Soccer ball eyes!!!

This is just TOOOOO cool!!! Jules Verne ~ eat your heart out!!!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/04/30/colossal.squid/index.html?iref=mpstoryview#cnnSTCText

Calling all old hippies...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/29/hofmann.obit.ap/index.html

Stupid Parents Part 4968718

Do you believe this S***??? And ONLY a charge of second degree reckless homicide???
How about first degree murder (motive and planning), child endangerment, child abuse, and a whole lot of other stuff!
If they have other kids, they should be immediately taken away from them, and the pair of them should also be sentenced to death immediately!

Ah, yet another example of the wonder of religion!!

6 word memoirs...

I got this link from Cathy Z's blog... and I thought it would make a great tag game! So I'm tagging everyone who reads this... Now I need to go figure out my own ~

Why I don't deal well with children...

Reason # 87928374655...

They don't DO logic.

I was helping out on the post-op side... 4-5 year old, after having tonsils out. Woke up screaming & swinging & kicking & screaming... "My throat hurts, my throat hurts, my throat hurts"...

Ya know, kid ~ if you'd quit the ear-splitting screaming, your throat would feel MUCH better!!!!
Here, have some ice chips; it will make your throat feel better... "No, no, no!" Fine, suffer!, ya little twit!!

OK, then can I just slap you upside the head a few times, so you'll REALLY have something to cry about?!?!?!

They get Mom and Dad in... and they accuse us of being mean to their little angel...
after she has kick and hit on us for the last 20 minutes... It's unbelievable how strong the little brats are!!! And I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad when the brat started kicking and hitting on Mom & Dad!!! Must admit I reveled in their shocked looks!!!

I was SO glad when I had to go do an ADULT pre-op!!!

If this makes me either an awful nurse, or human being...




who the hell cares!!!!

My sweet baby boy Duncan...

W.H. cont'd...

We went out to dinner, and toasted to Dunc's life with champagne. When we got back to the room, we spent all our time loving on Duncan...
but he was doing the same thing he'd been doing at home ~ circling the room, restless, and running almost head on to walls, corners, etc...

Then he had a seizure ~ a minor one, so I only gave him a 1mg. Valium dose... Then, he had a second one ~ another minimal dose of Valium...

But when he was fully alert afterwards, he gave us 'that' look... I was crying, as was Jim, and I said ~ "I think he's telling us it is time." And Jim agreed.

We called the vet hosp.; I told the doc on call a brief history, and that it was time. They were SO sweet!

We took him in, and they took us to their quiet room. They'd pulled up his chart, so they knew exactly what was going on.

We held onto Dunc and told him how much we loved him, and how proud we were of him for putting up such a good fight for so long. We told him what a good dog he was, and how lucky we felt that he had found us. We told him again how much we loved him...

...and then we let him go to the Rainbow Bridge.

He left us cuddled up in my lap, with Jimbo scratching under his ears, which was his special joy.



I cannot say enough about how kind the 3 staff members we dealt with that night were... they gave us all the time we needed, and more. Though we had never met them before, they immediately 'got' how special Duncan was. Dr. K assured us that they would make a cast of Dunc's paw, and they made signing all the paperwork as painless as possible.

Needless to say, it was a VERY long ride home the next day. And it's been a very rough time since...

We got a wonderful card a few days later from the vet hospital; almost everyone who had had anything to with Dunc signed it, and had written a note about how wonderful Duncan was. It was amazing to hear how much he had touched so many of them...
With this card, we also got a coaster sized cast with his paw print ~ many tears on receiving this!!!

Enough for tonight... more tomorrow...

What happened...

Ok ~ lets see how much of this I can get thru before I start crying...

We got to Pullman late Wed. afternoon; got all checked in, went to dinner. Duncan's breathing was actually better that night, and no nosebleeds.

Got him to the vet hosp. at 1100 Thurs. morning, and received a wonderful surprise ~ the 4th year student who would be checking him over was Kim, a SUPER sweet guy we'd dealt with before. What a blessing that was! He knew Dunc's history very well, so we didn't have to go into all that; more important, we trusted his abilities implicitly.

We told him all about what had been happening the last week or so ~ the bleeds, the restlessness, the confusion...
As Kim was examining him, Duncan started with a nosebleed, a fairly good-sized one. And then, he seized. Kim scooped him up and went flying for their ICU ~ I still can't believe I had the sense not to go flying along with him... Jim and I just held each other and cried.

