December's complications, cortisone & corona extra

This month brought us more PT visits, and less mall walks as my knee injury has really impeded any progress. I endured 8 weeks of severe pain since before they'd give me a cortisone shot. With the holiday crowds, corona, parking issues and extreme fatigue from my painsomnia, it was probably for the best that we didn't mall walk. Sven got sufficient enough exercise going to extra apts. and our repetitive quick grocery trips. The holidays were also quiet and quaint.

Mid-month brought us another one of those 5-alarm drop everything housing fire drills where we had to provide another mountain of paperwork within 7-10 days for a potential unit offer. Haven't see it, don't know if we'll get it but still had to do all the paperwork for it. It's what we wished and hope for, but man the timing was lousy - right at the height of my knee pain, and the elevator in our building went out of order yet again further compounding problems for both Sven and myself. The stairs are very narrow, steeper than a myan pyramid and only 6 inches to place your foot on. And of course we're on the 4th floor. While Sven can navigate modern steps fairly easy, these are just too much for him, is size, weight and body length are no match for the gradient of these steps and he can barely get the left, right, left in sync going down, he's cautious and goes slow but the fear of him going ass over tits is always present. In a fire with more people using the stairs this would be downright dangerous for us. Going up he really struggles, as do other dogs on our floor, the steps are slick with tile coverings and again his left, right, left is hard for him to get a strong enough footing. We managed to get down and up once, and I decided for safety reasons he'd have to sit home while I finished a few errands alone. Neither of us were happy about that but we got through it.

Lack of sleep, stress, pain really started to take over, so much so, when I discovered the Social Security office in town changed it's location, I could not recall where to, and I could not think of how to get to the one in Lynn, (despite having google maps on my phone, it didn't even occur to me to log in. Under pressure to get the document for housing, one that's never been asked for in all my years on disability. I had to call my folks to drive me. Fortunately, we made it and the workers knew what the document was, and it worked out. Nerves frayed; we made it home. Mission accomplished. We spent another 6 days in the house due to no elevator.

Sven is doing better on the thyroid treatment, but his cyto-point shot is starting to wear off and the skin blemishes are returning. He's clearly still allergic to something, either his food or the heartworm pills. There's no ingredient list on the heartworm pills due to proprietary blend. Vet Dr. insists it's ok, I am skeptical, but we'll go a bit further with it. Some of my research about mixed-tocopherols tells me they are made from fish oils and/or egg yolks and not directly listed as such on the ingredients list. The industry deems this as low %, but when it's on every piece of kibble, it adds up. Where I cannot find any food that doesn't have any of the things he's allergic to, we are going to begin the process of making his own food. Allergy pills and shots work but they are a very costly Cinderella treatment if we are continuing to expose or feed him to an allergen, so fingers crossed we able to sort it out soon.

Knee injury, potentially packing & moving and making dog food wasn't exactly how I foresaw going into the new year,.. but this is what brings about change is, and we'll just have to roll with it.

Below are a few pictures from this month's travels. It's time for a cold Corona Extra and some Trader Joe's.

Bonus: we met a member from SDP in Trader Joes today. Lovely lady. It was very busy in there, but we were able to chat a few times in passing and in the checkout lines.

Below are a few pictures from this month's travels.