anyway, it was all done, and the doctor handed him an aftercare sheet and a paper bag with some stuff in it, said "call with questions", and left the room. again, ok, fine. my husband assumed that everything he would need to know was on the aftercare sheet, and didn't really feel like having a prolonged conversation with a stranger who had just spent the last 30 minutes staring at his special area.
we get home and take a look at the care sheet, and unpack the bag. the bag has in it: gauze, 2 empty specimen containers (with name labels on them), and a plastic container of some clear solution, also with a name label covering any sort of identifying information for what's in there.
the gauze and the specimen containers were mentioned in the aftercare information, but not the container of clear fluid. we both sort of assumed it was some sort of sterile solution for cleaning the wounds. so my husband unscrews the top and smells it. to say it did not smell like anything you'd want to put on, in, or near your body is an understatement. so he gets the name label peeled off, and it's a little container of formaldehyde. (this discovery took place after office hours).
he put the cap back on, and left it sitting on our bathroom counter. this morning, he was still wondering what the hell he would need formaldehyde for, so he called the clinic's 24/7 nurses line. apparently, they have no idea, either. they had him speak to a supervisor because they we so freaked out that we had been given it at all. we have to call the doctor's office on monday to get return and/or disposal instructions, because apparently this is NOT something we can just dump down the drain. it also sounded to my husband as though the doctor was going to get a royal ass-chewing for handing out enough formaldehyde to kill an elephant. which is good, because it sort of freaks me out to have something that makes the nursing staff flip out in my house, with a learning-to-walk-and-into-everything 1 year old, and another one on the way any minute now.