It's almost 5 AM. I went to sleep around 12:30. I was woken by one of my cats licking a plastic bag. I don't know why he does this, but it drives me up the wall. I moved what he was licking, so he found something else. It sounds terribly cute, and it is, until it's 4 AM.
I'm trying to figure if this behavior is related to hunger or a food desire, so I offered him some wet food (he's very very picky about wet food, and won't eat any more than 10 minutes old). The opening of the can, of course, woke my other cats.
So here I am, mixing food for one cat, while another watches me suspiciously (this is not at all our routine) and then the meowing on the other side of the door starts up. The new boys were up as well.
For the last few days, Mickey has been reasonably comfortable with hand and arm contact, at least with me (my partner isn't spending enough time with them to form a good bond, so his progress will be slower) but Gizmo hasn't wanted anything to do with contact, only lots of kitty kisses (slowly blinked eyes). I haven't been pushing his comfort level too much, though I do offer him appendages for sniffing occasionally, lots of toys and food, and talk to him a lot.
Tonight, Gizmo let me love all over him. He was just as thrilled for contact as Mickey had been when he finally opened up, and they were both super affectionate, At the same time. That's exactly what I've been missing in my established cat dynamic; cats that get along well enough that I can pet them at the same time.
They also both really want to get out of the room and explore the rest of the house. The idea was to wait until both of my existing cats had gone in the room a few times, at least, and that's still the plan, but my cats aren't terribly interested in going in..
Scooter went in this morning, and just sort of walked around pretending there weren't other cats in the room, and that he owned the place. The whole time he was there, mickey had his nose up Scooter's butt, and followed him around relentlessly. Scooter, for his part, took it quite well, the whole thing was very civil, and when he started hanging around the door, I opened it for him, and he left.
Exactly the intro I was hoping for!
Gin, on the other hand, is offended that I'm petting another kitty, even though I am by no means ignoring her in the process. Gin had always been an odd duck; I got her from the shelter as a kitten, and she came home to an apartment full of 6 month old black lab and an asshole human I've since gotten rid of. She didn't get the positive start in life I wish I could have given her.
She's never been much of one for other cats, though I think this has more to do with them not matching her personality well enough to have a friend out of it. She's not actually aggressive and she hasn't claimed a person as territory as one of my other cats did (Omocha, unfortunately, needed to be re-homed; she was absolutely a one-cat-house cat, and we just couldn't give her that, so I found her a family that could). Indeed, it seems as though Gin just doesn't LIKE who we picked as her friend.
I'm hoping that Mickey and Gizmo will solve this problem, by having different enough personalities not just from each other, but from my established cats, to fill any personality gap we may have. Cats have activities that they like to share with friends, just like we humans do, and similar to humans, it's tough to find another cat who likes all the same things. Just like humans, the more friends are available, the more likely they will have overlapping interests.
So far, everything is looking good, it's just a matter of time.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
I wonder..
I wonder what intelligent life on Europa/Ganymede would develop for technology, since electricity would be impossible.. Would they use bioengineering? What would they think about the universe, having a sky made of miles of solid ice? Would they, reasonably, believe that the universe is their ocean and nothing more, or would they be the type to question if there was an end to the shell?
I wonder what it would be like to be launched perpendicular to the plane of rotation of the solar system (not toward the outer planets, but straight up or down from them). I wonder how far you would have to travel to be able to see the whole Milky Way, to see where we actually are in our galaxy. I wonder what it would look like from there; similar to Andromeda, or perhaps one of the farther-off galaxies. I wonder how accurate we are about our estimations, and I wonder what we haven't discovered about them yet.
I bet if everyone learned one new skill every month/week, the whole world would work a lot more smoothly, even if most of the skills people learn are bizarre and pointless. It's quite surprising how useful one area of knowledge is for something entirely separate. I'd also be willing to bet that, if everyone had a variety of interesting skills, it would not only be easier to connect with other people, it would also encourage people to use their skills to help others. What's the point of learning to do something if you don't share it, after all.
I wonder what northern forests looked like before the introduction of worms (worms are not native to areas that experienced glaciers during the ice age, when all of the topsoil -and thus, worms- was pushed south) I am curious as to the diversity that was lost in just that one simple introduction. If something so small and seemingly insignificant can have so great an impact, imagine the huge changes we make, and what that must do.
I am insanely curious as to how the mechanism for evolution actually works. As far as I'm aware, nobody has a really good answer for that yet, although there are a lot of speculative answers which seem plausible. It makes such a fantastically huge difference to literally everything we value, if not the process, at least the end result, and yet we don't have a terribly good answer for why. I love those situations!
