An eventful July

July is always pretty full on, mainly because it’s when my birthday is and I make the absolute most of it, also making sure my kids do too!

Unfortunately this month hasn’t all been enjoyment for us. My Wednesdays (my day off of work) have been filled with appointments for family, and for animals. Earlier this month we lost our lovely Minka. She was a fantastic dog. For my (much) earlier readers you would know that we got Minka as a companion dog for Beth. She was a ‘reject’ guide dog. I think they were planning to breed from her but decided not to. We were on a waiting list for about 18 months and she was well worth the wait. She was a brilliant dog. She would have made a dreadful guide dog in the early days though! If we went visiting she would poo in somebody’s house. Only once! Never after the first time. She would chew sticks. And she would belt across the main road if she got out (and she did once, nearly causing a car stack.) I envisioned a blind person getting out of bed, standing in poo and grabbing his eaten stick, then being pulled across the road! And, she never got out of the habit of eating the other dog’s poo! Maybe that is the secret to a long life. She was 14 and a bit. She was deaf and incontinent at the end as well as being arthritic. I took her to the vets for a lump on her leg and it turned out that she had another one on her tummy. The vet asked lots of questions and we realised that there were a lot more signs of old age illness that realised. Lots of drinking, lots of weeing. It was just her time. I came home and got Beth and Bill and took them back to the vets and Paul met us there. It was as nice as it could be and she fell asleep giving us a cuddle. She was the first of the pets gotten after the kids were born. The other dogs are missing her and it’s very different without her. Beth, in her own lovely way, said how much she’d miss her and asked if there was a shelter on the way home that we could pick another pet. I know she’s not talking about replacement, maybe just something to take her mind off?

Just this last week we had another drama. Beth ended up in hospital for 2 nights! She had tummy issues a couple of months back and we went and had blood tests and an ultrasound but nothing definitive was found. She had antibiotics and got better. This time I took her to emergency. They did a urine test which showed infection and they put her on a drip because she was really dehydrated. They also put a cannula in her arm (I scared the shit out of her by asking if they would be using a catheter!) I asked for that so they wouldn’t have to keep taking blood. They ended up using it for the drip anyway. She was excellent as she is petrified of needles and she ended up having 3. Still won’t get her ears pierced though! They scanned and fasted her in case it was her appendix.

I slept on a dining chair (or more to the point didn’t sleep!) They then transferred us to a ward where they continued fasting her until 3pm when the nurse came around and said she could eat. I said we hadn’t heard from the doctors and I assumed it wasn’t appendix if they were letting her eat. They said yes, they’d try and get the doctor to come that afternoon but if not it would be the morning. The full urine tests hadn’t come back yet. They said I would have to sleep on a dining chair again. When they completely missed us for dinner I cracked the shits and said it wasn’t good enough, they couldn’t expect me to sleep on a chair, I am her carer, I was doing most of the looking after her to make it easier for them. They sent the doctor to chat, made us something to eat and gave us a single room with a mattress on the floor! The next morning we were told it was more than likely a UTI, gave us antibiotics and sent us home. They did say they want Beth to see a gynecologist as the pain wasn’t necessarily like a UTI and she had no problems going to the toilet. Plus, when she had the pain before tests didn’t show a UTI. So now I’m looking at sending her to one which will be fun!

Other than that the month has been fairly good. Beth’s communication has been excellent, though not always positively. She’s letting us know what she wants though and explaining herself. Bill brought her up to Eastland to meet me after work one Saturday and we all went to see Cruella which was lovely. So nice for the both of them to do that. And Bridie has been watching movies with Beth and other fun things so that’s been lovely too. ‘

Lockdown has been hard for the 5th time, for everybody I’m sure. Beth will be back at work next week and she said she’s actually looking forward to it so fingers crossed all is well!

Thanks for reading! xx

About Sarah

Mother of an autistic child wanting to write about my personal experiences
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