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I swear I'm going to catch up on comment replies soon. *cough*
So, this evening, I skipped going to the "Scene to Believe" service at the local church (which I'm intrigued about - it's the informal service that's explicitly aimed at "gay and lesbian people, their friends and supporters". Apparently it started as an outreach service. It's a good place for a church to do that - I hadn't realised how gay this area is until I went grocery shopping at Farmer Jack's on a Saturday afternoon, and wandered past queeny men having intense discussions outside the wine shop, and gay male couples selecting green vegetables together, occasional lone dykes, and just a whole lot of people who pinged as gay to me.
I haven't been a part of the community in years, but I still remember those secret subculture signals that code as gay, gay, gay.
Instead of church, I went to the ED to get my cut checked out. Apparently it was a mix of relevant diagnoses - partly the irritation was just my body wanting to reject the sutures, partly there's still questionable ooze, so while it's not serious, I have antibiotics and the doctor took a swab of the ooze to be tested out, and I see my GP in a few days - but if it does get worse, and especially if it builds up a "collection" of pus and ick, I go back and get IV antibiotics.
Do Not Want. But Should Not Need.
I impressed the doctor by picking his accent as Durban - he exclaimed that was a hell of a pickup, but I explained that I have the advantage of having been born there, and therefore knowing Durbanites and being able to recognise that accent.
After he pulled the sutures, and I was grateful for it (he was so nice! So gentle! etc.) I asked if he was allowed to accept quasi-bribes. He said no, and asked why, and I said, well, since he was from Durban, and I happened to have this in my bag... and pulled out a 275ml bottle of Appletiser.
Appletiser, you understand, is a South African drink. Sparkling apple juice. But it is not like other carbonated apple juice drinks - it's special and much more delicious. (Once, out of curiosity, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif) theducks did a double-blind taste test to see how it fared against a different sparkling apple juice drink. I and paperishcup were the tasters. Both of us picked the Appletiser perfectly on account of its superior deliciousness.)
The doctor grinned and said that, well, Appletiser was the one exception to the no-bribes thing. His own return quasi-bribe was finding me some of the antibiotics he'd prescribed for me to take tonight and tomorrow morning, so I don't have to go on a quest to find a pharmacy that's open late on a Sunday evening. (Instead, I can go to the pharmacy that's literally a ninety second walk from my house on Monday morning.)
So, I possibly made for a highlight to a Sunday night ED shift for the doctor.
I also lent a magazine to a guy I knew from uni who was waiting while his friend was treated for a soccer-induced broken wrist, and provided moral support to the staff when they were dealing with a cranky, hostile, and aggressive suspected swine flu patient.
My main act of niceness, though, was in aid of a woman who had come in with her mother, who appeared to have had a bad fall or something and rather badly injured her leg. The woman was seeming kind of shaky and distressed, and seemed to read "needs food" somehow; I offered her my apple, and she thanked me but then said that she'd had a chocolate bar earlier so she was fine.
Then the nurse was free, so she grabbed the nurse. I overheard her explaining that her father is currently in the ICU... I think she wanted to see if her mother could be transferred to the same hospital, so she could be there for them both, but the nurse had to tell her that she'd have to choose which parent by whose hospital bedside she was going to tonight.
When the woman turned around, I could see tears.
Then the doctor came back, and I had to finish up myself, so it was after that that I went over to the woman and said, look, chocolate picks up your blood sugar but then it crashes down hard, and really, I'm going home now, I won't need it, please take this apple. And she did, thanking me way more effusively than I deserved for an apple, and then I headed out.
I hope she's okay. I hope her parents are. I hope she likes apples. Because I have a feeling that finding food isn't really on her list of priorities right now, but she clearly was badly in need of it, and an apple will do for a while.
I was in need of food by the time I got home (hypoglycaemia is annoying, and all), but the thing is, I was going home, and then when I got home I ate a mandarine. My house contains food, and my parents are healthy. I have more apples. This is more a record to remind myself, when I forget, that sometimes I do in fact have a positive effect on the world and people around me.
While I was at hospital I wrote a short Sulu-centric Star Trek fic, but I'm going to make that a separate post after I've checked it over a bit more.
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