I sometimes look up at the sky, and marvel that somewhere in the universe, on some distant planet or moon, there is some sort of being, looking back in my direction, and marveling about the same thing. Statistically speaking, this is a likely scenario, since there are hundreds of billions of galaxies with hundreds of billions of stars in each, and most stars have at least a couple of planets, at least from what we have discovered so far, and many have dozens. If there are, as astronomers like to say, more stars in the known universe (what we can see in a sphere going out 13.8 billion light years; we can see a diameter of 29 billion light years, but the whole universe has a diameter around 92 billion light years http://www.space.com/24073-how-big-is-the-universe.html ) than grains of sand on the earth (who did the math for that is unknown to me, but I assume someone did at some point, just for funsies), that means there are 10 times as many planets. That's such a huge number, it's actually impossible to relate to for our puny species. most people have difficulty envisioning more than a thousand of an item, at most. Count the grains of sand in a handful some time. Make it a small handful, trust me.
What would it be like to be, say, a spider, with 16 eyes, or a mantis shrimp that has 16 color-receptor cone varieties to our 3 (basically, they can see a lot more of the electromagnetic spectrum than we can). What would it be like to navigate at high speeds in complete darkness, relying on sound for navigation like a bat, or use the magnetic field lines of the earth for directions like migratory birds? Or even the fine-tuned machine that is the housecat, who's sense of motion detection is superb, and who has a dedicated part of the visual processing portion of the brain dedicated to whisker input? What would it be like to not be human, just for a while?
How different would the world be if we could convey our actual meaning rather than have it filtered by the recipient and misinterpreted? Would people be nicer if they knew everyone else was just trying to do their best and be nice? Would we get less hung up on word choice, and focus more on context?
If Homo sapiens sapiens hadn't evolved to intelligence (defined here as the ability to make sweeping changes to the environment, survive in nearly any conditions given time to prepare, and the capacity to problem solve to get a desired outcome), nor any other hominid race, what is the most likely animal to have done so in out stead? The squid, with it's amazing abilities to manipulate objects, survive out of water, and ridiculous intelligence/ability to learn without being taught? Perhaps the crow, able to figure out complicated multi-step puzzles, use the tools made by other species (dropping nuts in the road to be cracked by cars, then waiting for the walk sign to collect), and the ability to learn ridiculously quickly? Perhaps some other species entirely. What would that have looked like?
Where would our species be, technologically and socially, if we hadn't had as many setbacks as we did throughout history? What if the Library of Alexandria hadn't burned, or if the technology in the Antikythera Mechanism hadn't been lost and not reinvented for hundreds of years? What if the advanced cultures of ancient times hadn't collapsed/been annihilated, but continued to modernity? What if there weren't groups of people throughout history who tried to squash scientific progress and understanding, but had instead.. helped..?
I wonder how long it will be before knowledge and wisdom are again valued in modern society as they were in the past. We have the internet, and that means all information, both factual and otherwise, are readily available. At some point, then, we will hit a wall. We will hit a point beyond which society collectively decides it's tired of having so much false information, and demands a higher standard of information, especially from trusted figureheads such as the news and politicians. Someday we will reach a point when the words "I don't know, but that's a good question, and we should find out." will be respected and valued as an opening to further information, rather than an admission of ignorance.
I wonder what it would be like to be launched perpendicular to the plane of rotation of the solar system (not toward the outer planets, but straight up or down from them). I wonder how far you would have to travel to be able to see the whole Milky Way, to see where we actually are in our galaxy. I wonder what it would look like from there; similar to Andromeda, or perhaps one of the farther-off galaxies. I wonder how accurate we are about our estimations, and I wonder what we haven't discovered about them yet.
I bet if everyone learned one new skill every month/week, the whole world would work a lot more smoothly, even if most of the skills people learn are bizarre and pointless. It's quite surprising how useful one area of knowledge is for something entirely separate. I'd also be willing to bet that, if everyone had a variety of interesting skills, it would not only be easier to connect with other people, it would also encourage people to use their skills to help others. What's the point of learning to do something if you don't share it, after all.
I wonder what northern forests looked like before the introduction of worms (worms are not native to areas that experienced glaciers during the ice age, when all of the topsoil -and thus, worms- was pushed south) I am curious as to the diversity that was lost in just that one simple introduction. If something so small and seemingly insignificant can have so great an impact, imagine the huge changes we make, and what that must do.
