cvkelz: (Default)
So on Thanksgiving this year, we did what we usually do and drove over to my in laws with the dogs for Dinner. Between my mother in law and my sister in law there is usually a pretty good spread, from appetizers to deserts. And I enjoy both of those things very much.

It was a lovely time as usual. We’ve been bringing Shilo there since we got her four years ago and so we didn’t expect anything out of the ordinary this year.

We decided to play a round of cards this year before desert so we all adjourned to the breakfast nook to play a rousing game of UNO.

We didn’t clear the table of anything other than the plates we actually ate off of.

Do you see where this is going?

After a hand of cards I heard the tell tale sound of dog tags tapping against some sort of dish or bowl. I bounced up and ran into the dining room but was only in time to see a tiny little Shilo butt jumping off the table, back onto the floor. I quickly glanced around the table and didn’t appear to see anything too amiss. The stuffing still looked pretty full, the plate of chocolate tarts seemed intact(including the one I had only eaten half of and put on my soda can to save it), the yummy homemade rolls were all there.

Hoping no harm had been done I started to clear the serving dishes. It was when my father in law joined to help that I noticed something was missing. You see, my sister in law made this cheeseball. It was no ordinary cheeseball my friends. It was smoked gouda, it was rolled in bacon pieces and it was a little piece of heaven on earth. The plate that it had inhabited still held he crackers, but the ball itself was gone.

I inquired to my father in law John if he had moved the delectable item from the table and he said no. On my second round out with serving dishes I asked the others in the breakfast nook if they had moved the luscious globe of dairy and they all shook their heads. As I headed around the corner back into the dining room I spotted a slightly larger beige ball of fur than Shilo delightedly licking away at the cheeseball that was now on the floor on the other side of the table.

I let out a loud “EY!” which is the code word in doggy speak for “STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING RIGHT THIS INSTANT!!!” and Pappy leaped away from the delicious treat. I grabbed it off the floor, it was half gone now, but I couldn’t be certain if it was the dogs or the humans that had put a bigger dent into it.

The good news was that it didn’t appear to contain anything that would harm the dogs. Just cheese and bacon, both things they loved anyway. We laughed it off and promptly forgot about it. Well, I was pissed that the dogs ruined the very thing I was hoping to take home for leftovers, but I eventually let it go.

Cut to Saturday afternoon, Rob tells me that the cheeseball had been a little too rich for our girls tummy as her poop had been kinda loose that day and a whole lotta stinky. We didn’t think too much of it. Pappy is famous for getting into things he shouldn’t and having really nasty poops.

Sunday I was under the weather with cramps and spent all morning in bed. When I finally got up, Rob was heading down for a nap and both dogs joined him. A couple hours later I headed to the grocery store and when I got back everyone was still in bed. There was a smell however. A very disgusting smell coming from the bedroom. I located the source of the stink and found that while Shilo had indeed pooped a very loose present inside, she had managed to back it up onto a surface that was fairly easy to clean instead of spraying it all over the carpet. I silently thanked her while holding my breath during the cleaning process.

She was still having diarrhea on Monday but she was eating well and didn’t have any other symptoms of being ill other than the squirts so we said if it kept up steadily by Wednesday we would bring her in. Monday night consisted of getting up every two hours to bring her out so she could take a liquidump.

Tuesday she vomited at work with Rob and once we got her home she refused to eat. We have had this dog for four years now and this was the first time she has EVER refused food. We decided to watch her and if she was still bad in the morning we would bring her in. Right before we were going to start folding clothes around seven that night I took her outside to see if she would go. Go, she did and what we saw frightened the hell out of us. The liquid that came out of her butt was a bright brick red and smelled of copper.

We bundled her into the van and took off for the 24 hour vet that we thankfully have in Monterey. I cried pretty much he entire ride there, convinced that she was hemorrhaging and that she would be dead by the time we got to the vets.

Once we finally got in and got seen the vet didn’t seem that afraid for what was going on. She examined Shilo and the bloody sample we managed to collect and said she thought there was some intestinal distress due to eating something she shouldn’t have and that the blood came from a very irritated colon. Her suggestion was to give Shilo a shot to stop the runs and some meds to sooth her stomach. She also said she would be happy to run labs on her but she didn’t think it was necessary at that point.

We decided to take her advice and as she said if she wasn’t any better in 18 hours bring her back in.

They gave her the shot and left her with us while they got her meds together. She already seemed in a better mood after the shot and we were encouraged. The lump you see on her back in that photo is the injection site. We were told it did not hurt and it would go away in a couple of hours, which it did.

We gave her the meds as soon as we got home around ten or so. One of the meds said not to feed her until an hour after she had that one so we gave it to her and then around eleven I tried to feed her some rice. She really wasn’t interested but if I broke some apart on my fingers she would eat a little of it.

She managed to stay asleep all night but when Rob took her out this morning there was more red liquid and she didn’t eat much breakfast. I braced myself for the worst as we headed out to work. Thankfully Rob can bring both dogs to work so he would be able to monitor her and if she started to get worse he could bring her in.

Around noon she took a poop that was very loose but was finally brown like her normal color.

That has been the last poop she has taken thusfar. We got her home and baked up some chicken for her and she all but scarfed it down. That was a half hour ago. I took her out about ten minutes ago and she didn’t have any interest in pooping(that is what the vet said would happen) and then she fought with her brother over the doggie bed on the end of the couch. That was such an encouraging sign in brought tears to my eyes.

