Indulgence

Unlike most years I've actually been doing good this year when it comes to the holidays. Perhaps it was because Thanksgiving was earlier or perhaps it was because I kept thinking it was December when it was still November, but I am so ahead of the game. It's a Christmas miracle.

As part of my holiday activities, I recently bought some gifts from Williams and Sonoma, plus a tin of peppermint bark for ourselves. In an effort to make it last longer than 24 hours, I took it upstairs to our room away from teenage cravings. I had barely eaten any, when one of the girls called us at work, home from school, to report that Spencer had eaten the bark. At first I questioned her since I couldn't believe it. Usually he's unbelievable good about staying out of things. I've often placed my dinner right in front of him, walked away, and come back to find him inches from it, drool all over the place, but the food untouched.

Well, lately after his bout with pancreatitis he has been feeling much, much better. Of course, we've also taken him off his potassium bromide which he was on for seizures. He still gets his phenobarb, but the combination of the two can increase the chances of a pancreatic episode. So while he was sick and in the hospital, he did get the pheno intravenously, but he didn't get the potassium. By the time he returned home, it had been a week since he'd last had it. Here I was being so careful about what I fed him, to allow him to heal, and yet I was about to put the potassium in with his food. I just couldn't do it. Since then, his energy has more than doubled, he's more sure on his feet and you can just tell he feels better. He's faster, more sure of himself, and behaving in ways he hasn't in years.

Such as eating the 1 lb tin of peppermint bark......One frantic call to the vet later, I was reassured that it was not enough chocolate to prove poisonous and there was more sugar than fat (thus not aggravating the pancreas). All that was left was to deal with one unhappy tummy and have a good laugh.