2013 Re(handi)cap

'Ello

Two posts in a month! SHOCKING! One of my resolutions for this year is to get the hell back to blogging... I really do miss it. 

In keeping with a yearly tradition (see 2012 & 2011) it's time to recap Crippie's year. I'm not gonna do a month by month recap cause I can pretty much recap 2013 with three little words. Ready?

EVERYTHING. FREAKING. DIED.

Yeaaaaaahhhh... this year I said goodbye to a great aunt, a great uncle, a childhood friend, Mama Pig, Frida and Aggie. 6 goodbyes in 12 months is really rough. A lot of good things happened this year too, don't get me wrong... I acquired 3 adorable piggies, I turned 25 (huzzah!), I obtained a social life, I went a year without having an operation and or any major complications, and a bunch of other good things... but still... the loss lingers. The death kinda trumps everything else. 

I'm gonna post again tomorrow, a happier post to make up for this one. But in the meantime, let's raise a glass in hopes that 2014 will be better. Here's to a happy and healthy New Year my comrades. 

And let's raise a glass to those we lost this year. May they rest in peace. Rise & Fly <3

 

 

Crippie's Tippie - Appreciate what you have while you have it, because things are taken away far too quickly

Aggie

Hey Guys,

Sorry I've royally sucked at blogging. I swear I'll get back to a regular schedule when I can.

Nellie and Angel are still alive and kicking, even though Angel's heart meds have put her into kidney failure. She still hanging in there though, which is good because no one in my house was ready to lose another pet. Unfortunately for us Aggie was diagnosed with heart failure two weeks ago. She passed away around 9:30 tonight after a valiant two-week fight. Aggie was four years old.

We obtained Aggie and Maggie for two reasons, one being that Maggie was so teensy and adorable, the second being that Aggie crawled into my mom's hood when she met her. They were just too freaking cute to pass up. Aggie was definitely skittish at first. This picture is from her first day home. She screamed when we took her out of her box and while she was being held. We placed her on the dog bed while we set up the cage, she stopped screaming, stood in amazement of the comfiness of her new bed for about 5 seconds, then promptly fell asleep. Also, holy crap look at how tiny they are!

Clearly Aggie didn't stay very tiny for very long. Ya see, if there was one thing Aggie loved more than anything in the whole world it was FOOD. Good Lord that pig loved to eat. It didn't even matter to her whether or not said thing in her mouth was edible. If it was near her face, she'd eat it. Her favorite non-edible "foods" were paper and metal. Her favorite actual food was food. She soon became the fattest pig in our house and was lovingly dubbed "Fat Ass Pig", "Fat Bastard", "Chubs McGee", "Fats Domino", "Fattie McFatFat" etc.

Aggie and her "buddy" Maggie had a very... um... tumultuous relationship. Aggie on the whole was very introverted and kept to herself while Maggie was freaking crazy. God help whichever pig wasn't in heat. While they tolerated each other for a few years their friendship ended when Aggie poked her eye on a piece of hay. Aggie let out her frustrations out on Maggie, and Maggie fought back. It was decided that the two were to be separated. Maggie went to live with Nellie, Frida and Mama Pig while Aggie FINALLY got some peace and quiet (generally speaking pigs should always be housed in pairs, Aggie was the exception to the rule). Aggie was my lil' lone wolf. She was completely content on her own.

She liked showing off her very boop-able nose. *boop*

 

Aggie LOVED being a lazy bum. She was also a "special" little bum, she enjoyed zoning out to "Weird Al Yankovic". What can I say? My piggies have very unique tastes in music.

She was veeeeerrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy vocal about how much she wanted to be fed. I could be across the house with headphones on and I'd STILL hear her wheeking to be fed. As soon as a fridge or a salad bag rustled during dinner time this lil' fattie would be standing up and screaming her lungs out.

Aggie is predeceased by her buddies Emma, Mama Pig, and Frida. She is survived by her frenemy Maggie, quasi-buddy Nellie, strange new pigs Eleanor and Prudence, pig that was either giving her kisses and or eating her hair earlier today Lucy, strange furry dog thing Helen, a very devastated Angel who has been moping around the house all night, and of course her humans, all of whom miss her dearly and will never forget her. Rest in peace my lil' fattie, I hope you're somewhere mindlessly grazing on whatever is in front of your adorable little face. Mommy loves you Aggie.  

