We've been home from the vet's for about an hour now. Unfortunately, we have no good news regarding Zoe at all. Whatever this tumor/disease/infection is that's attacking her brain, it's in the end stages. The seizure last week has left her neurologically impaired and she will not recover from this. We now have to decide whether to let her die naturally or put her to sleep, and, if it's the latter, when. She's not in any pain or suffering in any way right now. Obviously, if she was, we'd have done the deed already. The vet wants us to increase her meds again and see what the next couple days bring, but he's willing to come over whenever we decide we're ready.

Today is the first day in over a week that I've gotten out of bed, managed to get something to eat on my own and didn't feel like dying/fainting/puking. I'm still hacking like a two-pack-a-day smoker and my sinuses are still the size of small watermelons, but I'm no longer praying for death like I was a few days ago. It will probably be at least another week before I'm feeling "normal" again, but I'm glad to be upright at least.

Zoe is resting comfortably with Josie on the blanket beside my desk. In case anyone was worried, the vet appointment tomorrow is to have her examined, not put down. Sorry if there was confusion. She is still weak and sleeping lots, but she is drinking on her own and keeping food down. Hopefully, we'll get a prognosis tomorrow and we'll make the big decisions from there.

I'm now going to attempt to take a shower on my own. I don't remember how many I've managed with Mr Moo's help over the past week, but I don't think it's been more than three. Yeah, ewwww, stinky, I know. It's the wonder of being sick, my friend. Fortunately, our shower has seats so I can sit if I start to feel faint. Actually, I think I may just play it safe and sit the whole time anyway.

Still sick. Still feeling like I've been hit by a truck. Vet appointment Wednesday at 1530. That's about it.

Regarding this statement in my last post: ...hopefully, I'm on the mend.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

I went back to bed right after I made that post and have only just gotten up. Yup, four days later. I burned up with delirium inducing fever for two solid days. Two days of which I have almost no recollection, I might add. Once the fever finally ended, the stuffy head, overflowing sinuses, coughing, wheezing, hacking, aches, pains, etc, started full force. I don't know if I've ever been this sick before. Mr Moo stayed home from work to take care of me, but I don't recall much of it. I do remember him pouring me into the car at some point to see the doctor, who, not surprisingly, said it was viral, go home and drink fluids. I still feel like absolute crap and there's still lots of brightly colored yuck coming out of my head and lungs, but I think I'm on the mend for real this time.

Unfortunately, Zoe is not doing as well. She seemed to be improving after her seizure last week, but started a severe decline today. She's very weak and having trouble walking again. We're not 100% sure, but she seems to have some partial blindness in her right eye as well. We don't want to make any drastic decisions until the vet has a chance to see her, but we're preparing ourselves for the worst again. I know we did this once before and she had her miraculous recovery, but I think we both agree that she's had enough this time. We'll see what the doctor says tomorrow.

I've been in bed all day today with aches, fever and chills. My fever did finally break late this afternoon. Soaking completely through three changes of clothes is always so much fun. I'm feeling a lot better now though so, hopefully, I'm on the mend.

Zoe has been asleep on the bed with me all day long. I made her get up to eat a few times, but, otherwise, she's been right here next to me. I talked to the vet again just a little while ago. He's concerned that she's sleeping so much and still not drinking on her own. We decided to give her sub-Q fluids again tonight and give her a couple more days of rest. If she's still this lethargic by Friday, we'll take her in.

Let's see. What's happened since the last time I posted?

The aches, pains and chills have started. My temperature has also been steadily climbing and I'm officially feverish. I took a nap with the kitties for about an hour and I actually woke up feeling worse than before I laid down. Joy.

While getting ready to give Zoe her sub-Q fluids, my hand slipped and I impaled my finger with the needle. It bled like I had cut it off for about a half hour.

On a brighter note, Zoe is feeling better. I'm not sure if it was the fluids or her meds, but she's perked up quite a bit. She's had about half a small can of cat food and has been walking around the house a bit. She even started to give herself a bath, which is something she hasn't done in three days, but she got tired and had to stop. All good signs. I'm pleased. Feeling like I've been hit by a car, but pleased.

