My Angel

Saturday was a great day. We brought our new little girl, Lillee, home from the pet store.

Sunday was a terrible day. After the boys came in from their morning "potty" I was on the floor giving them loves. I don't want them to think that they are being replaced by Lillee. While I was down on their level I noticed that JJ (my oldest) had blood on the top of his back paw. I am ashamed to admit that my first thought was that he had snapped at Lillee and drew blood. Actually that might have been better than what actually happened. I then noticed that JJ also had blood on the hair around his pee pee. This really concerned me and I started to cry. I took JJ to Neal to show him. Just in case I was hallucinating, but I wasn't.

I decided that if there is a webMD for humans maybe I could find the equivalent for dogs, so I took out my computer & searched the web. I googled "what it means when dogs pee blood". One sight I looked at was yahoo questions. It is where people post a question and other people answer. Well someone else had wondered the same thing. The responses varied from possible urinary tract infection to take the dog to the vet now!

I thought to myself "its Sunday the vet wont be open", but I called anyway just to check. Surprise my vet office is open 7 days a week from like 7am-8pm. This is awesome, cuts way back on emergency vet charges. Now those of you who know me well know that I do my best to keep the Sabbath day holy and for me a big part of that is not making other people work. However, my concern my little angle dog trumped my desire to not make others work.

After updating the vet on what the problem was she said she wanted to do an exam, I can't remember what it was called. The exam consisted of an ultrasound up poor JJ's bum. From the ultrasound we learned that JJ has a very large stone in his bladder. I would say the stone was about 1/8 the size of his entire bladder.

The Dr. said the surgery was the best option. I asked her how much surgery would cost. Now keep in mind when I get his teeth cleaned they put him out so its like minor surgery and his has also had one other surgery when he had a lump on his eye. So I'm thinking maybe around $500. Her response....$1,500. My jaw hit the floor and I started crying, again. I just bought a dog yesterday and she wasn't cheap. I just knew there was no way that Neal was going to agree to spending that much money. I asked her if there was any way to break the stone up. She said they could analyze the urine and see if they could tell what the stone was made up of and we could try a special diet. She then said that the chances of that working were slim and the best thing to do was surgery.

As I was driving home the thought occurred to me that I didn't want to trade my boy for a girl. That was not my intention in getting another dog. Lillee is not to replace but to enhance. The words "not fair" also came to mind. Like life is ever fair.

I was quite surprised when I realized that Neal is willing to spend that much for JJ. I know some of you are thinking that we are crazy. I have a question for you...Would you spend $1,500 on your child's medical bills? Or would you just make them suffer, develop an infection and possible die? I realize that some people don't understand how a dog can be a child, but our dogs are, so please try not to judge us too harshly.

In order to help with this new expense all summer plans have been canceled :-( We were going to go to a hotel for four nights this summer. The hotel is in Vegas, but it didn't matter we were going to "get away" and relax. Neal canceled the reservation yesterday. My annual trip to UT has also been canceled (sniff sniff). Oh, the things we do for our children. Instead of my summer being full of travel and fun it is going to be filled with training a puppy, taking care of a sick dogie & making sure the other one doesn't feel left out.

I had my heart set on the new diet and lots a prayer to get rid of the stone. However, that idea was crushed yesterday. When i got home from work instead of being greeted at the door by my two very excited boys I was greeted by one excited boy while the other one continued to bark from the front room. This is not typical behavior. I rushed to the front room with many different wild scenarios going through my head. What I found was JJ sitting on the couch & Lillee still in her pen which was a mess (see future post for that story & pics). JJ looked fine. I called him over to me and he came. However, when I picked him up he was acting strange. After cleaning up before mention mess I was spending time with the dogs when I noticed that JJ was drooling. My dogs don't droll! However, JJ had been drooling on and off since Sunday. JJ was also acting very lethargic. I could tell he wasn't feeling well.

The Dr. had called the house and left a message that they had the results in. As my worry about JJ's behavior increase I decided to call the vet to find out what had been learned. No much was learned, they were not able to get any helpful information from the urine analysis. I got some more information about what could happen to JJ if his problem wasn't handled. We also discussed the diet option, which again she said the chances of it working were slim. I told her that we had decided we would do the surgery. She asked when we wanted to have it done. I told her I wanted to wait until I was done with work so I could be home to take care of him, which is in two weeks.

That plan changed when Neal came home from work. As usual the boys ran to the door barking to greet Neal when he came in. Lillee, learning from the boys, followed. She then returned to me, I am the mom after all. She stepped on my feet, which is typical. But yuck her feet were wet. Dang it, she peed on the floor again?! I go to find the spot, so I can clean it up. I put paper on the wet stuff to soak it up. When I picked up the paper I realized that the wetness was not pee but silyva. I'm sure you can imagine how I discovered this as I picked the paper up off the floor. JJ had thrown up a puddle of saliva. Crap, crap & double crap.

Another call to the vet. She's busy. Wait for call back. Still waiting. I get impatient and call again. Dr. Stewart wants me to bring him in now, if possible. Off we go to the vet, for the third day in a row. Dr. Stewart did another ultrasound to see if his bladder was being backed up by the stone. All is clear, however, his lining is even thicker than two days ago. She informs me that this means the stone has been irritating him. My poor baby has been in some major pain, and this is all happening with him on pain killers and anti inflammatories. Because his bladder wasn't being blocked she decided the surgery could wait for tomorrow. They were going to do pre-surgery blood work to make sure nothing else was wrong. If they found something else the vet would call me that night. This time luck was on our side, I didn't receive a call.

JJ is having his surgery as I type this post. He will be staying at the vets for a minimum of three days while he starts his recovery. When he comes home he will have a cone on his head and will have to take it easy. This is why I wanted to be home with him. I mostly worry about him jumping up on the coach. Next week I have to work Mon, Wed and Thur, so I asked my boss if I could bring him into work with me, after all the kids will be gone. More luck, she said yes.

So for now I wait & pray for the call from the vet that everything went well. And then I'll wait again for the call telling me he can come home. (I hate waiting)

I call JJ my angel for two reasons. First, is because his is probably one the most well behaved and obedient dogs ever. Second, because on many occasions he has been the angel God has sent to me in times of darkness and despair. JJ is one of my greatest blessings and I love him dearly. I pray that Heavenly Father lets me keep him for many many many more years.

I may now be poor (no money) but I am still rich in blessing.