a battle for kira kitty

well, once again, this is my first post in a while. unfortunately, it's not for a good reason.

starting in late august, kira came down with what seemed at the time to be a cold: runny nose, sneezing, and watery eye. this isn't unusual for kira; we have thought for a while that she has feline herpes. she'll periodically have these same symptoms, they'll last for a few days, then they'll subside. this time, though, after two weeks or so the symptoms did not go away.

luckily, her regular vet appointment was scheduled for mid-september, so she was going to see the vet anyway- good timing. the vet prescribed her antibiotics, and we started on them. unfortunately, they were liquid, and she didn't always swallow everything. when the first course ended and she wasn't better, we started on a second course. by the time the second course started, she had gotten quite good at drooling and spitting out a lot of the antibiotic.

a few days after she finished her second course of antibiotics, i came home from work on a friday afternoon to find that a nickel-sized lump had grown on her forehead, just between her eyes. i took her to the emergency veterinary clinic that evening, and after waiting for a long time (there were a lot of emergencies that night), the doc that examined her told me that he thought she had an abcess. (that's when an animal gets injured and a bacterial infection starts in the wound, causing the animal's body to try to fight the infection by encapsulating it in fluid. a large lump forms under the skin.)

i thought it odd, because kira rarely gets involved in scuffles with the other cats, she doesn't go outside, and she didn't have a mark on her! the vet recommended opening up the abcess and cleaning it out. i asked if it would be OK to take her to my vet on monday, and he said that as long as she didn't run a temperature and didn't stop eating and drinking, it would be fine.

i made an appointment on monday, and kira's doc took a look at her. she felt, as i did, that it probably wasn't an abcess. however, she said we'd know for sure by hitting her with a round of antibiotics. if this was an abcess, it was small, and the clavamox would kick it for sure. this time we did pills, and by the end of the course, the lump had gone down, her nasal symptoms had cleared up, and even the eye was watering less.

three days later, however, the lump was back full force. in addition, there was some swollen, pink tissue inside of kira's right nostril. i brought kira back to the vet, and she took some xrays of kira's head and got a sample of the swollen tissue. (kira was very good for the xrays, by the way, she lay totally still and did not need anesthesia!) the vet couldn't find anything conclusive from the cytology or the xrays, although we could see that kira's sinus seemed to be somewhat full. doc recommended that we go to an internist at the emergency care facility.

we were able to get an appointment for kira this past wednesday so she could have a CT scan, more xrays, and get a better picture of what was happening. i stayed with kira through the consultation (except for the xrays and samples- i was in the waiting room for those.) they were able to get some time on another clinic's CT machine, so i left kira there so that the techs could take her for the CT that afternoon.

unfortunately, the results of the CT were not good. kira has a mass growing in her head that has filled her right nostril; it's also behind her right eye and in her sinus. it's destroyed part of her orbital bone (the bone just underneath the eye near the nose), and it's what accounts for the lump on her forehead.

kira stayed at the clinic until last night due to an incident with her breathing on the way back from the CT scan, and she had a biopsy on the mass yesterday morning to determine what type of cancer she has.

i'm antsy to find out answers now... we should hear about the test results sometime next week. i'm ready to find out what our options are so we can get going on helping her. i really hope we can. we should also hear from the oncologist next week.

i'll try to keep posting...

what are your politics?

this is a pretty fun "who's your candidate" quiz from abc news. i like the funny graphics, and it's interesting to try to pick out who said which item...

http://abcnews.go.com/politics/MatchoMatic/fullpage?id=5542139

9-0-over and over

i am currently watching the tivo'd series premier of 90210.

why am i watching this? i truly have no idea.

the more intriguing question, though, is why am i liking this? i wasn't even a devoted fan of the show the first time around...

back in the saddle

after a week-long hiatus due to various distractions (work, start of school for LM, a bridal shower, labor day, a staff picnic for work), honey and i got back to our training last night. i'm happy to say that this workout went better than the last. i made it all the way through this time, which i didn't do last time.

i do have to say that last time we did a very hilly course, which was probably more challenging than i thought it was. this time we went easier on ourselves and ran in the neighborhood across the street, which is relatively flat, in comparison. same workout, different terrain. it made a big difference!

in other news, i'm really becoming a facebook addict! don't believe me? fb me!

