Once upon a different time

My mom was really sick.  As I came down the stairs and sat at the kitchen table, I could hear her throwing up in the hall bathroom.  Didn't sound fun.

Well, a little while later she came out of the bathroom complaining about nauseous she was.  She had just been to the DMV and luckily had not done as she felt and "puked all over the guy that was helping" her.  Probably for the best.

Anyway, Jeff and I were still sitting at the kitchen table while my mom was telling us this story, and complaining about how sick she felt.  Luckily for her, we had some anti-nausea medication at our house.  Unluckily for her, it was in liquid form.  Meaning it looked like this:

However, (again) luckily for her, she had someone that could administer that medication.  Me.

Have I ever given a shot to a person before?  Nope.  Was I scared to give a shot to a person?  Hmm, kinda, but not really. 

She was a bit timid when I said that I could do it.

"But wait, have you ever given a person a shot before?" she asked, when I told her to sit down and man-up. 

"Nope, but I can do it.  I've given a shot before," I replied.

"Uh, hold on, hold on, hold on," she quickly said as she scooted away from me.  "How have you given a shot, but never given a shot?"

"I gave a cat a shot once," I said as I popped the tab of the syringe and took off the needle cap.



Her face went completely blank, then she threw her head back and burst out in laughter.  I calmly waited till she had finished.  I explained the fact that I took an animal restraint class in college...and if you are a faithful reader from the beginning you will remember this post.  I really did give a cat it's vaccination at the BYU vet clinic.  But that's another story.

Well, I think she was less than assured, for which I can't really blame her.  I mean, I couldn't pop the safety on the syringe so that the liquid would start squirting out.  You know how they do that little maneuver in the movies where they gently squeeze the syringe and liquid squirts out the top while the freaked out victim looks on in horror?  I couldn't even pull off that moment.  Sad.

So I tried calling my dad on the cell asking him for help, while she played with the needle.  She eventually squeezed hard enough that the liquid squirted out.  She also squeezed hard enough that the liquid shot out in a high velocity stream that grazed my eyeball, since she was pointing the needle RIGHT AT ME!  I saw my short life pass before my eyes, right as the jet propelled stream of anti nausea medicine went straight for my eyeball.  Whew, it was intense.

Well, I recovered and gave my mom the shot.  She survived, and lived to face another day.



And I felt incredible because I got to use knowledge/skills from the most useless class I have ever taken in college.  So, the moral of the story is:  You probably won't ever have to use calculus in your everyday life, but you will have to use animal restraint. 



(Proof that I actually took said class.  Although, clearly, this wasn't the cat day.  At least, I hope not.)