Life Update Sunday, er, Thursday (v 3.13.14)

It has been forever since I've updated!  At least, outside the realm of health, anyway.  I have a ton of pictures of the pets to share, including a video, and some life updates.

However, before we get to that, I do want to touch on my health for just a moment.  I did get my ultrasound of my gallbladder back and it came out normal.  Sounds like nothing looks enlarged or inflamed, and I don't have any stones.  My blood work also came out normal.  Clear tests are a great relief, but they also feel like a smack in the face - so what the heck is wrong?  My EGD and colonoscopy appointment for the 26th still stands.  I'm not exactly looking forward to it, but on the bright side, I'll be really well cleaned out.

The first week in March was probably the worst part of whatever's going on with me.  I was absolutely exhausted all the time.  Dehydration and blood loss were giving me headaches, nausea and some crazy comas.

During that time, I temporarily resigned from my volunteer jobs.  I'm still on for TARA as an emergency volunteer.  I did sign up for ESFOA's adoption event on the 1st despite feeling poor, but had to cancel when I got a last minute gig.  I got the e-mail for this week's volunteer date, but I'm not going to sign up for it.  I think I need a few weeks off from volunteering so I can recuperate.

Tuesday of last week marked things getting a bit better.  I finally felt good enough to call for an eye exam so I could get contacts.  This would be my first pair of new contacts since my 2013 autoimmune scleritis incident.  Not only were they able to get me in same day, but I was able to get an all-clear from another eye doctor on my scleritis and walk out with new contacts!  I swung back by our complex, picked up Charli and we celebrated with some Headrush coffee.  One health problem conquered.  Just a few more to go!

Artie got his groom on a few weeks ago and he feels so much better!  We booked him to get groomed when the weather warmed up, then we were suddenly hit with a last-minute cold front.  Poor little guy.  Left him cold.  I'm glad he knows how to curl up into blankets on his own.

We also had a freak day where it was 70 in the afternoon, and ended in freezing rain.  Apparently, Apollo had never experienced rain hitting the sliding glass door.  Hilarity ensued. 

I am feeling better today, though it likely comes from sleeping for 24 hours straight.  I only got up for dinner around 6 pm, because bacon, but I quickly went right back to bed afterward.  I officially woke up at 11pm last night and have been on an impressive roll ever since.  I cleaned the apartment from top to bottom, walked the dog two miles, and took my LEARN lecture on paganism and Wicca from 10% to 80% complete.

Speaking of which, that's still happening on the 19th.  It's a closed lecture, but I'll let you all know how it goes!

I even found time to sit outside and watch the sun rise this morning.  Of course, not without an audience...

Next week is going to be hectic!  Really, everything starting Saturday is going to be crazy.  Saturday is the Liithi Lushede Coven public Ostara ritual, Sunday's the Pagan Garage Sale at Aquarius, I'm covering for a volunteer on Monday, Coffee Coven Tuesday night, my LEARN lecture on Wednesday morning, then my new Circle's Ostara ritual on Thursday.  There's not a single day next week that I have any down time once you factor in work.

This is his "Take me outside, pleeeaaassseee?" face.

This is "Take me outside, damn you" face.

Tonight is Mystic Treasure's Vision Board class.  I think I may have to pass.  I've been up since 11pm last night, so I highly doubt I'll still be with it at 7pm.  I really wanted to go though.  I guess I'll have to see how I am.

And with that, I think I need to get back to finishing off my LEARN lecture and working on commissions.

Though I think I might make some bacon first.  Mmm, bacon.

Health update.

On my most recent life update, I mentioned I was having some health issues.  I intentionally left them vague at the time, particularly since many of the issues aren't publicly acceptable to discuss anyway.  I saw my doctor on that next Monday, February 24th, and was referred to a GI specialist.  I saw him on the following Monday, March 3rd.  He ordered further testing, including blood work, an ultrasound of my gallbladder and abdomen, and an EGD and colonoscopy.  I had my blood work and ultrasound on Friday and anticipate at least some answers within the next few days.  My EGD and colonoscopy is scheduled for the 26th.

