Too Early

Took Pumpkin to the vet for a dental cleaning. They needed him in by 8 am, since he gets anesthetized for this. It is way too early in the morning for me to be functional.

It was a relatively sleepless night because I had to hide the cat food (Pumpkin could not eat anything after 8 pm in prep for being put under) and he was so hungry that he kept trying to lick my arms. When I put them under the covers, he clawed at the covers. And when I told him to stop, he sulked and curled up on top of my arm. When he sleeps on the bed, he usually parks himself at the foot, since I am prone to roll over a lot in my sleep. At 6:38 when I woke up (beating the alarm clock by 22 minutes) he was curled up against my right side.

He knew something was up, followed me into the bathroom until I turned on the shower, and followed me, meowing all the way as I went downstairs to the kitchen, took my meds and got my shoes on.

Then came the fun part - trying to get him into the carrier. I'd brought it out of the storage room last night, and it was sitting in the livingroom all evening. Usually he and Domino will play in and around the carriers, but not this time.

He fought me for about 5 minutes, before I managed to get his head inside and use my body as a wall to encourage the rest of his 20 lbs. inside. Once inside he became the Horrible Crying Machine. He meows in a kind of Ravel Bolero rhythm. Meow. pause. Meow. Pause. Ad infinitum all the way out to the car, and to the vet's and inside the vet's. The pauses were about the same length as the meows. I could use him for backup on my next album.

Signed the paperwork, which included an estimate. Talk about sticker shock! For just the basic dental exam and cleaning it comes to almost $400. That's with a $50 Dental Health Month discount. Almost as much as my new crown cost.

Speaking of which, at 9:30 I go in to my dentist and have the temporary crown popped off and the permanent one installed. And then they need to fill one cavity, and adjust my partial to fit the new crown. I have been without lower molars for two weeks, which seriously limited my choice of cuisine. I mostly stuck to soup (Progresso's split pea is pretty good stuff) and those little stuffed potato thingies which are mashed potato with cheese or sour cream and chives packed into a paper boat about the size & shape of a baked potato. Bananas, sugar free chocolate pudding (Jello makes some excellent stuff). Broke down once and had a shake at Burger King.

And this afternoon I go to the endocrinologist, my first appointment with him. I had gone to one on referral a few years ago when I did not belong to Kaiser, and for some reason never got any good information out of that visit. I'm hoping for better luck this time. One nice thing about Kaiser is my doctor and diabetes nurse are very good communicators.

After that appointment it should be about time to pick up Pumpkin.

This Old Mouth, Part III

Amazing but true, the crown fit perfectly. And the tooth that had the cavity did not need a root canal, just a new filling. But it was a long process, drilling out the old one.

This time I was "only" in the chair for an hour, and maybe 15 minutes of that was just sitting there waiting to get numb.

Two hours later I'm still too numb for lunch. Not by much, though. I should be able to eat in an hour.

Pumpkin, The Sequel

I have to say that the folks at the Murphy Ave Pet Clinic in Sunnyvale are super. Good help is hard to find.

It was a straight shot from my doctor's appointment to the vet's, and I got there right about 5 pm, which worked out fine. They have me some liquid antibiotics to feed to Pumpkin for the next 10 days, and they want to see him back for a follow-up in a month.

Dr. Sawyer showed me the X-rays, and the giant orange furball's teeth looked fine to me. He said a radiologist will see them in about 2 weeks and hopefully will confirm that.

Pumpkin was quiet all the way home, he was awake but not quite alert. When I let him out of his carrier he wobbled a bit, and ducked when I tried to pet him. The first thing he did was check to see if the patio door was open - I cat-proofed the patio so they have a place outdoors, but it's too cold to keep the door open for long. And I figure the carpet is better for him to recover on than the cold cement covered with sequoia seed pods & branchlets.

I tried a couple of times to park myself on the floor next to him, but he's mad at me, and just walks a few feet away and lays down again out of reach. Sigh.

Right now I'm up in the computer room with Domino, and he's downstairs sulking. As soon as I finish this I'll go down and spend the rest of the evening there so I can keep an eye on him. See if he eats or drinks anything, and see if he decides to forgive me tonight.

Ever since I put the faux leopard skin throw on the sofa he has made it his home, so I would not be surprise if that's where he sleeps tonight. I don't think he's ready to climb the stairs.