Runs with scissors discussion

I thought that we should have a place to share what is happy and to ask for good thoughts when we need them. I would like to welcome Jett Alexander who was born on Nov.5, 2009, to a family I sometimes sit for. He is healthy and happy.

Congrats to Jett's family! Great name :]

I'm feeling sorry for myself that I had foot surgery and have to hobble around on these damn crutches!

By the way, how are you doing? I know you said that it was "minor" but any surgery takes it out of you.

I'm still taking oxycodin but have cut back on it. Good thing I have lots of books and magazines to read to keep me busy :) I get the stitches out next Tuesday.

You must be feeling pretty good! They gave you the GOOD stuff!

Sorry to hear that actress Brittany Murphy died of cardiac arrest. She was only 32! How sad...

I am so shocked! I'm 35, so to have it be somebody only a few years younger than you....

Yeah, she was so young! I guess they said she had some kind of eating disorder and was very thin. Pretty strange for someone so young to have a heart attack. Her husband is some sort of dubious character.

I got the stitches out of my foot today. I still have to use crutches for another week.

Good on the stitch removal. You seem to be progressing! I sprained my ankle when I was in the 7th grade. I had a half cast that was held on with ace bandages. Later that same week, I got the chicken pox. I was VERY thankful for the half cast, 'cause that way, I could soak in a tub of Aveeno.

My 92 year old grandma is in the hospital with sudden rectal bleeding. Please keep her in your thoughts.

My grandma went in for an endoscopy and colonoscopy this morning. I will let you know how it went as soon as I can.

O.K. I have good nes on the grandma front. Her tests revealed that she has age related diverticulitis and gastritis. Her bleeding was due to a hemorroid. She is cancer free (a fear that was had due to the sudden bleeding) and she is eating and should be released in a few days.


Whew!

Grandma is home as of yesterday. She is on the weak side, but the hospital said that she is too mobile. Meaning she's too independent.

My grandma went back into the hospital on Friday. They did NOT give her enought time to recover and now my mom is talking to grandma about going into assisted living. I'm a mess right now.

Oh Kim,I don`t know what to say but maybe your mom is just so worried about her mum and needing to keep busy to cover her own feelings?
Please let us know what happens.....

{Comfort and hugs}
We are sending thoughts and energies your way and towards your Grandma.
MUCH love!

Assisted living is not such a bad thing. Although it's sad that she's losing independence, often going into assisted living gives the person a real boost. If you pick the right one, it can open up a whole host of social opportunities that enhance life.

As of 8 last night, and why it HAD to be at that time, she was transfered to a skilled care facility about 3 minutes from my house. She wants to do this and my mom is positive she will go back to her home for at least a little while longer. She wants to have physical thearapy and she wants to be stronger.

My mom and I are only children and my mom and grandma are the only close family I have left. My dad's dad passed when I was 2 and my mom's dad passed in 1996, in a nursing home. He went in one because he had M.S. My dad's mom passed 3 years ago today, 13 days short of her 90th birthday, while in a nursing home.She was in it for less than a year. Sure she had congestive heart failure, smoked,and had a triple bypass,and lived in a VERY rural area, but she was VERY indepentdent,and I think that being in a home is what made her give up.

I know that she's fine, and that assisted living may ultimately be the right choice, but I'm scared. What if taking away her independence like that makes her give up? I saw her in the hospital this weekend, and I was stunned to see how small she looked in the bed. I watched her walk with the nurse to the bathroom, and was stunned to see how tiny she was. She did't look like my grandma, but more like some little old lady.

My grandma has always worn a girdle , so her posture is pretty good when she has it on,she always wears shoes, and she wraps her knees with cloth "braces" to help with the arthritits. She was in a hospital gown and those footies with the treads. She did't look like herself. I guess that's what scared me the most, that she looked so frail and delicate...

sorry, I' can't finish this thought right now.

Never underestimate the right attitude, Kim. Your Grandma is going in because she wants to, and that is a HUGE factor in her success and her returning home. {Warm thoughts and energies}

Grandma is doing much better. She has physical and occupational therapies twice a day. She finaly got to have her hair done and she looks SO much better! She looks like grandma. Her color is good and so are her spirits. They are teaching her how to use her cane to her advantage when she walks and gets up from her seat. They are also teaching her how to reach for things so that she can keep her balance better. Medicare pays for 20 days, so she will be home soon.


On the other hand, please keep my friend Connie and her mom, Flo in your prayers and thoughts. Her mom went into the hospital on Wed. evening with high blood pressure. As of last night, they were waiting for results from a test, so as of now, I don't know the cause. Her mom has Bells Palsy, but they don't think this is related.

