March 25, 2025 • 24 mins
A gabapentin recommendation at the emergency vet triggers my inner monologue: "Yeah, this isn't my first rodeo." After a week that included a pre-dawn drive to work, a $1,200 emergency vet visit for my beloved diabetic cat Bubbie, and a marital squabble over proper cat-medicating techniques, I'm sharing the rollercoaster of a birthday week with equal parts frustration and humor.
The chaotic week began immediately following the one-year anniversary of our horse's passing, discussed in a previous episode. Despite the universe seemingly throwing obstacle after obstacle my way, I still found moments of joy in unexpected places – feeding neighborhood wildlife before sunrise, celebrating the first sweet pea bloom in the garden, and enjoying the thrilling Grizzly Bear Rapids ride at Knott's Berry Farm with my husband and grieving brother-in-law.
Between bloody cat scratches and veterinary discharge instructions explaining concepts long mastered, I'm reflecting on one of life's most common annoyances: receiving advice for problems you've already tackled from every possible angle. Follow the Only Child Diaries podcast to join me each week as I navigate the complexities of adulthood with wisdom, vulnerability and a dose of laughter.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
She looks at me and she goes have you ever tried
gabapentin?
Just yeah, you know this isn'tmy first rodeo.
Welcome to the Only ChildDiaries podcast.
I'm your host, tracy Wallace.
Have you ever felt like youdidn't receive the how-to
(00:21):
brochure on life, that youdidn't get enough guidance about
major life issues?
So did I.
You don't have to be an onlychild to feel this way.
In my podcast, we'll exploresome of the best ways to better
navigate adulting, while doingso with humor and light.
(00:41):
Welcome everyone to the OnlyChild Diaries podcast.
Today I'm going to talk about mybirthday week, which was this
weekend, this past weekend, andall the things that took place
(01:04):
Now last week.
If you listened to last week'sepisode, you know that I had a
pretty tough weekend.
It was the one-year anniversaryof my horse, dallas's, passing
and as much as I tried to pushit away, forget it, push it down
(01:26):
, distract myself, it was areally tough day.
The universe seemed to just betelling me to grieve, that I had
to grieve.
It was going to force me oneway or another to grieve and it
pushed a lot of things on mefrom different avenues that made
(01:52):
that just any person wouldbreak through those occurrences.
So, anyway, that was that, andthe next day I spent time in the
garden and that helped.
That always helps me, butsomething that I enjoy.
(02:13):
But this week included a visitto the emergency room for my cat
.
It included a very earlymorning wake up drive to work
for a meeting which, if you knowme, you know I'm totally not a
morning person.
It included another day off formy pre-birthday day.
(02:40):
It included a fight with myhusband, which should be what is
it?
Marriage part two discussion.
I had marriage part one thatwas the most recent episode that
I did and various conversationswith friends and just trying to
(03:07):
get things done with my job.
So, yes, wednesday I got up waybefore the sun started rising
and I was out getting ready todrive.
I drive about an hour.
I work remotely but I driveabout an hour.
(03:29):
I left at 6.15 to get to themeeting.
It was going to start at 7.30,but I wanted to get there at
7.15.
I wanted to kind of settle inprep.
It was a big group thing and alot of people had arrived when I
(03:49):
got there at 715.
Do people not have lives?
Do they not want to sleep?
No, I guess not.
Um, it's amazing to me how manypeople are on the freeway that
early?
Uh, where are they going?
What did they do?
Anyway, and because I'm, youknow, I'm an animal friendly
(04:11):
person and I can do this, what I, what I do every morning, not
at 615.
, but once I get up and I kindof am fully, almost awake, I go
out in my front yard and Ispread some bird seed for the
birds I love the morning dovesand the little sparrows or
(04:31):
whatever wants to come and eat.
I spread bird seed.
I leave a handful of walnutsfor the squirrels.
Yes, I know a lot of peopleleave peanuts, but if you look
it up, peanuts are actually badfor squirrels.
So you know, try to leave somehealthy snacks for the squirrels
, and so leave some walnuts forthe squirrels.
(04:54):
They also eat the bird seed,but you know we won't talk about
that.
And then we have some feralcats in the neighborhood that
roam around and I have a bowl onthe side where the cats go and
some of the birds eat the drycat food as well.
