What I did on my Summer Vacation......from Blogging..........

I've been MIA for quite a while now and would like to issue a HUGE THANKS to the many sweet friends who have written and called to check on me!

As a way of explanation:


What I did on my Summer Vacation......from Blogging.........

My dear mother has had one of her cataracts removed this past month - such a breeze compared to the months of worrying about it prior to the actual surgery. One eye down, one to go. It must be awesome to be the opthamologist that with plenty of our dear Lord's help, gets to restore much needed vision for his patients. Only bump in the road was a slightly red, heated rash on her face, which prompted us to visit the local E-Care Clinic right before 10 o'clock, one evening. Diagnosis: Facial cellulitis. So more trips to Walgreen's for medicine. I'd never heard of this before and her dr. said it is unrelated to the surgery ~ has anyone else ever heard of this?

The Vet Techs dressed Sissy up in a PINK bandage to match her collar!

My precious baby, Sissy, has been very very ill for months, culminating in more visits to our local vet and TONS of different medicines than I care to even think of.  She has had the symptoms of a rotten cold, complete with runny, snotty nose, congestion, and cough/wheezing, "reverse" sneezing where she can't get a breath (very frightening for her AND for me), At least four different very strong antibiotics and steroids have not helped.  It affects her ability to even eat or sleep or get around. Plus she has an enlarged heart and arthritis.  Vet finally referred her to a specialist in a nearby town, so we've made numerous trips there, and had many tests and procedures done, such as rhinoscopy, flushing out of the lungs, x-rays, and bloodwork. Never a real diagnosis, several thousands spent on tests, dr. appts., and medications. But oh, how I'd spend even more if we could just get her well. She is 12 1/2 yrs. old and wants nothing to do with anyone except me. It has been very hard to leave her pretty much dependent on hubby to feed and medicate her for me while I've been spending some time with Mother. But I must say that he has really seemed to bond a bit with her and can now administer her meds, even the syringe ones, with great care. Sad that it has taken almost to the end of her life for the two of them to bond a bit. We had a horrid scare as we realized we'd been overdosing her on one of her meds for 2 1/2 days, so a midnight call the Vet ER Clinic was made, but nothing more than general "loopiness" ocurred so we were very fortunate.

Sissy was eventually prescribed a "people" med called Little Noses to help, and it had the reverse effect ~ after several weeks of morning and night nose drops, she couldn't eat and she broke out in severe bloody lesions that are just now beginning to heal with the use of more steriods. I would NEVER NEVER advise you give this med to your pet (Or your child) after seeing what it did to Sissy.

Now that I'm back home full-time, she and I are both making up for lost time. Her favorite place to cuddle with me is in bed, so you can often find us taking a few quick (and some NOT so quick) naps there most days.

And I have managed to do a bit of this........

So, to recap..........

Basically,

I've loved the grandbabies, church, taking care of Mother, Heritage Eye Clinic, Heart Dr., ER Urgent Care, Vet's, Specialty Vet, medicine, medicine, medicine..............

I'm really looking forward to a bit more normalcy and hope to start posting and visiting more often!

Big Hugs,
Stephanie