Friday, March 02, 2007

Tetanus? No Thank You!

My friend Tina and I were having a conversation a week or so ago about whether tetanus (AKA lockjaw) was still a factor in modern medicine. I've never known anyone with tetanus...she's never known anyone with tetanus. Between the two of us, we decided that no one in the entire world still gets tetanus so tetanus shots are dumb.

In addition to my anti-tetanus declaration, I figured I was safe from the dreaded hypodermic needle because I had a tetanus booster 8 years ago when I stepped on a nail. (You only need boosters every 10 years.) Of course, my false bravado only meant I was cursed...doomed to have a big needle jabbed in my arm.

Today was my "well-patient" visit with my new doctor. Apparently, I need one of those before a doctor is willing to see me when I'm actually sick. (I guess I don't blame them - I don't like being around sick people either.)

The doc suggested I get another tetanus booster because there's a dose that's combined with a whooping cough booster. Apparently, the whooping cough vaccines we got as kids must've sucked, because whooping cough is on the rise. We're now supposed to get another booster as adults. (I just like typing that...whooping cough...whooping cough. It sounds much more fun that it probably is. Yep...I was right...not much fun.)

Although I wanted to run away at the mere mention of the word 'shot,' I am 30 and babies get shots all the time, so I figured I could suck it up. Wrong! That dang shot HURT. My entire arm is sore. It feels like I did 2 hours of heavy lifting. In fact, I'm wondering if I can get lock-arm from a shot because that's what I feel like I have.

Thank goodness we only get these things every 10 years (or in my case 8). It's not exactly a rockin' good time.

My Sad Sorry Self

It's Friday night and what am I doing? I'm sitting at home whining about my non-tetanus filled body. I'm just so pooped, I couldn't even muster the energy to be social. In addition to traveling this week, I worked until 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 8 p.m. on Thursday, had to be in before 8 a.m. today and worked until 7:30 p.m. tonight. I wish I was a big slacker and that I didn't care if I turned in shoddy work and that I'd just say 'too bad' if I didn't get stuff done in a normal work day. Unfortunately, I'm responsible...GAG!

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