Introducing Betty White

[tarasgirl06]

Maybe my last hope. It seems my neighbor, the one who rescued OC and has since moved out, I believe that unit is still vacant. It’s possible that my packages got delivered one mailbox down in the stack. If that’s the case, it’s probably still waiting for me. I put a note in my box saying, “Two packages were misdelivered on Friday. Please check neighboring boxes.”

I also have a big ticket item coming this week via Signature Confirmation. Except they don’t do that. They just drop it in the box. So once it’s back from the authenticator and on the way to me and I have it’s last leg tracking number, I’ll leave a note in my box to get my signature or keep it at the post office.

Oh wow. Hoping they follow through, in both cases! Fortunately I get very few big ticket items and fortunately, postal carries does ring my doorbell and get a signature if required. But you know, you want all your stuff, regardless!!!

 

[tarasgirl06]

Just logging off and thought I'd check to see if you had any success. Hoping you did and wishing you and Betty to HAGE/N.

 

[daftcat75]

Just logging off and thought I'd check to see if you had any success. Hoping you did and wishing you and Betty to HAGE/N.

Neither the Post Office nor the vet have gotten back to me. I left a note in my mailbox for tomorrow's carrier just in case. "Two packages misdelivered on Friday. Please check neighboring boxes for me." As for Betty, I'm assuming she's not going in tomorrow because I haven't heard from the doc. He's going to have to let me know by Thursday night if she's on for this week. Otherwise, it may have to be put off until next month. I don't know. I'd have to call up the body shop which I probably should anyway to see if next week could be rescheduled. But I'd have to have a firm appointment from the vet to reschedule the car. Between those and the RSV and the worry that my $$$ signature confirmation purchase may also go missing this week, I'm not entirely sure how I'm still keeping it together. Betty's still cleaning her plates. But not with the same vigor she had yesterday.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Neither the Post Office nor the vet have gotten back to me. I left a note in my mailbox for tomorrow's carrier just in case. "Two packages misdelivered on Friday. Please check neighboring boxes for me." As for Betty, I'm assuming she's not going in tomorrow because I haven't heard from the doc. He's going to have to let me know by Thursday night if she's on for this week. Otherwise, it may have to be put off until next month. I don't know. I'd have to call up the body shop which I probably should anyway to see if next week could be rescheduled. But I'd have to have a firm appointment from the vet to reschedule the car. Between those and the RSV and the worry that my $$$ signature confirmation purchase may also go missing this week, I'm not entirely sure how I'm still keeping it together. Betty's still cleaning her plates. But not with the same vigor she had yesterday.

Can you get the $$$ charge reversed? There's no way you should have to pay for something you don't receive. It's not your fault it's MIA. I've yelled to the bank a couple of times about stuff like this and won. You have to be firm and stand your ground because they'll try to weasel out from under it, of course.
REALLY hoping and praying Betty gets an appointment this week! They should move her up to the top of the list because, again, it's not your fault (not that it's the vet's either, but...).
I had a positive experience today--not a fan of amazon and it's my last choice, but I did have to buy something on the platform and after waiting for the amazon truck all day yesterday without a glimpse, I went to bed last night thinking they were slow and that my delivery would arrive today.
Got an email not only confirming but also showing me via photo exactly where it was placed.

 

[daftcat75]

Can you get the $$$ charge reversed? There's no way you should have to pay for something you don't receive. It's not your fault it's MIA. I've yelled to the bank a couple of times about stuff like this and won. You have to be firm and stand your ground because they'll try to weasel out from under it, of course.
REALLY hoping and praying Betty gets an appointment this week! They should move her up to the top of the list because, again, it's not your fault (not that it's the vet's either, but...).
I had a positive experience today--not a fan of amazon and it's my last choice, but I did have to buy something on the platform and after waiting for the amazon truck all day yesterday without a glimpse, I went to bed last night thinking they were slow and that my delivery would arrive today.
Got an email not only confirming but also showing me via photo exactly where it was placed.

