Wow! I haven’t posted since October 14! Why do I do this to myself? If I just posted daily, I wouldn’t have to post so MUCH at one time and try to remember all the details!
So I guess I will start with Bama…
At the beginning of November. Bama, one of the two indoor cats we have got a cold. I believe he contracted the same little upper respiratory infection that OJ, our outside cat had. We got him over the cold, but then noticed he wasn’t eating. Then it turned in to he wasn’t drinking either. We tried everything to get him to eat, he would maybe sniff and walk away.
We took him to the vet and after blood work came back normal, he was put on appetite stimulants. Well these didn’t work either. Eventually with an ultrasound, he was diagnosed with hepatic lipidosis (aka: Fatty Liver Disease). But, the good news was that it is reversible with getting nutrients in them. Apparently, when a cat stops eating, their liver doesn’t process fats well to begin with, they can develop this condition. With this condition it causes extreme nausea, hence why they don’t want to eat.
So in order to get food into him without a fight, we 
opted to place a feeding tube. It went into the side of his neck and down his esophagus. We had canned high calorie food that we would put in through a syringe. Starting at very low feedings frequently to get up to larger feedings equaling a can and a half a day.
Unfortunately, Bama did not tolerate feedings well once we got up to about 20 cc every 4 hours. He would vomit at LEAST once daily. We got some heavy duty nausea medicine on board, this didn’t help. Come to find out, after another ultrasound, he had developed pancreatitis also. This is a common complication because the liver resides so close to the pancreas. So now we had to get pain meds on board also. Still vomited…
By the time everything was said and done we had him on a myriad of drugs. Something for nausea, something for stomach acid, something for pain, something for laxative. Nothing worked.
He had not had a bowel movement since the placement of the feeding tube, so as a last resort we had them perform a manual evacuation in hopes that would allow him to be able to hold down his feedings. At nighttime he would sometime vomit 5-6 hours after a feeding, a lot! So my thoughts were that he was so backed up the food had no where to go because it should have been out of the stomach by that time.
After the manual evacuation, his vomiting still continued. The VERY LAST thing we did was put him on Cisapride which is a GI motility drug.
Bottom line was that essentially his GI tract had almost totally stopped functioning. There were just WAY too many complications. We fought so hard to save him, and my dad was having a really hard time making “the choice.” We honestly would not have gone so far in the process if the odds for survival were not so high. With hepatic lipidosis 80% of cats gain full recovery and it is rare if it ever comes back. Unfortunately, Bama fell into the 20% that do not make it. He had way too many complications. He was 11, but for an indoor cat, that is still quite young. So we had to make a decision that would be best for him. He had suffered too long. We got him cremated and got his ashes back with his wooden box urn with his name on it this week.
Bama will be greatly missed! He was so beautiful!
FINISHED SCHOOL
I completed medical transcription school on December 12. I did my 6-week internship for the practicum, but was pretty disappointed. I was given maybe a total of 3 hours of work, which wasn’t even really work, it was more like reading a pamphlet on Dragon Medical commands, reading reports into Dragon, and one call where I got to listen in on training a doctor how to use Dragon.
I had complained early on in the program that I didn’t feel like I was learning enough with hands-on experience. At the end, I really realized this to be true. We (students) took a transcription test to do our internship with a transcription company. It consisted of 5 medical reports. All we needed was 85% accuracy to be accepted. NOT ONE STUDENT MADE IT! That speaks volumes and is pathetic! Especially considering a skilled transcriptionist needs to be 98% accurate.
This was really a slap in the face and made me realize that I wasn’t sure that even after a year and a half of school if I wanted to pursue this career. Also, in combination with the feeling of lack of education, I found it hard to sit for more than an hour at a time at the keyboard typing away without having to take a break. Transcription is based on production, and I began to realize I would not be able to become very fast at all. Then the field is really going down the hole with all the doctors using EMR (electronic medical records) and outsourcing. So in order to basically make minimum wage, I would have to pull 10+ hours a day of typing. Why would I do that to myself and risk becoming ill because I was so physically and emotionally exhausted?
