Catching up
I know, I know. It's been far too long again. I never even got around to the promised part 2 of the latest picspam post, a month ago now.
Sigh. Work and everything else has just really left me too exhausted to even think about blogging for a while now. Even Twitter seems too much an effort on most days, never mind Google+ or LJ. Anyway, now that I have some moments at last - not so much because I don't have work, because I do, and a lot of it, but because this work is in an excruciatingly slow program that I need to use over VPN and because moving from one segment to the next takes forever - I figured I should post something, just to avoid drifting away completely.
Anyway. Work has been ... pretty insane, really, since my holidays ended. 10-12 hour days, some weekends as well. It's not been the most awful sort of work at least so I'm coping, if exhausted and cranky.
What isn't helping is that Kribu the cat is not doing all that great. A month of antibiotics, after that a week off, and the swelling, which never went away, came back with new enthusiasm - the infection that had basically mostly gone away was still there, apparently. I guess that infection in her upper jaw was a lot worse and more stubborn than even the vets could anticipate. They did a new blood test to make sure she's well enough for more antibiotics and at least the state of her kidneys has apparently improved somewhat, so there's that. We're back to daily antibiotics + painkillers shots.
What's really worrying is that she's barely eating at all. She was 3.9 kg when the whole thing started - that's after losing quite a bit of weight already; she's a rather large-framed cat so that was already too thin, but at the most recent weighing last week she's down to 3.4 kg and practically skin and bones. I guess on the plus side she's considerably easier to carry these days, but ... eh. She's actually starting to lose appetite, too - earlier she did clearly want to eat, it was just too uncomfortable/painful, but recently most of the time she's not even showing interest. And that, more than anything, really worries me.
On the other hand, she's still running around briskly at times; she can manage to climb onto my bed/chair on her own just fine; she happily comes to my lap to purr; she occasionally tries to sharpen her claws and has even been washing her face a bit again lately (she didn't for some weeks after the surgery), so ... to put it bluntly, she's not in the sort of state where I'd even want to consider something final for her. She's uncomfortable and she's lost far too much weight, but if the infection could be overcome and her mouth stopped bothering her - to a state where she could start eating again - I think she'd happily go on for a while longer (and yes, I know, she's seventeen years old - it wouldn't be for many years longer, but even so).
Anyway, once the current round of antibiotics is over, and the swelling is still bad, I think the vet is going to consider something else, like opening it up again or something, see if there's anything left in the spot. I'm not at all sure how that would be accomplished, to be honest - putting her under anaesthetics again, at this point, doesn't sound like a good option at all.
We'll see. I'm worried, very much so, and it's taking a toll on me, but that cannot be helped.
In considerably better news, I decided that with everything that's been going on in my life this year I really do need a break, even though with all the recent unexpected expenses, I'm not completely comfortable with the idea of spending a considerable amount of money on travelling. Then again, I can afford it, I didn't travel anywhere last year, and I really do need a change of scenery, so...
I'm going on holiday with Chilli in the first week of September. Going to London, spending half a day in Cambridge to meet up with ayerf (I hope that's going to work out!), then another half day in London - we'll really be stopping there just to go to a Derek Landy signing for Last Stand of Dead Men - then taking a train to Wales, spending a couple of days there, then a ferry to Ireland / bus to Dublin (for another Derek Landy event + signing, woot!), spending a few days in Dublin, and then direct flight back home. It's going to be a rather hectic week filled with rather more time spent on the move than I'd prefer to, but (a) it's definitely a change of scenery, and (b) Derek Landy signings! Last Stand of Dead Men will be out on the 29th, two days before I leave, so I'll have read that by the time of actually getting to meet him.
I just hope I'm not going to do anything embarrassing when I finally meet Derek. Like, faint or squeal or something. That would be awkward. But really, I've wanted to do this for two years now, so...
I'm going to have a hard time deciding what to bring with me to be signed (going to buy the hardback of LSODM over there, obviously, but I'm not going to go all the way just to have one signed book! especially as he's apparently very much more than fine with signing any number of things for people) - right now I seem to have about 25 copies of various Skulduggery Pleasant books. I know. I'm just slightly obsessed. Hardbacks are right out, of course, what with plane travel and limited luggage, so I'll have to make a choice of ~6-7 items from among the rest of them.
Other than working, worrying and travel-planning, I've been reading. Lots of books, as usual (with being tired, reading a few hours every evening is all I've had energy for). Most significantly, I finally got around to giving a try to The Beekeeper's Apprentice and ... well, in the last two weeks I've basically devoured the first six books, I ship Russell/Holmes like a crazy shipping thing (may I say that it feels weird to ship something that is completely, utterly, canon?), and basically I've had to force myself to take a few breaks to read other stuff in between those books in order to avoid an overdose.
I'm perilously close to a new shiny obsession, yes. Not one I need at this point, but ... why did I never read these books before?? (Oh yes. Sherlock Holmes. I've never managed to enjoy anything Sherlock before, for some reason; needless to say, this has now changed.) It's like it's a series that's been written for me, to my personal specifications. Not perfect, no, but they're everything I could wish for in a book. In fact, the only thing I'd want a tiny bit more of is more romance (this is me, the person who usually complains about romance in books and doesn't want it!), but I'm happy with the little there is.