Whenever I give up on the post office finding it (I haven’t been to the box since I left a note inside it yesterday), getting my money back from eBay is a breeze. That’s not the point. Some of these cards took six months of more for them to come up on a saved search. The big ticket item is a card I’ve always wanted. But I’ve always been priced out of it. Now I found an opportunity to get it at half or even a third price because of two small pinholes that I don’t care about. Given the preservation methods of the time (pins, tape, rubber bands, wallets, bike spokes), pinning a card to a board or a wall (the obvious aside) was a pretty good way of preserving a card’s edges and surfaces. Pinhole bargains are one of my favorite searches and I’d be very sad to not receive this one I ordered. That one is expected Friday. I will write up another note to tell the Friday carrier to deliver it to me in person or take it back to the post office.

 

[gizzieblue]

I'm sorry - I might be out of line. Please forgive me, as I said ECID ( every cat is different ). How much gabapentin was Betty placed on?
It's a long story, and it's hard for me to write about it, but maybe mention to the vet if you think he got way to sedated on gabapentin.

Re: what I said about earlier about ammonia ... Thor, my magnificent Transylvanian mountain lion was on i/d + kitty biome bid. He was allergic to wheat ( that is wheat bran added as fiber to his food would cause him - as soon as his tongue would touch the food - bronchospasm - NOT asthma ). IM 'specialist' denied everything I said, including that I felt he was getting 'intoxicated' after eating ( basically his personality was altered for 3 months before staring kitty biome, KB fixed that ), I mentioned again that when he had diarrhea his is happy and pain free and full of energy. ( consistent pretty much with increased toxin absorption ).

I taught he was having liver problems - long story again. IM said about ultrasound 'nothing changed'. Truth was, ultrasound showed hepatopathy, and he called it 'diabetic' hepatopathy. Despite the fact that after staring KB his BG, still high but under 300 ( i/d had tons of carbs compared to purina DM and ff ).

Placed him on budesonide/and keep the crappy food. 2 days after placing him on budesonide, BG went over the roof, high 450. He was barely eating. And from a spoon, with lots of encouragements. Initially he had normal looking black poop w/carrots inside ( tested + for occult blood ); barely eating [ could not give Cerenia, was making his head shake and he would look depressed and not eating; gave the other anti nausea, worked better ] , barely moving, looking depressed. Nostril running. Than he had diarrhea - normal, not smelly, with full undigested /undehydrated carrots in it ( fixed w/kitty biome ). Called IM, got blasted by his 'assistant'. He vomited, gave 1unit Buprenex and looked like he OD on it. For his weight, Buprenex was dosed at 3.4. 50 mg gabapentin would sedate him and make him wobble. ( his dose, 100 mg bid ).
I changed the food in a whim, and it was like he woke up from the stupor he was in ( of course I didn't know at that time he had h pilory:-( ). His BG went down and I had to reduce his insulin with 3 units in a matter of days.
His post budesonide bloodwork shows neutrophils with toxic changes, NORMAL liver enzymes, extremely high WBC and - elevated SDMA 12 vs 9 ( shouldn't have happen ).
His usound this year states: " The diffuse hepatic findings are most consistent with remodeling secondary to chronic/prior infection/inflammatory or toxic opaque injury; " Again, he never had high liver enzymes. I just knew him so well, when I mentioned his regular vet that his personality changed she told me it's normal at 14 to be senile for cat ( oh, he wasn't )

I cut everything : wheat is a pentose; INULIN feeds gram negative bacteria along the WHOLE gi tract, and g- is implicated in IBS; any starch, being alpha or beta glucans. any fish - green lipped mussels etc, egg. lecithin, collagen - I watch every reaction after he eat, and than compared with the properties of different pathogenic bacteria. I used mos and some dextrin as fibers, and some maltodextrin for 'bulk'. And I gave vetriscience anti oxidants and something European, similar to PetFlora ( I guess, I wasn't aware of it, but would like to try on my second cat) for nitrogen balance. I do think the anti oxidants made a massive difference.

