A sick kitty update.

If you need to acquaint yourself with the sick kitty I'm talking about, you can read all about it on my previous post. (I should also mention that the docs no longer think it's a growth in his ear, but just a middle ear infection).
So, Dobby is doing well. At one point we had thought he was going to need major surgery, but right now the specialists think he may only need to be on antibiotics for 4-6 weeks. While it's a pain to medicate him so much, it's SO much better for him and us than surgery. He's feeling MUCH better and, while he still has vestibular signs (head tilt, partial facial paralysis, and wobbliness on his feet), he seem to feel like a normal cat again. He's pretty clingy to me and Gabriel, but he always was like that.
In other news, our rescue group was able to find a new foster home for our two tuxedo babies, so Dobby will soon be our only cat. While I'm sad that the twin boys will be leaving us, I am somewhat relieved to have actually reduced our numbers of dependents prior to Cyrus' birth. I want him to grow up with pets, but Gabriel wanted less to worry about with the cats and we finally seem to have accomplished it (even though Dobby requires more than a normal cat right now).
Here are some pictures of Dobby at his finest!
-Shirin

He loves to ride around on shoulders. Even though he's a little off-balance with his middle-ear problems, he is still able to balance himself up there.

He's also quite the cuddler. More often than not, if we're sitting down, he's on top of us!

More hanging out on shoulders.

He also MUST be on our pillows while we sleep at night. Since he has a thing for hair, he really harasses my head the most in the middle of the night, but Gabriel is trying to train him to sleep on the extra pillow next to his head...what a good hubby! :)

Sleeping on Daddy while he watches poker. See how his right eye doesn't close all the way? His palpebral muscles have lost some of their sympathetic innervation and we have to put drops in it several times a day so he doesn't develop dry eye. Poor baby!

The pros and cons of circumcision.

Let me just say that this may seem like a strange subject to be blogging about, but keep in mind that I knew very little about it before I found out I was going to have a son. Now that I know and we did a lot of research on it, many of you will be surprised to read what we found out! I'm not going to cite all my sources (unless you write me and ask for them), but some of the websites I visited include American Academy of Pediatricians, D.O.C. (Doctors Opposing Circumcision), and Circumcision Research Center.
Since neither Gabriel nor I are religious, I will skip those reasons for doing it since they do not apply to us. Oddly enough, they really don't apply to American Christians either, since it is traditionally a Jewish and Muslim practice. We preferred to stick to the medical and scientific justifications of this procedure.

Reasons to circumcise:
1. It's much more common for boys/men in America to be circumcised, so an uncircumcised boy or man could experience some prejudice from others (eg. in the high school locker room).

Reasons not to circumcise:
1. Circumcision is not a recommended procedure by the American Academy of Pediatricians since its potential benefits do not outweigh its risks.
2. While uncircumcised male babies have a slightly higher chance of getting a urinary tract infection than circumcised babies, it's only 1% higher and only for the first year.
3. While uncircumcised men have a slightly higher chance of getting penile cancer than circumcised men, it's a very uncommon cancer (1/100,000) and it's usually in elderly men.
4. As with any surgical procedure, there can be complications with circumcisions, such as bleeding or infections (luckily, only in 1/200-1/500 cases though).
5. The foreskin is a part of the penis. Some anatomists/doctors view it as a protective covering that actually helps prevent diseases (and keep it warm--hee hee).
6. The foreskin has approximately 50% of all the fine-touch sensory nerve endings in the penis. Adult men that have been circumcised as adults have reported a great decrease in feeling and sensation.
7. Some groups assert that since medicine should only focus on medically necessary procedures and allow all other elective procedures to be a personal choice, it is unethical for parents or doctors to remove a baby's body part without a medical justification (ie. let the boy decide to have his own foreskin removed when he's old enough to make the decision).
8. While there have been some some studies that claim a higher chance of contracting STDs if the male is not circumcised, this is very controversial since there are also studies claiming no higher chance or less of a chance of contracting diseases when uncircumcised. Also, based on reviewing some of the literature, it seems that most doctors/scientists believe that a man's environment and behaviors are a much higher risk factor than having a foreskin.
9. I've had a hard time finding out the exact details about the analgesia (pain meds) used for circumcisions, but some sources strongly felt that the baby boys feel pain during the procedure.

