Medical Alert

I'm writing this blog post instead of doing homework.
But that's ok.
Because it's a story worth telling.

Yesterday there was a blood drive at school. I made sure to get to school early so I could participate, because I knew that they would be gone by the time I was out of class. The plan was to get up at 6am, get a nice breakfast and shower, leave at 7am-ish and make it to school before 8am.

But it didn't quite happen exactly like that.

It was more like: slap my alarm 15 times, get up at 6:45, shovel food into my mouth, scramble to leave by 7:30, turn around 5 minutes later because I forgot something, and finally make it to school at 8:30. I had class at 9 so Novel and I booked it over to the bloodmobiles (conveniently located on the other side of our small community college campus) happy that there probably wouldn't be a line that early in the day, and hopeful that we would be able to get in and out before 9.

There was no line. They processed my info, took my blood pressure, etc. and in just a few minutes Novel and I were climbing into the bloodmobile to the (by this time very familiar) comments of "oh it's a doggy!" "He's so cute" "Can I pet him - or is he working?" "My sister-in-law would love him. She has labs" etc. etc. etc.

I had Novel climb onto the chair and lay in my lap while they collected my blood because of the very limited space in the isle way. He was awesome and laid still doing a "visit" the whole time. A few minutes later a Nurse came over to remove the needle.

 "Gurl, you don't waste no time do you?" she chirped.

And she was right...it had taken hardly any time. As we hurried back across campus to History class, I glanced at my phone. It was 8:52.

"Nice." I thought.

As my History professor began his lecture, Novel curled up in a little ball and went right to sleep. "Wow," I thought. "He's being unusually good today" He usually takes more time to settle.

My lower back was hurting me, making me terribly uncomfortable. I wasn't really worried about it because I had spent the entire weekend sitting in the car, and I knew I would be back to normal as soon as I had a chance to get active again. I had a change of clothes and was planning on heading to the gym after school. Still, the pain was getting worse, and coming of waves that made it almost impossible to concentrate on the lecture.

About half an hour into class, Novel suddenly got up and began licking my hands. Firmly. Persistently. He wouldn't stop and he would lay down when I asked him to. I thought that was strange. Novel loves to obey commands, and he doesn't usually lick me. Especially not like that. It was a little strange, but I wrote it off thinking that since that I wasn't feeling especially good, and he must have sensed that and was trying to comfort me.

And then, I was waking up from a very deep sleep, or maybe just beginning a bizarre dream, trying to open my eyes and trying to figure out what was going on. There was lots of noise. And dark shapes all around me. I was laying on the floor. Then I saw Novel's leash laying on the floor beside me and I grabbed it. "That's not good" my confused brain thought. "What if he got away while I wasn't holding his leash?" But then I realized that I hadn't needed to worry about that as my senses sorted themselves out enough to realize that there was a warm tongue washing my face vigorously. I sat up.

And then my ears started to work. "Katherine? Katherine? Are you ok? You passed out." I heard all around me. I couldn't help laughing. "Really? haha that's never happened before. That was weird." Everything was starting to clear up and make a lot more sense now. "Your dog was really worried about you!" I heard someone say.

 I immediately remembered Novel's persistent licking beforehand.

 "Haha, that was really weird" I said again, and I started to get up. Several hands shot out to stabilize me. That annoyed me. I was better now. All my senses were back and I wasn't confused anymore. Just amused. I wasn't gonna fall again. "I'm fine now" I said. "I'm really fine, I don't need help."

They didn't seem convinced and I was sent...ok, I was escorted...to the Nurse's office to eat some crackers, drink some Juice and have my blood pressure taken, which was normal. Of course, the whole thing was almost certainly a result of the blood I had given that morning, and combined with the pain in my back, I guess my body just decided to take a quick little break from life :) I still thought it was hilarious that I had passed out in class, but as I drank my juice, Novel rolled on the floor upside down, happy and crazy and completely un-service-dog-like and I didn't stop him.

"You knew, didn't you Buddy? You knew I was gonna pass out and you tried to tell me."

 He froze in an upside-down pretzel shape and looked up at me. His ears flopped out like bat wings on either side of his inverted head; his lips, driven by gravity, drooped toward the top of his head to reveal white fangs and the goofy, rounded incisors of a young dog, and his eyeballs, rolled up to look at me from such a bizarre angle, showed large white crescents of sclera. His expression was anything but serious.

I laughed. "Novel, I love you. Someday you are going to do some really great things." He flipped over and stared at me...or through me. And then he came over and put his head on my lap.

"I know mom. I've been trying to tell you that all along. And I love you too.
Hey, can I have some of those crackers?"