Monica

Thank you everybody for the condolences. It means a lot to me, more than I had realized it would.

My vet called a couple days later with some final information. He was definitely suffering from end-stage kidney disease (which we knew from the bloodwork, but she found more evidence); his liver, while problematic, was not a factor in this. And yes, he did have the gallstone we suspected starting two years ago, but no, it wasn't the problem either. She did not find any tumors. We don't know what was causing the anemia; process of elimination suggests ulcers, which we were treating speculatively.

So, bottom line, according to my vet (and the ultrasound vet) we did everything right. The ultrasound vet told us that he considers any cat who reaches age 17 to have kidney disease whether you see it in the tests or not. I'm introducing Baldur to dietary changes -- can't hurt, might help.

Erik is doing better since my last post on the subject. Two weeks after restarting the Methimazole and starting him on Prednisone his weight was back up (6lb 4oz, so still a way to go), his T4 is back to normal (2.8), and his bilirubin is down by half (1.9, still too high but this is progress). In other news, his liver numbers are up when we expected them to be down; SALT was 644 in June, 1035 in July, and 1364 now. This surprised my vet, who thought it would track the bilirubin somewhat. Also, his kidney numbers are up (this is new): BUN is 63 and Creatinine is 3.6 (was 2.4, which is considered normal). Also, he continues to be anemic (18% now, was 20, normal 28). The vet had expected the Prednisone to help with the anemia, but not so far.

We changed two things at once (the two drugs) so we can't debug as easily, but getting Erik back on track trumped engineering rigor. Now, however, the question is: with the stats being basically back to where they were in June before we suspended the Methimazole, is the turn-around due entirely to the Methimazole and the Prednisone is doing harm, or are both contributing to the improvement in his weight, bilirubin, and T4? Prednisone is a wonder drug but it is not without side-effects. My vet will consult with others; I predict that we will end up lowering the dose of Prednisone.

Everything is connected; the body is a delicate system and changing one thing has ripples elsewhere. Erik has a complicated set of conditions and drugs at this point, so there's a lot of veterinary improvisation going on here. Can't be helped.

And through it all he remains a content kitty. I am grateful for that.

Our living room has a (currently-decorative) fireplace in the middle of one wall, with L-shaped radiators on either side. (In a bit of cleverness, somebody built window-seats over those radiators.) Erik in particular likes to lie in front of these radiators, using the L shape and body curve to maximize the thermal properties of the arrangement. Even though there are two radiators he and Baldur will sometimes fight over one of them; the one on the left seems preferable for reasons known only to cats.

When Erik lies along this radiator he always orients himself in the same way, facing into the room (instead of facing the fireplace). I've gently chided him that he needs to warm the other side sometimes, but you know how cats are about listening.

But now he seems to be taking my advice: for the last few days I have noticed him not changing orientation (that would still be wrong, apparently) but alternating radiators. Ok, that works too. :-)

(I really ought to get him a thermal bed as alienor suggested.)

Last week Erik spent the day at the vet's for an ultrasound (everything looks good, they said; awaiting formal report). When I picked him up, the person at the desk asked me to sign a photo release. It turns out that this was their day to take photos of staff members for their web site, and since my vet had made a special trip just to be there for this ultrasound, she asked that Erik join her in the picture. :-) (No, it's not on the web site yet.)

Thanks to those who gave me DTV advice. I had the wrong mental model for the converter box: I was thinking of it as a passive device, like an antenna, when it is more like a cable box. I don't think I'd realized before today that I will have to always set the channel on the box and not the VCR. That makes recording shows more of a hassle, but I watch little-enough TV that it probably won't be a big hassle. Still, one of the reasons I've never been interested in higher levels of cable service (except for B5's TNT year) is that the box displaces the tuner in my VCR, making recording more error-prone. Of course, VCRs themselves are on the way out at this point, so perhaps I should be looking for a DVR that does not involve a subscription service. (Again, don't watch enough TV to justify paying for a service.) I want to be able to program something and mostly forget about it until I'm ready to watch accumulated shows.

