Showing posts with label Jack. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jack. Show all posts
Alternate Reality
Jack: The Lovable Allergen
I've had nasal congestion for as long as I can remember. It's just one of those facts that you assume is an unalterable truth, like the fact that people will always add an 'a' or an 'r' to your last name when trying to pronounce it. I used to think I had a cold, 12 months of the year. I find it odd that people don't have boxes of tissue in every room of their houses. But mostly I didn't think about it, because there was no point.
I didn't think about it much until last year. I had started getting a wheeze whenever doing strenuous activities like shoveling snow. I attributed it to the cold weather, but the problem didn't dissipate by spring so I went to my doctor about it. It was at this time I decided to ask about the congestion problem too, as I figured I shouldn't waste a good trip to the doctor. After my appointment I had an inhaler for exercise, an appointment with a nose/ear/throat specialist, and a spot on a waiting list to get on an even more exclusive waiting list to see an allergist.
The inhaler works miracles. I take it before playing sports and I can breathe normally. If I didn't have it, I suspect I would have had to give up such activities, so I'm thankful to modern science.
The specialist had me in for septoplastic surgery within 6 weeks to correct a deviated septum that could be causing my congestion. I was anesthetized for the surgery, which I was told was a success. The post-op was very uncomfortable (apparently I'm a bleeder), and the recovery was just plain awful. My nasal passages were plugged to stop the bleeding, so I had to breathe through my mouth for 2 weeks. Breathe through your mouth for 1 minute and see how dry your mouth gets; now imagine how dry it gets after doing that all night. Rigging a humidifier with some duct work to redirect the moisture at my face didn't work, and neither did sleeping in the bathtub after getting the bathroom extremely humid. The unfortunate result was that I had so many mouth sores I couldn't eat anything that required chewing. As I mentioned, it was a miserable recovery.
The worst part of the experience was the end result: I was no less congested than previously, and possibly even worse off. It was very disheartening.
Okay, so that's the history.
Today, over 1 year later, I finally saw the allergist. I told him about my results with the deviated septum surgery. He told me I should have come seen him first. I restrained myself from attacking him. Actually, let me step back a moment.
For those who have never had an allergy test, here's what they do:
1) Clean the inside of your arms with some sort of alcoholic solution
2) Write a few numbers on your freshly-cleaned arms
3) Take what appears to be a souped-up bingo dabber, dipped in another liquid, and dab your arms beside each of the numbers
4) Find something pointy and jab your arm in each of the little drops of liquid
They then leave you alone for 10 minutes with instructions not to scratch. Of course, the only distraction in the room is a couple of out-dated magazines, and some large medical posters on the wall. If you're going in for one of these tests, make sure to bring a book or a video game.
The allergist finally came to inspect the damage, and immediately pointed at the angry red splotch on my left arm. That, he informed me, was cats. He pointed to a relatively insignificant splotch on my right arm: maybe I was allergic to mold too... but cats were definitely my problem.
Now, the best defense against an allergen is to eliminate it from your environment. He gave me a pamphlet explaining this. I can see how that tactic works well for things like dust mites and maybe even pollen, but Jack isn't exactly easy to move -- there's a lot of inertia there. Of course, I didn't even consider that option, so we went to plan B, which is a nasal spray to help with the congestion.
We then did two respiratory tests to check for asthma. The first test - the standard one - came back negative, just as it had the previous year. But the second and less widely-accepted (nitric oxide) test came back resoundingly positive. And I'm relieved because finally I have an explanation for my wheezing/breathing problems. The asthma too, he suspects is aggravated by (if not caused by) Jack. But I've got a prescription for another inhaler that should eliminate my wheezing.
The allergist seemed genuinely positive that my symptoms would disappear within a few months, and that has me excited. In retrospect, I've had cats for most of my life, so it's empowering to know how much I've been affected by them. Even if the inhaler/nasal spray combo doesn't work, there is one more chance in the form of allergy shots; however, that is a big commitment that I'm hoping to avoid.
I don't plan on eliminating cats from my life, so I'm optimistic that the solution is at hand. But, tonight I'll probably start insisting that Jack sleep at the foot of the bed, instead of beside my chest. Wish me luck.
I didn't think about it much until last year. I had started getting a wheeze whenever doing strenuous activities like shoveling snow. I attributed it to the cold weather, but the problem didn't dissipate by spring so I went to my doctor about it. It was at this time I decided to ask about the congestion problem too, as I figured I shouldn't waste a good trip to the doctor. After my appointment I had an inhaler for exercise, an appointment with a nose/ear/throat specialist, and a spot on a waiting list to get on an even more exclusive waiting list to see an allergist.
