Sweet Molly-girl ...

Kleenex Alert ... In one of my posts in November 2009, I wrote about our 3 doggies. We love our four-legged friends and have "pet" names for each of them and Molly's was "Molly-girl". Unfortunately, Andy had to have Molly put down earlier this morning. I can't tell you how sad I am. I'm sad that Andy and Austin had to take care of this without Chandler and I there. I'm sad that I have on my brave face. I want very badly to take it off and mourn the loss of our sweet dog Molly. I'm sad that we will need to deal with this loss with Chandler at some point once we return home. The whole darn thing breaks my heart. I have almost cried a hundred times today - you wouldn't believe the bags under these eyes! I'm sure people see me and think, that poor lady.

Molly had a tumor in her stomach that had grown to the point she could no longer eat. It came up rather suddenly and grew quickly. She just started acting different about 6 weeks ago, it seemed like nothing to worry too much over, she was still eating, just not playing quite as much. Then she started losing her appetite about 2 weeks ago, but she was still eating and drinking. The timing of her getting sick was just so unfortunate. She didn't eat to speak of since Sunday, so Andy took her to the vet on Thursday morning before he came back here to the hospital. They told him she had a tumor and that there certainly are options and places we could take her, but these options would be very costly and would give no guarantees that they could even help her. The vet kept her overnight last night and kept her comfy with an IV. Andy and Austin went and visited with her this morning before she was put to sleep.

This post is pretty long and if you don't have a minute, you may not want to read it all. I figure that "putting pen to paper" so to speak, to remember some great things about her could be somewhat therapeutic and I could use some good therapy right about now ... so here goes.

Molly found her way into our lives about 6 years ago. It was estimated that she was about 2 years old, which made her the same age as Minx. She had been tied on a leash and was left at a construction site of a new home being built in Hamilton Mill. She was left there along with an opened bag of dog food that had gotten all moldy. She was so timid and scared. The lady who found her is a runner and for several days she would see Molly poke her head around and watch as she went by. She stopped and walked over to her one day and couldn't get her to come to her. She repeated this several days and finally Molly came to her. She ran home and then drove back and just took Molly from there. Not being in the market for a dog, she couldn't really keep Molly and we just happened to be looking for a companion for Minx. The timing was right and Molly was the perfect dog for us. I can't tell you how long it took her to warm up to Andy. She was scared to death of men in the beginning. And that dog, I'll tell ya, I was a little frustrated those first couple of months because she was bound and determined to get out of our fence. She didn't really go anywhere, she just didn't want to be confined. We blocked so many holes in those early months and then one day she just stopped. I guess it finally sunk in that she was safe here and she just stopped digging. Minx was crate trained when we got Molly and he came in every night to sleep in his crate, so I needed to get her on the same schedule. We gave her a little time, but then once we began the process, literally the first night she was crate trained and on the same schedule as Minx. She LOVED her crate. It was her safe haven. She had the sweetest demeanor and spirit and wouldn't hurt a fly, but she was seriously protective of her home when other dogs came around. She also hated it when it rained outside. That dog has stayed in her crate for well over 12 hours before because she didn't want to be out in the rain or be too close to the sound of thunder. Critter Country Club is where we board our dogs when we go out of town and they got to know Molly and her quirky little behaviors. She actually loved it when we'd go there. Couldn't get out of the car fast enough. The vet is a different story. She would low crawl all the way in the door and about half the time, I'd have to carry her in. And then once we are in a room, she was so nervous, she pooped every time. Without fail. She loved to roll over and get you to scratch her belly. Harsh words broke her heart and would make her hang her head. She was so good though that it was rare for her to get scolded. She loved Minx and he loved her right back. He was the king of the yard and she let him be, but he knew not to push her too far on certain things because she would stand her ground.

We will miss our Molly-girl.

3:10pm 7/9/2010 Update ...

PT arrived at 10:00am as she said she would! Chandler hasn't been in that great of a mood today. I think the switch from morphine to Loritab is causing her to experience a little more pain. When the PT got here, she had Chandler get up and walk. We walked out of the room and down the hall to the nurses desk and then back to our room. Stood in the hallway for a minute and Brittany (the PT) asked Chandler if she wanted to walk down another hallway. Chandler said "not really". She rated her pain at that point a 7 (on a 1-10 scale). Brittany asked her to try the walk through the other hallway and so we did. I guess we got off the hook on doing any stairs, because we came back to the room at that point. Brittany will be back to visit us this afternoon at 3:30pm for more walking and possibly the stairs. After Brittany left, I took Chandler on a wheelchair ride through the hospital and outside to the gardens to see the pretty flowers and get some fresh air. Turns out, it was kind of hot for her outside, I was hitting the bumps too hard and sometimes my questions were getting on her nerves. Looks like some things will be back to normal in no time.

Dr Oswald came by again this morning to check on Chandler and said that we could go home today or tomorrow morning! He felt like she is doing great and is ready. Andy and I decided that we'd rather her be on the Loritab for 24 hours under some watchful eyes before we go home. So far so good. Unless something significant changes, we will head out of here sometime tomorrow morning.

