Tipping point.....

Today's blog post is brought to you from a building site in St. Leonards on Sea.

Literally..... a building site.

I had no idea that changing our fireplace and fire would cause quite so much disruption.  Despite swathing the room in dustsheets and covers, there is a thick layer of fine brick and plaster dust over EVERYTHING.  Quite how it has managed to penetrate layers of fabric and spread through the entire house like a miasma, I have no idea.

But it has.

Yesterday, the fireplace was removed and work ensued on 'enlarging the chamber'.  This is a fancy term for knocking seven bells out of the brickwork with a lump hammer and pneumatic drill.

Today we have two plasterers in, to screed, skim and make good the gaping hole in the wall.  Only one of them has actually done anything though.... his mate's job seems to be leaning on the wall outside while simultaneously smoking and drinking copious amounts of tea so strong you could stand a spoon up in it.

As well as the plasterers we have the stove fitter and his sidekick in too.  Our tea and biscuit budget is stretched to breaking point.


In the midst of all the chaos, we had a decorator chappie in earlier to give us a quote for redecorating the room.  I must admit to feeling a tad guilty about that.... after all we COULD do it ourselves. Two and a bit walls have to be repainted, and one wall wallpapered.  Almost all of one wall is taken up with big patio doors so not much to paint there. I've wallpapered before, and if I do say so myself, I made a good job of it.  But that was over 15 years ago when I was much younger and fitter.

However the tipping point is that the ceiling needs repainted too, and that is a task too far for either of us.

The whole room would probably take both of us almost a week to redecorate, and even if I had the time and energy, it's not a task I would enjoy.  We've been entrenched in various house works since before Easter this year, and at this point in proceedings I'm definitely flagging.... physically, mentally and emotionally.

Once the new fire is installed, I just want the whole room done and dusted (especially dusted) quick smart.  Our 'new' sofa and armchairs are coming in just over 2 weeks, by which time it would be lovely to have the room decorated, re-carpetted and ready to collapse into.  I don't want to see another dust sheet, paintbrush, sanding block or stepladder for a VERY LONG TIME!

In other news, Small Dog has been having trials and tribulations of her own.  She'd developed a limp, which rapidly became a 3-legged hobble and we feared that she'd done something to undo the luxating patella op she had a few years back.

But no.

Ever a medical anomaly, she had two different things going on, with the same leg, apparently completely coincidental.

Firstly, the pin which was implanted in her leg during the surgery had come adrift, and was poking up under her skin causing a painful inflammatory lump.  She had it removed under anaesthetic yesterday......

Big..... isn't it?

It looks like a common or garden panel pin to me, but it's probably medical grade titanium or similar.  The bent end with the vicious jagged cut edge is what was sticking out of the bone into her leg.... poor wee scrap.  No wonder she was in pain.

However, that isn't the half of it.

The X-ray also showed that her cruciate ligament is torn, so her leg joint is unstable.  According the vet this combination of two completely unrelated problems in the same leg is unusual to say the least.

So, pin removed = one problem solved.  The cruciate ligament is a whole different can of worms.  It won't self repair, and surgery is usually the recommended option, especially for larger, heavier dogs.  However Small Dog is......well, she's.... small.  And she's the perfect weight for her size.  So there is a slight possibility that with rest and medication, it just might improve, if the surrounding muscle can support the unstable joint.

For Small Dog this means....

• No running
• No jumping
• No stairs
• No 'off lead' adventures
• No walking on rough or uneven ground
• Short walks on level ground 
• Full dose of Metacam every day for three weeks.

After three weeks we'll take her back to the vet to assess how she's doing.  

For any number of reasons it would be wonderful if she could avoid yet more surgery, which is never a happy option.  Fortunately she's the only one in the house with private healthcare, although her premiums are going through the roof and we have to pay an exorbitant excess for each claim.

How I long for the day in the hopefully not too distant future, when all the work in the house is finished, Small Dog is back to her usual perky, happy self, and we can all get back to what passes for normal.

*sigh*