Poor Little Sky....

I've been missing from the blogging world for a bit. So I'm gonna be playing catch up, one post at a time. I actually was going to blog about this, but at the time it was too hard, but now that everything turned out ok, I'm ok to blog about it. Some may think it's silly how attached I am to my little baby puppy. I used to hate dogs, never thought I'd have an indoor animal let alone an indoor dog that slept in my bed. My bed is like my clean, safe haven. I even have to wash my feet before I get into bed because I'm anal about germs or anything getting in my bed.

But she really is our little baby princess puppy. And I say 'our' because Justin loves and cuddles her as much as I do! At the beginning of April we were going to head down to California so the twins and us could spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Stevenson. I hate that the twins are so far away from their grandparents, and I know they hate it too as the twins are their first grandbabies. I was a little nervous for the trip with two babies. We rarely take them out of their own house, let alone to the airport! But I had everything ready and planned. Justin's sister Megan who lives in Saratoga Springs had visited a couple days prior and taken our baby Sky back home with her to watch her while we were gone. We were packed and ready to walk out the door minus my breastmilk pump. I was going to pump at the last possible second to hold me over for the trip. We had about 30 minutes before we had to leave. The babies would be awake any second, we could feed them, I could pump and we could head down to the airport. Suddenly we got a call from Megan's husband asking if Sky had seizures! Justin calmly told him no and Jason described that he had heard Sky yelping in the bathroom and when he went in she was on the ground, front legs sticking straight out, back legs curled up and she was stiff as a board. She was now slowly coming out of it, licking her lips but pretty much he was freaked out. This is a really long story so I'll make it short. We were worried sick, didn't want to leave them with a puppy that was obviously going to need to be looked after so Justin told me to jump in the car and meet them at a vet's office near their house and we would postpone California. Luckily Southwest is awesome and our tickets were saved as credit. So I jumped in the car not realizing it wa 3:00 and hadn't pumped since 12 noon. The longest I'd ever gone without pumping was 5 hours. Met them at the vet, poor Sky's head was massively swollen on one side. The vet said obviously she bonked her head and the siezure could have been prior to the bump and she bumped it while she siezed, or the bump caused the siezure. I figured it had to have been after because she wasn't having the type of seizure where you thrash about, it was a stiff still seizure (obviously not the technical term for that). They did x-rays and blood work. Her blood work was ok but the x-ray showed a fairly bad fracture. I felt pretty bad for Megan and Jason cause when the vet came back in he said "Well, it looks like somebody bonked your dog on the head". He knew the story,that they were watching Sky. So basically he accused them of hitting my tiny dogs head hard enough to fracture it! Which did not happen.

Anyway, they started an IV, gave her steroids to take the pressure off her head down from the swelling and told me to take her to an animal ER and to be watched for the next 24 hours. I didn't know there was such thing as an animal ER!!!! It was the saddest thing, watching my poor puppy with this awful swollen head, peeing on herself and throwing up, totally not herself. She normally freaks out if I hand her to other people, especially men, but she would just let anyone pick her up or hold her. We figure what happened was she jumped up on the toilet, then the sink and fell hard while trying to get down in the bathroom. She had been put in there while Jason slept for his night shift with her nice comfy blanket. Well, we've never locked her in a bathroom except in Cali where she has been with Justin's parents dog to play with, so I'm sure she freaked out. Of course Megan and Jason didn't know that. We figure this is what must have happened because when Jason found her there was a wet rag on the ground that hadn't been there before and it was Megan's fash washing rag that was on the sink. So obviously she had been up on the sink and that's a pretty long ways down for her to fall and very well could have whacked her head on the way down. Poor thing!

I was so worried. She sat in my lap the whole ride from American Fork to Ogden. By this time it was like 630 and I really needed to pump. I could barely move my arms as I drove because they'd brush against my chest and the seatbelt was awful too. Then I accidentaly reach down to pet my poor puppy, temporarily forgetting the her head is broken and she yelps! I started crying and crying. I got to the ER and thought it would be quick and easy as there was absolutely no one there. But it took like 2 hours! I waited forever for the vet, then he finally came and he was awesome but took his sweet time. At this point I was bursting from the seams! Milk was seriously just pouring out and soaking my whole front down to my crotch. Luckily I had a black hoodie on and like 3 layers underneath so it wasn't really showing through. My nursing pads were soaked to capacity. It hurt so bad. I have never experienced pain like that in that region. I mean I've been full, but not that full! On top of being hormonal nursing, chest hurting, and emotionally distraught by what was happening I had only gotten like 4 hours of sleep because I had had to get up early for a job interview that day and couldn't sleep because I was nervous for the job interview so I was so so so tired which just makes everything even worse.

