![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
let it snow... let it snow...
Dec. 8th, 2003 06:28 amdaaaaamn! 2 feet of snow this weekend! and it's not even winter yet. this was one of those weekends like you'd see in the movies, where outside the snow is falling and it's peaceful and gorgeous... but then the main characters have all this stuff happen as a result of being trapped together, and everyone comes out of the storm changed. *grin*
it started friday night, at the beginning of the storm. i was in my jammies, wrapping christmas presents with the tree all lit up, when i noticed that one of my cats was acting wierd. he's a very good cat, yet for some reason he kept trying to pee on one of my beanbag chairs. i called the animal hospital to see if there was anything i should watch for, to see if it's serious... the person on the phone told me that in male cats, if they have a urinary infection, sometimes it can be fatal within 12 hours. (they get blocked, and potassium builds up and they go into heart failure.) considering that the big nor'easter was supposed to start any minute, my fear was that if there was a problem, he'd take a turn for the worse and i wouldn't be able to drive him there because of the storm and he'd die.
so at 9:30pm, i'm in the car with him, rushing to the ER trying to beat the storm, and it starts to snow. drat. (his timing is impecable -- his last ER visit was at midnight on my birthday.) the vet takes a look at him, says it sounds like an infection, but she doesn't know if it's the fatal kind, or just a mild one brought on by stress. (what kind of stress could he have? he sleeps and eats all day. perhaps it's the pain from his bum knee?) she tells me she couldn't get a urine sample from him, and that she can send me home with a syringe and i can collect some the next time he pees on the chair, and bring it back in for analysis. i'm sure my jaw dropped... i reminded her that a NOR'EASTER was starting outside, and since i live an hour away, it would be next to impossible to just swing on by with a syringe full of urine. not to mention the fear of him having a heart attack in the meantime while we're trapped in the apartment! i asked her if they could board him, do whatever tests needed to be done, and i'd pick him up when the roads cleared. she told me it was my decision.
(let me hit the pause button for a second. why is it that vets are so passive about medical decisions for people's pets??? "people doctors" are always very direct with their patients - "you need to have this surgery done." "this medication is the best one for you." but with vets, it's like, "well... you COULD do this... or this other thing... it's your decision." NO, i just want you to tell me what will make my cat feel better, and DO it. i'm not the vet. how am i supposed to make that decision???)
so basically i forced her to board my cat and do the necessary tests (estimated bill: $500... the weekend before his $1000 knee surgery. it's going to be a lean Xmas!). all weekend they called me with updates, each time asking me when i was going to come get him. i was like, have you SEEN the roads??? have you SEEN the 24 inches of snow??? am i supposed to crawl for 2 hours to get him, only to crash on the way home??? and heck, they made money off of me boarding him... plus what else did they have to do this weekend since it was supposedly quiet there??? argh. so long story short, the storm is over (yay) his infection cleared up (good), he's feeling better (great) and i get to pick him up today (i'm sure they're thrilled).
while kitty was recuperating in the hospital, there was some healing of sorts going on at home too. my boyfriend and i had a real heart-to-heart talk on saturday, for several hours... it seems that we both had frustrations about our relationship, and they came out this weekend. it's so hard to talk about difficult stuff with the person you love... you don't want to hurt them at all, and there's the fear of damaging the relationship... but one of the things i love about our relationship is that we always try to be respectful of each other, and good to each other, and so we can talk out the hard stuff without being mean or yelling at each other. there were a lot of tears (i'm a big crier), but we came out of it with a better understanding of each other, and we're stronger for it now. we've been together for 2 years, and living together for 3 months... and we're such polar opposites in so many ways... it's just hard when you have 2 people who love each other SO much, and yet are SO different. so living together has been a bit of an adjustment, but i think our talk adjusted it for the better. *grin*
so here i am, monday morning, exhausted (up all night sneezing (allergies), pumped up on decongestants, plus stress about work and missing the kitty)... i'm chugging coffee, have to shower and get ready for work 'cause i'm running a teleconference in an hour. if there's anything good this morning, though, it's that deep inside i feel a bit lighter... the anxiety in my very first post is a bit less this morning, from our talk this weekend. it's amazing how that works -- you talk stuff out, you feel better. i didn't even want to overeat this weekend, 'cause the stress was less.
