God, Dogs and Drugs

Perhaps one of the areas in life that best exemplifies God's creation of us as individuals is that of our professions, the jobs we work at, many of us for most of our lives. When it comes to what we do to earn a living, we are as diversified as snowflakes in the winter. Even within the same field ... say, teaching, for example ... you would be hard-pressed to find two teachers who approach the sharing and teaching of knowledge in exactly the same way. And while we may spend time in our youth searching to discover what we are supposed to do in life in regard to a job, most of us eventually come to know and understand that there are some forms of employment that are more suited to us than others.

I have a ton of respect for people in the medical profession and especially more so during the last couple of years. I respect folks who provide medical assistance to both humans and animals alike. It's a good thing that God chose to make me a language person, because I would not have made a good doctor, nurse or veterinarian. It's not that I couldn't care for people or animals ... that part of medicine I could handle just fine. It's the making of life and death decisions that would rip me apart; to know that the choices I made could influence the length or quality of their lives would make me crazy.

A couple of weeks ago, I had to take Ollie the wiener dog to the vet because he had a rash on his tummy ... turns out it's a staph infection, which, according to the doggie doc, is pretty common for low-rider wiener dogs whose bellies rub the dry, crunchy grass in the summer. He prescribed a 4-week course of antibiotics, which I give to Oliver twice a day in a dollop of peanut butter. He hates the capsules, but he loves the peanut butter. And of course Julie has to have a dollop of peanut butter when Ollie gets his ... fair is fair after all.

On my kitchen counter, there is quite the array of prescription bottles along with my morning and dinnertime pill organizers. Call it a pride thing if you will, but I refuse to purchase another set of containers for the medications I now am supposed to take before I go to bed each night. It already goads me that I have to use organizers at all and that I have four I use on a daily basis to keep up with all the meds. Hence the reason I have the assortment of bottles on my counter ... I simply will not add another pill organizer into the mix. When I brought Ollie's medicine home, I placed it with my prescriptions so that I would remember to give it to him. It only took until his second dose for me to realize how easily I could goof up and take his medicine or give him mine, so I came up with a plan ... I would lay his bottle on top of my breakfast and dinner organizer, and believe it or not, that has worked flawlessly. I take my drugs and then I open his bottle and give him his little capsule.

As I stood at my counter last night swallowing my pills and giving Ollie his, the tears that now seem to ever lurk just below the surface for me began to fill my eyes. There are three things that are keeping me on my feet, I thought ... three things that are keeping me going ... my faith in God, my dogs who depend on me, and the drugs that I take each day. The truth is that I have days when I stay in my pajamas all day and don't leave the house, days when it takes every ounce of energy I have to make myself get out of bed, days when fear of the future grips my heart like a vise, days when I long for the person I once was ... the fun-loving, happy gal whose life was filled with family and friends, lots of laughter and an abundance of good times. Maybe one day, that old gal will return, maybe she's gone forever or maybe ... maybe ... maybe God is trying to shape me into someone completely different and new. Maybe His way of telling me to hold on, to be patient, to wait it out is in causing me to think in threes ... keep your faith in Me, Terrie ... care for the dogs I've entrusted to you ... take the drugs I've provided to help you. God, dogs and drugs ... God, dogs and drugs ... God, dogs and drugs. I suppose that only God knows the answers to the multitude of questions and wonderings that pulse through my mind on a daily basis now ... I suppose He is the only One who does.

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze." Isaiah 43: 1-2