Oscar (at the bowl) and timid Felix, sneaking up to the farmer’s deck for some food that was left out for them. This was the start of the saga of the Pipe Spaniels.
It was three years ago in February when a farmer near Lawrence, Kansas found that two small spaniels were on his property, and using an old auger pipe as shelter. The farmer was worried about the two pups, especially given the snow on the ground and impending heavier snows. The farmer started to put food and water out on the deck, and while the two spaniels would sneak up to eat, they wouldn’t allow the farmer or his wife to touch them or even approach them. Finally, when the snows were very heavy, the farmer trapped the two pups on the porch. Thus began the saga of the “Pipe Spaniels”.
The farmer and his wife weren’t “dog people”, but didn’t want to leave the pups on their own. Below is a letter the farmer wrote to a friend, hoping to find someone that would come and take care of them:
Date: February 2014
Subject: Two spaniels dumped at my farm…..
About two weeks ago, two spaniels were dumped (I think) at my farmstead. Looking on the web, they seem to be King Charles spaniels. (See attached pictures). They set up residence in an old auger pipe near my pole barn. I have been feeding and watering them, and insulated the pipe as best I could. Though they don’t seem afraid, they are quite wary. I have never been able to touch them, pet them, or examine them. I think they might both be females, in that they squat to pee, rather than lift a leg. One may be the parent of the other. The texture of their fur is a little different, one being more puppy-like. They seem inseparable. They had neither collars nor tags.
When it started snowing heavily last Tuesday, we trapped them on the deck when they were eating, and I brought them in the house, which they did not like much. We have kept them in the house since then, as their pipe is buried under about a foot of snow, and the depth of the snow at our place is well over their heads. Since then, they have been hiding under my bed, and will seldom come out, except when alone, though they do seem to be taming down a little, but only a little. The older one is more likely to come out, but the younger one is very wary. They have developed a taste for my shoes.
I can’t keep them. My wife and I both travel a lot for our jobs, and my travel season is rapidly approaching. Do you have anyone who could take care of these two until somebody will take them permanently? They seem to be really sweet little dogs, but my wife in not an animal person (to say the least), and these two deserve a permanent home. They might be outside dogs – they certainly aren’t housebroken – and don’t every go to a door to be let out. They would be perfect barn dogs, but my barn is a pole barn – open on all sides, providing no real shelter.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. At some point, I’ll have to take them to the shelter. I’m working two other avenues of people who are trying to place them, but, so far, not luck. One person is my neighbor, Dawn Barnes. Any relation?
Anyway, I’m just spreading the word. Please help if you can. I would drive these guys somewhere if necessary. They need a home.
Sincerely,
Daniel
Oscar and Felix, the “Pipe Spaniels” soon after they were rescued and were staying with “Suzy”. . At this stage, they’d huddle together in the far end of their enclosure, trying to stay as far away as possible from any human contact.
The dogs found their way to “Suzy”, who worked with them for a few months to try to get them acclimated to people. It was slow going, as the dogs refused to be touched, refused to let human beings close to them. Slowly, Suzy got them to trust her, to the point where they’d start to let her touch them and pet them. During this time, a group interested in spaniel rescue became aware of the two pups, who were quickly dubbed “The Pipe Spaniels”. Given their story, and given their lack of trust in human beings, the group became very emotionally invested in the outcome of the two pups. Suzy decided the best way to continue rehabilitating the dogs was to find their forever home, someone who could bond with them and continue to work with them.
Suzy responded to an inquiry from a family 300 miles away, in South Dakota. After vetting the family, Suzy believed the right fit for the Pipe Spaniels had been found. Free of any cost and on her own time, Suzy drove the two pups up to their new forever home, in July of 2014. The small family, with a mother, father, and young son, had recently lost their precious “Cooper”, a Cocker Spaniel that was also a rescue dog and who lived a long, happy life with the family. The Pipe Spaniels seemed like a wonderful fit, a chance fill the void in the home that had existed since Cooper passed, and a chance to provide two lost souls with a lifetime of love. Suzy was very emotionally invested in the two little spaniels, but did the hardest thing any rescue person ever has to do…leave the two with their forever family. Many tears were shed as Suzy left the dogs and drove home, and so began the new life for the Pipe Spaniels.
If you haven’t figured it out, these two wonderful, sweet, perfect little souls became “Oscar” and “Felix”, our two little love bugs who have enriched our lives so much over the last 3 years. Until today, I’d never seen the photo above. Until today, I’d never seen the original email the farmer sent, looking for someone to rescue the two dogs. Oscar and Felix were clearly quite young when they were found by the farmer, and we’ve started celebrating their “birthdays” right around Valentine’s Day, near the anniversary of when the farmer found them. We believe they were 1 year old or perhaps less when found, which means Oscar and Felix are now celebrating their 4th birthday, with the last 30 months of their lives spent with us.