The vet didn't give me the greatest odds either. He was pretty neutral. He said it was good that the fracture wasn't inverted smashing bone into her brain, so that was good news, but there was no was of telling if there was brain damage or bleeding or if she'd have seizures in the future, or what. She could have a small bleed that she might seem recovered and die or have seizures in a week when she's home. Or she could have a bleed and not make it through the night. Geez! It was awful. So they put her in an oxygen box, said they'd probably give her IV fluids and I could pick her up at 7 am and take her to the vet the next day to complete the 24 hour evaluation and then they'd assess further at that time. He told me for the night that no news was good news.

Sorry, this is a really long story. I'm amazed if you're still reading. But this is where it gets really good. So I walk in the house, exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally. I'm sobbing because I can't even lift my arms to undress so I can pump because of the pressure in my boobs. Justin helped me peel off all my layers and I sat down to pump, crying as I tell him everything. So, after pumping out like 17 oz of milk, we go to bed. I wake up at 2 in the morning to pump. It's like a monsoon outside. I come downstairs to store the milk in the fridge, flip the dim sink light on that's right under the curtainless windows facing the courtyard in our complex. I hate that we have no curtains. I feel so vulnerable. It's dark outside and my light is on so anyone can see me and I wouldn't be able to see them. But it's a monsoon outside right? So who would be out there that could see me anyway right? Oh, also, I'm like half naked. Because my top I was wearing had milk that leaked all over because I forgot to put in my nursing pads before I went to sleep. So I threw on those abdominal binders you wear at the hospital and was wearing it like a tube top as I was standing in my kitchen, washing my pump stuff in the sink looking out the window into blackness when I all of a sudden, there's banging on the kitchen door just off to my left! I totally freaked, hesitated with the water on and took off through the living room up the stairs leaving the water running. I ran into the bedroom and said "Justin!!! There's someone banging on the kitchen door~!!!!" He sits straight up in bed, totally disoriented, then walks to our bedroom window that is directly above the back kitchen door, slides it open and looks out and sleepily says "What's up?". I hear "Can your wife give me a ride home?" in this kind of whiny possibly drunk woman's voice. J-"No." Woman-"Why not?" J-"Because we don't know you" Woman-"But I'm freezin out here and my feet are soakin wet! I'm wearin my church shoes!"

At this point I realize it sounds like a handicapped woman, not a drunk woman. I say "I think she's handicapped. Be nice!" then I hurry and call 911 because I don't know the number for dispatch and proceed to tell them the situation. They tell me 2 policemen are on the way and we proceed to ask questions out the window to keep here there because I don't want her wandering off in the rain. She says her name is Patty and she lives at St. Ben's.

Patty-"Can you give me a lift home?" J-"Yeah, we'll help you out. Help is on the way." Patty-"Ok, I'll just wait here by the door" I get off the phone with dispatch and go to the window. Me-"How long have you been out in the rain?" Patty-"I dunno..." Me-"What are you doing out?" Patty-"I dunno...." "Can you give me a lift home? My feet are soakin wet! I'm freezin!" Me-"Yep, help is on the way" Patty-"Ok. (pause) can you give me a lift home? My feet are soakin wet! I'm wearin my church shoes!"

How sad is this? I find out later that St. Ben's is like a group home and is like 24 blocks away from our house. I'm so glad that I had to pump at 2 in the morning and she saw me in the courtyard flip my light on so that we could help her. All of a sudden I can see headlights reflecting on the wall behind Patty and I figure it's the cops. She looks over, hunches down and freezes, looking like she's scared and about to run off. I think, oh know, they're gonna have to chase her. But then she looks up at me and says "My boss is here!!!" all excited and runs off to them. It was such a weird experience, first all the emotional and physical drain of our puppy drama, then this in the middle of the night. It was surreal. Then, right after that, my cell phone rings!!!! It's the middle of the night. Who else could it be but the animal ER? I looked at Justin and we were both so sad thinking it was them calling to give us bad news, but it was really dispatch calling to follow up. Anyway, Sky ended up being stable after her 24 hour watch and coming back to normal. It took about 4 days of being really lethargic and having to carry her everywhere at home, even to the pee pad to pee but then she snapped out of it. They say it takes 8 weeks to heal and we're about there and everything has looked good! So that's the story of our poor puppy.....and Patty.