TOOOOO much going on....

I am ashamed of myself...really.  I'd like to say that I had writer's block, or that I was bored with blogging or even that I hurt my paw and couldn't type, but I'm a vizsla - we are truthful and earnest, but I am not well organized (you've seen that I'm easily distracted) and I'm just a little overwhelmed by everything that's gone on recently.  There was the Show and Go, The 5K, some emotional upheaval in the pack (I can't write about it now; I'm totally depressed and grieving about it) and now there's a beef and beer on Friday...busy, busy, busy.  It's all for a good cause, I LOVE my mom, but this is how I feel...

 I'm under here, really.






























See? 

    




What's that?  What's that?   The Great Pumpkin?

Mmmmm....Yogurt!  I guess I"m not too tired for that.






















But, as you can see, even for yogurt, I can't lift my head too far.  Phew!  Tired, worn out, exhausted.  Canines don't cry from exhaustion, so that's not happening, but I am looking forward to a nice long sleep this weekend.  Research shows that dogs sleep 80% of the day; maybe I'll sleep 81% of the day.  After all, there are still squirrels to eradicate....

Brisket

I know, I know.  I haven't been online and writing for TWO weeks.  There's SO MUCH to tell, but right now, I am completely riveted to something really important....

Mom and Dad made 45 pounds of brisket yesterday and today for Mom's last Fall fundraiser - the Beef and Beer.  It has been TWO DAYS of torture for Shadow and Me.  Really...the smell of braising the meat, the odor of slow roasting, waiting while they pulled it all apart and collected the juices, and then, they have the audacity to leave it in PLAIN SIGHT and SMELL.

Isn't there some kind of law against this?

I mean really, this is torture!

But...check me out here...

I snuck a piece anyway.

Like the invitation says...eat more beef.

Operation Save Hepsi's Garage Sale

I like garage sales.  I'll bet you like them to for the same reason...they're FULL of all kinds of new smells.  What?  You don't go there for the smells?  Hmmmm....humans are odd.  You like STUFF...and there's plenty of stuff here.  


****Before I go on, the garage sale, Part 2 is Saturday, October 15, from 8-? at Lynn's.  Check the website for address.  Last week was so successful that we needed to have a Part 2!****

I'm NOT, I repeat, NOT for sale.  I'm just posing as any good spokesdog should.

So, stuff and stuff and stuff...

Colin and his amazing Tie-Dye shirts.  Come and get one.  (No canine styles...yet.)


And no sale is complete without bling.  

And the Bling's creator - Debra (and ME.  No photo is complete without ME).

The bottom line?            $1850 !!!!  Holy Mackeral!

So the saying is true:  One man's junk is really Hepsi's treasure.

If I had any energy, I'd wonder if we'll do as well this weekend.  Why worry when you can sleep in the sunshine?

Happy Birthday....

..to ME!  Yesterday was my birthday!  (Actually, by the time I get this posted it will be way past my birthday, but Hey! I do a a problem with the whole time concept.)  So, I just had my birthday, and I had a really special and busy birthday!  First thing in the morning,while the grass was all dewy and cool, Mom and I went to an agility competition.  It was Day 2 of Lums Pond and it could only be better than Day 1.  I had fun, but I DID NOT LISTEN WELL to instructions on the course, so we had three NQ's (did not qualify).  Mom blamed herself (like all good handlers) and hoped to go better on Sunday.  (actually, she was so frustrated by our performance on Saturday that she thought about skipping Sunday altogether.  That's VERY UNLIKE HER...but truth to tell, she got overly tired and it wasn't fun competing later in the day.  I cold see she was hurting badly, and I think she paid more attention to her body's aches and ills than to me.  Consequently, I lived up to my Moussechief nickname).


I'm so glad Mom opted to go Sunday morning.  She told me all the way out to the pond that we were just going to concentrate on having fun and more fun...no matter what the course presented us with.  Just fun...And fun it was.  A fast course that showed off all the distance training we've been doing.  There was no way for mom to keep up me after the tunnel, but she hit all the verbal commands perfectly, and I listened perfectly.  Here's what it looked like:

Lauri and Gusto were at the end to say congratulations to us.  Lauri also let mom cry and cry cry and cry and cry.  This was her last competition with me as my handler.  She decided that no matter what the happened today, it would be the last until she's better.

