When I last left you, my doctor had an inkling that I had sleep apnea after months of issues with my tonsils and sleeping. Today I conclude that tale! The night of my actual sleep study, I came home with a small computer around my neck and wires everywhere. There was one around a belt on my chest, one around a belt on my waist, one attached to my index finger and a tube coming from my nostrils. Normally I…
It wasn’t until a few years ago that I actually learned sleep apnea was a real condition. Tim and I, both heavy snorers, were lying in bed discussing it. “Wait, so you stop breathing in your sleep?” I asked. “Yeah,” he replied. “But like… you start again right?” “Of course. Your body wakes itself up again without being fully awake. You breathe fine, go back to sleep and then it can happen again in a cycle.” “Huh,” I said. “Do…
In the past year, BT has started sleeping really soundly. We asked the vet about it at her annual in the spring, and his response was “That’s what happens when they hit double digits.” He said it was nothing to worry about, and that lots of pet owners with elderly dogs ask the same question. We got used to this silently sleeping BT problem, and even found it to our advantage sometime. Now we could enter the bathroom, tip toe…
I have a question to pose to y’all today. In its simplest form… do you let your dog(s) sleep in the bed with you? Before you answer, let me give you background. When I was a kid, our family dog was primarily an outdoor dog. She slept in the garage with a dog bed, and when it was especially cold outside my parents let her sleep in my house. On those rare nights, she slept at the foot of my…
I know it’s been 2020 for a week now, but the new decade didn’t really start for me until this past Monday. It was the first workday of an uninterrupted week when I didn’t have guests or elaborate drinking plans in store. Don’t get me wrong—I love having guests and have been known to get down with an elaborate drinking plan, but my liver, sleep and overall well being needed a break. View this post on Instagram A post shared…
I am, to put it mildly, a bit of a planner. Some might even throw around the words “control freak,” although that sounds fairly harsh to me. I prefer meticulous, driven by detail, thorough. It’s no surprise then that I had a plan for my widowhood. In my grief, I doubled down in planning and control. My best friend was ripped away from me, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. With him went the safe, idyllic life…
I have told Poet more than once that if he’s a good baby Thoroughbred and learns to hunter, he’ll have the best forever home I can provide for him for as long as physically possible. When I leave the barn on Sunday to head back to the real world for another tough week of school and work, I cheerfully remind him to Make good choices! This week he made some really good choices. After a week plus of groundwork, my…
I feel like there’s still so much I wanted to update y’all on in my long summer of no blogging what-so-ever. Of course, a lot of that involved horse show updates that seem too painful to write now, but I am feeling good enough about life to catch y’all up on some non-Simon related areas. Today we delve into the oh so fun topic of my knees. For the past several years, I’ve had pain in both knees. If I…
I went to the barn today. I thought it would be terrible, I really did. I was supposed to go a week ago for the barn holiday party and yearly awards, but I couldn’t bring myself to face his empty stall when everyone was drinking and having a good time. So I sent my trainer my regrets, and put off going back until I felt like I couldn’t put it off anymore. When Simon first died, things were pretty bleak…
When I first moved to my beloved California barn last year, I heard a lot of rumblings about a big horse show coming up. We’ll be at year end. Everyone’s getting ready for year end. They were referring to the IEHJA, our local circuit, year end show. No stranger to local horse show finales, I figured I knew what it’d be like. Maybe a nicer facility, a few special classes here and there. All year, everyone gushed about how great the…
Last week, I said goodbye to my perfect spaniel. After I wrote the post outlining the details of his cancer, I was flooded with messages of support and love. Those notes gave me so much comfort. Both in knowing that I’m not alone with the immense struggle that is deciding when to release a beloved pet, but also that because everyone echoed that I’d know when it was time… and that it was probably not too soon. I was completely…
A lot happened in my blogging absence this summer. Some of it was fantastic, but a lot of it was not. I promise to update on happier things soon, but something that’s especially been weighing on my mind this week is Eliot’s health. I got Eliot, the most beautiful dog I’ll ever known, for my 21st birthday. All of my other dogs have been rescues, but Eliot is the embodiment of my deep rooted love for purebred dogs. In his…