2010

The saga continues. 🙂 This episode will contain Skip’s latest vet appointment plus his latest cardiologist appointment. We are now at a little over a year from when he was first diagnosed with Feline Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM).

It was getting close to Skip’s cardiologist appointment, so I made an appointment to get his lab tests done as well as his regular yearly checkup. I finally remembered to close off the area where his litter box is, so that he’d have a full bladder for the urine sample. 🙂

At the appointment, nothing new was found. His teeth looked good and everything else was fine. He was his usual happy go lucky self during the appointment. He was a little mad at mommy once we got home due to the drawing of the blood and urine, but he quickly got over that.

The vet’s office called the following Monday and the lab tests came back just peachy. 🙂 His Thyroid T4 was at 1.5, so no worries there. We are all set for his August 3rd appointment…or are we?

On July 26th, I received a voicemail message stating that Skip’s cardiologist was no longer with the practice and Skip’s appointment was cancelled. Huh? What? You’re kidding? Where’d she go? These were just a few of the questions that went through my head.

I immediately called the Care Center. When I talked with the front desk, they stated that the cardiologist was still with the practice. Huh? What? I told her what was in the voicemail that I received and she said she’d check to see if the appointment was still there. It wasn’t. She was confused, but sent me to cardiology voicemail.

I left a message asking where they were referring people. I received no response, so I called again the next day asking the same question. I had also been doing some research and had decided that if I couldn’t find his cardiologist that going back to my old stomping grounds while taking Skip to the Purdue Vet Clinic would work. I left a message including Purdue’s information and my phone number, but there was still no response.

During this time, I had been in contact with Skip’s regular vet. I told them what was going on to which they responded with…What? Since I was receiving no response from the Care Center, I asked if the regular vet would mind referring Skip over to the Purdue Vet Clinic. They said that they would take care of faxing all of the information over to Purdue.

Meanwhile, I called the Care Center and asked for 3 copies of Skip’s records and what the cost was for them. Luckily, they provide them at no cost, so I e-mailed boyfriend and asked if he’d pick them up on his way home from work. I have to say, when they provide records, they provide them all. I even received cds with the results of tests like ultrasounds and echos. I was impressed that it was all for free. Of course I guess that’s the high cost of paying so much for the tests.

A little while later that day, I received a call from Skip’s regular vet that they had found Skip’s cardiologist and that she was still in the area; just with a different practice. I found out later that the cardiologist had just received the fax from Skip’s primary vet with the lab tests prior to giving her notice. She remembered it when she walked out the door and made a point to call them and let them know where she was going. Just as an FYI, it was the Care Center that would not allow her to give a two weeks notice like she wanted.

I told my primary vet that I would call over to the new location and see what’s up. The new place said that they would begin scheduling appointments later on in the week for the following week and took down my name and number. They were really nice on the phone and did call me back. I made the appointment for the first appointment of the following Thursday.

I’d like to get up on a soap box and say that the Care Center handled the whole process of the cardiologist leaving poorly. There were some extenuating circumstances that I won’t go into that seem to have made some hard feelings. When I called, they had not even informed their front desk that the cardiologist had left. I also found out later that the Care Center is referring people to a cardiologist in Columbus instead of Skip’s cardiologist. I guess there were some hard feelings when notice was given by the cardiologist. It tells me that the Care Center was not interested in Skip getting the needed care, but rather the money from that care. If they cared about the pets, they would have put aside their differences and given me the needed information. Skip’s cardiologist is the only one in Cincinnati, so it’s not like the Care Center could provide me with an alternative solution. So, my impression of the Care Center has gone down a notch. I am climbing down off my soap box now.

So, whew! There for a week, I was stressing as to how to get my baby checked out. HCM is already a stressful condition whenever you have to go in for a checkup, so the added stress was not needed.

The day of Skip’s appointment arrived, and I drove up to the cardiologist’s new location which is a lot closer. I will not currently comment on the new vet’s office as they are starting the process to remodel and were clearly getting everything put into place at their new location. I will however say that the staff thus far has been extremely nice and willing to work with us parents who have furry kids with a disease of some type.

It took awhile to get called back to the room due to computer issues. Once we got back there, I found a familiar face. One of the cardiologists’ techs came with her. She told me that she was switching over to Oncology, but was helping out on Thursdays to get used to the new building.

I handed over all of the records that I got from the Care Center along with the disks…oh and Skip too. We went through the sheet I was supposed to fill out, but the front desk forgot to give me…remember a new location and department for them, so no biggie.

One thing I had noticed was that expelling air when purring looked like it took effort. She noted that and I said that’s all I’ve got. She went through the cost sheet. I just told her that as long as they do what is needed to check Skip out and the price is roughly the same, I’m good. It’s all expensive, so what’s a difference of $20? I don’t remember what the difference was, but it was inline with what I expected, so I was ok.

Then the waiting…it takes them roughly a couple of hours to check him out. I worked while I waited a nice perk from work. The vet tech came out and asked for Skip’s carrier. I gave it to her and asked if she just wanted to bring him out. She said he was a little cranky and might be happier in the carrier. 🙂 I think actually as soon as he saw Mommy that he would have been fine.

I was called back to talk with the cardiologist. It was really nice to see her. She said Skip’s HCM is unchanged!!! Woohoo!! That’s good news in my world. She said the left ventricle is still a tad enlarged, but unchanged from our last visit and that we were going to continue the same treatment as before.

The cardiologist told me that she saw no fluid in the lungs and his echo was fine. She said that most cats give a lot of effort to expel air when purring and that is perfectly normal. Skip has lost a little weight, so that probably contributed to me actually noticing it. Plus when ever we get near his checkup, I get nervous and more observant.

I asked about the grumpiness I heard about, and she said that she can do anything with him she wants except take an x-ray of his chest. She has to lay him on his side to do so, and he fights her on it. I told her that only Mommy is allowed to put him on his side, so I wasn’t surprised. I told her that I do that all the time at home without any argument from Skip. That’s because he fully trusts me though.

Poppa says there is a double standard in our house. Poppa can’t hardly move Skip one iota when holding him unless he wants to hear from Skip whereas I move Skip however I want him without much complaint. 🙂 I just tell Poppa that I have 6 extra years with Skip.

