Tag: fibromyalgia

Worry. Vacation. Relief.

by Alfredsson Jane, posted in Alfie Stories

Guys! Mom and Dad left us! Can you even believe your ears? It’s been like 3 days. Zuc and I love our Uncle Luke and his girlfriend Emily but they are not our Mom and Dad. On Sunday when Mom got home she, Dad, grandmom and grandpup packed some bags. Naturally Zuc and I got all hyped up excited because we get to go everywhere but then they said those dreaded words: “you’re staying”. It has never been a good day when we hear that. I started to panic. When I panic I have accidents. Brown puddle accidents. Can’t even help it..

Thank goodness for Emily though. She cleaned it all up so Uncle Luke didn’t puke. Then they stayed with us all night. I even got to snuggle up between them like I do with Mom and Dad. Zuc slept in Mom and Dad’s bed to keep a look out in the chance that they got home during the night.

We went to the park the other day and didn’t even play. It was our personal mission to find a way out for search and rescue Mom and Dad. We didn’t get too far.

And then, they came back! Mom was in high spirits and didn’t seem like she hurt too much. Dad spent the next day with us while Mom was at work. As soon as she got home we ALL got in the car and went for a ride to other grandmom and grandpup’s house!

Work. Exhaustion. Love.

by Alfredsson Jane, posted in Alfie Stories

In my last post I mentioned Mom is working 12 hour nights. Well she works 2 nights in a row and then gets 2 nights off except for sometimes she has to work 3 and then she’s off 3. Sounds great, right? Wrong. All she ever does now is sleep. She comes home at 6am, sleeps. Wakes up around 3pm (when dad gets home) then goes to work at 6pm unless she has the night off. If she has the night off that means she goes back to sleep at 9pm with dad. Zuc told me she wakes up around 2am and goes into the living room until we all wake up!

I sleep too soundly to know when mom wakes up but Zuc knows all so I trust him.

On her weekends Mom tries to stay awake and play with us but she almost always has to take a nap around 11am until who knows when.

She tells Dad all the time how tired she is and apologizes. We can all tell how exhausted she is so we let her sleep as much as we can. She says her medications for narcolepsy don’t really help and is scared about if she can keep doing this job even though she loves it.

Sleep. Bark. Hike.

by Alfredsson Jane, posted in Alfie Stories

I know I haven’t been on in a while but Mom started a new job.. again. This time she’s working 12 hour night shifts. Seriously. The woman is insane. But now either her or dad is home ALL THE TIME! I loooove it. Except when they should be home but go out together without us. Like why, why wouldn’t you bring us every single place you go ever?! I live for walks and car rides!

Speaking of walks and car rides, we got to go on one the other day! We went to this place called the Erie Canal and walked along this awesome long water. So many fish and birds and sticks! I tried to jump in a few times but Mom was seriously against it. I wanted to keep coming back so I listened like a good girl.

And speaking of being a good girl: Mom sleeps during the day now. Like allll day. Well I, being the good girl I am, cuddle right up next to her in bed and sleep my days away. Sometimes I get bored so I’ll go out in the living room and watch the field but I’m always quiet. Zuc on the other hand enjoys barking at stuff and pissing mom off. She gets upset so I bark and then nobody is happy! That’s when we stop and sleep again. It’s a weird life but we’re adjusting!

Summer, Sun, & Sleep

by Alfredsson Jane, posted in Alfie Stories, Dogter Zuc

I love the summertime. I get to play outside and swim! When I get tired out from my shenanigans I flop down on the grass or couch and nap my face off until I’m primed to go again. Usually when that happens, Mom’s ready for one too, so we cuddle up together. Speaking of Mom, she’s doing pretty great right now. A lot more tired than usual but we’ve been going for walks and having a lot of fun. Zuc even seems to be super hyper and loving life! He loves the summer even more than me. His favorite pastime is definitely sunbathing, weird, I know.

Mom is switching jobs yet again. We’re all going to miss The Lodge but things were getting out of hand. Now she works at the same place as Dad! For now they get to go to work together. It’s easier for us since they come home at the same time. Mom says not to get used to it though because pretty soon she’s going to switch to nights.

Uh, Mom, hello? You’re narcoleptic!

Dogter Zuc had to clear this one up for me… Narcolepsy doesn’t just mean Mom falls asleep randomly during the day. It actually means that Mom has no sleep cycle! Can you believe that! She’s sorta like me and can sleep all day or all night or even both sometimes. I do get cranky if I don’t sleep at night though. Anyway, in Mom’s case, the neurotransmitter thingies in her brain that tell her body when to release melatonin and other chemicals like it are being destroyed, most likely by her own body. She falls asleep all the time because her body is crazy confused. So, if she just switches her medications and routines, working the night shift should be a breeze!