Seeing a GI attests to at least some of my "unspeakable" symptoms, which includes inappropriate blood and color if you get my drift.  I'm also having severe pain in my upper abdomen starting at the center and spanning out equally on both sides, nearly under my rib cage.  It happens every few weeks or so and lasts about 5-8 hours, coming in 1 to 1.5 hour waves and forcing me to throw up.  This is something I've been complaining about since November, but thought it was due to my increased consumption of "bad foods," like gluten and sugar.  However, the episodes didn't subside once I was back on the diet.  In fact, even when I was on the diet and exercising regular, I gained weight.  On top of it all, I've been severely fatigued despite having level thyroid results.  Likely, blood loss and improper digestion is to blame.

My GI doc suggested a plethora of potential diagnoses.  One was gallstones or gallbladder inflammation.  Unfortunately, my symptoms suggest either something larger than that or more than one diagnosis.  He thinks that, in addition to gallstones or gallbladder inflammation, I had a polyp rupture.  However, without the colonoscopy and EGD, he can't be certain.  He is concerned about colon cancer given my symptoms and my family history, but hopes that my age is a helping factor.  Other potential diagnoses include diverticulitis and Crohn's with my autoimmune disorders.  He did suggest I consider immunosuppressants for my MAS, but I've been REALLY trying to avoid those since they can up your chances for getting sick and developing other issues, including cancer.

Honestly, with everything going on, I've pretty much been MIA since mid-February.  I get up, work and go to bed.  Lather. Rinse. Repeat.  It's been the easiest way to manage my pain and energy levels.  Because I took off a week in February from the flu, I really can't afford to take off any more time or I would do it.

For a couple weeks there, I just gave in to my illness.  I think I mentally needed to for a while.  Even with MAS, I don't typically consider myself a sick person despite fighting my body on a daily basis.  I feel like I complete an impressive amount of tasks given my situation.  But adding these symptoms on top of my daily battles with my chronic condition was too much.

I've been told by a couple of well-intentioned but ultimately misguided people that I'm not fighting hard enough.  That I took the potential diagnoses and the tests too hard.  That I should have just picked myself up and kept going.  Easier said than done.  On any given day, without my new potential issues, I wake up tired, cold, foggy and aching.  I have a headache and my nose is stuffed from allergies, giving me a migraine, and I have to take a few puffs of my inhaler for my asthma.  I have sores all over from psoriasis and I'm bloated.  MAS does all of this to you, and more.  But I get myself up at 6 AM, work out, eat well, run my own business (which involves being the artist, CEO, secretary, sales, billing, marking and customer service department all in one for often around 10 hours a day), volunteer, clean my home, greet my husband, take care of four rescue pets, visit friends, participate in my religion, exercise again in the evening and go to bed.  That's a standard day in my life. given that it's just my autoimmune disorders that are flaring.  I live through the pain and I rarely complain.  For that, I'll give myself one huge pat on the back.

But add crippling pain that leaves me writhing on the floor of the bathroom for a full day, forcing me to miss work and, subsequently, not be paid.  Add significant blood loss on a daily basis.  Add being even more exhausted than usual, to the point that moving my hand to draw might as well be the same as trying to push down my apartment building by myself.  And hearing that damn C word again.  I heard it last year when my immune system attacked my eyes.  I heard it earlier this year in reference to a new mole on my stomach, of which I've still not had time to schedule a derm appointment for in between all of this.  And now I'm hearing it in reference to my stomach.

I think there comes a point where you just have to shut down for a while to recoup.  So yes, for a while, I was Miss Negative Nancy.  I would curl up in bed every chance I got and I stopped going out.

It gave me some time to figure things out.  To settle with the idea that I may be having surgery for the first time ever, and will be sedated at the end of the month for the first time ever.  To build up some missing energy that's being sucked away from me by two, or maybe even three, totally different issues.

It gave me a moment to get my shit together.

So I sat down today and finished commissions, unfortunately two days past schedule thanks to my passing out after my blood work and ultrasound on Friday.  And I scheduled my next week.  I bought food for the diet.  Just because I'm not seeing weight loss doesn't give me permission to eat junk.  It's not going to help my current symptoms anyway.

