Around and Around and Around

I spent part of yesterday at the doctor's office.  For almost a week now I've had really bad vertigo.  Vertigo and dizziness are not the same thing for those that don't know.  Dizziness is when you spin in a chair or stand up too fast.  Vertigo feels like your moving when your not, like your brain is on a roller coaster that you didn't actually get onto with it.  Apparently I have a virus that has messed with my equilibrium.  Therefore, making me feel like crap.  It could last 6 weeks and the medicine I was given barely does anything.  So I probably won't be on here much until this is over.  It's too hard to concentrate on the little letters.

Long weekend

If it wasn't for my laptop, I would never be able to get online.  Jasmine sleeps less during the day now that she wants to try and move around.  The only time I have a chance to get on here is during one of her short naps.  She's constantly trying to stand up.  She knows what things she can grab onto without having it colapse. 

We've had a busy weekend.  Jasmine has been rather well mannered all things considered.  Friday, she stayed at Shawn's mom's house for a few hours while we took my brother to get his new car.  (a '98 Jetta) Then me and Shawn went to eat at TGI Fridays.  Afterwards we wanted to go find a pool table.  Good luck on that one.  We basically drove from place to place for hours looking for an open table.  We finally gave up.  We did stop at the Oyster Bar on the way to pick up Jasmine.  It's a really cute little bar but it smells awful.  I don't know if they were having problems with their bathrooms or what but it literally smelled like sewage.  We didn't stay long.  Saturday night we took her with us to Don and Channon's house.  Paul came along too.  We played Scene it and Mad Gab.  I hated them both.  My brain is about 5 seconds slower than everyone else's when it comes to those games.  I think I answered 2 questions all night.  Thankfully, we were playing in teams otherwise I would've looked like a real ass.  I got to hold Channon's baby.  He's 3 weeks old and a premie.  It felt like I was only holding a blanket.  He's still jaundice and not gaining weight very fast.  Jasmine got a little jealous and spent most of the rest of the night throwing fits.  Monday I didn't go to sleep till almost 4 in the afternoon.  We had to take the cat to the vet and we left early.  Too early for me to have been to bed yet, go figure.  Jasmine also hadn't been asleep very long.  We had to wait for over an hour, which was completely ridiculous since there was only one person ahead of us.  Then they told us that my cat only had an upper respiritory infection.  She's lost around 5 pounds in a month and only recently started showing signs of a possible infection.  They only took blood work to see if she had feline luekemia.  I wanted them to do a full cbc, they wanted only to give her antibiotics and flea medicine.  Lovely.  Afterwards, we decided to go look at some houses.  We're looking into the manufactered homes.  I actually found one I really like.  The only place we could get land and have barnyard animals is in Mill Creek, even father from Shawn's work.  For now we're just looking.  We don't even have a down payment yet.  Tuesday, my uncle was having back surgery so I got Jasmine up around 8:30am and went to the hospital to sit and wait.  He was in surgery for almost 4 hours.  Everything went well.  He'll be off work for 3 months.  Anyone who knows my uncle, knows that he's going to go stir crazy.  He's not the kind of guy that likes to sit around and do nothing.  The only time he ever sits still is when a Steeler game is on or Survivor is on. 

Jasmine and my sleep schedule is all screwed up now.  Last week we weren't even getting up till 6pm and this week we've been up almost everyday by 8:30am.  I like my sleep so I hate getting up early.  She seems to be doing fine with it though. 

Jasmine on the move

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  I've been... busy.  Ok, I've been obsessively playing computer games.  My mom and I both bought cheap computer games and I haven't been able to stop playing them.  One is Super Collapse and the other is Zuma.  They're sort of like puzzle games. 

This weekend should be very busy for us.  Tomorrow night (friday) we're either supposed to go see a movie with Brandon and Teri or go bowling/play pool (keep your fingers crossed for playing pool) with Don and Channon.  Saturday we're going with Don and Channon to a cub scouts thing for Don's kid.  Don't ex-wife will be there with all of her family (she's a total nutcase) and Channon doesn't want to be left alone since Don will be spending a lot of time with his son, Zack.  Sunday is always an "off" day for me and Shawn.  It's a day that we try not to make any plans or go too many places.  Monday I'm taking one of my cats to the vet.  Sweety hasn't been acting right for a few weeks now and has been steadily losing weight for a month.  She usually goes rigid when you pick her up (she hates to be held) but recently has just been going limp.  Plus, she's normally a huge purr'er (i know i made that word up) but now it takes a mircle to get her to purr.  I just feel like there's really something wrong with her.  So I'm going to spend what's left of my xmas money and hope it's enough to have some blood tests done and maybe a fecal.  I wanted to get another tattoo but that can wait.  My cat's health and my piece of mind is more important.

Jasmine has started pulling herself up to a standing position.  You'd think I would be excited.  I'm not.  She'll be sitting behind me and try to use my hair to pull herself up or any other tend body part that she can find.  She's taken to pinching the under part of my bicep.  If you don't know how that feels, reach over right now and give yourself a little pinch.  Stings doesn't it?  She's leaving bruises on my arms.  People probably think Shawn's abusing me.  They'd never think it's actually my 7 month old daughter.  Now that she's figured out how to pull herself up, she wants to move all the time.  If she's awake, she's moving.  I'm going to have a hell of a time when she does start walking. 

