Clean Bill of Health

Homer went to the vet today for his checkup after his heart issues and I am happy to say he got a clean bill of health (and it didn't even cost us that much). Homer did great at the vet, he was so relaxed and chill the whole time, he even laid down in the waiting room and took a quick nap since our vet was running a bit behind. As you can imagine everyone knows us there and they were amazed by how calm and healthy he was. He even gave one of the vet tech kisses while she was drawing his blood. I have no idea who this dog is but I think I like him! The vet listened to his heart and lungs and since his coughing was so minimal and his breathing so easy he didn't think we needed to do x-rays so they took some blood to make sure his medicine was working and we were on our way! Keep your fingers crossed, hopefully this is just the beginning of Homer's good health.

Homer Medical Scare

Last Wednesday morning I left for a business trip to Chicago, Marc was already in Austin and was due back that night so instead of boarding Homer we had our neighbor come in and check on him throughout the day. I left at 4:30AM for the airport and put Homer in his crate like I normally do, everything seemed normal. I had noticed the day before he had stopped eating, which is rare for Homer, but I figured it was because Marc was traveling (which he rarely does) and he saw my suitcase and got stressed out, which is normal Homer so I didn't think much of it. Our neighbor left me a voicemail that Homer was doing well but she was worried about his cough. Now Homer has had his cough for over a year now and we have had pretty much every test in the book, the vet finally determined last week that he had a collapsing trachea which was annoying but not life threatening and we put him on a cough suppressant (which did not work by the way).

Marc got on an early flight and got home around 9:30, he let Homer out of his crate and cleaned up after him and noticed Homer seemed really hot and was breathing really heavy. Marc took him in the shower with him to cool him off. After the shower, Homer came downstairs to lay on the tile. Typically, Homer lays froggy style with his hind legs behind him and his front legs straight in front of him. Marc found him with his hind legs behind him and his front legs off to the side, in addition his head was slumped to one side and his tongue was hanging out of the side of his mouth and his mouth was closed. (I saw the picture and it is not pretty, not appropriate for public viewing). He looked dead.

Marc called me to see what to do but it was after 10 in Chicago and I was asleep with my phone on vibrate so Marc called the emergency vet and they said to bring him in immediately. When Marc got to the vet he called and left me a message, I heard the voicemail beeping and woke up to the message. I called Marc back and Homer was in the back being examined. After what seemed eternity Marc called me back and they needed to run some tests but it didn't look good for Homer, he was turning blue because of lack of oxygen and they weren't sure Homer would make it through the night. I begged Marc to do whatever it took to get Homer through the night so I could come home to say good-bye to him. After that conversation they ran some tests including x-rays of his heart and chest. They found his heart very enlarged and his lungs with pulmonary edema (fluid). Because the heart was so enlarged it was putting pressure on his lungs, trachea and other organs, causing his breathing to be stressed. The Doctor was 95% confident it was Congestive Heart Failure and it was pretty progressed. They put him in oxygen (an incubator like preemies are in) with ice packs on him to bring his temperature down and put a catheter in him with a diuretic to flush out the fluid in his lungs and a heart medication to bring down the size of his heart. They also put a nitroglycerin paste on his ear. After being on oxygen for a while they tried to take him out to see if he could breath and he kept turning blue. So Marc left him in the ICU and told them to do whatever it takes to keep him alive until the next day so I could get home. Meanwhile I emailed my boss at 3AM to tell him what was going on (I didn't think he would appreciate a call) and got on an earlier flight the next morning.

I bawled the whole flight home trying to figure out how to say good-bye to my sweet boy and wondering how I couldn't know how sick he was, I mean Homer didn't eat! I got home around 10:45 (of course I was delayed). I got to our house at 11:30 and I got Homer's favorite blanket, if we had to put him down, I wanted him to have his blankey, and we headed to the hospital. I had been in touch with my vet at this point who told me Homer had been barking this morning. We got there and after a while they let us in the back to see Homer, who was still in oxygen. But there was my little man, standing up, barking up a storm, when he saw Marc and I his eyes lit up and he was wagging his tail. They wouldn't let us hold him because they didn't know if he could breath on his own but they let us put our hands in the incubator and pet him, he of course kissed me right away. He also stuck his head out of the arm hole, which I immediately shoved back in (for $12 an hour for oxygen he was going to suck every last drop of it). I got there fully prepared to put Homer down but now I looked at Marc and asked him how we could put him down. He was Homer. Marc was shocked to see how much he had improved since he left him at 1AM. Now the predicament came, he was no longer under a vets care because the vet the night before was off duty.

