Pumpkin The Cat

Our 14-year old cat Pumpkin is sick. She has hyperthyroidism. She isn't acting too sick yet, like you would imagine a sick cat acting. The worst symptom is that she is literally bone thin. At her healthiest peak years ago she weighed 14 pounds, and was a tad overweight. Now she weighs a measly 8.6 pounds. She is so thin, that she can fit through the bars of our baby gates (we still have 2 up, a) to keep Ballou out of the cat food room [it has a little cat door in it] and b) to keep all animals out of Jude's room.)

A cat's heart rate at rest should be around 120-150. At its most excited it could get up to 200. Her heart rate was almost 300 at the vet!

After her thyroid test, they told me normal levels would be 0.8 to 4.0. Hers was 10.8. So yeah, she's sick.

The poor kitty is hungry all the time, but has a hard time eating. She can't sit still long enough to eat, and then some of the time she eats so fast, she quickly regurgitates it. And this whole time that I noticed she was losing weight, I kept thinking, "but she's so active! Look at her! She can't be sick!", but really, it was just her over-active thyroid making her spaz out.

The three options:

1) Iodine shot - $1500

- At the local university, not the vet. She would be radioactive for a couple of weeks, so would have to stay there for that long while guys in space suits took care of her.

**Pros - It's a sure shot cure, like, pretty much 100%.
**Cons - The price. Also, she's old, and I don't like the idea of stressing her out further. She's a stressed out cat with strangers as it is, and I just don't like the isolation space suit idea. And although they said the radioactivity would be out of her system in a couple of weeks, radioactivity sorta concerns me since I am pregnant. Also, dealing with the local university vet school is a pain for various reasons.

2) Surgery - $350-$400

-At the vet. They would remove the nodules from her thyroid.

**Pros - Less expensive, not a complicated surgery, not too invasive, she would be home the same day and back to her normal self in 2 days or less. All of her other tests came back normal, so even though she is old, she is healthy enough to do this. They have a good success rate with this method.
**Cons - Although there is a high success rate, it also may not work. There is a chance that the nodules could come back. However, it wouldn't be right away; it'd be years, so either she'd have passed away from old age by then, or we could just put her on meds (see below).

3) Medicine - $35 a month

- A swab of solution you put on her ear twice daily

**Pros - Completely non-invasive, cheaper in the short-term, less stress on Pumpkin
**Cons - Time-consuming...are we really going to have time for this, especially once two more babies come? We barely remember to give Ballou her heart worm medication, and that's just once a month. Plus, we have to go to a special pharmacy for it, which is totally inconvenient, both the location and the service. I've used them before. Less stress for Pumpkin, but more stress for us.

Plus two more options that the Vet did not mention, but which exist nonetheless:

4) Do nothing.

The problem with this is that she is going to get worse, and aside from the obvious cruelty, there is also the high chance that she is going to start peeing all over our house. This is one of the side effects of this disease.

5) Put her to sleep.

I would do this over #4. It's not a bad solution. She is 14 years old after all. However, I just feel like if you choose to accept the responsibility of owning a pet, you can't just dump them off or kill them, even humanely, b/c they have become inconvenient for you. If it was going to be thousands of dollars, sure, we have to be realistic. But we can handle a few hundred dollars, I think. Not my ideal way to spend money, but again, I think we should accept our responsibilities when it comes to pets.


An interesting coincidence is that our cat Scamper died when I was pregnant with Jude. He just suddenly dropped dead though (we think a brain tumor or stroke), and I hate to overuse this word, but I mean, literally, he just suddenly dropped dead. In so many ways, that was easier. I was sad to see him go and it was a bit of a shock, and I still miss him, but what an easy way to die. He did not suffer that we know of, and we did not have to make any hard decisions, nor spend much money.

Matt and I jokingly theorize that the pets sense I'm pregnant and they get stressed, making them sicker. Can't they just be happy for me? ;-)

Too Many Blogs

In trying to compartmentalize my life, I somehow got myself into a blogging frenzy that's quite time-consuming (well it would be, if I kept up with them all), and tedious. I'm making things more complicated, I'm afraid.

My Four Blogs:

1) Procrastination Station - I like to use this blog to basically "go to town", to say what I want w/o thinking much about it, w/o thinking of hurting people's feelings, or without thinking about my mom gasping at what I say. It's kinda funny I have an audience at all. Most of the people that read this are people I have met online, through other blogs and forums. I do have 1 or 2 real life friends that read this, or at least know about it.

2) The Chronicles of Jude - Obviously, to write all about Jude

3) 2 Peas in a Pod + Jude - I have not made this public yet, but this is my blog about my current twin pregnancy. I give progress reports, including weight changes and belly pics. It's just a personal journal, so would probably be boring to anyone but me. I go into great detail on my thoughts, and get personal about gas and boobs and other fun topics to talk about when you are pregnant.

