Apollo came home from the hospital this morning, after a 6-day stay. He is much better; lively, curious and hungry.
He has to go on a ultra-low fat diet for the rest of his life to help prevent a recurrence, and for the next few days he will be on 5-6 medications (pain, appetite stimulant, antiemetic, antibiotic and a couple others.
He looks a little funny — his abdomen was shaved for the ultrasound, and each of his 4 “wrists” is shaved where they had IVs inserted.
It’s good to have him home.
Apollo is recovering from his pancreatitis, though slowly.
Today he ate the first food he has had in 6 days, some boiled chicken. He actually trotted a little when we took him for a walk and seems much more like his old self. However, he is still on intravenous pain medication and other drugs.
He will spend another night in the hospital (which will make 4 so far), then if he is able to keep food down and continues to improve, we may get to bring him home tomorrow evening.
Once he is home he will have to go on a special low-fat diet to prevent a recurrence of the pancreatitis. Once they have had it, they are much more likely to get it again. One time is enough both for his system and my wallet.
Apollo is very sick.
This past week he has seemed to be slowing down, less energetic, but on Saturday morning I woke up to find that he had thrown up on the kitchen floor, and was extremely lethargic. We took him to the vet, who thought it might have been due to an antibiotic he was taking for a foot infection, so we switched antibiotics and took him back home.
Today he seemed even worse. He couldn’t keep even a swallow of water down for more than a few minutes, and could barely stand. So this evening we took him in to a 24-hour emergency pet hospital. His temperature was 105 (normal is about 102). They did x-rays and blood analysis. The x-rays showed that his stomach was distended and filled with fluid, but his intestines looked normal. The x-rays didn’t show anything else clearly, but the symptoms are consistent with some kind of blockage, preventing food from exiting the stomach. Maybe he swallowed something that is blocking the passage from the stomach to the small intestine.
They kept him overnight and in the morning they will do an ultrasound, which will often show blockages better than x-rays. If they find something, it may mean (hopefully) an endoscopic procedure to remove the blocking item, or worst case surgery.
If they don’t find anything, then it’s a puzzle why he is so sick.
June solar energy generation was just about the same as May, and the savings were about the same too — $175 saved in May, and $185 in June. The days are a little longer in June, but the warmer temperatures reduce the solar panel efficiency too, so it’s just about a wash. I’m still generating well over half my energy used.
July will probably be down a little in solar energy because of higher temperatures (and hopefully clouds from the monsoon), but since the electricity rates are higher in July, the savings should be about the same again.
We are home. On Monday we left our Maine B&B and drove down to Boston where we spent the night.
In the morning we visited the JFK Presidential Library and Museum. This is the first Presidential Library I have visited and I enjoyed it. It took me back to the late 50s and early 60s, and I learned quite a bit.
We got home about 11:00 last night, which our internal clocks said was 2:00am, so we are resting up this morning.
We are are staying at a very nice Bed and Breakfast inn on the central coast of Maine, called the Weskeag Inn. It’s an old three story farmhouse modernized and adapted to accommodate up to 20 guests. There are only 4 or 5 here this weekend, so it’s very quiet.
Here’s our room, small but comfortable:
From the rear deck you can see the “reversing falls”. There is a narrow neck of water between the ocean and a small bay. As the tide comes in and out, the water rushes in and out through that neck, reversing direction twice a day. It really flows fast, like a swift river. I’m not sure if you can see it from the picture, but it was really pouring through.
We went exploring today. Here’s a deserted beach near the inn.
This is a picture of a mile-long breakwater built in 1899 to protect the port of Rockland from the “Nor-easters”, as a local man told me.
The picture was taken from the end of the breakwater where there is a still functioning lighthouse built shortly after the breakwater. We walked all the way out and back, watching lobster boats harvesting their traps as we walked over the uneven boulders. The breakwater itself was constructed of large slabs of granite, quarried on a nearby island and transported on steamboats. Quite an engineering feat for 1899.
Maine is beautiful, but this part at least is more civilized and prosperous than I expected. There are lots of nice restaurants and well maintained houses everywhere, though no large cities nearby.
We had a lobster dinner this evening, and may have another tomorrow.
We’ve been in New Haven, Connecticut now for 3 days. It’s a very nice little town/city. The conference went as well as they usually go. Our two talks also went well, with lots of questions (that’s usually a sign of interest). Here’s a picture taken on the campus of Yale, a block from our hotel.
On our second day in the hotel, the bathroom ceiling started dripping water … on the toilet… while it was occupied. They sent up someone who fixed it, but it started dripping again that evening. The manager was very apologetic, and moved us into a suite for the last night, along with two free buffet breakfasts. I guess it was worth getting dripped on.
Tomorrow we will drive up to Maine where we will spend a few days in a B&B.
Gisele and I are in the City this week. We’re staying in a Holiday Inn about 2 blocks from Central Park, and one subway stop from Broadway and Times Square. We are here with our friends Les and Sonia.
On Friday we went to the 911 Memorial at Ground Zero, and then Chinatown. Saturday was the Guggenheim Museum and Times Square.
Yesterday we went to a matinee performance of Porgy and Bess. The Tonys were presented shortly after our show ended, and we found that it had received the award for best musical revival, and the actress playing Bess was best leading actress in a musical. Personally I enjoyed the play, but can’t appreciate the operatic style of singing. I think it might have made sense in unamplified history when they needed to project their voice through the whole theater, but in modern days I think they should update to a more natural open sound. Anyway, I guess I’m unrefined.
Today we are going to the Museum of Natural History. Tomorrow we take a train to New Haven, Connecticut where Les and I will attend a biology conference. Les is presenting a paper on some work we did together.
Then on Friday Gisele and I are driving up to Maine where we will stay at a bed and breakfast for 3 nights.
Meanwhile, Derek is home taking care of Apollo and our house. It’s nice to have someone we can depend on and trust.
Summer is (unofficially) here. The Weather Service is predicting 112 degrees today, 2 degrees over the record for the date.
At least it’s dry and the nights are still cooling off into the 70s. We leave our windows open most of the night and sleep comfortably, but that’s going to end in a few weeks when the monsoon brings in moisture and the humidity comes up. In recent years there were several weeks in a row where the low was in the 90s. We’re still waiting for our first ever 100+ low. I’m not in any hurry for that.
I finally had my 240 volt charger installed for my Volt today. On 110 volts, the Volt takes up to 10 hours to fully charge. With the new charger it takes no more than 4 hours. This will make multiple all-electric trips during the day a lot easier.
The electrician had to bury the conduit from the box on the south-east corner of my house over to the garage, which meant digging a trench. While digging the trench, they broke the water main, cut the internet cable and broke two sprinkler lines. It’s all repaired now, but the trenches are still open until the City comes to inspect on Tuesday. Fortunately I can still use it before it is inspected.
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