Head over to Wife of a Sailor for the 14th installment of the MilSpouse Friday Fill-In!
1. What characteristic about yourself has either been strengthened or weakened due to your experience as a Military Spouse? (from The Albrecht Squad)
I've definitely learned how to deal with change better. I hate change. I always have. I like things to be familiar and safe, and this life definitely doesn't really allow for that to happen. So while I still hate change, I've definitely gotten more used to it and I've learned to embrace it. I've become more outgoing because when friends move away, I have to find new ones. I've always loved to travel so now I force myself to look at the times we move as a travel adventure instead of drastic life altering moves. I can't say that I always have a good attitude about change now. I still don't handle it well. I don't like moving every few years. I don't like making friends only to have them move away in a few months. But I've gotten better. I've learned to be flexible and adapt to change. So I guess my flexibility is the characteristic that's been strengthened. I never used to be flexible at all. Now I have to be.
2. What is your favorite vacation spot and why? (from ‘Tis the Life of the Army Wife)
This question is impossible for me to answer. I've loved almost every single place I've vacationed too. So instead of picking an overall favorite, I'll pick a recent vacation. Before Mr. V deployed last year, we went to the Canadian Rockies, and I LOVED it up there! Granted, he did have me in tears after dragging me on a hike up a really steep mountain, in an avalanche zone, in below freezing temperatures (in April), but its absolutely beautiful up there and its unlike anything I have ever seen before! Excluding the insane hike that I was dragged on, the trip was amazing and I can't wait to go back there again one day!
I blogged about this trip while we were on it, so here are the links to those posts:
Canada Adventure Part 1
Canada Adventure Part 2
Canada Adventure Part 3
Canada Adventure Part 4
Canada Adventure Part 5
Canada Adventure Part 6
Random Tidbits About Canada
3. If you could have any fast-food restaurant in the food court on base/post what would you pick? (from The Only Pink in a House of Blue)
I'm going to be boring and say "I don't care". The one thing Oak Harbor does have is almost every fast food restaurant you can think of. My house is closer to all of them then it is to the NEX on base, so I would really have no reason to even get fast food on base. Plus, the town is so small that if I happened to be shopping there in the first place and got hungry, it would take me all of 5 minutes to get to the fast food restaurant of choice out in town.
4. Where did you go on your honeymoon? (from Pennies from Heaven)
People in the military go on honeymoons?!?!? We didn't have a real honeymoon, which was actually fine with me. A month before we got married Mr. V had to go to Hawaii for a week, so I flew out there to see him and spent a week at a 5 star hotel on Waikiki Beach, paid for by the Navy. I guess that was our "pre-honeymoon". Once we got married we had about 3 weeks to pack up the whole apartment (we did a full DITY move), and then 3 weeks to move across the entire country. So we used the 3 weeks of travel as our honeymoon. It obviously wasn't a "real" honeymoon since we had to drive that way anyway, but we went places that I never would have ever thought I would see prior to marrying someone in the Navy. Out of all the states we saw, the Black Hills in South Dakota was my favorite part, and we spent several days there just because there was so much to see and do. I used to make fun of South Dakota, just jokingly, because it always seemed like such a boring state to me. But after spending several days out there (we spent more time than we originally planned) I love it! So now I tell people that we took our honeymoon to South Dakota :-).
5. If you could have any job in the world regardless of money, degree or experience, which job would you have and why? (from Proud to Be a Navy Family and The Calm Before The Storm)
I want to be a Civil War Historian and work on a Civil War battlefield. Why? Because I'm a huge history nerd. I have a BA in History, with a concentration in the American South, and the Civil War is the most fascinating part of that history to me. Its actually a little depressing to me that Civil War history doesn't extend out to the Pacific. There's other history out here, but its just not the same. So ideally, I'd move back East and find myself a job on a battlefield somewhere!
Friday, September 24, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
MilSpouse Friday Fill-In 12 & 13
I missed last week's Friday Fill-In, so this week I'm doing 2 of them at once.
So head over to Wife of a Sailor for last Friday's questions:
1. Do you set goals for yourself during deployment? What are some of them? (from Military Mommy)
Well, I did set some goals for myself while Mr. V was deployed, but to be honest, I don't think I actually achieved any of them. I wanted to get our house completely unpacked (we've lived here for over 2 years but we still have piles of unpacked boxes in our garage), but needless to say he's about 6 months away from his next deployment and we still haven't unpacked completely and we probably never will. I guess thats ok though because obviously we've lived here completely fine for 2 years so we clearly don't need anything in those boxes, plus we'll be moving again in about a year anyway. I also wanted to go the gym daily to get myself back in shape. I think I went maybe 10 times during the entire 7 month deployment. So the answer is, yes I set goals. Do I actually accomplish those goals? Nope!
