Better Than Before, but Still not Well
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Like the rest of the country, Texas has been brutally hot for the past few days. Add to that, my bad toe has been acting up, so both Frisco and I took the day off to honor our mortality.
Every day is different, and he’s learned to test his limits first thing in the morning. The first challenge is to get up, which he did only very clumsily. Next is the back door, which becomes a very small opening indeed when you can’t walk a straight line.
Frisco has learned to come at the door from an angle, hoping that the curve of his walk will take him around the door, not into it. This time, he didn’t quite make it, stumbling painfully into a bolt that sticks out from the door frame. He almost fell over to the other side, but managed to stay afoot long enough to get outside.
I held him steady to pee, or else that would have been a problem, too. He tried to chase a ball, but he couldn’t find it: after clearly watching it land, he lumbered over to a place about ten feet to the right of it. I finally pointed it out to him, and he picked it up -- but decided the game was over, trotted over to the door, and asked to be let in.
Meals were a challenge today; his lingual motor control just isn’t there. I’ve been dousing his kibble in milk to hide the taste of his pills, so huge, runny brownish globules of kibble, spittle and milk splashed in all directions.
His right eye (the sunken one) has started to fill with thick green mucus. I irrigated it frequently, and used an antibiotic ointment on it, but it’s still pretty full with gunk.
I spent the entire day reading and watching coverage of the Middle-Eastern crisis. Frisco spent the entire day by my side, curled up and sleeping. Every time I hobbled into a different part of the house, especially the kitchen, Frisco insisted upon struggling along with me. We were a lovely pair of cripples, we two.
Like the rest of the country, Texas has been brutally hot for the past few days. Add to that, my bad toe has been acting up, so both Frisco and I took the day off to honor our mortality.
Every day is different, and he’s learned to test his limits first thing in the morning. The first challenge is to get up, which he did only very clumsily. Next is the back door, which becomes a very small opening indeed when you can’t walk a straight line.
Frisco has learned to come at the door from an angle, hoping that the curve of his walk will take him around the door, not into it. This time, he didn’t quite make it, stumbling painfully into a bolt that sticks out from the door frame. He almost fell over to the other side, but managed to stay afoot long enough to get outside.
I held him steady to pee, or else that would have been a problem, too. He tried to chase a ball, but he couldn’t find it: after clearly watching it land, he lumbered over to a place about ten feet to the right of it. I finally pointed it out to him, and he picked it up -- but decided the game was over, trotted over to the door, and asked to be let in.
Meals were a challenge today; his lingual motor control just isn’t there. I’ve been dousing his kibble in milk to hide the taste of his pills, so huge, runny brownish globules of kibble, spittle and milk splashed in all directions.
His right eye (the sunken one) has started to fill with thick green mucus. I irrigated it frequently, and used an antibiotic ointment on it, but it’s still pretty full with gunk.
I spent the entire day reading and watching coverage of the Middle-Eastern crisis. Frisco spent the entire day by my side, curled up and sleeping. Every time I hobbled into a different part of the house, especially the kitchen, Frisco insisted upon struggling along with me. We were a lovely pair of cripples, we two.
posted by Unknown at 11:56 PM
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