Scan day

[BridgetO]

I had my routine annual CT scan today. I've been NED since my lobectomy 4 years ago. Thisi is the first time I haven't had scanxiety before my scan or after, at least so far. It seems odd for me to feel so ho-hum about it!  Maybe I'll get nervous yet, before I get my results. Or  maybe  chronic lew level  anxiety over Covid and political unrest is overriding scan anxiety. Or possibly the excitement  over  getting a  cat in a couple of days is distracting.    Anyway cross your fingers, send up a prayer, send good thoughts or whatever you do for good scan results (and happy kiity, too). 

Bridget O
 

[Judy M2]

I hear you about the chronic anxiety. But here's hoping you continue to be NED. And good luck with your new cat! 

[GaryG]

Bridget: A happy cat miaow wishing you a good scan and continued NED.  I hope your anxiety will turn into happiness soon.

[LouT]

Bridget,

Finger, Toes and even Eyes crossed for you.  Seriously, my prayers are that your scans show NED.   Keep smiling until then.

Lou

[Sabacat]

Cats are VERY calming!  Miss mine so much, but grateful that we waited to adopt again since all this travel for treatment would have been a nightmare.  Are you adopting a rescue kitty or a kitten? 

 

[Rower Michelle]

Hi Bridget, 

Once again your sage wisdom is spot on.  A few weeks ago during one of the Lungevity Zoom Meet Ups, one of the members said their typical scanxiety had significantly diminished with unknown reason.   Katie Brown offered up a theory: after months and months of dismal news we're all probably dealing with chronic low levels of anxiety. 

Ditto to all of the above and congrats on becoming a new Mom.  Let us know what the new kitty's name is going to be.   

Carry on, 

Michelle 

[LexieCat]

4 hours ago, Sabacat said:

Cats are VERY calming!  Miss mine so much, but grateful that we waited to adopt again since all this travel for treatment would have been a nightmare.  Are you adopting a rescue kitty or a kitten? 

 

If there's one thing my cats aren't, it's calming. I hereby offer to share my exceedingly friendly (to a highly annoying degree) felines with anyone who wants them. I keep telling my daughter (who's going home this weekend) to check her luggage carefully, as I'm hoping to sneak a couple of cats in there. 

[LexieCat]

If it's a boy, his name should be "Ned," lol. 

Good luck, Bridget! Hope your news is as good as mine was today.

[Sabacat]

I guess it's because all of mine for the last 30+ years have been geezers.  All they wanted to do was sit on your lap and suck up your body heat. 😊  Old cats are the best!

[LexieCat]

Mine ARE old cats--both over 14 at this point. Only one of them has slowed down a bit, and she's the one who's been more laid-back from the beginning (they're littermates). Her sister (aptly named Isis, before it was a "thing"--named after Egyptian goddess, though she is a terrorist and I'm probably on several watch lists at this point) is the problem child--up your butt 24/7 looking for attention or wanting to "help" with whatever is going on.

[LexieCat]

BTW, Bridget, when do you expect the scan results? Do you get those from your doctor or through the portal? 

As anxious as I am to get the results, I've learned the hard way to be satisfied with waiting to get the results from my doc. My own imagination is a bit too prone to reading (with limited accuracy) between the lines.

[BridgetO]

Thanks everybody! About the scan-- I usually get resutls from the doc first and then the portal, but with the new law about test reports, I'm not sure it will be the same.

About the cat: He's a rescue. His owner died and he went to a great rescue organiation here and they evaluated his health (blood tests and all) and the only thing he needed was his teeth cleaned and some extracitons  so they did that! He's 11 years old, calm but still playful. He's been in a really nice foster home where we visited him. We'll bring him home on Saturday. I've been out this AM  getting litter box, etc. His name is Slippers (!). Not sure if we'll keep the name. I suggested Ned, per Lexie's reocmmendation, but Rebecca said NO.  I guess she doesn't want to be reminded of cancer whenever we call him.

Bridget O

[LexieCat]

1 minute ago, BridgetO said:

I suggested Ned, per Lexie's reocmmendation, but Rebecca said NO.  I guess she doesn't want to be reminded of cancer whenever we call him.

Meh, just say it's after Eddard Stark (Game of Thrones). Of course, things didn't work out so well for him...

Maybe see how he acts once he settles in--usually that's when a name will suggest itself.

[Rower Michelle]

What is it with these recuse cats and weird names?  When we were first married, we did went to the animal shelter to adopt a lovely brown tabby and found out there was a very skittish calico that was part of the package deal.  The tabby was named "Banana Head", the vet told us to help with the adjustment to find a name that was similar sounding so we called her Buddy.  I don't think she liked the name Banana Head either as the transition was really quick.  The calico was named Squeaker, which was just as bad in my opinion, so we went with Samantha aka Sammy 

So a boy cat named Slippers--- hmmm---- maybe Sal or Sam?  

[LexieCat]

LOL, my other cat, Lexie, has a name I've used online for years, since before I got her. So I basically named my cat after myself. It's a combo of "lex" as in law and "lex" as in words, two of my passions.

When we adopted her from the shelter as a kitten, her name was "Joanie Baloney." I don't remember what Isis's "birth name" was, but it was something equally begging to be changed.

