workingwifey

So Cootie was up to 5 units of insulin 2x per day, and we took him into the vet for a check up and the vet said his blood glucose level was 40…which is WAY too low. Under 80 is in hypoglycemic range, so they told us to reduce the dose. This kept happening until they told us to reduce to 1 unit 2x per day. At that point, I pretty much just stopped shooting Cootie with the insulin.  Cootie knew he was done. When I first started shooting him with the insulin, he didn’t mind at all. It’s almost as if he could tell that he was sick, and that I was helping him. So when he started to go into remission, he could tell, and would not really let me shoot him. I had to enlist Rory’s help many times, but when the vet told us that his blood sugar was that low, I figured out that he was in remission. He has gained weight back, and is doing just fine now. It is possible for cats to go into remission if you catch the Diabetes early enough, chang the diet, and start administering the insulin, within just a few weeks of being diagnosed…thank God for Cootie! I am so happy I don’t have to shoot him anymore. So far so good, I am keeping a close eye on him but he seems to be doing very well.

My birthday is coming up on 10/9. When my mom was alive, every year on my birthday, she would tell me the story of how I was born. That is one thing that when she used to do it, it was just like I was letting her do it for her sake, because her baby was another year old. But now that she is gone and I don’t have her to tell me that story every year, I really miss it. It makes me sad, and makes me remember my last birthday that I got to hear the story from my mom - my 20th birthday. I remember I was living in California and she was in Colorado, and she called me in the morning and I was really uspet because my boyfriend at the time was supposed to spend the night before hanging out with me, but he ended up going to a party with his friends instead. I remember she actually cheered me up by telling me the story of when I was born. I have heard the story so many times, I feel like it’s a movie that I am watching in my head. I can see her sitting at home eating Moon Pies while my dad was out drinking, because they had just gotten into a big fight. Then I can see her eating so much that she was throwing up, not knowing she was in labor. I can then see my dad walk in the door, and her telling him they had to go to the hospital. Then he drove her very slowly to the hospital, and no matter how slow my dad was driving, my mom kept telling him to slow down. Once they got to the hospital, my mom’s lower back was hurting her so bad, she made my dad rub it while she was trying to walk around to ease her pain - for hours. Then I popped out, and one hour later my mom and dad took me home. I was 6lb 6oz and 19″ long, born at 5:20am.

Today my husband’s dad went to the Emergency Room at the Scripps hospital in Encinitas because he was feeling clammy, cold, and was shaking. They admitted him, found something weird on the EKG, but rulled out heart attack. After a few hours in the hospital, he started to develop a fever, so the doctors gave him some antibiotics and sent him home. No diagnosis. WTF? How do doctors do that — or how do people LET them get away with doing that? How do they admit someone to stay in the hospital, and because they couldn’t find what was wrong with him, they just pumped him full of antibiotics and then sent him on his way? If I was Rory’s mom, I would have not left until they gave me an answer as to what had happened. His white blood cell count was up, which can mean anything - but it does mean that his body is fighting something. It’s a miracle these doctors are even allowed to practice. I understand it is near flu season and everyone is busy but come on, a 60+ year old guy comes in to the E.R. for something that does not look like a heart attack, but that does look like SOMETHING, and you send him home without an answer? I would never, ever stand for that. I wouldn’t be able to. How about you? Am I overreacting?

