Monica

(I sent this via email a couple hours ago but it hasn't made it. If it shows up later, sorry 'bout that and try to ignore it, ok?)

My vet called today with Embla's test results. Her T4 (the thyroid number) is 1.9, which is pretty much right in the middle of the normal range. (All other results were normal too.) When Embla was diagnosed her T4 was 70; my vet had said she didn't know they went that high, and RadioCat told me she might need a second treatment. But now, I think we can safely say that RadioCat cured Embla's hyperthyroidism in one treatment. Yay!

Embla is home from her stay with RadioCat, where she was treated for hyperthyroidism. She was described by their staff as "shy but not cowering". She certainly seems happy to be home. (She's not yet eating as much as normal, but they said that might happen.)

She does not glow in the dark, nor has she shown superpowers yet. Remind me, how long does that canonically take, e.g. for Spiderman? :-)

One of the feline residents seems put out by the new (temporary) litter, but we seem to be getting that under control. It turns out that the stuff RadioCat gave me and the bag I bought last week -- of, allegedly, the same stuff -- have different textures, one more acceptable to our mystery cat than the other. (I assume that if Embla were the problem, she would have had the problem there too and they would have mentioned it.)

I wonder if there is a safe way to get box contents into the sewer system without going through my house plumbing. I assume storm drains are a different feed that don't go through sewage treatment, so probably not. But even with nominally-flushable litter, I'm a little nervous about our creaky old pipes.

The carrier (which I had to leave there for the duration) came home with a tag on it with Embla's name and a picture (clip art?) of a tortiose-shell cat. Cute. I guess they have a library of clip art, but it makes me speculate about challenging them with unusual-looking cats. :-) (There was also a toy mouse stapled to the tag, in which she has shown no interest.)

I was recently asked to participate in a consumer focus group, and they had some questions up front. In the "oh, they so do not understand" category, they asked: "With about how many friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and family members do you communicate (via conversation, phone, email, etc.) on non-work-related topics on a regular basis, i.e. at least once a month?" The options were: <5; 5-9; 10-19; 20-29; 30-40; >40. At least once a month, and they top out at 40? 400 would be closer to the truth...

My article on building a yurt showed up on MetaFilter recently. That's kind of neat, though surprising. (I'm glad someone pointed it out to me; I wouldn't have known otherwise.) I feel like there must be better articles out there than mine, though I haven't gone looking lately.

At my vet's suggestion I called RadioCat to talk about treating Embla. We might be able to solve her hyper-thyroid problem permanently in the next couple months, which is faster than I had expected. My vet needs to send them some test results before they can talk to me more. (It would sure be convenient if the time she needs to be off the drugs coincided with Pennsic -- it would make the cat-sitting easier!)

This Despair-style poster for procrastination made me laugh out loud.

osewalrus posted a link to this "JPhone" video, which also made me laugh.

[Now I can't post comments. Whee.]

Embla's been on the HT drugs for almost three months now. Data:

Early March (diagnosis): T4 70 (!), weight 6lb 13oz, heart 240 (!).
Early April: T4 5.6 (normal <=4), weight 7lb 5oz, heart 200.
Tonight: T4 pending, weight 7lb 14oz, heart 160.

You go, girl!

Vet says if T4 is normal for 3 months it'll probably be time to do the radiation treatment (permanent solution).

My vet recently told me she wanted to see Embla tonight if possible (for a calibration check on the new drug). They normally close at 7:30, which is before Yom Tov would be over tonight. I explained the problem and asked if next week would be ok; she said "call anyway; we might still be here". So I did and they were, and she asked me to bring Erik along if I was coming anyway. (Erik, too, has been on some new medicines.)

Embla has been on medicine for hyperthyroidism for about 3.5 weeks. (You may recall that she pegged the meter on this test, producing the highest level my vet has ever seen.) This condition was described to me as "the engine is constantly revving"; among things, appetite is normal but the cat loses weight due to the high metabolism. Heart rate is also usually high.

Embla has gained 4 ounces in the last month, and tonight her heart rate was 200 (high-normal, but she was stressed so normal). Last time it was 240. This seems to be working.

Erik started the hyperthyroid medicine three weeks ago. He has gained 7 ounces in the last 3-4 weeks. He is now at his highest weight in quite some time -- 7 pounds, 12.5 ounces. Yay! I don't know if it scales, but if half a year of treatment for this condition can get him up to 10 pounds, I won't complain. :-) His heart rate tonight was 180 (down from 220 last time), and the arrhythmia was gone.

Yay! Finally, something seems to be producing results better than "well, he's not any worse than last time".

Baldur and Embla had their checkups tonight. Ok, all of my cats have lost weight this year. How weird! They eat as much as they want. Yeah, older cats tend to lose weight, but still... (My vet had no specific advice on diet changes.)

Baldur: 13 pounds 3 ounces (15+ last year, 17+ the year before)
Embla: 6 pounds 13 ounces (missed last year, 9+ the year before)

Baldur has recently (last couple weeks) been throwing up (small amounts), and Embla's heart rate tonight was 240 (normal is 180-200), so both are getting blood tests. In both cases, the vet suspects hyper-thyroid. I asked if I can get a bulk discount on treatment. :-) I also asked if it's really plausible that all three of my cats are suffering from that ailment, and he said he didn't know but it is common in older cats.

(So, lorimelton, you were right the other night -- Baldur actually has lost weight. Granted, it's hard to really tell by looking.)

[Ah, good. My home network connection is happier than it was last night when I tried to post this...]

( daily tasks, cooking, romance, nosy questions, cats )

The story about the elephant is the funniest thing I've read in days.

