I spent Christmas Eve with a couple of friends that also stayed here. I went shopping on Boxing Day, which was way worse than Black Friday at Walmart in the US. I walked to Selfridges a little after 9AM. The store opened at 9, so I thought if I got there 15 minutes after, most of the crowd was already in the store. It would be packed but at least there was no line outside of the store. Gosh! I was so wrong, people were still marching in to the store. Police was there. It made me wonder how long these people have been waiting in line. I skipped Selfridges and walked on Bond Street. I bought a couple of things at Gap, I know it's a bit pathetic, but I found an XS sweater and a wool wrap skirt for less than 20 pounds . I went to Zara next, and found a skirt for work. Tried it, and it was perfect but the line for the cashier was super long. I debated but decided to stay at the end. After over an hour, it was finally done. That was the end of my Boxing Day shopping. Next (a clothing store like H&M, Mango, Zara) looked like giving away the entire store, many people carried their giant bags on the street. The origin of Boxing Day is in the old days, wealthy British people gave their slaves gift boxes, which was a very nice tradition, I thought. Now it's a bank holiday and UK's Black Friday.
I didn't have any plans for New Year's Eve. I wanted to see the fireworks at the Thames but it would be like going to Time Square for the apple drop. I read that You had to be there before 9 to get a good spot. That's way too long. Lauren texted me that morning, she ended up staying in town, so we decided to go to dinner. We had a reservation at 8 at Iberica. I checked out the menu and I was excited. I love Top Chef the show. Some of the dishes sounded like the ones they made at the show. We had a jug of Sangria (it's cheaper to buy in bulk), cheese and chorizo plate with bread, octopus, rice with octopus cooked in black ink, Spanish omelet (suprisingly really different from what I thought, it has thinly sliced potatoes and onion, like frittata and slightly sweet), another potato dish with aoli that Lauren always liked to order. I was so excited for the black ink dish because I'm always curious what it tasted like. I liked it, a bit too salty but not fishy. It was an excellent meal to end 2013.
Now switch to a different subject.... That morning around 4AM, Chloe had an accident. Thank God for wood floor. Her dump was semi solid. I won't go details but this was the beginning of her continuous diarrhea for the next few days. Back in August, she had an acute attack of Pancreatitis. Basically the pancreas was working too hard, over producing the 3 enzymes (Amylase, lipase and can't remember the other one), and the enzyme leaked out and started attacking other organs. The pancreas was inflamed. Since then, I switched her food to low fat and grain free diet, and also gave her digestive enzyme supplements, so her pancreas doesn't have to work too hard.
When this happened again, I was trying to stay calmed. No medication for pancreatitis except to stop her diarrhea and some antibiotic to prevent infections. The most important thing is to let her pancreas rest (no solid food) and keep her hydrated. Based on an article written by a vet that I found online, broth made from rice and chicken for flavor is good for sick dogs. I gave her Imodium also. Even though she was sick, she was drinking the broth and hydrated well. Thursday night was worse. She was bleeding from her rectum. She was weak and stopped drinking. Now I'm worried. I had to take her to the vet on Friday. I made an appointment with a vet. I got his name from Lauren's friend who had a cat. The vet office was 10 minutes away from my place. The vet's name is Bruce Fogle. It turned out that he had been in practice for over 30 years and wrote so many books about dogs on different topics. Impressive. When I talked to the nurse to make an appointment, she took the time to listen to what I had to say and I just felt really good about this place.
I went home at noon. All morning I had mixed emotion. Is this it? The beginning of the end? She's 11. I don't want her to keep having acute attacks and affect her quality of her life. We got to Dr Fogle's office at 3.30pm. Chloe was pretty curious and her Lakeland Terrier insting kicked in. She had to sniff every corner, went under the desk, investigate this new place. The nurse thought it was funny and took her to the back for the office tour. She said Chloe wasn't shy. I guess that's a good sign considering she was sick.
Soon we saw Dr. Fogle. I told him about her health history while he was watching Chloe, who was busy investigating his office. After he examined her, he said this was not a Pancreatitis attack. Something about her tummy. A specific area wasn't swollen and Chloe wasn't comfortable when it was squeezed a bit. Hey he's the doctor, he knows what he's talking about. He looked at his gum too to see if she was dehydrated and she wasn't. If it's not pancreatitis, then what is it? She had infection in her intestines because she ate something bad, which easily was picked up during her walk. Her nose was always on the ground looking for food. I had to pry her jaw open several times because she found food on the street. The medication was Metronidazole, which is highly effective for diarrhea and kill bacteria in her system. Whew! I asked him how do I make her drink and eat, he said no worries, she'll be back to normal over the weekend.
I want to call him a miracle doctor because after she got home, the first thing she did was drink. I think walking for a mile and being so excited at the vet office made her thirsty. I fed her and gave her the med. She ate and slept like a baby. I had been putting a diaper on her, so her mess wasn't all over the place. She looked so cute in a new born diaper. I slit a tiny hole for her tail. Within 24 hours, she was pretty much back to normal.
To celebrate her recovery, I groomed her, she hated it but she looks even cuter now.
Saturday morning I took a break from long few days of cleaning, doing loads of laundry, mopping and wiping every surface with Lysol and went to see Nutcracker Royal Ballet at London Colosseum. I got a discounted ticket for 32.50. The original price was 65. Good deal. Now I know how to hunt for good deals. I had lunch at Bibimbap. Brown rice and veggies served in a hot stone bowl. Yumm!
