AtomicMrX

Well, I have been busy and tired…. all at the same time.

I am doing well with the Weight Watchers. Last week I lost over 3 pounds and so this week it was only a couple of ounces! No really 0.2 pounds! But that is okay - it was still a loss.

Jaki is doing fine. She is just as perky as ever. I need to start up her weekly teeth cleaning. I just couldn’t do it the other week cause she had such a bad week.

My web work has picked up with a project that got put on hold last year. It’s nice to get going with that project. It’s been on the back burner for too long.

I was going to go eat sushi with a co-worker this weekend and I was going to save my points (Weight Watchers) for it but now she’s canceled and I feel the need to eat sushi! I was looking forward to it this Saturday. I hope it isn’t postponed too long!

Jaki started acting very odd around 6:15 last night. She was having trouble walking and had a glazed over look in her eyes and had trouble with balance and depth perception. She was also dribbling pee everywhere uncontrollably. It was very scary and came out of no where. We could not figure out what caused it. I immediately called our vet which was closed so called the Emergency Vet Hospital and then we took her there. The Emergency Vet Hospital is in Mission, Kansas so it was a good thirty minute drive but I trusted them the most over two other emergency vets that were close to us.

Jaki just stared blankly out at the cars and traffic and usually in the car she is ecstatic. They did a bunch of tests. They first thought it could be internal bleeding but she clotted just fine so it was disproved. Then then did an extensive blood work to see if she ate something poisonous or drug related. That came back fine. So they thought it would be best if she stayed overnight on an IV to flush out what ever may not show up on a test and to watch her closely and keep track of her liver functions.

We were to be contacted by them if anything went wrong over night and then at 7:00 AM for her status. When they called this morning they said she began coming out of what ever it was around 3:00 AM and started to control her pee and was more responsive. At 7:00, she was alert and ate some bland food and had no problems with either. She was ready to come home.

The vet guessed that it could have been a seizure and we were seeing the after effects. Most seizures are only a few seconds and Shannon probably would not have seen it happen since she was in her kennel before he notice the odd behavior. There is no way of knowing if she had a seizure for sure but now we have to watch her and if she does have a seizure we will need to contact or regular vet and get her started on medication for it.

The poor thing was very ready to leave the hospital and was very glad to be home. She ran around from room to room very excited. She had a little more food to eat and then laid down to rest up from the very bad night she had. Here is a picture of her on the couch wrapped up in a quilt with her bandage covering up her IV insertion. Shannon took the bandage off and Jaki was not at all happy about anyone touching her bandaged leg! I tried to distract her enough so she would not snap at Shannon.

She has had a very rough week. She got her teeth cleaned on Tuesday and an overnight stay at the Emergency Vet Hospital on Friday. It was also a very expensive one for me. The overnight stay at the Emergency Vet Hospital was $587.50. Lucky for me they have a animal vet credit card and I had no trouble qualifying so I was able to put the bill on there and I can then pay it off monthly.

She made it through the procedure with flying colors. She even woke up very early and you could never tell from all her activity that she was under anesthesia earlier.

Here are the before and after pictures of her teeth cleaning.

She will need to have small amounts of food and water this evening. I also need to keep an eye on her and make sure she is recovering well.

She had no bad teeth and no extractions. It turned out very well for her and us.

I took today off so I could take Jaki to the vet to have her teeth cleaned. It’s a pretty big procedure for a small dog like Jaki. It’s not as simple of a procedure as us humans get. We just lay there and take the cleaning. For dogs they have to get anesthesia to have their teeth cleaned.

Now in Jaki’s case, since she only weighs in at around 7 pounds, they have to be very careful with the anesthesia. It has to be done just right in the correct amount or it could kill her. It’s a little scary actually. The vet I took her to is very good though and takes a lot of precautions just for her. They run a bunch of tests to make sure she’ll be able to handle the anesthesia.

Here’s the steps they take:

After Jaki is admitted, the nurse will obtain her EKG. The doctor will review Jaki’s EKG to make sure her heart is in good shape for her to have anesthesia. The nurse will also obtain a blood sample from Jaki to perform screening blood tests.

Next, the doctor will perform a pre-anesthesia exam on Jaki. Jaki will have one leg partly shaved, get an IV catheter, and receive IV fluids. Jaki will then receive general anesthesia, have a tube inserted into her trachea, and be connected to a gas anesthesia machine. Jaki will be carefully monitored during her procedure with very sophisticated medical equipment.

When Jaki’s procedure is completed and she is starting to wake up, the nurse will call me and give me a progress report. The nurse will also call later in the day, when they see how quickly Jaki is waking up, to schedule a release appointment.

When I go to pick Jaki back up later today, I will review the details of the procedure and get some suggestions for caring for her at home. Jaki is not to be left alone her first night at home.

I hope her teeth are in good condition and she doesn’t require any extractions. The doctor took a quick look and didn’t think they looked like they would need to be extracted but they can’t really tell until they are cleaned up.

Her breath should be greatly improved after this cleaning. Right now, her breath could kill fresh flowers upon contact!

Then starting this coming Saturday, she is going to start getting her teeth cleaned with a wash cloth every Saturday. A co-worker has the same bread as Jaki and that’s what she uses to clean teeth. We have tried the special doggy tooth brushes and they just don’t work very well with her little mouth. I think with the wash cloth I’ll be able to feel my way around better and know how hard I’m pressing against her gums and teeth.

I’ll post the outcome once I get it.

I got my W2 from work on Friday and also got TurboTax Home & Business 2007 in the mail the same day. So Friday night I dug deep into the tax information and completed it by 10:00 PM. I got all my SadlerDesign stuff organized and all the tax stuff together so I’m good for another year now.

I thought that doing my taxes myself rather than using a “tax guy” like I have in the past three years I would save money. Well I think it cost the same amount! I was very disappointed! I think next year I will do the TurboTax Online version rather than the desktop CD version that I did this year. I think they give you a discount on the e-filing which is were I got burned since I have to do two States and one Federal (I work in Kansas but live in Missouri - makes tax time a little confusing).

I took Jaki to get her toe nails trimmed on Wednesday and on the way home I stopped for some fast food and in the drive through she decided it would be cute to do a flip while in the front seat (and I was trying to restrain her from the food). So later that night when Shannon got off work and she stepped out from her heated kennel/bed she yelped three times in a half hour. Luckily I have some of her back pain pills left over from the last occurrence (which was back in October of 2006). She is doing fine now. Luckily we got her the pain pills quickly before too much inflammation caused more pain and a longer healing time. Poor little thing! She just doesn’t understand she can’t go crazy and stuff like she did when she was young and without a back injury.

I got my Tags in the mail today so I will have legal plates to drive with before they expire in February. I was kind of cutting it close to the deadline with mailing them to me and all. Whew!

I cleaned up the office this morning and it feels so much better. It was becoming a cluster of piles. Pile here, pile there. Another pile on top of another pile, etc. I guess doing the taxes kind of brought out the cleaning spree. I had to dig to find things and that is just not cool!

I finally got my Birthday present from Shannon - The Wii Zapper! It actually came last Friday but I just was too tired all week to post a blog article so I’m just getting to it now. It is really cool and fun. I think I’ll go play some right now!