GOOD DOG NEWS

Yesterday Happi was in a lot of pain. I took her to the vet and he gave her some pain meds. He also ran some tests. You can read about it Click here.

This morning Happi jumped up out of bed. We are hoping the vet is correct and she was just having severe back pain. She must have been serious pain to be crying and shaking like she was. The vet called with the test results and everything looks good. CBC, urine, thyroid all normal. The vet says overall she looks healthy. Keep up the pain meds and anti-inflamatories for two weeks and call back on Tuesday.

Keeping Happi still for two weeks should be fun. Carrying her up and down the stairs is SO much fun. At least she lost four pounds and is a bit lighter.

Tonight I made those delicious fudgecicles! I can't wait to eat one tomorrow. Yum!

Until tomorrow...

CRAZY DAY

Poor Happi. She is not feeling well. We dont know what is wrong with her.  This afternoon Happi came in the room shaking, panting and crying. After a few minutes i called the vet and rushed her in.  They took her in right away.  After some pain meds and some tests the doc came out to talk to me.  They are not sure what is going on but are thinking happi has hurt her back severely.  We brought her home and gave her more pain medication. She is sleeping and will stay on bed rest for a while. We will get the test results tomorrow.

Until tomorrow...

TAKING A COURSE

I felt like my life was already not busy enough so I decided to sign up for a course. It is a four 1/2 day course.

Let me start at the beginning. I am a neighborhood first responder. I took that course a number of years ago. It is a six 1/2 day course or as I took it a two and 1/2 day course. It taught what to do in an earthquake, a fire, a nuclear disaster, etc. How to clear a building, how to triage injured people and how to put out a small fire. We have a disaster bag and a go bag. We have emergency supplies in case of an emergency. We aren't like doomsday preppers. We just have a container ready in case of an emergency and the electricity and gas is shut off for days.

We have had an emergency. My apartment burned so badly I couldn't live in it. It is crazy to come home and find the firemen nailing your door shut and your apartment burned. Years later and in another apartment we had a flood. The flood was in the apartment on the third floor. Yes, on the third floor! The balcony flooded into the apartment. We had three inches of water in the whole apartment. We woke up the the electricity arching from the water.

So we have had some emergencies and after the first one, we realized it was important to be prepared.

Now I am signed up for a new course. I am going to be a first responder to rescue animals in an emergency. I would be certified to go to a disaster zone and assist in the rescue of animals. I could do the rescue of the animals or the administration portion. I am excited about it. There is a lot to do. I have to first get re-certified for my neighborhood first responder course. My certification has expired. Then I take the four 1/2 day course for the animal rescue. Then I have to take three online certification courses. Once I am done with all that, I will be certified. Whew!

I figure if I can handle my little devil, most any dog will be a breeze! I used to be so afraid of dogs, it is kinda funny I am doing this course. When I was very young I was caught in a dog fight between a German Shepard and two huskys. I didn't get injured but was very scared. This made me very afraid of large dogs that I didn't know.

I have always had smaller dogs; poodle, cocker spaniel, shiba inu, shiba inu/basenji mix and chihuahua/basenji mix. All under 30 pounds. But I am better about going up to larger dogs now. We have an American Staffordshire Terrier next door who I adore. He is deaf and so sweet. I will go up to him but I won't let me dogs go up to him. We have some labs in the area who I pet and who know me. Some of the dogs see me and come running when I am without my dogs.

I am pretty excited for this course and hopefully I will be able to give it the time it deserves. I hope it is interesting. The re-certification for the neighborhood course starts next week. Wish me luck!

Until tomorrow...

IT WAS AN HONOR JUST TO BE NOMINATED

I was nominated for the WEGO Health Activist Unsung Hero Award. It was a tough field. Tough competition.

Thank you for nominating me! Thank you for voting for me!

But alas I did not win. But it was an honor just to be nominated!

Thank you very much! It will take time but I will get over it and move on. Sob.

Until tomorrow...

