Flu Shot Day

Today was employee flu shot day at work.  We have a clinic on site and the shot is free for us.  If we don’t get a flu shot, we have to wear a mask whenever we are in the health center.  I am surprised at the number of employees who don’t get a free flu shot.  The flu sucks, as you may know.

So I went to the clinic and signed a form, then sat down next to some other employees.  I got to sit next to one of the EMTs, a nice quiet fellow who sat there quietly and didn’t try to chit chat.  There were five of us, in a row of about 15 chairs.  When the lady in the first seat got up to go get her shot, the rest of us moved down one seat.  We did it again when the second person got up to go get their shot.  When the third person got up to go in, the EMT and I decided that we were not going to move down a seat again.  It was stupid.  We were the only two people in line.  We agreed if a crowd formed behind us, we would move down.

He went to get his shot, and I got ready to be next.  It’s not like I was having an IV and exploratory surgery, but I still had to psyche myself up.  I would not like to wear a mask at work, for one thing.  For another, I would prefer not to get the flu.  It is worth a few seconds of panic. 

My turn!  I go into the clinic and it’s not my usual shot-giving Betty!   My usual Betty has given me shots over the years at work and I’ve never felt a single one of them, seriously.  I don’t know how she does it.  My coworker had had her flu shot earlier and told me that she had a different nurse, but that she was good too and it didn’t hurt.   I was glad I already knew that. 

First she took my temperature by sticking a machine in my ear.  She said my temperature was 96.7.  She asked if I was cold.  I wasn’t cold, and I asked her if a low temperature was bad.  I asked her if she was going to call an ambulance.  She said no, as long as I wasn’t cold it was nothing to worry about.

I had forgotten it was flu shot day when I got dressed this morning and was not dressed appropriately.  It was hard to push my sleeve up high enough, so the nurse suggested I take off my top.  Look, I know I was in a clinic, but I was also at work, so I just pulled up one side of my top and slipped my arm out, then awkwardly bunched-up the top around my left boob and armpit so only my arm was sticking out.  She gave me the shot, it was quick and relatively painless, and then she took a big ol’ wad of gauze and put it on the injection site, and covered that with a band aid.  No mask for me.  Hopefully also no flu.

My original plan was to post a picture of my arm with the giant puffy bandage, to show you the overkill.  I was in my nightgown when I remembered I wanted to take a picture.  I took the camera into the bathroom where the big mirror is, took off my nightgown, and tried to maneuver my bandaged arm and my camera-holding arm to take a picture.  I was standing in the bathroom naked, wiggling around trying to see in the mirror what the camera would see, when I glanced into the bedroom and realized I had not closed the curtain when I had covered up the birdcage.  The neighbor could see straight into my bathroom if he happened to be standing in an exact spot on his deck.  When I realized that, I turned out the light and put my nightgown back on.   Now I wonder if my neighbor saw me naked in my bathroom.  My bandaged arm was away from the window so he would not have seen the bandage itself, just me gyrating around taking naked pictures of myself.  Great.

I did manage to get one picture.  I just looked at it.  You will never see it.  I was apparently holding the camera sideways, because the picture looks like I am face-down on the floor with a giant bandage on my arm.