A quick update on Gotham...

As recommended by the vet, I took my handsome boy in for more tests (thanks to Sam for driving us, so I could try to keep him a little bit calm on the way to/from the appointment).

Turns out, according to the tests: in addition to his kidney issues, Gotham has hypertension as well. We’re starting him on a prescription for the hypertension and the new special prescription food for the kidney stuff. Fingers-crossed this stuff works. He’s too handsome to be sick. I’m so thankful he’s not in any discomfort and probably doesn’t know anything is amiss. The vet caught most of it so early, he probably just feels a little run down.  We’ll adjust.

Not that we’ve got much of a choice, this is our new reality...me trying to give him heart pills and food most cats hate. Yay? How do you give a cat a pill?

Updates at the end.

Wow, so here I am at Gallifrey. Again. I don’t know how many years we’ve been coming, but I think it’s year number 12.  I know I keep saying I’m never coming back, but it keeps pulling me back in!

To be honest, the programming for this year is awful. Don’t get me wrong —They have good guests, but crummy panels. Everything seems like a mish-mash or something you had to get additional tickets for or pay extra.  PLUS, who the fuck came up with “The Cornell Collective”??!!?? Is that a joke?  My nemesis gets a panel?  He was also the first person I saw when I got here. Lucky me!!  LOL!!!

Not much to do downstairs, but I’ve already made time to go down to the dealer room and bought a cd box set. I’m sure I’ll pick-up a few more things tomorrow, but I wanted to make sure I got this set before they sell out.

By the time I saw the programming schedule, it was too late to cancel the hotel reservation, so I’m just enjoying staying in a hotel, which I rarely, if ever, do any more. It’s kinda nice being in a fancy room. A little cold though. I haven’t figured out the a/c properly yet. BAH!  I just turned it off. Seemed to be the easiest course of action.

It’s weird, sitting here watching the Winter Olympics in this VERY hotel. Last time I did this was the convention where I met CBLMW.   I found myself thinking about him all of a sudden a little while ago. I had this enormous sense of de ja vu, the only things missing are the Twitter DM’s and then text messages.  <Sigh>  if he’s reading this “I hope you’re doing well, and maybe we can catch-up one day soon”.

Now, if only curling could come on (I LOVE CURLING!!!).

Well, I’m getting kind of hungry. I’ll post later.

Updates:

We walked down the street and picked-up sandwiches and stuff to bring back to the room.  Figure Skating was on, plus some ski jump stuff. Curling finally came on sometime around 1am and was AWESOME!! I think I got to sleep sometime after 2am and got up around 6am and watched more curling, skiing and (I think) biathlon (skiing and shooting). Not in a hurry to get downstairs, plus my head hurts a little from the couple of cocktails I had last night (I’m not used to that anymore).

I’ll head down to the convention later.

Sunday Morning:

Not much of interest here today programming-wise. There is a panel later today I’d like to attend, but it’s not until around 4:30pm, so I think I’m just going to do another turn around the dealer room and then head home. I don’t feel like sitting on my ass, killing time for 8 hours just to see one panel.

So, I’m going try and pick up a couple of things, then leave.  I want to hang some pictures and do a little cleaning today at home, so I can relax tomorrow (holiday Monday). I also want to drop by Marshalls and Home Goods at some point....

I got home a little while ago and it’s so nice to just relax and take stock of things. I have a huge amount of document shredding to do and a ton of stuff to put away in cupboards/trash (I moved furniture around), but it’s so nice to be home!

I got a little bit of distressing news yesterday, I’ll post about it later. It played a part in me deciding to head home.

The news: Okay, so around December I thought it looked/felt like Gotham was losing weight. I wasn’t sure, so I decided to keep an eye on him.  I measured his collar and it was getting looser and looser. He’s been on prescription food for a few years, so I thought maybe he was bored with it and not eating as much. I did some research and found a food he liked that was good for him in his situation. He gained some weight back, but I wanted to take him in to the vet to get checked out and to have his teeth cleaned (he’s never had it done). The vet said his teeth looked good and there was no real rush for the cleaning, but he was concerned about the weight loss and a couple of other things, so we did a full senior blood and urine panel. I got a call from his vet Saturday with the results and he’s got kidney issues. Luckily, we caught it early and we are hopeful that a change in diet will keep it under control, but I guess a lot of cats don’t really like the prescription food, so we’ll see what happens.

While I was typing this, the vet called again to let me know that they need to run another urine test. I have to take him in Saturday to get his blood pressure and other things tested, so I guess we will do yet another test then.

I’m grateful all this was caught early and I understand it’s pretty common, but I’m still upset. Gotham has been with me for almost 12 years and is just about the most important thing to me. The thought that, in addition to his normal immune system issues, he has something else to battle breaks my heart.  I just want him happy and healthy and around for a long time to come. My poor baby. At least it doesn’t hurt him (I asked if it causes pain/discomfort and the vet said no). 🙁