Well another foot fell on us yesterday. The good thing is that they plowed our neighborhood early and it's now clearer than it has been since the first snowfall at Christmas. The bad thing is that they neglected some main routes around town. Figures this would happen the first year that I have to worry about a teen driver. At least she is driving the Explorer. I am terrified in my little tiny car. Yesterday when I drove to work, two cars spun out and crashed in front of me on the parkway. I had taken the parkway only because I thought it would be the only road plowed! The rest were horrendous!
So Pegleg has her leg back! It looks pretty good, too. Of course she can't walk on it, but she will learn. She does have some irritation from being in the cast for so long, some pink pimples and little sores from the rubbing of the splint rods, but that should heal quickly now. She was licking at it but now she has curled herself into a nice little ball and she is resting comfortably.
As for Wilbur, his lump was tapped and the vet felt that what he got out was joint fluid. (It is on his 'wrist'). So we should have results of that back early next week. I am still worried, but the xray did show no bone involvement so let's just hope it was some sort of acute injury that will heal. It's gone down a lot since being tapped, but I guess it might fill back up. It did seem larger two days ago and smaller again yesterday, so it may be inflammation? Maybe? (What do I know..?)
And B is back to school, second semester in full swing. He already has a 50 in English, I guess he did poorly on his only homework, whatever it was that he did while he was home with the sickness. He seemed recovered from that, and he went to swim practice tonight, the first time in two weeks and he has a meet in the wee hours of morning. This may be the end of his high school season, as they only take the fastest to the state tournament meets, which are basically all that remain. There is one other, but it's also important.
M remains in the top five on the performance lists, but that is in jeopardy this weekend when there are several really fast meets around the state. She is now third in the state in both of her events; but I know there are girls who go faster but may not have been challenged yet. Still, it is exciting, and she has the conference meet next Sunday, her last meet of her high school career, since her high school coach doesn't let them go to the state meet. Too bad, it would be fun to go just once. But they have their Y State meet the following weekend and he is getting them ready for Nationals, so we have to do whatever he says. And the meet is a trek to a pool two hours away, and you have to go back the next day if you qualify for finals.
Speaking of Nationals, the bleachers at the pool have been condemned! A piece of them fell into a room below! So I guess it is better to know this now rather than to be on that piece that falls but now we don't know what their solution will be. A small part was closed even last year but we managed. There is no way there is going to be enough seating. Of course, Kevin has covered himself by volunteering to work the entire week, as an official on deck. I guess B and I will be doing a lot of sightseeing!
And in other news, will it ever stop snowing? I heard on the radio today that people are becoming depressed because of all the snow. I can believe it! Although sometimes when I drive down a quiet country road and just see all the untouched white, I do find it very peaceful. I also pass a lot of horse farms, and today I saw some black horses out in the snow, and their contrast to the white was striking. Of course, they are also fun to watch when they romp around in the fields of green!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
project pegleg and related woes
The surgery is a week in the past now on the lame beast called Abby. She sports a bright green cast to keep her splint in place while her kneecap heals back into its new location. She did have a pink cast, but she did a number on that when her lampshade wasn't long enough to keep her nose from poking out the end.
The good part about that was that she got the pain patch removed several days early. I think that the patch was bothering her more than the pain itself, plus it was in a spot on her back that hits me in the face if I try to pick her up. Which I finally did on Friday, and threw out my lower back trying to keep her from bolting around on the driveway.
Outside, she is slow to do her business, as she wants to eat snow, try to run in snow, or watch the world go by. We are cold and stressed, and want her to go, so we can bring her back in and box her back up. In the beginning, she got the idea that the crate was her home, and the pen we set up was her bathroom. So we have had to combat this with various hit or miss techniques. Last night, Kevin almost had to be committed to an institution because on one of his many ventures out, she was about to go (so he says) when the dog across the street started barking like crazy, a pizza delivery car cruised the block, and the dog next door came outside and her people called for her.
As if one dog with a woe is not enough, the other day Wilbur was licking his forepaw, and I checked to see why. He has a hard painless lump on his wrist! I looked this up, of course, internet hypochondria kicked in, and I spent the day in a near-panic, sure that he had bone cancer, which carries a very grim prognosis when found in the extremities. I got him into the vet that afternoon and was greatly relieved to find out that, whatever it is, is NOT on the bone. It's a soft tissue mass which seems to have no connection at all to the bone.
