You Can't Do That, Part II

You would think I was all done after the insulation. Nope.

When adding a fan to your bathroom, you invariably have to add a power source. You could tap an existing power source and run a wire for a new switch. If you have the sheetrock off anyway, you'd have the whole wall open and you'd drill a hole in the stud cavity and fish the wire to the new fan.

The wrong way to do it is put the wire on the outside of the framing and then put sheetrock OVER it. Yes, we had that in two places.

Have no fear, I have at least one more coming.

Happy Easter

Easter is a time for reflection, rebirth and new beginnings.

I hope we each take a moment to reflect upon the many blessings that have been bestowed upon us.

We wish all our family and friends a very Happy Easter! Your support, especially during these last few weeks, means more than you can imagine. We are sending you all hugs and kisses.

Cooper hopes all his 4 legged friends receive Easter baskets filled with popcorn, tennis balls and chocolate dipped milkbones.

Gaggle of Goldens

I have always wanted a gaggle of Goldens. I can't imagine anything better than a house full of these beautiful dogs. However, I'm not sure that Coop would like having to share our attention.

When Danny's foster Mom, Linda, sent this picture it made me smile and I knew it should be shared.

Linda owns the 3 adult Goldens(Callie, Madison and Frankie). Frankie (recently adopted from Sunshine Golden Retriever Rescue) is wearing the radio collar and reminds me of Danny. They both have the same shaped head and such beautiful eyes.

The pup is a SGRR dog that Linda was fostering and was recently adopted.

You Can't Do That, Part I

There's something to be said for building a house from scratch.

The upstairs bath had been remodeled sometime in the 80's. I'm not sure of the extent of the renovations, but obviously a medicine cabinet had been abandoned and a mirror plastered over the open spot. No problem, what do you do with an exposed area, you fill it with insulation.

Once the room was gutted during this renovation, we see what the real problem was. The only insulation in the exterior wall was the little bit where the medicine cabinet had been abandoned.

Upstairs Bath

On Monday, our upstairs bathroom looked like the top photo.

Today it looks like the bottom photo.

We are not renovating this bathroom ourselves and have hired a contractor.

When the sheetrock was removed, we found out that there was no insulation in the outside wall! How is that possible ?

Congratulations UNC

The UNC Tar Heels won the 2009 NCAA Men's Basketball tournament. UNC completely dominated Michigan State and won 89-72.

I can't say the game was very exciting, because after the first 2 minutes, the score was never close.

Several UNC players did not join the NBA draft last year so they could stay in college and try to win a National Championship. Isn't it nice to know that with hard work some dreams do come true ?

Cytology

Good news! The oncologist called and the biopsy of Cooper's lymph nodes came back normal.

I am not really sure what this means, since it is always prefaced by "this does not mean the cancer has not spread somewhere....".

We seem to be riding a roller coaster of emotions these days.

I am going to try hard to be optimistic and just believe that Coop will be with us for a while. The best we can do is to try and enjoy each day that our pack is given together.

Decision

We do not yet know if the cancer is in Cooper's lymph nodes. Yet even without this information we have decided that we will not be pursuing radiation or chemo.

This was not an easy decision. Many tears have been shed since we learned of Cooper's illness and sleepless nights are now routine.

Some people will agree with us and some will disagree.

We will not send Coop away to live in a kennel while he undergoes radiation treatment. I think Coop would feel scared, abandoned and unloved. The months of work to establish trust would be broken.

As for chemo, we don't want Coop's life to revolve around Dr. visits.

I wonder if we are letting Coop down? Should we fight harder to extend his time with us?

In the end, we felt that what is important is that Coop be happy for whatever time remains. Keeping Coop with us and showing him lots of love is the best way we know to make him happy.

New Furniture

The new furniture finally arrived!

Reality

When I see Coop running around the house, always wagging his tail, it is easy to forget he just had surgery.

But then there are days like today, when we can't escape the fact that Cooper has cancer.

We went to the oncologist and he said that the pathology of the tumor leads him to believe there may have been some spreading into the capillaries. The oncologist recommended radiation and chemotherapy.

There are no local vet hospitals with radiation equipment, so Cooper would have to spend three weeks away from us. Chemo would be an ongoing treatment as long as Coop lived.

Some additional tests are being performed to see if the cancer has already invaded the lymph nodes.

Without treatment statistics say that Coop could survive up to 12 months. Treatment could extend this to two years.

We will think about all the medical advice we have been given and then make a decision.

Terrified

We had a severe thunderstorm the other evening. I did not think anything about it until Jeff said, "What's wrong with Coop?"

I looked over and Cooper's ears were flat against his head, his eyes were wide and every inch of him was shaking. I never knew Cooper was so afraid of thunder.

I petted him but nothing stopped the shaking.

After the storm passed, I went to bed. Coop refused to jump up on the bed. He tried to crawl under the bed, but is now too big to fit.

Coop spent the night with his head and front paws under the bed. I felt bad, but he seemed to feel safe like this, so we just let him be.

Way To Go Heels!

I realized that I have been slacking and have not once mentioned our beloved UNC Tarheels during the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

The Heels beat Oklahoma on Sunday and are now in the Final Four!

We are hundreds of miles from Chapel Hill, but we still bleed Carolina Blue. This may seem odd, since it is not our alma mater, but ever since Jeff worked at the University and we purchased season tickets, we were hooked.

