JUNIOR CHEF

I kept Mathieu today while Reagan and Amy went to an auction. Zach had spent the night with Teeny and Cliff. Mathieu suggested melting cheese on crackers in the microwave like Mimi had done. We didn't have any plain crackers, but I did have some Tomato and Basil Wheat Thins, so we used those. I did the cutting and he laid out the crackers and topped them with little slices of cheese. They turned out pretty good!
Other than that, we did a few paper art projects - a frog made from cardstock with a folded open and shut mouth, plus raised eyes and springy fan fold legs...and some bookmarks with cardstock strips with paper punched horses on them.
We spent a little time outside, too, and got to show Victor, the boy who lives behind us, Coconut's stapled incision.

DIFFICULT WEEK

This is the the end of a very stressful, emotional week. Last Thursday night at 10 minutes until 7pm, Coconut got run over by a pick-up. She is a fence jumper, so we never leave her out for longer than a few minutes in the back yard. But when I went out to call her in, she didn't come...which is not unusual. Normally when I rush to the front door, she is there waiting for me, having heard me call her. But this time when I went to the front door, I heard dogs barking and squeeling and saw a pick-up stopped in the street. Coconut was stumbling and lurching, badly, trying to get to me. She stopped by the basketball net, as I got to her. As carefully as I could, I picked her up and brought her inside and called the vet. Dr. Gremmel's answering service got her on the line and she said she would meet me at the veterinary hospital in Beeville. I called Reagan to come help me, because I knew Coconut needed to be still and probably would try to climb in my lap or would fall off the seat during the drive. And she was in a lot of pain. So Reagan rushed over and drove Coconut and I to Beeville. Sarah Gremmel examined her, gave her a shot of antibiotics and a shot for pain and kept her overnight to do xrays the next morning. Her preliminary diagnosis was that Coconut either had a broken pelvis or hip, but she wouldn't know which or to what extent until the xrays were taken. She couldn't tell about any internal injuries either. I was relieved that it wasn't her spine.

But the Friday morning, the news wasn't good. There were numerous breaks in her pelvis, and it was twisted and displaced. She needed to be taken to South Texas Veterinary Specialists in San Antonio for emergency surgery. I struggled finding someone to go with me to take her there. San Antonio is really nerve-wracking to drive in with the extreme traffic and multiple over and under freeways. Finally, I got Andrew to go with me....which was a very good thing. Had I gone by myself, I would not have been able to handle Coconut and driving too. She was in a lot of pain, and crying, plus trying to get to me and the steering wheel. So Andrew managed to keep her restrained until we got there.

While internal injuries weren't ruled out, Dr. Payne, the surgeon, saw some encouraging signs. And he was sure he could put plates in her pelvis and piece it back together. But not until Monday. So Coconut had to stay there and stay on morphine until then. Monday there were several emergencies that pushed her surgery back until around 5pm. But she came through it all fine, and Dr. Payne was pleased with the results. Tuesday, however, she was not doing as well as he hoped. But she rallied on Wednesday and he sent her home today (Thursday). Reagan and I went to pick her up. That is her photo at the hospital with Jesse, the veterinary technician who first examined her, before the surgeon arrived to talk with us that first day, and who discharged her while Dr. Payne was again in surgery.

So, she is home again and very happy to be here, as are we to have her back again. She is requiring a lot of care - warm compresses, pain medication, anti-inflamitory medication and antibiotics, all at different schedules/rotations around the clock, confinement to a dog crate, except when closely supervised to restrain her from jumping, or any kind of non-sedate activity. Keeping her from trying to jump on the furniture, which she can't accomplish anyway, is very difficult. She is horribly bruised all over the rear end and underneath of her body, as we can see now that so much of her fur is shaved. It is going to be a long time until she recovers and maybe not fully, at that. Her staples come out in 2 weeks and then new radiographs in 6 weeks to see the progress of the bones' healing and knitting together.

...NO EXCUSES

It's been forever since I blogged last. I really do intend to keep current, but...
Anyway, this is the only photo I've taken since my last entry. It's a Rachael Ray recipe. I don't know the name of it, but I really liked it. Chuck was more...non-committal. After all, there is no real meat in it.
I took a box of organic chicken broth (not the anemic canned stuff), poured it into a pot, and after it boiled, added fresh 3-cheese tortellini, and cooked until done. I had fresh baby spinach waiting in the individual serving bowls. Then we ladeled the hot broth and pasta over it, wilting the spinach leaves. Over that, we sprinkled lemon zest and that was it! "YUM-O!". ;) This was in early January, and we've had it a couple of times since. Once with chicken stuffed tortellini, which I didn't like as much. Then just a day or two ago, I made it with fresh cheese ravioli, and didn't like it as well either....Gotta be the 3 cheese tortellini. ;)
Let's see...in the time since my last entry, I had a friend come visit for a week with me. That was fun.
Also, Chuck has been to a couple of neurologists. Surgery is too risky, so they aren't going that route. He is taking meds now, but they aren't doing much good. It's just a bad situation.
And I have gotten caught WAY back up in the online RPGs I play. They are all of the gentler, simpler variety, but all of my favorites have come out with new things, new events, and all kinds of changes, so I am really keeping busy *smirk* (Yeah, I know...) with those.
Other than that, it is mostly just going along as usual. Last Sunday, my junior high class and I took a walk from the church to the old houses on the next block to see the huge Mexican Honey Wasp hive that Keith was writing about on the Skidmore Signal website. It was really an interesting thing. We also had a treasure hunt that day, so that was fun too.
I guess that's it... I truly am going to try to take some photos again and not be away more than I am here.