Murphy is GONE...at least for now...

So backing up a few months again (maybe one day I'll be able to keep this updated as things actually happen instead of posting about things 2 months after they happen), I had my final battle wih Murphy's Law...at least my final battle until Mr. V deploys again. A 7 month deployment isn't so bad right? Some military wives have to endure 15 month deployments so I figured that while it would suck, I could easily handle a 7 month deployment. Well...I handled it, but not without wanting to shoot myself, or shoot Murphy.

Just when I thought that it couldn't get any worse, it did. You would have thought that by this point I would know to never think "it can't get any worse!" Well, about 2 weeks before Mr. V came home, one of my cats got really, really sick. This wasn't just any cat either. This was Moses, my "replacement" cat for the one that I lost to leukemia 2 years ago. While I know that he could never completely replace the one that I lost, he still means so much to me because he filled the hole in my heart when little Cledus died. So out of all of my cats, this was the 2nd worst one that it could happen to (the first being my original Wendy :-)). I woke up one day and noticed that he seemed a little lethargic. This was weird, but since they sleep almost all day anyway I just waited to see what happened later on that day. That evening when I fed them all, Moses didn't come running to the food. This was odd, very odd. He always comes running when he hears the food. I searched him out and found him sleeping on my bed. I picked him up and brought him to the food where he proceeded to fall asleep with his head in the food bowl. Thats when I realized that some was REALLY wrong. I was actually talking to Mr. V online at the time so I told him I was going to take Moses to the emergency vet. I called a friend of mine who is a vet tech, and she offered to go with me. The Pet Emergency Center is 45 minutes away so I welcomed the company.

It turned out that Moses had a common problem in male cats - he had crystals in his urine, which had caused a blockage, and he needed to have his bladder drained. This was bad, but curable. The only problem was that Moses was acting completely fine until the day I noticed that something was wrong. By that point he had progressed to a stage where the problem was more severe. He stayed overnight at the PEC, and then was brought to the local vet in the morning where he spent another week. An ultrasound showed that not only did he have crystals, but he also had bladder stones, so emergency bladder surgery was preformed. During the surgery, they found urine in his abdomen, which indicated that he had a tear in his urethra. This was bad, very bad, because if that tear didn't heal, there was no chance of him surviving. There was just no way. He also had kidney levels that were off the charts and a horrible bladder infection which I guess goes without saying.

At that point the vet called me and told me that he had less than a 1% chance of survival and asked if I wanted to have him euthanized right then, since he was already out under anesthesia. Well I panicked. I freaked out. I could barely even process what she had told me because I thought that crystals were a routine problem! I never even dreamed that it could be as bad as it was! I told her no, I didn't want him put to sleep yet. I had to talk to my husband. I had to process everything she just told me and I was babysitting at the time which meant that I couldn't even be there to say goodbye to him. He wasn't even guaranteed to live past the few hours it took for me to finally get everything straightened out. But...thankfully, I DID say no. And thankfully, the vet that had taken his case was a vet who specialized in critical care. She personally didn't have the ability/knowledge to save him, but I am so thankful that she called a specialist and read some case studies. In the time it took for me to track down Mr. V in Iraq and for the lady I was babysitting for to come home, she had increased his chances of survival to 20%. I am so thankful for a good friend of mine who dropped everything she was doing to come to the vet with me at this point. I didn't know what was going to happen and I didn't want to be alone.

At this point the vet told me his chances of survival had increased but he was far, far away from being out of the woods yet. I didn't want to have him put to sleep when I wasn't there to say goodbye earlier, but I also didn't want him to suffer, so I asked her to tell me the truth and if she thought that I just needed to have it done. She said that while things were still really, really bad, she didn't think it was time to give up hope yet. That was all it took for me to say "do whatever needs to be done."

So to make a long story short, after a week in the hospital hooked up to a catheter and IVs, his urethra tear healed. His bladder cleared up and the crystals disappeared. Unfortunately, he now had a nasty infection to fight off. Between his kidneys and his bladder he was a mess. Once the urethra tear healed (which in itself is apparently something close to a miracle!), his biggest problem was the infection. If it didn't go away, it would kill him.. 2 months, 4 rounds of antibiotics and several thousands of dollars later, I took Moses in for his final checkup. That was 2 weeks ago. He recovered like a champ!! He's truly my miracle cat and I am so thankful that I said no when they asked if I wanted him euthanized right then and there. I am also so thankful for the vet who took the time to really research his case and to go out of her way to help him. Moses will have to eat a prescription food for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, due to the severity of what happened to him, I was told that he isn't likely to survive this if it happens again. Thankfully, the food should prevent it from happening again. As much as I wanted to deny that he was really sick, I also have to admit that I wasn't sure that this day would come. Each re-check that he had made me so nervous because it took so long to get completely good news. But the last one was good. My Moses is a fighter and hopefully he'll be around for many, many more years :-).

