Greetings, readers. Steinbeck and I missed most of 2020 ‘cuz we were taking care of Mom.
I helped by doing lots of purring and sleeping.
It all started back in April when Mom, as Steinbeck puts it, broke her heart. She was out in the yard raking and started having some pains but she ignored them. In fact, it was two more days before she went to the hospital.
I am so glad she got to the hospital, but I wish she hadn’t stayed there that long.
Mom said they opened her heart and fixed it but she had to be real careful after that. Obviously she didn’t listen ‘cuz the end of June she fell at home and broke her left femur.
Do felines have femurs, too?
Check Google. Anyway, she was back in the hospital again and then afterwards had to go to another place for rehab. She finally got home and we figured that was it. She started healing and doing therapy and she could even walk without her cane. Then one morning when she got up, she could barely stand on that leg.
She had to go back to her doctor’s house so they could take pictures of her. I still don’t know how they got that camera in there to take pictures of her bones.
Mom was really discouraged when she found out she had broken the plate in her leg. Back to the hospital for yet another surgery. This time they replaced her fake knee with a new fake knee and put a rod in her leg. The doctor told her later that she has about 15 pounds of metal in her leg so she just subtracts that in her mind when she weighs herself. I do, too! MOL!!!
We’re all doing fine now that 2021 is here. We hope you all had a great holiday. Oh, Mom is walking without a cane again and she’s working full time. She’s working from home but she doesn’t disturb our naps too much.
I like having her work from home ‘cuz then I can but her sooner about getting supper ready. Mom is just getting this new site set up so we hope you all found it. She still has work to do on it but at least she’s letting us talk with our friends again.
Hi readers! We’ve been gone a long time again. Mom’s been busy healing the leg she broke and trying to make it strong so she can walk again. She told us that it was just too hard to sit at the computer for a long time so she avoided it.
But she didn’t tell our friends and I’m sure they’ve been worrying.
Well, we’re all doing fine. Mom goes to see her surgeon again next week and may finally get permission to put 100% weight on her bionic leg.
Are you calling it that ‘cuz she has all those plates and silverware and stuff put in her leg to make it work?
Steinbeck, she had one plate and then some screws put in. There was no silverware used in the repair. Now, back to the trouble part of this blog.
I didn’t mean to be that much trouble but I got scared.
Mom had decided to schedule a Spa Day for Steinbeck. He had some narlies and mats on his stomach that she wanted taken care of and he also has swords for nails so she wanted them trimmed. I’ve gone through that and it’s not so bad.
But you’re older than I am.
Anyway, Mom and her brother chased Steinbeck all over the house and couldn’t catch him. He kept slipping through their hands. They finally had to give up. Steinbeck doesn’t know it but he has another appointment and he’s not going to be able to ignore it. Just look how easy it is to get into the kennel. I found it quite comfortable.
That’s because Mom wasn’t taking you to that scary place.
Steinbeck, I love you ‘cuz you’re my little brother….but sometimes you get rather naughty. I know you don’t mean it, but you must remember that Mom is never going to do anything bad to you.
I’ll try to remember, but I really don’t like going to that doctor’s house.
None of us do. Just think of all the times Mom has had to go to doctors’ houses this summer. Has she been running around the house trying not to be caught?
MOL……….that would be funny!!
*Mom’s Note: It’s mid-afternoon and Steinbeck is still hiding. Poor little guy was so traumatized. I hope the next time goes easier…..for the sake of all of us!
Mom is getting rather dangerous with her wheelchair. She thinks she can go anywhere with it.
We can’t even get into that much trouble ‘cuz she can easily reach us.
Don’t tell our readers that we get into trouble.
Oops……….ignore what I said.
Mom told her brother that she can parallel park with her wheelchair and do a nifty job of driving it backwards. Of course he just laughed and said that may be true but she sure can’t do it with her car!
We begged and begged and Mom let us go outside for a bit.
This is an old picture of us ‘cuz Mom didn’t have her camera handy.
Steinbeck doesn’t know but I found a secret stash of catnip. I headed right over there and indulged. My but that catniptini was good!
Hemingway, what are you doing over there?
Just looking for rocks.
That’s dumb.
MOL!!! I will never tell him the truth. That plant is mine.
We’re sure that you’ve noticed we’ve been missing in action again.
It’s not our fault. We did the best we could, but Mom always seems to do her own thing.
This time her “own thing” got her in trouble!!!
We were just napping on June 30th. Mom was on the phone with the nurse. When she finished she got up to get something ready to mail.
That was her big mistake ‘cuz next thing we knew, we heard a loud bang and she was on the floor. She said her leg felt like it was sticking straight up in the air, but it wasn’t.
We couldn’t pick her up so she had to very carefully and slowly inch her way to the couch so she could get her phone and call 911. We heard her try to make a joke ‘cuz she told the operator she was going to sound like a commercial, but she had fallen and couldn’t get up.
