Early-onset dementia or brain fart?

I was out of the house for 6 1/2 hours today and at about hour 6 I had a moment of panic. I thought for a brief second that maybe I had left Max outside in 90 degree heat. I literally couldn't remember letting him back in right before I left. It made my heart race. I tried desperately to remember some part of the leaving process...I didn't give a treat as usual because he had already had one earlier...I couldn't remember saying "Maxie stays" like I do when he tries to leave with me. Nothing. But, I decided that I must have let him in because, while being the absent-minded professor that I am, I could never FORGET to let my dog back inside before I left. Right?! Also, now that I really think about it, had I actually walked out the front door and to the car, Max would surely have come trotting over to see what the hell was happening. He can get halfway up the walkway between the house and garage and would definitely have noticed me in the driveway. Yes, this is not something that could happen. Ever. For crying out loud. I need a beer. Or two.

Get a hold of yourself!

Or rather...myself! This is gonna be a short one because it's already past my bedtime and I don't want to rant for too long.

I needed to install a different version of Windows Vista so that I can download a software program for school to do some homework. Thus far, I've been using the computers in the public health student area, but I really wanted it at home so that I didn't have to remember to use the other computers. Seeing as that I am computer-illiterate one would think that I would have consulted a technically savvy friend before going on this grand little adventure. One would think. It goes without saying that I did not do this. I did buy myself an external hard drive to make sure that I didn't lose any pictures/music/documents...point one for me. I did not however realize that when it says "clean install" it really "cleans" everything out. I have no idea what I lost or how to get it back. I had a spyware program, a virus scan program, Microsoft office suite (which I have the disc for and assume that I can just reinstall that??) and I'm sure several other programs that had at some point been downloaded and are now missing. The install process said it was putting the old OS in a file called windows.old which I found, but I haven't the foggiest idea of what is really in there, what it's even for, or how I could recover anything from it. It says "read only". This does not compute. Minus 1 million points for me. Then, the worst part was that I didn't know what the hell was happening and found when I tried to get online for help that my computer is no longer recognizing my router (this is a weird little router provided to me by the company that gives mpls its wireless service). After about 2 hours of trying to figure it out and ultimately being reduced to tears (the thought of having no internet access was really upsetting to me), I have gotten online (duh). My little router has no happy green lights on (only the power light) which means that I connected to the internet via an unsecured connection to who the hell knows what. Awesome. And I haven't made it to download the software that started this whole mess in the first place. And this homework is due on Wednesday. And I'm pretty sure that I was supposed to read a bunch of articles for my other class tomorrow. WTF. FML. For real.

On an unrelated note...Max hasn't eaten anything all day and just wants to sleep. He does this every once in a while and it concerns me every time. I truly think it's just that he's totally wiped from taking a walk and then visiting my parent's place yesterday. What a turd.

Insert clever title here...

I've decided that I'm going to attempt to write something every day. We'll see...I'm usually all talk in these types of situations.

Recent happenings:

1. Max "injured" a paw, became fearful of several spots in the house, refused to step off of the rug without major coaxing or use of the leash. What a freak. He's better now...mostly. (I only say "injured" because for the life of me I can't find anything wrong)

2. The IRS didn't find my massive clothing donation to be suspicious and gave me a crapload of money back. This is tempered by the fact that it was my money to begin with. I want to use the money to fix up my bathroom, but don't really know where to start. I secretly want to spend it all on clothes, shoes and a vacation. The bathroom must win out.

3. I made it through my first semester of grad school without having a nervous breakdown. Yay. I found out that grad school is kind of easy...which is good seeing as I'm still working full time. I took too heavy of a load that first semester, but I made it! This semester is more chill. I'm taking the summer off of school so I can get a bit of a social life back!

4. On that note...I resubscribed to match.com...for no good reason. It's really not for me. I guess I just figured I'll see who's on there right now. So far I'm not impressed.

5. Deep-cleaned the house yesterday. My whole body hurts but it feels good to be in a clean house. So much fur!!! I'm surprised Max isn't bald.

