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.

30 Day invisible illness challenge: Day 28

Day Twenty Eight: 

The nicest thing someone did for me when I wasn't feeling well is... 

David gave me a stuffed Koala Bear.

 I have been a very lucky girl, and I have been spoiled. Endometriosis is gloomy and lonely, so it's nice when my loved ones show their support. I'm blessed with their patience, words of encouragement, and, occasionally, gifts. One thing that people do that I love is send flowers. I love flowers. They are so bright and beautiful, and they bring joy. You feel loved when you receive flowers. 

Just recently, after my appointment with my surgeon, I became depressed. She suggested having children now, and the whole appointment acknowledged and confirmed that I was quite sick and surgery is necessary for both feeling better and having children. It was a rough appointment, and the next day I spent with the lights off in the house, the curtains closed, and I just wanted to sleep. I felt awful. I called my mother for support, then called my dear friend Steph. I bawled my eyes out on the phone with her. I cried and I cried and she listened and spoke. She offered fantastic advice, and I felt a bit better after our talk, but I didn't feel cheery. You may imagine my surprise, then, while I was making dinner and heard a knock at the door. A lady stood on my doorstep, but I couldn't see her behind this giant bouquet of beautiful flowers. They were a gift from Steph (and of course from Brad too). These beautiful, joyful flowers were so cheery. I suddenly became excited about the dinner I was cooking, I pulled open the curtains, and felt better. Don't underestimate the healing power of flowers!

The bouquet from Steph & Brad

The bouquet brought a lot of joy and cheer into our home!

#FlowerPower

I was very fortunate in my previous job at Pet Land. I had such wonderful, supportive staff. All my coworkers were so supportive and kind. Before my surgery in August 2013, Niina and the other girls at work pitched in and bought me a beautiful bouquet of pink roses. Even after surgery, if I was having a pain day, my dear Shaun was always so nice and he always said to me, "Danie, go home. You're not feeling well, let's see if we can get you home." Though I worked with puppies, so Shaun was rarely able to convince me to go home!

My old job had some serious perks!

I didn't choose the scrub life. The scrub life chose me. Just kidding. I chose the scrub life. And it's awesome.

After my first surgery in October 2011, my then-boyfriend flew from Ontario to Calgary to visit me two days after my surgery. I had to stay overnight at the hospital after that surgery, and I was very drugged and out of it for his visit. While I was sleeping upstairs, he and my father watched hockey downstairs. Even though I didn't have immediate company, I felt so much love and support. It really helps in the healing. 

My mother brought me roses and chocolates post op, which was very sweet. It's nice to feel doted on every once and a while. Everyone wants to take care of you after you've had surgery. You can get away with just about anything. And eat whatever you want. Ginger ale, soda crackers, and ice cream are post surgery staples. It's kind of awesome.

I come out of surgery and I'm like:

 More than anything, my Davey Boy knows how to make me feel loved and doted on.

For my surgery in 2013, my beloved David woke me up at 4 in the morning. He made sure my hospital bag was packed with the essentials: jammies, clean undies, and a stuffed bunny. But then he revealed something special to me: the cutest stuffed Koala Bear. I love that thing. I still have it. I have a thing for stuffed animals, and koalas are one of my most favorite critters. The koala was a perfect present and it accompanied me to the hospital. Thank you, David. 

ITS SO CUTE AND FLUFFY OMG.

Obviously I'll get well soon with this cute thing hanging around.

While the gifts are all so nice and sweet and unforgettable, the nicest thing is the way David treats me every damn day. He always listens to how I'm feeling, he always asks, and he always knows when I'm hurting. Some days he carries me to bed, he always helps me to my feet, and he sometimes makes my hot water bottle for me. David is amazing. He makes this disease bearable.

The depot from hell and canned dog food

Happy Sunday, everyone! 

On Friday I announced that I was going to the doctor's for my 2nd Depot Provera injection. Let me tell you, that was the depot from hell. See, the first time I had a depot provera injection it went ok. Apart from having the intramuscular needle jabbed into my tiny little arm (mistakes were made) I didn't get very sick or anything. 

