First hydration done

Tonight I gave Thor his first at-home hydration treatment.

While generally successful, this first time wasn't entirely not a disaster. It took me a minute to figure out how to attach the needle to the line leading to the bag. It took another minute to work out how to move the flow control to a position that worked well for me. I didn't poke the needle in one side of Thor's scruff and out the other, but I did initially insert the needle so shallowly that it popped out and sprayed Ringer's Lactate all over the place. My second attempt stayed in place. The hydration went relatively quickly, but when it was done I realized I had no idea how to get the needle off the line. I struggled for a bit and managed to put the needle through my thumb, but after I wiped up the blood I was eventually able to remove the needle. A small soda bottle has now been designated a sharps container.

The plan is to give Thor a unit of Ringer's Lactate every Friday night, but the vet said treatments could be moved to twice a week as needed. We'll see how things progress.



SIDE NOTE: The Vice President in charge of my department suggested I look into a poet he had quoted in his most recent monthly memo. ("It is December, and nobody asked if I was ready.") Her name is Sarah Kay, and her website has lots of information about her, her work, and groups she's working with. I started to wonder if I might have seen her at Twentyfive Eight Studios in Scranton as part of a program associated with the Breaking Ground Poets. Then I realized that I could not remember what that program was, exactly, or even what year it had taken place. It took some searching through my Facebook timeline, but eventually I found this:

OK, that looked familiar. I took a closer look:

Yes, that was it. Friday, May 15, 2015. Carlos Andres Gomez, Lauren Whitehead, Jon Sands, and Adam Falkner. No Sarah Fry or Project VOICE.

I wish I had been blogging more in 2015, but that was an exceptionally hard year. At least Facebook supplied a trail for me to follow.