I asked if he growled and hissed. She said yeah and he was going to take a nip from her. I laughed (probably shouldn’t have but hey my calm boy was sticking up for himself), and said that the command is “Skip! No Bite, Be Nice” in an extremely serious tone that says I’m not happy with your behavior right now. She kind of gave me a look like “You’re kidding right? How often does this happen?” I said that sometimes Skip shows his displeasure by using his teeth, but never breaks the skin. Then she saw I was perfectly serious and said that she would keep that in mind the next time and to remind them.

Skip and I checked out and headed home. We’ll go back in 6 months and do it all again as this is our life now. I’m just happy that Skip is getting to live a full life. 🙂 If anything significant happens before 6 months I’ll post an update; otherwise the next update will be in 6 months.

I pondered about this part over and over, but I have to help the others in Cincinnati who need to take their pets to a cardiologist and there is no sense in driving all the way to Columbus. So, here’s the info: Dr. Kathy Wright (I don’t know all the acronyms after her name) is now with MedVet which is off the Red Bank Expressway in Cincinnati. The MedVet website is http://www.medvet-cves.com/ . They haven’t updated the website, but trust me she is at the Cincinnati location.

Mammy and Pappy

As a part of my “I Remember” series, I would like to talk about my great grandparents on my mom’s side: Mammy and Pappy. I was lucky enough to get to know my great-grandparents and have many awesome memories of visiting them in Tennessee.

Every year in May, most of the kids I went to school with would talk about where their families were going on vacation. My reply was always: “Tennessee. No, not to Pigeon Forge. Nor Nashville. Nope not Memphis either. We’re going to visit my great-grandparents.” You know when you tell your friends that, they kind of just move the topic on to their cool destination like Disney World or Washington DC, etc.

Even though it was my mom’s family, every year my dad insisted we go to visit because you just never knew when something might happen to Mammy and Pappy. Dad is big on family. So, each year at the hottest point of the summer we would head south to visit.

Pappy was a carpenter and that is how he made money when my grandfather was growing up. They settled in a small town called Tazewell. Mammy and Pappy had 9 kids. Two children were lost at very young ages. My grandfather was one of the youngest.

Btw, Mammy and Pappy are not their real names. These are just the names that everyone calls them. Tazewell being a smaller town, many people just called them by their nicknames. It was easier. 🙂 Kind of neat to hear Bud from a general store ask how Pappy was “gettin’ on”.

Mammy and Pappy lived in a house that Pappy built in 1910 in a holler. This house did not have any running water or plumbing. This means that to get a drink of water, you had to pump water and drink out of a community ladle. Trust me as a kid…this was fun! I made many excuses of being thirsty just to pump the water. 🙂 This also means that there was no bathroom indoors.

There was an outhouse in back of the house that you used to relieve yourself. Personally, I hated the outhouse and only used it when I really, really had to. The reason I hated the outhouse was the wasp nests that were in there. They scared me to death! When I was younger I wasn’t allowed to use the outhouse by myself because you had to walk a path up to it. The mountainside that the house was situated on had a nest of copperhead snakes living on it. Mom was worried that I would encounter one on the path. BTW, I love snakes which was probably another of her worries.

Out front there was a creek! A great place for a kid to play in. I looked for crawdads all day long. Given that the temperature outside was always above 90 when we were there; playing the creek is not a bad way to spend the day. 🙂 Now Mammy didn’t like me playing the creek and was worried that I would get a leech on me (I never did). However, my mom was usually in the creek with me to try to keep from getting to hot, so I had no worries.

There were always tons of cats/kittens around. Mammy always fed them the leftover scraps. The cats were really wild and I could barely catch one to pet it. My best chance was when Mammy set the food out to feed them. I could usually get one then only to be told my Mammy to let the cat go, so it could eat. Timing was everything.

The roof of the house was tin. This meant that the house was a sweat box in the summertime. Every evening there was a rain shower that would pass through, and if you have never heard raindrops on a tin roof, you should go and find one somewhere. It is a beautiful sound that will lull you to sleep. One day I would love to have a house with a tin roof on just the porch to hear that sound again.

Pappy had a porch swing that he would sit on all day long. My great-grandparents were beyond retired when I met them. Even though they stayed busy with general housework, there wasn’t much to do. I used to sit in the porch swing with Pappy. You know I don’t really remember sitting on any other chair other than the porch steps. I always hated sitting on the inside of the swing though because of all the mud dauber nests on the house. But if I sat on the outside of the swing, I interrupted Pappy’s ability to spit out his tobaccy.

Part of the fun of sitting on the swing was waiting for a car to go by. You have to have a lot of patience though because very few cars went by, but I waved with Pappy at every single one of them. Some people would stop and ask Pappy if he needed anything from the store. That’s the way it is down there, everyone takes care of each other which is something that has been lost today.

Mammy and Pappy had just a small patch of grass on either side of the house. Down there, you only remove the trees you have to and leave the rest. The funny thing was that they did not have a lawn mower or anything. When I was a kid, they had a cow. I no longer remember her name, but I remember her. She mowed the grass for them. In later years once the cow was gone; my great-uncle who lived next door mowed the grass for them.

I have so many fond memories of my time down there. It was a simple time in my life, but I believe it was the most enjoyable and relaxing time. I think that my summertime down there was more special than going to Disney World. My parents even took a cousin down for me to play with one year, and when we hooked back up on Facebook years later after losing touch; one of the first things she posted to me was about the time she went with us to TN. It is a special place.

As this article is already longer than I expected, so I’m going to break it up into sections. This was the introduction to Mammy and Pappy and where they lived.

Perfume and Women/Cologne and Men

Why in the world do people wear so much perfume/cologne? I honestly do not understand it.

To make my life easier, I am just going to use perfume in this blog because the primary violators of wearing too much is women.

I always used to notice how much perfume people were wearing, but it has gotten a lot worse since I had sinus surgery and can now smell really well. Now when I get around one of these foul smelling people, I can barely breathe without sneezing or gagging.

For example, after my sinus surgery, I had a follow-up appointment that boyfriend drove me to. This doctor is really good, so you have to wait. We are sitting in the waiting room and the door opens and a lady walks in. Not more than 10 seconds later, I smell it…tons of perfume. It was really bad.

