It would be wonderful to announce that much about the cancer I’ve been screwing around with the last two-plus years, and I believe such an announcement will be forthcoming not too far down the road. However, for the moment, the good news is contained to the other event that became a temporary setback for me.
When I mentioned some long time back I had a staph infection, it was apparently one of my best read blog posts. Not that I received an inundating wave of messages in the COMMENT area of the blog, or the CONTACT ME area, either. As a matter of fact, I can’t even find the post that started all the inconvenience for me.
Be that as it may, the “obstruction” came about regarding a volunteer job I do once per week at the Oceana Retirement Community computer room. Monday afternoons I arrive a few minutes before one o’clock and hang around until three. The “work” is almost nothing, at least to most of us. I help older people who have no clue about setting up an e-mail account or sending one. Can’t even make a one-page flyer in MS Word. Can’t figure out how to copy or download a document. All the “simple stuff” we seem to take for granted.
Only rarely am I requested to do anything even remotely complicated, and I’ve always been up to the task when asked. However, my abject honesty brought about a problem. As I said above, I can’t find any article with the declaration, but I supposedly said something in a blog post about said “staph infection”. It was truly an opportunity for the “I-told-you-so” people because it was circulated back to me I’d made “an announcement” of having that infection on my blog.
The infection was the one known as MRSA, (pronounced MER-sa). It’s not dangerous to the average person although, among people with compromised immune systems, it can be. People such as the other patients who also receive chemotherapy, as I do, are included in that group. I mentioned in the post where I declared myself a reasonable man I had this affliction. Right away I was “sanctioned” at my volunteer job. The computer room now has a box of plastic gloves available. It’s “suggested” the other monitors use them and-or anyone using a computer do so, as well. Yet, for me, it was a requirement.
Patient as I can be, I went along with it. Kinda-sorta. I used the same pair of gloves every week. Just kept ‘em in my pocket and put ‘em on every Monday. As I stated in the post where I explained I was being so reasonable, all those gloves did was spread any other staph germs left by other people, since one of every three of us has some sort of staph infection.
That may be an offshoot of my state of mind when I suggested I was making a stand. Yes, I’m rebellious in nature, albeit I comply willingly with any-all reasonable rules. Thankfully, I’ve now been “cleared”. The people who initiated the conflict for me, those in the Infusion Center at UCSD Medical Center, no longer require me to use a private room. Since it satisfies them to have me appear sans rubber gloves, I’ll now be skipping them when I work as a monitor. Of course, my bare hands will then be exposed to the germs left by others, but I believe I can summon the courage to face it.
I’m just sayin’.
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