Our girl is home and surgery is done!

Chloe had her TPLO surgery yesterday and she did great though the damage was worse than expected. Her ACL was non-existent and her meniscus was damaged and calcified. The surgeon repaired her knee with plates and screws Our poor girl has a shaved back leg and her skin is so dry :-( Thankfully she has not shown an interest in licking/biting the sutures.

She had her first laser therapy and Adequan injection before leaving the vet's office. She will have 5 more laser therapy sessions and 7 more Adequan injections over the next 4 weeks. She will have at home PT for the next 12 weeks, at which time she will finally be back to normal activity. For the first week after surgery I will have to help her in getting up from a sit/laying down position and will have to help her up and down stairs (with a towel under her belly, like a sling). This should be interesting.

I am very happy with our vet's office (always have been since finding them last year) and am happy with the surgeon who completed Chloe's surgery. They gave me a 5 page report, complete with a title page, picture during the surgery and detailed PT instructions. I could not ask for a better team of vets, techs and surgeon.

The kids are VERY happy to have her home. J's eyes lit up when the vet tevh brought her out to us. SB kept hugging on her neck and saying "choe (SB leaves out the L) owie. Choe hurted." Now the work begins on getting her rehab'ed and back to her 100% happy, healthy self.

Surgery is BOOKED

So this past week Chloe has been worse...she's been in more obvious pain. She's yelped more than once when getting up from laying down...broke my heart. So i did it, I applied for Care Credit and was approved. He surgery will happen in a week, so on April 29th. She will spend the night (which kills me) and we will be able to go back and get her on Saturday. So next weekend will be full of me giving her lots of TLC and snuggles.

I've made a Facebook page for the dog treats that I will be making and selling to help pay for her $3000 surgery. If you're on FB, please search for and like Chloe's Tasty Treats. I will first be doing some all natural peanut butter treats (that will be taste tested with Chloe and the rest of the pack) but plan to branch out to more flavors. I am still working out the pricing since this is my first time venturing into business :) If you have any ideas or tips, I am definitely open.

So please, say a little prayer/send good thoughts for Chloe and her upcoming surgery. I am eager to have it done but I am naturally nervous. She's one of my babies and she is AMAZING with the kids. I know that our girl will miss Chloe while she's gone <3

To Everyone.....

who gave me ideas on how to raise money, THANK YOU!!! It has been a ridiculous busy/stressful week for me so I am just now looking at my blog.

I would LOVE any dog treat recipes that you can send me.

I have never tried to sew BUT I love the idea of hand making collars-researching NOW!

And please, keep the ideas coming-THANK YOU <3

Making money....I need a money tree

I cannot thank all of my online friends enough for the money that has been donated to help Cloe get her ACP repair surgery. Between Chip-In donations and checks sent directly to me we now have just over $300 :) Just $2300 more to go (not all through donations, which is why I am writing this blog post.)

So folks might think this is weird but I am determined to save for her surgery first before we do IVF. She is our furbaby and we have an obligation to make sure that she is properly cared for and loved. I am considering using CareCredit for her but we REALLY don't want to go further in debt right this second. So for now I am focusing on how to raise/earn the rest of the money to get her knee fixed. One thing I am doing is ChaCha. For months I've been saying that I'm gonna do it but today I really am doing it. I am reviewing all of the videos and then I will get started answering questions :) I know ChaCha won't make me rich but even an extra $100 or so per month will help.

I really have to get my ass in gear and get my BeachBody business going. For real. I want to do this to earn money and to help others improve their health. I hope to tackle that this weekend.

I am considering opening an etsy shop but am not sure what I would sell. I'm good at photography but I am wondering if people will even want to buy my prints....that would be the worst, if people didn't want my stuff. Also, I have no idea how much I'd need to charge for prints in order to make a profit. I'm also trying to think of other ideas for things to sell on etsy...perhaps something dog related since I want to use the money to raise money for Chloe's surgery. Any ideas from my faithful readers?

