Sam's Long 2+ Weeks

About a week before I left for my family reunion, I was petting Sam under her chin and noticed that she had two bumps. They were kind of scabbed, so I didn't know if she and Otis had been playing/fighting and it was from that. I didn't do anything about it, but when I came home from the reunion it had grown into a large bump that you could clearly see (previously they were hidden under her fur). I made an appointment to get it checked out, and the vet said that it he couldn't tell by looking at it if it was malignant or benign. He also said that he could feel others on her chin. I made the decision to have them removed and made the appointment for Friday, July 10th.

I dropper her off on Friday morning just before 8am. I heard from the vet around 2pm and he said that she did great and that I could pick her up anytime after 4pm. I got to the vet around 4:30pm, and went back to a room to wait for the tech to bring her to me and give me discharge instructions. Well, the tech comes in the room and she says that she is not comfortable releasing Sam to me yet because she was having trouble coming out of sedation and that her body temperature was 95 degrees and it should be around 100. She said they were going to give her another dose of sedation reversal meds and that I could come back in about an hour and a half. This is when the bad day of July 10th started, and made it a day I would never want to live again.

I came back at 6 to get Sam, and they said that she was responsive and released her to me. I had dinner plans that night, and asked the tech if it would be ok if I left her for a couple of hours. She said that it probably wasn't a good idea (and when I got her home, there was NO WAY I would have left her). These were the discharge instructions from the vet: "Sam's skin lesion, on her mandible, was removed. A large piece of tissue was excised as I appreciated multiple small nodules throughout the entire area. Also small white pustular material was seen after the tissue was excised (and prior to closure). Sam's chin is pulled off to the side. Her skin will stretch and the chin will look better over the next few days to a week. I have sent the tissue to an outside lab. I should have a report in the next week or so. I will call you with the results..."

I got her home and up to my apartment and opened her carrier, and there was no movement. I lifted her out, and laid her on the bed and she still seemed very out of it. I called the vet right away as I knew they were still open for a half hour, and asked what the definition of "unresponsive" was - when I picked her up, they told me that if she was unresponsive to take her to the emergency clinic. To me, she seemed pretty unresponsive at this point. I laid with her for a bit, but Otis was hungry and patiently waiting for food. I put Sam in the middle of my bed, thinking she was not going to move at all. As soon as she heard me getting food for Otis, she came out of the room (not walking well, but at least she was on her feet).

She had a little to eat, and then went to her favorite box and I thought she was doing better. A few minutes later I checked on her in the box, and she was out again (out being that she would only twitch her eyes a bit if I touched her). At this point I took her back to my bed and just sat with her for the majority of the night. Her ears and paws were freezing cold, so I had her covered up just trying to keep her body temperature up (I am sure her body temperature was still really low when I picked her up). I ended up calling the emergency vet to get their opinion on how she was acting, and the vet there said that the way she was acting was pretty normal for an older cat (Sam is about 11 or 12), who is on seizure medication and who had gotten a pain shot (while she was under anesthesia, they gave her a pain shot that would last her 3 days). I also had my mom come over for a while...I was quite worried about Sam. I thought for sure I had killed her by making the decision to have the growths removed and was second-guessing that decision (even though I was trying to do the best for her).

Before I went to bed, I made this pillow "cage" on my bed so she couldn't go anywhere during the night without me knowing. Around 2am or so, she started to get a little more energy so we were up to eat a couple of times during the night.

By Saturday morning, she ate her normal breakfast but was still groggy. Her ears had warmed up by this point though and she definitely seemed a lot more "with it." I was supposed to spend the day at the lake on Saturday, but cancelled that as well. At least she was back to laying in some of her favorite spots...like on my suitcase.

Over the next few days she got back to her normal self. I had her in the cone whenever I was gone, but allowed her to be out of the cone if I was home and watching her. Tuesday night (7/14) I came home from work and fed her and then she came and sat on the recliner with me. I was doing a few things on my computer, and got up to get ready to go to the gym and noticed that her neck was all bloody. I checked the incision and it had come open (the vet had buried disposable stitches so she wouldn't have to go back for suture removal). Well, I packed her up and was on the phone with the vet - we were either going there if they could still take us before they closed, or we were going to the emergency clinic. Her regular vet said to bring her in, and the vet who did the surgery was there that night. He looked at it and said it didn't look too bad, but that he would need to re-stitch it. He told the tech they would need to "gas her" to do it, and that made me jump into their conversation given Friday's sedation session.

