A visitation

Aunt "Victoria" is back from the UK for a family visit. Her favourite nephew and niece-in-law are treating her to dinner at PS Cafe, Dempsey Hill.

On the menu tonight... fish chowder, packed with lots of veggie stuff including corn kernels, and chunks of potato and sweet potato. One tureen is practically a light meal in itself, and here we've ordered one each.

And my main, NZ lamb with sweet potato mash, charred asparagus, red peppers, on a bed of spinach, in red wine sauce. Our order-taker assured me that the mutton "smell" would be appropriately dealt with in the kitchen. Dear girl, don't you know? The smell is the best part!

The time is now about two hours to midnight. So, see you again next year! :)

Gifts of love

It was nice of the Sisters at Gift of Love to invite all their volunteers for a year-end thanksgiving mass and dinner. There were a lot of us gathered in one small compound (meaning their dining hall and driveway), but I suppose there must be a sizable number of us in order for each team to provide one meal a month to the aged residents there. That is, not counting breakfast, 60 meals per month based on a 30-day month average.

As always with the Sisters, the evening was a simple, no fuss event. Mass involved carol singing and communion from which I accepted the Celebrant's exhortation that "God loves you," in place of the host, since I'm not a baptized Catholic.

And for once, it was the Sisters who fed the volunteers. There were two stations of high-carb, high-protein, low veg dishes (I noticed) catered from Elsie's Kitchen. I wasn't in the mood for deep conversation with my fellow volunteers over dinner, and fortunately they didn't offer any, apart from a couple of seasonal complimentary greetings.

We ate while the residents slept. And among the beds, June went about distributing small Christmas gifts to each zoned-out elderly sleepy-head. We managed to scrape together a little something for the old folks, after all.

It's a plan, anyway

Casey is, of course, concerned with the results from Q-tip's scan. But neither he nor we are anxious to get anything extreme like a biopsy done on her while she can't even walk or stand properly. We'll be proceeding with her pain-relief treatment while simultaneously putting her on a diet and course of supplements designed to strengthen her liver.

At least Q-tip is getting more used to taking her meds, and she's not struggling so much now. She seems to be showing some improvement this evening. Her tail is finally up and wagging a bit. That's an encouraging sign.

Scanned

On Casey's referral, we took Q-tip to the Mt Pleasant Animal Hospital for her ultrasound scan. Yes, the kind pregnant women undergo to look at their unborn babies. Q-tip hates to be on her back, but we had to hold her in place anyway while the tech applied the gel and manipulated the scope around her (newly shaved) belly area.

The pictures from the scan were quite incomprehensible to us, so the tech pointed out the "masses" in the liver and the sedimentation in the kidneys, not uncommon in older dogs. However, the nature of the masses was still unclear. Only a biopsy could tell us for sure if they were benign or... otherwise.

Scan results have gone to Casey. Let's see what he can tell us.

Wobbly-legged dog

Dr Casey saw Q-tip at last. Poor girl is tottering even more, her back hunched and every step seems to take quite an effort. Even the bathroom door curb is giving her pause as she gingerly steps over it, occasionally stumbling as her hind legs fail to find traction on the other side.

Casey's review of the x-rays confirm Dr Koh's diagnoses, though he is especially worried about the state of Q-tip's liver and kidneys. He recommends us to take her for an ultrasound scan for a better picture of her internal workings. In the meantime, he's given her a steroid shot for the arthritic pain that is probably causing the weakness in her legs.