Yard Working Fish Hospital Snuggle Buggle Time

Friday night was really rough for me.  Every Friday my port needle gets changed out.  My nurse L called me and told me she couldn’t make it because she twisted her knee.  Now, normally I would trust that someone was injured, but she is always trying to get out of coming by if it is raining or snowing or if the wind is blowing too hard.  It happened to be snowing lightly that day and gosh wouldn’t you know it- slightly windy too so I had a feeling that she was going to “pull” something on us. 

She did say that if we had trouble getting my port accessed to call her and let her know and she would figure it out and maybe come out the next day (which sounds exactly like what happens every time it is too cold, or windy or snowy).  This was not totally unexpected.  As an aside, why are you a travelling home nurse yet you are so adverse to travelling??  She’s not all that helpful when she’s here anyway so I just figured “WHATEVER,” told her to feel better and politely hung up.  I told Master Pravus we were on our own.

My port has been really finicky.  It’s tilted very badly and hard to stick.  Master Pravus tried three times that night, and we had no luck.  I was shaking because I was having such a rough time by the time he was done.  I don’t blame him at all.  It has gotten so bad lately that even the last time I was at Infusion it took three sticks and two different nurses to get my port.  We aren’t sure if it is because of my weight loss, or if I have popped a stitch or what. 

Either way it doesn’t matter.  What matters is that it’s not easy for seasoned professionals who do this all day every day so of course Master Pravus who only just started doing this a little over a month ago may run into problems from time to time.  I do not blame him in the slightest.  It isn’t easy at all and I know he is trying very hard to get my port just right.  His technique is dead-on.  My port, however – is crooked and moves around a lot.

Naturally, Master Pravus stopped after our third needle because he decided I needed a break.  We had to go after it again in the morning.  He called L first thing because it was too late to call her that night.  When I say “first thing,” I am telling you “11AM.”  That’s when I was up, dressed, ready to go.  L did not pick up her phone so we had to leave a message.  Since I can’t drink more than one or two cups of fluid a day right now we had to try again especially having no idea when we would get a return call.  Thankfully Master Pravus was able to get me on the first needle.  We were both so relieved and we were able to run my fluids!  Thank goodness!

So, about thirty minutes after the first call, we called L back to try to let her know that things were okay now and we managed to get me hooked up.  She didn’t pick up and we didn’t hear from her Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday of next week.  Thanks L.  We had a heart to heart about her and this is not the first time we’ve been really upset with her.  We called her manager and they are sending out a new nurse for next week.  (Today by the time this posts). 

I guess L had been lying and she told them that she came by on Friday after all and all was fine with us!  NO!  Who knows what else she lied about!  Apparently she’s telling them she’s coming by a lot more often than she really is.  We had a whole list of sterile field technique complaints (from the first two weeks when she was showing us how to access me) that we were never going to mention but after she never returned our calls we were really angry.  Who are we supposed to call if I cannot get accessed?  This is serious.  I need my fluids and she’s just blowing us off.  Goodbye L.  I didn’t want it to go this way, but it really had to.  🙁

I felt so relieved once we got my fluids going.  I was so scared we weren’t going to be able to after such a rough night the night before.  Thank goodness!

Saturday we decided to go to the local fish store after my fluids finished up and I got done getting dressed.  Last weekend felt long because there was so much to do!  Henry had a touch of “fishy flu.”  Nothing really serious, thank goodness.  He got the dreaded “Ich!”  I’ve had a fish come down with Fin Rot before (and oh my gosh, that was so awful, I felt so bad for Henry VI because nothing we did worked for him) but this is Ich, and Ich is so treatable.  We caught it in the beginning stages, which was good.  There were only three “salt” grains on him (that’s the Ich which is actually a parasite for the record) and he didn’t look salted all over, however we didn’t want it to get to that point.

Originally we thought this was something sitting in Henry’s cup when we got him, which was why he had it so soon after buying him.  This shop owner seemed extremely knowledgeable, and he didn’t think that was the case.  He thought it was far more likely the first marimo ball we bought when we got Henry was to blame!  Noo!  Not the cute little moss ball!  Yep.  I guess those can harbor Ich and we should have quarantined it before adding it to the tank.  Truth be told, I’d not seen or heard anything about quarantining a marimo moss ball and I also had no up front and personal experience with the cute little buggers so we had to admit that poor Henry probably got the Ich due to our error. 

That’s why the new moss balls have gone straight into quarantine to watch them for any signs of small grains of salt.  Also, we’re still treating the tank Henry is in so we have to be sure the tank is clear before we add the new marimo moss balls to it.  Live and learn!  The good news is that Ich really is very easy to kill.  Henry only had three little dots on him, and as I type this he only has one that is barely visible.  We’ve taken all the precautions, aquarium salt, slowly increasing the heat on the tank, vaccuming his substrate every fourth day, turning off his light etc etc.  Poor Henry.  I felt so guilty.  The guy in the store said not to feel bad, everyone gets Ich eventually.  It happened to him once and he bought the hugest case of Nox Ich you ever saw!  Ha ha ha!  Still, I felt so bad Henry got sick so soon.

