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

I bought 6 pairs of pre-ripped jeans the other week. Not because I was like "Heck yes, those are styling!" But because they were brand new and only came to a total of $8. Which is perfect because my pets are draining all my funds and all my other jeans were so old they were falling apart. I was quite excited I could afford to buy so many pairs of pants.

Meredith rocks

I just got back from playing my first game of D&D. With a group of other people who have never played before either. It was pretty fun. But a 7 hour game that finished 4 hours after my regular bedtime made for an interesting 1/2 hour drive home. I thought I was going to have to pull over and sleep. I was/am exhausted.

I was tinfoiling the truck. The guy said he couldn't see me and could just hear someone moving around and that's why he called the cops. I managed to do the inside before that happened at least, but I only got the hood finished before the cops showed up :( Earlier last night I also went to work and covered his desk and everything on it in tin foil. My boss took a video of her boyfriend looking at his truck in the morning and when he was walking back to the house she asked what the inside looked like and he answered "a spaceship".

No the boss knew about it before hand. Plus they didn't even wake up so they wouldn't have even know the cops were there if I hadn't told them.

I was in my bosses driveway playing a prank on her boyfriend and one of her stupid neighbors called the cops and ruined it. I was so close to finishing it too :(

I managed to get in contact with one of the ladies at the rescue today and she said she wasn't aware that G'mork was still on the medication. She said she was told he only had a few days left and didn't need more. If he ends up needed more after the 10 days I bought she said they would cover it, which is a massive relief. I'm not sure about whether or not that means they intend to cover it if it occurs again, or possibly let me buy it at their discounted rate. But I've been doing some research on the herpes and it seems like the initial outbreak is usually the worst, and I'm hoping I can give them a nice enough life that they won't get stressed out and have additional outbreaks. They also got to meet Ammo this weekend with no restrictions (such as Ammo wearing a leash and muzzle). They definitely did a lot better than I thought. I'm already almost 100% comfortable with leaving them alone together. The only issue being that Ammo is still super interested in them and really wants to groom/nibble on them and lick their rear ends. He gets pretty focused and I don't like the idea of him following them around and not leaving them alone because he's so obsessed with doing it. Plus I don't want to leave them unsupervised so I can't see where G'mork has left snot. It's already everywhere, but at least if I keep an eye on them while they're in the kitchen/living room I have a bit of an idea where it is. And I'm not sure if this video is viewable if you're not logged into facebook, but it's pretty exciting. I can't believe how fast Ammo and the kittens got to this point: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152308865234577

Well that's not so bad then if it isn't a shared bathroom, you should be pretty safe that way I would think. And I'm not sure how much they actual look into people depositing money into their accounts in the atm. I understand not wanting to put it all in, but I'm sure every once in a while would be fine. I'm sure they can expect for cash being deposited because people get money for presents and stuff like that. As for the pet things, I get their meds directly from the vet. I do know a lady from the dog park I take Ammo too who works at a vet clinic, so it's possible she may be able to let me know of a cheaper medication or possible get me the medicine at cost from her clinic. The food I mainly get from pet stores out here. The reason the expenses are so high is that I choose to feed the best quality food I can to them. So I could technically lower how much I'm paying but I can't bring myself to give them a poorer quality food. I do get some of Ammo's food through a grocery store though, his rice or quinoa and ground lamb. I cook a big batch of it once a week and he eats that alongside with the raw stuff I feed him. I think when I was breaking down my budget in terms of adding a second cat it went something like this: Ammo: - $180 for raw food - $60 for the rice/ground lamb - $20 for treats for training Shredder/G'mork: - $60 for wet food - $40 for dry food - $20 for litter - and now $180 for medication That's kind of in the middle for cost. Sometimes it's a bit more sometimes a bit less, depending on which cuts of raw meat I get Ammo or which cans of wet food I were to buy for the cats. And at this point I'm not too sure how close the cat prices are to being accurate as I haven't had them for a whole month and haven't quite determined how fast they go through dry food or cat litter. Either way it's a lot of money :/

And double post because I can. Just an update on the kittens. Apparently the rescue didn't think it was important to tell me that it's more than just their eye problems I'll have to deal with. They have cat herpes, and it affects them in the same way that a human will get cold sores. Luckily Shredder doesn't show any symptoms besides the eye issue, but it doesn't mean he won't get outbreaks. Apparently something like 90% of cats have herpes but most don't every show any symptoms. Currently G'mork is having an outbreak and the vet said it is possible once this one has been cured he won't have anymore but he said he'll likely have more outbreaks in times of stress, etc. The cost of the medication for dealing with this is $180/month. If they would have made this known before hand I probably never would have adopted the kittens. I thought I was spending a lot of money with just Ammo and Jasper. Then I went to two cats and Ammo, and now with the added possible monthly expense for the medication I'll be up to almost $600/month in pet expenses. :(

Okay, but like, you're paying with drug money. That's just about the biggest reason for money to be sketchy, lol.haha the vast majority of it isn't from that, not that it's any less sketchy. I just feel awkward about depositing all that cash at the bank pretty often, like they'll recognise me and figure out what's up, but also kind of scary to have in my room. A fair few people come over and also guys; I'm worried about letting on about it all hiding in the bathroom. I have so many gift cards for safeway and target and the like stashed away. lol. That's the best way to get paid. However, the guy we rent with, and the guy before him, both are pretty chill. I think they have an idea, but don't know the details and don't mind. I've been thinking for a couple of weeks about paying for Rs07 until school starts and trying it out. I don't know if that's a good idea. :/ Would you be able to deposit some of it through an atm so you wouldn't have to always deal with the tellers? I know when I deposit into an atm it holds anything over $200 but I'm pretty sure you can have that limit raised to your money wouldn't always be on hold if you do it through the atm. And wouldn't you want to hide it in your room or somewhere that's not the bathroom? I don't know but that seems kind of like a fairly used room that the guy you rent with would be in so it would be easier for him to stumble across it? A grocery store.

My two new kittens: Shredder: and G'mork: