Holiday Traditions

Happy Holidays! It is hard to believe that it is December 31st and the holiday season is nearly done.  I have to admit I've been a bit lazy over the last week.  After the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, I really haven't felt like doing much.  Sometimes it is nice to spend a few quiet days at home.  I'm not sure that the girls agree with that, but I do know that they've been happy to have me home with them.

Before the Holidays this year, I had made big plans to get out and experience as many different fun holiday activities as I could.  I was looking forward to seeing so many new things-the lights at the Detroit Zoo, Christmas at Greenfield Village, the Winter Wonderfest in Copper Harbor, and several other things. but what I discovered this year is that I don't need to add a bunch of new activities to my Holidays.  I already have several traditions, and those traditions are what make the Christmas season special.

We did start the season with a couple of new adventures.  We started by visiting the Old Fence Rider Museum's Old Fashioned Christmas in Edmore.  We made a full day of it, attending a local craft show and then hiking a local trail, and as we left town, we saw Santa.  It was a good way to get me in the spirit of the season.

I followed that by attending the Wonderland of Lights at Potter Park Zoo.  Every year the Marines hold a Toys for Tots toy drive one Saturday at the Zoo.  I love to bring a toy or two to donate and, as a bonus, I get free admission to the event.  I love to walk around the zoo looking at all of the lights and stopping to see the big cats.  It is one of my favorite holiday traditions.

The girls and I visited the Capitol and the State Christmas tree more than once over the course of the month.  I love walking downtown and listening to the Christmas music playing in the streets and enjoying all of the sights and sounds of the holidays.  I think this year's tree is one of the prettiest I've seen.

I attended the Holiday All-Nighter at the shelter with Cricket.  This event has become a big part of my Holidays over that last several years and I always enjoy spending time with my friends there and helping our homeless friends find new homes before the holidays.  Cricket and I were there for a few hours and, while she didn't get adopted, I was proud of how well she did with all of the people and craziness.

While I didn't do as much as I have in the past, I still spent some time baking some family favorites.  One of Nicol's favorites is my great-grandma's sour cream cookie recipe, and I made a special batch just for Christmas eve.  It was the first time that I was able to use my grandma's cookie cutters to make cookies and it was a special experience for me.  I'm sure this will be a new tradition that will last for years.

I took the girls out for our annual drive to look at Christmas lights and we also enjoyed some quiet evenings at home just enjoying the Christmas tree and some holiday movies.

Nicol came home for our Christmas eve celebration and all of the girls, even Cricket, were excited to see her.  They were spoiled by both of us and thoroughly enjoyed the whole celebration.  I was pretty spoiled too!  Christmas eve is always my favorite night of the year because I always have all of my girls together and nothing makes me happier than that.

Christmas day was spent at my parent's with my family.  There was food, presents, and family time.

This Christmas season the weather has been unseasonably warm.  We've had temperatures in the 40s and 50s.  It hasn't really felt like Christmas here in Michigan, but I have enjoyed being able to take the girls out on some nice walks.  They have also enjoyed being able to spend more time outside enjoying the yard.  But Christmas shouldn't feel like Spring.  Surprisingly, I have missed the snow.  I guess I really do dream of a white Christmas.

Normally, I would spend a few days leading up to New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in Copper Harbor.  This has become a tradition over the last several years, a tradition that I really love.  I had made plans to leave yesterday for the long journey North, but Mother Nature had other ideas...and dumped nearly a foot and a half of snow over the Keweenaw Peninsula.  Most of the UP and the Northern Lower Peninsula experienced a large storm throughout the day yesterday and into today.  Snow, ice, and power outages were experienced throughout the area.  And this morning, the snow finally arrived in Mid-Michigan.  So for our safety, the girls and I stayed home and are enjoying a quiet New Year's Eve at home.  I'm sad to be missing my New Year's Eve in the Harbor, but I am thankful to spend the night with my girls no matter where we are!

I have enjoyed the holidays and I am thankful for all of the memories I made with these amazing girls of mine! 

I want to end with an update on Maddie.  As you may remember, we recently had her at the vet for an ACTH Stim test in order to test her for Cushing's Disease.  The results of the test came back  inconclusive for Cushing's Disease and negative for Addison's.  With the test results, the chances for Cushing's is unlikely, but still possible for atypical Cushing's.  After discussing options, and potential other causes, we decided that an abdominal ultrasound would be the best next step (most of the other possible causes of her symptoms are very rare and very unlikely).  The Ultrasound would give us a better idea if she could still potentially have Cushing's, despite all of the testing showing otherwise.