We just gave her the last of her meds for the night and she is resting comfortably on her doggie bed but not before chasing me around the kitchen while I started our “human” dinner. I am hoping this means that our little girl is over he worst of it because this really scared the piss out of me y’all.

Those furballs are my children and I am not ready for them to leave me. Especially after only four years!
cvkelz: (Default)
I had plans yesterday morning to wake up early, get a run in and take a nap before meeting a good friend for dinner and a play. The universe had different plans.

I did wake up early but my ankle was still tweaked from when I turned it yesterday so I bailed on the run. Rob brought the dogs in and we frolicked for a little while. He fell asleep and I got up to go putter around on the computer.

Around noon Rob woke up and I decided to take a nap. As I was putting myself down for said nap, I picked up my phone to set an alarm and saw that my mother had called. Mom never calls my cell, she ALWAYS calls my house phone, so I didn’t think anything about it. We recently bought her a new phone so I figured she was just playing around with it and accidentally dialed my phone since she didn’t leave a voice mail.

I laid down to take my nap but never really fully got there. I dozed a little bit but for some reason couldn’t quite get into a deep sleep. Around one or so the house phone rang. I checked the caller ID and found a 207 area code but not a number I was familiar with. My first thought was that no one from Maine that would be calling me would know my house phone number other than my mother, but it wasn’t her phone number. With a sense of dread building inside, I answered the phone. On the other end was my sister in law. While Michaela and I communicate, it’s usually facebook or texting. The only time we really speak on the phone is when something bad has happened and I could tell my the sound of her voice she was not happy about having to make this call.

“Your mom had a stroke.”

She quickly followed that up by telling me that she alive and stable and at the hospital being treated, but those five words just kept repeating in my brain.

As far as I am aware, my mothers blood pressure has never been an issue. She has diabetes, fibromyalgia, sarcoidosis, eye problems, and a host of other ailments. She is obviously not the healthiest person I know, but never have I heard blood pressure ever mentioned in her laundry list of health complaints.

While my eyes were leaking tears I tried to hold it together to get all the details. She was at the Augusta ER. She had some facial drooping and impaired speech but the meds they gave her could possibly reverse that within a day or so. She was stable but they were waiting for an ambulance to come up from the Portland hospital to bring her back to Portland because there was no neurologist at the Augusta one. My brother gave me the phone number to the Augusta ER and said if I wanted to talk to mom I should call pretty quickly because they were only waiting on the ambulance and then she’d be on her way to Portland.

I thanked them for all the info and hung up before dissolving into sobs. I quickly reigned that in as I realized my husband was no where to be seen. I deduced from the raw chicken on a platter on the counter that he was probably up getting the BBQ ready. I tried to be as calm as possible as I headed up there to deliver the news but my voice hitched as soon as I said the words: “My mom had a stroke.” He hugged me and I cried a little but I had to get it together to call my mom. That was my top priority at that point.

When I finally got her on the phone I established that it was me and then said: “Some people will do anything for attention.” to which she promptly burst into tears. Not the reaction I was hoping for. She was obviously emotionally distraught, having just had a stroke and being scared and alone in a hospital. I told her that I loved her and she would be fine and I would talk to her soon. She was very hard to understand as there had been some facial paralysis. Once I hung up the phone I cried like I haven’t cried in a very long time. Huge, wracking sobs and I couldn’t stop shaking. Rob hugged me until I had to go blow my nose and then I just kinda went numb.

It occurred to me that my brother and I hadn’t talked about contacting anyone else so I texted Chayla and asked if either of my mothers sisters had been notified and the answer was no. I told her I would call them since she had enough going on her plate at the moment and set out to find their phone numbers. I found Auntie Tee’s number in an old facebook message from the year my mother forgot her phone on our annual trip to Vegas and Auntie Tee had to ship it out to her in Vegas. I knew there was a reason I never got rid of anything!

I had a brief conversation with her and was very relieved when she said she was going to go visit her the next day since she lived in Portland. I knew Mom would feel better just seeing a friendly face. I gave her all the phone info that I had on the hospital and then left messages for Auntie Donna and our cousin Dot. Dot is a cousin but she is more like the touchstone of our family. She is my grandfathers niece and has been the center of all of us grand kids lives. She was the go to person for all babysitting needs. She was the fun place to go as a treat. My brother and I practically lived with her when my parents were separating and then eventually divorcing. She is very much the one constant in our family.

I bailed on my plans for that evening because I would have been the absolute worst date ever for Jourdain, sobbing into my dinner and disrupting the play with my sniffles and just sort of waited for updates.

There weren’t many because they wouldn’t be able to do any extensive testing until the next day.

I spent the rest of the day in a state of numbness or emotional wreck. I would be fine and then all of a sudden sobs would start coming. I played the blame game that we should have gone out to visit her this year and I never should have moved 3000 miles away. It wasn’t a very good day.

This morning I woke to a text from Chayla and she and my brother would be driving out from Maryland today and should arrive in Maine by ten tonight. That made me feel a lot better knowing at least one of her kids would be there for her. I knew it would make her feel safer.

The last update I got was from Auntie Tee about an hour ago. She had just come back from visiting mom and said that according to the MRI it was a blood clot. She said mom will be moved to a new room and probably have to be there for three or four more days before moving onto rehab.

Dot called while I was on the phone with Auntie Tee so I was able to tell her what was happening. She will go visit mom tomorrow.

I’m kind of at a loss here. You see, my mother is supposed to be indestructible. I don’t do well with any evidence to they contrary.

November 2019

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