A Whole Lot Of Nada

Last week was... weird? I spent the entire week in NJ, but with the exception of Tuesday night, I got to spend every night in my own bed. My week started off with a trip to my site to do some manual work in preparation for user training that was happening Tues-Fri. I went with 2 coworkers whom I really enjoy - got to the site around 8:30 am and was done by 4 pm, with a 1.5 hour lunch tossed into the mix. I was home that night by 6 pm which rocked.

Tuesday started training - it's always terrifying and stressful for me during trainings as that's the first time users get to start work on our product. Typically users don't see it beforehand as higher ups make the "buy decision", so you really really really want things to go smoothly. And they did. I caught a 6:00 am train out to the site (ugh 5 am wake up call) and then was so relieved when everything worked as it should. I did drinks and dinner with a bunch of coworkers that night - I went with the team from the site I was at. We had the team still working at the NJ/PA border site drive in also, and just had a blast. I ended up crashing Tuesday night in the city where we were at because a massive snow storm was blowing through and I just didn't have the energy to get home. Yay last minute $300 hotel room that I didn't get approved ahead of time - I'm sure that's going to bite me in the ass.

Wednesday was a good/bad day. Training was still going well, but I had gotten the call from the vet about the results of Tigga's tests. No liver cancer (!!!!) and his heart murmur is not an issue (!!!!) BUT (and you knew this was coming), his liver is inflamed and he is not absorbing B12 properly which is why he's losing weight. The reason his liver is inflamed and he's not absorbing B12 is either bowel disease or GI lymphoma. They gave us 3 options for next steps - 1) invasive surgery where they cut out a piece of his intestine (it's the only way to definitively diagnose cancer / bowel disease); 2) endoscopy of his upper intestine (sometimes they can diagnose from that, sometimes they can't); 3) do nothing - change his diet, put him on steroids, hope for the best. If it's bowel disease, steroids will heal him. If it's lymphoma, steroids will mask his symptoms and make it look like he's getting better when he's not - and diagnosing lymphoma after steroid usage is almost impossible.

Thurs and Fri were more of the same - 5 am wake up calls, 6 am trains, and some training. I was feeling less stressed each day and by the end, I was mostly just ready to be done. Friday night we drug ourselves to our local bar to celebrate one of our bar friends birthdays. We had many drinks and then wandered up the street for a nice dinner and more drinks. After dinner, I was so tired I could barely see straight so it was back home to crash out.

Saturday I decided to not do anything and Blondie was in. I was lazing in sweatpants and watching TV Saturday afternoon when my phone beeped - it was one of my besties from the office whom I hadn't seen since before Thanksgiving (simply b/c I haven't been in the office - 4 weeks of traveling, wat wat). He was having a small party and invited me and Blondie over. We talked it over and decided to go - made the trek out to Brooklyn Saturday night and had a blast. My friend mixed us some super strong drinks, and his friends were pretty cool. One of his friends even lives in our hood, so maybe we'll run into him sometime.

Yesterday was also cool. We finally made the decision to take Tigga in for an endoscopy. We also ordered his prescription cat food online and started him on anti-biotics. He goes in Thurs for the procedure. I'm taking the day off from work and I'm going to sit in the hospital until it's done and I can bring him home. If they can't diagnose definitively after the endoscopy, we've made the decision to put him on steroids and have no more procedures done. After we made the decision and got the appt set up, we walked up and met all of our bar friends (6 of them) to see Anchorman 2. OMG - FUNNY. SO FUNNY.

After the movie, it was back to Pony Bar where my old boss met up with us for lunch and many beers. My old boss is amazing - she brought me a bottle of Ron Burgundy Scotch (no joke) and a ton of gummy bears from Dylan's Candy Bar. We spent all afternoon just catching up and chatting, and then it was back to our local for beers to end the evening.

Today I went into work for a few hours - mostly to get them to approve my expense reports. They owed me quite a bit of money so I finally got them to look at and approve - as soon as that happened, I was like "day over". I then went to lunch with my coworkers and then headed home. Tonight Blondie and I are hitting up Esca for a nice dinner for our own Xmas celebration.

Hope everyone has a great holidays, and please keep Tigga in your thoughts.

Scotchy Scotch Scotch

--K