Sunday, April 8, 2018

Say Good Bye Gall Bladder


On April 6th I reported to the hospital at 6:45 am to prep for surgery to remove my stone filled gall bladder.  But my problems with my gall bladder go back to October 23 around 1 PM when I had mild pain in the center of my chest for about 45 minutes. The last thing I remember eating was pretzels which are not known to cause stones to move.  I called Mom and told her I though I just passed a gall stone.  She had the same issue years ago and told me what to watch out for.  I wrote it on the calendar and was fine the rest of the week until around 11:45 PM Friday.  I had some yummy tater tot nachos that Gloria brought back from the restaurant she went to when we arrived at our room.  We were on our trip to the water park in VA and I woke up in a lot of pain.  It was a 180 difference from the easy stone movement on Monday.  This one included sweating, vomiting, shaking, and A LOT of pain.  I went out to the couch to wait it out and in about 45 minutes it was over.  I called Mom in the morning and told her. I came to work on Monday and called a Gastroenterology office to make an appointment.  They got me in on November 9th and I got started on the process of elimination on what was causing my chest pain.  I had to have an ultrasound on 11/15 which found multiple stones.   On December 6th, I was supposed to go to the heart Dr to rule out heart problems but I had to reschedule for January 4th.  And then I went on February 23rd for an upper endoscopy to rule out hernias, ulcers, and such.  Finally all the results were in and I had gall stones and it needed to be removed.  So we scheduled it for April 6th.  

I warned the ladies that I am a hard one to stick and I was proved right when it took four sticks to find a vein that would not shut down as soon as they got in there.  It really hurt, especially the one highest up on my hand.  Two failed sticks on this hand. 


One failed stick on the back of my hand.  They finally got it going on a vein under my thumb but there was an option to have it moved when I was under in surgery.  They managed to work with it thankfully!   


And surgery went well and I was at home early afternoon to relax for the rest of the day and weekend.  Nurse Roxie kept me company after she got home from day care.  I was surprised that there was really not a lot of pain after the surgery and other than a few Tylenol on the first day, I did not take any pain meds after Friday at the hospital.  It was certainly sore and uncomfortable but no pain. 


From the photos from the Clubhouse, the kids had a good day playing.  



I do love my Friday night day care coma evenings with these two! 


The weekend was also Jake's one year anniversary with us!  I would not have guessed a year ago that we would have two dogs within the year but I am so glad we do.   They only thing they fight over now are fresh bones so we had to keep them separate after this.   





And they had some celebration steak with their dinner.  Do I spoil them? Yes, yes I do!  




Saturday, March 31, 2018

March Catch Up

Hello Train, it is good to see you again.  


Today was wear a shirt with words on it and he picked his Baylor shirt, and had to pull faces for the pictures!  




Jake loves the wind in his face, like most dogs I suppose.  



A beautiful winter sunset. 



So I went to a thrift store and bought some little sweaters for Roxie to play dress up in.  She is a girl after all.  She tolerated it very well and looks so cute! 








Jake likes to be outside and I guess the old whetstone makes a warm pillow in the sun.  


Though Roxie does not like to leave him in peace very often, she is always up for some fun.  



But this time she ended up joining him. 


I liked how she rested her head on my foot.  She is a silly girl.  


Jake has never been a bed dog or at least I thought so until I bought Roxie a bed.  Apparently, Jake likes a nap in a cuddle bed.  


We are still going to the Dillsburg dog park and it is usually LA park friends who are there.  But it is a nice sized park and a good thing we still have a place to go.  


I finally received Roxie's DNA results and shared it with Kate, Roxie's first Mom.  I was surprised to see the Bull Terrier and happy because I always wanted a Bull Terrier!  And I got to learn about Feist because I never heard of one before. The are a common southern hunting dog and the word feisty comes from the breed and not the other way around.  She is feisty!  And the Feist and Bull Terrier explain her little tank body.   



Some nights I try to work on some obedience with the dogs but it gets hard because they both want to be the center of attention.  


So I end up with two on the bed.  


My welcome home committee. 


