Dog trials, chest pain and Senior art projets.

 

Yesterday Stephanie had her exhibition for her senior art project.  I drove down to see it, then we went to dinner and shopping.  All the projects had to mean something.  Her project is about the way school are cutting the arts out of schools.   The decreasing density of the pencils represents the way elementary and middle schools are getting rid of  art programs. Then each different colored pencil also has  a specific meaning.    I think it turned out pretty cool. She is very happy it is done. It been pretty stressful trying to come up with the project and then putting it all together. Next week the go in front of a board of professors and have to "defend" their project.

 

Last week was our clubs agility trial. We were having a 4 day trial with another club.  On Wednesday , I was driving to the site to help with set up, and started having chest pains. Ive had chest pains before but nothing like this.  It really hurt and then the pain was in  my shoulder blades. I kept thinking it was going to go away. Then my right jaw started hurting. Ack.  I decided to stop at the ER. I figured I would go in, they would do an EKG and say you are fine.   But they didn't. They said they saw ST depression in several leads and I needed to stay and have more testing done.  Ugh. So more EKG's, blood work every 6 hours, shots in your stomach to prevent blood clots , nuclear stress test and Echo.   So Friday afternoon, they decided I was fine. They couldn't find any reason for the chest pain or the ST depression, which was  now gone.   So I could go  and resume my regular activities.   I wonder how much this is going to cost us. LOL.  

It was stressful being at the hospital because first my dogs were in my car. I had parked in the shade at the hospital but called my neighbor and she came and took my dogs home. Then I had hired a chief course builder and  I allowed her to use my RV so she wouldnt have to pay for a hotel room.  But I was planning on bring the RV their on Wednesday.   Ugh. So a friend of mine went and got the RV and  drove it to the site. She also helped set it up.  Boy do I owe her. How many friends would do that??? And poor Lou was very worried.  He left work but it took an 1 1/2 to get to the hospital. And I forgot that his mom had a massive heart attack when she was 50 years old. She died. And Im 50. So I think that really freaked Lou out.

 

They trial didn't go to well.  Miley did take 1st place in Standard on Friday. But then Saturday and Sunday , she jumped on and off the table and stressed. So she did a big out run around the ring. Ugh, why is this back. I thought she was over this.  So a few days later I remembered  we had stopped all her medications for her bladder problems. The vet felt it wasn't helping since she was still waking up once a night to use the restroom.  But since stopping the medications she was now getting up 2 and 3 times a night. So yesterday I called the vet, or the day before, and told her about the increase in getting up at night when stopping all the medications. So she put her back on the oxybutynin and  ordered Prozac. I will start the Prozac tonight.   She is already back to only getting up once after 24 hours on the oxybutynin.  Will see if the Prozac can get her to not get up at all. (She doesn't have a bladder infection, they have checked multiple times).

I didn't run Java well at all. They first run, she was crazy and jumped all the contacts.  Then I messed up all the jumpers runs.  She did get on Q in T2B.  I ran a friends dog on Sunday in T2B. She was having leg pain.  Her dog is a lab and jumps 20 inches. I actually Qed with her dog.  Then I felt stressed because I thought if I Qed with someone else's dog and cant with my own, that will be embarrassing.  But that was the one run I Qed .  I tried to run the Lab again in Standard. We were doing well and then  her dog left and went looking for her mom.   O'well, I tried.  Miley had a beautiful run in standard except the table thing.   Java also had  a beautiful run but got called on the teeter. Im never going to get that darn teeter fixed.

 

 

I love dead tress. They are so cool. I just couldn't capture the picture.

Im still here!!!

Its been a rough few weeks here.  It all started with 2 weeks ago I got a colonoscopy.  All I could think about was getting something to eat when I was all done. But when I woke up, I had the worse sore throat Ive ever had in my life.   I told them my throat was killing me. And they just kept saying , "we didn't do anything that should cause your throat to hurt".  Nothing helped. I drank 3 cups of water before I left. Sucked on candy on the way home. I had my son stop for a soda on the way home, no help at all. We went straight home instead of getting a pizza like I had planned. By the time I got home I was crying. Ive had mono and strep throat a couple of times and none of it hurt like this. WTH????   We had some left over pain medication at home and I took it. By the evening, I finally felt better. The next morning the sore throat was gone but now I was hoarse.  That lasted a week. Weird huh?   Before the end of the week we went to the Annual Faerie sheltie picnic.  Java's breeder has a picnic every year at her house and everyone who had a puppy from her is invited to come hang out.  My husband went with me and I dropped him in Cincinniti, OH to visit with his family.  It was a terrible drive. Pouring down rain and terrible traffic. 13 hours in the car and I finally made it to the hotel.
 We all just hung out and talked. I don't think my dogs really like going to this. They don't see the point. They wont run around and play with all the dogs, like everyone's  elses dogs do.

This isn't a very good picture but here are Java's siblings. One is missing.

Miley's spent most of her time looking a the sheep.

This was a Shetland ram that was a "show" ram. So he wasn't scared of dogs. 

This was the only lamb. Very cute!!