So let's recap:

In the 7 months that Mr. V was gone:

~A shelf fell down in the closet. And of course it was the type of shelf that can't just be replaced easily, it needs to be reinstalled. Needless to say, the closet held all of Mr. V's clothes so I decided to completely ignore that one until he got home.

~Our lawnmower didn't work, which led to 2 foot high grass (call me stupid but I wouldn't even begin to know how to buy a lawnmower), so finally a neighbor took pity on me and mowed half of my front lawn. He sent his son over to mow the rest, and a friend's husband spent 3 days untangling the jungle in my backyard. Needless to say, this was the perfect time for Washington to have a drought. I know a lot of people were freaking out about the lack of rain. But for me, that meant dead grass. Dead grass doesn't grow so after the neighbor and the friend's husband took pity on me, my lawn stayed dead until about a month ago. Thankfully, Mr. V is now home to deal with it.

~I had one cat peeing all over the house, but with 9 it was impossible to figure out which one it was. Feliway diffusers are a great invention. They give off pheromones that are supposed to calm cats down. I already had 2 plugged in, but I resorted to plugging one in in every single room of the house. Thankfully, that seemed to work. It turns out that I found the cat doing the damage and he apparently suffers from separation anxiety and wasn't ok with Mr. V being gone. I can't WAIT to deal with that again!

~The system failure light came on in my car, followed by the maintenance required light. My car wasn't scheduled for any maintenance so this was confusing. 2 months later my car battery died as I was getting onto a ferry. It didn't just run out and need to be jump started. It died. Thankfully, the ferry workers were able to get it started to at least get me back home. I still have no idea if thats why my maintenance required light came on, but I do know that your battery dying right as the ferry is starting to load, isn't a good thing.

~Our dishwasher died. I don't think I need to explain the annoyance about that! I didn't get a new one until Mr. V came home because to save money, he wanted to be the one to install it. So I spent 6 months washing dishes by hand. I realize this isn't an extreme tragedy, but I hate washing dishes, so this really sucked for me.

~My dryer started making a screeching sound but it appeared that it was going to hold out for me. Then 3 weeks before Mr. V came home, it died. Not a huge deal right? I can line dry things. However, try line drying something in a state like Washington. Even hanging in my garage, which is dry, my clothes wouldn't dry because of all the humidity and moisture in the air. Then after Mr. V came home and we bought a new one, it wasn't delivered to us until 3 weeks later (all of their dryers were out of stock). Towels and jeans get awfully crunchy when you can't dry them in a dryer or hang them in the nice spring air!

~The cat that I was babysitting for a friend of mine for the length of the deployment developed a hernia.

~I started driving Mr. V's car because by the time my battery died I felt so drained that I just didn't want to deal with it. I decided to drive his car until he came home only to have it start making an obnoxious clanking sound underneath it. When I took it to a mechanic he informed me that I was absolutely NOT going to drive out of his parking lot without a complete set of new tires because apparently the tires that I had were so worn that they were dangerous. When I told Mr. V this he said "Oh yeah, I've known since Jacksonville that I needed new tires." Thanks Mr. V! By that point we had only been out of Jacksonville for a YEAR!! That would have been helpful to know. Needless to say, I got new tires, but the source of the clanking sound was never found. Amazingly, once Mr. V came home, the sound disappeared. Grrrr.

~2 lights burnt out in the living room. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but these lights are the ONLY lights in the house that aren't standard sized. When we first moved here it took Mr. V 2 months to finally find the correct size light bulb. It took me a few tries too.

~The hose broke. I didn't even know that could happen, but apparently a hose left in the heat can form bubbles that create a thin spot, which creates a pinprick sized hole. Several of these pin prick holes make for a useless hose. This is a big deal when I need to hose out and scrub down litter boxes once a week. Thankfully, buying a new hose is an easy task.

