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I'm going to catch up with everything outside of work the last couple of months in this entry. I'll save work stuff for another entry. So, outside of work, besides adjusting to the new work schedule, with my new normal of body maintenance tasks, the last 2 months have brought more challenges, which is why I've been so scarce here. I've really missed sharing stuff with ya'll, but I'm working hard on trying to get enough sleep to keep me healthy and I just keep running out of time each evening.
CAT HEALTH
Tuxie was losing weight this summer and he needed to, but it was faster than his diet could probably account for, and I was worried about him. He was diagnosed with diabetes the end of August, so along with Saki's usual maintenance runs, I've been at the vets more weekends than not the last 2 months. He is doing well now on the insulin and diabetes diet food. It was very hard in the beginning because I was terrified of sticking him with the needle, and our practice session at the vets was rough on him, but it's easy on both of us now. He is doing really well, has gained back some weight, and looks filled out again. In fact, he seems to enjoy the whole needle ritual--he's just that kind of boy. I give him a sprig of catnip with it, so that helps. He is mostly liking the special diet food, and with any luck we might get him into remission in the coming months.
Now Saki is a little bit out of balance--her thyroid values were too low last week, so we're reducing her dose a little, and hope she'll stabilize again. And I can't let her touch Tuxie's high protein/low carbs food because it would destroy her kidneys, so I have to even more highly supervise feeding time and coax Tuxie into eating as much of it as he can before I take it away. If I give him a little bit and keep adding a little more and spooning it back together every few minutes, he'll eat more--it's like having toddlers. The more of it he eats,then the less of Moo's carb-filled dry food he'll scarf down. But no vet visits scheduled this weekend or next--yay!
ME HEALTH
Mooooooore dental work! The lower bridge I had done this spring (right before the accident) broke in August. My old one had lasted 17 years--this one made it 5 months. I should have fought my dentist about having to pay out for it again, but I didn't, and so maxed out my new dental insurance and still had to pay $2000 on top. But when that one BROKE AGAIN A WHOLE WEEK LATER earlier this month, I was ready to fight, and luckily didn't have to--she's gotten her lab to redo it, but frankly, it is at least as much her fault as theirs, and probably more, and when this is done, I'll be dentist hunting again. So I'm back to wearing a temp bridge for now. And I'm just hoping the top bridge for the teeth that got knocked out in the accident doesn't go the same way.
My knee is hurting more lately. The first month of work I kept up my knee stretches religiously, at the expense of sleep, and my back sure felt it and sent twinges down my right arm. This month I have been getting my sleep at the expense of the stretches. So November's plan is to figure out how to keep up with both. Also next month I get the thyroid ultra sound again to see if I need a needle in the throat biopsy or not, and December is time for my breast MRI. I still get pain on rainy and windy days in the site where I had that bad MRI guided biopsy last year, but the lumpectomy site gives me no trouble.
I have a happy health thing to report, though--the hot flashes subsided 2 weeks ago! OMG, that makes life so much more handleable! Yay that I can snuggle under blankets when I get chilled and don't have to throw them off a couple of minutes later and I don't have to push my kitties away and we can snuggle all up together. I can bend down without coming back up with a hot flash and cursing that I forgot not to bend down. I can think of hot flashes without getting one--yes, I'm not unique in that happening, and I bet the European folk idea that if you think or say the devil's name, he appears in a whoosh of flames, comes from that, what with the connections made between cronedom and witchiness. Life is so much more comfortable now.
Yesterday I started coming down with the crud that is going around the office, but, except for getting up to medicate and feed cats, I slept until mid afternoon, and am feeling a little better this evening. Saki sat next to me in the early afternoon watchfully, instead of curled up in her nest in the pillows and gave me really concerned looks. I'm sorry to worry her, but it's wonderful to live with such an empathetic roommate. Things are so mutual with her. My furry yenta. Mostly wonderful: the weekend before when I took her to the vet, I played it so cool and gave nothing away, but twice she came into the bathroom in the morning and gave me a hard, searching look, and then she hid behind the futon. I had to go about the whole breakfast feeding ritual before she came out. Way too perceptive, she is.
