A Sense of Doubt blog post #3915 - Letter to Dad #009 - Ellory is Okay and Doing Stuff Around the House

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3915 - Letter to Dad #009 - Ellory is Okay and Doing Stuff Around the House

Hi Big Guy, My Dad,

This letter was going to be the orange tie story, but I delayed that to just write you a collection of thoughts.

And it all starts with ELLORY. I told you about her last week, so some of this is reprint, though it's extended.

ELLORY has been very ill.

I have been to the vet Thursday 10/30 and Friday 10/31 with Ellory for her to have fluids and an anti-nausea injection.

Ellory has had ongoing stomach problems for a long time. Recently, it got worse with vomiting, diarrhea, and weight loss. I always had to coax her to eat, especially in the morning and usually just in the morning, but that has increased in frequency, too. I delayed taking her in because I was scared, but I also thought that since it was coming and going that it was just her age and her sensitive stomach. We stopped daily cucumbers back in the summer as we worried they were upsetting her stomach.

She ate a good dinner on Tuesday night the 28th, but then Wednesday morning the 29th, she only ate a little breakfast. We walked at the marina Wednesday, and she drank water after the walk. But then I did not see her drink again and she refused to eat anything, even treats. Thursday 10/30, I called the vet and took her in for fluids and the injection. When she still did not drink the rest of the day Thursday and all day Friday, I took her back Friday the 31st for more fluids and another injection.

Saturday 11/1: I got her to drink this morning without having to squirt water into her mouth with the syringe the vet gave me.

We are running a full GI panel now. The fecal sample I took was negative.

2511.04-09:31

Ellory just ate a ton of food without me having to feed her a piece at a time: two eggs, chicken-rice & broth, and a WHOLE chicken thigh (cut up). She ate out of her bowl for the first time since last week!

JUST GOT OFF THE PHONE WITH THE VET!!!

Ellory has severe B-12 deficiency and will need weekly injections for six weeks. Unlikely it's cancer but if symptoms return, we can do an ultrasound.

I had a huge cry of relief, which scared Essel who has to lick my face.

The same day that I received the diagnosis for Ellory, this content showed up in my email entitled

"Why is Vitamin B12 so dangerous?"

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-vitamin-B12-so-dangerous

SPECIFICALLY - https://qr.ae/pCF1Jv

Weird.

IN OTHER NEWS

I keep having intense dreams about teaching and my former colleagues at the job I left. My brain is definitely still processing all that happened and my grief around it.

I want to see the Springsteen movie Deliver me from Nowhere in the theater for the SOUND experience.

Speaking of which, I just switched my music to Nebraska.

I think of you a lot, Dad, when I do things around the house. While I am on break, there's a lot to do that I have been putting off. I need to really hit it. My goal is to try to do something most afternoons and then a couple of days each week devote almost entirely to house chores. I also have to apply for jobs.

Tomorrow's chore is taking Satchel to be groomed during which I will have lunch at a Japanese buffet where I have been wanting to eat since I moved here. And then I am going to camp out at a coffee shop and write until she's done. I also have to get some batteries and should go to the comic book store. I can probably do those things with her in the car, though.

It's official. I still have a 4.0 in graduate school. I secured the grade that had a little room for doubt with a tough professor yesterday. It's very important to me to end with a 4.0 this time through grad school since I lost it (unfairly) in my previous grad school experience.

I did write the professor who rode me about conciseness and thanked her for pushing me to be less wordy. I know I am a wordy writer. However, I had to add that LONG is not always a sign of writing that has failed to be concise. And LONG is subjective. I will include that email at the bottom of this letter.

You're in my dreams a lot, BG. Like last night, there was something with you telling me that I was not the same as you, like not as big of a football fan as you or Lori, but it was more than that, and I actually slapped you. Weird.

Back to stuff around the house, I took the stopper out of the bathroom sink drain to clear the clog, and the whole mechanism broke apart. I didn't think about how I had disconnected it below when I flushed the drain and so water got in the lower cabinet. But then after mopping that all up, I was stuck with a broken contraption that connects to the stopper and so an opening where that mechanism would fit inside and seal off the water pipe. I had to improvise or not use the sink. I found a wine bottle stopper that fit in the hole and seems to have sealed it for now. Next, I am visiting the hardware store for a new contraption and hope I can re-assemble it. I may also buy a rubber drain stopper as that will work if I cannot reassemble the sink stopper thing. I don't really need to fill the sink to shave, I just like to do it. And we will have guests (Ivan and Xai) later this month.

Tomorrow, I plan to work on the main garage (not my library) and clean, take out recycling, and so on.

Saturday, I am at book fest all day, and then Sunday I want to relax and watch football again. I always get through more stacks of comics during football season IF I can make the time to relax and watch on Sundays.

I tell Ellory how much I love and miss you and Mom every night. I also remind her that you loved her and she loved you. It's part of our nightly routine that I call the numbers.

I need to pay a bill and can't log on to the site.

I think that's enough news for this week.

I love you, Dad.

EMAIL TO THE PROF

Hi Professor, I really enjoyed your class, and it has inspired me to possibly pursue work in family/couples counseling, which I had not even considered before the course.


You are definitely the most engaged and most rigorous (that's good!) professor I have had so far at Walden. You are an exceptional professor.


I want to deliver two thank you messages.


First, thank you for not tanking my grade on the final discussion board due to missing use of learning resources. I was going to say in my defense that this requirement was not communicated. And though it's true that this requirement is not stipulated in the discussion instructions (which I know you do not write — something for the course developers to add), it is in the rubric, you mentioned it in your week 10 announcement, and it's been the practice all quarter. With the caution for not using resources for our article, I grew confused, but I should have not been.


I had worked out what grade I needed on that last assignment to keep an A in the course, which was a goal that's very important to me, and thankfully, I earned enough. Thank you for help with that.


Sidenote, my first time in grad school, I had a 4.0 going for my first year and then lost it, so this time around, it's very important to me to achieve that goal. Plus, I am under employed at the moment, so there's less excuse to not put my all into my studies.


Secondly, thank you for your emphasis on conciseness. I am a wordy writer. I always have been. I have taught conciseness in some forms of writing but not in general composition or research-based writing. While I disagree that something that appears long is not concise in all cases, you made me work harder to go over my writing multiple times to remove unnecessary words, sentences doing double duty, and so on. I needed that kind of consistent instruction from a professor, and I feel that I have grown a great deal in this regard.


Once again, thank you for a great quarter. Best wishes to you. Stay safe in Chicago.


Peace,
chris

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2511.06 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3780 days ago & DAD = 434 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.