A (Bunny) Love Supreme

My bunny Coltrane has cancer.

Even typing the "C-Word" brings tears to my eyes, which is a big part of why I haven't felt strong enough to discuss the situation in a public forum (I've known for a while now). But, it's a huge part of my life currently, and well, I could really use everyone's well-wishes right now.

I took the little guy to the vet a little bit ago because I noticed that one side of his snout was a little bigger than the other, and because he had begun sneezing more than usual. Well, the vet found a mass on Coltrane's gums above his teeth, and she immediately took blood and had me schedule xrays and a surgery so they could remove the mass and send it away for a biopsy.

The results were that the mass was cancerous, and the vet found that the cancer had spread into Coltrane's nasal passage, which was what was causing the sneezing (and presumably the goopy eye problem he's had for a while now). This is scary, as rabbits only breathe through their noses; his air supply is being threatened. The vet said further surgery was not an option, as they'd have to take around half of his face off to maybe get rid of it all. Chemo and radiation are also not good options for such a small creature. So, I'm currently putting some Chinese herbs on his greens, which are supposed to help promote healthy cell growth, and help limit bad cell growth.

However, over the past two weeks, Coltrane has started to decline. He has a bit less energy, and his poor bunny nose is now making whistling and gurgling sounds. When he sneezes (which is often), he makes this horrible high-pitched squeaking noise, which says to me that his nasal passage is smaller than it was before.

I left a message with the vet today to see if there's anything I can do, and to see if he'd be able to live comfortably with one out of two nasal passages open.

Anyways, all I can do besides give him those herbs is continue to give him love and comfort and time (and treats!).

And I also just want to say how much I love that little bunny. He's been with me for four years, and he's made me smile at least once every single one of those days. With Chris gone for the past 6-months, Coltrane has been my constant companion. I realize that a lot of people don't consider rabbits companion animals (as they take a lot more work/time/patience to bond with than say, dogs do), but he has absolutely been one for me.

So, please, send us some positive thoughts, vibes, or whatever it is you're comfortable with. I'm going to leave you with some photos of the bun from right after I first got him (please pardon the red-eye!), which was long before I started this blog. What a cute wittle bun.

The Bird is the Word

Guys, I promise I haven't made some silly resolution to STOP blogging or anything like that. Truth is, life's been pretty insane of late. And when I've had some spare moments, I've been spending them vegetating on the couch with Chris. Sigh.

Here are some updates:

Christmas/My Birthday/New Year's:
The seventeen celebrations that occurred over a three week period were great, though exhausting. Chris and I got some really nice things, including some sweet kitchen knives, an espresso machine, and a new lens for my camera. And, I'm now officially old. Sigh.

Pneu-MOAN-ia, the Sequel:
So, remember this? Yeah, the same thing happened to Chris again this year. He had a small cough for a long time that eventually turned into a horrible, bad, scary cough. That, on top of the whole snoring thing has made the past few weeks absolutely, bone-crushingly exhausting. I mean, like, super-dee-dooperly tiring. So, for awhile there, I kept waking up in the middle of the night several times (either due to snoring or coughing or both), which usually ended in me going to sleep on the single mattress we have in our music room/office. Or, Chris would sleep there. The couple times I slept in there, though, this stupid bird that lives in our wall woke me up.

Backstory: So, awhile ago now, a woodpecker pecked a hole in the side of our house (Chris heard it doing this in the middle of the day and tried to shoot it with a paintball from a slingshot, but that didn't deter this little effer). Annnnnnnnnnnnnd I guess he's (or she's?) still in there, because every time I stayed in the music room, I heard a very loud pecking sound followed by chirping, coming from the wall. Oh, how I hate that stupid Wall-Bird. In fact, after suffering from sleep deprivation and the frustration of having my significant other sick and not being able to do anything about it, I sort of focused my frustration on the Wall-Bird.

I had a dream that the wall bird got into the house, and was, in fact, like 3 feet tall and all multicolored (like a cartoon Wall-Bird or something). I chased it around and around and around, but it was faster than I, and, by the end of the dream, it had morphed into this weird Rabbit-Wall-Bird. Oh, how I wanted to kill that stupid Rabbit-Wall-Bird-Demon.

Anyways, Chris finally got to the doctor and is doing MUCH better! Phew. He's also snoring less now that his cough is fading.

But, the Wall-Bird still lurks about in the walls, waiting for some unsuspecting tired person to attempt to rest in the music room/office, like a Boogie Man in the night! Peck. Peck Peck. PECK. PECKPECKPECKPECK *chirp*. 

ARGHGHGGHGHGHGHGHH!

