Trixie Update

After a week of antibiotic treatment and pain medication, Trixie is still experiencing a lot more pain than she should. She is back at the vet today (our regular vet this time) to be checked out. The wounds on her back are a little infected, and she has a slight fever. She also has some fluid buildup on her belly, which prevents her from wanting to lie down. Consequently, she isn't sleeping much. The vet is going to sedate her and see what's up with her swelling and why she's still having so much pain. We'll know more this afternoon.

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Update: Tuesday 9/16 12:20 p.m.

Trixie has some abscesses in the muscle tissue in her abdomen, where some of the muscle fibers were torn. The vet had to put in three drains tubes to drain out those areas. Trixie rested nicely overnight and is feeling better today. She's in a lot less pain than yesterday morning, but she'll need to remain in the hospital at least another night.

Labor Day Anniversary

I survived the first week back at school without any big mishaps. My students seem OK, but I can already tell that I have at least a couple of slackers. However, I also already know which is my favorite class. My research and argument students had to read a couple of chapters and a newspaper article that I assigned, and one class in particular really impressed me with their level of participation and the intelligence of their discussion. I'm really looking forward to going to that class every day. The only bad thing about it will be that the rest of the day will go downhill because the other two classes after that one don't seem nearly as talkative. But maybe that was just first-week nerves or something.

Today is JMG and Husband's 12th anniversary. I can't believe it's been that long sometimes. We marked the occasion by going out to eat at a home-cooking type of restaurant last night and having some dessert. It was OK. I think today we'll make some homemade ice cream, and if I'm feeling really celebratory, I might even bake a cake.

It's difficult to make special anniversary plans when the occasion falls during the first week of school, and this year it's even harder to do so because we have had an emergency with one of our dogs. We had to take Trixie to the vet yesterday because she was in terrible pain in her back. X-rays showed that she has two bulging discs. She spent the night in the hospital last night receiving pain killers, muscle relaxers, and steroid shots. We're hopeful that she can come home sometime today or tomorrow, but when she does, she'll have to be on strict cage rest for four weeks. Do you know how hard it's going to be to keep a Jack Russell Terrier happy in a cage for four weeks? We'll probably be sleeping with a cage on the bed for a while.

I hope everyone has a nice day off tomorrow if you have the day off. I know I'm going to enjoy mine, even if I end up having to do some school work.