Crippie's Tippie - Ask your vet to give you extra metacam for your piggies. It could mean the difference between leaving this world in agony or in peace.

P.S. I swear I'll return to blogging regularly one of these days. I do have things to share with y'all. But for now I just can't. Thanks for putting up with my suckiness guys. Love y'all - XOXO Crippie

Operation Don't Let Angel Die

Ohai Y'all

I don't have a good excuse to why I have been a terrible blogger. Bit of a rut I guess. I'm thinking of topics I could write about. Do any of my lovely readers have and cripple questions and or topics you want me to cover?

Before I get down to business here, Nellie is still alive and well. She thanks you all for the ninja vibes.

Now... on to that title...

My Lhasa Apso Angel is fairly old, the vets think she's between 12 to 16 years old. She hadn't been feeling all that great this week. She has skin issues and it really seemed to be bothering her a lot, plus she was panting a lot... so we took her ass to the vet. Well... it turns out that her skin is the absolute least of her problems. Angel was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Crap. My poor little girl had to spend the night at the vet while they gave her all sorts of fun drugs to keep her... ya know... alive. Luckily for us we caught her heart disease relatively early so we can treat it. She needs special heart medications twice a day. This isn't the worst news in the world... but if you know Angel, you know that she does NOT take to taking medicine lightly. She's like a pill ninja. You can put a tiny pill in a pill pocket and she will eat around it. Try peanut butter you say? LOL... she eats the peanut butter and spits out the pill. Angel is a freaking genius. How do we outsmart the genius twice a day? Especially when one of her pills needs to be ground up into food. Angel might be a smart dog, but she has one weakness... "beggin' strips". Normally, she would not be allowed to have beggin' strips, they go against a diet for her skin. Why break her diet? We know it's not ideal, but getting Angel her heart medication is our new #1 priority for her. She will not take her medications unless her food is jam packed with beggin' strips or whatever mind-blowingly delicious foods we can get for her. An added bonus to the beggin' strips; they make her so happy. We've accepted that she doesn't exactly have a "long" life ahead of her. So we keep her going for a little while longer, and she gets her beloved beggin' strips. It's a win/win. Helen is also making out like a bandit, as she gets to sample all the treats that Angel gets (Helen does not have any dietary restrictions), she was in a bit of a food coma last night ;)

So now everyone in my house is adjusting to caring for an even higher needs dog. Finding ways to get her to take her medicine, taking her out to use the bathroom constantly, watching her for signs of worsening help problems. It'll take us a few days to adjust to everything, but it will soon become our normal. In the meantime Angel request ninja vibes and Helen requests treats.

I can has beggin strip?

Did someone say beggin strip? (Also, you can really tell she's blind in this pic)

Crippie's Tippie - It is your responsibility as a pet owner to keep your animal alive for as long as humanly possible.

P.S. - Yes, Crippie is insanely happy that Walking Dead is back on :3 

Operation Don't Let Nellie Die

Howdy Y'all!

I know... I know... I suck at posting. Not much has been goin' on here to report on though. I did realize that I missed the one year anniversary of Fanny the Ass tumor's removal. I need to do something special to commemorate the event, and as soon as I think of something I'll do it.

The main reason I didn't post anything was that Nellie got sick, and I was genuinely afraid that I'd post anything and then the next day having to post a tribute to Nellie. Thankfully Miss Nellie Bellie is still with us *knocks on wood* so I figured I'd make a general post about it. *NOTE TO THE KARMA GODS... THIS IS NOT A CELEBRATION OF HER BEING ALL HEALED OR ANYTHING, I'M JUST TELLING THE STORY OF HOW SHE'S NOT DEAD RIGHT NOW*