So anyway, I realized the nightbefore that when I left in the
(05:17):
morning the sun was not going tobe up yet and I was going to be
out there in the dark it waspretty cold feeding everyone.
And then after I put everythingout, I realized that the
gardener was going to come inabout an hour, maybe an hour and
a half, and probably cleaneverything up.
But hopefully some of theanimals got to eat before he
(05:39):
came and blew everything orswept everything up Not the cat
food, but anyway I did the bestI could and I fed them kind of
again when I got back in theafternoon.
So that was kind of funnybecause I'm sure people were
driving by or looking out theirwindow.
(06:00):
They were like what is shedoing?
I was saying that to myselfwhat am I doing?
I'm leaving before the you knowmy pets were like what hello,
what are you doing?
Anyway, so, yeah, I got to, Igot to work and then so so I'm
going to talk about taking mycat to the ER.
(06:32):
Taking my cat to the ER thisused to happen when we had our
horse as well, and I think theuniverse knows when either you
get a windfall of money, likeyou are possibly at your limit
in terms of physicalcapabilities, like you're too
(06:55):
tired.
So generally what would happenis if I had a very busy work day
or an extraordinary day, likegetting up at five o'clock to go
to work, or I had saved someextra money, or just gotten paid
(07:15):
extra, got a bonus or somethingthe the universe would break my
car.
I'd have to take my car and itwould just be covered by the
extra money.
Or I would hear from the barnthat my horse was sick at a
strange time and I'd have to gowhen I was super tired and I'd
(07:40):
be like, ah no.
Or you know when, these days,when my cat gets sick and I had
to take him to the ER at youknow 11 o'clock at night and sit
there, uh, till five in themorning or whatever.
So I had gotten back from mymeeting, I stayed around the
(08:00):
office, did some stuff, talkedto some people, and I got back
around one o'clock in theafternoon and I was pretty tired
, but I still had some work todo.
So I logged back in and I gotyou know, got a snack.
I logged back in and then hestarted, you know, doing what he
(08:21):
does when he can't pee, butthis time he threw up first and
because he's diabetic, I knowthat that's kind of a warning
sign that he could be having adiabetic crisis, shall we say?
Maybe his blood was super highor something, the glucose was
(08:41):
high, so so kind of watched himfor a while and I called the
emergency vet and they said,well, just watch him.
And I was like, you know, it'dbe easier to just watch him, but
he wasn't necessarily gettingany better.
I had some old pain meds thatwe gave him, but after I don't
know three hours he just wasn'tany better and I didn't want to
(09:05):
wait until I mean I was alreadypretty much at my fatigue max
but I didn't want to wait tillagain 11 o'clock at night, so it
was about 7 PM I took him inand I tried to calm him down and
and he is not into the vet Imean most pets are not into
(09:29):
going to the vet but he's gothis little kitty claws and his
kitty teeth and he's kind of gota bad attitude when he's around
strangers.
So he's not a very compliantpatient and it stresses him out
too and I don't really want tostress him out.
(09:49):
So we went through that andthey're really good and they
know what to do for him, butstill, anyway, we got him back
home and he's a pretty big boy,let's just face it, and he's a
chonk and the carrier that Ihave is a rolling carrier.
(10:11):
And Well, the zipper on thescreen broke.
So I was terrified that he wasgoing to get out.
We covered it.
The woman that rolled him out tothe car said and he gets
gabapentin when he's going tothe vet.
He won't take it as a pill Ihave to give it.
(10:34):
There's a little transdermalthing and I put it on his ear
but it doesn't do a lot of goodfor him.
So she rolled him out and shelooked at me and she said just,
I had to laugh.
I mean, and you're granted,this has been a really long day
and I'm stressed out and I justspent twelve hundred dollars on.
(11:02):
You know, bubby needed fluids.
He was, they said he was alittle dehydrated.
They did get blood, they goturine.
Um, they gave us some pain medsfor him, some new pain meds for
him.
So she rolls him out and I knowbubby is not the most compliant
patient, and she looks at meand she goes have you ever tried
gabapentin?
Just, yeah, you know this isn'tmy first rodeo, but yeah, what
(11:29):
can I say?
I mean, it's sweet when youknow I'm not old.
I'm not old, old, right, butI'm I don't.
I'm not old.
