An odd encounter in Philly

So I met a lot of super-smart young medical students last week in Philadelphia while giving a presentation on meningitis at the University of Pennsylvania. I also met a guy named Joe on the subway.

Joe rolled onto the car in a wheelchair and stopped next to me. He was missing a leg and had some pretty nasty burn scars on the remaining leg. He noticed my hands and immediately asked what happened.

"I got a bacterial infection six years ago," I said. "A form of meningitis that got into my bloodstream and cut off the circulation to my hands and feet."

Up to that point, the conversation was not all that unusual for two amputees. Then it took an odd turn.

"You get that from shootin' dope?" Joe asked.

"Excuse me?" I said.

"You get that from shootin' dope?" Joe asked... louder.... in a crowded subway train.

"Um, no," I said.

I explained that I supposed one could get sepsis from shooting up with dirty needles, but that in my case I got it from a bacteria that lives in people's throats.

I'm not sure how much of that he understood, but he immediately launched into a long, involved, graphic story about his own injuries. While a lot of people around us gave him uncomfortable glances.

The more he talked, the more mumbly he got. In fact, by the time he'd gotten through the backstory, I never did quite catch specifically how he was injured. But as the story went on, I kept hearing the phrase, "When I was on fire..."

Three possible explanations for why that phrase kept coming up: 1. He used to play basketball and was quite a good shooter. 2. He spends a lot of time at Christian revival camps. 3. He was actually engulfed in flames at one point in his life.

I'm guessing it was No. 3. And, based on his questions for me and his inability to articulate properly, I'm guessing it might have been the result of a meth lab accident.

Then I got off the train, walked around Chinatown and found a place advertising $5 haircuts in the window. So I sat down and got my hair cut next to a guy with a tattoo of a naked girl with gigantic breasts on his arm. No kidding, those things were freakishly big.