Monday, September 30

[gottawonder]

Today I am grateful for:

Being able to go back to my normal sleep schedule. Getting up early (or more accurately, not sleeping last night) kinda sucked. Hard.

Beautiful weather. Cool and crisp, but also sunny.

I got to the vet today for Roxy's check up, and at least was on time today.

Saw a beautiful little kitty and a sweet older sheltie type dog that other owners were bringing in for care.

The vet said that Roxy's levels of enzymes from her pancreas were lower today, meaning that she is recovering from whatever caused this episode. Apparently pancreatitis can be spontaneous with no understood trigger sometimes. Like a freak autoimmune response. We do not feed her high fat food, she pretty much gets nothing but good quality dog food and a few veggies.

Even the drugs I got from the vet were really nothing more than one drug to protect her stomach lining, and an antacid pill, so it's not like there seems to be a drug to do anything to lower the amount of enzymes produced from the pancreas.

So, now we just finish her medication and feed her special low fat food going forward as a precaution, even though it is not suspected that a high fat diet was the culprit.

From the reaction both vets had to her high enzyme levels (I got a different vet last week, and the vet from today when she saw those numbers), Roxy's behavior was oddly stoic and masking. She barely showed any signs at all of being ill. Usually a dog with levels like that would have been extremely lethargic, throwing everything up, not eating, with diarrhea. Roxy only threw up once, seemed a tiny bit less interested in food but still ate everything, no diarrhea, and she did seem not quite as perky as her usual self.

So all of this is pretty unsettling for me, as it could happen again, or maybe never again. It seems so strange and out of nowhere to have the dog have something happen like that that could easily have resulted in her needing days of being kept at the vets with IV fluids and maybe not surviving.

I could have easily just shrugged this off as her having a bit of an upset stomach, and then what?

Shudder. This is what it is to have animals.

So, I stuck my head into the pottery studio with no time or intention to do any work, just to check on my pieces that are drying (doing good) and to see if the ones I put glaze on were back from being fired (not yet, so I imagine they could be in the kiln yet, or just sitting in the kiln room waiting for the next firing).

I didn't see anyone from my class, they were already gone.

I did some recreational shopping, and then got groceries. Groceries were a lighter task this week, I stocked up well the last few times.

I am very grateful that we have the means to take our animals to the vet, to be able to shop for fun things, and for groceries. I take none of this for granted.

I came home and feel a little better about Roxy, but a bit uneasy about the whole thing.

I made supper and when my Sweetie came home we watched an episode of "Justified".

Comments

[ratunderpaper]

I can't bear the "anxiety of knowing you must sleep promptly because you must rise unnaturally early", which usually results in not falling asleep easily at all, if at all, and if there is sleep, it is full of dreams of making the appointment on time.

I tell my ballet classmates: I do not function well in the morning. I will see you at any evening class, though.
Morning doctor's appointments are torturous.

Standard time can't come soon enough, even if it shaves off an hour of daylight.

[gottawonder]

Very much this.

Any time I have to rise at a specific time, I have a hard time sleeping before.

I know this is kind of a situation that comes of years and years of having the luxury of rising when I am good and ready, but I don't know that it was ever easy for me.

Back in the day when I worked, I worked evenings mostly, and it gave me the luxury of rising when I was ready, often in the afternoon. For example, when I used to clean buildings at night after they were closed, I might wake up at noon, and not have to clean until after 7 or 8 pm, but since I often only cleaned for about four or five hours a night, I could be back home by midnight or 1 am, sometimes earlier (in summertime, I rarely had to mop floors).

Needing to wake up for things has always bothered me. If it's earlier than an hour or two than when I might normally wake up, I can't fall asleep.

[ratunderpaper]

Sounds like pet vigilance is universal.

[gottawonder]

I'm sure it is, among those of us that care.

It is very hard on a person when an animal is just "off", and you just find yourself staring at them night and day for something that is a clear symptom.

Certainly if there is something obvious, you just take them to the vet (or to have one come for the larger ones). You don't waste time on something urgent and obvious.

If it's coming and going, or very subtle, you second guess yourself because you feel like going to the vet might be unnecessary, you worry that you're becoming a kind of hypochondriac for your pets.

Like, they just look a bit funny, or seem tired.

Vigilance is a big part of my life.

[ratunderpaper]

I believed Angus had another 4-5 years. Though I knew something was off, and he did go to the vet, I didn't think it was one sign after another that his time here was up.

With young Mungo, I'm fearful about everything and at the same time happy to have such a young and healthy animal. It's a joy to hear him pad into the sulking room late at night, pause, then jump up happily on the bed.

[cf2princessawnw]

I've always said both you, GW, and Ratty, take such wonderful care of your animals. I hope someday I get the chance to have at least a kitten. For now the little happy fluff balls that periodically come from our neighbors I think 25 outdoor cats and 25 indoor cats, are adorable sweet delightful little tots. I love it when they come into our yard and I can see them from my window.

I'm so sorry for all the unsettledness of your day!!!

