Wichita Fun!

It has been a fun weekend here in Wichita Kansas! I am visiting my friend Shannon and will be going home tomorrow morning. We packed a lot into these 2 days. Yesterday (Saturday), I got in around 12:30 after a 5 hour drive. Traffic was surprisingly light, which was nice. Shortly after I arrived, we went to eat lunch at Bella Luna. It's a really good Mediterranean restaurant about 2 miles from her house. After that, Shannon drove me around and gave me a tour of the town. Saturday night, we went to Old Town in downtown Wichita. The advertising agency that Shannon works at is right in the heart of Old Town. We took a tour of her office, then went to a super cute gift shop for some shopping, then it was on to Oeno Wine Bar.



There we had a fabulous crab and gouda fondue with bread and apples. I started with a cucumber martini (which was won-der-ful!), then moved on to a yummy New Zealand wine called Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc. http://www.kimcrawfordwines.co.nz/
After dinner at the wine bar, we went to "Keeper of the Plains", an interesting monument with fire and water and a very architectural bridge.





Today was the perfect girly day. We started our day off with Sunday brunch and then went shopping at Bradley Fair,a great outdoor shopping center in East Wichita that sits on a little lake. It was very picturesque. We hit Williams-Sonoma, White House-Black Market, J. Jill, Eddie Bauer and Gap. After shopping, we went to see Mama Mia (the sing-along version!). It was so good. If you have not seen it yet, you must. It was campy, and cheesy, and gay. Loved it loved it loved it!
Here are some pictures of the shopping center lake and fountain:




Anyway, I am excited to get home to Lucy tommorow. Frank says she is doing well. He sent me a few pictures of her with her little shaved back. I will post again tomorrow to let everyone know how she is doing. Good night!

Lucy Comes Home Tomorrow!

Lucy gets to come home from the doggy hospital tomorrow. Frank will pick her up in the morning because I will be en route to see Shannon in Wichita, KS. I feel bad I won't get to see her until Monday. But with everything going on, I really do need to get away. Todd started his Thyroid medication today so hopefully with that, and Lucy coming home, things can start (slowly) getting back to normal.

Todd Update with a Side of Lucy Pie

I got Todd's blood work back today and it looks like he has a Thyroid problem. I only spoke to the vet tech, but I will get more detailed info from the Vet tomorrow(she wasn't in today). The good news is that it is easily controlled with medication. But geeze...this is insane. It can only get better from here. I am stess eating and I am exhausted over all that's going on with my babies.

Lucy is doing well after her surgery. She is urinating on her own and ate some chicken today in doggy ICU. She will be taken off the pain IV tonight (which will stop her drooling hopefully). They told me she has a little landing strip shaved down the middle of her back. I can only imagine it looks sad and cute at the same time.

Lucy Pie Update

Today I took the day off work and took little Lucy pie to the Veterinary Neurologist in Dallas for her exam and evaluation. Just as we thought, they wound up needing to do a myelogram which is an x-ray where they inject a dye into the spinal column to see what's going on. They were able to see that something was wrong, but needed to do a cat scan to see further. It turns out she had 2 herniated discs in her middle back and some spinal bleeding. They had to put her under for the x-ray, so they called me with the results and after my ok, they went directly into surgery. About an hour and half later, the Vet called and said the surgery went well and she was recovering as expected in doggy ICU. She will spend the night in the doggy ICU and they will call me tomorrow to let me know how she is doing. They said she will be there for about 3-5 days. They will not let her come home until she is going potty on her own and eating on her own. It's been a hard day with lots of tears early on, but I am very happy she is going to be better. It will take some time, but I am glad she will not be in pain anymore. Her problem is congenital and has probably been bothering her for a long time, which explains why she has been so standoff-ish and anti-social for a while. Frank and I thought she was just socially deficient. I will post again tomorrow when I hear from the vet. Oh, and the Vet is some French dude who I can barely understand. He went to school in Switzerland, did his residency in the States, went back to Switzerland to teach, and then moved back here to work. He also has several publications and does lectures. So...I feel like she is in good hands. :)

And not to leave Todd Monster out of this, he had blood taken at the vet the other day to see what's going on with his "beyond shedding" hair loss so we should have the results back tomorrow to see what's going on. The Vet thinks it could be a Thyroid problem or he's just getting old. She said when dogs get old their hair thins and they shed even more. He is 6 years old, so that could be it. We will know for sure tomorrow.

