Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in hometime's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
9:26 pm	We're ok, I'll talk about it in a few days.
8:42 pm	Goodbye little Freya.
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
10:50 pm	Freya again Yesterday the vet started her on appetitie stimulants, since she hadn't eaten anything solid since Wednesday. Tonight when we got home, the next door neighbours were filleting fish that they caught yesterday, and offered us some scraps for the cats. Breakthrough- Freya loved that fish! On a less positive note, she seems to be finding it harder to get comfortable, which may be the tumour or may be her pelvis aching from the weather change, which would be less sinister. So, still here, basically in a holding pattern for now.
Friday, November 20th, 2009
9:44 pm	For those who know my cat Freya, she is not doing so well. The tumours in her bladder have grown, and she's not eating. She started on new medication today, which may shrink the tumours. If she's not eating tomorrow, we will try an appetite stimulant, but if she doesn't eat soon we may have to make the hard choice sooner rather than later. On the positive side, she is not in pain or distressed. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, November 14th, 2009
12:31 pm	Freya again- bit sad We finally have a diagnosis for why she has had a bacterial infection in her bladder for so long. She has tumours in her bladder, which are providing a site for the bacterial infection. Obviously this is not good news. When she kept on losing weight, the possibility of cancer did cross my mind. And yet, on one level, this has taken the pressure off. When she was obviously not well, and we didn't know why, I felt like I was fighting to save her, if I didn't sort it out she could die. Well, I can't save her now. This is not a curable disease in cats. All I can do is look after her, and see how this disease progresses. That makes it sound as though we're being passive about this. We're not. She has antibiotics for the bacterial infection. We're weaning her off the prednisolone she takes for the pemphagis, so that she can start on piroxicam, which may slow the tumour growth. We've booked the cats in to stay at the cattery attached to the vet clinic instead of our usual cattery over Christmas, so she can have medical attention from her regular vets (who are absolutely fantastic, I will say). She is more interested in food, still very thin, but eating ok. Less blood in the urine. We'll see what happens.
Sunday, November 8th, 2009
11:00 pm	Thank you to everyone who sent well wishes to Freya. She has an antibiotic resistant bladder/kidney infection, so as soon as her lab results come back she will be on some specific antibiotics. She has been eating better for a few days, although she threw up again tonight. We had a lovely weekend- some wonderful visitors and a lovely cocktail party. I think that quatrefoil has a bit of a crush on Kevin Mcleod- when he described a room as having a 'stygian gloom' on 'Grand Designs' she was rather excitable! Hermes was all over Hunydd, and after they lelt, he collapsed on the couch and snored! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
7:57 pm	the feeding Freya saga continues.... Thoroughly boring, unless you are interested in my crazy cat ladiness... Freya is continuing to lose weight. She'll have a couple of days when she'll eat more, but then a few days of no more than a mouthful at a time. So, I checked on the internet. She should be getting about 200 calories a day. There is no way that she has been eating that much! I've been supplementing with pediasure, but she'd need 200mL of that a day to meet the 200 calorie target (assuming that she didn't eat any food at all). And I've only been giving her 20mL a day, because if I give her more than 10mL at a time she throws up...... Tonight she's only had two mouthfuls of cat food. I'm going to try some intensive feeding tomorrow and see how she goes. Also, when researching what to feed Freya, I was surprised (or not so surprised) to find that Pediasure is being marketed to mums of fussy eaters- http://pediasure.com/ Yeah, because a multinational company can guilt worried mums into buying a food supplement when their child shows normal toddler eating habits. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
2:09 pm	The other night at ballet, I noticed that one of the young girls had a brown mark on the back of her pink leotard. Very occasionally girls do have menstrual accidents, and then I always mention it to them as discreetly as possible, so they can go clean themselves up before anyone else notices. I was a bit surprised at this girl, as I did think that she was quite young to be getting periods yet, but I did discreetly mention it to her. So much for discretion. She gasped, looked at her butt in the mirror, and loudly exclaimed that she had vegemite on her bum. The whole corner of the room heard her. She went to clean it off, while we all silently wondered exactly how she got vegemite from her sandwich onto her bum. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
11:34 pm	I looooooove my husband sooooooo much! Because he is going to do my tax return for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! True love! (Comment on this)
Monday, October 26th, 2009
