Ouchy Wah Wah

Here it is, 2:15am, and I am up blogging.   I am partially writing this blog so I can have a reminder to not be an idiot.

This is because something has given me a condition resembling a UTI but I'm pretty sure that its not a real one.  I've been in and out of the bathroom to pee about 30 times this evening and I'm sure I'll be going again in a few minutes.  I am prone to what is called bladder spasms.  I'm pretty sure they are caused by my diet, and I manage to keep them under control for the most part.  However, every now and then, I try something new in my diet and sometimes I have nights like tonight.  This is why I really do try to eat the exact thing every single day, or pick from an imaginary list of things that I know are compatible with my bad self.  I'm pretty sure I will not be sleeping at all tonight, which is going to suck royally tomorrow.

This episode I believe is caused by 3 factors:

Number 1-- I began taking a G.I. Health supplement powder (you mix it in a glass of water) that contains a rather large amount of Zinc (zinc-carnosine).  A very kind person gave it to me because she knows that I have also had trouble with anxiety and IBS symptoms and this supplement has many things that would help someone like me.  Until tonight I never knew...ANYTHING about Zinc except that it is a metal, it is shiny, and we need some to live.  I did not know that if you take more than 40 or 50 mg a day that you can actually poison yourself!  Now, I am sure that the levels in this supplement are within safe ranges for most people, but it does carry a warning for people with kidney issues.  It doesn't say why it can hurt those people, just not to use it.  Perhaps I have kidney issues that I was not aware of.  Anyhow, Google Search "Zinc poisoning symptoms".  It is mind blowing.  There is a class-action lawsuit against denture cream companies because they contain so much Zinc that people are dying from being slowly poisoned over many years!

  The symptoms I have been having in the 5 days of ingesting this supplement are:  

• extreme fatigue (ask my husband/kids.  Mommy is way droopier than usual).
• weakness
• I kept thinking something was wrong with our dishwasher because suddenly whenever a piece of silverware touched my tongue it tasted extremely metallic.  This is apparently a good way to test to see if you have too much of any metal in your blood.  
• headaches in the front of my head
• trouble speaking clearly (now this one is iffy, because I'm often a bumbling fool when speaking, but I was having trouble saying the words that I was thinking and that's a little odd)

I also noticed that I was very dehydrated by the end of the day and found myself doubling my water intake but still being thirsty.  That leads me to my next factor.

Number 2--When I don't drink enough water I easily will fall into a bad bladder spasm episode.  Usually I get a bad feeling when it first starts to happen and I can quickly chug a large glass of water and all will be well with the world.  That only works when its the only thing that is causing the problem.  I've been chugging water all night long and to no avail.  That leads me to the final idiot factor:

Number 3--I drink too much caffeine in one day.  I cannot and will not give up my morning coffee.  And when its chilly out I don't even think about drinking a soda.  But its been hot as hell here the past few days and I get that Diet Coke craving (yes, I know its poison, and probably not helping).  Today I gave in to the craving way too late in the day, around 4pm.  I was thinking it would be ok to have one since I was so incredibly tired that maybe it would help me stay awake so I could spend time with Kris after the kids went to bed instead of passing out snoring during Cheers. BAD IDEA.  If I could go back and slap myself...

Wow the whole time I have been typing this blog I have not had to pee.  That is a whole 15 minutes!  

Now, what the heck can I do about it?  I need to sleep!!

Everything I read says to drink Cranberry juice.  I knew I had bought some the last time this happened, which turns out to be over a year ago!  That means the juice is no good :(  So I had to dump it.  Really, I didn't want to drink it anyway because every time I do it makes me puke. To me, it tastes like licking a tire on a car that just ran over a skunk.  And I am not a puker.

I scoured the medicine cabinet for unused antibiotics (YES sometimes we don't use them all I admit it!) any kind would do.  Nothing.  I was a good girl and threw out all the old stuff.  I read that if you think you may have ingested too much Zinc you should drink milk.  So I did, and had an Oikos yogurt for good measure.  Then I decided because I am starting to get more and more pain that I would take 600mg of Ibuprofen.  So far I think that is the only thing that has actually helped.  If this is still going on in the morning I will of course see the doctor.  But true to form it has to happen in the middle of the ever-loving night when there is NOTHING I can do short of going to the ER, which is the last thing I want to waste their time on.  If I could hold it long enough I'd drive to the 24 hr grocery store three towns away and get some skunk juice.

Also see, Cystitis.  I have 6 out of 8 of those symptoms, but again it can be caused by diet.  Either way I see a trip to the Doctor's office tomorrow :(

Ain't That a Pisser, or The Truth About Cats.

See how innocent I am??