The inhaler works miracles. I take it before playing sports and I can breathe normally. If I didn't have it, I suspect I would have had to give up such activities, so I'm thankful to modern science.
The specialist had me in for septoplastic surgery within 6 weeks to correct a deviated septum that could be causing my congestion. I was anesthetized for the surgery, which I was told was a success. The post-op was very uncomfortable (apparently I'm a bleeder), and the recovery was just plain awful. My nasal passages were plugged to stop the bleeding, so I had to breathe through my mouth for 2 weeks. Breathe through your mouth for 1 minute and see how dry your mouth gets; now imagine how dry it gets after doing that all night. Rigging a humidifier with some duct work to redirect the moisture at my face didn't work, and neither did sleeping in the bathtub after getting the bathroom extremely humid. The unfortunate result was that I had so many mouth sores I couldn't eat anything that required chewing. As I mentioned, it was a miserable recovery.
The worst part of the experience was the end result: I was no less congested than previously, and possibly even worse off. It was very disheartening.
Okay, so that's the history.
Today, over 1 year later, I finally saw the allergist. I told him about my results with the deviated septum surgery. He told me I should have come seen him first. I restrained myself from attacking him. Actually, let me step back a moment.
For those who have never had an allergy test, here's what they do:
1) Clean the inside of your arms with some sort of alcoholic solution
2) Write a few numbers on your freshly-cleaned arms
3) Take what appears to be a souped-up bingo dabber, dipped in another liquid, and dab your arms beside each of the numbers
4) Find something pointy and jab your arm in each of the little drops of liquid
They then leave you alone for 10 minutes with instructions not to scratch. Of course, the only distraction in the room is a couple of out-dated magazines, and some large medical posters on the wall. If you're going in for one of these tests, make sure to bring a book or a video game.
The allergist finally came to inspect the damage, and immediately pointed at the angry red splotch on my left arm. That, he informed me, was cats. He pointed to a relatively insignificant splotch on my right arm: maybe I was allergic to mold too... but cats were definitely my problem.Now, the best defense against an allergen is to eliminate it from your environment. He gave me a pamphlet explaining this. I can see how that tactic works well for things like dust mites and maybe even pollen, but Jack isn't exactly easy to move -- there's a lot of inertia there. Of course, I didn't even consider that option, so we went to plan B, which is a nasal spray to help with the congestion.
We then did two respiratory tests to check for asthma. The first test - the standard one - came back negative, just as it had the previous year. But the second and less widely-accepted (nitric oxide) test came back resoundingly positive. And I'm relieved because finally I have an explanation for my wheezing/breathing problems. The asthma too, he suspects is aggravated by (if not caused by) Jack. But I've got a prescription for another inhaler that should eliminate my wheezing.
The allergist seemed genuinely positive that my symptoms would disappear within a few months, and that has me excited. In retrospect, I've had cats for most of my life, so it's empowering to know how much I've been affected by them. Even if the inhaler/nasal spray combo doesn't work, there is one more chance in the form of allergy shots; however, that is a big commitment that I'm hoping to avoid.
I don't plan on eliminating cats from my life, so I'm optimistic that the solution is at hand. But, tonight I'll probably start insisting that Jack sleep at the foot of the bed, instead of beside my chest. Wish me luck.
They's organized!
Between Carolyn and me, our three cameras, and the various well-intentioned but never-completed re-organizational backups, we had amassed about 160,000 files spanning two hard-drives amounting to about 450 GB. Of that, 150GB was an exact duplicate of images due to a recent migration to a bigger hard-drive. That still left me with about 115,000 photos (300GB) that were haphazardly organized, thus giving me no easy way to confidently determine which files I could delete because they were duplicates.
So, as any craftsman would do, I put my own skills to the test and wrote a program. This software would compile a list of all the images files I have, generate a comprehensive structure in which to store the files, and eliminate all duplicates (including JPG versions of RAW files). It would also convert all my (proprietary Nikon) RAW files to (open) Adobe DNG format, and embed pertinent IPTC data (creator, copyright, etc.) into each image as well.
It took me the better part of the week to do it but finally the software - Photo Organizer Lite - was finished. (I scrapped the previous two incarnations - Photo Organizer and Photo Organizer Basic, as they were really too ambitious for the task at hand.) It's actually still running as I write this, but the most critical work is complete - the photo re-organization. Of the 157,359 images the software found 89330 exact duplicates, 7260 duplicate RAW files (where a DNG had already been created), and 29228 duplicate JPGs (where a RAW version already existed).
