It’s no wonder, with all the stress I’ve been under, I haven’t had it in me to do my daily journaling.
Sunday
Didn’t sleep in too late. Got up and got some coffee while the computer booted. Got parked on SL. Launched ArcheAge. Played on there on and off throughout the rest of the day, taking breaks to work on the dishes that were in the dishwasher, because they were regularly used and we couldn’t go without them until maintenance came by.
Casey alternated between one thing and another all day.
Got him to bed a little later. It’s summer, so why not?
Spent some time reading on my Kindle Paperwhite, until I was getting too tired to continue. It was around 11 anyway. I only had an hour left in the book, but I was dozing off and needed to sleep.
I was having a hard time falling asleep once I finally got into bed. I’d been thinking about Daniel. How much I hate him, yet still love him. How I wish things could be different, he could be different. I started crying. I got back up and booted the computer back up. Got on Aura Kingdom to check things since it’d been a while since I’d logged in. After that I got on Conan to refresh the base. Then spent a little more time on ArcheAge with Cyn, before trying to go back to bed around 2 or so.
Monday
Woke up a bit earlier than expected, considering how late I’d been up the night before. Got up and got some coffee while the computer booted, then got parked on SL. Got on ArcheAge and did the usual stuff on there all day, questing and gardening mostly.
Called and made an appointment with the Ob/Gyn so I could express my concerns and work towards getting answers I was more comfortable with. Despite the blood tests, I’m not 100% convinced I’m not pregnant. But I’m also concerned that, if I’m not, it’s cancer.
Casey did his usual as well, alternating between things.
Maintenance came by to look at our dishwasher and garage door. The dishwasher wasn’t cleaning the dishes, and the garage door was struggling to open. In the winter, the garage door would possibly not open at all for us. He cleaned some crap out of the dishwasher, and tightened some bolts on the garage motor. Really? We need a new dishwasher and a new garage door motor by this point…
Shortly after Dave got home from work, I heard a scream from Casey. I went to see what was going on and saw Jennifer on the landing, just inside the front door. Max was making odd noises, growling and such. I picked Casey up and quickly carried him to my room, snuggling him on my bed to calm him down. I heard some more vicious noises coming from downstairs, so I went to check what was going on. Max wasn’t expecting me to appear, and lunged at me, teeth bared. He bit me on my left calf pretty hard. I stopped moving and tried talking to him calmly, but he wasn’t calming down. I tried slowly backing away, but he didn’t like that and bit my foot pretty hard. He would get distracted by Dave moving, so I took each opportunity to edge closer to the kitchen for a paper towel to stop the bleeding. I finally made it, but he’d noticed I wasn’t where he’d left me so he sat in the kitchen, glaring at me and making those same noises. I couldn’t move to start wiping the blood away. Finally Dave managed to distract Max, whether it was intentional or not I don’t know. I was able to wipe up the blood and went back to my room. Casey was still on the bed and was asking about what was going on, so I showed him my leg.
I’m allergic to cats, I should mention. Some it’s their fur or dander, but apparently with Max it’s his saliva. I could feel the burning already, and knew I needed to go to the ER to quickly get an antibiotic. While I was getting dressed, Dave got Max into the basement. I snapped about what Jennifer must have done to Max to instigate such a reaction from him. He’d been fine with her until the weekend Casey and I went to Door County. I can’t believe that this is a territorial behavior, now that he’s still acting like that when we’re all here.
Got to the ER and, when I explained what had happened, they said they needed to have a police officer come in for a report. It was the standard procedure, at least for the county if not the state. They cleaned the wound and prescribed Augmentin, an officer came and filled out the form for the report. And then I was on my way. It was raining out, but not too bad. I went to Walmart to get the medication. I knew a storm was coming, so I did the express pickup via the app. I was just a little late, and got drenched on my way to my car. By the time I got home, the rain had lightened up.
Got Casey tucked into bed, and then Dave wanted to try letting Max out of the basement. He seemed calmer at first, but then Dave was moving around in the kitchen and I heard Max flip again. I closed Casey’s door so he wouldn’t have to worry about Max ending up in there by him, and sat with him for a while, listening to what was going on. I kept going out to discreetly check on things, and eventually Dave had Max by the top of the stairs but he was still acting crazy. I said we needed to get him back down in the basement, and he said we needed to get a litter box and some blankets or towels down for him so he wouldn’t be uncomfortable all night, and that he’d need my help. I pointed out that it would be impossible to help him now that he had Max by the top of the stairs. What a dumbass. Somehow he got Max to go over by the back door, so I snuck downstairs and got things set up in the basement. Then I started calmly and sweetly calling Max’s name. Eventually he poked into the basement, and I closed the door leading to the garage and headed out and around to the front door. Dave snapped about not knowing Max was in the basement and that I hadn’t closed the door leading from the house to in there. Well what the hell were you doing that you didn’t have an eye on him?? Got the door closed so he was confined in there, and went and let Casey know everything was safe.
