Bonnie, Pywhacket, and Tinkerbell

I didn’t take any decent pictures of our pets this week so I thought I would look through some older pictures and see if I could come up with something interesting.

What I found were pictures of some of the pets I had when I was a kid. I say some because our parents allowed us to have almost any kind of animal we wanted for a pet as long as we took proper care of it. We had three crows, several morning doves and ring-necked doves, assorted reptiles, a couple of chipmunks, a hamster or two, fish, and for a short while even a red-tailed hawk.

Most of those other animals weren't with us for very long for one reason or another, but Bonnie, Pywhacket, and Tinkerbell were part of our family from the late 1960's until the early 1990's. Each was a joy to be around, and I still miss them.

This is the only scan I have of Tinkerbell. I took this picture sometime in the early 1970’s. My parents bought Tinkerbell in 1967, and she lived until the early 1980’s. She was very sophisticated, and tolerated the other animals to some extent, but she made sure to remind them of their place from time to time.

This is Bonnie. She was a Christmas present for my sister in 1970 or 1971. But Bonnie spent her first night in the house with my mother before she was given to my sister Christmas morning. Therefore Bonnie thought my mother was her mother, and she would follow my mom all around the house for the rest of her life.

Here is Pywhacket in her favorite spot in my mom’s garden. I whined enough about my sister getting a dog for Christmas that my parents took me to the local shelter and let me pick out a cat. Pywhacket was my choice. I was 11 or 12, but I can remember clearly the first time I saw her, and how she batted at my fingers through her cage bars. She was very small then, and never got any bigger than a large kitten. She out lived Bonnie and Tinkerbell, and finally died in 1991 at the age of twenty.

This is just a better picture of Pywhacket.

As now, I loved all my pets. Each is wonderful in their own way, and each has given me great joy, and fond memories. I love my old pets as much as my current pets, but I feel we are cheated by the short time we are given to be with one another.

Thalia in the Box

My wonderful wife bought me a new pair of slippers the pther day, and true to form Thalia had to check out the box they came in.

It looked uncomfortable, but she stayed in that box for some time.

Later she rested with Jacqueline.

And soon Jacqueline decided she needed a nap.

The Afternoon Walk

Jacqueline got the chance to wear her sweater on our afternoon walk the other day, and she looked so cute I thought I would share.

Here she is modeling the sweater just as soon as we got outside. It was a cold, drizzly sort of day, so her sweater came in very handy.

Her brother Angel checks to see if she is keeping up.

Looking for bugs.

Angel does this every time we reach this spot on our walk. I think he has a bit of mountain goat in him.

Following perhaps a bit too close.

Strolling together, brother and sister head home to a warm bed, and a nice bowl of kibble.

The Friday Ark is up, go check it out at The Modulator.

Visit with the Surgeon

I saw the surgeon yesterday, and as I said in my last entry a second surgery looks to be in my near future.

The problem is in the stenosis I pointed out before in the picture below. The dark area running more or less vertically through the picture is my spinal cord, and almost directly in the center of the picture you can see where my vertebrae are putting pressure on the spinal cord. This actually damages the spinal cord, and it has the potential to cause pain in the body from that point on down. In my case I have pain anywhere between there, and just below my shoulder blades including my shoulders, arms, and hands.

The surgeon asked if the epidurals helped at all, and I told him that they did not, and in fact I have more pain than ever, although I don’t attribute much of that pain to the epidurals. He told me he didn’t have the films from my x-rays last Friday, but that he did have the report, and the report indicates that my 3rd and 4th vertebrae, (where the stenosis is,) slip across each other during flexion and extension. Given that, and the fact that the epidurals had no effect, he said he would most likely operate again.

One reason he is hesitant to operate is because it was tough the first time to come in through the front of my neck. He said, “there isn’t much room in there”, referring to my neck in particular. I have a large piece of cartilage that partially obstructs my esophagus, and the bracket in my neck presses on it closing the passage a little more than normal. Also, he said that if he were to go back in through the front, he could remove that bracket, but that means he would have to, “peel away” the scar tissue that has developed as a result of the last operation, and that poses the risk of damage to my esophagus.

I guess the piece of cartilage that obstructs my esophagus also narrows my trachea because I learned once I woke up that it was tough to intubate me during the first operation. As a result, the intubation process actually temporarily damaged my trachea, and so my throat was swollen pretty bad and I was unable to eat anything for the first 24 hours. It was sort of like a bad case of strep throat, and I couldn’t swallow anything without great difficulty and pain. Even liquids such as water were tough to get down because they would splash against the back of my throat, and go up into my nasal passages. When I finally could get solid food down, it still hurt like hell to swallow. It wasn’t until the third day that I could eat without any great difficulty, and it continued to hurt to some degree for a couple of weeks after I came home.

