It’s been a while since I have updated my blog on what’s happening in my life.

As I look back, I see I have and am doing a lot of caretaking with my husband, my 17 year old dog and me!

My husband, Mark complained earlier this year, that his heart hurt. As the pain was getting worse, I took him to our closest hospital which is only a ten minute drive from our home. From there, they took him by ambulance to another hospital that specializes in cardiology. He ended up having 2 stents placed and staying in the hospital for about 4 days. Thank goodness this was something that could be handled! He has regular checkups with his cardiologist.

Earlier this year, I noticed our little dog, Luke, who is 17 years old, started acting strange around late afternoon. He’d bark for no reason, and his cough became worse. He has been diagnosed with a collapsed trachea (quite common for his breed) and I thought maybe he’d need to be put on medicine for that. I wanted his heart checked out too, because I knew heart and lungs could be an issue with such a cough. His vet told us his heart and lungs sounded great. It was his trachea. She prescribed medicine for his coughing and also something for his sundowning.

When the day fades into evening, with the sun lowering (going down), dogs can start to act anxious. They may pace non-stop, bark for no reason for hours on end, even stare off in space. I noticed he was getting worse as time went on. Once his vet confirmed the Sundowning, she prescribed meds. The meds he is on does help, but he has become quite the pill trickster. Quite often he will pick out the pill from his treat or food, and spit it out. He can smell the pill so my husband and I have had to come up with varying tactics to get him to take his medicine. It takes about 2 hours to go into effect, but it does work. It’s hard to see him get like this, but I believe all other areas of his life are pretty good. He’s not in pain as long as we control his cough, he lets us know when he needs to go outside. Sometimes we have to carry him downstairs when he’s on his medicine, he has no trouble coming up the stairs. He sleeps a lot more, but then so do I.

At night, around 6:30-7:00 pm, Mark and I see Luke change into “Bob the Builder”. He has a few dog beds/pillows on the floor that he like to arrange in different ways. I have included a couple of pics. I may have to have him star in his own Instagram account highlighting his ‘building’. Once his structure is complete, he goes to bed and asleep for the night. When we see Luke building, we know he will be asleep within the hour! Only once or twice does he wake us to take him outside every week, normally he sleeps for almost 12 hours.

I know his time his coming to cross the Rainbow Bridge, but I don’t believe it’s right now. I have been battling daily headaches for almost a year. I think I have it pinned down to cervicogenic headaches. I have been doing a few exercises and monitoring my posture and I really feel like the headaches are improving. I am use to migraines, just not daily. I wake in the morning to pain in my neck/bottom of my skull, it does lessen now after a while. My headaches started out lasting all day, but I think I have a handle on them. I’ll keep you updated.

This is about what’s been going on in my life. Not very exiting but it keeps me busy. We live each day doing and hoping for the best. I am looking forward to cooler temps as this summer heat has been brutal!

Here are some of Luke’s building structures:

If you have any ideas on how to hide Luke’s pills in his food, please share! He’s been outsmarting us!