December: The Ups and Downs

December had it's ups and downs but I have to say that most of it was positive. Sometimes I tend to judge my life basEd on how running treating me because it is such a big part of my life and something I love to do. I have so many things to be thankful for and I want to share some of those things instead of focusing on the knee pain that I have been dealing with since late October.

I did not run a lot of miles in December but I am just thankful to be running again. I haven't talked much about this knee problem because I still don't know what the heck the problem is. I can say that it is getting better and I can run without much pain afterward. It used to be much worse so it is getting better. I am not 100% pain-free but I feel like I am 75% there. Progress is all that I can ask for right now. I have been taking it easy on my runs and not focusing on pace. I just have to put that aside for now and focus on getting my knee back to 100%.

Mileage for December was low since I have been keeping my runs in the single digits. That is just how is it is right now. I am looking forward to getting back on track and running with my running club again because I miss them. 

Christmas Eve was really sad because Roxy took a turn for the worse and we ended up at the emergency with her. Unfortunately we had to put her down because she stopped eating and was wasn't even able to keep water in her tummy. She became really weak and there was nothing more that we could do for her. It was tough putting her down at 11:41 pm Christmas Eve since we were then sitting in a room holding her and saying goodbye at the stroke of midnight when Christmas began. We miss her a lot but find comfort knowing that we did all we could do for her and she had a great life with us. 

There were also a lot of positive things that happened this month. My sister arrived on Christmas Day from South Carolina to visit for the holidays and we had a great time. I only see her once a year since her husband is in the Navy and they don't get to travel often. The timing was good because we were distracted and didn't think about Roxy 100% of the time. My three year old nephew is so cute and just makes us laugh non-stop. I especially love how he tells on himself when he does something wrong. 

I hosted my annual Christmas party with my family and we all had a lot of fun visiting and catching up. I am especially thankful that my dad is still here with us and is doing better than we could have ever hoped for. He recently had a PET scan and his cancer is stable. It has not improved but has not spread or gotten any worse. His blood work also shows improvement since his cancer number has gone from a 79 down to a 4! He is not cancer-free but we are very grateful for this Christmas gift that we have been given.

I also thankful that my grandma was able to spend Christmas with us. She will be 88 years old this year and is pretty healthy. The holidays are especially hard for her because she misses my grandpa even more during these times.

We stayed at home to ring in the New Year. I think I fell asleep on the couch with all of my dogs and my son and my niece woke me up right before midnight so I could celebrate with them. This is probably the only photo you will ever see of me in my glasses because I look pretty horrible in them. I am thinking of having Lasik eye surgery this year but I am super nervous about it!

I am excited about 2015 and all that it has in store for me! I am still working on my goals and race calendar for 2015. I am trying not to get too hard ahead of myself until I get this knee problem under control. I don't want to sign up for a bunch of races and not be able to run them. 

How was your Christmas and New Year celebration?

Have you set new goals and signed up for some races?

An Update on Roxy

If  you missed the sad news about my dog Roxy, you can read about it here. Thank you to everyone for your nice comments and offer of prayers for me and Roxy. I took Roxy to see an oncologist on Friday to get a better idea of what was going on with her and to find out what my options were as far as treatment.

I feel really bad about the whole situation since I was listening to my primary vet and testing for other conditions that were all skin allergy related. I guess cancer is tricky like that and sometimes presents itself as an allergy related problem. I feel like I wasted a lot of precious time and thousands of dollars trying special diets and other tests related to allergies. Live and learn. Now I know better. If the problem does not clear up in a short period of time, head to a specialist. The dermatologist that diagnosed Roxy was very knowledgeable and had a pretty good idea of what was going on. She wasn't cheap but I felt like she was worth every penny that I spent because she gave me what I wanted, a diagnosis. It wasn't what I was hoping to hear but I am glad that I now know what is wrong with Roxy.

So on to the appointment with the oncologist. We took Roxy not really knowing what to expect but we knew it was not going to be cheap. The oncologist had already spoken to the dermatologist about the results of Roxy's biopsy and he really spent some time to talk to us about his recommendations and the treatment available to Roxy. I really like him and he was very thorough. He was knowledgeable and I felt like he honestly cared and wasn't just about the money.

