Jillie - post 3 months & life updates as of late!

Hey y'all! Been a while since I updated the blog, and what better time to do it than when I'm supposed to do something really annoying at work that I don't want to do!

So remember when the vets gave Jillie a 3 month life expectancy? YEAH. She blew that out of the water! She is doing as great as she was before. She still has no/limited vision in that eye (even though SOME people tell me she can see, they didn't see her slam her head into Blake's truck the other day...) It also seems that she doesn't realize when that eye is closed/barely open. Her left eye will be open and alert, and her right eye will look droopy. It's not always, but I notice it now and then. She's still happy and all that. Here's us at her 3 month mark.

 

See? She's great :) Okay, it was bright outside and she sits like an old man, but that's old news!

 

I had a great time at Andy and Kourtney's wedding - especially loved the photo booth! It's great to have a new Waggoner in the family!

 

Blake and I also went to the river to ride the RZR the weekend before the wedding - it was great but a little cold! I'm ready for the warmer weather to come around so we can go riding more!

The week after Andy's wedding, I got my wisdom teeth taken out :( I had a really hard time dealing with it, but I suppose Jillie remembered all those times I laid by her when she was sick, and she was more than happy to cuddle up with me to watch TV and sleep!

But let me tell you, she has never been happier to have Blake home! She was attached to his hip the whole weekend - very sweet :)

Jillie has been coming to work with me occasionally, she stays very busy up here!

She is pretty much working just as hard as me.

She can just barely make it through the work day.

The poor thing just never signed up for this!

Blake and I celebrated our anniversary (with a steak dinner... That I didn't get to each much of because of my teeth!)

But it was sure a fun year :)

And last weekend we celebrated Blake's birthday with a HUGE party! We are so lucky to have such great friends and family who came to celebrate with him! Other than fighting off a few scattered thunderstorms, it really was a great evening!

I should be posting some book reviews soon! And until next time...

Jillie This Week

Hey guys - just gonna give a little update on Jillie this week. A few things happened, but at this point, nothing seems too serious.

She did get attacked by a dog on Wednesday (a pit bull, imagine that.) All of the dogs were out and unfenced, Jillie had never met this dog (all of these dogs live on Blake's street.) Jillie got too friendly too fast and the dog immediately grabbed her and pulled her into the backyard. I don't think Jillie initiated the fight AT ALL, but she did initiate the curiosity, and I think that scared the other dog. It was pretty scary there for a few seconds, but Jillie managed to get back to me before the dog would let go of her, and (sorry but) I was prepared to kick the crap out of the other dog (even though his owner was running over.) The dog finally let go and Jillie came to me. She was bleeding on her mouth and over the course of the next few hours, developed a sore on the back of her neck (her bald spot, where the dog had a hold of her.) It seems to have gotten infected pretty fast (did that dog never brush its teeth??) but I have kept it clean with triple antibiotic ointment on it so hopefully it will heal up here pretty quick.

My second point is that there appears to be some stroke-like activity in her face. Her eye is droopy and her ears are lopsided. It could be because she is blind in that eye, and for all we know, she could be deaf in that ear. She is walking fine, eating normal, jumping around and running around, it's just her face muscles, and it's only when she's tired. This could be progressive, who knows. Just throwing it out there......

Peace.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - Claire North

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is about a man (Harry) who relives his life over and over, but retains the memories from his former lives (think Groundhog's Day.) When a message comes to him from another person like him that the world is ending sooner and sooner in the future, he has to find out where the end of the world is coming from. He does this by tracing major world events, and when they begin to happen sooner and sooner, he can start to pinpoint where the inconsistencies are.

I bought this book for Kassia for Christmas after I had heard that it was really good, and she really enjoyed it, so I couldn't wait to read it.

The first 44% of this book were a CHORE. I really did think that the backstory and explanation were never going to end. Parts of it were like reading a text book. I would zone out for paragraphs at a time and have to re-read them. The first half of the book had very little dialogue and action, but a lot of explaining who he was and information about people like him.

Don't get me wrong - we get introduced to his first few lives in the beginning. But the world changing doesn't happen for many lives after.

I would suggest this book if you are off work for a few days (I finished 1/3 of the book the first day, took me about a week to finish the rest) and you want to wrap your mind around some sci-fi that seems to take a lot of explaining.

If you don't have energy for a book that is mentally draining, I would not recommend this book.

It was VERY interesting, and very different from everything I have ever read. I feel like this book took 15 years to write, because it seems that she really did a lot of research to write this book. That being said, that much research in my brain in one book really took it out of me.

It's just hard for me to not recommend a book that I finished. I'm torn.

