2021

Good Morning ALL. How are you today? How have you been? It has been a week since my last post. I decided to take a break from writing and direct all my attention to ensuring that Mr. Alvin had everything he required to make a full recovery. His incision is healing nicely and I have an appointment set up for next Friday with his Doctor to have the stitches removed. Each day he becomes closer and closer to his old self. When I mentioned about directing all my attention to looking after Alvin …. that also included working. So my focus was Alvin and work. The house and me took a backseat to them. OH my goodness, I am referring to work as a “them.” Anyway, have to have a laugh here and there. Between the scheduling of meds, watching over Alvin as he went without the cone after the first day and working … I am feeling a little, no a lot, sleep deprived. But as we are on the last day of meds and he is feeling better, we are slowly returning to some semblance of normalcy. What a week! If you ever have a week that is pretty darn crappy …. just wait, because the next week can be totally different. I would have never thought that one week we were doing our regular thing …. waiting for the temperatures to warm so that we could go walking again and the next I was listening to the words of the Doctor as she told me the results of the ultrasound knowing that things were going to change forever. I am also grateful that I have Pet Insurance. It paid off big time. I may have gone through my savings and then some but Mr. Alvin is doing great and that is all that really matters. There were a couple of times over last week when I realized that I had given Alvin his once every 24 hour medicine ….. in 12 hours. I called the Emergency Hospital where he had his surgery. Then the very next day after feeling so guilty and stupid, I did it again. Giving him a different med in short amount of time. Again I called the hospital. Feeling incredibly bad for Alvin, worried for his life and feeling ashamed that I could not seem to keep things in order. I had even wrote out a chart with all three meds, what they were and how much and when. I kept that up until the page filled and I was at the same time keeping track of when he ate, peed and pooped. When I messed up the second time, the Hospital said to just give it to him 8 hours from that time which made it 10:00 p.m. instead of 2:00 a.m. (sounded like that was better until we had to stay up until 10:00 which is late for us). His schedule had meds at 2:00 a.m., 6:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. at first and then 10:00 p.m., 6:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. To be honest I did make a third error but it was minor. I gave him him one of the meds at 2:35 p.m. instead of 2:00 p.m. ( I did not call the hospital again). So this has been an interesting week or so in our household. Today is the last full day of medicines. Tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. and we are done. So tomorrow night we can go to bed at our regular time. At least when one of both of us have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, one of us do not have to use her brain. I am happy about that. Back to the dreaded plastic cone. They always send them home from the hospital wearing them and I totally get it. Cannot have them licking the incision. So I have been keeping an eagle eye on him. Only a few times has he even went to lick that area. Thank goodness. We had the talk and I said if you lick it goes back on. I kind of think that he understood. At night which is the worse, I placed a blanket on him and my hand in place to hold so that he could not reach the incision. We had no problems other than I likely did not sleep well. Yes, I know, I did not sleep well. At the end of this whole adventure, I just have to say thank you first to my daughter and son-in-law for whom we would not have made it through this time and for helping with financial support. Also to my neighbour Sonja who was there at a moment’s notice to help me. To all my friends and family …. thank you for your thoughts and words ….. WE ARE BACK. Now that being said. Alvin will be on a strict diet for the rest of his life. That sounds horrible. Kind of is in a way. Since he came home – there has been no banana, no carrots, no bit of broccoli, no blueberries, no chicken, no nothing other than food from the vet and his biscuits also same brand as his food. That is it. The first few days he did not seem to care but the last day or so, he has been asking and I feel so guilty if I eat anything that he likes. In fact, the first few days after he got home ….. I had made sure that I finished the bananas before his arrival. But now, I cannot give up everything but I also know that I have to be firm. It has been very hard when he asks nicely “putting his paw up.” I trained him to say please and now even with please he cannot have what he would like. Makes me sad and teary eyed. When I had emailed his Surgeon with a couple of questions, I mentioned that I had not given him any human food since his surgery and he said “that was good.” Does not hurt to have some extra encouragement. Right. Anyway I just wanted to say hello and fill you in a bit of our story the past week. On another note, the weather in Edmonton has been off the charts. Most of the snow has melted and the sun has been so warm. On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Alvin was a “sun dog” laying on a mat on the deck by the back door. He just laid there enjoying the fresh air and the sunshine. We both are missing our walks big time and it will be another week before we can resume them. But something to look forward to. Something else to look forward to is our Amanda’s birthday this coming Friday.

Well time to head down and get on with the laundry. I did a few loads last night and have already started one this morning. I really need a coffee this morning. Of course we went to bed after 10:00 p.m. and then he was up at 4:00 which was not bad and then at 5:00 and then at 6:00 and 7:00 and then I could not fight it any longer …. we were up to stay. So if my thoughts and words are a bit mumbled and jumbled that would be why.

Wishing you all a wonderful Saturday.

We continue to live with kindness, respect, compassion and patience and GRATITUDE.

Always, Carol & Alvin