Lucy, The Trip, My Work, and (Again) Teeth
Sep. 1st, 2023 02:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aLUCY
Kimberly and I are of the opinion that Lucy has grown fat. Which is greatly ironic since her problem these last 4 or 5 months has not been eating. But she's been getting tube fed as a result, and obviously getting more food than she was used to, and so she's a bit pudgy at 8 pounds and change today. I'm glad we shouted STOP when our vet claimed 9 pounds would be healthy for her.
We've actually had a very up-and-down week with Lucy. Again. Over the weekend we were afraid her infection was coming back due to some skin discoloration and a weird white thing in her stoma that we increasingly thought was an abscess. But then she went in on Monday for a look and the doc said it was all fine and cleaned her up.
And then we took her in for her regular visit today, and we learned Lucy had once again pulled out her sutures (time #3) and this was likely to be increasingly common due to how long the stoma had been open. So we had to have a serious talk about whether to put the sutures back in or pull the tube out. We eventually decided to keep it in for the moment because otherwise it'd be out just before I left, and Kimberly could easily have to decide what to do with a non-eating cat while I was gone. So the current plan is do our best to hold infection at bay by giving Lucy one more round of antibiotics and not increasing her steroids, which would be the next step, while we continue with chemotherapy. That way Kimberly also has a feeding tube to deliver pills while I'm gone.
Hopefully that holds through most or all of my trip, and then the tube likely comes out shortly thereafter and we see if we have a cat willing to eat. Or not.
THE TRIP
Yep, Rebooting Web of Trust workshop trip is just around the corner. Not sure how we went from three weeks to one week plus a weekend in the blink of an eye.
I am obviously less than thrilled about the trip because I'm going to leave Kimberly with the burden of Lucy care while I'm gone. Though something I neglected to write earlier is that she's actually eating some of the time. I'd estimate she's eating about 50% of the food we offer her, on average, which probably isn't enough to keep her going on her own, and hasn't happened long enough for it to be a new norm, but is slightly hopeful.
But, I'm also less thrilled by the logistics of the workshop. COVID really affected a lot of things in different ways, and for the Web of Trust, it's that a lot of people have leveled up and are now fully functional companies (or busy contractors), so the workshops just aren't going together like they used to. I remember back in Santa Barbara (at the 6th event, in 2018), one of the organizers said "At some point, we'll have Rebooted the Web of Trust, and we'll be done", and I think we're trending in that direction. Though I'd of course love to see the workshops capture the *next* innovation, like we did the current ones, back in 2016.
In any case, I'm sure we'll have a successful workshop and generate some good papers out of it, like we always do.
MY WORK
I've actually twisted much of my spring's and summer's work around this trip, because taking a two-week gap out of my work schedule is a big deal. So as I wrote elsewhere, I finished a draft of my Traveller history on Monday. Today, I've started in on the last two chapters of the fourth (and final for now) TSR history book, and I hope to fully draft them in the next week.
Then I don't have any work time scheduled during my time in San Martin, Cologne, or Frankfurt, but I will have about 40 hours in airports and on planes, and I hope to get lots of editing done in that time.
But, whew, it took some effort to get all of that lined up right over the course of the last several months.
TEETH
I complained about my teeth a few weeks ago, with the left side of my mouth really hurting after some cavities got filled right at my gumline. Right about three weeks out, I started seeing notable improvement. Ice water became less problematic, and the pain was lessening. Still not gone, but definitely improving, sometimes day by day.
And then last night I had another "less complex" cavity filled on the opposite side of my mouth. Except it was still somewhat complex, apparently, because there was another cavity that had been filled some years earlier on the opposite side of the tooth.
Bottom line: when I drink ice water now I feel it on the *right* side of my mouth.
*Sigh.*
Except it's not nearly as bad. And it seems to have blinded me to any remaining problem on the left side.
But I'm hoping that everything will be cleared by the time I leave.
