A Brief Reprieve From the Funk October 16, 2005
As expected, this past week turned out to be really good for me. I worked my ass off, and we got a shitload done. We got my parent’s front yard, my grandparent’s front yard, and my parent’s neighbor’s front yard done in the first few days. My parent’s next door neighbor is currently in the hospital after having to have quadruple bypass surgery after evacuating from home. It felt good to help out.
We also got a ton accomplished in my parent’s backyard. Almost every one of their trees were down or coming down, so we got a good number of them down, cut up, and dragged to the curb. I cannot even begin to count the number of bags of leaves that we raked up, too.
It also felt good to work, I mean really work. My body is bruised, scraped up, and really sore, but it was so worth it. When I was outside hauling branches or doing one of the other forms of manual labor that made up the week’s work, I didn’t think about this infertility crap once. It was the first time in years that I was able to make that shit disappear at least for a little bit.
Some other highlights from the week included me getting a tetanus shot (boy, does that make your arm sore,) using a chainsaw for the first time (and I didn’t even lose any fingers,) and getting another car. My dad bought a new truck and gave us his car, so my husband and I are now a two car family. We have shared a car for almost 10 years thanks in part to these mounting IVF bills. Our second car will definitely come in handy when I have to make the 8 hour round trip drive to Houston numerous times when we do our next IVF cycle.
So, with things going well and me getting out of my funk, it was only a matter of time before I was brought back into the land of the stressed. I was planning on staying at my parent’s house until Saturday night, but I got a call from my husband when he got home from work on Friday letting me know that our old lady kitty, Dixie, wasn’t doing well. I hightailed it back home as soon as I got off of the phone.
Dixie is 17, so it’s no surprise that she’s not doing well, but it is so hard to watch. She’s fighting some kind of bad upper respiratory infection and is having a very hard time. We took her to the vet first thing Saturday morning, and she got some subq fluids, an antibiotic shot, and some antibiotics and an antihistamine to take at home.
She’s not doing any better today. She won’t eat or drink, can’t walk very much at all, and won’t even purr when I pet her. It’s breaking my heart to watch her just sit there limp and crying. If she doesn’t show any improvement by tomorrow, I’ll be taking her back to the vet.
I know 17 is very old for a cat (in fact, the receptionist at the vet’s office thought I had made a mistake when I put 1988 as her birth year) and I know she has lived a good and happy life. I just can’t stand the thought of losing her, though. I just can’t.
So, dealing with all of that plus coming home to be reminded of all of the other crap that I tried so hard to forget has got me feeling pretty darn badly again. It sucks when happiness is so damn hard to come by.
- Posted in : Limboland: the aftermath of IVF Part 5, my furry children
- Author : amanda
Comments»
I’m so sorry to hear about your kitty. I hope she feels better.
I’m so sorry about Dixie. I know how awful it is to stand by helpless – truly awful. Take care lovey – congrats on the new car.
Oh honey- I’m sorry. But i am glad to ‘have you back’ & writing to us again. I ws getting worried about you! :)
Glad the last week was good, but sorry to hear about your cat. It is sad to lose a friend like that – I hope you can spend some good time with her now.
Oh, I’m sorry about your kitty. My 18 year old cat died shortly after I graduated from college- I’d had her since I was 4 and didn’t remember life before her, and it as very sad. I had just moved to a new state and my brother called to tell me the cat had died and I spent the next few days sobbing all alone in my hotel room (I didn’t know anyone in the city where I’d moved)- it was totally depressing.
Hold onto those little bits of good things as they can be hard to come by sometimes. Glad you were able to help your family and neighbors and that it was therapeutic for you. Yeah on the new car- DH & I had one car for a while and it was hard to juggle.
Poor kitty. I’m glad you could forget for a bit, and I’m sorry it hit you again so hard. You’d think you could get a break!