Warning- graphic belly-button update

While I encourage you to read with caution, I also know the curious nature of humans and how thankful I am to not be a cat. So to those that chose to read ahead:  my belly button is dangerously close to be coming an outie.  I still do my daily exercises of pushing it back in, to which I credit its staying power for now, but I fear these exercises will prove futile rather shortly.

I am now in my 8th month. March is almost over with with leaves us with April and however long Spuds decides to incubate for in May. I have decided that I am done now. 33 weeks is good, right? According to Chris' co-workers, this is when it all goes down hill. Once the woman has declared that she is done all she does is get bigger, gets angrier about getting bigger, stops sleeping, gets more crabby due to lack of sleep and overall just becomes a miserable person until she delivers.  I am not sure what they have warned Chris about labor though, as I am sure he probably hasn't seen my full potential for crankiness yet.

With the 8th month seemed to also bring with it swelling, or as it is now lovingly referred to as "playdough ankles". Admittedly it seems to be more of my shins than my ankles, my ankles have begun to lose any definition between them and my calves.

Oh look, I can press into my leg. No big deal

Oh wait, it's still indented...

Hooray pitting edema! I have recently invested in a pair of compression socks and they seem to have withstood the morning at Wild Wings. It will be nice to try to keep my legs from swelling to 2x their size. Fortunately, there is no issues with elevated blood pressure, so for now it's just swelling.

If big foot were to take up running, I think I have an idea as to how he might feel. Currently, my running, a.k.a. trudging, feels more like my feet are just flopping in front of me hoping to convince the rest of me that I should stop.  In the end, the more active I stay, the better I feel, so I try to keep doing something.

The nursery is getting closer.  Recently, I made Chris do the closet shuffle so that we can empty out the nursery closet.  I am anxious to use it. The only bigger things left is cleaning out the closet, and then moving the futon out (once Oscar-the-couch goes to his new home) and then getting/putting in the glider.  But, for now, this is where we are at:

Lastly, Eleanor. She is currently responding well to the high dose of Prednisolone. She is back to her bouncy-trouble-causing self. Not only that, but she loves food.  Food of all kind. She has taken it upon herself to make sure that all bowls remain cleaned. We are able to go for walks again without her dragging and she has resumed her role as Protector against window squirrels.

So while, I know this is not a permanent fix, it is a lot easier to get through each day seeing her enjoying life again.

Eleanor

Some days I feel like I've got it, while other days I feel like I don't have the strength.  Then there are the days when I think I'm in control but in reality I'm just an inch away from breaking down. I've been crying over Eleanor for the past week.  She's been suffering from horrible bloody stools/diarrhea for a couple months now and lately I've watched as her energy level continued to deplete.  She no longer wanted to chase the squirrels outside or the cats indoors.  Her color has also started to get paler and paler... meaning she's losing red blood cells (in her stool).  For the longest while the thought was IBS or a food allergy.  She's only 3 years old and now would be about when a food allergy might show itself. Unfortunately, a proper food trial can take up to 8 weeks and it took awhile to find food she would actually eat.  We tested her for intestinal parasites, we tested for possible Addison's disease.  We tried several different medications to help bring back a healthy GI tract with little to no improvement.  All her blood work would come back relatively normal, except that she was losing protein. Her total solids and albumin would drop every time we checked. She was also losing weight. Perhaps I put it off to long, hoping that it was a food allergy and we just didn't find the right diet yet, but last Thursday Eleanor finally had her ultrasound.  The doctor was great.  I was allowed in and was able to see what the doctor was seeing.  She explained to me what she was looking for and it was easier for me to disassociate myself from my dog when I could look at the screen and just think "medical".  But then the lights were turned on and I had to come to terms with the fact that my beautiful, mischievous, fun-loving little girl was most likely (95% likely) suffering from Lymphoma.  No diet or medication would make it fully go away.  Last weekend I had a sinking feeling that whatever was causing her to be ill would not be resolved, and now I am fighting with that realization.  I struggle with looking into her eyes and knowing that I can't fix this. I can't make her 100% again. Chemo was an option, but it is very expensive, would require frequent trips to probably Syracuse and may not buy her much more time.  Unfortunately, time and money are not two things we currently have a plethora of. Plus it would require more invasive procedures and I'm not sure I want to put her through all that.  So, we have started to treat her with a high dose of Prednisolone. Despite needing a few more trips outside, so far this weekend I have noticed a slight improvement in her activity level and a definite improvement in what she is willing to eat. It's hard to tell how things will go from here.  There have been a few cases where a patient being treated for Lymphoma on Pred will do well for a year, but cancer can change quickly. So for now, I just want to cherish what I have. I love my little girl.