All posts by hannahviolin

I am a violinist. I also enjoy running, working out, reading, and hanging with my friends and cat.
Cat, Random thoughts

Productive Day

Today is one of those days where I’ve been just knocking stuff off my to-do list! I’ve practiced several hours, finished bowing my part for the upcoming Winter Opera St Louis rehearsals/performances, ran some errands, did laundry, and now I’m taking a few minutes to blog before I start folding the laundry, then teaching.

I had an eye doctor appointment today, and I was filling out the checklist of “things that are wrong with me” which, thankfully, is none. But I almost checked thyroid problem and diabetes, because I’m dealing with those things with the pets. Ha! I spent an hour at the vet yesterday getting everybody checked on (Chloe got some stitches out!) and talking with the vet about everybody’s treatment. We are trying a few more things with Mackenzie and then will take her to a specialist (animal dermatologist) if she doesn’t start getting better. (She is itchy and losing hair, possibly from scratching/rubbing up against stuff). Chloe is doing okay—we are upping her insulin dosage a bit if you wondered. Other than that, we got some powder to sprinkle on her food that should help with her eye issues.

So, since that’s a lot of “pet sickness” talk, here are some pictures! Some are old, some are new. Regular readers will easily be able to tell which are which!

IMG_4646IMG_4647IMG_4648IMG_4655IMG_4656IMG_4660

I feel like this year is flying by…how is it already late February? Soon we begin rehearsals for our last Winter Opera of the season, we have a Perseid Quartet concert (the last scheduled one until the fall actually) coming up, I scheduled my studio recital and turned in my studio application for the spring festival with the Federation of Music Clubs (woo hoo!) and we found a place to stay while in Chicago over Spring Break. (Spring Break is the best as an adult, really. )

It’s funny, the day to day often feels slow and, at times, dull, but the overall days go by so quickly. I think that must just be how life feels as you get older? I want time to slow down and to live in the moment…but I also want more tedious activities to fly by so I can get to the fun stuff. This weekend will be fun—we are going to Jazz at the Bistro on Friday and then probably going to a concert at the Tavern of Fine Arts on Saturday. I only have Saturday “off” this weekend, and hardly that with the practicing I need to do between now and March 6…though I’ll probably take the day off and then stress out over it Smile

How is your hump day going? Do you ever forget at the doctor and start to list your cat’s ailments as your own? Is my life as boring as it seems?

IMG_4598 (2)

“The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she’d ever owned.”

I convinced Louie to start reading the Harry Potter series (he never has!) I snapped that photo the other while re-reading the books myself. When Louie got to that passage last night he read it to me, because I guess it reminded him of someone he knew…

Cat, Food

Happy Presidents Day

Some of you may have off work today? I don’t, but I’m coming off of a TWO DAY WEEKEND so I’m feeling fully rested. That is to say, I got used to being somewhat slothful and sleeping in and I’m having a hard time getting moving this morning. The trick might be to never take a day off, then you don’t get spoiled. Alternately I could retire early, but Louie thought I’d get bored. I suspect I could fill my time with enough interesting hobbies, but then again, I don’t have QUITE enough saved, nor are my hobbies vastly different than some of my jobs, so work it is.

And cats. For those of you reading this from work, here are some cats!

IMG_4609

IMG_4632

IMG_4637

I’m always excited these days when there is a picture of Oistrakh in my timehop app. (Timehop takes your past instagram, facebook posts, twitter, and more, and shows you what you posted on the same day in years past.)

Last year Louie and I went out for Valentine’s Day and spent a good chunk of change. This year we decided to cook instead, but wanted a meal that was simple and delicious. (Simple, because cooking is a lot of work!) Also, Louie wanted steak, since he missed it and I agreed. So we decided to buy a local grass fed steak as a good compromise to not eating steak (ha! at least we are eating much LESS meat, which is a positive step IMO) and paired it with shitake mushrooms, a beet and goat cheese salad, and with a mexican chocolate cheesecake and salted caramel peanut ice cream. Louie sauteed the mushrooms in butter and then red wine (in the steak pan) and I roasted the beets with shallots, lemon and orange juice, and a bit of honey. It was a delicious, delicious meal!

IMG_4624

IMG_4626

IMG_4627

So that was Valentine’s Day. The salad is something I will add to our regular rotation since it wasn’t too hard to make and was absolutely delicious. And there’s more ice cream plus some chocolate we decided to save for later, which means that VDay lasts longer.