I am insanely curious as to how the mechanism for evolution actually works. As far as I'm aware, nobody has a really good answer for that yet, although there are a lot of speculative answers which seem plausible. It makes such a fantastically huge difference to literally everything we value, if not the process, at least the end result, and yet we don't have a terribly good answer for why. I love those situations!
I sometimes look up at the sky, and marvel that somewhere in the universe, on some distant planet or moon, there is some sort of being, looking back in my direction, and marveling about the same thing. Statistically speaking, this is a likely scenario, since there are hundreds of billions of galaxies with hundreds of billions of stars in each, and most stars have at least a couple of planets, at least from what we have discovered so far, and many have dozens. If there are, as astronomers like to say, more stars in the known universe (what we can see in a sphere going out 13.8 billion light years; we can see a diameter of 29 billion light years, but the whole universe has a diameter around 92 billion light years http://www.space.com/24073-how-big-is-the-universe.html ) than grains of sand on the earth (who did the math for that is unknown to me, but I assume someone did at some point, just for funsies), that means there are 10 times as many planets. That's such a huge number, it's actually impossible to relate to for our puny species. most people have difficulty envisioning more than a thousand of an item, at most. Count the grains of sand in a handful some time. Make it a small handful, trust me.
What would it be like to be, say, a spider, with 16 eyes, or a mantis shrimp that has 16 color-receptor cone varieties to our 3 (basically, they can see a lot more of the electromagnetic spectrum than we can). What would it be like to navigate at high speeds in complete darkness, relying on sound for navigation like a bat, or use the magnetic field lines of the earth for directions like migratory birds? Or even the fine-tuned machine that is the housecat, who's sense of motion detection is superb, and who has a dedicated part of the visual processing portion of the brain dedicated to whisker input? What would it be like to not be human, just for a while?
How different would the world be if we could convey our actual meaning rather than have it filtered by the recipient and misinterpreted? Would people be nicer if they knew everyone else was just trying to do their best and be nice? Would we get less hung up on word choice, and focus more on context?
If Homo sapiens sapiens hadn't evolved to intelligence (defined here as the ability to make sweeping changes to the environment, survive in nearly any conditions given time to prepare, and the capacity to problem solve to get a desired outcome), nor any other hominid race, what is the most likely animal to have done so in out stead? The squid, with it's amazing abilities to manipulate objects, survive out of water, and ridiculous intelligence/ability to learn without being taught? Perhaps the crow, able to figure out complicated multi-step puzzles, use the tools made by other species (dropping nuts in the road to be cracked by cars, then waiting for the walk sign to collect), and the ability to learn ridiculously quickly? Perhaps some other species entirely. What would that have looked like?
Where would our species be, technologically and socially, if we hadn't had as many setbacks as we did throughout history? What if the Library of Alexandria hadn't burned, or if the technology in the Antikythera Mechanism hadn't been lost and not reinvented for hundreds of years? What if the advanced cultures of ancient times hadn't collapsed/been annihilated, but continued to modernity? What if there weren't groups of people throughout history who tried to squash scientific progress and understanding, but had instead.. helped..?
I wonder how long it will be before knowledge and wisdom are again valued in modern society as they were in the past. We have the internet, and that means all information, both factual and otherwise, are readily available. At some point, then, we will hit a wall. We will hit a point beyond which society collectively decides it's tired of having so much false information, and demands a higher standard of information, especially from trusted figureheads such as the news and politicians. Someday we will reach a point when the words "I don't know, but that's a good question, and we should find out." will be respected and valued as an opening to further information, rather than an admission of ignorance.
It's not even the incisions...
So I had the surgery yesterday, and my babymaker no longer functions as-intended. Win.
It was surprisingly low-key, considering my anxiety.
I did find out I've lost even more weight, though.. I'm down to 108# from my usually-consistent 123#, a situation which I find quite upsetting; eating more means more pain due to my ongoing tummy problems, and not eating more means I could easily become even less healthy.. I'll have to talk to my primary care doctor about it when I call regarding depo, especially since I think I may have pinned down the cause. On the plus side, my distress over actually losing weight seems to have convinced my partner that, no, despite my jokes about "working off that meal", I'm not actually interested in losing weight, just maintaining the same size I've been since middle school (which I do usually without conscious thought. I don't go out of my way to stay the same size; I don't weigh myself or measure or anything, and most of my waistbands are elastic so I have no reference other than visual).
Anyway..