Ok, so here's what happened. Last week we were cleaning the quint's cage when we noticed it... the dreaded red bedding, quite a lot of it actually. My first instinct was that Lucy had bitten someone. After a quick exam of each piggie and not finding any blood on anyone I assumed someone had a Urinary Tract Infection. Even before I knew who had the UTI I started treating Nellie for it. Why? A few reasons... One, Nellie has a personal and family history of 'em. Two, no one else in the cage has a history. Three, she's almost five. Let's just say the odd were not ever in her favor. So, I started flushing her out with the Chinese Herb "Shilintong". I take a tablet, crush it, put it in water and give it to 'em with a syringe. It smells like bad "fall" scented products if that makes sense. It makes the whole room stink to high heaven, but Nellie LOVES the stuff. While Mama and Frida tried to throw the syringes at me Nellie would attack the syringe to get more of it. Luckily for me she loved the stuff cause I'd give her a fair amount of the it every hour on the hour every night. This continued for a few days, and while I was growing concerned I did not take her to a vet. On the whole this is an extremely stupid thing to do. Let me tell ya why I didn't though. Apart from the whole occasionally peeing blood thing she was perfectly fine,  a happy lil' critter with a veracious appetite. More importantly, if I took her to the vet, they'd prescribe anti-biotics, and she has a family history of getting even sicker from the anti-biotics. She has a better track record with herbs than with actual drugs, so I felt this was her best chance. Of course if she started showing signs of pain and or actual sickness I would have taken her to a vet in a heartbeat, but that was the worst case scenario. Thankfully after a few nights of flushings and a dose of metacam later Nellie is as good as new, although I'm pretty sure she's bummed out about the lack of Chinese Herbal Drink.

Now that we've gotten Nellie through the week we want to keep her alive for as long as freaking possible. The last thing I need right now is another dead guinea pig. The key to keeping Nellie with us is to prevent her from getting sick. She has a history of bladder issues, so we do our best to prevent 'em. She is on a low calcium diet because calcium can build up in her lil' bladder and cause stones. I'm probably going to give her Shilintong even when she's not in the midst of a UTI, help clean the pipes if you will.  Nellie also gets a daily vitamin for urinary health.

We use Oxbow Natural Science vitamins for the piggies. They've got several varieties and I completely and totally would recommend them from your piggies. Nellie loves these vitamins more than life itself. She now recognizes the sound of the jar opening and popcorns at the thought of the yummy treats. 

IT'S MY TWEAT!

A word of caution though with those vitamins... make sure the other piggies have lots of treats, because they will try to steal the 'em. Here's Eleanor trying to Nellie's precious vitamin. Let's just say Eleanor got a flickin' and Nellie got to continue nomming on her treat. 

Apart from prevention the only thing I can do I watch her like a freakin' hawk. Nellie is very predictable, and the moment she stops being predictable will be the moment something goes wrong. She gets weighed every couple of days, again her weight is stable and if she loses a noticeable amount of weight I'll take her ass to the vet. And as always I have an "emergency kit" of metacam, critical care, and pedialyte for the very likely chance that someone decides to get sick in the middle of the night. Seriously, what is it with animals getting sick AFTER the vet closes?!?!?!

Well, I think that's it here. Nellie doesn't particularly care about ninja vibes, but Lucy requests that you send them on Nellie's behalf, just to make sure everything is ok.

Crippie's Tippie - Shilintong can be purchased HERE. Apparently humans can use it too.

Back to Basics

Howdy!

I hope y'all have been having a dandy week thus far. Mine's certainly been interesting. Shall I bring you guys up to speed?

First off, someone hit my car in a parking lot... with me in it. No worries though, there was hardly any damage to my precious Penelope, just a scratch on the car and a few scratches to the rim of a tire. Seriously, it was so minuscule that I told the guy who hit me not to worry about it. It was a scary experience though. One of my main fears about driving is getting into/being involved in an accident and killing myself and or someone else. My thought process getting out of the car was "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! WHAT AM I GONNA DO? WHAT AM I GONNA... oh... wait... there's no damage here... oh... okay... we're cool." I was a lil shake-y for a while but I calmed down after an hour or two. Now I ain't even mad, just thankful that nothing worse happened.

On to cripple things, the past few weeks have suuuuuccccccckkkkkeeeeedddddd pain wise. How bad? Well, I spent most of my labor day weekend laid up in bed watching "Orange Is The New Black" because I was literally in too much pain to move. Side note, I really enjoyed that show. If I had a "busy" day it would take another day to recover, and I'm using the word "busy" loosely because I really wasn't doing all that much. Anyway, today I went to my pain management doctor to discuss everything. She gave my back a once over and we came to the conclusion that my gait and lack of strength in my back is causing the pain. She gave me some exercises to do so hopefully that'll help. We're also adjusting my medication schedule a bit. I usually take my meds at night. We're now splitting them up so I take some of my weaker meds earlier. This should help manage my pain better and keep it at bay longer. Fingers crossed that it works. On the bright side, my arms having given me much trouble over the past two weeks, which is a welcome change. Pity the other issues overshadowed that.

