New blog.

Just a short note to let interested parties know I’ve started the Curly Joe blog, which can be read here. I don’t have a lot of time for updates right now, but LaShea and I at least got things started. It is my intention to post regular updates on Curly Joe's health and well being. Good days, bad days, so-so days. It's all part of the adventure. If you want to be updated on how he's doing, go to his page and click on "Follow." I won't be posting anymore Curly-related updates on my running blog.

Update.

Still here. Still not running. I thought I’d be able to fit my workouts in before I left for work, but boy was I wrong. I leave at around 8:45 p.m. and get home sometime after 5 a.m. At first I tried going right to bed when I got home, but I’d have to get up at 9:00 to feed the animals because my sister was working. So I’d get very little sleep and when I tried taking a nap in the afternoon, there was way too much going on. Neighbors running chainsaws, cats making noise, Curly Joe had to go out again, etc. So I haven’t been working out. I’ve lost some weight though (2 lbs); I guess being too busy to eat really pays off.

This past week was really incredibly stressful. My sister flew back to Chicago on Friday because she got the call that her mother-in-law was in the end stages of cancer and fading fast. She’d been in a coma for three days and when she woke up, all she did was ask for my sister. I went in to work Thursday night, intending to ask if I could leave early to drive my sister to the airport (which I work near), but when I went in to talk to my supervisor, I was appalled to find myself bawling my eyes out. J isn’t my mother-in-law, and I certainly don’t know her as well as my sister does, but she is a wonderful woman, and I hate that this had to happen to her and her family. My supervisor was incredibly understanding and told me to just head home. I was so grateful. I went home and stayed up with my sister, who was a wreck. I got about 20 minutes of sleep and then got up to drive her to the airport at around 5:30. Dropped her off, came home and stayed up long enough to feed the animals and let the dogs out at 9:00, then went to bed and slept until 6:30.

My sister is staying with her mother-in-law until the end, which the doctors say won’t be too long now. A couple of days more, I guess. J sleeps most of the time, but she woke up a few times and knows my sister is there. I am here alone, taking care of the animals and struggling to adjust to a hectic new job and trying to change into a night person after over 20 years of being a morning person. Saturday, I was so happy to have survived the week, I dropped off three rolls of film, went to the library, checked out some books and sat on a bench in the sun and read for an hour and a half. I was just so grateful to be out in the fresh air and feel the warm sun on my face. Winter is coming and there won’t be many more days like that.

I’ve got Wednesday off this week. I’m going to try and get my hair cut on Thursday (before work) and Friday (before work) I’ve got to take Curly Joe for a recheck with the doctor at NWVS. I work Saturday night, too (which is why I have Wednesday off). I’m kind of worried because I think Curly Joe may have a hernia. My sister says it’s nothing to worry about as long as he’s still pooping, but I’m going to ask the doctor about it on Friday. If he has to have another surgery, so be it, but that might be the end of me. I honestly can’t handle anymore stress.

I brought the dogs up to my mom's this evening to visit while I made dumpling stew. I also did laundry and took a shower. Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do when we grow up? Mooch off our parents?

There is one good thing, though. I got a book in the mail: Slap Shot Original: The Man, The Foil, The Legend, by Dave Hanson. Totally forgot I’d pre-ordered it. I look forward to reading it on my lunch break. Now all we need is a book from the Carlson brothers, and I’ll be happy.

So that’s the news for now. I’m not doing very well these days. Nothing to do but keep on keeping on, right?

Just like anything.

Still here, guys. Still not running. Curly Joe came home a week ago and has recovered remarkably well for a puppy who has been on death’s door twice in the seven months he’s been on this earth. He’s a fighter. If he’s not giving up, neither are we. He hasn’t felt well since last night, but I’m trying not to freak out about it. I’d forgotten to give him his Pepcid two nights in a row, and that might have something to do with it. Not to mention he still has a severe liver problem, and is bound to have off days.

