Catching Up Oct 2006 - Feb 2007

Ok I'm back but I sure do have lots of catching up to do. Sorry for the long lapse in no posts. Thanks for all the support & prayers for my step son who is over in Iraq. He's 19 years old & has been there since Aug 2006. We hear from him about every 1 1/2 weeks which we are happy about. We miss him like crazy.

This post is just going to be a quick caption about catching up but will post more details about certain things soon.

In Oct 2006 we moved to a brand new construction home & left all the moldy wet in our flooded basement behind. It worked well for us cuz the house we bought, the builders of it bought our old house. Weird i know but true. Our new house is 4 bdrms, 3 full baths, 2 1/2 acres of land, etc. etc. We love it.

We also bought a boxer puppy back in July 2006 when she was 10 weeks old. She was born on May 5th, 2006 and now is 9 mos old but in Dec right before xmas she jumped off a 3' stone wall in our yard & broke her back leg. It was horrible. She had to have a very costly surgery but is doing fine now.

My husband also retired from the Army in July 2006 after 22 years & is having a tough time adjusting to a civilian work place but I'm so proud of him cuz he does have a great job & he is doing a great job. We both miss him being in the military though.

Our youngest son who is 6 is doing awesome in 1st grade. He's reading at 3rd grade level & his teacher said he's very smart in math. That made our day.

Well here is some updates I am taking from some of my e-mails that will have more info for now til I catch up:

12/26/06
My boxer is 7 mos old & her name is Callypso (Cally) for short.
Well this summer she had lyme disease. She was limping one day so i took her to the vet & they said she had lyme disease so we treated her for 30 days for that & after only 2 days on the meds she was running around fine again. Anyway the other day I had her outside w/me - she loves to run around & play outside. And we have a stone wall that is edging on our driveway that is about 3' tall & at the bottom there is about 3' of grass area then the driveway. I called Cally to come to me & i was in the driveway & she wags her tail like to say ok mommy i'm coming & i turned around to walk to the side yard & i hear her yelping in pain & turn around & she's jumping around in a circle screaming in pain. She jumped off the wall but she must have hit her hind leg or something. I didn't see it so i don't know. This was Sat & most vets were closed for the holdiday weekend & referred us to Tufts animal hospital. So we put her on her dog bed & drove her to the hospital. They admitted her & got her on an iv with pain meds. They took xrays & said it was a totally clean break ( we saw the pics) above the growth plate (so that was good) but that she would need surgery & have a plate put in. Its costing us $75 a day for her to stay there - it was $140 just to walk thru the door & they said with surgery it will be about $3000. Now i wonder since its a "clean" break why they can't just put her in a cast like people do for clean breaks of bones til they heal? Why do they have to put a plate in her leg & do surgery?? They are scheduled to do the surgery tomorrow at noon cuz they were off til tomorrow cuz of the Christmas weekend. Also we wanted to bring her home til the surgery cuz she has a cast thing on now & is hopping around & seems in good spirits, would have saved us about $600 in fees for her staying there. Our Cally girl is only 7 mos old & we miss her alot. I'm sick about her breaking her leg cuz i called her to come to me. This is a bad time of year to have to come up w/an extra $2700 for surgery but we will find a way.

12/29/06
Cally is home from surgery for her broken back leg!!!!

We picked Cally up tonight & we just got back home. Keeping her "quiet" for the next 8 weeks is going to be VERY hard to do. She's use to being caged at night (thank God) but not all day. We walked her around outside for a few minutes so she could go to the bathroom then kept her leashed & she walked around the house but if we let her off the leash she thinks its playtime & will race all over the house so we can't do that. But the problem is when we keep her on the leash or cage her, she's NOT happy in the cage she scratches at the door trying to get out & crying horribly. I feel so bad & don't know what to do but they said to keep her from playing, running, going up stairs etc for 8 weeks.

But the good news is she already puts weight on her leg & she seems great. The surgery ended up being about $500 less than they said!!! YAY!!!

Cally thinks she never even had surgery. But that's the problem with keeping her quiet for the next 8 weeks.


(1/21/07)
I have been really sick for over a week now. Wicked sore throat, earache on the left side, massive sinus headaches & a cough that makes you gag & cough up green & yellow stuff. Its so gross. Even my 6 yr old son tells me, "mom that is so gross." When i can't stop coughing. This morning i couldn't take it anymore after 3 nights of coughing all night & no sleep, i called the dr on call. I have taken so many meds & cough drops now my stomach is sick. They didn't even see me, just called me in some cough syrup with codeine, antibiotics & afrin nasal spray (which is bad for you from what i hear lately).

I had been in there last week & they didn't do anything. I am so sick of feeling like shit & being sick. Gman has been sick too & has been to the dr 4x's in the past month. He has had a dry cough for over 2 months now & an itchy eye that gets red around the outside of his eye at times. Its not bloodshot inside the eye & its not goopy. And the eye thing has been going on for a few weeks.

I think i am going to switch him to a pediatrician instead of our family dr - only thing is our family dr is here in town, a 10 min drive & the closest pediatrician i can find that will take on new patients is a 40 min drive away. Not sure what i should do but the 4x's he has gone to the dr he has seen 4 diff dr's & all have said he had something different so that scares me. One of them said they think its asthma even though we have no history of asthma & his lungs sounded fine??? She wanted to put him on a week of prednisone (steroids) to see if it "knocked" his cough away sort of like a test to see if its asthma or not. Hubby & I talked & even though i filled the perscription we didn't feel comfortable giving a 6 yr old w/out any signs of breathing troubles in his lungs prednisone.

Anyway have I have to go dose up on my cough syrup & try to sleep. Hope
everyone is doing well. On a good note, our son that is in Iraq wrote me on myspace today. He said he would call but hasn't called yet. Usually we get the phone call about 3am. LOL He sounded good. Said the weather is really crappy rainy, cold, windy & that he's not addicted to hot chocolate so to send him some hot chocolate.



2/7/07
Cally went back to the vet today for her follow up xrays from braking her back leg and having surgery to put a plate in it back on 12/29/06. She's been on restricted exercise since then but doing well.

The vet said the broken bone healed up well. He said he didn't like the plate they put in, he said he would have used a pin (but unfortunately it was xmas vaca & he wasn't around ) and we had to have the surgery done. He said to keep her on limited exercise for another 2 months. He found a spot on the xray just below her knee that looks like a gouge out of the bone. I don't think it was in the xray that we saw from when her leg was broke. He is a bit concerned about it but said he hopes it will be fine & just to watch her & if she ever shows tenderness or limping to call him.

She weighed in at 48.6 lbs & is 9 mos old.

I can't wait til we can just let her run around again without telling her no Cally stop. She's a puppy that wants to run around & play.

Ok well that's some of the updates - will post more later.

"And Now these three remain: faith, hope & love" 1 Corinthians 13:13