On to piggie things. Lucy-fer was on a bit of an asshole rampage for a few days, until we discovered "solitary confinement". And by that I mean we put her in a pet carrier and left in there for a little while. One night before dinner Lucy was acting up so I put her in solitary. Her case was on a chair next to me so I could see her the entire time. It was 30 minutes of "WHY AM I HERE MAMAAAAAAA" and lots of sad piggie eyes. She started to learn her lesson after that, but she truly learned her lesson a few days after that. Lucy had settled down, but one her favorite pigs, Maggie, was ignoring her. Lucy would go by Maggie, not touching her or anything, and Maggie would start freaking out and screaming at Lucy until she left. Well... one day I check them and I found Miss Lucy-fer sulking in a corner. I took her out for some one on one time and we had a nice talk. I think she's starting to realize that her actions have consequences.

YOU CAN SEE THE SADNESS ON HER FACE! It's been a few days since we've had that discussion and *knock on wood* Lucy has not gotten into trouble. She's been a very good girl. Maggie is still wary of her and screams whenever Lucy comes near her. Poor Lucy-fer, she just sits there like "WHAT DID I DO!?!?! I JUST WANT TO SHARE A HOUSE WITH YOU".

So that's about it. Fun week. Happy Friday everyone!

Crippie's Tippie - Just because an animal is aggressive at times don't assume it's evil

The L-Word

Howdy Y'all!

First off, I gotta give a shout out to my Jewish readers, have a happy and healthy new year. L'shana tova!

Next, I've got a cripple question from the lovely Rachel from "Fluted Cups & Ampersands". Her post was essentially about being called lazy by a nurse at a doctor's appointment, and Rachel wanted some input from other cripples about the situation. Here's my two cents (and probable cripple rant)

If hypothetically a nurse called me a "cripple", "gimp" or any fun technically offensive word I wouldn't think much of it. I'd probably start laughing hysterically actually. BUT if some nurse had the audacity to call me lazy all hell would break loose. Being called "lazy" is probably the worst thing you could say to a cripple, if not the worst it's in the top 10. Why? Because being lazy implies that you are making a conscious choice that you don't want to do something simply because you don't feel like it. I have chronic pain and fatigue, so when I cannot do something it's not because I don't WANT to something, it's because I CANNOT! Calling a cripple lazy implies that you think they are lying, weak, annoying, etc. It's extraordinarily insensitive and extremely hurtful, especially coming from people who do not know what they're talking about.

What would I have done in this situation? Thankfully I have not been called lazy by a total stranger so I can only use my imagination here. Gauging from the fact that it was a professional setting and probably other people around, I'd probably rip 'em a new asshole... politely of course ;) The conversation would probably go as followed...
Stupid Nurse - *some snarky comment about me being lazy*
Crippie - Excuse me? I... I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. Did you just call me lazy?
Stupid Nurse - *insert another well thought out comment*
Crippie - How many tumors are on your skeleton at this very moment?
Stupid  Nurse - Um... none
Crippie - I have hundreds of tumors all over my body. HUNDREDS. Do you know what that means?
Stupid Nurse - Um... no
Crippie - What a surprise! Well, let me educate the expert here. These tumors cause pain and restrict mobility. Do you know what that means?
Stupid Nurse - Um...
Crippie - I'll take that as a no. This means it physically takes more energy to complete a task. Ok? I am not lazy. I am in an extreme amount of pain, I am extraordinarily tired... and I have to waste more of my energy educating know-it-alls like yourself.

Would I have contacted someone? Yup. Depending on the doctor's office there are surveys you can fill out about your experience. Heck, I might even demand to see someone at that very moment. Why? Because in a professional environment your job is to shut up and be nice to your "customer". In my line of work, if I ever called someone an "idiot" to their face (as tempting as it may be) I'd get fired. It is not appropriate and people need to learn that.