Friends that hold you when you cry are The Best!

How did we do?  What was the result???? Check this out.

TaDa!  First Place and a Clean Run!  Mom couldn't be happier.  What a way to go out!

It was a Blue Ribbon Day for us both!

Steroid Bully (or I'm sorry Mom Z)

Mom is on a tear...really.  I don't want to get off on a rant and you know I don't bark trash about her, but she is Out of Control.  Since the only way to resolve the muscle weakness is to cut back on the steroids, that's what she's done.  You'd think that cutting back one little, bitty milligram wouldn't be a BIG DEAL, right?  What's the hassle with going from 10 mg/day to 9mg/day?   


It's the difference between being kind of normal and wanting to rip everyone's head off.
Kinda like when I'm roughing housing with Shadow.

Grrrrrr...I ain't playin' with you, Shadow.  I'm trying to rip your lips off.

Remember, steroids can cause mood swings (see previous post on the joys of steroids).  If you take a lot of steroids, you can turn into a BULLY.  And when you cut back, you can turn into a BULLY.  Throw in a full moon, and you'll have a howling good time  (sorry, that's a little dog/werewolf joke).


 Here's the problem; once you've taken steroids for a long time, your body gets habituated to them.  Your adrenal glands don't produce as much natural steroid while taking steroid pills, and your body gets used to this state of affairs.  Withdrawing from steroids slowly is a way to "trick" the adrenal glands into doing their job again.  The trick's really on the body: while waiting for the adrenal glands to wake up and go back to work, mom feels very bad...crummy, poorly, rotten, like she has the flu all the time... and that's just the physical part.


The emotional and mental part is harder.  She's prone to crying for no reason and seems to have very little control of her emotions.  She's also temperamental and is easily overwhelmed by the littlest thing.  I mean little...like picking up a pillow to make the bed this morning, hurt.  So she cried...not so much from pain, but from frustration and steroid withdrawal.  Her printer stopped working, so she yelled at it, uttered a few curse words (unfortunately not under her breath) and burst into tears.  


And worst of all, when her mom came in, (that's Mom Z), little mom went nuts...crying and babbling incoherently about "How overwhelming it all is".  There's too much to do...and not enough people to do it all.  The campaign is working flat out and still, it seems like it's not enough.  It's too hard and everyone just has to stop...how long will it all take?  And let's not even start on Workman's Comp.  


Boy, she said some harsh things and was aghast to hear those things come out of her mouth - she's usually optimistic and pretty cheerful, but poor Mom Z really took some abuse from her today.  Not all of it can be related to steroid withdrawal - there's a lot of stress in a campaign to raise funds, but it seems that the lack of that one little bitty mg does make a BIG difference.  It removes the ability to control your emotions and stop yourself from saying some very hurtful things.

I'd offer to share my bone with her, but in her current mood, I'm afraid she'd rip off my lips, and I need my lips.

I wouldn't be nearly as cute in this photo if I had no lips.

I think I'll just curl up in her pillows and wait for her to come and cuddle up with me.  Tomorrow will be better.  It certainly couldn't be worse.

Decisions, Decisions - Piriformis Syndrome

Nothing simple ever happens to Mom.  One side effect has lead to another.  It's called Piriformis Syndrome.  Yup, ANOTHER one of those mysterious conditions.  I love Wikipedia for a quick understanding of this..."Piriformis syndrome is a neuromuscular disorder that occurs when the sciatic nerve is compressed or otherwise irritated by the piriformis muscle causing pain, tingling and numbness in the buttocks and along the path of the sciatic nerve descending down the lower thigh and into the leg."

Basically, it's a pain in the ass (oops...butt).  And leg, and hamstring, and calf, and foot.  It's excruciatingly painful and has really made Mom cry.  She hates crying about pain, but this seems to be different.  This morning, she was making coffee and while the water was boiling, she had to go lie down and stretch the leg THREE TIMES.  She wouldn't even laugh when I stood by her and wagged my tail and acted concerned.  (It wasn't an act...I was concerned.)

