Hey, it's 2003

Then I took Hecate to the holistic vet in Bethesda. Now, you would think that these things would have given me scads of material. And they did, except that while I was standing at the counter getting my final instructions from the vet tech, I started having abdominal cramps.

No big deal, I thought, it's just the clam chowder from lunch giving me fits, and I will be fine after chewing on a few chalky antacids. I wish things had been that simple. By the time we got home to drop Hecate I was doubled over in pain, begging for morphine. I spent the next five days in the hospital with peritonitis, loopy on Dilaudid. I was quite glad to be rid of it, but my body no longer responds to Percocet.

The pain killers made me edgy and hard to deal with. They also made me nauseous, so for a time I was getting an anti-nausea drug that, when injected directly into a vein without being diluted by the saline in one's IV line, well, it feels bad. Apparently I screamed when they did that in the ER. I was asked not to scream because I might scare the patients.

That happened several times while I was in there, so all the veins in my hands are shreddred. This is all so I can take drugs I don't even like, which doesn't seem fair to me.

I'm home now. I got home in time to start the new year by waking up surrounded by fluffy Maine Coons. My recent spotty attendance on them has made Marilyn and Amelia snugglier than before, which is a nice thing. I do love those cats.

All my grand plans for getting the house organized before I went in for the transplant have gone out the window, now I'm just trying to keep it together so I can actually have the surgery.

You do what you can.

before - after