Dog Days on the Horizon
Weather: Humid, hot; not a breeze to move a leaf. Thunderclouds on the horizon; not a drop yet today.
A green lizard is running around the edge of the deck, pausing every few feet to look over the side. He was up in the screen porch and may have just escaped from the Cats who lie there in wait for unsuspecting reptillians. The Reptillians seem to like the porches and the deck and I am always happy to have them, their being basically bug-eaters. An eight-inch long striped skink was flailing around between the glass storm door and the front door last week. I opened the storm door and he took off, but it left me wondering how he had managed to get trapped there. Had he been lurking behind one of the dog-food tubs and made a mad dash for the house the last time I came home? Had he hitchhiked and fallen off at precisely the correct moment to be stuck between the two doors? Or is there some opening above the door frame that he fell through while running along the top of the doorframe? One of the minor mysteries of the order of reptillians habiting my environs, I suppose. Like finding the treefrog sitting on the toilet seat in the upstairs bathroom that morning last month.
Ken came upon a five-foot-long black snake lying in the driveway a few days ago, while walking out to get the mail. This is the first one we've seen here (other than the little dead one that materialized in the kitchen underneath the table in the kitchen where Fabulous and his friend were living while they were staying staying with us). As I have said before, I always considered the appearance of that dead snake to have been a gentle hint from the Cats, who have a sly and evil streak, and were undoubtedly frustrated that we were feeding and protecting creatures that should have been their play toys.
There is , I should relate, a surfeit of bold and brazen bunny rabbits in the yard. They have an extensive warren. They look annoyed when I pull into the driveway at night and none-to-swiftly hop out of the way of my car, disappearing into the woods.
I suspect, since the bunnies don't seem to be eating anything in the garden and the Dogs are notorious for their penchant for patiently observing the squirrels cleaning out the birdfeeders (until we open the door and they remember that part of their job description is to chase everything that moves on the off-chance that it will run up a tree and we will want to kill it, cook it, eat it and give them the leftovers) that said Dogs are actually sharing their food with the rabbits. Tahlullah does, as a matter of fact, like to drag the dogfood bowl off the porch into the middle of the yard and leave it there. This could also account for the hundred-pounds-a-week of dog food we are going through.... Virgil, too, used to invite the neighboorhood over for a snack, which Tahlullah put a stop to, but she still might like to watch the bunnies at night.
Some day I'm going to set up one of those cameras that can film in the dark and see what is really going on around here at night, and why the Dogs explode off the porch at 2:00 am every night wooffing and snarling, and come back at dawn, exhausted, to sleep the rest of the day away. But I digress....
The snake may be here because he has found the entrance to an underground passageway in the woods to the den of some tasty baby bunnies. Or perhaps because he has found the haunt of the rest of the neighborhood rat population that was trying to survive on fertilizer in the the shed, (or were doing so until Ken collected a few in some fairly impressive rat traps, designed to instantly and humanely break their necks with a cold hard piece of steel when they tried to pull the bait off the trigger. )
Last week Ken got a lumbar puncture at the hospital and I got a chance to ask the neurologist what he was trying to rule in or out by doing it. And he explained that what he thought was happening with Ken was that something (a virus perhaps) had initiated an auto-immune response in his system that was destroying the protein sheath that covers and protects the nerve fibers, causing them to not work right. If there were evidence of certain proteins in the spinal fluid, there would be justification for doing a round of IV immuglobulin to see if it wouldn't halt the process. If not, then he had run over everything that could cause the peripheral polyneuropathy that was treatable, and ..... ... .
He will have the results soon. We're off to see the orthopedic surgeon, too, for a review of an MRI from 5 years ago against the one done last week, to see if surgery will help to at least reduce the pain and the numbness in his legs, by either removing the disk(s) & fusing the vertebrae or by microwaving the part of the disk that is hanging out so that it will shrink up and quit pushing on the nerves. (I suppose it's a sort of mini-liposuction, if its like anything. )
At the moment, the plan is to do the IV Ig, if indicated, and once completed, schedule surgery, since if the degenerative process is auto-immune, doing everything possible to beef up the system before any further insult is probably the only way to go.
