Archive for November, 2023

Listen! Do you smell something?

Saturday, November 18th, 2023

I sure don’t.

Yesterday if I stuck my nose right up to something I’d get one single very muted whiff of its odor, then nothing.

Today?

Not even that.

It’s super bizarre. I can’t taste anything at all. I can still taste sweet, salty, bitter, sour, etc, but absolutely no flavor whatsoever.

I hope this goes away. There are kits you can get to help retrain your nose and brain to smell. At least I’m not the only one and this has been a symptom for a long time so there’s been some research.

But suddenly losing two out of five senses? Not great.

Realllllllly not great.

The Bug

Friday, November 17th, 2023

So last Sunday afternoon Jim was out munching leaves with the lawnmower after a lovely weekend of us just puttering around, enjoying each others company. He came in saying he had a bit of a scratchy throat and thought his allergies were really acting up.

Monday morning he had a cough so he took a COVID test. That test line came up bright pink right away. After nearly four years, he had the bug. We put masks on right away, he isolated himself, I felt fine, and my test was negative.

Tuesday morning I still felt fine and my test was negative. By Tuesday afternoon I started feeling like I had a bit of a scratchy throat, and boom:

Tuesday Jim was feeling pretty awful, and that night I spiked a fever and felt like I had lead weights attached to me.

By Wednesday Jim was feeling a bit better, and I was starting to feel pretty rough. Just getting up to go to the bathroom was exhausting.

By Thursday he was feeling much better and I was feeling a little better, but I had a terrible bitter taste in my mouth.

Today he feels pretty good, he says his smell and taste is a little better. I feel significantly better (still coughing, still congested, but much better), but now I can’t smell or taste. If I stick my nose right up to something with a strong odor I can vaguely smell it. Like I tried sniffing vanilla extract and it was like someone driving by the house outside whispering “vanilla”, I can barely smell the ammonia in Windex. It’s super bizarre. I could taste that my coffee was sweet, but I couldn’t taste any flavor to it. I got moisturizer in my mouth after the shower I finally managed to take today after not having the energy the last couple of days, and I couldn’t taste it at all.

We were pretty sick. We’ve both been sicker, but we were pretty sick. And we were most likely infected with the by all accounts MILD Omicron strain that’s most prevalent now, AND we were both vaccinated with the newest vaccine recently (Jim had his in late September, I had mine in early October). And we were STILL pretty sick.

We had all the shots we could get, we had a mild strain, and we were still pretty damn sick.

Don’t fuck around. Get vaccinated.

Jack

Monday, November 6th, 2023

I am so sad to say that we lost another of the Alkemi A litter today. The very first puppy born in the very first Alkemi litter. Right after he was born and I was telling Jim his markings (so we could tell them apart later), I looked at his chest and said he had a white stripe, and Jim said then his litter name would have to be Jack (after Jack White from The White Stripes).

So he was Jack.

Little did we know he’d keep that name for the next almost fourteen years. Jack had a wonderful family who gave him a great life with adventures big and small, they took amazing care of him, and they loved and respected him enough to say goodbye when the time came, he will be missed, and he was loved. I am so sorry for their loss

Rest easy Jack, you were a good boy.

Jack (Alkemi Ascari LS) – 1/15/10-11/6/23