2. What would you say to someone dating a military guy or gal? (from Mothering Off the Cuff)
I'd tell them to make sure they know what they're getting into. I realize that you can't help who you fall in love with, but this life is harder than I ever imagined it to be and I've met people who just can't handle it and end up divorcing - not because they don't love their husband, but because the life was too hard for them. You need to be prepared for long periods of separation - in many cases, this doesn't just include full deployments. In Mr. V's case he's only been on one full deployment, but right now he's not here because he's doing an exercise in Guam for a month. He's spent weeks in San Diego, Hawaii, Maryland, and Japan - all for short periods of time, but that time adds up. We've been married for just over 2 years, but we've probably only spent a year total of that time together. When he is home, his hours are long and unpredictable. Sometimes he works days, sometimes nights. So even when he's home, he's not always "home". Its not a bad life, but its definitely something that you need to be prepared to deal with, otherwise you just won't cut it as a military wife. Even now I still hate how often he's gone, but I've learned to just deal with it and accept it.
3. If you have children, how do you prepare them to move to a new place? (from The Random Ramblings of A Household 6)
We have no kids, and thats probably a good thing. I cried when I found out we were moving to Washington, and I'm already on the verge of tears thinking about our next move, because I really, really, really don't want to go back to Corpus Christi and that's a definite possibility. So if we had kids, I don't imagine that I would be able to give anyone advice on this. I can't even figure out how to prepare myself for a move to a new place!
4. Name one hobby that gets you through alone time. (from My Sailor’s Mistress)
Reading. I love reading and don't have the time to read as much as I'd like to. Mr. V also has a hard time understanding why I like to be left alone while I read. He calls it my "only child syndrome". I call it needing space to myself. And because he doesn't understand why I like to shut myself in a room away from him and the cats for a bit, its nice when he's not here so I don't have to explain to him again that I just want some peace and quiet and a chance to be alone to absorb myself into my book.
5. What’s the one food you don’t ever get tired of? (from That Army Wife Life)
Spaghetti. I could eat spaghetti every single night of every single week. My family used to eat it at least twice a week when I was growing up. I don't think its even possible for me to get sick of eating it so often.
Now head over to Wife of a Sailor for this week's questions:
1. How do you spend your deployment money, do you save, pay off bills or enjoy the extra money while it is there to buy the things you do not normally have? (from Troop Petrie)
We didn't do anything specific with the extra money. Some of it automatically went into savings, since part of our income will always go straight into savings, but as for the rest of it, we didn't have any definite plans for it. We like to travel a lot though - both day trips and overnight adventures and that can start to add up, so I guess thats where the extra money goes. If we didn't have the money, we couldn't go on our fun adventures, so in reality I guess any extra money we come into - deployment related or not - goes into our adventure fund :-).
As a side note, Mr. V did buy himself an old truck - seen here - when he got back from Iraq, but I don't know if that counts as a post deployment purchase or not since it was only $600 (not including the restoration work that needs to be done on it, but I won't add that all up until he actually has time to start restoring it.)
2. If you could relive one occasion or moment, what would it be? (from Currently On Land)
I want to go back to the Olympics! Being able to go to Vancouver during the Olympics this year was quite possibly the coolest thing I've ever done. Walking around the city and going to one of the events, was just amazing. If you've never been to the Olympics, its hard to explain what it was like. The atmosphere and the excitement around the city was almost surreal. Plus the fact that the Olympics only happen every 4 years (or 2 if you alternate between summer and winter Olympics)...and they only happen in one city...and almost the entire world is in the city at the same time, its just such a great experience. I'm already trying to figure out if its possible to go to London in 2012 for the summer Olympics, but after going to the winter Olympics I would LOVE to go to Sochi in 2014 for the winter experience again. It was just such an incredible experience that isn't something that one could easily relive.
