Gosh I didn't see this at all. Must be age and the whole eyesight thing.
Star, I met someone with pygmy goats and a miniature donkey. I thought of you. How funny is that? I would love to have some pygmy goats for CB and HS to herd and supervise. They would love it.
Thanks for asking about me. As I told Tammy, my last 18months sounds like a bad country/western song(I like country/western by the way) I moved, just finished a major remodel on the first floor, mom had strokes, easy child dropped out of college(he says year leave of absence) to work. difficult child returned home in August since he wasn't working the program and the tuition was not cheap. husband gave him 6 months and difficult child didn't perform. My HS has cancer and my house got blown away in the storm.
The house issue is a hurry and wait. A structural engineer is being brought in by FEMA to see if there is any saving the house. It's got an UNsafe building sticker on it and no one including me is allowed in. Good thing since the stairs are gone and first floor is 16 ft above the ground. I will go down Oct 28th and 29th to see if I offer any info to the engineer. It looks pretty ugly. Worst one on the block. What a badge of honor.(said sarcastically)
HS had done well with chemo. Tumors are not growing or are growing extremely slowly. Unfortunately about 4 wks ago, HS threw up and promptly found a cold wet section of yard to lay on. Very unusual for her. Then she disappeared into the outer, forested parts of the yard for 1 1/2 hrs. She wasn't walking and was obviously quite ill. Vet office sort of blew me off. I was pretty sure she was dying. Took her to the ER where they practically yanked HS away from to put her on IV's and monitor. She was a sick baby. Go forward 16 hrs later and they think it's an intestinal obstruction. Not sure what it is. Do I want surgery? Well why wouldn't I? She is a DNR because of the cancer but I want her treated. She was fine 24hr prior. Walking the trails with me, eating like a champ and chasing every squirrel in the yard. Surgeon and ICU dr. weren't very encouraging. Kept telling us that she had a 50/50 chance even with surgery. Yada,yada, yada. Imagine me with my fingers in my ears, singing a tune to block it all out. She had surgery to find that the anti inflammatories which gave her such a good quality of life gave her an ulcer which perforated. She is immuno suppressed from chemo. She was full of infection and fungal infection(candida) Her system was already starting into septic shock. Very little chance she would make it through the night. She had a central line and 3 IV's plus cardiac monitor. Saturday morning she made it through the night with irregular heart beats that required lidocaine. I went to the people pharmacy to get the anti fungal pills for our sweet HS. I sat in her cage in ICU and just petted her and whispered in her ear. We had trails to walk and I wasn't ready to let her stop fighting. I was less emotional when easy child had his craniotomy. I could do nothing more than I was doing. Twice a day I stayed with her in her cage and petted her. Sunday morning she made it through another night but they told us she wasn't out of the woods yet. She was standing and peeing though. They gave her bits of dog food. Ha! no way was that going to entice her. I brought small bits of cheese and boiled chicken breast and lean ground beef. She nibbled. Sunday night I brought her a whopper with nothing on it. She WOLFED it down. Monday AM I was pretty sure HS was going to make it but the ICU staff didn't want me to have false hope. Oncologist came by and almost did a jig, he was so happy to see HS make it. I guess not many of his patients do. Tuesday HS jumped up in her cage and barked when I left. They finally said, "she's fine". They took all her lines out and thought she could go home on lots of antibiotics. HS heard home and refused to get back into the cage until I took care of the discharge. 2 wks she wasn't allowed outside without a leash. No running, jumping or playing around. It must have hurt like the dickens to squat.
Now we are 4wks out. We have gotten her weight back up to normal with baby food(thanks SRL) whole milk cottage cheese and any decent meats she wanted. She is walking the trails with gusto. Eating everything. This last visit with the oncologist has us hopeful. Her lung and bone tumors are all sort of hovering at the same size. She got one dose of oral chemo yesterday. It didn't sit well with her so we are going to hold off. My goal is to get her to the 12month point with a continued good quality of life.
Not to say I didn't do a lot of negotiating with husband about such expense for a dog with a terminal diagnosis. I offered to let him halt the treatment. (lol- no way would he do that) I gave up some things I wanted to do in the next year. It was worth it. She is the sweetest tempered dog I have ever seen or had.
So obviously my puppy was more traumatic than the house blowing down but all of it is sort of balled up together.
difficult child sat on the floor with me the night we took her to the ER and cried with me. This was a big deal for him. He really understood how sick she was and what the loss of her presence would feel like.
For the humorous side of this, husband said while I was whispering to Honeysue when she was so sick I must have told her "to stay away from the light".
My husband can be a clown. We also see a little willfulness to do what she wants. husband thinks she got herself a "bucket list" that she has to fulfill.
difficult child has interviewed for a job and social services is going to do an intake interview next week. He is pleasant and helpful but still needs prodding and cueing. I still hope that there is an appropriate adult assisted living situation for difficult child but who knows.
easy child loves working full time and is doing well within the organization. He went out on a date. He is a cutie.
Mom is a little goofier than before but she wants to "die planting tomatoes than sitting on the couch watching tv" So that's what she does.
The house is almost settled and life continues on. I miss being on the site more often and will pick up more soon but there just hasn't been much to report on for difficult child.
So Genny, Star, Witz, Tammy and wyntersgrace hopefully I haven't bored you to death with the trials and tribulations of Mrs Fran household. Life is never dull and a lot of juggling going on.