Saturday morning we headed to the vet for the ultrasound.   The ultrasound would tell us if there was swelling (or a tumor) of the adrenal glands or anything else going on in her abdomen that could be causing her symptoms.  I had a great discussion with the vet who did the ultrasound as she completed the procedure  Both of Maddie's adrenal glands are enlarged, but show no sign of tumors.  The size of the enlargement is typical for a dog with Cushing's disease.  In addition, the wall of her gallbladder is thickened, which is also typical for a dog with Cushing's disease.  Maddie is showing all of the signs of Cushing's despite the test results. 

Our next step is to take her in for a more intensive test which will take 8 hours and should give us a more definitive answer.  She is scheduled for that test next week.  Since all of her blood work has come back good and her abdominal ultrasound showed no signs of any tumors, I've decided that if the next test is negative, we won't be doing any other testing and I'll just deal with her symptoms.  She's a happy girl and is pretty healthy for a 13 year old, so I feel pretty blessed. 

As we end 2019 and move into a new year and a new decade,  I just want to say thank you for continuing to follow along on our journey.  As I think back over the last year, and the last 10 years, it's crazy to think of all that I have accomplished.  I am thankful for my family and friends and the life that I lead, and I am especially thankful for all of my girls.  I look forward to the new adventures that 2020 will bring! 

Happy New Year to you all!

The honor of growing old

When I brought Peaches home nearly two year ago, we already knew she had cancer.  I didn't know anything about mammary tumors in dogs at the time, and I didn't know what to expect.  I never expected her to be with me longer than a few months because I thought she'd get treatment and then go to her forever home. When I took her to the vet a couple of weeks later and they found evidence on her chest x-ray that the cancer had already spread to her lungs, I was told at that time that there was no treatment and that she probably had at most two years to live.  Two years can seem like a really long time in some cases, but when you're talking about only having two years left to live for a dog who was at the time only 6 years old, it seems like such short period of time.

Due to her prognosis, it was decided that she'd stay with me for whatever time she had left and I jumped into planning how we'd make the most of her remaining time.  I started her Instagram page and her bucket list and I was determined to make sure she didn't miss out on anything!  I wanted to share with her all of the places I loved, but she also inspired me to find some new things to do and new places to visit.  We've completed nearly everything on her bucket list now, but the most important item on the list was for her to live a great life, and I think we've accomplished that.

While not knowing how much time she had was scary, in reality, none of us know how long we'll be here.  Since she came to me already "sick", I actually worried less about things, and her enthusiasm and zest for life made me smile every day.  It is infectious and it's hard to spend time with her and not feel happy.  As we near the two year anniversary of Peaches coming into my life, she's still doing great and making the most of each and every day.  I've seen no signs of her slowing down or of the cancer affecting her.  I honestly never thought we'd be where we are right now...I never really thought I'd get two full years and more with her.

Because she is doing so well, last week I scheduled Peaches to have surgery to remove a large lump that has been growing on her right hip.  It had gotten pretty big, and while it didn't seem to bother her, it was starting to bother me.  While she was at the vet, I requested that they also do her chest x-ray-we've been having them done every 6 months since I got her in order to track the progress of her cancer, and she was nearly due for the next one.  Since her original x-ray, we haven't seen any progression of her cancer and I was interested to know what we'd find this time.  What we did find was completely unexpected.

I received the call from the vet after her surgery that everything had gone well with her surgery.  The lump he removed was a cyst, not a fatty tumor like I had expected, but it didn't appear to be anything to worry about, which was excellent news.  And then came the big surprise.  Upon examination of Peaches' chest x-rays, he told me that he could find no signs of metastatic cancer tumors in her lungs.  The two spots we had seen in the previous two x-rays they had done were not there.  He even compared her current x-rays to the old ones.  Her chest x-ray this time was clear!

I couldn't believe what I was hearing and was anxious to get out to the vet's office to discuss further what this meant for Peaches and her future.  My discussion with the vet was so informative and interesting.  While he can't be sure what caused the spots that we had seen previously in her x-rays, we now don't believe that the cancer has metastasized at all.   He explained that mammary tumors are benign 50% of the time and a majority of the time in mammary cancer, if a malignant tumor is removed, that it will get rid of the cancer...and that there is a good chance that the other, smaller tumors she has along her mammary chain are most likely benign since we haven't seen any growth in any of them in two years.

So what does this mean for Peaches and her future? Well, first, we no longer need to take her in for semi-annual-x-rays.  At this point, I have no reason to worry about her cancer and, unless I see changes in her health, I don't have to worry about her having cancer at all.  Dr. Jason even told me he wouldn't be surprised if I had another 6 years with Peaches in my life.  While I understand there are no guarantees, this was some pretty great news!

