Livin' La Vida Loca

First, I apologize for failing to keep you up to date on my event-filled past 5-6 weeks. But frankly, the only time/place I’ve really had to write was when I was at work, and they sort of frown on that. So you ask, Rose, (because that is my name), what about your pod (phone)? your pad? your computer at home? and Mom’s laptop? Are they all broken? What! ho?!

Well, if you’ll stop barraging me with questions, I’ll do my best to winge out a bunch of excuses.  And don't call me a ho! First, it’s a pain in the tookie to type much on the pod/phone.. and you know I can ramble on. And while it is somewhat better on the pad, it’s still not the best. As for the computer on my desk at home, well, that’s just not comfortable to sit at for a long time… especially since I can’t sit there for more than 5 minutes without Gizmo hopping into my lap and he’s a 13 pound cat and he moves around a lot, so it generally takes at least one hand on him at all times to keep him from falling out of my lap, and, being a “man,” he ego is very fragile, so I do what I can to help the boy.. As for the laptop, well… why are you interrogating me!? So I’ve decided that I need to get myself a laptop. I’m doing all I can to get one. Every time WIKY, the local radio station, has one on their WIKY Word Rewards, I apply all of my points toward tickets for the drawing. I just haven’t won yet.

The rest of my month has been spend taking care of both my mother and my baby girl. Starting about a month ago, Mom started having pain in her back, radiating down into her left leg. I took her to her doctor, who only works on Wednesday through Fridays, so of course we always need to see her on Monday or Tuesday and Mom chooses to wait until Wednesday. Sigh… Deep breath. Anyway, the cursory diagnosis was that it might be shingles, even though Mom didn’t have the accompanying rash yet or a “slipped” disc or two in her back. Either way, a dose of steroids and rest should help. And Mom got some pain pills to too. After the first week, she went back to the doctor – no better, but no rash, so no shingles. Doctor said she figured it was the discs and she could either order an MRI to confirm, or Mom could just rest for two more weeks [while the doctor went to Mexico on vacation – not that I begrudge her a vacation, it’s more of a jealousy thing! :)]. The choice was up to Mom and she chose to rest for two more weeks. And by rest, this meant doing a better job of resting than she’d done the first week.

So you-know-who had to take over Mom’s usual duties: cooking, dishes, laundry, shopping, etc... basically, being Mom!  No, it didn’t hurt me, but I sure have a new-found respect for my friends who work full time and have a family to cook, clean, etc. for all the time!

Meanwhile, Baby Girl Sophie, who has a seven-year history of gastro episodes where she won’t eat, vomits up “juices”, and I take her to the vet, who gives her a shot or two, she gets better for a couple months and so on, back in May, stopped eating. I took her to her vet – yes, she has her own vet – don’t judge me, none of the others need to have a personal vet. She resumed eating, but not with quite the same gusto as usual. He ran blood tests ($200 worth) and they all came back normal. She’s a healthy cat. Grr.. So flash-forward to last week, she’s not eating again. Or let’s put it this way, she’s eating enough that she can survive, but… oh, heck, it’s hard to put it into words, but the other cat moms out there understand. She wasn’t eating, although she was a tiny bit. I called the vet. He was out that day. (It seems all of the doctors in MY life take Thursdays off.) I left a message that she wasn’t eating and I didn’t know if there was a way to prescribe me what he shoots her up with so I didn’t have to pay $100 just to come in and have him give her a shot. And I made an appointment for her for Friday afternoon (since I was planning on taking that afternoon off) in case the answer was no.

So next.. well, you have to realize that since #1) Boss #1 Steve was on vacation for the past two weeks, and since B) I didn’t know if I was going to have to take Mom and/or Sophie to the doctor/vet, I was going in early each day and taking half lunches when I could so I’d have time for any appointments that reared their ugly heads and if there weren’t any appointments, I could just take the time I’d banked off on Friday. So the same Thursday that the vet was out when I called, I’m at work, minding my own business when I get a call from Mom telling me that she isn’t feeling well and that she thinks I need to take her to the ER. Now, let me interject that I really wanted to scream, in a panic... ahem… “if you NEED to go to the ER, why are you calling ME!? Call 911!!” But instead I calmly asked… ahem.. “now, keep in mind it’ll take me 10-15 minutes to get home to get you, then another 15 minutes to get to the ER, do you have that type of time? Or is it more urgent?” sigh.. Anyway, we get her to the ER, where her Living La Vida Loca doctor said that if Mom felt bad while she, the doctor, was off, to go to the ER and they would perform the MRI for her. (Turns out that’s a lie. MRI’s are not “emergency” tests. We were told in no uncertain terms that if a patient can hang out for the 2 hours it takes to perform an MRI, then said patient’s “emergency” isn’t really an emergency.) Mom was having pain that was different from the, now, usual pain, so she was afraid all the laying around she’d been doing had formed a blood clot. They confirmed that that was not the case and booted her out. I was rather peeved, but happy she was ok. On the way back home, we call her doctor’s office to see if the dude covering for her doctor can order the MRI and were told that he’d want to see her first, so we made an appointment for later that afternoon.

Now, back to Sophie. While Mom was in the ER being given an ultrasound to confirm she didn’t have a blood clot, my phone rings. It’s the vet’s office and he happened to call in, so they gave him my message and he said that yes, he could prescribe some of the anti-nausea stuff that he generally shoots Sophie up with, but it would be a 3 times a day thing whereas the shot is good for 24 hours, or I could just bring her in for her appointment the next day. I told them I’d take the prescription AND unless she had a huge change, we’d be keeping the appointment.

After taking Mom back home, on my way back to the office, I stopped at McD’s for some tea – and despite REALLY wanting it to be the diabetic coma-inducing version, I got unsweet – and dropped by the vet to pick up Sophie’s prescription. I walked into the office and the nurse/tech person behind the counter asked “how’s your day going?!” and greeted me with such a perky smile that I burst into tears. I was really feeling like a craptastic daughter because my mother’s in pain and I can’t do a damn thing to help her and mother because my baby girl isn’t eating and there didn’t seem to be a damn thing I could do to help her!! There might have been some hormones involved there too, it’s hard to tell. Anyway, she rushed to reassure me that I was doing the right stuff in regard to Sophie at least and she felt sure I was doing a good job with mom too.

I returned to my office, where at least I felt like I have at least a modicum of control over my world. My phone rings, it’s Mom saying she got a call from the doctor who was going to see her so that maybe he’d order an MRI, advising that he’d looked at her record and said that there wasn’t anything he could do for Mom until there was an MRI, so they canceled her appointment and would be scheduling an MRI. This was good news because that meant I could stay in my happy place (which ironically, at this point, is my job) until 5:15.

I'm going to stop here in my ramblings.  This is turning out to be more than I initially ancipated and I'm tired and I need to wedge Gizmo off my lap so I can go to bed.