The good news is that Henry can’t even tell he’s sick.  He never got lethargic or started scratching on anything.  We caught it way early, and we’ll be so much more careful about putting moss balls in there too quickly.  I guess they really can harbor some things so it’s best to watch them before you put them in your tank.  I’m typing up my mistake here so that anyone with a betta or other fish who wants to get a marimo ball learns from me!  Please quarantine your moss ball.  I couldn’t find any info that told me to online or off, but I wish I had done it.  Even the instructions that come with them say to rinse them and then just add them to the tank, which we did.  Of course now poor Henry has a touch of Ich.  Your fishie lesson of the day learned, I hope!  Though, I doubt many betta enthusiasts read this blog.

While we were at the aquarium store, we also bought a floating betta log for once the Ich is gone as a present for Henry!  I can’t wait to put it in (but I will, of course).  <3  I love spoiling Henry.  Not that he’s the only one getting spoiled.  Styxxie and Dongalor got new treats too.  We got Dongalor a feather butterfly on a stick and it’s so pretty..  Well, it was but he is chewing it to bits.  (It’s still kind of pretty).  For Styxxie we got a soft blue kitty toy and you can heat it up for thirty seconds in the microwave and it gets warm.  That way if we need to go out to the store and she doesn’t have Momma’s lap to snuggle in she has her warm kitty to snuggle.  She lays her head in it and it’s so adorable.  I’ll try to get pictures of them with their presents.  <3  Henry’s floating log will probably be another week but hopefully I’ll get pictures of Dongalor and Styxxie this weekend.  It took Styx a couple of days to warm up to her new toy..  Pun intended.

Sunday felt like “yard cleaning day.”  I’m really not up for much as far as yard work.  I can’t really remember a time when I was up for much yard work actually but I do try!  Master Pravus has one bush in front of his house and we both kind of hate it.  It’s this bush. 

To be fair, that’s kind of a glamour shot there..  That’s the one day per year where the bush flowers and looks beautiful but most of the year it just grows and grows and grows and looks..  Awful.  It’s the ugly elephant in the room (sorry Frankie, nothing like you!  You cute!)  Usually if you let it that dang thing won’t stop growing.  It’s awful. Yucky.  Still, this was the weekend Master decided the bush was going to die.  Long live the bush!

So, while Master Pravus went to work with the hedge clippers I was out there with my mighty..  Broom.  Yes, broom!  I had to take a bunch of breaks.  Sometimes I literally just stood there and watched him hauling away large branches of doom bush.  Still, it felt so good to be outside with Master Pravus, helping him with the yard work.  I used to help with the weeding a little bit as well, but I’m just not up to doing anything that heavy yet.  We need to stabilize the gastroparesis for one, but for two I need to keep my port clean so having clumps of dirt flying at my chest may not be the best plan.  It took me a lot longer than it should have, but eventually I got the whole stoop, the steps and the walkways all swept! 

Master Pravus, on the other hand, was off doing much manlier things.  He (of course) managed to get the bush toppled (each individual branch cut to a stump), and a new doorbell installed!  We have a lot more yard work to do, and if I was feeling much better, it would be preferable if I swept the stoop every day.  Still, I’m doing what I can when I can and Master Pravus is so proud of me he tells me.  He’s also not comfortable with me doing anything remotely strenuous like that outside of the house when he’s not home so I always wait at least until he’s home and we see how I’m feeling.

The bush will grow back.  The only real way to get rid of it is to pay someone to either dig it up or pour acid on it, but we can keep trimming it down.  It’s much less of an eyesore now, even in “stump” form believe it or not.  The only thing we need to do now is to completely weed the front lawn, as well as maintain the lawn mowing.  The mowing will be so much easier when the mower comes back from the shop.  In the meantime we have the push mower, but that’s a lot more time consuming and less..  Pleasant.  Next stop is the back yard!

After doing so much on Sunday I was really too tired to do much once we got in the house.  Master Pravus wanted me to sit in the kitchen with him, and he noticed I was freezing so he made me this kitty nest!  Hehehe.  Of course I loved it.  Who doesn’t love a massive comforter nest?  Comforters are my favorite.  I think we have more of those than any other blankets.  I always sleep with two.  =^.~=  That doesn’t even count my heated blanket.  Of course, there’s Frankie because Master said I could bring one plushie with me to the kitchen and so I chose Frankie.  Applepig was chilling with Luke so I let him hang.  I’m cool like that.

NOTE: Unfortunately when we did a website upgrade some of the blog posts’ pictures got corrupted, and this post was one of them. That is why so many pictures are missing from it.