Penny, Mice and Jana

First, I am going to tell you a story about Penny and the mice.  For about ten days Penny would not come downstairs.  We could hear her playing in “mom’s” room, but she wouldn’t have anything to do with us.  We could not figure out why.

One night when I went upstairs to get ready for bed I found her running around mom’s room like crazy.  That’s when I saw it…..a mouse!  Penny was chasing it from one end of the room to the other.  I finally got Penny out of the room leaving the mouse in there.  So, I went downstairs and got two mouse traps from Jana and set them both in the bedroom.  I closed the door so Penny couldn’t get in there.  Sorry to say, when I checked in the morning I had not caught the mouse.  After checking around I figured out where the mouse was coming from.  I closed up the hole with duct tape and reset the traps.  Meanwhile I moved Penny’s food and litter box into my bedroom. 

The next night we set the traps downstairs in the kitchen on the windowsill where Jana has caught mice before.  The first night we caught a mouse!  The second night we caught another mouse!  We have not caught any more even though we have been setting the traps.  Penny is now acting normal – at least normal for a cat.  She is back to running around the whole house. 

Now about Jana.  This past Wednesday she had the surgery on her other eye.  We sure have learned a lot and are still learning.  This healing process if going to take a while.  When we left the Cincinnati Eye Institute she had an enormous patch on her eye.  She was told to keep looking down.  She was told to keep her nose pointing toward the floor.  When we arrived home she was to start using the head rest contraption immediately.  She has to keep her head in there for 45 to 50 minutes out of each hour.  The other ten to fifteen minutes she can use the bathroom, eat, and get up a walk.  However, even doing this she has to keep her head down.  When she went to bed that night she had to sleep on her side and keep her head pointing down. 

Thursday morning we went to see the eye surgeon.  The nurse took the patch off her eye.  Then she checked her eye, and another eye doctor checked her eye.  Finally, her surgeon came in and thoroughly checked her eye.  He also gave us all of her instructions.  As of Friday night she doesn’t have to use the head rest any longer.  However, she has three eyedrops to use.  Two of them she uses four times a day.  One of them she uses six times a day.  We are keeping a chart.  (She is still using two drops in her other eye for the next two weeks.)  The drops in her eye that had the retina repaired will need drops for at least six weeks. 

He also explained to us that he put a bubble of gas in her eye which floats around and put pressure on the hole in the retina to close it.  This will remain in her eye for four to six weeks.  Eventually, it will disappear.  Meanwhile, it will be an aggravation as far as her sight is concerned.  No pain – just aggravation. 

They did not put a new patch on her eye.  Now she just puts one on at night so she doesn’t rub her eye.  She still has to sleep on her side for two to four weeks. 

The other bit of information he told us was that it will take up to a year for her eye to completely correct itself.  We aren’t sure what that means as far as glasses are concerned, but I am sure we will find out.  For now she just has a black eye.  The last thing he told us before we left is that she is doing excellent!

She goes back to the eye surgeon next Thursday.  I am sure we will get more instructions then.