Day 2: Lacey

Today, I'm thankful for my puppy girl.  Lacey came to us a little less than a year ago.  She is my first dog ever and I crazy love her.   

She was so tiny!

She is so mischievous, but I think it's because she knows how cute she is so she knows she can get away with a lot.  I am thankful for her goofy spirit and happy energy and I love it so much that she is a cuddly dog.  It's a little funny that this 50 pound dog thinks she still fits in our laps, but I love it when she snuggles up close - she speaks my love language for sure!

From this

To this!

I am thankful for Lacey's companionship.  She keeps me company when Doad is out of town for work.  She knows when I'm upset and will lick the tears off my face and try to sit in my lap lol.  She always wants to be with me and will get up and follow me and lay down at my feet, even if I'm just moving five feet away.  

Trying to be closer to me on our road trip to Canada

Lacey had a pretty bad accident in January where she slipped on some ice and cracked her elbow.  She needed surgery for a screw and a pin to put her elbow back together and we weren't sure if we were going to be able to afford it.  That day of figuring out what our options were and how we were going to take care of our poor little puppy was so emotional for me.  We had only had her for a couple of months at that point, but I couldn't believe how much I loved her already.  She just cried and cried in my arms and I could barely keep myself from bursting into tears.

Obviously, it all worked out.  She was able to get the surgery and has healed up just fine and I can't help but be thankful that everything ended up ok.  I'm thankful that we were able to pay for the surgery and that it was successful.  I'm thankful that she is ok now and has had great health since.  

I had no idea when we got Lacey how quickly she would steal my heart, but she has and I'm so happy we have her.  She is my little puppy girl and I will always love her.

A Tale of Two Surgeries...

Oh hey!  Remember that time when I used to blog regularly?

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Yea... that's right, I never do that.  Not even for Star Crossed Recaps... which we watch and tape once a week.  Except that we skipped it for like 3 weeks because Life.

For example, a couple weeks ago Life happened to us in the Tale of Two Surgeries.  Dun dun dun DUHN!

Once upon a time, on a Tuesday to be precise, Doad came home from work with a really bad stomachache.  I knew it was bad cuz he was already in bed in pj's by the time I got home from work.  We thought it was gas, but gas doesn't make you throw up for 4 minutes straight... So then we thought it was some sort of stomach bug.  I asked him a couple of times if he wanted to go to the doctors, but all you ladies with stubborn tough, handsome husbands know what his answer was.

Here's the thing: when I get sick, I get like medium sick for 5 days.  Its that sucky in between sick where you're not quite sick enough to justify calling out of work, but you feel like absolute crap all day and just wanna be horrible to everyone you talk to.  Or cry.  Or both.  When hubs gets sick, he gets like extreme sick for one day.  One day, people.  And I love it and hate it because I spend the whole time wondering if he's dying on me, but it only lasts for one night and then it's over and he's his wonderful, happy self again.

I thought this was his almost dying sick and that when I woke up he'd be all better, so I went to sleep.  I had to get up and take this cute thing to get spayed in the morning.

Obviously, she was thrilled...

Hubs tossed and turned all night, I know cuz I woke up to it every hour. :p  He was still in bed when I got up, so I assumed that he had taken the day off to get some sleep and hopefully he was on the up and up.  There's often not much I can do when he's feeling sick, I've learned to just let him rest and let his body do his thing.  Looking back now, I feel like I was neglecting him and should have known sooner that something more serious was going on, but at this point I thought he still just needed rest.  I left to take the dog to the vet and got home about an hour later.

When I walked in the bedroom he was sitting on the side of the bed sort of hunched over.  He said the pain had sort of moved to his right side and asked me what the symptoms of appendicitis were.  As soon as he said that I knew.  He was like 10 for 10 out of the symptoms and that convinced him that it was doctor time.  

Hello ER... Hello CT Scan... Hello surgery in a couple of hours!

Doad did great through surgery and is the Happiest, Nicest, Jolliest person you've EVER met on drugs.  Even the transport guy who's only interaction with Doad was wheeling him from the recovery room to his private room said, "He's just the nicest guy!" on his way out the door lol.  My baby was feeling GOOD!  

"Happy drugs"

But then it was night time, and night time at hospitals is a special sort of torture.  And then there were fevers.  And another night of special torture.  And then we finally came home on Friday, tired as the dickens and so, so excited to sleep more than an hour without something beeping or someone sticking a thermometer in your face.  

So over having his vitals taken. :(

Our family and friends were awesome and provided us with meals and visits/entertainment to get through the weekend and allow Doad to rest without dying of boredom.  My mom was an absolute angel and picked up the dog from her surgery and nursed her back to health with the help of my siblings while I stayed with Doad in the hospital.  She was very glad to see us on Friday and oh, how we missed her too.  My poor little baby girl.

So I somehow got my dog spayed and my husband an appendectomy on the same day and survived.  It was really hard and I definitely wouldn't recommend it and definitely couldn't have done it without family and friends who pitched in and helped so much.  Our neighbor even mowed our lawn and Doad's work buddies bought us groceries. What? So nice!

I'm so thankful to say that both my husband and my little pooch are healing well and we are so blessed by the way people rallied around us to not only pray for us and visit us, but help meet physical needs that we had as well.  It's humbling to admit that I don't know how to mow my own lawn, but also pretty cool to see others step in as the hands and feet of Christ to serve and love us.  I'm looking forward to finding ways to pay it forward to others and to bless them the way that I was.  :)

On the Mend!

Lacey's follow up appointment went well last Saturday.  Mostly good news with just a little bit of "not good news or bad news yet". The screw is backing out a tiny bit, but not quite enough for it to need to be removed.  They will check on it again in two weeks and decide whether or not it needs to come out then depending on if it has moved anymore or not.  So we just wait and see and pray for good news in two weeks.

