Life Update

Okay, so I am sure many of you are wondering why I can't manage to keep up with this blog. I promise I am going to be better and stop neglecting you! But a lot has happened in the last three months, and I needed to focus my energy in other areas. But I'm back, and ready to roll with a whole new set of posts.

First off, I'm MOVING.

I know, I just moved to Arizona three months ago, so why am I moving already? Well, my advice to you all is to always look at the apartment or house you intend to rent. Get a feel for who the neighbors are, and take the time to ask current residents what they think of the complex. I did none of those things, and I really made a mistake in choosing my apartment for vet school.

My upstairs neighbor has been a nightmare from day 1. He seemed decent at first, but I noticed that my two dogs were extremely uneasy around him, and I started coming home at random times to check on them. Several times I observed my neighbor standing in front of my windows waving his arms and yelling at the dogs to make them bark. Once they were barking, he would tap on the window and curse at them for barking.

 One time, I was home and caught him peering through the window looking for the dogs. I tried to brush off these incidents, but after catching him cursing at the dogs and peering into my home, I had to complain to the complex. They issued a cease and desist, but he seemed to only become upset that I had complained and proceeded to yell at the dogs every time he passed the window.

When another neighbor, an elderly man, confronted him for driving erratically around the parking lot, he lashed out and threatened physical harm to the old man. It was at that point I decided that I needed to move. The complex refused to waive the lease break fees, despite this being an issue of my safety. I spoke to the local police and notified them of the situation as well, so they could be aware of any incidents that may occur.

 This whole experience caused a lot of stress and affected my ability to study. Instead of being able to enjoy my apartment, I live with cardboard over the windows, and spend most of the time in the bedroom. The neighbor has only gotten more violent and tried to annoy me further by stomping around his apartment, moving furniture, and making noise at all hours of the night. Because I could no longer focus on school and I constantly feared that he would hurt my dogs or myself, I chose to break the lease. I will be moving on the 24th to a complex right next to school, and will actually be living right by my friend Kelly.

 Although this is an expensive decision, I feel that my safety and my dogs' safety is most important, and I no longer feel safe here. Because I am currently living off loans, I can no longer afford to go home for the holidays, which breaks my heart, but my family kindly understands why I had to make this decision. They started a fundraising page for me to help me pay off the rental complex.

 If you would like to help, please consider donating or sharing this page with your friends and family. I would appreciate any little bit of help, especially if it meant that I could go back to Minnesota for Christmas.

To view the fundraising page click here.

Secondly, one of my dogs became deathly ill at the beginning of October. One afternoon, she began vomiting. Now, Georgia is a pig when she eats, so vomiting is nothing out of the ordinary for her. However, she continued to vomit every half hour for about four hours (on my couch, of course. Still working on getting the smell out). Then, she began urinating frequently, very large piles of clear urine. I called the Companion Animal Clinic at Midwestern, where I go to school, and after speaking to the veterinarians on staff, they told me to bring her in right away because her symptoms were so serious.

 When I put her on the scale, I saw she was down to 12lbs. When we moved, she weighed 17lbs, meaning she had lost 5lbs in only two months. This was concerning, especially when we observed how dehydrated she was. The tech, Sean, (who was AMAZING, by the way) immediately took her back and got her on subcutaneous fluids and took blood and urine. The vet examined her and chose to put her on amoxicillin to begin dealing with any infection that may be present, and also gave us some cerenia, which was to help with her nausea. We also got some canned food to stimulate her appetite and help her start eating.

The next 24 hours were horrible. She continued to urinate every few minutes, and couldn't get comfortable. Finally, Dr. Bennett called with the blood and urine results. She diagnosed Georgia with pyelonephritis, which is an infection of the kidneys. They found both E.Coli and Klebsiella bacteria in her urine in amounts over 100,000 per ml, which is indicative of a very serious infection. She also had proteins in her urine, meaning her kidneys were really not working as they ought to be. We switched her to Baytril, which would battle both bacteria, especially the Klebsiella, which is known to be a resistant bacteria to many antibiotics.

