The House of Sorrow

Last Friday Ryan and I thought it would be fun to let Andrea try Grandma and Grandpa's hot tub. We turned the temperature down to a reasonable temp for a baby, put her in her floaty swim suit from Aunt Sandy, and hopped in. We were suprised that she didn't have much of a reaction at all. She didn't love it, didn't hate it. She acted real listless and sleepy. Afterwards I noticed she felt quite warm and her cheekies were a little red. When we got home and took her temperature it read 99.9. I thought this was due to the hot tub and gave her a luke warm bath and Tylenol hoping that would help. In the middle of the night during a fussy spell I took her temp again and it was 101.4. After a while of snuggling up against me my chest was covered in drool... "teething" was my first thought. After another day of fussiness and Saturday night a temperature of 101.7 I was worried! We headed to the doctor Sunday as soon as they opened and found out our little one had strep throat. The doctor said it's unusual for any child under 2. I'm sure it was so frustrating for her not to be able to tell us what's wrong, just the fact that our little girl was out of sorts should have been enough of a clue. During this fun weekend of sickness the dog had peed in the kitchen and Ryan said it was mostly blood. We called the vet Saturday but they had no openings until Monday. We figured it was just a bladder infection and some antibiotics would do the trick. Monday afternoon I got ready for yet another doctor trip, this time dropping off our sick Andrea, well-druged, at the in-laws while I took our other babe to the doctor. As the vet, who graduated with Ryan and I (makes me feel old that someone our age has been through that much schooling), felt around you could literally hear rocks clinking in Tessy's tummy. She explained that those were bladder stones and that surgery was needed. After seeing the x-ray for myself, my heart broke. This poor dog had grape-sized rocks in her bladder that had been forming for years. So on Wednesday Tess went in for surgery and came home that evening. Her initial recovery was scary! She had the shakes, wouldn't open her eyes, and seemed ill-tempered. After an hour or two of rest she popped right up seeming her old self again. Grandpa Gary was kind enough to babysit our patient on Thursday morning while I headed off to work. Today it's my turn, and she is doing quite well. She wants to do more than she should and I'm trying my best to stop her from licking her wounds so we don't have to use the lampshade collar. We actually had to use the baby gate already, not for Andrea, but to keep the dog from going down the stairs.

Andrea is doing so much better, now she is just frustrated that she can't crawl or walk. It's been a stressful week but I am so grateful for my mom who can babysit Andrea while I work and give her the medication she needs, instead of dealing with a daycare that wouldn't give her the love a Grandma would. My in-laws are also such a huge help always begging to take Andrea or the dog off our hands to give us a break. Although we have so many helping hands I'm glad that as the mother I can have most days home to create some stability for my baby and some comfort for the dog.