I'm not old old, right, but I'mnot young either, and I've
lived.
I've lived through a lot and Ican appreciate that people have
(11:49):
advice for me, but a lot of thetimes I've already experienced
what you know.
They think that they think theythink they're telling me
something that I don't know.
Right, does that ever happen toyou?
You go somewhere and people areyounger maybe, or they're
(12:13):
really young, and they thinkthat they're telling you
something that you don't knowand they think that they're
telling you something that youdon't know.
Now, granted, there are timeswhen people will tell me things
and I won't know it.
I admit I don't know everything, okay, but gabapentin, we have
tried that and Bubby is a toughcustomer.
(12:36):
I mean, I've also given it tomy dog.
I started off giving it to thecat that we were fostering,
walter.
If you heard those episodesabout Walter, who we lost a year
and a half ago, walter was abarn cat, walter was a great cat
, walter was a great cat.
(12:57):
But yeah, I'm very familiarwith gabapent anyway.
But yeah, it's funny when peoplegive you advice for things that
you've already experienced andyou've run down.
So how do you react to that?
Do you pretend like they'regiving you new information and
(13:19):
just say thanks?
Or or do you just say thanks ordo you say, yeah, we've tried
that.
Or do you just one of myfavorite phrases do you just not
engage and just say, okay, youknow not, not tell them the 14
million different ways howyou've tried it and it just
doesn't work on him, or it?
Maybe it's.
(13:39):
Maybe it slowed him down, youknow, maybe that's what I should
have said.
Well, I did give it to him andhe's only at 80 of his usual,
his usual grumpy self.
I mean, I don't know what elseto say.
It was funny because, you know,I met somebody recently who is,
(14:00):
well, she's a coworker, she's anew coworker and she's very
young, she's 20.
I don't mind telling you, I'm63.
And um, and I love being aroundpeople in their 20s.
(14:26):
I find it, um, you know,interesting.
I can still learn from peoplein their 20s.
I like the energy.
I'm not going to try to competewith somebody in their 20s, um,
I'm not going to pretend to bea parent, I can just be a friend
.
But it was funny because she wastalking about her aches and
pains and I just kind of had tolaugh, because no matter what
(14:49):
your aches and pains are whenyou're 20, I guarantee that
they're probably not what theyare when you're in your 60s,
that they're probably not whatthey are when you're in your 60s
, even if you've had a lot ofinjuries.
I'm sure you've probablyrecovered a little bit easier
than I have.
Not to say that that's true foreverybody, because there are
(15:11):
conditions where it would bedifficult or you'd have physical
issues, granted, but she lookspretty physically able to do
things Anyway, um, but, butlistening to a 20 year old talk
about being old is a little bitof a, you know, my eyes start
(15:35):
kind of darting around in myhead and I don't really know
what to say to that.
So I don't want to, I don'twant to say anything and I don't
want to laugh either.
I'm not trying to laugh, but ifyou're older you can appreciate
that.
If you're younger maybe youcan't, and I apologize in
(15:56):
advance, anyway.
So that was Wednesday.
So by the time I went to bed onWednesday I was slightly Well,
I was exhausted, but I was alsoworried about Bubby.
And then the next day, thursday, he still wasn't quite himself.
(16:18):
He would eat, but then hewouldn't really go use his
litter boxes.
Here's the other one thedoctor's assistant gave me.
They give you these dischargeinstructions like you're leaving
the hospital with a person, andso she went over this three or
four page document and she said,well, okay, here's the
(16:42):
information about the litterboxes.
And I had told her that Bubbyhas three litter boxes and she
said, okay, you already get thatbecause litter boxes.
And she said okay, you alreadyget that because when your cat
has issues peeing, they say youshould have if you have one cat,
you should have two litterboxes.
If you have two cats, youshould have three litter boxes.
(17:06):
You should have one more litterbox than you have number of
cats.
So, okay, so I told her we havethree litter boxes for him and
I cleaned them out at least oncea day.
And so she said, okay, youalready have the litter box
thing down.
She said read this abouthydration, and it's a whole page
about how to get your catbetter hydrated.
And granted, he was dehydrated.
(17:27):
That's not all my fault,because I can't give him a cup
of water and ask him to drink it.
I mean, I do the best I can,but Bubby has a water fountain
he had.
