Got the pukes again

Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome sucks. I took my dog for a long walk yesterday and came home thirsty. I drank. Half an hour later I suddenly felt a certain kind of way, and…

I’ve learned there’s nothing to be done but wait these episodes out. Drink fluids to keep dehydration at bay but expect that anything that goes down will probably come back up. It doesn’t matter whether I consume anything or not: it comes back up, and when there’s nothing I will throw up nothing.

I try to live anyway. It’s just that other people get concerned. I was in physical therapy for my arm (desk worker’s shoulder) during the last episode and I actually had to puke during a session. I apologized, sat down, whipped out my bag and emptied my stomach. Then after it was empty continued retching with tears coming down my cheeks, my whole body trembling, as the physical therapist stared bug-eyed. Then I recovered, put the bag down and resumed my physical therapy exercise.

Today I’ve not puked yet but I know I am going to. I drank a whole bottle of water while out with the dog today and can feel it in there. Waiting.

It’s so exhausting as well. After an episode of puking I often drag myself to the bed, soaked in sweat, shaking, and just lie there.

Here’s a picture I took today of Patrick on his walk. He loves the pond. The big geese swam in front of the goslings and honked at him: “Come at me, bro!” He wisely decided to keep his distance.

Patrick encounters a family of geese

I am trying to cultivate my fur-son’s budding interest in nature as Michael and I have noticed he’s been better behaved at home since he’s started visiting the pond and nearby park area to hunt for critters. Ever since he caught a mouse last week he’s been obsessively hunting for more furry friends. No carnage results; he let the mouse go unharmed.

I think my office dog likes it here

So Patrick the Charley Project Dog has been here ten days and I think he likes it:

When not walking around grinning like a very happy doofus he’s being an exhibitionist:

He is QUITE the chewer and my husband and I have been forced to pick up most of our clutter lest he destroy it. I’ve gotten him a lot of dog toys and chews (rawhide, deer bones, pig ears etc), but his favorite toy seems to be a dollar-store Tupperware lid.

When not chewing he likes to annoy his cat sisters. He wants so much to be friends. And perhaps he could be, but he’s so darn pushy about it. He sees Aria or Viola and is like “FREN!!!” and goes gallumphing towards them wanting to sniff them all over and give them kisses, and they’re like “Hiss off, you big clumsy oaf.” They are not afraid of him but they ARE immensely irritated.

I plan to address both the chewing and the cat-bothering when I enroll him in obedience classes after Christmas.

Patrick is a very good boy and excellent company. He follows me from room to room. I’ve joined some online groups for Korean Jindo owners and apparently his temperament and friendly trusting nature are pretty unusual for a Jindo. He’s incredibly sweet and I’m absolutely smitten.

New office dog

After I adopted my previous dog, Kinsey, she became the official Charley Project office dog because she would hang out with me in my office when I worked. Kinsey passed away last year, shortly before her 17th birthday.

Well, now the Charley Project has a new office dog! His name is Patrick and he’s a Korean Jindo mix whom I adopted from Humane Fort Wayne on December 2. Korean Jindos are famous in South Korea but rare in the US. In preparation to select and adopt a new dog I read a book about dogs that had info on 100 different breeds, but the Jindo was not one of those. I’ve been getting most of my info on them from YouTube.

Patrick is about a year old. He was born on a meat farm in South Korea, and got picked up by a rescue organization and flown to the United States in May.

I think he must have had a stellar foster family prior to his adoption, because I highly doubt he was well socialized in his first months but he’s very well behaved, not aggressive, walks well on a leash, etc. When visitors come he barks at them but will stop after a little bit once he realizes they’re not here to kill us all.

Neither of the cats is all that happy about their new brother. Aria remembers Kinsey and doesn’t seem to be afraid of Patrick, just annoyed by him. Viola has never lived with a dog before and is hiding most of the time, and hisses at him during the face-to-face encounters they’ve had. But the cats will get used to him. Patrick for his part is mildly curious about them but nothing more.

So let’s all welcome Patrick to the Charley Project family. I think he will work out fine.

It never rains but it pours

So as I noted in the previous entry, last week on Tuesday my dog Kinsey was diagnosed with end stage kidney failure and we made the decision to let her go on Friday. We took a few days to spoil her and prepare ourselves.

It was like Kinsey understood what the vet was saying, cause after we took her home on Tuesday she got very sick very fast. She had been pretty crotchety before but suddenly she couldn’t walk at all without help, often couldn’t even stand up on her own without a push from me.

I stayed up for 48 hours straight in her last days because she kept trying to walk places, getting stuck and becoming extremely distressed. I don’t know if she was in pain but she was frustrated and confused.

So on Friday we cooked a steak for Kinsey and after that the vet came over. It was very hard to say goodbye to her but Michael and I were 120% sure it was the right thing for Kinsey. It would have been cruel to make her wait any longer. She would have been 17 in a few weeks.

During this time I noticed Carmen, one of our two cats, was acting grumpy and distant and was off her food. Initially we thought she was just stressed cause of the situation. But this morning, on further reflection, I decided she probably had a urinary tract infection and so I took her to the vet’s.

The vet confirmed a UTI but also noticed some other alarming things and did some tests and x-rays. It turned out Carmen’s kidneys and liver were failing and she had a mass on her abdomen that was probably cancer. The vet pretty much said there was nothing to be done.

I called Michael and he came over and Carmen went peacefully to sleep with us holding her. She was only twelve.

Two of our three beloved pets are gone in just a few days. Both of them often kept me company while I worked on cases.

I still plan to resume updates etc tomorrow. No point just sitting around wallowing in grief.