3. What’s the worst job you ever had and if it was so bad why did you take it? (from Faith and Deploying)
I've never had a truly horrible full time job, even though I also haven't had one that I really love either. But I guess the worst "job" I ever had was a babysitting job. When I was in college, my school had a babysitting list that you could add your name and contact into to. Then parents could come by the college and pick up a list and then find a babysitter. One mother contacted me and when she found out that my roommate was also on the babysitting list, she said she was interested in hiring both of us. She made it sound wonderful - we could work with a good friend, AND she would pay us $10 an hour EACH for about 30 hours a week. AND she would be home the entire time we were there. Well lesson learned - if it sounds too good to be true, its too good to be true. She had 5 kids, which was her reasoning behind hiring 2 babysitters. I didn't find this weird at first, but I should have. I had babysat for another family with 5 kids, and while things were a little hectic, they weren't bad. That job just required a lot of energy. Well this lady failed to tell us that she had a 7 year old boy, who had sever anger problems, and he hated his baby brother. He was mean. He was violent. And he went out of his way to try to hurt his baby brother. We couldn't turn our backs on him for a second, because he was determined to seriously injure the poor baby. We ended up quitting for several reasons, but the biggest one for me was that if this kid managed to hurt, or even worse, kill his baby brother, I would be the one who would be held responsible for that and I didn't want that on my shoulders. I think we only worked for her for 2 or 3 days total, and she wasn't at all happy with us when we quit, but seriously? I'm not going to take a job where the risk of a child getting seriously injured is on my shoulders. We did what we could to keep this kid apart from the baby, but its impossible to watch a kid 24/7 when there are other kids in the picture too. It was just a horrible situation and one that I never want to repeat!
4. If you could play any character on TV, who would you be? (from Many Waters)
Kate from Lost. It should be noted that I don't watch a whole lot of TV. I usually have the TV on, but as for shows I follow and really pay attention to, there aren't many. I only became a Lost fan 3 weeks before the show ended for good, but now I've watched the entire series, and bought the box set so I'm in the process of re-watching it now. Its actually a show that I had refused to watch because I knew I'd probably get hooked on it, and I just wasn't interested in getting hooked on a new show. Then I babysat for a friend with no cable. She had 3 channels. The 3rd to last episode of Lost was on. It was the only thing worth watching on TV and even though the episode made absolutely no sense to me, it was enough to make me go home determined to watch the entire series, just so I could figure out what the heck was going on. So this seems like an easy answer to me. Tropical Island + 2 hot guys that you could have your choice of (Sawyer and Jack) seems like a good choice to me. (of course I'll ignore the fact that she's also a fugtive - everyone gets a new life on the island ;-)).
5. If you could become the world’s expert in something, what would it be? (from Army of Two)
Cats. I don't want to be a vet. I just want to be an expert on the animals in my house so I don't have to continuously spend endless amounts of money on my cats. If I could diagnose and treat them right here at home, it would just make life so much easier for me!
So head over to Wife of a Sailor for last Friday's questions:
1. Do you set goals for yourself during deployment? What are some of them? (from Military Mommy)
Well, I did set some goals for myself while Mr. V was deployed, but to be honest, I don't think I actually achieved any of them. I wanted to get our house completely unpacked (we've lived here for over 2 years but we still have piles of unpacked boxes in our garage), but needless to say he's about 6 months away from his next deployment and we still haven't unpacked completely and we probably never will. I guess thats ok though because obviously we've lived here completely fine for 2 years so we clearly don't need anything in those boxes, plus we'll be moving again in about a year anyway. I also wanted to go the gym daily to get myself back in shape. I think I went maybe 10 times during the entire 7 month deployment. So the answer is, yes I set goals. Do I actually accomplish those goals? Nope!
2. What would you say to someone dating a military guy or gal? (from Mothering Off the Cuff)
I'd tell them to make sure they know what they're getting into. I realize that you can't help who you fall in love with, but this life is harder than I ever imagined it to be and I've met people who just can't handle it and end up divorcing - not because they don't love their husband, but because the life was too hard for them. You need to be prepared for long periods of separation - in many cases, this doesn't just include full deployments. In Mr. V's case he's only been on one full deployment, but right now he's not here because he's doing an exercise in Guam for a month. He's spent weeks in San Diego, Hawaii, Maryland, and Japan - all for short periods of time, but that time adds up. We've been married for just over 2 years, but we've probably only spent a year total of that time together. When he is home, his hours are long and unpredictable. Sometimes he works days, sometimes nights. So even when he's home, he's not always "home". Its not a bad life, but its definitely something that you need to be prepared to deal with, otherwise you just won't cut it as a military wife. Even now I still hate how often he's gone, but I've learned to just deal with it and accept it.
3. If you have children, how do you prepare them to move to a new place? (from The Random Ramblings of A Household 6)
We have no kids, and thats probably a good thing. I cried when I found out we were moving to Washington, and I'm already on the verge of tears thinking about our next move, because I really, really, really don't want to go back to Corpus Christi and that's a definite possibility. So if we had kids, I don't imagine that I would be able to give anyone advice on this. I can't even figure out how to prepare myself for a move to a new place!
