I contain decrepitudes

[the_siobhan]

24 more hours until I can shower like a normal person. I. Cannot. Wait.

I'm feeling pretty normal, all crustiness aside. My biggest issue with this whole thing has honestly been my lower back was waking me up in the middle of the night - I have to sleep flat on my back until my stitches heal and by the third night my lower back muscles were non-stop complaining.

I obviously can't do a real yoga workout right now - one downward dog would probably kill me - but I've been doing some modified twists and bridges and happy babies and that seems to be helping - last night I got a full seven hours of sleep before my back got loud enough to wake me. I've also piled tons of pillows on the bed I can use to wedge myself into a more comfortable position if I need to shift my weight in the middle of the night.

Now if the cat would just stop trying to climb on me.

***

A new thing I am dealing with the house, ant invasions. Little tiny black ones. The Venerable Lord Brock would come and yowl at me to Come Fix This and when I got downstairs I would find ants in his food bowl. I would clean them up, mop away their scent trails, and move everything to another spot and they would find it again within a day.

My second out-of-the-house walk was to the hardware store to get ant traps. So far so good. I'll deal with more cleaning than that when I have more mobility.

***

I also need to get His Lordship back into the vet soon for his next arthritis shot. I seem to recall from last time we did this that the second one was the money-shot.

The vet also wants me to schedule him to come in for a teeth cleaning and possible extractions. She warns me that there will be risks because of his breathing. (He... snorfles. That's really the only way to describe it.)

So naturally I asked how much risk are we talking here? And she doesn't seem to be able to answer the question. That depends on the cause of the issue, whether or not it's gotten worse over the years, blah blah blah. And I'm asking... Do you not... know? I listen to him every day, if it did get worse gradually over time I might not notice, but you guys should have something in your records about every single visit for the over 10 years we've been bringing him, given that we've talked about his breathing every single time?

I looked at his old treatment history and it doesn't include the name of the specific vet who saw him for each visit, which is unfortunate. I don't know that I have a lot of choice regardless, he's not so old that he's likely to outlive his teeth and they'll only make his health worse if I don't get them fixed. So something else to organize as soon as I can. Fortunately he's only 8 lbs, so well within my carrying capacity.

***

Today's to-do list:
1. Go through all the contractor statements and put together a check-list of all the things that are still outstanding. He's making noises about being "finished" soon and I know he's talking about the waterproofing in the basement but I want to make sure I have a full list before I give him the final cheque.
2. Eat ice cream

Comments

[cathrowan]

Congratulations!

[cathrowan]

Whoops this was supposed to go on the previous post. Glad to hear you are recovering well.

[the_siobhan]

Thank you for both. :-)

[elusis]

Largely hopeful developments, it seems.

Good luck with the ant traps - they are adequate to our needs when the little black bastards find their way in, but apparently there are stronger solutions available (friends were just discussing them last night but they're the kind of thing you have to use with extreme caution whereas the borax-based traps are fine.)

[the_siobhan]

They look the same species that use to climb up into my shower from the old kitchen, and the ant traps worked great on them. I'll see how it goes.

[gatheringrivers]

You might be able to request a copy of all the medical history notes from your vet, emailed to you.

It seems like everyone is on the EHR bandwagon these days, even if they're not interconnected with other clinics.

[the_siobhan]

That's a good idea actually. I know we've talked about his breathing extensively, that would answer the question as to whether they kept track of anything about it.

[dissectionist]

If it’s the little pharoah ants you’re dealing with, we’ve found the mixed sweet Terro Liquid Ant Bait traps work quite well in dealing with a colony. The problem is that pharoah ants are incredibly sexed-up and create new queens at the drop of a hat, so as soon as one colony starts dying from poison, they’ll make a couple new queens and calve off a couple groups to create new colonies elsewhere. They use the electrical wires in the walls like streets to move to other locations. So every few weeks they’ll show up somewhere else and we need to put traps there. But at least they’re only around for 3-5 days after we put out the traps.

[the_siobhan]

I looked at pictures of pharoah ants, and I don't think the same species. The pharoahs appear to be a translucent brown, and mine are a hard shiny black.

[dissectionist]

Excellent, the black ones tend to be easier to get rid of (in my experience).

Do they have pale legs? If so, those are pavement ants. Those guys kinda suck (they can sting) but baits are effective.

They’re not carpenter ants because those guys are BIG. And whew, do carpenter ants have a bite. I had a bunch swarm me once, and it was not a good time.

If they don’t have pale legs and they smell when you crush them, they’re Odorous House Ants. (Though don’t crush them. When you crush any ant, it releases distress pheromones that attracts more ants.)

If they raise their thorax if you threaten them, they’re acrobat ants.

(I have had to deal with way too many ants, because we live right next door to a huge field and all the ants that live there happily during the warm months want to infest my house when it’s too rainy or cold.)

[cornerofmadness]

sorry about the back and the ants. Much sympathy for both (good luck with the shower)

[kest]

Fucking backs. Fucking ants. We've got the Terro poison in a bottle, and it works reasonably well except that we have so many ants that one colony will go away and a few days later another colony will discover the trails. So now I have just added it to my routine. Feed the cats, feed the ants. I hope you have better luck.

[greylock]

My second out-of-the-house walk was to the hardware store to get ant traps

One thing i did when we had ants (and this may be doable or not with what you have available) is to put a small catfood bowl in a slightly larger bowl filled with water.
Keeps the ants out IME.

Honestly, you're going into colder months, so ants coming in seems odd to me. Usually our infestations happen as it dries out.

The vet also wants me to schedule him to come in for a teeth cleaning and possible extractions. She warns me that there will be risks because of his breathing. (He... snorfles. That's really the only way to describe it.)

I have a snorfler. There's always risks. For me, I'd hold off until it needs to be done. (I assume you've tried dental food and chicken necks, and it's a little more serious than that0.

but you guys should have something in your records about every single visit for the over 10 years

Yeah, nah. The way clinics work usually doesn't allow detailed notes like that.

Now if the cat would just stop trying to climb on me.

Good luck with that!

[gatheringrivers]

The way clinics work usually doesn't allow detailed notes like that.

They ought to - I don't expect it's that far removed from human EHR systems...

[greylock]

You might be surprised. I am not sure if there are rules in Canadia, but of vets I have known some will write super detailed notes in the records. Others, you'll be lucky if you get 2-7 lines.

Obviously, if depends what's doing on and how often it is raised, but for this it could be something like:
"Cat is a snorlax. Advised O to monitor. No unusual breathing, weight normal".

I get bored and read my notes while I am waiting for my cat to be seen.