Where did it come from?  GUESS!!  Go ahead....GUESS!!

Yup...it came from the Proximal Muscle Weakness caused by the prednisone!!

I don't get it.  How can this happen?  What does it mean for me Mom?

Here's the theory. This proximal muscle weakness (PMW) started sometime in the early summer and crept up all unknowingly.  In the meantime, because Mom is stubborn and loves to walk us, she kept to her routine as much as possible not knowing that she was changing her gait to compensate for the muscle weakness.  Her left foot starting pronating, causing muscle strain, and by the time September rolled around, what she and her doctor thought was just lower back pain turned into a very bad case of Butt Pain (and hamstring and leg, etc...)
Let's fix it!       Turns out it's not so easy to fix because a very difficult choice has to be made.  I can explain it like this:

Squirrel to the left; squirrel to the right.  Which one to go after?  I hope the outcome is the same (eradicating our birdfeeders of these pesky little gray things), but which WAY is better? 

Choice 1:  Mom has to lower the dose of steroids to help resolve the muscle weakness.  (Remember steroids help control inflammation, so she's courting a flare). But, it's possible that the steroids are helping keep the piriformis muscle swelling down a little.

Choice 2:  See a specialist and get an injection into the bursa of the muscle.  What's IN the injection.  Ohhhhhh....just liquid steroids.   

RATS, doesn't that negate the whole "lower the reduce the steroids - to get rid of the muscle weakness -  that led to the change in gait and -  to the strain of the piriformis?" thing? 

What a conundrum.  Let's just sleep on it for awhile.

Proximal Muscle Weakness

What?  This is an unusual side effect if prednisone.  I mentioned it at the bottom of my last blog entry, and it's going to take some explaining.  Not to worry.  I am highly educated and am more than willing to share my overwhelming knowledge with you.  The topic is much too complicated to approach without the support of my colleagues.

According to www.rightdiagnosis.com, proximal muscle weakness is "weakness of the proximal muscles".  Well, alrighty then.  THAT was extremely helpful.  Don't the editors of the website know that you aren't supposed to use the words in the definition.  I don't think that adding "of" and "the" made the definition clear in any way.

Proximal Muscle Weakness (PMW) is insidious in that it comes on slowly and almost without realizing it.  AND, when you have RA, it's really easy to think that you're having a flare rather than a side effect. Mom noticed that she was having trouble getting up from a seated position, climbing stairs and washing her hair (arms overhead).  It affects lesser used muscles that oppose strong muscles.  For example, Mom has strong quads from walking, but her hamstring is weak.  Strong biceps, weak triceps.  Apparently, this is brought on by long-term and high doses of steroids.  Since she can't take any meds for her RA other than prednisone, this presents a dilemma.  Cutting back on the steroids is the best cure for PMW, however, doing that could bring on a serious flare. SIgh...it's always something.

PMW is really tiring.  It adds another layer of fatigue to an already tired condition.  Plus add PT three days a week and KABLAM!  Mom is pooped.  I've always been able to beat her up the stairs (it's the four-legged advantage), but now she uses both bannisters to get up the stairs and it takes ages.  I've even noticed that she surveys the stairs and plots her ascent.  She and Mom Z call those 13 stairs "Mt. Everest".  (I personally think if they grew two more legs, they wouldn't have any problem at all.)

Our days are getting really boring again.  Get up, eat breakfast, kiss Dad goodbye, take a nap, and then we get to go for a walk with Lauren -the cutest dog walker in the world.  Mom is going to let her take us walking three days a week since she can't even do a short walk with us.  When she's alert, Mom works hard on Operation Save Hepsi...sending letter and email, making phone calls, reviewing letters and making long range plans for fundraisers.  Throw in making a nice dinner for all of us and she's done.

Thank goodness there's Phillies games on every night!  There's nothing like curling up with her and Dad and watching the Phillies swing their way into the Playoffs and the World Series!

GO PHILLIES!

(and Go MOM, too)

Prednisone: A Love/Hate Story

A lot of humans read yesterday blog and laughed, and laughed and laughed.  But, really, prednisone is a serious business. Mom has been on steroids since before I came to live with her and Dad.  (That's a good story, too, but needs to wait until after I go get rid of the cat in the window...)