You know cause cats have waterfountains Now, they love water
fountains and he has, uh, threewater bowls of his own, and then
he also drinks out of the dog'swater bowl, which the dog only
(17:49):
has one, uh, and she drinks outof stuff outside too water bowl,
which the dog only has one, andshe drinks out of stuff outside
too, which she shouldn't.
But so I was reading over allthe tips to better hydrate your
cat and you know pretty muchdone all of them, like add water
to the food and make sure thatthey.
You know, okay, I've done that,done that, done that, yes, I've
(18:11):
done that.
Yes, I've done that too.
Anyway, okay, thank you.
Um, so here I am.
He's feeling better.
Uh, we did give him the oralpain meds several times, uh,
which involves me picking him up, him meowing grumpily, putting
(18:37):
him on my lap.
Bill comes up with the oralsyringe and tries to get it into
his mouth and, if I'm lucky,neither one of us gets swiped at
or scratched.
I have multiple bandages on myhands now.
Because we weren't verysuccessful, I asked Bill to put
(18:58):
the towel on me, put the towelover my hands, and he didn't
know what I was talking about.
You have to move very fast withthe cat.
You cannot go, okay.
Well, what are we going to donow that I'm holding the cat?
I'm holding this 18-pound ballof dynamite and you can't sit
(19:20):
there and debate about where thetowel is going.
You have to move quicklybecause otherwise he's going to
kill you, so it's going toscratch the hell out of you.
We did get into an argument overthat, which was stupid, but I
was pretty much at the end of myrope and I guess so was he.
(19:41):
So anyway, it just happens.
It happens.
It doesn't mean that you hateeach other, you're just totally
stressed out.
Something's got to give right.
And then the other night, whichwas the last night that we gave
it to him, he scratched mewhile I was holding.
We were just starting and Ifelt him stick his claw into my
(20:05):
finger but I'm not going to lethim go.
And then we got the pain med inhis mouth and I let him off my
lap.
And then Bill said what is allthis blood?
We looked down and my fingerwas bleeding, like I don't.
I mean, I'm not on bloodthinners or anything, but it was
like the blood was just flowingout of my hand and there was
(20:27):
blood all over the floor anddon't be squeamish and so I had
to put pressure on it and put abig bandage on it and it's fine
now it's fine, but it was just.
I just it was.
It was a mess, let me just saythat.
So.
But you know, I took one forthe team, right.
(20:52):
So, but you know I took one forthe team, right.
So, anyway, onto better things.
So I did take the day off beforemy birthday.
I was hoping that I was goingto clean up inside.
I did a little cleanup inside,but I ended up outside again.
I always find things to do andI cleaned up some of the stuff
outside and did some of theother things that I've been
(21:14):
wanting to do.
And my yard is really, you know, we've been here almost four
years and finally I can say thatthings are starting to look
like it's a real garden.
There's still a lot of work todo, but it's finally getting to
the point where it really lookslike somebody's yard front and
(21:35):
back.
And spring is here, so thingsare sprouting and happy and
green and with all the rain,it's great.
So I feel accomplished in mysweet peas.
I got the first bloom on mysweet peas on Saturday.
So that's really excitingbecause they smell so nice,
(21:56):
they're so beautiful and mycamellias are lovely.
And so then we went to Knott'sBerry Farm on my birthday.
I got my happy birthday buttonI'm such a kid at heart and we
took my brother-in-law with us.
Usually it's just Bill and methat go, but we took our
(22:17):
brother-in-law.
It was his birthday on the 10thand he had to put his dog down
that day, so that sucked.
Our birthdays just suck.
But we went and I talked himinto going on the Grizzly Bear
Rapids ride, which is like awater ride where you float
through like a rapid water thing, and it was so much fun it was.
(22:40):
I think we waited in line forover an hour but it was totally
worth it.
And he said you know I'm not aride person, but I got him to go
but anyway, and we ate somegood food and walked around and
saw some stuff and there's a lotof driving involved.
(23:01):
And I went up and saw Gina'smother who baked me a cake, a
big cake, more cake than I caneat.
And yeah, so tired, had a goodweekend, got some sleep, had
some fun.
One year older try not to thinkabout that, but anyway, that's
(23:23):
what I've got.
I hope that everybodycelebrates their birthday, at
least in whatever fashion theywant to.
