Still too early to know if the radiation treatments will yield any effect on her brain tumor. But the lack of any further bad signs so far is itself a good sign!
#dogstr #cancer
She is completely stoned OUT OF HER MIND from the final round of anesthesia plus the tranquilizers (gabapentin + trazadone). 🤣😵💫
The radiation therapy takes a few weeks to start affecting the tumor. The docs are very optimistic that it'll be effective. But still a risk that the tumor keeps growing in the meantime and we run out of time.
If we get through the next 6-8 weeks, we can start feeling more confident about her longer-term prognosis. Being a relatively young dog (7yrs) for having such a tumor, she's a rare candidate for follow-up treatment if things go well for the next 6-12 months.
#dogstr
So now I have to flush the catheters 3x a day to make sure no clots develop. It's FREAKY: I have to inject saline STRAIGHT INTO HER JUGULAR!!!! 👀🤢😫
It's a pretty safe procedure; apparently it would take 1ml+ of air to cause an embolism and I'm fussing to get rid of bubbles that are like 1/1000th that size.
But it's still stressful and gross and kind of disturbing to think about. At least Kuma doesn't seem to care and she's happy to get a treat after!
The hospital staff has been so sweet and continues to be wonderful.
Spoiler alert: It took LONGER than estimated.
Each day I have to drive about 125 miles over 7 trips, shuttling back and forth throughout the day. 3.5-4hrs in the car thanks to Chicago traffic 😭🤬. Four days straight last week. Another four days this week. Exhausting.
The first day was the worst for Kuma since she was very heavily sedated (procedure requires full anesthesia each day) and was super groggy the rest of the day. Then at 8pm she has to take tranquilizer pills to pre-load her for the next morning's procedure. So really no chance to get back on solid mental footing.
But they tweaked the sedation level and she came out much more alert the following three days. Feels much better to see her being mostly back to her usual self each afternoon.
I've also been chatting with a lot of the other random pet parents at the #cancer center. The impromptu commiseration really helps. And always wonderful to meet their #doggos!
And of course she's getting lots of treats!
Look at how clever this girls is! Holding the plastic peanut butter jar between her forelegs!
#dogstr
The tumor is pretty obvious. It's the half golf ball. The neurologist was also concerned that the meninges surrounding her brain on that whole side were also lighting up (white outline on the tumor side but not the other), either due to inflammation or possibly additional tumor spread.
This second view she's lying upside down facing us, we're moving in through her face in vertical slices. The tear drop features at the top are teeth.
The golf ball is pushing her brain back and to the side. The good news is that the prednisone calmed down the meninges so the main mass looks to be the only thing we need to worry about.
We start radiation therapy tomorrow to try to kill off most of the tumor and hopefully shrink it a bit.
#dogstr #cancer #tumor #mri
While in a brief respite from her brain tumor troubles, the prednisone is making her hungrier and thirstier than usual. And so, in a good kind of sign I guess, she's getting back to her old mischievous ways!
She thought it would be a good idea to tear into a bag of flour.
I joked that she was just cosplaying as my sister's cattle dog!
She threw up this morning and wasn't herself. Took her in to test for poisons, etc. All clear. Was fine this afternoon. Then out of nowhere she had a seizure in the evening.
I took her back to the animal hospital. They kept her overnight to watch for further incidents. But only a few hours in she had two more seizures.
The vet's best guess is it's a brain tumor.
Trying to get her in for an MRI next and neurologist consult.
Not in a doom loop yet, but realistically it doesn't sound like there's likely to be good news from the MRI.
Preparing for a gut punch.
Compare the hashes against what's on the github release page:
https://github.com/SeedSigner/seedsigner/releases/download/0.8.5/seedsigner.0.8.5.sha256.txt
Trying to heat my house with only bitcoin miners this winter. Pretty amazed that they were able to keep up!
S19j Pro, two S19 Loki rigs, two S9s.
Bedroom is fine, though the rest of the house IS cold.
Here's Celcius so the rest of the world can appreciate this insanity.
