Last week...let's see if my brain can go back that far....
Monday, I got the wonderful idea to break open the Bride and Groom cookbook again. We haven't been cooking at home as often as we would like or should I say, as often as we SHOULD. But we haven't had spaghetti in a long time so I thought I would look up a recipe to make homemade sauce. And, of course, the B&G cookbook didn't let me down..it actually had TWO different spaghetti sauce recipes but I opted for the easier one. (Maybe later when life isn't so crazy!)
I didn't take pictures of the sauce (that seemed a little boring) but it was AMAZING! The B&G cookbook continues its streak of awesome and yummy recipes that will most defiantely get cooked again.
But I didn't stop there! When we first got the cookbook, I was quickly flipping through the pages and Wes stopped me on the Carrot Cake recipe. He immediately said, "Oh, we HAVE to try this one sometime!".
Wes LOVES carrot cake and always talks about the amazing carrot cake he had in New York City a few years ago. That no other carrot cake has been able to stack up to that one.
So, feeling in the mood for a little bit of a challenge, I decide to make the carrot cake.
Side Note: I have NO desire to eat carrot cake. Carrots in a dessert just doesn't sound good at all and it has coconut in it which is definately not something I enjoy. BUT, I am wanting to make this cake anyway for my wonderful husband who I know will be SO excited to see what I have made him. If that isn't a picture of TRUE love, I don't know what is. :)
Back to the cake...I don't really think I read the recipe well enough to realize the undertaking I had gotten myself into.
As I am gathering all my ingredients together and start reading the recipe for the first few steps, I come to a halt. It calls for a mixer. I know, I know..how do you make a cake without a mixer? I should have known, right? I guess I was being naive and thought hand mixing would do just fine.
Luckily, we did get a very nice mixer from the hostesses at one of our wedding showers. Time to break it in!
After digging the mixer out behind a pile of wedding gifts stored away (the ones we don't have room for), I could finally start.
I captured the carrot cake undertaking all with pictures. So here we go...
This was a great night. Good dinner and good desert. LOVE spending these relaxing nights with my husband.
However, the bigger part of my week happened Tuesday night into Wednesday.
We did get yet another snow storm come through Wednesday. Really Oklahoma? This one wasn't near as bad as the previous but it was enough to cancel clinicals again. I was somewhat glad though because I ended up driving to Lawton unexpectedly, in the snow.
Tuesday night I got a Facebook message from my mom telling me that my/our Jack Russel Terrier, Beamer, was doing very good at all. My parents had taken him to the vet that evening and he was running a 105 fever, throwing up, and very, very lethargic (for him). Not good in a dog.
The vet gave him a few shots, sent them home with antibiotics, said to continue to check his temperature and told them to call in the morning with an update.
So..Wednesday morning. Fever was down to 100 but was unable to hold down the antibiotic at all. The vet said to bring him in for blood work. (Which I thought should have been done the day before, but I'm no vet either)
Blood work comes back. Complete kidney AND liver failure. His numbers were so high the machine couldn't even read it. All the values were "greater than..." on both organ functioning.
Like I said...not good.
My mom called and we both immediately began crying so hard. Wondering why a completely healthy, 7 year old terrier all of a sudden is at death's door?? What happened?!
Now remember when the snow started? Yup. I made the decision to get in the car and make the drive to Lawton to see Beamer. I wasn't sure what was going to happen but I had a feeling it wasn't going to be good.
Here's the story with Beamer: I bought Beamer as a puppy my sophomore year of college over the summer. Complete impulse buy. Never intended on walking out of that pet store with a dog but I did. When I brought him home my mom completely flipped out. I don't think I have EVER seen her THAT mad at me before. I really debated on whether I should just take the dog back.
Side Note: My dad was also in the hospital at the time too. Probably wasn't a good thing to add to the already stressful situation you think? Yeah...I don't think I WAS thinking.
Yes she was upset because my dad was sick in the hospital and I have no business having a dog. But there's more to it. I was going to be moving into an apartment when school started back up. An apartment that did NOT allow pets. Ha. But me being the naive 19 year old I was..I didn't think that would matter.
Right? Wrong.
Long story short, my parents refused to let me take Beamer to the apartment in August and there he stayed. So even though he technically has been with my parents way longer than he was ever with me, I still consider him my dog and love him to death. Not to mention my parents are extremely attached thus being the reason I never chose to have him come live with me after college. He is a truly unique dog and he definitely could never be replaced.
