April Fools Played Tricks on Me!!

If it would have been an ordinary day, I may not have thought twice about the events that occurred today.

But, being April Fools, I couldn't help but laugh. At times, I thought I might cry...but instead I found the power to just laugh. Really hard!!

The day started with me waking up on my own, without my alarm. Most days I welcome this, because it's proof I went to bed early enough. But this morning I was woken up by really bad stomach cramps and really loud birds!

Now the first part (really bad cramps) just sucks. If you're a woman, you know cramps suck. And if you're a man, just imagine one of your organs being twisted raw. Enough said!

And the second part (really loud birds) meant that is was WAY too late for me to be sleeping! And more, when I opened my eyes and saw the sliver of light peaking through the lower portion of my blinds, I knew I overslept! It's ALWAYS dark when I wake up! So sure enough I checked my phone (AKA alarm clock) and for whatever reason, it was completely turned off...which meant the alarm wasn't working.

So I woke up too late for my workout, but just in time to get ready for clinicals. I got out the door in time (thank goodness!!!) and headed to the hospital.

And then I realized that I left my school binder at work yesterday which had the schedule of events for the day...and the locations. Great, so now I have no idea where I'm supposed to go. This was only my second day with infectious disease and Monday through Friday has a different agenda spread out over four or five different buildings.

No big deal, I think! So I call work and ask for the room where I know my binder is laying!! I ask the night nurse there what the schedule says for 8 am and the directions I wrote down. I can do this. A little sleeping in and not having my agenda is not going to get me down. And neither are these really bad cramps!

So I head to the area that the resident told me to go on Fridays. Except what I had written down was a part of the hospital that apparently NOBODY knew where it was!! I asked about 30 people in every hallway I went down and walked around various parts of the hospital for a good 25 min.

But I finally found the room, walked in about 15 min late, and sat down. As I looked at the power point being discussed, I knew right away it was NOT the right room. But since I walked in late and everyone looked at me, I was NOT walking back out now! I would just continue to listen to an entire hour lecture on gram negative rods! Good thing I brought my coffee!!

As the lecture was nearing the end, I realized I forgot to ask where I was supposed to be at 9 when I had the night nurse looking at my schedule! My assumption was that I would find the correct lecture place and meet up with the resident I'm working with. Oops, guess that's why they say what they do about assuming!

So I had to leave the lecture 5 minutes early (people probably thought, what is this joker doing!?) in order to call work again, and have another nurse tell me where to go!! The only problem was the nurse told me my agenda sheet said 3 different areas.

Now my guess is it really didn't but she didn't know how to read the sheet correctly. So I decide to go to the first area she told me. Only when I get there it's a dilapidated floor with major construction going on. Nope, this was not the HIV clinic I was trying to get to. Next up, wrong again. Now it's 9:15 and I'm starting to freak out just a bit. I HATE being late!!

So I head to the library area (a good 5 min walk) where I know I can search the pager number of the attending that I'm working with. I page him a "Help, I'm lost" page and give him my cell to call.

But then I realize I have to pee...really bad! Great, I'm going to go to the bathroom, and he'll call then. Nothing like answering my cell phone when I'm on the toilet! Yes, that's glamorous! But that's what had to happen (and did!) or I would have had "peed in my pants" as another "Trick" being played on me!

Luckily, he was running late too and told me to meet him in an area I knew very well. So we drove over to the adolescent HIV clinic. As we were walking up the steps, the sole of my shoe falls off.

YUP! Just falls right off! Not even quite sure how that happened!! It was hanging on my a thread at the very lower portion of my heel, thank goodness, otherwise it would have been sock on cement for the rest of the day!

After HIV clinic we head back to the hospital to visit out inpatients....which takes all of 20 minutes, and the attending says we should call it a day. That would be great, but it was 1 pm. And my clinicals are not based on the amount of days, but the amount of hours. So this was a silly joke.

Only he wasn't joking. He was serious. So I headed home, with mixed emotions! Who wouldn't be excited to get home early....but now I'm short 6 hours (on top of 2 days from last quarter that were cancelled by my preceptor)!!

On the way home I decided I would go for a run at the gym, head to the store for a few items, and head home to make a nice dinner. But the April Fools trickery wasn't done yet!!

Running up the steps in the gym to get to the treadmills, (in my mind, oh so athletically and gracefully!) I trip and fall right on my hands and knees. Brush it off...just brush it off...even though i saw the guy in too short shorts on the eliptical laughing at me! I should laugh at his shorts!

After a good run, I head to the store...and getting out of the car the crazy wind whips my grocery list right off my lap and into a huge mud puddle. My list was a black, soppy mess that I could not resurrect! Again, oh well!

So at the end of the day, after getting ridiculously lost (twice!), not knowing my agenda, being short a half day of clinical hours, having my shoe fall apart, tripping up stairs, and losing my grocery list to a mud puddle, I couldn't help but take a nice hot shower, and laugh....really hard!!!

If there was ever a day that I needed to laugh these series of misfortunes off, April Fools day was it!! And so I did. And that's no joke!