My attending nurse was also childless and had a hysterectomy, and totally understood when I said I was only getting my tubes tied because they wouldn't let me have my uterus removed. She had hers done by laproscope, just like mine, so although it was a bigger surgery, she knew what I could expect, more or less.
She was super good about my intense sarcasm, and was surprised by my unwavering bluntness (it's just who I am, and I rather like it, because nobody ever has to guess about me, and get it wrong).
She commented positively on my lack of moving even slightly, despite watching what she was doing, when she attempted the IV in my right hand, and wrist, and when I told her she was better off, despite appearances to the contrary, using my left, I didn't flinch for that, either, and she got it on the first go. My viens are strange; on the right, they are very visible and look perfect for tapping, but can almost never be hit.. On my left, they look less amazing, and are harder to see, but can be hit on the first go just about every single time (as in.. I've yet to have even folks in training miss on that side)
Then I explained that I was keeping track of my age with piercings, and had gotten a bunch through the years that I didn't keep. It all made sense. She was super apologetic about missing twice, and my response was merely "eh, I figured it would happen, but it doesn't bother me much at all".
My partner sat with me while we waited, and we watched one of the new spiderman movies from start to finish, so that was a really good way of keeping my mind off what was to come, but honestly, the IV was the worst bit of pre-surgery.
One of the other nurses gave me a hard time about my dermal anchors, even with the tops removed, and finally I was like "well, for what it's worth, I regret them, and I would take them out if that didn't require a surgery all on it's own.." She then demanded to know how they got them in, and I told her the rather unpleasant process of making 3 piercings to make a pocket, and slipping the jewelry in, letting the skin grow through the back of the anchor. I told her how long ago I got them, and that they had finally stopped, for the most part, giving me major problems, and she cooled down a bit and explained how cauterizing can lead to burns, especially with a surgery so close to them. I told her I appreciated the info, and that it was a risk I simply had to be willing to take, at this point. That seemed to be enough. There's not much I can do about something I did 5 years ago, short of, as mentioned, surgery.. the anchors need to be cut out, and the process is much worse than implanting them (that process, by the by... sucks..)
They wheeled me into the OR, and I was still awake so I was asking all sorts of questions about the equipment. They showed me a few devices that they were going to use on me, and I told them I liked that they were willing to share and explain. They responded that it's not all that often someone wants to know, beforehand, what's going on for surgery. They have this cool reflex tester deal that they put on your hand to send shocks through to make sure everything is working. They wouldn't hook it up while I was awake, which is a shame, because now I'm super curious how it feels.
Nobody got my joke about the machine that goes "BING!" from Monty Python, which was disappointing, but I asked if they were going to be rocking out to any awesome jams, and the guy in charge of the OR laughed and said "not in my OR", to which the nurses laughed and said "but as soon as he leaves the room!!!"
My mom was an RN, and worked in nearly ever field an RN can; OR, ER, prenatal, maternity, pre-op, assisted living, nursing home, the lot. She used to tell me about how they worked, and how they rocked out to music while the patient was under. She also used to comment about how much she hated the rude people, so I did my best to be entirely accommodating, even a bit helpful.
I don't really recall them injecting the anesthetic, but I recall asking what specific drug it was (as I did with everything else they put in it, because I'm curious) and we got to skip right over that boring counting stuff, because they had the perfect stuff (medical equipment and knowledge) to keep me happy and non-stressed.
I woke up in agony. They gave me a few shots of painkillers, but it didn't come close to going away.. it got better, for sure, but nothing near relief.
It was very unpleasant. The gasses they used to blow up my abdomen lingered like crazy. I still have some huge major bubbles and a ton of subsurface tiny bubbles, and they still hurt. Because of the added pressure in strange places, my back and shoulders also hurt.
When the pain subsided somewhat, they wheeled me into my recovery room where my partner was waiting for me. Then there was a boring bit while I just laid there and made him give me water every few minutes, between conversation and a lot of complaining.
While I was in recovery, my surgeon came by to check on me, let me know that the surgery went well, and said he thought I might be interested to see my clips, since I'm a strange patient. Turns out, he made me a nice, glossy, full-color copy of the pictures, and presented them to me with a flourish. I, being the strange duck that I am, was thrilled. I asked all about what I was seeing, and now I have a picture of each ovary, my Fallopian tubes, and both clips. You can't ask for more! I might frame them. Proof that I'm sterile.
They wanted me to stick around until I could use the bathroom (they apparently used a catheter), and I wanted to leave because we still had a 2.5 hour drive home, so I managed well before I needed or wanted to go, and that, too, was highly unpleasant.
