Home at Last

Lizzy came home today and she looks infinitely better. When I dropped her off at the vet's on Thursday, her head was droopy, she moved like every muscle hurt, and her eyes were bloodshot. We actually stopped by the vet's for a visit last night to see how she was doing. We were told we could take her home, but I was not comfortable with that. She still was a bit droopy and she hadn't eaten much during the day. According to the nurses, she had nibbled here and there. For a dog that hadn't eaten in 4 days, I felt it would be better to wait until she was eating close to normal. It turns out my instincts were correct.
When I called this morning, the doctor was thrilled with her progress, saying she had never seen a Whippet eat that fast. Not only that, but in addition to the baby food and wet dog food, Lizzy had some dry dog food as well. Hearing that made me feel so much better about my decision to keep her there 1 more night. Once Lizzy got home, she went outside to go potty and was back to her normal routine. We still need to closely monitor her eating habits, but for now she is loving the ground turkey and rice we are making for her. She seems tired, but that is part of her normal routine. She never sleeps well at the kennel and we figured the vet's would be no different. Lizzy has slept a lot, but has shown interest in food when we serve it, which is really important.
Tomorrow, we begin the process of caring for a dog with Addison's Disease. For this first month, we have to give her a pill every day for Prednisone. Then, at the end of October, it's back to the vet's for her monthly shot of DOCP (don't ask because I don't really know) and a check up to see how she is responding. We don't expect to stay on the Prednisone for long, but part of treating this disease is tinkering with the medication until you get the combination of treatment and side effects just right. The scary thing now is any time she vomits, the first thought can't be "What did she eat?" but "Is the disease causing this?".
Again, thank you all for the well wishes, long distance hugs, prayers, and good thoughts. We really appreciate the kindness and love sent our way.

Helping the World Connect

The internet is an amazing thing. After finding out Lizzy had Addison's Disease, I searched around to see what lay ahead. There is a fabulous site called Addison Dogs that details a lot of what's involved in caring for a dog with Addison's. They even have a Yahoo! support group.
This is what I find amazing: No matter what, there is a web page devoted to it. More importantly, there are web pages and groups devoted to lots of ailments many of us never know about. Just 2 days ago, a friend mentioned in a post about PSP Awareness Month. Til that point, PSP was a Sony Play Station Portable, not progressive supranuclear palsy. Just goes to show, that despite all the MILF porn available, there is still a lot of good spread through the internet.

Conflicted Feelings

So, we sit here in a seemingly empty house. We miss Lizzy very much, but I know keeping her at the hospital was the right thing to do. I didn't like the way she looked today at all and would have been very scared to keep her at home. Her movements were tentative at best, almost looking painful. Her eyes appeared blood shot and she hung her head lower than normal. Watching her walk back with the Vet Tech, it struck me how really skinny she has gotten. Lizzy was never a wide dog, but she looked gaunt. The weigh-in showed she'd lost close to 4 lbs (or about 13% of her total weight).
I'm not really sure what I want to have happen tomorrow. Do I hope she perks up tonight after some IVs? She'd be much better, but that wouldn't explain how she got into this condition in the first place. Do I hope the test for Addison Disease comes back positive so we know what it is? It means a lifetime of medication, but it answers a lot of questions.
Finally, I want to thank you all for the prayers and well wishes. It does a lot to lift the spirit.

No Answers, Just Questions

The doctor just called and the ultrasound didn't find anything. So, now we are left with more questions. Lizzy is going to stay at the hospital tonight to get some fluids in here. While there, she's also going to have a test done to check for Addison's Disease. It's a WAG right now, but maybe its the answer. We need to find something soon. Lizzy hasn't had anything to eat in 3 days and very little water in that time span as well. If this is Addison's Disease, it will require chronic medication (a shot every 28 days), but it is very treatable. Please pray for our family.

More Tests

Lizzy is back at the vet's. She had an ultra sound taken earlier today and we are waiting for the results. For those who don't know, she hasn't eaten anything in close to 2 days now. I even made her some ground turkey and rice today, put the bowl by her, and she had no interest in it. She can't even keep water down. Hopefully, the ultrasound will show something, because we are beyond just an upset stomach.

Bad Restaurant Weekend

This weekend was rather unkind to me in terms of restaurants. The first mishap happened on Saturday night. We were coming back from church and I suggested we stop by The Italian Gourmet for dinner. It's a little place we've gotten take out from before, but we had never eaten at the restaurant. The meal started out nicely with Lauren enjoying some bread sticks while Debbie and I enjoyed our salads. After our salads I began to think our meal was taking a little while. Twenty minutes after I noticed THAT, our food arrived. It was now 7:20 and, as many of you may know, we like to put Lauren to bed at 8. No problem, we can easily eat and make it home in plenty of time. Unfortunately, as I began to eat my Filet Mignon with white wine, garlic, and mushrooms, I began to realize this was most likely not my order. One, the steak was not a Filet, but a Sirloin. Big difference! Next, instead of medium well, the steak which took entirely too long was almost rare. The staff was very apologetic and eager to fix the problem, but time constraints forced me to just have them fix the error and place it in a doggie bag. The steak was okay, but it was not the meal experience I expected.
Tonight, we went to Friday's for the first time in several months. After perusing the menu, Debbie became distraught. They had removed our favorite dessert ever: the Oreo Cookie Madness. That was really the only reason I could get Debbie to go to Friday's. She never really liked their menu since they removed the "flair" from the servers' outfits. This just sealed the deal. My meal was okay, but Debbie was once again less than impressed with her choice. Given that and the removal of one of our favorite desserts of all time, we will not be going back.
Despite that, this weekend was very productive on many fronts. For starters, I was able to make a little more progress on the deck. I filled in the area around the external faucet. I also placed 2 more boards on the far end. I now have a 1 inch gap between the edge of the last board and the railing. This is going to be interesting to complete. I now have to rip some deck boards along the length, and hopefully do it in a fashion that has some semblance of skill. That's a lot harder than it sounds. Then there was the concrete work. I decided, with the crappy weather, it might be a good weekend to finally close the Possum Hole (TM). Working with cement is always fun, but I managed to keep the mess to a minimum. Just a bit more work on the hole and that should be sealed shot forever. Just in time too. While working on the deck, I noticed a chipmunk wandering around. Turns out, the little bugger now has taken up residence underneath the patio as well. It appears there was a tiny little hole I missed with the concrete and this bastard found it. Given the small size, I think some Great Stuff will work just fine. After the Possum Hole (TM) is sealed, all that area needs is some more insulation (since the previous tenant treated that stuff like a home). Possum Gate is coming to a close! Finally! Deck Gate, well that has some more to go. Hopefully I can get that done before the snows come. If not ... well ... I have warm clothing.

