Last week, on January 28, I got an email with very sad news: The fun-loving, charismatic, dean of students had passed away after a year long battle of cancer.
See here for information that went out from Graceland.
Tom Powell was instrumental in shaping my Graceland years. I wasn't as close to him as some people were that were involved more in student life BUT, he is one of the first memories I have as an incoming freshman and there was never a day that I saw him that he didn't have a huge smile on his face, grinned, and "Hi Jenn!" I don't know how you COULDN'T be happy around him. He was the longest standing Dean of Students at any school in Iowa and I think there is a lot to be learned from anyone who ever came into contact with him: He had a zest for life, for people (especially students and Graceland), humility, sense of humor, and all good things that we could all probably strive more to have ourselves. I am saddened by this news and my heart and my thoughts are with his family and with the whole Graceland community.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Another post on steel cut oats
I have already posted about how much I love steel cut oats but this morning I came up with a GREAT creation. It was SUCH a yummy breakfast: steel cut oats, almond butter, a splash of almond milk, a few walnuts, 1/2 banana, and cinnamon. SO DELICIOUS. The picture isn't too pretty but oh well, it tasted FABULOUS.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Sick, sick little girl
This post might be too much information for some people...just a warning up front.
Like I talked about here, Bella has been having one of her "flare ups" of her intestinal issues. She's had these ever since we've had her and we've learned how to treat them ($5K later, I might add...) However, this time, it just kept going and going. And an alarming new development: blood in poop. By Sunday evening, she had deteriorated within HOURS to pooing just straight, liquid blood. SCARY.
We had her fasting to give her tummy a break while also keeping water in her (to prevent dehydration) and of course tried everything else we could think of that had historically worked for her to help her feel better. NOTHING WORKED.
Monday morning, I got up with high hopes that some new supplements had helped her overnight as I gave her large doses of them Sunday night. No such luck. Straight blood again. AND, then she started throwing up even though she had nothing in her tummy. She has never done this before and it was VERY alarming (not like the blood wasn't enough....) She was probably just so dehydrated that she just felt sick. But then she started shaking/convulsing/and at the same time, not wanting to move out of her "house." At which point, I completely lost it....
Tim came home and I went to work (hi, busy season, I hate you) so he took her straight to the vet. Apparently also within hours, she had developed huge lesions on her tongue (and had some on her tummy). These were also new this time. By the time we got her to the vet early monday morning the vet told us she could be in kidney failure (!!!!!!!) OMFG. I guess that tongue lesions are a sign of this. Her GI system is just so pissed off, it was wreaking havoc on her whole body. So, about $500 and a whole day at the vet later, here's what we found out:
-No kidney failure (PHEW!)
-Electrolytes were totally fine
-Organs were all fine
-She was dehydrated so got a liter of fluid over the course of the day
-Got an injection of vitamin b (her levels were low)
-Got a steroid shot and more antibiotics
-Got instructions to put her on a VERY simple diet (IE: sweet potato cooked and turkey with no fat)
-Will gradually switch her to a kibble that fits her allergy profile
-Got a referral to an internist who will perform a $2K-$5K scope that would tell us exactly what's wrong with her (UGH)
So, short term? She's doing MUCH better. She THINKS she feels great and looks good too. But she's also still on a fairly simple diet and on antibiotics. Long term? We don't know. When things were really bad monday, the vet was talking about how she COULD have cancer, quality of life, etc, etc. And if she has cancer, the it's sort of a moot point to spend $2-$5K on a scope that will tell us that and only give her a few months to live. So I don't know what to do. We are just going to keep her on this diet for a while and beef up her supplements as well as continue to give her vitamin b shots. We'll see how she does on that and, hoping it all goes well, avoid spending more thousands of dollars on a scope that may or may not help her/prolong her life. We also may consider putting her on a steroid or a raw food diet that would probably also help her intestinal issue.
Most likely she probably has IBS (irritable bowel syndrome). It's common in boxers but she has it REALLY bad. The vet said she is one of 3 sickest dogs she's seen in her 20 year practice in this regard. Yikes. None of her littermates or parents have anything remotely close to this so it's very odd. At least she has us to take care of her! It's been a rough week but we will get through it...and hopefully at the end the little babe is ok.
A shot of Bella and I.... I love this girl and just want her to feel good!
Like I talked about here, Bella has been having one of her "flare ups" of her intestinal issues. She's had these ever since we've had her and we've learned how to treat them ($5K later, I might add...) However, this time, it just kept going and going. And an alarming new development: blood in poop. By Sunday evening, she had deteriorated within HOURS to pooing just straight, liquid blood. SCARY.
We had her fasting to give her tummy a break while also keeping water in her (to prevent dehydration) and of course tried everything else we could think of that had historically worked for her to help her feel better. NOTHING WORKED.