Whew. Right. Back to work...
Sigh. Work and everything else has just really left me too exhausted to even think about blogging for a while now. Even Twitter seems too much an effort on most days, never mind Google+ or LJ. Anyway, now that I have some moments at last - not so much because I don't have work, because I do, and a lot of it, but because this work is in an excruciatingly slow program that I need to use over VPN and because moving from one segment to the next takes forever - I figured I should post something, just to avoid drifting away completely.
Anyway. Work has been ... pretty insane, really, since my holidays ended. 10-12 hour days, some weekends as well. It's not been the most awful sort of work at least so I'm coping, if exhausted and cranky.
What isn't helping is that Kribu the cat is not doing all that great. A month of antibiotics, after that a week off, and the swelling, which never went away, came back with new enthusiasm - the infection that had basically mostly gone away was still there, apparently. I guess that infection in her upper jaw was a lot worse and more stubborn than even the vets could anticipate. They did a new blood test to make sure she's well enough for more antibiotics and at least the state of her kidneys has apparently improved somewhat, so there's that. We're back to daily antibiotics + painkillers shots.
What's really worrying is that she's barely eating at all. She was 3.9 kg when the whole thing started - that's after losing quite a bit of weight already; she's a rather large-framed cat so that was already too thin, but at the most recent weighing last week she's down to 3.4 kg and practically skin and bones. I guess on the plus side she's considerably easier to carry these days, but ... eh. She's actually starting to lose appetite, too - earlier she did clearly want to eat, it was just too uncomfortable/painful, but recently most of the time she's not even showing interest. And that, more than anything, really worries me.
On the other hand, she's still running around briskly at times; she can manage to climb onto my bed/chair on her own just fine; she happily comes to my lap to purr; she occasionally tries to sharpen her claws and has even been washing her face a bit again lately (she didn't for some weeks after the surgery), so ... to put it bluntly, she's not in the sort of state where I'd even want to consider something final for her. She's uncomfortable and she's lost far too much weight, but if the infection could be overcome and her mouth stopped bothering her - to a state where she could start eating again - I think she'd happily go on for a while longer (and yes, I know, she's seventeen years old - it wouldn't be for many years longer, but even so).
Anyway, once the current round of antibiotics is over, and the swelling is still bad, I think the vet is going to consider something else, like opening it up again or something, see if there's anything left in the spot. I'm not at all sure how that would be accomplished, to be honest - putting her under anaesthetics again, at this point, doesn't sound like a good option at all.
We'll see. I'm worried, very much so, and it's taking a toll on me, but that cannot be helped.
In considerably better news, I decided that with everything that's been going on in my life this year I really do need a break, even though with all the recent unexpected expenses, I'm not completely comfortable with the idea of spending a considerable amount of money on travelling. Then again, I can afford it, I didn't travel anywhere last year, and I really do need a change of scenery, so...
I'm going on holiday with Chilli in the first week of September. Going to London, spending half a day in Cambridge to meet up with ayerf (I hope that's going to work out!), then another half day in London - we'll really be stopping there just to go to a Derek Landy signing for Last Stand of Dead Men - then taking a train to Wales, spending a couple of days there, then a ferry to Ireland / bus to Dublin (for another Derek Landy event + signing, woot!), spending a few days in Dublin, and then direct flight back home. It's going to be a rather hectic week filled with rather more time spent on the move than I'd prefer to, but (a) it's definitely a change of scenery, and (b) Derek Landy signings! Last Stand of Dead Men will be out on the 29th, two days before I leave, so I'll have read that by the time of actually getting to meet him.
I just hope I'm not going to do anything embarrassing when I finally meet Derek. Like, faint or squeal or something. That would be awkward. But really, I've wanted to do this for two years now, so...
I'm going to have a hard time deciding what to bring with me to be signed (going to buy the hardback of LSODM over there, obviously, but I'm not going to go all the way just to have one signed book! especially as he's apparently very much more than fine with signing any number of things for people) - right now I seem to have about 25 copies of various Skulduggery Pleasant books. I know. I'm just slightly obsessed. Hardbacks are right out, of course, what with plane travel and limited luggage, so I'll have to make a choice of ~6-7 items from among the rest of them.
Other than working, worrying and travel-planning, I've been reading. Lots of books, as usual (with being tired, reading a few hours every evening is all I've had energy for). Most significantly, I finally got around to giving a try to The Beekeeper's Apprentice and ... well, in the last two weeks I've basically devoured the first six books, I ship Russell/Holmes like a crazy shipping thing (may I say that it feels weird to ship something that is completely, utterly, canon?), and basically I've had to force myself to take a few breaks to read other stuff in between those books in order to avoid an overdose.
I'm perilously close to a new shiny obsession, yes. Not one I need at this point, but ... why did I never read these books before?? (Oh yes. Sherlock Holmes. I've never managed to enjoy anything Sherlock before, for some reason; needless to say, this has now changed.) It's like it's a series that's been written for me, to my personal specifications. Not perfect, no, but they're everything I could wish for in a book. In fact, the only thing I'd want a tiny bit more of is more romance (this is me, the person who usually complains about romance in books and doesn't want it!), but I'm happy with the little there is.
Whew. Right. Back to work...