6. Max and I took a walk today and just as we were walking up to the driveway some young teen guy came running at me from across the street. Scared the shit out me as I was deeply into some tunes blasting in my ears. He asks, through crunches of red Funyons (spicy Funyons? interesting), what's your dog's name? what kind of dog is he? and how old is he? I say 5 and he replies "isn't that too old?" I really wanted to say 'too old for what?' but I explained to him that little dogs live a long time. He admits to not knowing this fact and then proceeds to tell me that he has a dog that's "about this high" while his hand never really stops at any one height. I'm really trying very hard not to be like "is there a point to this conversation?" Cause you're not introducing yourself to me or moving this convo towards anything other than "cool dog ma'am." It was strange.

7. Upon opening the front door to go on above-mentioned walk...about 10 minutes after walking in the door from school...I'm greeted by a wasp. Wtf. That's all I have to say about that.

'Til tomorrow. Maybe. If I remember. :)

No, No, Neurologist (an homage to No, No, Nanette in title only)

So 1 week post-diagnosis and 1 week into medication, I dare say that I think Max is on the mend! Unfortunately I'm not 100% sure of this, but have decided that he must be getting better. I've been watching him way too closely and over-analyzing every little move that he makes...did he just stumble? or is he wobbling? I've decided that if I have to ask the question, it's probably fine. It was pretty obvious that he was having trouble with balance before and it's definitely not obvious anymore. Also, he was always a little wobbly anyway since he's such a spaz. It's hard to keep your footing when you're bouncing all over the place!! I haven't noticed any intention tremors at all, but I very rarely noticed them to begin with. So...I'm saying that I'm 90% sure that he's getting better. I was worried because I had read that I should notice in the first few days if he was getting better, but I didn't. This was partly due to the fact that over the weekend, Max was a little bump on a log, lazy dog. He just laid around all day, didn't show any interest in his toys. Frankly, I was a little concerned. I chalked it up to the medication, but after further thought...he was just being a lazy dog. There have been plenty of past days where he just lays around and sleeps all day. Just like his mom!! And, thankfully, he has yet to figure out that I'm giving him a pill...hidden in a small mound of peanut butter, on top of a Cheddar Bunny (Annie's Cheddar Bunnies are de-licious). He's none the wiser and goes completely bonkers for the concoction. Which is good because he'll be on the Prednisone for 4-6 months. Apparently when you take steroids for a long period of time, you have to taper the dose in order to get off of them. No biggie...just hope I don't start to forget when it goes to every other day. Anyway...I have to call the neurology dept tomorrow to give them an update and probably schedule a follow-up appointment. Hopefully I don't have to go back too many times...their exam fee is $150! Geez.

On another note...or rather...On a similar note: My dad had a TIA (transient ischemic attack) or "mini-stroke"! He's totally fine (whew), just has to take an aspirin a day and be aware of the fact that he is now predisposed to have a for-real stroke in the near future. The symptom was double vision in his right eye. He went to the ER and they ran some tests, couldn't find anything wrong, the double vision went away, and they sent him home. Later that night, double vision again, another trip to the ER, this time he was referred to the Neurologist (aw, man...not this again!). He had an MRI and some other tests, had to stay overnight for observation, and was told that he'd had a mini-stroke. They don't know why, but for some reason he had a blood clot, or some kind of blockage of an artery in the area of eye function, which caused the double vision. It is by definition a transient event, meaning that it happened, it's better, and there is no lasting brain damage. While I will now be on Red Alert for signs of stroke, I am very thankful that it wasn't more serious.

