HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!!

i’m very very sorry to say that he’s spending it in the hospital YET AGAIN. mom and i took him to the doctor yesterday and they were insistent that he needed to go back in – dehydrated, and his abdomen is really swollen, etc etc it’s always...

HAPPY MAY DAY!

trying to be positive and full of happiness today.  i’ve secretly packed a pig ear, mollie’s #1 favorite treat, and another treat in my purse for the car ride home from the vet at the U of I. meanwhile, it’s may first and no banner yet.  i hate...

tuesday, the LAST DAY OF APRIL,

and i found some photos on my camera from the end of march. whoops. but first, here’s a photo of poor little shortie, a very sweet and good little dog.  dad loved him so much, and i know he’s heartbroken and misses him terribly. here he is, earlier in...

it WILL be a better week,

because i am going to MAKE SURE IT’S BETTER. the day after we found out the news about mollie, dad’s dog shortie, died in his sleep. this week is GOING TO BE BETTER. yes it is. mollie is doing totally fine, and today’s the last day of the week that...

is there anything good out there, anywhere?

and just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse… they didn’t do the CT scan on mollie because they found that the reason her lymph nodes are so enlarged is because she has lymphoma.  this is such aggressive cancer that if it’s not treated,...

pins-n-needles

my short term goal: to not wake up feeling anxiously anxious. i have no long-term goals right now.  just gonna try to get through today. monday, after waiting and waiting and carrying my phone around and losing it and finding it again, finally, the vet called.  she...

hopefully hopeful on saturday morning

the vet called, YAY for that! the news wasn’t perfect – mollie isn’t perfectly fine – but we are now hopefully optimistic.  they didn’t find any cancer cells, but there is the big liver mass in one lobe.  could just be a benign mass.  the...

just another exciting friday night…

this evening, when the sun finally emerged, we took mollie for a walk.  she was delighted, but kevin and i wore our winter coats, and i was very happy that i’d decided to also wear my hat and scarf. kind of crazy, but at least everything is that fabulous vibrant...

so, no matter what, whatever you do,

if there’s something going on with your beloved dog, or cat or whatever kind of cherished pet you might have, or a loved person, for that matter…don’t start looking stuff up online about it. i started doing that just a little yesterday afternoon and...

mollie

she has a big mass on the right central lobe of her liver.  also on her left adrenal gland.  the vet sent the biopsy-whatever-thing to the U of I, and we’ll know the results in a week. everything else is good. it’s going to be a very long week. ok then,...

4:10

whew. the fantastic news:  dad go released from the hospital on tuesday.  very, very good news.  there was all kinds of last-minute stuff, and it took way longer for the releasing that they said it would,but they finally set him free later in the afternoon. he’s...

here in the middle of the night

i woke up to the sound of a crash – nothing huge, nothing broke, not like the bowl i somehow managed to break last night, from smacking into a plate on the floor next to the bowl of water. but even though the crash wasn’t so bad-sounding, i figured it must...

things, such as they are

not so good.  not horrible.  not great.  stressful.  ups and downs. dad might get out of the hospital tomorrow.  today, not such a great day for him. not so great. when i got home from the hospital i opened my computer because i haven’t read much of any news for...

miraculously improved, thank you very much

yesterday morning they took out the tube.  the doctor was hesitant about it since dad had always fought against the weaning trials, but both respratory therapists thought he could handle it. and he did! i finally left yesterday around noon, and when i got back...

shhhh…

10:49 p.m.and all is well, relatively. last night when amy spent the night, she didn’t sleep much, which is what you’d expect in a hospital.  but she said sometimes that the staff sitting right outside dad’s door at the nurse’s station were...

wednesday, a sleepover

last night amy stayed the night with dad, and tonight i will.  so if i might write anything at all here tomorrow, please don’t pay any attention to me because i’m never in my right mind when sleep-deprived.  this morning, though, amy seemed really good....

tuesday

things didn’t go so well yesterday.  i got to the hospital at about nine and they had tried to wean him off the tube, but it didn’t work.  so yesterday he was supposed to rest. rest with two big tubes down his throat, hooked up to so many different IVs and...

intubation

well, endotracheal intubation, to be ecise. i just looked up intubation online and i’m glad i didn’t look it up before, not that i’ve really had time. mom and i drove dad to the ER on saturday afternoon.  he and mom had been at toyota and mom called...

record snow!

they said on the tv that we had 17 inches, in some place 18 – but i know we don’t have 17 inches of snow.  we do have a whole lot, though.  kevin went out before i got up this morning, plowing the driveway. but wait a minute here, let me show you this,...

uncle.

i woke up and the HUGE snow hadn’t happened.  a dusting of snow, that’s all. but then, at about 10 a.m., it started.  it snowed.  and snowed.  and it just keeps on snowing. yesterday, kevin said that when it started snowing today we’d put on packs...

20 minutes on, 20 minutes off,

and so my day goes.  the cold pack does help with the face swelling, and i’m amazed at how much i’m able to get done in little 20-minute bursts of activity.  the pain isn’t so bad, either, so all in all, not the worst day.  it’s all way better...

two for one special!

i only have five minutes before i have to have the ice pack on my face for 20 minutes, then off for 20 minutes, til bedtime.  then the same, ALL DAY TOMORROW. when the periodontist looked at my teeth to see which one was the worst and needed to be done today, he said...

on this bitterly cold thursday morning…

i am bracing myself to go get in my car to go to yoga.  i love yoga. i have to get the horrible skin graft thing on another tooth this afternoon.  cutting skin from the roof of my mouth and sewing it onto the gum in front of a tooth.  i will take many deep breaths in...

and march already!

ok, i realize that it’s not really “already” march, since it’s now the 19th. but hey, it’s only two days after st. patrick’s day and here’s this funny photoshopped photo of randy the leprechaun. yes, the photo has been there...

now that we’re more than halfway through march…

here are the final photos from february. not that i’ve been un-motivated or anything. here’s poor chester at the vet.  such a very very unhappy little kitty. and here’s mom’s birthday!  happy VERY VERY BELATED birthday, mom!  kevin is carrying...

and already another friday!

i don’t know how it happened. i continue to sit around waiting for it to warm up.  it’s gonna today, but then fuggedaboudit for the next who knows how long. grrrr is all i have to say to march. here’s the dining room, before we put all the furniture...

friday already…

seriously?  not sure how that happened.  they keep saying it’s gonna be warmer every day, but yesterday when running with mollie it didn’t seem so warm to me.  today better be the day – it’s march, already, time for warm weather.  let’s...

oh boy

i worked on my new banner last night and uploaded it this morning…and it’s not there.  sigh.  i uploaded it again, no dice. maybe it’s just on my computer.  maybe my web host is just really slow this morning.  if i had more energy i’d call down...