So on 2 hours of sleep we had a lot of decisions to make, long story short we had the new vet on duty, who was an internist, exam him. He determined from the x-rays he 100% had Congestive Heart Failure and no more testing was needed. He also said that any dog that any dog who barks up a storm does not need oxygen so he took him out of the oxygen and was going to monitor him through the night to see how his breathing progressed. In the morning they would do additional x-rays to see if the fluid from his lungs had further drained and hopefully send him home. The vet explained that with medication and check-ups dogs can live a perfectly normal lives and even guessed that Homer's quality of life would improve because his coughing would decrease and his breathing would be easier. He also was given a life expectancy of 6 months to 3 years, which for a 10 year old dog isn't too bad. So with that said we agreed to the plan after making sure Homer would have a good quality of life and got ready to settle the bill for the day. As we were working out the bill a nurse came out and said they wanted to send Homer home that night. It seems my dear little dog was barking too much for any of the other animals to get rest and most importantly for Homer to get rest. So we said goodbye to Homer for a few hours and at 5:30 we were to call back to see if Homer had the ok to come home for the night.

We took an hour nap and called back at 5:30. Homer's lungs had cleared up 50% of the way but he was still in the danger zone and normally would not be sent home but since he is so crazy they were sending him home but he had to be at rest. So we picked him up and brought him home. He was happy to be home and was walking around but eventually he settled down a rested, he even slept through the night which he hasn't done in ages.

Friday my vet didn't want him to be left unattended since he had been on oxygen so I was able to arrange working at home. There is nothing like laying next to the Mama in your favorite blankey and resting to make you feel better. He essentially slept all day, he was still pretty out of it but it was amazing how easily he was able to breath and how little he coughed! He definitely does pee a lot (from the diuretic).

Saturday Homer seemed to feel much better, he even looked back to his normal self, but then Sunday he seemed to be feel yucky again. This week Homer seems mostly back to himself, but definitely milking his "status." Yesterday he peed around his potty pad and when I tried to explain where it was good and where it was bad he crawled into his bed, laid down, coughed and looked at me very pathetically, like "but mom, I'm so sick." (Today he successfully peed on his potty pad.) He also needs to see me after Marc brings him down to go potty in the middle of the night. Homer's still coughing some which is supposedly normal, his appetite is back and on Monday we have a check up at the vet to make sure everything is clearing up the way it should be.

So that was our drama of the week, we are very glad to have our boy back with us. We have started to call him a cat, this is the 3rd time he has been brought back to life (twice by CPR after seizures). He always keeps us on our toes, good thing he's such a sweet boy!

Chi-Town

The final leg of our vacation brought us to Chicago, fondly referred to as Chi-Town. Now I wasn't too crazy about hitting up Chicago on a vacation, mainly because I go there at least once a quarter for work but Marc really wanted to check it out, last time we were there was after Greg and Lyndsay's wedding and it was only for an afternoon so Marc wanted to spend more time there. He bribed me with shopping.

So Wednesday morning we said goodbye to Woody and Annabel and packed up our PT Cruiser and headed for Chicago. We checked into the Hyatt, grabbed a bite to eat and then my friend Leah picked us up. We went back to her condo, which is gorgeous, and right by Wrigley Field and spent a few hours with her and her 8 month old daughter, Maggie. It took Maggie about 15 seconds to warm up to me in the car and she was back to the same giggly girl she was in February when I first met her. She is so much fun. So we chatted with Leah for a while, played with Maggie, I fed her dinner which ended up everywhere but in her mouth, she totally took advantage of her Auntie Ski's inexperience. Then when it was time for Maggie to get ready for bed Marc and I headed for Wrigley Field. So Chicago on Wednesday was what I would call unseasonably cold, even for Chicago standards. I would say it was in the low 40s during the day and it was probably in the upper 30s with the wind where we were sitting at the game. It was so cold it was not even enjoyable, instead of beers at the game the Californians had hot cocoa and coffee. I told Marc I am sure the hot cocoa was hot when he bought it but it was like chocolate milk by the time he got back to our seats. It was definitely fun going to Wrigley, we went to a fun bar before the game that my friend Erika recommended and had a few beers and dinner, and got to experience Wrigley. It definitely made us appreciate AT&T Park much more! We left after the 7th inning stretch because it was so cold and we weren't sure how the cab situation would work out. We were able to grab a cab right away and we got back to the hotel before the game was even over. I fell asleep with all of my layers on plus sweatpants because I was still so cold. I think if we were prepared for the cold it would have been much better but since we definitely opted for the spring wardrobe, we were cold.

