SaraBelle Update #23498690021

Once again to the vet. She has gained .3 lbs. Yay! The vet says her mass feels a little smaller! Double yay! She received Adriamycin. Errr..yay?

She apparently has started fighting with the vet assistants. That is a good sign but it means she is no longer the charmer all the vet assistants want to steal. She made quite a ruckus in her carrier on the way home too.

Time for more treats.

X-mas Dayz

The holiday has gone thusly:

Wednesday: Have X-mas lunch with staff. Leave work afterwards since I must take hours off before begining of New Year. Get home expecting important packages from UPS to arrive that afternoon. They never do. Sweat.

Thursday: Another day off Call UPS in morning. Mention that packages did not arrive and no note was placed. Online tracking shows they were delivered. They were not. Shit. UPS promises callback in an hour. Shower. UPS calls about 90 minutes later. Drivers says it was delivered, and he remebered making that delivery. Double Shit. I put up sign in lobby asking if anyone signed for the boxes and forgot to leaeve them in the lobby. Go downtown briefly to run some final errands. Get home. Carrie comes by to drop of key so I can check in on her kitties. I miss yet another fencing practice since I have so many things to taek care of. Mostly wrapped presents. *sigh*. Late Thursday evening doorbell rings. Woman I have never met before is holding two packages and says they were delivered next door. Thank her profusely. UPS is populated by morons.

Friday: Meet Bill and Bob for lunch after Bob gets out of work. We go to Monks. We each have 3 'Mad Elf' beers. I have a sausage sandwhich. We have desert with another beer. We decide to go back to my place. Walk from Locust & 16th to 19th and Green. Have a few more beers. Bob wants coffee so we break out the coffee maker that Carrie gave to me. It works. Although Bob almost makes coffee sludge. We shoot the breeze, smoke pipes and make an afternoon of it. Early bed due to beer.

Saturday: As planned, older brother stops by with his son and the family X-mas tree. We head to parents place and set up the tree. This used to involve much cursing, but ever since the proliferation of McMansions everybody wants a large tree, so we don't have to fuss with tiny metal tree stand anymore. Tree goes up. Mom asks me to stop by early to put lights and chains on tree since eldest brother remains in Seattle. I go downtown to try and get a few last things (ribbons). I also stop by to check up on Carrie's cats. They have plenty of food but their water dish is dry. They knocked off the lid to get to the resevoir. Clean and fill the thing. Play with kitties for a while, then head home. Pack presents and overnight bag and head over to parents house. I put the lights and chains on the tree, then wast time until dinner. That night we put ornaments on tree with family friends.

Sunday: XMAS! Neat stuff, inclduing a framed picture of Hessian line at Fort Mercer (from the Inquirer NJ edition). Decent clothing. Overall good stuff. Leave to check on my cats and Carrie's cats. No problems. Although my female guppy might be giving birth. Go back to parents. Brother and his family arrive. More presents. Neice and Nephew have waaaaaaaay too much energy. Turkey Dinner eaten. Pack my stuff and head home.

Zzzzzzzzz.

Six Little Pounds.

She weighs just six pounds now. Not even six pounds, really. Closer to 5.7lbs. I am caring for a fuzzy, affectionate tumor with feet.

However, the vet gave me a mandate: SaraBelle can eat anything she wants to. So to get her weight up I am basicly doing the equivelant of stuffing her with Doritos and TastyKakes: She's getting lots and lots of cat treats. She has been eating them happily, and while I am certain she eats her cat food, she needs something in addition to that.

I'll get her weight up, I swear it.

Son OF A BITCH!

On the commute home this evening, my car was struck. I was changing lanes, had plenty of room, was pretty much 2/3 into the lane when the cockbite in the Ford Pickup decided there was room for two cars and that he just didn't need to care what happened. He struck the mirror and side of my car. I pulled over, but he apparently never knew what happened and kept going, yakking away on his cell phone. Oblivious to everything that wasn't about him and his conversation.

Thankfully, the damage is very minimal. The right side mirror frame is cracked, but the mirror itself is fine. No side damage that I can see.

I merged back into traffic and got into the exit lane, as I did so I managed to pass the dickface that hit me. I couldn't get a plate number memorized, but sure enough he was still gabbing on the phone in the classic 'lean against the window, gab away ont he phone, keep one finger on the steering wheel (optional), and don't give redneck shit about any other car on the road' pose.

In other news, SaraBelle had a bloodcount yesterday and got a couple of pills that cost 10$ each. Fortunately, she only has to take two of them, one per day. Of course, this means that she is up to 6 pills a day. Plus the vet wants me to put eyedrops in her bad eye. One medication might be replaced with a tasty treat. They gave me some samples for her to try and she gobbled them right up.

I'm really concerned that SaraBelle seems downright listless. Maybe its the nausea from the chemo, but she seems to plant herself on the couch or blanket, curls into a ball, and stays there for a very long time sleeping. This generally means the most contact I have with her is when she is being given her meds. Not good.