I found researching circumcision to be very interesting, since it's not something I'd ever really thought about much before. There's so much info out there, so I tried to just cover the basics. I also wrote to my pediatrician friend at Emory to make sure the info I was getting was correct, and he said it was. His main concern was that parents educate themselves on how to care for their babies' private parts to keep them healthy and clean!
Will do, Dr Stebbins! :)
-Shirin

More pics from Saturday/Bouzar's visit...

If you guys just couldn't get enough of my post from Saturday, my mom's blog has more pictures of everything. Click here to go there!

My uncle Bouzar's visit.

We're home this weekend with my parents and my visiting uncle Bouzar and his wife Fahimeh. It's been great to see my uncle again and meet Fahimeh for the first time. I also always enjoy when Gabriel gets to experience some stuff from my Persian side...like trying new foods, learning new Persian words, or meeting new relatives. Next, I need to bring him to IL to meet my Austrian grandma and the worldwide family tour will be complete!
-Shirin

Gabriel and my dad eating "breakfast" at noon, after they woke up. Bouzar and Fahimeh had already been up for hours and gone on a walk in the neighborhood.

Gabriel always says the best thing about marrying into a Persian family is that he gets Persian food all the time. Here he is eating a bean and vegetable soup with bread for breakfast. Maybe this is where I get my dislike of breakfast food for breakfast...give me real food any day of the week!

It was finally nice weather today, so we went on a walk around Winthrop lake after lunch.

Two cute brothers. I always enjoy watching these two together, because they love to argue and hassle each other. Today they even disagreed about how many years were between them...only Persians, I swear! :)

We showed my uncle and aunt where Gabriel and I got married the first time (before our actual wedding)...Fahimeh renamed the lake, "The Lake of Lovers." It was cute.

What a beautiful day for a walk...

My cousin Tannaz came from Atlanta with her husband Masih to see her two uncles. Bouzar has been in CA for the last few months and is returning to Iran soon. Tannaz is terrified of cats, but she braves them to see my parents every now and then. The cats are scared of her too, so it works out well that they just hide while she's here.

My parents made a fantastic meal and Tannaz brought authentic Persian flat bread from Atlanta...as Persians say, "Bah, bah, bah." (It means "yum!")

Group picture with Gabriel!

Now a group picture with me!

Finally, we did it!

Yes, that's right. We actually got one of our foster cats adopted! We've been talking about it for months, and we finally had some luck with an adopter. He is a grad student at UGA and actually lives across the street from us in another apartment complex. He seemed very nice and already has a cat he rescued a few years ago.
Farewell, Qui-Gon aka Agent aka Rusty; we will miss your nose rubs and little chirpy noises!
-Shirin

Slugging through this horrible month..

Not to sound too negative...but this month is the hardest one in vet school so far. SOOOOOOOO many tests and the start of surgery labs every week make it more stressful than ever before. I'm trying to remain calm and have done a pretty good job of making myself take breaks and rest, but it's still hard. I did just take a final today (in Anesthesia), so I'm glad that class is done.
My surgery group (Beth, me, and Tammy) did our first lab today. We anesthetized a pig, placed an IV catheter, placed an endotracheal tube, maintained him on anesthesia gas, scrubbed and gowned in (got sterile), and placed the surgical drapes on his incision site....then, we woke him back up! So, no cutting this time. Next week we have to do all that stuff and then cut a long abdominal incision and sew it back up. That lab is supposed to take many hours to finish and we have to be standing (with masks, hats, gowns, and gloves) for many hours. I think it's hard on everyone, but I'm sure it'll wear me out even more than it normally would b/c of my big belly. It makes everything harder. Plus, I wear a huge respirator on my face to prevent any damage the gas anesthesia could do to Cyrus, just in case.
In other news, our sweet kitty Dobby is sick. He's got eye and ear problems, and we're SO lucky to be a part of UGA's vet school, b/c he's needed a lot of their resources. I could write for an hour about his problems, but basically he requires a lot of care and it makes me sad to see him feeling so crappy. Hopefully, we can get surgery done soon to make it all better and he can return to his normal chipper self. We're waiting for the biopsy report to come back before we do anything else. Wish him good health for us!
-Shirin

At Lowe's, reading the respirator package. People use these respirators when they paint or use pesticides, but my anesthesia teacher told me that the activated charcoal filters should take care of any anesthesia gas I might encounter. It's a pain to wear, but it's better safe than sorry. It makes me look a little like Darth Vader.

