It's inevitable now...

Hello, everyone. 

Those who have followed my blog posts regarding my illness have come to learn that I have been booked to have a colonoscopy. I was referred for this procedure in February, and just last week I met with the doctor that will be doing my procedure. Because my surgery is dependant on the results of my colonoscopy, I've gotten in stat and the official date of my hell procedure is June 18th. 

I am less than excited. As you can imagine, I'm not very excited to go to the hospital only to be violated by a probe up my butt. NOT COOL, MAN. 

And now for some colonoscopy humour:

Is this all TMI? Yes, I do think so. But here's the thing. I'm having a colonoscopy because I have a disease called Endometriosis. My Endometriosis is aggressive and extensive, and it has spread throughout my pelvis and onto my bowels. I will be having surgery with a gynaecological urologist because my doctors suspect the endometriosis has infiltrated my bladder and/or ureter. 

So yes, sharing with you all that I'm going in for a colonoscopy is a little bit TMI (frankly I'm not too proud to declare to the internet that I'll be having a probe up my butt) but the thing is, I want to raise awareness for endometriosis. I want everyone to know that this disease isn't just bad cramps, and that it has detrimental effects on the rest of the body.

So while I wish to parade about my specialist's office with a picket sign that says "NOT FAIR" I realize that I'm saddled with a disease without a cure and that's just the way it is. I can learn to manage my pain, but for now, that's about all I can do. 

Have you had an experience with a colonoscopy? If you have, feel free to share in the comment section below!

My life has changed!

Hello, everyone! I apologize for vanishing off the face of the inter-webs for nearly a month. I've been very busy, and I have some exciting news to share! 

When I created my blog, the tagline was "The daily musings of a duck loving pet shop employee embarking upon Farmerhood" While I was driving home the other day, I realized that that tagline no longer applies to me. I'm still a duck-lover, that's never going to change. And I am no longer really embarking upon farmerhood. I moved off the acreage to live in the city with my boyfriend, so apart from my gardening, I'm not much of a farmer. And I am no longer a pet shop employee. My 2 years of employment in the pet shop industry has come to an end, as I have been hired at a Veterinary Hospital. Let me tell you, it's been a rough month, but I am coming around and loving my job. 

So, at the end of April I graduated from my journalism program. I now have a diploma, and it was an awesome feeling to complete my schooling. I was so done with school. Right after graduating I was hell-bent determined on getting a job at a veterinary clinic. 

Me, late April 2015:

Believe it or not, I was hired on the spot at one of the city's most popular 24hr emergency veterinary hospitals. This is a big deal! I was hired as an assistant to the hospital's AHT's and Veterinarians. It is my job to: 

• run lab-work 
• complete lab paperwork and enter results in the system
• maintain the lab equipment  
• write discharge notes and instructions
• trim nails 
• restrain animals
• clean kennels 
• walk dogs 
• bag deceased animals
• make memorial paw prints after a pet dies  
• tend to the patients' IVs
• feed the animals admitted in hospital 
• call in and tend to all strays and wildlife
• manage paperwork create discharge bins
• make and sterilize surgical packs 
• prep animals for surgery
• set up, assist in, and clean the surgical suits 
• and much, much more. 

I am now on rotation work (5 days on, 5 days off) and I work 11 hour shifts. Labs and surgeries prove to have rather steep learning curves, and I've been flooded with so much information.

Me, after learning about all my responsibilities:

I pretty much spent my first shift bagging dead cats, which I found incredibly difficult. I love animals very much, and I get attached to the patients rather easily. I get tremendously sad when I watch animals die, and I find it to be difficult to bag them and bring them to the morgue. 

Me, every time an animal dies:

Me trying to pretend that I didn't see an animal that needs bagging: 

Me, when I actually have to do the bagging:

After I put someone's pet in the freezer I feel like:

On one of my first shifts, I had to bag up a hare and her baby. Both were euthanized in hospital, and I was rather upset as the baby hare was just brand new and healthy. After bagging both up with the most tender care, I carried them downstairs to the morgue. Unfortunately, I forgot the code to get into the morgue, and couldn't get in. I ran back upstairs, and to my complete horror, couldn't find a single co-worker. Everyone was gone. There wast a veterinarian at the computer in triage, but he didn't know the code to the morgue. So I spent close to 15 minutes running around the hospital with dead bunnies in a bag, looking for someone who could help me get into the morgue. Fun stuff right there. I went home and cried that day, actually. 

While it's taking some time for me to get the hang of things, I'm really learning to love my job. I love my scrubs, and I love being with animals all day. Unfortunately, 90% of my patients bite and/or scratch me, and I am covered in cuts and bruises. I love it though. Animals are the best. I sincerely don't mind being covered in fur and having my arms and hands bedazzled with band-aids. I like working the centrifuge and using the refractometer to identify the USG of a urine sample. It's so cool. The only thing that's quite daunting is the amount of lab results I have to manually enter to patient files. On my last shift I had an actual mountain of paperwork. 

