Ethan’s Journey

Today was a boat day. We went to the little cove and hooked our boat up to a friend’s boat. Paul and John road the jet ski’s and we had fun listening to tunes and enjoying the sunshine. Moe and Penny got to go on the boat today. They were both excited. Moe ended up falling asleep on his back with his paws up like a goofball. Penny was watching everything and was actually quiet. Lucy got an upgraded cage which has been a big help. I gave her some sticks for her to jump on to build strength for jumping in the future. She is so happy.  

 The prank war continue on the shoreline. It has moved past hiding ducks and plastic babies (I found a baby today wedged on the back of the camper). It has moved past putting a toilet on the end of someone’s dock. We (a few of us) will sit back and wait for the victim to find their surprise. I might add that it is not dangerous, we didn’t damage property and it will be sure to share a laugh. Also, I wasn’t behind this one and I stick to that story. Today was quite windy. We found a spot where the wind was blocked and enjoyed that space for the day. There was a hot game of washers that happened. My team lost, but we had fun trying. We had a group dinner. We had lots of yummy sides. Diane made ice cream and cookie bars. Lois made a batch of her new and delicious cookies. We always eat well here. Sarah and I got to see cows. They were really cute. We thought about ways to smuggle one home, but decided that would be inappropriate. I liked the one that had a heart on her head. The babie...

 I took today off to quiet the work noise in my head. I tried to fill the day with gratitude. I took the dogs on several walks and enjoyed them frolicking off leash.  I enjoyed the quiet. The sounds of just nature, wind blowing in the leaves, birds tweeting and the sound of the farm close by. The goats were bleeting and doing goat things. The cows would bello in the distance.  I thought about logging into my computer a few times, but wouldn’t let myself open my computer. This was a day for me to do anything I wanted, except work. Boundries are good. Sarah, John, Andy and Diane arrived this evening. We built a campfire and chatted for a few hours. Our shore neighbors came over and visited as well. Anytime spent with others is actively participating in making memories. We had some good laughs around the fire. Jiminy was cold so he had to be swaddled and we put his lamb hat on him. The little dude was shaking and was free All in all it was a good day. 

 I felt tired today. I was glad I took tomorrow off and will be able to have a long weekend. After work I packed up the car with 4 dogs, a squirrel and all the things we would need for the weekend. Trying to get all 4 dogs in the car was like a comedy show. I felt like yackity sax was playing while I was trying to wrangle everyone. Moe was in, but was trying to get the squirrel in the back and stepping all over things.  Ferguson was in and stayed in but was trying to bite Moe if he got too close to Ferguson. Penny was in, then out, then in, then out. Jiminy ran back to the house because he heard Ethan and was distracted. “Get in the car Penny!” “Moe, leave that squirrel alone!” “Penny! GET. IN. THE. CAR!” “ Ferguson! No biting our friends”. 😳 Finally I rounded everyone up, gave Ethan a hug and waved as myself and the crew were headed out. I met Paul and we drove together to camp. We chatted the entire way. I feel like I have not seen him in a long time, even though we share a...

 I received a note from a NP that isn’t Ethan’s Regular heart NP letting us know that his rejection medication levels were low. She asked up to increase the dose of one of his medications by one mg, so his total would be 5 mg instead of 4. This NP was taking over because our regular lady was on vacation. I assumed that there was some notes in Ethan’s chart regarding what we were trying to do with his medications.  I read the note she sent over and immediately tensed up. The dose of 5 mg was responsible for causing the significant mouth sores that Ethan had in July. When I looked at the blood results, they were on track for being within the combined medication goal of a level of 4-6. That is where his blood level reads for each medication and two of the problem and then they add them together. Typically the combined medication goal is 6-8. (Ethan is different of course). I did let her know about the lower combined goal, and that Ethan can’t go higher than 4 mg on the one reject...

 More good things happened today. The town came and did our culvert extension today. Yesterday was Ethan’s. They even put grass seed down. Perfect for a rainy evening. It is funny what you get excited to spend money on when you age. I tried to catch up on some things with my work today. I met with my boss and voiced what I was feeling and that I was a little confused on the direction we were headed in. I feel comfortable in our relationship to do so in a professional manner. When I finished up with work, I changed and got ready for my short shift at the vet hospital. I will be working a few evenings a week until October to help out.  I got to work with a few older dogs. I just love them. One of the dogs had a not so nice diagnosis and that was sad. One of the cats needed a belly massage to get things “moving”. I have a special place for kidney patients. There were a couple kidney patients. It is interesting to think about the similarities in blood results to Ethan as well as s...

