Freeky Friday: Blushworthy

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Welcome to another Freeky Friday! Today's topic:

Part of positivity is about not taking yourself too seriously. Tell us an embarrassing story about yourself!

There a couple of things you should know about me, if you do not already. First, I blush constantly. I have Irish skin; it's just part of who I am. I blush when I'm embarrassed, when I'm laughing, when I'm uncomfortable, hell, probably when I'm hungry (which is always). I would not be good in a game of poker.

The other thing you should know about me is that I have a ton of hilarious patient stories (of course, I never use any identifying factors, in order to protect privacy). I work for Grady Memorial Hospital, an inner-city Level 1 Trauma Center, and when it comes to my patient population, there is never a dull moment.

A few months ago, I had a patient who was running from the police when he jumped over a fence and fractured his tibial plateau, a part of the knee. Since this type of injury is so close to the joint line, sometimes physicians will write certain restrictions for movement. They'll place the patient in a knee immobilizer splint and tell us we're not allowed to bend it. However, once motion is permitted, it is absolutely necessary. Basically, it's really important that we get in to see these patients as soon after surgery as possible. This patient had been ordered to range his knee as much as tolerated, so I had my work cut out for me.

This patient wasn't the most motivated. Of course, he was in a lot of pain, but he also in police custody. This is fairly common at Grady. A given patient will be in shackles with an officer sitting in their hospital room; if we need to get them up to teach them how to walk with crutches or something, we just ask the officer to unlock them. The officer will stay with us to make sure we're safe, and I've never had a problem with it. The reason these patients aren't the most motivated bunch is because they're being discharged to jail (or prison, depending on the crime). Would you want to leave a comfortable bed with a TV for jail?

When I went in to see this particular patient, I noticed that there wasn't an officer in the room. I paged him, I asked the nurse to look into it, I even had another officer down the hall call their superior. Nothing. I really wanted to get this patient up and walking, but I figured at least I could still range his knee while waiting on the officer. The patient saw this as an excuse to get out of working with me (and thus prolong the inevitable discharge to jail), but I assured him that we could still exercise.

"Please!" I said. "There's still plenty you can do while shackled to the bed."

I realized what I had just said.

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I had hoped the patient didn't realize the, um, alternate meaning behind that statement, but he was young and just as immature as I am. He thought it was hilarious. Blushing ensued.

What about you? Do you have an embarrassing moment to share?

Remember, anyone can get Freeky on Fridays! You can participate in three different ways:

• Write a blog post using the badge html above, then comment on my post with a link to your post
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Every time you post, tweet or comment in the month of July, you'll be entered to win some Peanut Butter S'mores Bites and a contribution to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in your name. This is your last chance to enter for July, but you can be entered up to three times!

Be sure to come back next Friday, August 5th for an all new contest and and all new prompt:

If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be?