Well, I had an adventure. It was actually Sis's adventure, but it was adventure enough for me.
About two weeks ago, a stray cat wandered into Sis's parents' house through the doggie door and started eating dog food. Sis came home and surprised the cat, coming in through the back door and blocking the cat's exit. The cat ran into her room. Sis has a bit of the same not-so-smart bravado that I exhibit every now and then; she ran after it and tried to evict it; it flew to the top of the curtains, and in coming down it landed teeth-first on her hand. She had to get tetnus shots (there's a shortage of them; she got a dull needle and she was not happy about that; she has a severe phobia of needles) and antibiotics and the cat was watched for rabies.
Monday she and I were moving. She called, and it turns out that the cat does not have rabies; she is going to be OK. We loaded lots of stuff into the U-Haul, including a large terra-cotta planter full of herbs that was crawling with ants. Sis is allergic to ant bites, so I moved it. Besides, it is of a size that Sis thought would take three husky men to lift. It was lighter than my backpack, so I was able to carry it easily.
Towards the end of the afternoon, Sis's lip started to puff up and itch. Sis grouched and found some benadryl; that's how she clears up the ant bites when they happen; she hates them because they itch like anything, but it's livable.
She still wasn't feeling very good at all by the time we crashed around midnight.
Darkside called her cellphone to wake us up at 5:30 or so Tuesday morning; we had both forgotten our alarm clocks. Sis's upper lip was twice the size of her lower lip, and she had what looked like first-of-the-season mosquito bites all over, from head to toe. We made noises of panic. She handed me the keys, and I was off for my fun-filled adventure: locating a clinic and negotiating Phoenix traffic! I stopped in at DeVry first to just let Darkside know what was up, then I, panic-stricken, ferried Sis to the clinic nearest to us.
The clinic didn't open until seven. We waited, and then found out that the doctors we wanted to see would not be there until eight-thirty.
By this time Sis was delirious. I located a hospital and drove around and found it. I drive, according to Sis, like someone's grandmother, but that's OK if I'm getting her to where she's going in a safe and sane fashion.
We walked in, her leaning on me in a most disconcerting fashion, Bad Attitude visible all over, with me looking rather like Chickabird on a bad feather day. The lady running the emergency room admittance thing immediately got a wheelchair for my daughter (!!) and shoved her off to the nether regions of the hospital while I filled out paperwork and corrected their mistaken assumptions about our relative genetics and relative ages.
Sis happens to be highly phobic of needles. She's got good reason, which I won't go into, and whenever she sees someone attempting to stick one into her, she gets just a touch violent. They made the mistake of showing her the needle when her son was born and they were trying to make things easier on her. The doctors did not have an easy time of it, but most of them recovered. I fortunately remembered this before the needles arrived and directed her to close her eyes. An interlude of pain and agony followed, wherein the first nurse failed to get the needle in right, I told Sis she was being very brave and doing very well, Sis told me a few unprintable things, and the first nurse decided that she’d better get another nurse to try again elsewhere. The second nurse directed Sis to scream all she wanted to, and Sis said “OW!” a few very emphatic times, and the needle went in all right. They pumped her full of medication and left her to sit there for quite some time. I called the school and explained the situation, and then sat with her. Fortunately, Darkside had loaned me a book in the thirty seconds I saw him that morning….
The doctor decided it was most likely a penicillin allergy popping up, so now she can’t have any penicillin, because next time it might actually kill her. I got her to the hospital just in time; her throat had been beginning to swell closed.
She’s been exhausted off and on ever since then, and the medication she’s on is making her extremely loopy.
But Sis is going to be okay, which is the important thing.
The apartment is still a little short on furniture. Sis got two very large and comfortable couches and a toaster for $10 for the entire bunch, which was an exceptionally good deal. Half the anime club lives in this apartment complex, and this one kid Ben and his girlfriend (?) helped us unload the U-Haul. Ben looks a lot like [the kid
swallowtayle's age who lived just down the road from my virtual grandma way out in the hills at home], and is a nice, cheerful guy. He’s always hanging around with one particular girl, but I’m not sure if they’re dating or not. She helped unload too. The Little Fayoumis has finally moved in as well. He was staying with Grandma and Grandpa for a couple days while Mommy and Aunt Joanie got all settled in the new apartment. Mommy’s computer is running, and so is Aunt Joanie’s.