Since cooking makes me happy, I've made an effort to take some breaks in studying to prepare actual meals for us.

This was Sunday morning. I just got an urge to make a big, traditional breakfast. Most of you probably know my favorite types of breakfasts are things like subs or Asian stew (ie. not breakfast food).

But, I knew Gabriel would enjoy the type of breakfast his g-ma always makes when we visit, so I made eggs, soy sausage, potatoes, veggie gravy, and biscuits (not home-made like Mamaw's, though). It was yummy, albeit much less healthy than our average breakfast!

My sweet, sick kitty. He looks awful b/c he feels awful. He has a growth in his right ear (see how he's holding it down?) that is pressing on the sympathetic nerve in his head that controls blinking and other eye movements. Since it's compressed, it's not working well, so his eye can't close and needs eye ointment all the time. Meanwhile, the growth in his ear canal creates pressure and bothers him. I'm SO lucky that Gabriel is a competent and helpful assistant b/c we are saving money by treating him at home. This requires: 2 oral medications twice daily, 2 eye medications 3 times daily (at different times), and another eye lubricant about 6 times a day. Sometimes, he just can't get it that often b/c we're gone too much, but oh well. We're doing our best!

Mistreatment of downed cattle causes massive beef recall

This is a video taken by the Humane Society of the horrible practices of the beef manufacturer who just had 143 million pounds of their meat recalled. I've included an article about this below (with it's URL if you are interested). I e-mailed some of you an article about this yesterday, but the article below explains the situation even better. It's clear from the USDA's and public's reactions that if the meat industry doesn't start to shape up, it (and the US economy) will suffer greatly.

-Shirin

This undercover video of sick and crippled cows being brought to slaughter in an abattoir in southern California has prompted the largest recall of beef in US history, (writes Will Pavia).

The US Department of Agriculture yesterday ordered that 143 million lb of beef from the slaughterhouse be recalled. Officials estimate that some 37 million lbs of the recalled meat had been heading to schools across America though they fear that most of it will have already been eaten.

The abattoir run by the Hallmark Meat Packing Company, an associate and supplier of Westland Meat Company, which provides meat for America’s National School Lunch Programme, is now the subject of an an animal-abuse investigation.

Ed Schafer, the US Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said his department had evidence that Westland did not routinely contact its veterinarian when cattle lost the power to walk after passing inspection, violating health regulations.

“Because the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection, Food Safety and Inspection Service has determined them to be unfit for human food and the company is conducting a recall,” Mr Schafer said in a statement.

Dr Dick Raymond, the department’s undersecretary for food safety, said: “We don’t know how much product is out there right now. We don’t think there is a health hazard, but we do have to take this action.”

The evidence referred to by the authorities was contained in an undercover video shot at the abattoir, showing workers kicking, electric shocking and otherwise maltreating “downer” animals: cows that appear to be too sick or injured to walk. The video was produced by a representative from the Humane Society of the United States, who had been working undercover at the plant.

The representative claimed that workers at the plant attempted to get sick animals to pass a cursory vetinary inspection and into the slaughter pens. The video shows cows being dragged by the hoof behind a forklift truck, and distressed animals being lifted, rolled and shocked in an attempt to force them to stand. One clip shows a worker apparently attempting to force a cow to stand by forcing water down its throat.

As well as concerns over cruelty, federal regulations call for keeping downed cattle out of the food supply because they may pose a higher risk of contamination from E. coli, salmonella or mad cow disease, because the cows typically wallow in faeces and their immune systems are often weak.

Most of the recalled products were sent to distribution centres in bulk packages. The US Department of Agriculture said it will work with distributors to determine how much meat remains.

About 150 school districts around the nation have stopped using ground beef from the slaughterhouse. Two fast-food chains, Jack-In-the-Box and In-N-Out, said they would not use beef from Westland and Hallmark.

On February 3, Steve Mendell, President of Westland and Hallmark, issued a statement: “Words cannot accurately express how shocked and horrified I was at the depictions contained on the video that was taken by an individual who worked at our facility from October 3 thru November 14, 2007. We have taken swift action regarding the two employees identified on the video and have already implemented aggressive measures to ensure all employees follow our humane handling policies and procedures,” he said.

