And here’s to Kyle’s sharp and logical mind! During supper yesterday:
“Daddy, it’s not true that Reindeers can fly.”
“Of course they can. They have magical antlers that let them fly.”
“No, they can’t fly!”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because! They don’t have wings!”
(pondering a reply)
“Superman doesn’t have wings and he can fly!” say I.
“Yeah, but HE has a CAPE!”
(blink) (blink) (mouth agape)
That’s my boy. Knows all the angles. 🙂
A couple of sentences that have come up in a recent evaluation:
INTEREST IN JOB CONTENT:
Mike is conscious of existence, meaning, purpose, potential and destiny of humankind, people, and self.
Mike prefers to associate with others socially, organizationally, and recreationally.
Mike is motivated to manage people and their activities.
Mike has natural preferences that engender curiosity about the nature of things and about “what makes things tick”.
Mike has a preference for physically working with things and objects, but that activity is probably secondary…
Deadlines do not motivate Mike as they only increase the pressure.
Mike prefers and may even require change and variety. Sameness and routine cause loss of interest, drive, and energy.
Mike prefers to be with people and will most likely avoid activities that are done apart from others.
Mike has little need for or is not motivated by recognition, status, or competitive gain.
TEMPERAMENT FOR THE JOB:
Mike is most likely benevolent, voluntarily giving of self to help others, especially regarding current pain, hurts…
Mike prefers and needs change and variety. Change is motivating, stimulating, and energizing.
Mike subjectively exercises responsibility for social, vocational, or recreational perceptions, thinking, options…
Mike has a strong preference to work under the management or supervision of others who are competent and knowledgeable
Mike is strongly motivated to be organizationally active with others.
Mike sees self as talented, self-sufficient, and goal-oriented.
Mike is motivated to influence and convince others as part of social, organizational, vocational, or recreational activities.
Mike does not generally see, retain, and/or recall verbatim detail and, instead, shows an awareness of concepts, patterns…
Mike does not prefer being tied to or tied down by timed, repetitious sensory/physical activity.
APTITUDE FOR THE JOB:
Mike’s preferences fully support holistic, conceptual perception, and thinking relative to the basic nature, utility…
Mike’s preferences and motivations are derived from understanding the deeper or ‘real’ meaning of ideas and words
Mike’s mind is naturally motivated to put physical abilities and natural talents, whatever they may be, into immediate use
Mike is moderately motivated for Manual ‘workbench’ activities regardless of actually developed skills or abilities.
Mike’s preferences and motivations most likely revolve around an adequate ability to see, retain, and recall detail.
Math may be about the same as a foreign language for Mike. At least, it is foreign to Mike’s mental preferences
PEOPLE:
Mike feels both privilege and responsibility to use communication (including persuasion) to voluntarily provide beneficial information to people
Philosophical, literary, scientific, managerial and/or persuasive traits may be involved in Mike’s motivation and drive
Mike is empathetically and sympathetically aware of the hurts, needs, problems, and wishes of others and is motivated to help them
The Mysterious Minute-Man has decided to try his hand at blogging! There’s no way he can keep up on Twitter so he’s resorting to trying to keep a blog going while he chills out at Stan’s Donut Shoppe after his nightly patrols 🙂
You can read what he’s been up to over on blogger: http://mysterious-minute-man.blogspot.com/
Drop by and say hello 🙂
To follow up (finally) on the post from October 12th, Casey responded to the medication REALLY well. We’ve done a heck of a lot of research on dogs and herniated discs and what can be done to treat them (outside of surgery). The one point that came up was Acupuncture.
Although I was initially worried as to the timeline of all this, it was heartening to see Casey slowly “returning to normal” after a few days. I know the pills were helping with the pain but I could also see the swelling start to go down, too. Before 10 days were done, she was almost back to her old self.
I did know from the reading that we were supposed to keep her completely bed-ridden for an entire month, but she only let us carry her outside for her business for that long. After that, we would open her cage door and she would rush outside. Of course,the fear that since she wasn’t feeling pain she could have been doing damage always came up but we had to deal with it.
We started to let her out at night (when the kids were in bed) because she would simply join us in the living room and sleep on her pillow. She’s a very social dog, what can you do?
This past weekend, we had to keep fighting to keep her from jumping up on us or anything! Literally, she acted like she had no injuries. Of course, the last of one pills were taken yesterday and she only has 2 half pills left to take. One on Wednesday, one on Friday. Luckily for us we have an appointment with the Vet/Acupuncturist on Wednesday at 430pm. She actually cleared her schedule for us so the 30 minutes we were originally given has been stretched to 60.
I’ll post another update after that!
I sure can’t say that these last few weeks haven’t flown by because that would be lying. It’s kept me away from here which is unfortunate because when the time comes to summarize it (for posterity) pieces of info get lost! Anyhow… here we go.
