Jessica, Emma and I are both sending very positive thoughts to Carter, you, and DH. I hope you hear good news from the vet.
Yesterday we finally moved into our much-anticipated new office facility. I actually get a my own office with a door, a window and everything. Unfortunately our network and phones were shut down at the old place and no new ones at the new place. "Soon" they say. "Soon" has been for the past two months... I'm not holding my breath. It will make doing my job difficult at times, but we will all have to just deal with it. I'm checking my email from home right now.
But I won't be able to check for updates about Carter! I will check as soon as I get home.
Saef, Dagmar, Jessica, and everyone who is under snow and ice - be careful out there!
We just had our morning update from the vet. Carter's doing about how they expected post-op -- he's weaker than he was before the surgery which is to be expected, but he has motor control of both his back legs (one full, one is still a bit draggy which may be due to swelling from the surgery). He did not eat when they tried to feed him this morning but they think it is just because he is anxious. In the meantime he is sedated and they are going to give him IV nutrition and try feeding him again later today. As of right now the plan is still for us to bring him home tomorrow but it depends on how the next day goes. I should have another update this afternoon.
Glad to hear Carter's motor control is returning. That is certainly positive news! Hopefully you'll be able to bring him home tomorrow and you can all have a relaxing weekend.
Normally Wednesdays are the perfect workout day for me. DS doesn't have to be to school until an hour later than usual, so I don't have to get up early to get a workout in. However, the previous night I had had a bad night's sleep, so I took advantage today and slept in half an hour. I think it was a good idea as my knees are a bit sore. Better to have a rest day than to injure myself.
I feel bad for all you living in blizzard-ville. It reinforces my decision to move to the desert, however, you will hear me moan a bit when the temperatures reach 110+ in the summers. Give and take.
Cool that you got your own office, Megan. I hope you get phones soon. While not having the constant distraction can make it easier to get paperwork done (why DH goes into work on Saturday mornings) it would make it difficult to get some things done.
ETA~my DD just posted that she has lost 13.5 pounds on the P90X regimen. She also stated that her beginning weight is far higher than I expected: 200 pounds. She has a long way to go, but it sounds like she's got the right attitude.
Thanks for the Carter update Jessica. I will be waiting for more good news.
I also sympathize with all of you that are experiencing terrible weathers. I was born in Connecticut and lived in Massachusetts but haven't lived anywhere cold since 2nd grade. I deplore cold weather and tell dh I would live just about anywhere as long as it isn't cold. I was complaining this morning because it was 38 on my drive to work, but the highs are supposed to be in the low 60s, so I truly have nothing to complain about.
I guess when it rains it pours sometimes. Yesterday evening, dd's serious boyfriend broke up with her. It was her first serious boyfriend (6 months duration) and she was heartbroken. She seems more or less okay today but I'm not sure what her true emotions are as she is one to hide them. She and her boyfriend have been planning a joint birthday party next Sat. night and at this point they are still planning on holding the party as many of their friends are mutual and they are still planning on staying friends. We'll see if that changes in the next few days. I don't think I can handle any more bad stuff this week. I know that in the grand scheme of things this is minor, but when your child is heartbroken it breaks your heart as well. When older dd and her boyfriend broke up it put her in a very bad place emotionally so I am praying this breakup goes easier (both girls have a history of depression). Keep us in your thoughts if you don't mind.
Thanks guys. I'm hopeful that Carter will start eating this afternoon. They're giving him steroids again to try to reduce the swelling from the surgery, which should help his dragging leg. As long as he has one working rear leg and they can get any pain involved under control (and he starts eating again) I think he will be okay. If his other leg ends up paralyzed, we could always amputate it. Three-legged dogs still get around pretty well!
I still wish I knew what triggered this whole thing, assuming it is a ruptured disc and not a tumor. Did we yank on the leash too hard? Did he land funny jumping off the couch? Did I tug on him in an awkward way while giving him a bath? Did he fall down the stairs while we weren't home? DH is really nervous that once he gets better, since we don't know what caused it it might happen again.
In other news we got a couple inches of ice followed by a dusting of snow, which has been blowing around like crazy. It was so windy last night! My office was closed yesterday and today, but since I have a laptop I am working from home anyway. Our yard looks pretty weird, with big sheets of ice showing where the snow blew away.
