eric135

Follow My Voice

I've been setting my Tivo to record a bunch of documentaries, but I really enjoyed Follow My Voice: with the Music of Hedwig, making its rounds on the Sundance Channel. It's a documentary about the making of an album recorded in tribute to the musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Proceeds of the album are donated to an alternative high school for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered (oh and questioning -- let's throw everybody in there) high school students.

The movie cuts between a wide variety of artists (many I don't know, they look like my high school students from years ago) recording their version of Hedwig songs and scenes from the school lives of the students of the high school.

My favorite cuts in the movie of course are my favorite tracks from the original soundtrack, Wig in a Box and Wicked Little Town.

I remember being on a flight from Phoenix to Virginia, and I was listening to the Hedwig soundtrack on a portable CD player. The guy sitting next to me really wanted to talk (and, surprise, I prefer absolute mute conversation from takeoff to landing). He asked me what I was listening to, and when he didn't recognize "Hedwig" he asked what the music was about.

I guess my option at that time would have been to come up with something politically/socially/sexually neutral to say, but I was tired and a bit edgey after a bumpy takeoff in heavy rain, and my Xanax had really kicked in, and so I turned to him and said,

Hedwig the Angry Inch is the story of a young boy from (Germany?) who falls for an older man, and decides to have a sex change operation. Unable to afford a reputable surgeon, he is forced into the services of a (dentist? Veterinarian? I forgot now), who was not able to complete the surgery successfully. Hedwig is left with a one-inch remnant of his penis, but his lover still takes him to America. They live a minimal existence in a trailer park, and one day, the lover leaves Hedwig. The rest of the musical/movie is Hedwig's struggle to come to terms with his sexuality, his desire to be a successful rock musician, and his relationship with a sexually stunted younger man who steals his music and then becomes famous with it. In the end, though, Hedwig learns to accept and love himself, along with all of his "shortcomings" and learns to deal with "what he has to work with," and the Inch is angry no more, as is symbolized in the movie by Hedwig walking into the distance naked and unashamed.

I'm not sure which, but either the Xanax or I looked at him, wondering where this conversation could possibly be headed.

The guy stares at me during my entire spiel, and wordlessly turns to his newspaper, snapping the fold stiffly and dismissively, assuming I've made all that up just to piss him off.

The remainder of the flight was unremarkable. And very quiet.

America's Got Talent

 I generally hate TV talent shows. I've been drawn to America's Got Talent on NBC. I don't like the acts that end up getting boo'ed off the stage. I'm sure some of those acts just know beforehand that they are going to get the three X's, but I hate it when the performer seems really shocked that the judges didn't like their act.

The judges, to me, are much better than the judges from American Idol. It still has the really mean british guy, that takes supreme pleasure in humiliating people. But he's balanced by a very sensitive and affirming Sharon Osborne, and fun-loving nice-guy David Hasselhoff. Working backstage is Jerry Springer, who has done a lot in my eyes by seeming to care about all of the performers, and not just the ones having sex with their cows.

Last week's show really got me, with the insurance salesman's performance of the Nessun Dorma that brought tears to my eyes.

Oh, and the Riverdance acts. I seem to REALLY love any verson of Riverdance. God Bless Riverdance.

Oh and the tearful tributes to mothers and fathers, uncles and aunts. That just seems to be a prerequisite to doing well on this show.

Did I mention I really like Riverdance?

Typhoon Frank

 A pic from the relief/clean-up efforts in Kalibo Aklan Philippines, in the aftermath after Typhoon Frank. It's been more than 20 years since I've been to the Philippines, but my heart goes out to all those devastated by flood waters. In my aunt's home, water was up to their necks on the first level of their home, and they had to seek refuge on the upper floor. They've just recently gotten minimal running water restored, but it could be up to a month before electricity is restored.

Diamonds and Pearls, or so it would seem.

LadyKitty is still hanging in there, and actually seems to have made a fair recovery. We are still doing the subcutaneous fluids, but we've cut back to 200cc/100cc lactated Ringers every other day. The picture above was taken after her morning infusion. She actually does very well with the daily needle stick, and pretty much just lies there calmly. The green towel on her back is for the bit of fluid that leaks from her site after the infusion is over.

We're also still giving the Pepcid 5mg. Her appetite is much better now, and we no longer are feeding her baby food through a syringe.

Oh and we're still running netcams in front of the food bowls and the litter boxes so we can keep a record of her "I and O's" per se. She's been having some BM's, and by my reaction, you'd think she's shitting diamonds or pearls.

Make room for the Queen!