That's what's important about abirthday, and not to think
about how old you are, but howyou feel.
Anyway, folks, that's all I'vegot for today.
Next week we'll tackle anothertopic together.
(23:47):
I hope you'll join me.
If you like this episode,please follow the Only Child
Diaries podcast on ApplePodcasts.
I hope you'll join me.
Please share it with a friendyou think might like it as well.
(24:10):
Visit my Instagram page OnlyChild Diaries or Facebook Only
Child Diaries Podcast.
Thanks for listening.
I'm Tracy Wallace and these arethe Only Child Diaries.
She looks at me and she goes have you ever tried
gabapentin?
Just yeah, you know this isn'tmy first rodeo.
Welcome to the Only ChildDiaries podcast.
I'm your host, tracy Wallace.
Have you ever felt like youdidn't receive the how-to
(00:21):
brochure on life, that youdidn't get enough guidance about
major life issues?
So did I.
You don't have to be an onlychild to feel this way.
In my podcast, we'll exploresome of the best ways to better
navigate adulting, while doingso with humor and light.
(00:41):
Welcome everyone to the OnlyChild Diaries podcast.
Today I'm going to talk about mybirthday week, which was this
weekend, this past weekend, andall the things that took place
(01:04):
Now last week.
If you listened to last week'sepisode, you know that I had a
pretty tough weekend.
It was the one-year anniversaryof my horse, dallas's, passing
and as much as I tried to pushit away, forget it, push it down
(01:26):
, distract myself, it was areally tough day.
The universe seemed to just betelling me to grieve, that I had
to grieve.
It was going to force me oneway or another to grieve and it
pushed a lot of things on mefrom different avenues that made
(01:52):
that just any person wouldbreak through those occurrences.
So, anyway, that was that, andthe next day I spent time in the
garden and that helped.
That always helps me, butsomething that I enjoy.
(02:13):
But this week included a visitto the emergency room for my cat
.
It included a very earlymorning wake up drive to work
for a meeting which, if you knowme, you know I'm totally not a
morning person.
It included another day off formy pre-birthday day.
(02:40):
It included a fight with myhusband, which should be what is
it?
Marriage part two discussion.
I had marriage part one thatwas the most recent episode that
I did and various conversationswith friends and just trying to
(03:07):
get things done with my job.
So, yes, wednesday I got up waybefore the sun started rising
and I was out getting ready todrive.
I drive about an hour.
I work remotely but I driveabout an hour.
(03:29):
I left at 6.15 to get to themeeting.
It was going to start at 7.30,but I wanted to get there at
7.15.
I wanted to kind of settle inprep.
It was a big group thing and alot of people had arrived when I
(03:49):
got there at 715.
Do people not have lives?
Do they not want to sleep?
No, I guess not.
Um, it's amazing to me how manypeople are on the freeway that
early?
Uh, where are they going?
What did they do?
Anyway, and because I'm, youknow, I'm an animal friendly
(04:11):
person and I can do this, what I, what I do every morning, not
at 615.
, but once I get up and I kindof am fully, almost awake, I go
out in my front yard and Ispread some bird seed for the
birds I love the morning dovesand the little sparrows or
(04:31):
whatever wants to come and eat.
I spread bird seed.
I leave a handful of walnutsfor the squirrels.
Yes, I know a lot of peopleleave peanuts, but if you look
it up, peanuts are actually badfor squirrels.
So you know, try to leave somehealthy snacks for the squirrels
, and so leave some walnuts forthe squirrels.
(04:54):
They also eat the bird seed,but you know we won't talk about
that.
And then we have some feralcats in the neighborhood that
roam around and I have a bowl onthe side where the cats go and
some of the birds eat the drycat food as well.
So anyway, I realized the nightbefore that when I left in the
(05:17):
morning the sun was not going tobe up yet and I was going to be
out there in the dark it waspretty cold feeding everyone.
And then after I put everythingout, I realized that the
gardener was going to come inabout an hour, maybe an hour and
a half, and probably cleaneverything up.
But hopefully some of theanimals got to eat before he
(05:39):
came and blew everything orswept everything up Not the cat
food, but anyway I did the bestI could and I fed them kind of
again when I got back in theafternoon.
So that was kind of funnybecause I'm sure people were
driving by or looking out theirwindow.
