Happy Birthday Andrew

Happy Birthday to my son Andrew.

In the arms of the angel

I'll Remember You

Andrew's birthday is this Saturday. We'll always love you and remember you, little man. You are a part of our hearts forever.

We Remember Them

For Danny and Andrew


We Remember Them

At the rising of the sun and its going down,
we remember them.

At the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter,
we remember them.

At the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring,
we remember them.

At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of summer,
we remember them.

At the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn,
we remember them.

At the beginning of the year and when it ends,
we remember them.

As long as we live, they too will live;
for they are now a part of us, as we remember them.

When we are weary and in need of strength,
we remember them.

When we are lost and sick at heart,
we remember them.

When we have joy we crave to share,
we remember them.

When we have decisions that are difficult to make,
we remember them.

When we have achievements that are based on theirs,
we remember them.

As long as we live, they, too, will live;
for they are now a part of us, as we remember them.

~From the Jewish Book Of Prayer~




What we have once enjoyed we can never lose;
All that we love deeply, becomes a part of us.
Helen Keller

It's my birthday and I'll bark if I want to...

Well Georgie had her 14th birthday today, but poor little thing woke up sick. She started getting restless at around 3 am wandering the house. I got up several times to let her out and eventually got her to snuggle in bed with me. But of course she was very restless. When I put her down on the floor she became ill. This went on for several hours, even after she had her meclizine which is supposed to help with nausea. I called the vet's office and could only get in at 430 pm. We fell asleep together on the couch from 1pm to 3pm. When we woke up she was weak, but no longer vomiting and no pain. But we went to the doctor's anyway. We couldn't identify anything that she may have eaten that would make her ill, and since it's so late we won't have the lab results to rule out any metabolic problems until tomorrow. She got some fluids, blood tests and another abdominal ultrasound (the 3rd in a year). The good news is that it wasn't her pancreas, liver or spleen, but the gastric wall was thickened. This is diagnosed as gastritis but the reason is unknown. The radiologist did say we cannot rule out an infiltrative source (cancer), however her lymph nodes looked ok so it's not lymphoma. All we can do is treat the symptoms and see how she does. If she doesn't get better then we'll have to explore other things. But this is one tough little dog. She keeps bouncing back. She looks better tonight so my hopes are up. It's difficult having a senior dog. It's always a fine balancing act to know what to do next. As long as she's comfortable, no pain, and finds some pleasure we just keep moving forward.

Remembering Danny

My husband's Uncle Danny died last night after a protracted illness. Fortunately, no one chose to do aggressive life saving measures as it was inappropriate in his case and at his age of 88. Danny was always a happy man, goofy, singing, playing his harmonica, joking. What a delight to spend time with him. He was involved in one of those great love stories. Tom's aunt used to date Danny when they were in college. But as life goes, WWII came along and Danny was off to the military. He received the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts during WWII. Some of his exploits have been subject of the history of the 5th Marines, the military's most decorated battalion.

The aunt married one of her college sweethearts. And Danny eventually married as well. As life goes, both Danny and the aunt lost their spouses to illness in their later years. Danny had never lost his love for Tom's aunt, and looked for her. He only knew her living with her family in a small rural mountain town, but of course they no longer lived there. He searched and searched, and eventually found her. They then continued the romance that was started many years before. What a loving couple dedicated to each other from the moment they joined up again. On the 26th of every month he would bring home yellow roses to his wife (Tom's aunt) to celebrate their anniversary day. I often remarked around them that I felt fortunate to have such a romantic couple as role models in the family. He always brought a smile to his wife's face, and a bright light always to her eyes. My husband said he never met a couple with more matching outfits - LOL!!!

You will be remembered by many and our hearts only know love for you, Danny. Rest in peace, and give Andrew a big hug for us.

Georgie's 14th Birthday - the Miracle Dog.

I'm so excited that tomorrow is Georgie's 14th birthday. A little over a year ago, she was hospitalized and the vets did not think she would make it. All they could offer was to open her up, biopsy all her organs and see if they could come up with a diagnosis. The vets had no idea what was going on. She would've needed anesthesia to do the surgery. At the age of almost 13, I didn't think she would make it through the ordeal. The vet even said he wouldn't choose this option for his own dog! I opted out of this course of action and asked for her to be aggressively medically managed. Within days she was discharged home with the title "Miracle Dog". All of her checkups have been stable since, except for vestibular dysfunction where she would become incapacitated from dizziness. They said it should last 2 weeks and resolve. It lasted almost 2 months. And she has had reoccurences of the same symptoms. We saw a neurologist who said her symptoms do not present like a brain tumor, but we don't know and could do an MRI. This would also take anesthesia, and it would only be for diagnostic purposes. If she did have a brain tumor, there was probably nothing appropriate to her age and condition that could be done. She has been responding to meclizine which is actually for nausea and vomiting related to the dysfunction. It does not treat the dysfunction. The neurologist doesn't know why it seems to work, but she said keep using it! She has learned to compensate very well, and so have we in monitoring and managing her. So again we've opted out of doing anything invasive like anesthesia. If she needs it for something acute, then we'll go ahead and get the MRI. Since then her checkups have shown her to be medically stable. I have aggressively managed her daily at home with monitoring everything from food to walks to poops to cleanliness.

In the meantime, Georgie is happy, eating well and loving her walks. Some days she's a little confused, her hearing and sight aren't as good as they used to be, but either are mine! Some days she runs on her walks and plays with me. Most of the time she follows me and settles next to me - something she never did when she was younger, being Miss Independent! In her photo, she is sitting on Daddy's lap snoozing, loving the attention. We all seem to be coping well. The other dogs still respect her and don't bother her, although they know she's part of the pack. As long as she remains fairly stable, I can't imagine that we need to change a thing.

Needless to say, she continues to be my Miracle Dog. She represents unconditional love and significant history together. Time will be measured by before Georgie and after Georgie.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY little one.