After a cry of “Jesus” escaped my mouth before I could stop it, I looked around and everyone…and I mean everyone was staring at this lady. Some people were covering their noses or scrunching their noses up; others were just dealing with it.

The lady in question was oblivious to our discomfort. I was called back, and after a huge thank you to the nurse, I went on with my appointment.

When I finished, boyfriend and I left and got into the elevator. OMG, it was bad. Boyfriend says, “She left 10 minutes ago, how can it still smell.” Unfortunately, this elevator was real slow, so after holding our breaths for the entire ride, we escaped to huge gulps of fresh air.

So my question is how did this lady not know that she was wearing too much perfume? Did she know and not care? Did she know, but left in a hurry to fix it? Did she not realize that just one spray is plenty? Was her sense of smell too warped to notice the smell? Did she not have any true friends who would pass along that her perfume is on too strong?

I work with a guy that wears so much cologne that when he had a conversation on his cell phone in a small room, the room smelled like his cologne for about a half hour.

Is there another reason that people wear so much perfume? Maybe they are trying to cover up another smell? Are they rewearing unwashed clothes? Is it dry cleaning that was worn once and had more perfume added to it?

If so peeps, wearing so much perfume is attracting more attention than you probably want, and it is probably the wrong kind of attention.

Please take a second before you spray yourself with perfume and think to yourself “Will one spray work or do I really need to spray multiple times”. Please be aware of others around you and the discomfort you are putting us in by putting way too much perfume on.

Feline Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy / Hypothyroidism / Allergies – 8/31/09 – 07/15/2010

So far, Skip has been put on medicine for Feline Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) and he has been treated for Feline Hyperthyroidism. Now we are just waiting for October to come, so that we can find out how fast the HCM is progressing and find out if he can get his teeth cleaned or not.

We are in a daily routine of 3 pills in the morning and 1 pill in the evening. Skip is doing pretty well with taking his pills. I only have trouble when I miss the target for the Plavix. All I can say is it must be real bitter pill to swallow. 😉

Leading up to September 2009, I noticed that Skip started to get a whistle when he breathed. He wasn’t in distress, but breathing in caused a whistle. Of course I thought that this was a bad sign. I was just thinking of fluid filled lungs. I took Skip to the appointment to get the blood work completed prior to his appointment with the cardiologist. Skip’s Vet is awesome. They get the blood work returned and fax it to the cardiologist, so that she can evaluate the numbers prior to Skip’s appointment.

In early October 2009, I took off work and hauled Skip up to see the Cardiologist at the Care Center. I feel really lucky that I live in an area where the Cardiologist is fairly close. There were people from New Jersey in that day to see her. You may ask how I remember this; let’s just say these days are carved into my memory.

I asked again if I could go back into the back with him, but again I was denied. I really don’t understand why they don’t allow it. Skip does really well when Mommy is there and I feel it would keep his heart rate down and keep him from being stressed.

Once the cardiologist finished, I got to talk with her. She gave me GOOD NEWS!! Skip’s heart had barely changed and she could barely see any change in the thickness of his heart walls. I took a sigh of relief. 🙂 It felt great! She did want to tweak his medicine to get rid of the whistle while he breathed, but other than that she said he should have a fairly long outlook. 🙂

The cardiologist said that it was ok for Skip to get his teeth cleaned and that she needed to see him again in early February to check the thickness of the heart wall. I was off with new prescriptions and extremely happy. I can’t explain the relief that was felt when I heard the news.

BTW, it is a real pain to cut these pills up. Skip takes a 1/4 Plavix and 3/4 and a 1/2 of Enalpril. It takes what seems like forever to cut them. Boyfriend tried once on the cheaper of the two (Enalpril) and gave up after he butchered what he thought was too many of them. He wouldn’t even try on the really expensive ones. I have since found an awesome pharmacy that will cut the pills for me. I even offered to pay them more for the service; that is how much of a pain cutting these pills are.

I made Skip’s teeth cleaning appointment and they had to remove two of his teeth. I think he felt much better once the gums healed. The whistle while breathing went away after a week or two of the medicine adjustment.

Time flew by and in early January I noticed my baby didn’t have as much energy. He still looked fine and was breathing fine; he just started sleeping a lot. Since we were close to his next cardiologist appointment I started the steps to get his next checkup.

When I scheduled his blood work to be done, I also scheduled an appointment for him to be checked by the vet. He had a lump behind his ear and his head would get red from time to time. His doctor said that the redness in his head were more than likely allergies. Since it was January, those allergies were more than likely caused by food.

The doctor took a sample from his lump behind his ear. I got to help by holding his head. They seemed real impressed that he didn’t even flinch when she took the sample. I kept telling them that he does better when mommy helps hold him because he trusts me. I think I made some head way in this area.

Skip’s doctor put him on some special diet food that does not have any additives and told us that he was to get no table scraps at all and only this food. The goal is to isolate him to one type of food and see if the redness in his head improves after 6-8 weeks.

A funny thing happened while they were getting all the food collected. I was out in the lobby letting Skip walk around on his leash. It gives him something to do and actually keeps him calmer when the door opened and there was a big dog. I just asked the person to hold for a second. She gave a command to the dog who promptly sat. I picked up Skip and said we’re good. Then I realized that it was the other vet in the practice. 🙂 She was the original vet who found the heart murmur and she was happy to see Skip wandering around.

She is the one who called me on Monday with the biopsy results which wound up being an enlarged polyp due to the food allergy. The vet said that she was very impressed with how well I have handled everything and how well Skip is doing. She was very nice about letting me know I was doing a good job. I was elated to hear it. Sometimes it is just nice to get that kudos to let you know you are doing well.

She also gave me news that Skip’s Thyroid numbers were a tad low and was probably the cause of the lethargy. The vet wanted to wait until Skip visited the Cardiologist before treating to ensure that the HCM wasn’t the cause of the lethargy.

In February, I took Skip up to the Care Center to see his cardiologist. I was a little ticked off for a bit there. The cardiologist changed her schedule to where all of the cats are dropped off at the same time and then picked up around the same time. Since I drive 45 minutes to get there, I really don’t want to turn around and head home and then do it again in the afternoon. It is a royal inconvenience for out-of-towners I would imagine.

But since that is the game, I will play it. I would think the cardiologist would want to take the pets one at a time, so that their owners can get them out of the high stress environment as soon as possible. We are talking about pets that have a heart condition after all.