I Heart Tim Gunn

Some of the best Tim Gunn quotes include:

"You can tell her that you've been to a different Rodeo and don't 'you know what with me', sister."

"It looks like it's a pterodactyl out of a gay Jurassic Park."

"It looks like a coffee filter or a maxi pad."

"Make it work! Carry on! Holla at 'cha boy!"

This video with Tim Gunn and Mo Rocca on the Polygamist fashion sense will never get old!


I am also looking forward to Tim Gunn's Guide To Style on Bravo!

When It Rains It Pours

I took Lucy in for her follow up visit and the Vet thinks she has neurological damage. She recommends that we take her to a neurologist for dogs in Dallas where they can do more extensive testing. The Vet also did a blood panel on her to see if there isn't anything else going on or contributing to her problem. We will have the results back on Monday for that. I will also be contacting the Neurologist in Dallas to schedule a consultation. Lucy does seem to be doing better, but that is definitely due to the medication she is on. The Vet did say to keep an eye on her and to keep her confined and calm. She could still potentially take a turn for the worse.

To make matters worse, Todd seems to be losing weight and A LOT of hair. I asked the Vet about this and she said based on what I said, she definitely wants to see him and do some blood work. She said it could be anything from a skin disease, thyroid problem, to diabetes.

Sigh...when it rains it pours. I just pray that my babies are ok. This is breaking my heart.

Looks Like A Good Movie..

I was watching TV tonight and saw a preview for a new Coen Brothers movie with Brad Pitt and George Clooney (of course) that looked like it could be pretty funny...at least Brad Pitt's role looks pretty funny. I love it when he plays goofy ass characters. He plays an airheaded personal trainer. So hot. Anyway, it's hard to go wrong with a Coen Bros. movie and this one is called 'Burn After Reading'. Check it out.

Little Pie Update

Lucy Pie is doing a little better. The Vet said she doesn't have a ruptured disc, but most likely has an inflamed disc. She took her first dose of anti-inflammatory medication today at lunch and will take another dose at bedtime. The Vet said she should start feeling better within 48 hours. She could still be getting better from the enema and pain killers too.
I am to keep her mostly confined for the next 21 days to keep her from jumping on and off the couches and to keep her from playing with Todd so I have erected the Kirk Puppy Triage Center. This way she can still be out here with the family and not shut away in her crate all day and night. I had bought this pin when Todd had a ligament problem in his knee several months back and had to be confined as well. Lucy will stay in here with her food and bed and toys when we are at home and she will stay in her crate as usual when we are at work and at night. She is already starting to show signs she is feeling better.
I told Frank I am going to look into pet insurance (can you believe there is such a thing?!) because these dogs seem pretty breakable and they are our babies. They are all we have and we want them to be as healthy and happy as possible.

Little Pie

My baby pop Lucy has had a rough night. When I got home from work she got out of her crate and immediately went for a treat she had left on the rug in the living room this morning. That is normal for her because she is obsessive pie. I was trying to get her to go outside, but of course she wanted that treat. All of a sudden she lets out this horrible painful yelp and she just kept yelping. It sounded like she had been hit by a car or something. At the same time it looked like her little back legs gave out on her so I picked her up and she had her back legs all tensed and crossed and brought up towards her stomach. She was shaking like a leaf. It scared the ba-jesus out of me so I took her to the vet. She had some problems with her left back leg popping out of place a while ago and she would limp around, but she never cried out like this or at all, so this was definitely cause for concern.

When we got to the vet, the vet looked at her and said she most likely has a disc out of place in her back or blown out or something (I can't remember exactly what she said). She did a few tests where she turned her paw in to see how fast she corrected it which I think that was to test her reflexes and she also pinched her foot to test her response to that. Both tests are done to check neurological response or something. The vet recommended that I take her to an emergency vet in Burleson because she might require immediate surgery. By this time I am doing all I can to keep it together.

