February 2, 2018

White Dog gently touched Nilla's face. "Good thing you have an appointment already to see Dr. Julia tomorrow," she said. "Momma and dad did a good job with triage but I want to be sure all is good."

It started out innocently. My sweet shy little girl wandered into the kitchen to get a drink of water. Right into the middle of a wrestling free-for-all involving Bailey, Sachi, Zsofia and Tizenegy. Their leaping and smack talk startled the gentle old lady who froze like a deer in headlights. The tussling flowed over her and in the melee some teeth caught her eyelid.

At least that is what we were told happened. Steve, White Dog and I heard the dreadful squealing and went rushing past the wrestlers fleeing the scene. Nilla stood in the middle of the room with blood dripping down her face.

Steve carried her in, quaking and snapping and laid her next to me on the bed. I wrapped her in my arms and held her tightly for reassurance and to allow Steve to softly cleanse the area to make an assessment. We irrigated the area with eye wash and saw that the eye had not been damaged. The blood was still pushing out of a cut on her lower eyelid. She trembled and I stroked as we switched to medicated eye drops and added a stripe of ointment right under the eye. With each movement around her she flinched.

"My poor baby girl, this is so upsetting and you must be very shaken up," I cooed to her. Meanwhile Steve went to borrow one of Stormer's sedatives. She ate it in a bite of hot dog. Since she had an appointment to see Dr. Julia already and since the bleeding has stopped we decided a trip to the ER was not necessary. Steve carried her over to the corner mattress. "You can sleep here tonight," he told her. "We will put the gate across so no one can come near and we will be right by you should you need us. The pill will calm your fears so you can sleep."

This afternoon I started my list of the four things I wanted Dr. Julia to look at and she took notes. After #1: To check her eye area because she was nipped last night, she looked over at Nilla, still on the floor. "Come on up on the table and let's take a look," she told my baby. They ended up carrying her back to the surgical suite for a better look.

When they returned Nilla looked worse than when she came in. Her eye area had been shaved and the bruising was more obvious. "Eye is just fine," Dr. Julia said, "But I did put a few sutures on the lid and gave her an antibiotic shot. She will need drops and ointment and we will recheck her eye in a week."

We drew blood to test her thyroid and adrenal gland since my fluffy White Girl is showing signs of hair loss and thinning. We discussed her increasing dementia symptoms. And decided that a regular antibiotic protocol would be the best way to fight her on-going gum disease.

"I will call with the results but I am not seeing anything that is unusual for an 18-year -old senior, as long as she stays out of wrestling matches," Dr. Julia laughed.