8:06 pm	Mishymoocow says that I should post more often, so here it is: We had an absolutely lovely weekend. KG's book launch was great, and we caught up with lots of people (bar_barra, my dad has finished the book already, and gives it the thumbs up). Then we quickly visited mishymoocow & uncie N, and I drooled over her lovely book of Vionnet dresses. Then we visited splodgenoodles & tenbears. Splodgenoodles made me a wonderful pair of felted booties!!!!!! Nobody has ever knitted me a present before (except when my grandmother made me a jumper that wouldn't fit over my head without a bilateral ear amputation), and I am absolutely chuffed. Then we went to our twenty year school reunion. It was good- much better than I expected. It was fantastic to catch up with people, and there are some who'd I'd like to stay in touch with. Amusing tale later on..... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
10:51 pm	Hermes is particularly fond of pouncing people (as aliette_d discovered when he pounced her feet in the night....), but is not at all stealthy. His latest game is to sit beside the shower, and pounce you when you get out. Unfortunately, he hasn't worked out that I can see him through the frosted glass wall of the shower. This morning, I saw his outline waiting to pounce me, so I pounced him first! Luckily Hermes doesn't have to actually use his stealth to catch food, 'cause he'd starve for certain! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
4:42 pm	Well, it seems to be quite a while since I've done a ballet update. I am progressing slowly but consistently. My strength en pointe is improving but I still lack the confidence to step away from the barre and into the centre. This week we learnt some variations from the third act of Sleeping Beauty (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0TpKRX8EcE - the two female variations at the start). They are so fast! I had difficulty doing them to speed, and I didn't even do it en pointe. It was great fun though, because I don't usually get to learn variations. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 11th, 2009
11:57 am	Freya is home after two days at the vet. She has a kidney infection, but is much chirpier already. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
11:57 pm	My new laptop has arrived! And it is beautiful! but not set up yet...... (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
1:55 pm	I haven't been posting for a while, for a variety of reasons. My home computer is almost dead (things it doesn't do- email, sound, CD drive, DVD drive, USB ports. Other things it does but very slowly). I'm getting a most beautiful new laptop some time this week. Work was busy but manageable for the past few weeks (I'm on holidays now though!). Family visitors for a few days, making it hard to get computer time. Plus just not feeling like writing much. My biggest issue at the moment is that Freya is not well. She is really off her food, and has lost a lot of weight (from a high of 4.4kg to 2.8kg, so a very dramatic loss). It is probably a result of the pemphagis- the internet tells me (Dr Google is of course a reliable source of medical information!) that in humans pemphagis often causes depression & loss of appetite. While it is hard to tell if she is depressed, she definitely has a loss of appetite. Nothing tempts her for more than two days- we have worked our way through regular cat food, fancy cat foods, fresh beef, fresh chicken, bacon, pasta sauce, ice cream and smoked salmon. Currently I am giving her Pediasure with a syringe to keep her weight loss under control (Pediasure is the formula that they use for kids with nasogastric tubes and g-buttons. It is lactose free and easy to digest). (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 19th, 2009
10:42 pm	Went to SCA guild day- it was very nice hanging around, catching up with people, made some buttons. I went home before the feast because I had a headache, and fell asleep, so we missed the feast. Oh well. (Comment on this)
Sunday, August 9th, 2009
10:11 pm	Oh, and Freya's 'burnt' nose in May and infected foot in June were both flares of her autoimmune disease. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
10:00 pm	cat update Chatting to splozza last night, it came up that I hadn't told people about our latest cat developments. Freya has developed a relatively rare autoimmune disease (pemphagis foliaceus), where her immune system attacks the layer holding her skin on. It causes blisters and big sores on her nose, ears and feet. It is under control now, but I have to give her tablets (prednisolone) to keep it under control. I grind up the tablets in a pillcrusher, dissolve them in milk, and squirt the milk into her mouth. She used to take tablets hidden in food, but she refuses these ones- apparently prednisolone has a strong taste, so they are not easy to hide! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 17th, 2009
3:16 pm	I should watch PlaySchool more often Today featured dinosaurs made from kitchen utensils- tongadactyl and boxadon (missed the other names unfortunately). Classic. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
11:54 pm	I think that I might have the flu. I have mild flu-like symptoms with lots of headaches. Unfortunately, that probably means swine flu, as I had the vaccine for the regular flu strain at work this year. Well, I will just have to spend the next few days/rest of my holidays in self-imposed quarentine. Bummer. On the other hand, pottering around at home by myself is part of my usual holiday behaviour, so not a big change. (7 Comments |Comment on this)