Anyway, we leave the vet by the house and start driving to the Burleson vet. I called them on my way and they said they couldn't do surgery, but they could check her out and keep her overnight then have me take her to another vet who could perform the surgery if necessary. I am not thinking clearly at this point, but I did turn the car around to head back to the house. I called Frank and said maybe I was being hasty and needed to go home and watch her for a bit to see how she does. He said to not do that and to go ahead and take her so I went home and put Todd back up and got Lucy in her crate to take her to the emergency vet. I ended up taking her to the I-20 vet because it was much closer and they could do the same thing the Burleson vet was going to do.

The vet there checked her out and did and x-ray and didn't think it was a disc or back problem because all her vertebrae had spaces between them (it made sense with what he was telling me and what I was looking at). She was walking ok too, not perfect, but ok. He said he did those other tests on her to check her reflexes and she passed them fine. It's possible that she was just too tensed up and scared when the first vet did the tests. Who knows? Anyway, the x-ray did show that her bowels were very impacted and could have very well been the problem. He gave her an enema and she did go for the vet.

The first vet gave her a steroid shot, the 2nd vet gave her some pain medication and an enema, so when we got home, she was drooling excessively so I called the vet and they said it was probably from the enema and sedating effects of the painkiller.

Now she is a sleepy pie and the drooling has stopped. I am going to watch her throughout the night and take her to our local vet in the morning so they can watch her during the day tomorrow. I am sure she will be ok, but it’s just precautionary. These dogs are my babies so I would rather be safe than sorry.

Anyhoo...I am going to be one tired lady tomorrow. I will post again about her progress tomorrow.

(Oh, and Todd has been a very sweet older brudder by checking on her all the time.)

Madonna is 50

Madonna turned 50 today. Does that make anyone feel old?

Seinfeld Imitates Life OR Life Imitates Seinfeld?

I was browsing online searching for some new gym shoes when I came across these. Does anyone remember the Seinfeld "Jimmy Likes Elaine" episode? I couldn't help but wonder what came first, the chicken or the egg?



(Oh, and no...I will not be buying any more odd-ball shoes that are supposed to make by butt look like a supermodel. Ha!)

Family Time

Frank's Mom came by last night and brought his sister Sonya's kids with her. We have not seen them in at least a year and a few months. They only live in Cleburne, so there is really no excuse. Anyway, she brought Trevor, who is now 14; Katy, who is now 12; Melissa, who is now 3; and Matthew the 1 year old. We have not met Matthew yet until yesterday and he is super cute.

I Got A New Car!

I got a new car tonight! It's a Volkswagon Tiguan. It's kind of a smaller version Tourag. It's black/tan and super cute!

I A-dore Anderson Cooper

I love the fact that Anderson Cooper watches Project Runway and The Soup.

Gratuitous Pity Post

I will never understand why I can't catch a break, but it seems like nothing comes easily for me. Everything I have ever passionately wanted has been hard to obtain. Even things that are very easy for others don't come easy for me. So as you can probably guess by this post, I am not pregnant. The IUI did not take. I do not know what my next step will be or when it will be. I spoke to the doctor and was told I can give it (the IUI) another go this month or I could go ahead and do a laparoscopic exploratory surgery (which 3 doctors have recommended to me already). They do recommend I only try the IUI one more time before I do the surgery, but I say why waste any more time, money, and stress...I almost want to skip directly to the surgery. I have some thinking to do I guess. Women were put on this earth to reproduce. That is our purpose as humans. I am broken. I cannot do what I was put on this earth to do. It will never make sense to me how people who should not have children, who abuse them and neglect them and don't even want them, seem to have them all the time. People who are not financially stable enough to have children have children, and people who are on drugs get pregnant. Why? It’s hard to cope with these thoughts. I have been told "don't stress and you will get pregnant", "it will happen when it's meant to happen", "it will happen soon". I understand why people tell me these things...they don't know what else to say. They are just trying to make me feel better. It’s appreciated, but unfortunately they just don't understand. When I first had the IUI done, I was very positive. The closer I got to knowing, the more pessimistic I became. I was told to think positive, but it’s next to impossible when disappointment is all you know.

Fork In The Garabage Disposal! LOL!!!

Holy crap this is hilarious!