No punch line.
Seriously, I fell down the stairs. The back stairs at police headquarters, to be exact.
I was in a hurry, had my cell phone in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. The steps are the kind with the rubber coating. I saw that they had been freshly mopped and thought to myself, "I better be careful." Next thing I knew, I was airborne. Down a whole flight I went. I landed on my right side, causing my gun (in it's holster) to slam into my ribs. I immediately felt a shooting pain in my right side. Two officers who were coming down the steps a few flights up from me heard me. They came running down and said, "Are you okay!?!" I felt so stupid that I said, "Yeah, I'm fine," got up, and walked out to my squad car. I was so embarrassed, I could have had a broken leg and I swear I would have still got up and walked out.
I drove my squad car to my office, closed my office door, took my vest off and examined myself for any signs of a fracture. I didn't find any but I was in some serious pain. One of my officers convinced me to go to the hospital. I told the nurse that I've given birth naturally to two babies, so I can handle pain, but this seriously hurt. I thought for sure I had broken some ribs but instead it turned out no fracture, just bruised ribs. She prescribed Vicodin! Um, yeah, no thanks. I think I'll stick to ibuprofen.
Now, a week later, the shooting pain is gone but I'm still pretty sore. The worst part is everyone at work knows! In my line of work, battle scars and injuries come with the territory but when you get one from something as lame as falling down the stairs...well, let's just say I already have a few nicknames! ;-)