What can be done about it? It's hard to say because I hope these instances are just caused by lone idiots. On the whole "minor" healthcare employees aren't like this. If my orthopedist or my physical therapist said something implying I'm lazy, that would be another story because they know their stuff. What can cripples do about it? Again, it's hard to say because there are those "special snowflakes" out there who validate the opinions of those stupid nurses. All we can do is try to brace ourselves for the idiots. Memorize the spoon theory, come up with a general response. Something.

Now, it's pretty obvious that being called "lazy" strikes a nerve with me. While I've never been called lazy by strangers, people I know (various degrees of closeness) have implied that I'm lazy. For example, the act of grocery shopping is exhausting for me. When I return home I generally go lay down, leaving my able-bodied relatives to put away groceries. That sounds horrible, right? That's because it is. I cannot even begin to describe how guilty I feel that I cannot help. I should be helping them! I want to help, and I do whenever possible or absolutely necessary but it hurts, a whole lot. In college I couldn't do certain household chores, leaving my roommates to do them. That's not fair to them and I know that. I try to compensate by being the sole person to do the chores that I am physically able to do, but still to a degree I am a burden. I hate being a burden. Being called lazy implies that I am willingly making other people's lives difficult. I hate being a burden. I hate not being able to do things. I hate that I am putting a weight on someone else's shoulders. Being called lazy implies that I WANT to be like this, that I enjoy it. I didn't choose this, I don't want people to do things that I should be doing. This is not a "cripple perk" and it's insanely hurtful to think otherwise.

What can EVERYONE, normals and cripples alike do to alleviate the situation? Just try to be empathetic to other people's situations. Understand that you do not know the entire story and you don't know what everyone else on the planet is going through. As for the cripples that, like me, are riddled with guilt that they cannot do everything they should... I accepted long ago that life is not fair and everything will never be as it should. Just try your best to do whatever you can.

Something tells me people might react strongly to this, so please feel free to agree or disagree in the comment section. Am I being overly sensitive? A special snowflake? Spot on? Other?

Crippie's Tippie - DON'T CALL SOMEONE LAZY! 

P.S. - I have a follow up to the Lucy stories. I'll probably post in within the next few days. I was crazy tired and achy this week. Labor day weekend weather sucked beyond all reason and kicked my ass. 

Lucy's Got Some 'Splainin To Do

Ohai Y'all!

Two posts in a week, I'm on a roll! I hope my lovely readers have been having a good week. The weather's been changing again... boo. Lucky for me my arms haven't been terrible, which, taking the barometric pressure changes into account is better than I expected. Unlucky for me, my back has been killing me! I don't have any known issues with my back and spine, me thinks the pain is a result of hip issues. I can't stand in one spot for more than 5 minutes. The solution? I'm looking into obtaining inserts for my shoes specifically for back problems. If that doesn't work, my plan b is to go back to using my crutch for instances where I know I'll be standing and or walking for long periods of time. Not ideal... but meh, what can ya do?

Apart from the pain I've been well. I celebrated my Grandma's 81st birthday on Thursday and today would have been my Grandpa's 83rd birthday. So the family celebrated by going to see a local production of "Footloose" and nomming on pizza. Definitely a good start to my weekend :3

Now... on to that title...

See that? See that adorable little pig? That's Lucy, and she's been in time out 5 times over the past two days. Miss Lucy-fer's been a raging asshole. Her crimes range from face and butt biting, fighting with Eleanor and Maggie, and my personal favorite... physically dragging Eleanor away from a food dish. *Sigh* I used to think Frida was naughty. Lucy wins. Lucy is by far the biggest butthead I have ever met. I checked her over and she's in heat, that and the fact that she's a baby explain the behavior. While checking her over I found that someone bit her in the face. Yeah, I tried to have a rational discussion with Lucy-fer that if she keeps acting inappropriately that she will keep getting injured like that. I don't think she listened because apparently she continued acting up while I was at work. The solution? Originally Lucy's time outs were comprised of solo time with a human and being scolded at while lying on her back. Clearly she doesn't care about that, so the new plan is a lil' more jail like. We have a travel case for vet visits. Lucy was tormenting Maggie earlier. Her punishment? Solitary confinement in the travel case. I'll keep ya updated about how the new time out system works. She behaved for the rest of the day after her release, let's hope she learned her lesson.

That's it for now I guess. I'm wishing all my readers a happy and healthy labor day weekend. 

Crippie's Tippie - If your pig gets into a squabble, check their mouths. It's a VERY common area for injuries. 