The vet put her on a month of medications and wanted to see her in a month to recheck her blood and urine. I made her appointment for November 9th. She seemed to get a lot better, but her appetite still wasn't that great, and she seemed almost depressed during this time.

 On the evening of the 7th, Georgia could not settle down and get comfortable, and that continued into the night of the 8th. She began pacing and wandering around the bedroom every five minutes, and at one point seemed to be weaving her head and stumbling. She fell about four times before I made her sit next to me and I held her while she slept for about an hour and a half before she began pacing again. Needless to say, neither of us got any sleep. When I brought her to the vet the next morning, she was down to 9lbs. To go from 17lbs to 9lbs in three months is bad, but to go from 12lbs to 9lbs in four weeks is horrible. Her muscles had begun wasting, and she was exhausted.

 However, her bloodwork and urine cultures all came back normal, so she was on the mend. She will be on a kidney health diet from now on, which is a prescription diet. We are hoping that she will gain about 3-5lbs back and she seems to be eating the new diet well, especially the canned food.

Waiting for the doctor

Her hump of fluids. She jiggled when she walked! But she felt a lot better after she got re-hydrated 

She finally started snuggling with me, so I knew she was starting to feel better!

Lots of rest, food, and television. She watched a lot of COPS and Law and Order SVU

Hopefully we won't have to see one of these for awhile now!

These two issues caused a lot of stress and anxiety for me during the past quarter of school. I am hoping that next quarter will be much less stressful, and that I can finally be happy and maybe begin to enjoy Arizona a little.

Another issue that has caused me stress has been my parents divorce. I debated a lot whether I wanted to bring this to public and discuss it, but I figured maybe someone else is going through this, and I want them to know that they are not alone.

Although I am an adult, this was one of the hardest things I have ever dealt with. My parents never got along when I was a kid, and I remember praying they would get a divorce many times. Unfortunately, timing was not on my side, and they finally decided that a divorce would be a good idea, right when I got accepted to vet school.

 I was angry about that for a long time, and I guess I am still angry, and I will be in therapy for awhile to handle my emotions with this. I couldn't understand why this had to happen right when I was getting ready to pack up and leave my home. I felt like they were breaking up the only home I had ever known. I will admit, it made it a lot easier to leave because I just wanted to be away from the bitterness and constant fights.

 My final months in Minnesota were the hardest times I have ever gone through. The fighting was vicious, and loud, and I cried more in those months than I have my entire life. I cried most of the trip down here, even. Anyway, I was angry and felt that I could not enjoy what little time I had left in Minnesota. With my mom buying a new house, and packing up the entire house, I felt pushed aside. I felt like she was taking this moment of joy away from me.

 I held a lot of things in during the past few years, and I'm only starting to deal with my thoughts now that I am on my own. I feel strange because I want to go home, but there isn't a home to go to. My room is empty-I took everything with me. My dad lives in a relatively empty house. It's weird. Another thing that makes me anxious about going home is figuring out how to deal with my parents. I love both of my parents. I'm closer to my dad, but I still want to be supportive of my mom too. I don't know how to balance my time between my parents. I don't know where I will sleep when I return to Minnesota.

 It is hard when parents run each other down in front of their children. I found a newspaper article that really summed it up nicely, I'll post it:

I found those a long time ago, and kept them to remind me that this is a common thing. There are millions of other kids that go through this too. So if your parents are fighting or divorcing, it will be okay. Please don't feel alone. And most of all, don't hold the hurt inside. Talk to someone. So many of my friends have let me vent to them and cry to them, and I honestly don't know how I would have made it though without them there to hold me up.

 And parents, if you are in a relationship, marriage, situation in which you find yourself hating the parent of your child, please remember these things. When you put down your child's father or mother, you are insulting that child. Half of that person is in your child. Don't make your child feel like they are bad too. It's damaging. If you are hurting, go seek help from a therapist. But lashing out against your co-parent in front of your child is not acceptable. Your child shouldn't have to feel forced into the middle. Don't put them there.

 Anyway, that was what was going on with my life the past few months. I hope you forgive me for my lack of posts, but I am back and ready to roll!