wishful thinking part deux

while i have a moment waiting for a process to finish on my machine...

min's at home now, hopefully sleeping. procedure got done a lot quicker than expected, mostly because the staff at dr. t's office are clueless (didn't tell us the right amount of time). but in this case, that's just fine! shorter is good.

in the good yet bad department, attempting to give her the injection triggered another attack. :-( bad because it's horrible to go through (and this one sounds like it was a real whopper), good because it lets them know that again, this was the right spot to take care of!

this also means she'll have more pain (than originally expected) for the next few days, but at least she's still on disability thru that period. and hopefully this will be the last really bad attack! *crosses fingers*

wishful thinking

min's getting her second GI shot today. theoretically, right this second. please keep her in your thoughts today. stay tuned!

all's well that ends well

despite my paranoia yesterday, our baby pearl did not come back from the groomer looking like death warmed over. yay! in fact, she looks adorable. apparently she did not have to get totally buzzed, altho she has probly a 1/8th inch of fur over most of her body. her tail is still very long and poofy tho AND her head is relatively normal (plenty of fur around her ears AND muzzle). still - it always takes me a while to recognize her whenever she comes back from the groomer. i keep thinking, you're cute, but who are you?

i gotta clear out the digicam so i can show you all the difference in how she looks. yet another thing to do.. :-p

in case you're wondering what the AND is all about...well...all i can say is that AND was a Very Important Word at our company indoctrination yesterday. AND i have a feeling we'll hear more about that in future company missives because AND covers so much territory (good AND bad). AND who doesn't want that delicious mix?

well isn't that special?

<rant>
ever have one of those days where nothing you do is right? that's what almost every minute of this last week has been like. and to cement my position as a loser:

this morning i took our beloved pearl in to get groomed. we have had some trouble with her fur matting a) because it's gotten too long and b) min's taken all of my time/attention and neither of us has had the energy to groom her appropriately. we were going to ask nikki (sweet, dog-grooming daughter of our sweet backyard neighbor penny) to yes, cut her hair short, but to do the best she can to clear out the mattes.

but no. what does nikki exclaim, in a sad little voice, as soon as she scoops pearl up? "oh no! look at you!" and proceeds to tell me that our little baby is going to have to get shaved. shaved. bereft of her hair like a cancer patient or one of those freaky hairless cats.

we went back and forth for a while, me trying to figure out a way that wouldn't have to happen, but also not torture pearl trying to get the mattes out. nikki says she'll try, but is pretty sure that she'll have to shave her and then we'll use sweaters (which thankfully we already have) to keep her warm til her fur grows in.

i wanted to die. i was embarassed and frustrated that pearl had gotten like that so quickly (she got groomed just over a month ago), sad on pearl's behalf of what she was going to have to go through (today and while her fur grows back) and depressed because clearly this indicated that i was a shitty mom.

call me a martyr if you want, i probably am. but i guess it just felt like the last straw in what has already been a hard week, nevermind the last month. i want to go climb into a hole. i'm sure i just need a vacation or some major psychotropics to make me not give a fuck that i'm letting people down. we'll see which comes first.
</rant>

now i'm off to get cracking on my weird work day. do a bit this morning, going home at lunch to give min the car and then i'm off to a company meeting the rest of the day. at least i'll be getting paid to sit and nod. ;-p

lifestyles of the sick and famous

right now i feel famous for being sick. not me - min. people keep asking me about her, and it's totally normal and i really appreciate people caring enough to ask! seriously, if you are one of those folks, don't feel like you should stop asking. it's just a little trippy that the thing i've been hearing most frequently is "so how's min doing?"

well, min's doing pretty good...now. and yes, that is a relative term because she's still fighting not to have an attack and keeping the pain at a level she can handle without, you know, wanting to kill herself. she got some new meds late last week, and those have kept her out of the hospital/doctor's office for 5 days in a row, yay!

hey i'm shooting for more than 3 days in a row. in the last month (today marks the 1 month anniversary of her attack marathon) she's had an attack an average of every 3 days, sometimes more. because we can't afford to pay for constant trips to the ER/doctor, we've probably only gone to the doctor an average of once a week (but sometimes more). i've been working a portion of almost every weekend to make up the time i keep losing from regular hours, jetting off to take her in. yippee skippee.

i won't bore you, imaginary reader, with any more gory details, but suffice to say she's finally decided to go on disability until she gets her second shot, scheduled for this friday. but after this shot, she should be good to go. well, about 50% better to go, and that's the goal for now. i'm just glad she's at home resting and starting to feel a little bit better. i think a month of unbearable agony is a month too long for anyone. and besides i'm sick of having to talk to those weird security guys at the ER booth so they'll let me in. :-p

you are non-employee #3003

amidst all my non-work related hullabaloo (more on that soon), i'm having a technical problem at work. hardly an anomaly, i know. anyway, so i call help desk to see what the status is of my ticket, and they tell me the name of the person assigned to it and to get in touch with them. ok fine.

so i look them up on the intranet, and of course since i'm not sure how my problem is going to be solved, i'm curious what this person's job title is. i'm expecting support technician, help desk support, something like that. natural, yes?

no. his title is "non-employee". how very nice. i have an employee reject coming to help me.

the one time i miss law & order

and this happens. damn!

although frankly, this sounds like a cop out, if you'll pardon the pun, since her character leaves the show at the end of that episode. at least i can be looking for lots of subtext when i watch reruns though.

