Kiss It Better

Not a great day at work today...

Cat wrestling is not a sport I excell at. I usually disarm them with my charm and understanding and they usually respond to the low stress, low restraint approach I take.

Until today.

No wrestling needed.

Until today.

I very rarely get bitten.

Until today.

Today I got bitten on both of my thumbs by a cat. It really wasn't his fault. He couldn't probably have helped himself if he'd thought to try to.

But it was a nasty, nasty bite. My thumbs got gnawed on. He chomped my right one and when I pried him off of that thumb with my left hand he clamped down on my left thumb too.

Apparently when I said, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" It was louder and not as calm and rational sounding as I was attempting to make it. In my head I very cool and calmly said "Ow, ow, ow," as I gently removed his teeth from my right thumb.

And it bled... Alot... Which is good because hopefully that flushes some of the bacteria back out with the blood. But it is bad if you are the poor people that had to clean up after me. Normally I clean up my own messes but they, the poor people, let me off this time.

When we got done handling him, I turned around and there stood one of my technicians, syringe with teat cannula (so she could flush out the bite wounds more effectively) in hand along with a bowl of antiseptic soloution.

"No," I said.

"We have to flush it," she said.

"That won't work very well," I said.

I'm slightly notorious for not being good at getting needles or at having someone else dig things out of my hands. I let this gal do it because she is good at it, patient and gentle, and she likes to do it. But usually I have to sit down and have someone else forcibly hold my hand in place so I don't jerk it away.

"We'll get help," she said.

I am bad at getting needles. But what the problem is is that I have a really strong vagal vagal response - bascially you give me a needle and my nervous system has a reflex that tells me to feel light headed and faint - and I can't control it. It's annoying and embarassing. And it makes nervous to have needles and stuff done to me even if I'm not even afraid of it per se. Because you just never know, you know.

We compromised. I soaked my thumbs in the antiseptic and she watched me. And I confirmed that I had not been lying to all those animals in the past whom I've confidently told that the antiseptic doesn't sting.

Well, it stings a little bit. But only a little. And much less than the hydrogen peroxide my Mom wielded all throughout my childhood.

I have to take pills 3 times a day for 7 days.