Just another rainy Sunday and a dog video that is only impressive if you knew Walter (Day #4)

Although people closer to the coast are continuing the feel the effects of the wind and rain from Hurricane Florence, those of us only experiencing the effects of Tropical Depression Florence are mostly doing alright. There are some downed tree limbs, and a little bit of standing water, but mostly we are okay. We keep getting texts from the electric company letting us know that they are working hard. We've had power consistently, so are just keeping our fingers crossed that they can get the lights back on for the many people who are still on flashlights/generators/sunlight.

Yesterday morning it wasn't even raining, and we played outside with the dog. For those you who knew Walter, you may recall that his version of fetch involved running about halfway toward the newly thrown ball before losing interest and eating some grass or a stick. He would then run enthusiastically alongside you while you walked to retrieve the ball and amble back toward whatever the starting point was and repeat the whole process. Fetch with Walter was profoundly aerobic exercise for the person throwing and retrieving the ball, but mostly allowed the dog time to bask in the sun and frolic in the grass a bit. Although I knew that there were Boston Terriers who did fetch things, I'd always attributed Walter's unique approach to the game to his breed. I'd laugh and casually think, "Well, he's definitely not a retriever..." Imagine my surprise, then, when it became clear that Cyril was not only enthusiastic about playing fetch, but was actually pretty good at it. Here's a video of him demonstrating his skills yesterday during the break in the rain:

In the background of the video, you can almost see the most substantial of the branches that fell in our yard, wedged into our baby pine tree such that it looks like some sort of graft/hybrid situation.

The cats have actually been weathering the storm surprisingly well, perhaps because there isn't much thunder, just rain. They have both enjoyed actively participating in our indoor fun ranging from the somewhat typical rainy day activity of board games to Lynn's decidedly unusual Saturday activity of building screens for our windows. The pre- and post- photos of the screens are for another day. 

Eli takes his turn at the board game. 

Eli is fairly certain that the scraps of screen were in fact the entire point of the screen-making enterprise. He will not give them back. Don't even try to take them. 

As I'm writing about the rain and all of the time we've been spending indoors, I am reminded that my Bike MS: Waves to Wine ride is actually next weekend. The hurricane has definitely put a little bit of a damper on my training, but I'm still planning to ride. My distance may be slightly diminished, but my enthusiasm and the need for amazing fundraising efforts to get us toward a world free of MS will not be lessened in the least. I'm a little over halfway toward my goal - can you help me get there? 

In loving memory

As some of you already know, and most of the rest of you have guessed after reading the title of this post, Walter died on March 25, 2018. He fought valiantly in the hospital, surprising all the staff with his impressive recovery after all of his surgery and his ridiculous demeanor in the most challenging of circumstances. Despite their amazing care, on Sunday morning he suffered a catastrophic neurological event that left him not himself and working hard to breath. We waited through the day, and it became clear that he would not get better. We said goodbye in the evening. He was the best dog we could ever have hoped to have, and we will love him forever.

 

 

 

 

These are just a few of the photos of Walter that have graced the posts of this blog. You can find more here. 

One of the worst things ever...

As some of you know, earlier this week Walter was viciously attacked by two much larger dogs while he and Cyril were out for a walk. I'm not going to describe that horror here, as I wasn't there and it was traumatizing for all involved. Suffice it to say that Walter suffered major injuries to his back half in particular, and was immediately taken to the closest veterinary hospital to us with critical care services. Everyone else is okay physically, but will require some time before dog walking is a relaxing activity again.

Once Walter got to the hospital, he had an x-ray to confirm his spine wasn't fractured (it wasn't) and an ultrasound to confirm there was no bleeding or fluid in his belly (there wasn't). He was admitted to the ICU and then under anesthesia they shaved most of the hair on his back half and washed and dressed his wounds. Over the last four days, he has undergone the following:

• Four surgeries with general anesthesia for wound debridement, closure, and drain placement
• Placement of seven drains into his wounds
• Placement of a central line (a special IV for fluid management)
• Placement of a feeding tube
• Transfusion of one unit of blood and one unit of FFP (plasma)

Despite all of these interventions, we are uncertain whether he will regain complete use of both of his back legs, and the threat of infection is ever present. The staff at the Veterinary Specialty Hospital of the Carolinas in Cary, NC have been incredible, and have cared for Walter as they would their own animals. They would never let us know if they tired of our frequent visits and calls, and have been honest and reassuring when possible about his clinical status. 