(06:00):
They were like what is shedoing?
I was saying that to myselfwhat am I doing?
I'm leaving before the you knowmy pets were like what hello,
what are you doing?
Anyway, so, yeah, I got to, Igot to work and then so so I'm
going to talk about taking mycat to the ER.
(06:32):
Taking my cat to the ER thisused to happen when we had our
horse as well, and I think theuniverse knows when either you
get a windfall of money, likeyou are possibly at your limit
in terms of physicalcapabilities, like you're too
(06:55):
tired.
So generally what would happenis if I had a very busy work day
or an extraordinary day, likegetting up at five o'clock to go
to work, or I had saved someextra money, or just gotten paid
(07:15):
extra, got a bonus or somethingthe the universe would break my
car.
I'd have to take my car and itwould just be covered by the
extra money.
Or I would hear from the barnthat my horse was sick at a
strange time and I'd have to gowhen I was super tired and I'd
(07:40):
be like, ah no.
Or you know when, these days,when my cat gets sick and I had
to take him to the ER at youknow 11 o'clock at night and sit
there, uh, till five in themorning or whatever.
So I had gotten back from mymeeting, I stayed around the
(08:00):
office, did some stuff, talkedto some people, and I got back
around one o'clock in theafternoon and I was pretty tired
, but I still had some work todo.
So I logged back in and I gotyou know, got a snack.
I logged back in and then hestarted, you know, doing what he
(08:21):
does when he can't pee, butthis time he threw up first and
because he's diabetic, I knowthat that's kind of a warning
sign that he could be having adiabetic crisis, shall we say?
Maybe his blood was super highor something, the glucose was
(08:41):
high, so so kind of watched himfor a while and I called the
emergency vet and they said,well, just watch him.
And I was like, you know, it'dbe easier to just watch him, but
he wasn't necessarily gettingany better.
I had some old pain meds thatwe gave him, but after I don't
know three hours he just wasn'tany better and I didn't want to
(09:05):
wait until I mean I was alreadypretty much at my fatigue max
but I didn't want to wait tillagain 11 o'clock at night, so it
was about 7 PM I took him inand I tried to calm him down and
and he is not into the vet Imean most pets are not into
(09:29):
going to the vet but he's gothis little kitty claws and his
kitty teeth and he's kind of gota bad attitude when he's around
strangers.
So he's not a very compliantpatient and it stresses him out
too and I don't really want tostress him out.
(09:49):
So we went through that andthey're really good and they
know what to do for him, butstill, anyway, we got him back
home and he's a pretty big boy,let's just face it, and he's a
chonk and the carrier that Ihave is a rolling carrier.
(10:11):
And Well, the zipper on thescreen broke.
So I was terrified that he wasgoing to get out.
We covered it.
The woman that rolled him out tothe car said and he gets
gabapentin when he's going tothe vet.
He won't take it as a pill Ihave to give it.
(10:34):
There's a little transdermalthing and I put it on his ear
but it doesn't do a lot of goodfor him.
So she rolled him out and shelooked at me and she said just,
I had to laugh.
I mean, and you're granted,this has been a really long day
and I'm stressed out and I justspent twelve hundred dollars on.
(11:02):
You know, bubby needed fluids.
He was, they said he was alittle dehydrated.
They did get blood, they goturine.
Um, they gave us some pain medsfor him, some new pain meds for
him.
So she rolls him out and I knowbubby is not the most compliant
patient, and she looks at meand she goes have you ever tried
gabapentin?
Just, yeah, you know this isn'tmy first rodeo, but yeah, what
(11:29):
can I say?
I mean, it's sweet when youknow I'm not old.
I'm not old, old, right, butI'm I don't.
I'm not old.
I'm not old old, right, but I'mnot young either, and I've
lived.
I've lived through a lot and Ican appreciate that people have
(11:49):
advice for me, but a lot of thetimes I've already experienced
what you know.
They think that they think theythink they're telling me
something that I don't know.
Right, does that ever happen toyou?
You go somewhere and people areyounger maybe, or they're
(12:13):
really young, and they thinkthat they're telling you
something that you don't knowand they think that they're
telling you something that youdon't know.
Now, granted, there are timeswhen people will tell me things
and I won't know it.
I admit I don't know everything, okay, but gabapentin, we have
tried that and Bubby is a toughcustomer.
