LEIA

So I know that I haven't posted a new blog in quite some time, but these past few weeks have been so crazy, stressful, emotional and every other feeling you can think of. I am not a person to surround myself with chaos. But for some reason, the chaos decided to pay me a visit, and it brought it all!!!

Here is the update: Leia our almost 5 year old Wiemaraner. Has a history of consuming things that are not dog food related. Her favorites are socks, bibs, paper towels, tissue, toilet paper, small shirts, whole boxes of crayons. you get the idea. Well her track record has been that she will consume what ever it is and then will either poop it out or throw it up. And then be fine. Well not this last time.

It all started on Thursday Feb, 21st, Leia threw up a fleece mitten of Charli's and then on Saturday pooped out what looked like a sock or small shirt. Chad and I were elated, thinking she would be fine after getting those two objects out of her system. Well she started throwing up and by Monday Feb 25th, she started refusing food. Which is so not like her!!! She had also in all of this, I caught her knawing on a towel that she had thrown up on. I called the vet and got her in on Tuesday Feb 26th. After some tests Dr. Callen (our vet) highly recommended that we take her down to Sacramento. He said the X-rays showed lots of gas and possibly a blockage. He was also very concerned about her loss in weight. She over the last month has lost about 20 lbs, and is really skin and bones. Not good!!!

So Wednesday Feb. 27th, I made a trip with Erin my sister in law, Charli and Leia, down to Sacramento. With X-rays in tow. The doctor took one look at the X-rays and said that it was bad and that Leia needed to go into surgery immediately. All other animals in that facility would be put on hold so that Leia could go to surgery. That doctor also said she was going to get me some estimates as to what the cost would be. She came back and the low was in the $4000's and the high was in the $6000's. Our vet told us it would be around a couple thousand. I pretty much lost it at that point because I knew that we didn't have that kind of money in any of our accounts.

After a couple calls to Chad with me in tears and barely making it through our conversations, we thought the only option for us was to take Leia home with us and comfort her the best we could until she passed or needed to be put down. So heart wrenching and horrible!!!

This facility also told us that they don't do payments because they almost always get sent to collections. So that option was out. The doctor then after all of this anguish, proposed to me that I could sign Leia over to them, they would do the surgery and then find Leia a home. She also told me that I would have no legal rights to Leia and wouldn't know the outcome of surgery, and if they found something detrimental, they would have the right to euthanize if needed. (For those of you who don't know, I placed a child for adoption almost 11 yrs ago, and all my adoption stuff started coming up). So after talking with Chad we decided that was the best and least selfish option. I signed that paper pretty much through a river of tears streaming down my face. I begged the doctor and the receptionist, that if I gave them my info to pass it on to the person that was going to take Leia. I told them it would really bring me comfort to just be reasured that Leia was in a good home and being well taken care of. The doctor told me she would pass on the info but it was up the persons discression.

They gave me some time with Leia by myself, I took pictures of her on my cell phone. Hugged and kissed her so many times I lost count and told her to be good, and also prayed to God that he would watch over her and keep her safe and give her a good home. And then dragged myself out of there with no energy left to even function. As a conslation gift they let me take the box of kleenex home. When I got home, Chad was already home. He had to leave work early because he was so upset. We could barely look at eachother with out bursting into tears.

The next day was horrible, I had a house full of daycare kids. My friend Tara came and helped me out in the morning, which was so wonderful. I felt like I was depressed, I could barely shower let alone take care of a house full of kids.

Friday, two days after signing Leia over, I got a call from our vet. Denise the receptionist was calling to tell me that Dr. Callen and his whole office was so upset about what we had to go through and in his 20 plus years of being a Vet, he has never had this happen. He has never refered someone to another facility and the outcome being that they have to sign their animal away. Denise then proceeded to tell me that Dr. Callen wanted to sell some of his Pete's Coffee stock and loan us the money to pay for Leia's bill. I almost couldn't speak, I felt like God had answered all the prayers that I had been praying in the last couple days. My prayers were truely answered. I also wondered why Dr. Callen would be so kind in helping us in this way. I still have a hard time understanding why he chose us to help out.

So to sum this all up, we picked Leia up in Sacramento on Sunday March 1st. She was ready to be discharged on that day. We brought her home and she is doing amazing!!! After everything was said and done, the bill totalled $2867.65. Not anywhere near the low estimate they gave me. They told me that the surgeon pulled out a big amount of what looked like a towel from Leia's stomach. She has staples for 10-14 days, which she gets removed in two days. After they are out, Leia doesn't have to wear her cone. No more cone head dog, who runs into everything with that cone on.

Leia still has a long road ahead, she has been on a bland diet since the surgery. Which is white rice and boiled chicken. 4 feedings a day. Today I introduced puppy food, tiny scoops with each feeding. We are feeling hopeful at the rate that Leia is accepting food, that she will be able to put weight back on with no problem.

In the car ride back from Sacramento Leia took turns resting her head on me and then Chad. She just kept going back and forth from each of us. We were so happy to pick her up and I really think she felt the same way.

This has really been a wake up call for us as far as what and how we store things in our house. We have bought multiple containers with snapping lids to store our laundry, toys and anything that we think might be tempting to Leia. We can't chance having this happen again.

Overall we are just thankful that Leia is recovering so well. We are just so glad to have her back in our family and could not imagine losing her. She really is just a happy go lucky girl.