It's a special job

I love what I do. I certainly write enough about that that we all should know it. Sometimes though, there are downsides.

Typically work-related injuries are muscular or joint related. Those can, of course, be quite major and I cannot even imagine. These are risks for us, although maybe a bit less since we're very highly trained in ergonomics. I will admit though to one back injury that put me on painkillers, and another time my dr. thought I had sprained my lower back and gave me muscle relaxers, although I think it was a UTI.

Today though I had one of the several minor injuries at work that make it clear that healthcare is unique. The first of these was before I was even an OT student. I was a counselor at a special needs camp and over 3 years had several incidents: minor bites from kids and a broken tooth. The worst was when I was holding a child while swinging. For no reason at all he bit my "chest" hard and didn't let go, probably because I was reacting to the pain. The bruise lasted for months. Last year I had to fill out an incident report because a patient grabbed the same area and twisted, deeply scratching me. Lots of gunk lives under fingernails so I had to fill out a report.

Today though may be the most amazingly bad luck in an incident I've ever had. I went to the dementia unit in the evening to show staff something. The patient we were discussing suddenly had massive diarrhea. The aide went to change her. I was walking out when I saw a huge puddle of diarrhea at the other end of the hall. Another resident had been dripping everywhere, then created the big mess. I got the other aide, who asked me to watch the other residents. They were playing catch, so I started tossing the ball. It was going very well and was very tame for nights on the unit. And then it happened. Someone threw a ball which hit my glasses just right so that they fell off my face and were smacked into my lip by the ball. It broke the skin and I have a slightly fat lip.

I wouldn't care, but the ball was bouncing on the floor and the floor was potentially very, very dirty. I cleaned it up, but time will tell if I was fortunate enough to avoid the nasty infections I'm sure I was exposed to.

Until then I look like I tried to shave my upper lip with a dull razor.