The happy result is a sensible organization of only about 32,000 unique images (I'll have an exact number when it's complete). I've just freed up almost 350GB of space and I can now confidently find any picture I'm looking for (presuming that I know approximately when it was taken). The next step will be to tag all my images with appropriate keywords (see The Daunting Task) so that my photos will not only be organized, but easily searchable. Methinks that will have to wait until the next time I have a full week off...
PS: In case you didn't catch it, the title is a reference to Chicken Run.
PPS: Oh, and special thanks to Jack who had a hand in (impeding) the development of this software.
So, as any craftsman would do, I put my own skills to the test and wrote a program. This software would compile a list of all the images files I have, generate a comprehensive structure in which to store the files, and eliminate all duplicates (including JPG versions of RAW files). It would also convert all my (proprietary Nikon) RAW files to (open) Adobe DNG format, and embed pertinent IPTC data (creator, copyright, etc.) into each image as well.
It took me the better part of the week to do it but finally the software - Photo Organizer Lite - was finished. (I scrapped the previous two incarnations - Photo Organizer and Photo Organizer Basic, as they were really too ambitious for the task at hand.) It's actually still running as I write this, but the most critical work is complete - the photo re-organization. Of the 157,359 images the software found 89330 exact duplicates, 7260 duplicate RAW files (where a DNG had already been created), and 29228 duplicate JPGs (where a RAW version already existed).
The happy result is a sensible organization of only about 32,000 unique images (I'll have an exact number when it's complete). I've just freed up almost 350GB of space and I can now confidently find any picture I'm looking for (presuming that I know approximately when it was taken). The next step will be to tag all my images with appropriate keywords (see The Daunting Task) so that my photos will not only be organized, but easily searchable. Methinks that will have to wait until the next time I have a full week off...
PS: In case you didn't catch it, the title is a reference to Chicken Run.
PPS: Oh, and special thanks to Jack who had a hand in (impeding) the development of this software.
One man's misfortune...
... is another man's fortune. As sad as I am for Richard having to get his camera serviced by Nikon, it did afford me the opportunity to borrow his 50mm lens and flash. I didn't utilize them as much as I should have, but I did play around a bit. Here are some of the results. Not that great when I view them on the monitor, but if you shrink them to 3x3cm they look fine. :)
This shot is taken with the 50mm lens. Cats - when they aren't sleeping - are very tricky subjects, because the refuse to sit still long enough to properly focus (let alone trying to set up the perfect composition). This was the best of a series of photos of Jack looking away.
Another shot with the 50mm. Jack got bored very quickly.
Actually just shot with my regular lens, but I had to throw it in. Jack is loving the chin rub.
This is a macro shot, aided with Richard's SB-600 flash. It's amazing what a difference the flash makes for macro photography. You can crank up the shutter speed to get a sharp image (I was too lazy to set up the tripod), and still have a small aperture to a decent depth-of-field. It is much less frustrating.
Alas, Richard's camera has been fixed and is likely in his hands right now, so I must say goodbye to the equipment that he generously lent to me. Goodbye 50mm lens. Goodbye wireless flash. I'll miss you.
This shot is taken with the 50mm lens. Cats - when they aren't sleeping - are very tricky subjects, because the refuse to sit still long enough to properly focus (let alone trying to set up the perfect composition). This was the best of a series of photos of Jack looking away.
Another shot with the 50mm. Jack got bored very quickly.
Actually just shot with my regular lens, but I had to throw it in. Jack is loving the chin rub.
This is a macro shot, aided with Richard's SB-600 flash. It's amazing what a difference the flash makes for macro photography. You can crank up the shutter speed to get a sharp image (I was too lazy to set up the tripod), and still have a small aperture to a decent depth-of-field. It is much less frustrating.
Alas, Richard's camera has been fixed and is likely in his hands right now, so I must say goodbye to the equipment that he generously lent to me. Goodbye 50mm lens. Goodbye wireless flash. I'll miss you.
You don't know Jack
We've had the pleasure of caring for Jack for over two years now, and he still manages to surprise us.
For instance, we woke up in the middle of the night to a strange rustling noise. When we turned out the light, we found Jack had settled quite comfortably in this dresser drawer. Surprisingly he both got up into the drawer (2nd from bottom), and managed to fit inside of it.