They did end up putting her in the gas chamber as they called it. It is like laughing gas - she breathes it for about 5 min and it makes her be out for 5 minutes - just long enough to get stitches in. She was a little groggy on the ride home, but after 5 minutes of being home she was up on the dishwasher as I was trying to do dishes - I was glad she came out of that quickly.

The next two weeks were uneventful - this is a picture of the incision a couple of nights after she got the external stitches.

Every day before work I left her like this in the cone. She didn't try to fight me when I put it on her - either it didn't bother her, or she just trusts me that much.

And this was a picture of the incision a couple of days ago...looking much better.

The stitches were removed tonight. When the tech came to get her, she said that if they couldn't get them out with her being awake that I would need to bring her back another time. Her vet was not on duty tonight, and the vet that was there was not comfortable putting her out at all given her history with sedation. The tech came back less than 10 minutes later and said that Sam behaved like a champ when they took the stitches out. So happy this ordeal is over. And the pathologist report came back as benign - it ended up being swollen glands that had gotten quite infected.

Hunker Down (Hurricane Speak for "Bring It")

It is about 5pm right now in NYC and I am hunkered down in my apartment. I just learned the term "hunker down" yesterday from my cool friends, but today on CNN I have heard the term quite a bit. Hunker down means you are prepared and at the location where you are ready to ride out the storm.

Irene is currently heading straight towards NYC, and the meteorologists are predicting that we will start seeing harsh effects from Hurricane Irene at about midnight tonight. Right now it is on path to potentially be a direct hit.

Fortunately I am not in an evacuation zone - that means that I am not at risk for flooding from a storm surge. Also, it is good that I live on the second floor and have only one window in my apartment. They said the biggest risk for windows shattering are those on the 10th floor and above. Since the window is in my bedroom, tonight I am planning to sleep on my futon and closing my bedroom doors just to stay away from the window.

I started preparing for the hurricane about 48 hours ago. I bought 4 gallons of water on Thursday night, and then last night I went to Trader Joe's to pick up some non-perishable food. I went to the Trader Joe's on the Upper West Side, and had to wait in a line just to get in the grocery store. I tried to buy a flashlight and batteries last night, but I waited too long to do that. Home Depot and Bed, Bath & Beyond both had signs up that said no flashlights or batteries. I do have some Yankee Candles that I can burn (I do have matches) and a crank flashlight that does work.

Otis and Sam are both sleeping and have no idea what is coming. I have moved their carriers from the top of my refrigerator to the ground so I can easily get to them if I need to. They have plenty of food on hand. I am also going to fill up both my bathtub and kitchen sink before I go to bed tonight just in case.

This morning I got up early and went to the gym, and then I walked around the Upper East Side and took some pictures of the hurricane preparations.

This picture was actually taken last night, but most stores had a sign similar to this on their door.

The calm before my storm outside the window of my apartment. I do like the fact that the building to the right sticks out further than my building, and there are buildings directly across the way. That should block some of the wind.

This is what I have been doing most of the day. Switching between CNN and the local NBC news.

My food rations if needed.

This is how Otis is preparing for Irene.

Biscuits & Bath is ready to put some sandbags out.

Some of the stores had duct tape on their windows.

I did not duct tape or board my window...I read that it really didn't do much and it was not suggested.

H&H was still open and had a long line...bagels must be a good hurricane food.

The little deli's were putting out their winter glass protectors.

I saw duct tape on a lot of these things...maybe to keep water from going in the cracks?

Lots of water.

Starbucks was closed already.

This is Morton Williams on my corner. It is never busy, but today it was packed!

Another window with duct tape.

Sam is nervous about the impending hurricane.

She was also looking out the window at the rain.

Their cat post is moved out from my bedroom because they like to sleep on this.

So all I do now is wait. Please join me in praying for God's mercy on NYC!

The Cone of Shame

Sam is in the cone of shame for the next 10-14 days. She has had a sore on her stomach for the past month and a half, and it keeps getting somewhat better but then I will notice it bleeding again. So, I took her to the vet this morning to get it checked out.

The vet diagnosed it as an eosinophilic plaque. Here is a good website describing the Eosinophilic Granuloma Complex.

I have to put medicine on it 3 times a day and Sam HATES it...my neighbors probably think I am killing her or something. I think it is kind of funny when she makes so much noise :)

I Love the Farmer's Market

Today I went to the Union Square Farmer's Market. I didn't get there until about 4:30pm so a lot of the farmer's had already packed up or were packing up for the day. But, I did score a few items.

