Monday This and That ...

Greetings everyone. I've been pretty busy around here lately so I haven't been able to post as much as I would like to. We have had Leo back and forth to our vets - both Dr. Lila and Dr. Mike have been working, DILIGENTLY I might add, to help us figure out why Leo is having some type of seizures. The blood tests originally showed him with a very high glucose level and therefore diagnosed him to be diabetic. Dr. Mike immediately called in a prescription for him for insulin and syringes at our pharmacy. He has been put on a strict diet and we had to keep running him to the vet during the week to get his blood sugar checked. Both vets told us that his blood sugar is back to normal and to stop the insulin injections for the time being. We are to keep the insulin the refrigerator for six months in the event that Leo should ever need it again, but Dr. Mike said that Leo seems to have gone into remission and is currently no longer considered "diabetic" at this point.  

That is the good news. However, we are still not sure exactly what had been causing his seizures but we have been keeping an eye on him and for the past couple of days he has not appeared to have had the episodes that we have noticed. Fingers crossed. He will still need to continue his prescription diet for the rest of his life, but that is not a problem at all as he seems to be eating fairly well. And, per our vet's instructions, we also bought a Alpha Trak for cats and dogs so that we can check Leo's blood sugar at home from now on. 

In other news, my Victorian boots for my masquerade costume this year finally arrived in the mail this past week ... Leo decided to join me in the bottom pic ...

Also, we have been getting some bad thunder storms in our area here lately. One in particular this past week managed to knock down one of our trees in our back yard and it came within inches of our neighbor's shed ...

The neighbor's shed is on the right. These two pics were taken after we moved the tree.

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Leo Update (revised)

Last week, we noticed that Leo was having what appeared to be some sort of seizures. He lost control of his muscles in his legs and staggered a bit then laid down on his side. Panicked, we immediately called our vet and they got him in on Saturday morning. They drew blood to perform tests and took some urine from him as well. They told us they found some glucose on his urine stick, but the test results would be back on Monday. So, I took a PTO day from work and waited for the call. This morning, Dr. Mike called us with the dreadful news that Leo has very bad diabetes and will need insulin shots twice a day and be given a special prescription food called DM (Diabetic Management). 

We had him back to the vet at 1:00pm this afternoon for the instructions on how to give him his meds. Prior, Dr. Mike called in Leo's meds and told us to keep it on ice and bring it along with us for his appointment. Since we can not give him his insulin until after he eats, we will be giving him his first injection at dinner time tonight. He will also need to be checked once a week until we could get his diabetes under control! 

I was so upset that I have been crying all day. With all that is going on, this was the last thing we needed to deal with! I felt as if someone just punched me in the stomach and knocked the wind right out of me. Dr. Mike told us that he is so bad that if we do not do this, he can and will "crash and burn" at any time! And yes, those are the exact words he used. This gave us no choice but to try - I mean, the only options we have are to either put him down so that he does not suffer OR not give him the meds that we truly CAN NOT afford right now and let him live out the rest of what is left of his life. WTH could we do?? We will see what happens from here. I am praying .... HARD!

But wait, there's more ...

Due to exactly what we were trying avoid, Butterscotch now also has a respiratory infection in spite of the fact that we kept him separate from Leo. We had taken him to Dr. Mike yesterday and he dispensed Clavacillin (amoxicillin trihydrate/clavulanate potassium for cats) he needs to take one tablet every 12 hours for the next 14 days. 

And, unfortunately, we had no choice but to reschedule his rather important surgery for which the earliest date we could get with our vet was on July 16th! He was supposed to have this Thursday. 

We began giving him his meds yesterday afternoon and per Mr. Mike's orders, continuing to keep he and Leo separate for the time being. We are doing our best to keep him comfortable and pray he gets well and STAYS well in order to keep his NEXT surgery appointment!