Last week seemed to have been an extremely bad one for asthma sufferers. Chantale, my sister-in-law, and Melyssa all confirmed that they had it a little rough but with Kyle it was too much. After fighting off a small runny nose for a few days and requiring to be pumped on Monday and Tuesday, it became too much and I had to bring him to the emergency on Tuesday night after pumping him repeatedly (as trained) to attempt to regulate his breathing.
We got there and shortly after triage his o2 sats were quite good although he was raspy. We’re brought into the Asthma Center and he’s given a mask. Every seat/ bed in the place was taken! And everyone I listened to had gone through the same issues. At a little after midnight, we were released (even though he was still coughing). I know it was an overcrowding issue.
We got home after 1am and he promptly fell asleep and slept deeply until 530am at which point he awoke due to coughing. I pumped him again and he managed to fall back to sleep until a little after 6am. Again, the coughing wouldn’t subside and I knew I had to take him back.
We were back at the ER before 7am and sure enough his o2 sats were down at 92%. Off we went to the Asthma Center and treatments started. We basically “opened” the center because we were the first ones in. Within an hour, though, another 5 cases came through. We settled in for a very long wait because he was not responding to the treatments. This was the first time we weren’t released after 3 masks. It would take 6 before he finally subsided.
His sats kept hovering between 92% and 94% and he ended up starting a fever. Doc was worried enough to get xrays and I had to explain to Kyle that there was this big machine that had “eyes like Superman” and would look into his chest and take pictures. He really wasn’t too keen on it before and during, but at least afterwards (when he saw his OWN lungs on the computer screen) he was impressed 🙂
The last mask was basically triple-powered and sure enough he started breathing better and his sats went up to 96%. I think having Chantale there at that time was also a good boost as he had started to whine/ cry about wanting to go back home about an hour before she arrived. At any rate, we were finally cleared to go. I had predisolone to give him for 3 days and regular pumping.
After an emotionally draining experience like that, I took a vacation day on Thursday and stayed home with him. We rested and watched videos, he took his meds, and we even took a nap together. It was recuperative. On Friday, Chantale stayed home to take care of him. This weekend, he got better slowly but finally this morning he was doing MUCH better. Of course, after all that (and being stuck seated next to a lady who had a bad cold) I ended up getting laryngitis and popped pills all weekend long!
Okay, next post will be very soon and much shorter than this 🙂
Yesterday, during the day-long Thanksgiving preparation, Casey suddenly yelps in pain and then limps away to hide in a corner. We’re all concerned and wondering what the heck happened because she hadn’t had any kind of injury or been in a situation where she could have been hurt. Thinking it may have been some kind of “regular” paw injury (ie; someone stepping on it, or something dropping on it) or perhaps even something like pulling a muscle, we lay her down and let her rest. After a few hours she’s up and about if somewhat slowly. Except, she’s not playful, she’s not hungry, and you can see she’s still in a lot of pain. Every now and then, when we touch her, she yelps and tries to “climb away”.
Well, by the end of the day, we’re really concerned and decide to take her to the Emergency Animal Hospital. Getting her into the car was full of cringe-ing as she just kept yelling in pain. When we pull up, I’m a little amazed at the size of the building but expect that it shouldn’t take long to see someone. After all, I think, as amazing as a 24/7/365 Animal Hospital is, how busy could they really be, right? What a shock. Getting checked in went quickly enough (under 30 minutes) but then the wait began.
All around the waiting area I see tissue boxes practically littered around us. I’m a little confused but don’t say anything. Then, I take a look at the patients and realize that these are not cats and dogs just out for a check-up, they’re here because they’re really sick. Over the course of the next 4 hours, I find out how sick as I watch dogs throw up bloody bile, hear nurses call DOA on a cat, watch the news of another cat’s health be diagnosed as diabetes and the harsh decision to put her down is made… etc etc. I’ve been in plenty of emergency rooms over the years, but never have I seen the amount of tears and crying as I did last night.
We finally get to see the doctor at around 1am and review the symptoms with her. We put Casey down and she sets about sniffing around the room like she has no issues. I’m a little confused but then a physical check is performed (ears, snout, paws, etc) and pretty soon she’s once again yelping in pain. It’s a weird thing in that the doc would touch her and she would cry in pain. Touch her again in the same spot and nothing. Move somewhere else and the same repeats. Finally, she manages to localize it on the center of her back. A discussion ensues as to what it could be and we agree to x-rays to ensure nothing worse.
At around 230am we get the news. She definitely has a herniated disc but does not have any impacted discs or cancerous fibers around her spine. She can hold herself together well enough that emergency surgery is not needed. Pain medication and anti-inflammatory pills are prescribed. However, the only way to completely cure her is with surgery. Pre-surgery also requires a CAT scan (on a dog? and I would normally laugh at the pun but just couldn’t) to properly localize the bad disc that needs removal. All told, this would cost in the range of $3,000 to $4,000.