They came back about 5 minutes later; Kim said it had been a mild seizure; Dunc was already coming back around. Dr. Fidel (the cancer specialist) came back with him... She suggested that before going for a brain MRI, they do chest and abd. Xrays to look for any lymph node involvement...
Those tests came back pretty normal; just a slightly enlarged liver (probably due to the Prednisone he'd been on).
Next came an abdominal ultrasound and liver aspiration biopsy (just to be sure) ~ both normal.
Then came the MRI...

Need a break here...


Later...

Dr. Fidel came out to talk with us about half an hour before we expected her... they had stopped the MRI after they'd taken just a few shots...

The tumor was back, and bigger. It was now in both nasal passages, and had spread quite a bit more into Dunc's brain. She was actually amazed he was doing as well as he was...

Tears came, but neither of us was truly surprised by the news. I think we'd both known, somehow.

She and Kim showed us the MRI pix, and then gave us great big hugs. They brought Duncan out to us, and we sat and talked for a long time. We made the decision to stop all chemo, and to take him home for the 2 or 3 weeks they thought we had left with our sweet baby boy. Prednisone to help with the swelling in his brain, and lots of love was to be his only treatment.

One neat thing happened ~ we asked if June, the Japanese exchange vet was around. We knew how much she'd come to love him, and knew she would want to know. They called her, and though she was off campus, she said she'd be there in 15 minutes. I'm so glad she got to see him again, and say good bye.

More hugs, and then we took Dunc back to our room.

And that's all I can handle for tonight. I will try to post the rest of the story tomorrow ~
Thanks for listening ~

For Duncan...

I'm not strong enough yet to write about what has happened the last couple of days.

But this is for my sweet baby boy ~

just a quick note...

the news is not good. I'll post tomorrow when we get home with all the details. Please send thoughts of peace for Duncan.

In Pullman w/ Duncan...

Duncan (and I) had a horrible night last night... his breathing was getting more and more obstructed as the night wore on, till he finally had to breath with only his mouth.

So first thing this morning, I called WSU to try to get him in for an urgent MRI to see what the hell was going on. At first, they wanted to wait until the cultures came back to rule out an infection... I said NO WAY am I going to wait another 2-3 days...

Long story short... we're in Pullman now ~ his appointment is for 1100 tomorrow. Mama bear and her cub, don'cha know...

I'm so exhausted, I know when I lay down, I'm going to be whirling and unable to go to sleep... and so I'm going to take my own advice, and "sleep better chemically" tonight...

Thanks for all your hugs and good wishes...

chemo & follow up...

Dunc went thru chemo with no problems, and they were able to do the nasal swab culture. So now we just have to wait 3-4 days for those results to come back.

Dr. H just called ~ I had forgotten to tell him that Duncan's breath has been very different for the past two days (almost musty, though NOT ketotic!) ~ that could easily mean infection. So we're starting him on prophylactic ABX (antibiotics). (PO Clindamycin for those in the biz...)

Also, Dr. H had just gotten off the phone with Dr. Fidel at Pullman. She agreed with the ABX treatment... She asked him how Duncan was doing in general; when he said "He's just holding his own", she thought that he should be doing much better than that this far along ~
So, we're going to see how he responds to the ABX; if there is little or no improvement, we'll be taking him to Pullman for an urgent MRI. Dr. Fidel said it could be that we need to change the chemo protocol...

SHIT, SHIT, SHIT

If ever there was a time I truly wished my sweet baby boy could talk to me, this would be it.

And then there is my dear sweet Jimbo ~ as much as he loves Dunc, I think he is more worried about me. The man has today brought me:
Fresh oysters...
Champagne...
White Chocolate Reese's PB Cups...

***sigh*** How sweet is THAT?!?!

Many thanks to all who are sending good thoughts ~

Toxic Tuesday #9

Well, the little stinker's CBC (complete blood count) was almost perfect, so we went ahead with the "Deadly Doxo" he was due for today. And we had a long talk with Dr. Hinz (Dr. Sandy's partner ~ super nice) about the sneezing and the nosebleeds, etc.
He's going to try to get a culture from Dunc's nose today to check for infection (his WBC's (infection fighters), while still in the normal range, tripled from what they were last week) and to look for any suspicious/ abnormal cells.
Then, once Dunc has settled down from the Doxo, we'll have them sedate him, and look up his nose to see what, if anything, they can see. It's a limited study, but still... I'm trying like hell to avoid having to take him to Pullman for an MRI.

I got about 2 hours of sleep last night ~ I just couldn't stop crying. Not in much better shape this morning, either.
Duncan may be a Mighty Warrior, but I'm not feeling too strong just now ~

I'm terrified...

...about Dunc's vet visit tomorrow. His breathing sounds worse almost by the hour. Plus he's been doing TONS of his 'head-banging' sneezes the last 2-3 days.
I've been in tears most of the day.
Laters...

and that's the way it goes...