oh, and i'm down a pound and a half. can i get a "woo-woo"? *grin*
it started friday night, at the beginning of the storm. i was in my jammies, wrapping christmas presents with the tree all lit up, when i noticed that one of my cats was acting wierd. he's a very good cat, yet for some reason he kept trying to pee on one of my beanbag chairs. i called the animal hospital to see if there was anything i should watch for, to see if it's serious... the person on the phone told me that in male cats, if they have a urinary infection, sometimes it can be fatal within 12 hours. (they get blocked, and potassium builds up and they go into heart failure.) considering that the big nor'easter was supposed to start any minute, my fear was that if there was a problem, he'd take a turn for the worse and i wouldn't be able to drive him there because of the storm and he'd die.
so at 9:30pm, i'm in the car with him, rushing to the ER trying to beat the storm, and it starts to snow. drat. (his timing is impecable -- his last ER visit was at midnight on my birthday.) the vet takes a look at him, says it sounds like an infection, but she doesn't know if it's the fatal kind, or just a mild one brought on by stress. (what kind of stress could he have? he sleeps and eats all day. perhaps it's the pain from his bum knee?) she tells me she couldn't get a urine sample from him, and that she can send me home with a syringe and i can collect some the next time he pees on the chair, and bring it back in for analysis. i'm sure my jaw dropped... i reminded her that a NOR'EASTER was starting outside, and since i live an hour away, it would be next to impossible to just swing on by with a syringe full of urine. not to mention the fear of him having a heart attack in the meantime while we're trapped in the apartment! i asked her if they could board him, do whatever tests needed to be done, and i'd pick him up when the roads cleared. she told me it was my decision.
(let me hit the pause button for a second. why is it that vets are so passive about medical decisions for people's pets??? "people doctors" are always very direct with their patients - "you need to have this surgery done." "this medication is the best one for you." but with vets, it's like, "well... you COULD do this... or this other thing... it's your decision." NO, i just want you to tell me what will make my cat feel better, and DO it. i'm not the vet. how am i supposed to make that decision???)
so basically i forced her to board my cat and do the necessary tests (estimated bill: $500... the weekend before his $1000 knee surgery. it's going to be a lean Xmas!). all weekend they called me with updates, each time asking me when i was going to come get him. i was like, have you SEEN the roads??? have you SEEN the 24 inches of snow??? am i supposed to crawl for 2 hours to get him, only to crash on the way home??? and heck, they made money off of me boarding him... plus what else did they have to do this weekend since it was supposedly quiet there??? argh. so long story short, the storm is over (yay) his infection cleared up (good), he's feeling better (great) and i get to pick him up today (i'm sure they're thrilled).
while kitty was recuperating in the hospital, there was some healing of sorts going on at home too. my boyfriend and i had a real heart-to-heart talk on saturday, for several hours... it seems that we both had frustrations about our relationship, and they came out this weekend. it's so hard to talk about difficult stuff with the person you love... you don't want to hurt them at all, and there's the fear of damaging the relationship... but one of the things i love about our relationship is that we always try to be respectful of each other, and good to each other, and so we can talk out the hard stuff without being mean or yelling at each other. there were a lot of tears (i'm a big crier), but we came out of it with a better understanding of each other, and we're stronger for it now. we've been together for 2 years, and living together for 3 months... and we're such polar opposites in so many ways... it's just hard when you have 2 people who love each other SO much, and yet are SO different. so living together has been a bit of an adjustment, but i think our talk adjusted it for the better. *grin*
so here i am, monday morning, exhausted (up all night sneezing (allergies), pumped up on decongestants, plus stress about work and missing the kitty)... i'm chugging coffee, have to shower and get ready for work 'cause i'm running a teleconference in an hour. if there's anything good this morning, though, it's that deep inside i feel a bit lighter... the anxiety in my very first post is a bit less this morning, from our talk this weekend. it's amazing how that works -- you talk stuff out, you feel better. i didn't even want to overeat this weekend, 'cause the stress was less.
oh, and i'm down a pound and a half. can i get a "woo-woo"? *grin*
