5C's Que Pasa

Caeli seems to be doing just fine and gets her final dose of antibiotic with dinner tonight.  I am very confident that her urinalysis tomorrow is going to be just fine.

Meanwhile yesterday the girls had been scheduled to have their teeth cleaned under anesthetic and on Monday the vet said it would be alright to proceed  as Caeli was on the mend.  So we were all there at 9:00AM.  Now they have papers to sign saying that the vet is not responsible if something happens during the teeth cleaning, a bit frightening.  Last time they had their teeth cleaned was in November of 2014 while I was with my Dad every day at the hospital back in Edmonton.  I must say that it was better for me to not be around.  Of course I fuss and worry about them.

A very quick snap of them in a cage but at least they were together.

We did ask them to please do Carmeh first as she is the most nervous of the two.  They told us that her teeth were in great shape and just needed to be cleaned.  I had asked if they could check her ears to see if they were blocked with wax which is what the Mexican vet had told us.  Turns out that her ears were clear as anything so that is not the reason for her hearing difficulties.  I say difficulties as it is no longer a total loss as she can hear us off and on.  I really wish that it had been wax problem as that would have been an easy fix.  Last thing on the list were her anal glands and they were empty.

Next up was Caeli who is supposedly our dog with the least issues.  Turns out that she has pockets between her front gums and teeth which needed to be cleansed of debris.  That likely explains her bad breath of late.  She also had an upper rear molar that was loose and barely hanging there by a thin shallow root.  No stitch required.  The vet also noticed a tiny cyst on her upper lip that was removed ( I had never even noticed it ), it required one dissolving stitch. They decided to check her ears for wax and found that the one ear was full of wax.  They did flush it out and now I have to apply drops twice daily and every three days put a wax ‘melter’ in her ears 😯 IT was the wrong dog with the wax, Caeli can hear just fine. She can hear the food cupboard open while in a deep sleep so I guess that now she will have super hearing.    Her anals, of course, were full.  Always are.

When we arrived to pick them up, we could hear Caeli howling in the back.  Colin strode straight in to find his girls, usually you are supposed to wait until they bring them to you.  I was talking to the tech at the reception desk when Colin came out with a girl in each arm and stated that he was taking them to the car.  I later found out that they were in a back room with the door closed.  Guess Caeli did not like that.  I guess that they did not like her howling and locked her away.

The bill came to just over $1000.00 but we did not mind.  We do what we have to for our girls.  They dozed on the way home in the back of the car but did know when we arrived.  Caeli strangely kept wanting to go back outside and headed to the gate to get out of the yard.  the only thing I could think of was that she still thought that she was the vet and wanted to leave.  We finally had to close the doors despite the heat and high of 28C so that she would stay put.  Neither of them slept as we were told they would and instead started whimpering.  Turns put that they were very hungry.  We fed them earlier than we were told to and they finally relaxed.

They did sleep deeply throughout the day today and seem to be almost over the ordeal.  Poor babies.

Meanwhile yesterday Colin went to do a shoot but the clouds came in over the mountains so he postponed it.  However he did a few sales calls to clients in the area and we now have more shoots to do 😀   I meanwhile had to spend most of the day getting documents together for the accountant so that he could apply for a clearance certificate from the Canada Revenue Agency re my father.

What a lot of info they require. The reason for this certificate is to protect me the executor from ever having to pay further taxes on the estate as they can come back to me for the next seven years.  It took about four hours but I was able to put the info together.  A good way to pass the time without having to worry about the girls too much.

The only distressing thing of the day was seeing these two females and one male with many many goslings.  Hard to see in this late evening photo but there were babies swimming next to the second goose in the shot. I count about 18 wee ones in this photo.  Obviously something happened today that had these two families merging.

Time to feed the girls.  Rain showers have just begun which remind me of the devastating fire conditions in Fort McMurray, Alberta where the entire town has been evacuated and over 1600 structures have burned.  Thinking of the evacuees this evening.  Our province of BC can’t even send help to Alberta as we are already dealing with many fires, such a sad state to be in so early in the season.

