New Suxs Thread

[MeltedCaramel]

Sometimes I take compozine(I'm sure I spelled that wrong) for nausea, but I have a feeling a simple nausea pill isn't going to deal with the no doubt world-record projectile vomiting that's going to happen. I'm going to the doctor within the next couple days to tell him that this patch he gave me might as well be a bandaid and that we need to really sit and talk about my health issues. I swear this dude is on speed, or high off his own ego or something, it's impossible to get a word in edgewise unless it's to tell him what a wonderful doctor he is.

Okay, that was a tad ungrateful. He's the only doctor who has bothered to look beneath the surface of a 25 year old woman and see that I'm a human being who is suffering. That I'm eternally grateful for. It's still not easy dealing with the "meat market" feeling of the Pain Management clinics.

KnittnKitten You mentioned something about a device and trigger points? May I ask what you're talking about? The only thing I can think of like that is a TENS unit, the device they use a lot in physical therapy places where they slap a conductive patch on you and send out electrical signals that disrupt the nerve signals traveling from the painful area to the brain. I hope you at least get some rest! <3

[OkamiKodomo]

I may need to put my dog down, that I've had for almost twelve years, and has traveled with me from New York to Florida, to Massachusetts, and finally to Rhode Island. He has arthritis, a cataract, is slowly going deaf and blind, and now has a tumor that has grown to the size of my thumb in less than two weeks. He is suffering with it, constantly shaking his head, yowling, and rubbing his face on the floor in an attempt to itch it, and we had to put an E-Cone on him to prevent him from scratching himself bloody. Even if I canceled the layaway I have for stuff (and forfeiting the $200 I've paid into it, as well as losing the ability to place layaway orders with Mint on Card ever again), I have no idea how much it would cost to get the tumor removed, and find out what else ails him. I have contacted the local SPCA to find out if there are any assistance programs that can get him checked out but I'm bracing for the worst.

[kenaiqueen]

The DH has been given notice that he'll be getting a job demotion. No idea yet how this will affect our finances, but surely not good.

[MeltedCaramel]

Oh, OkamiKodomo, I am so, so very genuinely sorry. I had to have my cat put down last year and it nearly did me in. He was only four years old but he had a congenital heart defect that was untreatable. Still, he was my best friend. I'm not even a cat person (*Stares at the three she owns* I can't say no to animals in need? Even when they pee under my bed?) and this cat was AMAZING. He was my baby instantly. After being caught out in the wild (he came from a feral colony), transported two hours, not knowing human touch, and being dumped in a bathroom with strange giant PEOPLE, a half an hour later he curled up in my lap and went to sleep purring. He never left my side since that moment. He was gorgeous too, with light blue eyes and a white and red coat, people never believed he was a feral stray. When he got sick it was sudden and devastating, but the biggest thing to worry about is your animal's health. My baby was suffering. His heart was three times its normal size and filling his lungs with fluid. I would have paid any amount of money to keep him with me, but sometimes life just dumps a semi-truck on you and you just have ride it out. My consolation was that he was loved and spoiled rotten, and that he knew it. They know you love them, they know you're not throwing them away.

If the worst comes to the worst, just remember how much you love him and that what you're doing is a kindness. It's the hardest kind of kindness in the world because it's the selfless kind, but giving them the dignity of a slow, peaceful drift from their bodies versus watching them suffer until nature decides she's been cruel enough...it becomes a bit easier on the heart then.

I hope everything is alright, and I hope it's just a fatty, fleshy tumour or polyp (my dog had both of these in abundance and lived to the ripe old age of fifteen, which for a pitbull is way over their expected lifespan). As for help with money, call around to different vets and emergency vet places, and call places like PetCo and PetsMart and ask for help, payment plans, anything. The SPCA might be an okay route but they're usually swamped, especially during the holidays. See if you can find a sympathetic vet who will allow a payment plan for any tests/biopsies/etc.

My heart goes out to you Okami, it really does. I am so sorry. It's always heart-wrenching losing an animal, whether its suddenly or that horrible build up where you know it's happening.

Please give your baby a kiss for me, and I hope everything turns out the best it can, whatever has to be done.

[OkamiKodomo]

The worst part is, even if it's something that's treatable, he's old and the stress of the treatment would probably be too much for him. That's the only reason I didn't have the one in his mouth removed. It wasn't hurting him and he was already getting old, so it didn't seem fair to put him through that for something that wasn't bothering him. But this one IS bothering him, and part of me feels it wouldn't be right to let him have to go through all that when he may or may not be with us much longer as it is.

[embyquinn]

Kami-chan, I can understand completely. A little over ten years ago I went through the same thing with my dear kitty Miya. She was only twelve, not ancient, but definitely a senior for a cat. She was riddled with cancer and the vet told me that we could prolong her life for maybe six months...but it would be very painful for her, she'd be a complete invalid, and it would be expensive. She would never get well. I had no choice but to have her put down. I learned what the term "prostrate with grief" truly meant...I spent the rest of the day and night lying in bed weeping. Part of it was mourning, but I have to admit now that part of it was (misplaced) guilt. I realize now that I was setting her free from her pain, and I know that I did the right thing...but it wasn't easy, nor should it be.

[MeltedCaramel]

If it's really hurting him, it might be time to seriously think about putting him down, as sad and horrible a decision as it is, and a shitty beginning to the year, but when someone you love is suffering beyond the point of help, it's time. Just stay with him and let you holding him be the last thing he feels here on earth. If he's too old for treatment it starts becoming unfair to the animal because they're in so much pain from "recovery". (My dog had a polyp that was untreatable and if it popped we would have had to had her put to sleep because it wouldn't stop bleeding, but thankfully that didn't happen, but her eventual disease, vestibular disease (sometimes called "rolling dog disease"), was so much worse that I still can't think about it...we kept getting mixed information and she was kept alive for longer than she should have been because vets don't know enough about the disease to accurately predict if it's the scary-but-benign ear infection kind, or the kind my dog had, which was a tumour in her brain pressing on her inner ear in which case there is nothing you can do).

I'm so sorry Okami. Just treat him as best you can, and my heart is with you. I know how awful it all is. But you love him, and so let that love dictate what you do.

[Kirahfaye]

I don't think I've had a full, uninterrupted night's sleep in a week and a half. Add to that having sneezing fits since yesterday afternoon and a sinus headache (thanks to sub-freezing temps) and I feel like crap.

Let me not forget that we've had rain and/or overcast skies every day for the past week or so and today I wake up to a beautiful blue, cloudless sky, the sunlight streaming down - and it's too freaking cold for this Southern gal to go play outside.

:grumpy:

[MeltedCaramel]

Kirahfaye Ahhhh, I'm joining the sick club. I'm taking so many antibiotics, steroids, supplements, and medication that I feel like a goddamn pharmacy. And the steroids are making me do everything but chew the siding off of my house in the search for food.

Also, there is snow on the ground, everywhere. PA is covered in the white stuff meaning mail is slow and I just got an email informing me that my comfort chocolates are delayed. I want my chocolate caramel turtles!

Nothing is worse than no chocolate. Nothing.

[Qrinta]

Blegh. Kind of silly. I really should have just checked while I was at home but I assumed the connector for my camera was at the dorms. And it's not so I will be waiting another week before getting the photos downloaded from my camera. At least I have a very good idea of where the connector is at home. ><