Category Archives: SMR

A Week of Doctors and Veterinarians

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This week I had an appointment with my gynecological oncologist, Dr. Sunshine, as well as my normal monitoring appointments. (When doing chemotherapy, you get a lot of blood drawn – not as much as during IVF, but close.) I also had to take my poor, itching (from allergies) pekingese to the veterinarian.

Dr. Sunshine had to inform me that I have to stay on pain killers until after chemo because with the nature of the chemo I have, it is just too hard to try and wean off of them until after I am done with my last two chemos. I am on the lowest possible dose, but I still don’t like it. He answered a bunch of questions we had had that only he could really answer – if there were answers. Overall, it was a good appointment even if we did wait two hours to see him. (Practicing out of 11 hospitals means you are a very busy man.) I did chide him about not having anything for Ovarian Cancer Awareness month. (My post is coming for this after Labor Day.)

My poor pekingese! Not only is he itching up a storm, he has developed a bad urinary tract infection with bladder stones. I nearly broke down in tears at the vet’s office when she told us he needed surgery. DH and I don’t want him to go into surgery until his itching and scratching are under control. He has been waking us up in the wee hours of the morning scratching his back and barking in frustration as a very itchy dog will do.

Here is the problem, benadryl does nothing for my pekingese. In the past we have always had to put him on steroids for about two weeks every year. Since it was such a limited time, we didn’t feel he needed shots or such. My mother’s peke is going to start allergy shots, so it isn’t like we wouldn’t do it if we thought it was necessary. While I was in the hospital, SMR developed his urinary tract infection and we had to take him off the steroids and on antibiotics. This meant his itching came back with a vengeance.

Oh, did I mention that to prevent itching means minimizing his time outside while keeping his stones under control until surgery means having him out to pee as often as possible?

Now, the vet finally told us it is ok to give him loratadine for allergies. This seems to be working better for his itching than anything less than steroids has ever.

This was supposed to have been DH’s vacation week and we spent 7 hours in various doc’s offices. Some vacation, huh?

Cleveland, Tennessee NOT Pet–Friendly

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Cleveland, Ohio is a better bet for a hotel.

Working backwards, when told our little pekingese caused no damage and we wanted our 50 USD deposit back, the clerk’s reaction was to say “dammit” – and it was a serious dammit. He thought it was under his breath. I got news buddy, I’m reporting you to AAA for false advertising.

First, there was the signage:

IMG 1584

Now, most of the hotels in Cleveland, Tennessee claimed the same, but they all wanted exorbitant deposits and an extra 10 to 20 USD per day even when the pet caused no damage. The common fee was 100 USD – a bit much for a small pekingese.

Now, we were tired – having driven 600 miles and it was almost 2 AM when we reached Cleveland. What can I say? I tend to get late starts I’m not much for mornings.

We found the Travel Inn – their fee was 50 USD plus 15 USD a day – not unreasonable. The kicker? Where you had to walk your dog – under threat – despite the sign shown above of being “Pet Friendly”. Here’s a movie to show where this location was:

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Oh, and the other thing? The “pet friendly” walk was not even human friendly – lookie at what we found there:

IMG 1591Of course, there was also broken glass in case you didn’t find the condom.

I highly recommend avoiding Cleveland, Tennessee when stopping over on long car trips.

I have stayed at truly pet-friendly places. This is not one!

DH is no longer allowed to select hotels while traveling. He becomes super grump and unreasonable late at night. Since I am a night person, I would like him to let me take over driving before he iis ready to fall over. Of course, his theory is that he shoulld drive until he collapses – thus making him too grumpy to trade places.

There Be Squirrel – A Pekingese Pines

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For roadkill, that is.

SMR has smelled it, even seen it – and he has not forgotten. The sleeping pekingese has awoken with a grumbly growl of “wanna go out to get the squirrel” from time to time over the past two days. Of course, he thinks we don’t know this is about the squirrel.

This is partially my fault. I was not vigilant when I took him out two days ago. He actually got his mouth on the squirrel before I knew it – but did not get a chance to bite it or pick it up. How was I to know that there would be a dead squirrel directly in front of our mailbox?

Since that fateful day, despite the carcass being buried in snow, he has made a beeline towards where he knows that squirrel to be. After all, that there is gourmet food to a pekingese king!

Pekingese Discovers Mini-Haagen Daz Containers!

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Yes, His Majesty has discovered the joys of Haagen-Daz:

IMG_1139 IMG_1140

Till he can’t eat anymore!

IMG_1146

Yes, this is because I just haven’t gotten around to writing a few reviews.  I’ve got about 10 to write but seem to be having motivational issues.  There are several things going on in my life that are making me a little nuts.  Hopefully, I will return to my normal blogging habits soon.

Posted in SMR

A Neglected Peke Finds Ways To Attention

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So, His Majesty, King Smokey, thought he was not seen when he absconded with a carrot right out of the container on top of the cooler earlier on the Saturday I went to the local Farmer’s Market. He had been very stealthy in his eating of the carrot, after all. Those silly humans couldn’t possibly have noticed. So, he starts scratching the side of the cooler to indicate he wants a carrot. My laughing answer to that:

“You already had a carrot, Boy!”

He gave me a disgruntled look, snort, then pouted as if to say that I was spending too much time canning food.

Of course, he was also not happy with my obsessive knitting that led me to put him on what we term “the green leash” (no fence) instead of taking him for a walk when I was extremely exhausted. This lets him be outside without having to have one of us. I noticed it had been awhile, and got a little suspicious. I decided to check what he was doing.