[Sabacat]

I don't know about the shelter names, but having worked with Siamese Cat Rescue for 20+ years, we tried to use names that hadn't been used recently.  In our region (NC and SC) we went alphabetically and often used baby name sites.  Drawing an intake when we were on Q or X was always worthy of a groan from the foster mom. 😁   I've heard the recommendation to make the new names similar, but not sure I buy it.  Lots of these cats came from an unhappy circumstance and deserve a new name along with a new and happy life - the old one doesn't necessarily associate with good memories. 

[Tom Galli]

Our cats are donated from neighbor litters. We like the challenge of raising them from kittens. Names? Squeaks and Gigi. Both female, Squeaks doesn't have a meow but rather she barks a "squeak" like a cheeetah. She is black, the penultimate lap cat, and an accomplished jumper and sneak artist. We have a hard and fast rule. Cats are not permitted on tables, counter tops and the like. Squeaks pushes the limit.

Gigi is a year younger than Squeaks. She is a tabby with a stunted tail and very short legs. She's not as friendly to me and more partial to Martha following her everywhere around the house. Gigi is stubborn personified. 

Our discipline method is to use water pistols to give them a squirt along with saying the word no. Squeaks flees at the sight of the water pistol. Gigi normally requires emptying half the ammunition before getting the idea she's doing something wrong.

Martha and I are life-long cat fanciers. 

[Jennedy]

@LexieCat at least you didn't name your child after your cat! My brother had a dog named Jake (after the Blues Brothers) that he got in college. Years later, they had a son and named him 'Jacob'. Totally different name... yeah, sure.

[LexieCat]

My aunt was never quite OK with my brother's naming his first Newfoundland puppy "Betty"--her name. I forget what his explanation was, but it made sense to me at the time. The most recent Newfs (my SIL is a professional dog trainer and she shows them) have all been named after characters in Dracula.

[Sabacat]

5 hours ago, BridgetO said:

Thanks everybody! About the scan-- I usually get resutls from the doc first and then the portal, but with the new law about test reports, I'm not sure it will be the same.

About the cat: He's a rescue. His owner died and he went to a great rescue organiation here and they evaluated his health (blood tests and all) and the only thing he needed was his teeth cleaned and some extracitons  so they did that! He's 11 years old, calm but still playful. He's been in a really nice foster home where we visited him. We'll bring him home on Saturday. I've been out this AM  getting litter box, etc. His name is Slippers (!). Not sure if we'll keep the name. I suggested Ned, per Lexie's reocmmendation, but Rebecca said NO.  I guess she doesn't want to be reminded of cancer whenever we call him.

Bridget O

Aww ... thanks so much for adopting a geezer (any kitty over 10).  They have so much more difficult time finding new homes, and are often such rewarding companions.  Why Slippers?  Does he have boot or shoe-like markings on his feet?  We find that the purrsonality once they start to settle in often suggests an appropriate name.  Or sometimes a silly nickname 😉 

[LexieCat]

Maybe he's "slipped" in his recovery from his catnip addiction. 

[Sabacat]

3 hours ago, Tom Galli said:

Our cats are donated from neighbor litters. We like the challenge of raising them from kittens. Names? Squeaks and Gigi. Both female, Squeaks doesn't have a meow but rather she barks a "squeak" like a cheeetah. She is black, the penultimate lap cat, and an accomplished jumper and sneak artist. We have a hard and fast rule. Cats are not permitted on tables, counter tops and the like. Squeaks pushes the limit.

Gigi is a year younger than Squeaks. She is a tabby with a stunted tail and very short legs. She's not as friendly to me and more partial to Martha following here everywhere around the house. Gigi is stubborn personified. 

Our discipline method is to use water pistols to give them a squirt along with saying the word no. Squeaks flees at the sight of the water pistol. Gigi normally requires emptying half the ammunition before getting the idea she's doing something wrong.

Martha and I are life-long cat fanciers. 

Our cats, throughout 47 years, have not been permitted on tables or countertops.  Some have more than 'pushed the limit'.   Serena, our second female Siamese, was one of those.  She was a people foodaholic and about as determined as any cat we've ever met.  For some reason, our females have traditionally been the more aggressive about food.  As a tiny kitten, I had my hand in a cast and was sitting on the loveseat with an open-faced egg salad sandwich in my good hand.  Serena jumped up and got her mouth on it; Andy came across the room to rescue me and she actually shrieked and tried to fight to hang on to the sandwich, even though she wasn't much bigger than his hand.  Oh, and our first, Tasha, once made off with the turkey carcass after Thanksgiving.  I had been cleaning the last of the meat off the bones and was called away from the kitchen for a minute - returned to see her dragging the bird across the kitchen floor into the laundry room.  Too bad that was before cell phone cameras!  

[BridgetO]

I found out from the foster provider why the kitty-geezer was named Slippers. He came to the rescue group with the name Sox, because he has white toes on all feet. The group had too many Soxes, so they changed his name to Slippers. So I guess we should find a name beginnng with S. 

[BridgetO]

I got my scan results today and I'm still NED. Yay! The pulmonologist said ir I'm still NED on next year's scan, I won't need any more scans.  Is it standard to discontinue scanning after 5 years?  The thought of it makes me nervous, given ther prevalence of recurrence. (I had adenocarcinoma stage 1a, if you didn't know or don't remember). 

Bridget O

[Sabacat]

Wow, Bridget, that is FABULOUS!!!  Agree I would be nervous, too, but not sure what standard protocol is.  What a great Christmas gift!! 
susan