Hours after my depot yesterday, I started feeling very sick, like I had a bad flu. I went home and my mother looked at me and said that my face looked grey. I felt sick to my stomach, I was feverish, and just so blah. Not to mention my ass hurt from the needle. So I slept for most of the afternoon. Yesterday wasn't much better. I watched as five angry, swollen pimples erupted on my face. I couldn't get comfortable, I was aching, sore, irritable. My skin was ultra sensitive, I was sweaty yet cold, I had a headache, and my ass hurt. I cannot properly express how awful I've been feeling! 

Today my pimples aren't as swollen or sore (yesterday my face hurt the pimples were so bad). I still feel malaise, but not as bad as yesterday. My bleeding is persisting, and really I just feel burnt out. 

The swelling has gone down significantly, thank god.

I can't believe how miserable I've been feeling after that injection. I'm seriously upset with this depot provera. Apparently the bleeding thing is normal (December-Present----- let that sink in). I'm sure the acne thing is normal too, as per hormone treatment. But what the hell, man?? I can't catch a break.

I'm currently being a very bad girl and I'm blogging from work. I have my laptop out so I can add fancy gifs and things. 

You're welcome.

In regards to this depot from hell, I would like to tell all women that are considering this drug as treatment to RUN AWAY! But, every woman reacts to the treatment differently. Hell, even I react differently from treatment to treatment. It's not a drug that I would recommend (frankly not many women do) but it's not like I'm an expert on the whole thing. 

Here's the thing. 

Lupron is the worst drug I have ever been on. Lupron, or Leuprolide, is the heavy duty "big guns" endometriosis treatment. It's used to treat prostate cancer, and it's actually listed as a chemo drug (despite the fact that it's a hormone treatment). I did not tolerate Lupron well at all. I was physically ill the whole time I was on the treatment. I was throwing up almost every day, I was weak, my hair thinned, and my pain didn't decrease at all. This drug is bad for your bones and it's just evil, really. 

I would recommend trying depot provera before you  consider trying Lupron. Lots of women struggle while on Lupron. I was paranoid, emotionally unstable, depressed (really just more of a whack job than usual). Many women experience this, and almost all of us advise against Lupron. Try the depot provera first.

Pretty much exactly me while on Lupron:

On a completely different note, I want to share with you what I did for fun today (Sunday Funday, Right?) I mentioned a little while back that I'm working at the shop again as the Sunday girl. Today I kept busy by re-stocking all the Merricks dog food cans. I take a little too much pride in my can-stacking abilities. But look at how beautiful it is!!!

So nice and organized *high-fives self*

If you're looking for a really good, high quality canned dog food, Merrick is the way to go. They have so many different varieties, and all their canned foods are "stews." So instead of getting this pate or paste in a can, Merrick features whole ingredients. For example, Wingaling has a whole chicken wing in it, and Brauts and Tots has a whole bratwurst sausage in it. Really good food for dogs of all ages and sizes. I highly recommend Merrick's canned food.

Merrick's features fresh whole ingredients. The Wilderness Blend, for example, has Salmon, Venison, Buffalo, Yukon Gold Potatoes, Carrots, and Golden Delicious Apples. Yum!

Well, I hope this post has been educational in one way or another. Maybe you've learned something about hormone treatments. I hope at least you've learned about a fancy new dinner you can give to your dog. 

Everyone take care, and remember... 

Back at it and OW

Hello everyone!

Today is Sunday which means I'm back at my old job. I quit for a month, and now I'm back to cover all the Sunday shifts. It really isn't all that bad, some extra money in my pocket never hurts! 

Speaking of hurts, I have a big time complaint. 

I have been on my fucking period since the beginning of January (this is after bleeding off and on for the duration of December). Give me a break! This is ridiculous. I'm currently experiencing hard core back aches. Ugh I just want to lay down with my pain pills and a hot water bottle. I've said it before and I'll say it again (and again and again and again) endometriosis is an evil disease! 

Tonight I am going to my friend and former coworkers house for a sleepover. She had the idea of doing the kind of slumber party that 10 year olds would do. We're gonna make cupcakes (that's right be jealous). 

Im not gonna lie, it's weird to be back in the store. Kinda like getting back together with an ex- familiar but weird. It's already proving to be dangerous, as I've picked out a few new toys for Clancey (as if he needed any more). Wanna see? 

