Boston

Yeah, so I'm a few days late. As mentioned earlier, I headed to Boston Friday afternoon to meet up with Mia and Emily. Mia has written some great recaps of the trip (complete with photos! I forgot my camera!), so I'm not going to get repetitive.

The trip was lovely. It took exactly two hours for me to get to the Alewife station, park and get on the Red Line T. I switched trains at the Park St station and then got on the Green Line to the Hynes/ICA station. There was a brief break at the Park St station while I tried to figure out how to text Mia back about my location. Good lord, that made me feel old. I actually had to sit down to type out a quick message. I'm sure the teenagers near me were snickering at my skillz.

I walked up to the street at Mass Ave and Newbury St and there they were! Yay! We did a bunch of shopping and eating and laughing and drinking and then I stayed with Mia at her hotel. The next day was sightseeing and acting like tourists (Freedom Trail! Cheers!) and helping a man strap himself into a straight jacket.

Very fun. I'm less intimidated by Boston now. Parking at Alewife was super easy and cheap ($5!) and it was really easy to get into the city from that station. If only the drive there wasn't 2 hours, I'd do it more often.

Girls' Night Out!

/shriek

Yay! I'm leaving work early and heading to Boston to meet up with Mia and Emily. I rarely, if ever, get into Boston even though I live in Massachusetts.

Plus, fun night out (sleep over!) with two gorgeous ladies? Count me in.

I'm wearing my clicky patent leather shoes and I hope I'm not going to regret it. I bought inserts for walking but we'll see.

Sophie's been sick all week. Running fevers in the afternoon and at night and we're wondering if it's the sun. She has a bit of a runny nose (allergies?) and a fever. That's it. Her daycare tends not to put sunscreen on the kids even though we all provide it. That pisses me off. I've tried to talk to her about it, but she doesn't seem to listen. I love that they play outside a lot, but there is no reason for them to have sunburns when you have sunscreen right there.

Anyhoo, Aaron and Sophie are staying home and I'm outta here. Soon!

I leave you with a cute video from this weekend. I drew a hopscotch ... (what is the word?) that had one square and then two squares and then one square, etc. (just so you don't think she can't count) and Sophie had fun hopping.

Ignore my shrieking voice.

I love Sophie's fun little kick at the end.

Weekend Work - dirt and more dirt

It was a gorgeous weekend - high 70's (85 in the sun) and we took full advantage by having a huge pile of loam/compost delivered on Friday.

This is about 1/2 the pile. End of day, Saturday:

All day Saturday and all day Sunday were spent filling the wheelbarrow and dumping the dirt into the two raised beds:

And creating a better flower/plant bed in the front of the house.

We are both very sore and exhausted. But it was definitely worth it. The front of the house looks so much better and now I have beds in which to plant the plants that I want.

Before we bought the house:

After we cut down the shrubbery:

Laying out the beds with the ugly paver-thingies left here by the previous owners:

Filling it in:

Hmm. I thought I uploaded a finished photo but I guess I didn't. I'll have to do that tonight.

We also put in a little walkway from the driveway to the front porch (ignore the lattice work on the steps - that's a project for another day). Also, Aaron hacked away at that stump all weekend. It's quite tenacious. We're going to dig out most of that dirt and fill with some paving sand to lay the stones in there better. Maybe. Or I might plant some low ground cover plants...

In other news, Otto is still not eating enough. We're hoping it was just because the weather was so wonderful and he wanted to be outside all day. We've been giving him fluids and it's less stressful than it was. We're also giving him Pedialyte 3-4 times a day. He's chasing Tabitha around and hunting house flies (the doors were open a lot this weekend) and leaves. He seems to be in good spirits. We just need to get him to eat a lot more. I'm going to get a few more cans of wet food to try. Fingers crossed.

Otto has CRF

(he's sleeping in that photo)

Our beautiful, awesome, wonderful cat, Otto, has kidney failure.

