Festus is Five!!

Today is my 5th birthday! Notice that Mama didn't even take a new picture of me? She says we're just gonna have a quiet day & be thankful for our family & friends......oh yeah, she said I get extra treats today too!

More Boxes

It really was Box Day yesterday!! We had a big crash & boom storm in the afternoon & Mama looked out the back door to check it out. She started laffin & grabbed the flashy box. This is what she saw in the empty lot across the alley:


This was during the storm.



This was after the storm was over.

International Box Day & our 100th Post

Today is International Box Day! Mama went through our pictures & found some to post for today:

Sammy hiding his face from the flashy box.

Festus just chillaxing.

Emma & Sammy snuggling in a box lid.

Festus hanging out in a water box.



































This is also our 100th post! If Mama weren't so lazy, we would be way past 100, but sometimes mamas are hard to train.........

Sorry this is so screwed up. Mama tried a bunch of times to fix it, using just about all the words on the bad word list, but it didn't work.

Bad News............Good News

Josh heard back from his biopsy today, it is definitely cancer. He is scheduled for surgery on July 2nd. Mama doesn't have any other details yet. We're still asking for purrs & prayers.

We do have some good news to report though! Mama finally heard back from her CT scan & there is nothing on her pancreas! It must have been a shadow or something on the other one. Mama's surgery is scheduled for July 10th & she's still debating on whether to go ahead & have the full hysterectomy or just let her v-e-t take her ovaries & tubes. She's gonna call him & ask him some questions, then make up her mind.

We got a present!!

Of course Mama didn't use the flashy box so we could show you, but we forgive her. Mama went to our Auntie Pam's house on Sunday for a cook-out. They went to a pet store & Mama found us a nip bananer!!! She said she really didn't have the money to buy it, but she did anyway! She did tell us that we had to share cause she didn't have the money to buy each of us one. We love it!! We've had lots of fun with it even if we do have to share!

Update on Josh & Mama:

The bean v-e-t that Josh saw yesterday said the bone scan & chest x-ray were normal & that there is a possibility that the cancer is contained in the kidney. That is some welcome news! The v-e-t was going to present Josh's case to his colleagues today & let him know when the surgery will be. They are discussing the merits of partial kidney removal or if they should take the whole kidney.

Mama went to a gyno v-e-t Monday & found out that along with the polyp in her uterus, she has a tumor on her cervix. Of course Mama was a little freaked out, but the v-e-t said he didn't think either one was anything to worry about. He told Mama that he didn't think her pain was related to either one of those things because it has mostly gone away. He wants to do the least invasive surgery, so he talked her into having her ovaries & tubes removed. He's also going to remove the polyp & the tumor. It's going to be out-patient surgery & a lot less down-time for Mama. But, he promised her that if it looks bad, he will go ahead & do a hysterectomy.
Mama had her CT scan yesterday for the thingie on her pancreas. She was so nervous & sick to her stomach because she knew she would have to have another IV. The lady that did the scan used a "baby" IV on Mama, got it in first thing & it didn't even hurt!! Boy was Mama relieved! She doesn't know when she'll hear about that.

We want to thank all of you for purring, purraying, praying, etc for Mama & Josh. It means the world to us. We want to thank each of you individually, but we're still having problems getting on some of your bloggies. We love all of you in the CB!!

Updates.....

Well, we got bad news & maybe more bad news. Josh does have cancer, he's having a chest x-ray & bone scan today to see if it's spread. He goes Tuesday to Springfield (IL) to schedule his surgery.

Mama finally heard back from her ultrasound, she has a "moderately large polyp" in her uterus. She goes Monday to a gynecologist v-e-t to see what to do about that. She wants him to just give her a hysterectomy & get it over with. And since the fun just keeps on coming.....she got a call from her primary care v-e-t this morning asking if the ER v-e-t told her that she needed a follow-up CT scan after the one she had on May 4th. Uh...no, he said it was clear. Well, apparently it showed that Mama has a "nodule" on the tail (?) of her pancreas. Wasn't it nice of them to let her know a month later?!? So, now Mama has to go back to the hospital on Tuesday for another CT scan. Because as her v-e-t said "We don't want to wait until it's large & find out that it's pancreatic cancer."

We know that yet again, this isn't about us cats, but if you could spare some more purrs, purrayers, tail-wags........whatever, we could sure use them. Thanks efurrybuddy, we love you guys!

URGENT PURRS & PURRAYERS NEEDED!!

Mama heard from her great-nephew, Josh, that she helped raise. He has a mass in his kidney & the bean v-e-t is pretty sure it's cancer. Mama is beside herself as you can imagine, but she knows what purrs & purrayers from the Cat Blogosphere can do. So please take a moment & send up good thoughts for Josh. Thanks efurrybuddy.

