I got to the Bremers’ this morning to be met by Duncan saying, “Michele went back to the hospital last night.” She’d had severe abdominal pain.

This morning her pain was down to a 1. I talked to her on the phone and gathered a list of things to take down to her in the hospital. The doctor came in while I was there and delivered the results of the ultrasound. “Gallstones,” he said. He told us he had to find a surgeon to break them up, hopefully today. Gallstones are a known side effect from the antibiotic Michele takes to fight the Lyme disease. Michele asked the doctor if this could wait until next week. Max, Tamsey, and the grandkids are coming in tonight for five days. “This needed to be done yesterday,” the doctor replied. It was at least good to know what was wrong, and gall stone surgery is a very ruoutine one. Michele felt fine other than not being able to be with her grandkids. She was busy working on a quilt a brought her when I left.

I got back to the Bremers’ to find that Kyrie’s foal had died. She had been acting normally, then laid down and just died. The vet said it was either a liver problem or an antibody problem with her mother’s milk (like the Rh factor for humans). The latter is incredibly rare for horses, so no one bothers to test for it. We had to wait until Kyrie gave up on her and left her alone to bury her. After that Kyrie went crazy, running all over the pasture and whinnying.