MORE MOVIE NIGHT

Last night at movie night only one person showed up but it was a great night. After the movie we talked about RA. My friend K didn't know I had RA and it isn't that I hide it, I just had not had a chance to talk about it. So we talked.

I told her what it was like to have RA. I told her about the medicines I take and the medicines I have taken. We talked about the other autoimmune diseases I have and how I cope with them. She was very inquisitive and asked a lot of questions. Usually I don't like to talk about RA too much because I think I am boring folks. I mean who wants to talk about someone's disease? How boring! But she was really into asking questions and talking about it. I even tried to change the subject and she changed it back. She actually knew about Sjogren's so I didn't have to explain that to her too much.

It was good to know that someone else I know knows about my condition.

Until tomorrow...

MOVIE & ZOKU

Tonight was movie night! There was a low attendance this time for various reasons. Just me and K but we had fun. We watched Moonrise Kingdom. What a cute movie! It had the most interesting music. I know that is an odd thing to say but that is what kept standing out to me. The story was adorable but once it got going it was predictable. Boy meets girl, boy goes after girl, boy gets girl. Basically Romeo and Juliette without the dying. I would recommend this movie.

I made some Zoku Popsicles for movie night. They are layered cherry/apple/cranberry and mango lemonade. These look good but I am not sure they taste as good as they look.

Until tomorrow...

ACTION ALERT - CBS THIS MORNING

I happened to turn on CBS This Morning today and there was a doctor speaking about arthritis. As usual there was no distinction between osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. I left a comment explaining how hurtful it is hearing that wearing high heels causes arthritis. While it is true that long use of high heels can exasterbate osteoarthritis, high heels do not cause rheumatoid arthritis. No where in the piece does the doctor make a distinction between the two types of arthritis. She just keeps saying arthritis like it is one giant disease.

I posted a comment on their site asking them to be more careful in the future. Letting them know they are hurting hundreds of thousands of people with misinformation. I let hem know how it will hurt me by how I will now have to correct and defend myself against what was reported.

Please watch the piece and comment if you want. I could not get the "comments" to work on an iPad so a computer would work better.

Until tomorrow...

RECOVERING NOT SO WELL

This time I thought I was recovering from the trip with very few problems. I was wrong. Today I went to a clients and proceeded to have a massive migraine brought on by sinuses. I think my sinuses are no longer dried up and now they are, I don't know, hurting. Therefore I got a migraine. I was staring at my computer and suddenly I got nauseous and realized I better leave before I get ill at my clients. I had already taken my migraine medicine but it wasn't working fast enough. Now if I could mainline the Imitrex...

I got outside without getting ill and the fresh air did me good. Then I had to drive home. I got home and crawled into bed. I slept for three hours. I guess I was tired. Tonight I used some nasal spray so I will see how that goes.

Until tomorrow...

BACK TO THE ROUTINE

Okay, I am back from vacation and I am up late trying to catch up on work. Too busy to write much so I thought a photo post would be fun. Some photos from my vacation to Colorado. Enjoy the snow photos if you are somewhere where there is none. If you are already enjoying your share of the snow this year, well, sorry to send you more snowy photos.






Isn't this a funny photo of this kids suit?




This sign made me laugh. Living with 14 people was like living in Chaos!


These signs were at a Mexican restaurant we went to. They made me laugh. Not only were the restroom signs written on cardboard with magic marker, the middle sign was spelled incorrectly!

Until tomorrow...

BACK FROM VACATION

We are back from vacation! We were in Colorado skiing. Well, I was not skiing but my family was. It was so beautiful. And so cold! I went inner tubing and got a message while my family skied. I also had a strange reaction to the soap they gave us. It has almost completely cleared up.

I have not had a moment to get photos organized so I will post them tomorrow.

We got home early enough to pick up the pups today instead of tomorrow. They were so happy to come home. They both ran to their beds and fell sound asleep. I am about to follow. It has been a long day.

Until tomorrow...