Miscommunication

Ok, so apparently Morgan and I agreed that we aren't going to reveal the baby's name until he is born. I think I missed this conversation since I have no recollection of making this agreement, but for those of you out there who already know it, and you know who you are, please refrain from spreading it. Morgan feels pretty strongly about not telling people so I'll go along with it.

Oops, my bad.

It's...

A BOY!!!

Picture of my belly at 20 weeks, don't I look thrilled?

We're so excited to get the news that we're having a baby boy...he'll be a little professor before we know it. Morgan is planning on starting to read the United States Constitution to my stomach. Help me!

Feline Hypertrpohic Cardiomyopathy

Well, I wasn't expecting that.

Mac went in for his bladder surgery on Tuesday. They went in to remove his diverticulum that they believed was causing the blood in his urine. But, because there was so much blood, they were suspicious that something else could be wrong so they wanted to take a biopsy of some of his tissue as well.

Right after the vet had stitched Mac up he called me with the news. When he opened the bladder what sat in front of him was a very large lesion/dead tissue that was about a quarter of the size of Mac's bladder and that was why he was bleeding so much. The vet removed as much as he could, but since it was so large it was hard to get it all because he still needed to have enough of the organ to close it up. He sent the dead tissue off to the pathology lab to find out what it was.

I got the news today that it is not a tumor, which is good news. But, what it is isn't great either. It was a hematoma and they aren't quite sure what caused it. In a couple of weeks they are going to bring him in to do an ultrasound on his heart because they believe that he may have a heart disease that increases the chances of blood clots. If those blood clots are dislodged they can travel to other parts of the body, in this case the bladder, and form hematomas. Most of the time they lodge in the lower part of the cats spine and paralyze their hind legs.

Had the vet not gone in to open his bladder, the hematoma would have ruptured and Mac would have died. What's weird is that it didn't show up on the x-ray.

In any scenario, this disease is not curable or treatable and it will eventually be fatal. If you catch it early enough you can treat the cat with blood thinners to elongate their lives, maybe by a few years, but usually they have congestive heart failure and can go very quickly.

For now Mac is recovering well and is his lovable, chipper, cuddly self and I hope that feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is not the prognosis. If it is I'll just have to hope for the best and love him as much as I can as long as he's with me.

I love you Doozer!

Swedish singing star!

Below is a music video of my cousin's band called Napoleon. They are a Swedish band and their song is on a couple of BBC radio stations. It's cool to watch my cousin, he's the lead singer (the one with the red scarf). I hope you like it!

What a Week

This week has flown by for a number of reasons, most of them stressful.

On Monday I had to drop Ady (my oldest female cat) off at the vet in the morning. I felt bad for leaving her all day, but I had to work so she had to sit in the back in an unknown cage with her bare legs. It seems that after she got over her flu three weeks ago (which took another vet visit and three nights of nursing her to health while she refused to eat) she has taken to chewing and licking all of her fur off of her front legs and some patches on her hind legs and stomach. Seriously, WTF?

Morgan and I have been working with a mortgage company since November trying to refinance our mortgage. After months of paperwork and phone calls and headaches, we finally had our closing day on Tuesday. Unfortunately it wasn't the exact scenario that we would have preferred since the economy and housing market is so down now, but we did manage to combine our two mortgages in to one and get a lower payment. But, we still had to pay some closing costs.

We were given an estimate that we would have to bring to the table, but on Tuesday at 4:30pm, we were finally given the exact number, which was $750 MORE than the original number and we were also told that we had to get a certified check. Well, it was 30 minutes before the banks closed and we couldn't make it in time to get a check. The person we were meeting to sign the documents was driving down from Charleston (about 1.5 hours away) and so it almost didn't happen. Since it wasn't our fault that they gave us the final number so late, they decided that we could still sign the papers and just overnight them a check.

This is where it gets sketchy. Normally the "closer" will come to your house directly to sign the documents, but since he was coming so far and had another closing that night we decided to meet at a McDonald's. Yeah, real professional. Also, at the last minute we were told that we needed a witness, which we couldn't find at such short notice so once we were at McDonald's and about to sign the papers, Morgan had to coerse an alarmed man to sign as our witness. The mad did so reluctantly, but only after asking "I'm not going to go to jail or anything, right?". Why do we get stuck in such situations?

Later that night I called our mortgage person to find out that the reason our closing costs jumped at the last minute was because a third party who wasn't approved to sign some random document signed it so they didn't approve it. So, through no fault of our own, the mortgage company was forced to use a different company and their fee was higher. Well, I told them what I thought of their fee and where they could put it, and they removed it. Score!

Once that was taken care of, Wednesday I had to take Mac (my male cat) to the vet and drop him off all day because he's been having major blood in his urine. He had to have some sort of bladder x-ray which involved anesthesia, a catheter, and some white liquid. Apparently his diverticulum (too weird to explain) where his umbilical cord was attached isn't the right shape so it's causing his bladder to become inflamed and the inflamation is causing the blood. He has had a series of shots but it's not working so the next step is surgery to remove it. If the blood stays in his bladder it can turn into a pasty subtstance and end up making a plug and he won't be able to pee at all and he could die. Great.

Friday started with me thinking I was going to lose my job because of how the economy is affecting our company and there were strange rumors going around the firm about certain people being fired which ended up being incorrect, although I can see how they can get started since they did have to lay off three more people at my firm this week. Even more stress. We're now down to six people, and luckily I'm one of them. About 2 years ago we had 26 people. I feel like I'm on a reality show and I just want to be the last one standing. Hopefully it won't have to come to that. But, after a refreshing staff meeting, the rest of us left were reassured (for the time) that we would remain employed.

Today, well, today I had to take Mac back in to the vet to get another shot, and he peed on me while I was trying to get him in to the cage. I was told by the vet that surgery would probably be the best option. That will happen early next week at the price of $700.

All of this done while being 4 months pregnant. Can I have any more going on? Wait, skip that, I don't want anything else. I just want to survive.

I will, I swear

I'll get around to posting something this weekend. This past week has been crazy with two sick cats, one that might require surgery, collecting urine samples (of the sick cat), one cat that has chewed all of her hair off of her front legs, and much more!

I think my cats are as neurotic as me...

Our first big baby purchase

Today Morgan and I took our gift card, generously given to us by two of Morgan's friends and co-workers, to a baby boutique in Savannah. Normally we would never be able to afford anything in that shop, but with gift card in hand we purchased a car seat and stroller (pictured below - although the car seat we bought is dark purple and black, not the bright blue).

Now I just have to figure out how to work it.