Leah, Maggie, and I:

Marc and Maggie:

Maggie showing off her standing skills:

Another view of Wrigley:

View from our seats:

Thursday was Allie & Marc day, we decided to spend it how else? SHOPPING! We also decided it was a no cell phone, email, Internet day (except logging into our Southwest flight). So we made our way down Michigan Avenue to the Water Tower shopping mall where we hit Macy's with our remaining star rewards points from our wedding registry, sniff, I guess we are no longer newlyweds now. After some serious Macy's shopping we decided to refuel so we went to this really cool food court. They seat you and then you reserve your table and take your little meal cards and go and pick out what you want to eat and they put everything on your meal card, then you pay on your way out, I think the place is called Food Life or something like that. We opted for the bottomless bowls of soup, yum! After we thoroughly stuffed ourselves with soup we hit Michigan Avenue again for more shopping. At 5:00 we visited the Apple store to log onto our flights, then it was to ESPN Zone for a quick drink and to watch part of a game, because that's what we do, watch baseball. I was on a mission to find jeans all day, go figure, so on the way back we stopped into the Lucky Store, I found 2 jeans I loved and Marc liked on me. We couldn't decide which one to get so I made a promise that I wouldn't buy jeans for a whole year if he let me get both, so we marked down May 29, 2009 as the day I can buy a new pair of jeans. That's how cool these jeans were. I didn't even have to get them shortened and the best part was, the two pairs cost less than one pair of my True Religion jeans. After our jeans purchase and still slightly buzzed, we headed back to the Hyatt to call in an order for our pizza and crack open some wine. We decided to have a Chicago pie delivered to our room instead of going out, our dogs hurt so bad from all of the walking! It was the best Chicago pizza I have ever had!
Friday we had the morning, we semi-braved the rain after trying to get an umbrella from the Hyatt most of the morning and headed back out on Michigan Avenue. I ended up with a new pair of Puma's and we were starting to worry our suitcase was going to go over 50lbs. We were at 50lbs when we left home and we had done some serious shopping. After shopping we had some lunch and then headed to the airport. Our suitcase was 50.5lbs but since we were flying Southwest and they are nice they let us check it without charging us (American would have charged us, can you tell I am anti-American Airlines right now?). Our flight ended up being delayed getting into Oakland because of the tornados in Nebraska and Iowa so they rerouted us north, our flight ended up being like 6 hours! So we missed getting Homer that night. I was so sad, I missed my boy! But we both love Chicago so it turned out to be a fun couple of days with my darling.

Saturday we woke up at 6:00, got dressed and headed down to Fremont to get Homer, who was staying at the PetsHotel. It's like the Hyatt of dog kennels, it's run by PetSmart and it is so nice. When Homer got checked in they gave me a card with their number on it and his room number so I could call and check on him, I also got him Treat Time which consists of soft-serve dog ice cream with dog biscuits mixed in, Cookies and Cream ice cream for dogs. The place is so clean and someone is there 24 hours with the dogs, including a vet, so we know he is well taken care of when he stays there, too bad it is kind of far but it is so reasonably priced for what it is. He came home in great spirits, he was a little mad at first but then decided he'd rather love us than be mad at us so we made up. We walked him to the bagel shop with us to tire him out and then we went to the Giants game with our neighbors. I mention this because I want you to note that I went to three, yes three baseball games in the matter of a week, not to mention all the games I was subjected to on TV. As compensation, Marc took me to see Sex In The City on Sunday and bought me popcorn for lunch. It was a great movie! Marc even enjoyed it.

So that's the vaca in a nutshell, it was hard coming back to work on Monday but we are off again the week of July 4.

