Almost & Not Even Close

I almost successfully completed the A to Z Blogging Challenge.  I think that’s the closest I’ve ever come without finishing it.  I had hopes that the challenge would help me get into a somewhat regular blogging schedule.  It has been over two months since I posted anything, so I didn’t even get close on that one.

Around the end of April, things started getting insanely busy and somewhat unsettled at work.  And we’ve been dealing with some health concerns with some of the pets.

Duke had a nasty bout of pancreatitis.  He ended up spending a few nights at the vet’s office for IV fluids and antibiotics.  Fortunately, he’s all recovered from the pancreatitis now.  You may remember that he was on steroids after his surgery for Cushing's Disease and that Dr. M. was working on getting him weaned off of them.  He’s now completely off of the steroids. 

Dr. M. noticed that Duke’s water consumption was still a little higher than it should be, though nothing like it was before the surgery.  He did the cortisol suppression test, and Duke’s levels were higher than they should have been.  Again, nothing like they were before the surgery, but it does mean that Duke absolutely should not be on steroids.  It was a long, slow process to wean him off of them, but he’s steroid-free now.

There’s a chance that whatever is left of the tumor is producing cortisol again, and there’s also a chance that his remaining adrenal gland is working overtime.  At this point, we’re not pursuing finding out.  The numbers weren’t bad enough to warrant anything other than coming off of the steroids.  With any luck, that will be enough.  If it is a case of the tumor growing back much quicker than expected, we’re not going to put Duke through the surgery a second time.  It was a major surgery with a hard recovery.  Once was enough for him.  Obviously, we’re hoping that the tumor isn’t growing and that it was just time for Duke to come off of the steroids.  In the meantime, he’s happy.  He’s still stealing food every chance he gets.  We learned, the hard way, with an egg and cheese bagel, that Duke’s mobility is still just fine when he really wants something.  He still frolics around the backyard, chases rabbits, and manages to be in the middle of everything whenever anyone comes over.  He’s happy, and that’s what really matters.

Howard started drinking an excessive amount of water, and Dr. D. (the cats’ vet) had talked to us for years about the risk of diabetes, especially with the steroids Howard is on for his asthma.  He had a lot of tests, including bloodwork, urine tests, x-rays, and an ultrasound to rule out several things.  His breathing got much worse for a while; we all think it was probably related to seasonal allergies.  So, he had to go on a much higher dose of steroids for a while.  That has been tapered back down, but is still higher than it was before all of this started.

Howard had to get an interesting haircut for his ultrasound.  He’s cute enough that he still looks adorable even with a not-so-great haircut. 

Dr. D., in consultation with Dr. V. (the specialist we like, who was Duke’s internal medicine vet), determined that cancer (one of the main concerns) is extremely unlikely.  They’ve landed on diabetes as the issue, possibly caused or made worse by the high doses of steroids.  For right now, Howard’s steroid dose can’t be reduced more since breathing kind of trumps everything else in the order of importance, so he’s now on insulin.  He’s currently only on two units twice a day, which is apparently a pretty low dose.  We’re working on getting him switched to a diabetic diet, and at some point, we’ll revisit trying to lower the steroid dose.  He’s on a higher dose of Terbutaline now, so there’s a chance that things may kind of level off with his asthma and/or that the diabetic cat food will help.  So, insulin may not be a permanent thing.

Howard does great about getting his insulin injections.  It’s a very small needle.  Fortunately, because of Nick’s EMT background, he’s never bothered by giving the fur kids shots.  We had an appointment with Dr. D. to learn how to give Howard the injections.  Nick picked it up right away and has been great about it.

I’m a different story.  Needles and pretty much anything medical, if I’m being totally honest, tends to freak me out.  I’m still practicing on an orange.  Dr. D. said practicing on an orange wasn’t necessary.  Nick thinks it’s worth it, so I’m less freaked out about it whenever I do need to give Howard an injection.  I’d much rather hurt an orange than Howard, so I’m still practicing.  The good thing is that Howard is pretty used to the routine of pills, alcohol swab, and insulin shot now, so at least he’ll be comfortable with the process whenever it’s time for me to do it, which will make one of us.

 The plan is for me to try it on a weekend, with Nick around to help, since weekends aren’t usually as rushed as weekdays, so I can take my time.  I realize the long weekend would be a great time for this, but I’m still hoping to get some more orange practice in first. 

Howard is very mellow, so he’s still his usual happy self.  Duke is still his absolute favorite family member, he still loves getting his Pill Pockets, and he has even been playing with more of their toys lately.

Nick and I both had some kind of nasty respiratory infection for what seemed like large parts of May and June.  It wasn’t COVID; we both tested negative, but it wasn’t pleasant.  We seemed to pass it back and forth for a while.  We both completely lost our voices, but at different times, fortunately.  We both finally got over it when it got bad enough to warrant taking antibiotics and using some sick time to rest. 

We had some extremely bad storms a few weeks ago.  One of my coworkers had part of their roof cave in.  Our router and modem got fried from a lightning strike, which isn’t that bad compared to a roof caving in, but I’ve never seen lightning hit that close to the house before.  It was one of the days I was home from work sick, and I really thought the lightning had hit the house.  It was so loud and so bright!  The lights flashed off and then back on, and I smelled something burning.  We later discovered that the burning smell was from the router and modem being fried.  The internet lines to the neighborhood were also damaged.  The neighbors were without internet for about 36 hours.  Ours was out for almost two weeks with waiting for the new modem and router and all of the repairs.  The neighbors were kind enough to let us use their network.  We used it some, mainly for work, but tried to limit it, so we didn’t slow theirs down.  Fortunately, our internet is finally working normally again.  We have a greater than 50% chance of storms on most days in the 10-day forecast, so we’re hoping they won’t be the roof caving in, modem/router frying kind.

I think those are the highlights of the past two months.  What have you been up to for the past couple of months?  Have you lost any electronics to storms?  Have you ever had to give a pet insulin?  Do you have any tips for me (other than the obvious “be a grownup, get over it, and do it”)?