The likelihood of their scheduling surgery anytime in the next 30 days is fairly remote, so we may still head out to see you, provided we can get a wheelchair & handicapped assistance to get through the airports, which shouldn't be a problem. He only really crashes when he has to stand; if he can walk, sit or lie down, he's ok. He can even go grocery shopping, because he can lean on the cart. But standing still he can only handle for about 2 minutes before he's got to find a wall to lean on or a chair to sit in. The airports, of course, are a maze of opportunities to get stuck standing and standing and standing. But we will know more soon.
He also got a call from his regular doctor who got the other test results, which are screwed up, so he gets to go see him on Wednesday.
Amidst all of this, he got called for jury duty. They called and told him that he would have to send in a letter from his doctor, which we faxed to them on Friday. Haven't heard back, so I will send it certified, registered return receipt mail on Monday.
The Elders are doing well, sound chipper on the phone. The Other Sibling should be home from Europe as of a few days ago, so there will again be someone nearby. Ma is listening to a book-on-tape about Andrew Jackson, which she is thoroughly enjoying, and the friends down the road are now comming every Sunday to have dinner with them, so things are settling into a liveable pattern.
Other than rumors, no word from the Other Child. No news is good news.
Since we quit following the Vet's advice to try to get the Dogs to lose weight, they haven't had their hair fall out and get skin rashes like they did this time last summer. Other than wanting to take their afternoon nap in the basement, they are fine, as are the Cats. Ken feeds them hairball catfood, so they don't puke nearly as much or as often as they used to, although Max still gets a kick out of trying to hack up a hairball in the middle of the night about an inch from my ear, which causes me to awaken and throw him, still hacking, off the bed. That maneuver seems to work well to clear whatever's sticking in his throat, and he's usually back in bed and asleep in no time.
Your comments made me cry, guys. Miss you, too.
A green lizard is running around the edge of the deck, pausing every few feet to look over the side. He was up in the screen porch and may have just escaped from the Cats who lie there in wait for unsuspecting reptillians. The Reptillians seem to like the porches and the deck and I am always happy to have them, their being basically bug-eaters. An eight-inch long striped skink was flailing around between the glass storm door and the front door last week. I opened the storm door and he took off, but it left me wondering how he had managed to get trapped there. Had he been lurking behind one of the dog-food tubs and made a mad dash for the house the last time I came home? Had he hitchhiked and fallen off at precisely the correct moment to be stuck between the two doors? Or is there some opening above the door frame that he fell through while running along the top of the doorframe? One of the minor mysteries of the order of reptillians habiting my environs, I suppose. Like finding the treefrog sitting on the toilet seat in the upstairs bathroom that morning last month.
Ken came upon a five-foot-long black snake lying in the driveway a few days ago, while walking out to get the mail. This is the first one we've seen here (other than the little dead one that materialized in the kitchen underneath the table in the kitchen where Fabulous and his friend were living while they were staying staying with us). As I have said before, I always considered the appearance of that dead snake to have been a gentle hint from the Cats, who have a sly and evil streak, and were undoubtedly frustrated that we were feeding and protecting creatures that should have been their play toys.
There is , I should relate, a surfeit of bold and brazen bunny rabbits in the yard. They have an extensive warren. They look annoyed when I pull into the driveway at night and none-to-swiftly hop out of the way of my car, disappearing into the woods.
I suspect, since the bunnies don't seem to be eating anything in the garden and the Dogs are notorious for their penchant for patiently observing the squirrels cleaning out the birdfeeders (until we open the door and they remember that part of their job description is to chase everything that moves on the off-chance that it will run up a tree and we will want to kill it, cook it, eat it and give them the leftovers) that said Dogs are actually sharing their food with the rabbits. Tahlullah does, as a matter of fact, like to drag the dogfood bowl off the porch into the middle of the yard and leave it there. This could also account for the hundred-pounds-a-week of dog food we are going through.... Virgil, too, used to invite the neighboorhood over for a snack, which Tahlullah put a stop to, but she still might like to watch the bunnies at night.