Marvel Tattoos

Anyone interested in getting tattoo's from the guy who does mine, (half pint) he has moved to a new location.  He is no longer at Point Blank Tattoo and Piercing.  He is at Marvel Tattoos.  (www.marveltattoo.com) I know, I still need to get some pictures up.  Trust me though, he and everyone at Marvel do awesome work.  I wouldn't have something permanently put on my body if it wasn't perfect.

Miss Molly comes home

When my mom went to pick Molly up this morning, they sent her immediately to our regular vet. (still with the cath attached) Shockingly enough, our vet believed that Molly hadn't been messing with her incision.  He said it's something that is really rare and he hasn't seen it in years.  I don't know the scienctific word for it, as I wasn't there.  He said that for some reason, the abdominal wall seperates and basically pushes the intestines through the incision.  It usually happens to active dogs.  The LAST thing Molly is, is active.  She the basset hound of border collies.  Her incision looks a lot better now and feels more normal.  She was sent home with the dreaded lampshade collar but I've been removing it as long as we're with her.  The only time I leave it on is if we're leaving or sleeping.  There's no reason for her to have it on all day if she's sleeping on the couch next to me.  She was a little dopey for some of the day.  I'm assuming it was from the valium they gave her.  By the end of the day she was back to normal.  I can't begin to imagine this house without her.  I walked downstairs looking for her three times last night before I remembered she was at the ER vet.  She's a constant presence in this house.

Good golly miss Molly

Today was nothing unusual for this household.  I mean it's everyday that I see intestines on the outside of a breathing animals' body, right?  Molly was spayed on my birthday.  I felt that there was something wrong with the incision from the day we brought her home, even before it looked like there was.  It was swollen, hard and warm to the touch.  Just inflamed right?  I mean she'd just had surgery, it's expected that the site would be a little tender.  On Friday she began to leak a little blood from the incision.  I called the emergency vet because by then all the other vets were closed and of course the vet that did the surgery would be closed Saturday. (new year's eve) The emergency office said to keep an eye on it, tie a t-shirt around her stomache and watch for more blood or gaping wound.  I did all of the above.  I checked her several times a day for anything unusual.  By Saturday night, the swelling had went down but it still looked wrong.  It was hard to the touch.  Sunday morning, I woke up to the usual, Jasmine wanting a bottle and to get up for the day.  After feeding her, we went downstairs and I sat her on the living room floor while I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth.  I was on my way to change her when my mom noticed a single drop of blood on the floor.  The only dog missing from the picture, was Molly.  My mom went through the house calling for her and found Molly in her bedroom.  She was vomiting up a large amount of blood.  I ran to call the emergency, not yet aware of how serious the situation really was until Molly followed me into the kitchen and lay down.  She was covered in blood.  Half of her incision had come apart and about an inch of intestine was protruding from her belly.  I said to hell with calling them just get her in the car and let's go.  I left in my pj's, no make up and no bra.  I could've cared less about all those things at the time of course.  I thought for sure she would be dead before we even made it to the vet.  Almost a half hour away.  My mom tends not to react well (yes mom I'm sugar coating that one for your benefit) so if she had died in the car I wasn't going to tell her till we got there.  I called the vet from the car and they said someone would help us get her into the vet.  A tech came out and as gently as possible carried, Molly into the surgery room.  One of the first questions out of my mom's mouth was 'Is she going to die?'  All I could think was for my mom's sake, say no lady.  (some of you may remember, my mom had a dog several years ago that died from cancer and I don't think she really thought she would own another dog again, we couldn't lose Molly) The tech said no, that it happens all the time.  While Molly was on the table, she kept trying to move around and by the time she was sedated there was a good six inches of intestine laying on her belly.  She had also started bleeding again.  That's about the time we went into the waiting room because they were going to do surgery on her and put the intestine back where it belonged.  After about a half hour they came out to tell us she did great.  And can we please have the deposit for your dog now.  (it was VERY expensive but it was worth it to save her life... I would've bounced a check in a minute... luckily my mom didn't have to) The last time I called, she was doing fine and sleeping.  We'll pick her up in the morning.  Now we can concentrate on being mad about things that, at this point, no longer matter.  The vets have made it clear that they believe Molly's injury to be our fault.  There was implications that she was chewing at her wound or licking excessively at it.  Both not true.  If anything, Molly did better at ignoring her incision that any other dog we've ever had.  She could've cared less about them.  She wasn't overly active and as I said before, I felt something was wrong with the incision from the time she came home.  None of that will matter to the vet's office though.  It won't be their fault, it will be ours.  It's not that I expect a refund or anything like that.  I would just like them to take into consideration what they almost cost our family.  There's no replacing a family member.  I would also like them to discontinue the use of internal stitches.  At least for pet owners who know what to look for, we can see if the stitches are coming loose.  Who knows if the internal stitches came loose the day of the surgery or Sunday morning.  If they had been external, I could've given you an answer.  I feel the only reason internal stitches should be used is for cosmetic reasons.  And even then, I don't like them.  Give your dogs an extra pat on the head before you go to bed tonight and tell them it's from Molly.