Me too!

Last weekend we went to Piedmont Park to hang out with friends and enjoy live music coming from the Park Tavern.  We took the puppies of course... Dakota sat in someone's lap the whole time and Montana had zero interest in settling down at all! 

The music was fun - Christmas in July (?!) with a few fun 80s songs in there.  Apparently the band is a cover band, and they were definitely entertaining!  We hadn't been there too long before a big storm rolled in... I managed to snap a picture at just the right time!

Some of you know Montana has been on anti-seizure medicine for a couple months now... We give it to her in a syringe, and she hates it. She groans and backs up trying to avoid it.  It only took about a week of watching before Dakota felt she was missing out.  Far be it from us to deprive our puppy of anything she wants... so I suggested to my sister that she should offer Dakota some water in a syringe.  Would you believe that she fought it, just like Montana, but as soon as Jen went to toss it out, Dakota was jumping at it?  Jen offered it to her again and she slurped it up... so it goes, whenever Montana gets her medicine, Dakota gets some extra water in a special way!

We've Been Busy...

-♥-

Back to the Blogosphere...

Hello? Anyone out there?

I wouldn't blame you if you stopped visiting my blog... I have taken zero time to post the last couple months.  But, I was looking at my pictures from Alaska today and decided it was finally time to re-visit the Posting Page of my blog and share about my trip in February.  :-)

2011 is flying by.  I cannot believe it is already April and we're half way to May.  There are so many exciting things I am enjoying now, and so many more things I am looking forward to.  Spring has sprung here in Atlanta, and I've been trying to soak up as much 70-degree weather as I can... cause once it gets into the 80s+ I no longer really enjoy being outside!  As always, life is good.  I promise I'll start sharing more of it on here again!

Wordless Weekend...

        

Need a smile?

This is just too cute not to share...!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Our sweet girl...

I think I hear Mom's car!

She was right! Jen was coming down the street right as I snapped this pic with my cell phone... A happy weekend to all of you!

Montana says...

Thanks for the coat, Grandma! Love you snow much!

There's no day like a snow day!

The snow at our home... its not much, but enough to document :)

Let me just clear the air and let everyone know a little snow or ice doesn't scare me one bit... I don't mind driving in cold weather, I think I'm a pretty safe driver even under such circumstances... But I know that most southerners, especially in the city, are terrible at driving in bad weather! I am more than happy to stay off the roads, and that meant a crazy trip to the grocery store this afternoon, just so I could avoid the crazies later tonight and tomorrow!

I made a horribly butchered version of my grandpa's yummy chili. It started out the same, but ended up nothing like it! It all started when Jen asked me to leave out the beans... ha! Well, a little of this instead of that, and a lot of this instead of a little of that... We had a pretty decent meal tonight!! Furthermore, we have all our errands done so over the next few days we can stay home with the baby and help her get better!

You know what those paw prints mean?

Yep, Montana is HOME! Finally.

It has been awful not having her here!

Since we don't get real snow here in Georgia, I thought I'd share with you a friend's pics from LeConte. I hope to hike it in February and still get to see some snow!

Check out his blog to see more pics!

I hope everyone has enjoyed their snow day :-) Here's to hoping for more snow overnight!

Montana Update

This post is courtesy of my sister--

Montana went back to the vet Tuesday for her blood check up and to see a neurologist. Her blood count remained the same at 63%. Still higher than normal, but it has stabilized over the past 3 weeks. Good news.

In the past week or two, her stumbling, knuckling, falling on the stairs, inability to turn her 3 circles before laying down, inability to stand longer than a few minutes at a time, and difficulty pooping has continued to become more frequent/severe.

After watching the neuro vet do an exam, even I was able to pick out the deficits. It was interesting to see her check cranial nerves, reflexes, vestibular response, ROM/MMT, proprioception and gait. Sound familiar? Anyway, she had symptoms of both spinal cord injury and neuromuscular disease. On the spinal cord end, she had weakness in all 4 extremities and severe loss of proprioception (explaination of the falling). On the neuromuscular end she had the weakness and loss of her voice/bark/etc. She has lost almost 20lbs and I can tell you its pure muscle.

The next step was a myelogram which they did today. During a myelogram, they do a lumbar puncture, find the CSF, inject a dye and watch to see how it travels through the spine. Then under x-rays/CT and MRI they can look at how bending her neck, thorax, etc compressions or changes the alignment of her spine. They also did an EMG while she was sedated.

