The Perks of Being Married to an EMT

As I’ve mentioned before, my husband is a volunteer firefighter; part of that involves being an EMT.  I’m not sure of all of the differences between EMTs and other first responders, but it appears that EMTs are able to handle many minor medical emergencies and injuries.  This works out very well for me.

I’m a total klutz; I get hurt in ways no one should, in ways most people can’t begin to imagine.  If it can be tripped over, fallen into or off of, or used in any way to cut, scrape, bump, or burn, I will find a way to make it happen.  I’m a constant collection of cuts, bruises, burns, and scrapes.   This week, though, I have outdone even myself.

I cut the top of my hand in the shower on Monday morning.  No, I wasn’t changing out a razor blade (I learned a long time ago that the disposable ones are much safer for people like me), I was turning off the water.  That’s all, just turning the water off.

I’m not even entirely sure what happened.  One second I was turning the water off and the next my hand was bleeding all over the shower.  It was very weird. 

I don’t like blood.  Not at all.  I don’t like to see blood.  I don’t like to think about blood.  I become quite the contortionist whenever I give blood or have blood drawn.  I twist my whole upper body as far as I can in the opposite direction so I don’t accidentally see anything.  I really don’t like blood. 

Having serious issues with the sight (or thought) of blood presents a problem when you cut yourself and are bleeding all over the place.  My husband had already left for work, so I was on my own.  I sloshed some soap and water over my hand, without really looking at it, and then put a band-aid on it.  It was pretty much out of sight out of mind for me.  I changed the band-aid that night and the next morning and everything seemed fine.  I didn’t even bother mentioning it to my husband.

This morning, however, it looked really awful.  I won’t go into the gross details.  Let’s just say it was gross, and a little scary looking.  I decided it might be time to mention it to my husband.  After getting past his initial question of how in the world I managed to cut myself on the shower faucet (since that is a new one even for me) he check out the cut.  

It’s not that bad.  Apparently I should have used some sort of ointment or done something other than slosh some soap and water on it while not looking at it.  He doctored it all up and put a new band-aid on it and declared me good to go this afternoon.  He says it shouldn’t look so gross tomorrow, which makes me very happy. 

It was very convenient to have him check it out and fix it, which made me think of all of the other times he has been able to patch me up. There have been quite a few over the years.  I like to tell him I’m helping him keep his skills up. 

You hear a lot about perks to being married, not that perks are a reason to get married, but they’re a nice bonus.  For me, being married to an EMT is definitely a very nice perk.  So what about you, does your significant other’s job or hobby provide any unexpected perks in your life?