Synopsis of my phone call with the vet:

• Zoe is allowed 36 hours to feel like crap


• If she's not back to normal after 36 hours, he wants to see her


• If she has another seizure, he wants to see her, obviously


• We're upping her prednisolone dosage to 5mg per day instead of every other day


• We're also considering switching her over to anti-seizure meds (Phenobarbital) soon


• She gets sub-Q fluids again tonight

So, now we wait.

And guess who is now filling up with phlegm and developing a wonderful hacking cough of her own. I cannot believe I am getting sick after all of this. Thanks, Mr Moo. Argh!!!

I don't even know what time it was when I finally got to sleep last night. I think it was sometime around 5 or 6am, so I guess I should say "this morning" instead. I managed a few hours of not good sleep, got up about a half hour ago and immediately called the vet's office. They're already gone to lunch so I'm still waiting to hear from them.

Zoe appears to have slept through the night without incident. She's not as alert as I would like to see her, but she did have a little bit to eat when I offered her some soft food and she is resting comfortably on her blankie once again. She's far from recovered, but continues to be stable at least.

Part of the reason I didn't sleep well is that I was woken up by Mr Moo getting showered and dressed not long after I went to bed. He insisted he was feeling better and his fever was gone, and said he was just going to work for "an hour or so". I pointed out that he was burning up with fever just a few hours beforehand and that he really should get his sorry self back into bed. He was having none of it and went to work anyway. That was approximately 6 hours ago. I'm currently making a list of the different ways I can kill him when he gets home.

EDIT: 1245 and he's finally home.

Finally got Zoe to settle down enough to sleep for a while with Josie.

She's not sleeping deeply, but at least she's lying down.

And, if dealing with Zoe wasn't enough tonight, Mr Moo is sick as a dog with a cold. He's been battling a nagging, hacking cough for almost two weeks now. We thought he was on the mend, but we were wrong. It's come on with a vengeance tonight. He's tucked up in bed right now with a stuffy head, runny nose, same ol' hacking cough, chills and a 102.5F fever. I'll be monitoring that fever very closely since it's creeping towards brain damage range.

So much for me getting any sleep at all tonight.

Well, my fears have turned out to be founded. Zoe just had a full on grand mal seizure. She was thrashing about on the floor and lost bladder control. It took a while for her to "check back in", as we call it, afterwards, but she seems to be okay now. She's wandering around looking a bit lost, but at least she's walking and responding when we talk to her. All we can do now is wait and see what the rest of the night will bring. Hopefully, she'll remain stable and we'll be able to wait until morning to take her in to see our regular vet. If she has more seizures or otherwise de-stabilizes, we'll have to take her to Dove Lewis, which is the 24 hour emergency vet clinic downtown. That's all for now.

Zoe is starting to get sick again. She's having trouble with her balance and walking again. She's also incredibly lethargic. Her appetite is still up somewhat, which is a good sign, but I'm worried. We're going to give her sub-Q fluids tonight to see if that helps.

To the jerk who came flying up behind me, had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting me, then made rude gestures and screamed the f-word at me several times:

I realize the speed limit on this main road is 40mph for the most part. However, there is a very good reason why I'm only going 20mph. We're in a school zone, you moron!

Love,
Moo

We just got back from...

Wheeee! Amazingly, we didn't get into too much trouble. We bought some bookcases for our guest room so we can finally get all of our books out of boxes and in one place. Hopefully, we won't put any holes in anything like we did with the hall bench.

How messed up is this weather? It's April 19 and snowing like mad right now. Last weekend, it was 80F/27C. I don't get it.

For my US peeps:

Tell me about your taxes. Did you get them done early, yesterday or did you file for an extension? Did you end up owing money or are you getting a refund? We were on schedule to have ours done several weeks ago, then my computer crashed and everything came to a screeching halt. It then took us forever and a day to sort all of our stock stuff, so we ended up putting our return in the mail yesterday. We're receiving a federal return, but owe the state. It's almost a wash.

