jowasaurus
Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2012
- Messages
- 276
I'll start off by saying that my newer set-up for the cages probably isn't the best option, but my creative cage making skills are limited. Begin long-winded, possibly most boring cage-building story ever:
With Rictor's upcoming neutering and possibility to live with Cara, I had to rearrange the layout of the "guinea pig room" to fit another cage somewhere. I contemplated taking out the spare bed that is used pretty much like a couch, stacking cages, cages with lofts, etc. Many plans go through my brain- few of which ever come into fruition.
Tuesday I took everybody out of their C&C's and moved the coroplast bases into different rooms, then dismantled the grids. That alone took me a few hours because it was timed with cleaning everyone's fleece and whatnot. I already had plans to pick up another sheet of coroplast Wednesday night and would be able to score and size it before going to bed to be ready for the re-build.
Well, Wednesday evening I started to get my oh-so-familiar stomach cramps I had been getting probably about once a week or so since February. They always start off slow but become quite debilitating within a few hours. I have been in school and at one of my last externships since March so I'd just been pushing through the pain until it subsided [which it always had after about 12 hours]. My bf and I went to pick up the coroplast, hung out with my rescue friend for a bit, and then headed home. The abdominal aches got worse, like they always had, and I spent the night on the bathroom floor whining in the fetal position like I always had.
By the time Thursday morning had come, it was obvious that I wasn't going to complete the cages due to the severe pain and lack of time from me lying on the floor for so long. The aches and cramps were worse Thursday morning than they had ever been and I had gotten sick a few times, which just made me feel more terrible.
Around 4 pm, almost 24 hours since the aching had begun, I decided that since I finished my first externship/ fieldwork last week that I had time to go to the doctor. [I know, I'm a regular guy- Wait til the last minute or always have an excuse to put off seeing a medical professional] I put some clothes on and tried walking to the stairs but the pain was so unbearable I thought I was going to pass out. I thought it in my best interest to call 911 this time just to make sure since I was home alone by now.
Got to the hospital around 5 pm, sat on a bed in the ER for at least 2 hours writhing in pain in the hallways while the doctors saw gunshot victims, car accident patients and people complaining of wrist pain. Once an attendant came up to me, he poked my lower abdomen a bit and said I was probably constipated [which I had originally thought was the reason for everything- and not kind of laxative had been working]. They ordered an x-ray just to make sure but didn't see any kind of blockage. At 8 pm they sent me for a CT scan and after waiting an hour for the doctor to read it, someone finally walked up to me and said, "Have you ever heard of appendicitis?" I reply with a "Yes" and he goes, "Good, your doctor will be here in a minute to talk to you." and walks away. WTF? Do I HAVE appendicitis or something? I sit there for another 20 minutes- still sitting on a bed in the middle of the ER hallway- and a surgeon walks up to me and says, "Geez, how long have you had this appendicitis? We're gonna try to take it out tonight. Your doctor talk to you already? No? Oh. . . Well yeah, that's what's up with your pains in your lower right quadrant."
He proceeds to describe an operation they perform to remove an appendix and tells me again and again how they aren't many complications. All the while, my supposed [doctor] hasn't even seen me since my first x-ray. A few minutes later another surgeon walks towards me with the doctor and they reiterate what's going on. . .
Apparently my appendix has been slowly leaking out into my abdomen and that's what was causing the severe pains. An infection is all in my intestines which is causing the constipation- and more pain. So at 10 pm Thursday night they take me to the OR and perform the procedure to remove my appendix laproscopically. I woke up at 1:55 am Friday morning without the cramping, deep pain but rather a muscle surface pain from 3 incisions on my stomach and moved-around insides.
After being moved into a regular room and doctors visiting me about every 20 minutes until 7 am, I was told that if I keep down my breakfast and lunch and am able to get up and be active for a little bit, I could go home later on Friday. Needless to say, I did my usual push-myself-so-hard-I-almost-ruined-everything routine and nearly passed out the first time walking to the restroom by myself. I ate the breakfast and the took out the IV antibiotics, switching me to oral antibiotics [that I have to take for the next 2 months btw, bleh, stupid intestinal infection]. I got up, walked around, watched the dearly missed HGTV and someone came in at 10 asking if I just wanted to leave right then.
I of course said yes and was brought the discharge papers and walked the heck out of that place.
Yesterday I was in quite a bit of pain, though all of the doctors that came in to see me kept repeating how much of a high pain tolerance I must have in order to have dealt with what was going on inside my body [my white blood cell count was also double the usual number- way to go good immune system to keeping the infection localized!]. I didn't do much of anything but Edward[ the boy that likes to think we have a stable relationship] got upset that one guinea pig in in the dining room, one is in the living room, 2 are in his piano room, 2 are in our bedroom, and zero are in the guinea pig room.
So today I pushed myself-harder than I probably should have- to piece together grids in order to be able to bring the 2 existing cages back in. I'm not allowed to lift more than 5 lbs for the first 3 days, then my precautions are no lifting more than 15 lbs, no bending, stretching, twisting at the waist for a month.
Well with the initial limit, I'm unable to complete the task set for me by the do-nothing, live-in boyfriend, so he'll have to actually help with putting everything back into the room tomorrow.
But as of now,
84 grids,
96 connectors,
and 247 zip-ties later:
My pigs will have 2 2x5s and a 3x4 to live in. 6 pigs, 3 C&C's, 1 big family.