We had a good time. Then on Sunday, I woke up with a bad headache.  I tried all day to get it to go away and finally broke down and took Imitrex.   I thought I didn't drink enough water, so I drank lots of water Sunday and wore sun glasses all day too.  Monday, woke up  with the same headache. Weird.  I drove home Monday. Tuesday I woke up again, with the same headache.  I took the dogs for a walk. Came home and I was freezing and had the shakes.   I took my temperature but didn't have one. I laid down and went to sleep. When I woke up, I felt horrible. My whole body ached so bad. I took my temperature  and had 102 fever. (I had take 800mg of motrin for a headache at 11am and then went to sleep).  I went to the kitchen and tried to take some Tylenol but thought I was going to vomit. Then I felt like I might pass out, so I laid on the floor.  Ive never felt this bad before.  I told my son he needed to take me to urgent care. He drove me and dropped me off at the door. I walked it and you have to sign it. I wrote , "fever, falling down and nausea".  I could barely write. I went and laid down on the chairs. They call me back and ask me about falling down. I told them I didn't fall down. Then I told her I meant to write "feeling bad" not "falling down'. Of course the "falling down " thing followed me. Then next person asked  me about it. I told them I didn't mean to write that and I meant I was feeling bad. The my son says, "why didn't you tell me you fell down?". Ack!!!   Finally that got straightened out.  So my fever was 103, my WBC was elevated with highs Segs, which showed some type of bacterial infection. Urine was negative, strep was negative and no Flu.   So they gave me antibiotics and pain killers and told me to come back if I get worse. The next day things got worse. Diarrhea added to the misery.  So lets just says things were pretty bad for the next 6 days.   Today was the first day I actually could leave the house and not feel like death.  Still cant be to far from a bathroom but otherwise Im much better.  I truly think I had salmonella poisoning.  I called my doctor Friday trying to get an appt, but they were short staffed and didn't think they needed to see me. I told them I thought I had salmonella poisoning but they didn't seem to care.  So I don't know if that was it or not but it sure seems to fit the bill.   Anyway, Im finally feeling better. Im sure if I was 80 years old and had that, Id be dead.  Im not kidding, it was that bad.  When you are taking narcotics every 4 hours for pain and its dooesnt slow your intestines down at all, things are bad.  My poor dogs just sat in the house for 6 days.

In other news. I took Java a couple of weeks ago to have her left shoulder ultra sounded. She has a small tear in the muscle and in the tendon.  So 4 weeks of rest and then she will get another ultrasound. Hopefully it will be healed.   
Took Miley back today for her eye recheck.  No new divots on her cornea but some pigmentation. So we will try to add another medication and see if it controls the pigmentations.  She said they are around the edges of her cornea , not right across it. So it shouldn't be effecting her vision. She will see her again in 2 months.  Miley also saw the Kidney doctor right before we left for our trip.  She is taking amitriptyline for cyctisis.  It has helped. She isn't waking up anymore at night.  On the discharge paper is said, "Unexpected results from Amitriptline"  I guess it usually only works in women and cats for cyctitis.  But who cares , its working for Miley. Its kind of making her not as playful. Her and Java haven't played together in a while. I tried backing off the medication, which increased her energy but then she started waking up at night to go the bathroom again. ugh.

Last week was my last full week off of school. And I was sick!!  This week  and next week I have to go in and help with registrations and vision and hearing screenings.  So much for vacation.  Life goes on.

Changes

The park that I love going to, is going through some changes. They are adding a huge sports complex.

 That whole section, passed the pond, will be new. Tennis  and soccer and what ever. All I can see is big lights, loud speakers, people cheering all the time. Ugh.!   So sad. I always considered it a nature park. I guess not anymore. Over 500,000 people visited the park last year. I guess that wasn't enough.

I saw him this morning.  There hasn't been much wild life this week due to them cutting the wood under the power lines.

They are replacing the power poles, so all week its been very noisy.  I know that this is necessary. But still sad.  All the animals that lived there had to move. Well except this guy didn't think is was necessary to move out.

 Don't you just love snakes!   NOT!!   (even though this is a good snake)

 You can no longer walk to the end of the path. They have cut half of it off.

 I think , pass here, is where they have started the construction on the new sports stuff. Although when I look at the map, it dosent look like it should be back here. Who knows.  The only good thing is, it seems to have cut down on bikers. LOL, good for my dogs.

We had a good time at the river this morning.   Guiness had a great time trying to get the ducks.

Lucky for the ducks, my dogs don't like to swim. They will run through the water as long as they don't have to swim.

Guiness goes quit crazy running around and barking at the poor ducks. They could  just fly away.

Java is just coming to me , not chasing ducks like Guiness.

