Sher's Drivel

Nic, Martha, and the Police

So, long time no see new entry. We've been up to our ears in moving/house building details in the last few months. Good news: the moving frenzy is Ovah, the house is built, and we are completely moved in. Martha, our friend from Athens, came to visit for two weeks a just two days after we were into the new place. When she left, Christian and I felt like we lost a roommate!

The bad news: the week we were scheduled to move, Nic had an incident. I woke up early to take him for a walk because Christian was away on business. Nic got out of his bed and walked a few steps, but suddenly crouched down and froze as if he was incapable of walking. I thought he had a stroke. Obviously, I freaked out. It was 6:15 in the morning and the vet wasn't open until 9 AM, Christian was out of town, and our 80 lb furball couldn't walk!

Long story short -- he didn't have a stroke, but he has idiopathic vestibular disease. So, it's not that he was incapable of walking -- he didn't want to because he was completely dizzy and couldn't orient himself! In short, the prognosis is very good and he has seemed to recover in the last two weeks by about 95%. I have high hopes that he will continue to improve. The only thing that kind of sucks -- for him and us -- is that our new place is 4 stories, whereas our apartment was only one floor. Nic is having trouble going down the stairs, so Christian pretty much has to carry him down. If you have suggestions for how to make the situation more manageable, we are all ears. [Many thanks to Laura, who correctly diagnosed Nic's condition from the across the pond and to Michael, who helped me carry Nic [read: he carried him] to the Vet more than once and helped out so much during the recovery phase. We're lucky to have such great friends!]

Last but not least... The Police... I can't even look at their photos on The Police fan club site without a string of obscenities crossing my mind or lips. They canceled the Mannheim show (yeah, the one I had awesome tickets to) in addition to other dates (see Sting's site for reference -- look in October 2007). Martha and I found out while we were in Amsterdam for a long weekend. I have to admit that when Christian told me over the phone, I thought he was joking. Unfortunately, it was no joke. I am extremely pissed for several reasons:

1. They will not rebook the show


2. Even if they did, I doubt I could get tickets right next to the stage again


3. All other shows are sold out


4. I was looking forward to this SO much

There wasn't really even a word of regret from the band. Very upset! And poor Martha was looking forward to it as well. Maybe more than we were, if that's possible.

I agree F*CK the Police. I saw Sting once and the show wasn’t really memorable. You’re not missing anything. They really aren’t as great as they think they are.

Okay, did that help?

Sorry to hear about Nic.  When Jake tore his ligament, we built a ramp for the stairs for him. His arthritis was bad too, so the ramp also helped with that.  It will cramp your way a little on the stairs (if you make the ramp about half the width of the stairway), should you use it, or you could make it wide enough and you and Christian could use it too and then Nic won’t have to worry about falling off the edge.  We bought two long 2x4s and a sheet of plywood. Nailed the plywood so the 2x4s framed the plywood and then got a carpet runner (for traction) to nail on top.  Make sure your 2x4s are long enough for the set of stairs and you might need to put something on the end of the 2x4s that sits on the stair landing so your ramp wedges or catches against something. If you don’t want to have 3 sets of ramps, you could pick the main floors he would be on.  This is basically the ramp concept http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=17842&Ntt=ramps&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=0&Nty=1.

My ex-wife has a similar condition to your dog’s (no joke). She has undergone a lot of physical therapy and other treatments and it’s still a big issue for her (she had to leave her job because she couldn’t work). Her condition is BPPV (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo) and most people eventually get over it and get back to normal, so perhaps the same thing will happen for your dog. If not, perhaps some of the same drugs and threapies used on people might work:
http://www.vestibular.org/index.php

Man, I was really jealous of you when I thought you were going to see The Police. I was like swearing under my breath and everything every time I thought about it. But, now instead of feeling all gloat-y that you didn’t get to see them, I actually feel bad for you. They suck. At the very least they could reschedule.

I hope Nic gets to feeling better.

Oh yeah, did Martha tell you? I’m going to be working for her now.

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