Secondly, despite being emasculated years ago, and being a fairly... let's say "leisurely" cat, Jack is still inclined to defend his honour and his territory. When a rogue element was discovered in our yard yesterday, this is the scene the ensued:
We broke up the fight when it got dirty, and Jack was not injured in the melee. But I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of Lord Blacky yet.
On Saturday, we took Jack to the vet to get his annual shots, and of course we got him weighed. He's now in his teens, weighing in at 19.8 lbs! Yay Jack! At this rate he is soon to be featured on the cover of FQ.
For instance, we woke up in the middle of the night to a strange rustling noise. When we turned out the light, we found Jack had settled quite comfortably in this dresser drawer. Surprisingly he both got up into the drawer (2nd from bottom), and managed to fit inside of it.
Secondly, despite being emasculated years ago, and being a fairly... let's say "leisurely" cat, Jack is still inclined to defend his honour and his territory. When a rogue element was discovered in our yard yesterday, this is the scene the ensued:
We broke up the fight when it got dirty, and Jack was not injured in the melee. But I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of Lord Blacky yet.
On Saturday, we took Jack to the vet to get his annual shots, and of course we got him weighed. He's now in his teens, weighing in at 19.8 lbs! Yay Jack! At this rate he is soon to be featured on the cover of FQ.
Thank You
Thank you to the people at the Emergency Veterinary Clinic of Waterloo Region who were there when Jack came home late Thursday night with miniscule needles embedded in his body. In particular, thanks to the vet who removed the needles from Jack's paws, nose, and eyelid. She did an amazing job considering the lack of specialized equipment. I'm sorry I didn't catch your name.
Thank you to Julie, the vet working the night shift at the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC). She was kind and sympathetic, and did wonderfully in assisting with the needle removal.
Thank you to Jen, the technician who got a late-night phone call about the equipment required to closely examine Jack's wounded eye. She also lent a helping hand in examining Jack on Friday, and ensuring that he had a comfortable stay at OVC. Thank you for taking Jack's loose bowels in stride, and I hope you had a change of clothes at work.
Thank you to Chantelle, an opthamologist at OVC who came in to examine Jack even when she wasn't doing clinics on Friday. She was thorough and straightforward, and fully explained all of our options to us. She supervised the operation that would remove that final five needles from Jack's eye.
Thank you to the anesthesiologists who safely put Jack under for his final operation, and in doing so caused him to resemble a poodle owned by a six-year-old. Thank you to the staff at OVC that took care of Jack while he stayed there overnight on Friday. Thank you to everyone at work for being understanding when we told them we had to talk the day off to take care of Jack.
Most of all, thank you to Tara, our dear friend and studying veterinary opthamologist, who - without hesitation - got up from bed and drove from Kitchener to OVC in Guelph. There she spent over an hour removing 30-40 nearly invisible needles from the inside of Jack's eye. Afterwards, she set us up with the necessary medications to keep the eye from getting worse, as she recognized that Jack would need more specialized care. The next morning she spent her time calling countless clinics in Ontario, trying to get Jack an appointment with an opthamologist. She ended up getting us an appointment with Chantelle, her supervisor. In the afternoon, with Jack unconscious, she used a microscope and some amazing skill to remove the remaining needles from Jack's eye, thereby mitigating further damage. And all throughout the ordeal, in her confident yet unassuming way, she would keep us up-to-date with what the current status was, what the options were, how much things would cost, and what needed to be done. She lessened our worries and healed our cat. Her dedication and compassion is inspiring.
Carolyn and I thank you, and Jack - though he might not appreciate the cone and eye medication - thanks you.
[Edit: Just to let everyone know, Jack is doing much better now. He is receiving eye medication to help heal the ulcer on his cornea. He's going in for a checkup on Wednesday, and if all goes well, he'll have the cone off by the weekend.]
[Edit 2: Photo credit goes to Carolyn]
The Disappearing Cat
Last week we took Jack in to the vet to get weighed. The result? Jack now weighs a paltry 21.7 pounds (9.84 kg). When we started him on his diet 1.5 years ago, he was 25.6 pounds (11.6 kg). That means he's lost over 15% of his original body weight! Yay Jack!
Playing catch-up
Well, it's been ages since my last update, so here's a hodge-podge - a smorgasboard, if you will - of visual and textual descriptions depicting my life over the last few weeks.
Ok, this is an oldie, but a goodie. I joined a new team at work a few months ago, which afforded me the opportunity to choose a new work area (read "cube"). Somehow I had some level of seniority, so I got to pick fourth. This is the view I have every day :)
We have asparagus! Right in our back yard! This is from our first cutting in mid-May. We found out that aparagus grows very quickly, and until yesterday we had about 10 asparagus trees.
