A lot has happened in the last year. Last time I was here, I told you all about Charlie and his medical drama. That’s probably a good of a place as any to start. After I brought Charlie home, he wouldn’t eat on his own. He couldn’t stand up, he couldn’t walk. It was rough. I put his crate up on my desk at home right by my monitors. When I was home I would come and sit at the computer and talk to him while I did whatever I was doing on the computer. I fed him through a tube for months. Slowly, very very slowly Charlie got better. One day I put some new food in his bowl, and held it up to his face and he ate it. I was so happy. He kept going. He ate 2 bowls of food and a half a chicken breast! He kept that up for a month and they took out his tube. It was a blessing, but also it made it much harder to give him his medicine. Now I had to do it orally instead of just with the tube.
Every day I would give him his medicine and he would eat his kibbles. I would take him out of his crate and put him in the playpen in the living room. Eventually, he started standing up and later to walk again. I let him roam the house while I was home and would crate him during the day and at night. In time he got well enough that he was walking around and I could let him roam all day while I was at work. The time he spent in the crate made him want to go to his crate at bedtime. It was kind of a bonus. Once a month, I would take Charlie to the vet and they would give him this drug called Cytosar. It’s some kind of anti-inflammatory drug. It really seemed to help him. On March 22, 2019, I woke up in the morning, was getting ready for work, and Charlie was making that “there’s something wrong” sound. We went to the vet. Charlie had another seizure. In addition to the seizure, there was a blood clot in his leg. They said that he would lose his leg. It was too long that it had lost circulation. But there was something else weird, and they didn’t know at the time what was going on. They needed to wait until the Neurology department was there. So he was resting, so I went to work.
I was worried of course, but I was at work just trying to do all that I could to keep my mind off my little buddy. I was walking into a meeting when the phone rang. They did some tests. That medicine that they had been giving him, it hadn’t been working. Whatever it was that had infected his brain, to begin with, had spread. It spread to his entire brain. They said that they could try and give him a stronger medication, but with his heart condition, there was no way he would survive. I had to say goodbye.
I went to the vet and they had Charlie in “the room” It’s a nice room. It’s quiet, it’s got a nice view. Charlie sat in the window and I stood there so he wouldn’t fall down. We looked at the cars as they went by. He always loved looking at the cars. Even though he was sedated, he meowed at the different cars as they went by. We did that for a while until he seemed like he was getting tired. Then we went and sat on the couch in the room. I remember once when Charlie was little and I didn’t feel well. He climbed up to lay on my chest. He would sit there. It was his way of comforting me. On that day, sitting in that room, he climbed up in that same spot. He knew something was wrong and that I was in such pain. It was his way. That’s where he died. He died trying to comfort me. He was my best friend in the whole world, and he died right there in my arms.
It’s been 3 months. I don’t cry every day. But sometimes when I have a bad day, I miss him being here so much. I’m sure writing this out will somehow help, but my sinuses are now clogged and I am out of kleenex again.
As far as my low carb keto diet goes, I’ve lost a lot of weight. Not just because of what’s above. To date, I’ve lost 137 pounds, though I haven’t really lost anything in the last few weeks. My ketones seem to be low, so I need to adjust my macros again and double down on eating cleanly. I’d like to lose another 50 pounds over the next year. Not sure how feasible that is, but that’s my goal.
I have been walking on the treadmill a lot. I did that even before I started doing keto. I usually get into the 2.8 mile per hour range while I’m walking. So I set a goal for myself last year to get up to 3mph. Not a big difference. Right around the same time, I learned that 5K is actually 3.01 miles. So in May, I was able to scratch that off my list. I walked in the 5k for the opening of the Fairview Heights Rec Center. I still don’t like the name “The Rec”. It kind of reminds me of college, but even then we called that the rec center, not the rec. It’s just a weird name to me I guess. Upside, it’s like almost across the street, so I can go over there anytime. Wish there was a discount for that.
I decided I wanted to try hiking. It’s something that I’ve been interested in for a long time, but have just been too out of shape to do anything about. A couple of weeks ago, I met a friend at Queeny Park and we walked 4.1 miles around the Hawk Ridge Trail. It was a good hike. Yesterday, I went over to Cahokia Mounds and walked 3.6 miles. Their trail isn’t named. I saw 15 deer while I was there. Deer make this sound, I think it’s like a snort, but it kind of sounds like a kazoo. Part of the trail walks you through some prairie grass. I would be walking down the trail and bedded down deer would kazoo and just jump out of their spot and bound away. They would be very close when this happened. It scared the crap out of me every time. I had some sugar-free Altoids in a tin in my pocket. After the 3rd or 4th kazoo, I took to shaking the tin as I walked through the prairie grass. My hope was just that they would hear that first and would run away before they had to kazoo. At one point, and the only point I was really worried, I was walking around the side of a hill. The hill was too my right at about 2 o’clock. The woods were to my left. Somewhere in the prairie grass up on the hill, I can see poking up above the grass are these deer antlers. I stopped and counted, 6 on each side. Last thing I need the day before a step challenge is to get gored by a deer. Even though the trail was hugging the woods, I was relieved that the deer was up there, and I was down here. Until the path changed direction. I kept shaking that mint tin. The trail wound up the side of the hill and turned the corner. There standing in the trail about 30 yards ahead was the smallest deer I’ve ever seen. Less than a foot tall. Honestly, I didn’t know they came that small. Must have been just born. Standing two feed to the right was momma. She was staring right at me. Standing maybe 10-15 feet to the right was dad and his antlers. I stopped walking. I stood there and looked away. I talked to no one in particular and I shook the mint tin. I wondered if you could rent a dog for a hike. I could have used one. Those deer watched me for what felt like an eternity. I was starting to wonder if I should turn around and go back. Then they kazooed (yup, it’s a verb now, just deal) away. By the time I got around the big mound, I was seriously hitting a wall. I had been sipping my water the whole time, but I am just not ready for the 100-degree heat index and 80% humidity. So I skipped the summit and just walked back to the car. Overall, it was a good hike. Next time, I’ll hit the summit. In fact, next time, I might walk the opposite direction. Hit the summit early and then get to walk in the shade on the way back, that might be nicer.
At work, I’ve been running this step challenge. It just started today, but we are already off to a good start. Everyone I’ve talked to has been really excited. It’s 66 days to walk in teams of 6 the distance of the famous route 66. That’s from Chicago, IL to Santa Monica, CA. I can actually say I’ve been to both cities. We have some events planned on Saturdays. We have one hike scheduled every Saturday morning. I’m actually looking forward to it.
My nose has de-snotted, so I guess that means it’s bedtime. Night All.