No, no, no. When she had gabapentin on Monday and again last night, her appetite perked up and she finished her plates. The doc and I believe she was getting a pain relief benefit from gabapentin. But she experienced heavy sedation at both the 100 and 50 mg doses. I am looking for a dose that might give her the pain relief without the sedation. Gabapentin isn't an opiate. But with this cat, it's a lot easier to give than buprenorphine since Betty will eagerly take anything I put in a capsule for her and dip it in A/D. There may not be a magic dose where she experiences pain relief without sedation. I may have to make a judgement call on whether I drug her up to make her comfortable or let her muddle through alert and responsive, but possibly in pain. I suppose it depends on how long we have to wait for the dental from here. And unfortunately, that's going to be at least another week as I do want to take care of my car next week. I have been waiting two months for that appointment.
Yeah, when you factor it all into the equation, working AT an office saves us money unless the employer is so calculatedly avaricious that he/they/it works it out to the penny (which I don't doubt most of them do these days) to offset the cost of utilities via each employee. And yeah, with utlis being $$$ these days, it does make a lot of sense to try to stay warm, or cool as the case may be, with less. I've always done this. I may wear as many as 3 layers during the coldest winter days. My roomie wants the HVAC and makes it loudly known by sniffling continually (very annoying!) so we're doing that for the first time and I told her the bills will be a lot higher so let's see how he reacts to the first high gas bill! Heating a house this size doesn't come cheap. I actually prefer my way of doing things but if this heads off the sniffle-storm, I'm happy with that.
Yet another reason I prefer to rent over own. I don’t need that much square footage eating all my heating and cooling costs. Turns out I probably don’t even need to run the office Dyson at night. It warms up fast enough in the morning because the office is a small room. This apartment works well for me and a cat.
I am taking the Mucinex DM every twelve hours and also a DM cough syrup every six. It also keeps me from getting too ambitious with my recovery. I’m not going to go to the taproom and pretend I’m no longer sick when I can’t see straight from my meds. I took my last cough syrup dose in the morning. When it wears off around lunch, I can go for a food and meds re-supply trip and hopefully make it back home before the coughing starts again. Betty did some bird watching this morning and now she’s sitting in my lap while I finish my coffee. I like her on 25 mg. She seems sufficiently alert and mobile and it’s a huge relief to not be staring at breakfast remainders all morning. I look forward to seeing her first pass on lunch.
Sounds like the perfect dose for Betty! for now, anyway.Yet another reason I prefer to rent over own. I don’t need that much square footage eating all my heating and cooling costs. Turns out I probably don’t even need to run the office Dyson at night. It warms up fast enough in the morning because the office is a small room. This apartment works well for me and a cat.
I need to go food shopping for more soup. And lox. I not only add lox to bagels, but I put it in my soup too to increase the protein content. Ramen with smoked salmon is quite tasty! I also need more cough syrup. As long as I still have more mucus than I need, I’m overmedicated on cough syrup. Because the alternative is much worse. I had a couple of coughing jags last week that ended with me bent over the sink with pink spits.
Time lost isn't good, but all in all, sounds like a successful day for you and Betty and now you get to enjoy the fruits, soups and bagels of your labors while Betty enjoys the meats.That took way too long. I had to go to three stores again to get all I needed and still had to compromise because I didn’t want to go to a fourth. It’s been raining all day. All week actually. We had one day it didn’t rain last week. I took surface streets which made everything take longer as well. But I just don’t trust the freeways this early in the rainy season. And I don’t trust myself on the freeways this week. By the time I got back home, it was already 4 pm. I only came home an hour sooner than I would have had I gone to the taproom. But I would have had lunch. Oh well. I got plenty of soup and lox and bagels now. I probably won’t need to go anywhere tomorrow.
Lunch is nearly done. I’m okay with the tiny remainder because she needs to leave a tiny remainder to come in at target calories. But this tiny remainder is a lot smaller than the last couple of lunch remainders.
Honestly to make 145 calories, she’s going to have to lose 7 grams each from lunch and overnight. Let’s start with 5 grams each and see how she does.
Betty: "Dad. DAD! What's good for the goose is good for the gander. I will if you will. I won't, though, if you won't. And BTW, I'm HUNGRY. LOX sounds good right about now. With a little cream cheese."View attachment 438609
Doh! She’s gaining again.
Last week’s average calories was only 143.
Now that the gabapentin is helping her finish her plates, I have the unfortunate task of reducing portion sizes now.
Thanks to the gabapentin, breakfast is already in the books.
Is Betty telling me I need to reduce my own portion sizes? That's probably true. I've gained back all the weight I lost to Covid and then some. Someone seeing me after Covid said to me, "you've lost weight" and I replied, "not to worry, I'm sure I'll find it again."Betty: "Dad. DAD! What's good for the goose is good for the gander. I will if you will. I won't, though, if you won't. And BTW, I'm HUNGRY. LOX sounds good right about now. With a little cream cheese."
than 
Nothing at all wrong with that and I wasn't disparaging you in any way...just so you know. I was just joking around, about what Betty might be thinkingIs Betty telling me I need to reduce my own portion sizes? That's probably true. I've gained back all the weight I lost to Covid and then some. Someone seeing me after Covid said to me, "you've lost weight" and I replied, "not to worry, I'm sure I'll find it again."
I'm thinking I'll likely "hygge" it up for the rest of the month and then go keto again in January. I could shed ten and be comfortable again.
Betty feels good, though. There's good padding on her pelvis, spine, and rib cage now. Though she does look more bean bag than triangle when she sits.
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I can relate!
daftcat75
how is betty white doing ?
Her IBD seems stable. We’ve paused the pred tapering to come back to her dental that was supposed to happen in February before her IBD sidetracked it. Unfortunately, after waiting almost two months for the appointment, doc had a family emergency. Then I got sick and couldn’t make his makeup date. But a bittersweet discovery out of last week’s cancellation was that she ate better that day after being drugged up on gabapentin before the vet trip that didn’t happen. I relayed that to the vet and we both agree that there may be some dental pain behind her sluggish appetite. Through a little research and experimentation, it would seem I have found a dose for her that relieves pain with minimum sedation.
It’s entirely possible that this morning’s gabapentin was on the short side. It’s not an exact science splitting one of those capsules four ways. A short capsule here means a fatter capsule somewhere else. So if she doesn’t quite clean these plates, she’ll clean them on another gabapentin dose.
