The Blackburn Digest

Today was the day every person owned by a cat (or dog) dreads. . . . .the day one has to say Goodbye.

Sundance and his sister, Cassidy, came to us as near-newborn kittens after a huge rain storm in the summer of 1999. When son Thomas brought them to me, their eyes weren’t open yet, and their ears didn’t “appear” for several days. We bottle fed the two of them, and Sundance’s playful but assertive nature showed up from the very beginning. Cassidy would nurse hungrily, but it was easy to keep a grip on her and on the bottle. Sundance? He would wiggle, squirm, and quite often yank the nipple right out of the bottle! There we would be; suddenly bathed in formula, and Sundance demanding “more food - right NOW”!

* “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies” -1960 - lyrics by By Dunham.

Today has been a bit of a roller-coaster ride! I had an appointment with our family doctor this morning…… although I had scheduled this before breaking my toe and had planned on discussing other issues, I knew The Foot (which won’t fit into a shoe or slipper) was going to garner attention the most attention. Oh yeah! Dear, sweet Dr. R sort of skimmed through my other questions and concerns, focused on the obviously broken and misaligned toe, ordered x-rays and went just slightly ballistic. Vocal alarms were sounded - “very bad break”, “must see surgeon immediately!” (Aw, come on. . . .all of the toes are dislocated; what’s the big deal?) Um, yes - that’s when my “ticket” for the ride was issued!

When you think you have a handle on things, that handle is going to break off! (I’m sure this observation appears somewhere in “Murphy’s Laws” - LOL!)

I haven’t been able to wear a shoe, slipper or ACE elastic bandage on my right foot since my July 9th encounter with the vicious & anti-social dining room chair, but frequent cleaning, salt water soaks and triple-antibiotic ointment had allowed the deep split to close without any sign of infection. I’m beginning to suspect that the fourth toe (neighbor to the “baby toe”) was & is just badly sprained, but the fifth/baby toe is definitely broken. I suspect it isn’t a nice, clean, non-displaced fracture, either. Still. . . .with every toe dislocated prior to this injury (thank you, RA), there’s little point in seeing an orthopedic surgeon! The overall swelling was nearly gone. . . .the deep blue/purple purple band under all five toes was fading. . .I just needed to be patient. Right? Um- - -wrong!

Confucius say “Never celebrate success of journey until destination is reached”. (He probably didn’t, but . . . . . .)

Poor DH got a 4 am wake-up call - - - well, more of a wake-up whimper, actually. The story began at 1 am; I’d been courting sleep for over an hour and gave it up as a futile enterprise. There were just too many unhappy joints sending pain messages*, and my brain insisted on a detailed & repetitive review of the many steps remaining on my current miniature project. (*Although the renewed Enbrel therapy does seem to be making a difference, we’ve had unstable weather & bouncing air pressure for several days. Happily, it has brought a bit of welcome rain along with the discomfort!)