I started a Curly Joe blog with his foster mom; it is for anyone who wants to keep tabs on Curly and how he’s doing, and also so that I don’t clog up my running journal with puppy stuff. Not that the puppy stuff is bad, of course. I just want to try and stay on topic as much as possible. The blog will be made public once we get a few “earlier” entries up.

I weighed myself last night (for the first time in about four months) because I wanted to see if Curly Joe had gained any weight (he had lost two pounds pre-surgery). Curly has gained two pounds. I have gained eight. THE HORROR. I’m not freaking out about it, though. I’m on my period, and I had also just eaten a huge (veggie) meatball sandwich before stepping on the scale. I start my new job tomorrow night, and I know that having a set schedule will help me with eating regular meals. I have been stuffing my face regularly for the past two weeks, from stress and anxiety. My sister bought me a little laptop (bento) lunch box as a gift for getting the new job, and I’m looking forward to coming up with tasty meals to stuff it with. Right now I’m thinking a small salad, some raw red pepper strips, baby carrots, some almonds and raisins. I don’t have much of an imagination when it comes to food. It’ll be strange eating my lunch at midnight, but I guess I’ll get used to it. You know what else I know I’ll get used to? A PAYCHECK. And as soon as my health insurance kicks in next month, I’m making an appointment for a complete physical. I haven’t seen a doctor in six years. That’s bad. After that, I’m heading straight for the dentist. I need to have a wisdom tooth pulled and get a cleaning. I’m toying with the idea of teeth whitening, but I don’t want to look like an actor. I’d just like a shade lighter than what I’ve got going on right now. I want to look healthy, not Hollywood.

In other health-related news, after some careful consideration, I signed up at Jillian Michaels’ website. Of course, I didn’t find out until afterward what a shrew she is about veganism, but that’s fine. I love watching Biggest Loser, and though I know this website isn’t the same as working out for two hours every day with a personal trainer while your whole life is put on hold, I know that having structure works for me. Being able to enter my weight and my workouts and tracking my progress is what keeps me motivated. Here’s a recipe that’s easily veganized:

Dried Figs Stuffed With Almonds & Cream Cheese

Prep Time: 5 mins
Total Time: 5 mins
Makes 4 Servings:
Per Serving: Calories: 154 , Saturated Fat: 1.9 g , Total Fat: 7 g , Carbs: 21 g , Dietary Fiber: 4 g , Protein: 4 g , Cholesterol: 7 mg , Sodium: 73 mg

Ingredients:
1/2 cup(s) figs, dried
1/4 cup(s) cream cheese, reduced-fat Tofutti
1/4 cup(s) nuts, almonds

Instructions: Make a lengthwise slit in each fig, not cutting all the way through. Spread a teaspoon of cream cheese inside each hole, and stuff with one or two almonds. Serve.

Plenty of recipes to choose from/veganize. I have it set up that Wednesdays and Sundays are my rest days. Tomorrow my workout consists of:

Warm Up/Prep: Warm Up
Circuit 1: Jumping Squat (3 sets of 15), Plyo Push-Up (3 sets of 15)
Circuit 2: Military Shoulder Press (3 sets of 15), Sumo Squat (3 sets of 15), Mountain Climbers (3 sets of 1)
Circuit 3: Bench Dip (3 sets of 15), One-Leg Pelvic Thrust (3 sets of 15), Jumping Rope (3 sets of 1)
Circuit 4: Weighted Crunch(3 sets of 15) , Jumping Jacks (3 sets of 1)
Circuit 5: Tricep Kickbacks (3 sets of 15), Russian Twists (3 sets of 15), Jumping Rope (3 sets of 1)
Cool Down: Cool Down

I figure I will just do the elliptical for warm up and cool down. And I think I’ll change the jumping squats to regular ones; I’m not sure my knees could handle that. At any rate, I’m really looking forward to starting this. There’s a weekly checklist you can print out that lists all the exercises and has check boxes so you can mark them off as you complete them. Perfect for me! I'm giving myself some time to settle into my weird work hours and also build up my strength again before picking up where I left off with the Couch-to-5k program.

