The dog and I make a fine, gimpy pair

I haven't talked about the dog very much lately.  She did very well all summer, recovering from her extreme bout with inflammatory bowel disease.  Last month we tapered her off of steroids (on the vet's advice and schedule), while leaving her on the other drug she was taking.

In the last two weeks, unfortunately, she hasn't been feeling very well.  Either she needs to stay on steroids, or it's time to change her food again (as the doc predicted we would probably need to, about six months from when we started her on duck and potato food.)  We're going to go visit our veterinarian tomorrow to talk about it.  I hate to see her hurting.  She moans and groans, moves very very slowly, and has little appetite.  It's hard to watch.   The disease waxes and wanes, so some days she feels better.  It's easy to pretend she's fine on those days.  But when she's at the foot of my bed, groaning in her sleep, it makes me sad.  I hope we can come to a happy medium with the disease again, after a change in diet and medication.

For myself, I'm pondering life with degenerative disk disease.  I've been doing some reading in equestrian forums.  There are plenty of people with problems just like mine.  Many of them ride.  Many of them ride but say it hurts, or that their legs go numb.  I don't want that.  Most of them say that finding the right saddle makes a huge difference.  I hadn't even considered the saddle issue.

I've been very good about not riding when I'm already hurting, and riding only at a walk.  I haven't gone jogging at all (well, barring several steps at the metro a few weeks ago.)  And the damage from the disease is still spreading.  I'm not sure my activity (or lack thereof) makes as much difference to the progression of the disease as I thought it did.  If the disease is going to get worse regardless, maybe I should enjoy what I can do now, while I can still do it.  Some time when Pluto is feeling very sedate, I'm going to try a few strides of trot to see what happens.

In January when my insurance changes I hope to get into physical therapy.  I'm also contemplating acupuncture.  Apparently it can be quite effective in this instance.  The description I've read is that while it doesn't heal your back damage, it teaches your body to ignore the pain.  Kind of like painkillers, but without the organ damage.

My weekend in pictures

A very happy JD at the Melting Pot

A view of people viewing the view (looking down onto Harper's Ferry)

My beloved, taking pictures of the scenery.  I liked this view better.

A historic view.  From where we were standing they could use a cannon to hit nearly everything in sight.

JD climbed up to find out what was going on with the funky holes in the rocks. 

Beauty looking alert while waiting for the doc.

Beauty is none too certain of her position up on the table.  Being up never leads to anything good.

Beauty wearing her tough guy vest at the vet's.

How did I have two year old jello in the fridge?

I don't have a catchy title

Today was pretty stressful.  I was fine until I got the dog to the hospital and then had to leave her there.  It brought back bad memories of leaving Paige for surgery and never seeing her again.  (However Beauty is now home safe and sound.)  Poochie had an ultrasound today.  The results were, of course, inconclusive.  She has thickening of intestinal walls but they don't know why.  So next week she gets to go back for endoscopy and biopsies.  If that is also inconclusive I am going to have a small but vigorous hissy fit.

Those hours when I was home and there was no dog in the house were not happy hours. 

Also, Mom is still in the hospital.  She is having unexpected complications.  Today's was hallucinations caused by Percoset.  Note to self:  no Percoset for Mom.  So now she's on a different drug but until she's basically stable she stays at the hospital.  Dad went out to get her something worth eating, as the hospital food is predictably horrible.  I must say that she sounded a ton better on the phone today, though.  It was good to hear her sound like herself.

So anyway JD and I are both looking forward to the weekend very much. Sleeping in sounds good, for one thing.  And maybe a non-vomiting doggie (we think today was her bad day so we should have a couple of good ones ahead of us.)  Of course, this is also "try to get neighbors to sign the speed hump petition" weekend.  But a couple of hours should take care of covering the block.  I hope.  I've never tried getting someone to sign a petition before.  Does it take long?

After that there's hiking near Harper's Ferry, and finally the afterwards:  Fondue Hut!  Or the Melting Pot, as some people call it.  I can really only justify a visit to that place after an activity like hiking.  There's no really good way to go low calorie at a fondue place.  :)

If the weather isn't too horrible I might even get to ride my horse.  Make that "if the weather and the horse aren't too horrible".  He may still be punishing me for not paying enough attention to him over the winter.  He does that.  He has too much character, especially in the jerk department.  So wish me luck.  Think forgiving horse thoughts for me.

Pondering icing the person who threw my dog a bone

Last night I fell asleep to the dulcet tinkle of sleet against the windows.  I hoped that it would be just icy enough to cancel work, but not icy enough to cause power outages. 

I got the second part.

JD climbed back into bed and went to sleep, so I thought the weather must be pretty bad.  And I totally fell for it.  My sleepy brain said "JD not at work = I can sleep in."  As far as I can tell THIS IS NEVER TRUE.  But I am an idiot when I am sleepy.  A happy idiot, though.

Once it got kind of light out I stumbled downstairs and checked my mail.  Work was a code yellow, which meant a two hour delay.  Most of which I slept through.  I thought about just staying home and telecommuting.  The thing about that?  Boring.  I don't always love working, but I like it more than sitting in the house by myself.

Because I'm now married, I at least didn't have to go out and put salt on the ice.  (What?  Why'd you think I got married?)  And JD didn't kill himself doing it so yay!  After it had a few minutes to work, I put on my yaktrax and headed out to deice the car.  It was about a quarter of an inch thick, which isn't too shabby if you ask me.  It called for advanced ice removal methods.

I frankly have no idea how every body else deals with thick ice, but this is what I do.  I use the corner of the blade to score a square pattern all across the ice.  Then I whack an individual square a few times.  Ice breaks out of that square, and from there I can get the blade under the ice to remove the rest of it.  It fractures along my scored lines.  On flexible areas like the hood of the car, I whack it to death.  This doesn't work on rigid areas, but anywhere you can get a little flexion going, you can crack the ice.

I'm sure that was thrilling for you.  But hey, it might be useful someday.  Or not.  At any rate it's faster than turning on the defroster and waiting for everything to melt.

When I got to work, BTW, the sidewalk was totally freaking iced over.  I was still wearing yaktrax so I was fine, but I worried about others.  We have some fairly elderly scientists in the building.  What were they thinking when they told people it was okay to come in to work?

What else happened today:  got my mouth cemented back together, had my spine straightened, found out somebody has been throwing food to my dog. 

A general announcement:  If you have been feeding my dog without my permission, I am going to hurt you.

JD found her in the back yard chewing on the bone of some unfortunate creature that had been butchered.  A largish creature.  I am so pissed off.  She's been eating (as far as I knew) only every other day, and she's been puking and having a rumbly stomach and just generally been worrying me.  I have no idea what the hell she's been fed, though obviously it involved bones.  Bones which could have punctured something vital inside of her and I would have had no idea why.  Not to mention the special diet she's supposed to be on to prevent her from getting more kidney stones.

I'm composing a letter which I'm going to put into the mailboxes of anybody with an adjoining yard, and some other folks nearby who are in a position to toss things over the fence.  I suspect it's the back fence or we'd have seen something.  In my experience, asking people not to feed your animals doesn't work - people just get more surreptitious.  But if I point out that it's been making her sick, maybe somebody will listen?

Now I'm suspicious of the UPS guy.  Why does she like him so much anyway?