The oncologist recommended that we do a complete blood panel to make sure that Roxy would be able to go through the treatment and that there were no other issues going on. Her blood work came back with no major issues so we decided to go with a less aggressive treatment. The aggressive treatment was just too expensive ($6,330) and I just could not justify spending that kind of money since there is no cure. We are hopeful that Roxy will go into remission and even if that happens she may only be in remission for 3-6 months before the cancer returns.

Roxy will be going through a 15-week course of oral chemo which is in the form of a pill. Every three weeks she will go to the oncologist, they will draw her blood and if everything looks good she will be given another dose. The treatment is still incredibly expensive ($410 per treatment) and if the 5 treatments do not put Roxy in remission then we will stop and give her the best quality of life for as long as it is humane to keep her with us on this earth. 

Roxy handled the first round of treatment pretty well. She did not have any major side effects such as vomiting, diarrhea or nausea. We are giving her anti-nausea just in case and I have medication on hand to deal with all of the other side effects should they ever be a problem. Roxy has a follow-up appointment this Friday which involves more blood work to see how her body is responding to the treatment.

This is a huge sacrifice for us. I just could not live with myself if I didn't try some kind of treatment. I know that there are lots of pet owners out there who cannot afford to or are not willing to do half of what I am willing and able to do for my fur babies so I have nothing to be guilty of should she not make it through the treatment.

In the meantime, I am hopeful yet fully aware of what Roxy is up against. We are spoiling her to death, giving her more love than we already have been for the past 13 years and she is really happy about her new high protein diet of boiled chicken breast. The other dogs are jealous and just don't understand why they can't have it to!

Please keep us in your prayers. Pray for healing and that Roxy's body is receptive to the treatment.

More Bad News....

I feel like my faith is really being put to the test lately. So many things are going on and right when I thought I was ready to get back on track, more bad news has come my way.  

 

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that my dog Roxy was having some tests done to figure out what was going on with her. On August 19th she had a blood test test done to see if she had Cushing's disease and that came back negative. The doctor also recommended a biopsy of the area of skin on her face that was red and seemed to be getting worse. For the last year, the vet thought she had a food allergy or some type of bacterial infection so we tried different diets and antibiotics. None of those things worked so the last thing to do was the biopsy.

The doctor called me today with the biopsy results and the news was not good. It is devastating to me because I have had this dog for 13 years and she has always been healthy and I take really good care of her. If you know me, you know my love for animals like they are my kids. They are members of my family so my heart was broken into a million pieces when I was told the diagnosis. Roxy has been diagnosed with epitheliotrophic lymphoma. We have an appointment to see an oncologist this Friday to see what options are available to us.

 

I will do what I can do for her to keep her comfortable until her time comes. I don't want her to suffer in any way and I want to make sure she is happy. She is still eating, she seems happy and is able to get around like she normally does. I wish I knew what she was feeling so that I my decision will be the right one.

  

I hope that this is the end of the bad news because I think I have enough to deal with right now. My faith is really being put to the test right now!!

Meet the Party Animals

Yesterday was my dog Roxy's 12th birthday and we celebrated. I bought her a peanut butter flavored doggy bone cake from Three Dog Bakery. Sprinkles cupcakes is next door to the dog bakery so I decided to treat myself to a cupcake so I wouldn't be left out of the party!

 No, all of the party animals don't belong to me. Cinderella, the smaller Pom that looks very much like Roxy, belongs to my daughter and I am still thinking of what I am going to do with Sugar. She is getting really attached to us so I have to formulate a plan quickly to avoid breaking her heart. I would like to say that Roxy (top left), Buster (bottom right), Sugar (bottom left) and Cinderella(top right) had a blast but it was kind of a fiasco to say the least. Cinderella is a barker and all of the other dogs don't really care for her behavior so they got nervous/excited and started scrambling/hiding and things got kind of chaotic.

The good news is that they all loved the doggy cake, especially Cinderella. She was able to scare all of the other dogs away with her barking and eat most of the cake herself.  The party was officially over when Cinderella pooped in the middle of the living room! Nobody wanted to get blamed for that one!

  Roxy has been part of the family since she was a few months old and she is the best dog ever.  She is so sweet and super smart. She knows how to do lots of things other than the standard sit, stay and lay down. Roxy knows how to play dead,  roll over, finds things on command, and brings you specific toys when you ask her for them. Roxy does not like baths, nail trims or teeth brushing but she loves to eat her doggy beef jerky and any kind of table food that she can con you into giving her!

