The Curse of The Great Gatsby Soundtrack..

Let me start by saying I had a super awesome long blog post all typed up, which is hard enough with my hooves, and then Blogger ate it! Stupid internet. If a horse had invented it, we probably wouldn't have all these technical difficulties. Just saying.

Anyway, let me try and remember what I typed up. Ah yes. The curse. It has always been Spode's plan to one day do a dressage freestyle with me to The Great Gatsby soundtrack (our Spode is not that creative). That's still in the books, but more and more Spode is thinking that she should just do it to one song from the soundtrack: "Love is Blindness". What? Not "Young and Beautiful"? Oh, I don't really mind. No, I will stick by Spode and accept what comes as long as she keeps feeding me treats. It'll all be okay as long as that fact remains, and I'm pretty sure it will.

It has not been a very exciting week. Things have been much the same, with the exception that Spode now works at my house as the cleaning and feeding lady. It's taken some getting used to. The first couple of days I kept whinnying to say "Hello! I'm over here! You're leading the wrong horse, genius!" But I've figured it out now. Spode has to clean up everyone's poop, not just mine. I wish she didn't feed everyone though. Any food that comes from Spode should be mine by right, I think. I stare at her through the stall bars to make her feel guilty. It has caused an increase in treats, you bet.

Spode eats her lunch with me. Er, well she is with me, and I eat her lunch. I really annoy her because I eat her lunch and then I spit it out because I'm such a picky eater. Whatever, she was laughing. She said she was hungry later though...

Today Mrs. Vet visited, and so now I get a bit of a change. She said I am getting better. Hooray! My eyes still have a touch of fogginess inside, but nothing like the "pea soup" I had before. Unfortunately, I am still not seeing great out of my left eye. This is odd because the vet says she can't see any structural damage to my retina. The only major thing she can see is that I have a cloudy line in my left eye. She dyed my eye green to make sure it wasn't an ulcer. Thankfully it wasn't, because I am not ready to have blood squirted into my eye again! So it's either pus in my eye again (my eyes are lovely, shut up) or calcification as a result of the huge amount of steroids I've been on. Either way, it should not be making it hard for me to see. I can see shadows but not much else in that eye. My right eye seems to be better though--woohoo!

It's now been 4 weeks since the surgery, so my special implants should now be full force ready to crack down on my reckless white blood cells. Hopefully they're going to rock the defensive position and fend off those wild and crazy blood cells. It would be a lot easier if I could just say "chill, little dudes. No need to send up the war cry all the time. Those things you're attacking? Those would be my eyes, not some hideous disease. Drop the gun and back off!" Yes, it would be a lot simpler if I could control those little blood cells. Darn body. But hopefully the cyclosporine implants will do the job for me.

Because we've passed the four week mark, my meds can now be reduced. HALLELUJAH! I'm now down to just 5 times a day. Such an awesome holiday! Atropine once, tobrex once, maxidex 3 times, and my oral banamine twice a day. While I was on the heavy duty schedule of 15 times a day the week before, I was also getting a dexamethasone shot, which I'm going to go back on as a final attempt to get rid of that fogginess once and for all. Then I get my recheck next Thursday or Friday and hopefully Mrs. Vet will reduce my meds even more. We're getting close! This has felt endless lately. But if there's one person who needs a big thank you it's Mrs Vet. Spode was ready to give up on that left eye two weeks ago but Mrs. Vet kept on fighting full force and hoping I'd get better, and it's clearly paid off full vision or not. We are very thankful that she has been so aggressive and has contacted other doctors to consult and try new things with me. I am never happy about having so many drops in my eyes, but she's getting rid of the swelling inside my eye, and I'm chuffed with that. We are both super pleased with Mrs Vet. She is the greatest. (The Great Mrs. Vet? I could have a club).

Even though I don't have full sight back in my left eye, we're hoping I can still get back some more if we get rid of all the cloud inside. We're still being very cautious about outside, so I'm allowed out for 3 hours a day when it's cloudy. Better than nothing, I guess. It's lovely to feel the wind on my back for a bit. Today, as a special treat, Spode even let me eat grass for half an hour since it was so cloudy outside. It was lovely. It cheered me right up.

Thanks for taking me to the buffet!

She also gave me 2 minutes of freedom tonight to run loose in the arena. A brief respite after so much hand walking. She gave me a stern lecture that I wasn't to get too crazy and that it could only be for a short time to take the edge off. I was very good. I ran around the arena twice, bucked 3 times, and then calmly joined Spode for our evening stroll around the arena. It was grand.

Just let me stand on my head once and then I'll walk, ok?

Just making the most of my two minutes, Spode.

So, hopefully there are no set backs as we start reducing meds. We should be over the hill now, but we are all holding our breath and being cautious. Slowly returning to normal is definitely the way to go. Maybe one day this blog can once again return to being about my training adventures rather than a diary of eye issues. I'm crossing my hooves (except not when Spode is looking, because that might freak her out a little. Just a guess). I'll be living a normal life one of these days! It's my birthday in about a week and a half. I'll be three years old. I hope I can be outside for that--what a gift that would be! A horse can only hope...

Spode says that I should shed out for my birthday to reveal the rest of my beautiful dapples. Being inside has messed up my coat shedding. The lack of natural light will do that. I need to go outside for Spode's birthday gift too! Wait, whose birthday is this supposed to be anyway? Why does Spode need a gift of dapples??

Until later, Old Sports.

Is it time for walkies?

Jay.