Wow. There's a whole lot going on in the world and it's all kind of depressing isn't it? We have to work at staying positive amid all the negative and that's wearing us out too. I know not everyone who reads here shares my beliefs, but when life feels overwhelming I quiet the noise in my head and my social media feed and on the television screen and I read the Psalms.
Even when circumstances feel hopeless they are not hopeless. God is still on His throne and none of what is happening with wars and pandemics and hurricanes is a surprise to Him. I hope each one of you reading here knows He is for you. Psalm 91 is especially comforting right now...
'I will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord,
"He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."
Not precisely where I intended to go today, but how can I not? How can I talk about ordinary life when the world around us feels anything but?
Let's talk about my dog. The one we didn't want but who is now hubs best buddy and the one he doesn't want to be without. He's puny. Very very puny. A week ago he had emergency surgery on his belly and to be honest it is still a mess.
The day we left the lake to drive over to TN we noticed the pup was eating grass. If you have dogs you know this is what they do when their stomach isn't right and they need to throw up. He never did throw up and was good as gold on the three hour car ride to Tennessee but wasn't really himself either. We chalked it up to too much attention from the grandboys, too many people doing too many things, and most of all not enough time with the hubs.
My sister-in-law loves this dog as if he were her own, and in fact regularly threatens to kidnap him. We love leaving him there when we travel because he is spoiled and cared for as if he were at home. The night before we were to leave their house to drive another three hours to my daughter's house he got sick. Nothing crazy but right away hubs said he thought maybe he ate something he shouldn't have.
He knows this dog well.
The pup had just spent more than a week in the middle of tinker toys and Lincoln logs and tiny little magnetic pieces and all sorts of other tempting treats, and while we hadn't seen him snatch anything, we did consider the possibility. Still he was eating and doing all the things dogs do so we also thought it might be a case of the nerves/motion sickness/too many treats.
He was sick as a dog, no pun intended, the four days we were away, but still trying to eat and do all the things dogs do so we called our vet who said let it run it's course unless certain symptoms appear. Monday my sister-in-law called and said they were taking him over to the emergency vet they had used a few years prior, and he was immediately admitted. They gave him fluids and did an ultrasound but could not see any blockage so diagnosed it as severe gastroenteritis.
Is this tmi? Perhaps, but I'll continue anyway.
They kept him overnight and did another x-ray in the morning, and sure enough there was definitely a blockage of some kind which meant surgery. They were unable to identify precisely what he had ingested, but it appeared to be some sort of foam something. He spent another couple of nights in the hospital and then we picked him up on Wednesday and made the drive back to SC.
The incision looks awful, but after another trip to our own vet here, then several calls over the weekend (why is it always a weekend??!!) with our retired vet (thanks to our neighbors who are personal friends of his!!) we've kept him home, kept him as still as we can which basically means we don't take our eyes off of him for one single second, kept his meds current, and then hubs sends photos to the vet to see if we need to come in before our recheck on Thursday.
It's pitiful y'all. So so pitiful. Also messy, expensive, and painful.
While it's most certainly not the worst thing on a list of worst things in the world right now, it's our thing and it's one more thing, and I think of everyone out there right now dealing with their own things on top of the world things and and and...deep breath everyone....
'I will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord,
"He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."