I noticed a few months ago that Roxy was starting to lose her hearing so I took her in for a Senior Wellness Exam to make sure she was in good health.  The vet gave her an exam, did some blood work, a urinalysis and cleaned her teeth.  Roxy is starting to lose her hearing but she can still hear us when we are within close range of her. Other than the issue with her hearing, she is a pretty healthy girl! 

Happy 12th Birthday Roxy Girl!!

Donning the Cone of Shame

Buster is not a happy camper this morning!  He got neutered and micro chipped yesterday and doesn't quite understand what is going on!  Roxy, my 12 year old Pomeranian, had her teeth cleaned yesterday so they made the trip to the vet together for moral support.

They stayed at the vet for most of the day and got picked up at 8pm.  Their vet is the absolute best and had them all decked out in their scarves when we arrived to take them home.

Roxy is back to normal with pearly whites but Buster not so much. His meds were much heavier since his procedure required a bit more work.

We are keeping a close eye on him to make sure that he doesn't lick his stitches.  I hope he refrains from the search of his missing jewels or else he will be donning the "Cone of Shame." I am sure he won't like it even though it has his name on it!

We have no big plans for the weekend since we will be on doggy watch!

I Am Running.......Out of Time That Is!!

It seems like the holiday season takes forever to get here but when it gets here, it comes and goes so quickly!!  I am usually on top of my Holiday "To Do List " which includes Christmas shopping, decorating, tree decorating, Christmas cards, gift wrapping and party planning but this year I have fallen way behind.

All of decorating was done on time and I got a little bit of shopping done early on. I usually try to come up with a cute idea and take a special Christmas picture but this year I ended up using a picture from my last half marathon.  Does it look familiar? We even hired a new photographer this year.  Thank you Shawna. I think I am going to force her to run more races with me so she can take pictures of me and my family. My husband is always the one who has to run into the picture and beat the timer on the camera.  He usually ends up messing up the picture and we spend the entire day trying to get it right! We usually include the dogs too and that can be very challenging as well!! This is what our Christmas card looks like this year.

I haven't wrapped a single present...not even one! I have most of my shopping done and I have everything stored in my closet.  I have created a major traffic hazard in my closet and I can barely get to my work clothes.  

Good thing able to access the other side of my closet that has all of my running clothes. That's all that really matters, right?

Is it weird that I hang all of my running clothes?

I ended up taking two days off after the Holiday Half Marathon for some reason or another so as a result of my laziness, I will be busy cramming all of my workouts in the remainder of the week.  I was planning on running last night but my daughter called me and wanted to come over to talk so I ended up not going to the gym.  It was raining so road running was not an option for me. Running isn't looking good for today either because I am meeting up with a friend that I met on Daily Mile.  We are practically neighbors and she is an amazing runner.  She runs 50+ miles per week and has conquered the Los Angeles Marathon in 3:17:40!! She swears that her secret is just putting her mind to it and believing in herself.  I guess I need to borrow her mind on race days! I am just not that confident I guess.

As much as I love Christmas, I am starting to feel a little stressed out!! I have yet to send out the invitations to my Christmas party on December 26th!  I really need to do this right away so that my family and friends don't make other plans.  My sister and her family will be arriving from Florida on Christmas Day to visit and they will be here through January 4th. I am looking forward to seeing them and spending some time together.  I have already warned her about my busy training schedule that must go on in spite of her visiting and she's fine with it.  She likes to bike ride so I might drag her along with me to carry my water and keep me company.

I will be free from work starting on December 23 until the New Year so I am also looking forward to the time off.  I love my job but we all need a break once in a while and I never take more than a couple of days off of work at a time.  I also have plans for Buster (the stray dog that I found back in October) during my time off.  Let's just say that Buster is not going to be very happy with me when he finds out that I am scheduling an appointment to  take his manhood from him....

Buster is kind of blending in with couch behind Roxy.

So is everybody else ready for Christmas or is it just me who is running behind?

Goodnight my "Baby"

Roxy and Baby: June 2010

For those of you who know me very well, you know that my dogs mean the world to me and I would spend my last penny to save their lives if I could.  I love my two Pomeranians, Baby and Roxy, to death but I think that Baby is my favorite because it's mutual...I am his favorite too!

Baby playing at the park in healthier times.