Felix, lounging on the couch. Yeah…I think it’s safe to say that this once incredibly scared, shy pup is now feeling pretty comfortable around the Sohl household.
It’s been a challenge, particularly during the first several months! At first, the two were curious, but incredibly shy and jumpy. They’d prefer to sleep under or behind a chair, somewhere they felt “safe”. They started to tolerate our presence and touch, but were clearly nervous and shy. Slowly, in LARGE part to the wonderful, tender love of our young son, Oscar and Felix began to break out of their shell. It started with them trusting us enough to nap or even play out in the open, away from the protective cover of a chair or table. It progressed to sleeping or napping next to us, or even on top of us! There were struggles along the way, such as trying to teach them to walk on a leash, or learning to tolerate visitors in the house. But they continued to progress.
Three years after the Kansas farmer found them, Oscar and Felix are happy, healthy, and loved as any pair of dogs have ever been loved. It’s been an unlikely set of circumstances that led to their arrival in snowy South Dakota, but we’ve been blessed with two of the sweetest, kindest, gentlest souls on the face of the earth. Happy birthday to Oscar and Felix…the Pipe Spaniels!!
Evidently we’re all going to “suffer” and the “worst is yet to come”. This is the cheery message received from the local PrairieSons company when I got the (ridiculously high) bill for looking at our furnace. But hey, at least they’re helpful about it, pointing to a website where I can “Repent”…or Perish. Click for a larger view. DO IT…CLICK AND READ IT!! OR PERISH!!! 🙂
Just two days ago in my last post, I gave my first ever endorsement for a product or service of any kind. Two days later…I’m giving my first “un-endorsement”. What a historic week!!!
We went to Lincoln, Nebraska to visit family and celebrate Christmas, the weekend before actual Christmas. We got back to our home late that Sunday, December 18th, and it was 48 degrees in the house! The furnace had stopped working at some point that weekend. Knowing it was a Sunday and nobody was likely to come out, we looked in the phone book and thought we’d try somebody new (for us)…”PrairieSons Inc.” in Brandon. They said they’d be out the next day. We turned the fireplace on, kept reasonably warm through the night, and waited for them to come the next day. They arrived, and couldn’t find anything physically wrong with the furnace. They hit a reset switch (the “roll out switch, that had tripped), the furnace was running, and they said to just keep an eye on it.
6 days later, we wake up on Christmas Eve morning (Saturday) and it’s not working. We call. They’re working that day, so they come out, and again, find nothing wrong after doing a diagnostic. Again, the roll-out switch was flipped, and it runs again. The guy basically said “it happens”, but didn’t recommend changing out the roll-out switch or anything, so there wasn’t anything new installed, nothing replaced. I got the bill today. Here’s everything the bill “description” said. The bill didn’t even refer to 2 visits, just the one visit on the 19th:
For that…$270, plus $17.55 in taxes.
It’s a rip off. It’s a ridiculous fee for a very small amount of labor. I would NEVER use this business again, just for that reason. But to make it worse, when we got the bill a few weeks later? A small card with a rambling message on the back. It turns out PrairieSons Inc. has a very religious owner, by the looks of the enclosed card (photo of it shown above). It’s quite the ramble, moving from topic to topic! It all ends with a cheery “Godly people are basically guaranteed to suffer” and “The worst is yet to come”.
CHEERY! Thanks for the sermon, PrairieSons Inc.! Not that I asked for it.
I contacted the owner and complained about the bill, saying it was a rather ridiculous fee for providing no parts, and simply hitting a reset switch. I also complained about getting a religious message with my bill. The response?
I am sure there is more to the work we did than hit a reset for the fee that was assessed Terry. I will have Bruce in our office look this up Monday for more clarification and get back to you. In regards to the Bible tract, we send that out with the bill to every new customer. We are sorry you took offense to it. That is a staple of who we are and what we stand for. It may not fit you and that is fine. Everyone will stand before him on the last day and need to make an account of their own life. That is a decision that only you can answer.
Uh…NO, PrairieSons, what I told you was 100% accurate. You came out, found nothing wrong, reset the “roll out switch” to flip it back on, and…that’s it. Two times, yes, and if you charge $270 for less than an hour’s worth of work? I guess that’s your prerogative. It’s also my prerogative to complain about your ridiculously high prices.
As for getting ANOTHER sermon, after I complained about the first one? TERRIFIC customer service, PrairieSons! What is your business model? To TRY to piss off your customers? That’s what it seems like. Telling your customers they’re basically going to hell isn’t the type of message you typically expect to hear when you’re getting home appliances repaired!
Quick perusal online and I see others have complained about PrairieSons, both in terms of getting ripped off, and in terms of the religious messages. Save yourself the bother. Is your furnace out? Air conditioner out? Live in the Brandon/Sioux Falls area? There are PLENTY of repair places in the area, so unless you skipped church and REALLY, REALLY want a sermon along with your repair…pass on PrairieSons and go with another company.
