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. 🙂

I Remember

Have you ever wondered what Laura Ingalls Wilder thought when she wrote her Little House on the Prairie (LHP) books? Did she think no one would read them because most people had grown up as she had and therefore the books were nothing new to her generation? Was she surprised when people did read them?

I wonder what would happen if someone today wrote a book about their childhood. Would it take years to be accepted? Or would it be a hit with young readers today as the LHP books were? Would it take someone with Mrs. Wilder’s prose to be able to pull it off?

When I grew up, we did not have cell phones, portable telephones, computers, gaming devices and VCRs, microwaves, and dishwashers came much later. Plus when we visited my great-grandparents, they had an outhouse. What would kids do today?

I’m going to start an “I remember” series here to show what it was like when I was a kid growing up in the 70s and 80s.

Quality Assurance (QA) Resume Advice

I am currently and have been in the past involved in reviewing software QA resumes to determine who I recommend we interview, and hopefully will hire. I don’t claim to be the best writer out there (probably not even close), but I do try to use as proper of English as I can. I grew up in the Midwest where ending with a preposition is required even though it is not proper English. 🙂

My background: I have been in the Software QA industry since 1998, and I enjoy doing manual testing. I would love to learn an automated test suite, but I feel that the software QA industry is flooded with automated testers. I have an Oracle programming background which makes me a valued commodity in the QA industry. I mean how often do you see a QA person with a programming background that enjoys manual testing and is good at it? Plus I can write a SQL query that puts the database administrator to shame. 🙂

At some point during my tenure at most of the companies I have worked for, I will get asked to review software QA resumes. It absolutely amazes me at how many resumes I receive with misspellings, typos, grammatical errors, etc. I circle each and every one of them with the dreaded red pen. This is my very first impression of your abilities in the software QA position, and you just failed…big time! I won’t hire you because I just realized that you have no attention to detail.

The other thing that baffles me is reading an objective that is meant for a programming position when you are applying for a QA position. When writing a resume, you should tailor the objective to the position being applied for or make it very generic. I’ll forgive a generic objective, but not one meant for another position because if your resume is for another position, then I know you plan to leave as soon as you find something else. This is a point that I feel many people see recommended, but don’t take the time to do and then wonder why they aren’t called in for an interview. We saw a lot of these during the recent recession where people were just looking for any job.

To help you get your resume past people like me and called in for a job interview where you can plead your case, here is some advice:

Use a Spell Checker – It’s there, it’s free, it’s easy to use, so why in the world would you not take advantage of it? If given a format without a spellchecker, I will copy your resume and place it in MS Word to check it myself. I do not ding for alternate spellings like ‘e-mail’ or ’email’ as an example, but I will hold it against you if you “have a typo”. Also, for people where English is not your first language, this holds true for you as well. English is the language of the United States of America, and I fully expect you to be able to communicate with the people on your team in both written and verbal form. If you show this to me in your resume, you are one step ahead.
Read your resume backwards – Believe it or not, this works. Why you ask? Well, reading a resume backwards makes your mind read each word rather than when reading normally, your brain sees what it wants you to see and not necessarily what is there. I know because I found typos in my own resume this way.
Have someone else read your resume…preferably another QA person – I did this and the QA person ripped it apart, but for good. This person also told me why certain lines were a problem and suggested ways to make it sound better. On some of the items, I had to explain where I was going with a thought in order for the person to give me a suggestion. The result is an awesome resume that has not one iota of a problem. If you don’t know another QA person, for pete’s sake don’t ask a developer as they are, in general, horrible at writing documents. 🙂 There are exceptions to every rule though. 🙂 Also, don’t just have a significant other as your only reviewer. A significant other will help you with selling yourself, but not necessarily with the information that you need to provide regarding your job.
Tailor the objective and the job experience to the position you are applying for – If you will take any job in the software industry, you should have a resume tailored to each job. A person who is currently a developer, but is applying for a QA position, should take their job history and find QA qualities that they exhibited in each development position that they held. This will show that you have always had a QA mind while working in another position. Then write a simple objective to cover the position you are applying for.
Tailor the cover letter to the position you are applying for – Don’t forget to keep the cover letter to one page as most people don’t need a recitation of your resume. Look at the attributes that an employer is looking for in a candidate, and briefly (and I mean briefly) describe how you think you fit each specific attribute and use brief examples. I usually pick at least three different attributes from the job description to use and I find an example in my past where I have exhibited the attribute.
Give full contact information – There was one resume that we received that had only the candidates’ first name and an e-mail address. There was no phone number, address, or last name. Why didn’t they want to give out their contact information? Are they hiding something? I have no idea, and the candidate did not make it past my desk.
Suggested: Use MS Word formatting in your document – Please note that this is a suggestion only. I always look at the resumes using the “Show/Hide Paragraph Mark” option. There was one resume where instead of using bullet points the candidate typed it all including each and every single carriage return. 🙂 This person also did not use a table format (you don’t have to put a border around it) which would have helped with the indention. I told my boss that there is an easier way using MS Word bullet points that you can configure and tables to accomplish what probably took them a long time to format. Note that I did not necessarily ding the person for this, but I knew from looking at the resume that they probably wouldn’t be writing any documents for me.

Hopefully, you have seen some of the tricks that are used to gather information about you just from your resume and cover letter. In the software QA world, everything you do from the time that you apply for the job all the way through the interview process is evaluated to determine if you have the QA skills needed for the position you are applying for.

Happy job hunting!!