Poor Little Buddy

We came home on Tuesday from Florida & picked up Toules from doggie day care. He was tired, but he always is after spending a couple days running around with other dogs. On Wednesday morning, however, he didn't eat breakfast. He always eats. Natural Balance dog food. We don't give him people food b/c we didn't want a dog that begged while you are eating dinner. He's always loved his own food though. I came home at lunch to check on him. Uh oh, he didn't want to get out of his bed. He eventually did, and was soon trotting around the yard. Still didn't want to eat though. Same for Wed. night & Thursday. He was pretty lethargic too. He's always been super active & loves to run around the yard. Not this week though. I was beginning to think - stomach flu & somehow he was tramatized at day care (he's a frequent visitor, but has never loved going) We called the vet & had an appointment for Friday. He finally ate some food on Thursday night. Then we woke up to him getting sick - oh joy.

I took him to the vet on Friday. Appointment took so long (xrays & blood work) that I had to call Chris to pick Toules up & wait for the blood work). Their blood checking machine was on the blink, so Chris just took Toules home. The vet called me at 4:00. "I have some very bad news. Your dog has almost no red blood cells. It looks to me, like a poison issue. I want you to go home, check to see if anything is missing, stop by here & pick up the blood samples & Xrays, then take Toules to emergency. Now how soon can you get here?" Totally freaked me out, so I called Chris & he met me at home. Toules is barely moving around at this point. I doubted a poison issue b/c Toules has never been one to eat weird stuff.

Long story - we took Toules to emergency. We arrived at 4:45 - just in time for the ultrasound tech to check him out (tech left at 5:00 for the weekend). They discovered a large mass on his intestine - most likely cancer. They wouldn't know anything until Monday however. To keep him alive - he needed an immediate blood transfusion. Since he is our 'kid', we didn't hesitate to agree. We left him in their capable hands.

Next day we attended our triathlon club training weekend. I wasn't in the mood, thinking we would be putting Toules to sleep soon, but it did help me to think about other things. We went home early, so we could go visit Toules. Just as we were getting ready to leave, a vet from the hospital called. "We received a phone call from the pathologist. And the mass that is on Toules intestine is beginning to rupture (poisoning him - which is why his red blood cell count was so low). We have a surgeon on hand & if you agree, we will prep Toules for immediate surgery." I asked if we could come visit, and she said they needed to get him into surgery. So, we agreed to the surgery. The rest of the afternoon, we waited for the surgeon to call with a report - thinking it could be bad or good. Surgery lasted 3 hours. Surgeon finally called & reported that all went well. Toules was awake & responding well. Whew, what a relief that phone call was!

On Sunday, we went to visit. He was happy to see us, but looked so miserable. Poor guy. Did we do the right thing?

Crazy guy stood up, then wouldn't lay back down. He wanted to come home.

On Monday, Chris went to see him at lunch. Looking a little better, but still so sad. He was on IV drip. Still not interested in eating.

We went back on Monday night - still not eating. Tuesday, the vet called and said that we could take him home. The mass did turn out to be cancer, but a 'good' kind. They removed it all, and said he was clean - no spread. Not sure how long it took to grow though - hopefully it was slow growing, and won't return. The mass was the size of a tennis ball!

Leary about taking him home, but knew it would be good for him. He needed to eat! 3-5 days after surgery were the most critical. It was a race between his sutures dissolving & the intestine healing.
We did get him to eat a little hamburger on Tuesday night - score! Slowly but surely, he ate more & more. No dog food though - and preferred eating from our hands.

Finally, eating from a plate!


Very loving now, and comes to sit by you all the time. He finally ate some 'dog' food yesterday (Saturday), so we know he is finally on the mend. The cat isn't scared of him anymore. And he is starting to enjoy his squeaky toys again. Wow - only one week later - amazing! He should be 80% healed by next Saturday. New nickname - Zipper!

Still a skinny butt - but on his way!! Next Saturday, he gets his staples removed. The group at Emergency are going to be so happy that he is doing so well. What a great hospital. If I get sick - I may just asked to get taken there!