Monday morning, I got up with high hopes that some new supplements had helped her overnight as I gave her large doses of them Sunday night. No such luck. Straight blood again. AND, then she started throwing up even though she had nothing in her tummy. She has never done this before and it was VERY alarming (not like the blood wasn't enough....) She was probably just so dehydrated that she just felt sick. But then she started shaking/convulsing/and at the same time, not wanting to move out of her "house." At which point, I completely lost it....
Tim came home and I went to work (hi, busy season, I hate you) so he took her straight to the vet. Apparently also within hours, she had developed huge lesions on her tongue (and had some on her tummy). These were also new this time. By the time we got her to the vet early monday morning the vet told us she could be in kidney failure (!!!!!!!) OMFG. I guess that tongue lesions are a sign of this. Her GI system is just so pissed off, it was wreaking havoc on her whole body. So, about $500 and a whole day at the vet later, here's what we found out:
-No kidney failure (PHEW!)
-Electrolytes were totally fine
-Organs were all fine
-She was dehydrated so got a liter of fluid over the course of the day
-Got an injection of vitamin b (her levels were low)
-Got a steroid shot and more antibiotics
-Got instructions to put her on a VERY simple diet (IE: sweet potato cooked and turkey with no fat)
-Will gradually switch her to a kibble that fits her allergy profile
-Got a referral to an internist who will perform a $2K-$5K scope that would tell us exactly what's wrong with her (UGH)
So, short term? She's doing MUCH better. She THINKS she feels great and looks good too. But she's also still on a fairly simple diet and on antibiotics. Long term? We don't know. When things were really bad monday, the vet was talking about how she COULD have cancer, quality of life, etc, etc. And if she has cancer, the it's sort of a moot point to spend $2-$5K on a scope that will tell us that and only give her a few months to live. So I don't know what to do. We are just going to keep her on this diet for a while and beef up her supplements as well as continue to give her vitamin b shots. We'll see how she does on that and, hoping it all goes well, avoid spending more thousands of dollars on a scope that may or may not help her/prolong her life. We also may consider putting her on a steroid or a raw food diet that would probably also help her intestinal issue.
Most likely she probably has IBS (irritable bowel syndrome). It's common in boxers but she has it REALLY bad. The vet said she is one of 3 sickest dogs she's seen in her 20 year practice in this regard. Yikes. None of her littermates or parents have anything remotely close to this so it's very odd. At least she has us to take care of her! It's been a rough week but we will get through it...and hopefully at the end the little babe is ok.
A shot of Bella and I.... I love this girl and just want her to feel good!Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Christmas again?
Mini cooper sent me floor mats the other day. I really have no idea why. I already bought floor mats for my car so I really have no idea what to do with these. And of course it's busy season now which mean the condition of my house goes to hell, so for now they are an "entry way decoration." I actually have no idea what to do with them.... they are worth a decent chunk of money though. Maybe there was just some mix up and I'll just send them back.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Green, um, juice?
After a particularly hard workout yesterday, a trainer I work with at my gym mixed up a "protein shake" for me... It's apparently AWESOME for you but it looks like total yuck. Even that description doesn't do it justice- it honestly looks like someone barfed in the water bottle. It took me about 30 minutes after going back to work to get my mind over the matter at hand: drinking the shit. So, I shook, shook, shook it to try to get some of the "chunks" out (seriously) and then poured it over ice. It would have helped if I would have had some vodka or something to spike it with....
But alas, I didn't. So, down it went. Oh MAN, was it gross. It was partly a mind thing just because it looked so disgusting but it really didn't taste a whole lot better. I DO have to say though... the stuff ABSOLUTELY made me recover faster. I felt like a million bucks after drinking that shake. I think it is amazing for your muscles so if I can stomach it, I'll definitely be drinking this again after workouts.
But alas, I didn't. So, down it went. Oh MAN, was it gross. It was partly a mind thing just because it looked so disgusting but it really didn't taste a whole lot better. I DO have to say though... the stuff ABSOLUTELY made me recover faster. I felt like a million bucks after drinking that shake. I think it is amazing for your muscles so if I can stomach it, I'll definitely be drinking this again after workouts.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Frostbite?! More medical musings...
So, everyone saw my rants on urgent care. I won't go there again. Luckily I don't have to... well, except to mention that they charged me $200 in addition to the $100 office visit to tell me (again) that I had an infection. Notice how calmly I said that. I will stop talking now in efforts to remain calm about that whole matter.
Anyway.