Glad to know your Grandma is doing much better :-)

My aunt "Bootsie" is in the hospital because her doctor is an idiot. She apparently has a leaking heart valve that he has been treating as asthma for the last 6 months since he did not listen to her when she described her symptoms. After my cousins insisted she be looked at a pulmonary specialist,who is the one who declared her problem to be her heart. Now, she is looking at either a quadruple bypass or open heart surgery. We will know by Thursday.

Dear Kim,
I will keep everything crossed fingers,toes,hair and eyes!!!
I do not have much trust in Drs myself on past experience!!!!!

My aunt will be going in for surgery tomorrow. She will be having open heart to repair 2 leaky valves, 3-4 by-passes, and something else I can't spell or pronounce. She is 78 and my cousin who left the message did not sound all that confident even though she tried to sound up-beat.

There is always a risk with Surgery at any age.A friend of mine has just come through a bypass aged 83.But we always get more concerned the older our friends are.
Take care.

Grandma is being released on Saturday.

My aunt's surgery did NOT go well. 1 valve could not be repaired, her veins are too small for a by-pass,and she unexpectedly threw a clot during surgery. I am hoping that since I have not heard anymore yet, that it is a good thing.

Hopefully it is a case of no news is good news?

I am sorry to hear that things went poorly. I hope that she is able to recover. Our thoughts and energies are with you all.
HUGGGGS

We unexpectedly lost one of our pet mice on Tuesday. Tara was my other mouse, along with Willow. Narzain said that he was concerned before he went to bed because he hadn't seen her. We only had her 2 months and she did not show any signs of being ill like her predecessors have. We are in shock. Yumi and Willow will miss her.

Today, I am devastated. 2 weeks ago, we lost Tara, one of the mice we got after Buffy passed. 3/8 marked my birthday, and I decided that I was going to become a true pet parent, and purchase my first pet all on my own. I got Jasmine on 3/13. She was a tiny cotton ball with ears, and a sweet disposition. We put her in with Yumi and Willow last night after cleaning the cage, and Yumi bulllied her a little.

I was thrilled because Jasmine let me hold and pet her last night, which was suprising for a new mouse and one so young.

As of this afternoon, she's gone. Not a mark on her, so we don't think one of the others got in a fight with her.

I am devestated.

HUGE massive HUGGIES. I am very sorry to hear about this, Kim. {comfort}

We have decided that with Yumi's personality, that we are not going to introduce any new mice to the cage. She tries to bully Willow, but Willow is older, the same size, and will not put up with it. If Yumi preceedes Willow, we will most definately get new mice to live with Willow, as she is very calm and mellow.

I would like to welcome Rachel Ann to the world. She was born last night to the daughter of a family friend. The baby is 7 lbs. and some odd oz. and is welcomed by her 2 brothers, 2 boy cousins, and her grandparents who will spoil her rotten. Both baby and mom are doing well.

I lost my pet mouse Willow last night. She was 1 year and 2 months old. Wednesday night, I was over at Narzain's and she was playing ninja up and down the cage bars. We had her out for petings and she was her typical explorer self, climbing behind my neck and playing in my pony tail. She even stuck her nose in my ear (!) sniffing merrily.

On Thursday, roofers came to fix the big hole. We went to a movie and when we came home, we were sitting on the couch talking about a snack when Narzain exclaimed, "Willow!". For the first time in the entire time we had had her, she had escaped from the cage and was perched on my shoe. We don't know how long or how she got loose.

Last night, I was over again, and the apartment was very warm. Narzain had forgotten to put on the air conditioner. Willow did not come out for goldfish crackers, which are the gold standard treat. She did climb up to the upper level and that's when we knew something was wrong. We took her out and tried to give her water with a dropper, but I think she was too ill to take it. In retrospect, she has been thinner these last few weeks, which we put to shedding winter weight. I held her in my hand, and stroked her, telling her how much I loved her and what a good girl she is. Willow passed, in my hand a little past 11:15 p.m.

Yumi, the remaining mouse, will be on her own since she has demonstrated that she does not do well with new mice.

Willow will be missed.

Oh Kim I am so sorry.I had been wondering how your little mice were doing the other day....
Glad you were with her.....

You have out sympathy dear. I know how hard it is to loose a pet. Warm hugs.
Love you.

Thank you both. It was hard,yet I have been trying to prepare myself for it since she turned 1 and the average is 1-2 years for a life span. She knew she was loved, and soon she will be out in my back yard under a lovely pine tree that gets a lot of sun.

Yesterday,Narzain and I go new pet mice. Yumi, the anti-social one and remaining mouse, passed on about 2 weeks ago, and neither of us was too upset. It was not that we didn't care about her, she just never warmed up to us the way the others have in the past (and that includes the mice Narain has owned before we met.)

