My battle gear

One of my biggest job hazards is getting spit in the face unintentionally (or occasionally intentionally). Kind of ironic that I always told people I never wanted to be a dentist because I didn't want to work in people's mouths!

I mentioned this to a nurse at my annual blood-borne pathogens training last year. I was concerned because she said that every time an employee gets spit in their eye(s) they should flush out their eyes for 5 minutes. To me, that meant my entire day would be spent flushing out my eyes. Now thanks to me, everyone with a similar job description to myself has snazzy dazzy goggles to wear. If you think the picture to the left looks great, you should see them on!

I was not wearing my glasses on last spring when working with two of my students who are more likely to spit. I was right in their faces trying to get their to talk. Fast forward 10 minutes later when I am about to begin circle time and one of the girls starts projectile vomiting towards me. 5 minutes later another student in the class starts projectile vomiting. The teachers determined that 4/5 of that special ed bus had come down with a very sudden stomach bug. As far as I was concerned I was next in line.

I had a break an hour later and so I rushed home to take a shower and change my clothes. I really got some flack for that ;) I felt sickish all evening, but it was probably psycho-somatic. Today vomiter #2 came back to school only to have diarrhea in his pants not one, not two, but THREE times! Yahoo! The joys of the profession!