EMBARASSING MOMENTS

One of my “worries” in life is having something accidentally glued to my face (or up my nose) without knowing about it. I personally think it is common courtesy to tell somebody they have something on their face or up their nose before allowing them to talk to another individual…or see patients. I know I would tell somebody the same thing. I mean we are now in the cold and flu season and it could happen…right? Well, today I found that was not the case. People do not want to talk about embarrassing things on other individuals because it is frankly not something that is brought up in normal conversation. "Um, excuse me...but you have something hanging out of your nose..."

Although I have had the usual allergy and cold symptoms with nasal discharge this fall season I did not have anything obvious glued up my nose. That actually was a good thing. What I did have was tomato soup for lunch which was one of those microwavable drinkable types. I thoroughly enjoyed my soup for lunch today while doing my clinical time. My lunch ended at 1300. I saw patients until I had to make a pit stop. I had to go to the bathroom to blow my nose at 1430 because of my allergies. Then I noticed it…tomato soup on my nose. A rather large dried splat of orange colored liquid located in the middle of my nose. Why didn’t anybody tell me?? I can only imagine what the patients and staff members thought. Such as…“Man, she is such a slob when she eats, huh?” Or, “I don’t want to know what that orange stuff is on her nose.” Or maybe, “Hmmm…do I want her to touch me?”

I soon cleaned the mess that was caked on my nose. I hoped not too many people looked at it and decided I was some sort of alien. Afterall, nobody told me it was there. I never noticed anybody looking at my nose. Who knew??

Life went on in the clinical setting. And yes…without the large amount of dried orange stuff on my nose. If only I could relive that moment knowing about four people looked at the cake orange stuff on my nose instead of looking at me when I asked questions. I am sure I looked very credible doing the patient exams today.