Bummy Kind of Day

Day 4, Monday

Day 1

9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Woke up late since I had trouble sleeping the night before. Plus Bartle kept waking me up through the night scratching his ears again, so I was quite out of it this morning. I took him for his walk while wearing my pajamas and sunglasses. I'm sure I looked like someone suffering from a hangover. I always make fun of those people who walk their dogs or shop in pajamas, but I truly had low energy this morning. Fed, medicated, and cleaned up Bartle. Spent some time with Cleo, cleaning her with pet wipes which is as close to bathing as she gets and brushing her. She's been suffering from some dry heaving so I'm hoping to cut down the amount of hair she ingests. Sat with my morning coffee and a book, while Bartle attached himself to my hip. I think the painkillers knocked him out for a brief nap. E-mailed with the Flagler Society and received the flier for my presentation in January. I was very excited to see it and will post it soon.

Day 4

12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Made lunch and decided I needed a day off. Not just a few hours, but a full day dedicated to relaxing. So Bartle and I curled up on the couch and watched streaming television all afternoon. It was nice until the guilt settled in.

5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. After taking a shower, I took Bartle for a walk. He seemed upbeat though he still isn't eating as much as he should. Cleaned his wound again followed by a call from hubby, which lead to more guilt. We have a long weekend coming up at the end of the month, but if I don't finish my SoCal lectures so I can turn in my handouts by the deadline, I'll be working during our long weekend. So I began reviewing the Shadowed Roots lecture, which I'm giving this Thursday, but need to clean up for SoCal, and made a few more changes to my Librarian lecture based on the feedback from my test run. I placed notes for some altered screenshots, which will wait until I return to work, but otherwise the Shadowed lecture is finished and both handouts are done. One more lecture to go.

9:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m. Bartle and I enjoyed another walk and then the agony of the wound care treatment. I noticed that some of the leakage had run down his face and into his neck, so I questioned whether this could be responsible for his itching. Keeping a close eye on him, I removed the cone and bathed his face and neck with the pet wipes, removing all the build up. He enjoyed a thorough brushing and remained very well behaved. I washed out his cone and allowed it to air dry, naively thinking Bartle required a reprieve from the torturous cone and that we could sit on the couch together for a bit. Taking a few steps into the living room, Bartle dropped to the ground and began rubbing his face on the carpet. It happened so fast and I truly was keeping a close eye on him. Falling to the ground, I grabbed his face so I could check his eye. Honestly, I can't tell if he caused any damage. I had mentioned to the vet tech on Saturday that two of his stitches looked abnormal, but she responded that nothing was ripped and with his swelling, everything looks distorted. His stitches looked the same as usual though I'm still concerned about the two that look abnormal, especially as his swelling has gone down. I wrestled the cone back on and we sat on the couch to watch t.v. While sitting there, I began to cry. I thought he would enjoy the relief of not wearing the cone, yet I could have set back his recovery if he had damaged his eye. I debated calling the vet in the morning to have him checked. And of course, the vicious nightly cycle continued and I couldn't sleep.