Monday, June 25, 2007

One Final Note...

Mommy got smart and picked up the trash can this week. No corn cobs chewed up and spit out all over the floor or carrot peelings and corn shucks on the floor. She might have been lab stew if I came home to another mess..

MUCH Better Night....

Well, tonight was a MUCH better night than last Monday night...for a whole bunch of reasons. First and foremost, aunt Sharon is home and is feeling better. Last Monday night was by far the worst period of her illness. She snapped out of it on Tuesday, thankfully and began to improve greatly. On Tuesday night, I again took the Truth down there to see her. When we got in the room, Truth ran over to the bedside and was so very excited to see her mom. I had to pull her back to get the harness off her so she could jump on the bed. She has become somewhat of a twit about jumping in the car in her harness, but I think last Tuesday she would have overcome her grievance about that if she had to. We helped Sharon get a shower and it was all uphill from there. She was able to come home Thursday - after being diagnosed with e-coli. Still not sure where it came from or if she was run down and her body just could not fight it off. She is still tired, but very happy to be home. And the rest of us were relieved the doctors were able to find out what it was - at the worst of it last Monday night, they did not know the origin of the illness. Thankfully in all this, her kidney continue to "kick butt" as it had for the past 7 years, and despite the rest of her body being ill, her kidney was just fine.

Chelsie was fantastic tonight - I am a little worried she might not be feeling well. She actually walked on her short lead like a civilized canine being and kept the whining to a minimum tonight. She was civilized on her leash to and from the car. Mom was very happy - hopefully she will remember this behavior.

We managed to do it again - leave 2 people in tears. One room was this middle aged guy, it seemed as though he had a stroke. He spoke very slowly and seemed to drool somewhat. I asked him if he wanted to come in, and he said yes. As I was moving the chair next to his bed, he all of a sudden started crying and saying how much he missed his dogs. I asked him if having us there was too upsetting, but he said no. We had a real nice visit for about 15 minutes before little angel belle got restless. But she kept the whining to a minimum, which was very nice. She even gave him her paw twice and he thought that was pretty cool. I told the nurse we might have made him a little emotional - turns out it was the nurse who was emotional last week. Her parents had to put their little Sheltie down and did not tell the kids because of final week. She was doing better this week.

We met some really nice people tonight. The first lady liked pets, but from a distance, so Chelsie laid down outside her door while I talked to her. She was a very good girl to lay down. We saw Margaritaville man's room, and his niece and nephews were there, and they got to see the dog. The grandmother said they would be afraid of the dog, but I put Chel in a down and they all stepped up and petted her - very carefully. Another man was an older gentleman with his daughter in the room. I took her in there, and he was able to arrange himself in bed to get up and see her. The nurses were there and they asked him if he wanted help sitting up in bed - he said he would try on his own and the nurses were very happy with his efforts. They gave him a little extra help and he was quite comfortable. Chelsie then jumped up in a chair and sat next to his bed, and the guy thought that was just the greatest thing. We were there for about an hour and 20 minutes tonight, which is a long time, however, she was still going strong. It took us about an hour to get down one side of the hall tonight, but very few people were interested in seeing us on the other side. By that time it was getting to be after 8, and a lot of people are usually dozing by then. Therapy is very intensive and I think most of those poor people are worn out by then. Chelsie was usually worn out by then too. :)

And, finally, on our way out, we made baby Laura cry. She was in the parking garage with her parents (who were chain smoking - at least her mother was) and apparently loved doggies. She was "just but 9 months old" according to her mother and put everything in her mouth, but her mother "reckoned that all kids near that age did done do the same thing". Chelsie stuck her nose under the stroller and Laura did not flinch. We spoke for a few minutes - her parents were really nice. Spoke like they was from the South but dressed like Marilyn Manson. It was an interesting combination. When we said good night, she watched us walk away, spit out her bink, and threw a tantrum. And that my friends, was how our evening ended.

She was fabulous tonight - did a lot of great work. We made a difference tonight. Mom told her she was a SUPER good puppy. After her hour of hard work, she is resting comfortably on the corner of the couch. The pet spray to keep them off the furniture does not work, as I have saturated these couches down here in and both animals were still on it tonight...

Next week mommy will be in Myrtle Beach celebrating grammie and grampie's 40th wedding anniversary, which is next Sunday. Chelsie will go to doggie camp for the week at Dr. Tami's - grammie has even agreed to be the bad guy and take her. Camp is not really a fun place for the baby angel, but I guarantee MB will be fun for the mama! She will survive!

