My Photo Of "The Christmas Star" on 12-21-2020 (Jupiter/Saturn Conjunction)

 

My Sweet Fur Baby Hiker

 I don't know if anyone even looks at this blog anymore, but if there is anyone out there, I wanted to let you know that on October 12, 2020, I had to have my best friend, Hiker put down. She was only 10 years old. She was suffering from liver failure. It came on very quickly. I had some benign lumps removed from her in late December 2019. They did bloodwork on her at that time and everything came back good. In late August 2020, I noticed she was not eating normally. Her routine was starting to change and eventually, she started to show signs of fatigue. I took her to the vet and they ran bloodwork again and noticed her liver numbers were a little high, but not a lot. They put her on some antibiotics, thinking she may of had a infection or bacteria and they also put her on a special liver medication. I was supposed to take her back in two weeks for a follow-up. She seemed to get a little better, but her eating habits grew even worse. She was hardly eating at all. Before the two weeks were up, I took her back to the vet and they ran her blood tests again. This time, the liver numbers had gone way up, so they did an ultrasound on her. The ultrasound showed that her liver and spleen were enlarged and inflamed. They kept her for 2 nights. It was the first time since I had adopted her (9 1/2 years ago) that she and I did not spend the night together. They let me bring her home with more medications, but she would not eat that day and the next morning, she was throwing up blood. I knew it was time to let her go. It was the second hardest thing I ever had to do. The first was when my husband was dying and I had to make the decision to stop his medications.

It's Been A Long, Long Time

It has been a long time since I was here to add anything to my blog. After I was diagnosed with A-Fib (a heart condition that causes irregular heart beats), I was not able to get out to hike much . That made me so unhappy because hiking and taking photographs to share are my favorite things to do. Also, as I have gotten older (I am 70 now) , I cannot hike as far, nor can I go up semi-steep trails anymore.

I will tell you that I have now gotten my A-Fib under control, thanks to the modern medicines that are out there now.

In 2018, my older brother moved in with me. He was a resident of Paradise, CA, a town in northern California that was 90% wiped out by California's most deadly wildfire in history. There was no town left, so I invited him to move in with me here in Santa Clarita, CA.

I am now starting to get out more for daily walks, but where I used to do 2 to 4 miles a day, I can now only do about 1 1/2 to 2 miles a day, but at least that is something. My cardiologist has told me to get out and walk as much as I can.

I had hoped that this spring, I would be able to start hiking on some of the trails again. I would just have to stop every now and then to rest some. But then this terrible Covid-19 virus took over the world and changed all of our lives. The trails in SoCal were closed.  I did hear that our local trails have just opened back up, as long as we wear face masks.

I hope that if anyone is reading this, that you are safe and staying well and I hope that this time in our lives will soon be just a bad memory.

Peace.