How To Talk Dog

I've posted pictures of our current 4 legged family members, Reccee and Sneakers. The other pictures are of family members who are no longer with us but greatly missed. My husband kept repeating like a mantra "When Little John goes, NO MORE DOGS!" At the time I agreed with the reasons why but did wonder if we could follow through with that. Little John passed away on a Friday and Bruce left on Sunday morning for a week long business trip. Great, now I had to deal with my own grief as well as our 2 sons grief as a single parent. By Monday night I was searching the net for another puppy and even sent Bruce a link to a sight for Bullmastiff Puppies for Sale. Of course he messaged back NO NO NO. So the debate on getting another puppy began. At one point, I told him if he needed to reach me during a certain time frame to call my cell because MapQuest said I'd be gone about 4 hours. Luckily (or maybe not), I decided to not go and do as I pleased but wait for my husband to come into agreement with me. Yeah, I'm stubborn and pigheaded at times...maybe :) He came home and agreed to getting another dog but wanted to at least pick the breed and not just get another Bullmastiff. Well we ended up 2 days later with Sneakers, an Olde English Bulldog who was a couple days shy of 6 weeks. Already many mistakes were being made in this short period of time on my part. Talking my husband into something, picking a puppy who I picked regardless of what my hubby or kids thought, but most of all taking it at the young age it was. 8 weeks is the youngest a puppy should leave his momma and with some breeds it's even 10-12 weeks. A lot of socially acceptable behavior is taught by the momma and other litter mates in this crucial period. Sneakers lacked that natural instruction time and we began to deal with the outcome. At times we thought we'd have to take the dog back or give him to someone else who had the energy level to deal with him and his problems. Then we got the bright idea that Sneakers needed a playmate to help with his unacceptable behavior and bringing another dog would help him learn. So the search was on for another dog. We consulted a couple of breeders and they all concurred that Sneakers needed an older puppy who would assume Alpha role over him . In came Reccee who is 3 months older than Sneakers. Peace was restablished in the home and life got so much better. Reccee was affectionate with us and just wanted to please us in whatever way. She took care of Sneakers until about a month ago when his size passed hers and he starting vying for Alpha Dog. Oh no! Now some of our issues with Sneakers had resurfaced but this time he had a partner to try and egg on in joining him. At our wit's end, we noticed the trailer on the vet's parking lot called "How To Talk Dog". Sneakers went in for a vaccination and because of my catheter, I had my son handle, I mean wrangle him into the office. Sneakers was jumping up on everyone who came within a 20 foot radius of him while dragging my oldest son behind him. Talk about embarrassing! Information about How To Talk Dog was available and I went home with a business card to make the call. I made the call from the van while driving home, I couldn't wait to get home to make the call. Last night was our appointment with Matt and Sherrie. They spent about 4 hours with us but a lot of that time was due to us telling our war stories about Sneakers. Within 15 minutes, both dogs were lying on their mats in the TV room being submissive with an occasional correction. Now the next phase, bringing in Matt and Sherrie's dogs to see if our dogs would remain where we had put them. Esox and Moses were brought to our front door and told to sit. At first I thought they both belonged to either Matt or Sherrie. Actually, they each had brought a dog. With the front door open and their owners sitting in our TV room those beautiful black labs sat shoulder to shoulder on the porch until they were told to come in and lay down in the foyer. Some corrections needed to be made with Reccee and Sneakers but very minor compared to what it would have been. Esox and Moses were then invited to come into the TV room and they laid down in between where Reccee and Sneakers were laying. Within 5 minutes all 4 dogs were laying on their sides, sound asleep. Matt warned us that the next 2 or 3 weeks would not be fun for us because we have to establish we are the pack leaders. The corrections do not hurt the dogs. A choke collar and long lead is used for each dog. The dogs remained sleeping on the floor for the remainder of the time Matt and Sherrie were with us. Sherrie was concerned about me being able to handle the corrections because of my catheter. (I'm not suppose to lift, pull, or push anything over 10lbs until this is fully healed).
This morning I got up, fed the dogs, let them outside to do their business and put the leads on them and took them to their spots. The dogs laid down and slept off and on. The kids woke up came out, the dogs stayed. Yes, I did need to do some corrections and I'll see tonight when I change my bandaging, how my catheter handled it. They laid there for 2 hours until I let them get a drink and go out and do their business again. As I right this they are asleep in their crates. For the first couple of weeks, if there is a time where I can't watch them constantly, then they are in their crates. They seem happy and contented and relaxed. This has been a lengthy post so I stop here but there is so much more I could say. I highly reccommend How To Talk Dog after 12 hours of use. I'll keep you posted on how it progresses.

