Update on Tandi

Well, we've survived the first post-op week for Miss Tandi. Thanks to scheduled offdays and a couple of unplanned offdays initiated by a flu-like illness, I've been able to be with her full-time for the past 8 days.

The first few days were really tough. We've learned to keep a leash on her at all times, (except when she's securely in her crate) because she doesn't understand why she can't hop onto or off of the sofa, and why Mommy has to carry her up and down steps. She's learning the routine, though, and most of the time goes willingly into her crate as long as we're around.  (If you enlarge the picture, you can see her shaved right hind leg.)

So at night, I tie her to the leg of a chair while I carry the crate into the bedroom, then lead her to the crate; and then in the morning, Jack holds her in his lap while I bring the crate back into the living room. She grumbles occasionally, and squirms when I pick her up, but seems to understand that the leash must be on before she can walk around in the house.

I really thought I'd get more done this week than I have, but sometimes the only way to keep her from licking her leg and bandage was to put her in my lap or beside me on the sofa and constantly stroke her or scratch her ears or rub her belly. In shaving her leg, they caused a couple of razor burns, and although the staff told me to put some aloe vera on it, Tandi liked the taste too well and would increase the licking.

This is the top of the knee where one of the razor burns is and if you look closely, you can see the faint beige of the bandage on the inside of the leg just a bit lower down. We've managed to keep the bandage on, though the staff says not to try to rewrap it if it comes off. We also bought her a Cone of Shame, but she was so terrified by it she would hardly move--just sit and quiver--and it was too large to allow her to turn around in the crate, which is really the only time she would need it. I had every intention of making her a soft cervical collar to keep her from getting to it, but then I came down with some flu-like cold and spent the greater part of 3 days lying on the couch sleeping or watching mindless sitcoms on TV.

Before the surgery I did manage to score a couple of doggy steps, but then found out she's not allowed to go up or down steps for as long as 6 weeks, so they've been put aside until later. One of the ladies at the groomer's advised me to buy Tandi a "sling" to help her get up and down the front steps, but the local pet store only carried one size--50-70 lbs--and as my girl only weighs 26 lbs, I think it would just allow her to slide on through the other end. I'm planning on taking that back to the store and taking a store credit or something.

 At the vet's office, they had some slings made by some local gal, and I bought one of those, but it's too narrow for Tandi, and I don't find it any more secure than the one from the store. She sells them for $12.00 each, but I'm thinking I could make a better one with velcro to secure it, and in different sizes besides.

I'd put the webbing farther back, as in the store-bought sling, with velcro at different places to customize the fit, and make them much wider. All this gal has done is put a little batting inside a rectangular sleeve of two coordinating fabrics and put one line of stitching straight up the middle.  I wonder if I could make some of these for MY vet's office to sell? It'd be a great way to use up some of the fabrics I'm tired of, and really, they wouldn't have to be cotton, so scoring some poly/cotton blend fabrics would work as well. Bet you could do the same.

Today I felt human again, and the weather was so balmy at 71 degrees (!), Tandi and I spent some time sitting on the front porch.

We had a visit from Cody, the red cocker spaniel one street over, and his daddy-man; saw lots of birds and squirrels; and barked loudly at the garbage truck. I was glad I had a firm grip on her leash because the little knucklehead was all primed to chase alongside the truck, despite the certainty of pain. I love my little Tandi-tot to death, but I'm under no delusions about her intelligence.

Tomorrow night, well, actually tonight, I have to go back to work. This means taking her out for a last potty before I leave, then dashing home after work--no errands--to take her out as soon as I get home in the mornings, because there's a 14-hr gap there. Then I'll probably have to get up about noon to take her out again, before tumbling back into bed to sleep another 4 hours until time to get up for work.

It's going to be a long 5 weeks.

But she's worth it.

 



Current Events

There's not much going on around here these days--including blogging!

Christmas has been put away, but the sewing room is still a disaster.

I've been going through boxes and bins and culling out craft items to give away. A blogging friend with 4 kiddos can use them, and I am happy to clear out all the unused supplies and the guilt that goes with them! One box is full and I'm looking for another box at work to bring home.

In my search, I've found UFOs I'd forgotten even existed. There are enough projects and fabric to last me a couple of years, at least, and that's if I get my butt in gear before spring gets here for good. It's been such a mild winter, I've been itching to get outside and start planting, but really, it's too soon.

Work has been busy the last few weeks. It's the season. In addition it seems there's always some inservice or staff meeting or mandatory meeting to attend. Funny, they don't want us to bring our personal lives to work, but they don't mind inserting their meetings into our personal lives! Agghh!

Also on the agenda for the next few weeks: Tandi. She tore the ligament in her right back leg and will have surgery next week. It's going to cost a pretty penny, but we can't just not fix it. She's only 7 1/2 years old, with probably another 7-8 years left, and if we don't fix this leg, she'll be at greater risk to injure the other back leg.

I'm looking for doggy steps to get her off and on the bed and sofa, as she inevitably jumps and could reinjure the leg. We're gradually reducing the radius on her fence collar, too, as the surgeon prefers she be on a leash to go outside to potty, but with my work schedule, and Jack's limitations, it just isn't possible every time.