4. Name one hobby that gets you through alone time. (from My Sailor’s Mistress)
Reading. I love reading and don't have the time to read as much as I'd like to. Mr. V also has a hard time understanding why I like to be left alone while I read. He calls it my "only child syndrome". I call it needing space to myself. And because he doesn't understand why I like to shut myself in a room away from him and the cats for a bit, its nice when he's not here so I don't have to explain to him again that I just want some peace and quiet and a chance to be alone to absorb myself into my book.
5. What’s the one food you don’t ever get tired of? (from That Army Wife Life)
Spaghetti. I could eat spaghetti every single night of every single week. My family used to eat it at least twice a week when I was growing up. I don't think its even possible for me to get sick of eating it so often.
Now head over to Wife of a Sailor for this week's questions:
1. How do you spend your deployment money, do you save, pay off bills or enjoy the extra money while it is there to buy the things you do not normally have? (from Troop Petrie)
We didn't do anything specific with the extra money. Some of it automatically went into savings, since part of our income will always go straight into savings, but as for the rest of it, we didn't have any definite plans for it. We like to travel a lot though - both day trips and overnight adventures and that can start to add up, so I guess thats where the extra money goes. If we didn't have the money, we couldn't go on our fun adventures, so in reality I guess any extra money we come into - deployment related or not - goes into our adventure fund :-).
As a side note, Mr. V did buy himself an old truck - seen here - when he got back from Iraq, but I don't know if that counts as a post deployment purchase or not since it was only $600 (not including the restoration work that needs to be done on it, but I won't add that all up until he actually has time to start restoring it.)
2. If you could relive one occasion or moment, what would it be? (from Currently On Land)
I want to go back to the Olympics! Being able to go to Vancouver during the Olympics this year was quite possibly the coolest thing I've ever done. Walking around the city and going to one of the events, was just amazing. If you've never been to the Olympics, its hard to explain what it was like. The atmosphere and the excitement around the city was almost surreal. Plus the fact that the Olympics only happen every 4 years (or 2 if you alternate between summer and winter Olympics)...and they only happen in one city...and almost the entire world is in the city at the same time, its just such a great experience. I'm already trying to figure out if its possible to go to London in 2012 for the summer Olympics, but after going to the winter Olympics I would LOVE to go to Sochi in 2014 for the winter experience again. It was just such an incredible experience that isn't something that one could easily relive.
3. What’s the worst job you ever had and if it was so bad why did you take it? (from Faith and Deploying)
I've never had a truly horrible full time job, even though I also haven't had one that I really love either. But I guess the worst "job" I ever had was a babysitting job. When I was in college, my school had a babysitting list that you could add your name and contact into to. Then parents could come by the college and pick up a list and then find a babysitter. One mother contacted me and when she found out that my roommate was also on the babysitting list, she said she was interested in hiring both of us. She made it sound wonderful - we could work with a good friend, AND she would pay us $10 an hour EACH for about 30 hours a week. AND she would be home the entire time we were there. Well lesson learned - if it sounds too good to be true, its too good to be true. She had 5 kids, which was her reasoning behind hiring 2 babysitters. I didn't find this weird at first, but I should have. I had babysat for another family with 5 kids, and while things were a little hectic, they weren't bad. That job just required a lot of energy. Well this lady failed to tell us that she had a 7 year old boy, who had sever anger problems, and he hated his baby brother. He was mean. He was violent. And he went out of his way to try to hurt his baby brother. We couldn't turn our backs on him for a second, because he was determined to seriously injure the poor baby. We ended up quitting for several reasons, but the biggest one for me was that if this kid managed to hurt, or even worse, kill his baby brother, I would be the one who would be held responsible for that and I didn't want that on my shoulders. I think we only worked for her for 2 or 3 days total, and she wasn't at all happy with us when we quit, but seriously? I'm not going to take a job where the risk of a child getting seriously injured is on my shoulders. We did what we could to keep this kid apart from the baby, but its impossible to watch a kid 24/7 when there are other kids in the picture too. It was just a horrible situation and one that I never want to repeat!
4. If you could play any character on TV, who would you be? (from Many Waters)
Kate from Lost. It should be noted that I don't watch a whole lot of TV. I usually have the TV on, but as for shows I follow and really pay attention to, there aren't many. I only became a Lost fan 3 weeks before the show ended for good, but now I've watched the entire series, and bought the box set so I'm in the process of re-watching it now. Its actually a show that I had refused to watch because I knew I'd probably get hooked on it, and I just wasn't interested in getting hooked on a new show. Then I babysat for a friend with no cable. She had 3 channels. The 3rd to last episode of Lost was on. It was the only thing worth watching on TV and even though the episode made absolutely no sense to me, it was enough to make me go home determined to watch the entire series, just so I could figure out what the heck was going on. So this seems like an easy answer to me. Tropical Island + 2 hot guys that you could have your choice of (Sawyer and Jack) seems like a good choice to me. (of course I'll ignore the fact that she's also a fugtive - everyone gets a new life on the island ;-)).
