I think John got carried away with the header last Sunday. I went downhill as I was unable (at 1:00 a.m. Mon.) to keep food down from a late supper. It was sort of a long week, with a sick puppy too.
I’ve been trying to gear my mental state to be positive, but my healing process is still not as fast as I would like. I spend too much time reclining in the recliner, but am thankful for it. John says I just have to realize that the damage done is not easily recovered.
My meds have to continually be checked with blood work every two weeks to be sure my potassium level and INR (clotting range) is all right. This week it was not, so the meds had to be readjusted. Whether that played a part in my feeling down, is unknown. My stamina just is not there as I figure it should be and was told it would be.
[John says: Health issues are not translatable from person to person. For example, an otherwise healthy person that has by-pass surgery may feel much better within weeks – if that surgery was preceded by a heart attack, recovery to a former medically-free healthful state will not occur and the actual recovery may be slow. Nancy, following a heart attack, had a complete system-wide collapse involving multiple organs. Issues from congestive heart deterioration remain even though a malfunctioning heart valve has been replaced. Comparisons with others don’t make much sense. We have to acknowledge the individuality of this existence and with medicines, exercise, activities, and diet encourage the best possible outcome.]
I’m continuing to try to get better. Sleeping throughout the night with uninterrupted sleep is impossible with food issues (see above) and puppies, and particularly sick ones. That obviously is playing a part in the process.
Nothing else on my health this week so I’ll switch to the puppies and other events that keep us going and busy.
John tries to work every day with the horses, and some days are better than others, with associated wind or heat. He does most of his work in the morning cooler hours. He also takes out time to help our neighbors (ages 87 & 84) with things around their farm.
Tuesday we drove to Ritzville (a little over 100 miles away) to meet a family from Lewiston, ID who got a nice female puppy for their family. They have named her Lucy. She made the trip well, with John holding and my driving, until Moses Lake when she got antsy. She had to “pee” so we found an empty field and John took her for relief. She settled down for the next 40 miles and we met the folks at their aunt’s place a little after 1:00 p.m. The area near Ritzville includes dry-land farming and there were thousands of acres of fields with multiple whirlwinds lifting columns of fine soil into the air. These “dust devils” were numerous and varied greatly in height, width, color, and lifespan. Very interesting but we failed to take a picture. Otherwise, it was an okay trip, and the temperatures were not that hot here in Ellensburg, where we left her 3 siblings, and our adult dogs. We got home about 4:15, checked, and everyone seemed fine.
It wasn’t till later that we realized the one puppy was not acting right and she was very uncomfortable sleeping and miserable all night just as if she had a bad stomach. She was crying in her sleep and shivering in pain (we guessed).
Wednesday morning was filled with more sick puppy and finally taking her to the vet. She was treated for a seizure and there are only guesses to the cause (bump on the head, heatstroke, ate something wrong, was bitten by an insect, who knows). She spent the night in the vets and came home the next morning back to being a puppy again. She has been fine since, so I doubt we will ever know what happened.
We heard good news from puppy owners with new ones in their homes. Those stories are always welcomed.
John picked blueberries (24 pounds) at a location just west of Yakima on Saturday and got them in the ‘fridge’ before we left late in the afternoon for a music gig for a local church. (Sunday now and he is freezing and bagging them.)
Finally, besides exercise class for me, I played music at a nursing home on Thursday afternoon. Then Saturday evening we played again at a church picnic and had a great dinner as well. The temperature was not nice, sitting at 96, but they provided shade for us, and it cooled off to 90 by the time we left. The church is of one of the members of our music group, and we have done this for about the past five years. The interest of the young kids in music and our instruments was most fascinating. We found ourselves playing songs we don’t normally do in nursing homes, because the kids requested them: Old McDonald Had a Farm; Mary Had a Little Lamb; Pop! Goes the Weasel, and one about popcorn on a apricot tree I’d never heard. It was actually fun to see them keeping time to the music and participating. There were a few old timers as well who came over and joined us.
I’d better stop and when John comes back in from watering the raspberries and giving the puppies a big dish to use as a pool, and after lunch, he will put this out on this blog. We will also bring in the puppies to share the a/c in the house so they don’t overheat. Our afternoon temps are topping out at just under 100 degrees F., but Monday may get that high. By Wednesday we will only be in the high 80s and low 90s. We are without clouds so at night the temps drop to near 50 degrees (our elevation is 2,240 feet).
Thanks for staying tuned. Nancy