#TTCFitnessTeam

So I have been on a mission to lose the 17 pounds that I have gained while undergoing 5 IUIs and 1 IVF, all of which failed. I want to get down to the weight that I was when I met P 5 years ago, which is 135 pounds. I want to do this for me....so that I feel like me again. Along with me, there are other Twitter friends who are on this journey as well and we came up with the hashtag #TTCFitnessTeam I love it! I love having a support system to help me on this journey-it helps to keep me honest :)

So far I have lost 6 pounds in 5 weeks which is great! Some people have asked how I am doing it and really, it's not rocket science. I am exercising regularly and eating in a more health manner. I am NOT dieting. I have been doing P90X and Turbo Fire for exercise. For the healthy eating, I have been drinking Shakeology every day, eating 1 salad per day (that's not ALL that I eat, lol, but I make sure that I eat one for/with lunch or dinner each day) and trying not to eat out as much. I am also a new Beach Body coach and have met some AMAZING people through Beach Body....amazing people who are another branch of support for me-encouraging me and keeping me accountable.

I have to say that I am very proud of myself for losing these first 6 pounds :) I know that it's not a lot to some people but I am freaking excited about it! I am also super freaking proud of myself for doing P90X again with my own spin. Rather than just doing P90X this time, I am doing Turbo Fire with it-still doing the P90X weights/strength training and then doing Turbo Fire for cardio and in place of the yoga. I REALLY believe that the it's making the difference.

My point in all of this rambling is this-do what works for you. Find an exercise that you enjoy and do it. If you hate hitting the gym, you won't stick with it. If you find out that you love getting outdoors, then hike, run, walk, whatever. Seriously, if you don't like the exercise you won't stick with it. I know this from experience. I get bored easily and need to switch things up, which is why I a doing a hybrid program now and I love it!

Thank you to all of my healthy living supporters on Twitter, WOWY, Facebook and BeachBody. I love y'all and you are making difference in many people's lives!

On a separate note, thank you to all of you who have donated to Chloe's fund; prayed for her; sent good thoughts to her; shared this blog; or have listened to me and made me feel better about the whole situation. I cannot explain how much it means to me, P and Chloe <3

I have never asked for help before....

but I am asking now. March has been a shit month for us. My Tahoe is on his last breath so we have to replace it (there is no way that we can share a vehicle here). We are blessed to have some IVF coverage but we will have to come up with $7k to pay for our next shot which needs to happen in September or so (we aren't going to be stationed here forever and need to do it before we PCS and before Jan 1 of next yr, just in case my insurance changes). Not to mention that we are trying our damnedest to pay off all of our credit cards....

Then we found out that Chloe, our wonderful pitbull mix, needs surgery to fix her completely torn ACL. The surgery will cost between $2600 and $3300....we cannot afford this on our own which is why I am begging, all pride aside, for help. She is an amazing dog. Seriously, the definition of a nanny dog. She can calm down SB and J so quickly. As soon as she hears one of them cry, she runs to them.

In December 2006 we drove over 4 hours to get Chloe from a shelter in GA when we lived in Savannah. She stole our hearts when we saw this picture of her on the internet:

We went to a PetsMart in a small GA town to get her. She was the wildest of her litter! She was larger than the photo-it was old-but we didn't care. We took her home and loved her:

She's been headstrong, mischievous and lovable. She loves to tear up stuff (though she's gotten better about that). She loves to hold down Oscar (the fat kitty) and sniff him or use him for a pillow. She loves to snuggle with her Daddy

Chloe is one of the most amazing dogs ever. She smiles, ALOT, even with a torn ACL and double hip dysplasia:

So please, please, pretty please with sugar on top, help us to help her. Just click on the widget on the side-ANYTHING will help. We love her to pieces and just want to get her feeling as good as possible.

Scariest day ever

This past Thursday is definitely a day that I will not forget. As many of you know, J had a seizure. I haven't really put down a detailed account of what happened so thought that I might as well blog about it.

