The Peanut Butter Shot: A Military Vaccine That Feels Like Peanut Butter
We can all agree right here, right now, that peanut butter is spectacular. It’s rich, dense, nutritious, fun, and an all-round classic. Does anybody else enjoy eating peanut butter straight from the jar? Yeah, we thought so. So since you love peanut butter so much how would you like getting a shot of it? Not from a glass but rather from a needle.
A ‘Peanut Butter Shot’ is a slang term used when referring to an injection given to all new Bootcamp recruits. The name comes from the color of the medicine and how it feels entering and spreading throughout the body. The medicine is called penicillin and is used to kill certain types of bacteria. Penicillin needs to be injected into the muscle so it’s a deep and intense experience.
Penicillin looks, thick, creamy and has a slightly brownish tint. Recruits are injected in their buttocks and feel the thick substance slowly spread through their body. It’s so slowly absorbed that it’s very painful and greatly feared among new recruits.
As you might imagine all incoming military recruits are subjected to lots of medical exams along with vaccinations. The number of injections range from 10-15 depending on the recruits and typically occur all in the same.
After going through an assembly line and being injected with one thing after another, recruits are sent for the infamous ‘Peanut Butter Shot’. They slightly pull down their pants to expose the top section of their butts. A very long needle is injected and the medicine is SLOWLY plunged into the recipient. At this point, we would really like to emphasize the word SLOWLY. Not only is this shot painful but it feels like it’s never going to end. In fact, a large percentage of people actually faint after getting their shot.
After getting the injection recruits are instructed to massage the area for at least 30 minutes to help circulate the penicillin and encourage it to move. The main way it’s massaged is by having them sit down and knead out the area. You can completely understand where the name of this shot came from. A thick, slow-moving injection that you need to massage for it to circulate. Why am I getting flashbacks to when I eat single-serve packets of peanut butter? They need to be kneaded a bit to make sure the oils are recombined.
Even if recipients of the ‘Peanut Butter Shot’ feel manageable discomfort the day of the injection it’s the very next day that will test your tolerance for pain. When recruits get up the next morning they experience soreness, pain and sometimes have trouble even moving their legs. Plus, to make things worse, a large painful red bump forms at the injection site preventing normal sitting for several days.
The good news is that all of this is done out of the best interest of recruits. It’s to make sure they remain healthy and to prevent health issues in the field. For now, maybe stick to the peanut butter out of a jar and shots out of a glass. Just saying.
