Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Mystery Stomach ache

It’s not been a good few days. My stomach ache has not gone away. So when I eat, I feel ill and don’t want to eat. That is going backwards in my book as I am trying to gain weight. So between my chest pain and tummy ache, this has been a bad few days.

I’ve been racking my brain to figure out what triggered this. At first, I thought it was the flu but I do not have a temperature or throwing up. My stomach just hurts all day.

Here is the list that I have changed recently that might be the cause. OK, so I dropped my daily Oxycontin. I went on blood thinner about 2 weeks ago. I have been taking ½ Percoset as replacement of my Oxycontin. I have trying to be more active and exercising more. I am lactose intolerant so I have been drinking Lactaid free milk. I have been eating ice each night. Although I have been eating ice cream each night I am adding this to the list since it is a milk product. The only time that the milk product affects me is when I drink regular milk. I have been drinking ½ cup of coffee a day, although a couple of days I didn’t dink any coffee or caffeine items.

Being an engineer, we tend to analyze items. It drives Jeff (“Getty”) crazy sometimes but that is how our brains are wired.

Is it because I am taking Percoset during the day instead of Oxycontin? Prior to this I have taken the perco in addition to the Oxycontin. Now I am taking the perco instead of the Oxycontin. Maybe the Oxycontin was masking the stomach ache? Maybe only taking the perco causes the stomach ache? Who knows but I sure would like to find out and not have the stomach ache.

So here is my plan. I will not take either Oxycontin or the Percoset during the day. I will only take the Oxycontin during the night. I will cut out all milk products which includes the yogurt, ice cream, or anything with dairy in it. No more coffee or drinks with caffeine. I will take Advil during the day for pain. I will be taking my blood pressure and heart rate. I’ll keep a daily lot of what I am eating.

If things don’t improve by Thursday, I will call my Doctor. I would like to get to the bottom of this. My chest pain is noticeable but not disabling. I got this roll-on pain relieving bottle to put on my chest and it helps. It has Arnica and peppermint in it. It seems to help. So when the pain starts to kick inn, I will take my Advil and use the roll-on.

I also have to remember not to overdo it either. I don’t want to add to the chest pain. I just want to feel better,

So that is my plan and I hope it works!!

The last two days have been busy. Tony and Lori came over yesterday and Tony worked Faye. They are clicking quite well and I ramped up his training by having him trying to move sheep around cones. That requires timing and proper inside flanks and stopping the dog n the right place. It’s quite tough but when you are running in an arena Cowdog trial you have to be dead on your flanks and turns. So Lori, Jillian and I sat in chairs and watched Tony work. Once Tony gets the tight flanking down, he is going to clean up at the trials. Faye is a great dog and will go the extra mile for him. He recently worked her on 100 head of cattle and she did well. I am glad Faye is with Tony and Lori since that is a perfect home for her. She is the alpha dog there and is quite spoiled. Tess made sure that Faye was reminded that she was not alpha dog here,

Lori worked her Aussie “Tess”. Of course, since she named her Tess, I have a soft spot in my heart for her. Tess is a nice, well build, working, blue merle Aussie. We worked her a bit in the round pen and then took her out in the big field and she worked 30 sheep with Tess (Border Collie) as backup. Lori would run and grab a sheep and Tess would help her and by the end of the lesson she was doing some nice fetches. Once a single broke away and she covered it and brought it back. She is a year old and still learning but I was impressed with what I saw. She is still young and in a few months she will just get better and better. Lori started her other talented Luke and now is starting Tess. I loved her Luke!!! He was a Aussie that I would put on my herding string!!

Bonnie Block came over and brought me my new camera. She promised not to laugh at my “lack of camera skills” and she did not break her promise. I told Bonnie that I wanted a camera and since she is one of the top notch experts, I asked her for help. She set me up by getting me a Canon 40D and a 25-78 lens. She set it up in the “dummy mode”. She gave me a lesson and this camera is one that I will use for a long time. I will be getting a longer lens later and she will help me with that. She will also give me camera lessons. I so owe her for this.

I had a blast taking pictures and hopefully soon I will be able to publish some good pictures. I am so excited now!!

Bonnie brought Ellie Mae to work. She is the full sister to Faye. We had the family reunion, Nan the mom and the two sisters. Bonnie worked Ellie and she is quite the nice dog. Her flanks are square and she turns in at the top like a dream. Then Bonnie worked Dan. Dan is a wide running dog but he reads the sheep well and they like him. He is a big tri male with a huge heart and I always like him. But my favorite dog that belongs to Bonnie is Bill. Tess also adores Bill and he is one of the few dogs that she will allow to flirt or lick her. One time, Bonnie and I were setting sheep and Tess and Bill were standing face to face and Bill was licking her lips,. We swear they were French kissing. Any other male would have had his lips ripped off by Tess. Bill has always been one of Tess’s favorite males.

Bonnie makes the coolest calendars and note cards. Her is her link and if you want a stunning bird calendar, check hers out. She also does dog photos and I have quite a few of them. She captures the expressive details on the working dogs in motion.

The truck started up (whoooo hooo) and it was the battery. The canopy night light wire was busted and needs to be fixed. I am going to a trial on Friday and need the truck to be working. Thanks to Getty, Chuck and Tony for fixing the truck.

I took the rest of the day off from working dogs and took a short nap and then headed down to the barn. Monique, Janet and I marked wethers and ewe lambs. Some are locker lambs and some are replacements. The replacements ewe lambs got to be named by Monique and Janet.

I was not feeling well as both the stomach and chest hurt. I was the one with the can of spray paint while Monique and Janet did the sheep wrestling. Lucy was the working dog and did a great job. She has come far in the time since I got her back. She was a pup that I had sold and then owner couldn’t keep her so she let me know. I bought her back and put some free training on her as a favor to make her more marketable, intending to sell her but decided to buy her. I paid market value for her, even though I had put training on her. Of course, when I had for her sale, no one was interested. When she started to rock at trials, people wanted her but she is here to stay. She has the heart of a lion and wants to please you, like her mother (Koko) and her grandmother (Tess). Monique is her*Godmother* and Lucy loves her. Monique will be running Lucy in PN trial. This year, my plan is to get Lucy trained to Open level and hopefully qualify her for the Finals. If not, then next year or so. She just turned four.

Today I was supposed to go the Cardiologist to have my blood tested so see how thin it is. They want it a certain level so when they do the heart procedure next month, it will be at the proper level. I woke and my stomach really hurt so I asked Getty (Jeff the spouse…Getty is his nickname) to call and reschedule my appointment. I went later in the afternoon. It turns out that my blood is too thin so they had to readjust it.
As I left, I stopped down at the barn and said Hello to Tony who was fixing the wiring on my truck. Chuck and was there also. I was feeling really bad so I think I must have sounded grouchy to them. I came home and took a long nap until Getty came home. My stomach and chest still hurt.

Right now, I am going through ice cream withdrawals. So is Tess, as she gets to lick the bowl each night. I took my Oxycontin and put the “CryoDerm” on my chest scar. It really does help. I hope tomorrow will e a better day and the stomach ache will go away. I will even be happier when I am off all the drugs.

1 comment:

Dancing shepherdess said...

If I drink just plain water at night, I get stomach pains. I always try and eat a little something before bed, or something like cereal with milk, or ice cream- to coat my stomach. I am on a prescription nsaid, and that, and other medications can really mess with your stomach (and intestine) lining.