Perspective. If you’re a voter in lily-white land who thinks this is a “normal” election and it’s just another guy who won, just for a second look at things from the viewpoint of my co-workers at a VERY diverse workplace, my friends, my acquaintances:
– My Somali-born, Muslim, immigrant friend with 2 of the most beautiful young children you ever saw. Now has to explain to them why the President of the United States labels Muslims as terrorists, and just yesterday in Minnesota told a crowd about the threat of Somali immigrants.
– My female friend who first harassed, then sexually assaulted by a co-worker, now having to face an America where that’s “OK”, where the President himself openly discusses assault and is accused by many, many women of assault.
– My Latino friend, being told by his president that his kind are “rapists”, primarily criminals, hordes invading from the south that are taking jobs from good white folk
– Or a COMPLETELY hypothetical story of a father in South Dakota, with the most perfect young son in the world, a son with Type-1 diabetes. Think of it from that perspective, knowing Trump said the first thing he’ll do in office is eliminate Obamacare, eliminate abilities to carry insurance across jobs, eliminate guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions, eliminate the capability to carry your child on your insurance until they turn 26. Put yourself in that father’s shoes, and fucking tell yourself that this is “OK”, that your son faces a world where his very HEALTH is less important than politics, where HATE won an election and cost him his health care.
Try walking in those shoes for a bit before laughing off this election as just the same old “politics”.
Our first dog, Grover. Grover was the first of our quirky dogs! He usually was a sweet as can be, but with an occasional “grumpy” streak. In many ways he seemed part cat, part dog, taking love on HIS schedule, while grudgingly tolerating it at other times.
Way off topic, but given recent events…a story about our history with pups seemed to be in order. I never had a dog growing up. My dad is a great guy, but alas…he was a mailman! No dogs for him. My mom didn’t like cats. As a result, I had fish growing up, but never had something warm and huggable! After we got married and got our first house, one of the first things I wanted to do…get a dog! We ended up with “Grover”, a wonderful, sweet-yet-simultaneously-grumpy Cocker Spaniel with a million little quirks. Most of the time, he was sweet and loving, but on occasion, his grumpy side would kick in and he might TOLERATE your love, but he didn’t seem too enamored about it. Despite his quirks, he was a great first dog.
A year or two after getting Grover, my wife stumbled across “Cooper”, a Cocker Spaniel in need of rescue. She went to see him at his home, where he had lived outside for his short first year of life, chained to a tree with nothing to even play with, other than an empty milkjug. Of course when you SEE a rescue dog, you WANT the rescue dog. We arranged to get him, and I went over the next day to pick him up. He’d never been groomed, had hair as long as any Cocker Spaniel you’d ever seen before, hadn’t been played with much…but when I picked him up and brought him to the car, he immediately jumped into my lap in the driver’s seat, and curled up. Hence began our long, perfect relationship with Cooper “Milkjug” Sohl, a beautiful, gentle soul for whom the entire world was always a place of happiness and wonder.
Cooper, our 2nd spaniel who lived a long, healthy life alongside Grover. Cooper was the sweetest soul that ever walked the face of the earth, with nary a “bad day”, and always full of joy.
Dogs live far too short of lives. After 11 years, Grover started having health issues. An examination and x-ray revealed the worst…a huge tumor that wasn’t treatable. We didn’t know how long he had left, but he continued to enjoy life, and we enjoyed our lives WITH him. After a couple of months, something I’ll never forgive myself for…I went on a business trip, doing field work up in Alaska. We were staying overnight in a wilderness cabin, in the middle of nowhere…and my cell phone rang at 1:00 in the morning. Stunned that there was even service, I picked up the phone, and heard the cracking voice of my crying wife. Grover had woken during the night and was seemingly paralyzed in the lower half of his body, due to the growth of the tumor. My wife snuggled him through the night, brought him into the vet in the morning, and he was given release from his pain. My first dog, and I wasn’t even there for him at the end.
Cooper lived for another couple of years before he too started having health issues. Just as with Grover, an examination found a large tumor that was inoperable. However, we were fortunate with Cooper. He didn’t pass until he was almost 15, and for his last couple of months with us, we were able to shower him with love and affection, before letting him go as well. This was in early spring of 2014.
It’s heartbreaking to lose a family member, and make no mistake, dogs are family members. My wife didn’t want another dog, at least not for a long while. Myself? Our house just seemed so quiet, so empty. After a month I started casually looking at “rescue” sites, not really planning on doing anything, but being…curious. It was during this aimless online perusing that I came across “Oscar” and “Felix”, two spaniels that had been found living in the wild. They were found living in an outside auger pipe, and thus they were initially given the nickname “The Pipe Spaniels”. When a farmer down in Kansas first managed to coax them into his house, they were scared, wild, and painfully shy of any human contact. After refusing to leave the relative safety of a spot under the farmer’s bed, a rescue group was contacted. For the next two months, they were slowly introduced to human contact by a wonderful woman from the rescue group, and in June of 2014, we were introduced to the newest members of our family.
