Double Scares

Yesterday was a bad day for my blood pressure. Two scares in less than a few hours.

The first came while I was heading out to therapy. I stopped at the store to get some Snapple so that I could take some Midol and due to the crappy set up on the street, I had to go a strange way and pull a U-turn to get back to my doctor’s office.

So I turned down this little street, got my blinker going and glanced around before going into the turn. Then this jackass in a big old SUV comes flying down the street without a care in the world, tries to sneak his huge car between myself and the lane divider I was turning around and stops with a screech just INCHES away from my car. His hood was lined up perfectly with my door. If he’d hit me at those speeds I would have likely been killed. He glares at me like I was doing something wrong and I drove off with jelly in my pants instead of legs. I shook for at least a half an hour. I just kept thinking about how if he hadn’t stopped in time, if he’d been on a cell or changing the radio station or going just a little faster I would be in the hospital right now, or worse. Scary.

The second scare was more emotional than anything else. I got home and immediately went to say hello to my fish, which I do every day and they seem to enjoy it and stop laughing at my strangeness I’m well aware that I’m nuts! Both fish were floating lifelessly in the water, their fins tattered and rotten looking. It didn’t make any sense, they had been swimming around perfectly healthy when I’d fed them the night before.

I started to cry. My post about the first two dying had humor in it, I know, but I really do miss them a lot and the idea of losing them all was just too much. I dug out the death-net and scooped one of them, Fat and Sassy, up to carry to the porcelain coffin. That’s when I noticed he was still breathing, or at least struggling to. My Precious was trying too. I immediately jumped on my computer and looked up all sorts of goldfish diseases relating to tail rot. I changed out a lot of their water, adding cold, clean water and lots of PH balancing chemicals, aloe vera to help restore their slime coats and something to remove chlorine. If they were still fighting then so would I.

It was painful, it really was, watching them lay on the bottom of the tank, Fat and Sassy on his side, struggling to breathe, unable to even straighten up, My Precious sort of caught in the filter’s current, rocking back and forth. Their tails looked horrible, their scales were tattered. I actually hoped for a quicker death than they were suffering through, I couldn’t imagine how scared they had to be.

I began working on my computer, trying to distract myself and not watch the painful display taking place in the tank. I thought of how sad Zoe would be next time she came over, she loves to watch the big fish swimming in the tank, how much it would hurt to drain the water and clean everything out, wondering if I would even keep the tank going or abandon it. I’d been planning to gift myself with a new tank on my birthday, a nice 20 gallon vertical with a stand.

I was heading to fix myself some dinner round about 9:30 or so (yeah yeah, I know you’re not supposed to eat after 7) and I noticed that My Precious was swimming around. Actively swimming around. And Fat and Sassy wasn’t just lying on his side, he was upright and both of them seemed to be breathing more easily. Their tails still looked horrible, but pieces were no longer coming off.

This morning when I woke up both were still going strong. Fat and Sassy is still lying on the bottom of the tank, but his eyes are clearer and he isn’t gasping for breath anymore. My Precious is still swimming around, which is impressive because she’s always been a remarkably lazy fish who avoided swimming in general and preferred lying on the decorations. Both of them look worlds better but I know they’re still very sick. So I think for the next few days I’ll be switching out their water a little bit at a time each night, a few small pitchers full switched out, special treats of blood worms and maybe a slice of zucchini, lots of attention and love and hopefully they’ll pull through.

Think healthy, happy, swimmy thoughts for my little guys. They’re the only pets I have.