Snowy Is In ICU

On the drive here to Manteo, the doctor called about Snowy. She said he is not bouncing back like they had hoped, hasn't eaten anything at all and has been able to urinate very little. He is in the ICU and on Valium, morphine and IV fluids.

They were about to give him a high dose of steroids to reduce inflammation but needed our permission first because it can have serious side effects. They were also going to sedate him and put in a 12-hour catheter, but when they tried that, he actually leaked a little urine so they're going to wait on the catheter a little longer and see if the steroid reduces inflammation enough to bring about results.

Sarah and I had another Snowy Cry Session after the doctor's phone call; it's terrible to think of him being in such pain and having to be away from home and away from the family he loves.

The doctor said if anything changed in the middle of the night, they would call us. Otherwise, we'll get a call in the morning to let us know how his night went and another call in the afternoon to see when he might be able to go home. They won't discharge him, of course, until he's eating, his pain is manageable and he's able to urinate. (And in the meantime, the bill goes up, up, up! Yikes.)

We're about to head out for a dinner; I'll be in touch if anything changes.

Thanks for your prayers for peace and comfort for little Snowy and for his family, as well.

The Fifth Smith

The hospital called this morning and said that Snowy can't be discharged today after all. He's still in quite a bit of pain and unable to urinate so he has a catheter in and is still on IV meds and fluids. They also did an ultrasound and said there's a lot of inflammation issues that need to be resolved before he can be released.

And it really worked out okay because we were in sort of a quandary about picking him up today and then either traveling with him (a challenge for all involved) or leaving me behind to care for him, which would put a bit of a dent into the music line up since I play the keyboard for the worship team.

We'll either pick him up tomorrow evening when we get home or on Monday morning. And believe me, when he gets home he will be hugged, and cuddled, and petted, and patted and spoiled rotten. (Not that he isn't all the time anyway!)

A few of you mentioned pet insurance in the comments and yes, that sort of thing actually does exist. Steve did some research on it last night and it's about $30 a month. We may look into giving that a try since enormous vet bills are not our list of favorite things.

Again, thanks for all your sweet comments and prayers for our family. We are so happy to know that our beloved "Fifth Smith" will be back home with us soon.



We'll head out to Manteo in a couple hours. We'll be attending a dinner tonight, have the service in the morning and then turn right back around and head home tomorrow night.

Our realtor did get our offer written up and presented to the family who owns the house that we're hoping to rent/buy. We should hear an initial response from them early next week. If all goes well, the very earliest we could be in the house is December 1st. We're not sure of all the details yet, but for the month of November, Steve may just end up moving to Manteo by himself with Sarah and I driving over on weekends. That would keep us from having to move so much family stuff over there until we actually have a house to move it all into.Lots of details to work out.

Happily, Nathan will be here at least a week in November which is just exactly the right timing to help us pack. Hurray for a strong and wonderful son!

Time to go finish the packing that was interrupted by the doggie emergency yesterday. Thanks for checking in!

Snowy Update

It's been a very long day as tears and love were all wrapped around one white, 5 1/2 pound package and delivered to the surgeon at 2 pm.

We met with a doctor who explained that they would do blood work first thing. She said that since Snowy hadn't been able to urinate for so long, toxins could very well have built up inside his body affecting many different areas, including his heart function.

She then explained that during the surgery, the surgeon would first attempt to push the (huge) kidney stone back into the bladder and then make an incision in Snowy's abdomen and remove the stone from that direction. That would be the best case scenario.

She said that if that didn't work, there was the possibility that they would have to re-route his "plumbing" altogether so that for the rest of his life, he would urinate like a female dog instead of a male. (That scenario had something to do with fissions and scar tissue that would make urinating difficult or impossible the "old" way. That would also push the cost of the surgery to over $3,000 instead of "only" $2,000.)

We sat in that little room and filled out forms and signed papers having to do with "Do Not Resuscitate Orders" and what we wanted them to do if he had a cardiac arrest during surgery. By the end of it, we were both broken down in tears and basically cried all the way home.

Sarah spending a few last minutes with her dear little companion at the doctor's.

When we got home, the three of us sat at the kitchen table and had a pretty serious and heartbreaking talk about how high the expenses could go and how much we thought we would be able to justify paying if it went way up over $2,000.

That is NOT a conversation I ever care to have again with my daughter. Snowy has been her shining light throughout the worst months and years of cancer treatment and to contemplate with her that he could be at the end of his life was a conversation that was beyond excruciating.

Although she was teary eyed, she was also level headed and she bravely told Steve and me that she understood that as much as we all loved Snowy, there were financial issues to consider as well, in light of our recent (almost) year of unemployment. We all finally agreed that we would just wait and hear back from the surgeon once he got into the surgery and could actually tell us what direction the surgery would end up going.

There were more tears, a family prayer and a hug before we all drifted away to various parts of the house to just be alone.

And also to think about a beloved white doggy at the hospital, with needles in his veins, love in his heart, and a difficult surgery ahead of him.

They said we would hear something around 8 pm. I'll let you know. . .

BREAKING NEWS!

