Since our scare with Kira, we do not take any moment for granted...especially where the dogs are concerned. So, here is a peek at some random moments of cuteness that occur on a daily basis in our household...
Laying around the house relaxing (sometimes on Mommy and Daddy's bed)...
In March, the day after we brought Kira home from the vet hospital, Jeff turned 37. Although we didn't do anything special for his big day, it was nice to have everyone together again. We had a nice dinner at home, angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream and presents. Let's see...he got some gift certificates for dinner at a really nice restaurant in Chapel Hill (I love gifts like this since it means that I get to enjoy the present as well) and some money. I got Jeff tickets to see Spamalot at the Durham Performing Arts Center at the end of May, which he was pretty surprised about. He has been wanting to see that show for a long time and it is only in Durham for one night, so I was lucky to be able to get tickets. I hope we have a really good time and that he enjoys the show.
Jeff, I know that the last couple of months have been really tough, with picking up and moving, leaving your job and trying to find another one, but I am so proud of your persistence and resilience. Thank you for seeing how miserable I was and recognizing that I needed to make a huge change...and thank you for making it with me. I love you more than you will ever know. Here's hoping this is a great year for us both!
After our Saturday at Shelly Lake, we brought the dogs home, gave them a bath, and proceeded to enjoy our weekend. Everything seemed normal; the dogs were a little tired, but we just chalked that up to the crazy hike and excitement from the day before. On Sunday night, Kira stopped eating. At first we didn't think anything of it because she goes through phases where she doesn't eat at times. On Tuesday, she still wasn't eating and in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday, she started throwing up. The first time she threw up, I figured she may have a cold, but when she threw up again, I knew something was definitely wrong. Kira never throws up anything more significant than bile. I told Jeff that he needed to call a vet and get her an appointment on Wednesday. I had to go to work and give a presentation (isn't it the way that you always have something important going on when disaster strikes?), so I was so glad that Jeff could be there with her.
We had noticed that she had lost a little weight, but figured that was due to the fact that she was so much more active in the apartment than she ever was in Utah; we figured that attributed to her new svelte figure. When we finally got her into the vet later that afternoon, they performed an exam, told us she presented really well, took a blood sample to send out for analysis, and sent us home. I boiled up some chicken (her favorite) and we tried to get her to eat...to no avail...she wanted nothing to do with food. Needless to say, we spent another sleepless night trying to keep Kira as calm and comfortable as possible.
On Thursday afternoon, Jeff called me at work to tell me that the vet had called and told him to get Kira to a vet emergency hospital immediately as she was in ketoacidosis and was seriously diabetic. We were shocked, but Jeff got her and Koda into the truck, drove to work to pick me up, and we headed about 30 minutes southeast to the vet hospital. When we arrived, they had already received all of Kira's paperwork from our vet and were ready for us. They asked us if they needed to bring out a cart and were shocked to see Kira up and walking on her own. They put us in a room and the vet ER doctor came in to tell us that Kira's condition was critical. She was diabetic and her glucose levels had skyrocketed, at which time her body basically shut down, she started to pass ketones in her urine and her body began to consume its own fat for energy and fuel. The vet told us that, if they could bring her glucose levels down, get rid of the ketones, and get her enzymes back into normal ranges, she could live a normal life; however (and there are always "buts" in cases like these), it would be expensive ($3500 was the norm) and there were no guarantees. She was so critical that the next 24-48 hours would be touch and go. We were devastated and even though money was tight, we looked at each other and our eyes said it all....if there was a chance that we could get her better, we had to try. That is what credit cards are for, right? The hardest thing we did was leave her at the hospital and head home to spend another sleepless night without our little girl. The vet did call us around midnight to tell us that Kira had started treatment and was resting comfortably. Still didn't provide any comfort for us though.
I worked from home the next day (which was Friday), as Jeff had an interview and I didn't want to be at work if we got a call telling us that she was worse. They performed an ultrasound and told us that everything looked normal, except that she had an enlarged liver, which is an indication of Cushing's disease (which she had been tested for in Utah and we were well aware she may have). She was responding well to treatment and we were allowed to come up during visitation hours and see her on Friday night. She looked so weak and sick, it broke my heart...but she was so happy to see us that it made all the money well worth it.
