I decided that once we got back to Utah I would go to the Health Center to get my foot checked. I don’t have the most confidence in BYU doctors…ever…but what do ya do. So on Tuesday I went and this doctor actually seemed somewhat competent. He was the only one who seemed to know what was going on. The medical assistant that took me to my room didn’t even know what a sea urchin was (oh come on!). The doctor said there were no signs of infection and soaking it in epsom salt water would help the healing process. And then he asked, “when was your last tetanus shot?” I told him 2001 and he said, “well, we usually recommend 10 years for tetanus but when there is an injury we recommend another shot unless you’ve had it within 5 years.”
Crap! So he sent me to the immunizations room where the nurse told me that the County Health Department was having a “special” on tetanus shots. What? Do they have 2-for-1’s on open heart surgery too? Just kind of funny. So I asked the nurse what the hours were and she said, “they are open today.” (Wait, did I say, ‘are they open today?’) So I said, “yeah, but what are their hours?” She said, “when did the injury occur?” I said, “two weeks ago.” Then she proceeded to tell me how important it was for me to go there right away and I couldn’t wait one minute even though I was still within the 10 year coverage, and there were no signs of issues, and it had already been 2 weeks! What the heck lady?! Like I have nothing better to do than to rush over to the Health Department to wait in line for three hours…while missing the fist day of classes.
So I ignored her warning and went the next day and since Devin was almost due for another shot and the new ones contain whooping cough immunization, we decided that he would get one, too. You know, since they were having a special and all.