DNF - The Summer Fletcher Greel Loved Me - Suzanne Kingsbury

So this is my first Did Not Finish for the year. I'm not even going back to it. Probably not ever. And not for the lack of an interesting story. I really think it's the way it's written.

On Goodreads, this has some REALLY great reviews. I stopped at 15% for a few weeks, then read the reviews, then decided to keep on trucking. I made it to 22%, I haven't read it in about three weeks, then I picked up Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, finished that book in two days, and realized that I should quit trying to suffer through this book.

And honestly, 22% into the book, not much has happened. A big secret is revealed at the very beginning, and you think it's going to lead into all this goodness, but 1/5 of the way through the book, Fletcher and Haley have ran into each other once. How can he love her all summer when the summer is 22% over and you don't know each other?

It just seems slow. That's not to say that I don't think other people would enjoy it, because it really does give you a good feel of the south at this time in history (even though it doesn't give a clear answer to what time that is.)

Not recommended, but not to say others wouldn't enjoy it.

And on to the next!

ETA: I actually started this book in November or December, and I just couldn't get through it. I read the majority of what I read in late December, and picked it back up after finishing Wench. I should have realized that spending months not looking at my Kindle, because I hated that I didn't want to pick it up, meant that I needed to move on. It was a harsh break up. The book I'm reading now has me sucked in pretty good though, and we are only a few hours in.

Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn

Gillian Flynn has done it again.

I have now read all three of her books. Sharp Objects, I read in less than 48 hours.

At the beginning of the year, I told myself that I would try to read 2 books a month. That gives me over two weeks for each book. I got stuck on my first book in February, and finally picked this up two evenings ago and devoured it. That first February book, I'm going to delete it off my Kindle. Just wasn't a book I could read. More on that in another post...

Sharp Objects is a great mystery, very dark, a happy place I like to go to every once in a while. This is another book by Flynn when I kept thinking, "I know I know who the murderer is - but who is it?" Just when I think I've got it figured out - BAM! BAM BAM! (Lots of twists)

Definitely recommended. A+. Deranged and dark and wonderful.

Jillie's First A&M Checkup

Hey guys! Jillie had her first check up down at A&M today. They only did a physical exam and a neuro exam, which really wasn't much. The results were that she is 100% normal in all ways, except that she is still apparently completely blind in her right eye. 

So the real news is that because she has had a brain injury that caused a seizure, she will always be susceptible to seizures, especially now that there is damage from previous damage. However, the Keppra and the dosage she is on is a very small dose (and I've been freaking out that she has been doped up, so that's good to hear) and since it is controlling the seizures, it's very good news. The downside is obviously that it's 3 times a day, but we haven't had any problems with that.

Right now, she is pretty much being treated as an epileptic, but for different reasons. They said they have dogs who are a lot worse than her and live normal lives, so she is practically a normal dog :)

They said that she was very sweet to everyone in the back (duh) but of course we are glad to almost be back home.

So there are still no conclusive results. It's kind of frustrating, because it kind of seems like every different doctor I see gives me a different answer about what they think it is. The doctor today (a new one) seemed to be pretty sure it was a tumor or mass, but the neurologist we saw the day we brought her home said she wasn't thinking it was. The problem is obviously that I didn't want to do a biopsy (with good reasons,) so there isn't a definite answer what was in there.

I guess whatever it is, we are controlling the symptoms to have a normal dog :)

I should be receiving her MRI images in the mail within a week, and I'll post the pictures of it. It's hard to imagine how bad it was without seeing the pictures, so I'm just trying to give everyone some insight. Just glad to have a happy dog at home :)

Jillie as of 2/2

It's weird to say that I never thought Jillie would make it to her one month appointment back at A&M, but the time is dwindling near! Here are some updates:

• It does appear as if she is getting some vision back in her right eye. She doesn't flinch like she does with her left, but she does blink. So we are hoping that she is starting to see some shadows and that it will only continue to improve!
• She is having a small problem with flatulence. I know this seems petty, but when I, as a human without a weak stomach, almost vomited when she dutch ovened me in the car this morning, you know it's bad.
• She is working with me this week! I'm lucky to have a super cool boss who is letting me bring Jillie with me. She is a already a favorite in the office. I think she is even scoring me some cool points!
• At her vet appointment last week, she was up to 60 pounds! In case y'all were wondering, she started at 64 pounds, and when she went to A&M after 2 1/2 days of not eating/drinking, she weighed in at 57.2 pounds. She still did not eat for three days after that, so she probably lost close to 10 pounds, if not more.

That's all we have today! Back to wondering how such horrendous stenches come out of such a precious puppy!

Also: 6 AM doesn't appear to come easy for any of us -