We are enjoying more spring weather this week. Alexia came home from school and asked if it would be the same temperature tomorrow as it was today. I told her it would be. To this she responded that she needed me to get her shorts and capris out of storage, to wear to school tomorrow, since the weather is so HOT! (We hit a Whopping 52 degrees today!) I'll admit I find the 50s to be T-shirt weather, but I'm not breaking out the capris until we at least get to mid 60s on a daily basis.
I have been quite distressed the past few days as our dog, Oakley, has been obviously not feeling well. He has not had much appetite and he is visibly thinner and noticeably weak. He has also been having some gastroenteritis-type symptoms with some vomiting and diarrhea. I have been trying to give him a mild/soft diet of chicken, rice and canned dog food, which he seems to be able to keep down, but he still won't eat very much. He is a very old dog, (12 people years) and Ryan thinks we should just have him put to sleep and not spend anymore money on him. I agree that we can't really spend a lot of money trying to keep him alive, but I don't want to put him down if he has something that is treatable. Anyway, I finally took him into the vet today. They recommended blood tests, urinalysis and x-rays, to see what was going on. Knowing we can't possibly afford all of that, I requested that they just do the blood work, as that would be most informative. The blood work came back with several high/abnormal results involving his liver function. His white blood cell count was also high, indicating a probable infection. The doctor then recommended an ultrasound of the liver, x-rays, a liver biopsy and keeping him there at the hospital for IV fluids, all of which I knew would be out of the question at this time. We took Oakley home and the doctor gave us a prescription to treat the probable infection, though she was quite doubtful that it would help much with the overall liver problems. I have been overly emotional about the whole thing and I am not exactly sure why. I really don't want him to suffer, but it is also difficult to think about putting him to sleep when he is not Obviously suffering. I don't know, maybe I am just being selfish. He has been with our family for 11 years now, which is longer than most of our family members!! I guess all we can do right now is give him a few days on the antibiotics and see if there is any sign of improvement, then go from there.
Ryan and Andrew went on another scout campout this past weekend. Ryan took the car this time and just slept in the tent. I guess it wasn't quite as cold as last time, but still camping in the snow. Ryan hit a rock in the road on his way down the canyon and blew out his back tire. Luckily, it just happened to be the ONE tire we got from Les Schwab which came with road hazard coverage, so instead of $85 to replace it, we were able to get a new one for only $30. :-)
I have a couple funny Austyn conversations to share from this past week.
1) Background - Ryan likes to wrap up in the blankets when he sleeps at night. So, instead of pulling the blankets off me all night, he usually sleeps on top of the bed with his own separate blankets and I sleep IN the bed. So, Austyn comes up in the morning and sees that DAD's blankets are on the floor and the Whole bed looks like it has been slept on. So he says -- "Dad's blankets are on the floor! - Dad must have wanted to sleep on the floor."
2) Austyn said "Mom, I think when I am in 7th grade I can't wrestle. - Because if I get knocked down I might knock out my loose tooth and it might fall into my eye."
Daylight savings time is hard. It seems way too soon to be having the "bedtime battle" with Austyn. Now that it is still light outside after 7:00, Austyn does not believe that it is "late" and is quite distraught that he cannot play outside until dark on a school night.
Well, I guess it's THAT time. I better get these kids going to bed so I can try to get a little more work done before I get too tired.
No comments:
Post a Comment