In addition to having a healthy body, I’m also working on having a healthy mind. I have contacted a doctor about coming in to be evaluated for ADHD (sans H). The trouble is, she has ADHD herself, so it’s hard to pin her down. She e-mailed me some paperwork to print and fill out while I wait for her to send me a packet in the mail. If I am diagnosed, I am comforted to know that in a month I will be able to afford medication. My sister has been doing well on Adderall, though she forgets to eat. I try to make meals and bring them in to her (she does medical transcription from her home office), but after I start my job, she’ll have to fend for herself.

That’s about all I have time for right now, but before I go, ARE YOU REGISTERED TO VOTE? Go to Vote for Change to register to vote, register to vote absentee or find your polling location. You can also double check to make sure you’re registered to vote in your state. In this day and age, it’s a good thing to pay attention to.

ETA: I forgot to mention how incredibly happy I am that hockey season is upon us. My Red Wings are off to a good start, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Stamkos does as a Bolt, not to mention Artyukhin. Oh, and Malone and Roberts. I was flipping through the channels the other night and was delighted to find some hockey. The Winter Hawks vs Guelph. I thought it was strange that they kept mentioning Marian Hossa. Eventually I realized this was a Memorial Cup game from ten years ago, before Hossa became a Senator. And now he’s a Red Wing!

Speaking of the Winter Hawks, I dragged my sister to the season opener at the Memorial Coliseum on September 20th. The Spokane Chiefs won 3-0 (the third goal was scored during a five-on-three power play) and with 3:12 left in the third period, one of the Chiefs hit a Hawk. The Hawk took exception to this and shoved the Chief. The Chief shoved back. The Hawk hauled off and popped him right in the face. Then there were helmets and gloves all over the ice and the crowd was roaring. It was beautiful. It went on for quite a while. Not a bench-clearing brawl, but there were three fights going on at once. The goalies stayed out of it. At one point I looked at my sister and she said, “Ok. Fights are fun!” They put two guys from each team in the penalty box (one of them practically had to be dragged) and then the captains spent a few minutes talking to the ref. Eventually, three guys from each team were led off the ice, and there was much cheering.

Depending on my work schedule, the next game I can go to is this Saturday (against Seattle). Sis said she would go to another game with me, and my friend Rene is interested in going, too. The Portland Firefighters Hockey Club are starting up again soon, and I plan on going to a lot of those games. They’ve got a charity game against the Seattle firefighters club in November. I’m really looking forward to that. And here I thought I would only have TV hockey to slate my thirst! I’m still planning on getting my passport so I can go up to Vancouver for a Canucks game, and speaking of which, I would looooooooooooooooove to get tickets to the Winter Games in 2012. And I really hope this shows in Portland. If not, I’m getting the DVD.

Living is a gamble, baby. Loving's much the same.

I have so much to say and no time to say it. Curly Joe is being released from the hospital in a few hours. It has been one big roller coaster ride of emotions these last four days. Curly Joe was in such bad shape that we almost euthanized him. I called them to let them know we were on our way, and the tech put me on the line with the doctor. She said another specialist had taken a look at him and offered (at no charge to me) to take radiographs to see about the blood that was collecting in his chest cavity. "He doesn't see a dog who is ready to die," is what she told me. So I gave them the OK to do a chest tap and autotransfusion. The short of it is, after an unsuccessful surgery, a blood transfusion, a plasma transfusion and an autotransfusion (draining the blood from his chest cavity and putting it back into his system via an I.V.), Curly Joe is alive and (mostly) well and ready to come home.

We all knew he was special. Now I've seen firsthand just how strong he is, and I will never give up on him so easily again. Yes, the doctor was unable to repair his shunt. Yes, he developed serious complications post-op. But the doctor said if we can just get him past this, we can maintain him on special food and medications until we can find someone who can fix his specific problem.