Ok, now that I've taken care of the important business of guarding the house, let's get back to the topic of prednisone.  You'll notice that the words "Love" and "Hate" are used - those are strong words, indicating an elevated level of feeling.  Mom very rarely uses the word "Hate" - it's not in her working vocabulary.  (I on the other hand really hate that cat in the window.  I think it has to do with that whole cat/dog rivalry that's as old as time itself).

      Love is a word that Mom uses frequently.  She loves her mom (Mom Z), and her husband, (my Dad!), Aunt Carolyn, Uncle Ron, Lynn, Katie...ok, she's LOVES the people in her life.  Of course, she adores ME (and Tipsy and Shadow, too - but really..ME).

Steroids tend to bring out those diametrically opposed words - which isn't surprising as one of the primary side-effects is MOOD SWINGS.  Happy/Sad, Pleasant/Angry, Content/Disgruntled - it's like flipping a switch.  This unpleasant and baffling side effect doesn't need a trigger - it just happens.  And, the higher the dose, the worse and more frequent the mood swings.  In fact, a lot of people who take steroids for a long time need to take anti-depressant to cope with this rotten side effect. So, you have to take a pill, to help with the side effects of the first pill(s).

       I could continue writing about these side effects, but let's let pictures and charts do the talking. Although I generally am the featured canine here (it IS my blog) after all, I invited Tipsy to help me.  She's a love bug, so I let her have the LOVE column.

****DISCLAIMER****  This is not a complete list - just the most common ones that effect people who take prednisone for a long time let's say over 6 months or - like Mom - three years and counting.  Side effects can be mild to extreme (like mom again).  The ones listed below seem to the ones that Mom finds to be the most egregious.

A Word About Steroids...

My "Old" Friend Maggie

Two years ago, or maybe more - you know I have no sense of time -  Mom started taking me to the Early Learning Center at University of Delaware.  I went once a week to class and helped teach reading, math and my favorite...agility.  Mom was feeling better then than she is now, some of the medicines were working and she was able to volunteer a few hours per week with PAWS for People (www.pawsforpeople.org).

Mom set up courses with tunnels and jumps and weave poles, and my job was show all the four-year olds how to run the course.  Then, THEY ran the course - leaping over jumps, crawling through the tunnel and learning how to go through the weave poles.  Clever Mom made bandanas for everyone to help stay cool (they were really just scraps from the fabric store with dog paw prints on them, but we all loved wearing them.  Mom brought ice water to dip them in and stay cool.)

The four-year olds were a little slower than me, but I figure that's because I have four legs. We had lots of fun in the sun during those weeks when we played outside and learned coordination, logical thinking, and number sequences.  I usually don't pick favorites, but I sure liked Maggie because she gave great tummy rubs.

We had to stop working at the ELC in the fall of 2010 after Mom had sepsis.  She was really weak from having a heart attack, liver shock and well...just a huge infection.  Plus, she couldn't take any more medicine for RA except steroids.  Nothing.  Sigh....no more ELC, no more reading, no more visiting with little kids.  We were both bummed.  Mom cried about it.


But, imagine how surprised we were to see Maggie, her mom and dad and little brother at Community Days!  She's growing up and is now is First Grade!  Wow...I was happy to see her!

I heard Maggie's Mom and my mom talking.  Maggie really missed us when we left.  She talked and talked about Mousse and Miss Hepsi and all the fun they had when we came to school.  As a matter of fact, Maggie said that "Four-year old school was The Best year of school she'd ever had". 


Thanks Maggie. I hope the next twelve years of school aren't TOO disappointing.  

Community Days...introducing some campaigners

One of the good things about being a dog is that your perception of time is different from humans.  One of the bad things about being a dog is that your perception of time is different from humans.  It seems like Community Days was just yesterday, but according to Mom, I am way behind in this blog. So, today I'm going to post two!


Operation Save Hepsi had our first big fundraiser on Sunday,  September 18.  What a beautiful day!  Sunny, temperature was like perfect and we met lots and lots of people. I am a people magnet.