The jungle cat skineez is too cute to resist

Skineez and Kong make some of the cutest toys. I love that we stock a wide variety of both brands at the shop. The little ducky (a Kong product) comes with a replacement squeaker which is pretty handy. The skinnies are great because they're soft. My yorkie loves to play with them. Clancey's favorite game is tug of war so the skineez are perfect for that! And those little kitty boinks he loves. I think they feel funny in his mouth and that's why he likes chewing on them. 

Man, time is dragging on here at the store. I'm beginning to feel a bit desperate because my bleeding has been SO heavy all month. I've been at shoppers drug mart twice already to buy stupid lady products. Uhg I am so sick of this. What the fuck kind of period has the nerve to stick around for so fucking long? 

this picture is always an accurate depiction of me.

Blerg. I hope you all had a great weekend. Beware, tomorrow is Monday. 

-Captain Lakie (The Silly Mallard)

Working girl

A couple posts ago I happily announced that I was unemployed. This has changed, and I am working one day a week back at the pet shop. 

I'm not gonna lie, I'm a bit nervous. I've only been away for a month, but I'm paranoid that I'll get to the store and forget how to use the till and forget the alarm code. Seriously, I think this will be me on Sunday: 

I'm surrounded by dog food and I am confused

Realistically I'll probably be fine. It's just like they say about riding a bike. You never forget. ... right? 

I am a bit excited to be back at work. Not having any income is seriously stressful to me. Even though I'm only working one day a week, it's an extra $88 in my pocket so how could I complain?

Me.

So, I'm currently in class and I'm having a bit of fun. I've been selected to be an editor for my news projects class, and I'm enjoying the role quite a bit.

See, I love writing. I majored in English at the University of Calgary for a few years (though never completed my degree because I was happy to accept an invitation to study journalism at a different school). I love academic writing, and I love editing these papers too. 

I've found that news writing isn't my preferred style of writing. It's a bit difficult to grasp, and many of my classmates struggle with it. A lot of the pieces that I edit see impossible to salvage, so it's a fun challenge to turn them into decent pieces. 

So far this morning I've completed 2 edits, and I am currently editing my 3rd story for the day. 

I'm editing students' work all serious like.

 This semester has been going fairly well so far. I don't feel like I'm overwhelmed and dying (partly due to my lack of job, I think). I feel pretty ok, and I think the nice weather (+14 in January in Calgary WHAT) really helps improve my mood and productivity.

Speaking of productivity, I would like to mention that my body improvement campaign is producing results. HUZZAH! I'm sticking to my "diet" (aka skipping white rice, bread, juice, soda, and other crap) and eating lean protein and veggies. I've noticed some bloating going down in my tummy, and some weight lost off my hips. 

I'm still struggling a bit with yoga and workouts. They really trigger my pain, to a point where I wonder if the exercise is even worth it. Yesterday I felt so ill, I slept and laid down for most of the day. I ran a fever and got so sweaty my clothes got wet and I felt sweat running down my back and my legs. What the hell... I'm telling you guys, Endometriosis is an evil disease. 

If you have endometriosis, this is what the inside of your pelvis looks like.

I still lust after those Victoria's Secret abs, so I shall persist. 

I had an ultrasound down yesterday, as ordered by my doctor. I've been peeing blood off and on for several months now, and doc wants to rule out tumors on the bladder as a cause. Can't be too careful, right? My specialist strongly thinks that the endometriosis has spread onto my ureter and/or bladder, and that is the cause of my painful and bloody peeing. Doesn't that sound so glorious and attractive? Ha. 

I'm still frustrated with my body and my doctors. I've been seriously ill for 5 years now and my condition only seems to be getting worse. 

An accurate depiction of how I feel dealing with doctors and a chronic illness: 

  

On that note, I hope you all have a great day and an awesome weekend! 

Oh, Hello New Year!

It's been so long since I've last crafted a post.
Hello, online diary. Long time no see.

I've decided to pick up blogging again because my stress last year was almost unbearable, and creative expression often helps with that. 

It's 12:30 on a Tuesday afternoon, and Calgary is a bit of a mess right now. It's so cold out, and it's been snowing a fair bit. There have been lots of car accidents (Calgary traffic in winter driving conditions = March of the Idiots, narrated by emergency crew sirens rather than Morgan Freeman). 

