So Many Things

So Wednesday was completely crazy and left me feeling completely run-down and frazzled.

It started with no less than 3 phone discussions with the vet in the morning. The first one telling me that he'd checked Rex (not yet under sedation) to see if he could feel the undescended testicle and unfortunately he couldn't. Because of this he was fairly certain he'd have to be opened up to find it. So he'd made a few calls to no less than 6 other vets (including a specialist surgeon at Fourways and an exotics specialist at Onderstepoort). No one had ever had to open a Rabbit up and go searching for the undescended testicle because they had all managed to massage it out before. Fabulous news :P I was nervous, but he promised to call me after the procedure was done. (The 2nd phone call was me calling him back to say go ahead with the op after chatting to Varen). Just before 10am the vet called me back again. The procedure was done and they'd found and removed both testicles :) What a relief. The dud turned out to be in the inguinal canal just very high up and only a quarter of the size of the other one. Rex was already waking up and by the time I collected him was eating and drinking and back to normal. Including having chewed out 2 of his stitches already! To date he hasn't chewed out any more of them so I'm counting us lucky (when Bell got spayed, she had taken all the stitches out herself in 2 days!). So good news for Rex :)

After work I headed off to a Dermatologist appointment I'd made ages ago (thanks Boldy Benny for the recommendation :) ) spured on by The Blonde Blogshell's recent experience (can't find the link :( ). It was just supposed to be a fairly routine check-up. I have very dry skin and I don't trust the people trying to sell you things at make-up counters so was just hoping for her to recommend the right products for my skin. The entire experience ended up costing me 2 & half grand :( Half of that to the Derm for removing a mole off my back (and I have to go back in 10days for them to remove the stitches ... me & Rex both now!) the other half was spent on weird & wonderful ointments and lotion and whatnot at the pharmacy based on her "Please Turn Over" long prescription! Sigh. Apparently I have eczema around my eyes which I thought was just plain old dryness. Anyhoo, the stuff has really been helping so far so I guess I can't complain. I just hope my Medical Aid comes thru asap!!

So after racing around, from the Derm to the pharmacy (due to the stitches I wasn't waiting to collect the scrip) to the vet, I drove miles and miles. I honestly felt like a single mom, arriving home and still having to make dinner. Being unable to rely on someone else to fill in the gaps. Varen worked late again on Wednesday night. He worked even later on Thursday night too. On Wednesday evening he arrived home just in time for me to have been out the bath and freezing for 10 minutes waiting for him to re-dress my stitches (being on my back makes them awkward like that :( ). I think it's hard enough to have to do this when you really don't have someone to rely on. A part of me thinks it's a little more soul-destroying to think you're supposed to have someone there to help but when it comes down to it you actually don't. It's more of a rude shock that way, I think. I really wasn't in a good place on Wednesday evening.

On Thursday morning I woke up and felt horrible. Run down and coughing with a throat that felt like my last meal might've been made entirely of glass shards. I was in no state to get up. So I took my first sick day in a year. Yes, I probably could've gone in, it's what I've done on the random few days in the last month that I've felt horrible but my conscience has kicked in and told me I'll feel fine later and I can't justify taking a sick day. Today I was feeling low enough to say "Screw it!". I needed the day to keep warm and recharge and come to terms with all the mounting medication I'm suddenly needing: First all the stuff for my sinus / newly diagnosed low-grade asthma which I ran out of last week but finally got a refill at the Pharmacy on Wednesday (my doc's away and they hadn't loaded the repeat and I lost the scrip!). I think that has also contributed to my worsening cough over the last few days. And now all this skin stuff. I have even been prescribed special soap and face wash and have been told to change my toothpaste (who would've thought it causes huge irritation to sensitive lip-skin!!). It all adds up to leave a person feeling low :(

I spent the day at home doing nothing dressed in my pajamas with layers and scarfs and humidifiers and strepsils. Add to that the fact that Lily started pulling her fur out like a crazy person (video to come)! Crap, it's quite likely that we may now be grandparents to a litter of bunnies in 24 - 48 hours. We'll see (luckily no babies had arrived when I checked on her this morning). It seemed like an awful lot of fur for a "phantom pregnancy". I've had to separate her from the others now because Coal went into the box she was making her nest in and dug out all the hay & fur. I would hate for that to happen when (if?) there are little babies in there! Plus apparently you have to separate the mom & babies from the males. So now she's all on her own in the smaller hutch inside the house (in the spare bathroom so she feels more secluded and protected - I'm really just guessing at what's good for her right now!). I am a little worried about her "un-bonding" with Coal & Rex while being separated. There's already something weird going on with Coal & Rex since Rex was away for the night. I think they're fighting over dominance now that Rex is getting older & bigger and he does still have the remains of testosterone coursing thru his body (can take up to a month after the neutering for that to go). It's not a "romantic" thing (like when Rex was circling Lily) at all, it's a lot more angry, like when we first bonded Coal & him. Except now, half the time it's him chasing her back. I don't know who's winning the war on dominance here.

All in all a crazy but restful day spent at home. Luckily even tho Varen was working late he came home for dinner (now I really need him around to re-dress my wound!) and I made Spinach & Feta free-form pie :) The pie was devine ... imagine a giant Spanakopita (one of my favourite things ever!). I also found time to watch Pursuit of Happyness.

In 1981, in San Francisco, the smart salesman and family man Chris Gardner invests the family savings in Osteo National bone-density scanners, an apparatus twice as expensive as an x-ray machine but with a slightly clearer image. This white elephant financially breaks the family, bringing troubles to his relationship with his wife Linda, who leaves him and moves to New York where she has received a job in a pizza parlor. She wishes to take her son, Christopher, with her but Chris tells her no because they both know that Linda will be unable to take care of him. Without money or a wife, but totally committed to his son Christopher, Chris sees the chance to fight for a stockbroker internship position at Dean Witter, offering a more promising career at the end of a six month - no salary - training period. There are nineteen other candidates for the one position. Meanwhile, he encounters many challenges and difficulties, including a period of homelessness and troubles with the IRS.

What a mostly depressing movie. I don't know how I would manage being continuously struck down like that when just trying to get by and do the right thing. How do you keep you motivation? Obviously tho, it went all Hollywood in the end. I like Will Smith as an actor. So I'm not sorry I didn't see it at the big screen, but I'm glad I finally watched it.

Also, a quick aside. Mom reminded me yesterday that it was a year since Gum's death. Where has the time gone? I've been thinking about him a lot lately.