Up The Farway Tree

The Adventures of Seb

I am heading down to Newcastle tonight for clinic tomorrow morning, so thought I should do a quick update before I go.  I am hoping for good news and in light of the fact I got on well at my CF annual review last week, I don't anticipate any problems.   I got a gold star for walking further in the 6 minute walk test this year and my chest sounded A1.  I am going for a bone scan to check the osteoporosis situation as I have not had one for several years, and I am also meeting up with the diabetic nurse and dietician next month to try and work out a more accurate insulin to carbohydrate ratio as I am still having quite a few hypos (low sugars).  My joints have also been playing up this week and are pretty sore but I know it will just settle down on its own again. Otherwise everything was fab :-)

This week has been eventful for little Seb so thought I would share some stories.   It all started last weekend when I decided once and for all to stop him barking in the garden.  Now I don't mean stopping him having a wee woof now and again - I mean stopping him going beserk and barking his head off for no apparent reason.  The dog trainers suggested a super soaker to spray him when he barks - we used the same method of spraying him with water when he barked like a lunatic at dog training and it was very effective.  I don't have a super soaker and with a 90ft stretch of garden it wouldn't reach him anyway.   But I do have a hose.  So last weekend I was out in the garden in my pyjamas at 8am spraying Seb with the hose every time he barked.  He very quickly got the message and for the next couple of days there was blissful silence.  However he was clearly not happy with this power struggle so has just decided to be naughty in other ways to get his own back ;-)  It started with him refusing to come in one evening which ended up with me and Andrew chasing him around the garden at 11pm until we trapped him behind the greenhouse!   We then realised that the next door neighbour was in his garden and could see us running around like eejits (me in my pyjamas again).  Unfortunately he was also out the following morning when I was out in the garden again with the hose - this time fully dressed for work but with my dressing gown on top as it was quite chilly.  Andrew did point out when I came back in that it looked as if I was just wearing a dressing gown with black high heels.  Oops.

Things calmed down a little until we went to visit my friends Lee and Ali for dinner this week.   They have a big garden down a private road so I was confident that Seb could run around off lead.  This was fine until he decided he was very interested in the next door neighbours garden and pretended not to hear me calling as he darted up their driveway.  I had to go after him and was slightly embarrassed to find the neighbour was standing outside with some guests who were just leaving.  In a bid to escape me Seb even tried to get into the car with the people leaving!!  I caught him and came back indoors - but the naughtiness did not end there.  Over the course of the evening he had jumped on the kitchen table twice, stealing a biscuit the first time, and also tried to climb into the bath, for reasons unknown to myself.   It is like having a small child at times.

He did also have an unfortunate incident of falling down an embankment this week.  I shouldn't laugh but it was quite amusing - he was there one second, then he was gone!  He had tried to climb down this almost vertical embankment to get down to the river but had obviously slipped and I could hear him scrabbling around - he is like a tiny mountain goat and got back up no problems but must have pulled a muscle because he has been slightly hobbling since.  I decided however that if he could jump on the kitchen table and run off at high speed then there wasn't that much wrong with him!

I have also been working hard on the CF and Body Image booklet and have completed the first couple of chapters, which were fairly involved.  I think it is looking good so far and would aim to get it all written up by the end of the summer - at which point we need to see if the drug company will still sponsor it (looks promising though).

Well I am going to go and enjoy the sunshine today and will report back once I have some Newcastle news.