Long short week

 Why are weeks that start with holidays so LONG???

Ugh... By the end of the day Friday, after an altercation with my supervisor (blaming me for someone else's mistake, one of her favorite tactics), I was SO over it!!

It didn't help that Dave realized last Tuesday that he had enough vacation time to just.... stop working.  He looked at his "PTO bank," and found several unused days that he would have lost, so he talked to his boss, and the time was approved, and he's done!

HE WAS supposed to work through January 31st, and then have the month of February off as paid vacation, but here we are... he is already on vacation until his retirement date.

Lucky bastard.

HAHA!

Since Dave has had a company cell phone for years, I will be adding him to my cell phone account, and we will be going to get new phones.  I can't wait, because I have never liked the one I have.  Not that a newer version is going to be much different, but oh well.

The vet was open on Monday, and Dave left a message, asking him to call.   When he called, he said that there was no evidence of cancer in Pete's blood test.  That was SUCH a huge relief! 

However, he thinks Pete possibly has irritable bowel disorder.  

We are not sure why he thinks that, because Pete has not had issues with his "stools," but the recommendation was to just keep doing what we've been doing, and add a B12 supplement to his food.  

So, since Pete has been feeling a lot better, has only thrown up stomach acid once in three weeks, and is enjoying getting "lunch" every day, we are now adding the B12 drops to his mid day food.

He hasn't turned his nose up at it yet! 

If he does not continue to improve, then the vet can give him an injection of some kind of medication, but we won't even consider that for several weeks.

I am looking forward to NOT WORKING in the office tomorrow!  

Because I have an oncologist check up appointment on Thursday, though, my office day will be Wednesday.... another day when no one else is there but the team lead, the supervisor, and the managers.  Nice and quiet.

To celebrate Dave's early exit from working, I am baking him a cake today, and making a favorite meal.

Right now, I am off to the shower.  Have a great week!

No news, but good news....

 Well, the vet didn't call all week, so Dave called yesterday (Saturday), only to be told that Pete's blood sample had only just arrived at the lab.

In the meantime, Pete hasn't thrown up in two weeks, and he is increasingly acting more and more like himself.

He's eating those tubes of semi-liquid, smelly, hair ball remedy formula cat treats with great gusto!  He gets one every day, and it seems to have helped him a LOT.

He's always been VERY finicky about eating ANYTHING BUT HIS FOOD, so this is new trend is a Very Good Thing.

He's also getting special (more expensive) food for a mid day meal every day, to try to  get his weight back up.

He's bright eyed, and playful, and affectionate again... he is clearly feeling better, so we will keep doing what we're doing, and hopefully, the blood test results will be in next week.

My hope is that it was just a really bad case of pancreatitis, which is caused by hair not being properly expelled from the stomach, and that the extra hair ball remedy has cleared it.

Had my treatment on Thursday, and all went as usual.

They keep changing the method of giving me the steroid, due to the ongoing shortage of saline, after Hurricane Helene.  

This time, it was given as a slightly diluted "push" into the IV tube.

You may recall that the pill form from a couple of treatments ago resulted in THE WORST cold sweats to date.... Well, this push method resulted in much milder cold sweats!

I only woke up twice, and the sweats were over with by 1:30 am.  I never had to change my pajamas (they weren't soaking wet... just damp around the collar and chest area), and the sheets and quilt weren't all wet.

There was the usual middle of the night insomnia. I eventually went back to sleep, though, and did okay through the work day on Friday, because I hadn't been up most of the night shivering and sweating!

One of the nurses from the clinic called me on Wednesday, though, to let me know that one of my blood values was slightly elevated.

She said it wasn't anything to worry about yet, but that I should increase my hydration over the next three weeks, before my next blood draw. 

This is a three day weekend for us, and the deep cold has come back to Oklahoma. 

I am making a big pot of bone broth (cooking it for two days on the stove this time), made chicken soup yesterday, and will be making steel cut oatmeal for breakfast, and New Mexican pork for dinner!

YUM!

My intention for this batch of broth is to drink it, as part of my hydration increase.  

