We have an answer!
After 8 hours at the vet yesterday, we have an answer! Our regular vet referred us to see a specialist on Saturday and we were lucky enough to get an appointment the same day! The appointment was at 2pm and we started with a checkup for Damien and they found his heart beat was weak in his hind legs and wanted to do an EKG to check his heart. Since his blood tests were from a month ago they wanted to do more of those as well. They also wanted to do an ultrasound to check out his intestines, spleen, liver and other organs to make sure they look ok. 3 hours later they found that Damien’s adrenal glands were small and wimpy for his size and breed. They said that indicates he may have Addison’s disease but they need to look into it further and do a special blood test where they take blood, give him a steriod and take more blood samples to check his cortisol levels. The test would take 2 hours. So we hung out and waited another 2 hours while they did those tests. $1400 later we left the vet. Ugh… gotta use that Care Credit card again for these vet bills… Today we got a call from the vet that he tested positive for Addison’s disease! Good news that we finally found some sort of answers! They say it could still be more that that… they’re not sure yet… but he can be started on Prednisone right away and monitored. In a month he will have to go back for blood work. Hopefully he will get better soon on the Prednisone. He’s been even more lethargic than normal the past 2 days.
And so the mystery continues…
Damien’s vet called last night and the intestine tests from a couple of weeks ago came back 100% fine. He also said that they tested the kidneys already as well. So if it’s not the liver, the kidneys or the intestines… they don’t know what else it could be! He advised we lower Damien’s potassium bromide another 1/2 a cc because it can make dogs lethargic, but Damien is beyond lethargic. He’s not eeating enough and doesn’t show interest in food, we force him to the bowl. But he’s not losing weight either, so the doctor isn’t too concerned. I’m walking him daily to keep the muscles in his back legs from atrophying (sp?).
Here’s a cute pic of Damien from last weekend:
Amritz is married!
Amritz and Sarah got married over the weekend. It was a beautiful ceremony at a Presbyterian church in Pasadena. It was very hot too! 101 degrees my car thermometer told me! Poor guys in their suits were sweating like crazy. Josh kept his jacket hanging in the car and only put it on when we were in air conditioning.
The reception was really pretty too at the Rococo room in Old Town Pasadena, a block North of Colorado blvd. Pics here!
Buffalo visit!
I went home last weekend for Josh’s sister, Rachel’s wedding. It was a short but fun trip! Rachel’s wedding was beautiful. Josh doesn’t fly and he was super busy with work and we have 2 sick dogs at home so the 6 day round trip train ride was out of the question. Josh did the next best thing to being there, he sent a cardboard cut out of himself! See below… you’ll notice fingerprints on him in the photo of him with Rachel… that was the end of the night. He got a lot of action! He was all over the dance floor and the girls were all over him, even his cousin Jeff danced with him.
It was a lot of fun! The rest of the trip I visited with family and friends. It was so nice to see Nicole and Lisa again. We have so much fun doing absolutely nothing but hanging out at the house. We had plans to go to this new fondue place but it had an almost 2 hour wait! So we grabbed take out cheesecake from the cheesecake factory and did dessert night at their new house (which is also way cool with vintage-y urban outfitters style decor!). They have 2 black cats… the male- Batman had a thing for me. Apparantly he doesn’t really like people usually but he posing for my camera.
I posted the rest of the pics in the gallery… see link on the right 
New friends!
We have new neighbors that moved here from New Jersey and they’re very similar to Josh and I… so much so it’s a bit uncanny! A very cute couple, they own quads and like to go riding. Lauren likes to garden and cook, she’s very laid back and Keith is like Josh modding all his stuff and very into motorsports. Lauren and I started going to yoga together, I showed her the studio I go to.
And then we found out Lauren has a horse! How cool is that? Her horse’s name is J.D., he just arrived here yesterday after 4 long days standing up in a trailer! We went to see him. He was very sleepy, but adorable none the less. He’s a beautiful all white horse (or handsome?). She’s boarding him at a ranch just across the wash, about 3 miles away. He’s still getting used to his new surroundings and I’m sure he’s going to take a few days to shake off the jetlag too!
Diversity in the workplace!
Because so many of my coworkers are not from the area or state… or country… Simon a cube neighbor of mine and I decided to create a “Where are you from?” map. People can interpret it any way they like… where they live now, where they came from, where they were born… however they like and put pins with their names on the map. It’s a tactile version of Google’s “My Maps” feature.
Our map filled up fast… after one day, we all think India will disappear from the map soon and just be names!
Represent’in Buffalo! Already had 3 people ask if I was Canadian :[
Tracking packages with Google!
Did you know you can just copy and paste a tracking number into google (or your google toolbar if you have it) and it will track your package? It’s like magic! It know FedEx, USPS, UPS, DHL.. you name it!