Oscar and Felix, the “Pipe Spaniels” soon after they were rescued. At this stage, they’d huddle together in the far end of their enclosure, trying to stay as far away as possible from any human contact.
Given their background and reluctance to even touch a human being when they were first found, they had made some progress by the time we got them. However, they were still incredibly shy, so easy to spook at the slightest disturbance, and felt much more comfortable snuggling with each other than they did coming anywhere close to members of our family. The first month was especially rough. Just trying to get them to go in and out of the patio door to go outside was often a chore. We were slowly introducing ourselves to them, allowing them to get used to us at their own pace. There were many growing pains over the first year! After a while, they began to feel more comfortable. Instead of looking for “cover” while resting (such as under a table or chair), they started coming into the living room and feeling comfortable enough to fall asleep in the open while we were all in the room. They were increasingly coming up for pets, and then snuggles. Trying to walk them on a leash was impossible at first, as they’d buck like broncos while on leash. But there too, they began to trust us. By the end of that first summer, not only did they learn to walk on a leash, but walks became the high point of their day! Just the sight of us grabbing the leashes would send them into a butt-wiggling frenzy of happiness. As they learned to trust us, they also started acting like “normal” dogs, following us wherever we went in the house, and often insisting on snuggling up with us no matter where we were.
It’s now been 2 1/2 years since we’ve gotten the Pipe Spaniels”. A great story? No doubt! They’re wonderful, sweet little dumplings (my wife’s term), and have added immeasurable joy to our lives. But as rescues, coming from a background “in the wild”, they are two of THE QUIRKIEST dogs on the planet. The names the rescue group gave them, “Oscar” and “Felix” are PERFECT as they are truly the “Odd Couple” of dogs.
This is about 3 months after we got Oscar and Felix. Despite their quirks, they warmed up to our son FAR faster than we would have ever expected.
Felix is the goofy, more outgoing one. We’ve given him the middle name of “Tigger”!! He’s always bouncing from place to place, looking for something exciting. If there’s trouble in the house, you can ALWAYS bet that it’s Felix who started that trouble! He loves to chase, he loves to play, he loves to tease his brother, and tease us! He also is a true cuddler, loving nothing more than curling up on your lap or next to you on the couch.
Oscar’s middle name? “Eeyore”. He couldn’t be more different from Felix! Everything he does is slow…and…deliberate. Walking outside, eating, even playing…everything is done slowly and carefully. He’s also more cautious and careful about distributing his love, which makes loving moments with him even more special.
Given their background as rescues, even after 2 1/2 years, quirks remain, one of which has recently driven us NUTS, and is the reason for the title of this blog post. While they generally act like “normal” dogs while with us in the house, they are often still painfully shy around new people and new situations. Fortunately they both think our son is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but otherwise, children, especially young girls, really seem to frighten them (making us wonder what they went through before the rescue place took them in). One major, MAJOR quirk…their eating and drinking habits, particularly the latter.
The first day we got them, we immediately introduced them to the back yard. One of the first things they did…go over to the bird bath and get a good drink. Ever since that first day, they both REFUSE to drink water that’s inside the house! The bird bath is their “go to” source of water, and no matter how thirsty they are, they will wait until they’re outside before taking a drink. In winter when the water is frozen? They eat snow! No water in the bird bath in summer? They’ll lick the morning dew off the deck! They’ll lick the dew in the grass! They’ll look for a mud puddle! They even turn over plastic bags or other things in the back yard to lick the moisture underneath! It’s only on the very rare occasions where there’s no outside water source that they’d even DREAM of drinking water from the always full bowl next to their doggy beds.
Felix lounging on the couch in one of his favorite positions. Yeah…I’d say he’s learned to relax around us.
Recently, we have been very worried about Oscar. He’s always been the “quirkier” pup, but recently he’s taken it to a new level. About a week and a half ago, Oscar started to eat more slowly, and leave food behind in his bowl. Soon, it was hard to get him to eat at all. After one day where he refused to eat anything, we set up a vet appointment and started to wonder what was wrong. I called the vet to make the appointment, then went back to try to get him to eat…something. ANYTHING! Even ground beef, fresh chicken, and any other of his favorite treats were rejected. He’d lick them once or twice, then ignore them.
That evening, worrying about poor Oscar and anxiously waiting for the next day’s vet appointment, a thought occurred to me. His eating troubles began RIGHT at the time where I took the bird bath down for the winter. The weather had been very dry, and there was little moisture outside for them, except perhaps the morning dew. In the past, both pups would VERY reluctantly resort to that yucky, disgusting tap water in indoor bowls, if no water were available from any other source. We had just assumed that if they were really thirsty, they knew there was always an accessible bowl of water by their doggy beds! But on a hunch, I took that bowl of water and moved it 10 feet…so it was OUTSIDE the patio door on the deck.
