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Summer 2019

Summer is drawing to an end, I guess. It’s been kind of a weird summer for me. With Charlie passing away in the spring, I have been doing anything and everything that gets me out of the house and just busy. It’s been just over 4 months, but still, if I see pictures of Charlie, or think about him, I still get all emotional.

Pretty much every weekend this summer I have been outside hiking. Me. Hiking. Who knew? Lately, I have thought about how I should have documented all the places I have been so far, whether I liked them or not, etc. Shame I didn’t think of that at the beginning. So, I’m writing this post to summarize everywhere I’ve hiked so far. There were no real criteria to the trails I have so far chosen to do other than I want them to be 2 miles or longer. What I told a friend was anything between 2-6 miles. I think that is a good enough goal for my first summer ever hiking.

Queeny Park – Hawk Ridge Trail – 4.5 miles

My first ever “real” hike if there is such a thing was at Queeny Park over in Missouri on a trail called the Hawk Ridge Trail. I met up with the husband of a former coworker and we walked the trail after work one day. It was a good walk, took about 1.5 hours. There was a good mix of paved and unpaved surfaces. It was good that my first hike was with a friend. I don’t know if I would have necessarily done it if I didn’t have someone there to talk to. I might have stopped halfway or something. The trail started and ended with a big hill. Going counter-clockwise, you start by going down a paved hill. It’s mostly flat with a little up and down, until the Northeastern corner of the trail, where there is a big hill going up. This was the only spot I had to rest for a minute, and it was really just because my new hiking shoes were hurting my ankles on such a steep incline. Still, it was a good walk.

Cahokia Mounds – 3.5 miles

This is the first solo hike I did. I had been to Cahokia Mounds a couple of times as a kid to walk up Monks Mound. I never knew they had trails out there. The whole site is a swamp, which until I was on the trail, I didn’t know. This is important because it made me realize why the Indians built the mounds. Their lands kept flooding. That makes so much sense. The trail starts from the visitors center as a paved trail. It wanders through a bunch of smaller mounds, and within the first mile or so it turns from paved to gravel, to dirt, and then to grass. I really enjoyed the mix of forest and prairie that this trail offered. I will say to anyone that is interested in walking this one, go on a cool day. Even though I started early, the parts in the sun were killer. I can’t imagine going in August. In fact, during the prairie part, I was so hot, my plan to hike up to the top of the mound, I decided against. I was just too hot. I saw so much wildlife on this trail. I haven’t seen that much, actually, on any trail since. I saw a grand total of 15 deer, mostly during the prairie part. Most of these deer scared the crap out of me. They like to bed down in the tall prairie grasses, and on several instances, they were bedded just a few feet from the trail. If you got too close, they would jump straight up and run away. When that happened, they would make this weird sound. I assume it is just a yelp or something, but it sounded like a kazoo to me. It was both surprising and hilarious.

During one part of the trail, I was really worried. The trail ran between a hill covered in tall grasses and a wooded area. At the top of the hill, sticking up above the grasses, all I could see were buck antlers. Easily 6 points on each side. I was worried that if that got spooked, it would beeline for the woods, and me walking there wouldn’t be so good. The trailed turned to the right though and started up the hill. This is where I was getting really concerned, it crested the hill, and turned a corner and there may be 150 feet ahead on the trail was the buck, a doe, and the smallest baby deer I’ve ever seen. I expect it was brand new because I didn’t know they could be that small. But the problem, of course, is, how to get past this little family without getting murdered? In my pocket, I had a tin of Altoids smalls sugar-free mints. I really like these mints because they are sugar-free. I don’t have to worry about eating to many and them pushing me out of ketosis. I pulled the tin out of my pocket and started shaking it. I would shake it every few seconds as I stood there on the trail. Eventually, the deer bounded off. I was relieved, understandably, but I kept the mints out and continued to shake them every few yards. It came in good handy, there were several other deer bedded down near the trail and they heard the shaking mints and ran off before I got too close.

I am looking at my review on Alltrails (linked above) and I can’t believe that was only a month ago. Seems like it was a lot longer. The Alltrails app is kind of neat, you can search for different trails, and then record them. Unfortunately, the moment you lose cell reception, it stops recording. By some grace of god, it recorded all of the Cahokia Mounds trail. Not sure how that happened.

Lone Elk State Park – White Buffalo Trail Loop – 3 miles

This trail is the only “moderate” trail I have done. I didn’t know what the difference was between easy and moderate other than one is harder. Well, the difference is elevation. White Buffalo Trail had a lot of up and down. I really wanted to do this one because it was in Lone Elk Park, which is known for its herd of elk. I didn’t see any elk. I found out after the hike, that to see the elk, you have to go into a different part of the park. The loop that I did was around

the lake, where the elk can’t get to.