HOUSEHOLD
Car battery died on me when grocery shopping a week into starting work, which was annoying, but I only lost a few hours. The really fun hardware failure was my refrigerator dying in September. It had apparently died early in the day--I found out when I opened my freezer up Saturday night and found all my frozens thawed out. So, I lost everything in the freezer. But when I called Sunday morning, maintenance actually went and got me a new refrigerator from the apartment they were fixing upstairs for which I am very grateful. It was still a hell of a lot of exhausting work getting everything out of the fridge and then moving stuff out of the way so the old fridge could be taken out and the new one brought in. That was a really hard and stressful weekend. But I was lucky it was a weekend and not a work night, and they could replace it so promptly, and most of all, I was very lucky that I had cleaning the fridge on the agenda, but hadn't gotten to it yet. So it was awesome that I didn't spend a lot of time cleaning the damn thing before it died--yippeeee! And now I have a nice, new clean fridge, and got some decrufting done as well. (-;
On the better side of getting things done around the house, I've put out some bird feeders to keep Tuxie entertained. I've hung them down below the window, rather than up in the windows because I don't want to tempt Tuxie into climbing the screen and possibly ripping them and falling out, not that it wouldn't be a bad way for a cat to go, dying happily in pursuit, but I'd rather avoid that. I did try to put out a plastic feeder, that slipped and cracked on the ground. I have a cedar one now I hope to try to hang tomorrow.
WALKS AND STUFF
I don't have time to walk after work on weekdays, but have started getting in 20 minute or so walks on the path around the building when I can take time out of the workday, since I eat lunch at my desk. I saw a couple of 4 or 5 inch praying mantises this week and a few monarch butterflies.
I hated missing a walk on this lovely day, but I just didn't have the energy with being sick. Otherwise, I've been walking around the lake on weekends. I saw a garter snake last weekend, but the skinks marked October 1st in their schedule books as "time to hibernate" and I haven't seen them since. Spellcheck, btw, does not know the word "skink." It suggests, among other things, "skunks, kinks, and Kinko's." It has goddamned "Kinko's," which has been bought out by FedEx, but not "skinks"? Weird!
I did see an attempted osprey rescue at the lake last weekend. A woman saw an osprey try to land on a tall stump, missed landing on it, but, looking like its talons were caught on the stump, pulled itself up then sat there for probably an hour, very still. She called animal patrol who tried to reach it with a pole, but couldn't, so next came the fire department. When they put a ladder up against the tree, the osprey flew away. So it wasn't caught after all, or managed to work its talons out gingerly as it perched there recovering. Funny that it stayed there while the animal control folks were reaching for it with the pole. Strange, but a happy ending at least and lots of good will.
And that's most of what's going on. Maybe one day I'll have time for a modicum of a social life, or even doing creative things again, but there's no telling if this job will go past December yet, so I'll worry about that then.
I've been pleased with the new LJ management and the way they've been communicating with us, so I paid for my LJ account a week ago for the first time in several years, probably since it was taken over by Six Apart and then SUP, and now I have more icons again. I took a little time to also play with my larger collection of icons on DW. I did that the weekend before last and ran out of time to post. I hope to be better at keeping up here on in, life challenges willing. Shorter, more frequent entries--I can do that, right? Will try.
CAT HEALTH
Tuxie was losing weight this summer and he needed to, but it was faster than his diet could probably account for, and I was worried about him. He was diagnosed with diabetes the end of August, so along with Saki's usual maintenance runs, I've been at the vets more weekends than not the last 2 months. He is doing well now on the insulin and diabetes diet food. It was very hard in the beginning because I was terrified of sticking him with the needle, and our practice session at the vets was rough on him, but it's easy on both of us now. He is doing really well, has gained back some weight, and looks filled out again. In fact, he seems to enjoy the whole needle ritual--he's just that kind of boy. I give him a sprig of catnip with it, so that helps. He is mostly liking the special diet food, and with any luck we might get him into remission in the coming months.
Now Saki is a little bit out of balance--her thyroid values were too low last week, so we're reducing her dose a little, and hope she'll stabilize again. And I can't let her touch Tuxie's high protein/low carbs food because it would destroy her kidneys, so I have to even more highly supervise feeding time and coax Tuxie into eating as much of it as he can before I take it away. If I give him a little bit and keep adding a little more and spooning it back together every few minutes, he'll eat more--it's like having toddlers. The more of it he eats,then the less of Moo's carb-filled dry food he'll scarf down. But no vet visits scheduled this weekend or next--yay!
