Saturday, September 5, 2009

Confined to the Barracks

It's not been the best of times lately here at Barkingham Palace. Ellie has been confined to barracks because she's in season and the discomfort in my fingers continues to plague me. We have now ruled out rheumatoid arthritis (which is some relief) and I have now had x-rays done on both hands to see if that reveals the cause. The theory at the moment is that it's some sort of reaction to my recent staph infection and that it could go away by itself in, wait for it, a few months! All I know is that it isn't getting any better at the moment. As a result, my photos and my work are suffering more than I would like and I know people are still waiting for photos from me and I have other projects that I have fallen behind on too. All in all, just not a great time right now.

So, while Ellie has been a little miserable at her lack of activity, I've found some relief in my second favourite dog in the world, Teal'c the Rottweiler. Sue, (Teal'c's - that's a tough name to add apostrophes to - owner) has come over to Barkingham Palace a couple of times in the last few days and I've joined her and Teal'c on nice walks on the local farm fields. It's been quite a relief to have an excuse to get out and walk. (Thanks, Sue - really appreciated!) Walking around on your own, particularly as a man, is no fun and, such is the paranoid way of the world these days, it often meets with some rather suspicious looks.

However, going by Ellie's reaction to Teal'c when she has come in the house, I think that Ellie will be over her season by the end of next week. Hoorah! This season has been, by far, the worst ever in terms of her being grumpy and snappy.

There is good news on the horizon - the Doodles (Ceasar and Cleo) are coming for just over two weeks next Friday. You know how some dogs just grow on you really effortlessly? Ceasar (who I have personally renamed Maxamillion, though I am having a hard job convincing his owners of the merits of such a change) is one such dog.

2 comments:

Achieve1dream said...

I'm sorry you're still having problems with your hands. Hopefully it's just a side effect of the staph infection and we can be optimistic that it won't really take months. (crosses fingers)

Poor Ellie. It'll be such a relief when she's spayed and you don't have to worry about heat cycles anymore. Let's just hope she doesn't have another false pregnancy because I'm patiently waiting for training updates. Need some inspiration for my block head hound dog and Ellie is always the inspiration I need.

Double S said...

I've had a similar type of pain in my hands over the years, comes and goes for no readily apparent reason as far as I can tell. But when it rears its ugly head it's no fun at all :-( My sympathies.

For me, resting my hands as much as possible, drinking lots of water, and taking arnica usually does the trick. Also, I usually try to manage my diet better and not eat much in the way of sugar/starch. I've found that petting a good Rottweiler does wonders as well :-)

Best of luck in your healing!!