Nothing Like A Little Stress

I suppose that today could be called another ordinary day in the life of ole Signtopia..........but what lead into this day was most certainly not ordinary. There is enough stress in each day to keep things interesting........however......there ARE certain events that take the cake.

Last night, after taking my nightly "pill salad".......and within 20 minutes of turning out the lights and nodding off into dreamland......I was awoken by the dogs. Something was very wrong.

"Fartknocker's" dog Abby, the shih-tzu was in distress and my dog Chico, the Mexican space heater, did the right thing and woke me up by hitting me in the face with his paws. Never underestimate the abilities of a dog.

Okay......so what was the problem?..........For some reason, Abby is one of those dogs that consumes food and assorted treats with reckless abandon.......sometimes never even getting to taste it. So Abby was apparently choking on a fairly large portion of a rawhide chew bone......and she was in my bed circling around.............I guess a dog cannot just use its paws to take care of such things, so they just start running in circles. Anyway, I immediately grabbed Abby and and used my hands to massage her throat and stomach areas. Quickly, she proceeded to cough up the large chunk of rawhide bone.........on the bed, of course. So I cleaned up the mess and figured everything was okay and I could get back to sleep............but that was not about to happen.

The dogs had gone down to the first floor of the house and would not come back up stairs when I called......Chico would come half way and look at me and head back down the stairs........so I went to see what was up. Abby was laying at the foot of the steps as if that was where she was gonna go to sleep.......but she wasn't responding to my voice. I reached down to pet her and she then got up and gingerly moved to the hallway and plopped down on the floor as if she had just run a marathon. I knew something was still wrong with her.

I knelt down to see what I could find out and I lifted her leg an let go and it was lifeless. Her eyes were closed and I tried to open them with my fingers and her eyes told me she was gone. Oh no!
She had stopped breathing! I immediately picked her up from the floor and held her in my arms and tried to wake her up.......she was not responding..........I had no idea what to do.............while verbally trying to get her to respond, I also patted her stomach and back forcefully...........I knew about the Heimlich Manuever for humans, but for dogs?........what am I gonna do?...........so I kept at it and it was looking bleaker and bleaker as each moment passed............I kept squeezing her and I forced open her mouth and stuck my finger in her mouth..............and............suddenly Abby began to convulse and discharge a very large mass of assorted stuff she had eaten...........and it wasn't loose...it was like it was all packed together. Another mess to clean up at 3 a.m. but thank God!.......Abby was alive!

She wasn't out of the woods just yet though...........she was still lethargic.....wouldn't drink.....just wanted to lay there. I kept petting her and encouraging her.......and soon we were off to bed. That did not last very long, though. Supernurse came home from work and after I filled her in on the night's ordeal....Abby began vomiting several times..........another mess........except this time I am not alone in this ordeal, but my concerns for the dog are making it difficult to even try to get any sleep. At 5 a.m. Abby's vomiting subsided and we had isolated her to a hallway where clean-up would be easier to deal with. Instead of going to bed, I decided that I would camp out in the recliner and keep one eye on the dog. Abby calmed down and went to sleep and I managed to get about two hours of sleep before my "Fartknocker Princess" would arrive.

At 8 a.m., Abby was alert........wagging her tail.....and about as normal as one could expect.

Whew! That was a close one.

I stayed awake and went to my annual visit to the cardiologist. This is always a stressful ordeal for me..........the anxiety...............and this time, no sleep, extra stress from the dog ordeal.........I dreaded the visit.

To put it as simple as possible.........the cardiologist said to me........once again........"I'll see you next year!"..................Excellent......that is what I wanted to hear. Blood pressure was good......EKG good.........no problem.

So I get home around noon, only to find out that a son-in-law is at the emergency room............there was bright red blood in his urine..............oh no, here we go again.

By 4 p.m., I get a phone call that he is okay and is being sent home..........whew!

I am hoping to hit the sack early tonight................so how was YOUR day?