Oscar in one of his favorite elements…snow! Why is this one of his favorite weather phenomenon? BECAUSE IT MEANS AN UNLIMITED SUPPLY OF OUTDOOR WATER!! Allowing him to avoid that disgusting, clearly inferior “indoor” water!!
Oscar “Eeyore” Sohl, in true Oscar fashion, slowly meandered to the door when I asked if they wanted to go out. Felix did as he always does, bounding down the stairs and running all over the yard like a mad man. Oscar? He stopped when he saw something was “different.” “What’s this?”, he seemed to be saying, as he suspiciously eyed the water bowl in the corner of the deck. Slowly, cautiously, with tail tucked between his legs (or what counts as a tail on a docked Spaniel), he approached the bowl, much as a gazelle would approach a watering hole when lions are around. He took a sniff…and then started chugging water like he’d been lost in the Sahara for months. That ENTIRE BOWL of water was gone in a couple of minutes. I look out, and a happy looking Oscar is staring back up at me, with water dripping down from his wet snout.
Could that be it? Could that be why he wasn’t eating? Was he SO DAMNED STUBBORN about drinking water inside the house, that he was dehydrated and didn’t feel like eating? When he came back in, we offered him his food bowl…and he DEVOURED 2 1/2 meals worth of food.
What kind of pup does this?!?!? What kind of pup refuses to drink water if it’s inside the house, but will drink the same water, from the same bowl, if it’s 10 feet away OUTSIDE the house!?!?! What kind of pup STARVES himself in some kind of silent demonstration against the evils of indoor water?!!?!?
We’re still monitoring our little freaky Oscar. I did temporarily refill the bird bath, given that we’re not supposed to get a hard freeze for the next few days. Oscar has been drinking heartily from the bird bath and the outdoor water bowl, and is back to eating normally, just as if nothing were ever wrong! Given where they came from and how incredibly shy they were when we first got them, they’re always going to be “quirky” little Pipe Spaniels! But as the Great Water Strike of 2016 showed, we ARE learning to understand their freakiness!
One of the pictures a local news station took for a piece they did on my story of dealing with Sjogren’s Syndrome, and dry eye. The reason I’m writing this blog post…to let others who are suffering from extreme dry eye that THERE IS HOPE.
Off topic, and a probably the longest blog post I’ve ever done, but in a way it is directly related to the goals of my blog. It’s science related! It’s also directly related to my birding! But more than that, I want to tell my story, in the hopes that it can help other people who have gone through what I’ve gone through over the last few years.
There’s definitely a reason I stepped back from photography, working on my website, and blogging for almost a year. In short…turning older sucks (I recently turned 50). It sucks more when you get hit with a health issue. I was diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome about 3 years ago now. It’s not fun! It’s an autoimmune disease that has variable symptoms, but it generally includes fatigue, joint pain, and most annoyingly for many, autoimmune attacks on the moisture glands in your eyes and mouth. The latter were my first symptoms. It may sound minor, but it can have a huge impact on your quality of life. I’d learned to adapt to the dry mouth that developed soon after diagnosis, because for me, chewing gum provides great relief. I even go to bed every night with gum in my mouth! If my mouth drys out at night, it will often wake me up, but a few semi-conscious chews on the gum and I get relief.
The eyes have been a much more difficult issue to deal with. For 2 years, the dry eyes (my first Sjogren’s symptom) were annoying, but something I was living with. That changed in late summer 2015, where it began to affect my vision. I’d wake up with normal vision, but after a variable amount of time, every day, my vision would get very blurry due to extremely dry eyes. I honestly don’t know where I’d be right now without the solution that I found. I had no desire, or ability, to do bird photography or some of my other hobbies, and it was starting to affect my work in that there were days where I just couldn’t see well enough to work.
Starting last fall, I started working with a (wonderful!!) eye doctor in Sioux Falls, Dr. Hill, who wanted to try fitting a new kind of “scleral” contact lens. I have had glasses since I was 7, with extreme astigmatism, and although I’d tried contacts once before, many years ago, I never found contacts that would stay in the right position and allow me to see well. Dr. Hill was hopeful that scleral contact lenses could both allow me to see without glasses for the first time in over 40 years, but also would also give me relief for my dry eyes.
Scleral contacts are larger than “normal” contact lenses. They extend out into the whites of your eyes, with a ring of contact around the edge, but with a slight “dome” over your entire pupil and iris. Before you put them in, you hold them horizontally with a little suction cup, fill them up with a saline solution, and then put them in your eyes while you’re looking down into a mirror. The idea? That they will cover most of your eye, correct your vision like a normal contact, but also maintain a thin, domed layer of liquid that stays against your eye all day and relieves your dry eye symptoms. I was skeptical at first, to say the least! I was miserable though, was having a very hard time at work, and was willing to try anything. Given my last experience with contact lenses, I wasn’t expecting much!