When I see stacks of paperwork on my lab desk: 

I'm so stoked with my job, and I feel confident that I am in my career. I'm currently deciding if I want to go to school to become a Vet Tech, or if I'm gonna go balls out and go for the full meal deal: 

DANIE THE DVM.

Throwback Thursday: Cats

It's Throwback Thursday, and I would like to reminisce on all the cats I've owned, met, and forcefully snuggled. 

My oldest cat, named Cloe, has been diagnosed with diabetes. She's 15 years old and her quality of life has declined to the point where we've decided that a humane euthanasia is the best option for her. So, as a kind of tribute to Cloe, here's 10 throwback kitty photos.

The only friend I made while visiting Italy was this cat:

Tank and Savannah being cute:

Savannah, left and Tank, right

My Dad and I visited our cowboy friend, and all the animals (including Jake the beast-cat) couldn't get enough attention from him:

The tiger on my dad's lap is named Jake, and he beat the shit out of a coyote once.

Tank and Boyfriend having their snuggle time:

When I cuddled Bill, Boyfriend's brother's cat (her name is actually Belle, but she meows like a grouchy old many so Bill is her spirit name).

 

Taking a selfie with my little niece Savannah:

My cats, Annie (left) and Cloe (right) back when they actually got along (sort of).

This weird hairless cat that showed up at the barn one day: 

I'd also like to mention that this cat also had painted nails. Pink. Pink claws.

Boyfriend, his buddy and I went on a road trip last summer. We stopped in a town called Field and we met a new friend that liked to stand on our shoulders:

Nick, left and Boyfriend, right, pose with their new buddy in Field, AB.

And all those times Annie tried to trick us into thinking she's cute...

Almost done!

Hello, everyone! 

I am currently freaking out and really excited- both at the same time- because I am almost done school. Today was technically the last day ever in my journalism program, but I still have some stuff to finish up. 

I have to wind up my internship, which was supposed to have ended a week ago, and I also have a big project to wrap up today. So close... but it feels so far. So I'm typing away like a mad woman, desperate to finish this program and never write another news story ever again.

me right now: 

What a great way to come out of a two year post secondary education. Learn how to do something with the training to make it one's career, and on the last day of classes decide I WILL NEVER DO THIS EVER AGAIN THANK GOD. And I wonder why I've never been praised for my attitude.

So I suppose this is a bit of a pre-celebratory post. I'm almost done, but before that happens and before I  can celebrate, I still have a lot of work to do. 

So if you'll excuse me, I have some last minute panicked typing to do. 

This is me.

Gardening is awesome

Hello Everyone!

I've found myself in an emotional crisis over the past week. Currently, gardening (for the first time ever) is my reprieve. In all seriousness, 

gardening is improving my quality of life

I mentioned in my last post that I've started a number of different herbs and vegetables. I also mentioned that I placed a big beautiful butternut squash (BNS for short) close to my BNS seedlings. Y'all thought I was crazy but this morning I awoke to two big beautiful BNS sprouts! The role model squash has been working fabulously! On the topic of butternut squash, my boyfriend doesn't like the BNS shortening. He thinks it sounds like a disease or something else that's quite terrible. 

My current dilemma is the fact that I want to cook the role model squash for dinner tonight. I'm planning on making a butternut squash curried lentil dish. But I don' think I can butcher the role model squash in front of the seedlings! I can't do that! Boyfriend said that if I cook the role model squash, the little seedlings will refuse to grow. 

That's all I have to live for!?  They'll cry, as their little tender green selves witness the massacre of the adult BNS. I'm hoping that they'll be slightly uplifted by the smell of curry and perhaps they'll dream of one day becoming a beautiful, delicious meal. 

Butternut squash seedling has a beautiful golden role model

I've actually become so excited by the potential of having a bountiful garden that I went to Home Depot and purchased more seeds (and 3 strawberry plants). This afternoon I started 4 pumpkins and 4 watermelons in jiffy cups.

Once I get start working the soil outside and prepping the beds, I'll just have to wait till the last frost before I can move my seedlings to the great outdoors. I plan on keeping my terracotta herb garden indoors, but I'll also plant some herbs outside.

Parsley is sprouting like crazy in my indoor garden

If everything goes according to plan and my seeds all behave, I will have a beautiful garden and many vegetables and fruits to eat. I'll be growing: 

-Purple Carrots
-Carrots
-Peas 
-Butternut Squash 
-Sweet Pumpkins 
-Watermelon 
-Strawberries 
-Beets 
-Lettuce 
-Mini Bell Peppers 
-Basil
-Parsley
-Dill 
-Rosemary 

I'm so excited I can't even wait. I plan on sketching out my garden plan tonight, and I've been reading and studying gardening online. I am convinced that I will have an amazing garden, and this hope and excitement is helping me pull through my emotional crisis and my physical pain. Endometriosis won't stop for my garden, but my excitement for my garden is overcoming the endometriosis blues. 

