Monday, June 30, 2008

Update...

First of all thank you all for your kind words and thoughts for our family. Our house feels empty without Toby in it - but I am so glad he's at peace now. And even though it might sound silly, I believe his spirit is with us still. He always had to be somewhere near us somehow. That is one of the reasons why we wanted to get his ashes with us. Toby would have wanted that.

Each day things seem to get a little bit better...but man does it feel like a punch in the gut (as my dear friend Shawna says) when the times of the day roll around that I used to do things for Toby. The house does have an odd quiet about it too.

Yesterday we went to the amusement park that we have seasons passes to just to get out of the house and do something fun as a family. It was a good distraction is so many ways. I have been Toby's nurse over the last few weeks that I know Kian has had to feel slightly ignored. It was a great family time for us all.

Kian seems to be taking things better than I expected. He really misses him though. Yesterday we dropped off a lot of stuff we had for Toby at some good friends of ours. They have two BIG dogs and we figured they might be able to use the stuff. Kian loves those dogs...they are still puppies so they love to run and have almost as much energy as he does! Kian kept asking to go back and see them after we left....luckily we will get to do that this weekend and quite a bit after that since they live right down the road from us. Then, after we got back from the amusement park and we opened the door Kian called for Toby....we had to remind him he was in heaven. Toby was ALWAYS waiting for us right at the door...wanting to sniff us before we even walked in lol Sometimes we had to tell him to get back because we couldn't get inside lol!

Right now we are all trying to focus on the wonderful times we had with Toby. Toby was born the month that me and Jamie met and the first decision that Jamie and I ever made together was naming him. He has been with us this whole time - he was and still is apart of our family.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Remembering Toby


Goodbye Faithful Friend....

Dear Friends and Family,

Please excuse the mass email, but I wanted to get the word out to you all quickly.

Today we said goodbye to our 7 1/2 year old black lab, Toby. He became sick three weeks ago and became progressively worse. This afternoon Jamie and I loved on Toby as he went to sleep for the last time. (Kian stayed with a neighbor.)

We are devastated at the loss of our faithful friend and companion. He was an unbelievably obedient and gentle dog. His presence is missed beyond any words I can say. We are thankful for the wonderful times and moments he has been with us, but it is hard to imagine life without him.

Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts - and we ask that you continue to send them our way as we all grieve the loss of our friend.

Love from all of us,
Sarah

Friday, June 27, 2008

Prayers for Toby

I just spoke with the specialist that Toby saw on Tuesday. He said to give the meds through the weekend to see if he's improved. If he is not improved a lot by Monday then Toby will need to go to sleep forever. If you can send prayers, mojo, thoughts, what-have-you our way we would deeply appreciate it.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Thursday Update

Leak Issue

We finally got the second plummer out here to give us a quote for the class action suit. He has done a lot of the units that our condo is in. He is only going to need to make 12X12 holes because he knows where all the pipes are in these places. We decided to go with him and the class action people said they will have a check for us by Tuesday. The plummers are coming tomorrow to start their 4-5 days of work on our place. At least the ball is rolling and this will all be over soon.

Toby Update

The thyroid meds have seemed to help his bowel issue. He is drinking more often and seem less drooly. Other than that the rest is the same...he's still pretty weak and doesn't really have much interest in eating. He ate well the day that we got back from the vets but today and yesterday he has no interst really. My hope is waivering...

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

A Glimmer of Hope

We went to the specialist today and found out that Toby has one of three conditions...two are not good at all but the third and best of all is a thyroid condition. The doctor did some xrays on Toby to make sure that he didn't have pnumonia and that his esophogus is working. Everything looked normal. And from blood work done last week we know that his organs are all functioning normally.

The vet gave us thyroid meds and a diet of making meatballs out of the prescription dog food and kinda giving them to Toby so the he's getting food in him. I have made them and have been hand feeding them to him slowly...as he's not had food in a while but he is seriously hungry...just can't get the food to get in there because of the weakness in his mouth.

I gave him a thyroid pill before we got on the road after our visit. The vet said to call him at the end of the week and let him know how Toby is doing.

We are ALL hoping for the best.

Not good news X 2

We met with Toby's vet today. Apparently the fill in doctor I talked to on Monday did not have the right information on what is wrong with him and our regular vet explained why and what the next step would be. He referred us to a specialist that will do further testing (if we wish) on Toby. But right now the prognonsis doesn't sound like it will be good nor an easy fix. Since this weekend one of Toby's eyes has been drooping and now he's not eating. One of the vet assistants mentioned that he may have had a stroke :(

We have an appointment with the specialist tomorrow at noon. Honestly, we are not hopeful. I will update when I can on this.

The Leek

Apparently when the builders constructed the condos we live in they were in a hurry and botched a job with the plumbing – it is not accessible for easy repair. Well, on Thursday our neighbor came over and said she had water in her kitchen….the opposite wall to our place is in our laundry room. Luckily we didn't have any water, but we are not going through a bunch of junk to try to get this repaired as quickly as possible.

There is a class action law suit to get the repairs done to each of our place. We have to have our hot water lines all rerouted :P At least the class action people will pay for that and our insurance will cover the rest….but man let's just say this is not good timing at all.

The good thing for our neighbors is that they were replacing their kitchen things anyway…but man….this is not going to be pretty or fun :(

Friday, June 20, 2008

Toby Update 2.5

Well, toby needs more testing done and we have an appointment to do that on Monday afternoon. His liver enzymes are up which means it is enlarged or has a mass...so he needs x-rays to tell us about that. They are also going to do more blood tests because the doctor thinks that he might have a thyroid issue. If it is just the thyroid then it will be an easy fix apparently with meds. The blood work also showed he has an infection and digestive issues, which he already has meds for. So he has a myriad of things going on - although I am not sure if any of them are related. Our normal doctor was not in and the one that was filling in for him was just giving me information - I feel better talking to our doctor seeing that he knows Toby.

More of an update after we know more on Monday - hopefully.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Short Toby Update

Toby has been put on more meds and a special diet again. He also is having blood work done to see how his kidney and liver are functioning. We will have the results back from that tomorrow.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Toby...

A few weeks ago Toby, our 7 1/2 year old black lab, had some kind of stomach issue that required a trip to the vet. The issue was mainly resolved but his hind legs have really started to bother him. He's now to the point where he is having a really hard time getting around....plus he is still having some digestive issues (to spare the details). Jamie has noticed that the leg he is having issues with seems to the one that he had the tumor removed from two summers ago.

Tomorrow we are taking him to the vet again. We have no idea what the outcome will be from the visit but I am honestly preparing for the worst.

Any prayers and thoughts you can spare for Toby would be appreciated.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Tae Kwon Do, Soccer, Beckham, and Father's Day

This summer we decided to bump Kian down to going to preschool one day a week. The rec department has some really great programs so we signed Kian up for Tae Kwon Do and Soccer!

Yesterday was his first Tae Kwon Do class. It was so cute to watch all the kids doing kicks and practicing standing at attention :) Kian had a hard time calming down - he was SO excited to be there! Hopefully he will start to focus more.

We are going to see David Beckham!!!

In case you aren't sure who I am talking about, David Beckham is a soccer star who joined the LA Galaxy team after leaving England. Ever since he arrived here, Jamie has wanted to see him play. Well, EA had a deal on tickets for tonight's game! So we got three of them as Jamie's Father's Day gift! This will be Kian's first professional game - and really we haven't watched much soccer so it should be interesting and fun!