Whatever I Feel LikeGosh!

Thanks for all the thoughts and sweet words for the passing of our Tasha - they were all much appreciated.

This week has just been surreal. First it was Aric and the whole Lyme disease thing, then it was Tasha passing. I didn’t mention yesterday that on our way to New Jersey to put Tasha down, Aric called to tell us that Grace had chewed a medicine bottle and none of the pills were any where to be found. At first we thought she ate 3 weeks worth of antibiotics, but quickly reasoned that those pills were on top of the refrigerator. It turned out that Aric still had his suitcase on the floor in his room from when he stayed at Rob’s parents’ house last week. In that suitcase were his two medications - Zyrtec and Meclizine (generic Antivert). The Zyrtec was still intact, so we figured out that she ate the Meclizine, but weren’t really sure how many were in there, but knew it wasn’t a whole lot.

We made the decision to keep on the path to my parents’ to deal with Tasha and then we’d worry about Grace. In the meantime, we told Aric to give her lots of water and food and to keep an eye on her. As soon as Tasha was gone with Rob and my dad, I was on the phone with the pharmacy to find out how many pills and at what strength were in that prescription. They let me know there were 20 pills of 12.5 mg strength administered, so I figured there were around 15 pills left. So then I went online looking up overdoses of Meclizine. I found out that dogs are sometimes prescribed this drug, but only 25 mg per day. So Grace had 8x the normal dosage. By now Rob was back from putting Tasha down and we called our vet. The vet told us the same thing we found out online and said she would most likely just be very drowsy, and then perhaps hyperactive and/or depressed. Ha! Grace was none of that, really; she just went on acting like her normal self - thankfully!

So today my sister comes over to talk to me while I was in a meeting - I saw her outside of the conference room and she motioned for me to call her when I was done. By the look on her face, I could tell something was wrong. Turns out that my brother’s father-in-law was at the hospital, from what was initially thought was a stroke. He had numbness in his arms and his speech started to slur. The hospital ruled out a stroke, however, and said he had a subdural hematoma. Tonight he is in the ICU and I don’t know a whole lot more. Hopefully tomorrow will bring some more answers - and good news. Alfie is a one-of-a-kind guy who we just love to pieces. He’s also in his late 70’s, so I’m awfully concerned.

At my meeting tonight, I found out that my first ever sponsor passed away. This woman was so incredibly special and she will be missed terribly. She was 82 years old, and her passing wasn’t a surprise, but it’s sad nonetheless.

I really hope tomorrow ends the streak of bad news for our family.