Yesterday I read an article regarding Mexicans in Arizona. Arizona has begun providing stricter consequences to employers of illegal Mexicans, I believe the first state to really do anything major like this. With that comes the fact that less employers in America are hiring illegal’s, for fear of getting caught. That has made Mexican’s have to go back to their country of Mexico, for good. Mexico has begun to complain to Arizona about the fact that their country can not handle that many people. So that is the U.S.’s fault? It is our fault that your country is poor and corrupt, so people want to come to the U.S. to make money and have a better life, except they do not want to do it the legal way, so now we are trying to make them follow the law? You know darn well if an American (especially a White American) went down to Mexico and did not follow their “laws” (I say that with quotes because they appear to be so corrupt that they can arrest you for anything they want, and you have the ability to negotiate your way out of jail. This is normal practice, there is no sense of justice), they would lock you up in 2 seconds flat, and do whatever they wanted to you. So if they can have that attitude toward American’s, why can we not try to uphold our own laws? I don’t see why everyone has such a problem with following the rules. The rules are that if you want to live in this country and get all of the benefits like medical insurance, work, driving privelages, you must become a citizen and in order to be a citizen, you must be able to take the test which is in English (thank God for that, it’s about the last thing left that is actually in English!), and if not, then go back to your country! Do not try to change mine! Anyways, back to my original point - I just do not see how Mexico can be angry at the U.S. for enforcing our laws, and sending the people that are still citizens of Mexico back to their country. It’s almost like they are forgetting that American’s do not owe them anything. They are forgetting that the people we are forcing to go back are actually from there, and most of their families still live there, and they are residents of that country! They are forgetting that without the billions of dollars that Mexican workers make in the U.S. and then bring back to Mexico each year, their country would have way less money that it does right now! It makes absolutely zero sense. Can anyone explain it to me?

Tonight I was watching something I believe on this History channel about rites of passage in different cultures. They explained a ritual in South Africa where a boy around 20 years of age gets sent away to the middle of no where to get circumcized, and must have it performed by a “traditional surgeon” who does not have any formal training. Then the boy must live in a hut and can not eat or drink until he is fully healed. By himself. People in the U.S. probably can not imagine that type of tradition. Then the program went on to explain how in the United States, it is common for families to send their old parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents to “assisted living”, “retirement”, or “nursing” homes to be taken care of. In many other countries, the community will take care of the old people as they age, and they hold them in high regard for their experience and wisdom. The program stated that in the Apache Native American tribe, for a girl to become a woman, the ceremony is not written down anywhere. The elder of the community will state the tradition orally. Without the elderly to communicate this to the rest of the tribe, the tradition would cease to exist. So how come in the U.S. does not normally take care of their elderly as a community? The program said that it costs around $5000 per month for an old person to live in an assisted living facility. Most people that are my age (20’s or 30’s) can not even afford to pay that much per month to live TOTAL, so how in the heck are we expected to pay that when we can not even work for a living? At least children without a home are able to go to orphanages and not have to pay for it (probably because of child labor laws), so why can’t we have some type of program for the elderly like this as well? Maybe we do and I just don’t know about it? I mean I know there is social security and medicare but social security alone is not enough for most people to live on. Hopefully by the time I am old enough for this to have an affect on me, things will be different and I won’t have to worry so much.

I was driving to work the other day and heard on the radio something about people with guns staging a demonstration at a local mall. I had never heard of such a thing so when I got to work, I immediately did a Google search and what did I find? Escondido Open Carry. And now I am proud to say that I am a member! I purchased a Bursa Thunder 380 last November, shortly before Obama got elected as president of the U.S. because I had heard and read many reports that he was going to try to outlaw guns - at least for people that have never served on a police force or in the military. Though I legally own a firearm, I have yet to use it. Have not even purchased bullets yet. But that does not change the fact that I am avid supporter of the right to bear arms and the 2nd amendement of the U.S. Constitution. Now that I am aware that this organization exists, I will do my best to attend the functions and at the very least I will spread awareness. Did you know that in California, it is legal to walk around with your gun in a holster on your belt (Open Carry) and you do not need a license for this? You can even carry a loaded magazine also on your belt in a holder and that is legal as well. Many government officials try to put fear into their citizens and make them believe that they do not have as many rights as they actually have. I am excited to learn more about my rights and to tell others to be aware!

This past Saturday (two days ago) we took Cootie to the vet so that he could get a blood glucose curve to see if the 2 units 2x a day was enough insulin. He had to stay at the vet all day and they drew his blood once an hour, through his ear. We picked him up around 5pm and they said that we need to up his dose to 4 units 2x a day. I have to take him back in on Sept. 8th for the day so that they can do another curve. The vet said I can feed him either wet or dry food, as long as it’s the kind for diabetic cats (Low car, high protein), but today I asked my husband to go out and get some wet food because we’re almost out of dry. My main reason for this is that cootie has a “cavity” which hurts him, and he has a hard time chewing his food. The vet won’t fix his tooth though until the diabetes gets under control, which makes me a bit angry because I don’t want Cootie to be in pain! But whatever. Cootie also gained 6 ounces last week which is great, the vet said that’s a very good sign. He’s acting normal and seems to be happier now that we (I say “we”, but there is no “we” involved. It is just ME) have been giving him the insulin, so that makes me happy. He is still really good when I give the shots. The only thing he is starting to do now is when I am trying to find the skin and tent it, he tries to roll on his back LoL! It’s funny, but makes me kind of hard to tent. I just hope he can go into remission eventually, the insulin and glucose curves are expensive! Have already spent about $550 in a week and a half!