I SAW THE LIGHT!

Yo!

I hope y'all have had a wonderful week. My week has been pretty good. The weather has been changing again and my arms are feeling it. I've had to wrap each wrist once this week. I'll probably talk to my orthopedist about it, get some x-rays but that's about it. It's gonna have to get pretty bad for me to have surgery.

Moving on, Sunday was a pretty awesome day for me. Why? Cause I got new glasses! Ya see, being a graphic designer means you are staring at a computer for many hours at a time, looking at teeny tiny details. And this royally messes with your eyes. My eye sights been getting worse since my freshman year in college. Over the past few months it's gotten pretty bad. I was having more and more problems reading and seeing crap in general. So, over the weekend I took advantage of some dandy sales and got my ass over to Lenscrafters for a new pair of specs. The appointment went pretty well, except for that whole stupid glaucoma test they do. The thought of blowing air into my eye freaked me out and I kept moving. After I a few attempts I realized I needed to suck it up and get the damn test over with. Once that was over I had my actual exam. It's funny, I mentioned to the doctor that I have a genetic disorder and that it shouldn't effect my vision. Her response "your disorder might not effect your vision but your meds do!" Apparently all my handy dandy pain meds and anti-inflamatories relax my eyes. Who knew!  Apart from that nifty bit of information the appointment went as to be expected. Once the appointment was over I got to pick out some snazzy new frames. Funness! I have found that on the whole, most shapes of glasses don't work with my face. I've accepted this fact and I turn it into a game of "How terrible can Crippie look?" Here are some of my favorite pics.

It's such a shame those John Lennon/Harry Potter glasses didn't work out. They'd be so bad ass! And yes, I totally tried on a bunch of unattractive hipster glasses and texted various people saying "OMG don't you love my new glasses <3333333333" I can be such an asshole at times. 

After a brief "ok, stop goofing around with hipster glasses" search I found a nifty pair of glasses that suits my face shape. YAY ME! More importantly, I was able to pick up my glasses within an hour. w000000000000t. As soon as I put on my glasses I was like "HOLY CRAP! EVERYTHING IS SO CRISP!" I kid you not the past few days have essentially been "Read ALL the things!" I'm probably annoying everyone in my house with the whole "I CAN READ THE THING ON THE WALL" jabber. Oh well... wanna see my glasses?

They're not all that different from my old frames, they're slightly rounder and the color is different. Naturally I painted my nails to match my glasses. In case y'all haven't noticed... I'm really excited about being able to see again. It's seriously an amazing feeling. 

And apart from ZOMG I GOT GLASSES news... I've started watching "Orange Is The New Black" on Netflix (three episodes in). I'm not addicted yet, but it's a fun show. It'll keep my occupied for a lil' while at least. BTW if any of you are interested, the lady who plays "Crazy Eyes" was in a recent revival of "Godspell" on Broadway. She did a lovely rendition of "By My Side". You can check it the audio here.

So that's it for tonight. I think I'll be spending the next few days reading whatever I can get a hold of.

Crippie's Tippie - Designers need to be super careful not to strain their eyes. Time away from the computer is a good thing.

Random Crippie Crap!

Ohai Y'all!

I hope y'all are having a lovely week thus far. Thankfully I've been pretty well. I don't exactly have a lot of material to write a blog post about, so in the spirit of blogging regularly I figured I'd update y'all on all the random happenings of my life.

- My arms have for the most part been cooperating with me. YAY! They'll still catch from time to time, but it's just for a moment and it goes away. I haven't had to brace either of my wrists in a week. That's kinda a big deal cause I usually have to brace one of my arms at least once a week. Me thinks it was a weather shift causing all these problems. Freaking weather.

- The piggies are fatties. Tonight I was finally able to weigh the babies. Eleanor is a whopping 1,200 grams (a little shy of 2.5 pounds), Prudence is 1,000 grams, and Lucy is 1,050 grams. At least I think Lucy is 1,050 grams... you need to sit still to get an accurate measurement, and Lucy does not know the meaning of "sit still". I also gave Eleanor and Lucy their first ever nail trims. I am happy to report that I lived through the ordeal. Eleanor will forgive me sooner or later.