The drive home sort of sucked, although I think I passed out for an hour or so, because when we got to what I thought was Fond Du Lac, we were actually in Oshkosh (30-45 min difference). Bumpy roads were painful, and I curled up in the back seat for a while trying to relocate some of the gas bubbles (something I'm very accustomed to doing with intestinal gas).
The only bad thing, so far, other than the pain.. was the bleeding. They used some sort of liquid bandage sealant stuff rather than bandages, but one of the incisions didn't close up completely, so in the car, it started oozing blood. Unpleasant. We had to stop and look for paper towel, but there wasn't any at the rest stop, so I fished an old but clean shirt out of my trunk and used that. Not ideal, but workable.
The gas pain has been bothering me since I woke up from surgery, but I found that increasing blood flow increases absorption rate of CO2 gas (the same way as muscle fatigue) so I did some exercises that didn't hurt, but would increase my heart rate slightly, as well as increase the blood flow to abdominal muscles. It seemed to help with some of it, but there's enough left that I think it will be another day or two yet, at least. I'm trying not to limit my normal activities too much, since couch-potato-ing decreases blood flow and thus increases recovery time.
I'm also trying to find a cat to sit on my lap and purr, but none of them seem to want to be that close to my blood. (I'm not forcing the matter, of course, but my invitations have been ignored thusfar)
Why would I want a cat so close? Simply, the cat's purr is special; it vibrates at a frequency that can speed up healing, which is why cats seem to survive things you'd think would kill them. The frequencies (~25 htz for the base frequency and ~50 for the first harmonic frequency) have been shown in lab settings to promote healing of bones, reduce inflammation and swelling, and reduce pain, to say nothing of the illness rates in cats being significantly lower than would be expected. It works so well that devices are being made based on the cat purr frequencies for healing bones that are having problems doing so naturally (such as old or compromised patients)
All told, I'm still glad I did it. This is a reasonably small price to pay for peace of mind. I now know, almost for certain, that I will never need to have an abortion.
And such excellent timing, too; if my partner wants to be around babies, especially now that he knows for sure we aren't having any, his niece just found out she was about 5 weeks pregnant, so that need, if it becomes a need, has an outlet. I even told him he's welcome to babysit if he wants to, which was met by the most vigorous head shake of no I've ever seen from him. It was magical.
Sorry for rambling; I'm a bit drugged up for this post. They offered me vicodin and codine, and I declined both because they never work for me (I literally cannot tell when I've taken them or haven't, and I have some skill in those matters), so they sent me home with 600MG ibuprofin and 5mg oxy/35mg acetaminophen. Today is an oxy day.
Perhaps I'll have something more to write when I'm a bit more sober. Perhaps I'll sleep all day. :p
It was surprisingly low-key, considering my anxiety.
I did find out I've lost even more weight, though.. I'm down to 108# from my usually-consistent 123#, a situation which I find quite upsetting; eating more means more pain due to my ongoing tummy problems, and not eating more means I could easily become even less healthy.. I'll have to talk to my primary care doctor about it when I call regarding depo, especially since I think I may have pinned down the cause. On the plus side, my distress over actually losing weight seems to have convinced my partner that, no, despite my jokes about "working off that meal", I'm not actually interested in losing weight, just maintaining the same size I've been since middle school (which I do usually without conscious thought. I don't go out of my way to stay the same size; I don't weigh myself or measure or anything, and most of my waistbands are elastic so I have no reference other than visual).
Anyway..
My attending nurse was also childless and had a hysterectomy, and totally understood when I said I was only getting my tubes tied because they wouldn't let me have my uterus removed. She had hers done by laproscope, just like mine, so although it was a bigger surgery, she knew what I could expect, more or less.
She was super good about my intense sarcasm, and was surprised by my unwavering bluntness (it's just who I am, and I rather like it, because nobody ever has to guess about me, and get it wrong).
She commented positively on my lack of moving even slightly, despite watching what she was doing, when she attempted the IV in my right hand, and wrist, and when I told her she was better off, despite appearances to the contrary, using my left, I didn't flinch for that, either, and she got it on the first go. My viens are strange; on the right, they are very visible and look perfect for tapping, but can almost never be hit.. On my left, they look less amazing, and are harder to see, but can be hit on the first go just about every single time (as in.. I've yet to have even folks in training miss on that side)
Then I explained that I was keeping track of my age with piercings, and had gotten a bunch through the years that I didn't keep. It all made sense. She was super apologetic about missing twice, and my response was merely "eh, I figured it would happen, but it doesn't bother me much at all".