I love Friday night daycare coma.  It is worth the money for tired pups! 




Some days we end up with a few more boys in the van than usual.  Today it was because we went to Kartikey's grandfather's funeral.  It was a beautiful service and very sad good bye to a wonderful father, grandfather and friend.  We had plans with Ryder after the service and Greeva and Akshat asked if we could take Kartikey with us for a bit so they could finish up at the funeral and take care of things at home.  We were glad to have him with us and it was a nice distraction for him as well.  


She has grown a bit since we first got her a month ago.  The first picture is the day we got her 

They are still good friends and love to play a lot.  Especially inside the house!  And they are crazy and I would like them to be crazy outside. 



Roxie now and back about five weeks before when we got her.  She has grown a lot!! 


The local news station was at Baylor's school and the kids were on TV. So I paused it and took a photo of the picture.  


Here is his. 




I took Roxie to the vet for her first visit.  She did really well and they loved her right away.  We do have a great vet office and I know they love all the pets!  


Another snow 


Another gorgeous sky. 


I made cake pop pots of gold for the aunt meeting at Heather's for St Patrick's Day.  They were delicious!  


I bought cheap scarves at the Dollar Tree and dressed up the dogs for a St Patrick's Day photo. 



I took them for Heather's Charlie and Lucy to wear as well.  


The kids played with the dress up items and we took lots of pictures of course!  


Even Lucy wore a hat. 


So I finally bought the plastic fencing and blocked off half of the backyard so we can try to get some grass growing.  They still have most of the backyard to play and potty in but I need to at least try.  





It was a lovely weekend and we went to Dillsburg to play with our dog friends.  They tugged for a bit together but most of the time they don't interact too much when we are out.  



Tired dogs after a park play!  


I came home from work and found Roxie had destroyed her bed during the day.  Well, now neither dog has a crate bed!  


We had another nice snow and Roxie had a lot of fun playing in it.  




It was a lot of snow to move!  


Fun in the snow with these two. 



I love my Jake!! He looks so cute!!! 


And my little girl, she is just so much fun to outside.  She loved playing with the snowballs.  


As did Jake.  



A little late night snow removal in the front of the house.  We had to throw the shovel on the pine branches because they were so weighed down with snow I was afraid they were going to break.  It was fun until the shovel got stuck!    



Snow can be a pain and put a damper on life but it can also be fun and beautiful.  I try to show Baylor the beautiful things to see and I love when he finds them first and shows me.  









Snowball fun after work. Thankfully the sun was doing a good job of melting the snow on the hard surfaces.  It is always a good help until it freezes overnight and is a sheet of ice in the morning!! But we worry about that later.  


Right now it is just fun. 


The sun helped melt the driveway, love getting the help. 


The school had STEM night and Baylor was excited to go, so we did.  We ran into the Browns while we were in the animal petting area.  


Baylor would not hold it in his hands but I did.  The foot pads were super soft feeling. 


No snakes for Baylor or me though Mandy did not mind. 


A taste of VR with a phone ap and viewer glasses.   


He controlled a little rolling robot and put it through a maze on the paper.  He really enjoyed that.  


The had to put a drop of water on these laminated sheets and blow it with straws along the maze.  


Fingerprints done with body oils and he showed them how they highlight them with graphite and a fine brush.  


Some simple coding to make a character move correctly on the screen. 


He was in the last group to go into the planetarium and was super happy he made it.  And he enjoyed the experience and lesson.  



Another gorgeous sunrise!  


I do not leave tug toys around because Jake will just destroy the tug but occasionally I bring one out for some fun. And then take it when Jake goes off to chew it apart.  



Snapping with my main squeeze. 


Jake is ready for Easter this year.  


A Canine Clubhouse photo, she always smiles for them. 


Friday night and all the kids are asleep on the couch.  Baylor and Ryder on one and Jake and Roxie on the other.  



The new crate pads arrived and are supposed to be chew proof. Time will tell with these two.  




Waiting for someone to let them in.  


We had Easter dinner at my parent's house because I boycotted having it at my house.  Just not in the mood to host this time.  But we had a nice dinner and good time together.