It's just Beer!

So since August D and I have been planning to go to the Knoxville Brewer's Jam. It would be our only vacation this year, as we are still in unemployment debt. In early September I bought the tickets. D's parents and my dad paid for the hotel (D's bday present). We were worried about Guinness and who would watch her. Feeding her had become a chore. After getting on Puppy Prozac, we seemed comfortable letting her go to daycare.

Then the whole specialist thing happened. Then she got a food tube. No problem. She could come with us. And for 3 weeks, Oct 16 was just going to be fun. It was ingrained in my head.

So feeding G with a food tube has proven to be a challenge. Our hands hurts; I'm developing carpal tunnel in my thumb from pushing food through syringes; we routinely get "Fuck you and die" looks from Guinness. Fun times. Still October 16!

Friday night, D and I were both tired. Fed G and we all went to bed. I fell asleep with G and D in the bed. It was about 930. At 1115, we heard moaning. Being as I can sleep through anything, I was confused. I thought it was SB whining to go out. I was petting Guinness in the bed. Wrong! I was petting SB, and Guinness was moaning and gasping for air. She couldn't breathe. D got up and she had puked in the room twice. He went downstairs and it was much worse. I noticed the plunger wasn't in G's food tube. We couldn't find it, so D got the spare which didn't have a top. She seemed a little better but still had trouble breathing. We got dressed (put hoodies over our pajamas) and off to the ER, which we didn't know where it was. I sat in the back while D drove. I really don't know what he did. Between crying that this was "the time", and trying to console G, and drinking water, we were suddenly there. We got there at midnight. I was so disoriented, I realized today that I gave them the wrong phone number (like I messed up my own). They took her back and said something about the plunger top. She tried to bite them when they took her temperature (normal). They took her for x-rays, where she also tried to bite them.

The vet came in with the X-rays. G's stomach had these big blobs on them as did her intestines. "Oh God! Look at all those tumors," is what I thought. Um no. She had massive gas in her stomach. The vet said she was going to keep her for observation, and to get another X-ray. They brought back in having given her baby colic meds, and Pepcid. G laid on the flood and slept while the vet got more of the history of what has been going on. Considering no one can find anything wrong with her, the vet kept referring to G as anorexic. After talking to her some more, with G still sleeping, the vet assured us she is not in pain, her quality of life is not bad so no putting her down, and it isn't her time yet. But had we not come, she could have developed bloat. After about an hour, G was quietly sleeping, so the vet let us go with no additional x-rays. She gave us a ton of papers. I asked about traveling to which the answer was, "Why couldn't she?"

So, we got home and cleaned up the downstairs. Finally fell asleep at 3AM. The alarm clock went off at 6AM and it was too early. I reset it for 7. At 7, D and I discussed going. He said, "It's just beer. There will be other festivals." I rolled back over, with G next to me, and we both slept until 1030AM.

D and I discussed going to tailgating with friends (I had given my GT tickets away). We decided to get breakfast first (fried ribs with white BBQ sauce!) and a beer. I got a bit weepy which was another fear of the festival (1 beer, drunk and weepy). So we passed on the tailgate. We came home and fed G. Of course she lost the plunger again. But the rest of the day, she was good.

Today one loss of the plunger, after eating. Tomorrow it will be duct taped before going to work.

1 run this week. PT said I can run 7 minutes at 4.3mph. I have yet to try, although I did walk G today for probably .3 miles.