Saturday This and That

Well, it's Saturday and what a busy week it was. Among the things which came up was an unexpected trip to the vet for our kitty Leo. With his F.U.S. (Feline Urological Syndrome), we have to keep him fed on a special prescription diet from our vet and keep an eye on him for the rest of his natural life. On Monday morning, I noticed that he was crying while in his litter box urinating. Afterward, he was washing himself  down there (something that cats diagnosed with F.U.S. typically do in order to stimulate themselves when they are having trouble peeing). So me being the frantically protective cat mom that I am, I panicked and we called up our vet's animal hospital and they said they could not get hm in immediately, but to drop him off right away and they would examine him as soon as possible and give us a call before the end of day. So, long story short, they performed some tests on him and said that his bladder was empty and that he was not blocked. However, they gave him some water and kept him until they were able to get a urine sample from him for testing. They discovered that he had a mild intestinal cystitis (basically, an inflammation) and so when we picked him up later, they instructed us to give him one pill a day for the next 21 days of 10mg amitriptyline for his pain and discomfort. Keeping our finger's crossed that he recovers soon.

On Sunday, while my mom and I were out grocery shopping, I picked up one of Giant Grocery Store's monthly food magazines. They have some pretty good healthy recipes I wish to try and there is always something in it for everyone ... gluten-free, keto diet, vegan, vegetarian, heart healthy snacks, juices and other tasty drinks, salads and dinners, etc.

I love to throw meals together (something I was raised to do as we were taught to never waste any food what-so-ever in our house), I cooked up some spaghetti and added a bag of small Italian meatballs and leftover grilled chicken strips with spaghetti sauce and Italian bread on the side for dinner the other evening ... 

The following night, I used up some of the leftover meatballs (I made a lot of them!) for meatball sandwiches/hoagies and the leftover grilled chicken and meatballs mixed with spaghetti can be eaten as a little side dish. Quick, easy, done!

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I also came across this really cool book at Barnes & Noble while out shopping with my sister two weeks ago. I absolutely LOVE playing around with my brand new Power Air Fryer that I got at Yule and this book has lots of awesome recipes in it to try. You can cook pretty much anything in it including roasts. So far, I have only made pork and chicken roasts in it, but I intend to experiment a lot more. Last night; however, I used it to make small pizza bites and waffle fries ... so delicious!

In other news, we had some snow and rain mixed with sleet this week. Fortunately though, the temps were unusually warm for winter here, so most of it tuned to slush and melted fairly quickly by the end of the day.

Merlin enjoyed watching it come down from our living room front window ...

Have a good one friends!!

Back home again (Part 2)

Merlin is now back home safe and sound. He was so happy all he did was purr, give kitty kisses and roll around in his cat carrier on the way home in the car. Leo also missed him and was very pleased to see him back home. All day yesterday and this morning he kept searching the house looking for him.

Merlin loves being loved on. No activity for the next few days and we are to give him Lexicam (liquid pain meds) orally in a syringe for the next couple of days starting tomorrow. After that, we can finally take him off the leash and allow him total and free access to wonder around the rest of the house with the other two cats. One aside, Dr. Mike's staff added this little notation in the comments section of Merlin's Post-Surgery Instructions ...

The afghan is coming along nicely so far.

A couple of added silk flowers for the kitchen table.

Busy enough week ...

It has been yet another busy week for me here. In between looking for another job (a huge stress in and of itself anymore) and besides dealing with all of the ridiculous demands expected by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in regards to my temporary unemployment compensation (with absolutely NO extensions any longer for anyone after 26 weeks either - a long, involved story for another post at another time), I had to run into the Berks County Courthouse in the city of Reading today to get sworn in by the Recorder of Deeds and register my signature with the Prothonotary Office. I have been a Notary Public for the State of PA for 28 years and I will be good for another four year term now. 