I absolutely hate the cold, and despite being born and raised in Calgary, these harsh winters are always a surprise to me. Each year when it snows I'm like: what is this shit...? 
I find that my chronic pain also worsens when it's bitter cold like this. Along with my internal pelvic disorder, called Endometiosis, I have a form of Fibromyalgia, called Allodynia. The tightening of my muscles and constant firing of my nerves causes regular pain, but when I'm clenched up in the dead of winter the pain gets worse. On top of it all I have a nasty cold and really I just want to crawl back into bed and sleep hibernate. 

me, drinking something warm and glaring at the blizzard outside.

I am so happy to announce that I had an awesome Christmas break. I even quit my job at the pet shop! Yes it's true! I really did!

And the thing is, I really enjoyed not having anything to do. I even noticed a slight reduction in pain! Though- shamefully- I gained a bunch of weight over the holiday and I'm less than pleased about that. 

Now that I'm back at school, I'm quite happy that I don't have work to worry about. Unfortunately this means that I'm broke until I find a new job, as Christmas was way too harsh on my bank account... whoops. 

But here's the thing.... do I find a new job??? My next job will be at a vet clinic, I'm hellbent determined on that. But this semester (my last semester, I might add) I'm required to do a month-long internship. WTF. They require us to do a minimum of 35hrs per week for one month in order to graduate. My working classmates and I are livid. What are we expected to do- quit our jobs and take out a loan so we can drag our feet through a month-long unpaid internship? Christ. 

I'm really stuck. I want to work but I also don't want to drown in stress and have to quit in March. I guess I'll hold off.... maybe... 

On a different topic, in October I mentioned my pain was worsening but my doc had some potential solutions for me. Well, let me tell you, my pain is worsening alright. Doc figures that the endometriosis has spread to my ureter and/or bladder, thus explaining why I've been peeing blood. Doc thinks it's time for me to have another surgery- but of course there's a catch. He's not doing ops anymore. So he's referred me to a specialist in Calgary to do my op. Great- but the referral could take a year to go through. A year. Then I would have to go on a waiting list for surgery. 

My reaction to Canadian Health Care.

I'll keep my imaginary readers posted on this. Yay blogging!

-The Silly Mallard

Drugs and Things

Hello, beautiful people!

I'm composing this post from my iPad, at work. I'm beginning to think that perhaps I'm a bit too productive for my own good when it comes to my job. I get all the chores and cleaning done rather quickly so I don't have anything left to do for the remained for my 8 hour shift. 

One of my more recent projects was re-marching the shop's Kong toy section. 

It's a mess, really.

As per re-merching habit, I pulled everything off the wall and started from scratch. I think I got everything nicely organized and I showcased some of the cutest toys we offer. 

Tada! It's so nice and neat now.

Kong makes some cute toys

Some of these Kong toys are absolutely adorable. Here are two of my favorites...

little squeaky jelly piggie!

Is this a koala? A Wombat?! All I know is that it's really cute and I want one.

After I finished the kong section I went on to re-merch all the cat toys. I kept busy. 

Today I strategically put away all the new cat trees and restocked our raw freezer. Now I'm left to type away at my blog amongst towers of boxes that need to be taken out for recycling at the end of the day. Such a good employee, aren't I? 

Lately my endometriosis has been acting up. Since my trip to urgent care, I've found that I've been bleeding each time I pee. It's now gotten so painful to pee that I dread using the washroom. It feels as though the right side of my pelvis is being pulled and yanked on and believe you me that's not a comfortable feeling. Unbelievable cramps ensue, though luckily don't seem to last long after my pee break. So what the hell is up? I mentioned this to my specialist, and he suspects either immense inflammation or endometriosis on the bladder are to blame. Luckily we have a course of action. Next Thursday I'll be seeing my specialist for the worst doctors appointment ever. We will be removing my IUD, administering a depot provera injection, and injecting Botox down my abdomen and on my, well...  Ahem my lady bits. DOES THIS NOT SOUND HORRIBLE?? Apparently the Botox will help with my allodynia so I'm trusting doc on this one. 

