Test results

Jack the cat has lymphoma. I am choosing not to do anything. He's 14, he seems very healthy and happy, and they don't know if the tumor that was removed was the primary or a metastases. They offered to do tests to find out if there's an extensive spreading. No. No tests, no more surgery, certainly no kitty cat chemo. Just a happy Jack until he tells me he's ready.

Rough Ride

Well, our decision to use the "cat specialist" for Jack's lump removal turned into a nightmare.

For some reason, she released him to COME HOME less than one hour after his procedure.

I know this because I had asked Dave to call and check, and Dave texted back that Jack was having his procedure just then (it was 1:48 pm), and would be ready to come home around 4.

However, while I was on my break at 2:40, Dave texted to say he was being told to come bring Jack home!

I texted back "WOW... already?  He's not even awake yet!"  but Dave was already driving.

So.  Dave got there, paid the nearly $600.00 bill (thank God, we had some of our loan money left from the home improvements...just about $600.00), and was handed the carrier, with Jack already in it.

Of course, Dave was confident that all was well, or he would not be bringing Jack home already.

Well, all was not well.

Jack was still mostly sedated, and he was bleeding profusely.  He bled all over the inside of the carrier, and all over himself.....but Dave didn't/couldn't see that until he opened the carrier at home, and Jack stumbled out.

To Dave, it was horrifying.  Absolutely gory. He tried to wipe the blood off of Jack, but it just kept coming out....so, he easily got Jack back into the carrier, because he was lethargic;  cleaned the blood up off of the floor, and rushed him to the emergency vet where we took Louie to die barely over a year ago.

Yeah.  Lovely.

He got Jack checked in, they cleaned him up, and examined his wound.  They were able to stop the bleeding with some wound glue of some kind.  Their notes say there was a gap in the incision that wasn't closed by  one of the zillion staples.

They said he should be okay, but Dave didn't feel comfortable taking him home in that condition, and left him overnight, with my OKAY.

SO, when both Dave and I were home, we cried and ranted and got the emotions out.  Yes, Dave was in tears.

And then the vet called.  The emergency place had contacted her.  She was profoundly apologetic.  YA THINK?!  She kept asking what she could do to make it right.

Dave told her that he was not prepared to discuss reparations at that time, and that we would talk Thursday when the pathology results come back on the tissue sample she sent.

Why the HELL did she send him home while he was still in recovery???

Anyway, we called the emergency to check on him at about 10, and he was doing fine.  I took a quarter of a xanax., and we got some sleep.

We went to pick him up Saturday morning, and they had him completely cleaned up.  They threw away the pad that was in the carrier because it was completely blood soaked.  They'd given him two doses of pain medication through the night, and he was a little squirrely, but seemed okay.

The cone of shame that the surgical vet put on him was too big, so Dave went out and got a cool inflatable one.  We changed it out, and that made him a LOT happier by last night.  He'd been bumping into things and unable to eat or drink or see....with the soft collar, he can't reach the incision, but he could eat and drink, which he did most heartily when the drugs wore off in the evening.

Today, he's doing great.  We took the collar off, and he has not touched his incision.  He's back under the covers, resting.  There has not been one drop of blood.   He does have a little limp, indicating that he's in some pain, but he really seems fine.

(and, in related news, Annabel is completely fine...not going after him, just a little scared around him)

Anyway, the vet who did the surgery paid the emergency bill.  My comment to the e/r vet was "As well she SHOULD have!  We had to come here because of her!"

The rest of the story?  When we went last Saturday for our consult, I asked her how she chooses the level of anesthesia with an older cat.  She said "oh, we always do blood work first."  Okay. Great.  We agreed then that she would do blood work, and I commented to her that I wanted to see how his aging kidneys and thyroid were doing anyway.

That was when she asked me if I was in medicine.  I told her I had been doing medical billing and now ambulance billing, and had a solid working knowledge of medical terminology.

Anyway, apparently, Dave forgot that part of the conversation, and so when the doctor CALLED him on Friday, before the procedure, and asked if he WANTED her to do blood work, he said no.  He was merely thinking of the extra expense.

But, the point is, SHE FORGOT that conversation, too....she FORGOT that we had already agreed that blood work would be needed to determine his level of health before deciding on the anesthesia!

WHAT?!!  When he told me this Friday night, I was fit to be tied.

Let's see, what else....oh yeah.....when Dave picked Jack up, the only instructions given were to leave the cone on for 2 days.

No wound care.

No medications given.

Just that.

And the cone was clearly too big for him.

The emergency vet administered pain meds to Jack twice overnight during his stay.  Why were we not given pain meds to take home?  He clearly needed them.

The emergency vet told us how to care for the wound.  Why were we not given those instructions by the vet who did the surgery?  We clearly needed them.

So, all in all, our experience with the "cat specialist" went really, really badly.

I guess it's just too much to ask to find a good vet in OKC.

We are hoping that she will refund us the surgery cost.  I don't mind paying for the pathology, but she did such a horrible thing with Jack that I think we should get our money back.