We saw Star Trek this weekend. If you don't think about the plot or the science too hard it's a good movie -- which is pretty much the calibration I expect from Trek. I wonder if the reset will lead to more TV shows or if it's just a movie franchise at this point.

Speaking of movies, thanks to osewalrus for passing on I'm a Marvel / I'm a DC (YouTube).

A seasonal note: a different kind of Omer calendar. Y'see, Jews are supposed to count the 50 days from Pesach to Shavuot, each night. Sometimes it's hard to remember, so people have come up with various reminder schemes. This one builds on the near-universal motivational properties of chocolate. :-) (Some commenters compare it to a chocolate Advent calendar. Advent calendars are completely outside my experience; sounds like I missed out on something tasty as a kid.)

Seen in passing, a useful-looking URL to have on hand: http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/.

Finally (below the cut due to image size) a cartoon that made me laugh out loud. I didn't particularly expect to find it on Language Log, but I'm glad they posted it so I could see it.
( Read more... )

A coworker is currently helping to train a bloodhound for police work. She is not in the law-enforcement business; she happens to run an animal sanctuary when she's not being a software geek, and somehow that apparently led to this. How cool. (Also sounds like a lot of work; she's training with the dog every morning and evening for the next couple weeks.)

Erik's appetite has been much improved this past week. I'm not sure what's different, but I'm glad to see it. We have not started him on prednizone yet; my vet is playing phone-tag with assorted specialists first.

Porridge: what really happened that fateful morning.

A funny cat video (from a locked entry, so identify yourself if you like but I won't).

This bunny hero made me smile (link from paquerette). I had a house rabbit for a few months a long time ago (before the cats). He was a rescue, and I'd read that rabbits were smart enough to be trained to use a litter box. I failed at that and wasn't interested in keeping him in a cage his entire life, so he went off to live with other house-trained rabbits on the theory that there's power in crowds.

From Language Log: be careful your translation says what you think it does.

Hey, CMU alum from approximately my generation, and others who enjoy quirky folk music: Michael Spiro has made much of his music available for free download. (I'm going to buy one of the CDs anyway, because he asked nicely and I believe in supporting independent musicians. I have the other on vinyl, so I probably won't buy the CD.) I particularly commend to you "The Folkie" and "Killing Me Softly With Kung-Fu". I would also point you at "Music, Sex, and Cookies", except the file appears to be corrupted. :-(

A conversation with a coworker today prompted a memory that I realized I never actually wrote about.

A few years ago, my cat Erik had to have surgery, which had complicated after-care -- feedings were on a 6-hour cycle while some drugs were on an 8-hour one, both inflexible. I work full-time. Clearly this wasn't going to work.

We had just moved into new office space and parts of it were not complete. Specifically, we have a shower that was still missing some of its plumbing, so not usable as a shower. My manager arranged for me to be able to use that room for a week, stashing Erik in there and just going in when I needed to do stuff to him. This was neither a secret nor widely-known; people who saw me walk into the building would have seen the carrier, but it's not like there was an announcement. (Though a couple people who knew about it made visits to the room too.) I put a sign on the door saying "please don't open; find me if this is a problem" and signed it.

My company was, at the time, in its first year of having been acquired. Large companies are not always as casual as the small companies they buy. We had, fairly recently, had a manager from the mothership transfer to us, perhaps to help steer us in the right direction in the larger world.

I only heard about this incident some weeks after it happened: this manager and one of our software developers were walking down the hall past this room when Erik meowed. The manager stopped, looked at the door, and said "you have a cat in there". The developer looked at the sign, said "must be Monica's", and continued walking, having given this fact all the attention he felt it deserved. Apparently the look on the manager's face was special.

