Bi And Large

Amy has been interested in the concept of surgery since we discussed Charlotte perhaps needing it. Today she asked me to google pictures of it for her, and when I did I came upon the following site. It's interactive, you perform virtual surgery on a stuffed bunny ("Fred,") including shocking their heart back into rhythm, incision, and moving intestines around. Not fo the squeamish - but kind of amusing all the same! I like the part where you shave the bunny and find his tattoo, personally.

Amy mastered it in a few tries and continued to perform the same operation over and over again all morning. She has declared that she loves saving animals with surgery and will do this for a job when she grows up. Who knows!

The site:

http://www.10mg.nl/

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and it was incredible!

Greg came over, and since we don't have any family in the are and Pete isn't American anyway, we always do something unusual and fun. Yesterday we spent most of the day bumming around enjoying the day off and then in the evening Greg came over and we went to Benihana's. Mmmm, teppanyaki. It was SO good, and the girls did good, and Greg and I were in good moods, and we all ate and drank and laughed. It was fantastic. Afterwards we came back to our house and had pumpkin pie with whipped cream and Martinelli's sparkling cider. It was a barrel of laughs and ended up dissolving into a mess with everyone spraying cream right into their mouths. But there was no cooking and almost no cleanup and some great memories - my kind of holiday!

I'm so thankful for having Greg in the same state so that we can spend time together and my girls grow up knowing their 'Uncle Greg' and loving him as much as they do.

I'm thankful for the girls laughing hysterically in the bathtub as I write this.

I'm thankful for a loving husband who is always kind to me.

I'm thankful that a huge, furry, slobbery, warm mess of a dog came into our home this year.

I'm thankful for my garden, messy and embarrassing as it is this year, that grows flowers and herbs and blueberries.

I'm thankful for friends all over the world.

I'm thankful for the health I do have.

I'm thankful I can still walk.

I'm thankful for the snow outside and for the warm fireplace inside.

I'm thankful for a better relationship with my parents this year and for inlaws that I love.

We have so much. We're in a good place and I feel very blessed this year!

I spoke at length with our vet tonight and the updates from the surgeon aren't good. Charlotte has a severe total tear in her left knee, complete with joint damage; and making matters worse her right knee has a partial tear and some slight damamge and is very weak. As she puts more weight on the right leg from pain in the left - whether from the tendon trouble, arthritis, recovery from surgery, whatever - chances are extremely high she will blow her right knee, too.

Oh, and she has hip dysplasia and will probably need a hip replacement sometime. Yay.

Did I mention that st bernards typically only live like 6 - 8 years? If they are lucky? Giant breeds just don't survive for ages. Doing both her knees will cost us about $7,000. That's not even looking at her hips which is like $10,000. And we still need to spay her among other things. All for hopefully getting her to live for another 5 years or so, best case scenario. The costs are so high because of her size, they have to use special anesthesia for giant breeds and lots of it. When she's recovering she won't be able to use the stairs. We have stairs at both entrances to our house. That means someone will have to carry her outside to pee, every time. In the snow. I just don't know how this is going to be possible, and that kills me. I am desperate to find a way. I don't WANT there to not be a better option, I want to keep looking and find something else.

It's a lot of money. We don't know what to do. We're working on a last ditch trial plan but I need to talk to some people first. I've put out feelers to everyone I could possibly ever know who might be able to help us, and maybe someone will have some grand ideas.

In other news we had to pull Amy out of her preschool, which was fun. Details later when she's free and clear. She's in the process of getting enrolled somewhere new.

Oh, and this great new endo that I had such high hopes for? Turned out to be a fucking scam and as soon as I am able, I am going to put my fat foot right up his ass and let him know what I think. It was like some kind of creepy quasi-medical fat farm. I went to a meeting "with a dietician" only to end up in a group of people discussing the calories in a doughnut and reading through an issued booklet of the fat content in fast food. So damn patronizing and humiliating. I'm pissed. More details on THAT later, too.

Basically we're struggling to manage a lot right now.

But tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and we have a lot to be thankful for too. Greg is coming over, the girls are excited, and so help me if he continues his streak of showing up for the holidays every time just as I find out I am pregnant again I'm going to kill him. We'll have no more of that craziness in THIS house, thank you very much. I think we are all going to BeniHanas. What could be more American than that???

I'm typing on the laptop in a really uncomfortable position on the couch - please excuse any typos! Charlotte is flopped onto my feet keeping them toasty warm and I don't want to move from her great big fuzzy loveliness right now.