“We are also cooperating with the USDA investigators on the allegations of inhumane handling treatment which is a serious breech of our company’s policies and training.”

The Department of Agriculture’s inspections regime has also come in for criticism following the recall. “Today marks the largest beef recall in U.S. history, and it involves the national school lunch program and other federal food and nutrition programs,” said U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. “This begs the question: How much longer will we continue to test our luck with weak enforcement of federal food safety regulations?”

Advocacy groups also weighed in, noting the problems at Westland wouldn’t have been revealed had it not been for animal right activists. “On the one hand, I’m glad that the recall is taking place. On the other, it’s somewhat disturbing, given that obviously much of this food has already been eaten,” said Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union. “It’s really closing the barn door after the cows left.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3389630.ece

Disaster averted...

Gabriel came home for lunch today to this scene in our parking lot...





His first thoughts were of our precious kitties and our home. Fortunately for us (and unfortunately for our neighbors), our condo building was untouched. Across the yard, though, they weren't so lucky. Here's what he saw...


Apparently, there was some sort of electrical fire started in this upstairs unit, which spread throughout the front and side of their condo. I think the firemen were there quickly, because the guy woke up with his house on fire and called them immediately. In the next door condo, the dog that was home also survived, so all living beings survived this fire. I felt so bad for the residents of this unit. Gabriel said he watched the guy and his friends/family moving all of his belongings out of the condo, and, when I got home at 4 PM, they were all sitting around outside on the steps making phone calls.
Losing all of our belongings is a scary prospect, but having our sweet pets get burned alive is unthinkable. We are so relieved that all the people/pets in those condos got out unharmed and that our condo is still intact.
What a close call.
-Shirin

Last weekend...

It seems I'm destined to blog about my weekend only after all the next week's tests are finished, which is usually on Thursday. A fog has been lifted off of my head after finally being done with my Pathology exam this morning...so, I'm ready to address the public again! I'm taking the night off from studying, mostly, but plan to dive right back into my next subject matter, which is Anesthesia, tomorrow (for a test on Monday or Tuesday...I can't remember).
Anyway, last weekend David came to town and mostly just hung around the house with Gabriel (you can tell he's a true friend when Gabriel doesn't feel the need to show him a good time...ha ha). Gabriel did build him a desktop computer from parts he had laying around the house (as a way to pay for the laptop David had given me) and bought himself a brand new laptop (with money he earned selling old computer stuff on Ebay), since he now needs a it for all the coding he does in his Comp Sci class. He loves it and may blog about it one day....if he ever feels like it. And...if it sounds like I live in a computer factory, I do. We have a deal that all of the extra parts that can't fit into Gabriel's storage units have to be sold before my baby shower. We'll see if that works out!
I should also mention that we just received very exciting news from Gabriel's brother and sister-in-law (Casey and Janice) that they are also having a boy, who they plan to name Morgan Gene Turner. He's due in July, so it looks like Cyrus is going to have a partner in crime of almost the exact same age and that the Beals will still only have boys in their family! I just love to think about little Cyrus and little Morgan wrestling around and playing together at all our family gatherings. How exciting!
-Shirin

Uncle David playing with all the kitties. They loved it.

Gabriel working in the computer factory...ie, my home.

Since we never get to have our picture taken together before dates (b/c the kitties can't hold a camera), we had David take one before we went to eat at the Grit on Saturday night (don't be jealous Rita...we'll go to the Grit as often as you want when ya'll come visit in April!) Of course, we weren't ready when David snapped the first one.

Then, I was trying to fix the piece of Gabriel's hair that was sticking straight out. I think the cats were doing something funny down by David's feet.

Luckily, Dobby makes a great hair cover, so we finally got a good picture taken!

Sunday afternoon, both Beth and I were studying for our Clin Path test. Since Beth had gone out of town for a fun mountain cabin weekend, she was cramming like a champ here. Qui-Gon offered her his professional services, like the gentleman that he is.

Gabriel and David hanging out on Sunday afternoon. Check out G's new baby (laptop, that is).

Beautimus!

Boys with their toys...