 Back to the grind. My co-worker was lazy today. While I was trying to concentrate, he was trying to distract me by being cute. What a goofball. This morning, I saw a white truck pull into my driveway. I thought it was someone dropping their vehicle off to be fixed. I didn’t want to get the dogs all riled up, so I proactively stepped outside. I was wearing a work from home outfit. I nice shirt, and sweat pants cutoff’s that were raggedy and pilled.  It was two men from the town. They were there to tell us that today was the day they were going to put the culvert in for the Ethan’s new driveway. Woo hoo. This is a big deal. Once this is done we will be moving along with the construction. We are hopeful it will be done this year. Ethan is very guarded and protective with his feelings. He doesn’t want to get excited yet  He is worried that it won’t happen and he doesn’t want to be let down. Afterwork, I picked up groceries and proceeded to make 3 different meal options for P...

 A girl’s weekend is so fun. It is full of the right balance of silliness, open floor space to share issues in a supportive environment, and adult beverages. We woke up this morning and had fun lounging around just chatting. Heather is trained in Reiki and wanted to do a session with both Kim and I (separately).  Reiki is a Japanese spiritual healing technique in which practitioners can help your body heal itself through touch. “Rei” translates to “universe” or “life force,” and “ki” translates to the physical energy of the body (also known as qi); put together, Reiki translates to “universal life force energy.” Heather shares messages that she receives and says them so we can look up the possible interpretations afterward. She described my head as having energy like the Tasmanian devil. I have had things on my mind about work. That made sense. She shared a few other things as well that will be helpful reminders for me in the new few weeks. We started on our trek home. The tri...

 Ethan was excited it was Saturday. He did some work out in the garage and has been looking forward to being able to do so all week. He headed to the lab early this morning. We are hoping his medication level has stabilized. Once we get it stabilized, he will have to get another heart biopsy. Us girls had a leisurely morning, got ourselves ready and left for tubing. We parked a car at the exit where we were going to be stepping out of the river. We drove a second vehicle to the launch point.  The river we were tubing on is the Lehigh River.  It is a tributary of the Delaware river. The water was “refreshing” at first but we quickly became acclimated. The sun was warm and wonderful. The rapids had us tooling along. It was like a fast lazy river, with no rapids that threatened to take the tubes or anything like that.  We saw very few people on the river. We were pretty sure we were having more fun than all of them. The river had picturesque views, and we chatted away d...

 Heather and I drove from Syracuse to see a friend, Kim, in Lehighton, PA. It was about a three hour drive from Syracuse. I worked today so I was a terrible side kick in the car. I had to make sure I concentrated so I didn’t miss any steps. We barely spoke. When we arrived, I apologized “Hi, I am so sorry, but I had to bring my squirrel.” 🐿️ The words felt as weird as they sounded. Who says or does this? I am THAT person. Kim was very accommodating for Lucy. Lucy is growing nicely, eating a variety of soft foods as her too teeth are growing and foraging for some food. She has begun shredding up material to make a bed. Her bed attempts are pretty lame, but she keeps trying. She is able to balance to sit up while holding something. She wasn’t doing this last week. When we arrived at Kim’s house, we decided to check out a local winery called Radical Wine Company.  They are a local winery,  that crafts limited time wine flavors, the sale of particular flavors benefits differ...

 This morning I scheduled some catch up time as a way to be kind to myself. It was quite kind and I appreciated my two days ago self for doing that. I tackled another confusing, burdensome day with all the new changes at work. There was less swearing, so that is good. I am so glad people aren’t there to watch my tantrums. During a phone call, the mail truck pulled in and shortly after, my doorbell rang. The dog security team was on it, alerting me with their voices of eminent danger. I had to quick mute my phone so they wouldn’t deafen the person on the other end. The nice thing about talking to people in the veterinary medicine field, they have pets too and understand. I ignored the doorbell and continued with my call.  Afterward, I went outside and found I had a delivery. I have a standing order of certain snacks for Paul and Ethan that are much cheaper on auto ship than in the store. One of the boxes contained 3 laundry detergent bottles and a package of dryer sheets. One o...

 I pulled up my big girl britches today and decided I didn’t want a repeater of yesterday. Change is hard. Learning new things is hard. Being “not miserable” about it…is also hard. I approached the day with a “I am going to make this day my bitch” attitude. Also while reciting to myself “I am only one person.” I started with one task. I am behind in everything. Not even just a little behind….under water in an ocean and breathing through a straw as the waves hit it. I took one thing at a time. I likely forgot to do things. I likely gave out misinformation. I showed up, tried to be as pleasant as possible and made it through the day. That’s winning right? After work I had several errands and chores to complete. I ended up having an in depth conversation with someone regarding holding on to anger. We all do it. I am working on letting things go and accepting ignorance happens (doesn’t always work) and not holding on to it. “You” problems and “me” problems. “Me” problems are the ones t...

