Officially Technological

So, I was going to post pictures of my quilt (which I finished last week) for my next post, but instead I’m going to tell you about Sam.

So, Sam had the stomach flu this past week. I came home from work one day and he had vomited all over his room and had had a little diarrhea. Which was not fun to clean up. So, I cleaned it up and Sam was still bouncing around and looking pretty normal so I thought he was probably OK, but I called the vet anyway. The vet said to withhold food for about 24 hours from the last time that he vomited and to give him rice and either cottage cheese or boiled hamburger (a bland diet) after that. So, that’s what we did. And he didn’t throw up or have any more bouts with diarrhea so we thought he was fine.

On Friday after work I came home and Brian said that Sam had been sick again. Ugh. We were hoping that he was healing, but apparently not. So, that evening we kind of watched him and he was refusing food (which tipped us off since he’s such normally an annoying little beggar). So, after tucking him into bed and hoping he’d be better in the morning, we looked online to see if there was anything else we could do for him.

Saturday morning he was not better, so we took him to the vet who had appointments all morning but she kinda glanced at him and said that he still looked pretty good, and if we saw this, this or this to take him to the pet ER, but otherwise she could squeeze us in first thing Monday morning. We were pretty satisfied with that, so we went home.

We were home for a couple of hours when Sam started vomiting blood, which scared the poop (I guess the word “poop” is probably inappropriate in this particular post) out of me because I had read online that bloody vomit or diarrhea were often symptoms of cancer in the stomach.

So, as I’m cleaning it up, I’m sobbing thinking that we were going to go to the ER and not come home with our dog. So, Brian came and cleaned up and told me to get Sam in the car and he’d be out and we’d go to the ER. It was very nice of him.

Off we went to the ER where we sat (just like a human ER) for a long time. Meanwhile, Sam is losing energy by the second and was even having a hard time getting up to walk around. Well, eventually the vet came in and looked at him and they ran some blood-work and she was happy to report that Sam did not have a tumor but that he just had been sick long enough that his intestines were so irritated that they were bleeding. Phew. So, she gave him some fluids and some antibiotics and sent Sam home to rest and get better.

That evening Sam was still really, really sick. He couldn’t go up and down stairs (which if you know Sam, you know that that is extreme). We had to carry him around. The fluids that they gave him they inserted under his skin so it looked like he had a pack of water on his back, which also made him top heavy (poor guy), so that didn’t help much with the moving around either.

Sunday morning was more of the same. Sam was really weak and not wanting to do anything, but he did let us feed him his medication and about a tablespoon of food. When we came home from church it was about the same and I went to get him some Pepcid and while I was gone, Brian said he just came to life. It was kind of weird, but while I was gone he started wanting to get up and play and when I came home he was downstairs and he bounded up the stairs two at a time to come to the door. So, I think it’s safe to say that Sam is on the mend.

I know I’ve gone way over what I normally consider to be “proper” blog entry length. However, I found this weekend to be very insightful on several different levels. First of all, I know that Brian is the absolute perfect person for me, but sometimes it is just so clear how we are two parts of the same unit, and this weekend was one of those times. He was great and I thank God for him. Also, I know I’m crazy about my dog, but I realized that it is the same instinct that makes me crazy about my dog that will make me crazy about my kids when (or if) we are ever able to have kids. Sometimes I think that since I’m not one of those baby magnets (I can make a baby cry faster than anyone I have ever met) that I will have trouble with kids, but after this weekend I realized that I’ll be OK – we’ll be OK. I also was reminded of God’s kindness. Often I feel like my problems are insignificant (in light of the world’s suffering). I sometimes feel kind of frivolous for praying for God to heal my dog when there are children out there dying of all kinds of curable diseases. But Jesus said not even a sparrow would fall to the ground without His noticing. It was just a reminder He loves all His little creatures (probably even the mean ones like mosquitoes and rattle snakes). So, I think He must love Sammers. Probably even more than I do. And so I want to thank Him for having mercy on my poor, sick little puppy. He is so generous. So, today, things are back to normal (ish). Phew. What a weekend.