Hair Cut!

Saturday, on top of everything else, we finally got a hair cut!!

Do you think it was about time???

I was so nervous, because I had to take off so much more than I was leaving on her head.

It was quite a bit of work, but I think we finally got it right. She does like it quite short.

No more Troll looking Mohawks!!

Improving!

Just a quick note, we are definitely improving!!

The Amoxicillin is doing it's job, the swelling is mostly gone. We are off the hallucinogen drugs. She's achy, but that won't clear up until the dead tooth/teeth are out and her mouth is healed.

Things are looking up!! At least until Monday!!

Dentist Update

We had a horrible weekend! By the time Monday morning rolled around, Her pain was managable with the Oxycodone Hydrochloride but her whole left side was puffy, swollen and red. She could feel the swelling all the way to her ear and up to her eye. She kept asking me to check to see if there was something in her eye.

Yesterday morning, I called the dentist back and said you need to fit her in and figure this out. It is just too coincidental, it has got to be related to what we came in for on the 17th.

We got there at about 10am. We had to see the new dentist, Dr. Benjamin Menlove, because Dr. Elmer only works on Wednesdays now. Mom seems to like him so we're sticking with Dr. Ben. Anyway, They tried to do another xray but couldn't, she was too swollen and sore. Dr. Ben said it wouldn't be any different from a week ago anyway. They couldn't see anything in the xray so he had no way to know which tooth it was. It can be one or both of two. The tooth (or teeth) have died and are rotting in the jaw and causing infection.

Anyway, he really couldn't do anything any way until we got the infection under control. Even more so since she has the stint. I guess bacteria can collect around the stint and cause problems. So we really are in a catch 22. We have to treat the infection which will weaken the kidneys even more, but we can't not treat the infection because of pain and risk to her heart in essence. So she is taking amoxicillin for the infection and then we go back to the dentist to pull one or two teeth on monday. We're hoping we can better tell which one when the infection is more localized and not spreading.

She was already acting better last night, painwise, anyway. We could manage the pain with out giving her the pain meds every hour. It was lasting longer and doing a better job. The redness in the swelling was more crimson instead of bright red. I expect her to feel even better this morning. (She's not up yet)

She is starting to experience hallucinations, but we were told to expect that when we started to give this med to her. I just hope we can start to ween her off as the infection subsides.

That's the scoop for now, I'll post more as I know more.

Not Doing Well, This Weekend!! :(

We are not having a good weekend. Poor thing is having a temendous amount of pain in her jaw and gums. I'm afraid she just might lose the rest of her bottom teeth at this rate. :(

I've tried all sorts of things.

We've resorted to drugs to keep her as comfortable as possible just to get her through the weekend until we can go back to the dentist on Monday. She's on some pretty potent, powerful stuff. We have to be careful that the hallucinations don't come back, but what else can we do???

More details and info when I know more on Monday.

Love to you all!!

Nana Sure Loves Lady!!

There's only one way to know if you really love your dog....


























Yup, Nana really loves her Lady!!!

Beautiful!?????

Nana says what are you all talking about??? Beautiful????

She usually wakes up with a pretty wicked mohawk! She said to take her picture to show you how it's sticking up all over the place, but it's not too bad today. It's been lots worse!!

She can hardly wait for the next hair cutting session. She was kind of out of it the last time I did hair cuts, and says she won't miss the next one for nothing. It's going to be pretty scarey for me, because if I cut it as short as she likes it, I'll be cutting off two to three times more than I'll be leaving!!

She also said to tell you that she does appreciate all your loving comments! :)

Look Who's Out and About!!!

It really is amazing the, seemingly, complete turn around Nana has made in the last several weeks. Things were actually getting pretty bad. It was getting increasingly difficult to just get to the bathroom without falling down. The pain in her arms and hands were getting pretty bad as well. She really was losing the use of her hands. She was sleeping most of the day.

One day we were talking to our hospice nurse, Micki, about her hands and if that was the diabetes taking her limbs. She said she didn't think so, because of the way her fingers would draw up when they hurt. We later found out that it wasn't the tendons pulling her fingers up, but Nana tucking and cradling her fingers and hands, because they hurt. In talking with Nana, I found out that she was having trouble falling asleep at night. Of course, she was sleeping most of the day, but if that was due to the toxins, then she should be able to sleep at night as well. We talked about few things. I told her maybe we were going about this all wrong. Maybe she needed to stop laying around waiting to die. Maybe we should make the best of what we got to work with and make life as good as we can. She said she would try.

Anyway, I talked her into just trying to stay awake a little bit during the day, and to start moving around more. She started with hand and arm lifts and leg lifts. Just a little bit each day. Little by little she had a little more strength and a little more strength. She still sleeps a lot during the day, but less and less. She is moving around the house better, less falls, she actually leaves her room other than just to go to the bathroom. The more she's moving around the more her circulation has improved and her hands and arms don't hurt as much. She is participating more in her showers and bathroom visits because they don't hurt as much. She can actually make a fist again! We talked again and I found out she is only doing it to make me happy, not because she wants to. But as more and more time passes and she can do more and more, I think she is happy with the results.

About a week ago, she was sitting at the table (feat in itself) eating her lunch, when she bit down on her tooth and cried out in pain. She kept trying to eat and really couldn't because every time she chewed on that side it would hurt. We waited couple of days and it didn't get better. She stopped chewing all together on that side, I called the dentist and got an appointment. She got up yesterday morning and got into the shower and off we went to the dentist. (It used to be a shower would really wear her out, that was all we could accomplish in one day.) Keep in mind this is the first time she has been outside of my house (besides the porch) since January. She got into the car and we drove her to the dentist. We got in there and They did an x-ray, and Dr. Elmer examined her teeth. And you know what?? He couldn't find anything wrong with any of her teeth! He explained that maybe since they are all lose on the bottom, it's possible that as she bit down on her food she tweaked the ligament in her tooth, which would make it sore for a couple of days. Since she hasn't been chewing on it for a few days now it's had the chance to heal. She came home and ate lunch and sure enough it doesn't hurt anymore!

Well, we were so happy she didn't have to have a tooth pulled, she was all dressed up and no where to go. As we were walking out of the dentist she said, let's go to Dick's! The supermarket across the street. So we went over there grabbed a motorized cart and she drove all over that place looking at everything for an hour!!! She was so happy. They had their case lot sale just start that day, so I had fun too! I took a couple of pictures, wish I would have taken more, but I guess hind site it 20/20.

We got her home, she didn't waste anytime getting right back in her jammies, ate her lunch and went to sleep! Last night we talked about her excursion, she said maybe we should try that once a week. Maybe we can get her going back to the temple?? We'll see.

Don't get the wrong impression, she just recently re qualified for hospice again. Her health is steadily declining. She can still all of a sudden crash and leave us in a few different ways. But we figure this is a much better way to wait for it to happen!