Needless to say, I will be taking a lot of pain killers prior to this appointment of death. Speaking of drugs, I've been back on the pills again, rather heavy like. My pain has been bad and I've had these horrible cramps, especially after bathroom visits. I've been taking lots of Tramadol, which sadly isn't doing too much for the pain. I need to take close to 6 tablets to get me through an 8 hour shift following a morning and afternoon of classes. That's pretty fucked up. That's a lot of narcotics. Do you know what that makes me look like??? Crazy, that's what. Or a junkie. Or both.

So high right now

This post is all over the place and for that I apologize. Before I end this post however I would like to share with you the thing that's had me excited lately. 

I'm pretty big into scrapbooking (I've spent too much money on it is really what I'm saying) and I love to give scrapbooks to my boyfriend as gifts. They're always unique and heartfelt and fun to look through. Lately I've been wanting some scrapbooks for myself, especially after my beloved Sunny passed away last week. So I finally got a scrapbooking desk all set up for myself. Castle Lakie now feels a little more homey, now that I have a room to escape to! I believe that creative outlets are important, and nothing beats the blues quite like artistic expression. I'm so stoked about my little scrapbooking space that I can't wait to work on my new project. 

Isn't it the cutest ever??? I was way too excited to start a project right away, even though I didn't have any photos for a scrapbook at the time. So I got the hamsters food jars and labeled them all fancy like. 

My hammies eat a nutritious diet of mixed fruit, seeds, nuts, and special hamster cookies

So cute right!?

I love stickers. 

That's all for today, folks. 

-Captain Lakie, the Silly Mallard

My boss is an enigma.

Hello, people!

This is potentially the shortest oddest post I'll ever put up on my blog, but what just happened is so weird and funny that I need to share.

My boss, the owner of the pet store I work at, is an interesting fellow. 
Imagine a tornado. This is my boss.
Seriously, he looks like he's just walked through a wind tunnel and when he's in the store I just follow behind him cleaning up the mess he leaves in his tornado wake. (Bless you, sir, you're hilarious). The other day the poor guy thought he was having a heart attack (no he just had a coffee on 2hrs of sleep). So now that you have a general idea of what my boss is like, let me tell you what he just did. 

He drove all the way to the store from hell knows where, pops in, says "Hey Danie I brought you a present," then puts a juice box down on the counter. Before I can even open my mouth to say anything he's like "oh shoot," and looks at the box before saying "oh good it has a straw." 

Seriously. 

Here's the proof: 

Thanks? 

Weirdest thing ever. He literally just came in to give me a juice box. 

Possibly the most adorable thing that's ever happened but so so weird. This guy is hilarious. Needless to say his juice box visit literally made my day. My whole day is made. Thanks, Boss! 

-Captain Lakie, the Silly Mallard

Snowtember and my Trip to Urgent Care

I know, I know... I haven't been posting lately so there's a lot for us to catch up on. In my previous post I mentioned going to the hospital and being in urgent care. I actually really want to talk about this because I am passionate about spreading awareness for the disease that I have. 

So what happened? 
I was at work at the pet store, doing my job as per usual. I had a lot of 30lbs dog food bags to put away, and I'm relatively OCD when it comes to keeping my store clean and organized. I was very quite industrious, and I was all over the place putting food away, re-organizing dog toys, stacking cans, etc. I was also training a new girl and I wanted to set a good example. Our store is really quiet most of the time, so the new staff often mistakes that for being time to sit around. No. That means there's time to create the cutest most organized pet food store in all of Alberta. I guess I kind of went overboard (surprise surprise) because I started getting persistent pelvic pain. 

Let me stop right here and make it clear that pelvic pain is my life. I have a chronic and incurable disease called Endometriosis. I am passionate about talking about this disease because very few people know what it is and the disease is pretty damn horrible. Because it's not a fatal disease and only women can get it, there is very little research done on this illness and it takes (on average) 7 years for most women to get a proper diagnosis. There is no cure, and "treatment" for this illness is rudimentary, temporary, and rather useless. 

Anyways, so the pelvic pain. My pain started getting pretty bad, but I'm so used to it that I took a few narcotic pain relievers and tried to ignore it. The pain kept persisting, to the point where I could hardly stand and even sitting was painful. It worsened and worsened until I proceeded to vomit into the sink in the back of the store. I was in agony and I knew I had to go to the hospital. 

