Sunday, April 24, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
The Saga of Winston
I haven't properly introduced our newest family member! So here goes, complete with back story....Back in January, in the midst of all the stress of finding out about my mom's diagnosis, Ron told me he really felt like we needed to get a new dog....I nearly passed out at that suggestion!
See, we had a dog from 2002 until March of 2010. A cocker spaniel that we had adopted from the animal shelter - Joey. He was a good dog. He didn't bark, or jump up on people or things. But I wasn't thrilled with him. Cocker Spaniels shed.....and that nearly drove me insane! Freaking dog hair everywhere makes me nuts. (Surprising since I was raised with dogs that shed, but they stayed in one room of the house, and were mainly outside dogs. Joey was not.) He also was very bad about bolting if he got out front unrestrained and ran like the wind until he'd pass out in someone's yard a mile or so away and they'd call....highly irritating. Anyway, when Joey got old and sick, and was put to sleep last March, we were not planning on ever getting another dog.
But Ron felt that our kids behavior and experience with responsibility warranted, no, NEEDED it....After I got over the initial shock, I started looking.....I think it was also an attempt to do something that felt "normal" amidst all the doctor appt's and worries about my mom.
We agreed that this time we'd go with small, and most importantly, NON-shedding. :) We also wanted a youngish dog, but not necessarily a puppy. I found a Bichon Frise that someone was selling, we talked about that, but the situation just sounded....complicated...it was the husband that wanted the dog gone, the wife sort-of agreed, but the kids didn't know. So to come see the dog we had to pretend that we were there for another reason....no thanks!
Then Ron found an ad for a miniature schnauzer puppy. Honestly, I'd never considered a schnauzer. Every one I'd ever encountered was either aloof, or growl-y and nervous. But in reading about the breed, I realized that they make good pets for families, and especially if they are raised around kids, they are nice to them. We didn't tell the kids, since we wanted to meet mr. puppy first, and decide without their certain begging and pleading. So one Saturday at the end of January, Ron and I took a quick drive to West Jordan, and met our puppy. We were able to see his parents as well, so we knew how cute he'd be when he grew up. Then we brought our lil' guy home. The kids were beside themselves with excitement. It was fun surprise. We named him Winston.
He was a great choice. He was 13 weeks old, and had been around house-trained adult dogs enough that he was already mostly house-trained himself. We totally hit the jack-pot with him, as he has had about 4 accidents in the house, and thankfully most of those on the tile. Yep, we've fallen in love.
When we planned on going to Southern Utah for Spring Break this past week, we tried to find somewhere to board him here at home, but everything was full. Then the landlady of the house we rented said we could bring him with us. (Totally unheard of!) I knew he'd be a good car traveler, but Ron was a little worried.
Saturday morning, driving the family to Spring Break. Apparently Winston wants things done right, and likes to take charge. ;)
He did great in the car. We got to the house in Hurricane and got acquainted with everything. Evening came along and we were working on dinner.
About that time, we noticed our little pupper-dog was acting odd....stumbling, couldn't keep his feet from sliding out from under him on the wood floor, acting like he couldn't hold his head up....
He quickly got worse: losing control of his bladder and having seizures.....great..... :(
Ron found a vet to call, and they had an emergency clinics number on their voice message. We called and found out where they were, and quickly headed into St. George. The drive in to the clinic was so much worse. I thought he was going to die at any minute. It was awful. Once we got there though, he didn't seem quite as bad, and by the time we saw the vet, he was still not so bad. The vet said it was classic symptoms of either ingestion of a human medication like an anti-depressant or an amphetamine, or he got into something like gopher bait with strychnine. He also made us feel so much better when he told us he wasn't critical, that we had most likely already seen the worst of the reaction, and 99% chance he'd be perfectly fine by morning. Excellent odds that we loved!
We called the owners of the house, and they had never put gopher bait down, so are pretty sure he got a hold of a pill that a previous guest dropped and couldn't find, but our nosy Winston did.
He got to stay in the animal hospital overnight for some induced vomiting, activated charcoal, and monitoring. We called bright and early to be told that he was fine and wanting to go home. I was never so happy to see our doggy bright eyed and normal when we picked him up.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Almost 1/2-way Through!
Well....yeah.....for those wondering what is up with my mom, here you go!
Last chemo, 3 weeks ago, went well. After the 1st chemo, she knew what to expect, she knew what medication combinations to take to help what, and was better about taking them early to stay on top of things.
Like for the bone pain from the white blood cell stimulating medication, she takes Aleve and Claritin every 12 hrs, and she started it before the aches even set in. Helped immensely!
She was again very, very tired and fatigued, and stayed close to home for the week after chemo. After about 9 days post chemo, she starts to get her energy back, and will venture out to run errands and such.
The digestive issues were different from last time, so trying to keep things in balance with diet and medications were a day to day thing. Still no nausea though, which is fantastic.
Her new side effect is skin related....Lots of sores on her face, arms, head, neck....looks exactly like when she would go visit the dermatologist and he would go to town with the liquid nitrogen freezing the "bad skin" spots. She also had an odd reaction on the palms of her hands, and soles of her feet: bright red and super tender and sore.
A little over a week ago she was here so Ron could file her taxes, and she showed me another recent development....she had some odd swelling on her chest (surgery side) from under her collarbone to her armpit. Rounded and somewhat firm. I told her it looked like either lymphedema or she needed to get her drain put back in, and asked her to call the surgeon about it the next day. She did, and luckily her surgeon was back THAT DAY from her maternity leave, and they were able to get her in. Sure enough, Dr. Tittensor wanted to put the drain back in, and scheduled the surgery for last Friday. She also noted my mom's skin issues, and wanted the oncologist to see her, and he was able to get her in immediately.
The burned looking spots are exactly that, but instead of the liquid nitrogen burning them like the dermatologist does, this is the chemicals in the chemo burning them from the inside out. Dr. Bott (oncologist) told her she'll have great skin once they peel and are gone. The palms and soles of her feet thing is a bit more concerning. It is a syndrome that some patients get from Taxotere, which is one of the chemo drugs she gets. They are going to "watch" it this next time, and if it gets too bad, they will decrease the dose of the Taxotere. At this point, they aren't quite as tender, but they are still red, and peeling.
Last Friday's procedure went well. She is glad she called the surgeon, because by Friday the swelling had more than tripled in size, and was getting quite uncomfortable and sore. Dr. Tittensor got the drain back in, and immediately drained off 1/2L (about 2 cups) of fluid. She will have the drain for at least two weeks. It is still draining pretty steadily at this point, and my mom is crossing her fingers for it to slow down soon.
Today's chemo went well. Her blood counts were all down to just below normal levels, but not low enough that she needed any blood products. We talked about how it was nice to have 3 of the treatments done now, only 3 more of the chemo to go!
Not that you really have a goal to reach your max out-of-pocket on your health insurance, that has now happened. It doesn't take long when you have 2 surgeries, MRI's, and a single chemo treatment costs -- sit down for this -- $22,000 (and she has 6 treatments, plus Herceptin for a year!). *ouch!* At least now she is 100% covered for the year, including co-pays. I cannot imagine what people go through that have to pay fully for this treatment. Unbelievably devastating.
So that's that. I know my mom is doing well through this because of the power of prayer, and also through her wonderful attitude. Even her surgeon told her she is doing so well because she just doesn't complain about stuff. Even on the yucky exhausting days in the week after chemo, she knows that it'll get better, and almost has a countdown going to get to the better days.