Weekly Visit

Today was my weekly trip to the Dialysis Center. I went by myself to see how I would do with the drive and everything. Walking into the back was the easiest it's ever been and I actually met a couple more nurses who welcomed me with hugs. I just love hugs! So much can be communicated in that simple act of hugging. The bandaging proved more complicated in getting off this week because the surgeon had used a loose weave gauze pad and I'm still having some bleeding around the exit site as they call it. They sent me home with instructions on how to now change my bandage everyday instead of letting them do it. My head still spins when the bandage is removed and I'm confronted with the sight. The same thing happens when the news show does a segment on flu shots and they show people getting injections. I can't look at needles. Even my insulin needles I came up with a way to have my thumb obstruct my view of where I was giving my injection. Looks like I'm gonna have to come up with some creative ways of changing the bandages. I did OK on the drive until about 25 minutes from home when exhaustion really took over. My kids and husband had eaten lunch so I was undecided about whether I should stop and get something. The problem is that I hate making left turns on major roads and most of the fast food places would have me do that to get back to the Interstate so I kept on. We had recently been to Rosie's and I had brought home a Beef Chimichanga and I kept thinking about how good that would taste in the hopes of getting me home safely. I did make it home safely but my husband had taken MY chimichanga to work for lunch yesterday! Oh well the thought of it still helped me LOL. Training will begin February 11 and I'll be down there everyday for a week. What I didn't realize is that my "Clean Room" has to be now and not when I dialyise. My bandage changing is to be done ONLY in the clean room and after I wash my hands in a ritualistic fashion, completed by the wearing of rubber gloves and a surgical mask. I think our upstairs guest bathroom will work the best. The dogs aren't allowed upstairs and there is a separate heating/ac unit for that part of the house. I just need to turn off the system while I'm changing or doing the dialysis so that no forced air is pushed into the room. For those who don't know me, I sorta fly by the seat of my pants and am not diciplined or regimented. That's gonna have to change whether I like it or not. For those who do know me, well, you understand the challenge before me :) The thoughts and prayers that have been lifted up on my behalf have been working! Thank you so much. I am reminded of the poem "Footprints" and realize that lately there are only one set of prints in the sand.

Surrogate Families

Not sure where this post will end up but I'll try and write the different jumblings in my head. When I walked into the Dialysis Center for the first time, one of the nurses said to me "We're all family here" My initial inward response was, I DON'T WANT to be part of this family!!. But the Lord began dealing with me about the concept I use to be a hard core addicted online gamer with Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC). For those that don't know, it is a role playing game where you create a character, work up to obtaining level 50 and other assorted skills that supposedly give you edge over other players in combat. There are many ways to work your levels up. My favorite was always what was called PvE (Player vs. Environment). There was was called PvP (Player vs. Player) and that is where people would duel one another who were not part of your "guild" or "realm". Playing day in and day out with the same people in conquering the different quests, or dungeons or bosses ended up unififying a motley group of people from around the world. In DAoC they also have keeps and towers that can be sieged and taken over by the conqueroring realm or guild. After getting to "know" people or the characters they played, you developed a feeling of family because of all the tasks that were accomplished with everyone's help, or the quests that were completed because everyone helped and most of all the taking of a keep or tower with the team work that it took to defeat the enemy. It was a sense of family. It was forged out of the principal of fighting to overcome things that were not doable by yourself. I realized that the nurses and staff at the Dialysis Center were there to do the same thing. They are part of my team to overcome this quest of Dialysis and to help me in the fight of taking the keep (getting a kidney). I think that is why the Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia are such a big hit with me. It's a group of people who individually couldn't even imagin what was accomplished by the efforts of a united team. Realization of how this game was an addiction didn't hit until this past July when I decided I didn't want my children's memories of their childhood being their Mom on the computer fighting dragons, mobs and running siege equipment for keep take overs. What also has struck me lately is that is what church should be about. A sense of family, joining together to fight against something greater than the individuals involved (evil/sin) but accomplishable by the effort of everyone. It's been 7 months that I've stopped being a part of an online "family" and I will say at times the draw is there to just log on and play for a bit but I don't. I now realize my new family are real faces with real names who I see every week at the Dialysis Center and are helping win a battle that really matters.

