A funny sort of week...
About ten days ago I took the new cat in to see if she was healthy, as being a dumped cat, I needed to know first did she belong to someone else (micro chipped) and had she been desexed. First up were all the vaccination needles, blood tests that you are told must be done to see if she has cat aids etc...$200... then bring her back in a few days for micro chipping and desexing (as she is still active that way...they said.

So back for the operation and I get a phone call an hour later to say she couldn't be Spayed as they discovered she had a lung worm called, "Aelurostrongylus Abstrusus”; only the best...its treatable but means twice daily getting a horrible mixture down her throat with a syringe...easy if you have three hands... I was told to do Cuss the other cat as the young vet said it might be contagious...more blood tests...$375 and still not desexed.

So took her home to begin the 2 week treatment...the next day she is "In heat" and trying to accost my cat (who is female) but she was spraying everywhere and accosting anything that vaguely sat still for her, the chair leg, my leg...I had never seen a cat in heat before...and thought she must be sick till my other cat, exhausted from being unable to get away from her, and frantically pleading for rescue...made me twig...got on the net and there it was... 5 to ten days I was told shorter if she mated longer if she didn't... my house is not huge so the smell is shocking...as i have had to lock her in a verandah room. I must have mopped the floor six times a day... the poor thing seems unable to settle and when not sleeping exhausted for a moment she is yowling fit to wake the dead, and this goes on most of the day and night...


I gave up on trying to get the medicine down her throat the syringe way as I was copping most of it myself anyway...so now I put a little in an eggcup size amount of milk and don't feed her till its gone...so its working. I am desperate to get the lung worms cleared up because she can't be Spayed till i do and will come back on heat later if I don't...

Its been raining every day and adds to the pleasant odours which no amount of sandalwood incense, or cat urine spray seems to cover.

Then late on Saturday I was coming home with a few bags of groceries (cat food mainly) after seeing the new Star trek (wonderful...the best I have seen of all the Star treks or it could be the special effects) and slipped on the path which was wet and slimy. I landed on my right shoulder, hard...but got up and thought I'm okay...went to bed and in the morning I could not move my arm (shoulder joint) away from my body.

Being a sook I just bawled my eyes out, because out here with only cats and snakes for company having my main arm out of action is really bad news and it hurt, and (sob) i felt so alone...the cats were hungry, and by the time I did all the Kitty litters, (the promiscuous one decided to get diarrhoea and it was all over the litter tray) and did the best I could with the stinky one and the feral back room, it took ages.

It took me till mid morning just to get dressed enough so I could get a taxi to hospital A&E... as I wasn't able to drive safely...

Mindful of the Swine Flu i tried not to breathe at all in the waiting room as everyone seemed to be coughing everywhere... now they have an isolation A& E setup, but didn't then...seem to be okay that way thank goodness...

As many doctors are not my favourite people it was just my luck to have Dr "Smart Arse and Arrogant younger than my daughters who spoke very little English at all".
It took me ages to undo the buttons so he could see my arm and almost impossible to get it out of the sleeve, with him standing there like a piece of puke saying "Try harder" and being impatient...may all the dogs of hell eat his liver. He wanted me to force it this way and that till I got fed up and said"maybe it should be X rayed before we do this" he said "A good idea" or something that sounded like that. Gaaarrrgh

Took ages to get dressed again, all the time he just stood and not even offered to help at all, mongrel bastard. It was incredibly painful and I could see him becoming impatient so told him it had taken me ages to get dressed that morning and I could not go any faster. Then he said like the smart arse he was "Oh but I'm sure you have someone to help you" with a grin that a woman my age knows exactly what it means...he was enjoying my humiliation. I don't think anyone has any idea how much I dislike these sorts of doctors...they need their knees kicked out from under them every Friday, just to remind them what pain is and to be humble.

I just said to him, "No actually as a matter of fact I don't have anyone to help me get dressed, my husband died recently as a victim of Royal north Shore Hospital doctors"...he was a bit quiet after that and mumbled a"sorry"...maybe he'll think twice before he shows other women such a lack of respect...and he still needs his knees kicked out from under him weekly. I would like to have that job.

The bones were not broken, its soft tissue damage, muscles...the good doctor advised me to move it about when I got home, to force it to the edge of the pain...which didn't sound right to me, but I stupidly followed his dumb advice...it got sorer and weaker. I couldn't raise my arm higher than my waist without extreme pain and then it would just flop down...finally yesterday I rang the Osteopath who I trust and who treats me as an equal which I am...he said"NOOOOO." he said he wouldn't work on it till inflammation subsided, to take Nurofen (spelling) for the inflammation and put it in a sling and hold it as still as practical...the opposite of what the child doctor told me. After Sunday coming he will look at it... doctors may be able to fix bones but when it comes to muscles and tendons and other soft tissue they seem to be bloody useless.

Its been such gloomy weather, and cooped up with the smells hasn't helped...soon the little cat will not be on heat...by the 13th she will be clear of Lung Worms and after a week can be Spayed (another $300pluss) ...no doubt the pain will get less and things will seem better...

Next week my eldest sister arrives. We are going inland to where our mum and dad are buried. It will be 40 years since dad was killed on 17th June and we had planned all five of us their children to gather for this, but only three will be there... I am really looking forward to this.

The editing is close to finished and then we move to publishing...it appears to be taking a long time, but for something of this nature and because it has to be spot on...its pretty normal I believe.

The new cat had me fooled after lunch...she seemed to be behaving normally so I let her out of the back room, within seconds she was back to her "behaviour" so quickly scooped her up and back in the room...but it may be coming to an end soon...

she is back to the loud continual 24hour a day yowling now...who needs a radio???

Also this article appeared in the Sunshine Coast daily about the bad treatment my sister received by the company he was working for when he was killed on the job... it explains itself...my sister had no idea what his funeral cost as Sunbus said not to worry about it... http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2009/jun/03/sunbus-widow-left-2000-funeral-bill some of the comments are excellent...