Can Life Get Any Crazier?: Busy Weekend

Saturday morning started out kind of rough at our house. Our dog Yukon had woken me up in the middle of the night every night starting on Wednesday to go potty. This was very unlike him but I did not really worry about it too much at first, after all he is nine, a senior citizen in the lab world. Friday night he did not eat his dinner. Hmm. Saturday morning he did not eat his dinner - this is cause for concern. Anyone who has ever known a lab knows that these dogs don't miss meals - especially our lab. Yukon tells us that it is dinner time by talking and dancing around. He lets you know what time it is - just in case you forget - by nudging your hand and pointing you in the right direction.

The other thing about Yukon is that before each meal he gets his hot dog full of his medications. He gets 4 pills for his seizures and 2 pills for his bad hips and blown knee. If he doesn't get his meds he won't be able to walk and will start having seizures. We also have to keep him pretty darn regulated for this and he has an internal clock that knows its time for his hot dog and dinner.

So after the 2nd missed meal and 3 nights of interrupted sleep we were off to the vet. As if to demonstrate how much he was not feeling well he decided to throw up in the office right in front of the vet. I was trying really hard not to cry, but by this time I knew something was seriously wrong and was getting scared. The vet decided to keep him and run tests and he would call me when he knew something. So I went home with out him.

In the meantime......

We had baseball games to go to. Today it was back to back games at the same field and only a few minutes away from the vet. T-mans game was fun to watch, and when I say fun I mean that in a "we laughed a lot" way.

So after T-man displayed his awesome fielding skills we headed to the next field to watch J-man play. J-man has been doing really well and hit the ball every time he was up and did good out in the field too. His team did significantly better too and even had a double play. That was pretty exciting.

While we were at baseball I checked in with the vet -

Vet: no blood results yet, can we get a urine sample?

Me: Of course.

Vet: Can we start and IV if we need too?

Me: Um - Yeah.

Vet: Okay we'll call you back.

More baseball.

Finally as we were done with baseball the vet calls again.

Vet- We figured out what is wrong with Yukon. Your dog is diabetic.

Me - What? (Laughing) You have got to be kidding me.

Vet - His sugar is very high and we are going to start him on some insulin and get him regulated. the good news is that it is treatable and will not interfere with his other medications. The insulin will need to be given every 12 hours and will be on the same schedule as his other medications.

Me - (still laughing) So how much is insulin - just give me a ballpark.

Vet - Let me check - a vile is $30 and will last a month

Me - (still laughing) Okay when can he come home?

So Yukon is still there at the vet. He stayed there Saturday and was still pretty sick. Today they said he was feeling better and was eating and drinking but they wanted to keep him one more night to make sure they could figure out the right dose of medicine. I can pick him up tomorrow along with his new meds, new food and big bill. This brings the medication bill up to $130/month. Pet insurance might have been a good idea for this dog.

While Yukon was at the vet spending my next paycheck we had to head down to Portland. We had a graduation to attend. My little sister has a BS and a BA, because apparently one degree is not good enough anymore. So we got there Saturday night just in time to have a family dinner to celebrate. Sunday morning we got to have brunch at The Commons and then we got to sit through a really long graduation. Well I got to sit through it, Mitch took the boys to the park to play cause lets face it, they never would have made it through. It was 4 hours.