my beloved ombrella :(
this week.. has not gone very well.
i can't remember what happened tuesday at work, but i remember i had a bad stomach ache and i was grumpy about something. i came home and haiku had messed up with the toilet training. also, she had thrown up twice. the spots looked very different, which worried me a lot. she wasn't acting that different, though, so a few hours later i fed haiku at the normal time and went to my swing lesson.
i came back and she had thrown up again, which worried me intensely, because before tuesday i cannot remember the last time haiku vomited. it really does not happen often. i called the emergency vet and they recommended bringing her in and told me the exam fee was $90 which doesn't include anything else they might do or any medications they might give her. so i asked, how dangerous could it be to let it wait until i take her to the vet in the morning? they told me well, it could be ok but it's always risky.. if you see any of the warning signs, like a change in behavior, or if she vomits again, or isn't drinking water, take her in. so i decided to just wait it out and keep an eye on her, but then she vomited again and it looked like it was almost her whole dinner, and then her behavior seemed really off, so at 1 AM i took her in.
they did the exam, i waited a while, vet said it's still ambiguous, i'd like to do x-rays to see if there's a foreign object she might have swallowed. i OKed that. waited a while longer. they showed me the x-rays and said it was still inconclusive... no foreign objects appeared but that didn't mean there wasn't one... her intestines were starting to bunch up in a way that was consistent with having swallowed something. i asked, but isn't it also consistent with any other problem that could cause her to start vomiting, and she said yes. i was starting to think we had very different priors.. she sees animals who swallow weird things all the time.. i have had haiku for a year and a half and when she plays with things she has never swallowed them or acted like she was going to. the vet suggested "investigative surgery" which she quoted at $2,000 to $3,000. i kind of flipped out. i decided that was way overboard, but had this nagging worry that she had some piece of string sawing its way through her intestines. but then again, the likelihood of that was so low, and the likelihood of complications from surgery was probably almost as significant. so i decided against it and hoped being a good statistician would make me a good pet-owner. vet offered another option of keeping her there for monitoring, for $600 and up, or getting anti-nausea meds and fluids and i take her home for monitoring, for $350. i opted to take her home, worried that i was being a terrible kitty-mommy.
so the next day, i had to make sure she wasn't alone for very long so she could be brought in if things got any worse. i had to cancel a ton of meetings which sucked a lot. i felt like i couldn't miss lunch with this visitor, though, because his work is so similar to our lab's, and i felt like i really needed to meet him. lizzybeth529 came to my rescue and volunteered to read papers at my house and watch haiku while i went to that meeting. i decided i could probably skip the talk since i'd read so many of his papers, but then at the last minute my advisor sent an e-mail about how relevant the talk was going to be and how we should all try to make it if at all possible. so i decided i kind of had to go and since haiku was looking better and had kept down the small amount of food i gave her, she'd probably be ok for an hour until liz could come by.
haiku is back to normal and now i wonder if i was stupid for taking her to the emergency vet after all.
then. this morning i looked at the forecast and saw that today was supposed to be one of those days zigeunerweisen and i agree should not be allowed, where the weather is cold enough to need a scarf, rainy enough to need an umbrella, and windy enough to turn said umbrella inside-out. so i layered all my outerwear, grabbed my sturdiest umbrella, my beloved polka-dotted italian "ombrella" that i bought in florence, and went out to catch the bus.
because i was having such a hard time managing the umbrella without holding it straight in front of me, it wasn't until i actually got to the bus stop that i noticed nobody was there. i had no idea when the bus had left, but it was at least a minute before it usually came by. i kind of tucked the umbrella under my chin in a position that is usually quite sturdy enough, to thumb through my bag for the bus schedule to see if there was a special t/th bus coming anytime soon. as i was doing this, the umbrella FLEW AWAY. it was airborne for what felt like several minutes and i watched it go from my bus stop between east and park, all the way down to park, then back up toward east, where it then fell to the opposite side of the street not far from me. i waited for a gap in traffic to go over and rescue it, but then the bus came in the opposite direction and RAN IT OVER! i was like, ok well, that answers my question about whether there's another bus coming back around soon, and checked and indeed it was about 15 minutes away from swing back around to pick me up.
a couple more cars ran over my umbrella and then i decided to go rescue it to see if it could be repaired. umm, it could not. but i'm glad i fetched it bc it's a very good visual for how my week has gone. i sought shelter in the doorway of a restaurant but 5 minutes before the bus was supposed to stop, i figured i should get out there so it didn't pass me by. i was able to open my sad umbrella up just enough that i could get some shelter from the rain, and when i boarded the bus, the driver said "hey! isn't that the umbrella that i ran over!?" in a tone that said "girl you shouldn't be leavin' no umbrella in the middle of the street like that." i answered "YES" and was about to start tearing up and was saved by the fact that the story was so absurd and my umbrella looked so ridiculous that i couldn't help but find the humor in it, even right in that moment. meredith happened to be on the bus and was very sympathetic to my tale of woe, and helped me laugh about it.
but i still need a wind-sturdy replacement for my dearly departed ombrella. any suggestions?
update: as i was running errands, i parked in the lot on park and berkeley next to rite-aid. as i was pulling out and turning my wheel to get out of my spot and avoid hitting the cars parked behind me, i heard a crunch, and noticed the inexplicably placed pole right next to my parking spot. i got out and there is definitely some damage, scratches and dents. fan-freakin-tastic.
