13 February 2007

canine crisis

There was a mild canine crisis last night. Clancy stepped on a bee and it stung him. I didn’t know what was going on when we were walking because it was dark out, but he was in such distress that I knew something was up. I ended up carrying him home because he couldn’t walk and when we finally made it there and could look at his paw under the light, the stupid stinger was still in one of the pads. I got it out and rinsed his paw off and then was just at a complete loss. I had no idea what to do and he was obviously in pain.

I ended up calling Kim and searching online for miracle cures for bee stings on dogs. Kim suggested liquid Benadryl, which I would have given him if I had any. Instead of running out to get it, I decided to stay with him and try to put a cool washcloth on his paw. He was a total wreck. He kept licking the paw, then running around in a circle, then rubbing his face on his bed, then pausing long enough to sit down and give me his paw for the washcloth. I was hesitant to leave him alone. I called the animal emergency clinic and they didn’t say much. Just that I should bring him in if he started to have trouble breathing, but his paw wasn’t even really swelling so I decided to wait it out. Of course it got better and he stopped his frantic behavior. He just wanted to sleep on my bed after about an hour, so I let him.

God, what do people do when their kids get sick and are miserable? I totally panicked. Maybe that’s why I’m not a mom.

In non-related news, I’m worried about my brother again. Not really his mental health, I’m more worried about his job. See, his wife gets sick a lot. I mean *a lot*. She literally gets sick at least once a month. No, more like three times a month. Last weekend she called her mom and snuck out to the ER in the middle of the night because her chest hurt and she thought she had a blood clot. Is there anyone else in the world whose first thought is that they have a blood clot when they have a chest pain? Personally, when my chest hurts I assume it’s heartburn.

Anyway, the wife went to the ER and they did all sorts of tests on her. They were just about to get her a PET scan when she said that her chest was feeling better, so they went home. She told my brother that the blood clot must have dissolved while she was in the ER. What? Does that even make sense? Maybe it does and I just don’t get it. I don’t know. So fast forward to this week and she has some sort of virus. She has stomach cramps, diarrhea, nausea. What does this mean for my brother? He has to work from home today to take care of the kids. His office is semi-set up for the work at home situations, but not really. He makes/receives an awful lot of phone calls all day long from clients and he’s told me before that he can’t really talk on the phone when he works from home because the kids are screaming.

The thing is that he ends up working from home all the time because there is always something wrong with his wife. I really don’t get it. Yesterday he had to work from home for half the day so she could sleep. She had insomnia the night before and if she doesn’t get a full 8 hours, she can’t cope. It seems like if you have kids and have a husband that works full time, you learn how to deal with it. And both of the kids take naps, so couldn’t you nap while your kids are sleeping?

It is absolutely none of my business and I am certain I am being insensitive, but this same thing happened at his last job and it was no good. Those guys in his office don’t work from home. They are all about being in the office and being available to clients all the time. At his last job, people started talking about how he had too many family emergencies and had to leave the office too much and took too many sick days. He lost a promotion because of it. He hasn’t really been doing it a lot with this job, but the pattern is starting and people are starting to comment. Couldn’t my brother and the wife work something else out? The wife’s mom lives about fifteen minutes away and is completely retired. Couldn’t she help out and let my brother go to work?

Whatever.

Work is going so well that I almost don’t believe it. Everyone wants me on their team and I’m delivering a good product and have insightful things to say. It is so refreshing to be taken seriously as a contributor to the team. Sometimes I look back at my last job and wonder who that person was.