Some day I'm going to set up one of those cameras that can film in the dark and see what is really going on around here at night, and why the Dogs explode off the porch at 2:00 am every night wooffing and snarling, and come back at dawn, exhausted, to sleep the rest of the day away. But I digress....
The snake may be here because he has found the entrance to an underground passageway in the woods to the den of some tasty baby bunnies. Or perhaps because he has found the haunt of the rest of the neighborhood rat population that was trying to survive on fertilizer in the the shed, (or were doing so until Ken collected a few in some fairly impressive rat traps, designed to instantly and humanely break their necks with a cold hard piece of steel when they tried to pull the bait off the trigger. )
Last week Ken got a lumbar puncture at the hospital and I got a chance to ask the neurologist what he was trying to rule in or out by doing it. And he explained that what he thought was happening with Ken was that something (a virus perhaps) had initiated an auto-immune response in his system that was destroying the protein sheath that covers and protects the nerve fibers, causing them to not work right. If there were evidence of certain proteins in the spinal fluid, there would be justification for doing a round of IV immuglobulin to see if it wouldn't halt the process. If not, then he had run over everything that could cause the peripheral polyneuropathy that was treatable, and ..... ... .
He will have the results soon. We're off to see the orthopedic surgeon, too, for a review of an MRI from 5 years ago against the one done last week, to see if surgery will help to at least reduce the pain and the numbness in his legs, by either removing the disk(s) & fusing the vertebrae or by microwaving the part of the disk that is hanging out so that it will shrink up and quit pushing on the nerves. (I suppose it's a sort of mini-liposuction, if its like anything. )
At the moment, the plan is to do the IV Ig, if indicated, and once completed, schedule surgery, since if the degenerative process is auto-immune, doing everything possible to beef up the system before any further insult is probably the only way to go.
The likelihood of their scheduling surgery anytime in the next 30 days is fairly remote, so we may still head out to see you, provided we can get a wheelchair & handicapped assistance to get through the airports, which shouldn't be a problem. He only really crashes when he has to stand; if he can walk, sit or lie down, he's ok. He can even go grocery shopping, because he can lean on the cart. But standing still he can only handle for about 2 minutes before he's got to find a wall to lean on or a chair to sit in. The airports, of course, are a maze of opportunities to get stuck standing and standing and standing. But we will know more soon.
He also got a call from his regular doctor who got the other test results, which are screwed up, so he gets to go see him on Wednesday.
Amidst all of this, he got called for jury duty. They called and told him that he would have to send in a letter from his doctor, which we faxed to them on Friday. Haven't heard back, so I will send it certified, registered return receipt mail on Monday.
The Elders are doing well, sound chipper on the phone. The Other Sibling should be home from Europe as of a few days ago, so there will again be someone nearby. Ma is listening to a book-on-tape about Andrew Jackson, which she is thoroughly enjoying, and the friends down the road are now comming every Sunday to have dinner with them, so things are settling into a liveable pattern.
Other than rumors, no word from the Other Child. No news is good news.
Since we quit following the Vet's advice to try to get the Dogs to lose weight, they haven't had their hair fall out and get skin rashes like they did this time last summer. Other than wanting to take their afternoon nap in the basement, they are fine, as are the Cats. Ken feeds them hairball catfood, so they don't puke nearly as much or as often as they used to, although Max still gets a kick out of trying to hack up a hairball in the middle of the night about an inch from my ear, which causes me to awaken and throw him, still hacking, off the bed. That maneuver seems to work well to clear whatever's sticking in his throat, and he's usually back in bed and asleep in no time.
Your comments made me cry, guys. Miss you, too.
posted by Merrrrde at 9:08 AM
1 Comments:
if you could still come, it would make me so happy. we wouldn't even have to do anything, we could just cook at emily's apartment and talk.
i really, really hope that whatever ken has isn't serious.
much love.
--andrew
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