5. If you could become the world’s expert in something, what would it be? (from Army of Two)
Cats. I don't want to be a vet. I just want to be an expert on the animals in my house so I don't have to continuously spend endless amounts of money on my cats. If I could diagnose and treat them right here at home, it would just make life so much easier for me!
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Never Forget - 9 Years
I can't believe its already been 9 years since Sepember 11th. I'll always remember exactly where I was when it happened. I was in my Argumentation and Debate class in college and our professor had us go to the library to do some research. Because you could only be logged into one computer on the college network at one time, I had to go back to my dorm room and log off my computer there, so I could log onto one in the library. When I walked into the room, my roommate, who never had the TV on in the morning, did have the TV on and she was watching the news. I remember seeing her standing in the middle of the room and as soon as I opened the door she said "A plane just hit the World Trade Center." At that point, it was only one plane, so I stood there with her watching to see what was going on, and that's when the second plane hit.
I did go back to my class at that point, which let out early because by this point, the news was spreading around campus quickly. When I got back to my dorm room again, my mom was calling me to tell me that her boyfriend (now my step-father) was ok. He worked in New York, near the World Trade Center but had thankfully been in uptown New York that morning. The moment I got off the phone with my mom, the first tower collapsed, followed soon after by the second.
I have spent more time in New York City than in any other city. I grew up a little over an hour south of the city, and its impossible to count the number of times that I have been there. The fact that so many people seem to have forgotten what happened on this day 9 years ago, is so sad and tragic to me. I guess its easy to forget things when they don't happen close to you, but its still just shocking to me that some people can't even remember what today means. Its the city that I grew up in and my husband is one of the many people still fighting a war that began soon after September 11th. For me personally, I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing the skyline of the city the way it looks now. When I was a little kid and we drove to North Jersey for any reason, I always remember the point on the parkway where you can start to see the NYC skyline. I used to get excited and say "Look there's the twin towers!" I guess no one will ever say that again. Maybe one day the skyline will start to look normal to me again, but I honestly can't imagine that it will.
(my dad and me - taken in 1988 from Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ)
(my mom and me - taken from the observation deck at the Statue of Liberty in 1988)
(This isn't the best picture of me, but this picture is special to me because it was taken in August 2001, from Liberty State Park in Jersey City. I never would have dreamed that just a few weeks later, these towers would be gone and I would never, ever see this skyline again.)
I did go back to my class at that point, which let out early because by this point, the news was spreading around campus quickly. When I got back to my dorm room again, my mom was calling me to tell me that her boyfriend (now my step-father) was ok. He worked in New York, near the World Trade Center but had thankfully been in uptown New York that morning. The moment I got off the phone with my mom, the first tower collapsed, followed soon after by the second.
I have spent more time in New York City than in any other city. I grew up a little over an hour south of the city, and its impossible to count the number of times that I have been there. The fact that so many people seem to have forgotten what happened on this day 9 years ago, is so sad and tragic to me. I guess its easy to forget things when they don't happen close to you, but its still just shocking to me that some people can't even remember what today means. Its the city that I grew up in and my husband is one of the many people still fighting a war that began soon after September 11th. For me personally, I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing the skyline of the city the way it looks now. When I was a little kid and we drove to North Jersey for any reason, I always remember the point on the parkway where you can start to see the NYC skyline. I used to get excited and say "Look there's the twin towers!" I guess no one will ever say that again. Maybe one day the skyline will start to look normal to me again, but I honestly can't imagine that it will.
* Never Forget *
(my dad and me - taken in 1988 from Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ)
(my mom and me - taken from the observation deck at the Statue of Liberty in 1988)
(This isn't the best picture of me, but this picture is special to me because it was taken in August 2001, from Liberty State Park in Jersey City. I never would have dreamed that just a few weeks later, these towers would be gone and I would never, ever see this skyline again.)Friday, September 3, 2010
Meet Moe
Moe has appeared in a few other blog posts of mine - here and here - and now he needs any good vibes, prayers and thoughts that you can spare.