i can't remember what happened tuesday at work, but i remember i had a bad stomach ache and i was grumpy about something. i came home and haiku had messed up with the toilet training. also, she had thrown up twice. the spots looked very different, which worried me a lot. she wasn't acting that different, though, so a few hours later i fed haiku at the normal time and went to my swing lesson.
i came back and she had thrown up again, which worried me intensely, because before tuesday i cannot remember the last time haiku vomited. it really does not happen often. i called the emergency vet and they recommended bringing her in and told me the exam fee was $90 which doesn't include anything else they might do or any medications they might give her. so i asked, how dangerous could it be to let it wait until i take her to the vet in the morning? they told me well, it could be ok but it's always risky.. if you see any of the warning signs, like a change in behavior, or if she vomits again, or isn't drinking water, take her in. so i decided to just wait it out and keep an eye on her, but then she vomited again and it looked like it was almost her whole dinner, and then her behavior seemed really off, so at 1 AM i took her in.
they did the exam, i waited a while, vet said it's still ambiguous, i'd like to do x-rays to see if there's a foreign object she might have swallowed. i OKed that. waited a while longer. they showed me the x-rays and said it was still inconclusive... no foreign objects appeared but that didn't mean there wasn't one... her intestines were starting to bunch up in a way that was consistent with having swallowed something. i asked, but isn't it also consistent with any other problem that could cause her to start vomiting, and she said yes. i was starting to think we had very different priors.. she sees animals who swallow weird things all the time.. i have had haiku for a year and a half and when she plays with things she has never swallowed them or acted like she was going to. the vet suggested "investigative surgery" which she quoted at $2,000 to $3,000. i kind of flipped out. i decided that was way overboard, but had this nagging worry that she had some piece of string sawing its way through her intestines. but then again, the likelihood of that was so low, and the likelihood of complications from surgery was probably almost as significant. so i decided against it and hoped being a good statistician would make me a good pet-owner. vet offered another option of keeping her there for monitoring, for $600 and up, or getting anti-nausea meds and fluids and i take her home for monitoring, for $350. i opted to take her home, worried that i was being a terrible kitty-mommy.
so the next day, i had to make sure she wasn't alone for very long so she could be brought in if things got any worse. i had to cancel a ton of meetings which sucked a lot. i felt like i couldn't miss lunch with this visitor, though, because his work is so similar to our lab's, and i felt like i really needed to meet him. lizzybeth529 came to my rescue and volunteered to read papers at my house and watch haiku while i went to that meeting. i decided i could probably skip the talk since i'd read so many of his papers, but then at the last minute my advisor sent an e-mail about how relevant the talk was going to be and how we should all try to make it if at all possible. so i decided i kind of had to go and since haiku was looking better and had kept down the small amount of food i gave her, she'd probably be ok for an hour until liz could come by.
haiku is back to normal and now i wonder if i was stupid for taking her to the emergency vet after all.
then. this morning i looked at the forecast and saw that today was supposed to be one of those days zigeunerweisen and i agree should not be allowed, where the weather is cold enough to need a scarf, rainy enough to need an umbrella, and windy enough to turn said umbrella inside-out. so i layered all my outerwear, grabbed my sturdiest umbrella, my beloved polka-dotted italian "ombrella" that i bought in florence, and went out to catch the bus.
because i was having such a hard time managing the umbrella without holding it straight in front of me, it wasn't until i actually got to the bus stop that i noticed nobody was there. i had no idea when the bus had left, but it was at least a minute before it usually came by. i kind of tucked the umbrella under my chin in a position that is usually quite sturdy enough, to thumb through my bag for the bus schedule to see if there was a special t/th bus coming anytime soon. as i was doing this, the umbrella FLEW AWAY. it was airborne for what felt like several minutes and i watched it go from my bus stop between east and park, all the way down to park, then back up toward east, where it then fell to the opposite side of the street not far from me. i waited for a gap in traffic to go over and rescue it, but then the bus came in the opposite direction and RAN IT OVER! i was like, ok well, that answers my question about whether there's another bus coming back around soon, and checked and indeed it was about 15 minutes away from swing back around to pick me up.
a couple more cars ran over my umbrella and then i decided to go rescue it to see if it could be repaired. umm, it could not. but i'm glad i fetched it bc it's a very good visual for how my week has gone. i sought shelter in the doorway of a restaurant but 5 minutes before the bus was supposed to stop, i figured i should get out there so it didn't pass me by. i was able to open my sad umbrella up just enough that i could get some shelter from the rain, and when i boarded the bus, the driver said "hey! isn't that the umbrella that i ran over!?" in a tone that said "girl you shouldn't be leavin' no umbrella in the middle of the street like that." i answered "YES" and was about to start tearing up and was saved by the fact that the story was so absurd and my umbrella looked so ridiculous that i couldn't help but find the humor in it, even right in that moment. meredith happened to be on the bus and was very sympathetic to my tale of woe, and helped me laugh about it.
but i still need a wind-sturdy replacement for my dearly departed ombrella. any suggestions?
update: as i was running errands, i parked in the lot on park and berkeley next to rite-aid. as i was pulling out and turning my wheel to get out of my spot and avoid hitting the cars parked behind me, i heard a crunch, and noticed the inexplicably placed pole right next to my parking spot. i got out and there is definitely some damage, scratches and dents. fan-freakin-tastic.