Poor Scampi

The chiropractor never called me yesterday. That turns out to be OK because I noticed Scampi limping badly on one of her front paws last night and examined it. There's an egg-sized lump under her arm. She's so fluffy that I didn't notice it before.

We don't know if she tangled with the intruder cat before I locked him out or if she has a tumor. I'm thinking it's an abcess because it's in her skin. If it were Miss Cactus, I'd let it go until it opened up on its own, but since it's Scampi we're taking her age and bad heart into consideration and she's spending today at the vet. I clipped one set of claws last night to make sure they don't hurt her by cutting them too short and managed to draw blood on her "thumb." I felt awful. She was just squirming around too much for me to be accurate. I finally gave up. Poor little thing! She forgave me.

Eric's going to pick her up after work.

Well, I'd best be off.

Some days are just a joke

I've had bad traffic Karma all day. I was my own worst enemy starting out late. I had to choose between leaving Scampi in my car while I had PT or dropping her off and being a few minutes late. I didn't want to leave her in the car even though it would have been in a nice dark parking garage so I chose to drop her at the vet.

I hit every red light and a construction zone on the way to the vet. I had to fill out a two page form before I could leave her. I hit every red light on the way back to the freeway and got stuck behind some trucks going under the speed limit all the way to PT. I arrived 20 minutes late. I could have come back during the time I was supposed to have a doctor's appointment to have a full treatment, so I had to just do the exercise part with the ice and electro-stim afterwards. Ahhh, that part is nice.

At NASA, the group out by the runways had a BBQ today, and we were all invited. I checked in on my project to start the next step and headed over. It's hard to eat hamburgers when you can't bite. I skipped the bun and just used my fork to cut the meat up to eat. They were already out of all the other stuff except for some fruit salad and beans. There was yummy chocolate cake for dessert.

My phone vibrated. I had two messages. One was the cat chiropractor and the other the vet. I called the vet. She couldn't find Scampi's lump. I described where I felt it, in the skin flap between her right elbow and her belly.

I was able to barely check back in on my project when it was two minutes past when I needed to leave for my doctor's appointment. At the gate leaving NASA, a truck hauling other trucks was blocking the exit. It stopped right in front of the gate and started backing up slowly, blocking the entire street. Finally he got into the lane I needed to get out, facing the wrong way and stopped. I peered into the cab of the truck and put my hands out to the sides gesturing "I don't know what to do" while muttering "Dude, figure out where you're going. I'm late to my appointment!" He gestured for me to go around him on the wrong side of the road. It was clear so I waved and went.

Bad light Karma all the way to the freeway made me even later. People ahead of me drove at a crawl through the parking lot looking for spaces to park. I saw one with shade way down at the far end and once they got out of my way, I took it.

I walked in to the reception area 10 minutes late. *note to self, allow 35 minutes next time* The receptionist said I wasn't on their schedule. WTF? I'd had to pull off the road when the scheduler called me last week to set it up. They were also an hour behind because of an emergency so there was no way they could fit me in. I thought about how the vet couldn't find Scampi's lump and how it might be a good thing for me to head over there instead. These things happen sometimes so I wasn't angry with anyone, a bit frustrated, yes, but not angry. They expected anger. From her reaction, I'm guessing this isn't such a rare occurance. The only appointment she had was for next Tuesday at 11:15am. That's smack dab in the middle of my PT. She said I needed to talk directly to the scheduler for anything else, so I called and left her a message. I hadn't had my usual coffee at work and was dragging, so I took advantage of the free coffee in the waiting room before I left.

Then when I got to my car, I called the vet. She would appreciate it very much if I came in to show her the lump. Once there, all I could feel was fat. Maybe the side with the "lump" was a bit fatter, but what I felt last night wasn't there. I must have been her position that caused the fat to clump together like a lump. What a relief that it was nothing to worry about! Her weight is back up to what it was a year ago before the food change experiment. Her heart murmur is faint but is still there. The vet said we could call this her six month checkup. She seemed to be doing very well considering her age. For pain management she agreed the chiropractor was a good idea. She also suggested accupuncture. We'll see on that. Chiropractic has helped her a lot in the past.

I left with parasite treatments to get us through the summer and a very happy cat. Oh, and while I waited I had a cup of their waiting room coffee.

I'm tired and it was already 3:30PM when I got Scampi home. I called work and asked if it would be all right if I just worked full time tomorrow to make up for most of today. It's fine. I called Eric and told him what happened and that he didn't need to pick Scampi up after all.

I'm going to read my assigned chapter and relax until it's time to leave for school. Or maybe I'll take a quick nap and just listen to the lecture... decisions, decisions. Nah, I'd better read. More caffiene, yeah! I'll make a soy mocha and THEN I'll read.