We've pulled the crate into the living room and will start putting her in it now and then to get her used to spending time in there again. This situation will last for 6 weeks--which seems like a reeeallllyy long time to try to keep her calm and inactive. When she feels good, which doesn't occur much these days, she runs pell-mell down the front steps, plays fetch with her squeaky football, runs barking up and down the yard when the big brown truck or the postal worker appear, and dances for treats. Once the leg is fixed, she'll start feeling good long before she's allowed to show it. I'm seriously considering asking the vet for something to keep her sleepy the days I have to sleep, so maybe I could just bring her to bed with me and still get some shut-eye myself.

Bless her heart, it's hard to see her limping around. She never whimpers, never yelps, and was so resigned when the vets manipulated her leg and drew her labs.

I can't wait to have my sweet little companion steal my socks again.

Pictures of Christmas

Aha! Didn't find the battery charger yet, but did find a package of AA batteries tucked back in a drawer.

I know you're all way past Christmas and have everything down and packed away, but here are some lingering reminders....

I don't know why my computer will not save this image correctly. I keep getting an error message. But it did hang vertically, not horizontally, from one of the bedroom doors.  (!)

I finally got the stuffed candy canes made this year. Five of them were sent to Mightymom, who generously sent yardage of red and white fabric last year. I have 4 more that need to be finished off, but these were so much fun and have so much potential (ribbons, bells, springs of holly, etc.), that I plan to make more this year.

  This is a punched copper tree topper (rhymes!) I bought off Etsy this year. I tried to buy only American-made gifts and decorations this year, and some of my gifts were handmade and/or bought off Etsy.

I love to hang lights inside my windows, under the curtains, in all the rooms. When  the room lights are off, you get a lovely, colorful glow.

Above my sink is a soffitt, that runs the length of the wall. I have all my antique kerosene lamps up there (filled with lamp oil), and all but one are in working condition. This year, I ran a string of red lights behind them. It wasn't until I turned the light on that I realized how dusty and grimy they'd gotten, so after numerous trips up and down the stepladder, all the lamps were clean and sparkling in front of a red glow.

Along the front walk, where the tipsy pots once stood, I placed 2 upside-down tomato cages and wrapped them with artificial pine garland. I cut up a couple of  dollar-store poinsettias and stuck tthe individual blooms in the garlands, then wrapped them all in lights. They were festive by day and by night.

I was fortunate to have 4 days off at Christmas. Neither Jack nor I could remember the last time I was off Christmas Eve AND Christmas Day. Such is nursing. DD unfortunately couldn't come until Sat. afternoon and had to go back Mon. morning, so we enjoyed every minute we spent together.

I hope you all made some lovely memories, too.

Fell off the Edge of the Earth...

....and yes, there be dragons there. 

I survived, but the battery charger for the camera is now missing and I can't post any pictures! I'm sure it'll turn up sometime, but this means a short post, because how boring is it without pictures?

New addictions--Pinterest.  Angry Birds. E-News Reader Today (lists free Kindle books every day on Facebook.) I now have over 450 free books and short stories on my Kindle. If I should ever get snowed in or stuck on a desert island, I'm set.


And....



Oh, yeah. I'm not a fanatic, but when I asked for DVDs for the portable player in my sewing room, (so I can "watch" videos while sewing) and didn't get the Twilight Saga, I ordered them myself. Um, yes, I did see Breaking Dawn part 1 in December, and have pre-ordered the video.

Actually, Eclipse is on right now.

Sigh.

Somewhere inside me still lives a sappy 15-year-old.

Does it help that I also liked the Hunger Games Trilogy?







I didn't think so.

One Nurse's Thanksgiving

Most of my adult life, we've had Thanksgiving whenever.  When I worked in the operating room, it was easier to have it on the actual day, since the OR was only open for emergency cases on holidays and weekends.  But I haven't worked there since DD was 4 years old, so all she ever knew was Turkey Day happened sometime around the 4th weekend of the month. In addition, she was only 5 years old when we moved across the country from our family, so out of necessity, it's just never been a big holiday for us.  I'm sure that's true for many other occupations, not just nursing.

Over the years, we've shared Thanksgiving with a couple of other families, but usually it's just the 2-3 of us, depending on where DD is living at the time. She was never interested in learning to cook as a child or young teen, but as she got to be college age, she began experimenting. She and some of her close friends would host a big Thanksgiving party for friends of all ages and the gal cooks a mean turkey, I must say. In fact, she's turned into quite a cook.  She didn't get it from me.

This year she was invited to spend Thanksgiving with her best friend from work and her family. I'm grateful for her many friends, as she never really has to spend a Thanksgiving alone. She may be 7 hours away, but she's still surrounded by people who care about her.

As for this household, well, I had to work Wed. night and Thurs. night, so our Turkey Day will be tomorrow. It'll be a small one, with only a turkey breast, Stovetop Stuffing, green beans, corn, sweet potatoes, deviled eggs, some sort of cranberry dish, and a storebought pecan pie (which we actually cut into tonight. Hey, in another world, it would be leftovers!)  Some years I do the whole Betty Crocker thing, but that's not going to happen this year. There are much more interesting things to do!  Sewing has been happening here, and though I'm not ready to post pictures yet, I'm happy the mojo is continuing.

So if cooking is your thing, hope you are having a great time. If shopping is your thing, stay safe! Weird people are roaming around out there. However you are spending this holiday weekend, I hope you are making wonderful memories. 

Thanks for stopping by.