Protecting Patriotic Privacy

Two new patients want a flu shot. 

It is a nice grandma and her daughter. Grandma is 86 years old. Her daughter is 66 years old. This is a Norman Rockwell moment. Mother and daughter... both elderly, coming down to see the Crazy RxMan to get their yearly flu shots... it's just so sweet I'm getting diabetes just thinking about it...

I do grandma first without incident... except for the regular rice-paper popping thing. Many of you other pharmacists and nurses might agree that little old ladies have skin like rice paper that actually "pops" when you poke in the needle. It freaks me out every time. Then the arm is usually so thin that you hit the bone. The patient doesn't feel it, but you do. That also freaks me out every time. I'm used this this now, so it's less freaky. But I'm about to be really freaked out...

So grandma gets her shot, then her daughter comes in the special flu shot room. Every time I do a shot now I think about how many damn shots we're going to have to give for years just to break even on this new room. But that's another story. Anyway, the daughter is wearing a long sleeve shirt. ANOTHER ONE! WHY, for heaven's sake, do you people wear LONG SLEEVES when you know you're going out for a flu shot?! Why? It's not even cold outside!

The sleeve won't come up. It's just too tight. The daughter says she'll have to take her shirt down over her arm so I can get to a meaty spot. She tells me to close the door, and of course I'm thinking she wants to protect her privacy and there's certainly nothing wrong with that. If I had to take my pants down I'd want the door closed too.

So I sit back down and she unbuttons and pulls down her blouse over her arm... and there it was. Bright colors of Red, White, and Blue in American flags and the most spectacular American Eagle tat you've ever seen... all over both arms and from I could see at my angle her back too. It was obviously new with the bright colors and quite surprising on a 66 year old lady. And it was so patriotic! I was shocked. Seeing my reaction, the lady says to me... "That's why I wanted you to close the door... I don't want my mother to see my tattoos."

I found this picture online to give you an idea of what I saw... only this tat doesn't do justice to what was on this little old lady.

God bless America!