About 12 years ago, my wife was in the hospital because her appendix burst. After the surgery, she developed a hernia and a piece of mesh was implanted in her stomach to help the hernia heal. Then she had to be on a blood thinner named Coumadin. Every day, her blood would be drawn until the doctors were sure she was receiving the correct dosage of the drug. Then cancer was discovered in a section of her colon that had been removed during the appendix surgery. Fortunately, the cancer was contained to the section that was removed and Carol is cancer free.

Carol was in the hospital for a total of 12 frustrating days as one medical condition after another erupted like that burst appendix.

This is how I feel about Annie, our 11 year old Golden Retriever. It’s just one damn thing after another. 

If you read previous posts, you know that she had two seizures that are now controlled with Pheno Barbital. She has not had a seizure in over a week.

In the course of checking Annie for the cause of the seizures, the vet discovered that she has a case of Valley Fever, a mysterious illness whose cause is unknown but might be related to the soil here in Arizona. So in addition to the Pheno Barbital, we are now giving Annie a drug for Valley Fever called Fluconazole.

Occasionally, when we suspect she is in pain, we also give her Rimadyl, an anti inflammatory drug similar to Ibuprofen for humans.

Annie walks very slowly, stumbles as though she is going to fall (and, occasionally does) and wanders around the house as though searching for something.

On the bright side, she is very affectionate, wants to be with us more than she has in a while and has a good appetite (for a few weeks, she refused to eat unless we put the food in her hand and, sometimes, not even then).

Oh, and her poops are terrific, meaty, brown and voluminous. For several weeks last month, her poops were tiny if they came at all. Carol and I share this poop information with the same enthusiasm we might use to discuss a celebrity story in People Magazine. How exciting! How thrilling! How mesmerizing! Can you believe it?

Welcome to the wonderful world of the elderly dog. Perhaps you’ve been there. Perhaps you are now.

Carol and I just remind ourselves to love her as she is and as she is not. We laugh because we realize this is also how we’ve stayed married for 37 years. We love each other as we are and as we are not.

Next week, we’re going to be taking care of a friend’s 5-year old Golden Retriever while they are out of town. It will be fun to be with a dog who has the “spark” Annie use to have.

However, another lesson we’ve learned over the course of our marriage is not to compare our marriage to anyone else’s. We’ll try not to compare Sophie, the dog we’ll be taking care of to Annie, although we won’t be able to ignore the differences.