My crazy life

My life really got crazy in the last month. Probably another reason why I haven't posted much.

One the day of my first fitting (August 22nd), my mom had told me that she had a colonoscopy done. It was her time, she was of that age, where she had to have it done. Well the doctor that performed the procedure, informed my mother that she had spotted something during the procedure, and that in all of her years of experience, she could say that my mom did have cancer.

Mom wasn't symptomatic at all, she just went in because it was her time/her age.

Soon after she met with the gastro doctor who confirmed the diagnosis and set her up with a surgeon to remove the affected part of her colon.

Wednesday September 7th, mom went in for surgery, she had a foot of her colon removed and some surrounding lymph nodes. She ended up staying in the hospital for over a week as she developed some complications. Which did resolve and she was able to finally go home. And she also had good news, she was cancer free. The surgery worked to remove all of the affected parts and the cancer had not spread to her lymph nodes.

So she won't need chemo but will need more routine and follow up colonoscopies to re-check. But it's a small price to pay to continue to ensure she's cancer free.

The reason for the rush into surgery, was that the surgeon said that the hospital stay would be 2-6 days and that the recovery would be 2-6 weeks! The wedding was 5 weeks away at that point! So mom wanted to get through things and get to the recovery part. She may not be dancing the night away, but she's going to be there, and that is what is most important to me.

Due to mom's new diagnosis as well as other affected family members, Ben and I made the decision to make a donation to the American Cancer Society in lieu of traditional wedding favors. We thought that our money could be better spent with the ACS rather than some trinket of the day.

Then the second part, last Friday September 23rd, I had dropped by my parents house to see my stepmom and realized that something wasn't quite right with the family dog, Katie. She was limping around on her front leg. Katie was 15 years old, and Louise and I had discussed that her time was coming. She was already deaf from birth, but she was losing her night vision, she had arthritis and was occasionally messing in the house. Louise had just brought Katie back from a walk. Due to her arthritis, Katie always limped after a walk, but this was more than usual. She was sliding around on the hardwood floors and couldn't get comfortable. Louise called the vet and we went in. The news wasn't good. And the decision was made, we put Katie down :-/

This was so sad for me. My dad wasn't home, so it was just Louise and I. Both dad and Louise had said that it was great that I was able to be there, and I know they both appreciated it.

In addition to everything above, Katie had decreased muscle tone in her hind end, and was only putting weigh on 2 of her 4 toes on her back legs, she had rounded her back in an effort to put more weight on her front legs, which only made her arthritis flare up. The vet told us that when dalmatians go, they can go downhill quick. So Louise and I made the decision. It was by no mean easy. Even after we had been talking about it for the last 6 months, it still didn't make it any less easy to deal with the decision. We stayed with Katie to the end, just petting her and letting her know how loved she was and how much we would miss her, we felt her body go limp, and for the first time in a long time, I thought that she was finally able to relax.

As I said before, Katie was a deaf dog, we knew this when we got her from the shelter, we taught her some signs, and she was a great dog. But we always felt like Katie was in a state of readiness, due to her "disability" so her muscles were always taught, ready to respond. So it was comforting to know that she could finally rest.

Seeing dad the next day didn't help, he and I shared a good cry about things. As I am sure Nick and I will cry as well when I see him next.

Rest in Peace sweet girl! (Personal Photo)

 

I didn't go over to my parents house with the intentions of putting my dog down. However, I was glad to be there in the family's time of need and able to say good bye. Just for good measure here is a post I did last year about Katie and her krazy habits!

So, yeah, it's been a bit crazy around here...