My achilles. Literally. It's still messed up after, um, 7 months and a while ago I posted everything I've tried to make it better. EVERYTHING. SO, a few days ago I went to physical therapy to try to get it to 100%. I got convinced that I should try this in conjunction with alternative treatments like rolfing (deep tissue massage or something to that affect), orthotripsy (shock wave therapy) and other things (IE: natural anti-inflammatories, pineapple, ice, etc). Additionally, a new alternative treatment includes Topricin:
Topricin is a topical homeopathic ointment that has arnica (also a homeopathic herb) as a base and is known for healing sports/trauma injuries (thanks to Timmy for finding it for me!) I tried it last weekend and it helped SO MUCH. I was even able to take Bella on a walk!! SWEET! I was so excited that I took her on two walks in the same day... NOTE TO SELF: do not get overly ambitious. That 2nd walk was quite painful.
A few days after said walks: my achilles was feeling generally ok at probably 65% (MUCH BETTER than it has been). But I still had the physical therapy appointment booked. I did NOT want to go. I dragged myself in there thinking, "this is stupid, a waste of time, won't help." I know, horrible attitude. BUT GUESS WHAT. FASTFORWARD- I WAS RIGHT.
GUESS WHAT FREAKING HAPPENED!?!?!?!!?!??!?!
After doing stretches, etc., they finished off the hour by doing electric/ice therapy. IT FUCKING HURT. Like a 7 out of 10 on the scale and I generally have a pretty high pain tolerance. I mean I was almost in tears. I kept asking the PT gal if it was supposed to hurt so badly and if after this hurts like bloody fucking hell, it will feel better. Her response was that, "Yes, it will feel much better afterwards." Oh yeah, I forgot, it's STUPID TO TRUST PEOPLE. So, I hobble out of there (even though I didn't even hobble in...) and can barely drive. It is THROBBING, and not even my achilles but the right side of my foot.
A few hours later? Still throbbing. WTF. So I pull down my sock and what do I find? THIS:
That bitch gave me FROSTBITE on my foot!!! Literally. It was blistered/red like an incredibly bad sunburn. And for the next 3 days, I could barely walk, not wear socks/shoes, basically slept with a bottle of aloe...and of course, completely bitched out the PT center (who, funny enough, happen to be a client of mine...) The PT director is graveling trying to get me to come back and keeps telling me "it's an isolated incident, it will heal, it's just a burn, now we know so please come back." The dude is smoking crack. I was so mad! I mean, seriously?! A freaking cold burn on my foot? I don't really think that was part of the plan to make my achilles feel better but I do have to say that as a result of the painful burn, I haven't noticed my achilles in about 4 days. Perhaps that WAS part of their plan... But, alas, regardless, I do not like the "burn therapy" notion of pain relief. So, I've decided no more physical therapy. I now know that I very much dislike that option and will go the other routes- which is what I wanted to do in the first place. Should have listened to that damn intuition! In the meantime, I won't be doing anything with that foot other than slathering aloe all over it... Seriously?! I can't believe stuff like this actually happens. It's not even really a cool story- if I thought about ever getting frostbite, it would be cooler to say I got it while hiking Rainier!
Anyway.
My achilles. Literally. It's still messed up after, um, 7 months and a while ago I posted everything I've tried to make it better. EVERYTHING. SO, a few days ago I went to physical therapy to try to get it to 100%. I got convinced that I should try this in conjunction with alternative treatments like rolfing (deep tissue massage or something to that affect), orthotripsy (shock wave therapy) and other things (IE: natural anti-inflammatories, pineapple, ice, etc). Additionally, a new alternative treatment includes Topricin:
Topricin is a topical homeopathic ointment that has arnica (also a homeopathic herb) as a base and is known for healing sports/trauma injuries (thanks to Timmy for finding it for me!) I tried it last weekend and it helped SO MUCH. I was even able to take Bella on a walk!! SWEET! I was so excited that I took her on two walks in the same day... NOTE TO SELF: do not get overly ambitious. That 2nd walk was quite painful.
A few days after said walks: my achilles was feeling generally ok at probably 65% (MUCH BETTER than it has been). But I still had the physical therapy appointment booked. I did NOT want to go. I dragged myself in there thinking, "this is stupid, a waste of time, won't help." I know, horrible attitude. BUT GUESS WHAT. FASTFORWARD- I WAS RIGHT.
GUESS WHAT FREAKING HAPPENED!?!?!?!!?!??!?!
After doing stretches, etc., they finished off the hour by doing electric/ice therapy. IT FUCKING HURT. Like a 7 out of 10 on the scale and I generally have a pretty high pain tolerance. I mean I was almost in tears. I kept asking the PT gal if it was supposed to hurt so badly and if after this hurts like bloody fucking hell, it will feel better. Her response was that, "Yes, it will feel much better afterwards." Oh yeah, I forgot, it's STUPID TO TRUST PEOPLE. So, I hobble out of there (even though I didn't even hobble in...) and can barely drive. It is THROBBING, and not even my achilles but the right side of my foot.