At work, around this time, I planned and started running a step challenge. I set up some weekend activities for anyone interested, and I made this hike the first activity. Only one person and her husband showed up for the activity. Because of all the up and down, this hike took 2 hours. I was so exhausted afterward, I can’t even describe it. Then I had to drive an hour back home. It was kind of brutal.

The only eventful thing on this trail was a huge downed tree. The tree was easily 5 feet in diameter, and based on the green leaves still on it, had recently fallen in a storm. The tree fell right onto the trail so I had to climb up a pretty steep, very muddy hill to go around it. Luckily, I had trekking poles with me. I don’t know if I would have made it without them.

The alltrails app got about 75% of this trail before it crashed out on me.

Jefferson Barracks Park – Dennis Schick Trail – 2.5 miles

This is just a park. Like a standard community park. The whole trail is paved. I went on a recommendation of a former coworker. There was some wildlife, but not a lot. The hike took about an hour. It was hot, and by the end, I had drunk too much water and so I had to pee. If I hadn’t, I would have gone around a 2nd time. What is neat about this trail, is it is right next to the military training base. You can see the cadets out there doing whatever it is cadets do. There is also a tank and an old radar out there. Had it been cooler, and had I a real camera with me, I would have liked to get closer to those and take better pictures.

Alltrails got 75% of this trail also before it stopped recording. It would be nice if it could have recorded the whole thing so I could post it here for the zero people that read this blog to see.

Dunbar Cave State Park – Full Loop – 2.5-3.5 miles

I don’t know how long this trail is/was. Alltrails only has the lower recovery loop as a trail, and that part is just under 2 miles. There is a northern section that you can see on their website that adds additional distance to the trail. This was a very nice trail. The lower part is all in the woods. There’s a little bit of up and down, but not much. The northern section is all prairie, and the grass is very tall and overgrows the trail a little. I was in town that weekend for a party at my cousin’s house and we tackled the trail one morning. It took about 1.5 hours. It was very enjoyable, and I wouldn’t mind doing it again next time I’m in Tennessee.

The alltrails app, which I gave up on after this hike, got all of .4 miles before it crashed. Lately, I have been using something called MapMyHike, which seems to do a much better job, and doesn’t crap out.

Stony Creek Metropark

Recently, I took a trip up to visit my brother and his family. They live about an hour north of Detroit. I took 2 hikes while I was there, both at Stony Creek.

West Branch Loop – 3.38/4.7 miles

The first was the West Branch Loop. Well, most of the West Branch Loop. I didn’t realize, actually, until right this moment, that we somehow skipped about a mile of the loop. Not sure how that happened. This was an excellent hike. My brother and I finished it in an hour and 20 minutes. The surface was mostly rock, though there were a few parts that wandered through some grass. There were lots of bugs, but that’s to be expected next to a lake. I wish I had taken a picture, but there was one spot where you came around a corner, and instead of the usual hardwood trees, there was a long row of pines. It was very idyllic. On a side trail, through the pines, they were set up for a wedding. It was neat, though I have no idea how the wedding people would get there and not get dirty.

Stony Park Trail – 3.45/6 miles

There is a paved trail that circles Stony Creek Lake. The trail is a 6-mile loop. I did 3.45 miles, so close to 2 miles of the loop before turning around. My brother and his family went to play on the massive playground they have there. As much fun as it is to sit in the sun and watch little kids run amuck, I grabbed my gear and wandered around. The first .45 or so of the walk, I did something called the fitness trail. It’s not on any of the maps that I can find, but it was nice and through the woods. After that, I was pretty much in the sun all the way down to the dam and back. It was a good walk. I told my brother, that if it hadn’t been so hot, I would have liked to have gone all the way around.

So…that’s it. It’s August 8th, and so far this summer I have hiked a little over 20 miles this summer. There are a few weeks of summer left, and I hope to tackle a few more trails. Maybe I can get to 30 miles? That sounds like a good goal for this year. Next year, I’ll plan on 50.

The last year…

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.

Charlie’s Home!

Wednesday

The last week-and-a-half has been the most stressful of my life to date. A week ago this past Wednesday I got home from work and my cat, Charlie was acting strangely. Usually, he meets me at the door meows at me for a few minutes and then wonders off to do whatever he does. On this particular day though, he wasn’t at the door to greet me. I walked around the house and couldn’t find him so I called his name and he started making a weird yowling (sp?) sound. Unfortunately, I don’t actually speak cat, so I asked Facebook. I have a couple of friends that do pet rescue and are on the medical side so they always have good insights. They suggested getting to the vet (which was closed) sooner rather than later. I watched Charlie for a couple hours until he tried to use his litter box and couldn’t go. That’s when I knew we needed help. So I found the closest open night-time animal hospital, called, and we went there.

