MenoPaws

How Time Flies

2011-12-16T15:55:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that a year has passed since I posted the story about my pom. I'm happy to say she is still with me...albeit her 'new' vet did not think she would live. I nursed her back to health and although she is no longer as vivacious, losing a lot of her sight and hearing, she is still my constant companion and does give an occasional bark. She mostly likes to sleep, especially next to me on the couch (under the covers now that the weather has turned colder).
Well, actually, I have a different topic to talk about today. I have been retired for a little over two and a half years and finally feeling less anxious, more calm, restful. My mother recently invited herself out here to visit for Thanksgiving and what should have been a joyous occasion, seemed marred even before she arrived. My life with my mother has had it's ups and downs over the years. Over the past ten years I felt we had finally established a good relationship, but for whatever demons haunt her, it seemed to crumble a few months ago. I made the fatal error of posting a photo of my mother and father, (separated 1964, divorced 1967) taken in the 1950's, for father's day on my Facebook. She saw it on her friend's page, she doesn't have a computer, called me and really laid into me (her friend had friended me a week earlier).

I'm not really sure why, I suppose there are millions of us that do this, but I still seek her approval even after all these years. For reasons that are hers alone, she does not want to give it. During my childhood, she was a fierce parent, not necessarily what one may want as a child. I have no memory of hugging or kissing or caressing...raised in the true german fashion, children are seen not heard. Punishment was swift, painful and doled out by both parents, those were the times.
Fear ruled my life and it wasn't until my mother made a snide comment to my daughter about my sister and me being afraid of her, as if it were an accomplishment, that I realized how much I live in the paralyzing fear that was my childhood. I'm not saying that I didn't laugh or have great times. No, not so one-sided, there were many times of laughter and happiness, but also an underlying fear. It followed me everywhere. Everywhere. Fear of moving. Fear of pain. Fear of hunger. Fear of wrath. Fear of speaking out. Fear of failure. Fear of getting caught. Fear of intimacy. Fear of someone seeing me. Me.
Well, it's time to let go. It will be interesting to see if I can, since I've lived with it for so long. The process is difficult, to say the least, trying to find all the tentacles, but I have nothing but time on my hands now.

Perils of Animal Medicine

2011-01-02T19:32:00.000-08:00

My little 3.4 pound Pom turned 12 in August and imagine that, she started shedding like a banshee. I took her to the vet and also showed him a small bump on her abdomen which turned out to be a hernia. He did a blood test and they operated a couple of days later. I reconciled this $600 monetary behemoth by telling myself that my Pom has been relatively healthy for most of her life and her hernia is fixed and she also has clean teeth. Then the vet told me that her thyroid numbers were low and recommended giving her a supplement, which must be given for the remainder of her life. I hesitated but she continued to shed like there would be no tomorrow. She shed to a point where she only had about a quarter of her coat left. In all of her years she had never done this before. So, with some reluctance, I agreed to thyroid supplement, since shedding seems to be one of the symptoms of a low thyroid. She stops shedding and I was happy we caught her low thyroid so early.

About 3 months go by and the last week of November she starts throwing up. Not just once or twice but every meal for about 4 days. I call and take her back to the vet, he takes a look at her chart and says, 'Oh my, she's on the wrong medication. You need to stop it immediately and bring in the bottle.' I told him there were only a couple of days left so he said to toss the rest. They did another blood test, he gives me "special" aka "expensive" dog food and some syrup to settle her stomach. This all came at a cost of $180. He calls me the next morning to tell me her liver enzymes are high and offers a couple more expensive testing procedures. I hesitated, she is 12 after all, and he then quickly told me to follow the eating program first and bring her back the following week for a follow-up and he would check her enzymes again. She seemed to bounce back pretty well for about 6 days, then she started crashing again and refused to eat. The night before I took her back to the vet, she was so weak it felt like she would die in my arms and I didn't know what to do. Well, the vet did another blood test, only charging me half the cost. This time her liver enzymes were OK but her blood sugar was very low. He gave me some expensive vitamins, new thyroid meds, told me to give her sugar water and sent me home. That was another $80. She still wouldn't eat unless I hand fed her but even then it was only a few bites and she refused to eat that expensive dog food.

