We took Shavez back to the vet on Monday and had the bandages removed. Unfortunately because he'd been licking the bandages so much, they were wet through - which meant that the wounds hadn't healed properly from being wet. Also, the bandages had stuck to the wound, which obviously made it very painful to remove. We had to have OH hold him in a headlock, I held his body, while the vet tried to cut the stinking bandage off.
I have never heard a dog scream until that point, and I never want to hear it again. He screamed at the top of his lungs, and it seemed to go on forever. Then the poor bugger had to have an Elizabethan collar put on to stop him from excessively licking his tail.
The last 2 nights none of us have slept, poor Shavez not only has to contend with this E-collar, so he bumps into everything, but he's been in a lot of pain so has cried non-stop for 2 days and nights. Its heartbreaking, since there is nothing we can do for him.
This morning his tail was looking worse, the skin was going blue, the black spots were getting bigger, so OH took him back to the vet, and the decision has been made to have his tail removed - tomorrow.
The vet seems to think that this is the best solution and will heal much easier due to there not being so much stretching of skin. And hopefully it stops the spread of any further cancer.
Exercise has been a little sparse this last week - I managed to do a weights & cardio session on Monday, and 25 minutes on the cross trainer tonight. Hopefully once I'm able to get some sleep I will have the energy to train again. Eats have been on track though, so I guess that's something.
Keep your fingers crossed!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Bad News
Its bad news from the vet. They took a biopsy of the tissue they removed from the back of Shavez's tail, and its turned out to be a malignant tumour.
We go back to the vet on Monday afternoon to get his stitches out, and also to find out what we can do. Basically I think we have to wait and see if it grows back or if it has spread. Of course, our animals are like our children, they are so much part of the family - we dont want to think the worst, but its hard to keep the fear out of your mind. I'm finding it difficult to stop getting emotional about it, there's been lots of weeping this week :(
We go back to the vet on Monday afternoon to get his stitches out, and also to find out what we can do. Basically I think we have to wait and see if it grows back or if it has spread. Of course, our animals are like our children, they are so much part of the family - we dont want to think the worst, but its hard to keep the fear out of your mind. I'm finding it difficult to stop getting emotional about it, there's been lots of weeping this week :(
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Time for an update!
This is a bit of an update/rambly post about nothing much!
Hmmmm ok so I had a bit of a light bulb moment last weekend. The last few weeks its been a bit colder than normal, and I’ve struggled to get out of bed at my normal 5am. Its cold, its dark, and I just didn’t want to get up! At my old job I had to be at the office at a certain time, so I trained at 5.30am because of this. For some unknown reason, when I started my new job (6 months ago) – I never changed my schedule. So I've suddenly realised that, because I go visit customers and drive around all day, I don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn any more to fit in my training. Derrrr.
So now that I’ve had that little revelation, I’ve been getting up at 6am instead, and getting to the gym for 6.30. Much more civilized. Its also not as dark or cold. Brilliant! I’ve also decided that I only need to go to gym for weights or cardio classes, since we have a cross trainer at home. So I’m doing 3 mornings at gym, and 3 mornings of cross trainer in front of the TV in the comfort of my living room. Niiiiiiice.
The other thing I’ve realized is that I’ve always classified myself as a “morning” person. Truth is, I’m not. Out of habit I have forced myself to be a morning person, but the reality is, it takes me ages to wake up properly and I’ve usually got puffy eyes for the first half hour. I also tend to grumble words rather than have actual conversations at 5.30 in the morning. Bright and chirpy I’m not. In the evenings, although I SHOULD be tired because I got up at 5am, by 10pm I’m forcing myself to go to bed – because I’m just not sleepy. So that's been my other 'revelation' this week.