About a week ago we noticed Charlotte wasn't her usual energetic self and she didn't seem as motivated to get up for walks or run around and play. She seemed stiff and uncomfortable especially when getting up off the hard floor. Around that same time she had a runny nose so we figured she wasn't feeling good and didn't think twice. But then the runny nose went away and the stiffness and reluctance to play stayed. Maybe she's just getting older we thought, losing her puppy bounce? She still was eating and drinking well and seemed happy enough to come play tug-of-war or snuggle. A few days ago we noticed she was limping. At first we weren't even sure, but it seemed to get worse. Especially after a walk or romp in the park, if we could coax one out of her, she seemed to walk with one hind leg drawn up. Yesterday, Sunday, it was really pronounced so this morning I called and organized to bring her in to the vet just to get checked out. Although we couldn't see anything we thought maybe she had a splinter or small cut in her paw and didn't want it to get infected.

Three hours after arriving at the vet, I left $350 poorer and 1 diagnosis richer. Charlotte has torn the ligament in that knee, the one that corresponds to the ACL in humans (think football injury.) Her femur comes down onto the tibia but, with nothing to hold it in place, the tibia just slips forward instead of bearing her weight. Giant breeds are prone to joint problems anyway and this one has taken a serious toll. Her knee clicks, which likely means she has also damaged the cartilage. Surgery is the only option to repair her knee.... at $2600 to $2800. Without it, her constant pain will only increase along with bone spurs and arthritis in that knee until she can't walk. With surgery, they can save her knee and stop her pain... but she will never be 100% again.

I feel like the worst pet owner on the planet for not bringing her in sooner. I feel terrible that she is in so much pain! I wish it had been more obvious. She was sedated for x-rays today and has been on heavy duty pain meds ever since so hopefully she is at least getting a break from the hurt. Pete had to carry her down the back stairs to use the potty tonight. I love, love, love this dog and I will do anything I can to get her the surgery. But where are we going to get $3,000+ to pay for it??? And caring for her after surgery almost certainly means I can't spend time in California like I was planning to, and we just bought ticket. A lot of people I have told so far say it isn't worth it, just put her down.

Then I think to today at the vet's, after we had spent an hour or so in the big exam room wrestling Charlotte on the floor to examine her knees and I was exhausted and she and the girls were anxious and drained. The vet and techs who haad been in the room (yes it took several people, this was a big deal) left us alone for a minute to go get consent forms for the xrays. Too wiped to get up from where I was on the floor, I just stayed there. Amy came and sat on one knee, Iris came and snuggled into the middle of my lap, and Charlotte scooted over and sat down on my other knee. My three girls. Lucky I have a big lap. I can't put an otherwise perfectly healthy, LOVELY, adorable and amazingly obedient 10 month old puppy to death because she hurt her knee. I just can't justify that.

So. Now what do I do???

All the albums have been updated, enjoy yourselves!

Once again it's almost 3am and I'm still awake. What's worse is it was just daylight savings in autumn, fall back, so it feels like almost 4am. And I'm ready to go. My crazy body drives me nuts sometimes.

We had a whirlwind of a weekend which was nice, but exhausting, and no one was ready to face Monday I think. I headed down to Megan's for a baby shower on Saturday and I am so glad I went - it was delightful to see her and her family again! I got to finally see her house and meet her pets too. The drive was a bit much for one day. It took me 3 1/2 hours to get down there and 4 1/2 hours to get back :P Because it was dark and a bit snowy so I was going slower. And I drive fast!! So 8 hours in the car in one day is like the old college days of driving back and forth between my parents house and my dorm.... except that I find I am not as young as I used to be, and my body doesn't shrug that off like it used to. Ah well, megan is worth all of it and more to me, I had fun!

Sunday Pete spent the day out with Greg discussing their plans to build a website to take over the world or something, and I flopped around the house feeling sick with a stuffy nose and headache. I am very grateful Greg has known me forever and loves me anyway because he came over later and I was still in my pajamas, unshowered, and the house was like a tornado hit it. It was great to see him though too. It's a reminder to me that I need to spend some more time hanging out with friends.

Today, Monday, both the girls were down with the sniffles and headache I had yesterday and they were crabbbbby. Oy! Whiney and misbehaved, all day long. I was ready to tear my hair out by dinner time. And now what the hell is with this about not giving kids cold meds, and all of these doctors saying that cold meds don't work for kids anyway? The hell they don't! Maybe some kids don't react well to them but in mine they work better than on me - give them a nice melting strip or chewable and 15 minutes later the screamy crying drippy mess on the couch is a normal happy kid again. Now I have to feel guilty about that, too. I gave Iris meds tonight so she could breathe enough to sleep - as I have for much of her life without ever any issues - and now all of a sudden I'm checking on her every 10 minutes to make sure she isn't dead because of it. I do love mommy guilt. Luckily viral infection number 2,946,204 of the year so far (or whatever it is, that is what it feels like) seems short lived and tomorrow will be a better day. I hope!

I have cute pictures from Halloween (it was a blast) and the last few weeks to get up but maybe tonight is not the time. I'll work on it though. I promise.