Now I take pride in being a computer geek, but for some reason, I really don't know why, I did not use my computer that week. If I had, I would have found out during the first crisis visit when he told me she was on the wrong meds, that he had given her Tapazole a feline thyroid reducer med. It seems that cats suffer from high thyroid in old age and dog tend to get low thyroid. This medication lowers thyroid, so instead of increasing her thyroid it was cut down by half of what it had been. How this mistake happened, I can't imagine. The instant I realized that I had been giving her this medication for three months and most likely it poisoned her, I called another vet (my daughter had been trying to get me to go out to her vet) for a second opinion. After a thorough exam and reviewing her faxed records, the doc brought out a jar of chicken baby food and my pom scarfed it down. She sent us home with a plan that included the new thyroid med given in smaller dose twice a day, vitamins, the syrup and chicken. The most important thing was to get her to eat, unfortunately, the vitamins and syrup were causing severe diarrhea so after about 4 days I stopped it and her bowels seemed to get a little better.

It's been almost 3 weeks since I went in for the second opinion and needless to say, I am never going back to her original vet. The progress is slow but she is getting better. She barks at the occasional pedestrian and follows me around the house. She seems to have aged so much over the past month. I had a very vivacious 12 year old pom. I kick myself every now and again for not being a little more suspicious. If only I had checked out the meds the first day. But I'm not too hard on myself, had her coat continued to shed I may have realized something was wrong, but she stopped shedding and I attributed it to the meds. I trusted or was intimidated by the "Doctor" title of the vet.

The most common thing everyone is saying, I need to "do" something to the original vet. I thought long and hard and decided not to pursue. One reason I decided not to pursue, he didn't have to tell me the truth about the meds. If he had said, 'oh, I want to try her on another med, this one does not seem to be working', I never would have suspected anything. My advice to all, check out your pet's medications just as you would your own. Thankfully I still have my pom, even if it's only for a few weeks, months or years.

Capers Lake Video

2010-07-20T17:45:00.000-07:00

Took video & pictures a couple of years ago...the quality is a bit low on this upload, the original is much better. I've started playing around with iMovie 09 this month and like the fast results...but just like the reviews, there is some loss of control. Nothing I can't live without though.

Are you the only one?

2009-09-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

Click Here to check your own name

Pros and Cons on Finding Old Friends

2009-07-19T22:27:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
I haven't posted in a few weeks but wanted to let you know that I have joined Facebook a couple of days ago at the beckoning of a friend with a baby. I was pestering him for pictures and he suggested I join so that he can invite me as a friend that way I can see all of his posts.

Well, this has been a very eye opening experience. I have been walking down memory lane all the way back to my high school days. At the push of a few keys, I found several people that I knew in high school and have sent a message to someone who was my very best friend during those days. I am anxiously awaiting a response...hope it's a thumbs up.

As fantastic as it is, I also realized how precarious it can be to find someone from my past. I found a friend with whom I almost developed an intimate relationship all those years ago. I was the one who walked away leaving him in bewilderment. The story is involved but the CliffsNotes version, I left the Midwest to the west coast and he was going to follow but almost two years went by before we met again. I knew that I had changed too much during those "free love" days of the early 1970's.

Now the dilemma, do I try contact? Right now the answer is no. But I am realizing that with a couple of key strokes, I can be found just as easily as I found him. The future is always interesting and unpredictable.

Dove in My Back Yard

2009-06-01T22:13:00.000-07:00

This was so amazing. We found this dove nesting on my back porch about three weeks ago. I took this video the day before the chick left the nest.

Report on Spanx

2008-11-18T16:02:00.000-08:00

My conference is now over and I want to report on my experience with Spanx.

Comfort - Excellent
Ease of use - OK
Durability - Poor
Cost - Too Much since it was so thin I poked a hole in it right away
Does it smooth the lines and such -- ABSOLUTELY

Overall I loved the look and the comfort. The version I bought is like a pair of pantyhose but not quite as sheer. It said on the packaging to be worn without undergarments. The cotton crotch had a built-in split that was a little strange and I was not sure if it was intended for use but I did not use it :-). Since this model came up to my bra line, I did not like the inconvenience of having to pull it all the way up each time when using the restrooms (and if any of you have spoken to an audience you know it gets warm and one tends to drink a lot of water...). I hated that I put a hole into it on the first day even before I left the house and another one the next day, although that did not prevent it from doing it's job...making my outfit look fabulous on me...but I was still disappointed since I had spent close to $30.

