Good News for Tuffy (and Us); Sleep Experiment

Pepper and Tuffy tonight. Yes, I filled in Tuffy's pupils.

Good grief, but Tuffy's hard to photograph well after dark! I hate flashing out her eyes, and without flash everything is a grainy orange. But I need to illustrate the news: I heard back from Tuffy's oncologist this evening, and the news is mostly good. No bone cancer, no breaks, no valley fever. She apparently has an ulcerated stomach and something else that was all initials and incomprehensibility, both of which are side effects of the prednisone. The slipped disc is still a strong possibility, but the vet admitted that this can heal over time with anti-inflammatory drugs, which is what's she's on. I was able to report that Tuffy actually seems better every day. She's approaching us for food and affection instead of avoiding us as she was doing before, her head is a bit higher and her appetite is good. The vet said to gradually reduce her dose of the steroid, as it's not good for her in the long run; and to give her the lower over the counter dose of Pepcid AC for humans. So it looks as though we lucked out, and we'll have Tuffy for a while yet.

Tomorrow we leave the house at 7 AM for our two jobs at the other end of town - actually, out of town in my case. Obviously that means I have to wrench my sleep and posting schedule back much further than I've managed so far. Last night I got to bed at three, lay awake, got up again, took Benedryl, did stuff, went back to bed, and lay awake until just after John's alarm went off at 4 AM. It's 11:38 PM now, so I plan to post this, take the Benedryl, take my bath, wash my hair and go to bed. Frankly, I don't expect to do any better than to doze through four hours of new job anxiety dreams, but I've got to try.

Good night!

Karen