At the time the manager had no reason to know who I was. Now that he does, I infer that he's forgotten all about the cat in the office. Or, if he hasn't, he has declined to bring it up. :-)

The most recent gathering of the Transarc doc group was Saturday afternoon at a home half a mile from mine. (While I don't remember the hosts from Transarc (I don't think we overlapped), I did share a Hebrew class with them once.) At one point a person I've worked with twice, and tried to recruit, asked me "are you still loving your job?". I gestured toward another person sitting there and asked "have you met my grand-boss"? I then explained that any answer I gave under the circumstances would be perceived as either untruthful or unwise, depending, so I couldn't answer that question just then. I also pointed out that another attendee now works for me, so she shouldn't ask her about it in front of me. :-)

It took a couple weeks (after making an online reservation), but I finally got my confirmation for the NHC summer institute (Jewish learning program). So now all I have to do is decide on an airport and make reservations. Trains do not go there efficiently. That's a pity; I would like to be able to take a train somewhere someday. Doing the "airborne sardine" thing is over-rated. (Hmm. I'm taking it as a given that no one else from the Pittsburgh area is going, but I should check. Driving could work with the right group. But there is no way I'm taking such a road trip myself.)

Erik saw my vet tonight for a followup after his visit to the emergency clinic last week. He is eating but (still) not as much as he should be. I am to give him fluids for a while. We are waiting for an appointment for a consultation with a specialist, who'll look at the ultrasound and advise on options, including surgery. Poor guy. He's active and otherwise happy near as I can tell, but he does seem to have a case of ADR (Ain't Doin' Right), and I hope they can figure out how to fix it soon.

It's a little disconcerting to realize that my cat has better health care than many people who can pay (but live in places where there's none to be bought).

What does "X% chance of rain tonight" mean? Any rain anywhere in the region at any time during the night? That X% of the region will be wet by morning? That the whole region will get rain for X% of the night? Inquiring minds want to know, and empirical evidence is decidedly lacking.

Short takes:

As rjlippincott says, sometimes a product name says everything you need to know. Moo Doo, indeed.

For SCA folks: jducoeur's rules of water-bearing nails some of the current bureaucracy square on the head. Go. Read.

This kitten pile from kittenbreak is adorable. Assuming that's one litter, I'm surprised by both the number and the uniformity.

Erik has been increasingly lethargic and decreasingly interested in food since Friday. I gave him fluids both Friday and Saturday nights (that usually fixes it), but he was still droopy this morning. When he wouldn't eat, I pushed in some tuna juice via syringe in hopes of at least getting some nutrients in (and maybe getting him interested in eating more). Nope. I couldn't reach my vet (not surprising on a Sunday), so I figured we'd now be seeing her tomorrow.

That's when I noticed that his pink nose wasn't pink -- it was the same color as the rest of him. Jaundice, anyone? So off to the animal hospital we raced.

There was a lot of waiting around while they did tests, and in the end they admitted him. They are giving him IV fluids and injectable antibiotics and trying to get him to eat. I asked about appetite stimulants or IV nutrients and they said not yet (ask again tomorrow). They also said that while he (and his blood) looked a little jaundiced, the bilirubin level was normal. Weird. (His nose was also pinker by the end of the exam than it had been, though not normal.)

Coincidentally, he had an ultrasound earlier this week (looking for the cause of elevated WBC count, and it had been 15 months since the last one). My vet hasn't seen the report yet, but based on what was read to her over the phone, there were some issues there but nothing really urgent. The folks at the hospital probably would have wanted an ultrasound, so we'll just send them that one.

( tests )

I left a message for my vet when I got home, and she called me back. (Hey, I didn't know that was her home number. I've always gotten a machine, so assumed it was office voicemail.) She will talk with the vet at the hospital tomorrow (or tonight if they want). She also had new information about the ultrasound: the message she had gotten from a staff member said two small "stones" but didn't say where (kidney stones? bladder stones? ?); she said she would have to see the report/images. But yesterday she happened to be talking with the doctor who did the ultrasound, and he said gallstones. Gall, liver... sounds related to me! So I called the hospital to relay that information.

( choosing a hospital )

Now, I guess we wait. Poor Erik! If the problem turns out to be a gallstone lodged in an unfortunate place, I wonder what the least-invasive way to treat it is.

Edited to add: relevant article from VIN.