training, week 2

well, week 1 is complete as scheduled, with 3 walks of 30 minutes each at a 13-16 min/mile pace. we were making about a 14 min/mile pace, so we were definitely doing well.

week 2 started today. our program is 4 walks of 45 minutes each, at the same pace as week 1. we tried out a new course of about 3 miles and made it in plenty of time. now there are only 3 more walks to go!

also got my new gear in the mail last week, and i love my new shoes! they're the nike air max moto 6 in silver/cactus. they are so comfortable! i didn't realize how worn out my old shoes were... these feel like walking on a springy cushion!

i like training so much more with the new shoes! i'm also enjoying stretching a lot more because i'm using yoga instead of regular old stretches. my favorite show is namaste yoga, which is very relaxing, a great stretch, and really helps me focus on the different area of my body that need a stretch.

all in all, training is going very well so far!

ctc, yo!

i don't spend a lot of time on youtube, etc., but this funny video is worth linking. thanks, honey!

cinnamon toast crunch, anyone?

curb appeal

i would also be remiss if i did not post the following: our hard work this summer.

before:


after:

marathon training kickoff

ok, i know... it's been since april since i posted anything. but i'm back now, and hopefully i'll try to make this a trend.

today was the first day of our new (and hopefully permanent) fitness kick: marathon training. we've got a training guide (the non-runner's marathon trainer), we've got new shoes and clothes on the way (courtesy of nike.com and my wallet), and we've got motivation: get prepped to run the big race!

which big race? well, we haven't decided yet. we'll figure it out when we see how this goes.

today's first step was fast walking to get us into training shape: 30 minutes of walking at a fast pace. we did pretty well: 2.14 miles in 30 minutes.

we do this two more times this week, then next week we switch to 4 days of 45 minutes of fast walking. the running starts in week 3.

stay tuned!

is it may already?

ok, so i've been a bad blogger... no posts since february, and i'm very sorry. i would beg off by saying it's been busy, but hasn't it been that way for everyone? what's been up? a wedding in pittsburgh, two awesome nights of karaoke, a going away party, and lots of the usual.

oh, and we also had a boarder for a weekend in april:


luckily, we found his owners a few days later, and he got to go home. turns out he was a little confused about which townhouse was his.

finally, we got rock band a month or two ago, only the greatest video game in the world (imo). hoping for some rock band parties in the near future. i love it!!!!

fun tv quiz

Which Friends Character Are You?



More on Friends. Created by BuddyTV

they almost pulled it off

well, it didn't end well for the terps, but at least they gave the pukies a run for their money for a good portion of the second half.

for a while there i had some hope that we might just win it!

next time... at least we have a great future ahead of us with all those freshmen on the team.

c'mon terps!!!

tough first half... puke 41, terps 30
i can only cross my fingers for the second half...

i'd love for the terps to split the season with duke. it's going to be tough, but the team that's playing tonight is a very different team than the one that played the first time. my terpies have really come into their own over the last 8 or 9 games. the team has really meshed and learned how to play together.

on an entirely different topic, i promised to post some photos from our vacation once honey downloaded them from his camera. here are a few:

honey & me w/ his sister & brother-in-law, getting ready to sail away from ft. lauderdale

me & honey being silly in cozumel

honey sitting on the pier at cozumel... what a view!

a slightly downhearted scrabble

i was aaaaaallllll excited after the first half of the maryland-duke game, ready to post a happy post with the results of today's round of scrabble AND the game results.

however, the second half of the game happened, and now i'm a little less excited. i do still have the heart to post the scrabble results, though:

inaugural scrabble

honey and i have both always enjoyed scrabble, but we find it too competitive when we play for points. so, we've started playing cooperative scrabble. we play pretty close to the normal way, only we don't keep points, so the focus can be on making fun words. (or, as fun as you can get with the letters you draw.) we try to use up all the letters in the bag, although this isn't always possible.

here's our first board, from tonight. this one used all the letters! i've filled in the intended letters on the blank tiles using photoshop, for ease of reading:


on a different note, we just bot back from a wonderful cruise vacation in the caribbean! more details on that once i have the chance to upload the photos, etc.

dino comics

found a link to this site on a friend's page, and had to highlight it:

dino comics

enjoy a free sample, below:



if you liked that, visit the site. it's hi-liarious!

happy new year, by the way!
sorry for the long absence, but the holidays don't exactly provide extensive free time for posting.

i'm currently looking for new reading material; if you have any suggestions, let me know!