   

What a great group of people!  They all love my mom and gave it their all ALL day day long.  I'm going to have to find Jane and get a picture of her.  She's very camera shy.  

DId I mention that I was there as the main attraction? 

There were tons of things for sale to help raise money.  Lynn's Peach Jam was a huge hit, Aunt Carolyn's "Honey for Hepsi" sold out, and lots of earring and bracelets.  

No day is complete if one doesn't take time to admire herself.

What was the best part of the day?  Hmmmm...meeting people.  I think we'll start another blog entry for that.  Really, the best part of the day was seeing my mom smile a lot, talk with people, and get $1026 in donations!  Not bad for a nice day!

Here's looking at you, kids.  Thanks for a great day!

Morning Glorious

Mornings are always interesting. Mom wakes up and her first job is assess her condition.  How many joints hurt?  Did she get enough sleep?  Can she stand up or does she need to sit on the edge of the bed for a few minutes to let her feet get ready for the first step? And then, there's the stairs...don't even get her started about the stairs.  They can be a MAJOR obstacle to her well being.  There's two banisters to help out, but some mornings she has to sit on her rear end (really she calls it her butt descent) and slide down to the first floor.  The best thing is that we can impeded her progress by offering kisses, toys and generally showing how much we love having her at our level.  Ok...so that's what I think.  Mom finds the coffee that Dad makes for her to be the "best part of waking up."  Really?  Coffee over vizsla and yellow lab kisses?  Hmmmmm....I'll have to give this some thought. Coffee is about the only thing she eats or drinks that I don't want to eat.  It's blechy.

But, I digress....mom took her trekking poles, treats and loaded us into the car for a morning schlep.  (She schleps, we run, run run).  I don't have a gear for schlepping.  I have two gears  "On" and "Off".  "On" includes  faaaaasssst.

Did I mention that mom brought treats?  She makes most of our treats.  Today she brought "stinky cookies".  She makes them twice a year and freezes them.  They can only be made on days when ALL the windows in the house can be open...the main ingredient is sardines and they (according to the humans in the house) smell vile.  Hence the name "stinky cookies".  But, you can see that we loooooove stinky cookies and come at a run for them.

Phew!  Fortunately, Mom saved some for me.  It took her a minute to treat me because she was laughing at my seed face

All, in all, it was a great morning.  We only walked half the field...it was that kind of a day, but one thing I've noticed about Mom; she would rather be out with us for a schlep that takes an hour to do what she could have done last month in 20 minutes.  She says it's good for her soul; fresh air, sunshine, the company of clowns (that's us), a hawk flying overhead, seeing a fox in the distance, and listening to the crazy honks of the Canadian Geese as they begin they're migration south.  If her soul is fed and her spirit recharged, she can face the day.

Looks like today was successful.  Wet feet, sunshine and laughing.  We only hope that tomorrow morning can be the same.

Clara's Show and Go

How exciting!  Clara's having a Show and Go at her house for members of the Academy of Dog Training and Agility learn about Mom's stem cell transplant.  Very few people at the academy know what Mom's up against 'cos she doesn't talk about it much, so this event is to start educating our group so they can gear up for the next Big Show and Go.

There's nothing I like better than than agility!  Ok, I love steak and those "stinky cookies" that Mom makes; chasing squirrels and rolling in goose poop is really fun too, but paw for paw, agility is MY FAVORITE thing.  I LOVE it...and so does Mom.  We love working together, trying out new moves and learning how to work as a team.  The only problem is that Mom doesn't run at all, now.  When we first started, she was able to run pretty well for short bursts, but this past year, especially since the septic shock in March, she's had more and more trouble keeping up with me on the the course.  But...we still love it and are working on "distance" - that means she sends me away from her to take obstacles and jumps.  This is tricky to learn and REALLY hard for Vizslas to learn because we are velcro dogs.  We like to stick with our humans.

Here's Clara's course!  We had to go through the garden and around the shed!  The garden smelled good.

Clara's courses are always challenging.  I think Clara would be a great agility judge!  She loves watching all us dogs, encouraging our owners, giving tips and designing courses. I think Clara is one of the kindest people I know.  She's patient and kind and she always flops on the floor and rubs my belly for a loooooong time.  Best of all, Clara always smells good...I think she's one big treat.

