Medicine

I try not to take any.  Unless, of course, one considers wine medicinal.  But, basically, I do not take anything more than Advil, and only then when the aches and pains demand it.

I got some pretty strong medicine today at the vet's.  Insulin.  It might save my cat's life.

I am a fainter.  I have low blood pressure, so I have what they call a "vasovagal response," meaning that certain triggers can send me to the floor.  The first time this happened, I was a mere child with a gum boil.  My mother (a Chief Yeoman in the Coast Guard, mind you) had nerves of steel, so she decided to take care of this herself.  When she came at me and my boil with a sterilized needle, I blacked out and fell to the floor.  I think she pierced the boil before she grabbed my tongue for fear that I might swallow it.

And then there were many episodes, most of them in church.  There was never time to eat breakfast before Mass, so off I'd go on an empty stomach, straight to the choir loft where I sang (off-key) to whatever Kyrie Eleison we were chanting.  More times than I can count, I ended up on the floor.

My mother made me go to our doctor to get my ears pierced when I was 16.  No pajama party with a potato behind my earlobe and a questionable needle was good enough for me, my mother said.  So I went to the doctor and he pierced one ear.  You guessed it, I was on the floor.  (I heard it go "crunch" and that was the trigger.)  He did the second ear with me lying down.  Hence, the lack of symmetry in my ear piercings.

Whenever I go for bloodwork, I have to tell the person who will draw the blood that I am a fainter.  I get to lie down while she does the deed.  And I never, ever look at what she's doing.

Anyway, in another hour or so, I have to give my cat her first injection of insulin.  I got to practice in the vet's office with a saline injection, and somehow, I managed to pull it off.  But this is different.  This is the real medicine, and it's just me and the cat, who's already rather pissed off at me.

But it's the medicine I am in love with.  Because it might save her.  I just have to remain upright while I try to administer it.

Tune in tomorrow.  I'll let you know how it goes.