ME HEALTH
Mooooooore dental work! The lower bridge I had done this spring (right before the accident) broke in August. My old one had lasted 17 years--this one made it 5 months. I should have fought my dentist about having to pay out for it again, but I didn't, and so maxed out my new dental insurance and still had to pay $2000 on top. But when that one BROKE AGAIN A WHOLE WEEK LATER earlier this month, I was ready to fight, and luckily didn't have to--she's gotten her lab to redo it, but frankly, it is at least as much her fault as theirs, and probably more, and when this is done, I'll be dentist hunting again. So I'm back to wearing a temp bridge for now. And I'm just hoping the top bridge for the teeth that got knocked out in the accident doesn't go the same way.
My knee is hurting more lately. The first month of work I kept up my knee stretches religiously, at the expense of sleep, and my back sure felt it and sent twinges down my right arm. This month I have been getting my sleep at the expense of the stretches. So November's plan is to figure out how to keep up with both. Also next month I get the thyroid ultra sound again to see if I need a needle in the throat biopsy or not, and December is time for my breast MRI. I still get pain on rainy and windy days in the site where I had that bad MRI guided biopsy last year, but the lumpectomy site gives me no trouble.
I have a happy health thing to report, though--the hot flashes subsided 2 weeks ago! OMG, that makes life so much more handleable! Yay that I can snuggle under blankets when I get chilled and don't have to throw them off a couple of minutes later and I don't have to push my kitties away and we can snuggle all up together. I can bend down without coming back up with a hot flash and cursing that I forgot not to bend down. I can think of hot flashes without getting one--yes, I'm not unique in that happening, and I bet the European folk idea that if you think or say the devil's name, he appears in a whoosh of flames, comes from that, what with the connections made between cronedom and witchiness. Life is so much more comfortable now.
Yesterday I started coming down with the crud that is going around the office, but, except for getting up to medicate and feed cats, I slept until mid afternoon, and am feeling a little better this evening. Saki sat next to me in the early afternoon watchfully, instead of curled up in her nest in the pillows and gave me really concerned looks. I'm sorry to worry her, but it's wonderful to live with such an empathetic roommate. Things are so mutual with her. My furry yenta. Mostly wonderful: the weekend before when I took her to the vet, I played it so cool and gave nothing away, but twice she came into the bathroom in the morning and gave me a hard, searching look, and then she hid behind the futon. I had to go about the whole breakfast feeding ritual before she came out. Way too perceptive, she is.
HOUSEHOLD
Car battery died on me when grocery shopping a week into starting work, which was annoying, but I only lost a few hours. The really fun hardware failure was my refrigerator dying in September. It had apparently died early in the day--I found out when I opened my freezer up Saturday night and found all my frozens thawed out. So, I lost everything in the freezer. But when I called Sunday morning, maintenance actually went and got me a new refrigerator from the apartment they were fixing upstairs for which I am very grateful. It was still a hell of a lot of exhausting work getting everything out of the fridge and then moving stuff out of the way so the old fridge could be taken out and the new one brought in. That was a really hard and stressful weekend. But I was lucky it was a weekend and not a work night, and they could replace it so promptly, and most of all, I was very lucky that I had cleaning the fridge on the agenda, but hadn't gotten to it yet. So it was awesome that I didn't spend a lot of time cleaning the damn thing before it died--yippeeee! And now I have a nice, new clean fridge, and got some decrufting done as well. (-;
On the better side of getting things done around the house, I've put out some bird feeders to keep Tuxie entertained. I've hung them down below the window, rather than up in the windows because I don't want to tempt Tuxie into climbing the screen and possibly ripping them and falling out, not that it wouldn't be a bad way for a cat to go, dying happily in pursuit, but I'd rather avoid that. I did try to put out a plastic feeder, that slipped and cracked on the ground. I have a cedar one now I hope to try to hang tomorrow.