The whole experience started out rough. Not only do I have bad astigmatism, but one of my eyes in particular was shaped very oddly. It was very difficult to get a scleral contact lens that “fit” the contours of my eyes. As a result, the first scleral contacts I tried would sometimes rotate spontaneously in my eye. Also, because of the poor fit, what’s supposed to be a sealed “ring” around your eye was anything BUT sealed, leading to that domed liquid layer either draining out, or being contaminated with debris from the eye itself. My vision was NOT very good at first, as they didn’t fit right, and would become cloudy with debris finding its way underneath. They also weren’t very comfortable, and after a few hours, I always wanted to take them out. It was discouraging, and my initial skepticism seemed well founded.
I went in for fittings and adjustments at least once a week, starting in October 2015. By the New Year, I was still quite reliant on glasses, and was only wearing my scleral contacts sporadically. Towards the end of December, Dr. Hill told me there just wasn’t much more he could do with the kinds of scleral contacts available at the time…but, he said a new product was coming out in January that he thought just might solve my extraordinarily difficult case.
Again, I was skeptical, but tried to remain optimistic that the forthcoming new scleral contact line would work. January came…and went, without the company releasing the new contact product. Finally, by mid-February, the company launched the new line, a bigger scleral contact that covered more of the eye, was capable of compensating for extreme astigmatism, and provided a firmer fit that basically eliminated the possibility of the rotation issues I was encountering. Dr. Hill set up a fitting for the new line, and a few days later, I was called in to try them out. I was excited that this FINALLY might be “it”, might be the pair that fit my eyes, allowed me to see, and helped the dry eye issue.
I came in for a fitting, tried the contact, and…was immediately disappointed. Once again, as soon as I put the contact in, I couldn’t see at all. Dr. Hill was puzzled, but it became apparent that the contact was rotated in an unexpected way, and thus the astigmatism correction wasn’t properly placed over the eye. I left dejected as he took more measurements and said they’d try again. The next week, I went back for another try.
The day I went in for that refitting is a day that changed my life. I had been quite miserable for several months by then, and had been into Dr. Hill’s office every week for several months. I knew the routine…go in for another fitting, put in the new contact, and then have the disappointment set in as I’d immediately know it wasn’t “right”. I went into that appt. in early March with the same mindset. I went into what had become “my” exam room (I’d been there so often!!), sat down, and tried the new pair.
I COULD SEE!! Right away I knew something was different, in that not only could I see EXTREMELY well, but they were comfortable. Even during the times when the previous versions were “behaving” and I could see fairly well (which wasn’t often), they just weren’t comfortable, and I’d often have to take them out. I sat there and waited for Dr. Hill to come back in the room…excited…hopeful…but still pessimistic that with my next blink, they’d rotate out of position just like every other version I’d tried. But to my surprise, they didn’t budge. Not in the least.
Dr. Hill came in, and could tell how excited I was. He’d been used to coming in to a face filled with disappointment, but when he came in this time, I had a big smile on my face. He started examining my eyes, sat back…and a big smile crossed his face as well. Dr. Hill had been working extremely hard with me for several months, and it was quite obvious that I was a big challenge for him, a challenge that he was in many ways relishing!! On that day, I think he was just about as excited as I was! To be able to help someone with eyes as challenging as mine was certainly a big accomplishment for him, and I will always be grateful for the vast amount of time he spent trying to help.
I was the first person in the entire country to try this new line of contact lenses. The contact lens company themselves became VERY familiar with my case, using my countless visits to help guide the fitting of other patients. I will always be grateful not only for Dr. Hill, but for this company and new line of contacts that became available just when my need was at its highest.
I actually went HOME that day with a pair of contact lenses that worked pretty damn well! It wasn’t perfect, as in one eye, the fit was still a bit off. There were still 4 or 5 more visits back to the eye doctor to tweak the fit, to ensure they were snug against the eye, but not too snug, and were able to “seal” the dome of moisture inside that protected my eyes. By early April, I was done! We had a “final” pair of scleral contact lenses that were comfortable, that I could literally wear all day, and that PROTECTED MY EYES! It wasn’t an easy path! In the 6 months since I started, I had gone into the eye doctor almost 30 times for measurements and refitting attempts. Many of those visits were 1 to 1 1/2 hours each, as they’d try a new contact, wait to see how it settled down on the eye, and then take new measurements to try again.