This is why I've been absent the past few weeks, and why my goals didn't really budge last month.  I don't know how far I'll get this month.  I don't really care.  The fact that I'm going forward at all is impressive, I think.  And even if I just stood still, it's whatever I have to do to get through this.

So there's my health update.

Life Update Sunday (v. 2.23.14)

This week, my thyroid has been a douchebag.  I've been sleeping upwards of 14-16 hours a night and still feeling the need to crash mid-day. I've started adding exercise back into the equation, but nothing's worked so far.  On Monday, I went over to Sara's for a crafting day only to fall asleep on her couch.  And on Tuesday, I fully intended to go to Coffee Coven (since I needed some feedback on a project), but slept right through it.  I woke up over three hours past when it ended only to find out I completely missed it.  I have some new interesting symptoms I'm sure you'd rather not hear about, so it sounds like I'll be making a doctor's appointment for tomorrow.  Not looking forward to that.

He pretty much always sleeps like this now.

Other than that, I do have some good news!  I've been asked by LEARN Home Education Network to give a 25 minute presentation on my religion to a World Religion class.  I've tentatively selected March 19th, but I haven't heard anything back as of just yet.  I plan on working up some rough plans this weekend and fleshing it out over the week.  I'm particularly thrilled to have the March 19th date because I can run the presentation notes by the Liberty Coffee Coven and get their input.  It would be the night before, so I wouldn't be able to make drastic changes, but it's always helpful.

That's actually why I wanted to go to the Coffee Coven this past Tuesday - so I could get input on things to include.  Now I'm just going to have to wing it.  Not that I'm not used to talking about my religion anyway.

In addition, I've been fleshing out a new Circle with Sierra, Charli and Jessica (with guest member Tony at this point, but it sounds like we'll have a decent sum of guest members as the year floats on).  Not that I haven't enjoyed my previous circles, but I'm anticipating the responsibilities to be much more evenly divided on this one.  Each of the four main members will be taking lead on two rituals each year - including writing, hosting, leading and financing.  We also have membership roles, such as maintaining the Facebook group and events or keeping inventory or even maintaining the ritual book.  All of these things I usually did on my own.  It's such a relief!  I really, truly like the direction that this group is taking and can see this as a long-term thing.

I know I talk about my religion quite often, but it's very important to me.  Particularly in terms of transparency.  I'm never trying to be all in-your-face pagan, but I thoroughly believe that I should be able to speak freely of my beliefs without fear or guilt, particularly on my own corners of the universe (like this blog).  I think it symbolizes a dawn of a new era for pagans when my generation can do that.  Honestly, my coming out of the broom closet some time ago was well received by my friends and family.  Overall, it's been a truly positive experience.

Beyond all of that, not much has happened this week.  I've been plugging away at commissions and still trying to catch up from my cold.  I volunteered twice this week for TARA as usual - we have new kittens that are absolutely adorable!  They're all black and about the age of Apollo, but don't look anything like him in face or body structure so I don't think they're siblings.  That's always been a thought in the back of my head because I personally saw that he had a mother and three siblings, and I will probably always wonder if they all made it out okay.  As it stands, Apollo is safe, happy and healthy.  As are all of our pets, which is definitely an improvement from last week.

And with that, Aaron and I need to finish our taxes and get the apartment clean.  I hope everyone is well and has a fantastic end of February!

Life Update Sunday (v. 2.16.14)

This.

Month.

Is.

Going.

To.

Kill.

Me.

I'm sorry I didn't stick to the posting schedule this week, but things have been absolutely loopy.  Every time I tried to stick to a decent schedule (beyond the blog; just waking up was a chore), something got in my way.

I started off the week still sick from whatever I caught at the Imbolc ritual.  It had turned into a cough which then turned into this nauseating, terrible phlegm attack.  I coughed so hard I threw up on multiple occasions - and once I throw up, there is no salvaging the day for me.  I couldn't keep Nyquil down, so I was feeling the full effects of the cold (flu?).

I still have a slight cough, but I'd say I'm over it.  Aaron still has a hard cough, so he's not quite there yet.