And we will NOT be going back, except for her to finish what she started.

Cats, etc.

(Once again, Blogger is placing random hyperlinks in my posts...what IS THAT?! Why do we need to hyperlink words like "back," "open," and "close?")

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the day we lost Louie, after his long ordeal that started as a blocked urethra, and ended with kidney failure.

As if that weren't difficult enough, it was also the first appointment we could get with a new vet to have a lump on Jack's back looked at.

Yep. He has some kind of tumor (I was hoping it was a cyst), and his surgery is scheduled for Friday.

I decided that I couldn't take my cats back to the vet we were using.  I mean, come on.  Jack was there for a tooth extraction and came home with fleas.  I saw them on him!!

We took him in and said "this cat has fleas that he got here when you had him for his tooth."  We were told he didn't have fleas, he has some kind of rash, here let's put him on antibiotic medication and give him a shot of prednisone.

2 weeks later, he still has the fleas.  I pulled one out of his fur and it jumped off of my finger.  There was no doubt that it was a flea!  Just like there had been no doubt that it was fleas when we took him in the first time.

SO, back he went...the vet says "Well, that didn't work because, hey, look at this, he has fleas."

YA THINK?

I know I blogged about this back when it all happened.    This was the same vet that kept Louie catheterized for 2 weeks last February, causing him to get profoundly dehydrated, etc, etc....

Anyway, so we tried to find another vet near home that was open on Saturday, and could not.  So, we ended up booking an appointment with a vet that specializes in cats...she sees cats only.  She's the vet my guy back home recommended before I moved here.

We just never went to her before because it's 45 minutes away on the far north side of town.  In fact, when I gave the info to Dave when Jack and I first arrived here, he basically said, "No, we're not going all the way up there.  We'll find someone close to home."

But ...there we are, and Jack is her newest patient as of yesterday.

Unfortunately, the carrier we took Jack in still has some stank from the wild cat that was trapped in it last month.  He got that smell all over him, and Annabel went OFF on him when we got home.  It lasted through the night....much growling hissing and hostility.  It. Was. Awful.

Before surgery day, Dave is going to take that carrier apart, and scrub it completely and hose it out, because when Jack comes back from surgery, we can't have her hurting him.

Ugh.

Thankfully, just like last year, Dave has vacation days that he has to use or lose, so he will be off to care for this year's sick cat.

Not that Jack seems at all sick.  He seems perfectly healthy, and his bump doesn't seem to cause him any discomfort at all.  Even when the doc was squeezing it and smooshing it all around, he didn't show any sign of distress.  But, he's almost 14 years old, and the anesthesia will be hard on him.

They'll test the tissue as well, of course, and hopefully it will be benign.

Please??

Anyway, Dave's first trip up to Kansas as a "One Gas" guy went really well this past week.  His new job will require him to travel a little more than he used to.  It's a good thing I've gotten used to it now.

He got back into town on Friday, Valentine's day.  He sent me roses at work, and when he got home, we went out for Ethiopian food, one of our very favorites.

I got a new kitchen gadget that I adore so far.  It is an electric pressure cooker/slow cooker/rice cooker/steamer/saute pot.  One of the girls at the dance studio was talking about hers, and I looked into it and just said wow...I need one of those!!

They're pretty expensive, but if you think about the other gadgets it replaces, it's worth it.  I'd been thinking I need to replace my slow cooker anyway, since it's developed a hot spot where food has been burning.  I already got rid of my rice cooker when we moved into this house with the tiny kitchen.

So it's a win.  We put it on a credit card and called it my birthday present!

I've only used it a few times since it arrived (we got free shipping from Amazon), but so far, it's amazing.

The "competition team" from the dance studio went to California to compete in the "Bellydancer of the universe" contest. Can you hear me rolling my eyes?!  LOL....

In watching the fuzzy phone video that one of their friends posted on Facebook, I can see why they didn't even place.

They are a group of soloist divas trying to be a troupe, and they were off on their timing in almost every phrase of the song, each girl doing her own version of the dance routine.

It was kind of sad, actually.    They were not cohesive at all.

They're so full of themselves, though, that it makes me laugh some time.

I'm a mediocre dancer at best, but I've been doing it long enough (18 years, can you believe it?!) to know what's good and what's not.

I can see what's pure technique and what has heart....especially that.

Oh well....I'm kind of glad they lost because they would have been much more full of themselves when they come back to class next week if they'd placed or won.

I hope they had a fun trip to California, and I hope maybe they'll be a little more humble for a while.  That will make my being in the same class as them a little more comfortable.


Dave's mom is doing fine these days.  She's on a kick saying (again) that she wants to learn how to cook again so they'll eat better.  We've been through this with them before.  It usually doesn't last.

At least for now, she's feeling better and they're eating a little better. Til she gets tired or bored of it again.

Sunday Funday

Well, not really...it's just another Sunday.

