Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Tidbits

   Monday was corporate audit day at the Kwik-E-Mart. The bean counters from downtown were scouring the store, searching for errors and omissions, white gloving the shelves, and date checking the breads. Mr. and Mrs. Ho spent the morning scurrying around filling shelves, washing windows, and generally being miserable while Mr. Downtown made little ticks on his clipboard, and "hmmm'd" and "oh'd" (I think just because he liked the effect it had on them). Mrs. Ho made me Windex the windows on the Popsicle freezer three times before I finally escaped for my lunch break.
   Things, I understand, went well. I returned from my lunch break to a beaming Mr. and Mrs. Ho. It seems we set some kind of record for corporate audit success. It was big kisses all around. Well, from Mr. Ho, anyway. I didn't let Mrs. Ho near me.


   The doorbell rang at one point today, and Shadow didn't go nuts. "That's odd," I thought. When I got upstairs I discovered that it was a couple of Matthew's friends at the door, and Shadow was in his glory being petted and played with. I had to tell the boys that Matt was in Ottawa visiting his cousins this week, and they left disappointed. I'm still not sure why one of them was wearing a hollowed out watermelon on his head. 


   Dawn noticed that I alluded to Shadow's medical status without explicitly explaining it. That was simply to allow for further blog entries like this one. Don't want me to blow my wad all at once, do you Dawn?
   So, how is Shadow? Shadow is good. He's got epilepsy, of course, but aside from that he's well. He'd had a seizure here and there, but nothing frequent and regular until last month, when he had two in two days. "That's the end of the waiting game," the Vet announced. We had to medicate him. So,he's on 60mg of Phenobarbitol twice a day. A measly dosage for a dog his size, I am told.
   At first he was a wreck. He staggered about, bumped into walls, fell over trying to scratch, slept a lot. Then he got diarrhea, and stopped eating for almost a week. Durning that time, he became so weak that he had days on which it was almost impossible for him to heave himself to his feet to go outside.
   And we're at the Vet's, and she's talking about sending him to Guelph for a doggie MRI to find out if has an inoperable brain tumor, and we're, like, why would we do that? If he has an inoperable brain tumor, how will knowing (at a cost of $2500 by the way) help us at all?
   And then, he gets better. Like he had just been a newt for the weekend, or something, and he's all dancin' and a prancin', like he was never sick. And even the medication isn't making him dopey right now. Except that they're going to increase his dosage tomorrow, and then we'll see what we shall see. Again.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

<<Don't want me to blow my wad all at once, do you Dawn?>>

Talk about getting to IT and fast, Paul... mighty personal there aren't ya?

LOL  ANYhow, I hope they up dosage slowly so it doesn't throw Shadow into a tizzy.  Hugs and love to him... and as for a brain tumor - trust me, it's better not knowing.

be well,
Dawn
http://journals.aol.com/princesssaurora/CarpeDiem/

Anonymous said...

I once sported half a hollowed-out watermelon on my head.

It was during a fishing trip with my dad, brother, and a bunch of Dad's work buddies the morning after the designated drunk part of the weekend.  Everybody was still out on the lake fishing though.  So me - in my watermelon helmet - and another mostly sober guy (who dressed up in the Santa outfit he just happened to bring), motored around the lake delivering Tylenol and cold beer to the recovering fishermen.

I won a prize.  I forget what it was.

Simon
http://simianfarmer.com

PS -- hope Shadow gets better and that the increase dose doesn't do bad things to him.

Anonymous said...

Weird.  Emily (yeah.  "Two Write Hands," Emily) also has to give her dog phenobarbital.

Plus, One day, I think she once said it was raining by her, and on the same day, you said it was raining by you.  

Hmmm...  Coincidence?  

I THINK NOT!

-Dan
http://journals.aol.com/dpoem/TheWisdomofaDistractedMind/

Anonymous said...

I'm giving my old hound arthritis medicine now...while wondering how long I can stretch the hamburger in my freezer because payday isn't until nexy Friday.  Dog-lovers are good people, Mr. P.  But you knew that.

Russ

Anonymous said...

What Dan said. I remember the first couple of times it happened I was still single. Taubensee was having a seizure in the middle of the night. He was walking into walls and knocking things off bookcases trying to get back to my bedroom before the 'grand mal' part took effect. Anyway, I was crying (I'm VERY attached to my dog) because I thought he was dying in front of me. I'd never had a pet before, not even as a kid, and hadn't a clue what was happening. Then he was ok and bouncing around a few minutes later. A friend saw it happen one day soon after that and said, I think he's having a seizure.

Taubensee takes phenobarbital twice a day, too--60 mg. He's been on it for more than three years. Every so often the vets check his liver function and whatever else. Then say, "He's responding well. Let's keep him on it." It works like a charm for us. But there was a time several months ago where I was an emotional basket case and couldn't even get my own self breakfast. I didn't remember to give him the phenobarb for about two days--when he started suffering withdrawal symptoms like not eating or drinking and puking up a whole lot of nothing. Of course I felt horrible and started writing notes on the fridge to remind myself. So just a heads up...that stuff's habit-forming. ;)

Oh and another interesting tidbit (at least to me) Taubensee hates having his picture taken and will run away from most cameras. It's the flash, I'm guessing. Triggers his seizures.

http://2writehands.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

A doggy MRI? Your wad? Watermelon head?
Glad to hear that Shadow is dancin' & prancin' anyway. --Cin