I have a new front-runner in the "deceptive marketing" category. Today I examined a bag of Glenny's Soy Crisps, which proudly proclaims "10 grams pure soy protein" and "only 65 calories per serving". However, it is not 10 grams of protein per serving. (The bag contains two servings, so it's 5g protein per 65 calories.)

Yesterday I came into the office to find a keyboard tray peeking out from beneath my desk. I wondered how long it had been there without my noticing; it was possible to push it back well out of sight, so it could have been there for a long time. The mystery was solved when someone walked into my office later and found me, not my office-mate, sitting at my desk. Apparently he'd installed it the previous night, but in the wrong place. I suppose that beats the alternative outcomes. :-) (No, I don't want a keyboard tray; my arms aren't long enough to use one with proper posture.)

Tonight was an On the Mark practice. Jenn has decided to leave the group due to an attack of life. It's unfortunate, but I understand. I don't want anyone to burn out. Ray is staying, so we'll juggle some parts around and things will be ok.

Tonight's episode of Enterprise, "Cogenitor", had a dreadful preview. It was also one of the best episodes of the show to date. That was an extremely pleasant surprise. (Ok, I saw every key plot point well ahead of schedule, but that didn't hurt the show, as it turned out. Now we just have to wait and see if they actually follow through on this in future episodes.)

Embla lay down in my lap while I was watching the show tonight. She's never done that before. Yay! It took five and a half years, but she's finally comfortable enough to actually settle down in my lap, rather than just walking across it and then scampering away. Progress. :-)

Baldur: 18.0 lb (a slight drop from last year)
Embla: 10.1 lb
Erik: 8.125 lb (lost a pound)

I think this is the first time in his life that Baldur has lost weight from one checkup to the next. This is cause for celebration, though the drop was only about three-quarters of a pound. I'll take what I can get. The vet was unwilling to estimate what his weight should be, however.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Erik has lost weight; last year he lost most of a pound from the previous year, and this year he lost a pound from last year. He's not a large cat to begin with. I had actually thought he was gaining a little weight this past year, but I was wrong. (I actually asked that they weigh a 10-pound bag of food, to make sure the scale wasn't off. It wasn't.)

The vet took a blood sample from Erik and they're going to run the standard suite of tests. I should hear back in several days (maybe by the end of the week). His only other blood test was two years ago, when he showed elevated levels of calcium -- enough to call for a dietary change, but not enough to worry about cancer, they said at the time. (Tonight's vet concurred with that.) So we'll see what the level is this time. The physical exam was just fine -- nothing suspicious there, the vet said. (Apparently the other thing that sometimes causes high calcium is a thyroid problem, but she said his thyroid felt normal.)

He's only ten years old; he's not supposed to be wasting away yet. I hope the test results suggest a useful course of action.

The vet was a little puzzled by the choice of special diet; it's something for renal failure, rather than a low-calcium food. She's not the one who prescribed it, and when I asked her if she recommended changing it she thought about it for a minute and said no. One effect of high calcium would be kidney problems, and even if he's not showing those problems now, the food could help hold them off. And she didn't have any better suggestions for what to feed him.

Once again I have had an ambiguous experience with VCA. I was prepared to ask for a copy of our medical records on the way out, so I could take them to a different vet in the future. I might still do that before next year. This particular vet was very good -- it was the most thorough exam I can remember them having, and she seemed perfectly willing to take all the time we needed to do everything right. She handled them gently but firmly, and she showed genuine concern. She carefully read each cat's medical history before doing the exam and asked me relevant questions. That's the first time that's happened. And, like my own doctor, she didn't talk down to me but assumed I had a brain. (This was probably aided by some of the questions I asked her.)

However, she's been there for four weeks; VCA will probably beat it all out of her in time. And judging by past experience, she'll probably be there next year and not the year after. My big complaint against VCA is the revolving-door vets; I want a regular vet. They have some good people, but they don't keep them for long.

Maybe the thing to do is for me to tell her that, rather than talking to VCA. If she's going to leave VCA for some other place in the city, for example, I'd have no problems with following her. (She might have a contractual problem with that, but I don't know if I don't ask.)

Last night tangerinpenguin, Steve, and Pam came over for dinner and gaming. We ended up playing Iron Dragon (after rolling a die due to indecision). Pam had not played before, but she picked it up quickly and did well. It was a fun game, and while I wasn't close to winning when Steve hit 250 points, I didn't feel like I had played a bad game.

Embla surprised me: she actually came into the dining room and accepted attention from Pam. Pam had never been to our house before and hadn't met Embla previously (I'm not sure if she's met the other two); Embla is generally very "shy" (read: reclusive) when dealing with anyone new (or a crowd of any significant size). She's been getting better, and this was another milestone. (I've had Embla for five years, and she was a two-year-old stray of uncertain background then. So she's lived most of her life with me and knows I'll take care of her, but she's still very skittish.)

Today we had lunch with ralphmelton and lorimelton. We geeked about D&D. :-)

Tonight Dani and I are going to see the Reduced Shakespeare Company in a show called "The Reducers". They're covering a large number of classic works of literature in a small amount of time. (I think the run time is a bit under 2 hours, including an intermission.) The reviews I've seen have been positive, so this should be fun. We ended up with free tickets, and they even look to be good seats! (I was trying to score free tickets for "Man of La Mancha" but missed and ended up with these instead. Which is fine.)

We saw their "Complete Works of Shakespeare in 43 Minutes", or whatever it's called, a few years ago, and that was a lot of fun except for one part that was in highly-questionable taste. But it's probably pretty hard to do a tasteful parody of Titus Andronicus, so I suppose that can be forgiven.

It looks like we're going to see LOTR on Erev Xmas.