I digress. Luckily I had taken my laptop up there, so I could work while waiting. It is really distracting to try and work there plus I was wondering what my baby was thinking and doing.

Finally, I get called back for the results. Everything is the same. There was very little change in the thickness of the heart wall. My baby was fine once again. Woohoo!

I asked her about the thyroid results and the cardiologist said that he needs to be placed on a thyroid medicine to increase the numbers. She said that around 10% of cats that have the I-Cat treatment done go the opposite direction, but that it is better to supplement the thyroid than have it produce too much.

The cardiologist asked about how the pills were going. I told her that Skip really didn’t like the Plavix. She said it is real bitter and to put it in a pill capsule which you can buy from a pharmacy.

I was speechless. My first thought was that I wished I had known about pill capsules sooner. I have an awesome pharmacy now that cuts the pills up and provides me with pill capsules. All that I have to do is put all the pills into the capsules.

We have two containers. One is labeled morning pills and consists of 1/4 tablet of Plavix, 1/2 tablet hypothyroidism medicine, 1/2 tablet of Enalpril and 1/4 tablet of Enalpril which are all crammed into the smallest pill capsule available.

The second is labeled evening pills and consists of 1/2 tablet hypothyroidism medicine and 1/2 tablet of Enalpril. This pill capsule is extremely easy to fill.

That is the current status of Skip. He still has HCM, but we caught it early, so he should have a long outlook. The hyperthyroidism has turned into hypothyroidism which is better for a cat with HCM and can be easily treated with pills. Of course we had the I-Cat treatment to avoid more pills, but what can I say? Other than I’d rather it be Hypo- than Hyper- because Hyper- is bad for the heart. Skip is still on “special-buy-it” from the vet only food for his food allergies. The lump has gone away and his head only gets irritated when he gets into something he shouldn’t.

Our future is filled with twice a year blood tests and ultrasounds to keep on top of the HCM, but my baby’s outlook is filled with plenty of years of loving his parents and keeping us laughing at things like his fear of spiders and his inability to control his tail. 🙂

Mai Thai Restaurant in Florence, KY Review

Mai Thai has been around for a few years and is one of our favorite places to go eat which I felt meant it deserved a shout out.

They have a mixture of sushi and Thai food that will satisfy most everyone.

For us it is perfect because I love sushi and boyfriend likes Thai food, so both of us leave happy.

We kind of stumbled onto Mai Thai. We were looking for something to eat, and decided on Long John’s Silver which I hadn’t been to in a long time. I drove to where I last knew it was. I was surprised to see a Thai and Sushi restaurant there, but we both like that type of food, so we decided to try it. That was the best thing we could have done. We now even have one of their VIP cards which I proudly carry. 🙂

1.) Location ***** (5 stars)

For those who have lived in Florence, KY for several years, Mai Thai is located in the old Long John’s Silver restaurant building off of 42. It is located on 42 where there isn’t as much traffic as other spots, but still a high traffic area.

It is generally very easy access as well as exit. If you wanted, you could also use the connected parking lot to get to Ewing Blvd.

I will say that it seems if you are on 42 headed towards Main Street, that Mai Thai is easy to see. From the other direction, I could see to where it would sneak up on you. To help you out, it is right across from the Wild Wood Inn.

The Location receives 5 stars from us.

2.) Parking **** (4 stars)

What can I say; it used to be an old Long John’s Silver building. There is plenty of parking for the size building up front and along the side. There is also parking in back in and across in the other paring lots.

With my big Honda Pilot, I don’t have any troubles navigating their parking lot even though it is a tad small.

Parking receives 4 stars from us.

3.) Greeting ***** (5 stars)

Each time we go to Mai Thai, we are always greeted almost immediately. The hostess/waitress always asks how many people are in your party and then surveys the dining area before seating you.

I think there was maybe one time that we had to wait when there were open tables, but we arrived behind a few other couples and had to wait a minute before being seated.

And once we arrived, every single table was in use. The greeter immediately acknowledged us and told us that it would be about 15 minutes. We only waited about 8 minutes.

Overall, they are very good about getting you seated.

The Greeting receives 5 stars from us.

4.) Atmosphere ***** (5 stars)

The dining area of the restaurant is very small, but it has a lot of atmosphere. They completely redid the inside of the restaurant, so you would never guess that it was an old Long John’s Silver. The outside has been redone as well.

There are booths as well as tables and chairs. If you want to sit in a booth, get there early because those are the first to go and they usually have a good number of diners.

Mai Thai has a tiny bar area, but one is available. We’ve never sat there, so I can’t comment on it other than it is small. They do also have a sushi bar that you can sit at. We never do, but you can.

There is one TV between the bar and the sushi bar. The sound isn’t on, but it gives you something to look at when boyfriend goes to the bathroom.

They have done a great job of decorating. It’s not over the top, but at the same time makes you feel at home. It is always fairly quiet in there as compared to most restaurants. A person who voice carries is very well heard by everyone, so please beware.

The Atmosphere receives 5 stars from us.

5.) Menu **** (4 stars)

I usually use the sushi menu. It is very well done. It has the items listed in price order. They only have a couple of hand rolls available, but have a list of other sushi items. The only thing that I would like is a picture for each item, but I’m new to sushi. I’m generally willing to try an item.

The Thai menu is well organized and easy to follow. Boyfriend never has a problem finding what he likes. There are a lot of selections to choose from.

I imagine someone who is unfamiliar with Thai food or Sushi in general might be overwhelmed, but you can just ask for some assistance.

The Menu receives 4 stars from us.

6.) Timeliness **** (4 stars)

Timeliness has improved from when they first opened. We waited quite awhile the first time we were there. They were packed and it seemed like the kitchen was overwhelmed. I actually received my sushi first before boyfriend received his Thai food.

Now though, the timeliness is much better and the wait time seems very appropriate considering they are coordinating a Thai order with a sushi order. They do fairly well at this. I do usually receive my hand roll first, but I’m OK with that. Boyfriends’ food usually follows right behind.

Overall, they could be a tad better in the coordination, but at least we aren’t waiting forever for both of us to receive food.

Timeliness receives 4 stars from us.

