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A Day in the Life of Joe

No More Eye Drops!

Boy, what a week! Last Wednesday morning, Mom got up a little early for work, but instead of going to work, she took me for a ride in the car! OK, I was a little nervous (since going for a ride means getting something done to my ears, and I really hate that!), but we went to see the eye doctor. I like the eye doctor because everyone in the office gives me doggie biscuts and I don't even have to do anything to get them. Plus, he looks into my eye and gives me drops so my head doesn't hurt as much. (I have a little headache all the time.) When we got there, one of the "Cookie Ladies" took me back to a waiting area crate for a little while. After a while they took me out of the crate, shaved my leg (only one leg, which made me off balance as I had just been to the groomers!) and stuck a needle in me! Talk about rude! Pretty soon I was floating off to dream land to chase cats, birds and rub my tummy.

I guess I didn't get a very long nap, since I know there were still cats to chase, but I woke up and didn't feel so good. My tummy felt icky my head hurt more than it used to, and I had one of those awful torture devices on my head! You know the ones - they go around the neck, then stick out so you can't scratch your ears, eyes or chew anything. It was bad enough before because I couldn't see, but now I'm running into everything. Plus, I can now scoop up anything in my way with my new "helmut" on. I HATE THIS THING!

After a minute, I noticed something else. My eye still hurt me, but in a different way. It's hard to explain, but everything felt different. Because I couldn's see before, it's hard to tell. I can't get to it, but I think they did something to my eye. I'll have to monitor the situation and keep you updated.

After a little while, Mom and Uncle Lee came to pick me up. Gosh, I was soooo happy to see them (or smell them, in my case). We all sat in the front seat of Uncle Lee's truck and Mom cuddled me all the way home. It was when we got home that I realized I bumped into everything. I didn't feel too good the first couple of days, but Mom decided to give me a BIG treat and gave me some baby food mixed in with my regular food and I was suddenly starving. I have been in "major food consumption" mode for almost a week now. Mom slips me a happy pill each night with dinner, even though I probably don't need it, and I'm hoping to get the gauze off my eye. Oh yeah, my eye! Once the anethestisia wore off, I discovered that I no longer had a headache all the time. Other than not being able to get around as easily with the helmut on my head, I'm feeling pretty good.

So what was the mini-camp at the doctor's office about? I overheard Mom tell Uncle Lee that my glaucoma had gotten so bad the doctor wanted to perform surgery on me (another surgery - I must hold some kind of record!) and take my remaining eye out. Since I couldn't see out of it anyway and it was causing me painful headaches, I was all for it. Anyway, she is still treating me like a king (naturally!) and I am happy to be out of the constant pain I was in because of my eye.

Now if I could only get her to buy me a pair of Rayban sunglasses, I would look totally cool......

Saturday, March 15th

Slept in today, since "Mom" didn't have to go to work. She and I went for a nice walk, where we met up with Lee (Mom's boyfriend - boy does he scratch me just the way I like it!). Had breakfast, then crawled back up on the bed for my morning nap.

Mom came back from her breakfast and puttered around in the yard, weeding and replanting flowers, while I watched from my perch on the front porch, with that wonderful scratchy mat I like to slide back and forth on to scratch my tummy. She kept going from the front yard to the back, so I thought it was a good time to do my exercise "laps." That's when I go out my own "doggie" door and into the backyard. I make one lap around the backyard, then through the garage back to front, crossing the driveway (and yes, she puts up a pesky fence I can't seem to get around) and back into the house through the kitchen door. I probably did 4 or 5 laps, and got pretty tired, so I decided to take my midday nap.

My Auntie Laurell came over and said hello (waking me up), so I went out to the front porch again to scratch some more. Mom was still going from the front yard to the back, so I did a few more laps, just to check out the situation and make sure she didn't need any help from me. Then it was back to bed for my afternoon nap. Whew!

We went for my evening stroll at dusk, and then back to the house for dinner. Yipee! After dinner, I decided to take a little siesta while Mom went out for dinner. When she came home we played a little, then she scratched me just the way I like it and we got ready for bed. She gives me three eye-drops at night (3 in the morning before breakfast and another 2 at dinner) which is kind of annoying, but I get treats afterward, so I guess it's ok.

Then she crawls in bed, pulls me close to her, gives me a kiss and we go to sleep, where I dream about what I'll do tomorrow! Thanks for checking in - I'll post some more in a few days. Night-night.