So I told the girl I was training that I called my boss, call if she has questions, I'm off to the hospital good luck have fun don't burn the store down. 

Kinda like this only not really.

So I went home and asked my dad to drive me to urgent care. He dropped me off and the wait began. I waited. And waited. And waited. And then I got sick again so I got an emergency cardboard puke bucket. I was lonely as hell so I named my puke bucket Harold and he kept me company. After a couple hours of waiting I doubled over in the waiting room and it was a little bit pathetic. They got me into a bed after that and the exams began. 

I drink a lot of water, but because of my vomiting, I was extremely dehydrated. By the time they had me in a bed, I was shaking and shivering and I was clammy and cold and gross. It took the nurse- get this- half an hour to get an IV in my arm. She spent half an hour poking needles in my arm, taking them out, apologizing, and prodding my arms. After 30 minutes of this she was like ah, fuck it and jammed it in the crook of my left arm. WELL then the blood came out. It was comical, because the nurse was like "Oh it's really spurting now!" we filled up the blood sample viles pretty damn quick. (Might I add that Harold was still by my side like the loyal little fucker he was). I did a urine test, and waited (not so patiently) for the results. 

says: INSERT PAIN KILLERS HERE.

I was rolling around the hospital bed in a lot of pain, so I was utterly thrilled when the nurse came in with a syringe of morphine. 

Here's the thing about intravenous morphine. It hits you like a fucking truck. One moment you're just kinda laying there, in pain. Then the nurse slowly squeezes the syringe into your IV line. Nothing, nothing, wait for it... wait for it..... oh sweet jesus. 

My face when the morphine hit

I find that it always seems to hit my legs first. Like my legs go numb and feel like they're floating and then the rest of my body follows suite. So I go from being that disgruntled pain stricken thing to a slightly happier disgruntled thing. 

If I had a dollar for every time I was called beautiful I would have $1 thanks mom

The morphine successfully took my pain down from an "8" to a "2" so I was very thankful. My urine test came back and I was informed that there blood showed up in the results. Blood in one's pee is, imagine this, abnormal. So the nurse thought it would be wise to get me into X-Ray asap. Now, here's when things got weird. The ER doctor came in. I do not want to refer to her as a doctor because she was just so horrible, unprofessional, and gross. (Like I think I saw her dancing on a bar at Road House last year). 

So let's call her Tits McGee. 

So Tits McGee comes in and asks me if I'm pregnant, and I tell her no, and that I also have an IUD. She says to me: "well it's still possible. I have one too and every time I'm like, oh-my-god, please work!" 

... uuummmm ok? 

She then goes on, "So you have blood in your urine but it's ok." Pardon? 

"You have blood in your pee but no infection so you'll be fine. Do you have any questions?" 

 

She didn't do any other tests. Didn't even test for kidney stones. I asked her if it was at all possible for my endometriosis to have spread onto my bladder and perhaps that's why I've been in so much pain when I pee and maybe possibly perhaps that's why I'm pissing blood. What did she say? She replied "no, I don't think that's possible." 

I'm no fucking doctor but I'm pretty sure that's in the realm of possibility. 

Here's a very interesting read from Endo Link Magazine for those who wish to get more information on endometriosis on the bowel and bladder. 

Again, I'm no doctor, so I'm going in to see my specialist tomorrow morning. Maybe he will have some answers for me, or some better pain relief.  

Now you gorgeous readers may be wondering why there's this "Snowtember" in this post title. Wanna know what snowtember is? Let me tell you. Snowtember is what happened when we got winter in summer here in Alberta. 

I talked about this premature winter a little bit in my post Winter is Here.

We got smoked with a huge dump of snow early this September. It was so bad that trees literally collapsed onto the streets, fell into homes, and bushes were crushed. Don't believe me? Here's the proof: 

A picture I took of my backyard early this September.

clean-up is expected to cost around 4 million dollars (Via Calgary Sun)

We Calgarians just rolled our eyes and got out the snow brushes early. (Via Windsor Star)

On the bright side, it was a wonderful opportunity to test out our barn! We got the horses in there all cozied up and they seemed to appreciate being out of the cold and snow!

Bella, left and Scooter, right, seemed to enjoy their warm stalls!

Ok, people. That's it for tonight. Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

-Captain Lakie, the Silly Mallard