He's lost a lot of weight over the past several months (hard to know when it started as he's a big cat with lots of fur). But when we brought him into my dad this weekend, we found out he's lost 5 pounds since last year. That's a third of his body weight in a year. Not good.

He's still eating and he's drinking a ton of water and he's still a bit frisky.

We're going to try sub-Q fluids to see if we can keep him happy for as long as we can.

Luckily and thankfully my dad is a vet. Who knows how much we adore Otto.

UPDATE: My dad gave us fluids to inject once a day (Sub-Q) to help get his potassium levels up and his BUN and creatinine levels down. We need to help his kidneys flush all the toxins (I'm paraphrasing). We're going to need to set up a mini-hospital in the kitchen so that we can hang the bag of fluids while we give him the injections. He's been drinking a ton of water, but it's not enough. We're also going to be giving him Pedialyte three times a day and adding potassium supplements to his food twice a day.

In addition to changing his food to one that has lower protein and very low phosphorus. And no more dry food for the time being. He's not eating nearly enough wet food, so we need to work on that with him. That probably has a lot to do with his weight loss. We've restricted the dry food that sits in the bowl in the kitchen because Tabitha will just sit in front of it and eat all day. She probably weighs double what he does and she's a much smaller cat. She's girthy. Also, Otto keeps barfing up the dry food. My dad said it might be because most dry food is so small that a lot of cats eat it without really chewing. And then it causes stomach problems - gas, etc. - that can make an already sick cat barf.

So. He's eating the Hill's R/D my dad gave me to try but seeing as he needs to eat at least 2 cans a day of that (and we have 3 in the house), I'm going to look for other options today. The Wellness brand we've been giving him has lower phosphorus but it also has garlic and cranberries as ingredients and those are not good for CRF cats.

[for my reference later - sub-Q fluid administration]

Sophie Update

Yes, it's been awhile. I'm still around and kicking.

Just wanted to get some Sophie observations on the record so I don't forget.

Dragging Sophie outside on (a very chilly) Sunday so that Aaron and I could finish some of the yard work and container gardens. We made her some noodles, stationed her in a beach chair and got to work.

I said: "Sophie, do you like your noodles?"

Sophie: "I not Sophie! I a noodle-eating poodle! Ugh, so fwustwating!"

(Frustrating is a new favorite word. Along with "disgusting" - complete with wrinkled up nose and a "Blech!" for emphasis)

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Getting her ready for bed, talking to and about her "babies" (assorted dolls and stuffed animals on the bed).

Sophie: "When I was a baby. Last year. I was a boy! And I had green eyes! and I could crawl!"

Me: "Wow, you've changed so much!"

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Pretending her purple rainbow Care Bear was pooping on Aaron's head while he was laying in bed.

Aaron: "Yuck! It's a purple rainbow poop!"

Sophie: "No, Daddy, is a POOP-le rainbow poop."

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She likes to pretend she is Brava - an adorable Australian Shepherd that lives down the road. Lots of panting and licking and wiggling while she pretends she's Brava.

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Current favorite songs: "On top of spaghetti!", "This old man, he played one!", "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed!", "Jingle Bells" (she likes to sing it like she's a baby. If I can ever get this on camera, it will make your day), and "I'm the biggest monster that you've ever seen!" (by Laurie Berkner)

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One of her favorite games is to pretend to eat our noses or our bellies or our hands and then say "Burp! Oh, it's gone. I so sorry!" and then we tickle her to "give them back".

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In other news, Aaron and I had a meeting at a Montessori school. It would be a perfect place for her but we're not sure we can afford it. It's a lot more than we currently pay for daycare and a lot more than I have budgeted for potential. Maybe we can get financial aid.

Where did the weekend go?