I found Baby running in the streets near my house on January 1, 2007.  He was clean, sweet as ever, and I just could not figure out why somebody would lose track of such a cute dog.  I put up signs from one end of the county to the other and nobody claimed him.  I decided to keep him in spite of the mixed feelings of the other people in my home and I am glad that I made that decision because he is the most loyal friend that I will ever have. I never knew how old Baby was or when his birthday was so I always celebrated his birthday on January 1, since that was the day that he came into my life.

Sleepy Baby is his bed, which he loved!

It wasn't long before I figured out why nobody ever claimed Baby.  Baby coughed a lot and when I took him to the vet to find out why we discovered that Baby had a heart murmur which shortly turned into Congestive Heart Failure.  The vet put him on some heart medications and he seemed to do just fine for a couple of years.  Baby loved to eat and be with me, so when he failed to do one or the other, I knew that something was wrong with him.  In February of 2010, Baby got really sick and the vets could not figure out what was wrong with him. They knew it was something serious by his blood panel and he needed to be hospitalized.  He wouldn't eat and when he did, he would throw up.  After several tests and many ultrasounds, I found out that Baby's gallbladder was full of bile and was not emptying itself as it normally should. I was referred to a specialist and they put Baby on some medication that shortly brought him back to his normal self.  His blood tests also revealed that his kidney values were extremely elevated and that he was in the early stages of kidney failure. Baby was then started on subcutaneous fluid therapy.

The vet taught us how to give Baby the fluid therapy at home and we faithfully gave him his fluids daily.  The needle was just huge to me and Baby never cried or even flinched. I always wondered how Baby tolerated that kind of pain. He even learned that when his fluid treatment was done that he would get a special treat so eventually he became excited about it.  On top of the fluid therapy, Baby took five different types of medication and he didn't seem to mind it and never gave us a hard time to take his medication.

Since Baby had congestive heart failure he coughed on a regular basis.  About a month ago, I noticed that Baby was coughing more than usual.  It was keeping him and I up at night and I knew that he was not resting like he normally did.  It was time to visit the vet to check if his condition was worsening or if he was having some other kind of problem.  The vet took x-rays and found that Baby's trachea had collapsed which made breathing very difficult for him.  This problem is common in small dogs so there is nothing that actually causes it to happen.  There is medication that helps to open the airway but it causes the heart to speed up and since Baby had heart trouble he couldn't take the medication. The vet gave him a different type of medication but it really affected his appetite and his personality.  He needed to take this medicine to survive so that was just one more pill for him to take.

Baby refused to let his Mommy leave without him!

Baby loved super balls!!

Enjoying a Doggy Donut!

I enjoyed whatever time I had left with Baby and spoiled him rotten with all of the things he loved!! So what did Baby love....super balls, empty toilet paper rolls, Roxy's pink monkey toy, Greenies, table food of any kind, car rides, his bed and most of all me ...his Mommy!  

Both of my babies love to go for car rides!

 Baby and his/Roxy's Pink Monkey

I dreaded the day that I would have to send this "Baby" of mine to doggy heaven because he had become such an everyday part of my life.  That day finally came on Friday, August 18, 2011 at 5:40pm. I knew that he was not feeling well because his appetite was poor, his energy level was way down and he just didn't seem like himself.  I knew that his quality of life was not what it should be so I took him to the vet to see what was going on. His blood tests revealed that he was in the advanced stages of renal failure and there was not much more the vet could do for him.  Fluid therapy was an option but with his heart problems the vet felt that this would have caused him further complications.  

This is the very last picture that I took of Baby at the vet.

The vet looked at me and told me that he was very sick and that it was time for me to let go. I held him in my arms, kissed him and told him how much I loved him in the final minutes of his life.  This is one of the most difficult and heart breaking decisions that I have ever had to make in my whole life.  Baby was like a child to me and I love him to pieces and I always will.  I hope he understands my decision and knows how much I love him and that I did my best to give him a happy life for the short time that we were friends.

Another super ball....

Although this is a very tough time for me, I keep reassuring myself that I did the right thing, the humane thing, and that I did everything that I could do to keep Baby alive for the last couple of years. I have lots of guilt over my decision at times but I have found amazing peace knowing that he is no longer suffering. I could no longer keep him here for me. I loved him too much to be so selfish.

Christmas Day 2010

Rest in Peace my Baby.  I will always love you and I will never ever forget you and the happiness that you brought to my life for the short time that we shared together.  I hope you are having fun in Doggy Heaven :) 

I will miss coming home to this!

RIP Baby: August 19, 2011