Personal Update

by Laura K. Curtis | Jul 11, 2014 | Dogs, Stuff! | 10 comments

Many of you already know this, but some of you may not. (You may also not care—feel free to move right along if you’re here for the freebies; there’ll be another of those tomorrow.) The past month or so has been exceedingly tough, but things are looking up and I have time and energy again to let you know what’s going on.

First and most importantly, my crazy younger dog, Philomena, was diagnosed with kidney disease. She stopped eating and dropped from 32 pounds to 23. I was an utter wreck. We thought for a little bit that she might not live. We were force-feeding her day and night, shoving pills down her throat coated in yogurt to keep her from choking them back up, running her back and forth from the vet constantly. After her first five day stay in the hospital, she came home, and then went back in for another two days. We were scrambling to re-arrange schedules, etc. so that we could maintain some control. But then, after the second stay, they found a new medication for nausea and she popped back up, started eating again, and yesterday’s blood results were excellent. She’ll likely be on drugs and a special kidney-friendly, low-protein diet for the rest of her life, but she’s back to getting into trouble and generally making a pain of herself.

In fact, just today, Mike said to her “you’re so cute, I just want to strangle you.” Which is a good sign that everything is getting back to normal.

My own issues have been brewing since at least last July, though actually longer. The first time I remember losing my grip (literally) and sensation in my right pinkie finger was probably 20 years ago. But it went away. It’s come and gone over the years without me paying it a whole lot of mind, but when I ruptured the C6-C7 disc last July and my whole arm went numb and useless, it was time to start paying attention.

At RWA last year, I was on a lot of painkillers. I’ve been on and off them ever since and once I got my insurance straightened out, I set up surgery. They went in, pulled out two discs (a second had gone bad because of the instability caused by the first one) and then found bone spurs pressing on the nerve that they had to shave off. They put in two small plastic “spacers” instead of discs, that were then screwed in. After a while, the bone should grow around them, “fusing” the vertebrae. Both of my doctors were excellent and when I woke up, the pain in my mid-back that beat like demon wings beneath my shoulder blades had already begun to dissipate.

But neck surgery is…not easy. I am wearing a neck brace which is uncomfortable, especially in the heat. The surgery was July 3, and today is the first day I managed to sit up in bed without lifting my head in my hands as if it were a bowling ball, not something physically attached to me.  Yesterday was the first day I managed to eat anything more solid than soup and eggs. (And yesterday it was rice and toast—my stomach is completely destroyed from the number of painkillers I’ve taken since the surgery.)

So, that’s where we are. Yes, I am still planning on going to RWA. Today I feel much better about that choice. Even 48 hours ago, I was thinking I must have been out of my mind. But I’ve only taken one pain pill today and I did the dishes and walked around and, as I said, didn’t have to lift my head as a separate object. So things are looking up. On Monday I go see one of my docs, and on Wednesday I see the other. I suspect I will be required to wear the neck brace at RWA, and I will probably spend most of the con in the bar hanging out instead of walking from place to place.

Animals of the West Indies

by Laura K. Curtis | Mar 15, 2014 | Dogs, Stuff! | 4 comments

My husband and I took a wonderful and much needed vacation over the last two weeks. We have a timeshare unit in Sint Maarten, the Dutch West Indies, but one of the best things about the island is that it’s half Dutch and half French–the other half of the island is Saint Martin, in the French West Indies. So the food is amazing. We won’t talk about how much weight I gained. And then since we took an extra week this year on top of our usual one week share, we took the opportunity to ferry over to Anguilla (British West Indies) and also Pinel Island, which is a tiny little island that’s really just a sandbar away from Saint Martin. You could honestly probably walk. Lots of people kayak over.

Anyway, we always see loads of animals, so I thought I would subject all of you, dear readers, to vacation pictures!

Australia, Part 2: Surfers . . . Paradise?

by Laura K. Curtis | Oct 10, 2013 | Dogs, Stuff! | 0 comments

After we left Melbourne, we flew into Brisbane and then drove out to an area called Surfers Paradise. Now, let me say first that the beach itself was absolutely lovely, but my other impressions of Surfers Paradise were not as positive. In fact, I can best describe it as what might happen if you picked up Las Vegas and dumped it in south Florida (and then replaced all the Latino influences in FL with Asian ones).  Kitesurfing seemed to be huge–we saw it on all the beaches we visited, possibly because no matter how hot the day, a stiff wind always gave the surfers plenty of lift!