~Our sink clogged and it took hours and lots and lots of draino to unclog it. It took a lot of self control to not throw up while that was going on. Its also hard to prevent cats from drinking the standing water, but I wasn't about to deal with draino poisoning. I think that was the night that I finally broke down and cried my eyes out.

~We got termites. I don't think I need to explain why thats a bad thing!

~And finally, there was Moses.

I can't wait to see what goes wrong the next time he deploys!

Edited to add: My grandma also died. I don't even know how I managed to forget that when I was writing this.

I Quit

I've always heard that everything that can possibly go wrong during a deployment will go wrong, but I didn't realize just how true that was until 2 nights ago. I posted a while back about Murphy's law and all the random things going wrong for me, but I just wanted to recap, because I'm ready to quit. Deployment is only half over, so if all of this can go wrong in just 3 months, what can possible happen during the next 3 months?

So far:
~my dishwasher has completely died on me

~my dryer is making a strange screeching sound so I'm assuming thats about to die on me too.

~A shelf fell down in Mr. V's closet about 2 weeks after he left. (In that case, I simply looked at the fallen shelf and calmly closed the closet door for him to deal with when he comes back home.)

~Larry, the kitten I'm babysitting for the length of the deployment developed a hernia almost as soon as his owner deployed. Its not a huge problem right now, but he does need surgery eventually. And I'm supposed to be keeping him inactive until he gets the surgery. If someone knows how to keep a 10 month old kitten inactive, without locking him in a tiny carrier, I'd love to hear how.

~My car battery completely died, but I thought "oh well I'll just drive Mr. V's car until I get a new battery."

~Then Mr V's car started making this weird clanking sound underneath it. His alignment is also off, which I can tell just from driving it, and which he knew about before he left, but he didn't tell me (he may not have known) just how bad it was. So when I took the car in to find out why it was making a clanking sound, the guy simply glanced under the car and told me within 5 seconds that I need new tires because they are worn to a dangerous point - all due to the bad alignment. The mechanic told me flat out that I wasn't driving anywhere in that car until it had new tires on it. So great. Apparently, I was driving around a pretty unsafe car for quite some time.

~When I picked the car up, it feels great because of the new tires, but its still making a clanking sound. However, in the parking lot of the auto place, I can't hear the clanking, and neither could the mechanics, which I guess is why nothing is fixed. Of course the loudest sound I've ever heard the car make just miraculously disappears when I bring it to the mechanic and then reappears 5 minutes down the road after picking up the car.

~Our lawnmower doesn't work, nor do I know how to go shopping for a lawnmower. I feel stupid for not knowing anything about lawnmowers, but the fact is, I really don't have a clue, so I wouldn't even know where to start. Luckily I have a friendly 12 year old next door neighbor who wants $10 from me to cut my lawn. I have happily let him take over the care of my lawn.

~2 lights burned out in our living room. Not a huge deal right? I can change a lightbulb. But for some reason, our house came with standard lightbulbs in every room except the living room. The lights in there are a weird size and when we first moved here, it took Mr. V several days and a few stores to finally find the right sized light to fit in there. Of course, the normal sized bulbs couldn't die, it had to be the ones that are hard to find.

~Our hose broke. Honestly? I didn't even know that hoses could break. But somehow, some spots of the hose got a weird bubble in them, which led to a pinprick-like hole which caused the water to come out of all the tiny holes, instead of the actual nozzle. I need the hose because I have a house full of cats, and I have to scrub and bleach the litter boxes weekly, and use the hose outside to do that. OK fine. I'm capable of buying a new hose, but it just adds to the annoyance of random things breaking.

~My sink was clogged a few nights ago. We have a garbage disposal, and sometimes when I wash dishes (by hand of course since our dishwasher is broken), the water starts to build up because there are pieces of food in the sink. Usually as soon as I turn on the garbage disposal, the water drains right away. But that didn't happen this time. I ended up with both sides of my sink completely clogged with standing water and nasty food particles. I thought I was going to throw up several times. 5 hours, yes 5 hours, after noticing that it was clogged, I finally got it to drain after several attempts at making the garbage disposal work and a trip to the store to buy a plunger and some draino. The plunger did absolutely nothing to help. The draino was specifically for standing water and the directions said to give it 15 minutes to work, but 30 for bad clogs. It took over an hour for each side to finally drain once I poured the draino in (and I did each side at different times).