Lots of friends from the Academy showed up:

Even my good friend, Ellie Mae (Tipsy's daughter) came and showed off her newbie agility skills.  What great weave poles! Check out these fast weave poles!

We had a great day and were happy and tired!  And, we raised at least $600 for Mom's transplant fund.  Wow, Wow, Wow!  Now THAT makes me happy!

Well, This is the Forest of Arden...

...said Rosalind to Touchstone in "As you like it." Touchstone replies, "Ay, now I am in Arden, more fool I."  And WHAT A FOOL I was...a petting fool!!  There were 9,000 humans at Arden Fair, and I must have met hundreds of them!  "Can I pet your dog?" was the most frequently asked question!  Good thing Mom said "Yes" every time!  Here I am getting all the attention from new friends Lindsay, Varsha, Varsha's sister, Aasthna and Gwen. giving me greeeeeeeeaaaaaat pets.  Why are Gwen and Lily just sitting around in the back?  I've got lots of tummy room!

  AHHHHH....

But wait, this was serious business.  Right?  I'm here to help Mom with the launch of Operation Save Hepsi.  We're here to meet people and talk to them about Rheumatoid Arthritis and why Mom needs a stem cell transplant.  We had a tent sent up, brochures, buttons...those were highly desireable since they have MY picture on them.  There were also BIG PICTURES that Mom took on some of her research cruises to show what she used to do before she was sick. Here's Katie Scanlan (Co-Campaign Chair), Alex and Tori showing off our tent and poster.  Notice the bar showing how much money we've gotten is at $0.  That's OK though, we have to start at zero and can only go up from there!

 oops....BRB!

I generally don't like felines of any kind...but this Zoe is my kind of cat.  More pets for Mousse-Mousse.  Ahhhhh......

But seriously, we're here to start the campaign.  We need to raise $100,000 as soon as possible to buy those stem cells.  Let's get going!

First, the Operation Save Hepsi volunteers get their plummage on.                    

Then, Hannah, Alex and Tori stop to give me a final pet <smirk> before heading out to mingle in that crowd of 9,000. They handed out lots and lots of buttons and brochures and sent tons of people over to meet Mom.

I think that was the best part of the day...watching Mom talk to people.  I told you that she was nervous and anxious about the day - that she had ambivilant feelings about "begging".  However, all the people we met were exceedingly kind and encouraging.  Most people were very interested in the actual use of stem cells and how umbilical cord blood was going to be used.  In fact, the question/comment that she feared hearing the most, "You have RA?  But you LOOK so good" was only heard about 20 times.  (I was counting even though I appeared to be paying no attention).  

In fact, people were more interested in the science of the transplant and the injustice of medical insurance decisions than anything else (except meeting me). Some people put cash into out "Maine Moose" bucket, but Hepsi asked them to either come to a fundraiser or better, make a donation online so that they could get the tax deduction.  Most people, to our surprise, weren't that interested in the tax deduction as much as helping saving Mom's life.  People like helping people in need.

There were two people that really need to get my special thanks; Diane and Jeff.  They stopped by the tent early in the morning where they shared their story of DIane's struggle with chronic cancer.  Diane told Hepsi that it's really normal and ok to lie down on the floor and cry your eyes out from time to time.  Really...this is normal and should not be construed as anything but a natural reaction to a chronic, life threatening condition.  Somedays, sometimes it all becomes TOO MUCH and you just have to cry. And that's ok.  Cry, feel bad, and then, when you're done, dry your eyes, pull up your big girl panties and move on.  I don't wear panties at all - this is some kind of human metaphor for "shake it off after you've slid all the way a creek bank and into the creek" kind of thing.  It seems like good advice.  I mean, I love it when Mom lies on the floor to do her exercises....I get to lie there with her and get extra lovin', but when she'd sad, it's different.  Not so many pets from her...in fact, I have to pet her, lick those salty tears and just curl up with her until she's done.  It's normal. Phew! 

Just like it's normal for us to be tired after a big day. I need a nap.

All's well that ends well (today).  

(more shakespeare)