She almost looks like her old self at this point. For the first time in a week, she's come out to join us in the living room, jumped up on the coffee table (this is her usual "domain") and jumped up to be with roomie on the couch watching TV. It was very re-assuring.

We're still having to feed her with the syringe, but she's taking more food more often. We're still waiting for a bm. It doesn't look like she's ready to try to eat on her own -- we offered her some sardines packed in oil (the smelliest stuff we could find) and she turned her nose up at it.

It has definitely been nice having her around while we watch TV. That hasn't been happening for more than a week. And when she does bless us with an appearance, all of the pampering and pushing the other kitties away from the food and water bowls and giving her a clear path to the litterbox would make someone think the Queen was coming...

And I guess she is, at that.

Better every day

We've been giving LadyKitty subcutaneous fluids now for 4 days, and she seems to be getting better every day. We're still feeding her with a 10cc syringe, but we notice she's starting to sniff at the food bowl (but still turns her nose up at it).

God what I wouldn't give for Lady to have a bm. It's been at least a week, but the vet doesn't seem to be as worried and fixated on it as I am.

We plan on taking her back to the vet early next week for a check up. I'm dreading that he'll want us to give her enemas (I've read that on the internet quite a bit lately). But enemas are better news than some sort of bowel surgery.

We do notice that her energy level is higher. She still spends most of the day in the cabinet under the sink, but she comes out to visit us every few hours.

We'll just have to see how it goes.

Ladykitty pt 2

Things have been improving over the past 12-24 hours.

We've decided to really get more aggressive feeding Ladykitty rather than just let her go without. It turns out that cats, especially older obese cats, can run the risk of hepatic lipidosis. Everything I read on the web seemed to indicate keeping the cat eating could be the one thing that helps them turn around, and letting them become anorexic could mean a PEG tube or even death. Lady hasn't been eating any of her usual food, and we have tried everything including her all-time favorite, human canned tuna, all to no avail.

The vet said that cats often will get too much acid in their digestive tract, and can cause gastric ulcers, esophagitis or mouth ulcers. So we started the Pepcid 5mg every day. Now that she's had a dose, I figure it was time to try.

Per the vet's suggestion, we bought Gerber canned baby food (we're working on the chicken one, but also have turkey -- oddly they don't have a version for tuna). We thin it down with either warm water or "cat milk" that roomie picked up today. Her first feeding at 9am only got about 5cc, but just now at 330pm we got about 18 cc into her with minimal difficulty.

I'll be ecstatic when I catch her having a bm using our fancy Litter-cam, as mentioned earlier.

Ladykitty

It has been a rough three days.

Ladykitty, our ~twelve-year-old tabby, stopped eating. We took her in to see the vet Tuesday and had her looked at, and had some blood drawn.

The news is a bit grim. Ladykitty's in chronic renal failure. Her BUN is 224 (normal for cats is 15-34) and Creatinine is 15.9 (0.8-2.3). That's pretty damn high, and when I first heard the vet tell me the actual numbers, I could feel my heart pounding in my chest.

I asked him what the options were at this point, and he suggested giving her lactated ringers 200cc subcutaneous every day. Luckily, I'm able to do that with her here at home rather than leaving her in the veterinary hospital. At least we can be with her, and she can be at home in familiar surroundings.

It's been about 24 hours since we started, and she really did perk up a lot after the first 200cc bolus. She is still much less active and spry than usual, but she comes out of her dark hiding places when we visit her, and seems to want company at least for a few minutes several times a day.

She has been making urine, so I don't think she can be in total kidney failure. To be sure, we set up the laptop in front of the room with the litter boxes and set up the webcam to snap a photo every 30 seconds. If I had to guess, she's making about 20-40cc's of clear/straw urine about every 6 hours. But she hasn't had any bm's since we've set up the monitoring system (but then again, she has not been eating since Saturday).

Our vet was quite honest about the fact that he doesn't often see a complete recovery with such bad renal labs, but he's "been surprised by more than a few older cats" that are able to turn around after 2-4 weeks of this fluid therapy, along with some Pepcid (5mg once a day). We're also giving her amoxicillin but her WBC is normal and doesn't have a fever, but I agreed with the vet that a run of antibiotics could be beneficial.

The vet said that he has a few patients, older cats, that have been supported even with chronic renal failure using subcutaneous fluid boluses for more than a year. Depending on Lady's quality of life, we'd easily be willing to do that.

The difficult times will come if she becomes very uncomfortable, or doesn't seem to be able to stand/walk/eliminate, or gets so sick she can't interact with us.

