Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Recovery
My sweet Ellie Belly is doing much much better now. She was even trying to play with Precious and I hate to break it up, but don't want her to re-injure herself. I still give her doggy massages in the morning to loosen up those stiff muscles, but haven't given her any meds for the past 2 days. Thanks for everyone's concern!
Friday, August 26, 2005
DUH
OK - still learning how this thing works...here is Ellie's picture that was supposed to be included in the last post.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v373/terri65/100_0488.jpg
Ellie has a blown disc in her neck, just below where her collar rests. Apparently it's a common problem for dobermans. Her whole shoulder area is in massive spasm and there is a pinched nerve affecting her left front leg. Our wonderful vet, Margot says she should recover just fine with bed rest, limited activity for a few weeks, and lots of serious strong medicines. She's on Vicadin and Valium every 4-6 hours. So far, 4 hours seems to be too long for her stand it. Margot gave me permission to give her more meds as needed. Poor baby girl! The confusion she was experiencing was supposedly from the extreme pain, and not knowing where it was coming from or why she was having it.
She had a very rough night last night, probably from the car ride to and from the vet and from the examination. She awoke at 2 am for her scheduled dose, but woke me again less than 2 hrs later crying pretty hard. All I could think to do was massage her spasming shoulders, so that's what I did for the next 2-1/2 hours until the alarm clock went off. She seems more comfortable resting on the recliner rather than in her own bed, so I'll let her sleep there tonight if she wants. She'll probably want to be upstairs with the rest of the family though.
We are supposed to keep Stefanie and Precious away from Ellie until she's feeling better, to avoid any incidents of somebody hurting somebody else. Stefanie grabbed Ellie's back leg before I could get there. What a good girl! She didn't even growl. She just sort of moaned. I guess she could see that I was coming to her rescue.
Unfortunately, I know what kind of pain Ellie is in. I doubt I've had it that severely for quite some time, probably not since I first injured my back in 1990. It makes me feel all the more empathetic to my sweet Ellie Bean! We're all hoping she will be back to her old self very soon!
Ellie has a blown disc in her neck, just below where her collar rests. Apparently it's a common problem for dobermans. Her whole shoulder area is in massive spasm and there is a pinched nerve affecting her left front leg. Our wonderful vet, Margot says she should recover just fine with bed rest, limited activity for a few weeks, and lots of serious strong medicines. She's on Vicadin and Valium every 4-6 hours. So far, 4 hours seems to be too long for her stand it. Margot gave me permission to give her more meds as needed. Poor baby girl! The confusion she was experiencing was supposedly from the extreme pain, and not knowing where it was coming from or why she was having it.
She had a very rough night last night, probably from the car ride to and from the vet and from the examination. She awoke at 2 am for her scheduled dose, but woke me again less than 2 hrs later crying pretty hard. All I could think to do was massage her spasming shoulders, so that's what I did for the next 2-1/2 hours until the alarm clock went off. She seems more comfortable resting on the recliner rather than in her own bed, so I'll let her sleep there tonight if she wants. She'll probably want to be upstairs with the rest of the family though.
We are supposed to keep Stefanie and Precious away from Ellie until she's feeling better, to avoid any incidents of somebody hurting somebody else. Stefanie grabbed Ellie's back leg before I could get there. What a good girl! She didn't even growl. She just sort of moaned. I guess she could see that I was coming to her rescue.
Unfortunately, I know what kind of pain Ellie is in. I doubt I've had it that severely for quite some time, probably not since I first injured my back in 1990. It makes me feel all the more empathetic to my sweet Ellie Bean! We're all hoping she will be back to her old self very soon!
Thursday, August 25, 2005
MIA
I've not dropped off the face of the earth....just needed an emotional break for a bit after getting all that Daddy stuff out.
Plus I'm busy stuffing envelopes for the charity I support (Doberman Pinscher Rescue of PA - www.dprpa.org ) And my older dobie, sweet Ellie Bean, Ellie Belly, Ellie Ellie Oxen Free!, is acting very strangely since Sunday. She's confused, doesn't walk in a straight line, puked Tuesday night, and is favoring her front left paw now. I'm so afraid she had a mini-stroke. Her appointment is tonight at 4. Hopefully it's just an inner ear infection. Update tomorrow I hope.
Plus I'm busy stuffing envelopes for the charity I support (Doberman Pinscher Rescue of PA - www.dprpa.org ) And my older dobie, sweet Ellie Bean, Ellie Belly, Ellie Ellie Oxen Free!, is acting very strangely since Sunday. She's confused, doesn't walk in a straight line, puked Tuesday night, and is favoring her front left paw now. I'm so afraid she had a mini-stroke. Her appointment is tonight at 4. Hopefully it's just an inner ear infection. Update tomorrow I hope.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Daddy - The Final Chapter
I hadn't heard from nor tried to contact Daddy since July 04.
In February 05, my cousin, Donna (Mom's sister's daughter), died. She'd been a drug addict most of her life. It seemed to me that she was turning her life around late in 2004. Then she received a cash settlement for some traffic accident she'd been in. Now she had money. I guess the temptation was just too much for her. She and her common law husband got a hotel room and did a bunch of crystal meth. She locked herself in the bathroom and started mainlining it. He said he tried to revive her but she died on the way to the hospital. My poor aunt...this was her 2nd (and last) child she had to bury (the first was stillborn).
You're probably wondering where Daddy fits into this sadness.... There are still 4 cemetary plots in the family cemetary that are titled in joint name. My mom wanted to give one of these plots to my aunt for my cousin. Mom couldn't legally do this without Daddy's signature. So it fell to me to contact him about this. His phone number was disconnected. The email I sent him was returned as undeliverable. We drove past his trailer and it was empty. His car was no longer in the driveway. I got Mom to call that same cousin of his to see what they knew. They told Mom "Oh yes, they moved back to California a couple of months ago!" Well that just burns my bottom! Yet again, he moved and neglected to tell me. I am still supposed to get his phone number from his sister, my Aunt Jean, and call him about switching the plot deeds. I'm not calmed down enough to do that just yet. Besides Aunt Jean just had a battle with breast cancer. I don't want to start talking to her about Daddy while she's not feeling well. I really wish I didn't have to even contact him about the plot deeds. I just want to be SO DONE with him.
The End. (?)
In February 05, my cousin, Donna (Mom's sister's daughter), died. She'd been a drug addict most of her life. It seemed to me that she was turning her life around late in 2004. Then she received a cash settlement for some traffic accident she'd been in. Now she had money. I guess the temptation was just too much for her. She and her common law husband got a hotel room and did a bunch of crystal meth. She locked herself in the bathroom and started mainlining it. He said he tried to revive her but she died on the way to the hospital. My poor aunt...this was her 2nd (and last) child she had to bury (the first was stillborn).
You're probably wondering where Daddy fits into this sadness.... There are still 4 cemetary plots in the family cemetary that are titled in joint name. My mom wanted to give one of these plots to my aunt for my cousin. Mom couldn't legally do this without Daddy's signature. So it fell to me to contact him about this. His phone number was disconnected. The email I sent him was returned as undeliverable. We drove past his trailer and it was empty. His car was no longer in the driveway. I got Mom to call that same cousin of his to see what they knew. They told Mom "Oh yes, they moved back to California a couple of months ago!" Well that just burns my bottom! Yet again, he moved and neglected to tell me. I am still supposed to get his phone number from his sister, my Aunt Jean, and call him about switching the plot deeds. I'm not calmed down enough to do that just yet. Besides Aunt Jean just had a battle with breast cancer. I don't want to start talking to her about Daddy while she's not feeling well. I really wish I didn't have to even contact him about the plot deeds. I just want to be SO DONE with him.
The End. (?)
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Daddy - Part 3
Sometime in my 9th or 10th grade year of high school, Daddy and Barbara disappeared. Rumour had it that they'd moved to California. He didn't tell me, my sister, or my mom he was leaving. And of course then the pittens he was giving for child support stopped too. If we weren't struggling before that, we sure started struggling then! I had been babysitting for my dear friend Wendy since 7th grade, but now those earnings had to go towards buying my own school clothes and supplies and such.
We didn't hear from Daddy again until right before my graduation. He called and said he'd try to make it home for the ceremony. I knew by then not to hold my breath for that event! I got a few more phone calls from him sporadically over the next 3 or 4 years. Then I joined the Air Force (not to follow in his footsteps) and still heard from him sporadically at best. I was almost always the one to initiate contact.
When I called to tell him I had orders to Panama, he suddenly tried to act like he's my dad or something. He kept trying to tell me I wasn't going to like it in Panama. I said "Ya know what? You don't know that!" We chitty-chatted the rest of the phone call and I didn't hear from him again until he came home to visit my Grandma (his mom) in 1997. I took my neice Sarah to see him - this was the first time he'd ever even acknowledged Sarah, who was 5 at the time. He and Barbara were cooking dinner for Grandma the next night and invited me over to join them. I told them I could come but not til after 6 pm since I worked til 5 in the city. That was fine at the time. The next night, I called as soon as I got home, around 5:50 and they said, "Oh, we've already eaten. Dinner is over." Well! HMPH!
He moved again, in 1999 I think, and I got the birthday card I'd sent him returned by the Post Office. So I didn't hear from him again until Grandma died in February of 2000 and he came home for the funeral. They gave us a wedding gift (we got married in 1998), took us out to dinner, and promised to try harder to keep in touch. We got an Easter card (who sends Easter cards??), then nothing again! I pretty much gave up on him at this point.
Then in the summer of 2002, I saw my Aunt Jean (daddy's sister) at a yard sale. She said he'd moved again and said for me to call her for the new address. I said I'd wait until I had news to tell him to get the address (we were trying to get pregnant at that point).
We did get pregnant finally in August 2003, but I really had no ambition to contact him again. Then in September 2003, my mom ran into a cousin of Daddy's (also a friend of hers) who told her that Daddy was now back in Lancaster County! The phone number the cousin shared with me was incorrect. The cousin told Daddy that I was trying to contact him and gave him my phone number. Still, I heard nothing..... Then the new phone books came out and I looked him up. There he was, plain as day...Ken and Barbara Bailey. The address listed shocked me. I practically drove past his house every day on my way to work!!! Eventually I got up the nerve to call him. I told him I had heard he was back in town and saw his phone number in the new book and wanted to call to share some news with him. He said "I thought you already knew I was back for a couple months now?" (insert eye-roll here) I said "Yes, but Tom gave me the wrong phone number and I had to wait for the phone book to come out to find you" (mentally screaming "why the flock didn't you call ME you SOB???") Anyway, I told him we'd moved into a 4 bedroom house (he last saw us when we had a 3 bedroom townhouse). He wanted to know what we needed with all that room? I said "Well one of the rooms is going to have to be a nursery soon because we're having a baby - you're second grandchild" He said "That's nice, but aren't you almost 40?" (mentally screaming "you should flocking well KNOW how old I am you SOB!!") I said sweetly "Yes, I'm 39 now and will be 40 when the baby is born". Chitty chatty chitty chatty, blah blah blah. I had 2 or 3 other phone calls from him during my pregnancy. I called him 2 or 3 times too. Things seemed to be going ok.
In May, when Stefanie was born, Daddy came to see us in the hospital. There was a tear in his eye when I handed her to him and said "Here ya go Pappy". He just looked at her for the longest time. Barbara kept saying how she wished they lived closer so she could just spoil Stefanie rotten (she doesn't drive) and how much she misses her great-granddaughter in California (they'd been babysitting her before they came back here). She was just gushing.....
And then the silence returned. I called and left 4 or 5 messages and emailed Daddy twice about Stefanie's Christening Ceremony in July. Nothing... No acknowledgement, no "sorry but we're waxing our floor that day", nothing. I didn't even try again for months.
more next time....
We didn't hear from Daddy again until right before my graduation. He called and said he'd try to make it home for the ceremony. I knew by then not to hold my breath for that event! I got a few more phone calls from him sporadically over the next 3 or 4 years. Then I joined the Air Force (not to follow in his footsteps) and still heard from him sporadically at best. I was almost always the one to initiate contact.
When I called to tell him I had orders to Panama, he suddenly tried to act like he's my dad or something. He kept trying to tell me I wasn't going to like it in Panama. I said "Ya know what? You don't know that!" We chitty-chatted the rest of the phone call and I didn't hear from him again until he came home to visit my Grandma (his mom) in 1997. I took my neice Sarah to see him - this was the first time he'd ever even acknowledged Sarah, who was 5 at the time. He and Barbara were cooking dinner for Grandma the next night and invited me over to join them. I told them I could come but not til after 6 pm since I worked til 5 in the city. That was fine at the time. The next night, I called as soon as I got home, around 5:50 and they said, "Oh, we've already eaten. Dinner is over." Well! HMPH!
He moved again, in 1999 I think, and I got the birthday card I'd sent him returned by the Post Office. So I didn't hear from him again until Grandma died in February of 2000 and he came home for the funeral. They gave us a wedding gift (we got married in 1998), took us out to dinner, and promised to try harder to keep in touch. We got an Easter card (who sends Easter cards??), then nothing again! I pretty much gave up on him at this point.
Then in the summer of 2002, I saw my Aunt Jean (daddy's sister) at a yard sale. She said he'd moved again and said for me to call her for the new address. I said I'd wait until I had news to tell him to get the address (we were trying to get pregnant at that point).
We did get pregnant finally in August 2003, but I really had no ambition to contact him again. Then in September 2003, my mom ran into a cousin of Daddy's (also a friend of hers) who told her that Daddy was now back in Lancaster County! The phone number the cousin shared with me was incorrect. The cousin told Daddy that I was trying to contact him and gave him my phone number. Still, I heard nothing..... Then the new phone books came out and I looked him up. There he was, plain as day...Ken and Barbara Bailey. The address listed shocked me. I practically drove past his house every day on my way to work!!! Eventually I got up the nerve to call him. I told him I had heard he was back in town and saw his phone number in the new book and wanted to call to share some news with him. He said "I thought you already knew I was back for a couple months now?" (insert eye-roll here) I said "Yes, but Tom gave me the wrong phone number and I had to wait for the phone book to come out to find you" (mentally screaming "why the flock didn't you call ME you SOB???") Anyway, I told him we'd moved into a 4 bedroom house (he last saw us when we had a 3 bedroom townhouse). He wanted to know what we needed with all that room? I said "Well one of the rooms is going to have to be a nursery soon because we're having a baby - you're second grandchild" He said "That's nice, but aren't you almost 40?" (mentally screaming "you should flocking well KNOW how old I am you SOB!!") I said sweetly "Yes, I'm 39 now and will be 40 when the baby is born". Chitty chatty chitty chatty, blah blah blah. I had 2 or 3 other phone calls from him during my pregnancy. I called him 2 or 3 times too. Things seemed to be going ok.
In May, when Stefanie was born, Daddy came to see us in the hospital. There was a tear in his eye when I handed her to him and said "Here ya go Pappy". He just looked at her for the longest time. Barbara kept saying how she wished they lived closer so she could just spoil Stefanie rotten (she doesn't drive) and how much she misses her great-granddaughter in California (they'd been babysitting her before they came back here). She was just gushing.....
And then the silence returned. I called and left 4 or 5 messages and emailed Daddy twice about Stefanie's Christening Ceremony in July. Nothing... No acknowledgement, no "sorry but we're waxing our floor that day", nothing. I didn't even try again for months.
more next time....