Jessica: Glad to hear Carter could be coming home soon! Hopefully the vet will be able to tell you more about how/why this happened in the first place.
Michelle: Hope DD is OK. My son is a few years off from that, yet, but I'm not looking forward to it.
In anticipation of the Great Blizzard, schools closed today. People stocked up on groceries. Anticipation was thick. And, we wound up with less than 3 inches of snow, no sleet, and no freezing rain. Talk about a let-down!
Rest day today, except shoveling said three inches of snow.
Jessica - I have also been popping in to here and your FB for Carter updates, just haven't responded yet as I've been driving. I'm glad he is doing well, and I can understand the worry about what exactly happened. You may never know, just keep an eye on him and see if you notice him or you guys doing anything different or some kind of trigger I guess?
Michele - hope DD is okay honey. I remember that older DD had a hard time with her break up, hope younger DD is easier. The party could be exciting...
Kim - no great blizzard for you after all! I think that is good.
Allison - high five to your DD! She seems to be doing well with P90X. Do you think it is something she can sustain? I have a coworker thinking about it, but she is worried about the long term maintenance afterwards. She has a history of lose-regain cycles.
Megan - glad you got into your new office!
So today has been weird for me. Got up, ate a pb&j, ran on the treadmill, had to stop to send a fax and check some email, drove to one of our restaurants and tripped and fell. I have no conscious idea how it happened, other than I remember my back foot 'sticking' somehow, I turned to look and my knee gave way causing me to drop like I was sitting down into a chair. Unfortunately I was right over the jagged edge of a storm grate that I had been inspecting to see if it needed to be replaced. I managed to twist a little so I didn't land flat on my bottom hard, but I did hit the side of my left thigh on the edge of the grate, which looked like a little tines side up rebar rake. So now I have a stripe on my leg of 3 scratches that become small punctures and then go back to scratches on the outside of my left thigh and a sore spot on my tushie where I ended up finally. And a torn place in my jacket, but oddle not my pants. Had to buy new ones from the blood on them, but they didn't tear. I don't get it. My tetnus is up to date, I cleaned it with peroxide and a little alcohol, put triple antibiotic on it, bandaged it up. Unfortunately, I notice now that it seems to be still bleeding. I think because of the location, or the triple antibiotic. Every time I move my leg it flexes. Not a good day. I may go to the doctor tomorrow - he told me I could watch it for today and come tomorrow if I wanted, or just watch it longer. I can't decide if I'm nervous or not. My mom is a nurse and she said what I did sounded good to her, but we'll see. I'm supposed to watch for it being 'angry' after it recovers from the initial trauma where I scrubbed it and scratched it, and watch for drainage. I'm guessing she means icky drainage, not just it isn't scabbing well and bleeding a little drainage, right?
It sounds like you did just the right things. You might also want to use an ice pack on any areas that could be bruising or that got twisted. Just 20 minutes at a time.
By drainage, yes, she means icky drainage, like pus. It's OK if it's bleeding a little--that's how wounds clean themselves--as long as the bleeding isn't severe. And if the area starts to get red and swollen and hot, you might also have it checked out.
I'd take it easy--it's kind of a big shock to take a fall and get hurt like that.
Shannon, ouch! It sounds like you did everything right to me, just keep an eye on it.
Michele, hope DD is okay.
Carter update: he's still extremely weak from the surgery and isn't really trying to move around or get up. They're syringe feeding him which he seems to be tolerating okay. The vet said earlier they had a bit of a problem with his catheter which they think was a blood clot from when they inserted it, but they flushed it out and it seems to be working fine now. He is extremely anxious and starts whining and carrying on whenever they come to his kennel so they are pretty sure that he is just refusing food because of anxiety. If they can switch him over to oral medications overnight we can bring him home tomorrow, but it might be better to leave him there until Friday so he can recover some more strength under professional care before we try to take care of him at home. I feel so bad because I know he is lonely and scared.
In any case we have about a foot of ice accumulated outside so we might not even be able to get out of the house for another day or two anyway. You can't even see that there are two steps going down from our front porch because the ice is even with the bottom step!