(12:36):
I mean, I've also given it tomy dog.
I started off giving it to thecat that we were fostering,
walter.
If you heard those episodesabout Walter, who we lost a year
and a half ago, walter was abarn cat, walter was a great cat
, walter was a great cat.
(12:57):
But yeah, I'm very familiarwith gabapent anyway.
But yeah, it's funny when peoplegive you advice for things that
you've already experienced andyou've run down.
So how do you react to that?
Do you pretend like they'regiving you new information and
(13:19):
just say thanks?
Or or do you just say thanks ordo you say, yeah, we've tried
that.
Or do you just one of myfavorite phrases do you just not
engage and just say, okay, youknow not, not tell them the 14
million different ways howyou've tried it and it just
doesn't work on him, or it?
Maybe it's.
(13:39):
Maybe it slowed him down, youknow, maybe that's what I should
have said.
Well, I did give it to him andhe's only at 80 of his usual,
his usual grumpy self.
I mean, I don't know what elseto say.
It was funny because, you know,I met somebody recently who is,
(14:00):
well, she's a coworker, she's anew coworker and she's very
young, she's 20.
I don't mind telling you, I'm63.
And um, and I love being aroundpeople in their 20s.
(14:26):
I find it, um, you know,interesting.
I can still learn from peoplein their 20s.
I like the energy.
I'm not going to try to competewith somebody in their 20s, um,
I'm not going to pretend to bea parent, I can just be a friend
.
But it was funny because she wastalking about her aches and
pains and I just kind of had tolaugh, because no matter what
(14:49):
your aches and pains are whenyou're 20, I guarantee that
they're probably not what theyare when you're in your 60s,
that they're probably not whatthey are when you're in your 60s
, even if you've had a lot ofinjuries.
I'm sure you've probablyrecovered a little bit easier
than I have.
Not to say that that's true foreverybody, because there are
(15:11):
conditions where it would bedifficult or you'd have physical
issues, granted, but she lookspretty physically able to do
things Anyway, um, but, butlistening to a 20 year old talk
about being old is a little bitof a, you know, my eyes start
(15:35):
kind of darting around in myhead and I don't really know
what to say to that.
So I don't want to, I don'twant to say anything and I don't
want to laugh either.
I'm not trying to laugh, but ifyou're older you can appreciate
that.
If you're younger maybe youcan't, and I apologize in
(15:56):
advance, anyway.
So that was Wednesday.
So by the time I went to bed onWednesday I was slightly Well,
I was exhausted, but I was alsoworried about Bubby.
And then the next day, thursday, he still wasn't quite himself.
(16:18):
He would eat, but then hewouldn't really go use his
litter boxes.
Here's the other one thedoctor's assistant gave me.
They give you these dischargeinstructions like you're leaving
the hospital with a person, andso she went over this three or
four page document and she said,well, okay, here's the
(16:42):
information about the litterboxes.
And I had told her that Bubbyhas three litter boxes and she
said, okay, you already get thatbecause litter boxes.
And she said okay, you alreadyget that because when your cat
has issues peeing, they say youshould have if you have one cat,
you should have two litterboxes.
If you have two cats, youshould have three litter boxes.
(17:06):
You should have one more litterbox than you have number of
cats.
So, okay, so I told her we havethree litter boxes for him and
I cleaned them out at least oncea day.
And so she said, okay, youalready have the litter box
thing down.
She said read this abouthydration, and it's a whole page
about how to get your catbetter hydrated.
And granted, he was dehydrated.
(17:27):
That's not all my fault,because I can't give him a cup
of water and ask him to drink it.
I mean, I do the best I can,but Bubby has a water fountain
he had.
You know cause cats have waterfountains Now, they love water
fountains and he has, uh, threewater bowls of his own, and then
he also drinks out of the dog'swater bowl, which the dog only
(17:49):
has one, uh, and she drinks outof stuff outside too water bowl,
which the dog only has one, andshe drinks out of stuff outside
too, which she shouldn't.
But so I was reading over allthe tips to better hydrate your
cat and you know pretty muchdone all of them, like add water
to the food and make sure thatthey.
You know, okay, I've done that,done that, done that, yes, I've
(18:11):
done that.
Yes, I've done that too.
Anyway, okay, thank you.
