It's been a while since I've post. It isn't because there hasn't been anything going on in my life. More like the total opposite and I just didn't feel up to posting about it. My last post I mentioned that Shannon had been feeling a little under the weather. Well, the last month has seen me at the vet's office way too often for my liking. It started out with Shannon refusing to eat. She turned her nose up at everything. For a living garbage disposal this was worrying. I could get her take some food with a great deal of coaxing, but she wasn't enthusiastic. After about a week of this, I decided that a visit to the vet was in order. He couldn't find anything wrong, but because of her various medical problems, he ordered a complete blood workup and also an EKG and x-rays to see if her heart had worsened. So the next day, I took the day off of work and dropped her off in the morning. Back in the early afternoon for a report that her heart, while not better, was not worse but she had an elevated white blood cell count and slightly elevated kidney numbers. I get sent home with a week's worth of antibiotics and an appointment to come back in about ten days. By the second day of the antibiotics, she seemed to be feeling a lot better. More interest in food and in life in general. The following Friday, another day off from work, and we went back to the vet just for a recheck on the bloodwork to see if the infection was gone and to see if the kidney numbers stayed the same. Totally routine. The vet tells me to call back on Sunday for the results. I'm not sure why, but Saturday night I notice a lump on her front leg. I had not noticed this before and it's about the size of a grape. Because of her age, she has a number of little masses on her body. They're more than likely fatty deposits and the vet's reaction is to just note them and make sure they don't get larger. But this mass was different. I could just tell. It was big and not roundish like the others and, it must have developed quickly if I had not previously noticed it. I spent Saturday night awake and in a bit of a panic. Sunday morning was torture. Waiting until about 10:30 when the vet told me to call seemed to take forever. Finally, it arrived and I phoned him. He told me that the white blood cell count was still elevated and I mentioned the mass on her leg. He told me to bring her right in. After an examination, the doctor shared my concern. He told me that he'd give me another weeks worth of antibiotics and to keep an eye on the leg. I was to come back in a week and we would decide where to go from there. Let me just tell you, that mass seemed huge for the whole week. I can't imagine how I had missed it previously. It seemed to pull my eye to it every time I looked at her. Meanwhile, she's feeling fine. Totally normal. Eating like she hadn't seen food in weeks. Monday night I manage to get a quick run in to try and relax and work off some of the tension. Another day off of work and back to the vet on Tuesday of the next week. (There are some perks to being a civil servant). I had been imagining the worst for the past week and my heart is in my throat and I'm exhausted when we go to the animal hospital. After a quick exam and the decision that the mass has not changed significantly (the vet was hoping that it was related to the mystery infection)they take blood again and we make plans for surgery the next day. Wednesday is another day off of work and she gets dropped off at the animal hospital at 10:30am with instructions to call back at 3pm if I don't hear from them sooner. I just wandered around for the next couple of hours, not knowing what to do with myself. At 3:05 I phoned the hospital. The vet told me that she was awake and alert and the surgery had gone well. He felt that he had removed the entire tumor and it had been sent off to the lab for a biopsy. She had an IV and a bandage. He wanted to keep her overnight to make sure everything was alright and I could pick her up the next day. I was elated but a little disappointed as I wanted her home NOW. I got another run in. With everything going on, I actually managed to get in all my runs this past week for the first time in a while. I got the best night's sleep that night since I didn't have to worry about Shannon. My original plan was to go to work and leave early when I got the OK to pick her up, but I decided after getting completely ready for work and actually beginning my commute that there was no way I could deal with work that day, so I turned around and went home. I called the animal hospital at 11 to see if I could pick her up and they told me to come over in about an hour so they would have time to bandage her leg. One hour later, exactly, I was in the waiting room looking for my puppy. We decided against the conehead collar since the bandage was similar to the cast she had last fall and she hadn't bothered that. She's back on antibiotics again and limping around. The opposite front leg was also shaved, for the IV, I assume. The biopsy on the tumor won't be back until Monday, but I'm not worrying about it. I don't think it will make much of a difference either way. I'm just glad she's home.
I feel like I'm getting sick every weekend. I know it isn't quite that often and quite a few of my 'sick' times have just been feeling a little subpar, but I'm really sick this time. This was going to be a pretty busy weekend. There was at least one local race to choose from on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday night was a special run to celebrate the leap year--a 5k at 11:59pm on Friday night on the runway at Republic Airport in Farmingdale. I really wanted to do it, but the weather forecast was awful. I still left it until about 10pm to decide, but at that time it was already snowing, so I scrapped that idea and looked at Saturday and Sunday's schedule to pick a run. The weather forecast called for the precipitation to last into early Saturday afternoon, so I made the decision on Friday night to sleep in on Saturday morning so that I could be ready for an early start on Sunday. Sunday morning was the Coogan's Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks 5k Run in uptown Manhattan. I haven't done this one before. I've heard the course is a bit hilly, but it's only 5k and I figured it would be fun. So Saturday was spent running all the errands for the weekend so that Sunday would be free for the race. I started to feel kind of tired in the early afternoon, but I was planning on hitting the sack early for a 5:30am wakeup. Got to bed around 9:30pm. Woke up a few hours later to take the pup out for a constitutional and noticed that I felt achy and shivery. Aaarghh! Made the decision that an early morning run may not be the best idea and turned off the alarm. Well, I woke up a bit later with a headache that could fell a horse, fever chills and body aches. I spent most of the day passed out on either the bed or the sofa. The whole day just kind of blurred into one big pain. Monday morning, felt a little bit better, but I had already decided to take a sick day - the joys of state employment - but figured I would just use the day to recover. I didn't feel much better, however. The head pain finally started to ease off around mid-afternoon and I felt capable of taking a shower (almost 72 hours...yech!). By the evening I felt pretty good, but was going to stay home another day, because I could. Oftentimes when I'm sick it affects my head, which sucks, because staying home would be fantastic if I could read or work on my computer but, of course, I can't. This post has taken me a few days to write. My head still hurts, but not horrendously, but my balance centers are out of whack, I can't focus. So this morning I woke up from an awful dream. I dreamed that I was at the starting line of the NYC Marathon with some of the ladies from my running club. For some reason we were inside and it had been my idea. We were standing around a hallway when the start time passed. No gun! So I yell at everyone that we must be too far away to hear it. Then we start running out of the building and I realize that I'm lost and we've missed the start of the race. How very odd. I have to admit that I've let the idea of doing the marathon this year percolate in my brain. It will depend on how my knees feel once I start getting ready for the half-marathons that I'm definitely doing this summer. If my body feels OK come May, I might just try. So I don't know what this dream is telling me about the idea.
Name: DebbieJRT Home: Bellerose, New York, United States About Me: crotchety cross stitcher, trying to channel my inner athlete See my complete profile
