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.

They say it's your birthday

Today was my birthday.  (the 27th)  I'm at the ripe age of 23.  I opened presents as soon as I got up.  Shawn bought me a gift certificate to a really nice spa.  My mom got me some beauty/pampering products and books.  Afterwards we all went out to eat. (my mom, brother, his girlfriend and shawn) We stopped by Target afterwards and bought the baby some new clothes.  We took Jason (my brother) and his g/f up to Point Blank tattoo and piercing so we could show her where it was.  Later on, me and Shawn stopped by the hospital to see Channon.  The baby had gotten taken off of oxygen at 1pm and will probably be allowed to go home on Friday.  Channon will probably be going home Thursday or tomorrow night. 

One is born and another leaves

On a day where one family can be so utterly happy, another can just as easily be totally destroyed.  That was the case on the 26th of December.  Don and Channon had a perfect baby boy. (named Trent) My neighbor just a few doors down, shot himself in the head and killed himself just after midnight.  He and his wife had recently seperated and his 19 year old daughter had moved out of the house not long before.  He left a note apologizing but that won't help his family much during this time.  Even worse, he is my next door neighbors stepbrother.  The same neighbor whose son killed himself almost eight years ago.  It's terrible that his daughter will have that tragedy to remember every year on Christmas.  It may have been the day after but the exact day will never matter to his family.  How do you ever celebrate Christmas and family again with that hanging over your head.  It's hard to believe I'll never see him driving down the road dragging some junk car behind him for scrap parts, never have him stop by the house to ask if we needed any help hauling something away.  I can only hope that his daughter finds some way to overcome what suicide does to a person.  I once heard that a person who kills themselves dies one death but the family left behind dies a thousand deaths.  Anyone a product of suicide knows exactly how true that is.  Every time a friend or family member seems abnormally distressed or upset about something you will automatically fear that suicide is on that persons mind.  I don't know if I'll ever feel normally about human emotions ever again.  How can you after being a part of something so terrible.  At least with murder you can hate someone, blame someone, punish someone.  How do you punish, hate and blame someone who was so depressed they felt the only way out was to die?  Especially when you loved that someone, when that someone is family. 

To make matters worse, a 16 year old girl was the person to find him dead.  He used a large caliber gun to kill himself with and the girl immediately started screaming.  Her father found her.  They had went to the house because his wife had sensed something was wrong when she couldn't get into the house and called on the neighbor to help.  Not only did they lose a friend but they will never get that imagine out of their minds.  You can never get over something like that. 

A baby is born

I thought I'd tell you about my evening.  Me and Shawn had plans to go out with another couple (Don and Channon).  Channon is 8 months pregnant.  We were going to go look at Christmas lights in Michigan City and then go to a bar and meet up with some other people.  We called Don when we were on our way and everything was good.  About 10 minutes later he called us back to say that Channon was bleeding and couldn't get down the stairs and they were going to Memorial hospital.  We told them we'd meet them there after we stopped to see my brother at TSC.  (in La Porte) They called back less than five minutes later and told us to meet them at La Porte Hospital because Channon didn't think she could make it all the way to South Bend.  When we got there we just followed the sounds of a woman screaming and found Channon's room.  She was 8 cm dilated  (she's 33 weeks pregnant and had been having contractions on and off for over a month)  They called the doctor and told him that she was going to deliver in the next 20 minutes.  Well, she was wrong, it was 35 minutes.  She was in labor for the less than two hours.  (second child) BUT the bad part is... she was too far along to get pain medication.  I've never in my life heard anyone scream like that.  I almost started crying the last time she pushed.  We didn't actually get to be in the room although I would have if she'd asked me.  We were right outside the door.  The baby was 5lbs. exactly.  After he was in the room for about a half hour, they took him away to get him oxygen.  They said he's fine but just needed a little extra help breathing.  It was an insane night.  Me and Shawn left the hospital and went straight to baby shopping.  They have no diapers so we bought them 2 packages, one preemie and the other newborn.  It really was unbelievable.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!  I am currently writing on my new widescreen Compaq Presario laptop that my hubby got me for Christmas.  I can't believe he spent so much on me for xmas.  We're by no means made of money so a new computer is a big expense for us.  I'm just now starting to get the hang of all the different things it does.  Well, I'm going to go give the doggy's their Christmas presents.  (dog toys)

Jasmine's Christmas Pictures

There are two more pictures she had taken but for some reason, aol won't recognize them.  Maybe I'll get them on later.

Nothing Better in my eyes

Babies are the most wonderful things in the world.  I can look at her any time she's awake and see that she's learning something new.  Everything is a learning experience for her.  The cats fur, the hardwood floor, snowflakes, everything.  She's sitting up on her own now.  She's a little wobbly but gets better everyday.  She's a little less dependent on me for entertainment.  She can sit up on her own now and grab her toys which makes her happy.  It seems more and more I'm the one that seems to be going look at me, look at me, play with me, play with me, instead of the other way around.  On Wednesday we should get her Christmas pictures back.  I can't wait to see how they turned out.  I will definitely post them as soon as I get them.  She's a little ham and was perfect in front of the camera.  There's absolutely nothing better than a baby.