Recently my cat, Cootie, lost 5 pounds rather quickly. He’s 8 years old and has always been around 20 pounds, so when he went from 21lbs to 16lbs, I got anxious. I have taken him to the vet before to get checked for Diabetes but since he didn’t have it last time, I didn’t think much of how he was acting this time (lots of water drinking & peeing). So I took him in last Wednesday and they called me Friday to tell me yes, he does have diabetes We took him to the vet on Saturday and they taught us how to “tent” the skin and prepare the syringe and administer the insulin. Right now I have to give him 2 units of Insulin, twice a day (I do it at 6am and 6pm). The first couple times I did it, it was really hard for me to “tent” the skin correctly. I still have trouble with it but think I am getting the hang of it. At the vet, the assitant grabbed a ton of skin when she showed us where to tent the skin, but here at home the two time I’ve tented only a little bit of skin, I can feel the needle actually going into his skin and he doesn’t flinch at all. The other times, he flinches but doesn’t run away. The very first time I shot him, he flinched and yelled at me and turned to look at me with the madest/most painful/sadest look ever…it made me SO sad. He seems to be doing well today though, today is day 5. We take him back to the Vet on Saturday so that they can take another blood test and see if we are giving him too much insulin or not enough. I never thought I would have to be giving my baby Insulin shots! I would think about it every once in a while because I know that male cats over 7 years of age are more likely to get diabetes and 1 in 400 cats gets it, but could never picture myself poking him with a needle!! I’m glad we took him in and he’s getting help. The insulin is really expensive though, as well as the blood curve test thing (glucose curve?). More to come….

The Devil just called me, but I didn’t pick up the phone. No seriously, I just got a phone call from a phone number in Vista, CA that started with the numbers 666. And no, that’s not the area code. 760-666-xxxx (I will spare whoever’s number that REALLY was). Heck no, couldn’t pay me to answer it. It called my HOME phone, no less, to find me.

Everyone knows I have a thing about 666. I am afraid of the numbers 666 and also of Friday the 13th. I have examples of why but my 2009 examples: Rory got laid off on Friday the 13th of February and is STILL laid off, nearly 6 months later. And about a week after that, he went and got something to eat and the total came to $6.66!!! WTF!!!????!!!?!?!

Rory also has a friend that BOUGHT a condo, the address being 666. If you bought it for me and fully furnished it and everything, AND paid me, I would never live at a place where the address was 666. You are just asking for trouble if you do that!

Check this out, the fear of the number 666 is called Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia. Say that three times fast! It’s like the number follows me and haunts me. I don’t think that normal people have to come into contact or have the need to avoid this number as often as I do. Why me??

I can’t remember if I’ve posted a blog about it before, but Rhythm Ring is my dad and his friend Brian’s company. Check out www.rhythmring.com. Saturday, my dad and I got matching Rhythm Ring tattoos of the logo. They sold over 2000 rings over the weekend so we thought we would celebrate! It’s a pretty cool little musical instrument. Uke players are really digging it, as well as people in other countries like China and Germany. My dad is currently developing a double one that is vertical (i think? Opposite of what it is now lol) for playing guitar, so that when you strum, the sound actually goes with the strumming. It’s sweet. The current standard Rhythm Ring is mostly for percussion or uke players.
Anyways, the tattoos is on the inside of my right calf. My dad got his on his right bicep. Now we have two matching tattoos Not only was it a time for business celebration, but it was a time of father/daughter bonding! I couldn’t figure out how to put a picture in the body of this blog so look at the comment I left with a picture of the tattoo.