On late Sunday night/Monday morning, I was cleaning up my spiritual room when I heard one of the cats using the litter box in the bathroom.  There is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about this, but my psychic (psycho?) pet mom intuition kicked in and I checked the litter box.  There absolutely is everything out of the ordinary about this - the litter box is not my chore, primarily because it gives me huge asthma attacks.  But something made me check it.  Lo and behold, whoever went prior to me checking it had dropped a bloody bomb.  Not good!  It was bright red blood, which fortunately meant it wasn't something lethal, but blood in stool is never something pleasant.  I was too slow on the move to see who it was, and frankly, it could have been a one-time fluke.  Thus I tried to ignore it, but my gut was telling me otherwise.

By Tuesday morning, the blood had not went away, and I had discovered it was little Apollo.  I tried to give it another 24 hours to diminish, but by Wednesday morning, I was making an appointment with my vet.

Picture this: I've been up for 24 hours working on Valentine's Day commissions.  I have an appointment for Apollo at 2 pm, the earliest they could get me in.  At 1:30, I'm plumb tired, but I scoop Apollo in the crate and drag him out to my car.  Some "wonderful" person has commandeered Aaron's spot, and there's a huge snow/ice dune between us, so I slip slide all over that in attempt to not scrape said person's car with the crate while trying to get it into my car.  I succeed, plop down into my driver's seat, buckle myself in and...

My car won't start.

I shit you not.

Analyzing the situation, I probably should have known.  In early January, I attempted to start my car in -33F weather (Stupid Marietta.  Stupid, stupid, stupid.).    It tried to turn but wouldn't and I knew pretty instantly that it involved my battery.  The next day, it struggled to turn on and my clock was set at 12 AM.

However, ever since that day, my car has not stalled, stuttered or hesitated on starting.  It's been fine!  I just assumed that it was the cold and the incident was isolated.

Ho boy was I wrong.

So here I am with a screaming (not meowing, not whining, screaming) 6-month-old kitten in my back seat who's, for all intents and purposes, bleeding from his anus, and my car won't start to get us to the vet.

I get out of my car and throw my purse down into the ice dune, screaming at my car.  I can see over the other car (tall ice dune, right?), that a neighbor is jumping another neighbor's car.  However, instead of being, you know, neighborly and offering me a jump, he just laughs.  And not the fatherly, "I'm going to offer to help" kind.  It might as well have been, well...

You get my point.

I try to call various people, including my husband, but everyone's too busy to come.  Fair enough; I'm asking for a huge favor - I need to get Apollo to the vet ASAP, so I need a ride pretty much right now.

But, as luck would have it, Sara and David were free!  Not only did they swoop by to rescue me, but they stuck around until Aaron and I could get a new battery for my car and helped install it!  Not that a battery's terribly hard to install, but I've never had to do it on my own before, so it definitely helped with confidence.

Thank you so much, Sara and David.  You guys are life-savers!

Apollo, on the other hand, has the IQ of a common household plant.  Apparently, he got into something he wasn't supposed to get into and that was the cause of his anal dysfunction.  Doesn't surprise me.  That kitten learned the worst traits from both of my older ones: how to climb the impossible (Hermes) and how to open the impossible (Zeus).  Likely, he got into the trash can cabinet and into the trash.

How do I know?  I caught him in there today.

Besides, the rodent will eat literally anything.  I've had to pull everything from plastic to Zeus's fur to dish soap from his mouth.  Seriously, I accidentally knocked over a bottle of dish soap and he was there before I could blink attempting to lap it up.

Dumb as bricks.

So that cost me, of course, and summed up my Wednesday.

But wait!  There's more!

I don't have nearly as elaborate stories for the rest of the week, but suffice to say it wasn't good. Aaron worked until nearly 8 pm on Thursday because of a program malfunction at his job.  And Hermes started wheezing with his tongue out on Friday morning, which is pretty much an insta-vet-visit.  When cats wheeze with their tongue out, that indicates something is obstructing the breathing passage.  It more or less means they're suffocating.  Granted, it was for less-than-one-minute spurts, but I didn't want to find out what would happen if it lasted longer than that.  So I took him in.  They hospitalized him for a day and did blood work, and now he's on medication too.