--
This has really not been the best summer, I have to say, but for better or for worse, its end lies near.
Kimberly and I are of the opinion that Lucy has grown fat. Which is greatly ironic since her problem these last 4 or 5 months has not been eating. But she's been getting tube fed as a result, and obviously getting more food than she was used to, and so she's a bit pudgy at 8 pounds and change today. I'm glad we shouted STOP when our vet claimed 9 pounds would be healthy for her.
We've actually had a very up-and-down week with Lucy. Again. Over the weekend we were afraid her infection was coming back due to some skin discoloration and a weird white thing in her stoma that we increasingly thought was an abscess. But then she went in on Monday for a look and the doc said it was all fine and cleaned her up.
And then we took her in for her regular visit today, and we learned Lucy had once again pulled out her sutures (time #3) and this was likely to be increasingly common due to how long the stoma had been open. So we had to have a serious talk about whether to put the sutures back in or pull the tube out. We eventually decided to keep it in for the moment because otherwise it'd be out just before I left, and Kimberly could easily have to decide what to do with a non-eating cat while I was gone. So the current plan is do our best to hold infection at bay by giving Lucy one more round of antibiotics and not increasing her steroids, which would be the next step, while we continue with chemotherapy. That way Kimberly also has a feeding tube to deliver pills while I'm gone.
Hopefully that holds through most or all of my trip, and then the tube likely comes out shortly thereafter and we see if we have a cat willing to eat. Or not.
THE TRIP
Yep, Rebooting Web of Trust workshop trip is just around the corner. Not sure how we went from three weeks to one week plus a weekend in the blink of an eye.
I am obviously less than thrilled about the trip because I'm going to leave Kimberly with the burden of Lucy care while I'm gone. Though something I neglected to write earlier is that she's actually eating some of the time. I'd estimate she's eating about 50% of the food we offer her, on average, which probably isn't enough to keep her going on her own, and hasn't happened long enough for it to be a new norm, but is slightly hopeful.
But, I'm also less thrilled by the logistics of the workshop. COVID really affected a lot of things in different ways, and for the Web of Trust, it's that a lot of people have leveled up and are now fully functional companies (or busy contractors), so the workshops just aren't going together like they used to. I remember back in Santa Barbara (at the 6th event, in 2018), one of the organizers said "At some point, we'll have Rebooted the Web of Trust, and we'll be done", and I think we're trending in that direction. Though I'd of course love to see the workshops capture the *next* innovation, like we did the current ones, back in 2016.
In any case, I'm sure we'll have a successful workshop and generate some good papers out of it, like we always do.
MY WORK
I've actually twisted much of my spring's and summer's work around this trip, because taking a two-week gap out of my work schedule is a big deal. So as I wrote elsewhere, I finished a draft of my Traveller history on Monday. Today, I've started in on the last two chapters of the fourth (and final for now) TSR history book, and I hope to fully draft them in the next week.
Then I don't have any work time scheduled during my time in San Martin, Cologne, or Frankfurt, but I will have about 40 hours in airports and on planes, and I hope to get lots of editing done in that time.
But, whew, it took some effort to get all of that lined up right over the course of the last several months.
TEETH
I complained about my teeth a few weeks ago, with the left side of my mouth really hurting after some cavities got filled right at my gumline. Right about three weeks out, I started seeing notable improvement. Ice water became less problematic, and the pain was lessening. Still not gone, but definitely improving, sometimes day by day.
And then last night I had another "less complex" cavity filled on the opposite side of my mouth. Except it was still somewhat complex, apparently, because there was another cavity that had been filled some years earlier on the opposite side of the tooth.
Bottom line: when I drink ice water now I feel it on the *right* side of my mouth.
*Sigh.*
Except it's not nearly as bad. And it seems to have blinded me to any remaining problem on the left side.
But I'm hoping that everything will be cleared by the time I leave.
--
This has really not been the best summer, I have to say, but for better or for worse, its end lies near.