A few hours later? Still throbbing. WTF. So I pull down my sock and what do I find? THIS:
That bitch gave me FROSTBITE on my foot!!! Literally. It was blistered/red like an incredibly bad sunburn. And for the next 3 days, I could barely walk, not wear socks/shoes, basically slept with a bottle of aloe...and of course, completely bitched out the PT center (who, funny enough, happen to be a client of mine...) The PT director is graveling trying to get me to come back and keeps telling me "it's an isolated incident, it will heal, it's just a burn, now we know so please come back." The dude is smoking crack. I was so mad! I mean, seriously?! A freaking cold burn on my foot? I don't really think that was part of the plan to make my achilles feel better but I do have to say that as a result of the painful burn, I haven't noticed my achilles in about 4 days. Perhaps that WAS part of their plan... But, alas, regardless, I do not like the "burn therapy" notion of pain relief. So, I've decided no more physical therapy. I now know that I very much dislike that option and will go the other routes- which is what I wanted to do in the first place. Should have listened to that damn intuition! In the meantime, I won't be doing anything with that foot other than slathering aloe all over it... Seriously?! I can't believe stuff like this actually happens. It's not even really a cool story- if I thought about ever getting frostbite, it would be cooler to say I got it while hiking Rainier!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Poor sick pup.
Nope, you are not having deja vu! The poor Bella girl is having her monthly flare up of her intestinal track. Seriously, what in the hell is wrong with her?! I don't KNOW! Part of the issue is that the majority of her $450 supplements haven't come to the house yet due to an issue with UPS (UGH). SO, she's only been getting a fraction of the supplements she needs.... and the other part of the issue is that she just has a chronic intestinal issue that, while common in boxers, hits at very inopportune times and is a very bloody, disgusting mess (and also demands wake up calls during the middle of the night). I always feel so bad for her when this happens. Luckily, it doesn't seem to affect her energy level at all, which is good. We're cutting back her food, beefing up her supplements, doing everything that helps her during these times. I'm sure she will be back to feeling better in no time. In the meantime... pictures of the pup from recently:
Bella laying around with her buddy Calvin. Actually more like he's laying with her since it is her bed.... oh and she kept farting in his face. He didn't move so I guess he liked the "sisterly love?" Gross. (As a sidenote, part of her tummy issues involve INCREDIBLY bad gas, I mean, I can't even describe how bad it gets... it's always an indication of the flare up in store).
And the beautiful pup. Doesn't she look so grown up here? I love her.
Bella laying around with her buddy Calvin. Actually more like he's laying with her since it is her bed.... oh and she kept farting in his face. He didn't move so I guess he liked the "sisterly love?" Gross. (As a sidenote, part of her tummy issues involve INCREDIBLY bad gas, I mean, I can't even describe how bad it gets... it's always an indication of the flare up in store).
And the beautiful pup. Doesn't she look so grown up here? I love her. Tuesday, January 19, 2010
We all fall down..
but some fall harder than others...
As I mentioned in my post about the holidays back in Missouri, that part of the country has been hammered by wintry weather. This has not ceased since we left over 3 weeks ago. And it sounds like it has even gotten worse... some warm days cause the snow mixture on the ground to melt then as the day progresses, it turns into ice.
Well, on January 11, my mom found out just how treacherous the situation is out there. She was headed out to get the mail and BOOM. She wiped out on ice, hit her head and spent the next 5-6 days in the hospital suffering from a severe concussion. Now, I've never had a concussion but it sounds HORRIBLE (dizziness, throwing up, severe headache, head staples). She is lucky in that she didn't break anything, hopefully didn't hurt her shoulder more (which she just had rotator cuff surgery on), and didn't have any brain bleeding. Needless to say, though, it is going to be a long recovery.
Many thanks to all of you for offering your good thoughts her way over the course of this last week and a half.
As I mentioned in my post about the holidays back in Missouri, that part of the country has been hammered by wintry weather. This has not ceased since we left over 3 weeks ago. And it sounds like it has even gotten worse... some warm days cause the snow mixture on the ground to melt then as the day progresses, it turns into ice.
Well, on January 11, my mom found out just how treacherous the situation is out there. She was headed out to get the mail and BOOM. She wiped out on ice, hit her head and spent the next 5-6 days in the hospital suffering from a severe concussion. Now, I've never had a concussion but it sounds HORRIBLE (dizziness, throwing up, severe headache, head staples). She is lucky in that she didn't break anything, hopefully didn't hurt her shoulder more (which she just had rotator cuff surgery on), and didn't have any brain bleeding. Needless to say, though, it is going to be a long recovery.
Many thanks to all of you for offering your good thoughts her way over the course of this last week and a half.
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