If there was a loser lottery - I'd definitely win...

Just when I was pretty sure I was going to be able to handle my situation, something else comes along to knock me down. When I woke up this morning I went out to check on my horse, Wally. He was laying down in his field and didn't get up when I spoke to him. For a horse, that's *REALLY* unusual. So I put shoes on Simon & take him outside so I can check to see if the horse is just sleeping harder than usual. I go out there & again, the horse doesn't move much. I was going to have to call the vet. I had a doctor's appointment today though, so that made it a bit more difficult. I called the vet & when she got here, she called me and told me it didn't look good. She thinks he may have contracted West Nile Virus. Long story short... I had to euthanize my horse this afternoon. The backhoe just left after digging a hole & burying him in a corner of our pasture.

Wally & I began our relationship about 4 years ago. We've had some great times. We've also had our share of problems. In May of 2006, Andrew got trampled by Wally while trying to do a 'John Wayne' move & mount him bareback from the ground. Andrew was pretty slow in recovering - especially since he lost his spleen, bruised his kidney & pancreas, and bruised/broke a couple ribs. Since then though, Wally & Andrew seemed to have made up and were quite friendly w/ each other. Of course, Andrew was only comfortable w/ him on the other side of the fence, but that was pretty easy. I've been worrying about Wally lately b/c of all my medical stuff keeping us away from home so much. I guess I don't have to worry any more. I was trying to sell him, but again, I don't have to worry about that either.

I put calls into my OB and my oncologist to see how concerned I need to be as a pregnant cancer patient about West Nile so close to home. There are vaccines for horses (and other animals), but none available for people yet. Its transmitted by mosquito - something we have an abundance of here at home. My oncologist spoke to the infectious disease doctor at the hospital to check. All they could really tell me is that I need to not get bitten by a mosquito. My OB told me to watch for a rash and/or numbness and to avoid contact w/ animals. The last is the hard part b/c we have 2 beagles (one sleeps in the house w/ us) and 2 cats. I should really avoid the cats b/c they're both solid black & we all know that superstition...

All in all, I had a pretty crappy day. Started w/ the sick horse, now dead horse. Mid-day I started feeling sick while running errands with my mom. Now I'm crying b/c I think everything is overwhelming me. Oh well...