 I am not sure if there is a name for an emotion that lumps overwhelmed, annoyed, distracted and feeling sorry for myself.  Frustration? Exasperation? Despondent? That was my day today. Why would you put restrictions on your phone number if you knew ahead of time what number was calling you AND you chose to have them call you? Oh boy! Learning new processes, software and hospitals is proving to put my patience to the test. I was thankful only the dogs could hear my potty mouth. I happily closed my computer at the end of the day. After work I found I was so caught up in going over my day, did I do everything? Did I answer each email? Was anyone hanging? That I was NOT a conversationalist. Paul and I chatted briefly. It was hard to quiet my thoughts. I decided to call it a night early, likely from mental exhaustion. I know this is a short term problem. Each day will get better. I keep repeating to myself, I am only one person. I can only do so much in a day. Plus, it is day two ...

 It was a cold night of sleeping and I loved it. Snuggled in wearing warm Jammie’s with a Jiminy tucked under my arm. I can’t have him getting chilly.  We woke up this morning, got packed up and loaded 4 dogs, two young ladies and a girlie squirrelie into the car to head home. Paul and I drove separate. He is going to stay over night tonight. I tried to catch up on some work on the 3 hour drive back. By hour 2.5, sitting in the back seat and starring at a screen started to make me feel sick. I discontinued working. When we arrived home, Avery helped me unload the car. She was anxious to get home to her kitties.  Lucy is growing well. I have introduced soft solids. This will allow her to forage for food. She seems twice the size as she was on Saturday. I have my PT appointment in the morning. I am excited to tell my therapist that I was able to paddle board and ride the bike this weekend. Last year around this time, things were not so good with my back. Ethan got home and ...

 We woke up up and the lake was somewhat still. Sarah and John made breakfast for everyone. Yum!  Paul took the kids out tubing. As the morning progressed, the wind picked up and the waves got bigger. This made tubing a little more challenging for the kids and they fell off multiple times. They were having a blast. The last ride, one of the girl’s fell off. Then the guy. Paul and his spotter turned about to go get them. A rogue wave came and knocked them off to and the jet ski was upside down in the water. Luckily they were mostly able to touch and walk back in. Paul had to drain the water out of the jet ski but no one was harmed.  The wind picked  even more. Sarah and I went on a walk to identify the different plants along the side of the road. We laughed about how old it made us but we still enjoyed doing it. Who knew plant identification could be so fun? We also saw some goats.  It sprinkled for about an hour and we sat outside with a daytime campfire playing...

 Lucy is doing well. Damn it! How do I get in these predicaments?  Today was a beautiful day. I fought the urge to open my computer today. The lake was still this morning. Sarah brought her paddle boards for us to explore.  I have heard that paddle boards take a lot of core strength. Sarah and I headed into the lake to give it a whirl. I started out by kneeling. Then graduating to standing. I found a wide base was best for me. Both Sarah and I were finally standing and paddling around. Yay us! The water is so clear we could see straight down. We saw some kayakers and exchanged pleasantries. Paul spent the remainder of the morning pulling around the kids on the tube. He loves being able to do this! He spent about an hour driving the kids around on the tube. We had some snacks and then Craig took us in his boat to one of our favorite spots. We went paddled around And I kicked around in my tube. This was my fitness for the day. We had a great time around the campfire. We hav...

 What a beautiful day. The lake was perfect for swimming, the water was warm. We were in the lake.  The dogs got lots of walks and runs in. Some swimming, lots of naps and people interaction. You would think it would tire Penny out, but she still had lots of energy. Sarah, John, their kids and significant others arrived. They also spent time in the water. The adults went out on the jet ski’s after dinner and watched the sun go down. The neighbor found a baby red squirrel that had been separated from its mother. It was hungry and thirsty. Now we have a squirrel we are going to take care of. Here we go again. We named her Lucille. Little Lucy is a good eater. She is currently residing in a bucket with some snacks at her disposal as well as a comfy bed. We had a campfire with the makings for snores. This is a good group of 6 kids we have. Everyone gets along. Jiminy’s stress belly has subsided. He finally didn’t have diarrhea today. Poor little guy. I told Paul I can never have a...

