Multiple-topic update GO!!!
Just thought I’d make a quick update, since it’s been a rather long week and I haven’t checked in lately AND for some odd reason my workplace doesn’t have us blocked out of LJ for the moment. I strongly suspect that this is a temporary thing, but gather ye roses and all that, right? XD
Lessee…
Mama’s been in a rehab facility now for just over a week, and all’s going smoothly; if everything continues like it has, she may be out by this Friday. Think we all slipped just baaaaarely past disaster on this one; she had a good Easter with my family and seemed hugely improved. Phew. So-meds to clear the rest of the blockage in her heart, rehab to reteach her muscles to do what they should and increase her strength; thank the gods for insurance and for strong, southern women who refuse to give up.
My Toshiba Satellite laptop, Thoth, gave up the ghost temporarily the other night; it cycled down into hibernate and wouldn’t power up no matter what. Thought originally that the bloody plug-unit where the power cord attaches had come loose from its moorings, but according to Advantage Computers, nope; the battery’s not only unusable, it’s got shorts in it that’re redirecting the power so it isn’t usable. Add this to a fried power cord (probably also from the shorts) and Thoth temporarily spent time in the Egyptian Afterlife. However… the kind people at Advantage not only are fixing the problem, they’re cloning the 40G drive onto an 80G and putting the original 40G into a peripheral drive-box so I can use it as a backup! W00t!!! They CALLED ME TO APOLOGIZE about their original misdiagnosis (bad plug-unit) and gave me a discount because of it! I can’t recommend these people enough; the shop’s not all prettied up, it looks like where Good Geeks go when they die. Excellent place. Thought I was getting Thoth back yesterday, but it’ll be today instead.
We’ve been having behavioral problems with my cat Spot for a while, and over the last couple of weeks they’ve increased to the point of really, *really* worrying me-clawing, biting, screeching and out-of-control behavior; she’s always had a bad temper, but this is very like human hysterics. So I got referred to a vet who deals in psych problems and took her in yesterday, and she was diagnosed as, basically, a Major Control Freak with redirected aggression problems. And put on Prozac (yes, Prozac. For cats.) And we’re using a couple of atomizers plugged into wall-sockets that put out a kitty pheromone that signals an all-clear to her instincts, an all-is-well,-this-is-safe-territory. And isolating her at night, since a lot of the triggers that set her off are worsened then. Part of the problem stems from Bob’s inclusion in the household, part of it probably began with Bel’s death last year; she just doesn’t deal well with changes, and she doesn’t have the controls on her temper that most cats do… If all goes as it should, the dosage will be decreased in the future and then gradually cut out; if not, she’ll stay on a decreased dose. We’ll see; the visit yesterday was one of the most traumatic things I’ve ever had to put a pet through-they had to muzzle, towel-wrap and catbag her to get a blood sample. And oh, she screamed like a crazy thing… I felt so horrible for her, but it *had* to be done; and in the process, she clawed me, the vet and the vet-tech. Have to give the vet credit; she was amazingly thorough in her questions about Spot’s behavior, her life at home, her history… she really seemed to know what she was doing. So now we’ll try the meds and atomizers; I’m also to isolate her during sleep and feeding and to try to train her on some simple commands. According to the vet, she needs security and a reliable structure-it’s the control-freak thing. Sure hope it helps; I’m not willing to give up on her, I love her. But I want me, the ferrets, Icka and Bob to be safe too, and she’s been getting worse.
Last night me and Icka met up with Megs out at SCA fighter-practice; I got to play around with fencing for the first time in ages, and you know, I *loved* it. It felt very good; yeah, think I’ll get back into that again. ^________^ Swish swish, poke poke! Perrin worked with me and two others; she’s a damn good teacher. And now I need to think hard about fencing-gear… but it'll have to wait for a bit. Re: the vet and my laptop? Yesterday… was expensive. Urk. Goodbye, largish chunk of my savings…
Also: finalized with Em and Mati about their visits in May! YES! **punches air** Best. Birthday. Gifts. Ever.
Hope everybody had an excellent Easter/Equinox/Full Moon/weekend/whatever!