Kitty Issues

Once again, I must apologize for taking an unexpected break in posting. The past few months, it seems like every time I feel like I will be able to write on a regular basis, something else happens to screw my plans up.

This time it was because one of my cats, Precious, has had some serious health issues. Every night, I open my window so that my two kitties can go outside for awhile. To reach the window sill, my cats have to jump about 3 feet. About two weeks ago, I did this at around 11:30 pm and then sat down at my desk, with my back to the window. Several minutes later, I heard Precious fall, hard, from the window sill to the couch below. I ran over and picked her up, placing her on my bed. Immediately I knew something was wrong. She couldn't stand. Her head was twitching back and forth and her eyes were darting everywhere. She looked like she had had a stroke. I panicked. I raced downstairs, woke my mother, and we rushed Precious to an emergency animal hospital.

The entire ride over I was crying, thinking I was about to lose her. I have had her for 11 years, since I was 11. I got her as a birthday present when she was only 6 weeks old. She has been with me through a lot and I love her more than anything.

When we got to the hospital, the doctor immediately started looking her over. She quickly determined that Precious had not had a stroke, but was suffering from labyrinthitis due to idiopathic vestibular syndrome, which is swelling of the inner ear for no obvious reason. Precious was going to be fine. Those words were some of the best I have ever heard.Unfortunately, there was not much the doctor could do to speed up the recovery. Precious would get better on her own, but it would take time.

Since then, Precious has needed much of my attention. Her legs were wobbly and she would frequently roll over onto her side. She couldn't jump without falling. Her head was constantly tilted to the right and her eyes continued to occasionally dart back and forth. Every time she sneezed or shook her head, she fell over. For the first few days, she couldn't walk at all. I had to help her to her food and water bowls and to the litter box. She would throw up 2-3 times a day from the nausea caused by vertigo. While she wasn't in any pain, she often got frustrated, understandably so. Even though she is considered a "senior" cat, she is extremely active. She has never been seriously ill (before this, the only time she had to go to the vet outside of regular check-ups was when she broke her jaw when she was 6 months old), so she is not used to having such limitations placed on her.

Slowly but steadily she has been improving. As of today she can walk on her own with only a little wobbling. She can make short jumps onto large surfaces (like from the floor to my bed) without falling most of the time. Her eyes aren't randomly moving around anymore. She still cannot jump very high or onto small or narrow surfaces and her head remains slightly tilted to the right. However, I am optimistic that she will be back to her old self within a week or so. I am beyond happy to know that she is going to be alright.

Here's a picture of my beautiful Precious, taken a couple weeks before her fall. 

Back From a Little Break (Literally!)

So, you might have noticed I disappeared for about a month. I had been contemplating taking a break from the internet in general and just focus on catching up on reading a backlog of books as well as working on some other projects. However, a few weeks ago, before I could make a decision, it was made for me. With a little help from my family's 75 pound dog, Ralph, my right hand was smashed by our rather heavy back door, breaking my index, middle, and ring fingers. It was completely an accident: Ralph didn't mean to hurt me and wasn't punished. Unfortunately, all three fingers ended up in splints, which made typing any significant amount both tedious and time consuming. The last of these splints (the one on my index finger, which had a more severe break than my middle or ring finger) was removed on Monday. While my fingers are still a bit stiff, I am able to type normally again.

Here's a picture of our dog Ralph:

He is almost 2 years old but is still a total puppy. He is extremely rambunctious and loves to play, which can sometimes get a bit rough, since he doesn't know his own strength. His favorite toys are ones that squeak and he can (and will) make them squeak for hours, which is not always pleasant for the human family members. While he likes to act tough and barks loudly, in reality he is a big baby. Thunderstorms scare him and any time we get one, he comes upstairs and crawls into bed with me, much to the displeasure of my two cats. He felt extremely bad for breaking my fingers. When I got back from the hospital, he immediately came up to me and started to lick my hand. He even slept with me in bed that night even though there were no thunderstorms.

Busy month!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't disappeared. I have not been home for most of the past month.

My best friend's family recently bought a new house about 20 miles outside the Oklahoma City metro area on the shore of a nice lake. It needed quite a bit of work before they fully moved in, so I spent most of the first two weeks in June helping them out and spending some quality time with my best friend. Ever since I've had to take a break from school, we have seen little of each other, especially since she spent the spring semester in Sicily. Unfortunately, Internet access is quite sparse out there.

Subsequently, my best friend and I traveled to Iowa for 5 days for the wedding of one of our closest friends. I am incredibly happy for her and her new wife. I only wish that we could have celebrated this wonderful event at home in Oklahoma, but, disgustingly, like the rest of the Bible Belt, Oklahoma has banned gay-marriage.

After that, I had only 4 days of rest at home before leaving for a vacation with my family. We are spending the week in San Antonio and Corpus Christi, Texas. Hopefully I will be back home this weekend and will resume regular posts next week.