*without the bottoms in, any kind of picture just looked like a heap of grids and I was unable to discern differences between walls and floors. so PICTURES to come- hopefully tomorrow!!*
With Rictor's upcoming neutering and possibility to live with Cara, I had to rearrange the layout of the "guinea pig room" to fit another cage somewhere. I contemplated taking out the spare bed that is used pretty much like a couch, stacking cages, cages with lofts, etc. Many plans go through my brain- few of which ever come into fruition.
Tuesday I took everybody out of their C&C's and moved the coroplast bases into different rooms, then dismantled the grids. That alone took me a few hours because it was timed with cleaning everyone's fleece and whatnot. I already had plans to pick up another sheet of coroplast Wednesday night and would be able to score and size it before going to bed to be ready for the re-build.
Well, Wednesday evening I started to get my oh-so-familiar stomach cramps I had been getting probably about once a week or so since February. They always start off slow but become quite debilitating within a few hours. I have been in school and at one of my last externships since March so I'd just been pushing through the pain until it subsided [which it always had after about 12 hours]. My bf and I went to pick up the coroplast, hung out with my rescue friend for a bit, and then headed home. The abdominal aches got worse, like they always had, and I spent the night on the bathroom floor whining in the fetal position like I always had.
By the time Thursday morning had come, it was obvious that I wasn't going to complete the cages due to the severe pain and lack of time from me lying on the floor for so long. The aches and cramps were worse Thursday morning than they had ever been and I had gotten sick a few times, which just made me feel more terrible.
Around 4 pm, almost 24 hours since the aching had begun, I decided that since I finished my first externship/ fieldwork last week that I had time to go to the doctor. [I know, I'm a regular guy- Wait til the last minute or always have an excuse to put off seeing a medical professional] I put some clothes on and tried walking to the stairs but the pain was so unbearable I thought I was going to pass out. I thought it in my best interest to call 911 this time just to make sure since I was home alone by now.
Got to the hospital around 5 pm, sat on a bed in the ER for at least 2 hours writhing in pain in the hallways while the doctors saw gunshot victims, car accident patients and people complaining of wrist pain. Once an attendant came up to me, he poked my lower abdomen a bit and said I was probably constipated [which I had originally thought was the reason for everything- and not kind of laxative had been working]. They ordered an x-ray just to make sure but didn't see any kind of blockage. At 8 pm they sent me for a CT scan and after waiting an hour for the doctor to read it, someone finally walked up to me and said, "Have you ever heard of appendicitis?" I reply with a "Yes" and he goes, "Good, your doctor will be here in a minute to talk to you." and walks away. WTF? Do I HAVE appendicitis or something? I sit there for another 20 minutes- still sitting on a bed in the middle of the ER hallway- and a surgeon walks up to me and says, "Geez, how long have you had this appendicitis? We're gonna try to take it out tonight. Your doctor talk to you already? No? Oh. . . Well yeah, that's what's up with your pains in your lower right quadrant."
He proceeds to describe an operation they perform to remove an appendix and tells me again and again how they aren't many complications. All the while, my supposed [doctor] hasn't even seen me since my first x-ray. A few minutes later another surgeon walks towards me with the doctor and they reiterate what's going on. . .
Apparently my appendix has been slowly leaking out into my abdomen and that's what was causing the severe pains. An infection is all in my intestines which is causing the constipation- and more pain. So at 10 pm Thursday night they take me to the OR and perform the procedure to remove my appendix laproscopically. I woke up at 1:55 am Friday morning without the cramping, deep pain but rather a muscle surface pain from 3 incisions on my stomach and moved-around insides.
After being moved into a regular room and doctors visiting me about every 20 minutes until 7 am, I was told that if I keep down my breakfast and lunch and am able to get up and be active for a little bit, I could go home later on Friday. Needless to say, I did my usual push-myself-so-hard-I-almost-ruined-everything routine and nearly passed out the first time walking to the restroom by myself. I ate the breakfast and the took out the IV antibiotics, switching me to oral antibiotics [that I have to take for the next 2 months btw, bleh, stupid intestinal infection]. I got up, walked around, watched the dearly missed HGTV and someone came in at 10 asking if I just wanted to leave right then.
I of course said yes and was brought the discharge papers and walked the heck out of that place.
Yesterday I was in quite a bit of pain, though all of the doctors that came in to see me kept repeating how much of a high pain tolerance I must have in order to have dealt with what was going on inside my body [my white blood cell count was also double the usual number- way to go good immune system to keeping the infection localized!]. I didn't do much of anything but Edward[ the boy that likes to think we have a stable relationship] got upset that one guinea pig in in the dining room, one is in the living room, 2 are in his piano room, 2 are in our bedroom, and zero are in the guinea pig room.
So today I pushed myself-harder than I probably should have- to piece together grids in order to be able to bring the 2 existing cages back in. I'm not allowed to lift more than 5 lbs for the first 3 days, then my precautions are no lifting more than 15 lbs, no bending, stretching, twisting at the waist for a month.
Well with the initial limit, I'm unable to complete the task set for me by the do-nothing, live-in boyfriend, so he'll have to actually help with putting everything back into the room tomorrow.
But as of now,
84 grids,
96 connectors,
and 247 zip-ties later:
My pigs will have 2 2x5s and a 3x4 to live in. 6 pigs, 3 C&C's, 1 big family.
*without the bottoms in, any kind of picture just looked like a heap of grids and I was unable to discern differences between walls and floors. so PICTURES to come- hopefully tomorrow!!*
(jk)!
