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!

Click on the picture to watch a video of Kate's Kart story

The story of Kate's Kart

The Story of Kate's Kart

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.