Moe started out as a foster kitten, and was then adopted by a friend of mine. When Moe decided to start violently attacking his former best friend (Larry, the cat), he came to live with me for a while. My friend and I tried to reintroduce him to Larry, in the hopes that they would eventually get along, but we were unsuccessful after several attempts and we failed. (side note: I am NOT a person who likes when people just give up pets, but this was a weird circumstance. I've never seen cats fight the way Larry and Moe were fighting, and with a 10 month old baby in the house who often ended up underneath their fights, this just wasn't working out.)
So Moe has come back to live in the V household permanently. I suppose I have the option of bringing him back to the vet that I first fostered him for, but that would require him living in a cage in the vet's waiting room, hoping that someone will adopt a full grown cat. Plus, he's been back and forth between my house and my friend's house several times, and he already seems confused about what's going on, so I wasn't about to relocate him again.
A few days ago, Moe had a horrible coughing fit. Since I've only heard one of my cats cough once before, and it was just one single cough, I started googling "feline cough". His fit was enough to have me worried because on top of the fact that he was coughing, he also seemed like he couldn't breathe. An hour or so of googling led me to the conclusion that a coughing cat is bad...really bad. Every single thing I read about it, said that the cat would need medical attention ASAP. So the next day we went off to the vet. I had started to suspect asthma, based on my readings and some videos I watched of cats having asthma attacks, and the vet confirmed my suspicions. However, asthma isn't the only cause of coughing in cats. There are several other things that could cause it...the worst one being heart disease.
If you remember back in May, I wrote a blog about my cat Meepers. Meepers had died from what we suspect was undiagnosed heart disease. When he died, I did a lot of research on heart disease in cats, and its a very, very scary thing. It often goes undiagnosed, and when its finally noticed, its often too late. So of course, since heart disease could be the cause of Moe's coughing, I was worried.
The vet listened to his heart and thankfully didn't hear anything wrong with it. A murmur or an irregular beat could be indicative of a heart problem. Unfortunately though, NOT hearing one of these things doesn't necessarily mean that his heart is ok. She also took some x-rays, and sent them off to a radiologist for analysis. Her suspicion was asthma, but the radiologist was the one who would really be able to read the x-rays.
Yesterday, I got some possible bad news, and I'm now a nervous wreck. The vet called me back and told me that the radiologist definitely confirmed asthma from the x-rays. This obviously isn't good, but its treatable. However, the vet also noticed that his heart was slightly enlarged. And having an enlarged heart is just not good obviously. Now Moe has to go back in for some more tests.
Its very possible that the asthma has caused the enlarged heart, but a more probable diagnosis is that he has some form of heart disease AND asthma. Apparently, the two often go hand in hand.
So now I'm playing the waiting game. When this holiday weekend is over, I have to schedule more tests for him and talk with the vet about getting him on an asthma regimen. And I'm hoping, praying and wishing that he doesn't have heart disease.
Heart disease is the #1 cause of sudden death in cats and that's what terrifies me the most. Meepers acted perfectly normal, and then an hour later he collapsed and died. I'm terrified that I'll have to experience that again with Moe. There's medicine to treat heart disease in cats, but its really something that seems to be hit or miss. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
The absolute best case scenario here is that his enlarged heart has been caused by the asthma, and once the asthma is under control, then his heart will be fine. So if anyone can spare some thoughts, prayers, or good vibes, please send them my way. I don't think I can handle losing another cat to heart disease, this soon after losing Meepers to the same thing. :-(
Moe started out as a foster kitten, and was then adopted by a friend of mine. When Moe decided to start violently attacking his former best friend (Larry, the cat), he came to live with me for a while. My friend and I tried to reintroduce him to Larry, in the hopes that they would eventually get along, but we were unsuccessful after several attempts and we failed. (side note: I am NOT a person who likes when people just give up pets, but this was a weird circumstance. I've never seen cats fight the way Larry and Moe were fighting, and with a 10 month old baby in the house who often ended up underneath their fights, this just wasn't working out.)
So Moe has come back to live in the V household permanently. I suppose I have the option of bringing him back to the vet that I first fostered him for, but that would require him living in a cage in the vet's waiting room, hoping that someone will adopt a full grown cat. Plus, he's been back and forth between my house and my friend's house several times, and he already seems confused about what's going on, so I wasn't about to relocate him again.
A few days ago, Moe had a horrible coughing fit. Since I've only heard one of my cats cough once before, and it was just one single cough, I started googling "feline cough". His fit was enough to have me worried because on top of the fact that he was coughing, he also seemed like he couldn't breathe. An hour or so of googling led me to the conclusion that a coughing cat is bad...really bad. Every single thing I read about it, said that the cat would need medical attention ASAP. So the next day we went off to the vet. I had started to suspect asthma, based on my readings and some videos I watched of cats having asthma attacks, and the vet confirmed my suspicions. However, asthma isn't the only cause of coughing in cats. There are several other things that could cause it...the worst one being heart disease.