Also, because of the Monday holiday, I brought up the question to my supervisor... why do I have to be the ONLY team member at work who is required to be in the office twice a week?

EVERYONE ELSE only works in the building on Thursdays. 

So, she "granted me permission" to only work in the office on Thursdays, starting this coming week.

Well, thank you, your highness.

Of course, I am immuno-compromised, so I will have to wear a mask if we are in meetings, etc., but that's no big deal.

Anyway, I am off to start my day. Have a good week!

Kitty tummy troubles

 Something I haven't mentioned here is that our kitty cat, Pete, has not been well.

Over the past few months, he has been occasionally vomiting up stomach fluid that is pink.  He's not throwing up his food, but he's losing weight.

At first, the vet thought it was pancreatitis, just manifesting in a different way than Frank's.  He gave Pete a steroid injection, and he did really well for a couple of weeks.

But then, when we got back from our Thanksgiving trip, he started throwing up again.  Giving him hair ball gel seems to help, but he hates it.

Earlier on, Pete's behavior was perfectly normal, but now he is more lethargic.  He DOES play, and has a good appetite, but he sleeps more than usual, and gets upset when Frank tries to wrestle with him, too.

So, we went back to the vet and they did another blood test, to check his thyroid, which came back normal.

Now, the vet is suspicious that it may be some kind of cancer, so he suggested another blood test, to show Pete's full metabolic/organ function.

Yesterday, Pete went for that blood draw (each one of these blood tests has been $400, so we are up to $1200 already).  

HOPEFULLY, we will have some kind of an answer this time.

Either way, though, if it's not something easily treatable, we will focus on keeping him comfortable until he lets us know it's time.

He's only ten, so we really want this to be something treatable, like it actually IS pancreatitis, or something like that.

In the meantime, he's getting extra food, at the vet's recommendation.  Lucky boy gets lunch again, for the first time since he was a kitten! He's loving that, I can tell you!

In other news, Dave finally got some answers regarding retirement details, and yes, we CAN continue my insurance as it is now, but it will cost us about $400 a month, until I reach 65 and can get medicare.

Okay!  Now we know, and can plan for it.

He has another meeting to learn about medicare this coming week.

We had some snow this past week, so the office was closed on Thursday.  It was nice to be able to work from home, and to watch the snow falling.  It was so pretty, but it shut down most of the city for a day!

Next week is my treatment week, so I only have to work in the office on Monday next week, too!

Dave is going to Costco this morning, and I will stay home for the regular grocery delivery.   I usually have the groceries delivered on Saturdays, but, probably due to the snow, Saturday was not available this week.

Please keep our Pete in your thoughts.... and us, too.  Have a good week. 

Winter has arrived

 The first real cold of the season has come to Oklahoma.

It was 33 F when I got up this morning, but now it's ten degrees colder, the temperature is supposed to continue to fall into the single digits, and the wind is raging at fifty miles per hour.

There is a horrible ice storm north of us, but, thankfully, it isn't headed this way.

It's starting to get chilly in the house, so we may turn on the little fake fireplace space heater shortly.  It looks cozy.... I just wish we had a real fireplace.  Oh well!

I don't have much to report today, and, in fact, forgot that it's my usual day to "blog."  

The new year was nothing special, as usual... though my friend a few blocks away had a terrible fall, and broke a bone in her left hand, an her right forearm, and her nose.

I went over and took care of her on the evening of new year's eve, and have gone back several times to help out.  I've done meal prep, and laundry, and fed her cats, that kind of thing.  Dave went over and disconnected her garden hoses, ahead of this cold front.

She's having a really rough time, but has lots of friends helping her.  Her appointment with the orthopedic surgeon is tomorrow.  Hopefully, she won't need surgery!

She's also at the beginning of treatment for some pre-cancerous lesions in her liver...so 2025 is not treating her kindly, so far.

In other news, there really isn't any right now... HAHA....

I'm hoping we are told to work from home tomorrow due to the intense cold weather.  I doubt it will happen, but it's possible.

Have a good week, and hopefully, you are warm and safe as winter has its way with us.