So the day I finished school, that night I felt so lost. What was I going to do now?
Out of curiosity I searched Monster.com for at-home jobs. Ironically one of the first things I pulled up was a job for a huge computer company looking for at-home sales reps. Once I read the details of the job, it fit me like a glove. Anyone that reads my blog knows that I worked for Dell computers for 3 years and I was quite successful in that job. But I knew that this company was a step-up in careers in comparison. Not to mention working from home! AWESOME! Because I had come to the conclusion that if I couldn’t work from home doing something rewarding and that was legit, then I wouldn’t work at all.
I applied for the job immediately.
I also got my friend that works there to put in a referral for me, and what is also funny is that one of my former managers from Dell is now at this company doing the same thing. He allowed me to use him as a reference. I know getting on with this company (especially as a direct hire) can be very hard. So I held my breath.
I applied on the 5th, and got a phone call and did a phone interview on the 10th! I passed the phone interview and then got offered an in-person interview on the 15th.
Now, let me kind of interrupt this story for a second…
On the 14th, my sister-in-law went into labor! We were all so excited as this is my parents first grandbaby, and my first time as an aunt. We were at the hospital until 4 a.m. (the 15th now) hoping she would have him, but we ended up having to leave because I had the job interview that day and I had to get some rest. She had him at the 6 o’clock hour and had a big baby boy, 8 pounds 12 ounces, John Lucas Coburn (First name after my dad 
but he will go by “Lucas”)
Here he is… Note the UT gear already with his proud Daddy!
Ok… back to the interview…
Went into a room with two ladies and they drilled me on experience based questions. I will say that anyone that tries to lie on their resume… GOOD LUCK! Because they ask questions that unless you have worked in call center sales, you wouldn’t know the answers. Also questions based upon your knowledge of computers and how they work. I only bombed one question, but I felt I did very well with all the others and proved myself.
After that, they walked me to a desk up front and handed some paperwork to the lady at the desk and said, “she needs to move on to the next step.” So the lady at the desk then asked if I could stick around another 20 minutes for another round of interviews. Of course I said, “SURE!”
I was called in to another room with 3 people this time, a man and two ladies. I believe they were managers. I was so excited I kinda blocked out when they told me their names and positions! LOL! They asked me more questions, this time more so of why I would like to work for them, and what I liked about the company, etc.
I felt I aced this one… They all smiled at me the whole time, told me “great answer” on several occasions, and I had them laughing at some parts. At the end they asked if I had any questions… I told them “Where do I sign?” They laughed out loud and again said “Great answer!” The lady at the end of the desk looked very familiar to me. I told her as I was leaving “you look familiar to me.” She smiled and said, “I used to work at Dell, I was on ________ team” (which was my former manager that now works for this company) and she said she saw me often. I was thinking this MUST be a sign, and this must be good because that former manager always spoke highly of me, even to his new teammates that followed me. On several occasions I would hear him point me out to the team and praise me and tell them I was part-time and I pulled huge numbers and used me as an example.
They left me totally in the dark after the 2nd in-person interview. No hint of anything, if they would contact me, email, call, etc. But, I feel pretty confident about the whole thing. So I suppose I just wait now to find out if I got the job or not. The waiting is KILLING ME! I know they plan on hiring 30 people for the positions, and is now closed off to new applicants. I also know they were going to be holding interviews on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So my hopes are that either Friday or Monday, once they interview everyone, they will make their picks and let me know.
Christmas day was pretty laid back for us. We just had a family meal of spiral cut ham, green beans, corn, and homemade macaroni. Of course mom had to go all out on sweets. The ratio of sweets to “real” food is always high! We had two pumpkin pies, buttermilk pie, brownies, and fudge.