Walk on the ocean

It only took 3 months but I've finally got pix from our October Mendocino trip posted! only reason they're done is my baby finessed them while I had to pull a weekend shift at work. i just had to web-size 'em and post witty comments. Enjoy!

pearl's lil bro

while i'm waiting for one stupid tool to work, and another to finish updating so i can work, i thought i'd take a moment to share the pix i got this morning of pearl's newest brother: smooch! no, we don't have a new puppy, but a friend of a friend just got a puppy from the breeder we used, with the same parents! kind of amazing how different he looks. but adorable. =)

• smooch on the prowl
  
• smooch getting ready for a night on the town
  

hee?

got it! this is only partially funny, but here's a good way to kill an hour or two:
http://www.blogmechanics.com/bob/results.html

it's the bob awards! Best Of Blogs that is, and damn if there aren't some great ones i just added to my bloglines account. stuff for mommies, queers, humor, sex, overall kickass blogs, you name it. happy reading!

gi fun, redux

another day, another last-second scramble to a medical facility of some flavor. everything's better today, but yesterday afternoon min had another attack. christ! because of the medicine she's on, and hopefully the procedure she just had, the last two (monday, yesterday) have been calmer. calmer because they only involved excrutiating pain and not the other lovely symptoms i'll leave out because i already feel a bit nauseous today.

this time tho her attack was during business hours and not on a holiday, so the doc said to come in instead of going right to the ER. i'm sure we waited a shorter time there than if we'd gone to the ER, but it felt like forever. dr. t gave her some new meds to try cutting down the spasms, but by the time we were able to get the stupid rx filled, she was feeling a lot better. i guess the good part about that is, this attack was much much shorter than any of her other ones and she didn't even have to get doped up to stop it! wheee!

she is back at work today. i think she's a bit crazy but i can't say i wouldn't have done the same thing. damn that work ethic!

i'll try to post something fun soon to balance out all this seriousness. i am living in my own medical reality show, yes, but that doesn't mean i don't have plenty of silliness in my day. i'll try to make sure some of that creeps in here soon. :-)

and now, the min report

min seems to be doing ok after her procedure. moderate pain still of course, but is already having an easier time swallowing her food, yay! she is staying home today to rest, thank god. she wanted to go in to work because they're such sticklers about her time, and of course because of the $, but between my pushing and her own pain (she just had an attack on monday night!), she's still pretty out of it.

however, dr. t is really cranking to get her second procedure done within the next month, so hopefully she'll be gi attack-free before the end of february, yay! and thanks to everyone who sent prayers and well wishes. :-)

this is a dooce-free zone

if you like to blog about work, you should check out the new blogger's bill of rights. me, i don't got much work angst now (unlike LYD, poor (but funny) soul) so it's not a big deal to me presently.

of course, if i had been blogging while at my previous employer.... let's just say i would have cared about enforcing this a whoooole hell of a lot. the shit that went down there, my god.

happy happy joy joy

min just got her procedure for the 19th bumped up to wednesday - two days from now!! yay! hopefully this should relieve a good deal of her suffering. the doc has told her it may not help a lot, that the 2nd procedure should help more, but still... we'll take any improvement we can!

btw the procedure, strangely enough, is to inject botox into part of her GI tract. this one is going in her esophagus, the second one will go closer to her small intestine. this supposedly relaxes the muscles there (the ones that keep jamming shut and causing her attacks) for up to 18 months. down the road, if that goes well, they'll do surgery and make things permanent. interesting isn't it? in kind of a "wish i was watching a show about this, not personally living it" kind of way.

anyway, keep her in your thoughts for wednesday!

merry new year!

hope you all had a happy new year and whatever holidays you celebrate this time of the year! and best wishes to all of you in 2005!

as for myself, it's been pretty crazy the last 3 weeks. min and i drove down to arizona to visit with her family, then my parents came back with us and spent a week here. all the family stuff was fine - a little tension/drama as expected, but not too bad.

however, min started having more gi attacks -- a total of 3 since the 23rd -- so it's been a little stressful to say the least. however, as of saturday night she's broken her attack-every-3-days cycle, yay! and she is back at work today, little trooper that she is. please keep her in your thoughts/prayers. it's just a little over 2 weeks until her first procedure that's supposed to help with this stuff.

2004 was a pretty wild year. min's illness pounced on the scene, i went thru job angst and finally landed somewhere better, i had surgery on my arm (hopefully the last one i'll need), survived the usual amount of family/relationship issues (both sides, thank you) and we got blessed with our little pearl. other than the health of our little family, i'd say everything's ended up just peachy. or maybe mango-y because i likes that mango fandango.

how about you?