So much has happened and I'm just getting myself back in normal rhythms. We went away this weekend for my mom's 70th birthday. It was all her (4) kids and grandkids. Very fun. We went to a dude ranch in upstate New York - on the edge of the Adirondacks. Great place - very friendly to kids and families. We even went horseback riding! The first time I've been on a horse since I was around five. Quite nerve-wracking. And they had an indoor pool and jacuzzi and the kids loved it. It was wonderful to see my mom surrounded by her kids and not have to worry or think about doing things around the house. The grandkids ADORE her - she has such a gentle, silly spirit. She doesn't look a day over 50 to me.

In other news, I saw the first little green shoots (sprouts?) of the bulbs I planted in the fall coming up!!! Even though it snowed Friday and Monday. Tenacious little buggers, aren't they? They are coming up through frozen ground. Our front yard is mostly clear of snow, but we still have a lot in the backyard.

I did meet with the new endocrinologist last week and, while quite odd and jumpy, she agreed to try Armour Thyroid in addition to the synthetic T4 medication I'm already on. We lowered the dose of levothyroxine and added Armour - which is both T3 and T4. (yes, this is probably gibberish to you). It's all good, though. I'm happy she was open to it even though she was a bit defensive at first. Also, the visit was covered by my insurance. I was considering going to a doctor in Northampton who is listed on the thyroid sites as being good but he's not covered by my insurance and it would have been about $600 or more out-of-pocket to get the diagnosis, etc.

This weekend's activities threw me for a loop of sleepiness so I'm hoping things even out by the end of the week. It's hard to tell if I'm tired because of the weekend or because of the meds. So, while I was taking 175 mcg levothyroxine, I'm now trying the "2% solution" recommended by Dr. Blanchard - it works out to be 137 mcg levothyroxine and 30 mg Armour.

For those of you who are interested, here is a checklist from thyroid.about.com of the hypothyroid symptoms I was (am) experiencing while on a pretty high dose of levothyroxine (175 mcg) (click the link for a longer list):

____ I'm unable to lose weight with diet/exercise
____ I am constipated, sometimes severely
____ I feel fatigued, exhausted
____ Feeling run down, sluggish, lethargic
____ My hair is coarse and dry, breaking, brittle, falling out
____ My skin is coarse, dry, scaly, and thick
____ I have puffiness and swelling around the eyes and face
____ I have pains, aches in joints, hands and feet
____ I have developed carpal-tunnel syndrome, or it's getting worse
____ I am having irregular menstrual cycles (longer, or heavier, or more frequent)
____ I feel depressed
____ I feel restless
____ My moods change easily
____ I have feelings of worthlessness
____ I have difficulty concentrating
____ I have more feelings of sadness
____ I seem to be losing interest in normal daily activities
____ I'm more forgetful lately

I also have the following additional symptoms, which have been reported more frequently in people with hypothyroidism:

____ My hair is falling out
____ I can't seem to remember things
____ I have no sex drive
____ I feel shortness of breath and tightness in the chest
____ I feel the need to yawn to get oxygen
____ My eyes feel gritty and dry
____ My eyes feel sensitive to light
____ My eyes get jumpy/tics in eyes, which makes me dizzy/vertigo and have headaches
____ I have strange feelings in neck or throat
____ I have tinnitus (ringing in ears)
____ I feel some lightheadedness
____ I have severe menstrual cramps

So, my high blood pressure and arthritis and depression and anxiety and lack-of-motivation are all symptoms of hypothyroidism. Even though my TSH levels are considered normal. This new doctor agreed to test TSH and free T3 and free T4 in two months instead of just doing the TSH-only test I've had for years.

I have a lot of other sites I've bookmarked and printed out. I also brought in a stack of articles for her in case she wasn't willing to discuss the Armour Thyroid option. She had read most of the same research, so I didn't need them. But it felt good to talk intelligently with her. I'm sure doctors hate Dr. Google at this point. I was worried when I was waiting for her in the office because EVERYTHING in there appeared to have been supplied by pharmaceutical companies. The clock and the pens and the pads and the posters and the jars for the cotton balls and swabs.