4) 2 Peas in a Pod + a Green Bean - The above 3 are on Blogger.com. This one is in our local newspaper, the online version. It's different from #3 in that I have a more public audience (well, theoretically...I don't think I really have one yet) that I must think about when I write, which means I can't get too long-winded, too boring, or too personal (although I've already mentioned that my farts smell like roses on that blog).


I think the main problem is with Blog #1..this blog, in fact. Why so secretive? Do I have something to hide? I already and purposely don't spend a lot of time bitching about family and friends. I guess....what if I want to talk about sex like I did on the porn post...some of you would find that interesting...but my mom? Other friends? Not sure.

I probably should just be myself. I think I should write what I want within reason, and my mom and others will have to learn how to deal. That's what real writers do, right? They write books with questionable content but they don't think, "Oooh..I shouldn't put this in here b/c what if Mom sees it. I don't want her to see me using the word 'Fuck'".

So I should just make this one known to my family and forget about it. Of course, that would mean I'd have to delete this post, b/c my mom wouldn't like me talking about her like this.

That still leaves me with 3 other blogs. I like having the separate Jude blog to keep all of that in one place, although I could just as easily tag the Jude entries on this blog if I wanted to keep track of them all. The the two Peas blogs...I really need those two to be separate. There is a lot more detail I want to keep track of than what I want to put on the local newspaper blog. And I don't want to quit doing the local newspaper blog b/c it makes me feel important, even though no one reads it.

I guess I'm right back where I started then with four blogs.

Discovering the Main Differnece Between a Boy and a Girl

This is one of those types of stories where I have nowhere else to post it but here; a more public forum would never do. It's in the TMI category, but usually TMI=hilarious to me, especially when it's about me. Most people who read this blog know this about me, so I really cannot feel sorry for you for continuing to read this. :)

==========================================================

It happened. My son noticed that I don't have a penis.

He knows I'm pregnant, and knows my belly will get bigger, as it is already.

Last night I had my night shirt/pajamas on (like a t-shirt pajama thing), and I don't wear underwear with my pajamas (see...the TMI has already started...I just cannot stand underwear when I sleep...too constrictive).

So he lifts up my pajamas to check out the progress of my belly, which he does check out my belly, but then the following conversation ensues (after I'm fully covered again, btw):

Jude: You don't have a penis!

Karla: Yep, you are right!

Jude: What do you have then?

Karla: A vagina.

J: A vagina?

K: A vagina.

J: A vagina?

K: A vagina. Boys have penises, girls have vaginas.

J: Why???

K: Because that is just the way we are made.

J: Why???

K: Because we just are.

J: Why???

K: Because that is the way Mother Nature made us.

J: Why???

K: Well, that is just how we fit together.

J: Fit together???

Oops...not quite ready for that conversation yet. But luckily, he gets distracted in my hesitation and moves on. But, he remembers what he saw, because later...

Before bed I help him go potty, and as he is pulling his undies back on, he declares:

"I don't have hair on my balls like you do."

But I repeat myself...

I always wonder what people mean by saying "again" before allegedly repeating themselves.

Example:

You are discussing with another person the ins and outs of something, or discussing how to do something, or you are brainstorming, or something similar, especially say in a work situation - a more formal conversation.

You ask a question, or bring up an idea.

The other person replies with:

"Again, you really need to consider points A, B, and C before making this decision" ... or just, "Again"...and any point after that....with a strong emphasis on Again.

I think one would say "again" in this fashion for one of two reasons:

1) You know you are repeating yourself, or you are unsure whether or not you are repeating yourself, and you want to acknowledge that you are or may be repeating yourself, and that's exactly what you do, acknowledge the repeat, when you say "again". So then the person you are conversing with won't think , 'yeah yeah, you already said that...don't you know you said that?". By saying "again", you are saying you know you already said that, but you have some good reason to say it a second time.

2) You are being a condescending prick by basically saying, "Are you not listening? well, b/c you asked me already before and I have already given you the answer, let me let you know that I am unnecessarily repeating myself by saying 'Again'."


I think I've used "again" before like this, and I think I started out using it for reason #1, but ended up feeling like I was inadvertently using it for reason #2.

Again, I wonder about this. These are the types of mindless things I wonder about in my spare time.

New Post...

...to get rid of the word "shit" in some people's blog feeds, heh. Sorry 'bout that.

This was from something I posted yesterday...a complaint of a personal nature...that I decided was too personal and so I deleted it. Although the title of the post was Shit Drunk Love, I can assure you it had nothing to do with *me* being drunk. ;-)