I have been home for over a week now. At the end of my time in NC my husband had called me to tell me that the kitten we have had for 2 months now had peed on the counter and the kitchen table, and also the curtain that I had just installed from a nerve-wracking trip to Walmart a week before.

"We have one curtain that is shorter than the other one." he told me when I asked if he had washed it.

Ok, fine. I can deal with that. I can always get a new curtain, right? But when he told me about the table and the counter I had had enough. I really like this kitten as he is quirky and sweet and curls up at my feet wherever I plant my fat butt. Even the bathroom. Ok so you didn't need to know that. ANYWHOOO...

I immediately went online from my sister's house and put him in the paper. I had gotten rid of the cat before him (Fluffy #1) after dealing with him pissing all over my house for the better part of three years, spending tons of money and time and anguish on trying to make it stop. I couldn't believe my bad luck was continuing with this little guy.

When I got home I also listed him on Craigslist and Facebook. I assumed that because of my older male cat that the younger one was getting territorial and that as I had had him tested for UTI's that he would be fine somewhere else, even outSIDE!! Thoughts of how I could remove him from my house intensified when the next day there was pee on my counter that ruined several pieces of mail and narrowly missed Kris' camera (just ruined the strap).

Perhaps you have been in my house (poor you) and know that my counter top is a landing space for anything, everything, and whatever is in between. There are cameras, sunglasses, mail, endless amounts of children's artwork, toys, photos, frames, sculptures, books, Bibles, pens, pencils, ETC I COULD GO ON FOR DAYS.

Well on Monday my Dad came over to visit. He's always giving me a hard time about the counter and associated areas, and I try my best but when no one helps I just give up. I'm not a go-getter when it comes to trying to clean up after everyone else. He wanted to use my nice camera to take a photo of something. It was sitting on the counter (of course) and when I picked it up I noticed something dripping from it.

NO.

My heart stopped briefly. I really couldn't believe it. I was speechless. Well, for a minute.

Then I was not so speechless.

"STUPID EFFING CAT I AM GOING TO KILL HIM OH MY $*&($*% WHY THE EFF WOULD HE DO THAT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGH" I said. My Dad ducked.

If that wasn't bad enough I had also chosen that particular piece of counter to set Autumn's precious blankie on while I was feeding her.

I stormed across the street and went into the Show Me The Biscuit store to get some Nature's Miracle. That crap is expensive. I asked the lady if she knew of anything I could do and she just kind of looked at me and went "I-uh-no" and I burst into tears. I paid, and stormed back home. I cleaned my camera as best as I could and it still stank. I soaked Autumn's blankie in a pail with Nature's Miracle and some hot water. Thank GOD that took it out.

But my camera, not so much. On the bottom of this camera is where the battery compartment is located. Also there are several tiny screws and of course the cavernous screw mount with all of its little ridges and gaps to hide the dreaded pee crystals. And there is a bit of rubber that stops up the ports for the coax cables and USB cable. Nothing gets piss out of rubber. Nothing. I cleaned it all several times, and even sat it gently in a tray of baking soda for a couple of hourse.

It still smells. Now every time I hold my camera up to my face I gag.

What about the kitten? Did I make a delicious Chinese Pot Roast that evening for dinner?

WELL LET ME TELL YA SOMETHIN.

He spent the rest of the day in the garage (comfortably of course. I'm not an abuser.) and that night I locked him in the basement with a litter box that I had thoroughly cleaned, some food, and some water. Fluffy 2 remained upstairs. The next morning I came downstairs and went towards the bathroom. I got a whiff of cat pee as I walked past the kitchen table but assumed it was from the litterbox which was nearby.

Then Alicia came downstairs. She went to put her bowl down on the table but I wanted to clear the crap off it first. I picked up a book she had just gotten at the book fair and it was soaked. I took one sniff and came to the horrible realization that it was FLUFFY who had been peeing on those surfaces, not the kitten!!!! No way am I getting rid of him!

Can't hate on this face.

I opened the basement door and let him out. Then I decided to take drastic measures: I CLEANED.

I removed everything from the table and all surfaces of the kitchen. I also had cleaned both litter boxes with Nature's Miracle to make them odorless (it really does work on some surfaces just not my camera). We kept one in the basement and leave the door open a bit. I bleached every surface and have been extremely strict about not letting junk accumulate there. So far we have been pee-free for almost a week!!!

So the kitten can stay. See, we have never actually SEEN him pee on anything (or Fluffy for that matter) we just assumed it was him because it had stopped when Fluffy 1 left. I felt bad for a minute because a few people had answered my ads and I had to tell them sorry he was staying but oh well. I hope that they all find a kitten somewhere else. Lord knows the Humane Society has plenty of cats.