The vet, Animal Emergency Center looked at him and said it was a UTI, which is common in cats as they get older, and so the admitted him. I drove home slowly, kind of freaking out. I got Charlie just a few months after I bought my house. Rescued from St. Louis Pet Rescue. He has been my buddy for almost 9 years, and I can’t recall a single day where he hasn’t been there in that time. I got home and got ready for bed. It was strange with Charlie not following me around from room to room. I didn’t get much sleep that night, I was too worried about my buddy.

Thursday

The next day, the vet called me in the morning early, like 6:30 am to tell me that Charlie was doing so much better. They had given him some antibiotics and some fluids and he had used the box a couple of times already and was doing well. They said for this sort of thing, they like to keep pets an extra night just to make sure it’s all cleared up. They told me I would be able to pick him up Friday morning at 6:30. I was so happy that Charlie was better. It was still weird that Charlie wasn’t at home, but at least I knew he’d be home the next day.

At 11:30 pm, my phone rang, which I was not expecting, and it was the vet. She told me that Charlie’s UTI had fully cleared up, but there was something wrong. She said that he couldn’t stand up and that he might be blind. I don’t know why it was necessary to call me right when I am trying to go to bed with news that clearly would keep me up all night. They still needed me to pick Charlie up in the morning, but she said she would monitor him all night and see if there were any changes. There weren’t.

Friday

On Friday morning, with whatever little sleep I got, I headed to the vet to pick up Charlie. His symptoms hadn’t changed. I asked them what I should do, and they said that their small vet couldn’t handle these types of issues. They made two recommendations, either to take him to Four Paws Animal Hospital, his normal vet or to take him to St. Louis to see a specialty vet. Being as 4paws was close, I decided to go there. I know they have a lot of doctors, and they are really good.

We were at 4paws for a grand total of 40 minutes. The vet looked at him real quick and said that whatever was wrong was neurological (this is a scary word) and there was nothing they could do there. I would have to go to Veterinary Specialty Services (VSS) in St. Louis. They called ahead to make the appointment, and we were on our way.

When we got to VSS, I walked up to the counter and told them who I was, and they had a vet tech right there that was waiting to take him in. They rushed him into the back and had me go wait in one of the exam rooms. It took a long time before a vet came in, and that really didn’t help me any. I was totally freaking out about what was going on. Eventually, the vet came in, apologized about the wait, and informed me that Charlie had just had a seizure. At this point, I am pretty sure I was in shock, had been sedated, and they had a plan to try and figure out what was wrong, but they were going to need to admit him and keep him a few days. I agreed and left for work. It was a gut-wrenching morning. That afternoon while I was at work, they did an MRI and got some spinal fluid. Tests to be completed by Monday.

Saturday

On Saturday, my mom came with me, and we went to visit Charlie at VSS. This was the worst day, it was worse than Friday by quite a bit. They brought Charlie in, but he was acting really strange. He would look right at me, and then his eyes would change, he would lean his head all the way back for like 20 seconds and then would just curl back up into a ball on my lap. He did this a dozen or more times while we were there. I totally lost it. I don’t know if I have ever cried like that in my life. The doctor came in again and started with all the medical speak, and I was really glad my mom was there. As a nurse, she knew all the important questions to ask. The MRI results showed 2 dark spots on his brain that shouldn’t be there. They didn’t know if it was cancer or if it was just a bad infection.

Sunday

My mom and I went back to visit on Sunday. Charlie was a lot better on Sunday. He wasn’t doing the weird lean back thing and was content with me just holding him. He couldn’t move very much, but he wiggled his feet and just the tip of his tail would move. It wasn’t much but it was an improvement.

Monday

On Monday, I took my lunch break at VSS. My mom met me there. I was super worried and borderline ready to lose it all morning. Monday was the day they would know if it was cancer or not. Leading up to going and visiting, I was almost sick with worry. I couldn’t eat at all. I ran to the bathroom several times that morning at work because I was sure I was going to hurl. Luckily that didn’t happen and when the vet called just before I was leaving to go to VSS, she said that the cultures were not cancerous.

I don’t think I can explain to you the amount of stress and pressure that was lifted from me during that 5-minute phone call. For the first time in six days, I had hope that I would get my little buddy back. The visit was similar to Sunday, but I could tell that Charlie was more alert and that he was able to move everything just a tiny bit more.