But today, I went for a run around the neighborhood. We got a few inches of snow yesterday and most of it was still there.

IMG_4640

I thought snow running would be closer to trail running than road running is. I’m running the Castlewood Cup in two weeks and I could definitely have been training more, but I’ve been running somewhat regularly…the cold and snow have made me a little lazy and I just haven’t managed to get to the gym in well, months. Oops. Today’s run was nice though: the snow was pretty, it wasn’t terribly cold, and I felt good trudging through the snow.

I’m also running the St Patrick’s Day race in March (I should disclose than I got a free entry in exchange for posting about it on here and in social media, but it’s a cheap AND fun race as far as these things go and you should run too) and then the Go Half Marathon in April. Are any runners still reading here? Are you doing any cool races in the near future?

Last note: I tend to do my laptop work on the couch, using a mouse/mousepad on my right side as I’m right-handed. Chloe often likes to join me, and by join me I mean, cuddle on top of my right hand and mouse. It’s cute AND annoying, and sometimes I’m terrified to move her because she has fragile skin and I’d hate to break it! But I hate using a track pad—how do you manage, if you use on? Would I get more used to it if I used it more? The things I like best about the laptop is being able to use the keyboard and the mouse.

Yes, I’m seriously asking how to do work with a cat in the way Smile And on that note, have a great day everybody! I’ve got a pretty normal week ahead of me as far as my schedule goes, but lots of music to be working on, and a few projects too. The to-do list isn’t terribly long but it never stops!

Cat, Random thoughts

Happy Valentine’s Day

3 Comments

I realized I didn’t post all week so I figured I’d better! The truth is that I’m being a homebody tonight so I needed to do something…

It’s been a good but busy week. Mostly I’ve just been teaching but I had some rehearsals, practicing, and a few random appointments to deal with. For once we didn’t have any vet visits this week (though they are probably needed—noticed Chloe has some eye issue and Mackenzie has been itching and losing hair like crazy even with her special diet) because both pets go early next week. This weekend I’m totally OFF (yay! and then three pretty busy weekends ahead).

So let’s see. Snow on Wednesday—enough fell that all my evening students decided to cancel. I don’t mind except that I don’t charge for snow days, so I lost some money.

IMG_4570

Thursday night was Taco Thursday. We went to a new (ish) Mexican place in the Central West End called El Burro Loco. I really liked it! We’d been to Gringo the week before and then recently read it is closing and being turned into a Mission Taco. I like Mission, but I can’t see going there with the other locations. I’m sure others will though. I’m a bit sad to lose a different late night taco place (open past 9 that is) and hope that Mission decides to update it’s menu with different veggie/fish options!

Anyway, the new place was more “classic” American Mexican and it was really good, in my opinion. Louie ordered a special margarita and didn’t love it (tamarind, I think) but I got the regular with the ceviche tostadas and enjoyed every bite. We will return I’m sure, especially as there was live mariachi music too (but not obtrusive, just one guy singing and playing guitar and it was very enjoyable yet still easy to have a conversation.)

IMG_4578

Last night Louie and I decided to go to Olio for dinner.  I love the food there. We split some egg salad sandwiches, the whitefish salad (my absolute favorite), something with pumpkin that I forget the name of, and a brussels sprouts dish that had trout also. The meal was delicious, but we were pretty cold through dinner. We didn’t feel like moving exactly (I guess we should have but you know how it goes!) but—the restaurant is in a converted auto shop, so there is a giant garage door with lots of glass. We were seated right by the door, and since it was way below freezing outside, it was still cold inside. I think they need a few more space heaters!

Today we hit up IKEA along with the rest of St Louis. I hadn’t been before here (in Phoenix I have) so it was a fun experience. It’s a bit crazy though, and we ended up taking a long time to get through. One of these days we might be getting some bathroom fixtures or a new kitchen there, however, and I’m still working on clearing things out of the house here in order to make room for either nothing (I’m hardly minimalist in my décor but I also don’t think every space must be filled) or something new. I’m clueless about decorating generally, and the idea of designing a brand new kitchen and having to make decisions fills me with trepidation.

IMG_4593

I saw this bin of sheepskin furs. Perhaps we should fashion a little coat for Chloe?