Comments

The past month or so I was using Disqus for the comments on my blog. Unfortunately, it was giving me more problems and limitations than benefits. Also, I have gotten some e-mails expressing concern about how Disqus' handles private information. So, I've decided to just revert back to Blogger's built-in comment system.

I was able to import all of the comments submitted to Disqus for this blog in the past month and submit them through Blogger, so no comments were lost. However, I did lose all the date and time information from those comments. So, if you happen to see a comment of yours you wrote a couple of days ago to about a month ago, but it is dated May 7th, don't worry.

I hope this switch does not inconvenience anyone. Please feel free to e-mail me any questions and/or concerns. 

Update 3

I'm sorry I haven't posted in the past couple of weeks. I'm pretty far into my second round of chemo. Unfortunately, the drugs have a cumulative effect. I do not just feel crappy after one dose and then start to feel better until the next dose. Each subsequent dose makes me feel even crappier and weaker, so I don't have much energy right now, and what little I do have has been needed for other projects. My best friend is about to submit her undergraduate thesis and I am her editor. I don't know if any of my readers have submitted a thesis of any kind, but they require quite a bit of tedious editing. I am also a writer for my university's undergraduate science journal and am currently putting the finishing touches on a new article. If everything goes as planned, I should be able to return to regular posting in 1.5-2 weeks, although I might find time for a post this weekend. I am still reading everyone's blog and commenting when I feel like I have something to say, so I haven't totally disappeared. Thank you for your patience, and for those who have sent e-mails of concern. :)

New Blog Design

My regular readers will notice that I have completely redone my blog. When I started writing last September, I was pretty unfamiliar with Blogger and had forgotten almost everything I learned in the HTML class I took in high school, so I basically just cobbled together something that looked nice.

In the past few months, I have become more familiar with Blogger and refreshed my HTML skills, so I thought it was time to give it another try. I must admit, it came out much better than I expected. I hope my readers like it as much as I do. However, I am always open to comments, criticisms, and suggestions.

Don't worry, I am not going to give my blog a new style every few months. I know that irritates some people. While I did like my old design, I wanted something a bit more "me". Unless everybody tells me they absolutely hate it, this will be the permanent face of The Scientific Universalist.

Update 2

This past week or so, several people have asked me how I have been doing, so I thought I would post another update. I have been feeling a little better in the past 6 weeks, primarily because of the break in chemotherapy. Although I am often nauseous, my weight loss has slowed down and most days I am able to eat at least one small meal. Despite still being low, my white blood cell count has increased slightly. My biggest battle is still the constant and relentless fatigue. On average, I sleep 12 to 14 hours a day. My muscles feel incredibly weak. Tasks I used to do easily now I find to be quite challenging. Usually, I am awake a night just because the pain and nausea does not seem as bad then. Unfortunatly, I do start another round of chemotherapy next week. On the bright-side, this round will not be as strong as the last round, so it shouldn't make me feel as sick. Hopefully that means I will be able to continue posting here about 2 or 3 times per week, but I cannot make any guarantees. At least, I won't completely disappear for 2 months like I did last time.

Thank you to everyone who has sent kind e-mails or left reassuring comments. It is deeply deeply appreciated. This probably sounds extremely stupid and corny, but this blog and the people whom I interact with on it mean a great deal to me. The discussions we have either on my blog or on other blogs have made me feel better during this terribly difficult and painful time in my life. It has given me some of the strength and courage I need to battle this awful disease.

Update

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still around. My chemotherapy is going well. Unfortunatly, it has been much harder on me physically than I anticipated. Consequently, I have not been able to write on this blog for sometime, despite filling a sheet of paper with new ideas for posts. I have one more round of chemotherapy this week after which I will have at least 2 month break before having another cycle of six treatments, so I am hoping that I will be able to get some writing in during the break. Thanks to all my readers who have been patient. I miss writing here and interacting with people who see God the way I do.

News

About a week and half ago, I mentioned that I had not been posting as often because I had not been feeling well. I have been sick since September 2009 due to an unknown cause. It became so bad I had to take a medical leave from school. Last week, after seeing more doctors and having more tests done than I can remember, I was diagnosed with hairy cell leukemia. The first thing I will say is that my chances are very good. People rarely die from this form of cancer. After being sick for so long without a diagnosis, I'm actually happy for this knowledge. However, I will have to undergo some chemotherapy. When I started this blog a couple months ago, I was hoping to post at least 4 times a week. Unfortunately, that will not be possible for awhile.

I absolutely love writing this blog. For the first time, I feel like I am meeting and interacting with people whose have similar views on religion and God as myself. The knowledge that I am not alone in my unorthodox beliefs is extraordinarily comforting. For the time being, my goal will be to post at least once a week. But, if I disappear for awhile, don't assume I'm gone for good. I enjoy writing this blog way too much to give it up permanently.

Accidental Ads

I apologize to anyone who visited the site of the past couple days who ended up seeing a ton of ads on the sidebar and below the posts. I was modifying my layout and somehow accidentally ended up with several of them on my page, but for some reason, I couldn't see them myself. They should all be removed now.