You must understand, he has never shown much desire to dig – more of a squirrel / cat chaser, is my pup. So, I walked out to find a goodly 2 foot by 1 foot patch of grass dug up and a peke in the present state:

Yes, I had to chase him down and drag him up to the bathtub to get his paws cleaned off. This was rich, black dirt. The hardest kind to get out of pekingese fur. He, of course was desperate to find a way out of the bathroom as he heard me running the water.

Once I got a good hold on him and put him in the tub, he barked at me as if to say, “Why are you torturing me!” It only took about 10 minutes to rinse off the dirt and dry him.

Once I opened the bathroom door, he tore down the stairs to his usual spot on the couch and proceeded to snore contentedly.

Did I mention that DH was off on a boys’ night out? Yep, SMR decided to save this behavior for when I had him all to myself.

SMR Has Taken to the Couch…

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It was touch and go for awhile.  Pekingese are known for their stubborn demeanor – a great part of their charm.  I was worried he would not forgive us for changing the main room around.  But I think this picture pretty much says it all:

SMR Asleep

This, of course, shows that the couch now belongs to Smokey and we mere humans may use it only at his discretion.  Though, he still has a preference for his chair over the couch.  I think it is because my husband can reach over and scritch his ears while he is working.

Yes, my husband works from home, able to be comfortable on a couch while I have to trek off to an office each day.  His job, though, is somewhat more demanding than mine.  Unlike him, I am never on call.

Back to his majesty, Smokius Maximus Rex.  He has not yet decided what part of the sectional is his.  It seems to be confusing to him that he cannot take up the whole sectional no matter how much he tries.  But, of course, all small animals are larger than they appear.  I’m sure he will figure it out eventually.

A Poorly Pekinese

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Last week Thursday, Mr. Smokey, a.k.a. SMR had dental surgery. The vet took 4 teeth. Three of these teeth were rotten to the point of periondontal disease. One of the teeth was broken – due to SMR being a bit of a scrapper – such that only root was left.Just Coming Home from Vet Dental Surgery

As you can see from the picture, he was completely out of it when he came home. SMR thought he could walk. I did find out that my husband is even more of a worry wart than I expected as he would not let go of Smokey for about 4 hours after we brought him home. Smokey on his bed

I finally got him to let the poor little dog lie down in his own bed – where he did not move for all evening. We had to pick him up to take him out.

Now, my husband decided to sleep on a mattress we have on the floor in one room with Smokey so he wouldn’t fall off the bed.  As you can see in the picture, he was keeping his mouth hanging in the air.  I can’t blame him as I have had major dental surgery and it is no fun at all.

So, not only was I sick last week, I had a poorly little pekingese to take care of all weekend.  And he needed a lot of attention because he is very, very good at not taking  medicine.  For instance, he held a pill that had been hidden in a raspberry, which he usually snarfs up, in his mouth for a full 15 minutes before spitting it out.  Now, I have had many pekes, and know this can happen, needless to say, my husband was the victim of this since Smokey is his first dog – let alone pekingese.  My philosophy of making a peke take a pill is to place it in the back of their throat and rub their throat to swallow.  I know it sounds cruel, but I think the pain would have been crueler.

Now, Smokey is doing pretty well, there is no more swelling, and I think he is feeling better than he had been before the surgery.  Of course, he will continue playing the “poorly pekingese” card as long as he is allowed to.

Pet Food Recall and the Industrialization of Our Food Supply

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Kansas.

Kansas is the place where the problem originated. Kansas is also the place where mega-farms were born. Supposedly, the FDA is hot on the trail of the problem:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/20/national/main2587087.shtml

Kansas is supposed to be the fresh-faced picture of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Of course, Kansas is also part and parcel of Monsanto and ADM – even if only higher up on the food chain.

The FDA believes that the gluten was actually contaminated by toxic substances still unknown. Shouldn’t they be testing the contaminated foods and doing a trace back of these? Granted, I’m not a chemist by any means, but it seems that there should, indeed, be a way to find out.

Who would willingly and knowingly send poisonous food to our pets? It seems that Menu Foods, Inc. would. And did. According to a variety of news sources there seems to have been at least a 30 day lag between noticing a problem and notifying anyone. 30 days of inaction. 3o days where pets could – and did – die.

How did this happen? Those who are familiar with me know that I believe the centralization and deregulation of the food industry has led to the endangerment of lives. Not only our pets’, but our own.

Not Blogging Recently

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I know, I haven’t written much lately. Reasons are many, here’s a shortened list:

  • Shock at Pet Food Situation (working on entry now)
  • Shock at Congress’s Inability to Use Powers Appropriately (Impeach ENTIRE Administration NOW!)
  • Busy at Work
  • Busy at Home
  • Busy Plotting Out Master Plan to Get Food Related Diseases Noticed (Kinda of related to #1)

Yep, I have blog entries in draft but I get sooo mad at what is happening to our beloved pets that I start to see red as I write. It is actually easier to respond to others’ posts.

Greetings from MLO Knitting!

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This is a blog about just about anything and everything.

I will probably mostly talk about my knitting and allergies since they are taking up so much of my life right now.

Of course, I always talk about my pekingese dog, Smokius Maximus Rex (SMR):

Smokius Maximus Rex (SMR)

As you can see, he believes he owns the chair that I like to knit in. He is extremely spoiled – but that is what pets are for.

My current pet projects include www.otherinfo.org – a Patient to Patient communications tool. The idea is that no matter the disease, there are some things that patients know more about than the medical personnel around them. (Or the medical guys just forgot to mention that you might have a given side effect.)

I’m also involved in trying to pursue tougher labeling laws in regards to foods and drugs. There is a significant subset of people out there who cannot trust anything they eat, drink, or take for medical reasons due to food allergies. Unfortunately, the Top 8 focus of the current laws have given companies an out to not cooperate with those of us who suffer from other life-threatening allergies.