Okay...enough of this business. Everyone must remain healthy from now on! That's an order. I am including myself in that which means that I really need to get into the Dermy to check a couple of questionable moles, and go to a regular doc to ask about this bony growth on one of my upper ribs. I'm calling it a bony growth, but it's probably totally normal. It just looks weird. I am a hypochondriac...I just don't go to the doctor. :P

Max...my whole world

Someone out there needs to make a website like webmd.com for animals. Max was diagnosed with cerebellar ataxia today. I brought him in to my vet clinic last week because he's been having balance issues for the past two months. I had lulled myself into a false sense of security because the issues started after he jumped off the couch and yelped. He was listing to the left and falling over when excited for the next 2 days and then appeared to be on the mend. I assumed that he had possibly sprained something or pinched something and that it was just taking a while to heal. Max wasn't, and still isn't, exhibiting any pain signs so I figured it was no big deal. Then on the 4th of July, we were over at a friend's house hanging out in the backyard. Max was walking around like a drunken sailor! My friend said that the ground is uneven, but he was really struggling to stay upright...poor thing. The next day at home he seemed totally fine...well, not totally fine, but markedly improved. So I put off the vet again. I guess I was in denial that anything was really wrong with him...still going back to the couch-jumping incident. So, I finally brought him in to get checked out last Wednesday. My vet said that she couldn't feel anything wrong with his legs, knees, or hips and that we would need some x-rays done to see if maybe there was something that had been wrong and hadn't healed properly. I figured x-rays would be necessary because I hadn't been able to find anything physically wrong either. She then dropped the "neurological" bomb on me, letting me know what could be causing his symptoms if it wasn't orthopaedic. Sigh. I started crying the moment she uttered that word. It's a bad word. X-rays came back negative. She did films of his spine and pelvis and couldn't find anything abnormal. She also had observed some head bobbing action. I think he's always done this, but she said it was leading her to think it was probably neurological. There was that word again. Then she says she's going to refer me to the University of Minnesota Vet Medical Center. Gulp. What the hell?? Apparently the only veterinary neurologist in the state works there, but still. Being referred to a university medical center freaked me out a bit. I went to see the doctor today and he took one look at Max and knew it was cerebellar ataxia. He seriously barely even did an exam...it was weird. There was a vet student that did the whole physical exam first and then reported her findings to the neurologist who then walked in, kind of played around with Max a little (that's what it looked like) and then looked at the vet student (not at me) and kind of half-whispered "It's Cerebellar". As if I weren't even in the room. It pissed me off, but instead of being indignant, I started to cry. They finally stopped discussing Max with each other and noticed that I was sitting there with tears rolling down my cheeks. Not very good bedside manner indeed! Anyway...being the good little Obsessive-Compulsive that I am, I've been internet-researching the disorders that my vet had brought up last week. Cerebellar ataxia was one of them and I had considered it the worst case scenario. So when the neurologist said "It's Cerebellar", I knew exactly what he was talking about and I was devastated. He, on the other hand, didn't seem all that concerned. He said that it was kind of weird that he has had an acute onset and that he doesn't know what's causing it (without tests being run). His symptoms are very subtle...neither the student nor the resident or intern figured it out. He just has this slightly unsteady, wobbly walk and a slight intention tremor (head bob) which doesn't happen all the time, but is there. I'm noticing it a lot more now that I know what I'm looking for. It's kind of like a Parkinson's type tremor occuring mostly when he tries to lick faces. There are actually MANY things that could be causing it. Not the least of which is the fact that he had his Rabies booster the week before all this business started. Coincidence? Can't rule it out. So he gives me three options: 1. Do nothing (yeah right) and see if he gets worse. 2. MRI, blood work, possible spinal tap. Expensive and maybe not neccessary. 3. Start him on Prednisone (steroid) and see if he improves. If he starts to improve during the 1st week of treatment it essentially means that he has an inflammation of the cerebellum and that it will hopefully go away. I chose option 3...and I think that's what the neurologist thought I should do. Why else would he have given me that option last instead of the MRI? To me, the MRI, etc is the opposite extreme of doing nothing so it should have been stated last. I guess that's just me? Anyway...I'm about to try to get Max to ingest the most disgusting tasting medication I know. I had to take Prednisone for a couple of days after having an allergic reaction to my allergy shot (go figure) and it tastes HORRIBLE. Wish me luck!! I will keep the blog updated on his status.