He had the best 5 months of his life - his panc. has normal values, for the first time ever he was regulated, he was playful, involved, he was able to jump down the counter for the first time in a year. Of course he still had his gi inflammation, and the h pylori. But than at the hospital, despite the fact it said to be fed only owner food / hydrolyzed, they fed him shit with fish - and noticed 'he became agitated'.

Anyway, my point - you seem to have a vet that cares and is knowledgeable - to feel her abdomen, he should be able to feel if the liver is enlarged. I swear all you write about Betty sounds to familiar.

That being said, Miau tested negative for HP. Yet he's got the same symptoms. Every cat is different. A year after I had him inside - his gums are inflamed and have plaque on them and bad breath ( he had pearly white teeth when I rescued him from the trash ) - and yes, I do brush his teeth. He used to have a urine ph of 6, not it's 7. SDMA was 28, but since everything else was normal ( if occult blood in stool in neutropenia are normal ) I was told to repeat it. The only link I found between sdma and liver was a bacterial byproduct. I'll try to see if I can get him tested for Bortadella(?) - it's implicated in stomatitis and ibs.

And well, that being said again - my 12 year old feral cat that I cared for since he was 1 - turns out that he's allergic to wheat and beef ( massive brown stuff oozing from both ears ). Cleaned after I started feeding him pork (once a day).

You might have lost valuable time reading this, this was not advice - I felt like sharing because of all the strength I got from your experience. Nobody knows your kitty better than you. I'm sorry :-(

 

[daftcat75]

To be honest, my sick took a turn and I don’t even want to do Betty’s dental this week anymore. I would like to just focus on myself for a week. Betty will get on just fine for a few more weeks if need be. She’s stable. No hairballs. No vomiting. No diarrhea. She eats enough. She’s not gaining weight (or losing weight) anymore. Yes it’s sad to think that she may have been putting up with dental pain this whole time. But she’s managing. I’ll get her a new appointment when I’m not sick. Maybe doc calls tomorrow I feel a whole better. But today, I’m saying something has to give and Betty’s going to have to wait a little longer.

 

[gizzieblue]

Sorry to hear that - hope you'll feel better soon!

 

[tarasgirl06]

I do, too! Hoping you're feeling a little better this morning and that Betty has had/is having/will have a good breakfast.

 

[daftcat75]

I thought RSV was going to be easier than Covid. But it took a turn yesterday. I felt like I was waterboarding myself with mucus. I made it out to Walgreens last night because the PE stuff (phenylephrine) DOES NOT WORK! It should be taken off the market. It never went through trials. It somehow got a back door approval when pseudoephedrine was restricted. Trials after the fact show it has no more efficacy than a placebo. So i finally got the good Sudafed (pseudoephedrine.). Sadly I ran out of Mucinex and my only dextromethorphan products contain that stupid PE. I had a very rough night of a tight cough and getting up every two hours to pee because of all the fluids to ease my sore throat. I need to go out once more today for some Mucinex DM. I have half a dozen thermometers and none of them seem to agree. But I think I’m running a slight fever now. It’s like the first three days were prelude and now the sick began yesterday.

I finally made it out to the mailbox. Dumback delivered around my note. I don’t know that he checked the other boxes. Seems my other neighbor may be on vacation. I knocked on his door yesterday. And then spied on the dark unit on my way out to pick up meds later at night. I left a note for today’s dumback carrier to collect my signature for the signature confirmation coming today or keep it at the post office. DO NOT LEAVE IN BOX. They are not supposed to do that with Signature Confirmation packages. They’ve done it twice now. And after Friday, I don’t trust them.

I’m sick of being sick. And I’m tired of this not having a clear trajectory. It seems like each day is a new snot bucket of symptoms.

