caerula's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- passages We had an eventful morning. BB took Sophie and the cats to the vet yesterday for regular vaccines, and Sophie had what turned out to be an allergic reaction to the distemper vaccine. By late last night she wouldn't get up, and if we touched her she howled. We had no idea what was wrong, but BB realized she was most tender on the side where she got her shot. I took her to the vet first thing this morning and indeed it was a severe allergic reaction, which makes the tendons and muscles try to reject the vaccine. They swell up and get really sore, and can't take any weight or pressure. So that's why Sophie wouldn't get up, she couldn't put any weight on her leg. It was awfully scary, and how terrible if something had happened to her just because we were trying to take good care of her by getting all her vaccines and things. Luckily the steriod injection that vet gave Sophie seems to have worked, and although she's been lethargic today she has definitely perked up. YB and I took her on an outing to the pet store, which was really pretty fun. We picked out a bed for her, and treats and stuff, and admired the other puppies people had brought in -- they have a groomer, there, so there are always lots of dogs around. There was a really cute little stuffed hedgehog chew toy, but I really couldn't justify that with all the other stuff we were getting, and the squirrel she's already in the process of destroying. I've started what is promising to be a really great book: Passages by Connie Willis. She is one of my very favorite writers; To Say Nothing of the Dog is probably one of my favorite books ever. I've been waiting to get this one from the library ever since it came out, since my budget is not stretching to hardcovers right now, and last week they wouldn't let me reserve it because I still had one book overdue. Which was odd, because they usually cut me all sorts of slack since I used to work there, but there's a new librarian again and I think he's a member of what we tend to call the Cult of the Nazi Librarian. Sticklers for rules and shushing, and no fine forgiven or favors done. Anyway, my mom saw it on the shelf and picked it up, not even realizing it was the one I was waiting for, and then started telling me about the great book she was reading. Synchronicity strikes again. So anyway, I'm 80 pages into it already, and I think it's going to be great, if rather different from her other stuff. It's about a psychologist doing research into near-death experiences, and how people's preconceptions of what they should see contribute to their descriptions -- the tunnel, the light and all that. And she's just hooked up with a researcher who's found a drug that can simulate a NDE, and he wants to prove that it's all a brain reaction, synapses firing and stimulating certain parts of the brain while shutting down others. It's obviously quite well researched and it's one of those subjects that is sort of grotesquely fascinating to me, without being really sure what I believe about it. Well this entry has gone way off track and I don't have the energy to bring it back around. Talk to you tomorrow. 8:15 p.m. - 2001-07-07 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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