Itch-scratch-itch
Yeah. It is true. I gave my intern fleas.
Well, I didn’t personally do it. But the flea bitten buck stopped on my desk. Yet another hazard of rural health.
You might, or might not, recall BabyDoc--the second-year medical student who worked with me this last summer. BabyDoc just loved home visits; where we go out into one of the 16 small villages that line the river and bring medicine to the folks who can’t get to us.
For the most part, despite the crushing poverty in our service area, homes are neat, clean, and welcoming. I’ve been in adobe homes with dirt floors that were so clean we probably could have done brain surgery in them, no problem.
But other times….well, other times you get fleas. Both BabyDoc and my full-time assistant got chewed to pieces at this one place we visited. Somehow I escaped. BabyDoc took it in stride. Every breath of life is a great adventure for her. My assistant is still suffering post-traumatic stress syndrome.
But what reminded me of this notorious home visit is the fact that I’m feeling flea bitten today. The tape that holds Navigator in place really is making my skin itch. Scratch-scratch-scratch-scratch. I dig my fingernails into the clear bandage around the base of the transmitter; but like wearing a cast for a broken leg, I can’t reach the part under the frame where it itches the most.
The Abbott tape is unlike any other I recall. It isn’t porous like IV3000. So the skin can’t breathe. It has no soft cloth-like lining like you get on all infusion sets. And it is BIG. I’ve entombed a patch of skin more than three inches long and two inches wide. That’s what? Six-square inches of itching skin? Barbaric.
For me at least, it seems to hold pretty much like super-glue. After removing the first one, I had a bright-red oval on the back of my arm for days.
Well, unlike fleas, at least tape doesn’t lay eggs.
Well, I didn’t personally do it. But the flea bitten buck stopped on my desk. Yet another hazard of rural health.
You might, or might not, recall BabyDoc--the second-year medical student who worked with me this last summer. BabyDoc just loved home visits; where we go out into one of the 16 small villages that line the river and bring medicine to the folks who can’t get to us.
For the most part, despite the crushing poverty in our service area, homes are neat, clean, and welcoming. I’ve been in adobe homes with dirt floors that were so clean we probably could have done brain surgery in them, no problem.
But other times….well, other times you get fleas. Both BabyDoc and my full-time assistant got chewed to pieces at this one place we visited. Somehow I escaped. BabyDoc took it in stride. Every breath of life is a great adventure for her. My assistant is still suffering post-traumatic stress syndrome.
But what reminded me of this notorious home visit is the fact that I’m feeling flea bitten today. The tape that holds Navigator in place really is making my skin itch. Scratch-scratch-scratch-scratch. I dig my fingernails into the clear bandage around the base of the transmitter; but like wearing a cast for a broken leg, I can’t reach the part under the frame where it itches the most.
The Abbott tape is unlike any other I recall. It isn’t porous like IV3000. So the skin can’t breathe. It has no soft cloth-like lining like you get on all infusion sets. And it is BIG. I’ve entombed a patch of skin more than three inches long and two inches wide. That’s what? Six-square inches of itching skin? Barbaric.
For me at least, it seems to hold pretty much like super-glue. After removing the first one, I had a bright-red oval on the back of my arm for days.
Well, unlike fleas, at least tape doesn’t lay eggs.
posted by Wil | 8:00 AM
2 Comments:
What an image.
And yeah, infusion set stickiness breaths better.
Hope the manufacturers read your blog to get better insight as to what daily use and wear is Really like.
I wonder if you might have an allergy to the sticky stuff? I come out in a rash with some types of plaster, but not others, when I put one on after slicing my finger, etc.
Just a thought - it would be a pain in the arse if you were...
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