I was pretty upset, feeling like we can’t possibly keep Max if he could flip out like that with certain people. What if a maintenance guy comes to the house, and Max doesn’t like him for whatever reason and snaps and ends up attacking Casey?? I was still pretty convinced, though, that Jennifer had done something to him the weekend before. Dave was outside mowing the lawn at the time that she got attacked, so all we can do is take her word about what happened. She claims she stepped over him to look out the window, he growled, she thought nothing of it, and when she went to walk past him to leave Dave’s room he snapped. Really? A cat is going to flip his shit because you stepped over him? No, I don’t believe that. Something happened, she did something.
Got back on ArcheAge with Cyn and played on there, doing the usual stuff, until I was ready for bed.
Tuesday
I had the alarm go off a little after 7 so I would be able to get dressed before maintenance was due to arrive at 8, to look at the garage door again. Got some coffee while the computer booted, then got parked on SL. Launched ArcheAge to play on there for a bit before therapy at 10.
Max was out of the basement and acting normal, but I was still a little scared that he would flip on me.
Colin got on with me and got me some rabbit pjs on ArcheAge with creidts he had left over from when he used to play years ago. They would restore mega amounts of labor in comparison to not wearing them. They were much needed, I go through labor like crazy.
The maintenance guy showed up and didn’t even bother knocking, he just got straight to work on the garage door.
Therapy went well. I had Casey sit out in the waiting room, playing Minecraft on my old phone, so I could talk to her about what had been going on the past couple weeks, and how much stress it was causing. I told her that, despite everything, my confidence is still pretty good, but my stress levels are through the roof and I don’t know how to get them back down with all this going on. She gave me a sort of worksheet, things I can do to calm down my brain.
After Therapy, I got gas and headed home for a bit. Played on ArcheAge some more after doing my free book & paid emails, then it was time to leave for my appointment in LaCrosse with the Ob/Gyn. Stopped by Arby’s on the way out of town to get some lunch to much on while I was driving there.
That appointment went ok to begin with. I explained my concerns to the doctor, and he said that, although in his experience a negative blood test is a true negative, he understands where I’m coming from and is happy to schedule another Ultrasound for 2 weeks, to know for absolute certain. And then he wants to do the HSG test, where they put dye in and make sure my tubes are still blocked. Meanwhile, he wanted to go ahead and do a colposcopy with a biopsy, checking my cervix for cancer after having positive HPV results for so many years. I’ve had HPV my last 3 annual paps, but it’s just this most recent one that I’ve discovered that Daniel has given me the types that make me more likely to get cervical cancer. He said that, since they wouldn’t be going all the way to my uterus, it would be fine, even if I’m pregnant. I took his word for it, not wanting to schedule an appointment to come back for that wretched procedure. I’d say it went well, but, well, it hurt like hell. I won’t go into detail about what the procedure entails, but I will say that I wish Daniel would get the male equivalent, just because now I’ll probably have to get this procedure done every fucking year for the rest of my life.
After the god-awful procedure, it was finally time to schedule the future appointments and go home. I’d heard from all the staff how good Casey was while I was being seen. I was so happy to hear that!! I’d have to get him a special treat for being so good all day, at both appointments.
He said he didn’t want anything to eat on the way home, and while I was driving us back home I explained that he’d skipped lunch. When we got close to home, I offered one more time to stop and get him a meal from somewhere, but he said he just wanted a PB&J and some Mac & Cheese. That was fine by me.
Got him his food and got the dishes taken care of again. The dishwasher was still not cleaning the dishes properly, so I had to hand wash them. I didn’t want to put it off, because I would likely be in incredible pain after a while and not feel like it, plus it was getting late and I didn’t want to deal with Dave bitching about the dishes.
After the dishes were done, I logged on ArcheAge. Casey was downstairs watching stuff on the Roku anyway.
Played on there for the rest of the day, doing a few random things like attempting to fly to a distant island with Cyn. We failed and she had to get out her speed boat to make it the rest of the way. Then I got “caught” by a pirate NPC and put in “prison.” I escaped by teleporting to the landing point that had generated once I made it to the island, but there were nothing but opposing factions and I hightailed it out of there.
Got Casey to bed at the usual “summertime” time, then resumed doing stuff on ArcheAge with Cyn until I was ready for bed. Shockingly, we even participated in a raid together!
