Sunday, June 17, 2012

If you have your health....a not so good turn in life...

"If you have your health, you have everything."  Those words are the ultimate truth.  My son ruptured his left ACL and meniscus.  He had to wear a huge, heavy brace on his leg and couldn't move around with it.  That's not a good thing.  When you're taking a long plane ride, you're told to get up, walk the aisle and when sitting, wiggle your feet and bend your legs to prevent clots.

As a result of wearing the heavy brace and inactivity, Ethan developed a pulmonary embolism and collapsed.  He managed to call a neighbor and that's when the drama kicked into high gear.  EMTs rushed him to the hospital where the docs found a HUGE clot that had broken into pieces which were meandering around in both his lungs and his leg.  He was told he was lucky this didn't kill him.

He is now on clot-busting drugs, still hospitalized, being watched, having tests  and generally making his mother's hair turn white!

What is amazing to me, though, is the incredible kindness of his wonderful neighbors and good friends who came to his rescue, got him the medical help he needed, took care of his personal stuff, have visited and helped with the mess in the house from when he collapsed, continue to help and give comfort.  Since Ethan is a vegan (and the hospital food people do not have a clue as to what that entails) his friends have provided food he can eat. These are extraordinary people and to them we are eternally grateful.  Friends and relatives who know about the situation have offered their help, prayers and healing thoughts. 

Mom, Dad and brother have all cleared our calendars to fly up to be with him on a round robin basis.  It's what we do, not only because it's right, but because we love him and need him to know we are there with him, for him and always will be. 

It's a lot more complicated than this but we'll get through this together.  And we are feeling the hugs, the love and the strength from all those who have let us know they are thinking of us.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Sterling, my furry family member

Life goes by, a day at a time, seemingly fine. And then, suddenly, things go downhill fast. I have 2 really adorable rescue dogs.  Snuggles is a maltese/shi tzu mix and Sterling is a bichon/poodle mix.

 When I heard a yip from Sterling it didn't seem like a big deal.  When he didn't want to eat, my suspicions started to rise.  When he didn't want to get up off the floor and didn't want to walk, the bells were ringing.

We rushed him to the emergency vet because this was a Sunday (of course.)  We spent several hours there, much of it waiting to see the vet on duty.  There were a lot of emergencies that day.  They did preliminary tests and took x-rays which showed a disc problem.  The vet sent us home with some meds and we were told to keep him as inactive as possible.

On Monday morning, we took him to our vet and the drama was on.   The disc problem was causing him pain.  He refused to eat and drink so he had to stay at the vet with an IV  for nutrition and liquid.  His weight loss was quick.  It was easy to see the difference a few less pounds made on his little body.  He spent two additional days at the vet with the IV in him.  We took him home for the nights, keeping him in a crib so he wouldn't try to jump up on anything like the sofa or the bed...two of his favorite places.  And he was on a regimen of medications for pain, nausea, gastro protection, indigestion, and probiotics.  Except for the probiotic which he took willingly, it was a battle to get the rest of the meds down his throat.  Trying to get him to eat was another test.  I cooked chicken breast for him and he would eat that.  But trying to get him to eat the canned stuff the vet sent home was a different story.  He wouldn't eat it out of his dish but if I put some in a spoon, along with some chicken breast pieces, he would lick some of it.

We spent most of the time during the week, when he wasn't at the vet, either holding him or making sure he wasn't doing much of anything except laying in one of his several beds scattered round the house.  In the meantime, Snuggles, bless her little heart, was extremely concerned about him.  She hovered near him and we could tell from the look on her face that she was worried.  Continuing to reassure her was part of the drama, too.

Sterling is still on pain medication for a few more days, but now we will have to make sure he doesn't jump on stuff.  A wrong jump could result in paralysis.  We'll be getting some doggie stairs for him.  Any bets as to whether we can teach him to use them?

The cost of all this was unexpected and high.  But there was never a moment , not one moment, when we hesitated to do everything we needed to do to get him well, no matter what the cost.  Our doggies are family members, bringing us joy, happiness and giggles all the time.  There isn't anything we wouldn't do for them.  Love my doggies!

Friday, June 1, 2012

MY DELETED COMMENT ON HUFFPOST'S JOBS REPORT!

Today, I posted the comment below on HuffPost under the article about the jobs report.  69,000 is a low number?  After getting 16 people to "fave" the comment, Huffpost removed the comment.  I am designated a Superuser on Huffpost.  Don't know what their problem is. 



It's beyond comprehension that Obama gets blamed for every damned thing. Why hasn't the GOP Congress done something about creating jobs LIKE THEY PROMISED? President Obama has tried and accomplished a turnaround in the jobs picture against all odds thrown at him by the GOP. The GOP hates his guts and will do anything to bring him down. Obama is not responsible for singlehandedly creating every new job here. There have to be consumers to buy the products. The GOP is doing its damnedest to make sure the middle class has less and less money, purchasing power and voting power. Where the hell were the screamers when GW Bush threw the economy and the country in the crapper? 69,000 jobs WERE ADDED. There will be more to come if we can keep the vicious GOP from giving more tax breaks to the damn corporations and making sure a JOBS PRESIDENT like Obama remains in office.