My partner sat with me while we waited, and we watched one of the new spiderman movies from start to finish, so that was a really good way of keeping my mind off what was to come, but honestly, the IV was the worst bit of pre-surgery.
One of the other nurses gave me a hard time about my dermal anchors, even with the tops removed, and finally I was like "well, for what it's worth, I regret them, and I would take them out if that didn't require a surgery all on it's own.." She then demanded to know how they got them in, and I told her the rather unpleasant process of making 3 piercings to make a pocket, and slipping the jewelry in, letting the skin grow through the back of the anchor. I told her how long ago I got them, and that they had finally stopped, for the most part, giving me major problems, and she cooled down a bit and explained how cauterizing can lead to burns, especially with a surgery so close to them. I told her I appreciated the info, and that it was a risk I simply had to be willing to take, at this point. That seemed to be enough. There's not much I can do about something I did 5 years ago, short of, as mentioned, surgery.. the anchors need to be cut out, and the process is much worse than implanting them (that process, by the by... sucks..)
They wheeled me into the OR, and I was still awake so I was asking all sorts of questions about the equipment. They showed me a few devices that they were going to use on me, and I told them I liked that they were willing to share and explain. They responded that it's not all that often someone wants to know, beforehand, what's going on for surgery. They have this cool reflex tester deal that they put on your hand to send shocks through to make sure everything is working. They wouldn't hook it up while I was awake, which is a shame, because now I'm super curious how it feels.
Nobody got my joke about the machine that goes "BING!" from Monty Python, which was disappointing, but I asked if they were going to be rocking out to any awesome jams, and the guy in charge of the OR laughed and said "not in my OR", to which the nurses laughed and said "but as soon as he leaves the room!!!"
My mom was an RN, and worked in nearly ever field an RN can; OR, ER, prenatal, maternity, pre-op, assisted living, nursing home, the lot. She used to tell me about how they worked, and how they rocked out to music while the patient was under. She also used to comment about how much she hated the rude people, so I did my best to be entirely accommodating, even a bit helpful.
I don't really recall them injecting the anesthetic, but I recall asking what specific drug it was (as I did with everything else they put in it, because I'm curious) and we got to skip right over that boring counting stuff, because they had the perfect stuff (medical equipment and knowledge) to keep me happy and non-stressed.
I woke up in agony. They gave me a few shots of painkillers, but it didn't come close to going away.. it got better, for sure, but nothing near relief.
It was very unpleasant. The gasses they used to blow up my abdomen lingered like crazy. I still have some huge major bubbles and a ton of subsurface tiny bubbles, and they still hurt. Because of the added pressure in strange places, my back and shoulders also hurt.
When the pain subsided somewhat, they wheeled me into my recovery room where my partner was waiting for me. Then there was a boring bit while I just laid there and made him give me water every few minutes, between conversation and a lot of complaining.
While I was in recovery, my surgeon came by to check on me, let me know that the surgery went well, and said he thought I might be interested to see my clips, since I'm a strange patient. Turns out, he made me a nice, glossy, full-color copy of the pictures, and presented them to me with a flourish. I, being the strange duck that I am, was thrilled. I asked all about what I was seeing, and now I have a picture of each ovary, my Fallopian tubes, and both clips. You can't ask for more! I might frame them. Proof that I'm sterile.
They wanted me to stick around until I could use the bathroom (they apparently used a catheter), and I wanted to leave because we still had a 2.5 hour drive home, so I managed well before I needed or wanted to go, and that, too, was highly unpleasant.
The drive home sort of sucked, although I think I passed out for an hour or so, because when we got to what I thought was Fond Du Lac, we were actually in Oshkosh (30-45 min difference). Bumpy roads were painful, and I curled up in the back seat for a while trying to relocate some of the gas bubbles (something I'm very accustomed to doing with intestinal gas).
The only bad thing, so far, other than the pain.. was the bleeding. They used some sort of liquid bandage sealant stuff rather than bandages, but one of the incisions didn't close up completely, so in the car, it started oozing blood. Unpleasant. We had to stop and look for paper towel, but there wasn't any at the rest stop, so I fished an old but clean shirt out of my trunk and used that. Not ideal, but workable.
The gas pain has been bothering me since I woke up from surgery, but I found that increasing blood flow increases absorption rate of CO2 gas (the same way as muscle fatigue) so I did some exercises that didn't hurt, but would increase my heart rate slightly, as well as increase the blood flow to abdominal muscles. It seemed to help with some of it, but there's enough left that I think it will be another day or two yet, at least. I'm trying not to limit my normal activities too much, since couch-potato-ing decreases blood flow and thus increases recovery time.