7.) Presentation/Taste **** (4 stars)

The sushi is presented very well. Hand rolls are brought with the Hand Roll holder. The sushi is always organized very nicely on the plate. They have a cute little pitcher for the soy sauce that you pour into a cute dipping bowl. They always bring chopsticks, but you also have a fork if needed.

The Thai food seems to come with two plates: one for the rice and one for the Thai food. Boyfriend always takes a portion of his Thai food and places it on the rice plate.

The food always looks very delicious and makes you want to dive right in.

So far, the sushi crab something or other (I’ll have to update with the actual name the next time we go) is the only one that I really didn’t like. There was something with the sauce that made it taste weird to me. I can be strange about tastes though. It certainly wasn’t inedible; it just wasn’t something that was my preference.

Their house salad with ginger dressing is not my favorite and I prefer the restaurant on Mall Road more. Mai Thai’s salad dressing is not very thick, so it may just be a preference thing.

Presentation and Taste receives 4 stars from us.

8.) Employees ***** (5 stars)

Mai Thai’s employees are always working! When we first went there, there were just a couple of waitresses and they were very busy. The waitresses never stopped moving and sometimes had trouble taking care of people and bussing tables.

Given their success with their awesome restaurant, they have gotten them help. Now there is a busser as well as additional waitresses. We never have to wait for anything. They do group waitressing to a certain degree. You have a primary waitress, but anyone will help you with refilling your drink or removing dirty dishes.

The waitresses do talk fairly quietly, but I’m fine with that. Better than having them yell at me. 🙂

Their Employees receive 5 stars from us.

9.) Cleanliness of Restaurant ***** (5 stars)

When we first went there, it was nothing to see tables not bussed. This is no longer true. They have a busser to take care of the tables. They have redone their decorations and it all looks nice there. The outside has been redone as well.

Cleanliness of Restaurant receives 5 stars from us.

10.) Bathrooms

I can’t really comment on the bathrooms because I have never used them and I don’t remember what boyfriend said about them. He uses them all the time, so they must be ok.

Overall:
I love this restaurant and just in general enjoy going there. The atmosphere is very nice for 2 adults, but we have also seen kids there.

The wait staff is very friendly and the food tastes great. I’ve been eating their sushi and have never gotten ill from it. I do prefer their sushi over a restaurant on Mall Road and boyfriend is just happy to have a nice Thai restaurant in Florence to go to.

I highly recommend this restaurant. 🙂

The Mai Thai restaurant receives 4 1/2 stars from us.

Feline Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy / Hyperthyroidism – 7/9/09 – 8/31/09

We pick up where we left off in the previous post on HCM. I was waiting for the blood test results to return to see if Skip had Hyperthyroidism which can be a cause of HCM.

Skip had two pills to take in the morning and one in the evening. Luckily he is fairly easy to pill, but the problem we had was that one of the pills in the morning was very bitter. If I missed, he would taste it and then wouldn’t want to take any more pills.

I made it a point though to give Skip his pills at the same time every morning and within a 2 hour window in the evenings. The key to any medicine is consistency. Plus like most cats, Skip loves routine. The more you stick with a routine, the more willing he is to participate. Now Skip wakes me at 5:30 am to remind me that it is about time for the morning routine to start. In the afternoons he starts around 5:30 pm (sometimes earlier) to let us know that it is about time for his afternoon routine. The morning wake up call can be a pain, but you know I’d rather he do that than I over sleep and had forgotten to set the alarm.

After a weekend of holding my baby constantly, Monday finally came. I received a call from the I-Cat vet who gave me the results of the tests. The reason the I-Cat vet was calling me personally instead of an assistant was that Skip’s primary Thyroid level was still within the normal levels, but his Free T4 was not. They cannot diagnose Hyperthyroidism based just on the Free-T4 number, and need clinical signs as well.

The I-Cat vet asked me some questions about Skip’s behavior. Basically, for the past 6 months boyfriend and I noticed that Skip had started hollering at nighttime. Usually, Skip is the kind of cat to go to bed with you and be real quiet. Plus Skip would have these bursts of energy and go running through the house. Trust me Skip used to be the calm kind of cat, so running through the house was unusual. Skip had also been chowing down on the food.

The I-Cat vet said that’s enough for him to make the diagnosis and that Skip was indeed a candidate for the I-Cat therapy. He explained there were 3 treatments: pills, surgery, or I-Cat treatment. My thinking was that Skip takes enough pills now and that we don’t need any more. With surgery, there could be complications and more recovery time and there was no guarantee they’d get it all. Plus it was expensive. If I spent just a bit more, Skip would not have to be opened up and would just receive a shot which in most cases gets rid of the tumor. To me it was a no brainer to go with the I-Cat Treatment. I was then contacted by his assistant and got Skip in for the next I-Cat date July 31st.

You’re probably wondering what in the world an I-Cat Treatment is. Here is a link to their website: http://www.i-cat.info/index.html . Basically, most of the time Hyperthyroidism is caused by a tumor in the Thyroid. I-Cat vets inject radioactive I-131 into the cat (this is also a treatment for humans) which only attacks the tumor in the Thyroid and eradicates it which brings the Thyroid levels back to normal.

I felt that we had caught the hyperthyroidism fairly early. Only about 6 months had gone by since the first clinical symptoms. Granted, this was plenty of time for damage to be done to Skip’s heart, but my mind said we caught it early enough for Skip to live for many years.

Skip had to stay the night at the Care Center and then we could pick him up the next day in the afternoon. I worried about him stressing out overnight because he’s never stayed any where other than Grandma’s house on the off chance I go out of town without him.

It was a real long night and a real long day waiting for the phone call to come that his I-131 levels were low enough for him to come home. Once the call came, we headed to PetSmart to get the required kitty litter and off to pick him up.

It was funny at the Care Center a guy came out with Skip in a box. We couldn’t see him in the box, so I asked if we could open the top; just so that I could make sure it was my baby in there. I knew due to the radioactivity that they would not want him to expose everyone there. I just wanted to see him. It would really stink if we drove 45 minutes home to find out they gave us the wrong cat. 🙂

It was Skip, and so we packed him up and headed home. They give you all kinds of literature saying what you can do and what you can’t do due to the I-131 radioactivity. One thing you have to change to is using flushable kitty litter. Let me just say…gross, but safer for you, so that you do not have radioactivity sitting in your trash can. They also say to limit petting to 5 minutes and wash your hands right afterward.

