Hit Over The Head By A 2-By-4

The nurse asked how I was. This was about 2 hours after the oncologist laid out the bad news.

Assuming (wrongly of course) that she had heard of my sentence, I mean, diagnosis, I replied, “Other than getting hit over the head by a 2-by-4, I’m okay.”
She immediately picked up my file and began to rifle through it.
“2-by-4? Did that happen here? Are you in pain? Does your head hurt? I can check the orders to see if I can give you something.”
“I keep forgetting you medical folks are very literal. But I guess that’s a good thing in your line of work.”
She smiled and nodded and asked, "But do you have any bruising?"
I explained I was speaking metaphorically and that I had not really been hit by a 2-by-4 but by a ton of bricks called leukemia.
She smiled again, not really getting it.

My fault. Say what you mean. Mean what you say.