Rose Cat's Rambles

Best part? IT’S CHOCOLATE.
Pamela McCaffrey at Flickr

( three more pics and a GIF, all child/work-safe )

I'm taking Missy to the vet for the last time this afternoon. Time to let her go.

...of keeping on track with rehab.

It's been a little rocky. ( If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing. Only NOT )

...since the surgery. Sometimes it seems like two years.

( update )

...but this cold therapy machine -- which I got on Wednesday -- is helping a lot. The downsides: it's a pain to set up, drain, etc. (although B is able to do that for me right now, and it's a little too effective, which means that I have to check the skin hourly to make sure i don't actually get frostbite. (So no sleeping with it on.) And it's not worth the trouble to try using it in front of the computer. Yet. (B thinks there are some fixes I can use so I can use the keyboard completely one-handed; I may look into that after surgery, when things are on the mend.)

Now, back into the Polar North I go. Wednesday can't come fast enough.

My shoulder surgery is scheduled for the 16th. The doctor's office is setting up my pre-op appointment with the orthopaedist (also the surgeon), which will not be on the same day as the surgery. (They asked me for my preferred days and times.)

It's not a large tear and doesn't go all the way through the muscle (I'll talk about that more when I manage to post the X-ray, which is more complicated than I thought it would be), so it should be possible to repair arthroscopically. THANK GOD for that. The surgeon will go in with an arthroscopic camera and teeny tiny surgical instruments, and sew the muscle back together. He'll also shave off a bone spur, which is not a good thing to have in there. More details about rotator cuff surgery, if you're interested, are here: OrthoInfo, Rotator Cuff Tears: Surgical Treatment Options.

It's an outpatient operation; the surgery takes about two hours, and I should be able to go home in another two hours. B will, of course, be driving me.

I should get a packet in the mail in the next few days. Among other things, it'll include a prescription for super duper pain meds. Oh boy.

1.

( nineteen more; some may not be work-safe, and children may ask embarrassing questions )

Also posted to randompictures

I dropped my SLR camera onto the concrete driveway. SHIT.

It may not be that bad. The lens cap was a total loss, but so what. Apparently its lower edge was where the camera hit; it's misshapen enough to be unusuable, but fortunately not so much that I couldn't get it off the lens.

I looked through the viewfinder and -- WRONG. Not focusing, and a line at the top like a crack (OH GOD NO). Maybe just the lens, I thought (not that I'd be happy to lose my precious macro lens either), so I took it off to try another. The focusing screen fell out in my hand. After doing some online research, however, I was able to put it back in. I replaced the lens and now the image looks normal, through the viewfinder, at least. The focusing screen holder still looks like it could be damaged, but the screen is staying put.

I had a scare when it looked like I couldn't open the camera back to change film, but no, it was just my clumsy old fingers. Whew.

I still don't know for sure that the camera body is OK, or, for that matter, the lens. I should take a test roll, with that lens and with another, to see if it still functions properly.

Notes to self: (1) pay attention to where the camera is and make sure I'm actually holding on to it, (2) put the camera strap around my neck where it belongs, thus making (1) a lot less important, and (3) regardless, in the future, drop the goddamn groceries instead.