Plus I was to not get his saliva on my hands. Let me ask…how in the world do you pill a cat without getting saliva on your hands? He needed his heart medicine. I made sure I thoroughly washed my hands afterwards. At the time, I was down due to knee surgery, so boyfriend was doing the cooking. We did also make sure Skip stayed off kitchen counters. That was tough.

The one that got me was the no sleeping with Skip until a couple of weeks had passed. This was the one rule I ignored. My baby had just been traumatized overnight and they wanted to tell him he couldn’t be held for hours on end or sleep with him. His feelings would have been hurt. I know he’s just a cat, but cats have feelings too.

My background is that I worked at a company that determined if cancer was caused by exposure to radionuclides, so I was willing to risk that I-131 wasn’t going to hurt me at the level it was given. Higher levels would have caused more concern. I don’t recommend everyone doing this. I’m simply explaining a tiny bit of my thought process for ignoring the last directive.

Since I was working from home due to my knee surgery, it helped me to keep an eye on Skip. He seemed calmer. He got to where he really liked having mommy at home.

One concern that came up was where they shaved Skip’s back; he could just reach the shaved portion with his tongue which is really rough. He licked it so much he caused a core to appear. I called the Care Center and they said to go out and buy baby t-shirts and put on him.

Not that was fun. How do you know what size a cat wears? Skip is a rather long and tall cat. We found that the 12 and 18 months old t-shirts were what fit best. Skip was rotten though, he figured out how to step on the end and then walk straight out of the t-shirt. We actually watched him do it. It took him around two minutes to get it off the last time. 🙂 The little brat.

All that you have to do is make sure that the t-shirt is long enough to cover the shaved patch (plus an inch) and cut the bottom off. Once we did that, he couldn’t walk out of it. I have to say Skip was stylin’ in his t-shirts. He didn’t really care for him, but he looked real good in the red t-shirt. While I would never make my pet wear clothes without a good reason, I can to a certain small degree see why people dress their pets up.

After 3 weeks, I had to take Skip to my vet to get a blood test to see if his Thyroid levels were back to normal. On Monday August 31, 2009 his results returned and his Thyroid levels were fine.

Hooray! Now all we needed was to get the next ultrasound results in October to find out how fast his HCM was progressing. I imagine a lot of people might ask why I would spend so much money on I-Cat treatment when you had no idea about the HCM.

My response is that I believed that the Hyperthyroidism was causing the heart condition to progressively get worse. Yes, I could have done pills until October, but that’s not an exact science and Skip already had to be conditioned to taking his heart meds and I didn’t want to add another one.

This is another good place to stop. I will write the next part soon and it will probably cover up until today.

The Next Generation is Interviewing for Jobs

I recently attended a Leadership Conference at work on Interviewing Techniques, and was extremely surprised at the next generation that is entering the workforce.

We were told that some of the next generation that is graduating from college and starting to enter the workforce is bringing mommy and/or daddy to their job interviews. Let me just ask, “Really?”

For those who are interviewers, you can tell mommy and daddy that they cannot be in the interview with their little baby because mommy and daddy are not the candidates for the job. If you choose to, you could ask mommy and daddy in the lobby why they think they should be there and what information are they looking to help their little baby with obtaining.

Other than that, throw them out the door. 🙂 Well, not literally, just give them a magazine and tell them that you will bring their precious little baby back to them. Well, maybe not in those terms, but that’s what I would love to say to any mommy or daddy that arrives at an interview with their precious baby. I would also like to ask the precious little baby if they need a pacifier.

I mean seriously little babies, you expect me to give you a job when you can’t even show that you can go to a job interview without having your hand held by your mommy and daddy? Forget it, it shows to me that you have no backbone and cannot work in a group environment where you need to speak up for the betterment of the team without someone holding your hand. I have no respect for you or anyone regardless of age that brings mommy and daddy to the interview.

Please don’t even apply for a job until you can stand on your own two feet and wipe your nose yourself. Nobody who interviews you will respect you and if for some reason someone hires you (doubtful), you will be always thought of as the baby. People might not say it to your face, but they will be thinking it. You will have no respect among your peers.

And yes, I used mommy, daddy, and baby as terms for you on purpose because that is what you all are; a bunch of overprotective parents and little brat.

I know interviewing can be scary and nerve racking, but everyone goes through it and by bringing your mommy and daddy; you are just making things worse. Everybody flubs an interview or two. I did, my friends did, but you know what? We took it as a learning lesson and did that much better at the next interview. Learn from your mistakes because they will make you a better interviewee in the long run.

As for mommy and daddy, your precious little baby is growing up and it is time to finally cut the cord. Let go a little and let them grow. It’ll be OK because your precious baby will not get their dream job if you show up at the interview with them, but if you aren’t there, they at least have a chance.

So, kids grow up, stand on your own two feet without assistance, and interview for a job on your own. You can do it!

Feline Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy – 06/27/09 – 07/09/09

I said I would tell you why Skip has to take so many pills, well the title says it all. He has Feline Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM). HCM is a very serious heart condition.

Last year, I noticed that Skip’s breath smelled and I knew that he needed his teeth cleaned and probably a couple pulled. So, I scheduled Skip an appointment with his vet to get a checkup, so that they could determine if he needed to get his teeth cleaned.

I was standing there chatting with the vet tech while the vet was listening to Skip’s heart. Usually the vet only listens for a bit, but she kept listening and listening. I stopped talking to the vet tech because I knew something was wrong.

The vet stopped and looked at me and said I hear a heart murmur. At first, I was like, a heart murmur? No problem. Both my mom and my grandpa have a heart murmur and they are just fine. I said, “OK, so what does that mean. Will he be ok?”

She gave me the gravest of looks and said that at this moment she did not know. Skip’s vet said that cats are great at hiding a heart murmur and usually by the time that they can hear it; it is too late and that many cats will pass away within months of the diagnosis. She said, “One thing you need to know is that you may come home from work to find he passed away during the day without any warning, but we are getting ahead of ourselves. We first need to do an x-ray to see how bad it is.” I looked at Skip and other than his teeth, Skip seemed perfectly normal to me which is the problem with this disease.