I attempted to watch this DVD from Netflix this afternoon:

Attempted being the key word in that sentence. It claimed to be loading for what seemed like a year. I finally popped it out and turned it over to see if it was scratched. Imagine my surprise when I saw this:

It was cracked all the way through! Needless to say, I requested a replacement, which should be here in a couple days.

Slow and steady wins the race. My cross stitch progress as of March 4:

And April 11:

Looks like everything is lining up just fine and it's not off by a row like I was fearing. I'm hoping to give the poor angel a face next. She's looking a bit scary without one.

Older pics of this project can be found in my photo catalog under "Crafts & Hobbies - Cross Stitch - Birth of Christ".

"It's dead, Jim."

What I would give to be a cat.

Okay. Help a girl out here. My left lower eyelid has been twitching like Hammie on caffeine (that's a lot, for those of you who haven't seen Over the Hedge) for two days now.

It's. Making. Me. INSANE. Go ahead and throw all your home remedies at me. I'm willing to try just about anything at this point, short of Botox injections and eating gross things. Go on. Cure me, good people!

Remember way back when we were attempting to assemble our new front hallway bench and Mr Moo hammered the dowel clear through the bench top? Well, here's what it looked like:

We called the manufacturer and, amazingly, they didn't give us a bunch of crap and sent us a replacement top right away. We finally finished assembling the bench a few weeks ago.

And here it is with the coat rack:

I'm still looking for appropriately sized baskets or bins for both pieces. You would think the manufacturer would carry something, but they don't. So, the Great Basket Search of '08 is on.

Mr Moo had flowers delivered to me while he was in Israel last week.

I can't believe how well they're holding up. I took that photo last night, almost a week after they arrived. Must have been a really good batch of flowers because I certainly haven't been doing anything special to keep them looking so great for so long.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 127

Click here for the entry form.

Zoe: Momma! Momma! Momma!
Moo: What, Zoe?
Zoe: Nothin'.

Guess I forgot to post a final update yesterday. Mr Moo made it home without issue. He was exhausted and looked like he had been hit by a truck, but he made it home just fine. After a couple hour nap in the afternoon, he managed to stay up for the rest of the day and went to bed at a "normal" hour. Hopefully, this means he won't suffer too badly from any jet lag.

From this year's Chick-fil-A calendar, One-Hit Wonder Cows:

These spandex-and-pleather-clad rockers were known for putting on the wildest live shows in the West. But due to the inordinate amount of hairspray, they did it without pyrotechnics. One night, lead guitarist Ron Von Bovine attempted to take out some burger eaters in the front row. He is now credited with pioneering the stage dive.

According to the airline website, Mr Moo's flight departed Germany about 15 minutes late, but is still due to arrive on time in the morning. If all goes according to schedule, his plane will be touching down at 11:20 and he'll be walking in the front door approximately 90 minutes later. He tried to contact me via IM while he was at the Tel Aviv airport, but I was out shopping with my client at the time. I haven't heard anything else from him since. I'm going to assume no news is good news and that he made his connection without a problem.

I just had a quick online chat with Mr Moo, who is still at his hotel in Israel. It's almost 01:00 there right now. He's going to grab a quick shower then he'll be checking out and heading for the airport with the rest of his team. They have a 05:00 flight out of Tel Aviv with a couple hour drive to the airport first. He flies home via Frankfurt (only a one hour layover this time) and will be landing at PDX just before noon tomorrow morning. I can't wait for him to be home.

It's supposed to get up to 65F/18C today. That's not super warm, but it is a little bit warmer than I set the thermostat in the house. I think I'm going to open up the windows and see about getting some fresh air in here. Goodness knows the house could use some.

I'm going shopping with a client this afternoon. She's picking me up at 15:00. We're going to the fabric store to look for pillow forms so I can make some new throw pillows for her sofa. Afterwards, we're stopping to have a very late lunch/early dinner at Panera Bread then coming back here for a sewing lesson. She wants to learn how to do some basic sewing. It's a great skill to learn, so I'm more than happy to teach her.

Bridesmaid dress I altered yesterday.