Dark Cloud

***WARNING: Depressing Post Ahead...***

...and the main point of this post is to update family and friends on a couple of things that are going on. So if it seems like a little too much, I apologize.

There has been so much crap going on in my life lately. And just when I think "ok, I've had enough, it will start getting good now" some other kind of crap happens. Seriously. I don't know if this is some cruel joke being played on me or what, but it isn't funny.

Maybe there is just a dark cloud over my house? I went to Google Earth to check, and this is what I saw...

Looks pretty ominous, doesn't it? It's actually a really old picture, since I don't even have that Pathfinder anymore, but I just couldn't believe that cloud hanging up there. Maybe it was a sign of things to come?

So let's recap that last month or so, shall we? First we spent Christmas Eve in the ER after Rylie had a severe allergic reaction to a cashew. That led to torture allergy testing that has finally been completed. Shortly after Christmas we started passing the sickies back and forth and I don't think there has been a day yet that everyone at my house has been 100% well. Those are the same sickies that caused us to have to postpone Rylie's birthday party, and the ones that keep infecting Bryce's ears. I'm almost positive he has yet another ear infection now. Rylie's three year "well check" didn't go so well, and she had to go through more torture tests to rule out cancer. Then my dog died.

Did you think I was finished? Ha! I mentioned briefly on Friday that my dad was in the hospital. He was admitted early Wednesday morning and diagnosed with pneumonia. He is finally home, but still isn't feeling so great. I haven't talked too much on here about my dad's health problems, but he suffers from severe arthritis and is in constant, horrendous pain all the time, so anything added to that makes everything that much worse. I would give anything to be able to give him some relief from that, even if for just one day. The poor guy needs a break! But at least he is home now. He hates being in the hospital, so hopefully just being at home will help him to feel better.

If that wasn't enough...believe it or not, there's more. I took the cats to the vet last Friday for their annual check ups and vaccinations. Earlier in the week I had noticed that Morgan seemed to be breathing very heavy, so I asked them to really pay attention to that. A couple hours after I dropped the boys off I got a call from the vet...the same one that called to tell me that Cosmo didn't make it through surgery just two weeks ago. He had that same tone in his voice. He started with Shadow...I guess that was the good news. Shadow seemed fairly healthy, other than his teeth. He said that he had lost two pounds, and it was probably because it hurt him to eat. My cats free feed, so I don't necessarily see them eat on a regular basis. Needless to say, Shadow will be getting his teeth cleaned this week and getting at least three pulled. I started feeding them wet food and they are both chowing down like no tomorrow. Maybe they will put some weight back on.

Wait, I'm not done. Notice I said "they". Morgan lost three pounds since his last visit. He also had fluid on his lugs and could barely breathe. It was bad. How did I not notice this? I mean, I noticed that he was breathing heavy a couple days prior, but the cat was otherwise normal...eating, drinking, etc. He doesn't like to be held, so it wasn't like I picked him up regularly and could tell he was losing weight. They drained the fluid off of his lungs (a lot of it, apparently) and took some xrays before and after. Anyway...the diagnosis is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, otherwise known as heart failure. This same vet actually told me a couple years ago that this would probably happen, because he heard a "gallop" rhythm in his heart. He wanted to order an echocardiogram to confirm, but I declined it. Why? The vet is pretty confident in his diagnosis. There isn't much else that it could be, and the blood work pretty much confirmed that. Also? The echo is $600, and after Cosmo's bill, and the bill I had already from Friday, we're kind of maxed out on crazy vet procedures right now. Well, and then there is the fact that even with medication, he probably won't live more than a few months. So yeah, we'll pass on the echo.

As I mentioned, Morgan isn't the friendliest cat. He isn't mean, I just think he doesn't trust humans or something. He only comes to you if you are sitting down. If you try to walk up to him, he will run. So I didn't think we would be able to give him the medicine, and was worried that this heart failure would take him pretty quickly. To my surprise, though, he has gotten his meds all weekend! We tried shoving it down his throat the first time, but of course that didn't work. We gave it to him in wet food the first couple of times and I went and bought pill pockets today and those worked like a charm tonight. Hopefully that will keep working. If we can keep the fluid from building up, and keep his blood pressure down, he may have a few more good months. That is certainly what I'm hoping for at this point.

So that's that. Crap after crap after crap. But you know what? It could always be worse. It just sucks that all the bad has to come at once. I'm just rolling with it, though, and trying to keep my sanity. That's about all I can do these days.