After moving into our new house, we wanted to treat Jack to a new bed (one that he could fit into). When we got home, we just threw it on the couch haphazardly, but as you can see, Jack found it and made himself at home.
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While he was on a business trip, Carolyn's dad graciously lent us his barbeque. That whet our appetite for burnt offerings, and soon we found ourselves the proud owners of a Broilmate barbeque (made in Waterloo!). It's a great barbeque and we use it at least a few times a week. Thanks to Ryan for taking this sharp photo.
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One of the joys of home-ownership is having gardens with loads of different flora (and unfortunately, pesky fauna too). We have a group of poppies that have bloomed; here are two that haven't yet. If they weren't plants, I'd say these were having an intimate moment.
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Another flower. Does anyone know what kind it is? I'm horrible with horticulture, but I am slowly improving.
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Another poppy close-up. I love my macro lens! It's actually not as sharp as I'd like; or rather, I don't have as much in focus as I'd like. But I still think it's amazing to look at the water droplets suspended between the hairs.
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This is Jack, jealous of my ability to get outside. Actually, he is quite able to get outside; thanks to my dad, he can open the screen door by himself. He hasn't quite learned how to close it yet. He seems to be in his element when he is outside though; in the past two days, Jack has caught a chipmunk and a mouse. He doesn't quite know what to do when he catches something, so he typically just sits on it. We know something's up when we hear muffled squeaking noises. If only he could learn to catch rabbits.
So why have I been too busy to post? It seems I have to mow the lawn every day... but seriously, we have been slowly chipping away at our renovations. Two weekends ago, we installed three new ceiling fixtures in the three bedrooms (with Ryan's help for the first one... thanks Ryan!). No pictures yet, so I guess you'll just have to come visit. And last weekend I added a new wall-switch and connected it to a receptacle in the living room. And I'm not dead yet! Carolyn, meanwhile, has been busily scraping away the wallpaper, and has finished the second of the three bedrooms. So after one month, we've done a fair bit, but we still have a ways to go.
Ok, this is an oldie, but a goodie. I joined a new team at work a few months ago, which afforded me the opportunity to choose a new work area (read "cube"). Somehow I had some level of seniority, so I got to pick fourth. This is the view I have every day :)
We have asparagus! Right in our back yard! This is from our first cutting in mid-May. We found out that aparagus grows very quickly, and until yesterday we had about 10 asparagus trees.
After moving into our new house, we wanted to treat Jack to a new bed (one that he could fit into). When we got home, we just threw it on the couch haphazardly, but as you can see, Jack found it and made himself at home.
.jpg)
While he was on a business trip, Carolyn's dad graciously lent us his barbeque. That whet our appetite for burnt offerings, and soon we found ourselves the proud owners of a Broilmate barbeque (made in Waterloo!). It's a great barbeque and we use it at least a few times a week. Thanks to Ryan for taking this sharp photo.
.jpg)
One of the joys of home-ownership is having gardens with loads of different flora (and unfortunately, pesky fauna too). We have a group of poppies that have bloomed; here are two that haven't yet. If they weren't plants, I'd say these were having an intimate moment.
.jpg)
Another flower. Does anyone know what kind it is? I'm horrible with horticulture, but I am slowly improving.
.jpg)
Another poppy close-up. I love my macro lens! It's actually not as sharp as I'd like; or rather, I don't have as much in focus as I'd like. But I still think it's amazing to look at the water droplets suspended between the hairs.
.jpg)
This is Jack, jealous of my ability to get outside. Actually, he is quite able to get outside; thanks to my dad, he can open the screen door by himself. He hasn't quite learned how to close it yet. He seems to be in his element when he is outside though; in the past two days, Jack has caught a chipmunk and a mouse. He doesn't quite know what to do when he catches something, so he typically just sits on it. We know something's up when we hear muffled squeaking noises. If only he could learn to catch rabbits.
So why have I been too busy to post? It seems I have to mow the lawn every day... but seriously, we have been slowly chipping away at our renovations. Two weekends ago, we installed three new ceiling fixtures in the three bedrooms (with Ryan's help for the first one... thanks Ryan!). No pictures yet, so I guess you'll just have to come visit. And last weekend I added a new wall-switch and connected it to a receptacle in the living room. And I'm not dead yet! Carolyn, meanwhile, has been busily scraping away the wallpaper, and has finished the second of the three bedrooms. So after one month, we've done a fair bit, but we still have a ways to go.