The vet said he could try to aspirate it, but he thought it would be ok to wait a couple of weeks to see if it would heal on its own. In two days it hasn't shrunk, but it hasn't grown either. I might ask for antibiotics tomorrow, when we take Abby in for her cast check. It reminds me of a lump Molly once had on her paw that went away when she took antibiotics. So I still don't know what it is, it could still be bad, but at least it is not bone cancer!
As for B, midterms were last week and it was a week of hell as usual. Grades are trickling in and so far, he hasn't failed a class ::knock wood - English grades are not online yet, nor religion:: but he did do poorly on history, which brought his average down. Math and chemistry were respectable grades, so that was a nice thing. But awaiting the rest of the grades is always a stressful time.
Today is the Y meet where they honor the seniors at their last home meet!! I don't think I will be able to stay composed. And this is only the first - we have nationals (at which, by the way, we may not even be able to watch, we got notice last week that the city condemned the bleachers at the pool!) and then the worst: the end of year banquet with the speeches !!! Not the speeches !!
We were looking online today and found a state performance list and saw that M is listed as top in the 200 and second in the 500! In the state! However, there's another story covering a county meet where a girl blew everyone away and took the top spot in both, which bumps M down at least one spot, and other county meets might have the effect of lowering her further. But it's exciting to see that anyway. Occasionally a story will say that someone's time is xth in the state, but we have never seen the actual list so we've always had to wonder.
And in other news, our house is a disaster, and they say more winter weather is to arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday .. enough of this!!! Can we just see some grass for a few days? I was thinking the other day about the snow at Christmas and how it looked so beautiful and everyone took pictures and posted them on Facebook. Now it's just so depressing that we all look at old pictures from springtime and vacations to warm locales and dream of better weather days!
The good part about that was that she got the pain patch removed several days early. I think that the patch was bothering her more than the pain itself, plus it was in a spot on her back that hits me in the face if I try to pick her up. Which I finally did on Friday, and threw out my lower back trying to keep her from bolting around on the driveway.
Outside, she is slow to do her business, as she wants to eat snow, try to run in snow, or watch the world go by. We are cold and stressed, and want her to go, so we can bring her back in and box her back up. In the beginning, she got the idea that the crate was her home, and the pen we set up was her bathroom. So we have had to combat this with various hit or miss techniques. Last night, Kevin almost had to be committed to an institution because on one of his many ventures out, she was about to go (so he says) when the dog across the street started barking like crazy, a pizza delivery car cruised the block, and the dog next door came outside and her people called for her.
As if one dog with a woe is not enough, the other day Wilbur was licking his forepaw, and I checked to see why. He has a hard painless lump on his wrist! I looked this up, of course, internet hypochondria kicked in, and I spent the day in a near-panic, sure that he had bone cancer, which carries a very grim prognosis when found in the extremities. I got him into the vet that afternoon and was greatly relieved to find out that, whatever it is, is NOT on the bone. It's a soft tissue mass which seems to have no connection at all to the bone.
The vet said he could try to aspirate it, but he thought it would be ok to wait a couple of weeks to see if it would heal on its own. In two days it hasn't shrunk, but it hasn't grown either. I might ask for antibiotics tomorrow, when we take Abby in for her cast check. It reminds me of a lump Molly once had on her paw that went away when she took antibiotics. So I still don't know what it is, it could still be bad, but at least it is not bone cancer!
As for B, midterms were last week and it was a week of hell as usual. Grades are trickling in and so far, he hasn't failed a class ::knock wood - English grades are not online yet, nor religion:: but he did do poorly on history, which brought his average down. Math and chemistry were respectable grades, so that was a nice thing. But awaiting the rest of the grades is always a stressful time.
Today is the Y meet where they honor the seniors at their last home meet!! I don't think I will be able to stay composed. And this is only the first - we have nationals (at which, by the way, we may not even be able to watch, we got notice last week that the city condemned the bleachers at the pool!) and then the worst: the end of year banquet with the speeches !!! Not the speeches !!
We were looking online today and found a state performance list and saw that M is listed as top in the 200 and second in the 500! In the state! However, there's another story covering a county meet where a girl blew everyone away and took the top spot in both, which bumps M down at least one spot, and other county meets might have the effect of lowering her further. But it's exciting to see that anyway. Occasionally a story will say that someone's time is xth in the state, but we have never seen the actual list so we've always had to wonder.
