universal precautions

I went to Habitat today and got set to work with a great group of folks. Met the hottest man I've ever seen around these parts (and I forgot to write down where he plays regularly, dammit, though I'm sure he wouldn't recognize me out of Habitat gear), and spent some time sorting nails with my favorite Americorps peeps. There was just one guy I didn't feel drawn to. So did I avoid him? Of course the universe would not allow that. Oh, no, I had to spend the day in the emergency room with him.

We'd been at site maybe three hours when I was getting ready to take off for a long lunch to register at law school and get my books; then I planned to come back and finish the day and say good-byes to the weekday people. (Michigan Leader was so happy to see me today it was touching.) We were carrying a floor beam over when Scruffy Sliced Guy ripped out a big chunk of his elbow and blood poured. The only vehicle around was mine and of course I jumped up to take him, and we quickly and quietly headed out. I cleaned up the elbow a little with my everpresent wipes and he held McDonald's napkins on it.

Unfortunately, Habitat was a disaster when it came to knowing what to do. The "medic" doesn't know anything about medicine. He said he could clean it, but I was not thrilled about the unsanitary environment (when I saw him pick up the tweezers from the ground and pull back the skin without any cleansing) and he needed stitches. I went searching for leaders to talk to about taking Scruffy Sliced Guy to the emergency room, but it was chaos. Nobody knew ANYTHING and one guy (who really bugs me, though he did save me from certain death on the ladder on Saturday) said some bullshit about how they couldn't take him for liability reasons if something happened on the way. I was like, "What?! We travel in the backs of Habitat pickups and do extremely dangerous things every day. And nobody can take him to the flaming hospital?!" Pepe Le Pew was quite helpful during this time (I can tell he's finally warming up to me), and I snuck off to rinse and sanitize my hands which were still covered with Scruffy Sliced Guy's blood.

I had registration to hit and only an hour window to do it, and I was feeling a little stressed but unwilling to leave Scruffy Sliced Guy to this chaos.

Some random person handed me a map to a hospital - on a piece of siding! It was a beautiful map and I loaded up The Bleeder and off we went. I dropped him off then headed to First Choice Law School where some other law student chatted up my license plates and led me straight to registration, then dropped $697 on textbooks (OUCH!), then headed back to the emergency room where we sat about three hours. Which really isn't that bad, and I had orientation materials to read. When we finally did see the doctor, he was way cool and has an interesting way to handle New Orleans - remove all people from the lowest land around here and flood it every few years and pay tourists to see. He had been through the worst of the worst - while he treated people through the storm and its aftermath, his house flooded AND burned. Our brief little chat was entertaining enough to make the whole day worthwhile and I hope I see him again sometime.

So, if this is the price I pay for all the really great things that come my way that people do for me, then of course it is such a minor one and I was happy to do it. Scruffy Sliced Guy was so grateful and it really was not a big deal at all. He's of course a very nice guy and his family sounds so sweet, and by taking him clear back to Saint Bernard Parish I got to see how things have changed there since April.

So now I know where a nearby hospital is, and I have lots of reading to do. In all, a successful day I'd say.

Next two days are orientation for the full day, so that was my last weekday Habitat day for the foreseeable future, and that has me way sad.

Fortunately I got one of the last pieces of bread pudding at Zimmer's, so I can sublimate.