Trying times

So turns out, the test I took last Thursday was a false negative. On a whim I got retested the following day at a free drive-thru they were doing on campus. It, my friends, was positive. Something I found out while I was sitting in my dad's living room Saturday morning after I'd brought his groceries and breakfast. To say that I was a complete wreck is putting it mildly. My dad is fully vaxxed and boosted but I was terrified. What if his Leukemia meds affected the efficacy of the vaccine? What if he died? I'd be responsible. I spiraled hard. He didn't seem concerned at all. He was more worried about me and making sure that I was okay. I never got sick, y'all. Just a little sinus drainage at the back of my throat and ONE DAY of a runnier than usual nose. That's why I trusted that negative test! If WBF (work best friend) hadn't wanted me to go with her to get tested at that drive-thru test cite I'd have never known I had it. 

Daddy is fine, btw. He isolated away from my grandmother and got tested yesterday upon the health center's recommendation. He hasn't had any symptoms and his rapid test was negative. Because he had a close contact they did a PCR, as well, and he will get those results in the next couple of days. 

It was a thoroughly stressful week, though. WBF and both her kids ended up with it. (Her kids are teenagers, btw). Both of my sisters had it, Ethan got it, and one of my other work friends' teenage daughter got it. I was approved to come back to work Wednesday, donning an KN95 for the week and isolating in my office. This Omicron mess don't play. I still don't know how I ended up with it. WBF and I concluded that we must have crossed the same person at the library, probably at the same time. There is at least one person we suspect was asymptomatic (her teenage daughter tested positive earlier last week) and we were both around this person mask-less the week before. But we have no real way of knowing. Thank the LORD my family and WBF are all vaxxed and came through it without any major issues.

While all this stress was going on, though, I've been quietly dealing with another worry. My precious Libby isn't doing so great right now. Over the past year I've noticed that her back legs aren't as reliable as they used to be. She can't always jump onto the furniture or inside the car without assistance. Last week she started sporadically peeing herself in her sleep. Not every day/night but often enough that I've had to put waterproof bed pads on the loveseat and in her bed and wash sheets and blankets fairly regularly. She's also developed some extreme anxiety at bedtime. She has slept in her crate quietly for her entire 15 years. And then suddenly last week she started having what I call panic attacks after I put her to bed. She pants heavily and scratches at the crate door. For the first couple of nights I got up and took her out and let her come to bed with me. But the whole "peeing in her sleep" thing put a kibosh on that. I tried giving her some calming treats but those made her sick. So I'm just at a loss. It breaks my heart to hear her panting and scratching all night but I don't know what else to do. 

Then this morning after we got up and ate breakfast I noticed she was wobbling on her back legs a bit as she walked. And when we came in from outside before I left for work, she struggled to get her back legs up the single step inside and once inside she just kinda collapsed. Not in a dramatic way but just in a kind of "I'm tired of standing" kind of way. She was able to get back up, though, so I just...I don't know. I made her a little pallet in the floor in case she was unable to get on the loveseat after I left (her favorite daytime napping spot) and said a prayer over her and then cried all the way to work.

I have my suspicions on what's going on, thanks to Google, but I won't know for sure until I take her to the vet. I couldn't get an appointment with her until next Saturday so unless something drastic happens this weekend or next week, I'll just keep an eye on her.

Her appetite is still good, although she did stop eating the food she used to love. I switched her to "fresh pets" food and she gobbles it up. She still drinks plenty of water. Still pees and poops outside.

She does, however, have symptoms of canine cognitive dysfunction. She's had symptoms of that for the past year or so, gradually getting more and more noticeable and I suspect that's part of her night time anxiety.

So yeah, I've been a complete wreck or worry and fear the past couple of weeks. I haven't really talked to anyone about what's going on with Libby because people either brush that kind of thing off or tell their stories of when they had to put their pets to sleep and I just can't handle any of that. It's one of those things I would have talked to Mama about and she'd have helped me figure things out. Daddy's great and all but he isn't the best at really offering advice or comfort. That was always Mama's forte.