzy head. I felt VERY sick to my stomach and made my way into the bathroom in my office and again found myself needing to lay on the floor (something I would normally never do!!). Once the nausea and light headedness passed for a second time, I made myself sloooowly walk back to the nurses station and I asked one of the nurses for some Tylenol. She had her back to me but turned to tell me where it was. When she saw me she exclaimed, "Paula!! You are white as a sheet!!" This brought the attention of all of the nurses at the nurses station and in the lab and at the nurses station next to ours...before I knew what was happening, I was in a chair having my blood pressure taken, Gatorade, crackers, and tylenol placed into my hands and many concerned looks thrown in my direction. You could never say that the nurses at work don't care about other people. After sitting there for a minute, I felt like my color had returned and I decided that I was fit to go back into my patient room and finish my morning appointments....wrong! Just as I was raising my hand to knock on the patient door, Dr. D made it out of the room that she had been in and my nurse friends that had been so diligently taking care of me betrayed me..."Dr. D, look at how pale Paula is!" "Oh no", I inwardly groaned..."this is not how I want to start out my first few weeks of employment!!!" Dr. D looked at me and quickly told me to go sit down in the lab. I tried to tell her that I was fine and that I was capable of finishing my job. She would not hear of it and so, I slowly walked into the lab and sat down. A few seconds later, the nurses were back buzzing around me taking my temperature checking my blood sugar....and all I could do was sit there and shake my head wondering if I was going to be able to finish my day. Dr. D came and talked to me briefly as I tried to convince her that I was in fact o.k. to return to work. Finally, I had convinced her that I would not soon pass out and I finished seeing my last two patient's of the morning. By that time, the Tylenol had had plenty of time to kick in. I was extra careful with my movements for the rest of the day, and I went home took some ibuprofen and soaked in a hot bath to try to relieve the pain...It was a day that I hope I never repeat. I think that I will have a little more mercy now when talking to people who struggle with back pain!