Just as I finished typing this, the hospital called.

Snowy came through the surgery very well and thankfully, they WERE able to get the stone pushed back into his bladder and remove it! Woo-hoo!

He is still on IV's and on morphine and isn't quite awake yet, but they said if he starts eating a little bit tomorrow morning, we can conceivably plan on bringing him home tomorrow afternoon. (The hospital is about an hour away.)

We're still not sure what we're going to to do about Manteo; Steve, of course, will go tomorrow regardless, but we'll have to see how well Snowy is feeling before we decide what Sarah and I will do.

Thank you for your kind comments, thoughts, and prayers!

We are one very happy, grateful, Snowy-blessed Smith family tonight!!!!

Snowy In Surgery

Sarah and I are headed out to Raleigh right now to take Snowy to a big animal hospital for emergency surgery. He has a huge kidney stone lodged in the opening of his ureter and hasn't been able to urinate all day.

The vet here in Smithfield said the place where it is showing up on the x-rays will make it a very tricky surgery.

Sarah is in tears; I'm not far behind.

A Tech Question, Pictures, Nathan News And A Recipe

It's Friday so it must be time to go to Manteo! But of course we can't leave until I first do my Frenzied Packing Routine. And write a blog entry.

I had planned to post a cute video today that Sarah and I made together (featuring Snowy, Sarah and me) but I'm having a technical difficulty which I wondered if any of you techies could help me out with.

We made the video in Windows Movie Maker (an older version) adding music to the little bit of dialogue that was already present. When I saved the movie to my computer and played it there, all the elements were intact. However, when I tried to upload it to Blogger and You Tube, the music soundtrack disappeared just leaving the dialogue. (The song is royalty free, by the way, so I do have permission to use it.)

Does anyone have any idea why that is happening and what I can do to fix it?

Thank you very much, in advance, from this non-techy gal.

______________________________

Recently I spent a little time messing around with some editing on the Smithellaneous logo. Aren't these fun?

I also ran across this miscellaneous picture of Nathan in my file searches and it made me miss him frightfully.



I'm missing him especially right now because he called us yesterday to tell us that when he went to donate plasma yesterday, the medical tech listened to his heart for the longest time. He finally put away his stethoscope and said, "I'm sorry you can't donate plasma because you have an irregular heartbeat. You need to go see a doctor for a complete check up."

What's THAT all about? We've never heard anything about an irregular heartbeat before now!

Of course, being a mom, I had to immediately jump into Worried Mother Mode. Because that's what moms do.

He called to tell us that news and also discuss how to deal with insurance issues when he goes to the doctor. It really seems like he's a true grown up now, going to the doctor without a parent in tow.

Thankfully, he's coming home at Thanksgiving for about a week so I'll be able to ply him with hugs and chicken soup. Moms can cure a lot of things that doctors can't.

__________________________

Okay. I promised a recipe in the title of this post and a recipe you shall have. I realize that my Tortilla Thingy recipe I posted earlier was pretty simple and basic and that you all are probably just yearning for something with a couple more steps.

This recipe (which I got from Steve's mom years ago) is delicious and takes less than fifteen minutes to make. I'm sure you could substitute shrimp for the chicken if you want, but I'm not a real pro on cooking shrimp so I wouldn't know how to tell you to do that.

And Sue, this recipe contains NO cheese or sour cream!

Chicken Scampi (A Smith Family Favorite)

1/2 C butter
1/4 C olive oil
1/4 C chopped onion
1 T minced garlic (I use garlic from the jar)
Juice of one lemon (or 2 T. reconstituted)
2 lbs boneless chicken breast, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (Can use more or less chicken)
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1/4 C minced fresh parsley (I just sprinkle in some dried parsley for color)
1 tomato (fresh or can use diced tomato from can)

In skillet, heat butter and oil. Saute' onion and garlic briefly. Add lemon juice, chicken, salt, pepper and parsley. Cook, stirring frequently for 5-8 minutes or until chicken is done. Add diced tomato and heat through.

Serve over noodles and rice. About 4 servings.

How simple is THAT?

And while we're on the subject of cooking, someone in the comments a few days mentioned that she didn't spray her non stick pans with Pam. It seems to me that I've read something about that in a magazine but I can't remember all the details.

Do you spray you non-stick pans with Pam or go Pam-less?

This inquiring mind wants to know!

The Jonas Brothers At The Consignment Store

Earlier this week, I went to Second Fling in Goldsboro, NC, a store which just happens to be my favorite consignment store in the whole world. It's a place where I've shopped at least a couple times a year for the past thirty years.

In fact, I was reminiscing about it at dinner last night, telling Steve and Sarah that I went there before I was married, and when I was a newlywed. I got maternity clothes there when I was pregnant with both kids and I also went there to buy clothes for them as they were growing up. In fact, I got one of my all time favorite dresses for Sarah there when she was about five; it had paper dolls all over it and was done up in the sweetest style and colors. I will always adore that dress and have even saved it as a keepsake.

Here's a not-so-clear picture of it. (Sarah had a cast on her arm because she broke it when she slipped on some ice.)