My eyes themselves are still incredibly dry without the contacts. I wear the contacts from dawn to dusk, taking them out only when I go to bed. After I wake up in the morning, I have maybe 1 “good” hour where I can see with my glasses, but soon, the dryness takes over and my eyes start to get very blurry. But the MOMENT I put in the contacts, my vision is extremely clear, so clear, in fact, that I must say I can now see better than I ever had seen during my 40+ years of wearing glasses. Ever since trying the newest line of scleral contacts, my eye tests showed my corrected vision was BETTER than 20/20!! I often have to refresh the liquid underneath the contacts once a day, taking the contacts out, cleaning them a bit, and refilling them with fresh saline, but that’s an extremely minor inconvenience, as in return, that little moisture dome bathes my eyes in liquid all day and makes my eyes feel (dare I say?) almost NORMAL.
With the Sjogren’s, my eyes are going to be a challenge for the rest of my life, but the scleral contacts have (literally?) saved my life. Without them I was losing my ability to work, to play, to ENJOY life. With them, I’m able to cope with one of the horrible impacts of Sjogren’s. Avera and a local news station, KSFY, actually did a “medical minute” piece on my story, talking about the challenges of dry eye and telling the story of not only myself, but of Dr. Hill’s attempts to solve my difficult case. It was quite the journey, but WELL worth it, and I hope my story gives hope to anyone else out there who might be struggling with Sjogren’s, or with other dry eye issues.
When I first started blogging, on a blog where I’ve now removed all content, much of the focus was on politics. It got to be too much. It’s absolutely disgusting what happens on blogs online, with the insults, intimidation, and pure HATRED that becomes apparent. Because of that, I stopped talking about politics, and rebooted my blog to focus on science, birds, and photography.
I’m going to break with my “no politics” pledge for one post, and one post only. This is just too much to ignore, especially given my last post about Americans and their turn against science…against FACT. That same attitude is pervasive in this election. It all started back in the 1990s. You had a zealous Congressional contingent at the same time that right-wing talk radio started spewing hate. Started spewing conspiracies. Started spewing lies. Suddenly the sole purpose of the “opposition” Congress was to investigate and oppose, rather than legislate.
We’ve had 20 years of the same mentality. The next election now is the ONLY thing that matters, and every political decision is made solely on that basis. Legislative accomplishment? Virtually absent, save for the few, short periods when one party controlled both the White House and Congress.
This mentality, based on hate, based on conspiracy, has COMPLETELY warped what is important in an election. Those conspiracy theories? A completely IGNORANT American public now treats them as fact, rather than pure, politically motivated pipe dreams. The Clintons murdered Vince Foster! Obama is a Muslim, born in Kenya!! Hillary was personally responsible for Benghazi (and evidently every other negative thing that’s ever occurred on the planet). Never mind that none of these have any evidence! Never mind that millions in taxpayer dollars have been wasted on pointless investigations, witch-hunts that have turned up exactly…nothing.
Yet an ignorant American public still believes THESE are the issues that matter the most. They still believe these are REAL events, REAL controversies, rather than politically manufactured bullshit. Just as my previous post on the anti-science movement in the U.S., politics has become a fact-free zone.
The result? You’ve got a true pig of a human being in Trump, a racist, a misogynist, an ignorant, lying, self-serving blowhard who has one quality that has gotten him where he’s at…he’s been smart enough to tap into the ignorance and hatred of those who have been spoon-fed bullshit for 20 years. Incredibly vulgar tapes where Trump sounds like a 19-year frat boy, rather than the potential President of the United States? No worries to these folks! In the world of hate in which they live, fact-free conspiracy theories are more important that the character and ability of “their” candidate to actually lead.
The fact that a man like Trump was actually nominated as a candidate of a major party, the fact that he’s a month away from potentially winning the presidency, DESPITE proving himself to truly be one of the most DEPLORABLE men on the planet, is just a natural outcome from 20-years of hate, 20-years of conspiracy-theory, 20-years of ignorance.
I’m flabbergasted. The fact that half of America evidently thinks this kind of man is fit to be President makes me frankly ashamed of my fellow Americans. We’ve devolved into a country where hatred, bigotry, and misogyny are evidently accepted, and it makes me sick.
Like I said…a one-time political post. Back to birds, science, and photography.
Birding, fun. Photography, fun. Walking outside while doing both…fun.
War…not fun. ISIS…not fun. Paris attacks…not fun. When I “rebranded” my blog a while back, deleting old material and focusing only on birds, science, and photography, it was partially for my own sanity. Blogging about politics and the ridiculousness of humanity isn’t fun. But the last few days have been depressing, seeing the reaction of Americans to the Paris bombings. Can’t help but break rank here and go off topic…
Several weeks ago, the world was shocked by a photo of a 3-year old Syrian boy, a refugee, who washed up dead along the Turkish coast. It put a face on the humanitarian crisis in Syria, and for a moment, provided world-wide sympathy for what the Syrian people are going through.