I hope this finds everyone having a good summer. I still have aspirations of going to CP's house to live on the otter pop diet and have a fun day, every day, but until then, I will have to get creative and plan my own fun activities. MB is a good start. Take care and look for my next post on Monday, July 9.

Love,

Nicole and the Chelsie Belle

Monday, June 18, 2007

Rough night....all the way around

Tonight was quite the night. It is 9:46 PM and I am absolutely exhausted.

Chelsie's first patient tonight was none other than..her aunt Sharon. On Saturday night, aunt Sharon all of a sudden got very sick, and on Sunday, discretion was the better part of valor and she went to the hospital. As we were going down to OSU anyway, I took Truth and Larry down to see her. Truth missed her mom and her mom missed her - it was a happy reunion. Chelsie and I went to Dodd Hall after we dropped them off.

Sharon is pretty sick. All of her anti rejection drugs leave her immune system very compromised, so she is susceptible once she gets sick. As a transplant patient (2 kidney, 1 Pancreas) she requires a little different care, so she is in the transplant unit at OSU. After seeing her tonight, she is where she needs to be.

We had a good night at Dodd tonight. There were a lot of patients, and a lot of them wanted us to stop in and see them. The last room of the night was the roughest one. I walked in there, and this lady said "Bring this baby in here!" So I did, and the patient was getting up to get out of bed. She took one look at Chelsie and got down on the floor with her and started crying. I looked up in a panic and asked if I should leave - the lady said no, no. I got down on the floor with her and she laid down and let this lady pet her. THEN, I looked up and the nurse was bawling - apparently her dog passed yesterday, so of course, she was upset. I can't blame her - I was upset because both of them were crying. Thankfully, it was the last room of the night.

She did such great work tonight - we met all kinds of interesting people. The first lady we met was nice lady - of Japanese descent, she told us - who was quite grateful to see Chelsie. We probably met the funniest patient in our time tonight. His family had made his room "Margaritaville" but as the patient said, without the margaritas. They were all very nice, and very much enjoyed our visit.

Another patient that was memorable was an African American man and his wife. I am never sure how African Americans will react to Chelsie - I find they are most consistently afraid of dogs, so I try to be respectful of that. But this man and his wife were not. This guy had very obviously had a stroke, but worked very hard to enunciate his words, and most of the time I was able to understand him. They had a pit bull at home named Kane, who was a big baby. They said that if someone came in the house, he would be like "come on in!" I said they must be related to Chelsie - I am pretty sure she would be like "come on in, sit down, my mom said it is OK". We spent about 15 min with them and they were nice people.

On another note, today Chelsie was NOT A GOOD PUPPY at home. She went dumpster diving - and in the dumpster were corn shucks, corn cobs and carrot peelings. You can imagine the mess, and she knew she was bad. Mommy still loves her. :)

Hope this finds everyone well. I need to go pass out.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Back at It

After taking a week off to celebrate Memorial Day, we headed back to see our friends at Dodd Hall. The day was a lot cooler than it has been, which was nice. It was a little windy outside, but the longer it stays cooler, the better. Sometimes the patient's rooms can really stuffy.

She did well again tonight. Although it seemed as though there was a full house, we had a few people in contact isolation and a lot of doors closed. Both our deaf lady and Bob seemed to be gone, which is a very good thing for both of them.

Now that I think about it, we really only saw probably about 10 patients tonight, but spent a fair amount of time with each of the ones we saw. The first patient we saw was actually a very sick lady - she told me she had cancer, which was pretty obvious. She had a pretty good sized U shape scar above her right ear as well. We talked about her pets - she was pretty straight forward in telling me she wished it was her dog that was here instead of Chel. I can't blame her - I know I would want my little puppy if I were in her shoes. She was trying to avoid germs, so she did not pet Chelsie. She seemed to enjoy our visit.

Our last visit of the night was with the wife of a patient who was in contact isolation. Apparently they had a farm out near Marysville, and her husband used to hunt. She told me all about her dogs, and Chelsie really took to her. She bent down to pet Chelsie, and Chelsie went after her ear..I had to tell her, Get down you crazy ear eater! She wagged her body and walked around in circles while this lady scratched her butt. What a life.

She is now upstairs resting. Mom is off to make her lunch and freeze little Belle's peanut butter kong. What a life. I hope everyone is well.