We were able to connect with the heroic mail carrier that used pepper spray to stop the attacking dogs and save Walter's life, and we feel forever in his debt. He said that this was the first time in his entire career that he had ever had to intervene in a a situation like this, and his presence of mind and quick action were the difference between losing Walter and where we are now. We are preparing a thank-you gift, and if you'd like us to include a message from you, please send me a note, leave it in the comments here, or otherwise let me know. We are also so appreciative of the neighbor who provided a ride to our injured baby.

Walter looking so much perkier after a few days in the hospital!

Introducing Cyril

For years, we have been discussing and debating getting another dog. We considered adding a mutt to the family in order to avoid the myriad health problems associated with a purebred dog. We thought about getting a big dog, maybe a pit mix, since we have the space and both enjoy walking with the dogs. We perused the options endlessly on PetFinder before and after it was referred to as "something that resembles Tinder for dogs" on This is Us.

As an aside, in attempting to find a link to that clip I googled "Tinder for dogs" and came up with the following:

• BarkBuddy: An app designed to help you "find fluffy singles near you," BarkBuddy connects people "with cute pups that need a home."
• Tindog: This may or may not be defunct, but looks like it was an app to help people with dogs meet dogs (and their owners). It may or may not match both the dogs and the owners.
• Dog Date Afternoon: More explicitly connects single people who want to date but want to make sure that their dogs are compatible before they invest any more energy into a potential relationship. 
• Allpaws: Another app to facilitate pet adoptions.
• Twindog: Looks suspiciously similar to Tindog, and I wonder whether there wasn't some sort of lawsuit that resulted in a name change here... 

After so much going back and forth and listing the pros and cons of getting another dog, we decided to move forward and applied to adopt another Boston Terrier. We wanted Walter to have a buddy in the autumn and winter of his years, and after we saw this little guy and realized that he had been returned multiple times due to behavior issues, we couldn't say no. We found him through the East Tennessee Boston Terrier Rescue. Having adopted Walter through the Midwest Boston Terrier Rescue, we were committed to a rescue dog. 

And here he is:

Cyril is a 2.5 year old brown/brindle Boston Terrier.

From the moment he arrived, he and Walter bonded over their shared love of blankets. They are shown here in the heated throw they both adore.

 In the morning sunshine, there's no need to burrow...

 And sometimes when Cyril gets too hot under the blankets, he hops out and sprawls out on the floor to cool down.

Of the cats, only Aleks has condescended to snuggle NEAR Cyril. I know he'll eventually learn that they can snuggle just like he does with Walter, but for now he's a bit standoffish. Eli has barely condescended to come downstairs since Cyril arrived... 

Down dog, a meditative cat, and a mystery

I'm truly settling in to fellowship life! Leading indicators:

1. I have been able to make progress reading a novel in more than 0.5-1 page increments before I fall asleep.  I've been reading On Beauty by Zadie Smith. I highly recommend it.

2. I've started getting back into yoga. I'm not yet back to my Ashtanga life, but I've been using this app called Down Dog that will put together a series of poses that actually make sense for almost any time interval. The dog generally sleeps through any yoga in the morning, but the cat is very keen on joining me.

3. I completed my 50 mile bike ride, and learned of an amazing mid- or post-ride snack: a spoon full of peanut butter rolled in a mixture of M&Ms, mini peanut butter cups, and pretzel bits. This was quite possibly the highlight of a rather rainy and gray ride. The sunniest bit is shown below. I have also made a new cycling friend in the triangle, and I've got plans for more rides in the coming weeks. 

We took Walter to the ocean after my ride, even though it was a rainy and gray.

And finally, unrelated to my progress toward normalcy, there is a mystery involving Clyde. He had been thriving, and even had leaves that looked variegated in color like his old self. Then, one day last week he abruptly lost all of them. We hadn't had rain in a bit, and I'm not amazing with the watering can, but I really don't think that I would have offed him that quickly. I'm pretty sure that some creature ate the stems, because I saw one laying in all of it's green and purple glory next to the pot. I'm starting again from scratch, and hoping that he can make another comeback. 