We also took Tabitha to the vet for her teeth cleaning. She had to have one tooth extracted and one pulled as they were in bad shape. She was given an antibiotic injection and they also gave her something for pain. She must be given soft cat food for the next 14 days after which we must put her on another type of food to help with her dental hygiene. My poor baby girl, they had to shave her two front legs for her IV's and now she looks like a poodle!

On Tuesday I was invited to have dinner with my friends Deb and Dave at a cool old historical establishment called The Station at Reinholds Inn. This place has been around since 1863 and is located directly next to an actual railroad track. Their menu food is delicious, cheap, and you get a lot of food for your money. They serve food in both the downstairs pub area and also upstairs where there are two nice size dining rooms and an outside deck. LOVE this place. Next time I go, I will take  few snap shots of the beautifully decorated upstairs and deck. These pics were just from the pub area where we ate. (Although you can click on their website link: http://www.reinholdsinn.com/photos.html to see some great pics!)

My grilled chicken sandwich and fried pickle spears ... mmm, soo good!

Me 'n' Deb just chilling out before dinner ...

Tomorrow, I am planning on having a long overdue lunch with my God-daughter, Kyli at a local Chinese buffet restaurant ... very much looking forward to it! 

A little update on Leo (2nd post for today)

Well, we are not out of the woods quite yet as they say but we had Leo back to see Dr. Mike Friday night. We have been taking our fur babies to Dr. Mike and Dr. Lila Comalli for over two years now since our long-time BEST vet in the entire world retired because he had developed cancer and sadly passed away last year. They are the owners and head veterinarians of the Conrad Weiser Animal Hospital in Womelsdorf, PA.

Drs. Mike and Lila Comalli of Conrad Weiser Animal Hospital

Dr. Mike performed his evaluation of Leo's problem by examining him and also took some urine from him so he could run an analysis right away in the hospital. He said that Leo had urine in his bladder but was not near enough to be considered having a blocked urinal tract. He did say that he believes that Leo may have a urinary tract infection however. So he proceeded to give him an antibiotic shot and something to help induce his appetite somewhat. We are to call him first thing on Monday to give him an update on Leo's condition. Hoping for the best and that this is actually his problem.

I am one of those people who have always given my fur babies a middle name. Since Merlin likes to climb his cage like he is Jungle Jim, I decided his full name will be Merlin James Witycyak ... lol

In the meantime, we will keep a close watch on Leo for the remainder of the weekend. He still refuses to eat his prescription CD wet food, but will eat a little of the dry version of it. Keeping our fingers crossed.

Life changes ...

As the old Gilda Radner character, Roseanne Rosannadanna used to say, "It's always something." Well, she was quite correct indeed! A lot of life changes have come my way so far this early in the new year. First, my family had to deal with my mentally ill brother who has caused much stress on us as you can well imagine if you read my earlier post about it, then came the loss of my beloved Kiki, now the loss of my job of 13 years. They say things happen in THREES so if that is to be believed, I should be golden for a while!

We have not been told the actual date of our last day, only that our job is going away because they are "centralizing" yet another job where I work to another office and that it will be 'sometime before summer'. As far as looking for another job is concerned, we were told that we may leave before we are let go but if we do so we are definitely jeopardizing our severance pay, etc. So until further notice, I will hold off looking for a new job, which no doubt, will be very difficult these days at my age; however, we shall see what happens.

On a different note, I have picked up Kiki's ashes and also the memorable keepsakes which our vet office offers. In addition to her cat urn, I now also have her lovely paw print set in clay and ink ... 

In an attempt to get my mind occupied on something else, I have been Amazon.com shopping you might say. I could not resist this gorgeous mermaid locket which I used to place my mom and dad's pictures in ...

Starting over is an extremely scary concept and it is also the second time in 13 years I have had to do it. I remember asking my beloved dad one time a long time ago, "Dad, how do you deal with all life's stressful problems all of the time?" His answer, "Well, I always try to remember that as many problems as I may think that I have, there is always someone else out there with much worse problems that me." My dad was a VERY wise man.