Hello friends!

::checks date of last post::

It’s been awhile! I survived the holidays. I took two weeks off for a staycation at home, which was a lot of fun. Husband and I spent the holidays watching The Nutcracker, spending time with friends (we visited the San Antonio Zoo and Wimberly), visiting the Blue Genie Art Bazaar (for the first time ever!), finding new places to eat (Dumpling World and Foreign and Domestic are recent faves!), buying way too many books, and making lots of crafts. On January 1, Husband and I celebrated thirteen years together. I went into the holidays not feeling very festive; there’s been some sad stuff happening for the past several years that I don’t talk about publicly (I’m totally fine and it’s not health-related), but the unnamed sad stuff makes the holidays hard. But this year, I also wanted to enjoy the holidays out of spite, if that makes sense? And I did enjoy the holidays, even if they felt sad and weird at times. I just let myself feel all the sadness and weirdness, and tried to find some joy where I could.

There’s no way I can write this post without acknowledging the hostile government takeover that we’re all experiencing in real time here in the US. We knew that it would be bad, but wow. I am trying my best to stay detached while being informed, which is not always an easy balance to maintain. The only reason I can stay somewhat detached is none of the insanity has impacted me *yet*. I don’t know how any of this will be resolved and it’s a powerless feeling. It’s truly something I’m taking day by day. I hope that if you’re reading this, you’re doing ok and haven’t been impacted by any of this.

It’s been a weird week. Apollo had been dealing with some health issues the past two weeks – first a flare-up of IVDD, then some issues with diarrhea that started Sunday night. I took him to the vet Tuesday morning since it hadn’t gone away, and he got discharged with some medicine and probiotics. As we were settling down that evening, Apollo was panting and couldn’t get comfortable. Apollo pants at home sometimes, mainly when we fry food (it makes him anxious). But the couch is his happy place and seeing him pant on the couch wasn’t normal. He also started vomiting water. I try to quell my rising alarm, googling his symptoms to see if we needed to bring him in. Then he just gave me a Look, and I knew it was time to call the vet. She concurred that he should be looked at, so we bundled him up and brought him in. The emergency vet is just ten minutes from our house, and I was so grateful to be back here in Austin, remembering how Terre Haute didn’t have an emergency vet. The closest one to our house at that time was in Indianapolis (over an hour away).

Apollo was seen immediately, and the vet recommended he stay overnight since his symptoms were indicative of gastroenteritis or pancreatitis. Apollo ended up staying two nights at the hospital, with his eventual diagnosis as Acute Hemorrhagic Diarrhea Syndrome. I have never seen him so sick. We visited him Wednesday night in the middle of a rough patch; if I hadn’t had a conversation with the vet just that day about his positive overall prognosis, I would have thought he wasn’t going to make it. It was really hard to see him like that. We took him home Thursday night after his overall symptoms improved and he was stable. He has a feeding tube right now, and we are up at random hours of the night administering meds and food. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. He’s going to be thirteen in April, so I know that our time together is slowly waning – I would do whatever it takes to keep him here for as long as we can (and as long as he is healthy and not in pain).

Our little dude is so loved. I cannot thank the vets at Veterinary Emergency Group enough – they truly cared so much about Apollo and provided him phenomenal care. My car was out of service while he was in the hospital (it’s been a WEEK), and the vet paid for an Uber so I could pick up Apollo from the hospital. One vet tech snuggled with him during her shift after hearing how much of a cuddle bug he is. When Apollo was discharged, she stopped by to say goodbye to him, even though she wasn’t working a shift. There’s a lot of scary stuff happening in the world right now, but this experience was a reminder to me that there are still so many caring, compassionate people in it. I will forever be grateful to them and their care – they saved his life.

There’s a lot more going on, but I think I’ll end it here. We’re spending a quiet, cozy weekend at home with our little sweetheart and his adorable nurses, who are highly intrigued by his feeding tube. I hope that you all are doing okay. I’ll be back very soon.