I immediately approved the x-ray. After what seemed like agonizing minutes of waiting for the x-ray to be taken and developed, the vet came in with the x-ray and was happy there was no fluid in his lungs. She also made note that the heart itself did not look bad. She told me that she hoped she was wrong, but that I needed to go and see a feline cardiologist.

She also said that Skip needed his teeth cleaned and probably two pulled, but that she could not operate until we knew the situation with his heart. She then wished me good luck. I was devastated. I held it together in the vet office, but once I got home, I lost it.

For me, Skip is my kid. I’ve been with him since he was 4 weeks old and to hear that he might have a disease that could take him in the next few months…whew! That is tough to hear. That was a lot to take when I thought all we needed was a teeth cleaning.

For the two weeks until the appointment with the cardiologist, I held Skip every chance I got. I babied him and made him feel special. My heart just wanted him to be OK and the only way I could keep an eye on him was to keep him in sight at all times. It wasn’t too hard because he usually follows us around anyway. What he didn’t expect was to constantly be picked up by boyfriend or myself when ever we saw him sitting alone.

Skip and I went up to the specialty clinic to see the cardiologist. They took my poor baby in the back and shaved his chest for an ultrasound and an echo-cardiogram. The cardiologist returned and told me that she sees a thickening of the heart wall and that he has HCM, but that currently the electrocardiogram looks fine. I had no idea what HCM was, so I asked what it was and what it means for Skip. Basically, the heart wall thickens until the blood flow slows and blood clots form. Those blood clots can dislodge and block the flow of blood. When the heart is no longer able to pump the blood or if a blood clot blocks the blood from flowing, the body will no longer function.

Here is a link to a pretty good document regarding HCM:
http://mysite.verizon.net/jachinitz/hcm/hcmbr1008.pdf

The cardiologist also said that she felt that Skip’s thyroid was enlarged and that he could have hyperthyroidism. Hyperthyroidism can be a cause for the thickening of the heart walls because the heart is working overtime. She took some blood from Skip to determine the thyroid levels, but we had to wait for the results. The cardiologist put Skip on the medicines enalpril and plavix. She said that based on what she sees that we need to use plavix as a beta blocker. She explained it all out as to why Skip was on each medicine.

Let me just say for those who cats are diagnosed with HCM, your pocketbook is going to take a hit. From the tests to the medicines, everything is expensive. For me, I don’t really care about money. I just want my baby to get well.

I then asked what his outlook was, and she said that she needed to see us back in October and that she would answer that question then because she said some cats pass away within months and that she has a couple that are 5 years past their diagnosis. Basically, what she will do is compare ultrasounds to see how much worse the heart walls thickened and then she can make a short term prognosis. She said no matter what, we have to keep on top of disease and work in six month increments. I could see in her eyes that she was worried about Skip and that this was very serious.

She also told me that he needs to stay calm and to keep him out of stressful situations until we know more. Basically, she did not want his heart being overworked any more than it needed to be. Then she also said no table food at all and no treats. We are OK with no table food. He rarely received table scraps, and he rarely asked for them. However, no treats? Wow! Skip is in for a lifestyle change. She said that the treats for cats are filled with salt to make them taste good. Too much salt is bad for the heart and we do not need anything contributing to make his condition worse.

The cardiologist said that if Skip started having trouble breathing or if he had numbness in his back legs, to go straight to the vet. Either Skip’s own vet or to drive up to their emergency clinic would be fine, but that either condition needed attention immediately.

I left with a couple of prescriptions, a cat that was exhausted from his ordeal, a paper print out that the cardiologist makes for every client explaining every thing she just explained, and myself mentally tired. I took Skip home and went up to the pharmacy and got his scripts filled.

Now I had to wait for the results of the thyroid test which were going straight to the I-Cat vet to discuss my options regarding the thyroid.

I hate waiting for the results of tests…so dear reader even though this happened months’ ago, you must wait as well because this is a good stopping point. 🙂

Skip and the Vet’s Office

Skip is awesome to take to the vet. Because he gets so hot in a cage, I simply place his break-away collar on him and use a leash. Skip is pretty much in a good mood the whole time at the vet’s office. The only thing he really doesn’t like is when they take his temperature from his hiney. I mean who can blame the guy? Personally, I wouldn’t like it either.

The vet’s and their assistants love to see Skip come in, because he is such a gentle giant. If there aren’t any dogs around, he gets to wander the office on his leash checking things out and they just laugh at him because he acts like a dog.

BTW, the key to leash training a cat…do it when they are just little baby kittens. Skip is fine on the leash, but you can’t lead him…he leads you. My Missy cat that I had as a kid you could lead though. We used to take her for walks around the yard and we used to let her play outside on her leash while we were working near by.

I think that Skip is so good at the vet’s office for three reasons: 1.) He has a good disposition, 2.) His first vet was awesome, and 3.) He knows he can trust me.

1.) He has a good disposition

Skip is a really large orange tabby cat that was really close to being a very rare male calico. When I say he is really large, I mean large is in tall and long. He is the same size as most medium size dogs, and is larger than some.

I’ve had Skip since he was 4 weeks old. I know that is really young to take a kitten away from his mommy, but at 4 weeks, he was the size of a normal 6 week old kitten and his mommy couldn’t produce enough milk for all the kittens. Plus they were all litter trained and eating kitten food.

I picked him out because he was really cute sitting on the foot stool with the hiccups that shook his whole body. So, I became Skip’s adopted mommy that spoiled him to no end, but didn’t let him get away with anything.

The only person that Skip doesn’t really care for is unfortunately my dad. My dad loves cats too. We have a sweet picture of dad napping with Skip on the day I got him. We have no idea why Skip doesn’t care for dad, but dad just takes it easy with Skip trying to get in his good graces.

Otherwise…people wise, Skip likes most people once he’s brave enough to come out for visitors. I remember once with a little 2 years old; Skip let the kid pull his hair without a peep and even brushed up against the kid and knocked him over. Skip checked to make sure the kid was OK because he didn’t mean to knock the kid over; Skip is just a big cat.

2.) His first vet was awesome

Skip first vet was an older gentleman that had a great office staff. When I would take Skip in as a kitten, they would play with him with their pens. The vet would even play with him. Skip just has a way about him that most people want to hold him or play with him.