As we usually do on vacation, however, we didn’t stay put. We usually pick a direction and drive off in search of cool stuff, which is exactly what we did from our home base of Surfer’s Paradise.

The first day, with no idea where we were going, we drove off and stopped to eat breakfast on the road at an antiques shop and café. I got the warm fuzzies having breakfast being watched over by this Dalek.

Then we drove from town to town, stopping to do things like peer across a field at a bunch of kangaroos hanging out under a tree. Even though we were a good 150 feet away when we spotted them, they all perked right up and got ready to run. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. Fields and hills and what they call “creeks” that we’d call the mighty Mississippi.

We ended up in a small town called Healesville where there was an animal sanctuary. So, naturally, we had to go there! That’s where we got to meet some kangaroos up close. Here’s Mike petting one:

RooPettingTime

We also hung out with a Tasmanian Devil. I love to watch Devils run. They’re so funny!

And the wombats:

The next day, we went out to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. KOALAS. Many of you may know that this was the  thing I was most looking forward to about the whole Australia trip.

And yes, I got to “cuddle” a kola. That’s what they call it when you hold one, even though you’re actually just pretending to be a tree and letting the koala sit on you. Koalas can be pet, but not cuddled, in NSW, but in Queensland cuddling is still legal, though koalas have specific working conditions. According to the Lone Pine site,

In Queensland, koalas can only be cuddled for less than 30 minutes per day. They must also get every third day off. This ensures that they get plenty of time to eat and sleep. At Lone Pine, we “clock on” and “clock off” our koalas when they go to the koala cuddling area.

But koalas aren’t all they have at Lone Pine. No, indeed. More kangaroos in an area where you can walk around and hang out with and feed them, free-roaming lizards, and strange birds, indeed!

Australia Rocks! Part 1: Melbourne and surrounds.

by Laura K. Curtis | Oct 5, 2013 | Dogs, Stuff! | 1 comment

For years, my husband and I have talked about going to Australia. If you’re thinking of going, here’s the first thing I’d say to you: get a credit card that gives you airline miles and use it every chance you can. (American Airlines partners with Qantas, so we were lucky that way because we already had the American card.) At the moment, an economy class ticket costs $3500, so you will want to use miles!

After about 36 hours of travel, we arrived in Melbourne. (Actual flying time, 23 hours. Plus driving, layover and airport wait time.) Melbourne is an awesomely cool city. The architecture is amazing. Check out the bridge we went through! I love the off-center, egg-shaped opening. The city is a combination of very old and very new architecture, with none of the sort of “mid-century blah” you see all over the place elsewhere. I think my favorite example of this was right across the street from our hotel, where we saw this hyper-modern apartment building (at least that’s what I think it was) wrapped around an old home. I’m not sure whether the old home was actually incorporated into the new–it might have become a lobby or the like–but I love the look of the rounded mirrored glass around the Victorian house.

On a side note, I’ll say that if you have Celiac or any kind of gluten intolerance, Australia in general is a great place to visit. Unlike my visit to Atlanta, every place in Australia had accommodations for gluten-free eating. At breakfast every morning I was able to get gluten-free toast, and it was really good.

On another side note, it was a bit bizarre to walk around Australia and never, not once, see a stray cat anywhere. We rarely saw dogs, either, except when we went out to the beaches. But we saw rabbits everywhere. Probably because there were no dogs or cats.

The day after we arrived, we went out to Werribee Open Range Zoo and it was fabulous. I mean fabulous.

The Growling Grass Frogs were all over the wetlands part of the zoo. The sound they make is really cool.

More later, when I’ll write about Brisbane and our trip to the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast!

Australia

by Laura K. Curtis | Sep 30, 2013 | Dogs, Stuff! | 0 comments

I know I’ve been quiet lately, but I am in Australia and my connection is terrible. When I get home I promise many posts with animals. For now, here’s me with Theresa, a koala from the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.