Lemme tell ya 'bout your blood

[lizblackdog]

*sigh*

just when things were looking good for the weekend, the body decides to piss me about. Urrrgh.


in other news, Mum is looking like she might be out of hospital this week. I was there when the doctor came to talk to her about her test results, so I got it straight from the horse's mouth - she has cirrhosis of the liver, which wasn't news, but at least there wasn't anything else wrong - cancer runs in our family, and they had to rule that out.

Th doctor also told her that they lose about 50% of the patients that come in as bad as she was, but that if she sticks to not drinking she'll be fine. I'm very glad the organ she chose to sabotage is the one with all the built-in redundancies and regenerative capabilities.

She's still very weak (she'd almost starved herself to death as well, because the huge swelling and liquid retention round the liver made it hard for her to keep anything down) but she's going to be all right.

it's insanely hot still, and very uncomfortable. Mum phoned this morning to give me the day off from visiting, bless her heart. So very not fun tooling around on buses in this. Last night I was mean and shut Cassie in the bedroom overnight just so I could open the damn windows - it's almost worse at night, when the building gives up all the heat that's soaked into it during the day. She didn't actually object; she tends to stay in the wardrobe once she's had her late-night feed anyway.

james_the_evil1 gave me a good idea for improvising catproof window screens, though - the easiest way to rig those will be to duct-tape heavyish plastic mesh over the windows. Hopefully be able to put that into operation over the weekend.

Comments

[christinuviel.livejournal.com]

Glad your mum is going to be OK! =) It must be a huge relief! xx

[orac-zen.livejournal.com]

Very good to know your mum will be okay.

[huntingdon.livejournal.com]

Excellent news about your mother

[indranee.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad she's alright.

[danasaur.livejournal.com]

cat proof window screens are wonderful.
Air conditioning is neccisary for anyplace you want to live in Florida, because in the dead of summer, people actually die from overheating, but the power always goes out for hurricanes. I recall people dying from heat stoke when this happens...those cat proof window screens save me :D

Don't try rigging up a mister inside, though. It's great innitilly, but then it smells like mildew. That was an "I've gone a week without fucking ac and it's 90 degrees in here!" idea.

Yay for good news, anyhow :)

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

oh, I'd certainly die if I tried to live in Florida! the summers here are not that hot by US standards but a. my personal heat tolerance is very low and b. very few buildings in England are air-conditioned.

James (who also lives in Florida) was a little incredulous that screens aren't standard-issue here either - but cats here are usually indoor/outdoor and we don't have the sort of insect life that makes screens necessary either. As I said to him - "you live in a tropical swamp, what the hell do you expect?"

[ghost07.livejournal.com]

Great news about your mother...:D

The screens sound perfect...I thought the insects were everywhere in the world...heck! I'm moving to England...I hate bugs like you hate heat...lol

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I wish you did live here. It breaks my heart when I read about you not being able to afford doctors and things... it may not be the perfect country but at least everyone still gets free medical care.

[danasaur.livejournal.com]

free medical care...
*drools*

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

it's not always good medical care and there are often waiting lists, but everyone gets it.

very glad I live here.

[danasaur.livejournal.com]

When you run into situations where it's like "Alright, which necessary medical procedure is more likely to kill me, so I'll fix that one first.." the idea of waiting lists stops bugging you :\

[danasaur.livejournal.com]

It's crazy to think about people who live out of state and don't have ac!
You're heat tollerance is going to be low if you live someplace that's never hot like this, your body adapts to it's surroundings pretty well. My cold tollerance is awful, in the winter, I complain about "cold snaps" that mean it's not even cold enough to freeze water, I'm a wuss in the winter, but a hard ass in the summer :P We get a lot of Brittish tourists in Orlando who go to the water parks when it's like, 60 degrees out, and Floridians will be like "What the hell are they thinking?!"

I use to work in a tourist attraction type McDonalds where they called Brittish people "pinkies" because of the horrible sunburns they tend to get when they come here.

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

Well...yeah LOL
I got am urgent call from mladypain this morning, her main window AC unit died in the night & she needed me to help her get & install a new one 'cause it was too heavy for her to lift
It was a real production 'cause you have to put wrap pieces of solid plastic in around the edges to keep cats in & bugs out, and screen up to keep things away...But it was 8000 degrees in her house so it was necessary.

[kronob.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear she's ok :)

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear that your mother is going to be able to recover. You're right - it's fortunate that the liver has such great regenerative abilities.

[beebarf.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad to hear your mum is on the mend. I hope she heeds this wake up call about her drinking - do you think she will? Are the hospital going to offer her any support in this this?

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I don't know if the hospital will help - she'll likely turn it down if it's offered anyway.

however, you just reminded me of something. When I came off heroin, my mother was the only one who didn't believe that a relapse was inevitable. She was the only one who showed faith in me, when all my family and all her friends were going round saying "once a junkie always a junkie, don't let her in your house, don't trust her!"

so, yes, I believe she won't drink again. It's the least I can do.

[beebarf.livejournal.com]

It must have been very valuable and reassuring to you having support like that, and I'm sure you will be a fabulous help to your mum as she recovers.

I'm a firm believer in that if you want to do something enough, you can. Yes, you might be genetically pre-disposed to addiction, but it can be resisted. As an analogy - we're genetically pre-disposed to reproduce but most people can limit that or even avoid it altogether :o)

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

Well, she was right and everyone else was wrong - though I do wonder if some of them are still waiting for my shoe to drop after five years. They'd better not hold their breath.

I'm glad you reminded me of this. I think it'll help to say it to her.

[pookha-hare.livejournal.com]

glad things are looking better for your mum.
great idea to remmind her of her faith and trust in you and that you will try and do the same for her.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

Thanks, darling :)