Apparently Bichon Frises are prone to such problems and she’ll be 6 in January. We expected to have her around for at least another 5 years. Doc said that even after this surgery, there’s no guarantee that the same issue doesn’t arise elsewhere up or down her spine. I knew the ER visit was going to end up being almost $500, and we had already spent triple that last year when we got her operated for stones in her bladder. Now, looking at coughing up 4k… we’re left to wondering how we’ll afford it (if we go through with it). Casey’s our “first baby”. She’s Melyssa’s first real pet. Kyle and Charlize have known her all their lives. This is not an easy decision to make. If she were 10 years old, sure. But now? With maybe still having half of her life left? With the fear/ worry of something else coming up afterwards if we get this resolved?
It’s been a very, very, long night… 🙁 I think it was 3am when we finally turned out the lights. Kyle and Charlize, of course, got up at 7am as they’d been in bed since probably 9pm last night. I, feeling like crap (obviously)still had to get up to take care of them since I believe I’m the best equipped with living sleep deprived :). Chantale and Melyssa are still asleep and although Casey’s in her bed in our room, she doesn’t look like she actually slept. I’m hoping the pills I’ll be giving her soon will start to ease her pain.
I’m thankful today’s a holiday because there’s no way any of us would have been able to function.
i really have to wonder sometimes how the heck we get anything done. what with all the demands put on our time just to stay ALIVE, how do we find the time to actually LIVE?
this, of course, makes me wonder even more on how can we find the time to move our personal projects forward. it’s nuts. as much as life is “simpler” now than it used to be, it STILL shouldn’t be this hard to strike a balance, find a harmonious middle.
when i first joined the workforce (*cough* *cough* years ago) i used to joke about 3-day weekends because, let’s face it, who wants to face mondays? but, the older i get, the more i have to do and find ways to get done, the more i have to work at finding PEACE, the more the idea of 4-day work weeks appeals to me.
if i had that one extra day to do all the menial chores around the house, for example, the weekends would be more relaxing. on the other hand, if i could take that 1 day and prioritize and move my projects forward, i would definitely feel more personal satisfaction at accomplishing them.
i’m not going to live forever. i’d at least like to go out not feeling like i’m constantly chasing my tail.
sombre thoughts on a sombre friday.
The Grey’s Anatomy premiere is this week. What with getting the last season on DVD last week, we’ve been going through a mini-marathon in order to get ready for it. Not that we don’t remember what happened, but more as a means of getting hyped for it. We’re fans, what can you do? 🙂
One weird thing that’s happened, however, is that I’ve been having moments of… “whoosh”. I can only call it that because I can’t properly explain it. I’m sitting there, watching an episode, and I’ll catch a phrase or a movement or a scene and it’ll “whoosh” me back to 2 years ago. And then my heart starts to pound and my stomach drops.
Last night had such a moment. We were watching an episode where a doc (George) found a way to get a young patient into a quick look of the operating room. Standing before the doors, thinking about what was inside… whooshed me back to Aug 30 2007 and Chantale and I are walking the hallways of the Montreal Children’s Hospital just in front of the big doors through which we were going to be giving up our daughter with prayers and hope that the doctors’ would be able to cut open her heart, fix it, and save her life.
Being there, going through it, with other patients waiting their turns, felt surreal enough. Trying to live through it as matter-of-factly as possible was possible just by concentrating ON our child and the belief that everything would be all right. But suddenly, “today”, I’m (without realizing it) allowing myself the freedom to experience the fear, fear, FEAR, of that moment. It’s no longer me living through the “next moment” (ie; pass the baby over, head to another floor, meet with the doctor, etc etc etc), it’s me remembering just what we went through.
Folks always ask how the hell we managed to go through what we did… The truth is that we had no choice but to go through it, live through it, force our way through it, reaching greedily for the next moment, for the next hug, next smile, next heartbeat. Hoping it would come, believing it would come, trying to ignore the fear that it might not come, and grasping to every little bit of good news to pull ourselves out of that hole of fear and despair.
*phew*
You would think that it would be easier to look back today. *shrug* I guess it depends on the day. It’s almost like I never know what I’m going to feel next!
Seems like all I’ve been doing lately has been to run all day long, from one thing to another, that by the time bedtime rolls around I’m too mentally or physically exhausted and sleep just isn’t restful.
I know it’s just the post-vacation catch-up phase, but before you know it, it’ll be the “end of the year clean out” phase which means more running to close/ complete items while preparing for 2010. Seriously. Life wasn’t meant to be lived like this.
And I know that it won’t be, but right now the lack of time to move some things forward is just starting to frustrate me.
Onwards.
