the height of wuss-ness
i had to have a splinter surgically removed yesterday. definitely something to add to my list of "things to be ashamed of, volume XVI."

but really, it's not as bad as it sounds.
i had called my health care provider's "nurse hotline" sunday night, after Giant Piece of Wood made it's way into my body. finger, if you're keeping score. i was able to pull half of it out, but it broke off inside the skin, leaving about a 1/4 inch fragment. the person on the other end of the phone (perhaps she was stifling laughter, but she was very cordial) checked everywhere in their procedures database, but to no avail. she just told me, in a very motherly tone, that "splinters have a way of working themselves out." now, did she mean "working out" figuratively, or that the actual shard of wood would wiggle its way out of my skin? i didn't ask. shame, again.

cut to monday afternoon, approximately 3:40pm, at the Sassafras street on-ramp to I-5 south. wait, i mean Kettner. i digress. the phone rings... my doctor's amazingly ornate and effervescent nurse, charlene, was calling on behalf of the doctor to "follow up on the splinter thing." i felt an instant of betrayal. my Good Friend the nurse last night had blabbed about my embarassing predicament. so charlene asked me about the splinter. i described it, taking care to be quantitative, rather than using words like "huuuuuuuuuuge" or "giantest."
then the question: "when was your last tetanus shot?"

i can't even remember one. the last shot i remember was a TB jab upon entry to the united states. before then, i recall having to line up in the school assembly room, watching each of my classmates faces as the needle pierced their pastey english flesh. so she instructed me to "come in by 4pm so we can take a look at it and get you a tetanus shot."

luckily, the bizarre freeway structure of san diego was in my favor. oh look, there's a northbound on-ramp right here! while I'm south bound! again, i digress.

sooooo, to make a short story long, they used an 18 gauge needle to flick the skin open, and tugged at the errant piece of erik's bed until it came out. this all could have easily occured at home, with a sewing needle and slightly less iodine and anasthesia.

now i'm just a band-aided wuss with mostly a wounded ego. i'm the person you scowl at in the urgent care waiting room.