Weeknotes for September 2023
🧗🏻♀️ Went bouldering for the first time
Easier and harder than I thought it would be! My hands were sore afterwards, but that dopamine hit when you got to the top of one of the (admittedy totally beginner, VB) routes felt goooood.
🏖 Took the dog and her bestie to the beach
Ahead of her spay, we took Orla and her pal Effie to the seaside to run around, paddling in the sea and catch their balls.
🎭 Watched Pride & Prejudice outdoor theatre
The sun was out, the SPF was applied (multiple times), we had cream tea and watched P&P being performed by 5 people - so clever!!
🎲 Dinner & games night with friends
Delicious vegan thai green curry, bakery goods for pudding. Notable games that we played:
🐶 Shit went down with Orla
So Orla went in for her spay, all went well. But the following days she was very poorly. We took her back into the vets but it was brushed off as low pain tolerance. Following days she stopped eating food and vomiting 4 times a day, she became severely dehydrated, she was having regular muscle spasms on her head and jaw. On Sunday we rushed her off to the emergency vet hospital, they didn't know what the connection was between her vomiting and muscle spasms so ran some tests 'just to see'... it came back that she had an acute kidney injury - life threatening. Cue the worst week of my life, leaving her at the vets being pumped full of IV fluids, electrolytes, painkillers and antibiotics and just praying her body could recover. Not knowing if that Sunday was going to be the last day I would see her alive. She's only 1 and a half years old, it seemed so unfair! But she responded well to the fluids and her blood levels improved. She was able to come home on 3 days later for the night to trial being off fluids and she did OK.
We're still at the start of this journey and we won't know the full extent of the damage that has been done. She'll be having blood test for a while to monitor her progress. And my life could turn upside down again at a flip of a switch, but today she is happy and healthy.
Here is the hold music that was playing on the vet hospital phone when we called up for an update - my other half took most the calls and he says this music now reminds him of the place our girl got better:
👀 Perspective shift
This whole ordeal, whilst leaving me with some intense anxiety and always-on alertness to anything she does that could possibly be a symptom of deterioriation, has made me more present and made me want to celebrate more and take her for more adventures. I want to spend less time working, more time with her and people I love. Life is fragile, make the most of it now.
🍽 Sunday roast!!
Part celebration, part making the most of life, part really wanted a yorkshire pudding!
👨👩👧 Mum and dad popped over in the evening
Not usually a common occurance as they live over and hour and a half away, but they came over for the evening to see Orla (and us). We made them dinner and I gave them a little card with Orla's pawprint on it and a few photos I got printed of them with her as a thank you for looking after us the week before.
🐶 Dogsat Effie
Looked after Effie for the day. Orla loved it, but Effie got bored of Orla trying to play very quickly
🦠 COVID is going through the family
We missed visiting family last weekend as we were on Orla Watch, but during that weekend and this week, two of our family have been admitted to hospital with COVID. They say bad things come in threes, but I feel like we've gone beyond that count this month!
Looking forward to October, and hoping it brings far more health and happiness to everyone. This has been a monster of a month that I would like to not repeat.