Then we just have to watch out for Fibromyalgia. We’re not sure how this is going to fit into it all but we’ll see I guess.

Holy. Moly.

by Alfredsson Jane, posted in Alfie Stories

Okay, I haven’t been on in quite a while but mom has been suuuuper busy so I haven’t been allowed to use the computer. We’ve been back and forth to grandmom’s house and home and Aunt Stephenie’s so much! I love car rides but sometimes you just gotta be able to lay on the cool hardwood floor of home.

Mom got me a new headrest.
I’m suuuuper dog!
Sometimes the couch is as good as the floor.

Grandmom is doing great now! There were some complications and its been a long road to recovery but my mom is going to be a great nurse. She goes back to school in a couple weeks so it was good practice for her. I just wish that with her doing such a great job in nursing that she could nurse herself. She had been doing really well for a while but now that things have been crazy she’s been having a lot of migraines and fibro flares. Just this morning another one hit, but it was like a baby flare so she was still able to function all day. Which was a reeeeally good thing since she had a working interview at The Dog Lodge! She came home smelling of all kinds of good stuffs! So many fun pups I wish I could meet. Who knows, maybe someday I will! I haven’t seen mom so happy to leave us and still happy when she got home in a long time. It’ll be good for her. Zuc and I however, we aren’t happy about it one bit.

What’s a hospital?

by Alfredsson Jane, posted in Alfie Stories

Dad came up to his parents’ last night so mom drove us over for the night! She’s been feeling a lot better now that she’s not out of her medicines. She was reeeeeally cranky on our way over though. She just kept making comments about me jumping in the pool on our way out to the car and how I was wet so I couldn’t get on the seats. If dogs could roll their eyes I would. How was I supposed to know that I wasn’t supposed to go swimming before we got in the car?! When we got there she kept telling me to go to anyone but her because she didn’t want to look at me right now. She’s so grumpy sometimes.

This morning we woke up and everyone was happy and talking about the wedding but then mom got a text from her dad that her mom was in the hospital! Dad’s parents’ live in the middle of nowhere so there isn’t any cell reception. Grandpup had texted her last night around 3 in the morning saying the ambulance was coming to get grandmom. Mom freaked out and told Zuc and I that we were staying with dad. I was just sooo in the mood for a car ride! I chased her down the driveway a little bit until dad called me bad and I am not a bad puppy so I stopped right away and went back with him and Zuc.

Mom’s mom had surgery on her gall bladder two days ago. I guess it’s a pretty routine thing and normal people don’t have much to worry about. When they go in laparoscopically they use a camera and tools to take the organ out in a bag through the belly button. So. Freakin’. Cool. When they use the camera they have to fill up her abdomen with gas so they can push other things in there out of the way to see and maneuver their tools. The next few days generally a person passes lots of gas (through flatulence and burping) to get that stuff out of their system. Grandmom was not releasing gas from her body. She was also in immense amounts of pain. When they called the ambulance she could hardly breathe at all she was in so much pain. Guess what. Fibromyalgia sufferers experience the environment around and within them differently than most people. In grandmom’s case she was experiencing intense breakthrough pain even on narcotics because of the hypersensitive nerves in her body. On top of that the natural movement of the muscles in her intestines were still sleeping from the anesthesia. The Cymbalta causes constipation in some people so she may have been starting out with a handicap and then they added the anesthesia and narcotics on top of it and doomed her. The build up of gas plus lack of mobility/motility plus hypersensitive nerves created a cocktail that landed her in the ED.

I haven’t seen mom all day. I hope grandmom is okay.

Medications and their many changes

by Alfredsson Jane, posted in Alfie Stories

If you’ve read any of my other stories you know that my mom takes lots of medications. Well, we came to grandmom and grandpup’s house so she could de-stress after her major anxiety attacks. (She had one here too) We came for the weekend which has extended into the week. Mom did not anticipate this and ran out of her medicine! What will she do?! When she doesn’t take her medicines she gets craaaaazy. Or maybe it seems more like laaaaazy? A little bit of both I suppose. I’m definitely both! All the time! I love being a dog. If I want to run around like a crazy lady and jump into the doggie pool, I can. If I want to curl up on the dog couch and nap for a few hours, I can do that too. All day, any day. Maybe mom should become a dog?

Anyway, I call her craaaazy because she whines a lot. I don’t even do anything and she yells and says I hurt her. I mean sheesh, since when did kisses hurt?! She’s also crazy because one minute she could be super happy and the next she’s crying on me. She claims it’s because the Cymbalta is an SSNRI or something weird thing like that. It messes with her neurotransy-thingys in her head that make her decide how to feel about different things. Humans are just so darn complicated. For her it helps with the anxiety and depression but most of all with the control of her pain that attacks all over her body.