Given all that, he said he would most likely go in through the back of my neck and basically perform the same procedure as before; remove the disc between the vertebrae, scrape away the bone inside the vertebrae to make room for the spinal cord, and attach another bracket to hold it all in place. He said that he wants to take a look at the last x-ray films himself, and he wants to talk to my primary doctor before he makes his final decision. My primary doctor is on vacation until the 15th, but I see her on the 17th, so perhaps I will hear more then. In any event he said he would give me a call and let me know what’s going on as soon as he could.

I think it’s pretty obvious I will have a second surgery. All other options have been exhausted, and the pain is just too great for me to put up with on a daily basis without large amounts of narcotics. So, I suppose I should be glad that I may soon have an operation that has a good shot at least lessening my pain, but as I described above, the recovery was no picnic. Besides my eating problem, the TV remote in my room at the hospital would only change the channels in an ascending order. If you went passed the channel you wanted to watch, you had to cycle through them all to get back to it. Talk about hell.

The bright side of having the operation, other than the hope of less pain, would be extended, paid time off from work, being waited on hand and foot, catching up on some reading, and spending time with my pets. Once home the whole healing process was rather relaxing last time. I would wake up, have a small breakfast, and basically sit around in bed all day either reading or watching movies.

Ahh the life.

More on Cervical Epidurals

On December 1st I had the last in a series of three cervical epidurals ordered by my doctor. The first one I wrote about here , here , and here.

The second one went much the same way as the first, except when the needle got about half way to it’s intended location and began to hurt like the first one did, I didn’t ask for more anesthesia because I just wanted it to be over with as quickly as possible. That turned out to be a mistake. Once the needle is fully inserted, the doctor injects the medication. When he does that, it really, really hurts. I wished I had asked for the extra anesthesia. But once the needle was removed it felt better, and I went home and relaxed for the rest of the day.

This last injection was slightly different. For starters it was a different doctor. I wasn’t real thrilled about that because the first two injections were administered by the same doctor, and they went really well. I am a firm believer in the old adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, and I feel that is especially true when you are dealing with a procedure that has the potential to really screw up your spinal cord. The first doctor proved he knew his stuff, and he had the needle in, medicine injected, and needle out in no time flat. This time the doctor was a bit older, and he took his time finding the spot to stick the needle in. He also took his time sticking the needle in, but it was actually a little less painful this time when he hit the half way mark.

Perhaps it hurt less because of the next difference, which is the injection site. I didn’t realize it was different until I got home, and I am not sure of the significance yet, but I will ask when I next see the surgeon. I don’t think it makes much of a difference because I think the medicine mixes with the spinal fluid and reaches its destination that way. My guess is they just inject it as close as possible to where they think the problem spot is and hope for the best.

The biggest difference is the amount of pain I had after the injection. For two days following the last injection I had pain the likes of which I have rarely seen since my operation fifteen months ago. I am not sure why it hurt so bad, but if I had to guess I would say just the nature of the procedure itself has the potential for great pain, and the specific gravity of the medication versus that of the spinal fluid probably plays a part as well. I think the medication is thicker than the spinal fluid, and so it may press on the spinal cord and nerve roots causing pain, but I am not a doctor so I guess it’ll be one of the questions I ask tomorrow when I see the surgeon.

Yes, tomorrow I see the surgeon and the topics of discussion will include the failure of the epidurals to bring me any relief, the x-rays I took last Friday, and the persistent and increasingly intense pain. We will also talk about why I have pain where I have never had much before, and what that implicates. Lastly, we will discuss further surgery, which at this point I think is eminent. It is a conversation I am looking forward to.

Jacqueline's Winter Sweater

Jacqueline is so little that she loses body heat quickly. It's been cold out lately, and so I thought she could do with a sweater to keep her warm when she goes for a walk with me and Angel. Here she is modeling that new sweater

She is so dark that I often have to lighten up the originals to make her stand out. Maybe using a lighter background would help too.

She really is enjoying herself, though she isn't showing it in this picture.

I guess I caught her just before her afternoon nap. But she really was happy to get the sweater!

The Friday Ark is up at The Modulator, so go check out all the other little critters there.