This is a short one: got bit by a stray animal Saturday evening. Unsure of the animal or if I would see it again. Decided Sunday morning that an ER visit for the rabies vaccine would be a good idea given the possibility of a 99.9% morality rate. The whole rabies vaccine thing is enough for it's own post...holy shit.
Anyway, I know most hospitals are a NPE. No way was I going unarmed so I google-fu'd for what to expect for the shots. What I found was that you get the initial shots near the injury, which was my finger. Good to go. My vitals are good so I knew that the likelihood of wearing a hospital gown was virtually zero. I decided my G43 AIWB was a decent choice. Thank God that I decided at the last minute to switch to my LCP in my pocket because a little voice yelled in my brain "What if you have to get NAKED?!". Here's what happened (this is super condensed for those who have never had an ER visit):
Check into the ER. It's Sunday morning so the stupidity from Saturday night is cleared out and the new-day stupidity hasn't kicked in; there are only three people in the waiting room. After a bit I get called into the triage room and give the basics. They check out the "wound" and take my vitals. Cool. I then get to wait in another waiting area. After a long wait I get seen by two nurses. I need an x-ray of my hand (whatever), a tetanus shot, and the rabies vaccine. Good to go. I go wait some more.
Shot time: after waiting some more (surprise!) I finally get called in. I find out I am getting five shots: one tetanus and four rabies, due to my size (6'4"/225). Three in the upper arms and two in the legs. Well, that wasn't expected!
Two in the legs. AIWB/IWB/OWB would have failed me here. I had two nurses in the room...a small room. There was no way I could have even remotely been able to pull off a discreet "drop trou" - it would have been a shit show. But I pocket carried. I dropped trou, got my arms and legs shot up, and that was that. Five minutes later I felt something I hadn't felt since the shot gauntlet of March of '97 at Parris Island...
So, in the end, a little voice in the back of my head at the last moment "saved the day". Google did not adequately prepare me for what to expect - had I relied on it, ultimately, I would have had a very awkward day. NPEs are interesting and hard to plan for with certainty if you have no experience with them. The empty ER waiting room still gave me a 5 fucking hour visit, I can't wait for the bill.