So, yesterday we acquired Cloud a white female with brown spots, including one that goes over one of her eyes, and Luna, a small white female who reminds me a little of the much missed Jasmine. We put Willow and Yumi to rest in the morning and had the new ones settled a few hours later. We plan on getting at least 1 more this weekend since they only had a few females to pick from.

Last night, Luna gave the two of us a cardio work out. Narzain called to tell me that he was home and I asked how the girls were. He couldn't find Luna. We were afraid that she had somehow gotten loose, or even worse, had passed on because she was perhaps too little to be sold. He had to call me back because he needed 2 hands. He found her, sound asleep, in the plastic house on the top floor of the cage (it has 2 balcony's). This meant un-screwing the house from the cage bars, and lifting it out of the cage. She slept through the whole ordeal, and upon waking, looked at Narzain like he was a moron.

I would rather that look than have harm done.

Whew!

Yeah, me too. Though mouse scorn is just weird to experience.

It's kinda like cat scorn, but on a much smaller scale.

In all of the recent excitement, I forgot to post about our newest addition. On Monday, I took the leap and decided to become a pet parent once again. (Narzain bought Luna and Cloud and I named Luna.) I got the cutest little (and I mean little) mouse and have named her Etoile which means "star" in french. She is a brown-gray color with a white belly,and a band of white that looks like a belt.

She was well accepted by the other 2 and they are all getting along well. The only problem is that because she is so tiny, she is able to fit between the bars. Narzain has jury-rigged every spare piece of the old cage trying to foil her.

Lesson, no more tiny mice just because they are cute.....

Couldn't you get really fine wire mesh to cover the cage?

This reminds me of when we brought SusiQ hone at 6 weeks old.We decided to put a baby/puppy gate in the downstairs hall as I was concerned she would fall downstairs if I was out...the instructions were really stupid and it took all A.M and P.M to decide to give up..Until Husband was lying in bed when he suddenly sat up and Announced in a VERY Henry Higgins tone and Manner "I've got it!" (I mentally added "by jove!)sprang out of bed and zoomed downstairs.I was left in bed bemused with a grumpy 4 year old Shania (she likes her sleep) and a bewildered 6 week old SusiQ! They both came and snuggled into Mummy...I left him to it until he called us about 30 minutes later and yes the gate was in place(hurrah!),so we popped SusiQ on the other side and shut it...well you've probably guessed what happened next,right? Yup...she stood there wagging her tiny tail while looking at us and proceeded to walk through the bars! Now I don't know what my face looked like but Husbands was a PICTURE!. Upshot years down the line the Puppy/baby gate is still their for any visiting (doggy)relatives.(I don't have children to the house...they are never well enough trained going on past experience!).
PS right now we have SuziQs. Baby Sister Emily staying for a Holiday...well she is my .4 of a child and we are opng she will be back for crhristmas!
Please keep fingers crossed for Saturday as we want dry weather as there is a restaurant we take Shania and SusiQ too where we can sit inside that we want to take Emily to for her first time. :-).

Sorry for rabbiting on Kim....Finally think computer fixed!

No problem! It's good to hear from you. The fine mesh cover is an idea that we are batting around if this becomes more of a problem. The top opening latch is how we access the food dish, so it will have to remove easily. Mice grow up quickly, so we hope that this will not be a problem for long.

I was told the other day about the accidental escape that "my child was trying to shave years off of his (Narzain's) life!"

I seem to pick the lively ones.....

Couldn't you cut wire around the opening and put a bit over the door? I'm all for keeping the little ones safe...:-)

For right now,the extra bits seem to be what we need. It has been agreed that no more really tiny ones will be in this cage. The other 2 are a little too big to fit. We think that this was an accidental escape and not on purpose. Narzain is used to slightly older mice. This was my pick. I'm still learning....

In a few more days or weeks she will have grown and eaten enough to keep this from being a problem anymore. They grow fast, so I'm not too worried, but we are thinking for future reference that we may have to get a mesh cover, but will have to be thick enough that they can't chew through it either.

Ahh the joys of being a mouse mom.

LOL.....
Its bad enough being Mum to Three JRTs and various other family members who drop by to stay.....

Good Luck :-)

Thanks. I wasn't sure I was ready to be a mouse mom again this soon after Jasmine, but with Etoile doing fine, I think this was the best move for me.

Ditto.....

Well, it appears that mouse mom may turn into mouse grandma. Etoile may be a boy and was a little too little to tell last week....

It appears that I will indeed become a mouse grandma soon. Etoile is most assuredly male. We have a plan for the babies, but this will be more than Narzain has been used to in the past with only one female and one male, not two females and one male.

Eeep!