IMG_4590

Currently this (below) is happening. Louie is going to dinner with a friend from out of town and I thought I’d relax at home and let them be guys, so both pets joined me on the couch. Chloe is doing well enough…no new wounds, though there is something weird going on with her eye, but not weird enough to make a special appointment. Her right eye is a bit cloudy, and she’s been getting some gunk around both eyes…but we see the vet Tuesday and the fact is, she is elderly and we can’t go to the vet for every little thing and I feel bad about it. I’m still dealing with the loss of fatness—it’s been over a month, and I am coming to terms with it but I still get sad occasionally, and I definitely miss her. Nowadays my attention is focused on the remaining pets of course, and Chloe really seems to like cuddling with me, but it’s not the same…but I’m doing my best to be there for her and make her happy.

IMG_4595

Both of these guys are such cuties though. I’m glad I met Louie and I’m glad he has great pets Smile though I’m often sad that we are having such health issues with them.

We are being crazy and cooking steaks tomorrow night. Grass-fed and local…with mushrooms and beets and goat cheese and red wine, and then for dessert there is ice cream, cheesecake, and chocolate, so no one should feel deprived!

I’m off to relax and read. It’s really cold outside and it’s nice and toasty in here under my blanket and with all the pets. Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Cat, Deep Thoughts

Winter Is Back

2 Comments

After a beautiful weekend, this morning I opened the door to snow flurries and freezing temperatures again. What is going on? I was under the impression the groundhog was OUT and winter was over. I’m very disappointed.

I played in the Bach at the Sem concert over the weekend, which was a sad thing because we lost a friend and colleague, Fred DeVaney, to cancer last week. I played quite a few concerts with Fred over the years and he was a good guy and a great musician.  He read my blog sometimes and commented that he would prefer less cat pictures and more of everything else. I feel like I’ve probably been disappointing him for some time. The group dedicated the concert to him, as many groups around the area will be doing for their next concert.

We will all miss him. Cancer is a terrible disease.

What do I say next? Life is short…hug the person next to you and appreciate what you have while you have it. The more loss I deal with the more it makes me think about what people will say about me when I’m gone, and I want that to be good stuff! Or at least, “she loved her pets…” Winking smile

IMG_4514

I was dogsitting for April’s dog, Olive, over the weekend. She’s a cutie!

IMG_4533

IMG_4537

Chloe’s ears were chafing so we tried a few other things for her.

IMG_4541

IMG_4545

The shirt didn’t actually work out, but she now has a new cone that doesn’t seem to rub her ears as much and is more flexible. I suppose it might be a little harder to see with but she seems to be moving a bit better. Louie and I had hoped to find something that she could wear to protect herself without a cone, but I don’t think we can. Even if we found a shirt with a high enough neck, she would get urine on it, as we learned. Sigh. Her ears are healing though, and hopefully her wounds as well. I don’t know how long she will have, but if we are careful maybe we can manage for a bit longer.

IMG_4562

A piece I am learning. What fingernails?

This week is full of the usual: teaching, practicing, paperwork (getting students signed up for the Federation Festival in April!), rehearsals, appointments, and running…it’s a busy month ahead, but busy with fun things like going to concerts, playing in concerts, running a trail race, and planning a short trip to Chicago over spring break. In between there is plenty of time for worry and stress, but I’m trying to remain as positive as I can.

This year is not what I had hoped for so far, but it makes me remember what is truly important, and that I am able to deal with whatever is thrown at me. I have learned some new things about my relationship with Louie while dealing with all of these pet stressors (and grief) and I think it’s all good and important things to have learned. I am stronger than I think, always.

Cat

Cushing’s Disease and Fragile Skin

1 Comment

I wanted to write a post about what’s going on and what has been going on with our cat, Chloe. Our vet did give her a diagnosis of Cushing’s Disease, and my internet searches just haven’t brought that much information up.  This isn’t scientific in any way, so I can’t help you there, but I wanted to share our struggles and challenges and what we are dealing with so that other people might be helped by this.