Um, so here I am.
He's feeling better.
Uh, we did give him the oralpain meds several times, uh,
which involves me picking him up, him meowing grumpily, putting
(18:37):
him on my lap.
Bill comes up with the oralsyringe and tries to get it into
his mouth and, if I'm lucky,neither one of us gets swiped at
or scratched.
I have multiple bandages on myhands now.
Because we weren't verysuccessful, I asked Bill to put
(18:58):
the towel on me, put the towelover my hands, and he didn't
know what I was talking about.
You have to move very fast withthe cat.
You cannot go, okay.
Well, what are we going to donow that I'm holding the cat?
I'm holding this 18-pound ballof dynamite and you can't sit
(19:20):
there and debate about where thetowel is going.
You have to move quicklybecause otherwise he's going to
kill you, so it's going toscratch the hell out of you.
We did get into an argument overthat, which was stupid, but I
was pretty much at the end of myrope and I guess so was he.
(19:41):
So anyway, it just happens.
It happens.
It doesn't mean that you hateeach other, you're just totally
stressed out.
Something's got to give right.
And then the other night, whichwas the last night that we gave
it to him, he scratched mewhile I was holding.
We were just starting and Ifelt him stick his claw into my
(20:05):
finger but I'm not going to lethim go.
And then we got the pain med inhis mouth and I let him off my
lap.
And then Bill said what is allthis blood?
We looked down and my fingerwas bleeding, like I don't.
I mean, I'm not on bloodthinners or anything, but it was
like the blood was just flowingout of my hand and there was
(20:27):
blood all over the floor anddon't be squeamish and so I had
to put pressure on it and put abig bandage on it and it's fine
now it's fine, but it was just.
I just it was.
It was a mess, let me just saythat.
So.
But you know, I took one forthe team, right.
(20:52):
So, but you know I took one forthe team, right.
So, anyway, onto better things.
So I did take the day off beforemy birthday.
I was hoping that I was goingto clean up inside.
I did a little cleanup inside,but I ended up outside again.
I always find things to do andI cleaned up some of the stuff
outside and did some of theother things that I've been
(21:14):
wanting to do.
And my yard is really, you know, we've been here almost four
years and finally I can say thatthings are starting to look
like it's a real garden.
There's still a lot of work todo, but it's finally getting to
the point where it really lookslike somebody's yard front and
(21:35):
back.
And spring is here, so thingsare sprouting and happy and
green and with all the rain,it's great.
So I feel accomplished in mysweet peas.
I got the first bloom on mysweet peas on Saturday.
So that's really excitingbecause they smell so nice,
(21:56):
they're so beautiful and mycamellias are lovely.
And so then we went to Knott'sBerry Farm on my birthday.
I got my happy birthday buttonI'm such a kid at heart and we
took my brother-in-law with us.
Usually it's just Bill and methat go, but we took our
(22:17):
brother-in-law.
It was his birthday on the 10thand he had to put his dog down
that day, so that sucked.
Our birthdays just suck.
But we went and I talked himinto going on the Grizzly Bear
Rapids ride, which is like awater ride where you float
through like a rapid water thing, and it was so much fun it was.
(22:40):
I think we waited in line forover an hour but it was totally
worth it.
And he said you know I'm not aride person, but I got him to go
but anyway, and we ate somegood food and walked around and
saw some stuff and there's a lotof driving involved.
(23:01):
And I went up and saw Gina'smother who baked me a cake, a
big cake, more cake than I caneat.
And yeah, so tired, had a goodweekend, got some sleep, had
some fun.
One year older try not to thinkabout that, but anyway, that's
(23:23):
what I've got.
I hope that everybodycelebrates their birthday, at
least in whatever fashion theywant to.
That's what's important about abirthday, and not to think
about how old you are, but howyou feel.
Anyway, folks, that's all I'vegot for today.
Next week we'll tackle anothertopic together.
(23:47):
I hope you'll join me.
If you like this episode,please follow the Only Child
Diaries podcast on ApplePodcasts.
I hope you'll join me.
Please share it with a friendyou think might like it as well.
(24:10):
Visit my Instagram page OnlyChild Diaries or Facebook Only
Child Diaries Podcast.
Thanks for listening.
I'm Tracy Wallace and these arethe Only Child Diaries.
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