Not much to report since last weekend.  Dave's been sick all week with a cold that has left him with a lingering cough.  Almost no sleep lately for either of us.  Ugh.

His birthday yesterday was nice and relaxed, though.

I made Pamela's gluten free biscuit and scone mix for the first time.  We are really trying hard to eat a lot less grain and bread products, but this was a treat.  They came out really crumbly, though....like so crumbly they fell apart being lifted gently off of the parchment.  We had to eat them without picking them up....but they were so yummy!  Especially with that DELICIOUS fig butter from Trader Joe's that my sister sent, and with my Aunt Janet's Missouri Peach jam...Oh my God!!

We'll be on a sugar and carb high today for sure!  But that will get us through my cooking project that requires an assistant:  making a batch of breakfast sausage patties.  It takes FOR EVER to cook them all up.  Then I wrap them in foil in pairs, and stick them in the freezer for easy workday warming.

Yum.

Roasted a chicken last night, so today the meat will be stripped off of the bones, and a batch of Mulligatawny made.  Also yum.

Then the bones will go into the freezer into a bag of bones and veggie scraps, waiting until there's enough for a fresh batch of broth.

I also got a deal on chicken legs, which I will roast today for tomorrow's dinner (Monday is the day that I get home from work, eat, and literally leave again to go work at the dance studio).

Those bones will fill the bag up pretty quickly, so maybe another batch of broth for next weekend.  Made a batch yesterday with mixed chicken, beef, and pork bones.  It's lovely and dark.

Okay, back into the kitchen....have a Sunday Funday!

Ground Hog Superbowl Day!

Just a note..it's not me who puts hyper links in this post...like folding table, and work comp.  That's happening automatically. Weird.

Anyway...

They say that since the groundhog saw his shadow on Superbowl day, that winter will go into 6 weeks of overtime.

Ha.

So...what's been going on?  Let's see...

We've been having some real winter weather in central Oklahoma this year...this is good. Maybe the black widows and brown recluses will decrease this summer.  We've had several nights of sub freezing temps, and even some days.

Today, I shoveled about 3 inches of wet snow off of the patio and driveway.  I did it because I wanted to. Dave would have insisted, but I asked him to let me do it.  I wanted the exercise, and the cold air in my lungs. I love winter.  Always have.

Update on my desk at work:  There is no update.  My desk was supposed to have been rebuilt and made 4 times larger WITH a keyboard tray before the end of January..but....they apparently lost the order for the parts.

So it will be an additional 6 to 8 weeks.

So it's been 6 months now that I have been working every day of every week at an ergonomically incorrect work station, be it folding table, or incredibly tiny desk.

I really like my job, but this part of it has sucked monkey balls.  My right arm is in almost constant pain, my left hand tingles all the time, and my neck is sore.

I don't go work comp because there are 20 of us in the same situation, and none of them have gone work comp...we just complain about the pain and keep hoping that something is done about it.

And I have officially been there 6 months now, so I have vacation time on the books now, too!

My company party was a week ago last Friday.  Finally (it was postponed from December, because there was a huge storm predicted that never came). It was really fun, and I won a Keurig coffee maker, and a free day off!  Sweet!!

Over the past several months, in my dance class, I have been learning a really difficult choreography.  I figured it was good for me to dance to  music I hated, doing choreography that felt un-natural and strange.

I made myself practice really hard, and I worked at it a lot, and I made this dance MY BITCH!  

Dance studio showcase was last night, the one time I will perform this number, and I had gotten to the point that I liked it.  I made myself work at it, and I made myself dance it....  not just learn it, but DANCE it.

There's a huge difference.

I hope it looked good from the audience.

I volunteered to be stage manager last night, too.  It worked out great, except for the holier than thou divas whom I fully expected to give me shit when I tried to tell them they needed to get down to the stage for their entrance.

What the fuck ever. Seriously.

My job was to tell them that everyone was waiting, their job was to tell me that they can fucking well wait for US, because we're the princesses.

Yeah, it really is like that.

Anyway...other than their utter bullshit, it went great!  Total success.

Then this morning, we got the snow, and the forecast calls for 2 more storms before this coming week is over.  I am secretly hoping that the dance studio will close on Tuesday, and that work might even close!

And then, just now Dave's mom called in distress.  She had an upper G.I. at the beginning of the week, and for some reason feels worse today than she felt before the procedure.  So, my step son, who lives in the same town as mom and pop, is headed over there with his girlfriend, who has medical training.

We may be going to the hospital here in a little while.  Ugh.

ADDENDUM:  Long, dramatic story short:  Eric took Mom to the E/R, where Dave met them, and then Eric went back to the inlaw's and made sure Dad got some dinner.  Dave stayed at the E/R with mom, who was just having a panic attack, and who was also diagnosed as dehydrated and hypokelemic (low potassium), both of which come from the fact that she and dad dont't eat or drink right--especially lately since she's been feeling bad and needed an upper G/I.  So, she's home, Dave's home, and we go from there.