Friday, February 27, 2009

I need a coffee.

or a Red Bull. Or a Vivarin.

But not all three. I don't want to end up like Jessie Spano, all whacked out on speed, singing "I'M SO EXCIIITED!" at the top of my lungs.

But really. I need a caffinated pick-me-up. And then maybe later I'll have the energy to post about the ridiculous Facebook-related "event" that happened on Sunday.

But in the meantime, I need to go get changed, because we're going out to dinner with Josh and Jessica tonight, pretty much as soon as I pick up Matt from work.

So. About that Red Bull....

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Buttons is feeling better

Thankfully! This past weekend was really rough. Matt was a super sweetie on Valentine's Day, especially after my snotty, sobby mess on Friday at the vet. He went to work early and came home with a pretty bouquet for me. We took Buttons back to the vet and learned (easy, thankfully) how to give her sub-Q fluids, and she took to it well. We had a REALLY nice dinner out at Sam's Cafe, our favorite. The extra nice - it didn't break the bank. We'd bought a $25 gift certificate at http://www.restaurant.com/ when the certificates were 80% off! After our gift certificate, we each got a tasty entree, I got a cup of my favorite soup and we shared THE most amazing Chocolate Truffle Pie, for $20 before the tip! SCORE!

I was still pretty worried about B though, because she wasn't eating much, and between Friday night and Monday morning, had only eaten about a tablespoon of food, and spent more time than usual sleeping. Monday morning I had to be at work at 5:30am. While I was there, Matt mixed up the prescription food she hates with the canned stuff she DOES like, and got her eating more. Since then, we've found an even better food to mix it with, and she's really perked up. By Wednesday, her eyes were bright and clearer again (well, as clear as they're going to be with a 20 year old cat who has mild cataracts). She was demanding food again, loudly, which I didn't mind one bit. She even came out of her closet-cave to lay in the sunshine for a little while. The vet on Saturday reassured me that I don't have to say goodbye to her soon. While I know I won't have her forever, and she probably doesn't have 4-5 years left, we could, realistically, have her for another year, and that was nice to hear.

Matt and I have been trying to keep up with Oscar movies this year. We always try to, and fail, for some reason. This year's offerings have been stuff we really wanted to see, though, which made it easy. Tonight, we went out to see Revolutionary Road, which was very emotional, but very good. I could have done without the THREE groups of Seniors (and I mean 55+, not HS...) who would NOT SHUT UP. Within the first five minutes, one woman's cell rang THREE TIMES, and the third time, she answered it. And rather than whisper "I'm at the movies, I'll call you back", she got up from our row, went down to the floor level and acted as if perhaps there, nobody would notice her having a 2 minute phone conversation...It was really irritating, but we tried to ignore it and were able to enjoy the movie anyway.

We've also seen Slumdog Millionaire, which I HIGHLY recommend. We rented Vicky Christina Barcelona and The Visitor, both of which were ALSO excellent, and I would make them priorities to see. The Changeling arrived in our mailbox today, too.

Tomorrow's a busy day. Lots of Avon deliveries to make, and I work in the evening. Business is picking up though, which makes me very happy. My Dad's excited about business going well. My grandmother, who passed away just before New Years, sold Avon back when my father was growing up, so I think he's just glad to see that, after all these years, Grace and I wound up having at least this in common.

I'm off to bed, goodnight!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentines Day. Or not.

Yesterday was awful. We got the car taken care of, fine and dandy. More than I wanted to spend total, but it needed the 30,000 mile tune up and new front brakes. Whatever. Then we took Buttons to the vet. Buttons is in Renal Failure (the vet said "Chronic", if that means anything). She's severely dehydrated, has an enlarged thyroid and probably diabetic, but they're going to try again today to get a urine sample to get more info. When they tried yesterday, she peed all over the vet tech. Oops. Sorry Vanessa the vet tech!

They wanted her to come back early this AM and spend all day on IV fluids, but on top of what was covered from her insurance, yesterday alone cost $160 and it would have cost at least another $250, and they were talking about coming back once or TWICE weekly for blood work to see how the treatments were doing. I have an oral liquid to give her 3x a day, she's on special prescription food specially for the renal system.