I'm also trying to find a cat to sit on my lap and purr, but none of them seem to want to be that close to my blood. (I'm not forcing the matter, of course, but my invitations have been ignored thusfar)
Why would I want a cat so close? Simply, the cat's purr is special; it vibrates at a frequency that can speed up healing, which is why cats seem to survive things you'd think would kill them. The frequencies (~25 htz for the base frequency and ~50 for the first harmonic frequency) have been shown in lab settings to promote healing of bones, reduce inflammation and swelling, and reduce pain, to say nothing of the illness rates in cats being significantly lower than would be expected. It works so well that devices are being made based on the cat purr frequencies for healing bones that are having problems doing so naturally (such as old or compromised patients)
All told, I'm still glad I did it. This is a reasonably small price to pay for peace of mind. I now know, almost for certain, that I will never need to have an abortion.
And such excellent timing, too; if my partner wants to be around babies, especially now that he knows for sure we aren't having any, his niece just found out she was about 5 weeks pregnant, so that need, if it becomes a need, has an outlet. I even told him he's welcome to babysit if he wants to, which was met by the most vigorous head shake of no I've ever seen from him. It was magical.
Sorry for rambling; I'm a bit drugged up for this post. They offered me vicodin and codine, and I declined both because they never work for me (I literally cannot tell when I've taken them or haven't, and I have some skill in those matters), so they sent me home with 600MG ibuprofin and 5mg oxy/35mg acetaminophen. Today is an oxy day.
Perhaps I'll have something more to write when I'm a bit more sober. Perhaps I'll sleep all day. :p
Monday, July 27, 2015
Pre-surgery jitters
Well, tomorrow I have my surgery..
I'm, shockingly, not looking forward to it, although I am looking forward to the outcome.
I'm supposed to give up food and drink at midnight tonight, but I've given up food already, as of 11 PM yesterday. Why? Simply, although the "do not eat or drink" thing is for anesthesia, so you don't throw up while under, my digestive system doesn't work that happily.
I gave up food early do I'm not already filled with gasses before they even start. It's enough that they will be inflating my abdomen with CO2, there's no need for me to add my own ~_^
Having a calm, relaxed tummy for this is a high priority; I'm going to feel pookey enough afterwards without the gut-wrenching agony of bloating. But it's more than that... I want my tummy to quickly return to normal, because I have to remove the tops of my dermal anchors.. I've had nothing but problems with those fuckers, and honestly, I'm concerned that I'll have one sink and get lost if my tummy spends too much time bloated, putting pressure on the implanted bit. At the very least, I expect I will have a good 2-4 weeks of irritation healing on at least a couple of my dermals.. Most likely the ones at the bottom..
It's a problem I already have with the bloating thing, and not one I wish to make worse.
As it is I plan to draw circles around the piercings so my surgeon knows exactly where to avoid, if at all possible; most medical personnel aren't terribly familiar with implanted piercings, and they all want to know "can you take them out?" nooooo... pretty sure that's why they are called implants..
The rest of the surgery stuff.. meh.. I have transportation arranged, and I'm not too terribly concerned with pain. I do plan to ask for something better than Vicodin or codine, since neither of those do anything whatever to my system.. They seriously might as well be placebo for all the good they do... Placebos might actually work better, because you don't expect them to do anything, so any result is a pleasant surprise!
I guess it's good that my biggest concern for this surgery.... is whether or not it will fuck up my very touchy piercings.
That's a minor thing, overall.
And I get to come home to the two most adorable red point Siamese boys, so that certainly helps!
I'm, shockingly, not looking forward to it, although I am looking forward to the outcome.
I'm supposed to give up food and drink at midnight tonight, but I've given up food already, as of 11 PM yesterday. Why? Simply, although the "do not eat or drink" thing is for anesthesia, so you don't throw up while under, my digestive system doesn't work that happily.
I gave up food early do I'm not already filled with gasses before they even start. It's enough that they will be inflating my abdomen with CO2, there's no need for me to add my own ~_^
Having a calm, relaxed tummy for this is a high priority; I'm going to feel pookey enough afterwards without the gut-wrenching agony of bloating. But it's more than that... I want my tummy to quickly return to normal, because I have to remove the tops of my dermal anchors.. I've had nothing but problems with those fuckers, and honestly, I'm concerned that I'll have one sink and get lost if my tummy spends too much time bloated, putting pressure on the implanted bit. At the very least, I expect I will have a good 2-4 weeks of irritation healing on at least a couple of my dermals.. Most likely the ones at the bottom..