I bought 3 jars of tomato sauce, honey and womanchego cheese. The tomato sauce in stores (including Whole Foods and Trader Joe's) usually has sugar added or some other ingredient I cannot eat. I have been wanting to make pizza, and have been holding off doing so because making your own marinara sauce sounds very labor intensive. I saw this tomato sauce, and the ingredients are just tomatoes, onions, garlic, vegetable oil, oregano and salt. I bought 3 jars. I also bought a spaghetti squash at Whole Foods so I can eat that with some marinara sauce and parmesan cheese.

All of the vendors at the farmer's market had pictures of their farms and the animals were running around the pasture's like they should be. All of the vendors are local too - mostly from New York and New Jersey, and some from Connecticut.

Here are a couple of other pictures from today...

Otis and Sam earlier in the day. It ended up being a nice day here and they were enjoying the sunshine.

This is sand art in Washington Square Park. I was walking around Soho and walked through the park to get to Union Square.

Christmas Trip to AZ

I was in AZ for Christmas from December 17th-29th. It was a nice long trip home - although my trips there always go by too fast. Here are some highlights...

Colby and Otis. Since I was home for a good length of time, I brought Otis and Sam with me.

Dinner with the Greens. Kellyn and I had them over for dinner at her house. Such a good night of catching up.

Caitlin and Kellyn.

Aaryn, Nikki and I.

I visited with Mikele one night. No pictures with her, but I did get one with Miles and Kate.

I drove the Grandma's around Scottsdale/Phoenix one night to look at Christmas lights.

Cruzer, Mom and Kellyn came too.

I had brunch with Jaime and Blake at La Grande Orange.

I took the cats outside every once in a while - they don't get to sit outside in NYC so I figured some fresh air and sun would be good for them.

I had dinner with Scott, Julie and Brady at True Foods at Scottsdale Quarter. We attempted to go to Railroad Park to ride the train but the line was way too long.

Dinner with Montana and Aubrey at True Foods at the Biltmore.

And dinner at True Foods with Lauren followed by a "slumber party" since Jason was out of town.

My Asthmatic Cat

Ever since I got Sam, I have noticed that she coughs every once in a while. Whenever I asked the vet about it, they said it could be asthma or allergies. When I moved to NYC I thought the she was coughing a little more than in AZ, so I asked the vet about it here. They said that she probably does have asthma, so they wrote me a prescription for an inhaler so whenever I hear here coughing I give her two puffs on the inhaler. She sits there pretty well for me.

Because I Love Her

Sam was due for her annual vet check-up and shots last month.  I have also noticed that she has been coughing more than normal (she has always coughed since I have had her, and the vet has always said that it was allergies) so I decided I should take her in.  I took her in a couple of weeks ago, and the vet said that her cough was probably due to asthma.  She said that the normal course of treatment was an inhaler, but that the medicine was costly.  I was thinking to myself, 1) there is NO WAY Sam would ever allow me to put a mask on her face for the inhaler and 2) that's a lot of money.  The other suggestion the vet had was to put her on prednisone.  I shot that idea down immediately given how much I HATE prednisone.  The final suggestion was that I could have an x-ray done of her lungs to try to diagnose it that way.

Tonight I took her for x-rays - they said she sat perfectly still for the x-ray - amazing - and there were some small areas of concern on her lungs.  The vet said it looks like an infection, but that cat's with asthma are more prone to infection.  Sam also has bad teeth and gum disease (teeth cleaning is next on her list to have done) so the vet said that could also be contributing to her cough.  The plan is to put her on an antibiotic for 5 days and see how she does and then we will go from there. 

Most people probably think I am crazy for doing this much for a cat, but I love her and she is worth it - even though she hisses at me half the time :)

This picture was taken a couple of months ago when I was traveling back and forth to Atlanta - she loves sitting on suitcases.

Bring on the Warm Weather

Yesterday was a gorgeous day - it was mostly sunny and the high was 75 degrees.  That's right - 75 - 5 more degrees and we would have hit 80!  I took advantage of it by going to Central Park (you probably could've guessed that one).  I wasn't the only one here in NYC who was ready to spend some time outside - this is what the park looked like:

Otis and Sam enjoyed the warm weather as well.  I opened my windows and they sat in the sun.

And this is how I left them when I went to church tonight :)