Some really nice men came and took Mom away. We tried to ask them where they were taking her but they didn’t listen.
Mom ended up in the hospital again. We can’t figure out why she keeps going there. She said the food is not that fantastic, but she has pretty views.
Here’s what happened to Mom:
That’s her left leg and it shows that she did a good job of breaking it just above the knee cap. She was super lucky that she didn’t wreck her fake knee in the process. Her surgeon said that she was the talk of the emergency room because her break was so bad.
On July 1st she had surgery on her leg and this is what it looks like now:
She said she’s a Bionic Woman now! Her surgeon is super proud of how he managed to put her leg back together again.
After a few days she was able to leave the hospital and go to a transitional care unit. She told us that she couldn’t put any weight on her left leg for six weeks.
I love being able to use all four of my legs so I think that would be hard.
She’s been home for about a week and has been learning to use the wheelchair and walker in the house. She really can’t do much so we sit on her lap to make her happy.
We did get something really wonderful in the mail and we are so happy.
I love this catnip bag so much.
So do I. We thank our surprise gifter so much.
So now you’re all caught up on what’s been happening here. Mom still has two weeks to go before she sees her surgeon again. Maybe she’ll be able to put some weight on that leg then.
She says to tell all of you that she’s sorry we haven’t been online much. Sometimes her leg starts hurting and she can’t sit at the desk for long.
Steinbeck, Mom’s finally adding something to our blog and the readers want to know all about it.
Oh, well, I wish they wouldn’t stare at me when I’m trying to take a nap.
Maybe you shouldn’t take naps all the time.
This is me guarding the house. I work hard at this so I need lots of naps. Sometimes there are strange noises outside like boomers and I want to make sure nothing tries to get in the house. Mom says if she doesn’t leave the door open just a little, I tend to panic. I wouldn’t say I panic, but I do get very concerned. Lately I’ve been making sure none of thatCoughedstuff comes around.
Steinbeck, that’s Covid and I think it’s great you’re watching out for it.
I’m in charge of making sure none of our beds get messed up. Mom used to have nurses and physical therapists coming here all the time and she kept moving our beds out of the way. They weren’t in the way! Don’t humans realize that cats reign supreme?
Well, that’s all that’s happening around here. Mom didn’t lose her memory when her heart broke so she knows she should give us treats.
Steinbeck, you have such a one track mind.
Maybe……….but you love me.
From the Mom….and I love both of you boys. You’re doing a great job of getting me back to healthy. I’m still not working but it will only be a couple of weeks now and I can go back part time. I was working from home before all this happened and the boys were used to me being here. I’m hoping I can still work from home for a bit. I really don’t want to be around any of those germs. Thanks so much for all the kind words, thoughts, prayers. They all mean so much to me!
It seems like 2020 has turned out to be quite the challenging year.We all apologize for not being on our blog for so long, But I have a good reason. It all started on April 11th. I was outside raking and trying to clean up things in the yard. I was frequently taking rests but it didn’t seem to help. I finally decided to stop and I had a sharp pain that went all the way through my chest to my back. I took some aspirin right away and convinced myself that I had twisted some muscles with all the raking and weed pulling.The next day I rested and felt a little better. On Monday I went to work (actually I walked over to the computer since I was working from home) and then went to an eye appointment. I noticed that I was kind of spinning out of control so when I got home I sent a note to my doctor. I told her what had happened and how I felt. She called me back quickly and told me to go to Emergency.
My brother took me over to the hospital on April 13th and since Covid was making it hard to do anything, he had to just leave me there. I was hooked up to all kinds of machines and poked with all sorts of needles. The docs told me that I did have a heart attack on Saturday and it was a major one. They had determined that I wasn’t still having a heart attack, but my heart was very ticked and was kind of bouncing all over the place.
I got moved to a room and was hooked up to a monitor. During the first couple of days, one of my medical team members tested positive for Covid. They gave me the test, but mine was negative. However, I had to be put in quarantine.
On April 20th, I had open heart surgery and had a single bypass. I went through all of this without anyone I could hug. I ended up staying in ICU for several extra days because of the quarantine. I had yet another Covid test and it was negative. Once I finally got to a regular room, I started doing exercises and seemed to be improving. When it came time for me to go home, one of the nurses had noticed I was having trouble breathing. They ordered a chest x-ray and discovered fluid on my lungs. They tapped both of them and then I was finally able to go home, after spending 20 days in the hospital.
I started physical and occupational therapy at home and then I noticed I was having trouble breathing again. Back to the hospital for another chest x-ray and then back again so I could be tapped. (I’m on blood thinners now and they have to kind of wean me off them for procedures.) Oh, and another Covid test.