Not nearly as bad as the last one.

The good news is that her bones are healing.  She is definitely getting bigger and stronger!  She got her sutures out finally and is off bed rest! P. T. L!!!!!!  She is even allowed to take short, five minute walks with us again.  The ice storms have made walks a little impossible lately, but I am looking forward to being able to get out with Miss Lacey for a little exercise soon.

And since it's been a while since I've bombed a post with photos, here are some of my favorites of Lacey from the past few months:

 Puppy snuggles are some of the sweetest.

Watching the neighbor doggies play in the snow.

Christmas treats!

Christmas skirt from Lauren and Joel.

LOL.  She was not as amused as we were.

Even puppies have a post-Christmas crash.

Naps by the wood stove are one of her favorites.

She kinda got spoiled after she broke her leg...  now she thinks she owns the bed. ;)


Ok, photo dump over.  Happy Tuesday, friends!  Stay safe and warm wherever you are.  XOXO

Pupdate

The bump on Lacey's arm turned out not to be a third elbow.  (Thank goodness.)  However, it did turn out to be the screw in her arm backing out so we had to take her back that Monday for a second corrective surgery to put in a different (bigger) screw.

(Sticking out so far! My poor baby.)

The surgeon ended up not having the screw that he wanted to use, so he had to put in a different one. He was very vague about the differences and once he could tell that I was worried about it, tried to brush it all off as not a big deal.  I'm not too happy about this, especially since she still had a slight bump on her arm once we took the second bandage off.  I'm really hoping this is just normal swelling and that they give us the "all clear" at her check-up this Saturday.  I'm gonna be one angry puppy mama if they say that this screw is backing out again too.

I swear that I've been religious about keeping her on bed-rest.  She walks when she goes out to go potty, stands when she eats, and walks the two feet from her crate to our bed where she camps out most days.  Other than that, this poor girl has had a pretty boring life for the past month and I will be super depressed if it ends up being in vain.

I love her so much and just can't wait til she can play like a normal puppy again. Seriously though, how can you not love this face?

Also, she's huge now and I can't handle having to carry her everywhere for another month.  Please let this be over now!

Why 2014 Is Already Kicking My Butt...

It's been a tough year so far.  Yes, I'm talking about the only 2 1/2 weeks of 2014 that we've experienced.

We rang in the New Year with the both of us sick in bed.  Thank you, Little Stinker Elf, that gave us germs for Christmas... I got sick the day after Christmas and then gave it to Doad (sorry, hubby!) the following Sunday.  It was a doozy of a cold too.

LOL, look at that feverish glow.  

Lacey was very sweet and snuggly tho.  She could tell we were not feeling well and (for the most part) behaved very kindly to us.  

We still have a lingering cough (still!) but we were feeling well enough to get out of bed on the 1st, just in time to clean the house and get ready for work the next day.

So Thursday comes and we make it through work - we're tired, but we survived.  We even made it home safely in the snowy conditions, cuz of course, this story has to have inclement weather involved.

Lacey was having a blast in the snow.  We ran around with her watching her kick up the snow and attack random flakes - it was so cute!  This was kinda odd behavior for her cuz she HATES the cold normally.  She shivers the instant she steps outside and one of her favorite pastimes ever is just snoozing in front of the heater as close as she can get to it without knocking it over.

Right before bed, I decided to take a quick shower and Doad took Lacey out for one last potty before going to sleep.  When I came out of the bathroom, I experienced my least favorite moment of being a puppy mom ever.

While Lacey was outside, she started playing in the snow again.  When she got near the house, she took a jump from the grass to the concrete part of our back patio.  It's not a big leap, but her back feet gave out in the slippery snow and she landed on her elbow and broke it.

:( :( :( My poor baby.  Doad brought her inside by the heater and we tried to figure out how serious it was.  She yelped anytime we got near her arm so we knew pretty quickly that it wasn't good.  We bundled up and slipped and slid our way to the emergency vet in the snow. Most stressful night of my life!!!

We were hoping it was just a sprain or a small break - of course it was the worst case scenario and she needed to have surgery.  They couldn't do it there tho, so they put a splint on, gave her some pain meds, and sent her home for the night.  It was absolutely heartbreaking to hear her moan in pain all the way home and throughout the night as she tried to find a comfortable position to sleep in.  No one slept well.

We saw the specialist the next morning and they were able to squeeze her in for surgery at 5 that night. We stayed with her as long as we could and then headed home for a quiet night.  I called them several times to check on her, which they were great about, and spent most of my time counting down the minutes til we could pick her up.

So far, the recovery has seemed to go pretty well.  She doesn't seem to be in pain at all and has done pretty good at being on bed rest for a puppy with limitless energy.  Her days have mostly been spent cuddling with me and sleeping/reclining in every weird way possible.

We were very excited for bandage removal day, especially because she has seemed to be doing so well.  We took it off Monday night and had very mixed feelings about what we saw.  The incision seems to be healing perfectly.  The sutures definitely look ready to come out.  But the bone itself seems to have sprouted another elbow or something.  On the side of her arm right under her sutures (which should be flat) there is a rather large bump protruding.

The doctor said it could just be swelling, but it hasn't gone down at all even with the recommended heat packs.  We go in today for x-rays and hopefully some answers and good news, but I'm really struggling not to be nervous about it all.  We haven't gotten tons of good news so far this year.

On top of Lacey's accident, we've also gotten a cracked windshield and a broken refrigerator since we rang in the New Year.

So yea, this year has kicked my butt so far.  I'm hoping for some good news today and maybe a change in our fortunes haha.

How has your New Year been?  Hopefully better than ours!  

I'd love to hear from you. :)