Random 5 for January 21, 2024 – Gus, Gracie, anxiety, renovations, friends

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This is a picture from the good old days when Gus and Sasha were always together.

The week that was – This past week was dominated by my cat Gus’s issues. (You can read my Friday blog on the details if you missed it.) I was either watching him, feeding him or worrying about him. The update is that I have a surgical consultation on January 30 and hopefully there is a doable solution of some sort.

The silver lining – I’m normally focused on Gracie, the barfer. I believe all the cats know something is going on even if they don’t know what. Gracie has taken the lack of attention in stride. She hasn’t barfed in a few days (gotta go knock on wood or something) which is very unusual.

An old friend comes to visit – With the life and death issues going on with Gus, my old buddy anxiety came to visit. If you’ve never suffered from it, you are lucky. It’s like adrenaline is running through your body all the time with a side of impending doom. Very fatiguing. I have meds for it but I prefer to hump it out. There will be no humping this time!

The nitty-gritty – We are down to the minutia details with our bathroom renovation. That is both a bright spot and deep-down worry that I missed something. We can expect the start date to be around six months from signing the final contract so mid-to-late summer maybe?

Normalcy – Yesterday (Saturday) we met up with friends. It was a spot of normal life without worry. Some laughs, some catch up, some good food. It was just what the doctor ordered. Thank you to my friends who put up with me. I’m meeting up with two other groups this week. One group is relatives and I love the catching up part. The other meet-up is with old friends (mostly figuratively speaking but maybe literally too!) and I always feel the love there. Riding the potholes of life is always better with friends to tell you that you are normal. At least sort of normal.

So how was your week?

 

59 thoughts on “Random 5 for January 21, 2024 – Gus, Gracie, anxiety, renovations, friends”

  2. Normalcy is good – like a little bit of humor, it helps smooth out all the raw edges. Good you are getting thru this without the meds too. Gracie has apparently decided it is not worth the bother to barf or walk on the keyboard and wreak havoc since your attention is focused on Gus. Gotta love animals, who are smarter than a lot of people ever give them credit for!

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  3. Yep. Anxiety. I got that. Been struggling with that and other emotions lately, which has kept me from hanging in the blogging world as often. Glad you have friends to gather with and forget enjoy life with them for a bit.

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  5. Poor Gus, poor you. Still things may work out for the best yet. I related to your bathroom renovation thought: “a bright spot and deep-down worry that I missed something.” Yep, don’t I know how that is and all you can do is wait now. Hang in there.

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  6. Oh, so sorry about the anxiety. I am just getting over my longest bout of it ever. About 6 weeks, off and on. It’s just horrible. Best wishes for Gus! I hope Sasha comes around soon. Stay warm and God bless.

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  8. I’m so sorry for your anxiety – it isn’t fun. So glad you got to meet up with some friends and have a good time, and also that your bathroom reno is in the works!
    Gus will do OK. Hopefully this surgery will help him and and he will be good as new, back to canoodling with Sasha 🙂

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  9. When there’s a reason for anxiety, it isn’t easily overcome. I had anxiety when my dad had lung cancer. It hit me like a ton of bricks even before I knew he was sick. The day he died, it left me. Not the best way to solve anxiety. It would have been better if he’d recovered instead. I must have had a closer tie with him than I’d realized. Best wishes to Gus, and to you.

    I’m glad you had a fun meetup with old friends. I can forget how much fun it is to get together with old friends until I see them again.

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    • When my mother was sick every time I heard an ambulance I cried. Didn’t matter that it wasn’t her. It didn’t even have to be in the same state she was in. I just cried. After she died, it stopped. Her last trip to the hospital was in an ambulance (which wasn’t typical at all). Subconsciously I knew something.

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  13. I just want to reach out and say I relate so closely to your description of anxiety. I’m glad you share about your own concerns. We can all support each other. And I hope waiting for the surgical consult will give you real direction for poor Gus, and you’ll be able to relax on worrying about him. I’m pulling for you!

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    • Thanks. Hopefully he will stay stable until the appointment. It’s exhausting because when it happens it’s a medical emergency and I have to find a vet that is open and can take him. Waiting is not an option. So far I’ve been lucky.

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  14. I’m sorry that Gus and Sasha have not made up yet. I can’t remember how long Charlie 1.0 kicked Chester out of the bed after he was eaten by the neighbor’s dog, but I don’t think it was over a week. I wish them the best and Gracie, too. I have long suspected they can control the barfing.

    Sorry also about the anxiety. Anxiety sucks, it’s such an out of control feeling. I am pro breathing, yoga if you like that kind of thing, tai chi if you’d rather move a little more, and time with friends. And meds, of course, when needed. Sleep is important.

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    • Sasha has been better today. Maybe she can smell that something isn’t right. Cats are perceptive. I’m better too although the 30th seems like a long way off. I will either be better after that meeting or not.

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      • I get that. But knowledge is power and hopefully you’ll have enough information to make an informed decision. It is so hard to wait when every time this happens it is an emergent situation.

        Deep breath. I am thinking of you and Gus and sending positive thoughts and good vibes and anything else I can.

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  16. I am an Olympic worthy worrier and I know anxiety since my 20s. I have gutted it out without medication except for Valium when the anxiety paralyzes me. The deal is that it never really leaves until the issue/issues that fuel it are done. As you say, the January 30 date will begin to help you move through it… as you know. I will be looking forward to you getting to that date and the consultation. You are so right about friends. They take us back to normal and let us breathe again. I am happy you have the gift of friends this week. It will be a very good thing.
    Hugs, Kate, and scritches to the Sassy Cats♥

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    • Not the studs except for the shower. They have to remove tile so that will include the drywall it’s glued to. They are taking out a linen closet and a larger closet frame to open it up so it will require drywall patching. Both were useless the way they were built. Other than the demolition, it’s pretty standard. We can’t put in a curbless shower unless we want to do a lot of flooring work (and we don’t). The shower floor is built higher than the regular floor.

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  22. So sorry about the anxiety, and I hope hanging with friends and such helps. We are getting the final proposal on our kitchen renovation this week…not looking forward to not having a kitchen for a month, but it will be worth it in the end. We are working with a company that is new to us, but highly recommended, and I hope they are as organized and efficient as the bathroom renovation crew was.

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  23. I know anxiety…..in fact I’m a “fairly frequent flyer” as far back as I can remember but the things that set me off are way different now and my anxiety level is fairly low. It’s just bothersome! Hope you can find your “middle ground” – I like that space best. LOL Poor Gus….maybe that consultation will bring some answers. At least you have a few distractions with friends, family and the reno project. Got my fingers crossed for “all of the above”…………..

    Hugs, Pam

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    • Thanks. The odd thing was that my job was high conflict (Human Resources) daily and I didn’t get anxiety then. Now that it’s mostly smooth sailing in retirement I get sometimes over nothing.

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      • I know what you mean……I had several stressful jobs: Human Resources also, Hospital Administration not to mention civilian work for the Army……but I was young and gung-ho enough to let anxiety roll off my back if it tried to get to me. These days – well – I have to think my age is involved in some way but I’ll be darned if I can figure out WHY! LOL

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