She continued to get better and better and, after 5 days of pretty much living at the hospital, lost sleep and thousands of dollars, we got to bring her back home. She is now officially diabetic and is on insulin shots every 12 hours. She also has to eat diabetic food and go to the vet regularly for blood glucose curves. She was also diagnosed recently with Cushing's disease, which we are regulating with a daily pill. But, with the exception of some areas that they shaved on her legs for the IV's and belly for the ultrasound, we got our puppy back. Throughout the entire ordeal, she lost about 25 pounds and is looking better than ever. We are still trying to get her ideal insulin dose down (as the Cushing's disease complicates treatment of the diabetes), but overall, she is healthy and happy. We are so glad to have her with us...we were so scared of losing her. And, although we now joke that our shelter dog has quickly become our million dollar (not quite, but close to it) dog, we wouldn't have it any other way. When you have animals, it is your responsibility to give them a fighting chance...she fought so hard to live (even the vets could not believe how good she looked for being as sick as she was), that we couldn't stop fighting for her. And it worked because she is back with us and better than ever.
Although I took some pictures of her during her ordeal, they are on my old phone and since we recently got new phones, I can't retrieve them...still, I am glad I can't post them, as I prefer to look toward her future and not go back to where we were. It was one of the most horrible week's for our family.
Each day we take as they come...so far, Kira has recovered better than we could have imagined. And, although we don't know how much longer she will be with us, we do know that we gave her the best care possible and she is a happy and loved little girl.
So, now you understand why I have been slacking in my blogging and why it was so difficult to sit down and write about this event...which brings me back to the pictures taken at Shelly Lake; there were so many times during the week she was in the hospital that we wondered if that picture would be the last one of all four of us (and if that man at Shelly Lake was an angel sent to ensure that we would have that last memory)...as much as I am glad we have that picture, I am so much more glad that there will be (hopefully) many more pictures of the four of us.
If you don't understand the title of the post, trust me, you will soon enough. I know that I am so behind on blogging, but as I go through the next couple of posts, I am sure you will understand and forgive me for my tardiness.
Back in February,the weather was nice on a Saturday, so we decided to pack up the dogs and head to Shelly Lake for some hiking. We found this area in a hiking guide that I downloaded onto my Kindle from Amazon; it is perfect because the book is totally devoted to pet friendly hiking trails in North Carolina. Shelly Lake looked like a beautiful 1.5 mile hike around a huge recreational lake. When we got there, we obviously weren't the only ones looking for an outdoor activity to occupy our day, as the entire park was packed. The trail is basically a huge paved road that circles the entire lake and is used by bicyclists, runners, dogs, children, pretty much everything goes. We started on the hike and, once we made the entire circle once, decided to go for another round. The weather was just too pretty to pack up and head home.
One of the best parts of being back in the south is that all our friends and family can come to visit us on short notice...no more planning out week long vacations at the beginning of the year, struggling to find cheap airfare and counting down the days. Now, the most notice we get is a quick phone call a few days before to make sure that we will be around (which is quite all right with us, especially if we get to see our family more often). That is exactly what happened in the middle of February, when Jeff's parents called to tell us that they would be flying out for a weekend visit. We were excited, since they would be the first to see the apartment (with the exception of my sister, who was here in November to stay with the dogs during our Ireland trip). They arrived on a Thursday afternoon and stayed until Sunday afternoon. It was really nice to have them here; I know that Jeff really appreciated the pick me up since he was getting a little restless hanging out at home and looking for jobs.
While they were here we went out to lunch and dinner, headed to the Raleigh Farmer's Market, went shopping, showed them the old cars in the woods behind the apartment complex, and watched movies. It was so nice to see them, even if just for a little while. But, if we were excited, Kira and Koda were so much so.
Although we didn't take a ton of pictures while they were here, we did manage to get a few...
