Of Casts and Bella =)

I get my cast off in 2 weeks! Yay! That’s pretty much an important thing for me right now… I can’t wait. My leg is itching like crazy… no matter what I do. I’ve tried everything! The most successful technique seems to be finding the longest spoon I can find and sticking it down there. It feels pretty amazing when I do this but it’s just not enough. There are some parts of my leg that I just can’t get to and it drives me CRAZY. I’m also really nervous for the cast to come off too. The doctor, who is very blunt, basically told me that it’s going to hurt. Removing the cast won’t be a problem but trying to use my ankle with no support system is a completely different story. I have to go to work after too… hopefully I’ll be able to walk =(. He said I wouldn’t be getting a walking boot (since I’ve done well with this walking cast I have on now) but something else that might help. Eeek! I wish he explained things better. But I guess there is no point in stressing about it… we’ll see what happens when it happens. Despite all that… I can’t tell you how excited I am to take a normal shower with no garbage bags around my leg or no sticking my leg out. I miss the simple things *sigh* I’m trying really hard to walk without a limp right now. Haven’t been successful yet but I am determined. I can more or less get around on my own now but I still use one crutch for balance from time to time. My ankle hurts quite a bit these days from all the use I think so I’m taking that as a good sign. After all this comes Physical Therapy and I don’t really know what to expect from that so I haven’t given it much thought. Can’t wait for December 23 though!! Wahoo!!

Bella has been doing really good. I’m still really nervous about everything when it comes to her just because she kinda traumatized me when I first got her. I worry about her a lot… I’m like a hypochondriac. I think it’s because even though I am a really mature person… I have never had to care for something or someone else you know? She’s my responsibility and I’ve gotten so attached to her… I just really worry. She just does the weirdest things and it freaks me out! She won’t eat in the morning and hardly eats at all unless you play with her for hours. My dad has been sick so he’s been home with her the past couple weeks but when he’s better and goes back to work she’ll be in her crate for at least 7 hours. It makes me sad but everyone I know that has a small dog does it so I guess she’ll adjust with time. But if she refuses to eat or drink in the morning… will she be okay? I dunno. And then she sleeps SO much. I don’t know if it’s normal but people tell me that it is. She’ll play for like a half hour and then knock out for a couple hours. I get all paranoid that she’s depressed or sick or something. And the grossest thing is that she eats her poop. UGH. I dunno how to break that habit but I’m going to need to. How can I leave her alone?? Maybe it’s a good thing she doesn’t eat in the morning… haha. But anyway… it’s such a gross habit and I don’t catch her all the time. She knows she’ll get in trouble so sometimes she’ll go to a corner where I can’t see. I asked the vet if it’d make her really sick and he said that she should be fine… he’s never heard of a dog getting sick from eating their feces. It’s just GROSS. I need to start teaching her to go potty outside. She is really, really good now on going on potty pads. She knows right where to go and hasn’t had an accident in awhile. But she is stubborn… I don’t know how well she’ll cooperate. Because of her, I still have my bed upstairs in the dining room. But what happens when I go back down to my room? I think she’s probably going to make a disaster of my carpet and how can I get her to understand that she needs to go up the stairs and to the back door when she needs to go potty? Man oh man. And pluuus… she is a vacuum. She eats EVERY tiny little thing she finds on the floor. Every piece of stray carpet, lint, tissue paper… EVERYTHING. I’m like one of those mom’s that freak out all the time cuz I’m worried something is going to get lodged into her throat. Haha. But on the bright side of things… she does seem to be doing well. I taught her to sit and I’m trying to teach her not to bite, to watch me when I tell her to, and to come. She’s worst at the “come” one. If she’s doing something and doesn’t want to be bothered, she’ll just ignore me. Including when she’s trying to eat her poop. She bites a lot too because she’s teething. I heard this is normal too and she’ll grow out of it (I hope) but man those things are getting SHARP. I have little bite marks all over my hands. I took her to get her second set of shots over the weekend. She did SO good. She didn’t even flinch. And then I went over to a friend’s from work, Karon, and she showed me how to give her a bath. She has three little dogs so I knew she’d be the best one to help me. She did a great job! Bella smelled SO fresh and she was so fluffy and cute. She didn’t particularly like the bath but she didn’t freak out as much as I thought either. She hated the blow dryer though… when I do it on my own, we may have a problem.

Other than that, life has been the same. Back to working full time again. It’s nice but I do get more tired throughout the day than I used to. I’ve been sick but it seems to be getting better other than the non-stop hacking cough I seem to get at night. It’s really frustrating to not be able to sleep. My dad has it worse… his turned into a little bit of pneumonia but he seems to be getting better too. Everyone I know has some type of cold or another. Hopefully I won’t get another one until I’m stronger and can fight it off a little better!