Haven’t Grown Gills Yet

Hi there. You have A Way with Words.

Well, hello there.

Well, hello.

This is Kamala. I’m calling from Anchorage, Alaska, and I am so happy to be talking to you guys.

Hi, Kamala.

I’m a nurse, and I’ve been a nurse for, well, we’ll just say a long time. We won’t say how long.

But I have been taking care of elder patients for quite some time. I’m now in public health.

But I took care of patients who had open heart surgery, pre and post surgery.

And a lot of my patients would come back to me after their surgery and we’d be so excited that they came through great and they were feeling great and looking great.

And, you know, I would go in and inevitably ask them on one morning, you know, how are you feeling today?

Or, you know, how’s it going today?

And a lot of them would say, well, I haven’t grown gills yet, which I always thought was really funny.

I thought it was cute.

But a couple of months ago, a friend of mine who lives in L.A. was telling me about her elder neighbor who had gotten his vaccine, his COVID-19 vaccine.

And he got really, really sick after the first vaccine, which happens to quite a few people.

And he’s an elder, so he was kind of down for a few days.

And so when he went to get a second dose, she said, well, how are you feeling?

And he said, well, I haven’t grown gills yet.

And so I thought, that’s got to be something.

Where does that come from?

Is that a thing, yeah.

You know, right.

What is that?

Where is it from?

Oh, I love that.

You know, the one that I’ve been hearing when you ask people, you know, have you had any side effects from the COVID vaccine?

Well, they were saying, when do I get my mutant powers or when do I get my superpowers?

So I’m wondering if it’s a generational thing.

The young generation wants to be they want to become X-Men or superheroes and the older generation just is worried that they’re going to become a freak or a body snatcher or something.

Something out of an old black and white movie, you know.

Right. Right.

I know I kept I kept wondering if it was just, you know, a saying about, you know, reversion and evolution or, you know, devolution or something.

I wasn’t sure where it came from, but I couldn’t find anything about it.

So I just wanted to turn to the people I knew would know.

Yeah, I’ve seen that come up.

I don’t know if it’s a thing, but I do love that.

I love the humor around serious situations.

I like how we can take a serious situation and put a little humor into it to put ourselves and the people around us at ease.

That’s a real nice thing that we do for other people, isn’t it?

You probably see that a lot in your job as a nurse.

Yes. You know, I mean, a lot of people think that gallus humor is, you know, about, I mean, it’s about dealing with really dark things in a way that, you know, we can process and handle for the moment.

And it does have, you know, after effects. But yes, with patients, I, you know, I want to be, you know, light and I want to, you know, make sure I’m there for them and not, you know, making sure that they’re not, they’re not taking anything too seriously or too darkly.

And I love it when patients make me laugh because that is, you know, it makes my day.

But the whole gills thing was very funny.

Yeah, that’s just one of the great things about nursing and patients.

I wouldn’t mind gills, though.

Yeah, I’d love to swim with the dolphins for hours.

Yeah, if I could go underwater without panicking, that would be lovely.

I would love that.

That would be great.

I could spend hours underwater.

Kamala, well, we appreciate you and your profession.

And we have a short list that we keep of people who we appreciate.

They include knitters, librarians, educators.

Who else is on that list, Martha?

Well, and knitters includes crocheters and people who sew.

Of course.

Hikers.

I think hikers are on the list.

Hikers are on there.

And that’s a lot.

There are many other people, lots of subcategories.

And nurses are on there for sure.

Away with words, listeners.

Yeah.

Away with words, listeners.

It’s a big group.

Nurses, medical professionals are on there for sure.

So we appreciate you and the work that you do.

Thank you, Kamala.

And good luck to you.

Be well.

Thank you so much.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye, Camilla.

Thanks.

Well, I haven’t grown gills yet.

Oh, what do you say when somebody asks you how you’re feeling?

What’s the jocular response?

What’s the joke that you tell?

Let us know.

877-929-9673.

Email us with the funny line, words@waywordradio.org.