Due to the lovely weather, the being struck, and having a cold (STILL!), I have skipped fencing practice tonight. I'm going to forget how to hold the damn sword at this rate.

OK...so cheating doesn't work.

After eating the pill-laced tuna twice, SaraBelle started turning up her nose at the stuff. Even warming it up in the microwave did not help. (note: do not microwave small amounts of tuna for more than 10 seconds.)

The last hope was the pill popper. Its still a struggle, but it worked both times I pilled her this evening. Thank heaven something does.

Its Not Cheating if it Works!

I've gotten sick of giving SaraBelle pills twice a day. When I got home late last night I realized I needed to give her the evening pair of pills. I groaned, realizing I really did not want to deal with pilling the little squirmer. Fortunately, I have a bit of an epiphany: Tuna!

I always have a few cans of tuna around, just in case I need to make the ever-infamous stomach-coating casserole (don't ask!). Now, SaraBelle is bonkers for tuna, absolutely nuts for it. I have been known to break the rules and give the can after I have emptied it since she loves to lick it clean.

So I opened a can, drained it, took out a lump on a spoon, and shoved the pills into it. I wondered if this would work. Well, it certainly attracted SaraBelle, who smelled the newly opened can and came down mewing hopefully. Lo and behold, her attendance is awarded with a half teaspoon of tuna! She immediately started licking the stuff, and I worried that she would just work her tongue around the pills. But then she started to chomp away at the tuna lumps and soon it was all eaten. Yay! But would it work tomorrow?

Sure enough, even though she was sleeping and didn't smell the not-just-opened can when I pulled it from the fridge. She did awaked when I held the teaspoon of fish to her nose and chomped down the whole lot.

Any other cat and this might be a weight concern, at least this should work until I get the Dr. Foster & Smith order in.

Various Musings: Cats, Colds and Fish.

The vet now has me giving SaraBelle 5 pills a day. Steroids, antibiotics, and anti-nausea pills in the morning, and a repeat of the antibiotics & anti-nausea in the evening. This is getting to be a royal pain since SaraBelle is very hard to give pills to. Catching her is no problem, but she is so light right now that she does not 'sit' with any gravity when you hold her in the standard pill giving position. Add to this that she seems to have developed a stiff-arm (paw) that would make an NFL running back envious, she actually managed to keep my hand from bringing the pill to her mouth a few times. She squirms like crazy, and drools a bit. This makes for quite an adventure two times a day. Oh fun. To aid matters I ordered a 'pill popper' to make things easier in getting them in her mouth. I also ordered some hollow treats that you put the pills in, close up, and let them eat. Maybe something here will work.

SaraBelle had her second chemo treatment. The next one has her getting blood work and then a home based treatment. Probably more pills. *Sigh*

I've not been feeling good myself. I have had a cold coming on, and while I have been fighting it, it still lingers. I'm listless, tired, coughing, and sniffling a good portion of the time. My appetite seem to have wandered off too. I skipped fencing practice this evening since I don't have the energy and it just would not have been a good idea to exert myself.

I took yesterday off to do some more X-mas shopping. While I was out I got more fish for the tank: Two smaller Angelfish, a few more Neon Tetras (a couple of the first batch died), two male guppies, and another snail. The new snail really cooks compared to the first snail, whose movements are glacial, even by snail standards. Bill has made noise about giving me back the Pleco fish that was in the tank I gave him when I went to California. That sucker thrived in Bill's care, almost tripling in size. Problem is, Bill only has a 10 gallon fresh-water tank and that's a tad small for such a large bottom-feeder

Fish in my Fishtank

I went with Bill to the Hidden Reef. A store that lives up to its name by managing to be almost unfindable in NE Philly. Bill was practically with me as a native guide. While I was there I picked up a rock for acenterpice to the tank as well as a few fish:



I picked up a large AngelFish, two Green Reef Gourami's, a half dozen Neon Tertras, a pair of Guppies, and a snail. I figured all this would be pushing near the limits of what the tank could take. Suffice it to say, the tank still looks pretty empty.

More fish soon. Meanwhile, TETRAS!

Treatment

I've been very distracted at work due to SaraBelle's condition, but that's the way it goes. I took a half day today to get some things taken care of.

SaraBelle's first chemo treatment is Friday evening. After that I will likely drop here off on Wednesday mornings for their early drop-off time for regular treatment. The medication varies from treatment to treatment. I'm not certain what the regular cost will be, since they change the meds each time.

I decided that the first thing I would need is a better carrier for her. I've been using one of the green carriers that I used to transport the fuzzballs from one side of this country to the other. They sort of work, but they are large, unwieldy, and uncomfortable. When I carry them they tend to bump my leg, and that means that SaraBells (and the other cats) tend to slide around on the smooth plastic bottom. Probably not the best option, especially if I have to do this a lot.

So I went to PetSmart and got a smaller carrier, with an easy to use metal door and a comfortable handle. Its about 2/3 the size of the old carriers, and much better overall. I'll just need to put something in the bottom so that SaraBelle is riding on hard plastic when I bring her to the vet.