Archive for the ‘Quartzsite’ Category

Hello. What a day. Can I rewind this day and start all over? I’m going to walk you right thru my day – morning to now.

This morning wasn’t too bad. I called the vet here just down the road from us and scheduled an appointment for Jake. If you’ve been following along you know that he hasn’t been keeping his food down at all for the past three days. He eats and four hours later, it come up and lands somewhere on the floor of the RV. Poor little guy.

So enough is enough. Time to bring in the professionals and no, we didn’t change his diet at all. Same food as always. So I called up a local veterinarian at 8am and and ask for an appointment to bring the little guy in. They tell me “Thursday at 3pm.” I laugh! That’s not going to happen. So I say, “How about today?” They say they have nothing open for appointments until Thursday at 3pm unless I do an “emergency walk-in”. Oh, so I ask, “How much is the walk-in going to cost me.?” They say “65 dollar office visit fee” I say, “How much is the office visit if I make an appointment?” They tell me 45 dollars and I tell them I will be in today. They tell me to come in between 11am and 2pm.

Okay, so we hang out until 11am and say goodbye to our neighbor who is leaving for a week to go to Quartzsite. Quartzsite is nice, it’s in Arizona and it’s an hour north of where we are, I’ve been there before, it’s a huge outdoor RV and Sport Expo show. Hundreds of thousands of RVs come together to hang out for a week, shopping, and checking out all the neat RV vendors that come to town to sell what they are selling, from RV club memberships to health products to heater units to everything that you can imagine using in or with an RV. Not sure if we will hit Quartzsite this year, we will try. So we say our goodbyes to our neighbor and off she goes…..

Anyways, we get to the veterinarian office at 11:30 and of course, with being a walk-in, it’s now a waiting game. We see the doctor at 1pm and I’ve never seen any doctor come to a conclusion of what’s wrong with Jake in a matter of minutes. I brought all of Jake’s papers with him from his doctor’s in New Hampshire and after I tell her what he’s recently been doing (being sick), she comes up with “Intestinal Lymphangiectasia” and nails on the head every previous symptoms that Jake has been through in his life. Bloated tummy sometimes? Yes. Difficulty breathing at times? Yes. Low protein level? Yes. So the doctor does a blood test on Jake and it comes back great because of the pills I have him on to increase lack of protein from my doctor in New Hampshire. Yes, this is an on going case of lack of protein that never had a title to it until today.

So, I’m excited to get some solid information on this disease. Yes, it is a disease and I’m happy to know that if I treat it right, the disease and symptoms will settle down and Jake can still live a normal, long, life. She puts him on a totally new food by Science Diet and we get some dry food for him, some canned food for him, and Science Diet even makes treats we can feed him twice a day. She also took one x-ray in case something was lodged down his throat causing the sickness after eating his meal. The x-ray came back perfect, nothing inside of him that shouldn’t be. She also gives him three shots and Jake didn’t care for that too much as he screamed so loud after the third shot, it echoed within the small room we were in. Poor guy.

After I pay the bill of $310.48 to be exact including the purchase of food and treats, we leave the office with our new information and go back home. It didn’t take Jake long to fall sleep on the couch after his big day, so we leave him alone. Oh, before I get too far, if you want more information on Intestinal Lymphangiectasia you can click HERE to read more about it. After Jake falls asleep, Mom hops on the laptop and my Dad and I take the electric bicycles out.

Well, I guess it wasn’t my day because I lost traction on a dirt patch with the electric bicycle and it was all over. I went down and it wasn’t good. Three cars stopped around me to help because I must of scraped up myself pretty bad. So, we managed to get back to the RV and I clean myself up checking out the damage. And damage there was! My right knee is swollen, both my hands are scraped up pretty bad, and the side of my face will probably turn black and blue for the next 20 years with two cuts, one below my eye and one below my cheek bone.

You wait! Someone will walk by me and say, “Ohhh, honey, don’t do that to yourself, leave the guy, he isn’t worth it.” Yeah, I look THAT bad. Ha! Yes, now I laugh because I’m in bed doped up on pills killing all the pain and that Tylenol PM is about to kick in…..

BUT, wait…..wait…..my day isn’t done! Nooooo, you think a couple of scrap and the sight of blood is going to hold me down??? No way, we went to the Paradise Casino tonight! Hey, I had to do something to make me feel better. You betcha we went! And I won! Woo-Hoo! I won 70 dollars on the Quick Hits slot machine and I won 422 dollars on the Keno machine getting 7 out of 8 numbers!

Ahhhhh, my day is now complete. I’m still in pain that is masked by pills, I dread looking in the mirror tomorrow at all the day-after damage, and actually I’m not sure how I will get out of bed tomorrow.

Hey, retirement isn’t always soft and cushy, there will be bumps and bruises along the way that you will deal with. Take it as it comes, take it easy, and tomorrow will be a better day.

Have a great night and thanks for checking on me!