It's a problem I already have with the bloating thing, and not one I wish to make worse.
As it is I plan to draw circles around the piercings so my surgeon knows exactly where to avoid, if at all possible; most medical personnel aren't terribly familiar with implanted piercings, and they all want to know "can you take them out?" nooooo... pretty sure that's why they are called implants..
The rest of the surgery stuff.. meh.. I have transportation arranged, and I'm not too terribly concerned with pain. I do plan to ask for something better than Vicodin or codine, since neither of those do anything whatever to my system.. They seriously might as well be placebo for all the good they do... Placebos might actually work better, because you don't expect them to do anything, so any result is a pleasant surprise!
I guess it's good that my biggest concern for this surgery.... is whether or not it will fuck up my very touchy piercings.
That's a minor thing, overall.
And I get to come home to the two most adorable red point Siamese boys, so that certainly helps!
Sunday, July 26, 2015
We have new kitties!
It was sort of a happy accident.
We took the birds to the rescue place; they will be much better off, as will I. On the way home, we stopped by the shelter to drop off the application, the one needed to set up a visit with fostered pets. Turns out, the cats we were looking for were no longer in foster, so we got to sit with them in kitty city.
Fortunately, we know that kitty city is better named stress city; 7-10 adult cats thrown together on a rotating basis. Our boys weren't at their best. Far from it. 5 minutes into our visit, the shelter called me, and were thrilled to find out that, indeed, they were calling me from 10 feet away. The adoption was approved (likely because I had adopted a cat from them previously) and within half an hour, we were on our way home with 2 freshly microchipped cream colorpoint boys.
We were not ready.
Despite spending well over a week intending to bring them home, we thought, certainly, the shelter would take longer than a day, since a day is standard procedure. We thought they were in foster care, which would have meant scheduling a time to meet them, so up to another week.
Nope. 5 minutes after stopping at the humane society to drop off paperwork, I'd been approved, and asked if I wanted to take them home today, or pick them up later.
Turns out, they had been at the shelter for almost 7 months after being surrendered because their family "didn't have time for them". Nobody had time for them.
We have time for them. I'm even more sure of my choice knowing what they came from and went through,
They have been with us for a day and a half now. They are eating, although it's not agreeing with them the greatest just yet. At least one of them is playing, they are exploring, they aren't running into hiding when we knock to open the door. They are using the boxes properly, and haven't destroyed anything yet. I even got a chance to love on the bolder of the two for a while this morning.
It's slower going than any of my previous cats, but these two lost a lot, and it's going to take them a while to open up again. And that's OK.
We'll give them everything they could possibly want or need, and see what happens.
I'm sure it will be something good.
We took the birds to the rescue place; they will be much better off, as will I. On the way home, we stopped by the shelter to drop off the application, the one needed to set up a visit with fostered pets. Turns out, the cats we were looking for were no longer in foster, so we got to sit with them in kitty city.
Fortunately, we know that kitty city is better named stress city; 7-10 adult cats thrown together on a rotating basis. Our boys weren't at their best. Far from it. 5 minutes into our visit, the shelter called me, and were thrilled to find out that, indeed, they were calling me from 10 feet away. The adoption was approved (likely because I had adopted a cat from them previously) and within half an hour, we were on our way home with 2 freshly microchipped cream colorpoint boys.
We were not ready.
Despite spending well over a week intending to bring them home, we thought, certainly, the shelter would take longer than a day, since a day is standard procedure. We thought they were in foster care, which would have meant scheduling a time to meet them, so up to another week.
Nope. 5 minutes after stopping at the humane society to drop off paperwork, I'd been approved, and asked if I wanted to take them home today, or pick them up later.
Turns out, they had been at the shelter for almost 7 months after being surrendered because their family "didn't have time for them". Nobody had time for them.
We have time for them. I'm even more sure of my choice knowing what they came from and went through,
They have been with us for a day and a half now. They are eating, although it's not agreeing with them the greatest just yet. At least one of them is playing, they are exploring, they aren't running into hiding when we knock to open the door. They are using the boxes properly, and haven't destroyed anything yet. I even got a chance to love on the bolder of the two for a while this morning.
It's slower going than any of my previous cats, but these two lost a lot, and it's going to take them a while to open up again. And that's OK.
We'll give them everything they could possibly want or need, and see what happens.
I'm sure it will be something good.
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