Gabriel got a new laptop yesterday that has an integrated web camera. Boy, does he love it! I want to let him write about it more, since he actually said he planned to blog about it, but I just wanted to give an example of the messages that have been popping up in my inbox since last night. They definitely do cheer me up while I'm studying!
-Shirin

Pictures from last weekend

I just finished my last test for the week, so I now have time to dedicate to these pictures. We went home last week (to Rock Hill) to visit my parents and, of course, hang out with David and Clayton. I had to stay home almost the whole weekend to study for my surgery test, but Gabriel went over to David's condo and they did lots of fun things (like computer programming...ha ha).
I did take a little time off to watch the Super Bowl Sunday night, while practicing my suture patterns on my foam patient, of course. Gabriel bet on the Patriots...so we ended up having to stay the whole time to watch the exciting game and left pretty late. We got in Monday morning around 2 AM and went to work/school the next day at 7:30. I guess we're still young enough to pull that off.
-Shirin
PS Have any of you seen the movie Momento? It goes in backwards chronological order the whole time? Well, prepare yourself for deja vu b/c I just loaded in my pictures entirely backwards, so we're gonna do a little traveling back through time as we go through my pictures!

Here I am Monday, on my "brand new" laptop. It's actually David's old, broken one that Gabriel took back with us to fix up and use. They are still in negotiations on the price. I just want to remind David: all it was at your house was a broke-ass laptop! :) My husband just happens to be a computer genius who can turn coal into diamonds!

Sunday night, around 10:30 PM. The deal was, as long as Gabriel continued to massage my feet, we could stay in Charlotte watching the Super Bowl. Before you all think I'm a demanding meany, please realize we had a 4 hour drive in front of us and we had been planning to leave around 8:30 (no, he didn't rub my feet for 2 hours; I only came up with this ingenious plan during the last 15 minutes of the game).

Watching the Patriots getting beaten.

We watched the Super Bowl at Drew's house. He's one of David's good buddies and has a big screen TV. David grilled out for us and Jenny (in the middle) alternated watching the game with playing online poker.

My mom spent all Sunday afternoon cooking food for us to take home with us to eat throughout the week. Since I normally try to cook the weeks' meals on Sundays when I am at home, I was really appreciative that she did that for us. Clearly, there was also a little mouse in the kitchen that appreciated the food, as well.

My parents' magical toaster. Just ask my dad about it the next time you see him and you'll see pure love and adoration shining from his eyes. It's actually one that my mom had in her parents' house when she was a kid and it's still the best toaster any of us have ever seen! They just don't make 'em like this anymore!

Gabriel gets spoiled at my parents' house where they cook Persian food all time. I like it, but I rarely cook it. My dad made him a special plate of khoresht-bademjun with rice and bread. Of course, he then criticized Gabriel's method of eating it (now Gabriel knows where I get it from!) You have to eat the rice WITH the khoresht...not all separately! How silly.

My mom on our shopping trip. Of course we had to stop by the baby section just to look. I actually have ALL the clothes I'm gonna need for the next year or two, but we just like to look!

I ran into these boys when I first got to the store and dragged them to the underwear section with me. My mom happened upon us and thought they looked really funny.

Little did she know that just a minute earlier, David had been discussing how great it would be to have one of these onsies in his size...I can totally see him padding around his house in an outfit like this on a Sunday afternoon. Poor Jenny! Only Gabriel seemed a little skeptical about this outfit (good boy!).

In exchange for us letting my dad off the hook from taking us all out for Vietnamese food, he agreed to let me and my mom go out for a girls' afternoon of eating and shopping! (Tita, you would've been invited if you didn't like in CA...hint, hint, come home!) We went to a Thai/Vietnamese restaurant and chowed down. It was delicious!

From left: curried udon and tofu, tamarind tofu with rice, and tofu and vegetable soup. Delish!

About to embark on the eating-shopping extravaganza.

My dad stayed home to do this: grade tests and sit with the kitties. At least he looks cozy! There's a kitty at his back, his side, and his feet. How nice.

What could my mom possibly be attached to by a string while Chapu looks on?

Oh, it's Tippy! These two will play this game as long as my mom has the energy to walk around with the string trailing. They're seriously NEVER get tired of this game. Chapu even brings her the string and cries til she pulls it!

Gabriel and his girlfriend after we arrived in Rock Hill Friday night.

My mom has the two-handed, two-catted brushing down pat.

After we arrive home on Friday nights, we often just sit around in the kitchen chatting about life and such. My dad always has questions for Gabriel and, often, there's lively discussion.