I wasdoing really good until I noticed that I couldn’t even cross the room without huffing and puffing. My therapy sessions were pure torture ‘cuz I couldn’t breathe. My cardiologist set up an echocardiogram for me. That didn’t show what they expected it to show so we were back to square one. I became my own advocate and told them I couldn’t live like that.
You guessed it…………back to Emergency and yet another Covid test (which was still negative). Last weekend I was in the hospital. By the way, my birthday was on June 11th and I actually had a good day, even though I couldn’t do much. They diagnosed me with congestive heart failure and while in the hospital I lost 17 pounds of fluid. The change was amazing. I could breathe and I didn’t have all the pressure on my chest.
It’s now been two months since my open heart surgery. I am finally on the road to recovery. The boys have helped so much. Just their purring and paw pats mean so much.
We are hoping to get back to blogging, but it’s been kind of hard. This is the first time I’ve really felt good so maybe the three of us can get some things posted soon.
Thanks for reading through this long explanation. If you have any friends or relatives in the hospital during Covid, do all you can to encourage them. I was lucky because my niece is a nurse at the hospital so I was able to have a “visitor”.
Hemingway!! Come here. Quick. You have to help me. It’s very important.
Steinbeck…………hold down the noise. Can’t you see I’m helping Mom? Remember she has to work from home now so I have to help her with her stuff so she doesn’t work too many hours. If I didn’t help her, she’d be working for elebenty billion hours. Now what is it you want?
I want you to come here! Right now!!
Ok………fine………I’m coming.
So why am I here? What am I supposed to be looking for? What are you so excited about?
Tell me if you see any corn or iris.
Why on earth are you asking me to do that?
“Cuz I keep hearing on that TV all about the corn and iris and how dangerous they are. I wanted to check the freezer to see if Mom had any corn in there, but she wouldn’t let me. I figured I better check our yard. I don’t want any corn or iris around here.
Steinbeck, you’ve got it all wrong. It’s not corn and iris. It’s coronavirus.
Smarty pants……..how do you know?
Mom told me about it when I asked her why she was working at home now. You must have been sleeping as usual. She said it’s a serious sickness and humans have to be really careful so they don’t get it. Mom is staying in the house as much as she can so she doesn’t run into any of those germs.
I’m so glad you’re my big brother and can teach me things.
Steinbeck, there’s also this rule about social distancing.
Mom let us go out on the deck over the weekend and I talked to Mr. Outdoor Cat. Then I walked around and checked out the property. Of course I could only walk on the deck ‘cuz there was still some of that white stuff and some wet stuff around. I wasn’t about to get my feet wet!! But, guess what…………Hemingway walked off the deck and into that white stuff. He obviously lost his mind. I got rather angry with him ‘cuz I just knew he was going to bring those wet cold feet into the house.
Well, getting angry was a BIG mistake. Mom was standing on the deck looking at Hemingway and I just had to tell her how angry I was. I looked at her and hissed and spitted. She just looked at me and told me to knock it off. You mean I shouldn’t be mad about what Hemingway was doing?
I don’t get it. Now she’s calling me Mr. Crabby Apple Pants again. I don’t think that’s a proper name for me.
Nope, I haven’t been outside since. Mom says I can’t get angry. Oh well……….
Mom said I could “fancy up” my selfie today. I was so excited. We all got to go outside. I decided it was the perfect time to use my body to clean off the deck. There were little twigs and old leaves and little bits of this and that. I managed to get them on my fur. MOL!!! That’s why Mom said I should “fancy up” my selfie. I hope everyone had a very good weekend and is ready to start another week.
Everyone knows my name is Hemingway. No, I don’t have six toes. Mom chose that name ‘cuz she liked the author. Then she got another kitty and she named him Shakespeare. He wasn’t with us that many years and then she brought another ginger kitty home and named him Steinbeck, after another one of her favorite authors. She had decided she wanted us to have a blog and wanted us to have literary names. She also didn’t want us to have names that everyone else had. She’s strange that way.
Enough of the background information. My question to all you readers is: if I have the name Hemingway, why does Mom insist on calling me other names? Do the rest of you have the problem? I call Mom, Mom. That’s all I call her. I call my little brother, Steinbeck…….well, maybe sometimes I call him Brat……but that’s another story for another day.
Here’s a recent picture that Mom took of me.
One of Mom’s friends likes to call me Mr. Regal ‘cuz I’m always dressed in my finest tuxedo, ready for a party. When Mom took this picture, she decided it really did show me as Mr. Regal. I think I look quite like a king in that picture.
She also has another crazy name for me. Would you believe she calls me, Inaway? She said she came up with that name ‘cuz I’m always in the way. Can I help it if she wants to walk wherever I stretch out on the floor? I say it’s her fault. I say that I get a vote on this and I’ll go for Mr. Regal instead of Inaway.
TwoCatsViews 