Cat Tales

Sunday I saw Vern the neighbor's cat in the yard-- we have a bird feeder, and access to the woods-- and he was acting frisky, climbing a bit up a tree and sharpening his claws on a stump. Then he looked up on our deck to see if I was there. I went to the sliding door and he ran right up.

He's sort of friendly; he will rub and be affectionate, and then suddenly start hissing and bite and run off. I have let him in the house before, where he does a quick tour and then leaves. Needless to say, this is when Sue isn't home-- she is mildly allergic, but mainly just doesn't like animals. I have given him catnip on the rug by the door, and that's what he wanted Sunday: he knew just where I keep it and was all excited when I took it out.

This stuff is 20 years old: I got it when I first got Alice and Trixie as kittens in Florida; it was some special "weed", not your run-of-the-mill Hartz stuff. I keep it in an old peanut butter jar. It's a mark of how often I treated the cats that I still have any left after all this time.

So Vern got a good dose, rolling and rubbing in the pinch I put on the carpet. Sue was squalling all the while-- "Get that cat out of my house!" but I let Vern have his fill, and then he left. I had to vacuum immediately. The picture is Vern on the wall in the back yard, taken that same Memorial Day weekend before I went to the hospital.

Today, Tuesday, I telecommuted, as I try to do once a week to save some gas (110 mile round-trip commute). I took advantage of the weekday at home to visit a nearby office, Bailey's Insurance, in a shopping plaza. They have an in-house cat, Mr. B, who just loves me: a long-haired orange tabby. They have just adopted a stray kitten, but Mr. B, who was hiding from the kitten in his play tunnel, came right out when he recognized me and jumped in my lap. He loves to be scratched and rub his chin, and I was covered with hair. I had a good 15-20 minute visit, lowering my blood pressure, before I had to put him down and leave.

This is what I'm reduced to in order to get my pet fixes. I also play with Sophie, the black Lab next door. Come the cooler weather, when the cats come back inside, I can visit the Book Barn in Niantic, who have about 20 cats-- grab a book and a seat and get a good hour or more of Lap Time (Mrs. Howell is my favorite).

Knock, Knock, Knockin'

I was feeling tired leading up to the long Memorial Day weekend, and by Sunday was panting for breath just standing up to walk to the next room. Must be some bug, that will go away if I just rest, huh? Memorial Day I did nothing but sit in my La-Z-Boy. Just getting up to pee was a major event-- being a Type-II diabetic I pee often, and I would stand there with my head spinning and heart racing. Tuesday I stayed home from work, and finally I got the hint when I threw up some bright red blood. Ah-ha! Bleeding ulcer! So *that's* why I was shitting this black goo (oh, yeah, that's what digested blood looks like: now I remember). So when Sue got home she drove me to the clinic (the bloody sink really impressed her). Thinking I might pass out, I told Sue to tell them I had an ulcer and needed blood. The clinic doesn't do blood. Hunh. They sent me right over to the hospital via ambulance.

At the hospital I went straight to ICU where they gave me four units, did an endoscopy, and patched up some severe bleeding in my stomach. I put off going to the hospital for so long I almost bled to death. The doctor later told me that it was one of the longest endoscopys he had done in 30 years; I was coming out of the sedative they give you (no anaesthetic) towards the end-- not pleasant.

They were poised for emergency surgery the next morning because the doctors weren't sure they plugged all the holes, but they had. The remainder of the time until Sunday --two days in ICU, four days in a private room-- they spent pumping blood back into me-- nine units total! --and checking to see that my blood count was going up as it should: checking for leaks, as it were. The long time in hospital was due to it not going up as they expected, but neither was it going down as if I were bleeding. They finally let me go home, with me feeling fine and out of ICU from Thursday on, just lying and sitting around the hospital room. I finished a large book, and enjoyed looking out all week on the bright sunshine. The day I was released, it poured rain. Figures.

I actually went back in for an overnight: I was released on a Sunday, and beginning on about Tuesday my legs/ankles/feet were swelling up: I was retaining water. I called my doctor and he had me come in, and he gave me a high-powered diuretic to take Thurs/Fri/Sat and come see him again Saturday. It was like turning on a tap at first-- peeing every five minutes. Finally died down but I was still up every 20 minutes: hard to sleep (I had the same issue during my hospital stay, once they restored my fluids). The swelling went down: between visits to the Doc, Thursday to Saturday, I lost 25 pounds in water! The overall hospital stay I lost for real about 20 pounds.

So now the swelling is gone, but I am beginning to feel dizzy standing up again Sunday night and Monday morning. Am I still bleeding internally? No other symptoms, but better safe than sorry: Sue drove me to the emergency room Monday morning; I was dizzy and sweating profusely but still ambulatory. They did a blood test and I was down, way down, on potassium, and my other levels were screwed up, too: between the transfusions and the diuretic, I was AFU. So they kept me overnight (had to share a room this time) and pumped me full of fluids again. Since then I've been okay, but taking plenty of iron pills while I build up my red blood cells.

I went for a follow-up endoscopy a couple months later: nothing. They see an old, healed ulcer, and this current one is healed. Nothing to indicate a cause, no tumor, nada. I'm still on stomach pills, but that's it: goodbye, have a nice day, don't come back. Go figure.