If you remember back in May, I wrote a blog about my cat Meepers. Meepers had died from what we suspect was undiagnosed heart disease. When he died, I did a lot of research on heart disease in cats, and its a very, very scary thing. It often goes undiagnosed, and when its finally noticed, its often too late. So of course, since heart disease could be the cause of Moe's coughing, I was worried.
The vet listened to his heart and thankfully didn't hear anything wrong with it. A murmur or an irregular beat could be indicative of a heart problem. Unfortunately though, NOT hearing one of these things doesn't necessarily mean that his heart is ok. She also took some x-rays, and sent them off to a radiologist for analysis. Her suspicion was asthma, but the radiologist was the one who would really be able to read the x-rays.
Yesterday, I got some possible bad news, and I'm now a nervous wreck. The vet called me back and told me that the radiologist definitely confirmed asthma from the x-rays. This obviously isn't good, but its treatable. However, the vet also noticed that his heart was slightly enlarged. And having an enlarged heart is just not good obviously. Now Moe has to go back in for some more tests.
Its very possible that the asthma has caused the enlarged heart, but a more probable diagnosis is that he has some form of heart disease AND asthma. Apparently, the two often go hand in hand.
So now I'm playing the waiting game. When this holiday weekend is over, I have to schedule more tests for him and talk with the vet about getting him on an asthma regimen. And I'm hoping, praying and wishing that he doesn't have heart disease.
Heart disease is the #1 cause of sudden death in cats and that's what terrifies me the most. Meepers acted perfectly normal, and then an hour later he collapsed and died. I'm terrified that I'll have to experience that again with Moe. There's medicine to treat heart disease in cats, but its really something that seems to be hit or miss. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
The absolute best case scenario here is that his enlarged heart has been caused by the asthma, and once the asthma is under control, then his heart will be fine. So if anyone can spare some thoughts, prayers, or good vibes, please send them my way. I don't think I can handle losing another cat to heart disease, this soon after losing Meepers to the same thing. :-(
MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #11
Week #11 of the MilSpouse Friday Fill-In from Wife of a Sailor:
1. What is a weird/funny superstition that you have? (from A{muse}ing Mommy on a Pink Park Bench)
I don't know if its weird, but I'm always afraid that I'll jinx things that are going well if I talk about how well things are going. For example, last November one of my cats got really, really sick and for about 4 months it was up in the air as to whether or not he would survive. Now about 7 months later, I still feel like I can't say that he's doing fine, because I feel like if I say that, then it will all go downhill again. The same goes for stuff regarding Mr. V's job. He's up for orders soon, but I can't allow myself to hope for the orders that I want, because I feel like I'll jinx it and we'll end up with the exact opposite.
2. What are your hopes and dreams for the years AFTER the military? After all, we aren’t in it forever! (from Stetsons, Spurs and Stilettos)
Who knows. We still have a good 6 years before Mr. V can even think about getting out, and after that he might as well just stay in until retirement, so wondering what will happen then, is a long way off. I know that ideally we'd settle down someplace and stop living this nomad lifestyle. However, when I went to San Juan Island 2 weekends ago, we met a volunteer at the National Park there who told us that he and his wife live in an RV and travel the country volunteering at National Parks. They spend anywhere from 3 - 6 months in each place and they've managed to see the entire country this way. I don't know if I can handle living in an RV forever (I'm way too much of a pack rat and that would require getting rid of a lot of my stuff), and I don't know if I'd even want to pick up and move that often, but I have to admit that a life of doing nothing but traveling sounds pretty intriguing to me.
3. Since [this] month is National Apple Month (no really!), I’d probably ask: What is your yummiest apple recipe? (from NH Girl Displaced)
I actually don't think I've ever made an apple recipe. So if this question is supposed to refer to a recipe that I've made I can't say that I have one. I do love a typical apple pie though. And caramel nut apples are something I can always indulge in.
As a side note, the town I grew up in had an annual Apple Festival every September. I think the last time I went to it was in high school but it was great, and I'm thinking about it now, wishing I could go this year. People get together and make tons of different apple recipes and sell them for really cheap (like 25 cents for a slice of pie). The majority of the people who make something are elderly ladies, so they were always very eager to shove their creations down your throat, but I can't say thats a bad thing. The pies, cobblers, tarts, etc were always AMAZING and I'm craving something apple now :-).