 Had another good day in the vet hospital. I am thankful for the connections I have made there. I enjoyed working with the scared dog curled up in the corner that needed her ears cleaned. She took treats slowly. She was shaking. Poor thing. There was a dog with very lengthy nails. I trimmed them. To collected the nails afterward and wrote sayings like “hammer time” and “you nailed it!” On them. I hid them around the clinic for people to find and wonder about in the next coming months. I did enjoy my time in the hospital, but I am tired. I wouldn’t mind a relief gig once in a while. After work I headed home. Avery and her friend Rachel were in the livingroom. They were ready for the trek to camp….except….Avery forgot her meds AGAIN! Forgetful Jones Avery! I packed a cooler as Avery insisted that she could go the weekend without them. I know that she COULD…it just wouldn’t be enjoyable for her, or anyone else around her. We packed the car up and headed to her apartment to get the med...

 So the thing I really like about being in the vet hospital is connecting with people about their animals. The cute little chihuahua puppy, a wormy kitten, an old dachshund that was absolutely perfect. I LOVE old dogs.  I do enjoy my actual job. It is quieter for sure. I see MY animals. But I do like seeing other people’s animals and trying to make them feel comfortable, special and loved while collecting tests, giving vaccines etc. I had forgotten how much fun the crew is that I used to work with. We have lots of laughs. My lunch hour was spent trying to sort through my real job. I was trying to review emails, answer questions and send out communications. Woah! After work, I went to visit Avery. Glam-ma had to visit the kitties. The kitties will call me Glam-ma. Avery loves that I told her about Cat-TV on YouTube. My little Pluto LOVES it. I then picked up my groceries to prepare for the weekend. I made it home from work around 7:00pm. I did some chores and then logged into m...

 Today was a bit of a change for me. I was working all day in the vet hospital. Spoiler alert, I can still draw blood. If felt good to do things to help the animals feel better in one way or another. Whether it was giving snacks, expressing anal glands, cleaning ears, trimming toe nails… At lunch I ran to the post office and pharmacy, then logged into my real day job to try and play catch up. It wasn’t overly busy at the vet hospital. Things are coming back pretty quick even though it has been 3 years. Different codes I am remembering, little tricks about tests are coming back to me. Yay! When I got home, I did some chores and then logged into my computer to get a little more work done. I made a little bit of progress. I am happy with that. My schedule is filling up with phone calls next week. The back has now downgraded to slight annoyance. I can feel sore sometimes, which is annoying, but totally way better than Sunday when I was crippled.  I have been doing stretching and h...

 Stretch, heat, repeat. That was what today was all about. I had slight improvement over night with my back. I did my stretches and worked laying down. As the day went on, things improved.  With our new territory switch today, things were quite hectic as we tried to learn new software and new processes. All the recruiters were fish out of water. I had meetings with several of them to learn off of them, but also teach them the software I know. It is difficult having to work in two different softwares. It went just as expected though. I wasn’t surprised by the struggle, which is a plus. I didn’t love that my computer crashed this morning at the start of the day. I had a chat with my computer. “We need to get through today….or I will run you over with my van.”  That seemed to do the trick! That and rebooting, changing a password and a call into IT. I then went into the vet office for a quick shift there. Most of the faces are familiar from when I left 3 years ago. Some are n...

 I woke up pretty sore this morning. I was moving slow and everything hurt. I didn’t take the dogs for their walk up the street, they went for their “do your business” walks outside the camper.  Paul had decided to stay up at camp with a couple dogs. I decided to leave relatively early and my plan was to have a couch day. Diane had volunteered to drive me home in my car. Normally I would had just pushed through the pain and tough it out. My aunt had mentioned that as a possibility early. The seed had been planted and I took Diane up on her offer. I knew the rod was going to suck. It would suck less if I could recline and get comfy. In the car I found a position that was tolerable and we listened to some true crime podcasts casts. It made the time go quick and we were able to guess the motive prior to it being introduced. We also critiqued the murderers technique and pinpoint their sloppiness. “Everyone knows if you are going to google how to poison someone, you don’t use your ...

 I took the dogs for a walk. Later I took Moe and Penny for a bike ride up the road. I ran them pretty hard. Moe went in the lake and had a bath. Penny was still being wild. I took her for another bike ride up the road. She loves it.  I got about 2/3 RD’s of the way up the road and a car started coming. Darn it!  I had to pull the bike over and I reached down to pick Penny up. I felt a lightening bolt of pain through my back.  This is not good! The car passed and I leaned over a little to let Penny down and another lightening bolt of pain shot through my back.  I painfully got on the bike and road back to the camper. When I arrived, I immediately laid on the floor on a tennis ball. The muscles in my back were in one knot. Well…..this is the worst. I did stretching, twisting, more stretching, more tennis ball and nothing was comfortable. I decided I needed to keep moving.  I did what anyone would do in this situation on a hot day. I went out with everyone on...