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Daddy - Part 2 (miniature version)
The first day of eighth grade was positively humilitating for me but I didn't know it until a weeks later. I went to the wrong homeroom (an error on the list posted in the lobby) and this girl Terry Baker said in a sly, mocking tone "Your dad is Ken Bailey, isn't he? I know him" Turns out, her mother was "the other woman", Barbara. Terry continued to torture me throughout that school year, threatening to beat me up if I didn't stop walking past her house on my way home from school, etc etc. On a side note, I was quite shocked about 7 years ago to run into Terry and see that she actually turned out to be a decently nice person.
Monday, August 01, 2005
A Long Time Ago - Daddy, part 1
So many people who've heard my "story" tell me I should write a book. So maybe this is the beginning of that project. It'll probably be all kinds of out-of-order but I have to write it down as things come to me.
My daddy is an emotionally unavailable selfish lost soul. He was raised by his single mother with his 2 half-sisters, with no male roll-model in his life. He told me stories of his childhood...things like sleeping on the playground in the summer, then stealing milk from people's milk boxes (way back when they still did home delivery). He joined the Air Force as an aircraft electrician. He was ORDERED to write a letter to my grandma after she contacted his first sgt. complaining that she'd not heard a peep from him since he enlisted. He wrote "Dear Mom. I am fine. Signed, Ken" or something to that effect.
When he came home from the Air Force, he met and married my mom. She got pregnant with my brother, Kenny, within a year or so of being married. My brother died at the age of 6 weeks from viral pneumonia. Personally I think my dad checked out, emotionally, from our family at his death. After 2 more years of trying, I was born, then my sister about 2 yrs later. At least daddy made some sort of a feeble attempt to be my dad. He didn't even try with my sister.
He was a milkman (ironic, huh?). The running joke was always that we are the milkman's kids. He would get up and go to work around 3 am, come home and sleep til supper, eat, then go up to the firehouse, where he was a volunteer fireman, and hang out. Sometime after we'd be in bed, he'd come home and sleep again til it was time for work. Saturday's were our best bet of seeing him, but most of the time, he was working a parttime job, or helping some buddy, or hanging at the fire house. Sunday's were reserved strictly for golfing.
The only real emotion I ever saw from my daddy was when my maternal grandmother died in 1974. He picked us up from school on our way home for lunch and his voice cracked when he told us the news that she'd died in her sleep.
In 1978, he left us for another woman... Barbara. I tried to like her, really I did. It's just not possible!
Time to go! more on Daddy next time....
My daddy is an emotionally unavailable selfish lost soul. He was raised by his single mother with his 2 half-sisters, with no male roll-model in his life. He told me stories of his childhood...things like sleeping on the playground in the summer, then stealing milk from people's milk boxes (way back when they still did home delivery). He joined the Air Force as an aircraft electrician. He was ORDERED to write a letter to my grandma after she contacted his first sgt. complaining that she'd not heard a peep from him since he enlisted. He wrote "Dear Mom. I am fine. Signed, Ken" or something to that effect.
When he came home from the Air Force, he met and married my mom. She got pregnant with my brother, Kenny, within a year or so of being married. My brother died at the age of 6 weeks from viral pneumonia. Personally I think my dad checked out, emotionally, from our family at his death. After 2 more years of trying, I was born, then my sister about 2 yrs later. At least daddy made some sort of a feeble attempt to be my dad. He didn't even try with my sister.
He was a milkman (ironic, huh?). The running joke was always that we are the milkman's kids. He would get up and go to work around 3 am, come home and sleep til supper, eat, then go up to the firehouse, where he was a volunteer fireman, and hang out. Sometime after we'd be in bed, he'd come home and sleep again til it was time for work. Saturday's were our best bet of seeing him, but most of the time, he was working a parttime job, or helping some buddy, or hanging at the fire house. Sunday's were reserved strictly for golfing.
The only real emotion I ever saw from my daddy was when my maternal grandmother died in 1974. He picked us up from school on our way home for lunch and his voice cracked when he told us the news that she'd died in her sleep.
In 1978, he left us for another woman... Barbara. I tried to like her, really I did. It's just not possible!
Time to go! more on Daddy next time....
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