After the clogged sink, I just lost it. My energy and motivation just completely disappeared. I know that in the grand scheme of things, it was just a clogged sink, but for me it was the last straw in a line of things going wrong. I swear that I have never had this much go wrong on me in so little time.

But here's the best part. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse (which I really need to stop thinking) it did. I discovered 2 nights ago that we have termites. Great. So now I have to get an exterminator, although, maybe if I let the termites eat the house, then we won't have a house anymore, and therefore nothing else can go wrong with the house :-). I think that sounds like a good plan.

Murphy's Law Take 2

A quick update on my life during deployment...

Apparently writing about the bad/annoying/really inconvenient things that have happened to me is apparently an open invitation for more bad things to happen.

First...Larry, the kitten that isn't mine, has an umbilical hernia that looks like it will probably require surgery long before his owner comes back home to take him back. Of course it figures that the one cat that has something wrong with him is the one cat that isn't mine. Caring for him has now become a conversation between me, Mr. V and Larry's owner...while all of us are in 3 different places and 3 different time zones. It makes for some hard decision making.

Second...Larry, the kitten that isn't mine, is apparently determined to drive me insane. Not only does he have a hernia, but he also likes to run out the door at every chance he gets. And he's FAST. Almost every single day, I find myself running back and forth in front of the house (I only had to crawl underneath my neighbor's porch once so far), trying to catch him. I still haven't figured out how to keep him from running out the door. Having 9 cats already, I thought it was simple to keep them inside, even when they wanted to go outside. But Larry is quick and even when I think he isn't near me, he still manages to dart out the door in the 5 seconds that I have it open. I bought him a collar and a name tag, which he promptly took off and hid somewhere so I can't find it.

Third...Larry, the kitten that isn't mine, broke my finger. Sort of. A few days ago, in one of my desperate attempts to keep him from running out the door, I slammed the door on my thumb. Needless to say, Larry still escaped and my thumb quickly swelled up and turned a nice shade of purple. Running after a kitten, while trying hard not to scream in pain, wasn't my idea of a fun time. That day I thought that I just badly bruised my thumb. The next day I woke up to a thumb that was even more swollen and more purple. That was yesterday. I debated going to the doctor, but in the end I decided to just try to splint it on my own at home. I think thats the only thing a doctor can do for a broken thumb anyway. As of last night though, I'm not sure if its actually broken. I think it might be dislocated, which sounds better, but for some reason that creeps me out even more. I hate medical stuff and I hate when pieces of my body do things they aren't supposed to do. Last night my thumb was still purple and swollen but that was going down a lot. Then when I tried to move my thumb it started making a popping sound. I don't know why, but that sound just made me queasy, because my thumb isn't supposed to sound like that! Today, the swelling is almost all the way gone and the purple is starting to go away. Its still making a popping sound though and it still hurts like hell when I try to move it. I'm going to give it another day or 2 and then go to a doctor if it won't pop itself back into place on its own.

So needless to say, this cute little kitten is determined to drive me out of my mind, while hurting me in the process!

On a happy note though, I talked to my friend Alice today for about 2 hours. She's coming out to visit in 8 days and I am so excited! Its really starting to get lonely being in this house all by myself. I feel like I need a connection to my life before Washington, so Alice will get here at a perfect time!

Harry Potter is also coming out next week, and this Sunday the movie theater on base is showing a sneak preview of it for free! Mrs. S and I are going to try to go. We're just hoping it won't fill up right away and we'll be able to get seats.

So in a world where Murphy seems happy to visit me almost every day, I have some happy things to look forward to :-).

Murphy's Law

Since Mr. V has left lots of stuff has gone wrong. I think I jinxed myself. While other wives were talking about all the bad stuff that happens when their husband deploys, I sat there and said "Nothing bad has happened to ME yet!" I spoke too soon.

Since Mr. V has left:

~a shelf fell down in the closet

~our lawnmower doesn't work

~I have a cat peeing all over the house and with 9 of them its nearly impossible to figure out which one it is.

~The "system failure" light came on in my car, followed by the maintenance required light. My car isn't due for any maintenance and I have no idea what a system failure light means.

~Our dishwasher is dead. It started just by not working right. Now its dead.

I still have many months to go...what else can go wrong?