And now for something completely different

I've been her in North Carolina for almost a month now, and life is so different from San Francisco. Here is a little table I've prepared to illustrate just how different it is (click to enlarge):

You can appreciate that fellowship is objectively, quantitatively better than residency, despite the steamy weather that heats up early, and that many aspects of living in Chapel Hill are amazing. I miss some of the food options (read: State Bird Provisions and Uji Time Desserts) that were close and delicious in San Francisco, but there are tasty things here that we're discovering every day (like The Root Cellar, which is literally right outside our side door).

Walter does not enjoy the heat. He is, however, loving having more rooms in which to lounge and a guest bed to sleep on during the day. Here

he is recovering from a long walk in the heat, and drinking from a twirly straw:

Just kidding, he cannot drink from a straw. I just posed him like this in solidarity with a friend who was limited to liquids for a bit. 

Good by to the slogan "Brown is the new green!" that was all over municipal green space in San Francisco during the drought. Here in North Carolina freeway rest stops are beautiful!

The view from the passenger's seat on our drive in.

The Final Countdown

As many of you know, I've installed the "Final Countdown" app on my phone. Filed under "wellness," along with my meditation and yoga apps, it counts down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until residency ends on June 17, 2017 at 5PM (with the start of cocktail hour at our banquet). As of this posting I'm at 35 days, 22 hours, and minutes and seconds that count down as I type. I've set it to display the countdown in a soothing electric blue that seemed somehow less aggressive than red or green event. As we inexorably move toward the end of residency, I find that in a similarly unstoppable fashion my to do list gets longer and my desire to complete those items evaporates.

Things I've been avoiding:

• Cleaning out my closet: There are things in there that I moved but haven't worn since residency began. I know, truly, that I will never wear them and that there are others in San Francisco who would, but the effort to remove them from my closet feels Herculean. 
• Recycling my old medical journals: So many of them have not yet been read. At some point I will just need to embrace that many of them will never be read, and resign myself to the fact that they were lightly skimmed at some point and recycle them. Until that point, however, they will sit, weighing down the desk drawer and my conscience.
• Studying for boards: This is sort of happening. I'm actually doing a little bit of studying each day, but nothing feels like enough.
• Finishing manuscripts that have languished for months/years: Can a little bit more languishing really hurt?

Things I've done instead:

• Went on a little vacation to Monterey: This involved kayaking with the dog, which Lynn thought was a great idea and I was quite dubious about, but which turned out to be fantastic. It also involved a lot of lovely walking, the aquarium, and some new yarn. See photos below.
• Knit: This could be it's own list. The parade of babies continues, and I have been trying out new techniques and some bold colors. Hopefully all of the expectant parents I know are feeling highlighter florescent accent colors and/or bold stripes...
• Pumped up my bike tires: I've not been on my road bike in months, and I'm trying to motivate in that direction...

This has to be one of the most photographed trees in the US, maybe the world - the "Lone Cyprus" on the 17 Mile Drive in Pebble Beach. 

The jellyfish were my favorite.

This little pulpito moved around a bunch for us. I kept thinking of Inky, the one who got away, and his mate Blotchy, who must rue the day he didn't follow his buddy to freedom. 

Walter, in the kayak. There is a longer story that involves him jumping out of the kayak and (later) being spooked by sea lions. Maybe for another post...

From the other side of the drought...

For the first few years that we lived in California, there wasn't much rain. I thought this was pretty great, as I bike to work most days, but recognized that it was affecting farmers and also people with nice-looking lawns in many parts of the state. There was much discussion about how best to conserve water, and apportion the water that was available to the most necessary tasks. Enter late 2016 and on into early 2017...

We have so much rain! There have been many recent stories about the havoc the rain has wreaked across the state, from images of people being rescued from river-like streets to threats of old dams and spillways overflowing to the breaking point. Meanwhile, I've been alternately lazy, using various ride services to carpool with strangers, and super intense, suiting up in my rain gear to brave the weather by bicycle. And then there are my succulents. They cannot decide whether to be thrilled or destroyed by the rain. While some are showing a little brown around the edges and there is tropical-looking moss growing on the dirt in one, others are blooming! Lemonade, I suppose.