Must have been very tired last evening, I wrote this before supper but must have hit logout instead of publish.  I wondered why i had no comments this morning 😳  So pretend you were reading this yesterday, it might make more sense.

First shot I got of the goslings this spring.  Taken just after the sun hid behind the hill.

Hard to believe that we have been home 2 weeks and 2 days.  We have been going non stop.  Nice to get things done but definitely looking forward to taking some days off in a week or so.  Just want to lay about and do nothing,  just like on the Isla.  Except I do miss our big morning beach walk.  Once the RV was unloaded, cleaned and everything put away we started doing things like buying new plant pots.  We gave away the old ones that we had brought back here over the years from Mexico.  It was time for a change.

You can get a hint of what they look like above. l love the green grass color. This was the first set of geese I saw last evening.

We have been spending money on some new patio chaises and umbrellas which are still on order and a new Miele vacuum cleaner, hopefully the last we will have to purchase.  I burnt out the motor on the Electrolux we had brought to Mexico this past winter while vacuuming our outdoor carpet.  Too much sand 🙁  but it was due to be replaced anyway….both the vacuum and the carpet 🙄   Fortunately we also had a small shop vac with us so we could still clean the RV carpet as needed.  Today we dropped off our passport renewal applications.  So much easier these days with a simpler form to fill out.  Plus you can now chose between a 5 year passport for $120.00 or a 10 year one for $160.00.  Not hard to guess which we went with.

Taken this morning. The doctor told me today that all is well.  Just waiting for the scabs to finish forming and to fall off.

After each vein injection ( this was the fourth out of six ) I have to go for a 30 minute walk. This park is just a block from the medical office. As you can see we brought the girls with us today and they thoroughly enjoyed the walk.

I didn’t see any babies in the pond today but did spy this duck and turtle keeping each other company.

The cottonwood trees are in bloom and are beginning to carpet the path with the soft white fuzz.  When I was a child I used to sneeze a lot around the cottonwoods but no reaction at all today.

The second goose family I saw yesterday. I imagine that they were out for their evening paddle before tucking in for the night.

We left the Isla at 5:30AM to head back home here in Kelowna.  Today Colin left at 6:30AM to do photography, his first job of the year.  He will be gone till about 10:30PM, a long day for him.  As I am housebound for obvious reasons the girls got a very early morning walk and won’t get another till tonight.  I hope to be able to start getting out again but need for my face to heal up first.  It was a very cool 1C/33F this morning but the day promises to heat up to 24C/75F.

Caeli is doing much better and is no longer in pain nor has blood in her urine that we can see.  Her final antibiotic is suppertime Wednesday.  We will be doing another urinalysis Thursday morning to make sure she is 100% clear of infection.

My face is scabbing over but I did find blood on my pillow case this morning.  I can tell I am healing as my face is itchy and I have to stop myself repeatedly from scratching.  As I will be seeing the doctor tomorrow for another vein treatment I can get her to check my facial progress.

Colin managed to get our annuals planted the other day. We picked the flowers together ( well mostly my decision ) at the nursery but I am only allowed to supervise the planting.

Interesting lighting due to the sun’s reflection before dipping behind the hill.

First whale sighting of the season just off Galiano Island, B.C.

These photos were taken by Gramma Katie’s daughter Karoline Cullen who has a home on the Island.

…yesterday 😯   Not fun 🙁

But first an update on Caeli.  She is doing a bit  better but certainly not herself.  Such a sweet girl who has barely complained at all.  The vet even called this morning to see how she was doing.  Very nice touch.

So the reason I was unable to stay with Caeli at the vet yesterday was because I myself was having a double medical appointment.

