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| ********************************************************************************************************* MOST RECENT ENTRIES -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Tuesday, January 02, 2007 A new year, and time to resurrect the blog! I can't believe that I've not posted for such a long time, but so much has happened in the last few months. With things as they were at the beginning of last year I just didn't have the inclination to post anything, and as you'll see I've been really busy lately and just not had the time! As I've already mentioned, I left work at the college in June. I was looking daily for something new, and by the beginning of August I'd applied for a job locally, been interviewed, and started work. I now work for a full-service marketing company based about 13 miles from home. I basically do the same as I did before, but there's more emphasis on the back-end development and I haven't designed any sites. That's because we work differently here, and it's so nice! The studio team come up with all the designs for all aspects of the work we do here, and work with us on site designs. The client chooses the design they like, and we build it. Sometimes we chip in a design too, but so far I've been too busy with developing systems and building sites to do any design work. But it's nice working in a small, friendly team, with a more traditional approach. This way the sites are designed to work with the other marketing publications, and are designed at the same time, rather than being hasty re-creations of existing work or completely different in look and feel. It's a refreshing approach, and I've been so busy that I've barely had time to catch my breath. From mid-September until the beginning of November I've had very little time to even think though, for other reasons. My dog, Gem, started to have fits. She was about 7 years old at the time, and really too old for it to be Epilepsy. She had blood tests, and everything came out clear. The vets said that it was most likely to be a brain lesion. We weren't too sure, I have to admit, because the big dewlap thing under her chin had been growing in size. Every vet she saw said that it was just a ruptured salivary gland and that it wouldn't cause her any pain, but if it got too big they would operate on it. Well, it was getting bigger and bigger by the day. I took her to the vets so many times to ask them to operate, but with her having fits they were unwilling - as the anesthetic could have caused problems for her. It became obvious that she was in pain, but the vets kept saying the pain couldn't be caused by the gland, even though I'd found a solid lump on that side of her throat. After about 2 weeks I finally managed to prove to them that the pain was, in fact, from the gland and they agreed to operate. But first she had to have anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce the swelling so that they could see what they were doing. 1 week later she went in for the op. I phoned at lunchtime to see how she was doing. That had to be the worst phone call of my life. When they'd opened her up to take out the faulty gland, they'd found that she had a tumor. It was the lump I'd found. And it was huge. It had wrapped itself round her trachea and larynx, and the poor mite was being slowly strangled and suffocated by it. I could only make one decision. As much as I love her, she had to be put to sleep. I couldn't keep her alive in such pain, and knowing that she was only going to suffer more and more. Over the next week, while we waited for her remains to be returned to us after cremation - my choice - we found out that her condition was very rare. I'd been angry that the vets hadn't listened to me when I'd told them that the gland was causing her problems, but I came to understand why they thought it was just a burst salivary gland, and accepted that there was nothing we could have done differently. We took her to one of her favourite places and buried her early on the Sunday morning after she came home. I still miss her like crazy, and we both still look for her. The other dogs are now getting used to being without her. We all visited her on Christmas morning. And I cried again. But I'm getting used to it now. Although it seems strange not having her fussing to get into bed! So, as you can imagine, I'd been spending so much time on looking after her that I really had no time for anything else outside of work. And even that was effected throughout her illness. But she's at peace now, and out of pain. Another Christmas has been and gone, just. Paul and I didn't spend so much this year, so we won't be living off turkey for the next month! I got him a few things from Ebay that he's been trying to get hold of for a few months, and he was over the moon. He got me a Black remote control dalek (to go with last year's bling model), and the 24 DVD board game. We've been playing it and enjoying it. The first day took us two attempts to do, and I won - just as well as he was the mole! The second day has been horrendous, and we're stuck! Goodness knows what day three will be like! We spent Christmas day at Paul's mums. It was really nice to go over and spend the day there. His sister and partner were there too. She's expecting, and is due at the end of Feb. She really is blooming. Everyone's really excited. Sometimes it makes me feel like I'm a bad person for not wanting kids, but I'd rather be honest about how I feel than bring an unwanted child into the world. I think everyone's accepted that by now. Anyway, I have some new year's resolutions this year:
posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- // *END OF NEW ENTRIES* \\ |
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