Indy

The second part of our vacation took us to Indianapolis to visit my friend Woody and her husband Nate and their new baby Annabel. We flew into Midway on Southwest (which was the most enjoyable experience) and rented a car and drove to Indy. Fortunately we were arriving in Indy as most people were leaving since the Indy 500 was the same day. We arrived to Woody's around dinner time and my friend Ralsto and her husband Adam were there. Ralsto is in Cincinnati finishing up her MBA and Adam came up from Mississippi where they will be moving for his new coaching job at Alcorn State. I was super excited to see them! We played with the baby and then Woody cooked an awesome meal. Here's some pictures of Auntie Ralsto and baby Annabel. After Ralsto and Adam left for the night it was my turn to hold little Annabel. What a sweetie, she fell right asleep in my arms. She likes to sleep crooked which freaked me out a bit but Nate and Woody assured me she was comfortable like that.




On Memorial Day we woke up and Woody had baked some homemade muffins, I have no idea when the girl who used to be a top competitor in drinking contests in Cancun over spring break got domestic but they were quite tasty. Ralsto and I are shocked at how much Annabel has domesticated our Woody. Woody and Nate hosted a bbq for a bunch of our sorority sisters. Annabel even wore a dress for the occassion! It was so much fun to see everyone and meet/see their spouses. Crista provided an awesome beer cheese dip and dessert that was absolutely amazing. The bars were yummy, ooey, gooey goodness! Check out Crista's blog for the recipes. She is truly an amazing cook and she really should go into the catering or restaurant business. Our friend Hobson was there with her son, Joshua, who has gotten so big since we met him in February. We had a great time catching up, talking about the good old days at school, and of course telling old stories about our time in the house. The weather even held out for us and didn't rain! The end of the bbq meant that Ralsto had to leave too which made me very sad, Marc and I tried our darndest to convince her to stay but she didn't cave no matter how hard I tried.



Tuesday we all slept in, after breakfast Marc decided he was ready to hold the baby. After we got all cleaned up we headed down to Bloomington to walk around campus. I also needed to stock up on some new IU stuff since the stuff I have is from my senior year in High School/Freshman year of college. Needless to say it's seen better days. So we headed 40 minutes south of Indy to good old Bloomington, Indiana. Marc loves Bw3s and since there are none out in California we found one in Bloomington, so we stopped there for a nosh and then hit campus. Our first stop was the bookstore where we all stocked up on IU gear, Marc even got a cool retro t-shirt. Then we went to Kirkwood, where all the fun happens. We walked around campus for a while and then stopped at a bar for a drink so Annabel could feed. We decided to hit a bar at just the right time because as soon as we got settled inside, the skies opened up and Bloomington got a true midwestern storm that I have missed so much (note sarcasm). Here are some pictures from our IU visit. They've updated Bloomington and IU a lot which is kind of sad because it's lost someone of that small town charm. Where our favorite mom and pop ice cream store used to be there is now a Panda Express. So sad!



Marc and I in front of the Sample Gates (entrance to campus from Kirkwood):



















Nick's my favorite bar (home of Sink the Bismark):



















Me in front of these cool clocks they put in on campus:






























Cool new stone IU sign:


































Kilroy's, another favorite hangout, especially for Monday night all night happy hour:





















The sorority house:


































And finally, the picture all of my girls have been waiting for, the trailer I lived in senior year...yes it's a double wide:






























And to top the day off, we picked up pizza, breadsticks, and cheesesticks from Pizza Express, the best pizza place in the world! The next day we said goodbye to the Saxes and head to Chicago for 2 nights.






One last picture of Annabel for the road:

Vacation All I Ever Wanted...

Marc and I kicked off our week off together by having a birthday celebration get together at the A's game Saturday night. I know his birthday was a while ago but this was the only weekend that we could get everyone together and that the A's were in town, plus they were playing the Red Sox so Marc was all excited to go the game. Marc called and reserved a table for us in the West Side Club at the Coliseum and we met up with the Goines and Greg (Lyndsay was on her way back from Canada with the baby so they couldn't join us). We had a great time with our friends and it was a great way to kick off our week off. Fortunately for us it was a quick game too because we were off to Chicago at 8AM the next morning.


Marc was super excited with his Giantsopoly that he got from the Goines!















The Goines (Jenny and Josh)
















Marc and Greg:















More on our vacation to come!