The writer/director, Fede Alvarez, earnestly cares about his young characters and their development. Everything about the human side of his storytelling is pretty well done. He manages the small ensemble well, but Rain and her brother Andy deservingly take center stage, leaving a lot less time to develop the others.
Alvarez falls flat with his new facehugger behaviors. Too much cgi just sitting out in the open not being interesting or occasionally inching toward silly.
The digital Ian Holm is shockingly bad. I think my RTX 4070 will be able to do better AI video renders pretty soon.
I watched it on Disney+; if that was the "improved" version... good lord.
The final creature design is just indescribably bad and, worse, once again shot way too much right out in the open. OBSCURE YOUR F'N SCARY CREATURES, DIRECTORS!!!! Especially if you have an unforgivably bad/stupid creature design.
If you're too young to have seen / known about Alien: Resurrection (holy f that was 1997!! 👀) , it actually makes for a really interesting compare and contrast here.
More stylized (deeply Frenchy infused -- for both better and worse -- by Jean-Pierre Jeunet), more confident, much more personality and flair throughout the ensemble (Joss Whedon is the master of creating characters and witty dialog). Darius Khondji is a MASTER cinematographer.
Resurrection is more comic book and brash vs Romulus' more rooted "real people" tone. Also suffers from bad creature design at the end, though Romulus' is so terrible that Resurrection's seems more reasonable in retrospect.
Romulus: more real people, more real moments. It's a pretty good human emotional drama wrapped within a good enough "Alien" movie.
Resurrection: Fails overall because Jeunet is just too Frenchy and, like Paul Verhoeven, I suspect it goes big and dumb because that's what he thinks of Americans. But he's such a good f'n filmmaker. Resurrection's impressive strengths and embarrassing weaknesses make it the more interesting film to study by far.
I don't have kids and she's my first dog so this was my first "Oh shit, this could be bad" pseudo-parenting anxiety experience. I felt physically ill.
10pm: Tried giving her hydrogen peroxide to make her throw it up.
Pro tip: hydrogen peroxide loses its fizzle a few weeks(?) after a bottle is opened. So it did nothing.
10:30pm: Called Poison Control (LONG ass wait times, $95 service charge) and they said to just monitor her for certain warning signs. Okay, cool.
11pm: My sister realizes Kuma ALSO ate all the used tea leaves out of a tea strainer (wha... why?!!). More potential toxicity.
Called Poison Control back (LONG ass wait times): "get her to throw up or you'll have to take her to the ER."
Faaaakkk.
They suggested a bit of peanut butter in a bowl w/hydrogen peroxide. Said most dogs will happily slurp it all up.
11:30pm: Minor struggle to find a 24hr drug store to buy fresh hydrogen peroxide. Like wtf.
midnight: The peanut butter trick worked. They said to keep her active for 15 min to get the hydrogen peroxide foaming up in her stomach. Ran her around but her iron stomach is legendary. NOTHING. Literally shook her in my hands to get more jiggle and foaming going 🤣. Nothing.
12:30am: Called Poison Control back. LONG ass wait time. But while I was waiting, SHE FINALLY THREW UP! I've never been so happy to see vomit (so much vomit).
1:30am: Kuma and I finally got back home.
She actually snuggled with me most of the night (unusual for her).
Today: All is good.
Brown rice for the #fiber. Red and black rice are also high fiber but supposedly have more nutrients.
Richness of the ghee REALLY brings the whole thing together. People give brown rice a bad rap, but this blend tastes awesome and doesn't need any additional sauces.
Rinse, toss it all into the Instant Pot.
* Pressure Cook setting, 7 min, turn off warming.
* After the #cooking cycle is done, let it sit under pressure for 10 more minutes.
* Release the pressure and serve.
Total time: just 30 minutes.
Comes out just al dente; not a fan of mushy rice.
Word is that I can find red and black rice for much cheaper at Indian grocery stores.
#food #recipe #foodstr
#yarn #crochet #craft #crafting