OK so when we first moved to the midwest from California, I was plagued by this problem. I looked and looked online for a solution to my woes but wasn't able to find anything. I had to figure it out by trial and error. So now I'm blogging it, after doing it for years and figuring out what works, so it is out on the internet somewhere! Maybe I'll help someone else fix their coffee issues. If I do, drop me a note! Cheers!

Now, if you know me, you know I LOVE me some coffee. My Swedish background means I was drinking it from infancy and now I currently own a couple 20oz mugs so that I can say that I "have 2 mugs of coffee" in the morning and not be lying. I get my brand of coffee I like imported and shipped to the house every month. I like my coffee. It isn't just a luxury, it's a necessity around here!

The problem: Shortly after moving here we noticed something was wrong. Coffee in the drip coffeemaker sometimes came out in the mug with a weird, bitter film on the top. It was worse after it had been sitting on the heat for a while, even just a few minutes. Any longer and forget it. The film looked oily and sometimes almost flaky and settled on the surface. It sometimes came out in tea too, clogging up the milk and coating the mug. Way icky. About the only way to get rid of it is to skim it off with paper towels.

What we thought it was and tried: Better coffee, different blends of coffee, a dirty coffee pot, different filters, changed our dishwasher detergent. None of those worked.

What it actually is: Hard water.

When you live someplace with a high amount of sediment in your water, depending on what's in it, it can sometimes settle out in your coffee into this film. Your coffee is fine, but once it is brewed it tastes bitter and the cooked precipitate comes out as this oily film on top of your mug. Nasty.

So what you do is: Well primarily, fix the hard water. If the rest of your house is suffering from the hard water (soap doesn't lather, residue on dishes and clothes, scale on the shower) get yourself a water softener. If you cant or if you rent, at least get a faucet mounted filter or a pitcher kind. If your water is so hard that even that doesn't help, use bottled water for your coffee. It doesn't have to be Evian, a gallon of filtered or distilled water at the grocery store is like 70 cents, and you can sometimes refill your gallon jug for half that. Do yourself a favor and get some so you can enjoy your coffee and tea again.

You should probably clean your pot out too, just to clear away all the gunk that has built up in it. You can buy special coffee pot cleaners, but for hard water plain white vinegar works even better (although it DOES reek. Do it on a nice day with open windows!)

You'll find instructions all over but the general idea is this: Fill the water tank with vinegar, up to the top. Put a clean filter in the basket. Run it through halfway - if you have a 12 cup coffee maker, run it until it is at the 6cup level inside the tank. Then shut it off and let it sit for a couple hours. Then turn it back on and let it run through. Dump the hot dirty vinegar and run several flushes of clean (and not hard) water through it with a clean filter in the basket each time. The vinegar will loosen up and dissolve most deposits and buildup and it can be flushed out along with the vinegar taste. It takes a while but your pot will work better, faster, and without the residual gunk from your water. It doesn't hurt to wipe it out with a damp paper towel when you're done too, especially the water spray bit that is over the basket, where old grounds can get stuck.

Presto, clean pot and no goo to gunk up your coffee any more! Use clean soft water to make it in the future and it will come out a million times better. Honest.

So my parents were here the past week, which is why I've been so quiet (among other things!) It was actually a surprisingly good visit, we enjoyed each other a great deal. My dad had to work so he went home a couple days ago but my mum stayed through Halloween and helped out and had fun with the kids - it was fantastic. It was also Iris' first year to trick or treat and she thought that was pretty excellent! She was a goofy, nice monster and Amy was an incredible ghost. When I get pictures off the camera I'll post them.

ANYWAY so on Monday night we're putzing around and my mom says, "Are you going to watch the Bachelor tonight?" I'm like, uh, no. For one I don't really watch tv except news or the odd foray into Discovery channel; two I am so NOT a reality tv fan. That's about last on my list of shows I would watch. So, trying to figure out what she's getting at, I ask, "I wasn't planning on it, do you want to watch it for some reason?" And she comes back, very nonchalantly, with, "Oh I just like to watch every week this season and see Bettina make an ass out of herself on tv."

*blink*

Bettina is my cousin. Well, she was married to my cousin, rather. I was at her wedding right after Amy's first birthday, and we have spent holidays together. I knew she and Cass were separated but I didn't think they had even had their divorce finalized, although what do I know. And here she was showing up on the Bachelor. Oh now THAT is funny!

Of course then I had to watch and it was very surreal. Seeing someone I know, someone who was part of my family, on a goofy tv show like that is bizarre. She looks just the same (and acts just the same, vapid!) although her hair is a little lighter now. I can't imagine what she thinks she is doing but hey, good luck with that. She's handled committment and marriage really great so far, maybe a reality tv show is what she needs!

Anyway we got to laugh our asses off and now I have something to do on Monday nights the rest of the season until she gets her flighty butt booted. I've never been so entertained!