The Adventures of Cato, Tara and Jasmine

Excited to learn about your new puppy........

 

how are you Crystal?  And Pip? And Abby?  And Mr PipsMom?

 

I’m right as rain....thanks goodness  for exercise 

I got this new program....FitMe. ..USA bought....It gives me much needed exercise hand, arm, core, legs. Thank God....it wears me out so I got to 

Along side of app for my speech....which I got to admit has helped me tremendously from a private speech therapist...... I started talking slowly at first now i’m Racing through it.....at first I was on every 4 weeks......just been given 6 weeks till she comes back! Yeppeeeee

Pip and Abby are fine.......Mr. Pipsmom doing ok

Edited August 6, 2019 by PipsMom

Oh my goodness. I’ve missed all your updates. 

Hi Cato, Tara and hello Jasmine. 

Exciting times , can’t wait to read your blogs again. 

I remember when we brought Esme Grace home and Lacey stayed on the sofa for a week. 

You guys are so lucky to have a younger sister. Please do share lots of photos again and keep blogging.

Jo, really lovely to hear from you 

10 hours ago, Crinkly said:

 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2019 by PipsMom

On 8/6/2019 at 7:45 AM, Crinkly said:

 

how are you Crystal?  And Pip? And Abby?  And Mr PipsMom?

 

I’m right as rain....thanks goodness  for exercise 

I got this new program....FitMe. ..USA bought....It gives me much needed exercise hand, arm, core, legs. Thank God....it wears me out so I got to 

Along side of app for my speech....which I got to admit has helped me tremendously from a private speech therapist...... I started talking slowly at first now i’m Racing through it.....at first I was on every 4 weeks......just been given 6 weeks till she comes back! Yeppeeeee

Pip and Abby are fine.......Mr. Pipsmom doing ok

That is such good news @PipsMom

Am delighted for you!

it must make such a difference - and I can see a big difference in your posts too - longer and more of your lovely personality coming through.  :)  Must be so encouraging.  :)

More updates of the Terrific Trio coming soon.   I cannot believe how much food Jasmine is eating.  More than twice in a day what C&T eat together.  Hopefully the main massive growth spurt is over now...

@Summerangel

Jasmine is a little sweetie.  So gentle and sweet natured.  Such a contrast to the thug that was a young Tara!  haha!

I confess that a large motive for getting pup3 was to save Cato's back from Tara's endless bouncing.  This has worked fabulously (so far).  As soon as T and J start their rumble, Cato picks up a chew and clambers up to somewhere safe (my lap) and settles down for a comfy chewy snooze.  And a brush if one is available.

Meanwhile chaos and mayhem reign through 3 rooms, with Tara and Jasmine going at it hammer and tongs.  Delightful to watch.

What is even funnier, is that Jasmine is faster, more agile and more dancerish than Tara.  Bit of a shock to the system for Tara.  She can't use her weight advantage, and bulldozer capacity, if Jasmine is dancing around just out of reach.  Hilarious!

So glad to see you back, Jo! I've missed your blog, and the adventures of Cato and Tara. And Jasmine . . . I can smell puppy breath from here!

@PipsMom -- Thrilled to hear such a good update from you, Crystal!

Congratulations on your new Baby, Jo! Looking forward to all the new adventures with your trio! Jasmine will most surely keep Tara busy! 

Tummy issues are something I can relate to. Glad you're on the mend!

Thanks,

The tummy started with a bout of ghiardia (dog walking in the salt marshes, we think), but it really did a number on my guts, and it has taken a looooong time to recover.  I am still unable to eat fibre at all.  So that is vegetables off the menu.  Which is quite challenging, because they used to make up more than half my plate.  lol.

Anyway, definitely better now, and have also worked out which foods have been affecting my joints.  Turns out it is less osteroarthritis than it is inflammation caused by food intolerances, so the walks are getting longer and sniffier again, because my knees are improving too.  Poor Cato was rather despondent for a while, with the number of walks decreasing in length and duration, and only going on proper walks with Dad.

I am reliably informed that Dad Walks are fun, but Mum Walks are better, on account of me being more tolerant of sniffing and exploring and Important Stuff like that.  Dad seems to prioritise getting from A to B in a straightforward efficient manner, so you can see how that might be a bit unpopular.

Will try and organise some proper Jasmine pics asap! :)

Edited August 8, 2019 by Crinkly

Could you share which foods affect your joints?  I have a similar problem and don't really think it's arthritis but something causes a flare-up.  Sometimes I can barely turn over in bed because everything from shoulders, back, hip and feet hurt.  Other times I'm pain free.

