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 have been putting off this post. Every time I think about writing it, I start to crumble again. Throughout all of these losses y’all have read about in the past five years, I’ve always tried to approach them head on. Acknowledge the pain, be honest and open with you. But with Pascale, I haven’t been able to do that. It hurts too much. On Wednesday, April 22nd I said goodbye to Pascale. When the pain came for her, it…
Since the world is focused on the coronavirus right now, I thought I’d shed some light on something more uplifting… cancer! Pascale has officially passed the 30 day mark after her diagnosis of osteosarcoma in the base of her skull. While this post doesn’t offer anything in terms of literature or humor (okay, maybe a little humor), I did feel like it’s important to document what I’m trying to do to help her. To refresh, Pascale was diagnosed in early…
My anxiety often leads me towards ridiculous fears. I’m not proud to admit how many times I’ve diagnosed myself with skin cancer or an irregular heartbeat. It’s easy for my brain to create fiction that’s much scarier than truth. But my heart is breaking as I type this, because I was right when it came to Pascale. Yesterday a MRI revealed a mass growing out the base of her skull. It started in the bone, and is growing into her…
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…