The Raiders - U11

No, not the football team.

Christopher is coaching for Twin City rec league this season. He is Coach Chris to the U-11 Raiders. He coached his first game on Saturday, and Tex and I went to check it out. Beautiful day and lots of little soccer squirts everywhere. Next time I'll bring our Nikon, but here's a preview via the iPhone. Soccer at age eleven is still a relative concept, but they played their best!

Tex is a commited fan. He could hear Chris' voice from across the field.

 Hard to see, but Chris is behind our goalie in the red shirt. You can't see it, but I attempted to circle him in the picture, but there's only so much you can do with a phone camera.

Post-game huddle. Next game, Saturday at 10a.m. Field 9b.

Round 2: lots of tupperware

Well, here we are in the midst of week numero six of school. If you scroll down you'll notice a previous post which explained my attempt to "cook" for us when I couldn't. AKA - frozen meals.  It actually worked really well. It got us five weeks into the semester. When I got home from class at 9:00 at night and wanted a meal, there it was homemade mac 'n cheese. When Chris was on his own for food, he had his choice of tupperware containers.

So, this past weekend, I went for round two with greater wisdom than the virginal cookoff. Many thanks to friends who provided new recipes for us. Variety is key! In four hours, I made five different meals. Chris went and got me more tupperware, and basically, I am putting Stouffers out of business by making my own frozen dinners. I was exhausted at the end, but now I don't have to really cook for at least five weeks if not more!

Hannah Girl: Much better

Miss Hannah Girl is doing much better. Blood work came back on Friday with great results. The vet was ecstatic!  Everyone's prayer completely impacted Hannah's recovery.  Now, we're home for good with special food for the next week or so, and yes, a stylish cone.  Hannah loves trying to pull her staples out! Ouch!

Thank you everyone for helping us walk through two weeks of intense circumstances with one of our babies. We are so glad that she is going to be with us a while longer!

Fighting Nana

Our sweet Hannah continues to fight through great illness.  We thought that pancreatitis was the final diagnosis, but we were quite wrong.  After taking a turn for the worst on Thursday night, I readmitted her to the vet for help.  Concerned as well, our amazing vet decided to do exploratory surgery on Hannah's stomach to see what was causing all of the problems. 

Surgery seemed drastic and scary, but we had no choice.  The vet was right and saved Hannah's life by operating.  She found multiple pieces of a tennis ball stuck in Hannah's intestines.  Parts of the organ were dead and very sick.  Thus, post-surgery we returned to the E-vet for overnight treatment not knowing if Hannah would pull through the experience or not.

Our vet told us that such an evasive surgery is sometimes too much for the patient.  She shared that the next 7 days would be critical.  Let the prayer.... continue! Our friends and families have rallied around us so beautifully throughout this ordeal.  I know that Hannah's little body is constantly being touched with prayer.

Well, day 1 and day 2 went well. So well, that we got to bring her home last night. She was SOOOOO happy to not have an IV in her arm!  Kisses, kisses, kisses she gave us.  Now the fun begins --- can Hannah recover at home the way she was able to at the hospital?  Chris is the best daddy-nurse in the world for this!  We will continue to pray and take this process one step, one day at a time.

Three days down, four to go.  If we make it successfully through 7 days, the vets are very optimistic!

Hannah Girl: Emergency Vet

This is more of a report than a post. Sweet Hannah began vomiting and experiencing diarrhea on Friday. Hoping it was a 48-hour virus we pushed through Saturday (with lots of vomiting and diarrhea), but Sunday I was concerned that she was dehydrated.  Her symptoms weren't going away and basically, Mommy got worried about what may be going on in little Hannah's body. Thus my frist trip to the Emergency Vet Clinic.

I had heard awful stories, but we had no choice, so Hannah and I made the trek across town. She was in bad shape. They took very good care of us. I'm guessing the negative feedback from folks is derived from the exorbitant amount of money you pay when utilizing the pet ER. This is true.

They diagnosed her with possible pancreatitis. This was a jaw-dropping announcement to me, fragile dog-mom in a state of exhaustion.  Chris went through pancreatitis while we were engaged. We all know that story well. Anyway, I left my sweet Hannah over night at the clinic for fluids and medications. I hated it. The plus side was great though: she got treatment and I was able to sleep for the first time in three nights!

This morning I picked her up to transport her to our regular vet for further help. She was so out of it, it broke my heart. Throughout the day I have received calls from our vet (who we love) regarding more tests, etc etc... Apparently we have two problems: pancreatitis and some strange mystery object in her stomach. I am praying that we can avoid surgery.

More update to come, but goodness these moments are defying as a dog-mommy.