Thursday, September 23, 2010

Rorschach Burn

I spent all of yesterday afternoon in a kayak in the middle of a rock quarry, trying to pull water samples from various depths. And apparently lost my fool mind sometime before we got there, because once we got started I pretty promptly spilled nitric acid preservative on my bare skin. Did you know that when you burn yourself with nitric acid the burn is actually yellow? Because I didn't. For a few moments of intense burning pain, I thought I was watching my skin and fat literally melt and that the yellow was the layer of fat under the skin seeping through (you're welcome).


Rest assured, it was not. Have I mentioned my tendency to be a drama queen? Well, a really stoic drama queen. Because you can't let the guys who are out sampling with you know that that hurt like a bitch and what you really want to do is cry and then go home and put on your pink jammies and your bunny slippers and watch something on the Lifetime channel that practically drips estrogen while eating ice cream. Uh, you are eating ice cream, not the Lifetime channel. Which is, in fact, exactly what I wanted to do (after the ice cream and the Lifetime maybe I'll clean the house in high heels and pearls! What? I do enjoy being a girl, you know). I knew that I was going to be in the field with these guys for a few more hours and they needed to not be babying me the entire time (seriously, other girls have to deal with sexual harrassment in the field with the guys. What do I have to deal with? The fact that they all, to a one, want to TAKE CARE of me and treat me like I'm a pretty, pretty princess. It's insulting in its own way, okay?).


When I finally limped into my house (I did have to leave my pants rolled up because I couldn't stand anything on the burn) my husband took one look at me and was all, "Holy shit what did you do and do I need to take you to the ER?" Because he knows me. (The answer was no, by the way, he did not).


It really does look like a rorschach inkblot test on my lower leg. I'm only burned where it touched me so you can actually see where it splashed and then rolled down my leg.

5 comments:

  1. Maybe I'm morbid but I want to see a picture of it!! Yeah, I'm morbid. But whatever. That SUCKS. You are a trooper though - I would have cried and made someone bandage me up and give me a lollipop. You go girl.

    P.S. the water testing thingy you were doing sounds interesting.

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  2. Wow! That sounds terribly painful! Hope it heals quickly.

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  3. What! No disgusting pictures?

    LAME.


    OH, and feel better.

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  4. Ya'll I took pictures but I can't find the cord that connects the camera to the computer and apparently I cannot move them from one place to the other using only the power of my mind.

    Also, I'm quite vain and I don't want to post pictures till I take one that doesn't make my leg look pasty and fat (I need a camera that takes pictures of the way I wish I looked rather than how I actually look is what I'm saying).

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  5. I was going to bitch about a lack of pictures also. But then I saw your comment about not being able to find the cord. So I shall forgive. For now.

    I totally understand the whole not-wanting-to-be-treated-like-a-girl bit. I'm a hypocrite though. Because when I'm hanging out with the guys I want to be treated as such and yet simultaneously maintain my superiority as a female.

    Or something.

    Anyway I wanna see your acid burn. get on that.

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