Listening to the Voices in my Head

The art of the polite, and public, complaint

I had been wrangling (textually) with PetCover regarding Loki's lumpectomy. And after many of what I took to be (and were) condescending and patronizing replies, I let my fingers do the walking, and gave them a 1 star rating on Google Review, and with out rancor I typed up the time line of everything that happened.

Someone from the parent company replied, but I hadn't bothered to read it.

Next day, I got a phone call from M***. He told me this entire mess was because he has misread my email, thought I wanted it canceled. Not only is Loki's insurance reinstated (with handy dandy monthly installments instead of huge lump sum) but a huge hunk of change was rebated from his lumpectomy.

I am very satisfied with this outcome, but why the heck didn't they do this at the outset, instead of leaving me in tears over them canceling Loki's policy, then denying the claim?  Well, we are all human and make mistakes, and I for one am grateful to M*** for getting this tangled mess straightened out. Thank you.

Loki is recovering faster than I am.

He had surgery on his hock/ankle. I had surgery on my knee. Two weeks later, he's walking around and the only evidence of surgery is the very short furred area that had to be shaved.

Me? 7 weeks on and I still have to use a cane around the house, and crutches.

Yes, there are some days I wish I was a cat.

And typing about Loki, I showed his histopathology report to someone. She said there were a lot of mights, maybes, could bes in it. IOWs they had no idea what the growth is. Just wait to see if it comes back.

And the hits just keep coming

Loki's lump was sent to pathology. Results aren't the same as the last lump. It isn't a lipoma, but soft tissue sarcoma. The vet said there was no way to get 'clean margins' as it was on his ankle.

Vet said it would grow back quickly, too.  He said the only way to make sure all the sarcoma is gone is to amputate his back leg. He's 15, almost 16 years old. I don't know if he would recover from it.

4 Cats with different types of cancer. Vets keep saying it's 'bad luck'.  My heart feels like it's breaking.

Seems my early rising wasn't Loki's fault.

Alan told me that Wing didn't go to bed until 2 a.m. as he was up working into the wee hours. That threw Loki's schedule off. If Wing was up, that meant it was time for Loki's cuddle, as he is a creature of habit.

Really, Loki?

Loki has gotten this habit of waking me up in the middle of the night with a "pet me, cuddle me, shift your pillows so I can snuggle up with at the head of the bed."

I sleep for shit as it is. How do I get him back to doing this cuddle routine about 6 a.m. instead of 2 or 3 a.m.?

Sometimes, just the little things

I was getting ready for a shower, with Loki meowing almost non-stop. He was in a tizzy that I was going to go into the dreaded 'rain closet'. AGAIN!

So, I'm in the shower, listening to Loki's almost operatic meowing for about 5 minutes. As I was putting on my terrycloth robe, he yowled, ran up to me, and would not let me leave the bathroom until he was certain I had survived the rain closet, and that he personally 'dried off' my foot and leg. 

After I passed his inspection, I was allowed to leave the bathroom and to wander around the house. :)

Not wearing leg rig right now

When I have the brace on, and leg propped up, I get nagged by Loki, and like most cats, he using his paws (and the very tip of his claws) to get my attention. Then there's the nipping. He gets a bit 'bitey'  when he doesn't get what he wants, WHEN he wants it.  I have a myriad of little scratches between my ankle and where the bottom of the brace.

I have my leg propped up on the footstool, but if Loki starts making a pest of himself, I can, and do, push the footstool to the other side of the room.  But I can't do this if I'm wearing the brace.  But now, my knee hurts. 

I guess it was inevitable.

After Loki did his impression of a gymnast mounting a balance beam on my left knee, today I broke out the "Big Bertha" knee brace and strapped it on. Too a while to get the straps just tight enough for it to stay in place, but not so tight to turn my foot blue or numb.

Sad to admit it feels better wearing it. I'm not getting the left /right movement now, and even if Loki pulls a repeat of yesterday, the brace hinges will prevent hyper extension.

I miss bloggers

And blogging.  I miss web BBS forums. Facebook is a pisspoor substitute.

I have to use two different blog posting software. That in itself isn't a problem, but it's the "not suddenly working" with little (or no) forewarning.

