Did you know that there is a national shortage of the Tetanus vaccine?
I learned this fun fact the hard way -- on Christmas morning, no less.
You see, just because I'm 24 years-old and basically an adult, I still manage to do the stupidest of things in the name of exploration and fun.
Our Christmas present to Ben's nine year-old brother was a toy metal detector, an object I have always coveted. So, the moment Sean opened the box, I rushed to take him outside to explore the old barn on his family's property.
Long story short: I stepped on a nail, it went through my shoe and through the goodness of God (might as well give Him a shout-out on His own day), it only just grazed the flesh between two toes.
The nail I stepped on? Well, this nail should be the poster child for Tetanus. Eighty to a hundred years-old, this nail's rust had rust.
And that's why I had to get a Tetanus shot.
The experience was really a non-experience for me. However, my brother-in-law looked particularly traumatized for the remainder of the day.
Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that his siblings told him jokingly that if his metal detector was so great, he should have detected the nail before I stepped on it.
Or maybe because I told him (also jokingly) that I only had 72 hours to live.
Siblings can be so cruel and I'm making up for all my years as an only child.
When I was in the 5th grade, on Christmas Day, I stepped on a pencil running to get the phone, jabbing the non-eraser end into my recently-softened-by-a-shower foot.
Luckily it broke off before going too far, and that "pencil lead" these days are made with graphite.
So no shot for me, just a memory of the doctor using a toothbrush to get it out (it kept crumbling in the tweezers) and a small unintentional tattoo on the bottom of my foot.
It would seem that December 25th is the day to pay attention where you're walking.
Posted by: Chad | January 04, 2002 at 01:51 PM