Vertigo

Well, I've been at the beach on The Outer Banks of NC all week (pause to let you hate me). I haven't been able to go for the past three years or so, so I was exceedingly excited that I could this year. Chris came as well, but he had to leave this morning because he has to go be a big important guitar player in our friend's band for two performances at Floyd Fest.

I will post some pictures I've taken later... I haven't had the energy to pull them off my camera.

So, the week has been great. I'm on book #4 (yes, I like to spend vacation reading!). I've gotten a bit of sun (no rash yet!), but I've spent most of my time on the beach in the shade provided by this big tent/shade thing my dad has or in the water.

Yesterday, I got this horrible bout of Vertigo (dizzy, light-headed badness) for several hours, and I'm feeling it again today. This kind of shit's not supposed to happen on vacation! I've been trying to drink water, stay out of the sun, eat well, and basically take care of myself, and I'm not sure what else to do. I've gotten Vertigo before (and it has been popping up more often lately), but never for more than one day in a row. I'm not a big fan of getting the spins for no good reason.

Anyways, hopefully it will go away soon. Back to my wonderfully fat book.

Sun Sick

I've been having this weird issue of late, which is that I've been breaking out into a rash after being out in the sun for prolonged periods of time. It seems as if my body is turning on me in my old age. Now, I realize there are worse things out there, and that I should be grateful that I'm mostly healthy. I am grateful, but it's just that I LOVE being outside, and I love wearing shorts, tanktops, flipflops, etc. I love the beach, I love kayaking, I love wearing as few articles of clothing as posssible (yes, there is a parallel b/t how much I love being outside and how much I love food)... I love the sun, but it does not love me.

I went to a dermatologist today and was told that I have Polymorphous Light Erruption, which is, indeed, a sun allery. The description is below:

http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/polymorphous-light-eruption/DS00911.html

So, as the summer progesses, the allergy should become less intense. I hope so. I really do.

Seriously, who the hell is allergic to the sun? You know, the sun: The giver of ALL LIFE.

Pneu-MOAN-ia

Just as my bunny boy started to get healthy, my human boy started to get sicker and sicker. Chris has had a nasty cough for awhile now, which has sort-of come and gone. And he's been wheezing. He sounds like a set of pan pipes when he sleeps. I swear he wheezed the opening melody line to Ode to Joy the other night in his sleep (he is ever the optimist!). Anyways, things got much worse starting on Thursday/Friday, and on Saturday he finally decided to get himself to a doctor. I drove him there and ran a couple errands while he was at the Urgent Care place, then sat in the waiting room with my book. And boy, did I sit! The visit ended up taking over 2 hours! I saw people come and go who had gotten there before us, which worried me. When he came out and announced to me that he was diagnosed with Pneumonia, I was shocked. Seriously? I don't think I have ever met anyone who has had Pneumonia (until now, I suppose!). The first thing that came to my mind was the Oregon Trail game, because, to me, Pneumonia seems like one of those things only people back in the day got. Like a pre- modern medicine thing. You know, "You have died of Dysentery" and all that.  But, apparently, it's more common than I thought.

The type of Pneumonia Chris has is Walking Pneumonia, which is an infection of the lungs like regular Pneumonia, but it is from a bacteria and does not make the sufferer bedridden. They perscribed antibiotics and a couple other things, so hopefully he will be on the mend soon! He's one of those types who hasn't gotten sick too many times in his life, so he doesn't handle it all that well. And he doesn't like to let me take care of him, which is just too damn bad. (:

The other thing that sucks is that it is contagious, and I had been kissing on that boy until the diagnosis (let that be a lesson to all you young girls. Kissing boys is dangerous!). I had a really nasty sore throat yesterday and developed a stuffed-up nose last night, which continues into today. It's possible these things are unrelated, but at this point I'm convinced it is unlikely, mainly due to my paranoid stalking of sites that have any information regarding Walking Pneumonia in adults. Most of the things I've read say the symptoms start off like a cold or the flu, and it could take up to a week for the chest-cough part to kick-in. So, I think it's time to call my Doc and see what she has to say.

I want this stupid Pneumonia thing to walk its sorry ass out of our house!

Another bummer thing that happened this weekend is that my laptop screen blacked out. The computer still works, but you can't see anything on the screen! Not good. So, if posts are farther apart than usual, it is due to my lack of access to my compy. Frowny Face! Vet bills, broken laptops... I'm never going to be able to get myself a new camera! Double Frowny Face!

Anyhow, send some healing vibes our way if you are so inclined. We could use them!

Just a reminder that I've made the Ryan's Recommendations section a permanent fixture on this site, which is to your right (no, your other right!). ---------------------------------------------------------------------->

Another thing I wanted to say is that I'm sorry how spacey my last post was. I was running on too little sleep, let me tell ya!

Also check out my new "About," "FAQs," and "Links" tabs. Again, only if you are so inclined.