4. How long have you gone as a military spouse without talking to your husband/wife during service? (from A Navy Princess and Her Little Sailors)
Ummm...we've been pretty lucky. Even when Mr. V was in Iraq we had great communication. He had internet in his room so while we couldn't talk on the phone all the time, we were able to email, IM and Skype pretty much every single day. I guess the longest we've been without any contact is when we first got to Jacksonville after he was winged and he headed off to SERE (survival) school. He spent a week out in the desert and he had absolutely no contact with the outside world. I think that week was the only time we really haven't been able to talk to each other.
5. I occasionally watch When I was 17… on MTV. So, what was something that was significant about your 17th year of life? (fromAshley Amazing)
I started Kindergarten when I was 4, so I was always a year (almost 2 years in some cases) younger than my classmates. This never bothered me until I got to high school, because suddenly all of my friends had driver's licenses and I didn't. I didn't turn 17 until April of my senior year of high school and in New Jersey you can't drive until you're 17. So by the time I turned 17, every single person in my grade was driving, and almost everyone in the grade below me was driving. So I'd definitely have to say that getting my license was probably the most significant thing about my 17th year because I was finally able to feel like the rest of my classmates again at that point.
1. What is a weird/funny superstition that you have? (from A{muse}ing Mommy on a Pink Park Bench)
I don't know if its weird, but I'm always afraid that I'll jinx things that are going well if I talk about how well things are going. For example, last November one of my cats got really, really sick and for about 4 months it was up in the air as to whether or not he would survive. Now about 7 months later, I still feel like I can't say that he's doing fine, because I feel like if I say that, then it will all go downhill again. The same goes for stuff regarding Mr. V's job. He's up for orders soon, but I can't allow myself to hope for the orders that I want, because I feel like I'll jinx it and we'll end up with the exact opposite.
2. What are your hopes and dreams for the years AFTER the military? After all, we aren’t in it forever! (from Stetsons, Spurs and Stilettos)
Who knows. We still have a good 6 years before Mr. V can even think about getting out, and after that he might as well just stay in until retirement, so wondering what will happen then, is a long way off. I know that ideally we'd settle down someplace and stop living this nomad lifestyle. However, when I went to San Juan Island 2 weekends ago, we met a volunteer at the National Park there who told us that he and his wife live in an RV and travel the country volunteering at National Parks. They spend anywhere from 3 - 6 months in each place and they've managed to see the entire country this way. I don't know if I can handle living in an RV forever (I'm way too much of a pack rat and that would require getting rid of a lot of my stuff), and I don't know if I'd even want to pick up and move that often, but I have to admit that a life of doing nothing but traveling sounds pretty intriguing to me.
3. Since [this] month is National Apple Month (no really!), I’d probably ask: What is your yummiest apple recipe? (from NH Girl Displaced)
I actually don't think I've ever made an apple recipe. So if this question is supposed to refer to a recipe that I've made I can't say that I have one. I do love a typical apple pie though. And caramel nut apples are something I can always indulge in.
As a side note, the town I grew up in had an annual Apple Festival every September. I think the last time I went to it was in high school but it was great, and I'm thinking about it now, wishing I could go this year. People get together and make tons of different apple recipes and sell them for really cheap (like 25 cents for a slice of pie). The majority of the people who make something are elderly ladies, so they were always very eager to shove their creations down your throat, but I can't say thats a bad thing. The pies, cobblers, tarts, etc were always AMAZING and I'm craving something apple now :-).
4. How long have you gone as a military spouse without talking to your husband/wife during service? (from A Navy Princess and Her Little Sailors)
Ummm...we've been pretty lucky. Even when Mr. V was in Iraq we had great communication. He had internet in his room so while we couldn't talk on the phone all the time, we were able to email, IM and Skype pretty much every single day. I guess the longest we've been without any contact is when we first got to Jacksonville after he was winged and he headed off to SERE (survival) school. He spent a week out in the desert and he had absolutely no contact with the outside world. I think that week was the only time we really haven't been able to talk to each other.
5. I occasionally watch When I was 17… on MTV. So, what was something that was significant about your 17th year of life? (fromAshley Amazing)
I started Kindergarten when I was 4, so I was always a year (almost 2 years in some cases) younger than my classmates. This never bothered me until I got to high school, because suddenly all of my friends had driver's licenses and I didn't. I didn't turn 17 until April of my senior year of high school and in New Jersey you can't drive until you're 17. So by the time I turned 17, every single person in my grade was driving, and almost everyone in the grade below me was driving. So I'd definitely have to say that getting my license was probably the most significant thing about my 17th year because I was finally able to feel like the rest of my classmates again at that point.
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