Stinky

I woke up this morning to someone knocking on our front door. It was our 7-year old neighbor, Sean who let me know that there was an injured skunk stuck under the fence between our yards. It was stuck under a different fence in their yard, and Ray managed to dislodge it, but it got stuck trying to escape under the other fence. I called the County Animal Shelter, but they weren't open yet. The message said that if there was an injured animal, call 911. 911 told me to call the County Animal Shelter. I explained to them the chicken-or-the-egg situation and finally got them to take my address. They did manage to send out a guy, and he have to work hard to get that thing out. Something was wrong with it's backside, possibly a broken back, because it was unable to move it's tail. The shelter guy dug the dirt out around it, but it was still unable to free itself. He eventually got a towel out and wrapped it around the skunk and somehow pulled it out, into a special crate for critters. As he took it away, he told us that they usually try to release captured skunks back into the wild in unpopulated areas -- but if they're badly injured they might have to put him down.

In other stinky news, Krista's caught a cold that has added a new level of discomfort. It was good that Catherine Grant was able to visit today, because that cheered her up. My mother also made her famous moussaka for lunch, which Krista enjoyed even though it is a high potassium food. At last measure, her potassium was normal and Krista wanted to test to see how much food really would affect the labs tomorrow. I put in a few hours at work this afternoon, and was so thankful to the Suttons for bringing us a tasty chicken parmesan dinner because it's been a long day for all of us.

I wrote yesterday that Krista's bladder situation was under control, but Krista corrected me. The pain has been better, but her frequency is still quite high and the amount she gets out each time has been decreasing. If this is not a bladder infection, then it could be a hemorrhagic cystitis. That is something that can happen in female cancer patients, where a bladder hemorrhage makes blood clots that won't pass through the urethra. This can result in blockage. We're going down to UCLA tomorrow, and hopefully they can get us more info about it. Just in case, we have scheduled another appointment on Tuesday with the urologist she saw down there previously.

Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me,
for in You my soul takes refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of Your wings
until the disaster has passed.
I cry out to God Most High,
to God, who fulfills His purpose for me.
(Psalm 57:1-2)