Pets and yes...another birthday.

Today is Milo's birthday. Milo is our cat. He's a year old today.

Here's the story of Milo: a co-worker of Matt's, and a friend of ours, found Milo sometime last April. Shortly before a fierce storm rolled through, she found him-alone and abandoned by his mom-on a picnic table outside of her mom's house. He was newly born. She took him home with her and bottle fed him until he was about 6 weeks old. He came home with us on June 1st. Both of our dogs immediately took to him. They play and wrestle and chase each other down the hall.

Now...Milo does rank up there on the meanest-cat-I've-ever-had list. I've only had one other cat meaner than him. He mainly is just playing...I guess he's not "technically" mean. But I do have some horrible scars on my arms from him.

Despite that...we love him. He even sleeps in bed with us (sometimes under the covers). We don't know his actual birthdate so we picked today for him.

So, here's to Milo. Thanks for giving me a running start to get into bed before you leap on and attach yourself to my leg. Every night. We love you and couldn't have found a better fit for our family.

For the next "pet" topic...today was my 3rd PET scan. The last scan I had in October came back good and told me I only needed 2 more chemo treatments. This time it'll tell me whether the cancer is still gone. My nerves are shot, to say the least. These last few months I've spent worrying about this day and now it's come and gone. And all together, wasn't too bad. :)

Mom and I took the day off from work. These appointments last anywhere from 2-3 hours so we figured we might as well just have the rest of the day for fun! Matt and I met Mom there this morning. In the way of how this appointment usually goes, today was no different. No sugar or caffeine for 24 hours prior so no coffee this morning. We waited in the waiting room for about 30 minutes. Anthony (my PET tech) called me back and took me to the same room I was in the previous 2 times. My blood was drawn and sugar checked. Next, a sugar solution was injected into my vein. Quite a bit of it, actually. I never noticed before how much they put in. It's cold and puts a slight SD alcohol taste in your mouth. When the needle is out, I head to the bathroom. Once the solution is injected, you're required to sit still and not talk to improve the effectiveness of the scan. I needed to go while I had the chance. When I look down at my arm, I notice the cotton ball is loose. I press down on it and it immediately soaks with blood. I go tell Anthony who then wraps my arm about 10 times with blue gauze. At least it matched my shirt. :) Oh...and see that mark to the left of the gauze that looks like a bruise? That's the remains of my initial Bleo allergy test. For some reason, it's still there and has yet to go away.

After my hour was up (which I spent reading and resting), I head to the dressing room and change into scrubs. The next hour is spent on the scan. The instructions are to hold your breath for certain periods of time while they do 3 specific scans. When those are done, the table starts at the back and moves a couple of inches to the front every 3 minutes. I tried hard to stay awake, but found myself dozing and before I knew it, Anthony was back to get me.

It doesn't sound hard and for the most part isn't. But it is tiring.

The rest of the day was spent eating and getting pedicures. Well...pedicures for mom and me. Matt was just there for the eating part. :) We also went out to dinner to celebrate Bryan's birthday.

I should, and hope to, get the results tomorrow or Friday. I'll update as soon as I do. For now, I'm going to eat some lemon cheesecake and head to bed. I'm beat.

Thanks for reading.