Pucks 'n Pups: The road goes ever on and on

I haven't updated in a while. In almost a year, actually. The last time was the anniversary of Tank's death, which is coming up again in a couple of weeks. I still dream about him, and I still look for him when I walk in the door. It hurts my heart, but then Curly Joe and Bummer run up and I can't help but smile.

We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary last month with free comics and a Star Wars marathon. Life with my rocker boy continues to be wonderful. Thanks to my health insurance, we're both getting our asthma in check, and birth control ensures us a continued child-free existence. Our niece now lives in Arizona, so visits with family are going to be a lot more fun now, and my best friend lives in Corvallis, so we can see our nephew fairly often. I finally got to meet him a couple of months ago, which was awesome. I'm not one for kids, but he's a cutie pie and for some reason took a shine to me. Fittingly, he finally warmed up to me at the comic book store. Score one for Auntie K!

Curly Joe is an old man now, but still has puppy tendencies. Gray in the muzzle and slower going up the stairs, but still the same old Curly. Bummer is ... Bummer. Happy, crazy, terrier-y. The cysts on the back of his neck flare up from time to time, and we finally figured out that the Advantage is what exacerbates them. So I'm looking in to switching him to an oral flea medication. I've had Combo Guard recommended to me, but I have also read a lot about how bad it is for dogs, even killing quite a few of them, so I'm really hesitant to put him on it.

A month or so ago, I had a severe asthma attack and ended up having to go to the ER. I'd worked six days and when I got home Sunday morning, I took a breathing treatment with the nebulizer. It didn't help. My husband kept insisting he take me to the ER, but I kept refusing. I took another treatment and I still couldn't breath, so I gave in. As we were preparing to leave, I had to stop at the front door because I was suffocating. I was diagnosed with asthma when I was 18 and this was the first time I had ever felt like it would kill me. They admitted me right away at the ER, and got me started

on a breathing treatment. They gave me prednisone and an allergy pill, and I took two or three more treatments. My blood pressure was pretty high, but that was expected with all the albuterol in my system. I had a follow up with my regular doctor and my blood pressure was still high. A week later, I saw another doctor about some work-related tendinitis I'd been dealing with, and my blood pressure was still high. A week later, I checked my BP again at one of those machines by the Fred Meyer pharmacy; it was still high.

Needless to say, I was pretty concerned. I do not want to have to go on blood pressure meds, so I threw out all the crap in our cabinets and we bought brown rice in bulk, whole wheat bread, oatmeal, etc. I have lost six pounds so far, though my BP is still high. I will continue to eat better and get more exercise, but if it's still high next month, I will schedule an appointment with my doctor.

On Memorial day, we took the dogs on a two mile hike along the river, which was wonderful. We used to hike pretty much every day, but our asthma has been so bad, we haven't been able to get out in a while. So it was a relief to get out and be surrounded by nature again.