Beneath the golden Balm

I go in and stare at the dog a moment: no facial swelling, no dyspnea, no lethargy. I clean up the vomit, then check his mucous membrane color: nice and pink with a good capillary refill time. I exit the room to finish the estimate and to inform doc when she finishes with her next exam.

A minute later: he's vomited 2 more times. I go back in, still no dyspnea but he's now lethargic. Lift up a lip and now his MMs are pale and muddy colored, with a CRT greater than 2 seconds. I go interrupt doc in the other exam to come look at the dog.

We give diphenhydramine IM. I go over the surgery estimate and linger in the room to monitor. Breathing is still good 10 minutes later but he's getting more lethargic. No improvement in MMs or CRT. Doc does a reasses, not a fan of heart rate/pulses. We give a steroid injection IM and some SQ fluids. I keep watching. 5 minutes later he's perking up, MMs are getting pinker. I kept him there another 15 minutes and by that time he was back to normal.

In my 26 years as a tech i can say that this is honestly the first time I've seen an older adult dog have an anaphylactic reaction to a vaccine it's gotten numerous times before. It's also maybe the 5th time I've seen an anaphylactic reaction *at all*. And you can imagine how many tens of thousands of animals I've either given vaccines to or have been working the day they got them after 26 years, including nearly a decade in a high volume shelter.

So anyways, that was my extremely anxiety inducing afternoon.

Me to the dog the whole time:

We called again at noon, and this time it didn't even ring, just went straight to voicemail again. At this point I'm catastrophising "something happened to the dog after all. The owner hates us now." etc.

I'm going to have to come up with a tag for the Local Politics I've been spectating because it takes too long to explain or link, but there was supposed to be an in person CAPS (Chicago Alternative Police Somethingorother) beat meeting, where the local police meet with communities to discuss policing issues.

The antagonist of the ongoing brouhaha was supposed to be there, and I thought it would be fun to attend. But when I arrived at the building where it was being held, the interior doors were all locked and it was obvious nobody was there. A very confused janitor said nothing was on the schedule and with 5 minutes to meeting time no cops were there. He'd been dealing with confused Community Members for the past half hour, but only a few.

Was the meeting cancelled by some mysterious Shadow Alderman? Was it a hallucination induced by hearing the phrase "no sparklers inside the restaurant" at the last meeting? Have I shifted realities? Is someone an alien?

I have many reasons why I will not use those tools, going from lack of accuracy, lack of ethics, and a higher waste of energy.

But my main reason is this:

I will do things the hard way. I will learn how to do things the hard way.

Because AI is a subscription. And when the world is dependant on AI, they will raise the price of that subscription.

And when the company I work for decides that paying for AI is too expensive for their bottom line, they will remove it.

If someone were, as a random example, say hospitalized for over two weeks with no explanation, I think that should automatically trigger a special election to replace them.

If you're still able to do your job, then prove it. And if you're not, then you're actively obstructing democracy by not stepping down.

Which is to say, that if a public official were to pass away or into a coma, and their handlers choose to obfuscate that fact, this should be seen as intentionally obstructing democracy.

Spin the wheel again. That’s who’s trying to protect you.

(If you have zero idea about a name you got, spin until you see someone you recognize.)