My first pat down

Well today, I got my first pat down. One of the two bathroom keys went missing, so security went from person to person patting them down to find it - it still hasn't been found.

I like my preceptor, and I actually like working in the prison - once I get past walking down the "bowling alley" by myself being completely open and vulnerable- the bowling alley is the long concrete yard in between the bunk houses. Walking into the medical facility is equally unnerving, you walk in next to "the cage" which is where the inmates sit and wait (or is it more p.c. to say offender? who knows). In the morning it's full of the new intakes who have come from county. I sort of feel like a piece of meat walking past them, waiting anxiously for the next officer to open the door. Today I had to wait. I hate waiting - makes me nervous. I don't know which is worse, waiting and having to face them, or waiting facing the door, either way you feel like 60 pair of eyes are staring you down.

Pretty run of the mill day - intake physicals and then sick call. We had one deaf guy, one who faked having seizures to get a low bunk (but confessed after realizing how often he would need blood draws to check med levels in his blood) and a whole lot of non specific dermatitis caused from - washing too often with too much soap. This is really common because, well it's hot here in Houston in August, and super humid. These guys wash 2,3 some even 4 times a day, scrubbing with some state given soap that does nothing but dry the skin out. So many of the inmates had "dry skin" or have scratched at the dry skin enough to get a small bacterial infection on the skin or in the hair follicle. I never thought I would be giving repeated patient education on the importance on not showering so often and not using the soap except in the groin and underarms, daily or every other day. Sadly there are no good soaps or lotions available in the commissary to help alleviate this problem, I guess they should have thought of that before they got caught. (I'm becoming hardened already)

So back to liking my preceptor, she's upfront and honest and direct. She has a sense of humor and has been working in corrections since she graduated 25 years ago. She's been in this particular facility for 13 years and once a year she does research with NASA on the vomit comet to see how to mix IV fluids in 0 gravity. She's really easy to talk to and today, for some reason she decided to give me the gossip about some of the other people in the unit - this may sound unprofessional, but I think she was actually using it to educate me on the diverse group of people working in the med unit (it does take a special breed of person) such as - the lesbian wickan couple, or the lady who is a nudist (obviously not during working hours), or the people who's spouse, son, brother or nephew might be in the TDCJ system just to name a few. And these people aren't shy about any of it. Why just today, the nudist lady mentioned something about "thank God I don't have to worry about tan lines, how annoying" mind you she is over the age of 50 - the only image I had was Magda from There's Something About Mary. I suppose I should leave you with that image.