Dog Epilepsy

We don't yet know why, but Peanut Pug has some type of epilepsy which causes Grand Mal seizures every five hours. It all started Friday night.

My husband was up late watching TV. I was already fast asleep in bed. At 11:30pm Peanut woke from a dead sleep and started seizing. He foamed at the mouth, his eyes rolled into his head, and all his limbs shoke violently. My husband rushed him to the animal ER. He was fine by the time they got there. There was nothing that could be done.

At 4:30am I awoke to sounds of Peanut's body being thrown against the inside of his kennel as he had another seizure. My husband rushed to catch me up on all that had occurred. We waited for the vet office to open and was told no vet was in until 10am.

At 9:30am he had another seizure. This one was worse and Peanut lost all bowel control. At 10am he was at the vet's who took a full blood panel but was reluctant to start him on any meds unless he had another seizure.

At 2:30pm he had another seizure and he was back at the vets who put him on phenobarbital. He hasn't had a seizure since. The side effects of the medication make him lethargic, unsteady on his feet, and obsessively drink water to the point of throwing it up. But no seizures.

The blood work came back inconclusive. They can't tell what is causing the seizures and we would have to go for further testing with a dog neurologist in order to find out.

Now two of my babies are on meds twice a day.

The Stress

I have been highly irresponsible in not updating you all on little BB. I blame it on The Stress. But to cut to the quick, BB is doing fine. The specialist called him normal and sent us on our way with two months of medication that should make things even more normal. Boy thingies are very confusing. I'll just put that out there.

But The Stress. It causes funny things, The Stress does. Causes me to break out like a teenager, become so fatigued that I put myself to bed at 8 p.m. right after my son is tucked away most nights and still wake up tired, causes my pipes to back up (was that TMI?), causes me to involuntarily make faces that reflect my inner turmoil while I am on the bus which then makes people look at me funny. Yes, The Stress.

It has been caused by this recent medical drama with BB, the fact that we had (just three days before) signed him up for pricey private school, and that my boss is so stressed with work that he keeps shoveling it onto me. I have no one to shovel my work to, so that leaves me with a lot to do. And the fact that during the summer the Washington State Department of Transportation causes tons of traffic grief by starting all these road construction projects that tack on an extra hour to my daily commute to and from work. Pack onto that the laundry list of tasks that has to be done every summer around the house: painting the front deck, staining the back deck, pressure washing the roof, weed/feed the lawn, etc., etc.

And here is the kicker...it's all normal stuff I am grousing on and on about. I know this. I know that most every family with children and two parents that work have to deal with these same things. And I guess that I am complaining here because I am also too busy to have many girlfriends to sit and chat with about these things. None of us have any time for each other. That and most of my friends live in Seattle proper and I live in the burbs. Therefore, after work I have to head straight for the buses and go home instead of meeting up with them for Happy Hour. Straight sucks!

My hubby and I are trying to plan something for our 10-year wedding anniversary in September. Problem is, we have to do this on Labor Day weekend because we can't take BB out of school right after he has started it and there is no one to take him to school but us. That and we actually can't afford to go anywhere and do anything on Labor Day weekend because everything costs twice as much. That and we HATE HATE HATE Labor Day weekend crowds and traffic and blech! But its our ten year wedding anniversary and we want to do something special.

Ugh. Sorry. Maybe now that I have purged that from my system we can go onto better things tomorrow. We are going to Remlinger Farms tomorrow for my husband's company picnic. That should be fun. Woolly sheep, gobbly turkeys and a beer garden.

I'll report back.

On hold

I've been on hold for four days now. On Thursday my son was diagnosed with phimosis. His pediatrician said it was severe enough, in his opinion, to require surgical correction. He then gave us the phone number for a pediatric urologist. Unfortunately this was late in the day Thursday. We were his last appointment. And the office of the specialist, and every other place I called, was closed on Friday for the holiday weekend.

I have never loathed a three day weekend before. I have now.

I am on the bus right now headed to work because their office still does not open until 9am. Might as well pretend I have the focus to do work for a few hours.

Okay, so the hair kind of looks the same

Got my haircut at a different salon this morning. I know this picture kind of makes it look the same as it did before it was cut. The thing you can't tell, but I can feel, is that she took a ton of weight out of my hair. Feeling light as a feather over here.

Unfortunately my workload is not light, so my post today is short so I can work on trimming the weight from my in box.

That and my boss is going to start wondering soon why I have my door closed and he keeps hearing my cell phone shutter noise everytime I take a picture.

Only a few more weeks

Today was our preschool observation and interview. BB did great! He is so ready to go to school. The teacher commented that he was really focused during the activities. We are putting him into school for a few weeks at the end of July as a trial run. That means we only have a few more weeks until school starts. We have to get BB a lunchbox and a sleeping bag for naptime.

We also had to get new shoes for BB because my 3yo now wears size 11.5 shoes. The moms will be impressed. That's some big baby feet.

Its back to work tomorrow. We took today off to get BB's school straightened out. Good part is I have a 3 day weekend followed by a 3 day work week and another 3 day weekend. Ahhhhh.

And my Mom got me Cookie A's new sock knitting book and had it signed by her as she was just at my LYS. My Mom told Cookie A that I got Yarn Harlot's class at the upcoming Sock Summit.  Not even Cookie A could get into the class! Wow! Feeling lucky again and really excited!

Zucchini and Basil Lasagna

I got up this morning and started work at 6 a.m. Good news is that I did all my work today from home. Sweet! Especially since we had a day game today and getting out of downtown Seattle right now is probably hell.

Also, I got to make yummy Zucchini and Basil Lasagna. It is deceptively simple. Meaning that although it only has eight ingredients it takes over two hours to prepare and cook. Phew.

Can't believe that both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died today. I grew up watching Charlie's Angels and dancing to Thriller. Makes me realize I am not getting any younger. Originally I started this blog with the idea that it would give me writing practice and also that it would give me something to point to if I ever wanted to apply for a writing gig and I needed some writing samples.

That was a year ago.

I still haven't pursued any writing gigs.

Why?

I know applying for writing gigs without any kind of degree in writing and without ever having published anything guarantees I will be rejected. Writing is something dear and special to me. I don't know if I could handle the rejection well. That, and I have no idea what I could write about. I mostly write fiction. If I want to get paid I need to start with articles right? But about what? Ugh!

But then I go back to life is short. I'm at a crossroads.

Beer 3

Hi there baseball fans! Boldmama here. Reporting live from behind first plate at Safeco field. Mariners versus Padres. My man Branyan hit a homer and now we are up 3 to 2. I only hope we can break the curse. You see, every game I see we lose. Eek. But I'm loving it.

I brought my hubby's sock to knit, but I'm on beer 3, and doing decreases for the toe is not something I can do on beer 3. Did I mention I am working from home tomorrow? Thank goodness!