Its funny. They looked at her and initially said "well, she's got the enlarged thyroid, but this, this and this look fine, so for her age, she actually looks really great". When they brought the blood work back, the doctor's face was pale and sad, and she said "Well. Buttons is in renal failure. I'm so, SO sorry". I guess she hides it well, like any woman would :)

Nothing will fix her. She's 20. But they want to try and make her as comfortable as possible. I was a WRECK. I called my mom from the Petsmart bathroom SOBBING, because I didn't know what to do. If she's 20, but needs all this treatment and I can't pay for it, what do I do? I felt like I was waiting for the vet to tell me that she needed to be put down, but she's not at that point yet. I hated myself for thinking first with my wallet, and not my heart.

So this afternoon, we take her back; instead of all day IV fluids, the vet is going to teach us how to give her fluids under the skin, and hopefully, we can get that urine sample so we know more about where we stand.

On top of all of this, I'm absolutely LIVID with her previous vet. We took her in with the EXACT same concerns just last summer, and the records the vet faxed over even show our concerns, but her prognosis then was "VERY GOOD". I'm sorry, but a 20 year old cat who is missing teeth, peeing in the wrong place, clumping furn (all signs of kidney failure, according to yesterdays' vet) is not "VERY GOOD". We never even got to MEET that vet, they forced us to do a drop off appointment, and when we picked her up, they said "she looks great". I asked "what about the concerns I had? Do we need to speak to the doctor?" and the jerk said "no, she's just old". Thanks, Captain Obvious. I intend to contact Banfield Corporate and complain about THAT location, and then give absolutely GLOWING praise for yesterday, who were simply amazing, given the situation, and the fact that my cat peed on a tech...

So that's that. I'm sitting here on Buttons watch today. Matt's at work for another couple hours, then its back to Petsmart. I THINK we're still going to try and go out for a Valentine's dinner, but we'll see.

I hope you all are having a better V-Day!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

my blah blog

I'm boring. I know.

I still have a cold. I'm working more (and as of next week, I work the 5:30 AM to 11am shift. YUCK), and really, I just have nothing to say :(

Saturday, February 7, 2009

i have a cold.

and it sucks. Actually, it sucked on Friday, when I felt the worst. I'm starting to recover, but its a slow process, not at all helped by the weird Neti pot everyone kept recommending (um, good for prevention, perhaps, but I can't expect the solution to flow in or out of my nose when I'm so congested it seemed to hit a dam and flow right back out....lovely visual, yes?)

Also sucks - taking a decongestant on Thursday night that makes me wake up at 7:00 on the button on Friday morning, still feeling sick. Sorta worked out to my benefit, I suppose, because even after napping for 30 minutes, I was able to go to bed by 10:30pm, since I had to be up at FIVE AM on Saturday, so I could take Matt to work and then get to Curves by 7am for my own shift.

And yet here I sit, at midnight, wide awake. Well. Mostly. I took a nighttime medicine about an hour ago, hoping it would knock me out. Its starting to kick in (yay! double yay for it being Children's Dimetapp that still tastes good AND works better than nasty Nyquil!)

ooh. a yawn. I'm going to get in bed before I get a 14th wind....

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Hurrah!

My Jury Group # was released. I don't have to go!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Laaame.

Last month I got a Jury Summons notice. Boooo. Here in AZ, rather than just have you show up and wait around all day to see IF you'll be called, they let you call in the night before (hey, thanks for giving me lots of planning time..) to see if you need to report.

The first 10 groups - not mine - have to report at 11am.

MY group? Yeah. I have to call back at 11am to see if I need to come in. Really? So you're going to pay me 45 cents a mile, from my home zip code...so that I can drive an EXTRA 30 miles round trip to take my husband to work first so that I have the car just in case you call me, and if you DO, then I have to drive the half hour downtown and hopefully get out in time so my husband doesn't have to stand around in the parking lot for 2 hours.

Where's the form for the extra mileage for how totally screwed up this is?