kittydoc
Songster
A weasel took one of our chickens a few years ago. We could tell by the "manner of death" using one of the many charts online. Our coop isn't far from both woods and a creek. I have never personally seen one of the varmints in my life, and hope I never do. What they do to poultry (mostly waste them, literally and figuratively) is about enough to make me happy people wear them as coats. Definitely one of the banes of poultry keepers. If they actually ATE the birds, I'd feel better about them. Raptors don't waste birds when they kill them, they eat most of the innards at least. Coyotes eat everything but the feathers. I understand clearly that wild animals have to eat. We who love animals here are mostly not vegetarians, and many raise their own meat whether it's poultry or hogs or cattle or whatever. But the weasels/minks/stoats, those little #$%%^^&&** are cold-blooded murderers mostly. I wonder if they are feeding litters right now or something that so many people have had recent losses.
ANYWAY, thanks to everyone for the well wishes for my medical testing for a pain pump. Thursday was a very up and down day.
First, after two hours, I had a 50-60% pain reduction, which after two days of off and on crying was greatly appreciated. I hugged my doctor. I usually respect professional boundaries, but I "tested myself" by getting down on the floor (which is hard enough, even with gravity) and then getting up quickly, with no help. No furniture to grab. No hand to grab. Just my own four limbs and no moaning, groaning, or crawling until I COULD pull myself up using a stable piece of furniture. It was literally like a miracle.
We then left the office. Within an hour, I started to itch. Just a little. Then every 15 minutes, it was more. And more. AND MORE until my whole body itched like crazy from head to toe. Just what I was so afraid of since I've had hives from narcotic allergies in the past. But I reached the doctor's office the next day and he said as long as I did not get hives (not this time), we could move forward and he would just ease me onto it slowly. The fact that they have to kind of slam the drug all in at once (technically called a bolus) made the itching more likely to happen, and he's seen it plenty of times before and had those people go on to be successful with the pump.
The narcotic test maxes out at about 6 hours and lasts 12-24. I can say that he was right about that. Despite the itching, I certainly had no pain of any note for the rest of the day. I had to use prescription antihistamines to get to sleep, but once I was asleep, I slept through the night for the first time in several years.
So now I just wait until Anthem says OK (they pretty much can't say no since the test went so well in terms of my pain), then I have to detox one more time. I told the doctor he would not get 7 days again--only 5, since that's as long as my sanity lasted this time. The nurse told me as an aside that 5 would be enough. Hopefully, I'll be able to get off the Tramadol once and for all and then see if I can get off any of my other pain meds, too. I'd like to get my marbles back. I have no idea if I'll be able to go back to work or not. We'll just have to see how it goes. Both times I had my neurostimulators put in, everything felt awesome on the table, but once it was scarred in (especially the second time), the effect was very much diminished. My old scar tissue won't affect the pain pump because this surgery is in a different layer of the spine that is NOT scarred.
Sorry for the long non-chickeny message, but I know there are some other people on the list who have various chronic pain issues who might be interested in knowing how it went. I didn't know anyone who had a pain pump. If anybody on the list DOES have one and cares to, PM me and let me know how it all went for you. I do know my doctor is absolutely not a jerk, and that alone is very refreshing. Most pain management doctors are jaded by the people who are addicted and just want the pills, and not really to do something else to get OFF of them, but with my allergies, I was lucky I could even take Tramadol (it's synthetic, not natural like morphine and morphine derivatives).
And now, back to your regularly scheduled broadcasting! BAWWKKK!
ANYWAY, thanks to everyone for the well wishes for my medical testing for a pain pump. Thursday was a very up and down day.
First, after two hours, I had a 50-60% pain reduction, which after two days of off and on crying was greatly appreciated. I hugged my doctor. I usually respect professional boundaries, but I "tested myself" by getting down on the floor (which is hard enough, even with gravity) and then getting up quickly, with no help. No furniture to grab. No hand to grab. Just my own four limbs and no moaning, groaning, or crawling until I COULD pull myself up using a stable piece of furniture. It was literally like a miracle.
We then left the office. Within an hour, I started to itch. Just a little. Then every 15 minutes, it was more. And more. AND MORE until my whole body itched like crazy from head to toe. Just what I was so afraid of since I've had hives from narcotic allergies in the past. But I reached the doctor's office the next day and he said as long as I did not get hives (not this time), we could move forward and he would just ease me onto it slowly. The fact that they have to kind of slam the drug all in at once (technically called a bolus) made the itching more likely to happen, and he's seen it plenty of times before and had those people go on to be successful with the pump.
The narcotic test maxes out at about 6 hours and lasts 12-24. I can say that he was right about that. Despite the itching, I certainly had no pain of any note for the rest of the day. I had to use prescription antihistamines to get to sleep, but once I was asleep, I slept through the night for the first time in several years.
So now I just wait until Anthem says OK (they pretty much can't say no since the test went so well in terms of my pain), then I have to detox one more time. I told the doctor he would not get 7 days again--only 5, since that's as long as my sanity lasted this time. The nurse told me as an aside that 5 would be enough. Hopefully, I'll be able to get off the Tramadol once and for all and then see if I can get off any of my other pain meds, too. I'd like to get my marbles back. I have no idea if I'll be able to go back to work or not. We'll just have to see how it goes. Both times I had my neurostimulators put in, everything felt awesome on the table, but once it was scarred in (especially the second time), the effect was very much diminished. My old scar tissue won't affect the pain pump because this surgery is in a different layer of the spine that is NOT scarred.
Sorry for the long non-chickeny message, but I know there are some other people on the list who have various chronic pain issues who might be interested in knowing how it went. I didn't know anyone who had a pain pump. If anybody on the list DOES have one and cares to, PM me and let me know how it all went for you. I do know my doctor is absolutely not a jerk, and that alone is very refreshing. Most pain management doctors are jaded by the people who are addicted and just want the pills, and not really to do something else to get OFF of them, but with my allergies, I was lucky I could even take Tramadol (it's synthetic, not natural like morphine and morphine derivatives).
And now, back to your regularly scheduled broadcasting! BAWWKKK!
It's amazing how tenacious they are. The fact that it took a turkey is just... wow. I was literally standing over Skua and this one was still trying to get at her. It had been trying to drag her out of the coop, but couldn't get her up the step to the pop door that was open. Luckily I have a baby monitor in the coop, so I could yell for help without letting it get out of my sight. I know it's dead, but I'm still terrified about letting my girls out of the coop in the morning... :/
