Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Graduation fun

Well, on Saturday, I finally graduated and obtained my BSN. I am so glad to be done. I was blessed to be able to meet 3 of my classmates for the first time at graduation. I did all of my classes online, so while I knew tons about my classmates, I couldn't pick them out of a crowd! These people were such a source of support to me during my pregnancy and the transition to having a new baby. I consider these folks my friends and am so glad I got the opportunity to meet a few of them.

Sammy is doing great. She feels great and we are having a really difficult time keeping her from jumping.

Zachary has been a crab apple lately, because he has all 4 molars coming through right now. Wish I would have bought stock in Motrin and Orajel. :o)

Not much new to report on Joshua. He's been good, staying out of trouble. He did just have to do a report for school on the planet Jupiter. I learned more about Jupiter than I ever needed to know. That kiddo soaks up everything he reads. He even gave my mom and sister a lesson on the planets that would rival a lecture given by an astronomy professor!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Check it out

My friends The Layman's have developed a way to give back in honor of their beautiful little girl. You can read all about Kate's Kart at http://kateskart.org/
Please feel free to send donations! It's a very worthy cause!

As for us, we're doing great. Sammy is truly bouncing back wonderfully. Can't tell she ever had surgery (if you couldn't see her incision!) Also, I am graduating on Saturday. After a long 19 months, I have finally obtained my BSN. What a bit of adversity and challenges we had during that time. I thank God for the strength to get through it all.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Sammy's home!!

I picked up Sammy today. The staff at Purdue is amazed at how quickly she bounced back after surgery. They estimated 5-7 day stay after surgery and she's home 3 days after. She was so happy to see me when I picked her up. I got tons of kisses and her tail is still wagging. It's so great to see her so happy because for the past few weeks, we haven't seen our "real" Sammy. The hard part now is to keep her from jumping, running, and playing because she thinks she's superman now that she feels better!

Friday, April 18, 2008

EaRtHqUaKe ExCiTeMeNt

We were woken up abruptly this morning by the entire house rattling. I have never been so scared in my life. Both of the boys woke up too. I wasn't sure what was going on. Called Gary who was on his way to work. He jokingly said, "Maybe it was an earthquake." Yeah right. Turned on the news and sure enough 5.2. First time I've experienced that. Now I know why I don't live in California!

As for Sammy, she is having surgery today at 1pm. They are going into her neck and remove the disk between C2 and C3 vertebra. She will be in the hospital 5-7 days. I feel bad for her but am also excited that her pain will be better.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Answers finally!

The vet just called and said we finally have an answer to Sammy's pain. Her disk between C2 and C3 is pushed into the spinal canal and up against the cord. This is a surgical emergency and therefore we are headed to Purdue with her tomorrow. She will have surgery there and recover for a few days before coming home. I am so glad we finally have an answer and she will start to get some pain relief soon. Thank God for diligent vets who decide to MRI the entire spine!

Will keep you all posted.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Best laid plans, never go quite right

Well, Sammy threw a wrench in the plans again. Sunday night she started in again with the yelping and crying with movement. Monday morning I took her straight back to the vet for a pain shot and a new Fentanyl patch. There is question as to if she has injury in her neck as well as her low back area because she is very painful when her neck is manipulated. After much discussion we had decided we were ready for her to have surgery. Our vet talked to the surgeon who wants a myelogram to get better pictures. Only problem is the surgeon doesn't want to operate until she is paralyzed. Nevermind the fact that she is in horrible pain.

The new game plan (after talking to one of our other vets) is that he will perform another MRI on her tomorrow (getting pictures of her entire spine, neck included) and reviewing it with the radiologist. He hopes to then get her to a surgeon who will operate on her. She is home, sleeping because of the fentanyl and we will drop her off in the morning. We thank God for vets who care so deeply about our dog and are willing to come in to work early just to be able to get this much needed more extensive MRI done and get her some pain relief sooner rather than later.

Friday, April 11, 2008

More MRI fun

Dr. Smyth just called and said that there is a bulging disk at L3-L4. The pictures they got can not tell them conclusively is the disk is pushing on the spinal cord. They want a few more pictures. So Sammy goes next Tuesday to have a few more pictures taken (at no charge to us, thank goodness). They are going to put another Fentanyl patch on her tomorrow to get her through the weekend and then we'll see. If there is no spinal cord involvement, we will try letting the Fentanyl patch wear off and see how she is. If she still seems very painful, then surgery will be the treatment. If she seems to do better, then we will give her steroids and oral pain meds and continue to have her rest to see if things improve.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Sammy is home

She is drugged up again with a new Fentanyl patch on. The MRI went well, now we just get to wait for the results. I have gotten in touch with a support group for owners of dachshunds who have disk disease. Everyone has been super supportive and given me great ideas of things to ask and discuss with the doctor. They are highly encouraging me not to wait 3 more days for the results of the MRI. They believe that I should take the MRI and go to Purdue to have her seen. The point is that we don't want her to progress to the disk rupturing and her becoming paralyzed. I am going to speak with our vets about this and who knows, maybe we'll be making a trip to Purdue soon. I just don't want her to hurt anymore. Will keep you all posted. I am sure I am our vet's worst nightmare as an owner who knows what she wants and asks for it! Oh well, at least I know that I don't treat my dog differently than my kids! ;o)

Monday, April 7, 2008

MRI in the works

Well, Sammy's MRI is scheduled for Wednesday. She is still pretty ouchy today and they want to ensure that things are not geting worse. If she is miraculously better on Wednesday, then we won't do it. Will keep you all posted.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Sammy update

Well, we've spent everyday this week at the vet office (except Monday). Today was no different. Sammy's back pain is getting worse. This morning I came home from work and pet her only to have her yelp in pain. Called the office, and of course they want to see her again. This time we saw the other dr in the office. He examined her and said she is obviously in extreme pain (she yelped at him a bunch.) He agreed that she needs some heavy duty pain meds and if things are not improving by Monday, probably an MRI. (Can you believe they do MRI's on dogs?) Of course they do and we would have to have one! ;o) The GOOD news (or so he says) is that if we can catch the disk before it ruptures, they can do a laser ablation of the disk rather than "major surgery" to remove the disk. Isn't any back surgery on a dog, "major surgery?"

So, they shot her up with some major drugs and applied a Fentanyl patch. Fentanyl (the drug we use on our post op heart patients) is very strong and should keep her comfortable for a few days. She appears very drugged and hasn't really moved, until NOW. She just jumped down and peed at my feet. Gotta love steroids and narcotics. She knew she needed to go, but didn't know what to do once she got off the couch. Poor baby.

So please keep us in your prayers that Sammy will improve and no 'major' or minor back surgery is in her future.

PS: Thought this blog was supposed to be about my kids! By the way, Zachary is back on antibiotics and steroids! Is summer here yet?

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

VETS and MEDS

Does it ever end? We just loss Rosie and now Sammy is creating chaos. She hurt her back (not sure how) and was crying really hard Monday night. Took her to the vet Tue am and they found on xrays some disc degeneration in her mid-low back. So she got major steroids and is basically on "bedrest." Someone please tell me how you keep a busy 4 year old dog quiet. I'll tell you how, you sit with her constantly. No stairs, no jumping, no running, etc. The boys and I are headed to Fort Wayne on Wednesday. This means, daddy is taking Thursday off of work, because someone has to stay home with the baby (Sammy).

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers and pray for a quick healing and no pain for our little girl. Can this family have any more fun? Joshua's statement was, "Things are never easy for the Hess family, are they mom?" So true.