I don’t know if this has actually seeped into anybody’s thought processes, or just into the Official Procedures; but it’s also not uncommon, in institutional and corporate settings (which I’m assuming, based on ‘coworker’) for Policy to involve treating any unexpected blood as though it got there because somebody with six kinds of hepatitis and super-AIDS left it there while dying of a hemorrhagic fever just moments ago.
Purdue’s ‘Blood Spill Procedures’ (provided by The Office of Radiological and Environmental Management’) are roughly typical. This same risk-managing tendency also sprinkles kits more or less like this one more or less randomly across some buildings without the slightest medical, research, or other routine-biohazard role, if somebody went on a liability kick at some point in the past.
I’m definitely not enough of an epidemiologist to say whether this is an overreaction or a severe overreaction(I don’t doubt that people do get exposed to bloodborne pathogens from time to time; but I’m also pretty sure that I’ve seen people survive a blood cleanup without gloves, googles, face mask, fluid-impermeable gown, and autoclave bags for secure disposal of somebody’s nosebleed…
If that’s the local SOP, you don’t even need to know that menstruation was involved for a reaction amounting to superstitious fear of the unclean.
Did you notice, the drawings in ‘True Detective’ were taken from a ‘70s-era kids’ sex-ed book? I think I read it whilst still at nursery (we were precocious brats). I can probably dig out the offending item from the books still languishing at my mother’s.
[quote=“GirlBuild, post:11, topic:24948”]
No, Dog wouldn’t like us to teach teenagers how to protect themselves[/quote]
Yeah. I like to think of the horrible taboo on accurate and comprehensive sex ed this way:
Everyone gets an M1911 and a few thousand rounds at school. Should we just hand these firearms out without educating them on gun safety? Possessing a gun is a pretty serious responsibility and should be openly discussed right? Not every 12-15 year old is mature enough or intelligent enough to handle a gun, but everyone’s going to get one. So I say we should at least have some comprehensive gun safety classes. And I mean really comprehensive, not the stupid classes that say “Just leave your gun locked in a safe place till you’re committed to killing that special someone.” Some people like to go out hunting, or spending time at the range. But we can’t teach firearms safety because there’s just too many people who believe the only acceptable way to practice firearms safety is to own a gun, but never touch it.
If it’s a tampon of unknown origin, it should be treated as potentially infectious medical waste. There’s a much higher likelihood of infectious material in the tampon than in blood. Just like the contents of a condom is more likely to be infectious than a blood sample. It’s not the blood on a tampon that’s the hazard, it’s all the other coochie cooties.
I recall my toddler daughter finding one on the playground and picking it up, and I was pretty alarmed.
At my school, we did that in sex ed. In small-town, downstate Illinois.
Being in a more-or-less liberal state has its perks.
Sadly, it wasn’t until high school; and even then, it was segregated between boys and girls. Maybe things have changed since the early 90s. I can only hope.
Disney and Kotex teamed up in the 40s to make this. Maybe they can update it for modern times, but use Pepper Potts or Princess Leia as a spokesperson.
I just love that the app is named “the ladytimer.” That cracks me up.
With my first husband I used to do this thing where I’d start a fight and tear him up one side and down the other. The next day, ding, Aunt Flo came to visit. It was really hard on both of us - a ladytimer might have helped.
I could use a dudetimer. My SO has some pretty obvious hormonal cycles of his own. I just want to track them so that I can make him more aware of his monthy grumpus phase.
They’re used by medics in the military all the time. Turns out, they’re excellent at staunching blood, and you can get them individually wrapped so they’re sterile.
I had a conversation with a friend about massage, and at one point I mentioned that one of my kids has never liked touch (even as a baby) and therefore is horrified at the thought of ever getting a massage. I went on to say that it worried me that it would affect her ability to be intimate with her partner(s) when she was older. The other person looked at me like I’d just sprung an extra head or two. Apparently acknowledging that your daughter is someday going to be sexually active is a bad thing.
Our children grow up. We want them to be in loving relationships. That (usually) means sex. It’s part of adult life…why is that so frightening to people?
The Earthquake Preparedness instructor that Oracle brought into the office for a talk recommended having a few in one’s first aid kit for just that purpose.
