I’ve recommended Colin Cotterill’s fantastic Dr Siri books on here before and I’ve just read number 7
in the series, Love Songs from a Shallow Grave and for me it was one of the best yet.
The characterisation is marvellous, the plots rich and once I start one, I just
can’t put it down.
And don’t forget if you are
reading a series of books, you can find their order on Fantastic Fiction. It’s
a very handy site.
So how are the bugs? They’re
thriving. The kids have all come down with a new one now – not a sickness bug
this time, but a thoroughly nasty virus, their parents aren’t much better. The
classrooms are running on half full at the moment.
And Indy? Well the curves
haven’t been going well and he’s been steadily losing weight and still getting
up in the night. Last week his curve was so haywire (more like a fork of
lightning than a curve), that on Monday when I saw Tom, he said he’d like to
have him in the surgery to do a curve using their equipment.
So he was booked in the next
day and we arrived with the lumpy, hairy old bed he has down beside my desk and
the blanket he has in my bed, his food and bowl and his insulin. I also took my
glucose meter to be tested.
I went through with him,
settled him in his “room” and met the lovely nurse who would be looking after
him – and she really is lovely! I gave him his breakfast and his injection,
then left with the nurse promising she’d make a big fuss of him.
I went back in the afternoon
to take him for a walk and – get this – after his walk he pulled me back into
the surgery, went straight through the reception and out to the back where his
nurse and the receptionist made a fuss of him.
Then off back to his room
without so much as “I’ll miss you, Mum!”
And I’m very glad to say
that. It made leaving him so much easier. I think he knows the place so well
now with our frequent visits, he feels quite secure there. His test results were
just as odd though.
Next step was to speak to an
expert who would know the latest about treating diabetes and Tom said he’d do
that and phone me in the next couple of days. I was that worried, wondering
what would happen next.
So - there is new thinking on the
treatment of diabetic dogs and in the case of dogs like Indy who have these odd
results, you should forget about doing glucose curves and tests and monitor
them on how well they seem! I think it was Frances who said ages ago that
surely all that mattered was that he was happy. And as Tom said, it is the
common sense approach.
There'll be no more blood tests for a
while and we’re going to try basing his treatment around how well he is and not
on what his blood glucose readings are.
His sight is very poor now
because of the cataracts. I bought some white tennis balls as he just couldn't find the green ones any more and he can sometimes
see them IF I throw them at the right height and not too far in front of him.
Watching him run down the stairs is heart in mouth stuff though.