It all started over a year ago. I’d recently moved my cat into the house with Louie, and he already had a dog and cat. Mine was feisty and possessive and they took awhile to start getting along. We’d noticed that Chloe (Louie’s cat) peed on the bathmat, so we always made sure to hang it back up, but it took us awhile to notice that she was peeing other places too, all over the basement. It was one of those things, you’d notice the smell, but there was a lot of junk in the area and we’d think we found the source, and we thought she was peeing on the rug (she was) and then one day I realized she had completely ruined two ottomans I had down there, by peeing on them over and over, and I didn’t even NOTICE because I just didn’t think to look at them as the source. Since this was a time before we had the vet on speed-dial, we hadn’t taken her in yet, but we realized we had better. Chloe was diagnosed with a UTI and diabetes then, and that’s where things started to go downhill.

At this time the vet thought that if she lost a bit of weight (she was maybe 13/14 pounds then?) she might get back to normal and not have diabetes anymore. He gave her (I think) a shot of antibiotics for the UTI and we started giving her special food and twice daily insulin injections. At first, this was really hard, but we quickly got very accustomed to the new routine.

When we went to Italy in May we boarded Chloe at a local boarding clinic, thinking that was the best thing for her, since it was a lot to ask of a friend to give twice-daily injections. In retrospect, we didn’t choose the best place, as she came home with a cold of sorts, weird stuff on her front legs (mucus or something?) and honestly we weren’t even sure they’d give all the injections as there were more syringes left than we thought should be. She had to have twice daily antibiotics by mouth (liquid, giant PITA) for 10 days after that stay.

I don’t remember if there was anything more over the course of the summer. We were able to leave her with Louie’s family for our other trips and his brother became quite adept at giving insulin shots as well. She and Fatness didn’t get along, and she still kept peeing in a variety of places, but otherwise seemed okay. We’d been strict with her diet but she didn’t seem to be losing weight either.

In early October, one day I completely freaked out when I noticed that there was a weird spot on Chloe’s side that didn’t have any hair on it.

IMG_3629

We thought maybe she and the fatness got into a skirmish and then the area got infected or something. We made an appointment at the vet, and took her in—the vet diagnosed her with fleas (I believe this was when she got that diagnoses) and thought she’d been scratching/overgrooming herself. He gave her steroids and antibiotics in addition to flea treatment. She started healing up a bit, and then kept picking at the scab that grew, so she had to wear a cone for a bit.

IMG_3533

At the time we’d thought it was temporary, and after her scab healed, we took the cone back off.

Then one morning I woke up and it looked like she had been in a fight. She had fur hanging off her belly, a deep wound on her shoulder, and a mess on her back. We immediately put the cone back on and took her to the vet. We were absolutely freaking out. The vet shaved her fur, cleaned her wounds, and we picked her up later. (I don’t want to get into it either, but they actually didn’t see all her wounds at the time, and it took nearly two weeks before she was really cleaned up and fixed up from this incident.) We kept having to bring her back in, and since the vet thought this was from her being itchy and scratching/overgrooming, he gave her another course of steroids at some point. He also gave more antibiotics at some point as well—I’m sure the vet records would reflect all of this, but this blog post is more anecdotal anyway Smile 

The vet kept trying to figure out what was wrong. At one point we got the diagnosis of ringworm, and gave her a topical medication for that. That might have been before this incident though. In any case, nothing seemed to help. Wearing the cone was the only option and she did start slowly healing.

Louie worried that the problem was stress due to not getting along with Fatness. We were working on that as best we could before Fatness got sick. And then, while the fatness was in the hospital (the night we had hope that things were going well, I cry just thinking about it) Louie took off Chloe’s cone for a few minutes to let her eat, to brush her/clean her up a bit, and anyway, the vet had said we would start transitioning into not wearing it with supervision. He looked away for a minute, and she was lightly grooming herself, and suddenly a huge portion of her skin just ripped apart. So here we are, one cat getting fluids for renal failure, another with a giant hole in her skin. The vet glued the skin back together and stapled her, and that’s when we knew that there was something really off, really weird, and that probably Chloe wasn’t going to heal and get back to normal.

That’s when I really started googling, and did find some things online about fragile skin syndrome, and Cushing’s, and then tests were run, and that’s where we are. She has both of those things—the fragile skin seems to be caused by the Cushing’s, and beyond that I just don’t know. (A friend mentioned the potential link between steroids and fragile skin, so it’s worth mentioning that it’s possible the steroids caused it, or even caused the Cushing’s…it’s possible her initial skin issues were different than her current issues. It wasn’t until Louie saw her skin tear that we realized that she had fragile skin.) We haven’t been into the vet again since the diagnosis, and honestly, we don’t know if we will change anything. When we brought her home from the tests we realized they sent her home with a new wound (we assume no one noticed, but that doesn’t make us happy) which required stitches. We are thinking of trying to put on a shirt to protect her skin.