It’ll feel so strange, working in my office with just one cat hanging around.

Everyone has been so supportive and I want to thank all of you. I love you guys more than you know.

Wedding pics just dropped!

I know you guys had asked to see some of the pics from my wedding, and they have finally arrived! Now, there are exactly 299 of them and I’m not going to post them all, but here’s some of the highlights.

Me and Dad going up the aisle:

Us all at the altar:

Michael sliding the ring on my finger:

Michael walking me down the aisle at the end:

Us leaving the church after I got rid of that scarf the priest made me wear:

Masks were required at the wedding for everyone (except the priest I guess, and also one lady in the back at the groom’s side) but once the ceremony was over and almost everyone had left the church we took some mask-less photos. So here you go:

Me and my bridesmaids:

Me alone, smiling at my bouquet:

Michael and I at the altar:

Us at the church door:

Us in silhouette so it looks romantic:

The photographer was Taylor Ford; look her up if you’re getting married in Ohio or Indiana and want her to take pictures. I think they turned out really well.

I hope everyone is keeping safe these days

I don’t have much to report during this uncertain time other than to say Michael and I are doing well and I hope everyone else been doing well also and taking as many precautions as they can.

My dog Kinsey is keeping a close eye on us. This picture is from the other night when she was trying to get Michael and me to go to bed. She doesn’t want to go to bed unless we’ve at least gone into the bedroom (she sleeps on a dog bed in the walk-in closet) and gets most upset if we stay up past our bedtime watching TV in the living room or whatever. She doesn’t jump around and snort at us like she used to, but still paws at us insistently and comes right up close to me and stares at me like this:

She is a good girl. Now 15 and a half! Taking her out for walks is one of the only legit ways I can escape the house. We can’t go further than around the block because she gets tired after that. But it’s enough.

There hasn’t been much crime news to report but I’m sure all sorts of things are going to come out of the woodwork once the shut-down period ends. Already, one guy did his wife in and tried to cover it up by claiming she’d died of COVID-19. She has not been located yet, but he’s been charged with murder.

Stay safe. Wash your hands. Stay home if you can.

Followup

So Michael is still in the hospital and they’re thinking he will be until Monday. There’s a lot of fluid backed up around his heart that they’re trying to flush out.

They’re saying his is a mild case. They think chances are he caught some kind of virus last winter and it lay in wait for a few months and then decided to start kicking his butt. If the congestive heart failure was caused by a viral infection — which is usually the case with younger patients like Michael — he can make a full recovery.

My own father developed severe congestive heart failure out of nowhere six or seven years ago, and they were predicting he’d die or at least need a transplant, but then he inexplicably got better just as quickly and mysteriously as he’d gotten sick, and his cardiologist called him a medical miracle. They think Dad’s CHF was also caused by a virus.

I saw Michael today and he looks and feels a lot better, though he’s tired and spends most of his time sleeping. He was chronically sleep deprived anyway, and this whole “sleep sitting up” thing the last several weeks hasn’t helped. While at the hospital I signed papers to be his medical proxy if necessary.

Our friends have been awesome, helping both of us out a lot. They were worried about me but I’m doing fine actually. He’s in the hospital, he’s where he needs to be, and he’s getting better. There’s nothing more I can do for him at this point, besides visit, and I’m doing that.

I think our pets are confused by Michael’s absence. Our one cat, Carmen, keeps wandering around looking in all the rooms and I swear she’s looking for him.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I know the holiday season can be difficult for people who have lost loved ones, either to death or disappearance. It’ll be hard for my family this year as we lost my brother Brendan in February; he died in a work accident at 49.

My heart goes out to all the families and friends of missing persons this year. I hope next year provides you with answers as to what happened.

Michael, Kinsey, the cats and I will be spending Christmas with our families. Christmas Eve with my family, Christmas Day with his.

I am grateful to all my Charley Project fans and blog readers and I hope y’all have a merry Christmas this year.

Doing a bit better

I wrote several days ago about how I was not doing well because I was off my meds due to an insurance hiccup.

Well, I’ve filled out the necessary papers and it’s just a matter of waiting for my insurance to process them. And my psychiatric clinic has stepped up in the meantime. They provided me with medication, and the promise of more until my insurance will start covering things again.

My Thanksgiving was okay, although exhausting. Michael and I went to my family’s meal at my sister’s, then a few hours later we went out to a restaurant with his parents. One of the things I’m most thankful for this year is my dog Kinsey. She is the sweetest dog and she has gotten me on a regular schedule (she fusses at me unless I go to bed when she wants) and gotten me exercise out in the fresh air (between two and four walks a day).

Kinsey’s birthday is on the 27th. She will be fifteen years old. I cherish every day I have with her. And she is a very happy dog now.

Here is Kinsey on the 12th:

And here I am on the 15th, the night I went to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra:

I’m actually wearing lipstick one of you sent me.

Updates should start again tomorrow.

All is well

It’s been 22 days since my last vomiting cycle started and I am not sick yet.

My primary care clinic suggested that, as these were happening every three weeks and generally started several days before the start of my menstrual period, perhaps it was a hormonal thing. So they put me on the Pill.

Maybe the Pill is working. It’s a bit early to tell yet, since these cycles haven’t been occurring EXACTLY every three weeks, but I am hopeful.

All is reasonably well on my end. I’m very happy I adopted Kinsey. It’s hard to believe it’s been less than two months since she came to live with us. She’s such a sweetheart, and very laid-back and chill, which suits me just fine. She and the cats are getting along fine.

Here she is begging salami off me:

And here I am, as of a few minutes ago, with Orville in the background: