Nekyia

A couple months ago I got hit with a fun new, super painful, rare skin condition and I was seeing all kinds of specialists for it. One specialist prescribed me one thing, and then a couple weeks later another specialist prescribed me something else - he knew what the other specialist had prescribed and said to just take both until I saw the other specialist again and he could decide if I should continue with his prescription. But when I went to the pharmacy the pharmacist was getting me my prescription and he brought out all this paperwork and said I needed to fill out all these disclosure forms saying that he had let me know of the lethal combination of the different prescriptions. He said that the 2nd prescription could increase the potency of the first so that it becomes lethal. But he still let me take both of them, just as long as I signed the paperwork. So yea, that was a fun trip to the pharmacy!

Ammo was filmed for Air Bud TV! I thought he was only going to be in a tiny part but he's all over the place in the video. He's even the first dog they show!

When bringing a cat into your house it's better to only give them access to one room in the beginning anyway. Having to adjust to one room is a lot less stressful than an entire house and all the people in it. If you can, buy cat trees, toys, or things that can hang off door knobs, etc. so the kitten has stimulating items while your gone. The big thing is to give it actual play time when you're around. I find even if I can only squeeze in a half hour of play time with my cats it makes a big difference in them (and by play time I mean I can work them up to the point where they are tired and panting). As for it being an indoor only cat, that's really the best thing for a cat. Better for the health and lifespan of the cat and much better for the environment since cats are such invasive species. As for the litter box, you can put him in after he eats and whenever you notice him wake up. Plus if he does have an 'accident' if you can move any of it into the box that will help them associate the litter box with their waste (a lot easier if their first accident is a solid obviously).

I used to have a roommate who would make a giant bowl of pasta at the beginning of each week and it would sit in his room for the week while he ate out of it for his meals for the week. It was so gross.

They weren't entirely sure what the problem was. He's around the right age that male cats tend to get crystals and other urinary problems. But it could also be because I had to temporarily switch him from raw food to kibble due to bacterial issues he was having and the change in pH could have messed up him. Either way they gave him some Metacam for pain/inflammation and put him on their special 'urinary stress' cat food. They checked what little urine he had in him and said they could not see any crystals just a lot of blood :( He had blood in his pee for the following two days but then it fully cleared up. There also hasn't been any changes in his activity level or appetite, so I'm hoping he is good. He goes in for a follow up with our regular vet next week but odds are he will have to be on that vet food for life. Which sucks since the food sold at the vet is some of the worst quality food you can feed a pet, but since it has the medication in it, it's necessary for now. I'll have to do some research to see if it is likely I can make the switch back to raw since I've added additional cranberry supplements to his diet. Not to sound pessimistic but your vet bill will be horrible compared to the blood problem They had to do one test on his urine to see if he had crystals and I had to pay for the new food and medication and it was at emergency rates, but it only came to about $320. And to be perfectly honest it really wouldn't matter what it had cost, I would have been willing to pay it. The poor cats have been through so much and I don't think I could handle losing two cats in one year :(

One of the kittens peed basically straight blood :( I took him into the emergency vet and gave me some anti-inflammatory's and some of their specialized cat food for cats with urine stress. But it's basically a waiting game for the next couple of days in hopes that the blood lessens and no blockages form.

I don't consider it spoiling them. I used to have pets that ate wet & dry food, but now that I've done the research and know more about it all, I don't think I would ever want go back to feeding them that type of food again. There are some dry/wet foods that are a lot better quality than others out there, but all in all when it comes to pets such as dogs/cats/ferrets, raw food is basically the best they can get. I'm pretty pet-obsessed and do everything I can to give my pets the best possible, even if it means I spend more on food for them than I do for myself. So at times it can be a bit pricey but it saves me from stressing about the fact that I could be doing more for them. It also helps that I don't have much of a social life so I'm fine with the extra time/effort that sometimes goes into a raw diet.