She was found to have 2 areas of compression in her neck, neither of which was severe enough to result in the symptoms we are seeing (no apparent spinal cord injury). The EMG was apparently very irregular and the neurologist is suspecting some type of myopathy. Following the myelogram, she kept Montana sedated to do a muscle biopsy. She is sending the results somewhere in California where we hope to figure out exactly what is going on. This will take approximately 7-10 days. The type of myopathy will determine whether it is treatable or not. Following the biopsies they brought her out of sedation and she had a seizure. This is not necessarily normal, but it is also not uncommon. They then gave her some Valium and are letting her rest easy. They denied my plea to come sleep with her this evening. They said she was really sensitive to noise at the moment and didn't want her to become too excited and move around too much if she saw me. Not to mention she was in the ICU and they keep strict visiting hours. I hope to bring her home in the morning/afternoon as long as the night goes ok.

Anyway, I am hoping for the best and that we get lucky and she has something that responds to some type of treatment. I will keep you all updated as I find out more information.

This one goes to the dogs...

We've all been a little worried about Montana. She wasn't acting herself for a few days, and finally it got to the point where we were very concerned and my sister took her to the ER vet on Sunday. When, after several hours, they were still waiting to hear from the vet, I drove over to Sandy Springs to meet them (only after a quick stop at Target). My sweet girl had been acting pitiful, so I decided to buy her a new toy... She perked up for a little bit and even wagged her tail!

The vet finally came in and informed us that she has polycythemia... I'm not sure if she "has" it i.e. if that is the name of her condition, but what it means, and what I mean to say is that she has a high red blood cell count. It is most likely responsible for her symptoms: lethargy, wobbling, not acting her normal, delightful self. (She also has a UTI so that isn't helping anything.) They kept her Sunday night to drain blood and give her IVs in hopes of diluting her blood and lowering the red blood cell count. Jen brought her home on Monday (thankfully!)... but she wasn't much more herself than when she went in.

The treatments have given her a horrible bruise on her chest... but I hope it looks a lot worse than what it is! Thankfully, this morning she was doing a lot better!! Because she is so lean, she has very little fat to absorb the sedatives, so it takes her longer to recover from them... So, after a couple days to recover from the sedation, she was acting much better! She went back to the vet this morning to have her levels checked, and unfortunately they aren't much better... She's getting another treatment now. :-( It's not a curable problem, but fortunately it is treatable.

Yesterday Mom came down to help take care of her... and thank God for her!! We all (Jen, Montana, and myself!) feel better having Mom around! We're pretty sure Montana has a strong desire to protect and take care of my sister and me... with Mom around, it's like she feels she take a break, knowing Mom will take care of us. And, Jen and I are more free to take care of the other stuff we need to because we know Montana is in good hands!

Nike and Murphy have been so sweet, too... You can see Murphy doing her part to help Montana feel better! She gets the award today :-) People like to say dogs are "just animals" but we know better...

"We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever made." - M. Acklam

They keep us healthy!

Friday was my favorite sister's birthday. Her boss (and maybe some co-workers?) decorated her car... Only one balloon made it home and she gave it to the pups to play with... Please notice Nike on the couch... positively appalled that Murphy and Montana are acting like dogs-- She would never be caught acting like that... Sorry the video is sideways, I don't know how to rotate it.

Did you know Health magazine rates dogs NUMBER ONE (thanks to scientific studies) on the healthiest pets to own list?

“The breadth and depth of what dogs do to benefit humans’ happiness and longevity is pretty remarkable,” says judge Marty Becker, DVM, author of The Healing Power of Pets. Studies link dog ownership to lower blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels. And dog owners seem to live longer after a heart attack and get more exercise than nonowners. You’re more likely to stroll with a dog than solo, and Fido may even beat your best girlfriend as a motivating force: Unlike humans, dogs never need an arm-twisting to take a brisk walk.
Then there’s the mood-boosting benefit. “Simply petting a dog is like a spa treatment,” Dr. Becker says. “After just a minute or two you have this massive release of positive neurochemicals like dopamine and serotonin. And the dog gets the same relief.”

I wholeheartedly agree. Who can argue with scientific studies? :-) This weekend Mom came down to Georgia (with Nike and Murphy, of course). Jen and Montana came up, too, and we had a great weekend! Saturday was just beautiful--warm sunshine, cool breeze... and I spent a good bit of time on my patio with the girls. We left the door open, letting in some fresh air (and letting the pups come in and go out), and my sister captured this picture of the girls...

Ever wonder how big a great dane is? Keep in mind the one on the right is Murphy (our 60 lb golden retriever) and the one on the left is Montana (our 120 lb great dane). Hope this brings a smile to your face this Monday!

Watching a bumble bee... isn't she beautiful?

"No more pictures!"