Glad you're feeling better.

Sophie and Shorty G understand about the Dad walks thing.....it's a "forced march" and I don't like to walk with him.  Take time to smell the roses, look at the wildflowers and see what the pups are interested in.

No problem, @Marlene !

For me, the biggie is gluten.  That’s the main one.  I have been ‘gluten free’ for a couple of years now, because I know it affects my guts and gives me mild psoriasis, but i had a v clear lesson recently that I need to be much stricter about it, for the sake of my joints too.

we went on holiday with family, and rather than make a fussy spectacle of myself, I ate some stuff with gluten in.  Thought i had got away with it too!  Was very pleased.  Barely any gut or skin reaction.   But then my knees slowly and surely got worse.  Then we went out for dinner and I ate just 3 absolutely splendid battered onion rings.  Heavenly.  And goodness, the joint pain was significant.

the symptoms (knee pain, grinding, popping, locking, aching, reduced mobility and joint weakness, esp on the stairs) only seem to come on 3-4 days after eating the gluten, and then last over a week.  Makes it v difficult to work out what is going on!  I mean, how difficult is it to remember what you ate yesterday, let alone last week.  Haha!

i also get odd pain in hands and thumb joints from potatoes, tomatoes and peppers. And I think onions may be a problem too.

needless to say I am now on an ABSURDLY restricted diet.  But the good thing is that my joints are nearly pain free!  At its worst I was going up stairs on hands and feet, and downstairs backwards, leaning on my hands, just using one knee to bend, the other kept straight - and I was starting to look at stairlift prices.  

yet now, just 3 weeks later, i am walking normally up and down stairs with a pup (Cato) in my arms, with minimal discomfort.  No drugs involved, and no pain killers.

mind you, I miss tomatoes and onions!  And it breaks my heart that I won’t ever be eating onion rings or bread or... ever again.

interestingly, I get much smaller, but still noticeable reactions from all the grains, and starchy stuff like rice, maize and oats, even if they are gluten free.  So now I just avoid them all.  Don’t know if there is factory gluten contamination, or what, but it just isn’t worth the pain.

At the moment, I’m in the least pain I have experienced in 10-15 years.  It is wonderful!

Ugh - that's a LOT  Since having a scary problem with anemia and ending up in the hospital.......I have been trying hard to do what I thought best.

Since taking OTC meds like Motrin or Alleve I feel much better - one dose lasts 2 days.  Problem is I'm not supposed to be taking anything like that since the scary anemia.  Dr's, convinced it was brought on by anti-inflammatories and that I had a major bleed.   Uh oh docs........no bleeding, nuthin to see so WTH caused it?

Meanwhile I have joint pain that keeps me quiet and my husband bugging me "why are you so tired!"  I tell him "I'm 76 - leave me alone.  Let me be an old lady!"

Heck, the more I read about anti-inflammatories, the more I try to avoid them.  Nasty, nasty things.  Have you tried turmeric?  I haven't myself, but there is some good info about it around, and you can make it into a kind of hot drink, with milk, which is supposed to be OK.

I really feel for you, because - since my weeks of near immobility - I have a whole new respect for how difficult it can get!  And how frustrating!

Did the anemia clear up?  Back to normal iron count?  Or are you still nudging it?  Cos that is a whole other nasty ball game, isn't it?

I'm going for an xray on both knees soon.  To see how far they have deteriorated.  But to be honest, at the moment, I feel like a fraud turning up for the appt.  I am now wondering whether my stuff is inflammatory and sutoimmune, rather than osteo, although there has been definite grinding and grating in the joints.  And some of the pain has been 'classic' osteo.  But if that is the case, how has it improved so much?

One thing I am certain - my doc will not be the slightest bit interested in the diet/food connection.  All he wants to do is throw anti inflammatories at it until I qualify for a knee replacement.  So I am totally on my own with the dietary stuff.

My rheumy recommended that I try turmeric for my RA, but unfortunately I can't say that it helped any. I took 500 mg. twice a day (his recommendation) for seven months. I do have relatives with osteo who swear it helps them. It's definitely one of those can't hurt/might help things.

I'm lucky that my rheumy does have some interest in diet/lifestyle, but he says my diet is already exactly what the majority of his patients seem to benefit from the most -- a Mediterranean type vegetarian diet. He doesn't recommend going full vegan, nor does he recommend going gluten free. He says only a very small percentage of his patients report any benefit from either of those. But I assume his experience is mostly with AI/inflammatory forms of arthritis. But I don't know -- maybe people with osteo do go to rheumatologists and I've just never heard of any?