Last night before bed I started having what I thought was an allergic reaction to, I assume, the yardwork itself. I took an oral antihistamine and used some antihistamine eyedrops in my eyes prior to bedtime. Some hours later... like pretty much about the time Jeff and Bridgette started stirring in the morning... I was still laying in bed awake. It's amazing how much a small irritant can keep you from dreamland.
No more yardwork for me! The neighbors will be thrilled.
Actually, I spent most of the night catching goopy eye drippings and uncontrolled tears in a Kleenex (uncontrolled not out of pain or sadness... my ducts were just in overdrive) and feeling like my eye had been mauled by a griffon. So at 8 a.m., I opted to call our doctor about conjunctivitis, aka: pink-eye.
Jeff had to take me to my appointment at 9:45 because I really couldn't see to drive. After the doctor checked for something small and sharp lodged under my eyelid, a miniature griffon perhaps, he concluded my eyes were very bloodshot and goopy and that I did indeed have conjunctivitis. He gave me some eyedrops and sent me home.
Jeff took the day off of work to care for Bridgette so I could sequester myself from her and all the household items I could contaminate. I mostly slept. I was pretty tired.
Twelve hours later and I'm pleased to say my eye still looks disgusting and feels uncomfortable, but it no longer runneths over. Whether it was a matter of time, eye-drops, or a combination of the two I cannot say, but there is improvement.
I had to miss a fun activity I had planned for tonight, but far worse things have happened in the world... or even in my life in just the last week. Still hoping I kept the goop off of "stuff" so that no one else picks it up. I tried to be careful, but I know how easy it is to spread/catch pink-eye. Speaking of, I have no idea where I nabbed the little pinks myself.
So that was Mommy Down.
On to Baby Up.
Here's Bridgette standing up to watch Micky Mouse Clubhouse. She's doing a LOT more standing up for longer periods and asking us to help her walk. We hope this is a good sign that she may want to try it on her own one of these days. She's letting Jeff (and occasionally even the neighbor girls) help her walk too, which thing has never happened before.
Puppy Down.
We're really not sure exactly what happened, even though it happened right in front of us. On Friday night the whole family and the neighbor kids were once again playing in our backyard. The pups started wrassling, as they so often do, and next thing we know one of them yelps.
That's not too weird because Piper's kind of a pansy. But it wasn't Piper, it was Chewy. That's rare indeed.
Ends up he broke his dewclaw to the nubbin, exposing the quick underneath. It wasn't a clean break, so his whole nail was sticking out perpendicular to it's proper direction. In human terms, that's somewhere between breaking your thumb and having your thumb nail ripped off with pliers.
We tried to wrap it, until we could get him to the vet in the morning, but he was feeling a bit sensitive and thought he would take the opportunity to protect himself from further danger. Translation -- he nipped me. Yelping, nipping... definitely a most uncommon night for Chewy.
I took him to the emergency animal hospital instead and paid a little more than we're used to for them to clip his dew claw completely off and wrap him up tight. He's on an antibiotic and an anti-inflammatory now.
After a weekend of limping, they removed his bandage at a check-up on Monday. It was gross. Very bloody. They had to shave his hair down because it was matted with blood and too hard to tell whether it was infected or swollen. After another bandage (that Chewy did, in fact, manage to remove by himself this time) we're just keeping an eye on it. The quick is still exposed, but I think the bandages bothered him more than anything. He's not limping anymore and is back to his playful, less needy self. He even chased Piper around the yard today.
Here is Chewy with his ears laid back on his head, quite unhappy.