Hot Mama

Today began another adventure at work. Once again, I was displaced out of my office due to the environmental issues. The conference room I have inherited was freezing cold, and since there was another meeting scheduled for the space, I had to move just three hours into my shift.

After relocating, the laptop which has become my portable office--sans printer, fax, and scale--wouldn't work properly. It is still digesting some command I apparently gave it before unplugging from the network to switch locations. The blasted thing won't let go of whatever is occupying its memory despite exiting and powering down.

So, I left it to chew on its mechanical mission and decided to walk downstairs to heat my lunch. A big drawback of borrowing space has been the uncertain access to bathroom and lunchroom facilities. I was glad to have brought a can of soup today, since the rooms I was sentenced to were so cold. I had to separate my serving into two small bowls to heat it up since I had forgotten to bring a large one from home. It was while removing the broth from the microwave that my day encountered its final dilemna.

As I was attempting to transfer the boiling broth into a safer format for carrying it back into exile with me, it spilled all over me. I was stunned--and burnt. It was all I could do to clean up the mess, and carry the empty container to a coworker before I lost it entirely and wound up in tears. Pregnancy hormones, perhaps. Or maybe just it was just the last straw before I broke under the stress.

I proceeded upstairs to visit occupational health for the second time in two weeks. I waited over an hour, filled out incident forms, had the doc look at my scalded hands, and then waited an hour more for them to treat and wrap up the damage. The whole while, my skin felt on fire and I was in some serious pain. Of course, they would't offer me any pain medicine since I am pregnant. Told me to take Tylenol when I got home (which I did, over 4 hours later).

So here I sit, after a much-needed nap, using the hunt-and-peck method to type since my bandaged and burnt hands aren't too useful tonight. I am not looking forward to returning to work tomorrow--they have to recheck the burn to see if it has blistered, but then I will have to stay at work until 10pm to teach a class. I am beginning to wonder which will get me first--this last pregnancy, or my job.

On the plus side, although in previous pregnancies I've found myself with a very high personal thermostat and always seemed too warm, this is the first time with the PBC that I could accurately be called a "hot mama." Too bad that upon reflection, it isn't the sexy title I'd always hoped to have. I'll gladly trade down to "plain Jane" if it means I don't have to hurt!