 This morning I woke up and took the dogs out. I hooked up the leash to Penny and Ferguson and put Moe’s zap collar on. We were going to go for a walk up the road.  Penny went down the stairs and as I lifted Ferguson out of the camper, Moe bull dozed his way out the door, sweeping my feet from under me. As I started to fall, I spread my arms out and landed on my right forearm and landed on my right butt cheek. It was not graceful note did I appreciate the blitz attack. A series of words escaped me that could make a trucker cry. Moe was corrected and returned to the camper. We then we practiced sit/stay at least 10 times. Ouch, that hurt a little. I could feel the bruises forming. Stupid dog. Another task we will be practicing this weekend. I worked throughout the day. I had the dogs outside to enjoy the fresh air. These two stooges enjoyed the outdoors.  I finished just in time for happy hour with my aunt and uncle. We discussed our dinner plans and I was easily talked in...

 I decided that I needed some lake therapy. I started to pack up the dogs and noticed a smell. My power nose smelled bacteria, specifically infection. Where is THAT smell coming from. I inspected all the dogs and found the culprit. Moe had a hot spot starting on his neck. It was oozing and red. His collar was rubbing on it.  I had to “clean” it. I got out my clippers to shave off some fur so the air could get to it and start the healing process. When I turned on the clippers, he reacted as if I was going to remove ALL his limbs. Super dramatic. Unfortunately Moe has not yet learned that it is easier to just submit and let me do what I want. Paul is still learning this too. Since he is “special” I had to work with him and desensitize him to the noise. I wanted him to realize I wasn’t going to hurt him and he needed to trust me.  I turned the clippers on and we did fight for a bit. It took a lot of treats and patience. I touched the handle of the clippers to him just to tou...

 At work we are inching closer to our territory change as well as taking in a new work flow. We all will have new hospitals to recruit for and it will be a stressful time. However, I am trying to view it as a change that will introduce me to something I don’t even know I need in my life. Whether it is a person or people I need to meet, or some sort of lesson I will need to learn.  We have all these new team members that I don’t know well and we will all have to lean on one another to get through this time of transition which will undoubtedly build a strong bond. I worked a bit late today so that tomorrow I can go to camp with the dogs. Paul will meet me at some point. I am hoping for a fun weekend!  I was able to finally make Ethan’s dermatology appointment. I felt accomplished getting that taken care of. However, it isn’t until almost February. But it is made. Sometimes easy tasks seem hard. Now we can add dermatology to his long list of specialists. We met with the neph...

 Man the weather at night is really wonderful for sleeping. I woke up this morning and took my medications on time to avoid another mid afternoon bread incident. I started diving into all the hoops we will have to jump through to fight this $12,000 fee. I am not looking forward to it. The worry, the head aches, the frustration…oh my! I had a dentist appointment this afternoon. I don’t mind going to the dentist because my hygienist rocks! She makes me laugh. We were laughing about how Physical Therapy has become a place to see your friends and meet new ones. You neat 50 and that is the equivalent of a play date. We are all out of shape people in pain. What a delightful group. It’s kind of like an AA meeting, “Hi, I am Patti, I am here for my back.”  Then everyone says “Hi Patti”. We all state our names and ailments. I guess it’s a right of passage? We were chuckling at the ridiculousness of aging. Anyone that can make you laugh while putting sharp objects in your mouth has a un...

 Ugh! Today was the Monday-est Monday I have had in a long time. I had 6 interviews reschedule and even though that freed up 3 hours of time, I still ended up working 3 hours late.  Early afternoon I realized that I had forgotten to take my ADHD medication. No big deal, I had made it almost 48 years without it. I decided to just skip today so that it wouldn’t goof up my sleeping, otherwise I don’t sleep well. I stepped away from my computer mid afternoon for a few minutes and heard my coworker calling me. I quick ran to my computer and answered. She was asking me questions about her expense report. CRAP! I forgot to do mine.  I even had it on my list and I still forgot. How did that happen? What was I doing when I stepped away you ask? Preparing to bake a loaf of jalepeno bread. I got side tracked. I guess those meds do help keep me on track.  I did end up submitting it but had to work a bit later due to my poor decision to bake a loaf of bread in the middle of the a...