Until I went outside today at 11 AM, I was squirming in my office chair at home like a kid who's overdue for recess. I wanted some air. I also wanted to go exploring a little outside, to see what the ice storm had wrought. So I took an early lunch break, strapped on my YakTrax ice cleats over my rubber boots, and set off.
And it was worse than I thought. A thick glaze of ice across everything. The great lawn at our complex with its sunken flower garden looked like the inside of a white china dish. There was an emptiness in our village & around the train station that was so profound, it was unlike anything I've experienced during snow storms. Half the shops were closed. The others had groups of clerks inside, chatting & socializing together, without anyone to wait on, or staring rather meditatively out through the windows.
The other people outside slid & shuffled & felt their way along walls & grabbed anything in sight, as if they were beginners on an ice skating rink.
I passed them quickly, at my about-to-catch-a-train gait, trying to get the most out of my hour away from my desk, which I planned to include stops at the ATM, the post office, the grocery store & a notions store. (For velvet-flocked hangers. For all those clothes I've bought on eBay.) I don't think they saw the ice cleats on my boots & they seemed somewhat amazed as I passed (which is not a reaction that I usually get, even in talk about weight loss).
Even I had to slow to a shuffle on sidewalk sections that no particular merchant was responsible for. It was like walking on glass.
(Thank you, makers of YakTrax. I did not slip. Not even once.)
The clerks were all friendly & chatty, perhaps somewhat lonely, or maybe because anyone out was a comrade in adversity.
I came home feeling glad I'd gone out & surveyed the mess, and confirmed for myself that, yes, it was best to stay in, that the weather man wasn't just being hyperbolic for the sake of entertainment & increased viewership. Also, because I had asserted my will (such as it is) against the elements, and had triumphed, in my small way, and gotten some errands done. And I was okay with getting back to work on the laptop & being indoors for the remainder of the day, till I went back out to the gym after dinner.
And they say we're supposed to get another storm Saturday, and then possibly one next Tuesday.
What an amazing & memorable winter we're having. It's really somewhat humbling. I mean, here it is, it's 2011, and we've got talking GPSs, iPads, the Internet, books about dogs' body language, cars that can parallel park themselves. But the weather still lords it over us whenever it gets temperamental. We have to hunker down the way they did in the 19th century, and just wait it out. There's nothing to be done. Thy will be done.
Last edited by saef; 02-03-2011 at 07:51 AM.
Reason: Spelling: "sight" as "site"; damn homonyms
Love your description, saef, and the reminder that the weather rules as surely as in previous centuries. And thanks for reminding me of YakTraks - think I'll have to wear mine this morning.
I shoveled yesterday. Then shoveled some more. The farthest I wandered was the sidewalk to edge of my property. Watched the rain fall, then freeze. All outside is glazed with ice.
I believe I've been spared the ice on top of the snow. Ours is underneath. Makes for some sudden, spectacular dance moves. The dogs are mighty impressed, and also a bit puzzled, when I do these.
I can't wear any sort of devices on the boots as I'm driving and would have to remove and reinstall said devices about 100 times a day. Not worth it.
So I'm pretty good at the penguin walk instead.
Is it Friday yet? The cat sit ends tomorrow (please, please, pleeeze o great weather gods) morning so I won't have to leave the house before daylight next week.
I get my exercise routine back and I'm hoping the comfort eating will cease and (mostly) desist.
Carter is coming home this afternoon! We are picking him up at 2pm. He still can't get up on his own but once they help him up he can stand for 30 seconds before he begins to sink back down. He has motor control of both his back legs (one more than the other) so they think he should be able to recover his full ability to walk. He's still not eating for them but they are pretty sure that it is because he's scared and that he will eat when we get him home.
In any case DH and I are both taking the afternoon off work, and depending how much work it is to take care of him possibly tomorrow as well. I'm so glad we get to bring him home but I'm still worried about him. We should get the biopsy results next week.
You can't even see that there are two steps going down from our front porch because the ice is even with the bottom step!
but the good news is that I didn't dive into a bag of choc chip cookies after I managed to get through the day of blizzarding. 
during a slooow skid down one of the longest steepest hills in my work area.
