Texas Lady

Time to take my sleeping pill and put Maximus in his crate.  Seems a shame to wake him up where he’s soundly sleeping on the couch just to put him in his crate and lock the door.  But, I’m working nights and have to get some sleep. NO ONE wants Maximus running around unsupervised while I sleep.  Trust me…….

We’re still medicating Jolie and hoping for the best.  She’s finished the Prednisone and goes back to the vet on October 5th.  Until a few days ago we thought she was coming out of it and were pretty excited to think the worst was over.  Then, she started getting worse again for no explicable reason.  So we’ve doubled up on her nebulizer treatments and that seems to help at least some.  She has come to think of our house as her house now.  That makes me happy.  Now she’s protective of us and will bark, sometimes because Maximus pisses her off (just by being alive) and sometimes because there was a bird sitting in HER backyard and she was not amused.  We bought her a dragon costume for Halloween and are hoping she’ll still be here to parade it for the world.

Still working on retirement.  After talking to HR at work I found out the time is closer than I thought.  Due to some rules that are changing on our retirement at the end of the year it’ll be better if I leave sooner than I had planned……..and all I needed was an excuse.  Sometimes I’m surprised at all the details it takes to retire.  I think I’m doing a good job with the planning; I hope I’m not disappointed when I meet with our financial planner on October 10th.  It may be scarier than I’m aware and I’m just too damned stupid to realize it.  Crossing my fingers that that’s not the case.

After 6 months of no cable television, I realized the other day that it wasn’t going to work for me…………and I’m the one that “never” watches TV, right?  But none of the shows that I do like are accessible with an antenna, and if I’m going to be here more that might make a big difference in my happiness quotient.  So DirecTV will be here tomorrow to put it back in, just a cheaper plan and only one television set.  Sigh……………sometimes I have to learn things the hard way.  Why is that?

On a good note, we cancelled our gym membership that we hadn’t used for at least 5 years (and that’s probably generous) but still paid for every month when it debited out of our checking account.  There are 2 newer gyms built locally and more accessible from home; one of them will begin debiting out of our checking account soon.  One of my goals for retirement is to get more exercise, perhaps lose a few pounds, and feel better.  We have an appointment Saturday to tour the closest gym.  Wish me luck to convince Ronnie that this gym is the one we should choose.  Sometimes he’s such a pushover because he loves me so much and will give me anything I want, but sometimes (when I least expect it) he digs in his heels and won’t be budged.  Sometimes he’s even right but it still hacks me off to give in.  I think that has a lot to do with me being a woman.  It’s just how we roll and there’s nothing wrong with that either…….

I know there was a million things I wanted to write in today’s entry but the Ambien in my brain is beginning to build a smokescreen between thought and reality so I’d better sign out before I start giving away company secrets or something (do I know any company secrets?  well, maybe a few that are over there with my other thoughts).  I’ll try to post more often since I’m at least theoretically supposed to have more time on my hands soon.  Have a pleasant day; I’m going to try to go sleep through most of it.

And hope to get it.  The first miracle’s name is Jolie and she has a cough, is a little overweight, and just lost her beloved owner at the age of 93.  Her family has loved her and tried to get medical care for her, have gone through several treatments and diagnoses, yet Jolie coughs.  So it’s our turn to take her to our beloved veterinarian and try another tactic.  That treatment working for her is the miracle we seek.  Just today she has had prednisone, pills for cough, liquid for cough, antibiotic and nebulizer treatments.  Tomorrow will be the same.  She is not coughing as much, has lost a tiny bit of weight, learned to go in and out our doggie door, is eating well, and gets along fine with us and our pack.  She takes her medicines like a champ, endures the nebulizer treatments without complaint, comes when she’s called, understands the word “No”, is lovable and affectionate.

What we know is that there are shadows on her lungs and a mass at the top of her heart; what we don’t know is what is causing it.  She is heartworm negative which is a VERY big plus since she was formerly diagnosed with them and their vet told Jolie’s owner there was no hope for her to survive them, even advised him to euthanize her.  While she has had heartworms in the past and has been successfully treated for them, she currently tests negative, so that’s one very fatal diagnosis we do not have to deal with, and Jolie does not have to try to survive.  The shadows they saw on the x-rays may be scarring from her former bout with heartworms, damage that may be causing the cough, and damage that we may not be able to cure, only treat for the rest of her life.

We love the senior dogs.  They have so much character, are easy to train and have already gone through the puppy stages of chewing up the house and pooping on everything.  What’s not to like?  This senior girls is no different.  She’s gentle, sweet and settled.  No fights, no fuss, accepts the next step graciously and shows her trust of us and the manner in which we are caring for her.  I don’t know how long she’ll be with us at this point.  It depends on if we are doing her any good with this treatment.  Will it work?  I don’t know, but we trust our doctor to do what’s best and will follow her direction explicitly.  In the meantime we have another little angel with which to share our home and love while we try to get some of the weight off that is hampering her breathing and may be aggravating her lungs and making the cough worse than it has to be.  Until we can get her weight down we won’t be able to do the diagnostic echo that may identify the shadows on her heart and lungs and lead to a final, effective diagnosis and treatment.

Wish us luck.  Jolie will need all the help she can get and we could use the encouragement, too.  We’re not giving up on her but it would be nice if we got an easy one for a change and we’re hoping to see the second miracle–a cure for Jolie.