It was my third day out of six to have my veins done.  I have more than three times the amount of injections on the back of my right leg but I was turned the wrong way for the photos.  The MD, shown in the photo, was unable to do my back right leg last Thursday as I had a major problem with a vein on the front going into my femur.  It was not closing and the blood flow was poor and required an ultrasound to guide the doctor deep into the vein.  It was confirmed yesterday that the treatment was successful.  She refused to put too much medication into me last Thursday and more than made up for it yesterday.

This is the face of someone who never used sun screen. No one including my mother told me to and so I didn’t and now look at me.

These are not simple spots that can be treated with IPL or similar.  I tried and it did not work.  These are seborrheic keratosis spots.

If not treated they can turn into horrible wart looking things.  I felt that I had no choice but to be treated.

We actually saw a lady on the Isla beach this past winter who had  large warts on her face as well as hanging from her chest.  I was diagnosed with this problem last September shortly before we left for Mexico.  Now you know why I was wearing hats in all of my photos this past winter.  I having been using an SPF25 moisturizer the last few years, too little too late.  I am now applying an SPF50 sunscreen over that moisturizer. and wearing a hat.  Please, please protect your face folks.  I certainly wish that I had.

The only thing that will work for this problem is to essentially destroy the top layer of skin so that it will grow back in a healthy manner……hopefully.  In the photo above the doctor is freezing the worst spots in my face.  I won’t lie, it was excruciatingly painful.    I almost told her to stop and was ready to leave the room.  However Colin was there to hold my hands and encourage me.

The white/beige areas have been pumped full of anesthetic.  My MD is using electrocautery to remove the top layer of skin.  Despite the freezing it did hurt in certain areas.  I could also smell my flesh burning.

The machine that was used.

What it looked like immediately after the treatment.  The brown colored layer is gone.  You can see some lighter brown spots in the top right area, they will be treated with a special creme over the next seven weeks.

This is what the creme is made of.

That same side of my face at 6:30PM yesterday.

It was suggested that I sleep on my back which I can’t do so I had a very restless night ( my second night in a row ).  No matter how or where I lay my face was a combination of light pain, itching and burning.  I took a T3 which barely made a difference.  Here I am at 5:25PM Friday ( tonight ) and I still feel my face throbbing in those areas.  All I can say is please use sun screen, you never know when those spots are going to manifest.

This was taken about 10 minutes ago.

The skin is slowly forming a scab.  Then I have to wait about 2 weeks for the scab to fall off and then I will have some bright pink spots on my face.  I am told that it will take between 4 to 6 months before my face will look normal.  You can bet that I will be wearing SPF 50 and a hat for the rest of my life as I do not want to go through this ever again.  I must add that thinking about Caeli at the vet all alone while I was having my face cauterized  did take some of the stress of the moment off of me.  In fact the vet called right in the middle of my procedure to give us an update.

So now you know why yesterday was so traumatic for us.

I am likely housebound for a few days until the scabs form so that I don’t become infected.  I may have to start doing any walking late at night so as to not shock anyone 😳  The wine continues to flow.

We had no idea that she had been suffering until last night when none of the C’s slept.  I was awoken about 11:50PM by a low moan repeated over and over again.  I finally woke up enough to realize that it was Caeli.  She just kept whimpering.  The girls sleep between us in our bed  So it was just a matter of reaching over to comfort her.  That did not work.  She wanted to get up.  I put her on the floor and she went to the door.  Out she went to do her business.  Back to bed, Colin never woke up.

About an hour later at 1:00AM I heard the moaning yet again.  Both Colin and I got up.  We used a large flashlight to see what we could which was not much other than she kept peeing and pooing or so we thought.  Back to bed.  More intense whimpering at 2:10AM.  Colin took her out this time.  Carmeh got up as she wanted to know what was happening to her sister.  This time Caeli wandered the lawn for close to ten minutes.  Finally the four of us were tucked into our comfy king bed once again.  Only two hours later at 4:20AM Caeli indicated she needed to go out.  What was going on?  Had she eaten something bad yesterday?   Finally we settled in once again only to do a repeat at 6:10AM.  I had to get up at 7:00AM, I was tired.