Also, once when I took him to be fixed, they asked if they could play with him until the surgery. I told them sure. So, that whole morning, the assistant at the desk had him on her desk, playing with him. She told me when I picked him up that he “helped” her with her paperwork. She told me that she had an awesome morning with him. 🙂

It used to take me at least an hour and a half to get out of the vet’s office because everyone was playing with him. I never minded though, and I never scheduled anything afterward.

Skip now has a new vet’s office that just loves him to death. They know him by sight without me being there and Skip has a head bump for just about everyone there.

3.) He knows he can trust me

I learned with my Missy cat that cat’s can sense your feeling and if you are scared or upset. If you are either, then they will be as well. I make it point at the vet’s office to talk normally and try not to show any nervousness. I got tested on this last year, but did OK. Skip still knew I was worried about something.

I also became his protector at 5 weeks of age. I brought him home to my other cat, Socks, who was just a few years old. Socks was, in general, mean to anyone that she met. I spent a week of the standard let’s meet each other stuff and felt that Socks was ready to spend some time with Skip face-to-face with me there. All was good until I turned my back to make dinner. The next thing I knew, she had him down and was ripping his hair out. I broke it up and rescued him. He was terrified.

After a few more tries over a few months, I actually found Socks another home where she’d be the only kitty (I used to get Christmas cards from her owner), and I got another kitten to play with Skip. They were fine for 3 years, and we had a happy home. Then a neighbors’ outside cat visited and Mason beat up Skip pretty bad with what is called Transferred Aggression. Basically, Mason couldn’t beat up the outside cat, so he beat up Skip instead. Skip might be big, but he’s a lover, not a fighter. I imagine leaving his mommy at such a young age caused this to a certain degree.

After spending a year trying to get the cats over it, my parents said that they would take Mason because Mason and their cat Oreo were the best of buds. They didn’t like being separated any way.

Skip came to know that I would protect him as best I could. Now when we visit somewhere new, he knows that Mommy won’t let anything happen to him and that he always gets to go home with Mommy. There’s only been one time that I had to leave him over night at the vet’s and it about broke my heart.

All three of the above have contributed to Skip being a great cat to take to the vet. I don’t have as many privileges at this new vet as they still need to get to know me, but I’m working on that.

The last time, I got to help hold Skip, so that they could take a sample from a mass that he had. The vet was impressed that I wasn’t being a wimp about it and that Skip didn’t move a muscle even though I was barely holding his head. I just told her that I know my cat, and I know what to do to distract him. I think she was happy to not be bitten. 🙂

One thing that you can do with young kittens, so call your vet and just take them there for a visit. This does two things: 1.) They get trained to ride in their cage in the car, and 2.) They know that the car ride and the vet’s office is not necessarily a bad thing. I’m sure your vet would be happy to have you visit, but I would try to do it when they aren’t busy. 🙂

Long Distance to Ireland

When I was a kid, we did not have cell phones or portable phones, and calling long distance was extremely expensive. We had a rotary dial telephone.

What’s a rotary dial telephone, you ask. It’s a phone that had a dial over all the numbers with a hole for each number. To call 234-5678 for example, you would stick you finger in the 2 hole and turn the dial clockwise until it stopped. Then the dial would spin back in place and you would then proceed to do the same step with the 3. It took a long while to just dial a seven digit number.

So, you get the point of how the phone worked. Rotary dial telephones did not have any memory capability at all, so you had to either memorize your friends phone numbers or write them down. My mom had a list of common phone numbers that she called on a piece of paper taped on the wall next to the phone.

When I was 5 years old, my mom taught me to dial the phone using the first number on her list which was my grandparents’ number. I knew my numbers at this point, so she knew if there were any problems with my brother who was a very sick child that she could count on me to call for help.

Please note that there was no such thing as 911 either. If you needed an ambulance, you had to call the operator, hospital, police, or fire department for assistance. Those numbers were on mom’s notepad as well. Also, there was no digital display for the emergency personnel to know where you were calling from, so you had to be able to give them your address and maybe even give some directions on how to get to your house.

All of these were skills that as kids, we were taught by our parents, family, and nursery school if you were lucky enough to attend one. The nursery school that I attended even gave a grade out for being able to write your name, address, and phone number.

So, there I was 5 years with the knowledge of how to use a telephone. I decided to play with the telephone like it was a toy and just started to randomly dial numbers. I knew better, but I really liked dialing the telephone. Believe it or not, listening to the clicks was fun…I liked 9s the best because it took awhile for the dial to get back around. 🙂

All of a sudden there was a voice on the other end that sounded funny. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but it was in English and basically it was a Hello and who is this type of question. Well, I knew that answer because I had been taught the answers. I told him my address and phone number. He just started in conversing with me and learned all about me and my family through our conversation.

Well, mom came to check on me, and heard me talking out loud to someone, but there was no one else other than my little brother in the house and he was with mom. She came in the room and saw that I was on the phone. Thinking that I had simply dialed my grandparents, she wasn’t too worried until she asked to speak to Grandma. Of which I responded with, “I’m not talking to Grandma.” She said, “Well your Grandpa then.” Of course I said again, “I’m not talking to Grandpa.”

At this point she took the phone from my hands and politely asked who the person on the other end was. It wound up being some kind gentleman from Ireland who had received a phone call from the nice, young lady. My mom thanked him for being so kind to me, and said goodbye.

Now I was in for it. Remember what I said above that long distance was really expensive…well, calling internationally was extremely expensive. With the medical bills that my brother had, we had no extra money to pay for a call to Ireland and mom had no idea how long I had been on the phone.

Mom and I had a discussion that involved my not touching the phone unless asked to. And then the dreaded, “We’ll have to tell your father about this when he gets home.” line was stated.

Mom lost her zeal though by that time. When dad got home and we were at the dinner table she said offhandedly “You’ll never guess who your daughter called today.”, and then she launched into the story. My Dad was laughing by the time she was finished, so I knew that I wasn’t going to be spanked (yes, back then kids were whipped when punished) for it. I was however very sternly warned to never do that again and to only call the numbers on mom’s list when asked to.

Today parents have to deal with text message rates and cell phone minutes to deal with, but back then it was long distance minutes on what is now called a POTs (Plain Old Telephone) phone that could get you into trouble. 🙂