Kitteh-Zombeh Cheeks (no exploding spiders this time)

Remember my long-ago post (in fact I think it was just about a year ago) about Matt's blocked salivary gland, complete with warning to would-be spider smashers to always use a smashing device larger than the body of the spider to be smashed?

Well, now Goblin's the one with a swollen cheek that looks like it's about to burst and wriggle out tentacles or some such.

His swelling is not a blocked salivary gland, however. It's swollen glands along the edges of the corners of his upper lips, swollen so horribly as an overreaction to something. To what? Beats me. Like blocked salivary glands in humans, it's apparently fairly common, and not too terribly worrisome, mostly.

This happened to him once before, in late August, and when I took him to the vet for it then he got a steroid shot that cleared it up completely within about two days. This was good. What is bad is that cats generally can only handle four of said steroids shots in one year before those same steroids start messing with their systems, giving them diabetes and other nasty conditions. Since his shot for the first time this happened was only a short two months ago, I was a wee bit worried about having him need another so soon. What if this kept coming back, and he reached the four-shot limit for the year and then it came back again? What then?

When I took him back to the vet today, she expressed this same concern even before I could (she's good). So instead of a shot, Goblin's on similar steroid pills (lower dosage, but still kinda up there). One pill twice a day for the first five days, then one a day for the next five, then one every other day and at that point I need to try to cut the dosage - by halving the pills, and possibly even skipping two days between, until either he doesn't need them anymore or we find the lowest dosage needed to keep his lips normal cat size and shape. The hope of course is that he will not need to stay on them forever, but the vet said that if for whatever reason he does, the pills are not likely to do damage the way the shots would have. Apparently these same pills are given to cats with asthma, who need to take them daily, and there are (usually) few ill side effects, if any at all.

So, I feel better about the pills. Even if he starts lifting weights and meowing in an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice (heh, heh, funny mental image), I'm ok with it so long as the poor lil' guy can rub his poor lil face against things without suddenly stopping and squeezing his eyes shut because it hurts.

And, giving him the pills is not a horrible, dangerous feat (how many of you have seen that viral e-mail "How to Pill a Cat" that keeps popping up and no matter how many times you see it, still makes you laugh so hard you're afraid you're going to pee yourself?), thanks to the fact that he loves to eat, period, and the pills can be easily hidden in a glob of wet cat food. He just scarfs the glob right down, either unaware that there's a nasty yucky little pill in it, or not caring because dude, it's food! So I won't be blogging anytime soon about my harrowing experiences with bullet-fast spit out pills and claw marks that will forever scar me, and I'm pretty sure I'm cool with that.

Right now he's curled up on the couch beside me, sleeping kitteh-zombeh sleeps and occasionally twitching. After his two pills today, his cheek is noticeably less swollen already, and about two hours ago he actually rubbed his face (the less-swollen side, anyway) against my hand without stopping from pain. Sweet lil' bugger, he is, at least when he's not living up to his name.

So my heart is happier knowing I won't have to worry about shots for him that can do harm, and knowing that, just like the shot, these pills are clearing up his adverse reaction to whatever is is really fast.

In other news, Matt is out of town working on music and various odd jobs with a friend up in Northern-Northern California, and I miss him. He's been gone since last Thursday, and won't be back till sometime next week. This is, by far, the longest we've been away from each other since we met. No, really, It's weird. He's become such a part of my life that while I have enjoyed the silence to catch up on some reading, I find myself more often than not restless, pacing the house because I'm bored and have no one to talk to or at least be bored with. Goblin has been doing his part to make me feel better, sleeping either between my knees or on the pillow above my head most nights.

And I finally got my last grade for the class I just finished. All A's, baby! And next week it's on to the next one ...

Grumble-worthy news: Sacred 2: Fallen Angel was released Tuesday, and supposedly shipped out to stores that day. Due to the holiday, however (and btw thank you vets and currently-active soldiers! You rock!), there was no mail service that day, so while I was originally supposed to pick the game up today, I have to wait ... one ... more ... day ... *gasp, shudder*

Oh, the agony. I'm sure I'll live, but it won't be a happy living. It will be a loooong 24 (maybe even 48 - oh, the horror!) hours till I get my grimy lil' paws on it and promptly spend most of the weekend glued to the computer ...