 Some of the succulents look fancy when they bloom

 This one has grown so tall with all the water that it falls over whenever there is a lot of wind

This one is threatening to outgrow it's pot

Walter hates the rain, but on the sunny days we do have, he loves grazing in the flowers that bloom

Less thinking, more pets

This week was a whirlwind of driving and call, so I've done very little cycling or anything else. Here are some highlights of my week.

This is how Walter greeted me post-call yesterday. He desperately wanted me to rub his belly.

 Eli does not fit in the small box, but he is not willing to admit that he needs the larger box to accommodate him. I think he prefers the fit of the small box because it is snuggling him.

 Here I've captured Aleks climbing down off of my back where he thought he should ride after I leaned down to pick up the cat food. 

I stopped at the Lafayette Reservoir to knit for a few minutes post-call on Friday. I had a little time to sleep overnight, and an appointment in the East Bay that was just a little later than I'd expected. It was lovely. 

Post-call

This weekend feels like one long post-call day. I'm finally done with my block of nights and am trying to adjust back to living in the day. The last block was a bit of a low time both for taking and posting pictures, but back by popular demand is an Anne Geddes-inspired photo of the dog, and some flattering close-ups of the cats...

  

More post-call days

It turns out that taking q3 call means that I have a lot of post-call days. I know that some of you will be thinking about how coddled current residents are, not working even more the day after being on call, but I'm okay with that level of gentle accommodation, because I'm pretty destroyed at the end of a 24 hour call during which I sleep less than an hour and no one could possibly want to receive medical care from me at that point. I've slept (a lot) less on my last few calls, but my adventures have still been beautiful, if slightly abbreviated due to occurring post-nap.

 I drove to Makapuu Lighthouse a few days ago and en route stopped and saw this.

 Then climbed up past the lighthouse for this view.

 And today I biked up the windward side of the island.  

Apparently Walter was walking in the rain yesterday, so after biking the last five miles today in a torrential downpour, we were similarly soaked and muddy...

Randomness from the past four weeks...

As I realized this morning that tomorrow was September, I also realized how few of the usual markers of fall I have around me this year. There are no changing colors in San Francisco, I'm not going back to school, and the weather is basically the same, if not warmer, than earlier in the summer. Despite the lack of cues, time does appear to be passing... I keep meaning to write some of the thoughtful reflections I enjoyed so much during medical school, but to be honest I've been going to sleep instead of doing that. I've been on vacation for the past week, however, and so I have some random photos to share as well as a few entertaining stories that do not involve the hospital, or work, or being an intern...

Here is Alex, not looking particularly restful, on top of a lovely dry-clean only wool blanket that Walter, sleeping beneath, also loves. There is no convincing the pets that fine natural fibers are not intended for their sleeping pleasure. There is also no convincing Alex that I'm not out to get him - since I've been off for vacation he's taken to biting my feet and arms, and swatting at me regularly. I think he thinks I've just moved in...

Laura and I went to the De Young Museum on one of my days off this week. Here we are in front of the observation window (hence the glare). We also ate at DragonEats and Smitten before we went the museum, so it was a lovely day. 

And finally, the requisite shot of Walter snuggled in the clean laundry. We hadn't had a chance to fold it immediately when we brought it upstairs, and Walter needed no further invitation. 

By popular demand...

...some documentation that Walter is coping well with the move.

You'll see him here relaxing in some packing material, sleeping in his bed, and creating an impromptu bed out of a trash bag filled with random stuff. I think he's adjusting just fine.

Why is it cold again?

I am not handling well the recent drop into the freezing temperatures. It was so nice and warm last week that it just seems cruel to see temperatures in the 20’s now. Fingers crossed this was the last of it, and we won’t have any more snow this year…

Walter agrees.

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming...

With all of the craziness surrounding Match Day, I know you were worried that Walter had been forgotten. Fear not. He is very excited to be heading to a city with notably less snow, despite having notably more fog. He has been hiding from the weather recently...