I have a dog and two kittens. All three are on a raw food diet. Sometimes I get reduced price meat at the grocery store, so technically he doesn't get caviar but a lot of times he gets steak :P

Per month I pay $830 for rent, $100 for car insurance, $90 for phone, $90 for internet, $70 for medical, $110 for health benefits, and about $450 for pet food/supplies. :(

Hmm, taking a trade does interest me (see Gain skills, start business above) and that is an option I have thought of. Only issue is, really it is peer pressure and I know better than to let it in, that I am a person who does really well in school without trying and have friends who at least do well in school and preach the uni is the only way. Along with (read: because of) that I almost feel like I would be wasting my time if I didn't do something that would be going to uni and wasting my potential mostly. I did really well in high school and was always planning on continuing my education to become a vet or something animal-related. The summer after I graduated I worked road construction and absolutely fell in love with construction. I ended up working road construction for 3 years and continued to do new things within it (flagging, driving heavy equipment, etc.) and I was extremely happy with my job. Then someone I barely knew invited me to move to British Columbia and said they were leaving in 2 weeks, so I packed up my car and left. I was never 'ticketed' back in Saskatchewan so I couldn't find the same type of work out here, but I worked as a day laborer on a huge construction site and that only made me want to try different types of trades because they all seemed so interesting. Next thing I knew I was going through school for welding and eventually ended up with a job in an aluminum boat building shop. I have to say it is an awesome job. And as much as people like to consider trades people to be 'stupid' or think that only people who don't do well in school go into the trades, that is so far from the truth. While I'm sure people who don't do well in school go into the trades because they don't want to continue with their education with 'traditional' type schooling, you really can't be an idiot when you're working in the trades. Well I suppose you can be, but you probably wouldn't get very far. Basically just really try not to let 'peer pressure' or whatever deter you from considering a trade. Although if you end up consider working with metal, do not, and I mean do not become a welder. They are a dime a dozen and you will have an easier time finding work as a fabricator instead and they have to know how to weld anyways. And speaking of career advice, I actually got word from workers compensation that they have decided my hand is officially [bleep]ed and I'm basically looking at retraining. So if anyone knows of good careers that don't involve using your hands and that have a short schooling time, let me know :P

I dropped my phone and the screen smashed on Thursday. The touch screen wouldn't work at all after so I needed it fixed. I definitely couldn't afford it so I made a dramatic post on facebook about not having a phone and managed to borrow the money off my grandma. I got the phone back yesterday, and so far this morning I've found that the volume buttons and the rear camera no longer work :( Luckily it's all probably the repair guys doing and I can get them all fixed once he's back in the shop on Tuesday. That's 3+ days of no pet pictures. I think I'm more bothered by that than losing the ability to connect with anyone using my phone :P

I can go from regular everyday shoes to cleats with spikes no problem If I drive consistently in one pair then suddenly switch to a different pair I tend to misjudge the clutch for the first couple of shifts. I don't drive a manual car :( but when I'm on my bike even with gloves of different thickness' I have no problem controlling the clutch It's usually worse for me if there's a big difference in the shoes. Different pairs of runners isn't too bad but going from my steel toe boots to usually anything throws me off.

If I drive consistently in one pair then suddenly switch to a different pair I tend to misjudge the clutch for the first couple of shifts.

That's not so much because there hasn't been any illness, just more along the lines of me being to lazy to update. I had another bout of Diverticulitis, and this time it was almost as bad as the time I was hospitalized for almost 2 weeks. I actually think I would have benefitted from staying in the hospital, but I couldn't leave the kittens alone. I couldn't take the risk of stressing them out and inducing a herpes outbreak, because it's just so expensive to deal with. Following that I had a nice week full of migraines and a cold. And after that was all done and I was finally feeling somewhat decent and could start running again, my legs decided they apparently don't want to run anymore and I've had problems with severe shin splints and other pains in my knee and calf. None of which I had before I had to stop running because of the diverticulitis :( One of the specialists I've been dealing with has also been trying to figure out my dizziness issues and sent me for an MRI, in which they didn't scan what they were supposed to so I had to get a second one. (I'm sure all that radiation into my head is just what I need >.>) Neither scans showed anything so the specialist suggested trying 'Vestibular Therapy'. Which turns out to be basically just making myself dizzy several times a day, which is supposed to do something with the crystals in your ears that help with balance, etc. The big problem being that they have no idea if it's those crystals that is causing my dizziness in the first place, and there is no way to tell if the Vestibular Therapy is actually helping until I've done it for a long time. It's fun stuff. And to top it all off, workers compensation has officially decided they are no longer trying to fix my hand/wrist problems. So I have two meetings set this week, one to discuss permanent disability benefits and one to discuss if I have skills to get a new career or if I need new skills. I'm hoping to fight for as much money as possible from the benefits, mainly because I'd like to use it to continues with physio/acupuncture/massage and what not to keep trying to fix my hand, and there's no way I could afford it without the benefits. I'm also going to push for retraining because I don't see how I'm supposed to find a new job if all I can say is "I'm trained to be a welder and all my experience is in the construction industry, but I can't actually do that type of work. Please hire me." I don't think that'll land me many job offers. Is that enough of an update on the illness/injury front? :P