IMG_4479

She also has been getting a lot of what looks like eye boogers, which we try to wipe off, and you can see the fur around her neck is a little dirty. We’ve tried some dry shampoo here and there, and light brushing, but now we are a little worried about hurting her more!

And she keeps peeing. Mostly she pees on a pee pad we put in a box, and she always goes number two in the litter box, and occasionally pees there too. She pees probably dozens of times a day, which is apparently both pretty normal for a diabetic cat and one with Cushing’s disease. The treatment for Cushing’s varies, but there isn’t much really. It depends on why it is caused—it could be a tumor I guess, or something else. Surgery or medicine could be the options, but she is 13/14 years old and we certainly aren’t subjecting her to medicine. She has lost a couple pounds over the course of time and is now about 11 pounds. And lately we noticed the cone is chafing her ears so I ordered a few other options online that should arrive Saturday.

We just don’t quite know what to do, and I’d hoped to find people on the internet who had been through something similar to get anecdotal guidance. And I just didn’t find anybody. I wanted to hear from people writing about their experiences with a cat with fragile skin syndrome, and what happened next, and how they helped her feel better, and how it ended. So I’m telling the story here, the best I can, in the hopes that somebody else will find it when they need help. Or perhaps this is just so rare that nobody will need it!

So if you are reading this and have any stories or suggestions or advice, please don’t hesitate to comment. I know we’ve probably made mistakes along the way of this journey, but we’ve done our best, the best that normal people with jobs and busy lives can! We’ve also been dealing with two other pets during the same time, and they just all got to be elderly at the same time…how did that happen? We want to think that we are doing the best for our animals, even when it is hard to know what that is. I think we will just continue to treat her diabetes with insulin and be careful with her skin, get any new wounds fixed up, and see how this progresses.

Random thoughts

Groundhog Day

I’ve probably asked in years past, but since I don’t have any actual readers (just kidding, long time readers!) I figured I’d ask again: when you were a kid did you know about the groundhog in NY or just use the weather outside to determine whether it would be winter or spring? I always thought it was the individual weather in the place where you lived, not some national thing. I suppose that was pre-Groundhog Day, the movie. Anyway, it was raining here, so the groundhog (which is quite different than a prairie dog, I looked it up, not like mountain lions and cougars and pumas which are all one magical mythical creature) wouldn’t have seen his shadow and been scared back in. Woo hoo winter is no longer coming!

I don’t exactly work in a nonprofit, but I have certainly worked for a lot of them, and so this article was very entertaining to me. If you are in the nonprofit world you might find it entertaining as well. The rest of the blog is probably worth poking around too if you have some extra time (aka if you are self employed like I am and am avoiding the rest of my to do list at this time…)

Louie and I have gotten in the habit of meeting for lunch on Tuesdays after my quartet rehearsal near his work. It’s nice and feels like we are real adults with jobs. To be fair, he is (which is awesome—I’ve never dated somebody truly gainfully employed before and I’m so proud) but I am, as they say, self-employed. But it’s neat because my rehearsal is near his work and the scheduling works out. I remember when I first graduated from high school being out and about during the school day was so strange! Now I run most of my errands while other people are at work, and I get overwhelmed by the traffic otherwise. Aka I love having lunches, and I especially love that I have a little more time than most people do for lunch if I want it. Perhaps having lunch out is a sign of success? It’s a nice way to celebrate the middle of the day, and goodness knows we all need more celebrations.

Public service announcement: if you own cats, just don’t have flowers! Or at least know that lilies are very poisonous to cats. My sister had a bit of a scare and had to take both her cats to the hospital for emergency treatment. It looks like everybody will be okay, but better in the future to just avoid it altogether by making sure not to have lilies in the house, or at least very out of reach, and we cat owners know that very few places are truly out of reach. (Do you ever think that pet owners are truly crazy, the lengths we go to change our lives around our pets? Then again, imagine being a parent…that’s really crazy!)

Back to work! I have a couple more hours of teaching and then I get done earlier than usual to go to a rehearsal. It always feels like I’m getting done early when that happens, but since I’m not home until after 10, I’m not actually getting done early. Weird how things feel different?