Dunky slept in this morning after I did ~ he didn't get up till 2 hours after I did, so I knew it wasn't going to be a good day.
As soon as he woke up, he started with the reverse sneezing ~ and with that, started a fairly good nosebleed. Whisked him outside (at least it wasn't snowing) and dosed him with the Epi... he stopped bleeding after about half an hour.
And he's been lethargic all day. Whenever he sleeps, you can hear rhonchii in his nose ~ blood? tumor? And even just breathing normally, it sounds like there is some kind of obstruction there. (this has been there off & on for a while, but now it is almost continuous.) Plus, his back legs have been giving out on him more today than ever before...

So I have decided ~ we'll take him in here on Tues. and talk with Dr. Sandy. He is due for the deadly Doxorubicin, but I'm going to hold off... I want to take him back to Pullman for an MRI. Or CT, or whatever.

He DID have a few good moments today ~ rolling around on his back like a kooky dog in his bed at one point. (and I got pix!). But twice when we asked him to come out front with us as we were setting out the blue pots and setting up the fountain, he was VERY slow to respond. And he usually LOVES to be out there with us.

Enough. I'm only making it worse for me'self. Ta for now.

RIP Charlton Heston


Later ~
Re: the polygamist place in Texas

How is this for some official, PC bullshit... (off of CNN)

"Authorities wanted medical backup "in case they're involved in sensitive areas that could escalate into a negative reaction," a law enforcement source said."

Why not just say ~ "We wanted ambulances there for when we shoot up those fucking weirdo assholes for banging little girls!"

Where is a rolling eye smiley when you need one...


Even Later...

"

April 2, 2008, 10:31 am

Bernanke: Recession Is Possible

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has uttered the “R” word. Responding to a question at today’s Joint Economic Committee hearing, Mr. Bernanke said publicly for the first time that “recession is possible” for the economy this year."

NO FUCKING SHIT, SHERLOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!! Possible??? How about HERE, assholes!!!

I REALLY need to get a rolling eye smiley!

a perky Duncan!!

For whatever reason (and this is one gift horse you can be sure I won't do an oral exam on!), Duncan has been downright perky ever since chemo on Tues.!!! He's been walking around with his little butt a-bobbin', and even did a little bit of running today!
The only thing that worries me (there's always something, isn't there?!) is that he has been sneezing ~ a lot!! Little if any blood (yay!), but still...

Someone came thru and looked at the house today... they were here for at least 20 min., which is usually a good sign. We shall see... We'll be doing an open house on Sat., the 12th, which means lots of cleaning this week :-((( Oh, well ~ the house is due for a deep clean anyway.
And because our night time temps are going to be above freezing for at least the next 10 days, we're going to set out all the beautiful blue ceramic pots and turn the fountain back on ~ YAY!!!

Ta for now...

Virgle!!!

Check out Virgin/Google's April Fools Day thang...

http://www.google.com/virgle/application.html#virgle_assessment

This is what I got...

"Well, you're distressingly normal and could conceivably adjust to life as a deep space pioneer, though we recommend instead that you leave the Mars missions to the serious whack jobs who scored over 130 and instead finish year 3 of law school, tuck your toddler into bed, design Web 2.0 applications, run for Congress or do whatever other normal, healthy, middle-of-the-road thing you're currently doing with your normal, healthy, middle-of-the-road life. If you're determined to give Virgle a try, though, you can submit your video here."

LMAO! One thing I have NEVER been accused of is being middle-of-the-road!! ;-))))

Toxic Tuesday #8...

Duncan had chemo # 8 today ~ today's Toxin du Jour was Vincristine.
Poor little guy ~ we can tell he doesn't like being at the vet place anymore (and he used to love it!). When it was time for him to go home, Jim said he 'bout pulled his shoulder out of the socket making a bee-line for the front door! I don't think the carrots we bring for them to give him are enough to make up for them 'torturing' him... drawing the labs, starting the IV, etc. I can't let myself think about that kind of thing, because if I do, I'll fall to pieces...

In other news, I finished all my pages for the Perception swap last night... YAY me!! It's a relief to have them all done ~ and now I can get back to some regular scrapping. I can also continue with my re-organization projects ~ I've gotten all of my ribbons & flowers sorted out; I don't know what I'll work on next.
DSH ordered 2 scrappy books for me today ~ 'Scrap Simple' from the MM folks, and one I've been wanting for a long time now ~ Becky Fleck's 'Page Maps". One of my SG buddies just got it, and is loving it, so I can't wait!! And Jen says there is much more neat stuff in it than just maps... thanks for the review, Jen!

Ta ~