A Clean Room

One of the preparations that need to be made in doing home dialysis is having a clean room. Sounds pretty innocent doesn't it? Well so far some of the definitions I've learned about what they mean by "clean" is: no dust, no pet hair, no air conditioning or heating units in the area. I am not the world's messiest house keeper but neither am I the neatest. Over my 23+ years of marriage the only strife my hubby and I have had is about housecleaning. When company is expected he turns into what I call the "Cleaning Nazi". My problem is deciding where this clean room can be. We have 2 Old English Bulldog Puppies (Sneakers and Reccee) and the nurse has just said I need to make sure they can't get in the room where I'll do the exchanges. For those that are not aware of this type of dialysis, I'll try to explain. Inside of your abdominal cavity is called a peritoneum. A catheter is surgically placed inside of this cavity with tubing of about a foot hanging on the outside of the body. Along this tubing is a valve that allows access to the inside of the body. A certain amount of healing needs to take place for the catheter to set up. Diabetics have problems healing quickly and getting infections easily so this is a major issue with this type of dialysis. What happens after the catheter is at a point to be used, is that I'll go through a week long training process at the Dialysis Center on what I need to do. At the moment my training is set to start on February 11. A bag of dialystic solution is pumped in through the tubing and remains there for a period of time. Each person as I understand it now, is different in how long it remains there. After a period of time, the tubing is hooked up to a bag and if things are working like they should, the fluid drains out and a new bag is pumped in. What happens during the time the solution remains in your body is that it absorbs the toxins that the kidneys would normally filter out. So a person's absorption rate needs to be determined as well as what amount of solution to use. When a new bag is put in and the old bag drained out that is called an "exchange". Some people have to do multiple exchanges a day while others can do it just at night while they sleep. The night time exchange is a little more involved because a machine is used. I haven't learned to much about that method yet. I am interested to see what is going to work best for me. The 64,000 dollar question at this point is where I'm going to have this "Clean Room"

Another Visit to the Dialysis Center

Yesterday was my weekly visit to the Dialysis Center for a flushing of my catheter. I didn't bother to look up at the name of the place in the hopes of avoiding the whole ton of bricks hitting me like last time. Going into the back where all the patients are still makes my head swoon a bit and I'm unsteady on my feet but it wasn't as strong this time. I knew what to expect but this time I noticed on the little chair table next to me was a tournaquet and an alcohol swab. Warning bells started going off in my head because these are the things used in drawing blood. Even after 40 years of being a diabetic I'm not use to needles. I HATE needles! Before I let any vampire get any of my blood I ask what test they are doing and why they are doing it. Most of the time I know the names of the test and reason for it. While during a hospital stay for an infection on my leg from a bug bite, one of the vampire came in at 2:00 in the afternoon. After grilling her on what the lab orders were, I declined the tests. Apparently they are not use to patients exercising that right. The resident doctor came storming in to try and intimidate me into having the blood work done. I went down the list of each test and reason I was declining it. First was a test to check my cholesterol and that should be done as a fasting test and since I had eaten breakfast and lunch in the past 6 hrs it wouldn't be an accurate reading. The second test was an A1C test which is commonly done in diabetics. The issue I had with was that I had been to my quarterly checkup complete with bloodwork 10 earlier so there was no need to repeat that test. There were a couple other minor tests but those too had been covered with my quarterly checkup. Needless to say that resident doctor and I didn't get along very well. We had another disagreement on what to do about my insulin pump. He wanted me to remove it so they (hospital) could manage my blood sugars. The main function of an insulin pump is to easily manage blood sugar levels without the multiple injections. In fact in order to go on a pump, I had to be on at least 4 shots a day. Like I said before, I HATE needles so there was no way I was going to let them take my pump off. All this to say, I'm very protective of my veins and I worried needlessly over seeing the tournaquet. They did not need any blood and that was a big relief to me!
The catheter this week showed signs of bleeding which it had not done until yesterday. So I've been told to stop doing too much and let it heal. I didn't realize I was doing too much but I'll keep that in mind and try and do less of whatever it is I do.
Also had a visit with the surgeon who said things were looking good to his satisfaction. He said that January had actually been a slow month in doing transplants. They had a good number of organs come in but unfortunately they were too scarred to be usued or didn't perform well on a profusion pump I think he called it. Training has not yet been scheduled for me to learn how to dialysis at home and the surgeon had commented that he hoped I got a call before I needed to use it. That's my prayer.

