3 posts tagged “life”
2 am : Cas stepped on glass in a club celebrating new years. She had to go to emergency in the middle of the night.The hurt was bad and deep and got her shots for the pain, antibiotics, stitches and the inability to walk. The club tried to get her to sign a release so they would not be responsible, she did not sign. She got home after sunrise. She spent the day limping in a huge amount of pain.
3 pm : Ben comes limping and shouting into the office - he had just had a maneuver around his drum set that ended up with what looks to me like a broken foot/ankle. This happened just as Cas closes the front door on her way to pick up crutches at her dad's. After encouraging him allow me to remove his shoe and sock to access the damage (obvious break to me - but we need xrays ) I call in to urgent care and hear the wait is 4.5 hours. Um, hell no. I put his foot up and pack ice on the now lump and call in to the doctor on call. She listened to my assessment and we decided to have him come in sometime tomorrow for the xray - providing I can get him NOT to walk on it. Ice and elevation and pain meds - check. Compression wrap - I had to go get, and found Cas there picking up her meds. Shoulda called it in.
8 pm : Cas tries out her crutches, slips a bit and steps down hard on her stiches. Her friends flock to her and attend to the wound - unwrapping the bandages and washing out the wound. wow - nice friends. But extra people in the house means extra mess. I head into the kitchen.
9 pm : I am moving too fast, frustrated that I have a VERY dirty kitchen and most of the people I would ask to help are on pain meds with their aching feet elevated. There is trash on the floor by the trash can - grrr- I step on the pedal to open the top (round and opens in the center with pointy sharp edges I'd never noticed before). Without thinking I leaned down to grab the trash and slammed my forehead into the left point. It DENTED my forehead, until it swelled into a big red goose egg. Now its a big throbbing bump with a dent in the middle.
11 years ago, Ben and I agreed that while we could not have kids together, we could have animals. Ben went looking for the perfect "child" for us and found an adorable litter of black labs. We had a name picked out - Wail. It would be short for "Shadow Brook's Prince of Wales". We visited many times to see the puppies, we where not going to be able to choose our puppy until others chose theirs. We wanted the "right" dog but how to make sure? We came upon a plan. We made a doggie quilt out of some of our old clothes. It smelled like "us" and we took it on a visit to the puppies. They stumbled all over it, chewing on it, sleeping on it. We held them all and watched one little boy pup carry a huge 2 liter plastic bottle all around the pen. We would have picked him on the spot, but we had to wait our turn.
When the day came, we drove back, climbed into the pen and played with all the puppies. We noticed the boy pup who loved the plastic bottles was very happy to see us. We stepped out ot the pen as the guy ahead of us went through his puppy choosing process. He, like us, was wanting a boy pup. I noticed the boy pup we liked so much had run off to hide while the first guy chose. The puppy had crawled into a nook where the quilt was! The guy picked a dog and it was our turn. We climbed back into the pen and sat down to be instantly buried in tiny black bundles of puppy love. We held a few, announced to the pack "who ever picks us gets to come home with the blanket! WHO's WAIL?!" In a heartbeat, all other puppies were displaced as the boy pup who'd been hiding bounded into Ben's arms. Wail. This was our Wail.
He was so small, he fit INTO his food bowl. He fit into the palm of Ben's hands. He got himself stuck between the sliding door and the screen. He chewed the wallboard and the legs of our dining room chairs. He slept in our arms. He was never angry or barky. He was sweet and loving and OURS.
He was my first dog. He's been in our life almost since his birth in May 1997. He's our baby, our child.
And now he can't walk.
It happened a week and a half ago when Liz was visiting. Ben was bringing Wail home from a follow up for a tooth extraction that was still infected and Wail fell while getting out of the car. He twisted his neck and it brought on instant nerve damage. Wail can't lift his paw, it flaps. The leg does not hold his weight, he falls to one side or onto his face. His back legs are weak and he has bad hips. He had used his front legs as his strong legs. Now they don't work and he is confused. He keeps trying to get up and move around, but ends up just laying down.
He is happy. He wags his tail and smiles and he rolls onto his back for belly rubs. He eats when we put a bowl between his legs and he will go to the bathroom when we carry him out to the yard. Sometimes he gets around on 3 legs - lurching and jerking but it exhausts him. And still he does not complain. Every night we lift him into bed so he can snuggle against Ben, just like he has every night since we brought him home.
We put a red harness on him and we pick up up like 80lb luggage and move him around the house. We ask him where he wants to go and he moves his head to lead us. Our other dog, Abbey lays next to him, her body stretched out against his. Our cats kiss him and lick him and lay behind him- trying to catch his wagging tail.
We took him to a new vet today. We like her very much. She sat on the floor with Wail and discussed what comes next. We need to get his tooth infection to go away first. New meds now and maybe another surgery on Tues. Then once we get that under control, steroids to help the nerve inflamation and maybe MAYBE help him feel his leg/paw again. She was not overly encouraging, but she was loving and caring. We have hope that if anyone can help Wail, she can. And if Wail can't be helped, then we are resigned to carry him with us for the rest of his life.
Because he is worth it.
And we are thankful for the love he's brought into our lives.
What's the most memorable crush you have had?
Submitted by spectacular.
Lets see... I had a huge crush on this guy I met online years ago but he was just a kid then, 19 years old. There was no way I should be crushing on him, and it was just an online game, but I could not help it. I found myself checking online day and night to see if he was on. And if he was, I would hold my breath and hope he would im me. And if I was online and I saw his name pop up on my friends list, I always made sure to say hi before anyone else did. He was popular in that online world - he had a zillion friends - and girls were all over him. It looked like he was in a relationship with another girl in online because I saw him with her a lot and he talked about missing her when she was not around. But once I got to talking with him I realized he was not "with" the other girl. He was "playing" at having a relationship - trying it on in the online world - part of the online game.
He and I played at having a relationship online too. We'd spend our nights just hanging out online together and talking - pretending we were a couple - saying l love you's and pretending to kiss. Oh - I had a crush on him, but not just in the online world. The young man completed something inside of me. When I talked with him, even online - it felt like my life made sense. The world made sense. I wanted to know him in the real world. I wanted to see if the same crush I felt online and on the phone would live up to my fantasy that this chance meeting would actually be my soul mate.
He is no longer a kid. He's now a full fledged grown up man of 31. He still hangs out online and I still im him to say "hi!" and he messages me and we still play at having a relationship online. And he still has a zillion friends and he still gets attention, and I'm still crushing on him.
And at the end of every day, just like this one, when the computers get turned off. We curl up in each other's arms, and kiss, and know we really are soul mates. Some days might be harder than others, but every night we fall asleep together. And every morning I look into his eyes and I fall madly in love all over again. My 12 1/2 year crush, my husband.
i <3 Benny
