TheBanyanTree: Beagles Rule!

[Margaret R. Kramer]

If you already didn’t know it, a beagle won Best in Show at the Westminster
Kennel Club Dog Show, the premier dog show in the USA.  A beagle, which is
one of USA’s favorite dogs, has never one.  Until the other night . . .
Until Uno . . .

He was a real cutie – baying at the judge and then baying at everyone when
he won.  Beagles are cute dogs.  They don’t shed much.  They’re kind of
stubborn.  And they live by their noses.  They’re hounds and hounds are
scent hunters.  If a scent is interesting enough, they don’t listen to you,
no matter how much you call them.

Axel, my sweet beagle, loves me, but he loves almost any person.  Axel
tolerates other dogs and likes cats.  He’s great with kids.  He loves to
snuggle on my lap when we’re watching TV on the couch.  He was very excited
when Uno won Best in Show.  Yeah, right.

Now Shadow, our other dog, is a retriever mix, and his life revolves around
mine.  He truly is a Shadow, not just black as night, but also by my side no
matter where I am.  He is a sporting dog and sporting dogs are bred to
please their humans.

Shadow snuggles with me at night, taking up Ray’s place in our bed,
temporarily, but I like having that warm body next to me while I sleep.  It’
s like having my baby blanket with me when I go to dream land.

The cat sleeps at my feet.  I’m a flipper and a flopper sleeper and I know
my cat gets annoyed when I disrupt his sleep by my motions.  Axel would also
be on the bed with us, but his short little legs don’t allow him to jump
that high.  Axel usually sleeps on the couch or on the rug next to our bed.

Speaking of beds, Ray’s hospital room is again full with a new group of men.
One of the men is probably ready to go home.  Another is very old and very
deaf.  And, then we have the whiner.  I’m not sure what’s wrong with him,
but he whines and whines and whines.  He begs for pain medication.  He begs
for pillows.  He begs for attention.  I was ready to kill him yesterday.  I
was wondering if pillow cases pick up finger prints, because I wanted to
take a pillow and smother him.  Ray says he doesn’t bother him, but Ray is
not really part of this world right now.

He’s still having severe pain.  He threw up his dinner, which was eight
ounces of milk.  I bet he doesn’t even get 500 calories a day.  He doesn’t
drink much water.  I talked to his nurse before I left last night and told
her I was concerned that he didn’t have a feeding tube or an IV giving him
fluids.  Currently, he has no IVs.  I was concerned about his lack of
caloric intake.  Is he starving to death before our eyes?  I wanted the
doctors to call me when they do rounds this morning.  I doubt that will
happen, however.

And what about the pain?  His doctor told me that the medication he was on
should reduce the pain, but from where I sit, I haven’t seen any
improvement.  Ray struggles to get to the bathroom.  He does pee and poop,
so he isn’t blocked.  He’s getting gas pills.  What could be causing all
this pain?

I couldn’t figure out why they wanted to discharge him.  He would only be
back in a day or so.  Did they want to free up a bed and just picked someone
that isn’t responding to treatment?  His doctor made him sound like he was
hunky dory and ready to waltz home.  He’s anything but.  He lays there with
glassy eyes staring at the TV if he’s awake or else he’s sleeping until
cramps overtake him and he wakes up clutching his gut.

The nurse told me he’s scheduled to see a GI specialist on Monday, but wait,
make that Tuesday, because Monday is Presidents’ Day and nothing much
happens on holidays.  Oh, people don’t get sick or need doctors on weekends
and holidays, right?

Now why should I tell the nurses and doctors how to treat Ray?  They have
the lab results and the x-ray results and the knowledge.  Yet their
treatment seems inappropriate to me.  This is what I would do, because they
did this last year:  I would feed him through IVs until his colon settled
down and then introduce him slowly to solid foods again.  That worked last
year and even though it took three weeks to get him stable, that treatment
got him out of the hospital.  They’ve wasted a week and a half, now almost
two weeks, fooling around, hoping he’ll get better.  And since he’s not, let
’s just say he is and discharge him.

The medical care in our country is going down the tubes, not just at the VA
Medical Center.  They might as well start treating us with leeches again for
all the good most of our medical professionals do for us.  I just want to
trust Ray’s doctors to do the right thing, but I can’t, and I have to
monitor them like small children.  There’s something wrong with that
picture.

What to do today?  Well, I’ll wait anxiously by the phone to see if the
doctor calls me.  I’ll go workout and then visit Ray for a while.  I’ll come
home and make our postponed from last week Valentine’s Party dinner for my
grandsons and family.

Then I’ll go to bed with my Shadow and hug my beagle and start all over
again tomorrow, President’s Day, a day with no medical care, because it’s a
holiday.  Grrrr . . . .

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net
margaret.kramer at polarispublications.com

www.polarispublications.com

My heart to you is given:
Oh, do give yours to me;
We'll lock them up together,
And throw away the key..
~Frederick Saunders
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