So that is what we are doing.

Thank you to all of you who have supported me and Curly during this difficult time. It was really, really close for a while there. I'm anxious to get him back home where I am sure he will continue to improve. Tank will be so happy to see him again, as much as he hates to admit it.

Reg is our coach.

The good, the bad, the Curly.

The good: I GOT THE JOB. My schedule is Monday - Friday (some Saturdays) from 9:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. Yeah. It's going to take some time to figure out sleeping, working out/running and working, but I'll manage. Now I can afford to get fitted for good running shoes, and I won't be in pain anymore.

The bad: I still haven't been working out.

The Curly: I had Curly Joe in for his post-surgery bile acid test yesterday. This afternoon, we dropped him off at the NW Vet Specialists. They'll call me tomorrow before he goes into surgery and again when he's out of surgery and in recovery. It was hard dropping him off. He was having such a great time being around all the other dogs in the lobby, but when we said goodbye and the tech took him in back, he didn't want to go. He looked back at me like, "Why aren't you coming with me?" and it KILLED me. I cried when we left. I'm a nervous wreck already and they haven't even started operating yet. I shouldn't feel bad, I know. Despite the risks, he had to have this surgery or he would have died.

When they called to offer me the job, they said I could either start September 29th or October 6th. I picked October since it would give me about two weeks to look after Curly while he recovers from surgery. He's going to need careful monitoring to make sure there isn't any fluid collecting in his abdomen again.

-:- Happy thoughts for Curly. Positive, happy thoughts. -:-

A voice from the end of a leaf.

Hey. Whaddya know? I’m alive. I haven’t run in I don’t even want to know how long, but I haven’t given up. I’m still a runner, I just haven’t had time to hit the track for a while. A lot has been going on, some of it (a very tiny amount) good.

Tank and Curly Joe have finally settled into a nice friendship, though I’ll be damned if I can figure out which one is dominant over the other. Seems like they take turns. Curly has gotten a little bit bigger, though he has lost a couple of pounds recently. As you know, I had lab work done on him and his liver values came back funky. My vet suggested I take him for an ultrasound, so I took him to VDIC last week. Turns out Curly Joe has a problem with his liver shunt. Intrahepatic are harder to fix, and that is what he has. I took him to see a soft tissue specialist at the Northwest Veterinary Specialists this past Friday and we had an incredibly long talk about Curly Joe and how we can go about fixing his liver. All this time, we thought he had seizures and brain damage from being poisoned when he was three months old, but it turns out those are all symptoms of shunt problems. Quiet demeanor, head pressing, staring off into space. Those are all signs and symptoms. It even stunted his growth; he’ll never grow to full size because of this.

This will eventually kill him, so there is no choice but to operate. I will be setting that up sometime this week. For now, I’ve got him on special food (low protein) for his liver. He loves it, though he has been having diarrhea for the past couple of days (another symptom). Aside from a bad patch a week or so ago, Curly has been doing really well. He’s got such an amazing spirit, nothing gets him down. He reminds me of Luke so much. A couple of weeks ago, we were walking down the kitchen stairs when Curly spotted a cotton ball. He dove off the stairs and landed head-first on it. He’s a crazy puppy. (Holy crap is it raining right now.)

So that’s what’s going on with the puppy.

Now for the good news: I’ve got a lead on a job. My friend, R, told me about a position opening up at her work and said she would pass my resume on to her manager. I got a call from said manager a couple of days ago and have an interview with her tomorrow afternoon. The only downside to this job is that it’s in NE Portland and it’s the night shift. Stephen King night shift, yo. But I don’t really care about that. Traffic won’t suck at those hours, plus I’d get a $1.50 shift differential. I would also get benefits (medical, dental, life insurance, 401k, free lab work for my pets, etc.). So right now the pros are outweighing the cons. The biggest pro being MONEY. Steady paycheck. Paying off bills. Getting out of debt. All good things. I really hope I get the job. It’s going to do wonders for my crazy brain. I need routine and stability and working very, very part time (from home) for a transcription company wasn’t good for me at all. It was and it wasn’t. I would still do it part time as needed, but I can’t live on eight cents a line.