- Helen hasn't been feeling very well over the past few days. She's not sick or anything, but she got five shots on Saturday, and she's a terrible patient. So we've had a stoned lil' Shih Tzu on our hands. She spent the weekend either whining, crying, or sleeping, sometimes all three at once. Don't worry though, she started feeling better today.

- Angel has also been feeling "off" she has allergies and skin related stuff going on. She got some new medicines over the week and she has been bouncing off walls and humping pillows like a mad woman. She's quite happy with her life at the moment.

- I bought a book last week. If you knew me you'd know how much of a shock this is. I don't read, at all. I just don't have the attention span for it. What did I obtain? I bought "Maus" by Art Spiegelman. It's a graphic novel about the Holocaust. While I can't really read, I lurv me some graphic novels. The words are broken up enough to keep my attention, plus the pictures help too. I haven't started reading it yet, but I look forward to it. Can any of my lovely readers recommend any other good graphic novels for me? I've already read (and loved) Persepolis and I'm currently reading "The Walking Dead" issue by issue.

- I was surprisingly social this weekend. I had some friends over on Saturday to meet the piggies and have ice cream. My friends loved my piggies and my piggies loved my friends, judging by how the pigs opted to not wee on anyone! On Sunday I had another friend over for pizza, a movie, and course playing with pigs. The babies got oodles of attention this weekend and I'm pretty sure they enjoyed themselves.

Well, that's about it over here. I hope y'all have a lovely week. Until next time!

Crippie's Tippie - Have issues reading? Give graphic novels a go. 

Seven Nation Arm-y

Ohai!

Sorry I've been away from the blog, I do have an explanation though. But first... PIGGIES!

The piggies are continuing to settle down and accept their roles in their little "society". Nellie is the boss pig, and Lucy has lovingly turned into her evil little minion. Lucy will gladly do Nellie's bidding. Recently Nellie's bidding mainly consists of nipping Eleanor in the butt. Lucy has been put in time out on multiple occasions for cornering Eleanor and repeatedly biting her. NOBODY BITES BABY IN A CORNER! Eleanor has kinda turned into a lil' recluse, she enjoys her hide-y places. It's funny how the song she's named after fits her personality. Prudence has probably taken the adjustment the easiest, her hobbies include comfortably lounging wherever possible and hanging around Maggie. Maggie has grown to accept the babies and she's actually quite fond of the attention they give her.

Last night I gave Eleanor some extra attention because miss Lucy-fer decided to block her into a corner on two separate occasions in one day! Poor baby needed some snuggles. So she got some extra cuddle time with me watchin' TV. While her experiences with "Wheel of Fortune" didn't amaze her "The Colbert Report" blew her little mind. She stood on my hand and watched the entire episode. She then browsed reddit with me and eventually fell asleep on my arm. Too freaking cute.

God I'm adorable...

Selfie! #NoMakeup ;)

Taking a snooze on mommy

Told ya she was freakin' cute.

Ok... moving on to why I was absent for a lil' over a week. Well...

Yup, BOTH of my arms have been bothering me for the past week or so! GO ME! Bothering is a wee bit of an understatement... MY ARMS FREAKING HURT! I think something either in my right forearm or elbow caught, basically rendering my entire arm useless. I used my handy dandy ace bandage to alleviate the problem for the time being. As for my left... I'm pretty sure something caught in my forearm towards my wrist. Again, ace bandage and hope I can manage it on my own. I wasn't posting because while I technically can type with one hand, I only do that when I HAVE to. Not exactly a comfortable thing to do. Plus, it would take ages to write the damn post! Oh well... fingers crossed that I won't need surgery for these bastards.

At least my nails look awesome :D

The tumors seem to have unhooked themselves for now *knocks on wood*. If it keeps happening then it's off to the orthopedist I go! If it's a problem with the arm I can deal, that would be a fairly simple surgery. If it's in the elbow region... eh... that could be trickier. Anything near a joint is always harder. Even then, it's my right hand... not my dominant one. It would probably be a harder recovery... but I'd live. Meh... in the meantime I'm just gonna act like it won't be a massive problem and hope that my tumors listen.

Crippie's Tippie - If you use ace bandages, try to obtain ones with velcro and or some type of self-adhesive capability. Nothin' worse that getting poked by those stupid pointy metal fasteners. (the ace bandage in the picture is velcro BTW, pretty sure I saved it from a surgery)