I felt just like a nurse today.

And just like a patient... at the same time. 

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This morning while I was in the kitchen, I bent down to grab something and stood up really fast, right into the corner of an open cabinet. I hit my head so hard that my the top of my head started bleeding and the pain immediately made me nauseous. I was seeing stars when I crawled over to the freezer and grabbed some ice to put on top of my throbbing head.

And as I sat there, I transformed from being a patient to being a nurse.

I thought to myself,
"What's your name?"
"When is your date of birth?"
"What day is it today?"
"Who is the President of the United States?"
"Ok, now count backwards from 100 by 7s."

I made sure my strength was equal in both hands and both feet, and then I grabbed my penlight and crawled into the bathroom to check my pupil dilation and reflexes in the mirror. Aaaand I determined that I would be just fine (and laughed a little at the thought of crawling to the bathroom with ice on my head).

I'm sure I was overreacting, but when you spend day in and day out seeing the worst possible scenario of things, you can't help but be cautious (i.e. a patient I saw this week had gone septic and almost died after eating a cupcake that had E. coli... crazy, right?).

And hey, it's pretty handy information to know! I now understand why people say, "Once a nurse, always a nurse."