That’s gone. A terrorist attack in Paris, conflicting reports about the origin of the attackers, and now Syrian refugees are being characterized as being nearly as bad, nearly as EVIL, as ISIS themselves. In the last few days, 23 Governors have decreed they will ban any Syrian refugees from entering their state (even though it’s quite clear they don’t have that power). The Republican presidential candidates have fallen all over themselves trying to out-do each other in promoting hatred and bigotry towards Syrian refugees, with Bush and Christie even both suggesting that refugees pass a “religion test”, with Muslims denied entry to the U.S. and Christians admitted. Nothing screams “AMERICA!!!” to me more than making political hay out of a tragedy, and Republicans are certainly doing their damnedest to squeeze every last bit of political capital out of the Paris attacks.
What I find even more disheartening is the general reaction of Americans in general. It’s absolutely disgusting to go online right now, either to social media or in reading comments on mainstream news stories. The bigotry, the outright HATE that’s being spewed by so many every-day Americans is shocking, even to a cynic like myself.
In World War II, we let our fear and bigotry control our actions, and we placed thousands of Japanese Americans in interment camps, as black a mark as there is in U.S. history. Evidently we haven’t learned our lesson. When we look back at what’s happening right now, we will look back with disgust, we will look back with SHAME. Or at least we should.
The worst component to me is the complete and utter disregard for “Christian” beliefs. What I’m seeing on Facebook…”Friends” (now former friends) posting meme images such as “One nation under GOD…NOT Allah!!”. The states whose governors wish to ban Syrian refugees are almost exclusively “red” states, with conservative politicians and conservative constituencies. EVERY STATE IN THE SOUTHEASTERN U.S. has had their governor proclaim they wish to ban Syrian refugees. In other words…the entire so-called “Bible Belt” of America is turning its back on its OWN religion, making a mockery of Christianity, and choosing instead to be led by their own fear and bigotry.
I’m an atheist, not because of any disdain for religious belief in general, but because as a scientist…I need proof! I need evidence! However, I have no problem with people practicing whatever religion they desire, so long as it doesn’t directly cause harm to others, and so long as it isn’t force-fed down the throats of “other” religions. Islam is NOT a violent religion…it’s perverted by a very small minority, to obvious evil and violent ends.
I’m sorry, American “Christians”, right now you are guilty of the same kind of perversion of your religion. When people self-identifying as “Christian” deny assistance to a group of people undergoing the most unimaginable horrors…it’s a perversion of your religion. When self-identified “Christians” direct hateful language towards Muslims and Syrians…it’s a perversion of your religion. It’s absolutely shocking…absolutely DISGUSTING…to see what people are publicly saying in social media and elsewhere right now, and that includes some people I personally know and had thought highly of.
Nothing brings out the true character of a human being than fear. And the Paris attacks have certainly brought out that fear (and thus, the hideous nature of far too many human beings).
It’s not just religion that’s been perverted by both Muslims and Christians though, it’s the foundation of the United States itself that is being perverted. We were founded in the name of freedom, freedom to believe what you want, freedom to practice whatever religion you want, without fear, without consequence. We are a nation of immigrants, as much of a “melting pot” as any nation on the planet. Suddenly, conservatives who have long pointed to the Constitution, who have long pointed to the ideals of our Founding Fathers…are trashing it all, all in the name of their own cowardice, fear, and bigotry. Suddenly we are NOT a nation of immigrants. Suddenly we are NOT a nation of tolerance. Suddenly we are a fearful nation, a nation of COWARDS, a nation where anyone who doesn’t share your skin color or religion is suspect.
The Paris attacks themselves were obviously shocking, an act of pure evil. Our reaction to those attacks has been every BIT as perverted and evil.
Caterpillar of the “Bird Dropping Moth”
Happy, happy Monday! Another fun-filled week away from family and home, sitting in meetings and telecons and pondering where your life went wrong. On a day such as this, we all need something to put some pep-in-our-step, something to turn-that-frown-upside-down.
Misery loves company, and nothing seems to make people feel better than seeing other people who are even worse off than themselves. So as you sit at your desk on this fine Monday morning, be grateful that at least you’re not THIS guy, pictured in the photo.
You may feel like you’re being ‘dumped on’ at work a lot, but this poor guy is actually NAMED for bird shit. Maybe things aren’t so bad for you…
🙂
The biggest spider I’ve ever seen in my yard, what I believe is a common “Garden Spider”. Pretty. Also the stuff of nightmares.
A bit off topic, but…there was a spider in the sink this morning. Just your average-sized, run-of-the-mill spider you find in your house from time to time. If you should find yourself in this situation, here are the 4 steps you should take:
I’m a nature lover. I’ll go FAR out of my way to avoid hitting any form of life while driving. I’ll stop and help turtles cross the road. If I’m walking I’ll try to avoid stepping on little buggy critters.
But I draw the line at spiders, inside my house! I’m not sure what the visceral, horrifying reaction is people (often) have to spiders. They’re not that big. They’re not going to hurt you. Many people (myself included) don’t have the same negative reaction when seeing a similarly sized insect. Yet a spider sighting in the house is a cause for immediate action in my house.