Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Cats and Carpal Tunnel

I hate to admit it, but sometimes that boy of mine is right. (Though I'm not going to tell him)

As I may have mentioned before, when Dave is here overnight, the cats get put in the basement when we go to bed (it's not that bad, they have their own futon down there loaded with blankies). He's a light sleeper, and unlike me, can't tune out their nocturnal antics.

Though honestly, when he's not here, there are no nocturnal antics. Rocky curls up on my hip, Tux passes out on my feet, and Peno sleeps in her special bed under the window.

Well usually there's no antics...

... until this morning.
For whatever reason, my two lovely boys were determined that five hours sleep was more than enough for me this morning.

It all started at 5:30 a.m. with Tux, when I awoke to the sound of someone trying to throw up on my head. I rolled over, bleary-eyed, to stare into the face of a cat who's about to bring up who knows what all over my pillow - not pretty.

I hastily grabbed him and put him on the floor. The floor is hardwood, and much easier to clean puke from than my bed (or my hair). And guess what..? All heaving stopped! Cold. No puke, no hairball, nothing... I think it was a ploy...

... because then Rocky decide I'd had enough sleep. He jumped on the dresser, my head, annoyed Peno, howled, played with his noisiest toys... anything he could think of to keep me awake. And it was much crueler than just making noise... the little brat would wake me up, I'd yell at him, he'd stop and wait just long enough for me to drift back to sleep before he'd do something new to wake me up again.

At 7 a.m. I finally kicked him out of the bedroom and shut the door - so he just sat at it and howled for another hour until I finally got up.

I'm not sure if Dave's coming tonight - but even if he's not it might still be basement time for the kitties.

----

No knitting content for today - or who knows how long. I managed to complete another section on Citron yesterday, but I had to put it down early because my wrists and thumbs began to ache something fierce.

When you work on a computer all day and then knit all night, it's only a matter of time before Carpal Tunnel kicks in. If I rest it for a few days, I should be okay - but that means I have to find something other to do than knitting - I'm starting with laundry. It's not nearly as much fun as knitting, but it needs to be done.

12 comments:

Rhonda said...

There's always yarn to dye! :)

Jeanne said...

I was going to say the same thing about dyeing yarn!

The cat thing is too funny - ours do that when the crunchy bowl is empty. So hard to sleep though when cats decide that they want you to be up!

I hope your wrists and thumb feel better soon...

Sue said...

OOh those cheeky kitties. We cant have ours inside at all otherwise Paul's allergies start up although outside it doesnt seem to affect him. Our kitties all sleep in the garage locked away safe and sound! I am sure you will find something to do, and yes I know the carpel tunnel pain from using computers and knitting too much, you can always do some reading!

Knitting Linguist said...

No, you're right, laundry isn't as fun. Good for you for being sane, though, I have a bad habit of knitting through lots of pain, telling myself that it couldn't be the knitting that's doing it -- I love knitting! It must be because I have crazy colleagues, or bad grading to do, or something else :)

Anonymous said...

Oh Lordy! I think when I start contemplating getting a kitten, I'll just re-read this post. LOL

Minding My Own Stitches said...

Yesterday my cat was trying to catch the shadow of my working yarn as I knit. Not sure about nighttime antics - I sleep so soundly that I'd never notice.

lexa said...

Every single night in the middle of the night Nala does her I'm -being-torn-limb-from-limb-howl. It's awful, scares the crap out of me most of the time, even though I know it's coming. I keep the bedroom door open now, so it's really loud. (Except for tonight -- it's absolutely pouring out here, and the dogs will NOT go out to pee. I trust Jewel but not Maggie, so I think I'll shut them in the bedroom tonight, just in case.)

Samantha said...

Eeew laundry! My cats sleep in the basement for the same reason, and everyone is much happier.

Monika said...

I found help and relieve in doing what The Tendonitis Expert, Joshua Tucker recommended. I got the tip from someone and purchased his DVD. It helped me a lot, and it's so easy to do, if a little annoying at times.
The DVD is amateurish made, but I liked what he said, and I'm always for no surgery and doctors appointment when it doesn't have to be. Have you looked at online pictures of ct surgeries? It made it easier for me to follow his advice. :o)
Your cats are funny. Doing laundry can be creative too, especially when you wait that long as I do, and have to built mountains of folded laundry. :o)

TheBlackSheep said...

Shhhhhhh! Don't say that! The elbow's getting better and now you're shunting me/us off into carpal tunnel land! Nooooooooo! Hope it's better soon!

I'm also with Dee on this one. My landlord is keeping an eye out for kitties for me, but I'm not really so sure it's a good idea now.

Can you ground Rocky? No catnip for a week if you don't get any sleep tonight?

zoom said...

GC puts Duncan out in the hall early in the morning if he's being a Pesky McWhiskers. For awhile he had to do it every morning, but now it's just once or twice a week.

By the way, what a brilliant tactic, faking throwing up on your pillow. It not only wakes you up, but alarms you into moving quickly, so you'll be less likely to drift back to sleep after.

gayle said...

I'm a sound sleeper, so my little cat doesn't bother me. Though my husband has mentioned her doing something awful that wakes him up, a time or two...
I had carpal tunnel problems several years ago. As part of my I'll-do-anything-to-avoid-surgery efforts, I took a close look at everything I did with my hands and changed some things so as to relieve some of the stress. It ended up making me more efficient, too, as a side-benefit.