Exciting! My sister even bought me a little bento lunchbox (just in case). Aw.

Hawkeytown
Originally uploaded by orclimber

Finally, and this made me so incredibly happy, I dragged my sister to the Winter Hawks’ season opener last night at the Memorial Coliseum. Cheap seats were six bucks; how could we not go? I got the tickets yesterday morning and spent a few minutes going over the seating chart with the guy at Fred Meyer. (They sell Ticketmaster stuff in the electronics section.) At first he offered me some seats right behind the goal, but I passed because then that big damn net would get in the way. I aimed for seats to the left of center, in the nosebleeds. If you look at the picture up there, all the way up at the top left, that’s basically where we were sitting except at the opposite end of the rink. Pretty good seats (as I mentioned in the voice post).

The whole place is so much smaller than the Ice Palace; even from where we were sitting, we got a great view of the entire game. It wasn’t even close to being full capacity, so when I sat down and a pole was blocking the goal, I moved a couple of seats down. No biggie. Sis was a little concerned about the Hawks’ mascot, Tom-A-Hawk. He was wandering around below us, and she was convinced he was going to come over and she would have to push him over the railing. I told her he wouldn’t leave the main floor, but a few minutes later, he walked up the stairs and started mingling in the nosebleeds. At that point, Sis jumped out of her seat and moved to the other side of me. ”If he comes this way, you deal with him.” Lucky for me, he stayed away, but she and I argued for a while over whether or not he was a chicken or a hawk.

The game itself was fun. Nothing exciting, but I’m a bit spoiled. I’ve seen the bulk of my hockey games during the Cup playoffs, so I’m used to a completely different type of play. There were a couple of scuffles each period. Nothing major, but one or two ended with a guy from each team spending two minutes in the box. The Hawks beat the Chiefs (ooooownnzuh!) for shots on goal, yet they didn’t get a single goal.

Midway through the game, the Jumbotron (or, as I like to call it, the Minitron) fritzed out and then went dark. Oh, and there was the blimp that flew around and dropped paper (coupons?) on people. The one at the Ice Palace doesn’t go very far, but this one went allllll over the place. At one point it was floating in the air, pointed directly at us. Felt like Close Encounters. And then there were the two guys in the Hanson/Chiefs jerseys. So awesome.

The Chiefs won 3-0 (the third goal was scored during a five-on-three power play) and with 3:12 left in the third period, one of the Chiefs hit a Hawk. The Hawk took exception to this and shoved the Chief. The Chief shoved back. The Hawk hauled off and popped him right in the face. Then there were helmets and gloves all over the ice and the crowd was roaring. It was beautiful. It went on for quite a while. Not a bench-clearing brawl, but there were three fights going on at once. The goalies stayed out of it. At one point I looked at my sister and she said, ”Ok. Fights ARE fun!” They put two guys from each team in the penalty box (one of them practically had to be dragged) and then the captains spent a few minutes talking to the ref. Eventually, three guys from each team were led off the ice, and there was much cheering. I tell ya, when those players walked by without their helmets, I was struck by how young they are. BABIES! The lot of them! The oldest on both teams was 20 and the youngest was 16. Oy.

Anyway, the rest of the game played out and everybody went home.

All in all, a very good night. Even though “my” team lost, I still really enjoyed my first WHL game. There’s a person in this internet hockey community that mentioned enjoying the high school and beer league games more than the Hawk games, so I’m hoping to find out when and where those local beer leaguers are. So I can go to the games. She called them old-timers. I hope that means there’ll be lots of fights.

The Hawks play the Vancouver Giants next Saturday. I reeeally want to go.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. Hope you are all doing well. If I get this job, the first thing I’m doing (after paying off some bills, of course) is going to get my feet evaluated for good running shoes. I miss running. A lot.