Ok, moving on:

Turns out I don't have plantar fasciitis. I have enthesopathy of the plantar tendon.  It's like having a pebble under then skin, between the tendon and bone of the heel.  To say it's painful would be an understatement.  Physio has found a way to tape the heel and arch of foot and it relieves about 98% of the pain. Problem is, I can't keep my foot taped all the time! ARGH!  Might have to see a podiatrist. Dammit, I'm not old enough to need orthotics!

Onto my rant about Twitter (and what followed).  It would have been nice to have them send an email, or maybe an ironic SMS, to say they were discontinuing being able to receive SMS notifications.  I thought my phone was faulty, went to Telstra to find out why I couldn't send text messages to Twitter, and why my Caller ID was coming up as PRIVATE NUMBER.  The girl there couldn't figure it out, and suggested I recontract early, and see if that and a new sim card would fix it. It did not.  She told me I should call Tech Support (which I did, but that's a different story which I will add after this) What she didn't tell me was recontracting cancelled my "StayConnected" subscription.  I figured out why the Caller ID wasn't working, it was because of Samsung firmware update.  It added a new setting I had to untick.

Moving on again, I called Telstra tollfree number, wade through the most annoyingly voiced menus, the type that make you want to grind your teeth to nubs.  The first time I tried, I got disconnected.  I tried again the following day, made it through all the menus and spoke to "Steve",  wonderful support, and when I told him what happened regarding the recontracting, how I wasn't told that it would lead to the cancellation of my StayConnected, he said to go back to that Telstra shop and speak to the manager.  I will as it will be well within my rights to have this new contract revoked and go back to my original contract, including my StayConnected.

Loki, big grey Bengal of ours, has been ill, twice in as many weeks. He was throwing up. Took him to the vet, he was given a shot of anti-nausea medication, some take home antibiotics,  and bloods drawn for tests.  Nothing nefarious in the blood tests, and he stopped barfing.
 
Then a week later, he started sneezing. Not a lot at first, just a few times. Then a half dozen times a day, then so often I called the vet.  Exam and nasal swab taken.  Antibiotics (again) and an anti-inflammatory.  

After a few days, his nose dried out, but he still sneezed, just not as often, or as hard. As Alan described, "He lifted his head, opened his mouth, his eyes would cross, and then he would sneeze two or three times.".  

Call back about the nasal swab results: as yet unidentified bacteria, but it would react/die with the antibiotic he was given.  Brought him back in to the vet this morning for a follow up.  Sneezing a few times, but not constantly, and also no more nasal discharge.  The bacteria was identified, and it's no biggie. 

Consensus was that the smoke from the controlled burn off, people using woodstoves, pollen from all the wonderful blossoming trees/flowers, and using the heat triggered his allergies into overdrive.

Other than that, I haven't been bored. This "Self Isolation" and "Social Distancing"... I've been stuck doing it for the past 2 years because of car accident, followed by pneumonia, then seizures, and to top it off more surgery.  Who knew my life was called "Quarantine"? 

I know it bites into their profits to pay out

But I'm really pissed off at PetPlan insurance right now.

Loki had bad breath. Upon exam, it turned out he had an oral infection, and ONE, just ONE of the steps to clear him of the infection was to have under the gum line near the infected areas cleaned.  He was lucky, he didn't lose any teeth. The other steps were to give him antibiotics, and to 'clean his mouth', if I could without getting bitten.. too much.

However, according to PetPlan, this wasn't a cure for an oral infection, oh no no no!  It was 'a preventative dental scaling'. 
I have sent this to them. Not that I actually expect them to do the right thing.

 

Consider this angry feedback.  I've been a client of yours for 12+ years. 

My cat, Loki had bad breath. Upon exam, it turned out he had an oral infection, and ONE, just ONE of the steps to clear him of the infection was to have under the gum line near the infected areas cleaned.  He was lucky, he didn't lose any teeth. The other steps were to give him antibiotics, and to 'clean his mouth', if I could without getting bitten.. too much.

However, according to PetPlan, this wasn't a cure for an oral infection, oh no no no!  It was 'a preventative dental scaling'.  That was your 'loophole'. You consider any and gum/teeth treatment as preventative. If it was preventative, he would have had it done without me submitting a claim, just like I did with Ziggy, and Keito, Loki and Trance over the years.  But this was a needed MEDICAL procedure to CURE an infection.

Don't bother calling me, because I know you will just give me the same excuse, that it was preventative.  And my reply is the same: If it was preventative, he wouldn't have had an oral infection.