There honestly hasn't been a moment in this household since December that one of the pets has not been on some form of medication.  Between Zeus's UTI, Artie's stomach thing, Zeus's tooth surgery, Apollo's bleeding rear and Hermes's wheeze, it's been an active 30 days.  Every time I leave the vet, the desk nurses tell me they sincerely hope not to see me until our yearly.  I hope, at this point, that everything's over.

I'd say I feel like a giant hypochondriac for my pets, but everything I've taken them in for has been a legitimate issue that has ended up in either hospitalization, surgery, medication or some combination of the set.  And no single one symptom can be traced back to one common factor.  Zeus's UTI?  That cat's a stress ball, and it was left over from December.  Artie's stomach thing?  Lamb fat's too rich for him suddenly.  Apollo's rear?  Cat climbs and gets into everything.  Zeus's tooth? Apparently there was always something wrong with it; it was a ticking time bomb.  Hermes's wheezing?  Bronchial infection.

I guess what I can be thankful for is my fantastic intuition when it comes to it.  I spotted Zeus's UTI, Apollo's symptoms and Hermes's wheezing very early on.  Artie's stomach thing was a bit of an off-on fluke and Zeus's tooth almost had to break for me to notice what was going on, but everything else?  I was told repeatedly that I'm very observant of my pets and that their ailments were in the "very early stages - barely noticeable really unless you knew what to look for."

I know my babies.

That being said, I'm so ridiculously far behind on February's goals that I almost feel like merging them with March and calling this month off.  I'm exhausted.  Notice the immense amount of italics up there?  That's how exhausted I am.  Between everything that happened this week, and being worn out from my cold still, trying to work has been like pulling teeth.  I ended up having to ask for some deadline extensions (which I loathe doing, and only did so to repeat customers who know my typical output and would be more accepting).  It feels terribly unprofessional, but I tried to sort out something I could do to lower my stress this week and that was pretty much the only solution.

So with that, I've been up all night working on commissions and I need some sleep before I start up again today.  I hope you all have a fantastic Sunday.  Here's hoping this upcoming week is better!

Life Update Sunday (v. 2.9.14)

Only two real events to report this week.  It's been a slow week, and with reason.

On Tuesday, we received 15 inches of snow.  It was absolutely crazy!  And the wind was even worse.  This drift outside came up to my waist:

And the icicle aftermath?

For reference, I'm 5'3".  How crazy!

The pets enjoyed the massive snowfall in various ways - mostly by attempting to attack it through our sliding doors.  After Apollo rammed head-first into the glass (seriously not a bright cat), we decided to bring some of the snow in to them.

It was immediately clear that our oldest, Zeus, was comfortable with snow.  That makes sense as, when we picked him up, he'd been a garbage-can-and-sewer stray for three years.  His first inclination?  Snow's water.  Eat the snow!

Our middle cat, Hermes, wanted nothing to do with the snow at first because he's terrified of everything wet.  He left it alone for the better part.  However, this was our kitten Apollo's first encounter with snow.  It both intrigued him and terrified him all at the same time.

As Apollo began shoveling balls of snow out of the pan, Hermes found them amusing.

And Artie got in on the clean up process.

Snow summed up the front half of the week.  Illness the other half.  Turns out, I also picked up a cold from the public Imbolc ritual.  Mostly, it was a stuffy nose.  Now it's a cough.  No bueno.  Aaron picked it up as of last night and ended up hurling, so it's definitely something interesting.  No two bodies react the same, huh.

Also, as a note, I did get the Imbolc ritual photos posted up over at Witchy Words.  Check them out here!

Because of the snow and illness, I really haven't had a chance to do much of anything this week.  Not to mention, when I'm sick, about the only thing that sustains me is greasy, sugary foods.  So I've been way off my game.  That's why there's been no check-in.  I've barely had the energy to move, let alone manage my goals.

I've already been sick twice this year.  Three times if you count my bout of a stomach thing earlier this week.  My immune system needs to stop dragging its feet.  I'd like some help here, body!