I’m going to try to rally soon to pick up the DM. Then I’m going to try to sleep all day because I didn’t get much last night.

 

[daftcat75]

I’ve been having to sleep a little more propped up than usual to keep my airways somewhat clear. This has been making it hard for Betty to sit on my shoulder and chest like she usually does. She tried to snuggle in last night and I guess it wasn’t a position to her liking. So she started to walk across my chest to my other side (usually that’s her “moving on” move as she’ll sleep next to me on the other half of the bed. But last night she just sort of got stuck on my chest. “Recalculating route…” So I gently squished her down into a Betty bib. Krista would lay on my chest like a cat bib in bed. Krista was also a pound or two lighter than Betty when she would do that. I think Betty kinda liked it. But she eventually curled up on the short piece of bed for her (the body pillow before the edge rather than the whole half on the other side of me.) There she lay until a particularly fierce coughing fit sent her to the poof. Yesterday was an off eating day for her. 124 calories. She did only one pass on dinner and left a remainder on the overnight. 7 day average 141.

 

[daftcat75]

Went to the store and found some dextromethorphan syrup with only acetaminophen. I also picked up one each of Mucinex (guaifenesin) and Mucinex DM (guaifenesin with dextromethorphan.) Since I had a coughing jag on my way to my next stop (a quick food re-stock of bagels and soup), I took a swig of the cough syrup and washed down a Mucinex DM. Still coughing tight over an hour later.

Ran into the postal carrier when I arrived home. Turns out my $$$ package was not signature confirmation after all. But it was a huge relief to get it. Learned something new. The carriers can put mail in the box. But they are not allowed to take mail out of the box unless authorized by a supervisor. Turns out the neighbor I thought was on vacation, I have no idea where that neighbor really is. Their box is stuffed so tight, I don't know how they're getting new mail in there. I saw an ebay envelope poking out of that mess and grabbed at it to check the address. Sure enough, it was for me. I went through that whole stack and found two more for me including one with a Dec 2021 postmark. I had completely given up on that one. Turns out it was just a common from a set I was building last year. I must have already replaced it because the set has been complete since sometime late last year. It was a worthwhile effort to go through that neighbor's mail because I found two for me. But I still did not find the two missing from Friday. The only other thing I can think of is that it went into a completely different set of boxes. There are four sets of boxes in this complex. Although there is only one apartment number that is mine. The street number is different for each of those boxes. I'm not entirely sure how they would make both a street number and apartment number mistake. But that's probably the next thing to look at it if I can catch up with the postal carrier earlier in his route next time. Otherwise, I can try calling or putting in a missing mail request. But I think it's probably just gone. There was one card I was looking forward to. It was a good find. Then there was two copies of that card for my brother that took six months to light up my saved search. It could be another six months or several years before another copy shows up for sale. At least the cards I was really looking forward to this week all arrived safely. So far. There's a few more coming. But none of these are nearly so expensive or rare as the ones I have been waiting on or looking for this week.

Now if I can just turn the frickin' corner on this virus already!

 

[Furballsmom]

putting in a missing mail request

I'd try this - we've had some similar issues here since our mail comes into a multi unit situation as well, and I've gotten good results.
Hang in there!

 

[daftcat75]

I think I have just the right mix of meds now. And a warm compress for good measure.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Went to the store and found some dextromethorphan syrup with only acetaminophen. I also picked up one each of Mucinex (guaifenesin) and Mucinex DM (guaifenesin with dextromethorphan.) Since I had a coughing jag on my way to my next stop (a quick food re-stock of bagels and soup), I took a swig of the cough syrup and washed down a Mucinex DM. Still coughing tight over an hour later.