This was a huge blow to the family to have to hear this news.
The vet basically gave him a 50/50 chance. Possibly less than that with both kidney and liver being so badly affected. They wanted to get him started on IV fluids immediately, keep him overnight and redraw blood work in the morning to see where we stand.
I wasn't going to wait until the morning to see him. If he didn't make it through the night, I wanted to be there.
So off I go in the snow. The roads really weren't all that bad. Not great but good enough to get me there safely.
Once I got to Lawton, my mom and I go up to the vet to see Beamer.
I was so scared as to what I would see. I knew that all it would take was one look at him to know if he was going to be okay.
And this is what I saw...
Head was up, eyes alert, on his feet and tag wagging.
Thank you God.
My mom had said that just that morning he could barely lift his head, tail was down and couldn't even stand up.
An improvement already.
The vet came in and also gave us good news that Beamer completely saturated his towel with urine just before we got there. Any of you in the medical field know that, dog or human, urine output when there is kidney failure is a GREAT sign.
He explained the blood work to me, reinstating that it didn't look good. But the blood work in the morning would really tell us if he will be okay. If blood work goes up, we are in trouble. If it stays the same or goes down, we may have some hope.
I dreamt all night that night about getting that call about his blood work results. I even had actual numbers in my head from my dream of what they would be. Needless to say, I was so worried. I anxiously waited by the phone at 7:30 AM for the phone call.
Here were his results just ONE day later:
Kidney FX: Creatinine (Normal 0.5-1.8) 2/9: >6.0 <--VERY High
2/10: 0.6 <--NORMAL!!
BUN (Normal 7-27) 2/9: 72 <---VERY High
2/10: 17 <---NORMAL!!
Liver FX: AST (Normal 10-100) 2/9: >1000 <---VERY High
2/10: 812 <--Still abnormal but WAY less
ALT (Normal 12-23) 2/9: >2000 <--VERY High
2/10: >2000 <---Still High
Let me explain that: Beamer's kidney function was now COMPLETELY NORMAL. Not just lower but NORMAL!
Liver function still was high but the vet said it was going to just take time. The kidney functioning was most concerning long term.
Wow. I was in shock. God is SO good!!
Beamer most definitely had the Lord watching over him every step of the way.
He stayed one more night at the vet on continuous IV fluids and got to go home Friday afternoon.
So what exactly was it that wreaked havoc over Beamer's system? Most likely a really bad infection that was in his GI tract and then somehow got into his bloodstream. We are blaming him eating cat poop. Haha Sounds funny but really makes the most sense. Dogs think it's good for them because it tastes so good (gross!) and look where it got him.
Crazy though. What a whirlwind of emotions. SO glad all that is over and Beamer is doing better. He did have to go back to the vet this week because his fever came back. But blood work was still all within normals limits so they changed his antibiotic and gave him something different for his liver.
It's amazing how much our dogs really do become one of the family. It's when something like this happens that you really realize how much you would miss them not being here. That their personality and company are so valuable and irreplaceable.
That being said, now it's time for THIS weeks important update.
Valentine's Day: Wes and I bought a new puppy!!
Wes didn't have this planned, it just so happened to work itself out ON Valentine's Day. But who could say no to their wife on Valentine's Day right? :)
She is a 6 week old Yorkie. ADORABLE! Meet Lexi!
So far she has been great. I'm not going to say she hasn't peed and pooped many times in the house but she has also gone to the bathroom outside plenty of times too, on her own. So I'm hoping this is a good start and potty training won't be too bad.
We have decided to crate train her and I am already loving it. She sleeps all night now without going to the bathroom in her crate. She stays in the crate all day, if we are gone, and no accidents. Pretty impressive!
I hope getting her used to the crate when she is this young will prove to be a good thing. She is chewing on everything though. She has three different chew toys but they don't always keep her attention as much as cords and blankets. I'm pretty sure she already understands the word "No!" but who's to really know when they are this young?
I'm SO excited to have her though! I have been talking about wanting a puppy since the wedding so I finally got Wes convinced that we do in fact need a pet to nurture. :) Better that than a baby right? I think so! No babies for us yet.
Okay this post is long enough. I hope it kept you all interested enough to read all the way to that end. I will leave you with this saying I noticed after Beamer's health scare. It is from the front of my Philosophy "Hope in a Jar" moisturizer (inspiration comes in the weirdest places!):