Im sure the ducks just loved Guiness. LOL

Java has been acting weird lately.  Its started a few weeks ago.  That Sunday at the trial. It started at home. She would stay in the bathroom and acted scared. There had been a thunder storm earlier. Then she acted weird at the trial. I thought she was hurt or feeling sick  and that's why she was acting that way.  Then she would seem better for a few days. Then it would start again when there was a thunder storm. She would go stay in the bathroom and not eat. She had never been scared of thunder before, why now?  Then one time, she came in from outside when it was pouring down rain.  If she was scared of thunder, why would she go outside when its pouring down rain?  Then she acted scared when my husband was watching a movie on TV that had lots of bombing and shooting going on. Weird again.  But then it happened when there was no rain, thunder or tv shows on that were noisy. Hmmm.  Another thing I notice was she has been trying to eat a lot of grass at the park when we are on walks. Maybe her stomachs bothering her and it just happens to be happening at times with thunder and stuff.  So Ive changed her to just rice and chicken. I started yesterday. So far , so good. So will see what happens.

Miley has been started on Amitriptyline, to help her with getting up at night to go to the bathroom.  I guess they use it in women and cats with cystitis and it helps.  So far we are seeing some promise. Tuesday she got up at 4am, Wednesday, 4:30,   Thursday 5am. But then Friday she got up at 4:15. Saturday she got up at 5am.  So Im keeping my fingers crossed.  Her blood work this pass week was the same. Bun was 40. One month ago it was 37.  The vet said really that is the same, that small of a difference.  She did have less blood in her urine.  The only sad part is , she seem like she is getting old to me. Last month she turned 7 yr. old. But sometimes, she just seems older.  Although when running agility, she seems like her old self. She always is up for agility.

Long time , no posts

Sorry about that. Im not sure what my problem is. I think about things I want to write all the time. I just never seem to get them written.

I took my dogs to the river sometime in the last couple of weeks. LOL

Last weekend I went to an agility trial (BRAC trial).  There some really fast dogs 16 inch dogs there.  Java ran 5.8 yards per second in jumpers and it wasn't fast enough to beat the 1st place dog in Masters.  She was beaten by 2 seconds.   On Sunday, Java just wasn't herself.  That morning she stayed in the bathroom while I was getting ready. That just isn't like her. She usually follows me around.  But she ate her breakfast. We got to the trial and she seemed ok. We had a nice standard run except for my late cue from the a-frame, jump , tunnel entrance. She took the wrong one. My fault.   After that she didn't want to go for a walk. I thought maybe she was hot. She would walk around the arena, just not outside.  The jumpers run, she was excited and pulling to get to the ring. We had a nice run but she dropped a bar. She didn't get any lift over the bar. It was weird. And she was 5.5 yards per second.  Then toward the end of the day, I wanted to go down the steps to the rings, and she refused to go down.  Oh, yea and in T2B, in the morning, she dropped 2 bars. Java doesn't drop bars.  So I figured something was up.  That night she kept acting scared of the thunder storms even thought she has never been afraid in the past.  She wouldn't eat any bones and usually she eats her's and steals everyone elses.  Monday she was better but still didn't seems right.  So Tuesday I had my son take her to the vet.  Her lab work was normal, normal urine but he said she was sore in her lower back. He gave her a shot. She seemed better Wednesday but then threw up Wednesday, and Thursday.  Friday , she was back to normal. At least I hope so.   So she is now on rest.

She did manage to wait for the teeter to hit the ground before leaving all weekend. A first for us, so I guess our new "scratch" at the bottom of the teeter is working. Keeping my fingers crossed on that.

Miley almost got a double Q on Saturday. One dropped bar from that. ugh!!.  She took off to early for the jump.  Sunday , she Qed in Standard and  then dropped a bar and off course. Ugh!!  Im really hoping I get one double Q with her before she has to retire.

I feel like I spend all our money at the vet.  Roxy came in the house last night and wouldn't open her left eye. Ugh. Still wouldn't open it this morning, so I took her to the vet. Yup,she scratched it. I don't know how. One minute she was ok, the next, she wasn't.  

Miley still isn't sleeping through the night but  I think it just maybe a habit. I put a mattress on the floor in the living room and she didn't wake me up 2 nights in a row. Then the next night I slept in my room and she woke  me up at 2am. I came out into the living room and slept on the mattress and she keep scratching me to get up at 4:30.   So who knows what the heck is going on with her.  I think they want to start her on a antidepressant and see if that helps. We go back this week for a check up. Oh yea, I forgot to tell you about her kidney problems.  I went to the vet that specializes in bladder and kidney problems a few weeks ago.  She is still spilling blood in her urine.  Her ultrasound of her kidneys showed  she has damage . They should be able to see two different seconds of the kidneys on ultrasound but they couldn't. It all looked the same , which the vet said means she has chronic kidney damage. Right now her kidneys are still functioning well. Her BUN was only slightly elevated.  They did another sterile urine culture which showed blood but no infection.  We tried Miley on a medication that relaxes your bladder, to maybe stop her from getting up at night. It didn't help. We upped the dose, it still didn't help. Now we are trying one more course of Abx but it isn't helping. So I guess the next step is the antidepressent to help with weird behaviors. We'll see. She will have to be monitored for kidney failure with blood work several times a year.

I hate my job , which Im sure doesn't come to a surprise to any of you who read my blog or are on facebook.  I thought things would be better this year but they aren't. So Im changing schools.  I need a change.  Im going to work at the high school and only be part time.   So hopefully this will help me. Life is to short to be this unhappy in a job you spend every day at .