Month: April 2020

cats

Round 2 of Panther Chemo Complete

Kara HartzLeave a comment
Panther getting ready for round 2 of chemo

You can tell by those eyes (and the extra bandage) that we had to give her some drugs for her to let us place her IV catheter. Despite her squirms, she did well for the drip, and her treatment went without incident.

We are four days out now, and starting yesterday she lost her appetite. She’s not a huge eater, but she doesn’t ever just – not eat anything. When she was still ignoring meal times today I contacted her doctor who recommended bringing her in for labwork and an appetite stimulant. We won’t see the lab results until tomorrow, but the appetite stimulant really did the trick. She ate a full meal about an hour after administration. Now she’s snoozing.

I hope she’s feeling better tomorrow. It’s so hard to watch her obviously not feeling well, especially since I know she isn’t feeling well as a direct result of our decision to go forward with the chemotherapy. My logical mind can understand that not doing the chemo, and just letting the cancer continue on would eventually make her feel pretty bad too, but now that’s some theoretical idea that would have maybe happened some day in the future. Today, my beautiful girl is sleepy and hiding, and I feel like it’s my fault.

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Games we are enjoying

Kara HartzLeave a comment

Just before the shelter in place order went into effect we had a fun game night with our local homeschool teen group. It was hosted at Galaxy Games. We had never been there before but it’s a great store. We got to try out several new-to-us games, and left that night with ‘Just One’, and later ordered ‘Code Names’ as well.

They have both been a lot of fun for our family (4 of us, 2 adults and a 13 and 16 year old) and I’ve even counted them as language arts a couple days when we needed some stress relief, and a little less book work.

Just One is a cooperative game and I’ve noticed the kids like those games. I don’t think the like feeling like they are competing against each other or us. One person chooses a card and a number and that will give us the word we will use (the chooser can’t see the word). We write down 1 word that we think will guide them toward the clue word and try to make it something the other players won’t have also picked because if 2 of us pick the same word, it gets eliminated. It’s surprisingly difficult but we get a lot of laughs from our mistakes as well as the successes. The goal is to get as many right, as a team, as we can.

Code Names works in teams, so still a little cooperative, and a little competitive. There is a layout of 25 words, some are ‘agents’ of yours, some are for the other team. Some are innocent bystanders, and 1 is an assassin. One player gives one word clues to their teammate to get them to pick the right words from the choices. Because you want your team to find all your agents first, the goal is to give a clue that can apply to multiple of your words, but not to any of theirs, and defiantly not to the assassin. You pick the assassin, and you lose. There is a variation to play with 3 players, and I think even 2 maybe, but we haven’t tried that yet. We’ll probably give that a try this week.

I really like the language work involved in both games. The kids really have to think about the words they want to use and all the different way that word could be understood since they can’t include any context.

Have you been playing any great family games while you’ve been stuck more at home? Any recommendations?

cats

First round of kitty chemo complete

Kara HartzLeave a comment
Happy Panther after finishing her first round of chemo

She did great.

She isn’t a great patient, but with some relaxing drugs, she put up with the IV catheter and the slow drip. Afterward she was back to her cute self and wanting head rubs.

We are a little over a week out from this treatment. Her Dr. advised that there is a chance of a white blood cell drop at 7 to 10 days post treatment and to watch her during this time period. Thankfully, she is completely normal at home. Her appetite, activity and personality are all normal. I only hope that each subsequent treatment is equally gentle on her. I’ve read studies that indicate the longer treatment continues the higher the chances of side affects. So I’m glad we have one treatment down and only 5 to go. And she gets a nice chunk of time between treatments to recover. She doesn’t need to go back for 2 more weeks.

Updates to follow.

crafty things

I made a worm bin

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My daughter needed worms for a science experiment, and I have missed having a worm compost bin for the past several years (we gave ours away when we moved). So when I ordered some worms for her, I got enough to start up a new small compost bin. Had to order worms online since I assume bait shops are closed.

Now, I originally thought that I would make a full sized bin out of big Rubbermaid containers like our old bin, but it turns out we are having a pandemic, and I don’t want to go out shopping for containers. I already had several of these smaller plastic bins, and since I didn’t get very many worms, I thought they would probably be okay in here for a little while. So I pulled out the drill and put the air holes in. I still plan to upgrade them someday to the bigger arrangement. Our old bin had three levels and I only made two here, although I have one more container. I’m considering if I should go ahead and add it, or wait it out until I make the new set-up. It isn’t looking like we’re going back to normal anytime soon, so I will probably give the worms the additional layer. Might as well make them comfortable since they could be stuck in the temporary bin for longer than intended.

My original bin was kinda like this one, but I used containers that were not as deep as those pictured. The one I just made is the same, only much smaller. I’m going to keep them in the house for now, but I’m trying to figure out the best spot for them. I was reading that they are best kept in the house anyway, so I should probably figure out a good spot for them longer term.

Here’s hoping my garden will cheer up and sprout a little better if I can get some worm compost into those poor sad pots!