Feel Like Complaining

Faith had planned to take Abe to work sometime last week to figure out a next step. By last Saturday, his breathing had become labored and we were forced to take him to vet emergency Sunday morning.  After a quick ultrasound, it was very evident that he has a cancerous tumor in his chest. It's called Mediastinal Lymphoma and grows in the lymph tissue. At this time it's bigger than his heart and there is no cure. Faith and I sat there in utter disbelief, hoping it was 'just' pneumonia. It grows pretty quickly so he hasn't been living with it very long. There was a lot of fluid around his lungs and they drained almost a cup from him.  Chemo is an option but not very practical; and no guarantee. For now we are just giving him steroids; which may buy him a couple of months. Faith's boss said even a few years is possible. Once the fluid comes back, we will have to let him go. It's not fair to just keep draining it off.  I'll tell ya though, Prednisone is a mi...

Tony had a very nice birthday weekend. On Thursday, we went to Finch Arboretum and although we missed the peak of color, it was still very pretty with great weather. We did a lot of walking, I guess a couple of miles. The only times he had to rest were because his legs got tired but other than that he kept ticking along! I had told him this past summer that I was sort of planning something special for his 80th birthday. With all of his hospitalizations though, I wasn't sure if it would happen. Originally I was only going to invite a neighbor and my favorite pet sitting couple to join us as a restaurant. But all he's been through, I felt we should do more. I'm not sure how we did it, but Faith and I pulled it off all in one day. She invited her oldest brother and family. Her other brother is preparing for a murder trial and couldn't get away to come over. I invited the neighbor, my friends, and oldest brother of mine and his wife. Younger brother lives in Arizona but I s...

Recently I spent 5 nights at my brother's house watching their dog Ivy. She's a little spitfire and lots of fun! She likes her walks, at least twice a day. She doesn't go far though; usually after she poops, she wants to go home. I would drag her another block just so I could get some walking in.  Their house is a little too far to go home for the day so I tried to keep busy with beading. I'm not being very successful at that because my hands and eyes just don't want to cooperate. I did make Faith a pair of earrings but we're having a hard time finding copper hooks to go with it. I didn't think that through. Over the weekend, I stayed at Steve's in Airway Heights. Their old boy Max died about a month ago and Oli was not doing well. He'd cry everyday; they weren't the best of friends but it was still a presence in the house that was now gone. Steve's wife didn't really want another cat but Steve won that battle. Just over a week ago, they ...

Friday we got up at 3:30 am, to leave the house an hour later.  At that time of the morning it was very easy to find a parking place in a handicapped stall for the entire day.  Go here, go there; everything was done with so much precision. Even the day before with pre-surgery check in, everything went so smooth and the protocol was followed to the T. Then we helped him get ready; only me really, Faith kept her eyes closed. They whisked him away and Faith and I went to breakfast. Back to the waiting room, his doctor came out soon and said everything went great and he'd be in recovery for about 3 hours before we could see him. We assumed that he'd be admitted to the hospital section, so we moved our car around to that area. But he really stayed in the CARA unit so we had a lot more walking to get there. The hospital campus is so large and confusing, in my opinion. Faith had to lead me around more than once. I think I need a leash, my brain turns to mush when she's with me and...

The morning Tony was supposed to go to his pre surgery appointment, his doctor called to say surgery would have to be postponed a bit. After he was discharged from the hospital, there were so many changes to meds, including his blood thinner. They didn't catch that the one he is currently taking needs 4 days to get out of his system. The doc apologized  but said it could cause significant bleeding if we continued with the original date. Nothing like gearing up and then having to slam on the brakes. So this coming Friday is the new day and at least Faith will be able to go too. We are NOT looking forward to the 5:00 a.m. check-in time!  I saw my doctor about my shoulder pain (still) and she agreed to let me try a steroid shot. If that doesn't work, then I'll have to go to sports medicine to have the tendon calcification broken down. Since I have a couple of things going on in there, it's hard to tell which should be done first. In any event, I will have to re-start my PT...

I had my first jab on August 5th and am still on the lowest dose. I've heard there's no reason to move up if it's still working (plus the price goes up). So far I've lost 10 lbs, and side effects have been pretty minimal. If I'm more active, I lose more. As long as I see a little loss every week, I'm satisfied. I'm not in to be a model and it's not a race to the finish line. Simply, I'm doing it to save my life. The premise behind any GLP-1 is that slow your digestion way down so you fill up faster and stay full. It also shuts off the cravings and food noise. There are many differences between them all too. I believe my doctor chose Wegovy is because it's approved for liver disease. Plus, not every insurance carries them all; I think there were only 3 choices for me. I still cook the same way, mostly lo-so; but also eat about half of what I did. No snacking in between meals. If I do, it's maybe a handful of something and not the whole bag. If...