Strawberries, role model squash, and makeshift greenhouses all chilling in my kitchen

Last summer I started this blog to document my transition to farmerhood. I've since moved into the city with my boyfriend, but perhaps I can maintain my farmer status through my vegetable garden. I'm also planning on getting a duckling (or two. or three.) but I'll have to be extra cute to get my boyfriend on board.
 
Ideally I want a mallard duckling, but I think the only way to do that is by egg-napping a duck nest and I'm not terrible enough to do that. 
SO-- if anyone can hook me up with some duck eggs and an incubator I will be SO THANKFUL. Just don't tell my boyfriend. Or my landlord.

I will be happily blogging about my garden through the spring and summer. If all goes according to plan, we will be eating well at the end of the season!

I can grow things

It's officially spring here in Calgary. We've had beautiful sunny days, and long golden evenings. Ducks are waddling about and quacking away, birds are chirping and gathering grass for their nests, and Boyfriend and I have been taking long walks around the community. 

I've had this fantasy where I have a garden and many houseplants, including an herb garden and fruit bearing trees. I've decided that my first spring in our new house would be the perfect time to start learning how to grow things.

Here's the thing. I'm great at taking care of animals. I've saved a number of animal lives, and taking care of them is what makes me tick. I love animals and I'm damn good at keeping them alive. Plants, however, prove to be a different story. I kill plants. 

I love receiving flowers, but they always seem to die prematurely as I'll forget to water them regularly and don't trim the stems. I think that perhaps a cactus garden would be more my level, but I've taken on the challenge of growing delicate green things that need care and attention. 

In terracotta pots that serve as my indoor herb garden containers, I planted basil, parsley, dill, and rosemary. After weeks of watering dirt and feeling discouraged, I've noticed that my herbs are growing! Basil was the first to pop up, followed by dill (which can't figure out what direction to grow in and tries to go back into the dirt). Parsley-- and lots of it-- popped up this morning. Still waiting on the rosemary to sprout.

In addition to my herbs, I started some of my garden veggies in jiffy pots indoors. So far I've started my peppers, butternut squash, and lettuce. They're in a homemade green house, in my kitchen. I've put the jiffy pots in an old plastic muffin container, and put the little green house over a heating pad. 2 jiffy pots have sprouting lettuce in them. I can't wait for my peppers and squash to come up. 

Today I purchased a butternut squash at the grocery store. I put the squash by the greenhouses so the butternut squash seeds would have a role model to look up to. My mother thought I was full-blown looney toons after I told her this.

I'm still not sure when to start my garden outdoors. Calgary weather is weird, and I feel like we still have another snowstorm coming. It always snows on May Long Weekend. With my luck I'd plant all my seeds and transplant the sprouts just to have it snow overnight and kill them all. 

Just when you think winter is finally behind you...

I plan on completing my garden with tomatoes, carrots, beets, peas, pumpkin, cantaloup, and strawberries.This is incredibly exciting for both Boyfriend and I. We can't wait to just pick food out of our backyard. Plus, I feel proud that I can grow things! Now maybe my garden will impress Boyfriend enough for him to let me get a bunny. I need a pet bunny.

My bunny will, of course, but adopted from a shelter. Pet stores have no need to sell bunnies. There are so many bunnies waiting for homes. Always make sure to spay or neuter your pet rabbit! This isn't an option-- get them fixed!!!! 

My Chronic Illness, Illustrated

Back in September, I composed a delightful post titled My Chronic Illness: A Visual Journey. My struggle with Endometriosis effects many aspects of my life. Even though it's been a hellish ride and I struggle to keep it together sometimes, I always try to keep a sense of humor. Laughter is so very important! I'm not so sure about the whole "laughter is the best medicine" bit, but I do know for a fact that it helps with the healing.

Since I published my 30 Day Invisible Illness Challenge, I have been flooded with love and support from friends and loved ones. Unfortunately, my daily ordeals with this disease aren't limited to the month of March. It's year-round. And in this post, I want to detail every day life with a painful, incurable disease-- and I want to make it funny. So, without further ado...

My Chronic Illness: A Visual Journey Part 2

1.) When I realize that I have to go to work/school but I'm sore and tired: 

2.) When a doctor asks if I'll let him/her do a pelvic exam:

3.) When I start bleeding unexpectedly and remember I'm wearing nice panties:

4.) Trying to stick to the Endometriosis Diet: 

(and then one day later...) 

5.) Just when I think I'm starting to get better: 

6.) When a nurse asks if I'm ready to have an IV line put in: 

(but in reality) 

7.) When my pain killers aren't working so I mix a few:

8.) That time my doctor removed my IUD, injected botox into my abdomen and vajayjay, and then stabbed an intramuscular injection into my arm all in one miserable appointment:

 9.)When I'm camped out in the living room with painkillers, a heating pad, and snacks:

10.) When an awful pain flare sneaks up on me:

11.) When my boyfriend forces me to eat breakfast even though I'm nauseous

12.) After I cook a big dinner for company: