Alex's speech therapy takes place at a local hospital*. If you've been to a hospital in the Ottawa area in the last 18 months or so, you've seen the many signs that request you use antibacterial hand rinse before entering. Follow? Good.
This hospital is no different. In their tiny little main hallway they have an eighty year old volunteer manning a station. As you pass her she taps the dispenser and "requests" you use it for patient safety. From this hallway we go straight into the basement, near the laundry room and boardroom. We do not go near the patient rooms.
The first time we were there I politely told the woman we would wash our hands with soap and water in the bathroom. We were in a rush so we zoomed past her.
This week, she saw us coming and blocked our way in! She basically demanded we use the Purel. I know it's hard to picture an eighty year old woman as a force to be reckoned with, but dude, I was scared.
Let me stop here and say that I don't have anything necessarily against Purel, but I don't use it and I don't use it on my kids. I think it has it's place, but have you seen what's in it? Here's why I didn't want to use it today:
A) My kids know how to wash their hands and they use soap and water.
B) Because we all wash our hands often, our hands tend to be dry, and have you ever used Purel on dry or cracked hands? It stings something fierce. Also, I have a terrible habit of picking my cuticles and that doesn't just sting, it fucking burns, burns, burns.
C) Flat out demanding me to do something is pretty much a guarantee that I will fight you on it. I've been known to resist doing things I know damn well are good for me just because someone told me to do it. If she was standing there with a huge sign that said "Purel will kill you!" I might just bathe in it.
Once again I told her we'd wash our hands in the bathroom as I pointed to it. We were within sight of the can, so she could watch us go in and later smell our hands if she wanted to! She wasn't having it until I said "The smell makes my daughter sick to her stomach and she cries." Since she knew she couldn't argue with me, she let us by, but gave me a scowl.
As we left I asked our pathologist if there is an alternate entrance to the building in case she has security on our tail next week.
(**Notice I didn't say Almonte, so that you won't think this is the hospital here. Or maybe it is and I'm justing saying "local" to mess with you. Or maybe it's Perth or Carleton Place or somewhere else that has a small hospital... I need to put down that can of coke)