Ran into the postal carrier when I arrived home. Turns out my $$$ package was not signature confirmation after all. But it was a huge relief to get it. Learned something new. The carriers can put mail in the box. But they are not allowed to take mail out of the box unless authorized by a supervisor. Turns out the neighbor I thought was on vacation, I have no idea where that neighbor really is. Their box is stuffed so tight, I don't know how they're getting new mail in there. I saw an ebay envelope poking out of that mess and grabbed at it to check the address. Sure enough, it was for me. I went through that whole stack and found two more for me including one with a Dec 2021 postmark. I had completely given up on that one. Turns out it was just a common from a set I was building last year. I must have already replaced it because the set has been complete since sometime late last year. It was a worthwhile effort to go through that neighbor's mail because I found two for me. But I still did not find the two missing from Friday. The only other thing I can think of is that it went into a completely different set of boxes. There are four sets of boxes in this complex. Although there is only one apartment number that is mine. The street number is different for each of those boxes. I'm not entirely sure how they would make both a street number and apartment number mistake. But that's probably the next thing to look at it if I can catch up with the postal carrier earlier in his route next time. Otherwise, I can try calling or putting in a missing mail request. But I think it's probably just gone. There was one card I was looking forward to. It was a good find. Then there was two copies of that card for my brother that took six months to light up my saved search. It could be another six months or several years before another copy shows up for sale. At least the cards I was really looking forward to this week all arrived safely. So far. There's a few more coming. But none of these are nearly so expensive or rare as the ones I have been waiting on or looking for this week.

Now if I can just turn the frickin' corner on this virus already!

SO do I understand you correctly that you got the $$$ one? BRAVO! Now for the rest. 2021??? WTH????? and where IS that neighbor? That gets me a little shook. *I watch far too much murder porn.* Really hoping the cards for you and your bro arrive right away.
AND that you start to feel better right away. Soup and bagels sounds wonderful. And that warm compress? BLISSFUL. Wishing you and Betty a much more pleasant, comfortable, and restful evening/night.

 

[daftcat75]

Just talked to the doctor and he offered tomorrow. But I don’t know how I’ll sleep or how I’ll wake up. And I don’t know if I’ll be up for additional med care or concern. One patient at a time right now.

But I mentioned the gabapentin effect and he recommended I half the dose and give it twice a day for pain relief without turning her into a bag of Jello. And he said it’s safe enough that if she tolerates it, she can have it indefinitely or at least until we get her dental done. I can’t monitor her tonight. We’ll start tomorrow. I’ll make up a couple size five capsules and we’ll see if we can balance pain relief without making her overly sedated. The doc also said he has patients that use it for arthritis for the rest of their life. She does move like an old lady with arthritis. We’ll give it a shot and see how she does.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Just talked to the doctor and he offered tomorrow. But I don’t know how I’ll sleep or how I’ll wake up. And I don’t know if I’ll be up for additional med care or concern. One patient at a time right now.

But I mentioned the gabapentin effect and he recommended I half the dose and give it twice a day for pain relief without turning her into a bag of Jello. And he said it’s safe enough that if she tolerates it, she can have it indefinitely or at least until we get her dental done. I can’t monitor her tonight. We’ll start tomorrow. I’ll make up a couple size five capsules and we’ll see if we can balance pain relief without making her overly sedated. The doc also said he has patients that use it for arthritis for the rest of their life. She does move like an old lady with arthritis. We’ll give it a shot and see how she does.

Sounds like a good workable, helpful plan!

 

[daftcat75]

Decided to try her on the gabapentin tonight as it was simple enough to split up a capsule. She left a third of lunch. That’s her remainder allowance for the day! I didn’t sleep so well last night anyway. I figure I should be able to monitor her for at least the first five hours tonight. And sporadically throughout the night. If it works for her, I should probably know by midnight.

 

[daftcat75]

Well that seems promising. After napping quite hard, she awoke and finished dinner. She seemed a little stumbly when she first woke up. She’s sitting with me on the bed now. I’m having to prop myself up because of a recent coughing jag. She seems a little sedated. But not the bag of jello she was on Monday. We can maybe experiment with a lower dose to balance pain relief against sedation.

 

[Furballsmom]

What a sweet face