A friend of mine hurt her back playing volleyball on Thursday evening. To make the story go a bit smoother lets call this friend "Jill." Now Jill really did a number on her back and the ever so helpful Doctor prescribed Tylenol 3 for the pain. Now I have taken T3's before and didn't like how they made me feel. I will live with a lot of pain to avoid taking them again. Apparently Jill has a similar reaction, however her pain was so bad she kept taking them. The combination of the pain and the medicine was causing her to puke, a lot. So after a couple of days of this she broke down and asked me to take her to the pharmacy to get something to calm her stomach down since she was getting rather weak from bucking her cookies for days now.
After the pharmacy we went to the Safeway next door to get some Gatorade so she could hopefully get some calories and fluid back into herself. She looked and felt like a bag of smashed apples. She was not doing well. So after roaming about the store we head to the till to pay.
This is where my story actually starts.
While waiting in line sickly Jill blurts out, "I just want to go home so I can puke in the privacy of my own bathroom."
The cashier responds, "Oh, are you hungover?"
I respond, "No she isn't feeling well but don't worry its not H1N1."
The cashier looked rather worried and a bit disgusted with my poor sickly friend. She pays for her stuff and we head off. As we are leaving the cashier showers her entire work area with hand sanitizer.
Paranoid a bit, are we?
Yes there is a pandemic. Yes it would suck to get sick. Yes you should take precautions. Yes Jill looked like death warmed over, but I'm pretty sure no one was going to catch back pain from her. It seemed a bit excessive if you ask me.
By all means protect yourself. Do what you feel is necessary to ensure your health is maintained. But I do suggest to try to be sensitive to others. I just found her rather rude. Her demeanour was standoffish. If you are hypersensitive, maybe a job interacting with the public all day is not for you.
This woman definitely had a flu scare.
Yes people have a bad day. Yes people are scared about a pandemic. Yes cashiers come into contact with 100's of people a day. Yes their job can be frustrating and exhausting.
ReplyDeleteBy no means should they take the word of a stranger that a person with flu like symptoms does not have H1N1. Her vigilance is much more superior to ignorance.
People are acting like H1N1 is a death sentence. How dangerous is it? More dangerous than the regular flu? More dangerous than driving?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure who deserves blame but the media seems to blowing it out of proportion.
The regular flu kills more people than H1N1, if people are so paranoid about getting sick than get the shot and you wont have to worry about coming into contact with customers that may or may not have the swine flu.
ReplyDeleteYes the media blows everything out of proportion. They do that to make people afraid and paranoid. Theres always two sides to every story