February 5, 2008

• Ulcer time

  Like any other household, Johnny and I have our fair share of stress. There's the daily struggle to perform reasonably well at school and work; keep our infant happy, stimulated and fed; try to exercise and nourish ourselves; keep food and water in the dog's bowls; pay the bills; and maintain some measure of basic grooming and style for ourselves. Throw overtime work, a baby with sniffles (undoubtedly from our recent cross-country flight) and Johnny's midterms into the mix, and it's enough to give anyone an ulcer.

  That's right. Last week, someone in our family got an ulcer. Was it me? No, there's no time. Was it Johnny? No, he was preoccupied by the same sniffles that Jack had. Was it Jack? No, he's blissfully unaware of stress and its debilitating consequences. That's right, folks .... Atari got an ulcer! The member of the family who sleeps 20 hours a day, has guaranteed meals (meals, I might add, of organic kibble made with whitefish and sweet potato) and three solid walks a day, with no job and no growing up to do, got an ulcer!

  At the time, I was really worried. On Thursday night, Atari vomited. This isn't typical, but also not that rare. I wasn't that concerned -- it was a khaki color, with some grass in it. We figured that he'd just eaten too much grass for his own good. He treats the park like a salad bar each day. Friday, the same thing happened. (By the way, of course things like this always happen at 2 a.m.) We thought, "OK, no more nibbling on grass." On Saturday, he did it again ... this time, despite no grass that day, there was grass and blood in the vomit. (Sorry for you weak-stomached readers ... you must be without dogs and/or babies. ) I was almost in tears as Johnny cleaned up. I thought Atari's stomach was pierced and that he was going to die. I felt very guilty for the slight neglect he's been subjected to since Jack's arrival. I immediately called the vet (they're open 24 hours a day). The operator said that if it's been three days, it wasn't a life-or-death situation, and he'd rather Atari see the doctor in the morning, because the Saturday night doctor was only there overnight on Saturdays and wouldn't be able to do follow-up appointments during the week.

  So at 9 a.m. Sunday, Johnny took Atari to the vet while Jack and I sat at home nervously. Well, I was nervous. Jack worked on trying to crawl. (He's now up on his knees, but hasn't figured out that he should simultaneously be up on his hands.) About 45 minutes later, Johnny reported that Atari had had a blood test, an examination, an X-ray, antibiotic shots and been given some meds to bring home. Apparently he got an ulcer from eating something he shouldn't have (but not grass, as the vet said that was a symptom and not a cause), or from an infection, which caused the bleeding. The blood test showed nothing wrong with him (which is good). We just had to give him the antibiotics -- four in total. Two of them twice a day, two of them three times a day. He's been good about taking his meds, and has been energetic and vomit-free since the weekend. What a relief! However, this all set us back $528! Believe it or not, that's not a bad price for Los Angeles, given all the services, but I was definitely not planning to spend more than $500 on Sunday. Think of all the shoes, clothes or baby things I could have gotten for $528. Oh, Atari. I'm just glad he's OK.

  In more pleasant news, Amy is coming to SoCal for a postdoc interview in a couple of weeks! After many years of Xanga comments, emails and phone conversations (and actually, before Xanga, posts on a Shiba Inu forum), we finally get to meet ... and not only that, but she'll be staying with us while she's here. I'm really excited! She and her husband also have a Shiba, so I'm sure Atari will go wild -- he somehow knows when someone has another Shiba. Too bad Han is not coming with her (I think he and Johnny would really get along), but I'm sure we'll meet him at some point in the future.

  Finally, if you live in a state that's holding a primary today ... go vote!

  • 3:56 pm
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