Family walks

We've been taking Eve and Josie on walks lately. Eve loves to hold the lease while she's in her wheelchair. I think it's really good for everyone. Josie can actually pull Eve if we don't reign her in.

One of the things we've been doing on weekends is driving over to Athens and walking around town. We have a specific track that we take and then we stop for coffee or a smoothie. Here we are on the outdoor patio of Starbucks. Josie has her "gentle leader" on so we have better control of her head and she can't pull on the leash. She get's so excited seeing all the people and occasional dogs. Eve is also having a ball being bossy and in charge of Josie.

She was laughing here because her feet were touching Josie.


Here's Josie and Eve riding in the car. Of course Eve is totally laughing at Josie.

Why I love Josie

The other night I was curled up on the couch watching TV. I saw a show that hit a nerve and had me thinking about Eve and I started to cry. Well, sob. Josie (who had been asleep on the floor) picked her head right up and looked at me. In about 2 seconds she jumped up on the couch and snuggled into my chest and tried to lick away my tears. She certainly broke the spell and made me feel better. I'm so glad we have her now.

We went on another walk around Athens this weekend. I took pictures that I will post later. But, I do want to mention something. Well, I don't want to, but for the sake of documentation, I will. This morning we were looking at family pictures and I realized that Eve can no longer say "Papa." We tried to get her to do it all day. So then, we started quizzing her on other names and we found out she can no longer say "Mama" either. She still can say "Da" for Daddy. I am truly saddened by this. This disease sucks.

Josie had to go to the hospital

So, Saturday night I spent a few hours in the doggie ER. Poor Josie. She must have eaten something that was bad for her. She had diarrhea all day Saturday, had an accident in her crate while we were out, and then from 8-8:35pm threw up 11 times. That's when we called the vet. I lost count at 15 pukes. At the end she was just puking foam and mucus. Yuck. Anyhow, they looked at her poo sample and didn't find any bugs. They Xrayed her and didn't find any blockages or foreign bodies. They gave her an anti-vomiting shot and some sub-cutaneous fluids and sent us home with a can of bland dog food and instructions to start her on water the next morning and then slowly increase to food. She's doing much much better now. Poor dumb dog. Probably ate some crazy weed or mushroom when no one was looking. But, she was a hit at the vet's cause she's so darn cute.

Oh, and Eve loves her wheelchair. LOVES it. We took a nice family walk downtown on Sunday. Josie did great and Eve really liked holding the leash every time we stopped (e.g., while Jim was in Starbucks).

Wheelchair!

So, Eve did end up having a sinus infection. The ped put her on antibiotics, and she is doing much much better. Her appetite is back and she is *less* cranky. She also slept through the past 2 nights. I told him we were giving her a decongestant and he said it doesn't work. Instead he suggested a local decongestant - nose drops. Either the medicated or saline. I got the medicated ones and it really helped her breathe the last 2 nights. Tonight she didn't need it.

But the real news is that the wheelchair came!!! It's totally cute and totally tiny. It has her name on the back of the seat and also on the backpack that come with it. The front wheels (which remind me of Rollerblade wheels) light up when it rolls. Totally cute. Here are some pictures.

Her wheelchair came with a clear plastic tray (you can see it on the glider). It's great because she can use it to play or color.


She really likes the chair and even asked to get back in it after dinner. :) We'll take it around town this weekend.

Eve has a cold

This post is almost more for me than you - I want to keep track of Eve's cold. On Tuesday, August 5th, Eve started coughing. She had a cough and some congestion for over a week (but not a runny nose). On Thursday, 8/14, Dr. S had her start Albuterol inhaler and sent us for the chest Xray. He also started her on Miralax for constipation and Prevacid because the Zantac wasn't totally effective. We heard nothing about the xray, so I suppose it was clear. Friday (8/15) morning her nose started running. Ever since then it has been full blown cold. Total snot factory. Waking up in the middle of the night/early morning. Coughing. Loss of appetite (but still wants liquids). No fever. Fussy fussy fussy. I am taking her to the Dr. again this afternoon. I've been giving her a decongestant, but it really hasn't helped. I'm not sure what he can do - maybe she needs an antibiotic? Ug.

Eve's well visit

Eve had her 3 year well-visit on Thursday. I updated Dr. S on the latest with Eve (seeing Dr. K, etc.) and mentioned that the Zantac wasn't totally effective at controlling the reflux - she still has wet sounding burps. He prescribed prevacid and gave us some samples while the insurance companies argue about paying for it. He listened to her chest and she was wheezing pretty good. She's had a cough for over a week now. He ordered a chest xray and thinks she either aspirated food or reflux. He told us to give her albutural (her inhaler) 4x a day. Oh, she weighs 27lbs 5 oz and is 34 1/2 inches tall with a head circum of 19 inches. He asked me what Dr. Krawiecki told us we could expect of the disease progression in the next year. I explained that dr. K said we don't know what to expect. So Dr. S wants to see her in 6 months (rather than 12) and he wants her to have a flu shot. He gave us a prednisone Rx in case the cough gets worse. We did the chest Xray on Friday morning, but I am assuming all is well since I didn't hear anything from the Dr.'s office. She's been in a wicked bad mood all weekend. Very very fussy. Her nose has started running. I'm not sure how much of her crying/whining is due to feeling sick and how much is due to brattiness. As I told Dave, perhaps the sickness is exacerbating the brattiness. Which I guess makes her a sick, exasperating, brat. :) Ug. It's been a stressfull weekend. Can't wait for school tomorrow. Oh, btw, classes start at UGA tomorrow. Can't believe the fall semester is here already.

More OCNJ pictures...now and then

Here's a great picture of Eve and I that I stole from my friend's blog. Eve looks so snuggly cute.

Here are some good old days pictures. This is from either 1982 or 1983. Dave has the green shirt on, I'm next to him in white. My mom is standing up and my dad is rocking the mustache and tube socks.

Here's Tina and I in 82. There's a picture of Tina in the previous OC post.

Here's Dave and I on a ride in 86. You can compare to the previously posted picture of Dave and me (and kids) on a ride in 2008.

Fun times.

Oh! Eve's wheelchair is in. We have an appointment a week from tomorrow for it to be fitted and delivered. Yay!