And with that, I'll leave you with a couple more pictures of my pets.  Enjoy!

Life Update Sunday, er Monday, (v. 2.3.14)

I apologize for this coming late.  I haven't been feeling the greatest since yesterday evening.  I'm thinking I overdid the gluten yesterday afternoon and I'm paying for it.  Stabbing stomach pains and dizziness, among other things you really don't want to hear about.  I spent most of the morning sleeping on the floor of the bathroom.

Loyalty is a dog that stays with you despite his fear of being closed in the bathroom.  Usually, when Artie's in the bathroom, even with someone, he shakes.  This comes from when he had an allergic reaction to a medication and, again, with his weird stomach thing the other week. Having to lock him in the bathroom has scarred him for life from liking that room.  Yet, when I had to sleep on the floor for fear of making a bigger mess in the bedroom, he stayed with me, without shaking or whining, to keep me company.  I typically hate cuddling or being touched while nauseated but honestly, his warm fuzziness was good for my irritated stomach.

Zeus ended up in surgery on Tuesday for his cracked tooth.  Poor guy.  They took the root out, but apparently there was something already wrong with the tooth to begin with.  They checked him for periodontal disease, but the rest of his teeth are clean.  So now my Zeusy is missing his bottom right canine.  You can't really tell, but if he opens his mouth, it's kind of strange.

Bringing him home on Wednesday was an absolute disaster.  Apparently, Zeus refused to use the litter box at the vet, so the minute he got into "safe territory" (ie the crate) he wet himself.  I was told I couldn't bathe him because he had dissolving stitches in his jaw.  Because Aaron was working late, I was completely by myself on trying to give him a sponge bath.  After many scratches and two hours, I still couldn't get the smell off of him.  Once Aaron got home, we ended up bathing him anyway.  The stitches are safe (we kept his head well away from the water) and everything is fine.  He's just so damn stubborn.  He likes baths, but hates sponge baths and I was trying to give him one one-handed and stressed out.  What a mess.

They also gave him a liquid antibiotic in replacement of pills since he's hard impossible to pill.  Yes, try shoving a foul-tasting liquid down the throat of a cat who doesn't like to be force-fed anything.  I would have rather had a pill at that point.  Ugh.

Lil Bits (Apollo) learned a new bad habit this week...  Yes, that's exactly what you think it is.  I don't know why he has this sudden obsession with water.  We gave him a bowl in the bathtub to play with, which has helped a bit.  I moved the primary water bowl to the kitchen so it's on tile but, being a galley-style kitchen, it's kind of in the way.  I'm going to have to get a rubber mat for his new little trick.

Also, I have video.

On the bright side, the rest of the week was fairly uneventful.  I mostly worked myself into the ground.  With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I'm booked up to my eyeballs in commissions - because nothing says "I love you" like "Hey Honey, look at your monstrous nose!" Nonetheless, it's kept me busy.

Apparently, this week was also "Sleep on Mom While She Naps Week."  I missed the memo.

Finally, I celebrated one of my religion's holidays, February Eve, this weekend with our local Lushede Grove.  I took some pictures which should be posted over at Witchy Words sometime in the next few days!

And with that, I need to do a grocery run before the predicted 6-10 inches of snow comes in.  Catch you later!

Life Update Sunday (v. 1.26.14)

It's been a very long week full of ups and downs.  Mostly ups, on the bright side, but I'll be glad to have a more normal week next week!

Let's start with the most concerning news and something I spoke about on Thursday (technically early Friday).

This is a new asymmetrical mole that has been coming and going on my stomach since mid-December.  I've been hesitant to tell anyone about it until just recently, and kept it between myself and a few select people last week.  I have seen a doctor about it and they're keeping an eye on it for the next four weeks.  More than likely, I'll never have an official diagnosis and it will be removed with a laser by my dermatologist within the next few months.

Maybe never knowing is for the better.  Skin cancer's pretty easy to treat and anything else isn't going to be detrimental to my health.  My doctor did confirm that she didn't see anything particularly precancerous about it, but that I caught it "extremely early," so it's hard to tell.  I will say that she held my hand as we discussed it and gave me something for my anxiety.  I'm going to be absolutely heartbroken when she retires.  It's worth the struggle with the office staff to see her.

