More Good News For Belle!

The phone! The phone is riiiiiiingiiiiiiing! (Yes, for those of you parents with children young enough to watch WonderPets... that's what I was singing!) And my phone was ringing... it was the vet's office calling to tell me that all of Belle's labs came back good so we are a-go for treating her with anti-inflammatories! Hurray!!!!! That's such great news. I can't wait to have Belle feeling better... and hopefully this means we can get her dental work done also...and then she'll smell like my old dog, too! Old dog doesn't really bring to mind pleasant smells, but Belle has never been a stinker. So I want THAT dog back!

Anyway - that's my good news for this rainy, cold Friday afternoon!

Good News For Belle!

This is Belle. We don't have a TON of pictures of Belle. She follows the belief system of indigenous people around the world: she thinks the camera will steal her soul. She's verrrrry skittish about photo ops. That sounds believable enough. What is UNBELIEVABLE is that she's been my sidekick since the end of my freshman year in college. Actually, to me the most unbelievable part of that is how many years that's been! She's technically around 80! I would like to look that good at 80. (I like to tell people it's because she gets up every day and does yoga...) Lately we've been having some problems with Belle. The dog that used to "hold it" for 12 or 14 hrs if I had a bad day at work has been having accidents like crazy. She's been salivating like mad. She's got a weird odor.. that's very strong.. and she's NEVER had an odor. All of these things were becoming bigger and bigger problems and I really feared the worst. That odor was what we feared was 'the smell of death'... it was THAT bad! Today, my mother-in-law came over to help me take Belle to the vet since I still can't lift that much weight. After they ran tons of tests it appears that she's got some dental work to have done. There wasn't anything that screamed teeth needed to be removed, but they definitely require cleaning to stop that smell... and hopefully they will then be able to identify any underlying oral issues. All this is pending blood work to make sure that she can handle this at her age... and that there isn't another thing going on that we don't know. That will solve the salivation and the odor. We had x-rays done and it seems that her toiletting issues are actually being caused by her arthritis. Her poor hips are a mess... they said they were shocked she was active as she is. The vet said she's one TOUGH dog... of course, she's MY dog.. so we knew that! :o) The good news is that with some super duper vitamins/supplements and a dose of anti-inflammitory a day she should be MUCH improved! Yes, the news was expensive...but you can't put a price on the health of a roommate who has asked so little and loved so much for so long!

Mason 3.0

Last Thursday my little boy (born at 1lb 11oz) turned 3. I would have blogged all about it that night, but I was still traumatized by, a)having a 3 yr old, b)being less than 2 wks post-op, and c)Mason's first day at school! It was a long day to say the least! Mason had a great first day at school, though. They let us go early and walk him into his class room. I decided he was definitely at the right place when the Aggie War Hymn was played over the loud speaker while we walking down the hall! He didn't cry - just screamed with joy when he saw all the new toys! Friday was a different story, however. That was the first day that we had to drop him off in the carpool lane. I'll sum it up by telling you it took 3 people to get him into the building! I didn't get any report that there was a problem once he was inside. The teacher that walked him to the car said she was going to steal him from Ms. Laura every day b/c he was too cute & lovable. That really only takes about 10 seconds to figure out!

I've posted pictures and video from Mason's birthday and his first day of school at www.flickr/haute_momma. Enjoy!

This whole getting older/growing up/going to school experience does have one dark side: it took exactly 2 days for Mason to get a runny nose. This only confirms my suspicion that semi-retirement was the right move for my family! How do I know that this was something that we caught out at the store? Well, for starters, we haven't been out anywhere! And the damning evidence was that the one little girl in his class had a nose like a faucet when she came in on day 1. Ugh.... I just hope that this isn't typical. Do I sound like a fanatic when I say that kids shouldn't be sick all the time? I can count on one hand the number of times Mason has been sick and I just don't always want him drugged up or on 5 breathing treatments a day! (He's probably going to get 2 today, but when something moves into his lungs it goes from 3-5 pretty quickly!)

The bright side of Mason's school schedule... I managed to go to the post office (mailing things in the line!), Target and the library on Friday! That's like a whole week's worth of errands taken care of in one day!

1 Wk Post-op

Howdy, boys & girls... kids & campers! I know it's been a bit since I posted, but I have several good excuses.

1) My computer took a dive. It wasn't looking good. I was assured by The Geek Squad (after spending $70 for a diagnostic) that I needed to spend another $250 to get my laptop running again. It needed a new hard drive ... after only 1 yr... and that was what it would cost for parts & labor. Then I mentioned it in passing to a friend who had called while I was in Best Buy and she assured me that they were full of crap & at a minimum her husband could do it cheaper.... a few days later he had it running reliably!

2) My other excuse is surgery. My body is not a huge fan of general anesthesia. The first week I was feeling pretty yucky. I started turning around Friday afternoon and have felt human again since. This was really unexpected for me since I really didn't think my c-section was that bad. I thought that this would be easier... but it turns out that no, it was not. My pain has been surprisingly low the last few days, though. Hurray for that!

My parents were here for the surgery and the next few days. They stayed a day longer than expected since I felt so run down. Abuela showed up the day they left and has been doing a good job keeping Mason occupied and the house running. She's done countless loads of laundry & told me to sit down or not lift something a million times ("not even a pencil" she'll shout). Most afternoons after their customary walk they come home, eat lunch and take a nap together.... it's a good routine!

So that's how things are going here on the ranch. I'm slowly healing. Mason's getting lots of attention. Abuela's getting her exercise!

T-1 Week

T-1 Week until..... what? And why do you have a picture of Mason in robe in public? What does this have to do with him??? Nothing really... it's just a cute picture. It was taken at a local hospital the last time we visited the ER. T-1 Week until I have my surgery done! I can assure you that I will NOT look this cute at the hospital. What surgery? I'm having a transabdominal cerclage laproscopically placed to avoid all the baby drama we had last time.... b/c things people are not meant to experience ONCE are certainly NOT meant to be experienced again. The perinatologist agreed to do it - thankfully - even though he thought a normal cerclage would be fine.... but this is fool-proof.. and my cervix likes to act a fool!! Anyone interested in finding further information can either visit Abbyloopers or just search it on Yahoo.... it seems that there are ALOT of people in the medical profession who don't know about it, but every mom I know who had a dynamic/incompetent cervix is in line to have this done for their next go-round! Anyway - it's VERY exciting stuff!