I remember buying a sport coat there for Steve that he wore forever when we were on the road; of course, I have bought tons of clothes for myself, as well as books of all varieties, lots of jewelry and even a few home decorations. I've taken loads of clothes there over the years to re-sell and got back some nice little chunks of change in return.

I'm not a hundred percent sure on this, but I think that some of the same people who worked there thirty years ago are still there. When I walk into the building, it's like time has stopped. Although the world outside has gone on, presidential administrations have changed, tyrants have been toppled, and wars have been fought, Second Fling still stands basically unchanged in the same spot, offering the same sweet brand of Southern charm and lovely bargains that they have all through the years. (Sarah calls clothes found at consignment stores, "pre-loved clothes." Don't you love that?)

And the place is huge. When I say huge, I mean huge. Larger than huge. Huger than huge! Behomothic, even! (I just learned that word. Isn't it great?)

I can spend half a day in just the front part of the store, and still never really see everything. (Of course, I'm the sort of person who tries on thirty items for every one thing I buy, so that takes a while.)

Besides the regular women's clothes in the front area of the building, there are also evening gowns, wedding gowns, the biggest inventory of shoes you have EVER seen in a consignment store, pocketbooks, lingerie, some nicer furniture, nursing scrubs, fine china, and tons of jewelry.

Then there's a hallway that leads back to a smaller room that features men's and children's clothes. Through yet another door is an additional enormous room with even more household stuff, rows and rows of books (be still my heart), Cd's, videos and DVDs, men's bargain clothes, exercise equipment, decorations, and miles of miscellany.

If you walk even further back through the building, there is another room almost as big as the cavernous room in the front of the store which is sort of the "yard sale" area. It features clothing where the prices are more on the thrift store/yard sale scale.

I must say that I hardly ever even make it back to that room because I usually run out of time and/or energy before I ever get there.

And speaking of running out of energy, I always bring a snack and some water and about halfway through my day at Second Fling, I go out to the car and take a 10-minute rest break. The place is THAT big. It HAS to be big, to hold all the memories I have of it.

Now. Some you might be wondering at this very moment:

Why is this crazy woman rambling on about Second Fling when the title very clearly mentions the Jonas Brothers? Surely, she cannot tie those two subjects together in any sort of logical way.

Oh yes, I can!

As I was leaving Second Fling on Tuesday, I got trapped behind two elderly ladies in the narrow walkway leading out to the front door. They had stopped to look at some furniture that was on display and had camped out there in the aisle in order to further peruse the furniture and discuss it at greater length.

I sighed to myself, shifted into "park" and just sorta hovered nearby, pretending like I was looking at a case of necklaces while the ladies continued to converse in their honeyed, genteel tones. I hated to just go barging on by them while they were having their important furniture talk, and besides, I love to eavesdrop. (As long as the subject is not terribly personal or private.)

I heard one of the women say something about the color of the furniture; her friend then commented on its style.

As they both continued to gaze at the furniture, the first lady said, "Do you want to know something, Miss Mildred? The Jonas Brothers told me that this kind of furniture is coming back into style."

Well! You can be sure THAT line caught my attention!

I cast a fleeting, furtive glance at Miss Mildred to see what her reaction would be and to try and discern whether or not she was at all taken aback by the fact that the Jonas Brothers had been communicating with her friend about furniture styles.

As it turns out, Mildred was completely nonchalant about that bit of news. "Really? Well, it's probably true then, because the Jonas Brothers really know what they're talking about when it comes to furniture."

At this comment, they both nodded wisely to each other and blithely strolled out the door.

I, however, was frozen in my tracks.

I stood and considered the only two options that this conversation could possibly represent:

First option:
The Jonas Brothers are now branching out from their fabulous career in music and have begun advising elderly Southern ladies on styles of furniture.

Second option:

Both of those sweet little ladies are living in some sort of alternate reality, some sort of Fantasy La-La Land, where it makes perfect sense to stand in a consignment store and discuss the Jonas Brothers and their contributions to the furniture industry.

Neither option was appealing. And yet, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out any sort of third option.

I slowly made my way out to the car, chewing hard on that conversation, trying to figure out if I had imagined it all. But no, plain as day, I had heard the words, "Jonas Brothers."

Jonas Brothers.

Oh wait! Suddenly it hit me!

For many years, there had been a furniture store in Smithfield owned by the Jones Brothers. The JONES Brothers.

And since any Southern woman worth her salt can take any one- syllable word on the planet and effortlessly transform it into two or more syllables, Jones naturally became Jonas!

Voila! Mystery solved!

I felt so much better after finally reaching that conclusion because it made me sad to think that those two dear old ladies were thinking that they were in touch with the Jonas Brothers and it confused me beyond words to think that the Jonas Brothers had deviated from their music career to give opinions to elderly Southern ladies about on furniture.

So I went home, a happy woman.

I'd been to my favorite consignment store, I had a bag of bargains to show for it, and I'd transformed Jonas back into Jones. (I'm sure the Jonas Brothers would be thankful.)

It was a day well spent.