The Trial from Hell

Soda and I ran in a trial this weekend. Didn't go real well. We ran both A and B course. On Saturday I qualified and got 2nd in A course and was actually pretty happy with the run. I didn't qualify in B course on Saturday. I had to retire. Soda showed a real lack of confidence on the new field and I didn't do a good job of handling the wiley sheep. They REALLY REALLY wanted to run back to set out on the top half of the course and on the bottom half of the course they wanted to run to exhaust! Soda is not a natural cover-er so I needed to handle it better. On the fetch they actually tried to break behind her to run back to set out so even though Soda was being pushy, I couldn't lay her down or they'd have broken back to set-out. Also, on B course I had a raging migraine and had taken 3 excedrin migraines and was not feeling well. Our fetch looked like a small series of "S"'s.

On Sunday we qualified in B course and took third place but didn't qualify in A course. I probably should have qualified in A the day went horribly awry.

Let me tell you about Sunday--it pretty much ruined my whole weekend. About 1/4 of the way through the day my back started to hurt. Bad. My lower back, my kidneys to be specific. And it burned to pee. (TMI, I know). Then about 1/2 way through the day I started to be in excruiating pain and spent a good part of the afternoon laying down and crying in the car. I called the nurse hotline and she advised me to get into the doctor that day.

I waited it out and tried to run. The sheep were nuts and my head wasn't there and neither was Soda's. I retired. I may have been able to qualify but it wasn't good stocksmanship.

Then the true ordeal began. I drove to a 24 hour urgent care in Lancaster. I got there at 4 in the afternoon. I left at 10 at night. Six freaking hours of pain and vomiting. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: I was queasy all day. At about 4:45 they "checked me in" with vitals and I had to pee in a cup. When they finally called me back to the exam room it was 9:30 and they hadn't run the urine yet. No, I'm not kidding. I vomited again in the exam room. I have a kidney infection. It hurts so bad. I've never even had a bladder infection but I wouldn't wish this on anyone. It hurts and you just can't get comfortable.

By the time they got done examining me the freaking pharmacy had closed. So basically I spent 6 hours in a waiting room with Soda sitting in the car the whole time for nothing. I could have waited until Monday.

I got home at 1 AM because I was so exhausted I had to pull over and nap. The whole thing was awful and I was uncomfortable all weekend. But on a positive note, Soda finished her started B title. :) She's Soda-Pop HSAs, HSBs, HRDIs yay!

I have decided not to run at Porterville N/N. Soda's lack of confidence showed me that she's not ready for that yet and that's just too far for me to drive for a dog who's not ready yet. She's doing the outruns on her home field but needs more practice in other places. We also need to work with VERY strong draws and very light sheep. Again, I really appreciate not qualifiying because it so eloquently demonstrates what I need to work on.