And in other news, our house is a disaster, and they say more winter weather is to arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday .. enough of this!!! Can we just see some grass for a few days? I was thinking the other day about the snow at Christmas and how it looked so beautiful and everyone took pictures and posted them on Facebook. Now it's just so depressing that we all look at old pictures from springtime and vacations to warm locales and dream of better weather days!
Monday, January 17, 2011
doggone new year
Happy new year! This is the first time blogger is allowing me to post in 2011! Maybe I had to age another year before it would work again. Last time I tried it just froze up.
Anyway, as many know already, the dog is gone :( After almost 15 years as our family dog, Molly couldn't hang on another second. So, despite my better judgment I replaced her with a new dog. And I broke the dog before I even brought her in the house! She was bounding around, so excited to have a home, and she slipped on a pile of snow and blew out her patella (knee). She is over at the vet now, eight days after her arrival, recovering from the repair. She is due home tomorrow, and she'll be in a splint for two weeks and slow rehab for several months after. Hopefully she will be ready for the spring season at the dog beach! I was really looking forward to having a dog who would enjoy things like ocean swims and dog parks. Wilbur IS my best friend, but sometimes as a dog he just doesn't fill that dogness void.
This week is midterm week for B. Hell week, one might say. We're all on edge not knowing how this will go! And with the blanket of snow, it's difficult for him to walk home, but I can't leave work to pick him up at 12:30 ... it takes me 45 minutes in travel time just to get here and back. So I'm making him carry some boots in a bag to change and walk home. Or he can try to figure out about the bus .. this is when it would have been convenient! He hasn't taken it all year.
As for M, she swam successfully at the HS meet the other week, so that was a relief because after her meet in December she wasn't sure if she still had it in her! And her college coach-to-be called her the other night so she was able to redeem herself a bit by reporting more impressive times even though she was not 'tapered' for the meet. Interestingly, her college team just came off of a tri-meet where they beat one of the other teams in the conference who has been ahead of them for the past few years. Exciting times for that team, as they may be able to rise up a bit in the conference rankings.
And in other news, my job plods along. At least some new business is finally in the pipeline but it's been quite a while since I heard talk of more money, or even paid vacation days and/or holidays. I hate having to stand up for myself in these situations but it might be time to do so. Of course, now that we have to pay for the dog's patella surgery, I'll be in dire straits for the next six months!(We got a credit line to pay for it but it has to be paid off within six months or we will have interest charges - otherwise it's a 0%...but we didn't see the final tab yet ... ouch) Stay tuned.
Anyway, as many know already, the dog is gone :( After almost 15 years as our family dog, Molly couldn't hang on another second. So, despite my better judgment I replaced her with a new dog. And I broke the dog before I even brought her in the house! She was bounding around, so excited to have a home, and she slipped on a pile of snow and blew out her patella (knee). She is over at the vet now, eight days after her arrival, recovering from the repair. She is due home tomorrow, and she'll be in a splint for two weeks and slow rehab for several months after. Hopefully she will be ready for the spring season at the dog beach! I was really looking forward to having a dog who would enjoy things like ocean swims and dog parks. Wilbur IS my best friend, but sometimes as a dog he just doesn't fill that dogness void.
This week is midterm week for B. Hell week, one might say. We're all on edge not knowing how this will go! And with the blanket of snow, it's difficult for him to walk home, but I can't leave work to pick him up at 12:30 ... it takes me 45 minutes in travel time just to get here and back. So I'm making him carry some boots in a bag to change and walk home. Or he can try to figure out about the bus .. this is when it would have been convenient! He hasn't taken it all year.
As for M, she swam successfully at the HS meet the other week, so that was a relief because after her meet in December she wasn't sure if she still had it in her! And her college coach-to-be called her the other night so she was able to redeem herself a bit by reporting more impressive times even though she was not 'tapered' for the meet. Interestingly, her college team just came off of a tri-meet where they beat one of the other teams in the conference who has been ahead of them for the past few years. Exciting times for that team, as they may be able to rise up a bit in the conference rankings.
And in other news, my job plods along. At least some new business is finally in the pipeline but it's been quite a while since I heard talk of more money, or even paid vacation days and/or holidays. I hate having to stand up for myself in these situations but it might be time to do so. Of course, now that we have to pay for the dog's patella surgery, I'll be in dire straits for the next six months!(We got a credit line to pay for it but it has to be paid off within six months or we will have interest charges - otherwise it's a 0%...but we didn't see the final tab yet ... ouch) Stay tuned.
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