What's New?

Well, I continue to work for an awful company at an awful job.  It is miserable and I hate it.  I have a job.  For that I am grateful. I have been interviewing with no success until recently.  Maybe...I have had 2 phone interviews and now, 3 months later, I will have an in-person interview; the final interview.  This will be a work-from-home position; a dream job. The bummer is that initially it was between 1 other candidate and me.  Now I am learning that they are padding the candidate pool.  My odds were better before.  I have taken Thursday off and as am told the smart move, I took the last interview slot.  Here's to a great interview.

I am on a weight loss program.  Initially I was counting calories on a program provided by my employer.  But consistent with stupid moves made by my employer -- they took the program down.  Bonehead.  I initially lost 30#.  Then without a program to help count calories, I gained 10# back.  Now I am on Weight Watchers and have lost 22# -- or as I see it: the 10 I gained and 12 more.  All told, I have lost 42#.  I'd like to lose at least 40 more.

Golda is my problem child.  In January she started itching more than normal and started head-shaking. This is usually a sign of an ear infection.  Before long, she was bald behind her ears.  This is particularly distressing as this was an area she went after before and since we've kinda calmed down, hair grew back there.  Now it's all gone. I took her in to the dermatologist who did skin scrapings over the sore, red areas.  She has mites.  Demodex.

Demodex is a mite that is passed from mother to pup through mothers' milk. All dogs have this mite but in most cases they remain dormant for the life of the dog.  However, if the immune system is suppressed they come to life.  They aren't contagious and once off the host they die.  But they are hard to get rid of.  It's a liquid med I drizzle on her food.  After 6 weeks, we go back, have another skin scraping and hopefully show progress.  In that 6 weeks the adults die but the eggs hatch.  Then the hope is you kill those mites before they lay more eggs.  In Golda's case, after 6 weeks she had fewer mites but mites nonetheless.  Then we go another 6 weeks and hopefully then there will be no more mites after scraping, and then we go ANOTHER 6 weeks and if that too is clean we are officially cured.

Well in the process I heard from Dr. McKeever. He was checking in.  I told him how itchy she is and he told me that she should be more comfortable by now and believes that she is allergic to the mite. Brilliant.  So she's having a hyper reaction to the allergen.  Her immune system is out of wack.  So he put her on chemotherapy to completely suppress the system so she has no allergic reaction to anything.  Then, this gives her time to heal and then we ease her off of the chemo and hopefully the immune system returns to a normal level.  Can I just say, money? Lots and lots of money.

But we do it.  She's fine and seems to be feeling better and then at about 3 weeks she starts vomiting her meal.  We stopped the med for 3 days, then started again and she started vomiting again. Now we are taking a lower dose and she seems to be doing well. Now, in the midst of everything I notice two things:  She's grinding her teeth and she's not eating well.  I don't know what to think about the grinding of the teeth but the eating I figure, is related to all the meds she is on.  I take it in stride.

March comes and it's time for the semi-annual wellness check-up for both dogs and teeth cleaning. We do this every 6 months as they are small breeds and tend to have build up rather easily.  So we go.  Golda is first.  Not more than an hour goes by and Dr. Steuve calls.  Golda has FIVE teeth that are loose and need to come out. She's lost more than 50% of bone around these teeth.  One tooth had the tip of a root exposed.  He noted no gum disease, no decay; he simply could not explain this.  And to note, this happened in the last 6 months; teeth were fine 6 months ago. The teeth had to go. $600.00 later and my poor girl came home.  The only thing doctor can say is this is consistent with a suppressed immune system.  But why is her system suppressed? No clue.

She is resting well, but last night was tough.  She began coughing or retching...I'm not sure but it started around 3 in the morning.  She was a little panicked and pawed at me; licking my face and burying her head.  At 5 we got up.  I took her to the water but she would not drink.  So I dipped my finger in the water and let her lick it  off.  I did this about 5 times and then she drank from the bowl.  She drank a lot.  We went and laid on the couch and dozed until 9.  She coughed some, but seemed better after drinking. She's done it since then but not as badly.  I wonder if her throat is irritated after being intubated?  She ate only a little of her breakfast so I gave her another pain pill.  She too, shivered terribly, so I turned the heat up.  Now she's calm.

Blossom, through all of this, is lovely.  She is playful, attentive and healthy with healthy teeth.  It is my opportunity to experience a healthy dog.  Thank you.

So what's new?  I think that's plenty, don't you?