I just read the first few posts in this thread, and I understand exactly what you mean and what you're trying to put together.

My first thought is to recommend physical activity, the more strenuous the better, load-bearing and intense.  This would be "first-aid."  It should be an activity that requires "mindfullness," so that you focus on the task at hand rather than let your mind dwell on the trauma.  Shoveling snow or tree pruning and log cutting are two great activities for me because they turn nervous energy into productive energy.  Hiking uphill with a heavy backpack also is good, especially if the footing is a bit dangerous.  These activities get me outside two ways -- into the outdoors and outside my obsessive-compulsive mind that tends to ruminate over things.

I'd have a seltzer and cherry juice mix -- 3 parts seltzer and 1 part juice -- to calm my stomach.

I'm brand new to ginger tea.  I think it might be good.  Maybe it would work for me if I had some already prepared and in the 'fridge.  I'd have it with seltzer, like a homemade ginger ale.

I take Isocort regularly, so I would also increase the dose a bit.

Food would be the last thing on my mind, but I'd try to have a small snack, probably a high protein energy bar that's easy to digest.

I'm sorry you got hit with this, but I'm glad it was a false alarm.

Great posts, y'all.

I didn't get the holy basil or Rescue Remedy, as the HFS parking lot was a total ZOO, you couldn't even turn into the thaaang, so I decided to give up on it until after New Year's Day.

Meanwhile, I exercised this weekend and tried to rest, although a certain Drama Queen of a neighbor had to try to drag me into her drama just when I was finally beginning to recover from Christmas Eve.  Still, got through all that and now it looks like my kitty, Ember, is doing poorly again in a new way and the vet is in Colorado, the entire practice closed until Wednesday, at which point he still will be in CO but apparently his associate, whom I have never met, will be in.  So the timing blows and I may end up having to make an end-of-life decision on Ember at the animal ER, which I do anything and everything to avoid, as they don't know her complex medical profile and history, etc.  They aren't her vet.  So I'm hoping she troops on until next week when he is back...but it isn't looking so great right now.

All that is by way of saying that I am now over the Christmas Eve trauma (kinda sorta) and on to Round Something (I've lost count) with my poor kitty, Ember, who has had a very challenging year and could be at the end (although I've thought that twice before and she has pulled it out).  I would hate for it to end when the vet is in Colorado, so it would be with a stranger and someone who doesn't know Ember/the case anywhere near as well as he does.  To the associate, Ember is just a file hanging on the door, ya know?  But her own vet really knows her and could make a better assessment, me guesses.  I feel I could then in turn make a better decision that I would feel more confident in.  But of course this goes down while he is away for the week.  Timing is everything, my mom always says.

Anyway, since everyone is SO into this Rescue Remedy, praises-singing-wise, I think I will get some when I can, as well as the holy basil, because when Ember does go, it couldn't hurt to employ those to help me through, right?

Great thread, thanks, all.