I definitely recommend them, but will consider trying the heftier version, even though it also has a heftier price (of around $60 - $70), since I seem to be prone to poke holes into the thinner version. If you are someone who has skill putting on regular nylons, you would find it easy to use the thinner version.

I would love to hear from others who may have used this product.

OMG - Liposuction Without Surgery

2008-11-16T20:01:00.000-08:00

www.spanx.com

Well, tomorrow I am presenting at our annual two day conference. I have four presentations to do for an audience of about 25 to 30 in each session. As with most of us, I have gained a few pounds over the past couple of years so I needed to go shopping for a decent outfit, since I have limited upscale outfits and did not want to wear the same outfits as last year. My daughter came with me. Well I want to tell you that old dogs can learn new tricks from pups!!! She convinced me to buy Spanx...she had heard about them through one of her friends who had worn them, but I had not. I thought oh yeah, another girdle. NOT SO. I am here tonight taking the tags off of everything and getting things ready for tomorrow, so I tried them on. OMG. I think I'm going to be very happy in front of my audience. Please check out the site, and don't be put off by the cost. I decided to buy it even though it seemed a bit pricey. I got the one called High Falutin' Footless for $28 at Lane Bryant. I will let you know after my conference how comfortable this product actually is. Stay tuned...

World's Smallest Snake Found in Barbados

2008-09-07T00:46:00.001-07:00

clipped from zaxy.wordpress.com

Excerpt from BBC News:

By Jennifer Carpenter
Science reporter, BBC News

The world’s smallest snake, averaging just 10cm (4 inches) and as thin as a spaghetti noodle, has been discovered on the Caribbean island of Barbados.

The snake, found beneath a rock in a tiny fragment of threatened forest, is thought to be at the very limit of how small a snake can evolve to be. Females produce only a single, massive egg - and the young hatch at half of their adult body weight.

This new discovery is described in the journal Zootaxa.

The snake - named Leptotyphlops carlae - is the smallest of the 3,100 known snake species and was uncovered by Dr Blair Hedges, a biologist from Penn State University, US.

Read the full article at BBC News online.

Thanks again to the Amateur Naturalist for the tip.

Better than a Barrel of Monkeys

2008-09-01T01:56:00.000-07:00

OKAY, there are not too many things that can hold my attention but my daughter told me to check out this software and it is totally one of the best things I could have downloaded. It's simple and free, two of the best words around. Be prepared to spend some time because it is so fascinating that I have a hard time breaking away...I promise you will love the new worlds this application will open for you at the touch of a button.

Check out the other customer comments: http://www.stumbleupon.com/

Great Creative Ideas & Solutions. Check it out.

2008-08-17T14:40:00.000-07:00

For anyone who is interested in creating fabulous graphic design in a beautiful and simply stated style, this is the place for you. I have subscribed to this magazine since the early 1990's and it has never failed to astound me nor has it ever disappointed. I promise you will fall in love with how easy it is to understand. Great design does not have to sound like a foreign language.
They offer free downloads so you can sample the product. http://www.bamagazine.com

Meno

2008-08-17T03:17:00.000-07:00

Meno is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato. Written in the Socratic dialectic style, it attempts to determine the definition of virtue, or arete, meaning in this case virtue in general, rather than particular virtues (e.g., justice, temperance, etc.). The goal is a common definition that applies equally to all particular virtues. Socrates moves the discussion past the philosphical confusion, or aporia, created by Meno's paradox with the introduction of new Platonic ideas: the theory of knowledge as recollection, anamnesis, and in the final lines a movement towards Platonic idealism.

From: TheFreeDictionary.com

Bundle of Joy

2008-08-17T02:20:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of my little parti-pom, Maggie. She weighs in at 3.4 lbs. She thinks she's a rottweiler!

Working on getting this blog up and running.

2008-08-17T01:34:00.000-07:00

I'm finally getting around to taking a look at how to set up this blog. Will post interesting items that I find. I still have some work to do on getting it to look nice.

First Blog..

2008-05-11T16:33:00.000-07:00

This is a Test... A Test of the Emergency Blogcast Network... This is only a Test...