I guess that I should start with earlier in the week-SB was sick on Sunday (spiked a fever of 103) so I kept her out of preschool on Monday. I figured that J would eventually come down with whatever SB had, so it was no huge surprise Wednesday evening that he didn't feel well. His afternoon teacher reported that he'd just not been himself that afternoon and I when I picked him up he'd just finished a nap and was very flushed. He ate and drank fine at supper but was a bit clingy afterwards. He was a little warm but nothing crazy. I let him fall asleep in my arms, then moved him to his crib.

Thursday morning I woke up and got ready for work as usual. I then went into the nursery to get the babes ready for preschool. J was still sound asleep, even after I turned on the light...that NEVER happens. I decided to let him sleep some more and get SB ready first. Per her usual routine, she started having a major temper tantrum. Again, he basically slept through it which never happens. After getting SB dressed, I went to his crib to changed him. (I'd already decided that he would stay home with me but I needed to change him so that we could take SB to preschool.) I got his diaper changed and noticed that he was shivering. I decided to get a warmer shirt to put on him and noticed that he was warm-again, not crazy hot or anything. I got one sleeve of the warmer shirt on him and he started convulsing. He went rigid and his arms jerked up, bending at the elbows. The first few seconds I was in shock, started yelling his name at him, trying to get him to really look at me. I smacked his back and then his chest. His lips turned blue. I though he was dying. I though "how will I tell his birth mom (SIL) and how will I tell P?" Somewhere in there I called 911.

The seizure seemed like it lasted forever but in reality I'm sure it lasted less than a minute. During the seizure I instinctively turned him on his side (thank you yearly trainings at past child welfare jobs). After the seizure was over he basically passed out. He was breathing quick shallow breaths. The 911 operator was amazing at keeping me calm. When the fire truck arrived, there were all 6 fire fighters in our not so big house. They were AWESOME. The female fire fighter is the one that held J and gave him oxygen. They calmed me as well and she assured me that the was he was acting was normal after a seizure. They checked his vitals, blood sugar levels and after the ambulance arrived and took over, they installed new smoke detectors in our home.

SB and I followed the ambulance to the hospital. She was definitely shaken up after everything but she did AMAZING while all of those "strangers" were taking care of her baby brother. She watched them intently but never got in their way or anything. She cried when I put her in the car without him being in there with her.

We got to the hospital and found his room. The nurses and staff at Memorial were AMAZING. Our poor boy was hooked up to tubes and all sorts of equipment. He cried when we walked in and reached out for me. My heart broke a little, seeing him all confused and upset. I was able to pick him and hold him and he nuzzled into my neck. He was so tired. A little bit later the nurses took blood from him (he HATED that) and a respiratory guy came suctioned out his sinuses. That did not look like fun at all. It involved a saline solution and a tube. At first the dr said that he would not do a CT scan, later he changed his mind. Our boy slept through the scan :)

After hours at the hospital, J was diagnosed with the flu and a possible sinus infection (the CT scan showed some sinus irritation). Dr said that he thinks that J had a febrile seizure due to the flu; however, he did not rule out it being caused by possible prenatal drug exposure. The paramedics also mentioned the same thing to me. The dr told me to keep a close eye on him and if it happens again, to call 911 again, get J to Memorial and he would do a spinal tap and refer us to a pediatric neurologist in Denver.

While at the hospital, I emailed P from my phone to let him know what was going on. Even though he's never met our babes, he is already being Daddy <3 He told me that if it happens again, he will request emergency leave and he told his command what was going on. He also requested that I give him frequent updates throughout the day. Love that man.

I've barely taken my eyes of J since we came home. He has slept with me every night because I am so scared that he will seizure again. I'm constantly feeling his head and body to see if he's getting warm. When he's sleeping, I check to see that he's breathing. I'm going to try to put him back in his crib tonight.; hopefully I'll be able to sleep. I haven't really slept soundly since it happened.

He is feeling almost 100% himself again. Currently he and SB are playing in their nursery (door open, gate up so that I can see and hear them) while I enjoy my third cup of coffee. Birds are singing, sun is shining and I have the doors and windows open. Here's to a great Sunday of enjoying my babes and life in general.