That's the Way that the World Goes Round

...One minute you're up, the next you're down.

According to John Prine, anyway. And Miranda Lambert. And I totally know what their talking about right now. I haven't had the greatest few days.

I mentioned how Gizmo was peeing/pooping in his kennel, so I brought him to the vet yesterday. When we got there, they weighed him, and he was 15 lbs, which is 4 lbs less than he weighed when he got his yearly shots two months ago. That freaked me out and I had all kinds of things running through my head while we were waiting.

After what seemed like forever, the vet came back and told us that he has an intestinal parasite. I can't remember the scientific name, but the street name is Raccoon Roundworm. He got it from either eating raccoon poop (most likely at the lake in July), or by eating a rodent that was infected (Gizmo is a Cairn Terrier, so that's not out of the question either). I guess it's easily treatable, unless it spreads too far and causes neurological damage (which I don't think it has , thankfully). I guess it's not that common here because I had to run across town to a clinic that had the treatment on hand.


Today, I talked to Isaac's pediatrician's nurse about maybe coming in to get checked out, since this Raccoon Roundworm is able to spread to humans (through Gizmo's feces, like if Isaac got some on his hand while playing outside and then put his hand in his mouth). She said that the doctor said it can't be identified through feces, only through a tissue sample, which they did not take from Gizmo yesterday, so she's not sure what to tell me. I guess she didn't think that's what Gizmo really had.

So I called the vet and explained this. The vet said, "I don't know how you identify it in humans, but in dogs you can find it in their feces. We saw the larvae in his stool sample." I figure the vet probably knows a little more about it, but it still leaves me wondering what to think...

Then I started looking it up on the Internet. Bad idea. The vet made it sound like no big deal, but lots of animals and even some humans have died from this infection. And I read that it's nearly impossible to detect, so even though this may have nothing to do with Gizmo's urination/defecation in his kennel, I'm SOOOO glad we brought him in. Otherwise we may have never known he had it until it was too late. And it freaks me out because how am I supposed to know if Isaac catches it?

I am just so stressed out about all of this. And on top of it all, I lost my wallet last night. I found it in my car this morning wedged between the passenger seat and the door, but it still didn't help my stress levels. And I go back to work on Wednesday, so I'm a little apprehensive about that, too.