So I got up at 7AM and had my shower.  Colin got up but both the girls stayed in bed.  We thought that perhaps Caeli had rid herself of whatever was ailing her.  She asked to go out at 7:55AM and I said to Colin that we should collect her urine just in case.  He did using a long handled large spoon.  There were just a few drops but they were bright red blood colored 🙁  Something was wrong and likely it was an infection.  Our vet opens at 8:30AM so we quickly dressed, fed Carmeh and left her at home alone as we rushed unannounced to the vets.  Carmeh must have been unsettled being left behind but what could we do.  We got to the vets and had to wait about 15 minutes for her to arrive. For those who know our vet, it was the daughter Jessica and not Susan.  Sadly we had to turn Caeli over to her and dash away.  I had a major previous medical appointment that could not be missed or rescheduled.

A few hours later we were told that Caeli had a severe E Coli bacterial bladder infection and that she was resting comfortably.  We were still close to 2 hours away.  Meanwhile a neighbor had come in twice to check on Carmeh but she refused to get off the bed.  We had asked the neighbor to check as we didn’t think that Carmeh had done her morning business yet.  Just another small worry for us.

This is what we saw when we arrived at the vets at noon. We took this peeking around the corner. The staff were all busy and it was a while before anyone spoke to us.

Meanwhile Caeli had started to cry or what I call her moan/whimper sound.  We finally were able to speak with someone who finally said that Colin could just go in the back and get Caeli out of the cage.  Meanwhile I was getting a lot of I don’t knows to my questions.

We had brought her favorite bed with her thinking she would be more comfortable in it once we left her alone.

She kept crying and Colin decided to take her outside to pee.  Turns out that she had not been out to pee since we left her over 3 hours earlier.  She did pee and it was a lot and the kleenex he used to wipe her with was blood stained.  I just wanted to take my girl home.  There must have have been a lot happening behind the scenes before someone came to check us out.  Bottom line she had an E Coli infection that they have no idea how she got it and it was not likely a result of us being in Mexico.  She received her first antibiotic at 10:30AM but it would take 12 hours to kick in.  I wish I had been able to stay as I would have insisted on an injection as it is quicker acting.    I did insist that they send her home with some pain medication.  It was a lot of back and forth as it turned out that the vet was in oral surgery ( tooth extractions ).  I did get pain meds and as I left asked that the vet call me later at home.

It broke my heart to see Caeli pacing up and down our lawn trying to pee every minute and stay in that stance for a while trying her best to eliminate what wasn’t there.  She was dehydrated, she had had nothing to drink since 7PM the evening prior.  I was sure that she was in pain.  Many of you have had bladder/UTI infections know how very uncomfortable and painful that is.  She wandered the yard for over an hour before she finally fell into a deep sleep.

She slept in her bed on the front step for a few hours.

It was so cute as Carmeh kept coming over to check on her.  Our landscape fellow came to cut the lawn and she only lifted her head.  I then began to worry about side effects from her meds.  Turns out that one of the side effects from the antibiotics is lethargy.  However she could just be exhausted from her long sleepless night.

Lots of worry with no solid answers.  It is so difficult when you don’t know what is happening.  The vet did call me later and explained that she had palpated Caeli’s bladder and thought it to be close to empty so that was why they did not take her outside, that did relieve me somewhat 😯   They will check back with us tomorrow, if the meds are not working we will change them.  We also need to check her urine in 7 days to be sure that she is  totally clear of the infection, if not, an ultrasound would be the next step.

What a fright the past several hours have been.  At this very moment she is inside and resting after spending 30 minutes trying to void, poor sweet baby.  As for myself the wine is flowing freely and Colin is gorging on peanut butter pretzels.

Hoping for some solid sleep tonight 😥