UNC will play Villanova and UConn will play Michigan State on Saturday.

It is a good thing that Jeff's parents like basketball, because I do not want to miss this game. Jeff's Dad went to Michigan State and the Championship could be Michigan St vs UNC.

Wouldn't that be interesting ?

Bath Time

By the time we finished with Coop's morning walk we were all soaking wet. I said, "Since we're already wet, we may as well go to the dog wash". Both Coop and Jeff gave me the same "do we have to" look.

I wish I brought the camera, not for Coop, but the site of Jeff in a big yellow rubber apron was priceless.

Coop did not want a bath. He refused to jump onto the bench, so Jeff just scooped him up. We were very careful around his incisions. As Coop's hair gets thicker, it takes much longer to blow dry his fur.

Coop is now looking beautiful and his fur is unbelievably soft. We have family visiting this coming weekend, so Cooper will be all ready for lots of love.

Frogs

I knew we were in trouble the other evening when we pulled into the driveway and saw frogs hopping across the blacktop headed towards the pond.

The frogs are now "singing" all day and night. It is not so bad during the day, but when you are trying to sleep, they sound like an off key band outside our window.

Thankfully, it is too cold to open the windows.

There are a pair of hawks constantly perched in the trees around the pond. I can only hope that they are enjoying frog legs as appetizers.

Pond Life

The wood ducks seem to be enjoying the pond. They will fly in for a few hours each day.

We have also had a pair of mallards visit. I do not think these ducks are Maddy and Paddy. They did not fly off when I put out corn, but they refused to leave the water.

Maddy and Paddy would come running whenever they saw the corn.

Cooper has not shown much interest in the ducks on the pond. We will not let him get too close to the water.

Stitches

Cooper's stitches were removed today. He can wear his collar again. I think Cooper will be thrilled to get rid of his harness.

I thought we would have a lot of problems with Cooper chewing at his stitches. However, he was great! He occasionally licked his leg, but no chewing.

I am hoping to take Cooper to the dog wash this weekend. He could really use a bath. It will probably take months for Coop's hair to grow back.

We have an appointment on Thursday with the oncologist.

Oncologist

I was finally able to speak with Dr. Duffy about his discussion with the oncologist. It turns out that there is a "world class" animal oncology center in Norwalk, just a few miles from Norwalk Vet Hospital.

The oncologist stated that there is a chemotherapy protocol for dogs with thyroid carcinoma. Since they did not have Cooper's test results, they cannot give specific details.

Dr. Duffy is very realistic and reminded me that the oncology center's business is chemo and radiation, so they almost always recommend followup treatment.

I have a lot of concerns about starting Cooper on chemo. We agreed to make an appointment with the oncologist and can then make an informed decision.

The oncologist should be able to tell us how long Coop can survive with and without chemo, the cost for treatments, side effects, etc.

Not Our Ducks

On Sunday morning, I looked at the pond and saw two ducks swimming on it.

I immediately thought Maddy and Paddy (the mallard pair) had returned, so I went out with some corn. As soon as I got close to the pond, the ducks flew away. I knew that these were not our ducks.

This morning I looked out and the two ducks were back. I pulled out my binoculars and saw that they were a pair of wood ducks. I know that wood ducks are very flighty, so I just let them enjoy the pond in peace.

I don't know if Maddy and Paddy survived the winter or if they found a new home. It seems that sadly, they will not be back this year.

Cooper Update: Dr Duffy and I are playing phone tag, so I don't know the oncologist's recommendations. This may be TOO much information, but I found a great article about thyroid carcinoma at http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=2666&S=1

Cooper's Back

I don't know if it is the fact that Cooper heard the good news from Dr Duffy or if it was that on Monday Coop was home alone and got to sleep most of the day.

In any case, the old "never slow down" Coop was back Monday evening.

Since his surgery, Coop has pretty much ignored his toys and rawhide. This evening he started carrying around his big rubber ball and dropping it at our feet, with a please throw it look on his face.

When he got tired of the ball, Coop started chewing on his rawhide bone. I only let Coop have the bone for a little while, so he would not open up the stitches in his neck. Coop did not want to give the bone up and only a stern word stopped a tug of war from occurring. If you haven't guessed - Coop loves tug of war.

As Jeff says Coop doesn't know he may be sick and we're not going to tell him ;)

Test Results

Dr. Duffy called us at home tonight. He asked how I was and I said that depends on how Cooper is.

Dr. Duffy said "I have pretty good news".

We started with the bad news - the neck tumor is thyroid carcinoma which typically spreads to the lymph nodes and lungs. (The lump on his leg was benign).

The good news or to quote Dr. Duffy "The best news we could have hoped for" - the tumor appears to be fully encapsulated, which means that it all was removed during surgery. Also, the x-rays of Coop's lungs were clear!

What does it really mean ? Dr. Duffy said it is possible that the cancer has spread and it is just too small to see or it may reappear in the future. He will contact an oncologist to see if there is a standard protocol that is typically followed.

We will need to have chest x-rays every few months and check for swelling in his lymph nodes.

Dr. Duffy said these tumors are usually found too late and invade the jugular vein, so we are lucky. At least we know Coop will be with us for a while longer (think months, not days).

We should know more later this week after Dr. Duffy speaks with the oncologist.

To everyone who said a prayer, emailed, called or just thought about us, we THANK YOU!