Baseball! Cubs & Red Sox!

Nothing better than Baseball at Fenway Park! Unless it's Baseball at Wrigley :)Fortunately, we had tickets to the Cubs/Red Sox series = the best!!

So, at Fenway - there were lots of Cubs fans!

Lots of sausages!

and Lots of Beer (and Nuts)!
Opening ceremony paying respects to the armed forces

Lots of great baseball!!

Florida 70.3 (half ironman triathlon)

Can't wait to go back and race here again!!

Our first big race of the year! And in sunny Florida (actually at Disney World!)

1st on the agenda - new tri bikes! Flat fast course - we needed to upgrade :)

Chris - getting his bike fit

Chris new bike!

Me - getting my bike fit - it's a 2 hour process & we had already ridden our road bikes for 5 hours...

John, bike guru, working his magic on getting the angles right

Finished products! John was concerned that they look a little like 'his' and 'hers'. But what can we say - the new Trek's are amazing & way ahead of the competition. Besides, I have it on first hand knowledge, that a couple local pros - also have 'his' and 'her' bikes.

Made it to Florida - staying at the Wilderness Lodge. The race starts & ends at the Wilderness Lodge campground - across the lake from this beautiful lodge.

Waiting for the boat to take us across the lake to the campground - so we could pick up our race packets.

Hitting the Expo on Saturday! Loved the 86 degree weather & low humidity

Swim finish already set up and ready for the 6:30 am start

Had to rack our bicycles on Saturday. Of course it poured all afternoon & evening.

Transition area after the race - 2500 athletes raced. It was fun! Chris had a super fast race - he flew on his new bike! I also had a good race - my usual time for a half ironman: just under 6 hours. We both had long swims. It was windy, so the lake was choppy. The bike course was flat & fast - but technical. There were a lot of out and backs with tight turn arounds. The run was 3 loops on paved trail & grass trail. At first I thought I would mentally burn out with all the loops. But I actually loved it! Chris did too! It helped that I ran with a girl from Florida for 2 of my loops. She kept me going, and I kept her going. Triathlon is so cool that way - everyone is friendly & supportive - even the other athletes. What a great day!

Originally, we thought that part of the race might be cancelled. We actually walked to the race start at 5:00 in the rain with lightening & thunder all around us. We didn't think the race would start on time - or at the very least the swim would be cancelled. But at 6:00, the skies cleared & we were all ready to go!
Chris' mom & husband Tony braved the early morning rain storm & arrived to cheer us on! Amazingly, we saw them before the start, after the swim, and 3 times on the run! It was great to have family support & to see smiling faces!

Of course, we celebrated at the Magic Kingdom that night!

Lines for Space Mountain finally abated at 11 pm, so we were able to slide right in. It's nice to be able to stay at the parks late, when you are staying on the park grounds!

Next day - Animal Kingdom - where we saw lots of critters!

And we took the safari tour - which was very cool - so we saw many more critters~

Lazy hippos

Ahhh - it was a great vacation. Wished we could have stayed longer (but it was a good thing we didn't...see my blog about Toules)

A Visit home

A MA holiday allowed me to go home for a long weekend a few weekends ago. Just spending time with the family. My mom & I had been reading some books about a girl who owned a cookie company, and the author finished most chapters with a recipe! So, we decided to spend the weekend baking - and bake we did!

Getting out the heavy hardware after our shoulders got tired!


Pumpkin chocolate chip - my favorites!

German chocolate - Chris & Mom's favorite

Short Stack - supposed to taste like pancakes - but mostly just like butter :)

One box of many!

There were also some recipe's for non cookies...

Here we are baking a breakfast quiche.

Yum!
And some biscuits!

It was a great weekend (except for my diet) And I can't wait to go home & do it again!

BTW, my 'eating pure' has been going pretty well. I haven't been in the candy jar at work, since April 1st. I haven't had any pizza since April 1st. My cheese, breads, coffee has been at a minimal. And I'm actually looking forward to my evening salad!