Last weekend when we had the dogs bathed, the dog-wash lady found a sort-of fluid filled sac underneath Shavez’s tail. For the last 2 years, he’s had a sore/spot on the top of his tail near the base, about the size of a 50c piece. He licks it until it bleeds, so its been ongoing with the vet for the last year. Antibiotics make it go away, but then it keeps coming back. Anyway, so with this new “sac” we took him straight to the vet. They were completely unconcerned about this new growth, they were more concerned that the spot on top of his tail had come back AGAIN. They started throwing horrible words around like “tumour” and “cancer” and “biopsy” etc. They did say though that the worst case scenario would be that he loses his tail.
So poor Shavez, 12 years old and never had anything more than an injection in his life, had to go under the knife on Friday. They completely removed both the new growth and the gland spot on the top of his tail, and we’ll have the results next week sometime. OH was pretty freaked out, he took the day off work so he could stay home with Elke (she stresses when Shavez isn’t there – she becomes Houdini) and also so he could be close in case he had to rush up to the vet. Poor Shavez was a bit dopey last night! He looked totally stoned! They’ve shaved his tail and bandaged it, so he has this Lion’s tail with a fluffy tuft of fur at the end LOL! Today he’s back to his old self, but very whiney. I suppose it must hurt, the poor puppy. At least if you’re human you can have panadol to ease the pain!
Keep your fingers crossed for him! Here's a pic of him enjoying some 'treat' time in the house the other night, destroying an empty milk carton:
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of meeting Pip! It was lovely to meet her and hear all about her experience at the Gold Coast Half Marathon - I'm in awe of anyone that can run for more than 5km! Pip is such a lovely person and has some really great goals for the future! I felt all motivated after our cup of tea!
And the after:
And the finished product from a distance!
Right! I promise I wont leave it as long next time so you wont have to read so much rubbish all in one hit! (that's if you made it to the end LOL). Have a great night!
Hmmmm ok so I had a bit of a light bulb moment last weekend. The last few weeks its been a bit colder than normal, and I’ve struggled to get out of bed at my normal 5am. Its cold, its dark, and I just didn’t want to get up! At my old job I had to be at the office at a certain time, so I trained at 5.30am because of this. For some unknown reason, when I started my new job (6 months ago) – I never changed my schedule. So I've suddenly realised that, because I go visit customers and drive around all day, I don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn any more to fit in my training. Derrrr.
So now that I’ve had that little revelation, I’ve been getting up at 6am instead, and getting to the gym for 6.30. Much more civilized. Its also not as dark or cold. Brilliant! I’ve also decided that I only need to go to gym for weights or cardio classes, since we have a cross trainer at home. So I’m doing 3 mornings at gym, and 3 mornings of cross trainer in front of the TV in the comfort of my living room. Niiiiiiice.
The other thing I’ve realized is that I’ve always classified myself as a “morning” person. Truth is, I’m not. Out of habit I have forced myself to be a morning person, but the reality is, it takes me ages to wake up properly and I’ve usually got puffy eyes for the first half hour. I also tend to grumble words rather than have actual conversations at 5.30 in the morning. Bright and chirpy I’m not. In the evenings, although I SHOULD be tired because I got up at 5am, by 10pm I’m forcing myself to go to bed – because I’m just not sleepy. So that's been my other 'revelation' this week.
Last weekend when we had the dogs bathed, the dog-wash lady found a sort-of fluid filled sac underneath Shavez’s tail. For the last 2 years, he’s had a sore/spot on the top of his tail near the base, about the size of a 50c piece. He licks it until it bleeds, so its been ongoing with the vet for the last year. Antibiotics make it go away, but then it keeps coming back. Anyway, so with this new “sac” we took him straight to the vet. They were completely unconcerned about this new growth, they were more concerned that the spot on top of his tail had come back AGAIN. They started throwing horrible words around like “tumour” and “cancer” and “biopsy” etc. They did say though that the worst case scenario would be that he loses his tail.
