Saturday, April 30, 2011

Soap Dope

Oh, man. Ready for another dopey Julia moment?

I was helping to stuff envelopes yesterday at church. As usual, I had soda, water, and coffee cups scattered around my workspace, and so also was beating a regular path to the office restroom.

During one visit to the bathroom, I looked around and noticed several large plastic bags filled with a clear liquid stacked on a shelf. They had prominent white plastic connectors and black printing on the clear plastic bags.

I looked at them with shock of recognition. Gosh, I thought.

As I returned to the workroom, I grabbed Terese and asked her in a hushed whisper, WHO is having to do peritoneal dialysis here??

Terese looked at me as if I had sprouted a second head. "What?"

Peritoneal dialysis! The bags are in the bathroom.

(I should probably explain here that peritoneal dialysis is one treatment choice for patients with kidney failure. AND that it is a procedure that some patients choose to do in privacy in their workplace. If you're curious, you can read more here.)

She steered me back down the hallway. "Show me."

I pointed - Look! Those are PD bags!

"Julia. Do you mean the refill bags for the SOAP DISPENSER??"

Yikes. I took a closer look, and sure enough, clearly printed in black were the words antimicrobial hand soap.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury in the court for doofus behavior, I give you these two images in my defense:


Image of peritoneal dialysate bag found here.

Image of antiseptic soap refill found here.

I rest my case.

I don't want to know what the verdict is. I already know....

2 comments:

sue said...

Hi Julia
You,re not out losing it. I was in a McDonalds one day while my son was in the NICU. While I was waiting for my burger an alarm sounded from somewhere behind the counter. I nearly had a heart attack for a second, the darn thing sounded like the alarm on my son's vent. For a split second I thought he was crashing. Then I remembered where I was but I still think of that everytime I go into a McDonalds. We see what we are conditioned to see. It does look an awful lot like an IV bag to me.

Amy Junod said...

I think you made your case- that soap bag does look medical. Once a nurse always a nurse maybe? Plus, it shows your concern for the person who might have been struggling with the not so soapy procedure. That's kindness- not doofy.

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