How to impress a boss

Last night was the first time for a new babysitter. She will be coming back for several reasons, but there is one for which I want her back. No, it has nothing to do with her looks. I want her back for more babysitting jobs because she found me incredibly funny. This wasn't the "I'm laughing out of pity for your pathetic attempt at humor". She was guffawing! Debbie had to even ask what I said that was so incredibly funny. Just a note for future baby sitters (and any other possible employees), find me funny and you are a shoo-in.

At least the diaper stays on

We have a new development in Lauren's abilities that I would like to report. It is a development about which I am not entirely pleased. You see, Lauren has decided it would be a lot of fun to walk around without pants. This isn't a "My pants fell down and I seem to like it". No, this was a "Let's hide in the corner, take our pants off, and then run around the house". When she emerges, she is happy as a clam and very proud of the fact she has no pants on. At least she has on a diaper. I guess I should be glad for that. It's when the diaper starts coming off that we should really worry.

Stupid technology

After some digging, I realized why my site feed was truncating the posts. Turns out that even though I had the feed set to store the full post, it was acting as if I had selected truncation. Everything should be hunky doory now.

Hey mom, pull my finger!

A lot of goings on around here, so let’s get started:

Work on the deck is continuing, though not as fast as I would like. There have been all kinds of delays: weather, injury, and prior plans. This weekend, I did make good progress on 1 day. I now only have 4 more boards to place to finish the area of the deck that extends from my patio door to the far railing. After that, I just need to fill in the areas on either side of the patio door. The one caveat is I need to get larger boards for the remaining row. The gap between the current board and the edge of the deck is 6.5 - 6.75”. The boards are bought are 1x6 (which is actually 5.5” or so wide). I now need to buy 3 1x8s and rip them to the 6.5” width. That should be fun.

Lauren is continuing to grow and do all kinds of fun things. This weekend, we drove by a man riding a horse and excitedly pointed that out to her. She proceeded to make a horse noise (kind of like a neighing, but a lot cuter) for a little while. She is still addicted to The Wiggles and loves to dance to them. Her favorite song has to be Rock a Bye Your Bear. I have a video that should be uploaded soon to show you some of her moves. The days of potty training are not far off either. She is eminently aware of her bowels. On many occasions, she pats her butt and says “Poo Poo!” Now, her accuracy rate for the actual presence of poo poo is around 34%. Not a bad number if you’re a hitter in the major leagues, but kind of annoying when have to constantly check her drawers. Our guess is she thinks she’s pooped when she passes gas. Daddy needs to teach her to not say “Poo Poo!”, but rather “Hey mom, pull my finger!”.

Tuesday was my birthday and thus ended my 1 month and 8 days of referring to Debbie as “old”. Those 38 days are, of course, her favorite time of year. I have no idea why she put up with me. With her parents in town, she had them run up to my favorite ice cream store and got a Cold Stone Cake. Knowing me as they do, the went with the Midnight Delight. Some might look upon that and think it is way too much chocolate. I say there is no such thing. However, as alternatives (because I know you all are wondering), I could also go for the Cookie Dough Delirium or the Cookies & Creamery. Not saying I need that, but if you want to send one of those my way, I would not object.

Just a bit of a scare ...

So what would drive me to go see the doctor on a Thursday afternoon? Fortunately, it's not "inability to perform". If that were the case, I wouldn't have waited 4-5 days. No, I was experiencing some minor pain in the chest. I knew it probably wasn't the bad thing ... cuz I hadn't died after having minor pain for 3 days. On Wednesday night, I went to sweep up Lauren when I felt a searing pain in the center of my chest, right around the sternum. I figured I had pulled a muscle in my chest when carrying some old deck boards for disposal. But, when you are a middle-aged (kind of), overweight (very much so), white (there's no disputing that fact) male, searing pain in your chest sends you to the doctor. My doctor is very nice, which will make going back for normal stuff not seem so bad. She confirmed my suspicions, with a lovely little gem like: "If you've had this for 4 days and this was a heart attack, you would be dead". Gotta love a doctor who has a sense of humor like me.
So, with this pulled muscle, I have found lifting things to be quite interesting. I carried several boards to the curb for trash day with no problem. Then, I went to take a crock pot out of the cabinet and nearly dropped it from the pain. Holding things out seems to be the trigger, so I need to watch doing that. The other problem is Lauren. Picking her up is another pain inducing event. Looks like I need to watch it for the next week. Lift with my legs ... and take lots and lots of Aleve.