Here I am again with another edition of “Cat Tales.” I’m Maverick, and this is my column/blog of life with my mom. It’s a mishmash of stuff. I like to write with my purple laptop that sits on my desk. Yes, I have my own desk. It’s probably the coolest desk around. It has a red retro radio, colorful pens, pencils, markers, pretty shelves, colorful trays, and bins. Sometimes when I don’t feel like working, I curl up in my desk chair and nap, while my mom is at her desk. It’s very comfy. She has her own space, and I have mine. There’s a wall full of storage totes in our office too, and I like to climb those and go from stack to stack, playing “I’m King of the Mountain.” I can amuse myself pretty easily. I don’t need fancy expensive toys. I can do wonders with a cardboard box, too.
Some people may think we live a boring life, but trust me, it isn’t. There is always something going on. This past year and a half has been hard for both of us. We have a lot of health issues to deal with and all the ups and downs of growing old. My mom and I are Christians, and we pray all the time. There is no certain time of day we pray, it’s whenever we feel the need to talk with our best friend. We prayed a little while ago, for all the furry and non-furry loved ones that need looking after. We also continue to pray for Mittens and his sister Lil, who is doing better with her heart medicine, and little Phoebe is hanging in there too. If we prayed for others and helped each other, my mom says our world would be a better place. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Here’s what’s going on with my mom. I told you in my last column about her health, well the following Wednesday, she had a massive headache. My mom doesn’t get headaches, and nothing she took was working. She’s on a lot of pain medicine for her disease, but it wasn’t helping her head. Plus, she wasn’t breathing well, even though she used her emergency inhaler. She went to the emergency room, where she got a breathing treatment and some stronger meds for her head, and then was told to follow up with her doctor.
Two days later, on Friday, she was scheduled for a total body bone scan. She was at a different hospital for that. She had to be there at 11:30 in the morning so they could inject her at noon, and then she was to be back at the hospital at 2:30 for the scan. She wasn’t feeling well and should have had someone take her, but there wasn’t anyone. She drove herself, and she started feeling funny. Long story short, she barely found the imaging center, when she passed out. The hospital where she was had a rapid response team, and at least a dozen people converged into the imaging department. The response team was doing their thing, and there was a doctor who asked her a lot of questions. But she was confused especially with a dozen people staring and probing at her. She wasn’t sure she was making a whole lot of sense. At one point, she stopped talking to them, until they figured out only one person at a time should be talking to her.
The next thing she knew she was flying down the hallway on a stretcher to the emergency room. She kept telling them she couldn’t go to the ER because she needed that scan. She didn’t want to miss it because it was going to explain some things about her diagnosis, and if she didn’t get it, she would have to reschedule, and it could be a while. The first thing they did was hook her up to an EKG, her previous scans and tests said her heart was fine, but the EKG is routine. Her blood pressure was high, they did a CAT scan of her head, a chest x-ray, and took blood. Just after getting her CAT scan, the nuclear imaging people came down and gave her an injection so she could have her scan. She can’t remember everything that happened. She could touch her nose with her right finger, but not the left. The blood tests, CAT scan, and x-ray were fine, and nothing was showing up that she didn’t already know. They had to release her from the ER so she could get the nuclear test, and they hurriedly did that and got her to imaging.
After the scan, she was then taken to cardiology, where they put a heart monitor on her to wear for a week. Even though her heart tests looked fine, they wanted to make sure it wasn’t skipping a beat or two. The monitor was fastened to her by a piece of strong adhesive, and she could shower with it for a week without changing the adhesive. Twenty-four hours later, my mom broke out with a burning rash. Nobody was in cardiology on the weekend so she called the place in Pennsylvania who made the monitor. Thankfully, someone was working. The woman in Pennsylvania told her they would send some sensitive skin patches in the mail, and a different type of monitor, but it would take about 5 days to get them.
On Monday, my mom called cardiology, and was told they had sensitive patches. She drove to the hospital, got a new type of monitor and patches, and twenty-four hours later she had broken out in another rash. By this time she was exhausted and upset. In the meantime, five days had passed, when she got the patches from Pennsylvania. She called the company to send them back and told them everything that had happened, but they encouraged her to try the new patches, which were different from the other two. She did try them and for the third time, she broke out again. She called the company, packed everything up, and scheduled a time for UPS to pick up the monitor. That was yesterday, but UPS canceled the pick-up, so “the darn thing” as she calls it, is still sitting on the dining room table waiting to be sent back. Needless to say, she has had a very frustrating and tearful week.
My poor mom. I don’t know why these things happen to her. Nothing comes easy for her, and she’s been struggling with some other stuff recently, that has added to her stress. Finding a neurologist has been hard, and now she has to wait until Spring, even with her diagnosis, to see one. There is such a shortage. She has to see another specialist too, but hasn’t heard from him or her yet. I wish I could help her more, she needs a lot of support. My mom tells me that I am her best support and that I am doing a cattastic job of taking care of her. I gave her a big smile for saying that. She said the whole time she was in the ER, she was concerned about me, not her, but me. I knew something was up when she didn’t get home until later that night.
Spaghetti Betty and I are recommending two books, “They All Saw a Cat,” by Brendan Wenzel. This is an older book written for children 2-5 years old. We also recommend “Life By Pumpkin: A Cat’s View on Everything,” by Leslie Popp. This particular book is for adults. Reading is important for all age groups. Check out your local library. If you live in town, Bayliss Public Library is fantastic. They have great people just waiting to help you choose a book.
That’s it for this column of “Cat Tales.” I hope everyone stays healthy, and please remember to help others.
Today’s quote: “I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It’s not. Mine had me trained in two days.” —Bill Dana
Love Maverick 
- Tears of Frustration - November 15, 2024
- It’s My Anniversary - November 8, 2024
- I Got Some Great News - October 20, 2024
