The Joy Of Illinois

Sick Dog

In amongst the final 6 weeks of pregnancy, and trying to get everything ready for the baby, we had a very sick dog to deal with.

I had taken Reggie for a walk in the park and let her off the lead, as usual, and she ran off to chase a rabbit, as usual. I tried to tell her she had lost the rabbit, as I saw him running in the opposite direction, but she was convinced she could still get him, when she suddenly let out a yelp and came hobbling out of the trees. Luckily we were really close to home as she was barely able to walk, and I eventually left her to go and get Gordon, who happened to be home right then. We managed to get her home, and just assumed she had pulled a muscle or something.

The next day we took her to the vet thinking we would be sent home with some anti-inlfammatory pills, but were told she had torn her ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) in her right knee, and would need surgery. This was now Friday afternoon, so we took her home for the weekend, and went back on the Monday morning. She had to stay overnight, and we got her back Tuesday. She had a shaved leg with about a 6" scar with stitches, and one of those cone collars to stop her pulling the stitches out. She looked pretty sorry for herself.

We had to move all the furniture out of the way, as she kept getting wedged on the corner of the coffee table, or would knock things over. She wasn't allowed to go up or down stairs, so Gordon had to carry her up and down so she could still come up at night to sleep in our room.

But the biggest problem began about 3 days after getting her home, when she started throwing up. As luck would have it, it was Friday night, so we had the whole weekend to get through before we could get to the vet. By the time Monday came around she was being sick about 6 times a day! Because of her leg, she couldn't get herself in and out of the car, and because of my bump, I couldn't help her, so had to wait for Gordon to get home to come with us to the vet. He thought it was an allergic reaction to the pain killers she was on following the operation, so we stopped them, but things did not improve, and over the next 7 days we went to the vet 5 more times. This was not made any easier by the fact that Gordon was then away on business for 4 days, so Hazel helped with getting her there, and then she went away as well, and I literally had to go knocking on neighbours doors to find someone home to help me get her in and out of the car! She was given injections of fluids to prevent dehydration, and we tried various anti-sickness pills and suppositories, but they were only able to lessen the vomitting, not stop it altogether.

This went on for 19 days in total, 19 days where we were counting the hours inbetween sickness, wondering if she would ever make it more than 48 hours. 19 days of carpet cleaning, of rushing her out into the back garden if there was time, and of being woken in the middle of the night to tend to her, as after the first week she was mostly OK during the day, but couldn't make it through the night. 19 days of cooking for her, as the vet suggested a bland diet of scrambled eggs, chicken and rice.

We then took her to a different vet and had x-rays to eliminate the possibility of something being in her stomach, but they were all clear. There was another injection of meds, and more pills to bring home. By now, however, I think Reggie was so fed up with the pills. Up til then she had eaten them either in with her regular meal, or in a piece of cheese, but now she was spitting them out at every turn. We even tried dropping it in her mouth and holding her mouth closed til she swallowed, only to find that she had faked it and spat it out afterwards anyway! She was getting very clever, but needless to say we were getting rather annoyed as we were so desperate for the sickness to stop. However, after 3 days of being unsuccesful in medicating her, it seemed not to matter as she had stopped being sick anyway. Finally! The only problem we had now was she was basically on a hunger strike as she seemed to be paranoid that every bit of food might be hiding another pill! The only way we could get her to eat was to give her something she had not had so far, so we bought a load of tinned food. After about a week of eating just that, we gradually started re-introducing her regular dry food, and she is now finally, seemingly, back to normal.

Everyone said she was preparing us for having the baby, but I think a better preparation would have been to let me get plenty of sleep now so that I would be well rested when the baby arrives!

To see photos of her looking pathetic in her collar, go to Gordon's blog http://chicago-usa.blogspot.com/2007/08/poorly-sickly-dog.html

posted by Lorraine Kenmuir @ 9:13 pm 1 comments

Baby Showers

Although baby showers are not something that are done in the UK, they seem to be expected here. It involves setting up a baby gift registry, very much like a wedding registry, which I suppose makes sense as that way people will know what you want and need, rather than just guessing and buying something that you may then have to return. It was harder to do the baby registry than the wedding one though, since there is basically so much crap out there, targetted to first-time parents who don't have a clue what is really needed, and you have to filter through it all to find the stuff that is really necessary. We finally managed it, after several hours of wandering around Babues R Us in a daze! Then a friend or relative throws the shower for you, as it is not the done thing to throw your own shower.

A traditional baby shower means just the female friends of the mother-to-be getting together for a little party one afternoon, usually with some games, such as guessing the jarred baby foods by doing a blind taste test, and opening the mountain of presents while everyone looks on. I have been to a few now as a guest, and have to say that they are not always the most fun, depending on how it is done. So I wanted to have something a bit different, involving Gordon and male friends as well, making it a bar-be-que and just a typical get-together. Also, if it was just girls, there wouldn't have been many people at all, as I really don't know all that many girls here yet. I also definitely wanted alcohol to be served, as that has not always been the case with others I have been to, even though I could not drink it myself, I felt it is not a proper party without alcohol!

Hazel offered to host, so we had a lovely afternoon at her place with a b-b-q and played bean-bag toss game, or whatever it is called. There is basically a board with a hole in, and you play in two teams, throwing small bean-bags to try to get them into the hole. We also played guess the sex of the baby, since we honestly do not know it, although some people seem to think we do, but are just not telling! Hazel downloaded some old-wives tale ways of predicting the sex, such as by the way I am carrying, what foods I am craving, etc. It was fairly even, but finally came out with slightly more girl indicators than boy. Only time will tell.

We then had a second baby shower, which was held in Gordon's office. They did an amazing job of decorating the conference room and ordered a lovely cake. There is a guy working there who does a sideline business of videoing weddings, etc, and over the previous weeks he had video'd messages from various colleagues of Gordon's. There were some very funny moments, and he did a great job of presenting it. We have a copy, which I am sure we will watch often over the coming years, as there was a message for the baby as well. I expect Gordon will put it on his blog, so you can see it there, since I have no idea how to do that!

For anyone who wants to, the registries can be found at www.babiesrus.com and http://galttoysgaltbaby.com/constructor/cart/registry.jsp but please do not feel obliged to.

posted by Lorraine Kenmuir @ 7:58 pm 0 comments