Meanwhile....

No matter how much I intend to keep up here, it's a hard habit to get back into. Especially when life keeps piling stuff all over me, good and bad. It's hard to find the time and intention to sit and write, when my spare moments feel like they're getting parceled out like the last few rationed doses of medicine in an apocalypse.

That said, there's stuff, and life, and it's going.

umbran's contract was terminated last week, due to complications of a corporate buy-out, so we're back to being a one (not-so-steady) income family. He's already had a handful of interviews, so hopefully this will only be a temporary setback, and goodness knows we've ridden this merry-go-round before, but it's a complication that I could really live without right now.

Hospice, on the other hand, is thriving. Last week and the week before I had maybe one day in clinic each week, and spent the rest of my time seeing house calls, averaging 2-3 a day. Which, for boutique medicine, is pretty good. By the end of the first week I was finding a pretty good rhythm - wake up, answer emails and phone calls that came in overnight, prep charts for the day; head out to morning visits; come home to write up charts, grab lunch, and process anything that needs processing, then back out again for afternoon/evening visits and errands. And the more I do it, the more I love it. And it's amazing to have enough clients to stay steady like that.

Next month registration opens for the first-ever Hospice Certification Program - the program itself will start in June and run through next year; if I make it through the whole thing I'll be part of the world's first round of Certified Hospice and Palliative Care Veterinarians. I'm equal parts excited and terrified; I want so much to learn, but at the same time it's been about a decade and a half since I've taken a formal class or a standardized test, and they'll also be requiring written case studies, and I've never done anything like that.

Meanwhile, I'll also be back in the hospital tomorrow. The initial treatment helped for a little while, but I'm back to throwing up almost everything I eat, so now I get to spend 4 hours having a gastric motility study done. If this doesn't give us the answer.... I honestly have no idea; we've ruled out just about everything possible. We're past looking for zebras and into unicorn hunts, and I'm running out of both ideas for what to try next and energy to push my doctors to keep looking. (And if my husband doesn't find a job soon, I'll also be out of health insurance.)

Silks. I love silks. We had a substitute instructor this week, which meant things being explained in new ways, and we have a smaller class in general this semester, which means more time to actually practice. I had to give up on my idea of a second class, given the financial situation, but with any luck I'll be able to pick that up next semester instead.

In general, for all of my lamenting about health and financial woes, life is pretty good. I have good friends and good hobbies and good books to read. I love my job and my husband and my friends. We're entering the time of year when I'm able to start going out and doing stuff - there's a sheep-shearing and wool festival this weekend, a steampunk festival next weekend, friends' seder last weekend. gishwhes registration is open (anybody want to play?); larps are running, grapes and rhubarb are growing in my garden.

Now to just get the last few kinks ironed out....