No Turtles in the Building

Those of you that know me well, know that I have a bit of an issue with garbage. Too much garbage, everywhere, all of the time. So now imagine what my life has been like for the past three weeks surrounded by disposable EVERYTHING.

It started in the CCTC at Victoria, the day I was allowed to drink water for the first time. My nurse brought it to me in a cup with a straw. A styrofoam cup. So there I am, dying for a drink, and what do I say to her? "Sorry, I can't drink from that" which did not go over well. So I drank. It was not the only styrofoam cup that I have been handed in the last three weeks: Styrofoam, dixie cups, paper and plastic pill cups, sandwich boxes, milk cartons, fruit, yogurt and pudding cups, straws...the list goes on. And that is just the food/beverage packaging waste.

Then there is the medical waste. In the past decade or more, infection control has taken on a whole new meaning. Everything is now disposable and I shudder to think about the amount of garbage that has been created by my stay at these hospitals. It's things that you would not expect to, like tweezers used to remove my stitches (the whole kit is thrown out), scissors, bottles of saline, wipes, gowns, gloves, gloves and did I mention gloves? I asked one nurse if she knew how many pairs of gloves she went through in a day, and she just laughed!

I do get it though. It is all in the name of infection control. You can't walk 5 feet without running into a hand sanitizer dispenser. They would not even let my magic bag (full of wheat to put gentle heat on my neck) go in the microwave in the nurses station without a sterile plastic bag around it. Nor would they take my reusable water glass to the location of the water tap, they had to fill a cup and bring it to my room, then pour it into my own cup.

Through the powers of evolution, MRSA, C. Dif. and many other superbugs are running unchecked in different medical establishments. People get very sick, and sometimes die from these infections, so they have to go to extremes to make sure these bacteria do not spread.

So that is what they are doing, and I have to respect that. Sometimes garbage is necessary.Which brings me to the turtle. My friend Jory, the herpetologist connected with the London Free Press about the turtle named Julie, and the LFP wanted to take a picture of it. So today, my first day at Parkwood, I had to get permission to meet the LPS and Jory outside for a photo. Outside because five day old snapping turtles are sooo germy. A public relations nightmare!


Update: First day at Parkwood. Not going to say I am happy to be here, because I am not. In fact, I don't want to be here at all.