Wow, its been a week!

This week was somewhat uneventful...(I lie)

First, I developed a very painful upper right shin over last weekend. On Monday, it was painful enough that I saw the doc.  She said it appeared to be gout-like, but it is in the wrong place. Gout is ankle or below, this was near my knee.  However, because it appeared to be an inflammation, she put me on turbo Advil (whatever) which I took for three days and now the pain has substantially subsided to the point that I let Ingrid massage it last night.

Second, Shawna is giving me fits. She is acting, finally, like an old dog. She sleeps deeply--its 9:30 on Saturday morning and she is still asleep.  She stopped eating this week and it has taken a lot of encouragement to get her to eat even half of her normal feeding quantity.  I arranged to have MaryR drop her at the vet on Thursday night (thank you, Mary) and by the time I got there after work, they had done some simple and quick blood tests, and it appears we may be moving into kidney failure. Not unexpected on dog that is 17 years old.  Today, I did order the complete blood test and we will do x-rays today to see if it is something obvious other than old age.  Boy, I am hoping for an obstruction--like she ate a toy or something.  Otherwise, it is going to be a very, very sad time as we move into the holidays--like those won't be bad enough this year.

Actually, the holidays will be pretty good. I will spend Thanksgiving with my Daughter and Christmas with my son and his family!  That is a real upper! 

My grief counseling continues and that is very beneficial.  This week we had a large group event with about 40 grievers and we discussed plans and methods to survive the holidays plus we did a very nice ceremony to honor those who have died.  It was a very good event.  Later in the week, I saw my counselor one-on-one and that was a very good session. 

My sister, Sister Maureen CSJ, has a problem with her legs right now and the treatment means she is residing in the convent nursing facility for a while.  Well, my brother Dan and I decided she needed some entertainment so we bought her a new iPad for Christmas--Chrismas of 2010, 2011, 2012 and maybe 2013!!!  My cousin Dr. Mary Jo arranged with her son who works for ATT to acquire the iPad and deliver it to Sister Maureen on Thursday this week.  I heard the screams of joy from St. Paul without a telephone call!  

Time to take Shawna to the vet for her xrays. 

Ciao