This will be my second cancer scare alongside my autoimmune scleritis which they thought might be MS or a pituitary gland tumor in August through November.  I'm only 25, but it feels like my body's already trying to fall apart on me.

On to better topics.

After the extremely cold temperatures this month and watching Artie struggle to walk on the ground because of them, I resolved to purchase booties for him.  As I previously promised, here's the first time he tried them on:


What I was unable to video, and what I really wish I would have, was his first walk outside with them.  Even though they're obviously some sort of pleather, nothing could have prepared us for the clack sound they make on pavement!  It was all Aaron and I could do to keep it together enough to walk him.  Artie also has a habit of kicking up the ground when he's done going potty.  Despite being snug on his legs, the force of his kicks sent one flying up towards a second story window only to bounce off and hit the ground.  The second one hit Aaron smack in the middle of his face.  I collected them and we walked him back to our apartment door, but poor Artie felt so uncoordinated from having the booties just on his front paws that he fell up the stairs and face-planted into the doorway.

He's completely fine, but I told Aaron that the half-hour Artie wore his booties was well worth the $14 I paid for them.  If he never wears them again, I'm still satisfied.

Artie and Zeus have both had health issues this week.  Artie's bout of stomach issues came back on Wednesday and I vetted him.  He got a shot and some pills to help quell his tummy.  Hopefully that clears things up.

Zeus has also had an interesting issue.  Today we woke up to find he had a loose lower canine.  It must have happened sometime in the morning since he was fine late last night.  I actually originally thought he had a piece of lint or paper attached to his mouth and was terrified to find out it was a loose tooth just barely hanging on!  I pulled it out in whole and he seems to be feeling much better.  We typically reserve wet food for special occasions since their dry is special formula, but I fed him some wet food this morning assuming he hadn't eaten all morning because of his tooth.  And, just now, I watched him eat dry kibble.  He's purring, playing and seems normal.  I'm mostly just concerned about infection, so I'll probably call our vet tomorrow to ask.  He's currently still on his UTI antibiotic, so I wonder if that would cover infection or if I'll need some sort of topical.

I think he lost it due to some sort of trauma since his teeth are very white and his gums look pink and fresh.  He'd just been in to see the vet recently as well and they took a look at his teeth, so I'm strongly doubting periodontal disease.

Can't win for losing with the pets' health problems, can we?

Other than that, the pets have been fine.  Zeus and Apollo are reconnecting, Artie has been happy and Hermes has been his regular Asscat self.

On Thursday, I went over to Sara's to craft with her and her friend Holly.  I brought my THIS IS NOT A BOOK along.

This is not a book.

This is (also) not a book.

THIS IS NOT A BOOK is something I gained by losing weight last year.  My goal this year is to complete it by doing 9 prompts a month.  Here's some of my handy work:

This is a Thought Garden.

This is an ANNOYANCE.

This is a Nature Emulator.

It was a great evening and I stayed entirely way too late considering I had a doctor's appointment in the morning, but it was incredibly fun!

Also, yesterday, Aaron and I did what we originally decided was our "official" date night: a blanket fort!

About five seconds after we got it set up, Apollo knocked it down.  Maybe ten minutes after we got it put back together, I clumsily knocked it down.  That's when we decided we needed to go a little further.

Our solution?

We rigged our blanket fort to last by tying it to every surface imaginable, including tables, the sliding glass door and our fireplace.  This apparently made it sturdy as it still stands today!

Aaron and I went out for Burger King (I know, I know, for shame, but a shake and a chicken sandwich just went so well in the fort!).  We even watched a couple movies before falling asleep.

The pets loved it last night and are continuing to enjoy it today.  I'll hate taking it down because we've all enjoyed it so much, but I have to have my front room back at some point!

... Just probably not today. :D

Aaron has a doctor appointment tomorrow.  I finally convinced him to go for a check up and blood work, which I know is a freaking shocker!  First one in over five years.  Yeesh!

And that just about sums up my week.  Let's hope next week is a little less eventful.