9:05am 7/9/2010 Update ...

Good morning! Chandler slept pretty well last night. She wasn't too restless. She is able to turn from side to side completely on her own and did lots of that last night. We got up a couple of times for a restroom break. At about 5:00am she was awake and restless and wanted to sit in the chair, so we moved there and I think she may have dozed off a couple of times sitting there. The dr came by around 6:15am and said it was time to remove the drain. We moved back to sitting on the side of the bed for this. I think the most uncomfortable part was the removal of the tape holding the drain tube. Drain is gone, that's good. Then the nurse came back in around 7:00am and said the dr had ordered that her best friend ... the morphine pump be removed. I told Chandler, quick, hit the button one more time. Morphine pump - gone. We are now moving to oral pain medication. She will be taking Loritab. Yum. Physical therapy will be here around 10:00am for a walk around the hall and I hear we're gonna do a few stairs as well. Chandler does still have an IV, so I don't think we'll be going too far down the stairs before we come back up again. I think she will do well. Have a great morning and I'll post again soon.

9:45pm 7/8/2010 Update ...

Chandler has done great today. It was a long, eventful day for her. She had lots of visitors today and was able to visit a fair amount with all of them. She got up and out of bed about 6 times today. PT ended up not making her do the lap up to and back from the nurses desk. She just wasn't quite up for it and today was not a day that they pushed her ... tomorrow, however, will be a different story. She did get up and walk from one side of the room to the other, sat in the chair a couple of different times for an hour or so, and is doing really well doing some shifting in the bed on her own. Tomorrow we are doing the lap to the nurses desk and also doing a few stairs. Again, I say, I am amazed. She is being a very good patient and we are so proud of her.

We had another milestone tonight, that I knew would eventually happen .... tonight when the nurse came in to take her vital signs, Chandler asked if it was OK to get her cell phone out. :-)

12:15pm 7/8/2010 Update ...

Last night lasted a long time. Chandler started waking up around 11:15pm about the time I was settling in to go to sleep. A quick reminder that I need to shift into the mode of "when she sleeps I sleep". I won't need a reminder on that one. Last night consisted of lots of sips of water, scrating itches, shifting in the bed every two hours - from one side (propped on pillows) to the other and also laying flat, beeps which resulted in calls to the nurse to make the beeps go away, and her asking "where's my button" (pain pump). She did well and her pain has been very manageable.

The physical therapist came to visit around 10:00am this morning. We talked about how Chandler would accomplish the big move from bed to chair, then we did it. I'm amazed. She is doing so well. With our help, she sat up in the bed, sat on the edge of the bed, stood up, walked a few steps and sat down in the chair. She stayed in the chair for about 1.5 hours. She is holding her own cup for drinking, pulling herself to the side a little bit here and there while in the bed, moving her legs and feet, now we can add sitting up in the chair. All the while, I'm trying to hold it together because it had sort of made me sick to my stomach to see her this way.

The next big feat will be a lap around the nurses desk later this afternoon. I certainly will report back later to let you know how that goes. THANK YOU for keeping Chandler in your thoughts and prayers.

10:45pm Update ...

I'm sort of happy to say that this day is almost behind us. What a whirlwind of events and emotions. Chandler is a champ at pushing her morphine button. She was pretty restless most of the afternoon and used up as much pain meds as the machine would allow. She was in and out and surprised us with some of the things she answered or commented on when we thought she was asleep. Tricky stuff that morphine. :-) She finally fell asleep about 9:00pm. I think maybe the morphine caught up with her and helped her rest. Her oxygen levels were dipping down pretty low and she wasn't breathing as many breaths per minute as they would like and the crazy (wonderful) machine kept on beeping. The nurse put her on oxygen at about 9:45pm. She has been sleeping like a baby ever since. Chandler will have to shift from one side to another (being propped up on pillows) every two hours through the night - with the help of myself and a nurse. Thankfully, she didn't wake up much on the last shift and went right back to sleep. She needs to get a good night's rest as tomorrow will be a big day. She will need to begin turning some on her own, she will sit up in bed (ouch!), and she will get something more than ice chips and water (yay!).

One thing I don't think I've mentioned is that Chandler will be 1.5 to 2" taller. We did our pre-surgery measurements at home on Tuesday. After we measured, Chandler retrieved a pair of my high heels and stood face to face with Andy and I to see just what her new vantage point might feel like. We were all anxious speculating what the post-surgery measurments might be.

Below is the picture of Chandler's xray taken on 6/28/2010. Top curve 64, bottom curve 46. This is a scanned picture of a print out, so it may not be the greatest, but hopefully can give you some idea what her poor spine looked like.

Thank you again to everyone who has taken the time to call us, visit us, email us, post a comment on the blog, post a comment on facebook .... you can't imagine how loved and covered in prayer we feel. For that, we are thankful to you all.

3:45pm Update ...

Chandler is in room 4253. She is in pain and has picked up quickly on pushing the button on her morphine pump. Andy, Austin and I were in the room before she was and as the two nurses were getting her bed wheeled in, they asked "who is Austin?" They said that she kept asking over and over where he was and if they knew if he was there yet. She loves that boy.