So we're under some pretty significant stress right now. As it is now, we still have hope, and thankfully, at least some time to ... oh god I can't even type the end of that sentence. Let's just leave it at Hope.

ACLS: Advanced Cardiac Life Support

This past Thursday, I spent the day recertifying for ACLS. It's a scheduled 8-hour refresher class that I have to take every other year. This year it took us about 6 hours to finish the class (which includes the refresher class, a 50-item test, and a "simulated code" where you are given a scenario and you lead a team of 4-5 other nurses through  a variety of serious situations).

I have always been very confident during these "megacode" scenarios. My only problem is I have a hard time remembering to vocalize every step of the algorithm. I'll never code anyone on my own, and working a telemetry floor, all of the nurses that would assist me during the first few minutes of a code arrest are also ACLS-certified and we are all working the same algorithm. So the instructor will give me a case of, say, pulseless V-Tach and I'll be halfway through before I'll be reminded I haven't done something I would do so reflexively (such as verifying level of consciousness, or putting in an oral airway, etc.) After being a charge nurse for so long, it is like trying to vocalize the steps I take to put my pants on, or tie my shoes. I mean, of course I insert my foot before tying a basic square knot, and I do always verify the zipper is down before I insert my leg, that sort of thing).

Plus there are always changes. This year, I find out that the algorithm states to perform a defib shock and then immediately resume CPR WITHOUT verifying a cardiac rhythm until 3 cycles are complete. That's going to be hard for me to do. My instinct after delivering a shock is to look up at the monitor to see if we have some sort of workable rhythm. And I'll miss the drama of "three stacked shocks". We'll have to see about that one, in the real-world situation.

And apparently Vasopressin has fallen out of favor? When did that happen? Not that I've ever given it on my own -- I'm very old-school with the Epinephrine. I didn't read about it in the literature.

I was off for one night but I'm back at it for Sunday and Monday nights. The last time I recert-ed my ACLS, I had two codes the following week. Hopefully, we'll have none of that this year.

We may never sleep again...

I haven't been blogging much. We recently splurged on a 42" TV and I've been spending a lot of time in front of the television. It's been a real eye-opening experience, one that I had resisted for a long time (in a previous post, I had said I would never spend more than 200 bucks on a TV... Ha!) but we do get a significant amount of our entertainment through the television and thought it was a sound buy (no not an investment but not everything in life necessarily grows in value ... some stuff you just get because everyone else has one).

Those Blu-ray discs are not cheap. Most of them are around 30 bucks, but the quality of the picture is definitely noticeable. Cox Phoenix doesn't really carry that many HD channels, but the ones we get are amazing. The nature shows are simply dazzling (and are driving poor LadyKitty crazy with the birds chirping and all). One of the first HD shows I watched that I really loved was on HD-Theater, a show called Romeo and Juliet: A Monkey's Tale. It's the age old story of two monkeys from the opposite side of the tracks. Juliet is from a troupe of monkeys inhabiting an ancient Buddhist temple. Romeo's troupe lives the exciting street life. Really very entertaining, especially the part where a heart-broken Romeo hops on a train and heads for the hillside, and Juliet leaps into the bed of a passing pickup truck to find him. No really, it is a nice story.

We're also watching a couple of Nature shows on Blu-ray: Planet Earth and Galapagos. Absolutely amazing. I watched the Planet Earth program "Deep Sea" with the lights out in the middle of the night, and was totally blown away.

Our older non-Blu-ray discs look great too. I watched Star Trek II: Chest Wrath of Khan and it looked really great and that's one of our older DVDs. The battle scene between the Enterprise and the Reliant in the Mutara Nebulla completely blew me away.

And, yes, I shed another tear when Spock died.

On a totally different note, my room mate bought the blu-ray version of Hairspray. Surprisingly, I LOVED it. I've downloaded all of the songs on iTunes, and he also bought me the soundtrack CD, which is on continuous play while I drive to and from work. It's definitely not my usual sci-fi fare, but the songs are great. My favorite tracks are Good Morning Baltimore, I Can Hear the Bells, You're Timeless to Me, and I Know Where I've Been. I'm also listening to the original broadway soundtrack, and hell, even Harvey Feirstein sounds good.

I know why I like the story -- I love stories that celebrate diversity and acceptance, and hate stories that make entertainment by making fun of people -- but the songs are not only beautifully written, but hilarious and at times politically incorrect. I mean, Queen Latifah singing Big, Blonde and Beautiful (here are the lyrics), or Run and Tell That's "the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice... I mean, my goodness.

OK time for bed. Gotta work for the next 2 nights.