As to the thread about sleep schedules and rising times, that helps to hear. Neither one of you ladies is at all what I would say even remotely lazy or unproductive. You live your own pace of lives in the ways that you want to with the things that you want. As much as you're able. Isn't that what anybody else does?
I remember in University that our esteemed violin instructor flat out told our whole studio that when he was in school none of his classes started before 10:00. Once you're performing, most of the bunch rise even later. Because that's kind of the lifestyle of musicians anyway where you have late nights due to evening performances Etc. And the symphonic orchestra and Opera World, performances don't end till very late and then you have to eat because you've been to work up to eat before especially as a singer, and then you have to decompress from AAALLLLL of that evening. You definitely sleep the morning away and are not functional until the afternoon.

Now that I've had Home Care, it's been really challenging because I always have to be ON for when the next shift is. It's a huge blessing when an aide knows what to do and I can see that they have come, and turn over and go back to sleep because I know they'll get the work finished. Then I can wake up to the housework and cleaning and everything that needed to be done being done, and get the personal help I need in my room. But...... When it's an aid that has no clue or can't be trusted, and then they show up after texting for up to an hour saying they're coming yes they're going to be here oh yeah they're on their way (or my favorite new one is - be there in a minute. Which means at least half an hour.) well, it's just a horrible way to start the day. I don't know what it will be like when I move especially since I don't know the setup of an apartment and if I'll have to be awake and presently functionable the entire shift, or if there will be enough separation in the apartment layout that they can come in and I can rest.

The only way I can happily handle early mornings is if I'm waking up at what is actually still night time. So I go to sleep around 6:45 in the evening and wake up around 3:30/4:30 in the morning. Otherwise, I have read in medical books that for certain health conditions it's actually healthier to sleep in until after 10:00 a.m.

[gottawonder]

My husband, if things go well, needs to be in bed by about 9 pm, and these days he has to be up by 5 am. That almost seems as eccentric as my sleep schedule.

Yet, if he has a stretch of time on vacation, he very quickly reverts to something like going to bed at anywhere from midnight to 2 am, and gets up whenever he feels like it.

I know one summer he was sleeping about ten hours a night.

I think we would see a much wider variety of "natural preferences" in sleep schedules if the industrial complex were not so demanding.

[cf2princessawnw]

I think you're likely right. It's not something people really think about because they're so busy caught up in society and business schedules. But you start to find more and more people that live on their own pace. L. Was an incredibly successful businessman but you wouldn't know till you got to know him that he almost never went to bed before two or three in the morning. That was just his rhythm and it worked for him. He went from having four employees to running the entire show by himself and actually having to turn away business because he was already making more than enough and didn't want more work. But he's a loner too.

I think Social Butterflies have it harder because then you have to conform to society schedules. The same with working for a business and the industrial complex like you mentioned.

[gottawonder]

I know that maybe you just like thinking about a kitten, and that's fair. Kittens are adorable.

Think long and hard about it. LONG AND HARD, before you get one.

[cf2princessawnw]

I've had the opportunity before and said No. I could not handle that right now. I know so little but animals and for starters I'm not even certain I'm not allergic to one! So no it's a childhood dream that I would love to realize one day, but it would take a lot of work and it's not a priority for me right now. But maybe one day.

[gottawonder]

Maybe you could just have a friend with a cat that you can visit sometimes, or the cat can visit you.

I wondered about the allergies. If not the cat, then the litter or food.

[cf2princessawnw]

I saw another little cat outside today Not quite a kitten but a bit older. Gray with white socks. so so so so cute!!! :) for now I'm just grateful they actually come and hang out near my car LOL

[gottawonder]

I'm glad that you get to watch them. It sounds like they have a lot of cats.

[cf2princessawnw]

Cats galore! :)

[gottawonder]

With our last dog Quincy, he was "a bit off" and that turned out to be prostate cancer. He lived for a few months or so after that. There was no way to operate on him or slow the growth, and the last month he just had far too much trouble eating and eliminating, and we knew we were close to the end.

Yet, he LOOKED fine, and enjoyed being outside (though started to have discomfort walking at the end), and the medication for inflammation/pain helped. The day we took him in to be put down (because he did not want to get up, and we figured that was the right time) he LOOKED bright and alert, and it felt like a crying shame, but we knew that he was in a lot of pain.

He was 14, but other than the prostate cancer, he had no other health issues. He was a little deaf, but his eyes and teeth were good, never had arthritis, no other real issues at all. He looked great for his age, and right up until then was full of energy. It was a shock to us when it was diagnosed after he just seemed a little off with his eating and pooping, and it was pretty much an end of life situation already.

With our cat Greta, years ago, she was "off", and never had any other issues, and had to be euthanized from kidney failure two days after her diagnosis. Literally she just didn't want to eat, we took her in, blood tests showed kidney failure, and that was it. Very abrupt, and we had no idea she was ill until she didn't want to eat. The day we took her in to be put down, she was in very bad shape, and we thought she had passed on the way to the vet, she probably did pass out.

I understand that life is always one bad diagnosis away from being over, for all of us, not just our animals, but I'm likely never going to be comfortable with it. Nor should I be, really.