Reality Check #1

Well surgery went well with the catheter placement. No phone call came to save me from this procedure. While lying in the operating room waiting for them to get started, the phone rang and I heard through my groggy state "Yes, we have her here now". I immediately asked if that was a kidney for me which made the OR team laugh. Then I hear a voice above my shoulder saying breath deep and next thing I know I'm waking up with my stomach burning and needing to vomit. The oxy-cotin drugs make me extremely nauseous so they were unsure of what to give me. They tried asking my sweet hubby but he had no idea what didn't make me sick Eventually Tylenol #3 was decided on and I was sent home with prescription in hand and enough injected into me for the 2 hour ride home. The rest of that day and Saturday are a blur to me. Sunday evening I made it out of the house to attend our home fellowship church. Today I had to go and have the catheter "flushed". I've decided to name my catheter "Herman" after Herman Muenster. My hubby and I watched an episode of the Muensters just before they wheeled me back into the OR. Not knowing what to expect, I was pretty nervous. As we drove around trying to locate the place, I saw a sign that said Dialysis Center. Seeing that word "dialysis" hit me like a ton of bricks. Here I thought the worst was behind me with the surgery. Now, I was brought up short by the fact that I gotten through one stage of this journey but there are still many more stages to get through physically and emotionally. The PD nurse was wonderful and explained everything that was being done and why and there was no pain involved. But the emotions running through me as I sat there amidst others going through dialysis was very daunting. I'll have to go again next week and run through the same procedure as well as visit the transplant office. Driving down there I was going over how blessed that I'm doing this now instead of 22 years ago. The medical technology and drugs are so much better now. Even that I have the option of doing dialysis at home is a big thing. I'm a pretty upbeat person usually but there are times when a reality check hits me and I have to focus on the good and get my bearings back. Today was definetely one of those times.

4 years and counting

I never thought in a million years that I would join the world of bloggers but here I am. This will be about the journey to receiving a transplanted kidney. I've been on the waiting list now for 4+ years and have been able to dodge the dialysis bullet. As it stands now, Friday will be surgery to install a catheter for home dialysis. My prayer is that a call will come before then that a match has been made. July 25 I received a call saying they may have a kidney for me but after all the extensived testing they did, it was determined that neither kidney was viable for transplantation. My husband and I drove home thinking the next call would come in the next few weeks. Well the weeks stretched into months and finally in December I got another call. The organ center asks you questions like how tall are you, what do you weigh, have you been on any antibiotics in the last month. This time instead of giving me the go ahead to make the drive to the hospital, I was told that the surgeon needed to be consulted and that I would receive a call back. Sure enough, 15 minutes later the call came in saying I was not eligible for this kidney due to the surgeon's guidelines. I had never been informed that this could be a possibility so I was totally dumbstruck at this piece of news. Long story short, I didn't receive that kidney either. Now dialysis is looming on the horizon and somehow that process is scarier to me than the thought of the transplant. Don't get me wrong, I feel very blessed to have gone this long without dialysis. 22 years ago I was told I would need a transplant within 5 years. The Lord has carried me through many things over these years. Two adoptions of newborns who happened to be related, breast cancer scares, being bound to a wheelchair for 5 months, cataract surgeries just to name a few. I know He is still with me and will see me through this. I'd love to hear from anyone who is or has gone through a transplant.