Because we are on the brink of another world war.

… Has a mass near her right kidney.

I brought her back to the vet today and had her confined because she’s not drinking water. She’s dehydrated. Now the clinic has told me an hour ago that after calming her down and whatnot, they were able to do an ultrasound scan and saw the suspected mass.

Good evening, ma’am.

We were able to continue Kimchi’s ultrasound once she became calmer.

We found a suspected mass near her right kidney. At this time, we cannot determine exactly what it is but we suspect it may be causing mild blood loss (which her body is compensating for, as shown by the high reticulocytes) and may also be affecting her drive to drink. This is something we will need to monitor.

As discussed earlier, she can go home tomorrow and we will prescribe medications to help manage her symptoms.

We will explain everything in detail tomorrow. Salamat po.

I pray it’s not cancer. But if it’s near her kidney and NOT in her kidney, maybe it’s treatable with surgery. If it’s in her kidney, then I elect to remove the kidney and give palliative care until it’s time to let her go.

It’s breaking my heart.

My band used to play Creed. A lot. Their songs don’t get you down but you sing it when you’re down or when you want to get hyped. I got sad when I learned about Scott Stapp going all drugged, weird, and suicidal.

But here they are, back and 25-30 years later they still sound so good. Scott’s voice didn’t change it seems.

Welcome back, Scott.

And here’s Mark Tremonti talking about Higher, my favorite among all Creed songs. I loved the intro guitars here and I remember we did play this acoustic in one or two gigs.

Creed, Collective Soul, P.O.D., and Skillet are the go-to when I needed encouragement when I’m so down and out. I listen to Jars of Clay when I want to cry (Worlds Apart, Tea and Sympathy).

Speaking of old music and bands, I suddenly felt nostalgic when I saw this video.

It was 1996 when Breakfast at Tiffany’s broke into the airwaves. Deep Blue Something and Toad the Wet Sprocket were in the soundtrack of my college years, together with Gin Blossoms and The Verve Pipe.

This must have been how my father felt whenever he listened to RJ Radio on Sundays, playing the music of his youth.

We’re not ethnic Chinese but we came to celebrate the Lunar New Year with a trip to Tayabas, Quezon province to eat inside a decommissioned airplane.

I drove two hours from our home to reach Air Summit Gourmet, a restaurant inside a decommissioned airplane. Don’t ask me if it’s an Airbus because I can’t tell the difference.

Since we’ve driven a long way, might as well check out the old Basilica of Michael the Archangel.

Yes, I have a thing for old churches.

Drove back home for two hours.

Good thing work is light today so I was able to bring Kimchi to a new vet clinic that I wanted to try.

I told the vet to do a general check up, including x-ray so everything will be covered.

Despite her obesity, her bloodwork is ok, everything is normal, including her heart. She’s just too fat. X-ray showed that her stomach is empty and there’s a thickening of the stomach lining, kind of irritated/inflamed given that it’s distendend by gas or stomach acids. Her intestines are fine and are digesting food. She has poop in her lower bowel, no blockage.

She just stopped eating her kibbles and is now suffering from gastritis.

She’s stressed.

What an expensive way to know that she’s stressed.

The vet asked, what changes happened that caused her so much stress?

Geez, the kids. I hosted too many kids — my children and their friends — last Saturday because they used our house as a pit stop to the university fair. My cats do not like strangers. Noisy strangers at that.

As my high school classmate-vet told me, cats are like human children that are under the autism spectrum. They cannot handle too much stimuli.

I raced to finish a lot of tasks yesterday because next week will be the Lunar New Year holidays. No editors.

I was too busy editing articles left and right that I wasn’t able to write my own story.

It will only be me and an Australian colleague who would hold up the sky next week.

My brain was just fried yesterday that it took me forever to shower and get ready to accompany Twin I to the Feb Fair. We got out of the house at 8 pm.

Now they’re on dates with friends while I chill at home with the cats. It’s the perfect way to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Self love.