Thinking Thursday

We are thinking about all our furiends & their beans that need purrs & purrayers. We wish we could help out with all the auctions & raffles going on. Right now all we can do is purr & purray for them, so that's what we're doing. Mama is sending up lots of prayers too.

We are also thinking how much we like having Mama home with us. She likes being home, but says there are no green papers from staying home. See, she was what she calls "self-employed" so there aren't any unemployment benefits for her. She's been looking for work but there isn't much out there right now. We do have a little bit of green papers that "Daddy" sends twice a month, but there won't be enough to pay bills after Mama makes her car payment. She's trying to talk "Daddy" into giving us a few more green papers, but he wants to wait & see if she has to have surgery or not.

Mama had her ultrasound test on Tuesday but she doesn't know when she'll get the results. She's having lots of pain now that she's being "weaned" off the steroids. We've been taking care of her though. She sleeps a lot when she takes 2 of her pain pills, so we just have a nice nap pile on the bed.

Mama says sorry if we sound like we're whining, we know there's lots of kitties & beans that have it way worse than we do. And we're thinking & purring for all of them.

Memorial Day & Emma's 3rd Gotcha Day

Remember that freedom isn't free & let's honor those who gave their lives for our freedom.


Today is also Emma's 3rd Gotcha Day!! She was soooo tiny, but sooo fiesty! She still tries to keep the boys in line........

Happy Birthday ML!!

ML, we hope you have a wonderful day!! Our birthday wishes are for things to continue to improve for you & the whole Sherwood Bunch......We love you very much!!

Three Cheers......

Thank's for being such a wonderful Bean !!

Happy Birthday Auntie Deb!!

We hope you have the bestest birthday efur!! We love you Auntie Deb!!

After the v-e-t....

Mama had her appt. with her GI v-e-t this morning. After he examined her & talked with her, he decided it wasn't her colon. He thinks it's a "female" problem. Which is what Mama told the ER v-e-t & her regular v-e-t. So now she has to have an ultrasound to see what's going on. Such fun.....NOT!!

This is where they finally got in the IV when Mama went to the ER. Two weeks later it's still fading off.

Mama got this picture of Festus last night while he was on her lap.

Just One of Those Weeks

Sorry it's been so long since we posted. Mama's been taking it easy when she can. She did go back to work last Friday & worked Monday & Tuesday of this week. The Blurpy got sick Tuesday night so the Dadbean stayed home last night & the Mombean stayed home tonight. The Mombean told Mama this morning that they would need her tomorrow, so Mama will work tomorrow night. The Dadbean told Mama Monday night that the 22nd will be her last day with them. They rearranged their shifts so they won't be needing childcare.

Mama knew this jobbie wasn't gonna last forever, but she thought she had till the Blurpy started pre-school. She's very sad & scared about what she's gonna do. Mama's really gonna miss the Stickybean & the Blurpy, too. She's been taking care of the Stickybean for almost 3 years & the Blurpy for the past 7 months, she really loves those little boogers.

Physically, Mama is doing some better......still having some pain but not near as bad. She has had Ulcerative Colitis for about 30 years & the bean v-e-ts think she is having a "flare-up". They put her on steroids (Jeter, does this mean Mama can't play baseball??) & she has an appt. with her GI v-e-t on Monday so she should find out more then. Mama just doesn't remember the pain being this bad.....but then again she's old, maybe her memory isn't what it once was.

She did take some pictures of Emma & Sammy yesterday & said she would post them for us......enjoy.

Tired Tuesday

We need to ask for more purrs for Mama. She spent 5 1/2 hours last night in the ER. She's been having bad, bad tummy pains off & on for a week, but it got worse yesterday evening. Mama's friend took her to the hospital & sat with her. It took the nurses 6 tries to get the IV in cause Mama's got lousy veins. They got there about 7:15 pm & Mama got discharged at 12:45 am. That's really pretty quick considering....
Anyway, they did a CT scan, which came back OK but Mama is still having pain. She has an appointment with her bean v-e-t in the morning & who knows where they'll go from there.

Mama talked to the Dadbean that she works for & told him that the bean v-e-t from last night gave her some pain meds & that she would be able to go back to work tomorrow. He was fine with it, but about 5 minutes later, the Mombean called down & told Mama that as long as she was taking these particular pain meds, she didn't want Mama taking care of her kids. And, if Mama was going to be taking these pills for more than a week, they were going to have to "make other arrangements" for childcare. Mama is very upset! She understands the Mombean's concern for her babies, but to decide all that & not even know the dosage (which is very small) of the medication......

Mama did leave a voicemail on the Mombean's phone telling her about the bean v-e-t appt. & that she was gonna have the v-e-t or the nurse call Mombean so she could discuss her concerns with them.

We know this isn't kitty-related, but we just had to rant. Mama feels bad enough without feeling like someone is kicking her while she's down. If anybuddy made it all the way through this, thanks for reading!