WALKS AND STUFF
I don't have time to walk after work on weekdays, but have started getting in 20 minute or so walks on the path around the building when I can take time out of the workday, since I eat lunch at my desk. I saw a couple of 4 or 5 inch praying mantises this week and a few monarch butterflies.
I hated missing a walk on this lovely day, but I just didn't have the energy with being sick. Otherwise, I've been walking around the lake on weekends. I saw a garter snake last weekend, but the skinks marked October 1st in their schedule books as "time to hibernate" and I haven't seen them since. Spellcheck, btw, does not know the word "skink." It suggests, among other things, "skunks, kinks, and Kinko's." It has goddamned "Kinko's," which has been bought out by FedEx, but not "skinks"? Weird!
I did see an attempted osprey rescue at the lake last weekend. A woman saw an osprey try to land on a tall stump, missed landing on it, but, looking like its talons were caught on the stump, pulled itself up then sat there for probably an hour, very still. She called animal patrol who tried to reach it with a pole, but couldn't, so next came the fire department. When they put a ladder up against the tree, the osprey flew away. So it wasn't caught after all, or managed to work its talons out gingerly as it perched there recovering. Funny that it stayed there while the animal control folks were reaching for it with the pole. Strange, but a happy ending at least and lots of good will.
And that's most of what's going on. Maybe one day I'll have time for a modicum of a social life, or even doing creative things again, but there's no telling if this job will go past December yet, so I'll worry about that then.
I've been pleased with the new LJ management and the way they've been communicating with us, so I paid for my LJ account a week ago for the first time in several years, probably since it was taken over by Six Apart and then SUP, and now I have more icons again. I took a little time to also play with my larger collection of icons on DW. I did that the weekend before last and ran out of time to post. I hope to be better at keeping up here on in, life challenges willing. Shorter, more frequent entries--I can do that, right? Will try.
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Glad Tuxie is doing better now that he's medicated/eating better. I know full well how dang tricky it can get, policing food intake in a group. I'm sorry Saki's thyroid went out of balance again, but it was good that you had her to watch over you while you're ill yourself.
I will admit amusement at your car battery dying while grocery shopping- that was when mine did it, too, in the hottest week of summer, 2013. The car in the parking lot of the supermarket was broiling hot anyway, and fortunately I was able to get someone to drive down and get me and my perishable groceries home. THEN I worried about the battery replacement. Which was probably backwards, but hey.
I'm relieved that you were able to get your refrigerator replaced so quickly, but oh, how I do NOT envy you all that work. I'm also glad you are managing a walk around the building at work for lunch break- good to get the blood moving, right?
From the looks of it, I would say your life is currently way too booked to accommodate things like superfluous blogging. We will look forward to that future time you can really keep us updated!
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Sakis seemed a little down lately--it may just be reacting to my mood of being sick and preoccupied or oncoming winter blues but keeping an eye on her.
My battery went out in the sweltering heat as well. Luckily I was parked just outside the glass doors of the mall the grocery store was in so I could keep me and my groceries in the cool as I watched for the AAA truck to come.
I need to talk with me friends here as well as drudge away, so trying to make the time. *hugs you*
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Having kitties is a little like a bunch of toddlers :)
Hope things will smooth out for you soon so that you get plenty of rest!
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The spoon feeding for Tuxie kind of ups the toddler quotient. He is a sweetie, though.
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A friend of mine injects her cat with 3 units of insulin twice a day, and it's finally 'routine' for both of them.
*many many hugs and loves*
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Yup, 3 units is what I give Tuxie. It's actually easier than giving Saki her pills. I hope we can get him into remission, but if not, it's OK.
*squooshes*
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*hugs*
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I'm glad Tuxie is ok with the needle thing and his new diet. I hope he is on the road to remission. *hugs*
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Tuxie might miss the whole nip and stick routine if he goes into remission and I can stop medicating him, knowing him.
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I too struggle with balancing getting adequate rest and doing prescribed exercises. Still looking for my balance. I have a new set as of today and am hoping to at least get in the one that involves lying on my belly for five minutes. :P
*hugs snugs* Thank you so much for making time to share this update with us. :) I always look forward to your posts. :)
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Yeah, I can do the standing stretches at work. It's getting time to do the lying down stretches at home that I'm struggling with.
Thank you, bb! *squooshes you*