Tuesday

Tuesday was my first VSS visit without my mom being there. It went fine but leading up to me going over, maybe that last hour, I was strangely nervous. I think I was worried something else would have happened. Luckily, that was not the case. He was definitely a little more alert than Monday, and I even put him in the windows in the exam room, and he seemed to enjoy trying to look at the stuff outside. He still couldn’t stand, but he could kind of throw his weight back and forth to try and move about. One of the ICU nurses talked to me and said that everyone loves Charlie in the back, but they were worried because they couldn’t get him to eat anything. She suggested that I bring in some kibbles from home.

Wednesday

Wednesday morning when the Vet called she talked about his refusal to eat food and started talking about a feeding tube. I relayed the info from the nurse from the previous day. The vet said that was a great idea. She also said that if I could get him to eat his kibble, she would let me take him home on Thursday.

When I got to VSS, I brought three days worth of kibble, some Charlie snacks, and some Charlie soups. I was so excited. All he had to do was eat something and he could come home. I had made fun of myself Wednesday morning. There are certain things that I have learned to do over the years. I always close my bedroom door when walking out, because I don’t want Charlie in there when I’m not in there. I always close the door to the landing (little space between the basement, door to the garage, and door to the kitchen) at night because I don’t like Charlie going down there at night either. He has a tendency to climb up high, and the start crying until someone can come to help him down. I laughed at myself that I was still doing those things, even though Charlie wasn’t there.

They put Charlie and me in the fancy room at VSS. It has a super comfortable leather couch. I tried everything, but Charlie wouldn’t eat anything. The vet said they would put the feeding tube in, in the afternoon to try and get some nutrients in him.

Thursday

When the vet called Thursday morning, I was seriously down. I was worried my buddy would never get better and would never come home. When the vet said that he could go home that day, I was understandably elated. When I went to visit, he had so much more energy than the day before. He still couldn’t stand up, but he was wiggling all over the place. He was ready to go. I left work a bit early, picked him up and then worked from home the rest of the day.

At home, I have a large dog crate and lots of pee pads, so I made a little condo for him. The whole thing is sitting on the desk in my office so I can hang out with him when I am on the computer. His digs are fairly swank. He’s got food, water, a soft place to sleep, and the whole thing sits up against the window, so he can look outside all day, which is important for a cat.

Five minutes after sitting down in the condo, Charlie started eating some kibbles. I was so happy.

Friday

Tube feeding is not that difficult. Really, it’s not. It’s super intimidating, but it’s not difficult. You just have to make sure the food is at room temp and to go slow. If it’s too cold or too fast, he could puke it all up. Since he is on 4 medicines, it’s actually super helpful. I don’t know how I would get him to take that stuff otherwise.

The big drama for Friday morning was getting Charlie to pee. The vet said it was important to make sure that Charlie pee’s every 18 hours or less. Friday morning at seven, we were at 17.5 hours. I was all ready to have to take him to 4paws so they could press the magic pee button. Then something weird dawned on me. For 9 years, every time Charlie has gone outside his box, he has gotten in trouble. So I took him out of the condo and put him into his box. After some complaining, he peed. It’s stupid, but I was so happy he was able to pee.

Saturday

It is important to keep a routine with cats. So instead of some much-needed sleep, today I got up at 6. I took Charlie’s food out of the fridge, and I put Charlie into his box. While he was complaining about that, I got all his tube stuff ready. Four medications, food that smells, all loaded up into the syringes that allow me to push the food through the tube. I was again worried that he wouldn’t pee. I had put him into the box two separate times Friday night to see if he would go. By Saturday morning it had been almost 24hrs since the last pee. Luckily, he went. After the tube feeding, he started getting whiny. I didn’t know why, so I put him back into his condo. He got more and more agitated until he liquid pooped in the condo. I let him finish, said some encouraging words, and then I was at a loss. I needed to get him clean but wasn’t sure the best method. This is not the correct method:

First I took him out of the condo and put him in the litter box (mistake 1). I cleaned up the condo, threw the soiled pee pads away, and threw the towel into the laundry. Then I picked him up and put him back into the condo (mistake 2). He didn’t clean himself, and so the leftover poo on his butt was covered in litter from the box, and now was smearing onto the fresh pee pad. Worse, when I had picked him up, a bit of poo goo got on me. Luckily I wasn’t wearing a shirt. First I tried using some baby wipes to clean him (and me) up. They work great on skin, not so much on fur.

There was only one thing to do. I picked him up again, we walked to the sink, and I turned the water on, and used the sprayer to clean him off. I momentarily considered just taking him into the shower, but I think there would have been too much water spray. I was definitely worried he would freak out in the sink, but he was chill. I grabbed a towel, and we went and sat down in the living room where I dried him off. He fell asleep while I was doing this, and we just sat there like that for about 40 minutes.

He’s back sleeping in his cleaned (again) condo. Really need to take a nap, but I have some Saturday things to take care of first. More news when I have it.

-Josh