Hate being sick

This was kind of a rough weekend, especially with Chuck out of town. Started out not so good, with the incident with dogs Friday night. Saturday I had work all day starting at 10am, so I did not get as much sleep as I had hoped Friday night. Work was really busy-phones ringing off the hook. I managed to catch the last 5 minutes or so of the Illini basketball game at home, then a friend came to pick me up for dinner. Had a nice dinner (but very expensive-Andrew, I still owe you money) at a newer restaurant in downtown Champaign, then went to a bar for the rest of the night. Drank way more than I'm used to (usually I'm the driver) and stayed out later than I probably should have since I had to work Sunday at 10am as well.

Sunday morning was kinda rough. Woke up at 6 feeling sick, drank water, went back to sleep. Alarm went off at 8:30 to get me up for work...head still feeling very muddy. Work was painful-very hard to multitask with phones, talking and computers when you can't string more than 3 coherent sentences together in a row. The whole day was pretty much like that. Didn't feel like eating. Evening went a little better-went over to Andrew's house for chili and a game, but was very chilled all evening. By the time I went to bed last night, I had a bad headache and a hard time swallowing because my throat hurt so bad.

Woke up today....yep, I've caught a cold (head hurts, dizzy, throat hurts...generally miserable)...maybe my feeling bad yesterday was only a little bit hangover, and a little bit getting sick. Sucks that I have to drive to Peoria today for dinner with my husband and his family. Oh well...you do what you have to.

Damn Dogs

Ok..it's 1:43 in the morning and I'm still up. Not (as I would have liked it) returning home from a night out on the town with friends, but cleaning up after the dogs and watching for any signs of illness.

The night started out well. A rum and coke at Murphy's, a home Illini hockey game, and a late night dinner with Eric, Dave, and Andrew at the Olive Garden. Then I returned home.........
to find both boxes of chocolates I had received near Valentine's Day completely torn apart with all 25 remaining chocolates (most of which were dark chocolate) completely gone.

Let me backtrack a little-I have felt guilty recently about having to keep Oscar (my boxer) in his kennel while I'm gone, especially since that can be 8-9 hours at a time. So I've been leaving him out of his crate for periods of time over the last few days as a trial to see how he does. And as long as I put all food and trash out of reach, he's been fine. Well, I was in a hurry to meet the guys and have a pre-game drink, and had forgotten that I took the chocolates out of their storage place in the microwave without replacing them.

For those of you that don't know, chocolate in high enough doses is bad. Very bad. It can cause hyperactivity, tremors, irregular heart beats, and even death. Dark chocolate is bad, and European chocolate is worse (one of my boxes that the dogs ate was from Spain). And working for animal poison control, I tend to be a little more sensitive about dogs consuming things than the average veterinarian.

So, in looking at the mess of shredded cardboard in my living room, I try to stay rational. This is my job. I help other people via the phone that are in the same situation I was currently in. I start by evaluating both dogs...they're both as happy as can be, no signs of toxicity yet. Good. Breathe a little. Ok, calculate out the maximum dose of chocolate as if only one of the dogs had eaten it. Crap...don't know how many ounces each chocolate is. Hmm...could be a problem. Look up in emergency book that 6 oz of dark chocolate is enough to be toxic to my largest dog. Damn. Panic sets in. Do I assume the dogs shared the boxes (in which case, they would probably be ok), try to make them vomit, take them both to the emergency clinic for activated charcoal, call work and have them laugh at me because I don't know what to do, or phone a friend (in this case, Chuck or someone closer)? Damn.

I end up doing what any reasonable person would do. Call Chuck and tell him what happened. Decide to make the dogs vomit. Call another friend to panic/vent to. Go to the grocery store at midnight to buy hydrogen peroxide (very good emetic in dogs). Use the peroxide to make the dogs vomit (which was actually kinda funny-the dogs thought they were getting a special treat of milk and bread, then once they actually started feeling nauseous looked at me as if to say "What the hell did you give us?!"). Discover Oscar actually ate all the chocolate. Feel good that I made the right decision and plan to monitor him the rest of the night. Clean up the incredibly huge mess that all that made.

FYI-please don't offer me chocolate for the next couple weeks. Something about chocolate scented stomach contents just doesn't sit well with me.

Links for today

This story made me laugh.

Dolphin Intelligence

One of those days

Pretty sad when you know it's going to be "one of those days" at 6:00am on a Friday. Even sadder when it's only 7:30am and you have the entire rest of the day to deal with as well.

So far today I have:
-Woken up extremely disoriented, not knowing where I'm at, only to discover I'm in my own bed and the alarm went off (I was having a really good dream that I no longer remember).
-Forgotten a towel for the shower
-Had the cat urinate on my bath mat in front of me
-Had Chuck yell at me because I woke him up while getting mad at the cat
-Redone my hair four times because it wouldn't turn out the way I wanted it to
-Been late for work (didn't even get to stop for my morning mocha) because I couldn't get my car door open (it was frozen to the car from all the rain we had yesterday)
-Had my phone at work malfunction (it wouldn't acknowledge I signed on)
-Been cursed and screamed at for my first call of the morning by a client who called me a stupid bitch when I told them we didn't have much information about a HUMAN drug in a CAT (not my fault you gave your own medication to your cat on accident)
-Zapped by every metal thing I walk by

Oh, and to top it off, the phones have been ringing like crazy since I sat down. And as I said, it's only 7:45 in the morning. If I survive the day, buy me a drink. I think I'll need one.

Sign of Spring

I realize that this post is probably a little premature (since it's still the middle of February), but without all the cold weather and snow we normally have this time of year, I saw a sign of spring today. Outside my place of work is a small green sprout of some unidentified plant. It's not much, and most likely a weed of some sort that does well when the sun's out and the weather's warmed up just a little, but it made me remember when I lived in England and made me smile.

The area where I lived in England was more temperate than central Illinois. It was rare to get snow (when we did, all the traffic would stop because no one knew how to drive in it, even if there was only 1/4 inch), and usually by early-mid February the spring crocuses were starting to pop up. Spring is my favorite time of year, and I always get excited when it comes around.

Too bad the weather is supposed to turn colder once more this weekend.

I'll post a picture of it once I figure out how to post pictures.

New Month, New Post

Seeing as it's the beginning of a new month, I feel obliged to write a new post.

Work is going well. I'm finally starting to move out of the intense training period and do what I was actually hired to do, which is kinda nerve-wrecking but fun at the same time. Training mostly involves doing a toxicology short-course (which I've posted on before) and learning the complicated database system. Still need work on the database system, as I found out today. But I finally made my first phone calls to clients out of the APCC (even if my second one was more complicated than I was prepared for). Also, one of my former receptionist/assistants from my previous clinic started working at APCC as well, so we went out to lunch today. I'm really happy for her.

Home life isn't bad, but could be better. There are some communication issues and general stresses at home that shouldn't be as big a deal as they are, but I don't see how to improve them right now. It's hard to find your way through the maze while you're in it, unless it's the maze at Leed's Castle (I'm good at that one).

On the up side, we've been able to see our friends more lately than usual. Our dogs are getting better around other people (less shy and less hyper). Chuck even volunteered our house for a Super Bowl Party. I don't really care about the outcome of the Super Bowl now that the Bears are no longer in the running, but it should be a good time.