Yes, the cat had rabies. I had my first round of shots on Friday, and really, it was not anywhere near as horrible as it's been made out to be. Seriously, I had people in the ER where I went for the treatment telling me as they were checking me in how painful the shots were, and how they were going to inject me right in the bites (sort of gleefully, almost, although I will charitably assume they were trying to prepare me for the worst so I'd naturally be relieved that it wasn't really so bad after all).

Granted, I have a high pain tolerance and no fear of needles, especially after the numerous surgeries and procedures I've been through in the past few years, but really? the shingles shots were way worse. So, people, here is my message to you: if you ever suspect you have been bitten by an animal that might have rabies, DO NOT HESITATE to get the shots. If you wait until you start having symptoms, it is too late. Get the shots, it might be somewhat painful and inconvenient but it's seriously nothing compared to dying of rabies.

Public service message over, here is what happened: the initial rabies treatment consists of two sets of shots. First is the actual vaccine. It's given in a muscle, and they let me choose the location. I chose to get it in my right thigh. I barely felt it, didn't even need a bandage, it didn't get sore afterwards or have any aftereffects. I will get three more of the vaccine shots, tomorrow (Monday), Friday, and the Friday after. I had to go to the ER to get the first set of shots, but I can go to the walk-in clinic for the remaining shots. Quick in and out, no big deal.

The second part of the treatment (probably the reason I had to go to the ER, because it had to be administered by a doctor) was to "infiltrate" rabies globulin into all the bite and scratch sites. This was done with a very thin, short needle about a centimeter long. The doctor inserted the needle underneath and around all the bites and injected globulin. It was a bit ouchy but nothing too painful. It took a while because I had two bites, one on each hand, and scratches on my right hand and both legs where the cat came up behind me and jumped on me. After doing the main bites, I asked the doctor if she wanted to do the scratches on my legs. She said she had plenty of globulin and it couldn't be reused for anyone else, so we could use as much as I wanted. The scratches probably weren't necessary to infiltrate, but I figured it couldn't do any harm, so I told her to load me up with as much globulin as she could. She had to change the needle twice because it was so thin it got bent. My hands were a little sore at first, but the soreness went away quickly and I think my hands actually felt better after. Maybe it was psychological relief, but it did help to have healthy serum go right into my bites and scratches.

So that was it. Next time I decide I want to get another cat, I will go to the animal shelter.

On to better news! Yesterday, we had an early Christmas dinner with my younger nephew and his fiancée (they just got engaged, so we were celebrating that, also). They are going to spend actual Christmas with her family, so they came here this weekend. I was pretty exhausted from my week of stress, and hadn't had time to do any shopping, but I managed to put together some veggie enchiladas for dinner, and a few presents. My brother & SIL and I are going to swap main presents on actual Christmas, but I wanted to bring something for them. I've been feeling crafty lately, and I had some leftover yarn from various projects, so I started searching knitting patterns, and decided on a wine bottle cozy (because they like to drink wine) and a couple of bottle/can cozies. Then I decided, since my sister-in-law is a HUGE Mets fan, to see if I could find yarn in Mets colors to knit the cozies. Fortunately, Walmart has a decent selection of basic weight 4 acrylic yarns, and I was making my weekly trip to Walmart anyway, so I picked up a skein each of royal blue and orange.



I didn't take a picture of the can cozies but they were just plain cylinders, one in blue with an orange trim and one orange with blue.

They were a big hit, my sister-in-law really got a kick out of having cozies in Mets colors. (I have plenty of yarn left over, I will probably knit her a beanie & scarf with the rest.)

For my nephew and his partner, I had another plan. My mom always told me she wanted me to have her wedding diamond -- it was originally in a plain gold wedding set, but after my dad died, she didn't want to wear wedding rings any more and had the diamond reset in a swirly gold band and put a sapphire in the wedding set, just to have a stone in it. I don't wear rings so I just put mom's jewelry aside, and I don't have kids of my own, so I long ago decided I'd give the diamond to whichever of the nephews got married first. So I took the ring, the wedding set, and a professional appraisal mom had done of the ring way back in the 90s, and gave them to the kids, with an explanation of how they came about and how I'd decided who gets them. (If the older nephew every gets married, I have another diamond ring of mom's I'll give to them. But there's only one wedding ring, so I had to choose between them, and first come, first served.) They were very appreciative! The ring is currently too big for my future niece, so I don't know if they'll resize it or just keep it as a keepsake, but they loved it and will take good care of it, so I'm glad to have finally passed it on.

We had a delicious dinner and I'm relieved and glad to be getting my life back to normal.