I call her laaaaazy because she doesn’t want to do anything with me. I guess it’s not that she doesn’t want to but more that she can’t. No medicines means no energy. The Provigil helps to keep her awake and keep her brain excited. We all slept for 2 whole hours yesterday! After sleeping all night long we passed out in bed in the afternoon and then went back to bed last night and slept all night again! I’m telling you, laaaaaaazzzzyyyyy.

Good thing I have extra friends here to keep me busy. And we’re still going to be here for at least 4 more days. I guess it’s time to call the doctor!

 

Panic Attack

by Alfredsson Jane, posted in Alfie Stories

Do you know what a panic attack is? I’ve never had one personally but Mom and Zuc do. Have you ever been the one on the outside of a panic attack? They’re terrifying- for everyone involved. Mom says  she used to have them all the time. In 7th grade, she used to lock herself in the car in the school parking lot until she had to throw up. Then she’d crack the door enough to not get upchuck inside and her mom or guidance counselor would have to pull the door from her before she could close it again. This happened every single day for almost the entire school year.  It was bad. Now she doesn’t have them as often because she learned ways to prevent and control it. It doesn’t always work. She had one the other day. I didn’t know what to do it was so bad! Normally Zuc and I can make it better but this one was consuming her. Then she started talking about putting an end to her misery. 

How about depression? Do you know what it is? Do you know how it feels? Have you ever been the one looking in at a person who feels like a shell? It is not a good feeling. Mom’s been seeming to do better lately. I can see her trying. She’s also been sleeping a ton more than usual. I guess she’s been through this before too but she doesn’t talk about the depression like she talks about anxiety and panic attacks. Depression scares me. Mom was saying really bad things until Brooke called and made her calm down. I still keep watching her and hoping she doesn’t say things like or feel like that inside anymore. Zuc won’t leave her heels. He had a really bad life before he went to the shelter and Mom and Dad saved him. I think he understands what Mom is going through more than I do. If Zuc is worried, I’m worried. 

This weekend we went back to Grandmom and Grandpup’s. They don’t know about what happened but I think Mom needed a break. 

Back At It! 

by Alfredsson Jane, posted in Alfie Stories

Mom brought us back home on Saturday. We were all ready to be home and back to normal again. Especially Zuc, he was starting to freak out a little bit being away from dad for so long. I missed dad too. Mom and her mom and dad, along with Auntie and her boyfriend, Uncle and his girlfriend all left as soon as we got back! It was okay though, Zuc and I got to cuddle with dad alllll night! When they all came home it was really late. I could smell Aunt Steph on them. I could also smell foods, delicious alcohol, and a yummy plant smell that sometimes wafts in from the neighbor’s house. 


Mom neverrrrr stays out late. The next morning I could tell she felt bad but she was happy. It was weird. She stayed in bed almost all day! We did address a whole pile of wedding invitations but even just doing that she had to take rests. Monday she was still sore. We went for our walk but barely. She took all kinds of medicines but we still didn’t do much. Hopefully today will be different and she’ll be okay enough to play! Then again, I’ve been recovering from playing so hard with Flash, Sampson, and Bandit I haven’t done much other than sleep too! 

Help! Fireworks! 

by Alfredsson Jane, posted in Alfie Stories

Today was almost the best day ever. I mean it was a pretty good day just waking up because it’s Friday. That means dad stays home with us tomorrow! On our walk this morning it was suuuuper hot so mom let me jump in the stream and chase the little waterfalls. It’s my favorite thing to do on hot days! Sometimes I just lay down and roll around in the nice, cool stream. I got a little too excited this morning and may have pulled mom in a little bit. Oops! 

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When we got home mom gave us treats even though we already had breakfast! Mom did yoga in the sun while I watched (and kinda got in the way). Then I got to chase the broom around! Mom said she was “cleaning” and to “get out of the way” a lot but I think that’s just part of the game. We all took naps until dad got home. 


That’s when the best part happened! We went to the big dog park!! The one where we have to ride in the car first and there’s always a whole bunch of friends to make! I even met the dog gods. They’re these great big dogs. Not to brag, but they totally accepted me. Mom ran around with us too. She picked up her increased dose of Cymbalta the other day and I think she’s ajusting to it well so far! 


After the dog park we went to dad’s brother’s apartment for dinner where I got to play with squeaky toys. And then we got ice cream on the way home!! Zuc loooooves ice cream so we battled the whole way home to get more than the other. It’s fun but mom and dad make us keep it fair. 

Now after that perfect day, there were fireworks. A LOT OF FIREWORKS. I was trembling scared. I even yelled at them to go away a few times. Mom had to hold me and cover me up in a blanket so I’d feel safe. It kinda worked.