So poor Shavez, 12 years old and never had anything more than an injection in his life, had to go under the knife on Friday. They completely removed both the new growth and the gland spot on the top of his tail, and we’ll have the results next week sometime. OH was pretty freaked out, he took the day off work so he could stay home with Elke (she stresses when Shavez isn’t there – she becomes Houdini) and also so he could be close in case he had to rush up to the vet. Poor Shavez was a bit dopey last night! He looked totally stoned! They’ve shaved his tail and bandaged it, so he has this Lion’s tail with a fluffy tuft of fur at the end LOL! Today he’s back to his old self, but very whiney. I suppose it must hurt, the poor puppy. At least if you’re human you can have panadol to ease the pain!
Keep your fingers crossed for him! Here's a pic of him enjoying some 'treat' time in the house the other night, destroying an empty milk carton:
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of meeting Pip! It was lovely to meet her and hear all about her experience at the Gold Coast Half Marathon - I'm in awe of anyone that can run for more than 5km! Pip is such a lovely person and has some really great goals for the future! I felt all motivated after our cup of tea!
Finally, we have decided to get cracking with the house renovations. We've been putting things off and not doing much lately, mostly because OH is stuffed and hasn't wanted to spend his weekends working on the house. But we've really got to get our buts into gear, so today we got stuck in and finished one of those jobs that's been waiting to be done for months.
I was the official helper today - we put the stainless steel wire on the stairs - I attached all the swages to the ends of the wire - go me!! Here's the before:
And the after:And the finished product from a distance!Right! I promise I wont leave it as long next time so you wont have to read so much rubbish all in one hit! (that's if you made it to the end LOL). Have a great night!
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Inspiration-less...
Hmmmm my blogging "block" seems to be continuing - I'm struggling to find things to blog about lately!
Work has been busy - sometimes I really just love the fact that I can get in my car and drive around for the day - its nice not to be chained to a desk all the time. It does have its drawbacks though - it means that I cant have stir-fries or hot food for lunch unless I've organised to be in the office that day. In winter I really miss my stir-fries and rice - unfortunately a salad doesn't really cut it when its cold outside! I've been having sandwiches, although I'm not a huge fan.
One day last week I was out of the car for a good couple of hours, and when I came back I was starving for lunch - but horror-of-horrors, I had left the lid off my cooler bag, and my food had gotten all warm - yuk! So I did something I havent done in a VERY long time - I headed for the golden arches. I ended up with a lean beef burger, which wasn't too bad, at least it wasn't huge and I still felt like I had a bit of portion control. I have definetly learned my lesson though, keep that cooler bag shut tight!
Last week I had another go at front squats and deadlifts, and I think I must have done it with correct form this time - I didn't really add much weight to the bar, but OH MY GOD I was sore for the rest of the week! I could barely walk on Thursday and Friday, and to be honest they are still feeling a bit tender. The thing I like about those front squats is that they seem to work your shoulders too - so you get a two-for-one workout - bargain!
Anyway, must go and organise my meals for tomorrow. Good luck to everyone competing at the All Females this weekend!
Work has been busy - sometimes I really just love the fact that I can get in my car and drive around for the day - its nice not to be chained to a desk all the time. It does have its drawbacks though - it means that I cant have stir-fries or hot food for lunch unless I've organised to be in the office that day. In winter I really miss my stir-fries and rice - unfortunately a salad doesn't really cut it when its cold outside! I've been having sandwiches, although I'm not a huge fan.
One day last week I was out of the car for a good couple of hours, and when I came back I was starving for lunch - but horror-of-horrors, I had left the lid off my cooler bag, and my food had gotten all warm - yuk! So I did something I havent done in a VERY long time - I headed for the golden arches. I ended up with a lean beef burger, which wasn't too bad, at least it wasn't huge and I still felt like I had a bit of portion control. I have definetly learned my lesson though, keep that cooler bag shut tight!
Last week I had another go at front squats and deadlifts, and I think I must have done it with correct form this time - I didn't really add much weight to the bar, but OH MY GOD I was sore for the rest of the week! I could barely walk on Thursday and Friday, and to be honest they are still feeling a bit tender. The thing I like about those front squats is that they seem to work your shoulders too - so you get a two-for-one workout - bargain!
Anyway, must go and organise my meals for tomorrow. Good luck to everyone competing at the All Females this weekend!
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