When I brought Peaches home with me as a foster two years ago, she was like every other foster I had brought home.  I only expected her to be a temporary resident.  After we got her terminal cancer diagnosis and decided she would stay with us, her time with me was still limited.  While she has become a big part of my life and one of my girls, I never pictured her growing old here.  I felt sad for her at times, knowing that as her cancer progressed she'd go from this lively, vibrant, energetic girl full of life to a shell of herself, but mostly I felt sad because she'd never have the honor of growing old.  But now I am so happy for her and so hopeful for the future and so honored that she will get the chance to spend the rest of her life with me and some day, if all goes well, she'll get the chance to be one of my sweet little old ladies.  What a marvelous Christmas miracle!

Family Christmas

Hello and happy Sunday!  I've been awfully busy with work, the holidays, and working with Cricket to help get her ready for a new family.  There is always so much to get done this time of year!  I love the Holidays and I have been trying to get out with the girls to enjoy as many fun holiday activities as we can.  I promise to share more about our Holiday fun in another blog very soon.

I just spent the night putting together a blog for today, however, there were some issues with the website and none of the blog saved...so I must start from scratch.  I don't have time tonight to rewrite the blog, but I promise that I'll finish it tomorrow and share with you...we have some really exciting news to share!

For now, I'll just share quickly that today was our Struck family Christmas with all of my aunts and uncles, my cousins and their kids.  It is amazing how big the family has gotten!

There was good food, good conversation, and a visit from Santa.  For the last several years, Santa Claus(or as I like to call him, Santa Charles since my Uncle Charles always plays the role) has visited our party to hand out gifts to all of the kids...including my nieces and nephew who have all grown up too fast!

I hope you are all enjoying your Holiday season!

Cricket

Hello friends and happy Sunday!  It is currently sunny and 39 degrees on this lovely, late-Fall November day.  We are just days away from Thanksgiving and the start of the Holiday season.  This week was fairly uneventful, with our regular nightly walks and my final night of work travel for this year.   We have settled in to the time of year where is it nearly dark by the time I get home from work every night, so our nightly walks are a bit shorter and definitely less exciting.  But that's just how late November goes!

I did have a couple of highlights this week as I was able to spend some time with my good friend Kim while I was out of town for work on Wednesday night.  It's always nice to be able to spend some time with her and visit over a nice dinner.  We spent the night in at her house with some take-out from the Rusty Bucket and her adorable boy, Baxter.  And any night spent with a dog is a good night in my book.

The biggest news of the week is that we brought in our newest foster, Cricket.  Cricket is a hound mix who is just about a year old.  She hasn't had a very good start to her life.  She is pretty scared of the world in general, and since she came into the shelter in early October, she's already been in two other foster homes.  I think the instability and constant change haven't helped her in overcoming her fears, but she is a very sweet girl and she won't be leaving my house until she's ready to move on to a forever home.  I plan to give her lots of love and stability, and hope to build her confidence over time.  We have had her for less then 48 hours and I have definitely seen some improvements, but we have a long way to go.

Our original plans for Friday night had been to attend the Silver Bells in the City parade and State Christmas tree lighting in downtown, but Cricket would have been far too overwhelmed, so instead we stayed home and watched the parade on TV.  Everyone seemed happy with our choice to stay home.

After a lot of anxious pacing and worry about some scary areas of the house, like the hallway, Cricket found a spot next to the toys where she seemed to feel safe and was able to relax for a bit.

Saturday we were up early and outside to do yard work and leaf clean-up.  This gave Peaches and Cricket plenty of opportunities for some fun games of chase.  They spent a good part of the morning outside chasing each other, sniffing around, and just enjoying the day.  Cricket also discovered that the neighbor dogs like to chase her along the fence, so each time she goes outside she runs to the fence looking for them.  It was a great day to be outside and even Maddie was happy to spend some time out with us.

While she is slowly settling in, sometimes it feels like we take three steps forward and two steps back in our progress.  The biggest challenge so far is getting her to come into the house.  Going through doorways seems to be very scary for her and I am patiently allowing her to make the decision on when she feels brave enough to come inside.  Many times it takes me putting her on a leash and walking in with her, but she's making progress.  I'm hopeful, and pretty confident, that by next week, she'll be running right through the doorway.

We were also happy to celebrate our little buddy Bentley's 7th birthday with him yesterday.  Of course we had an ice cream party to celebrate the day.  Cricket wasn't sure what to think about ice cream at first, but eventually I was able to get her to try some.  She thoroughly enjoyed it. 

When we weren't outside, Cricket spent most of the day yesterday safely far away from us on my bed.  Eventually I convinced her to come stay with us in the living room and she has finally decided that she really likes the recliner. 

After an early start to the day this morning with a good game of chase in the backyard, she has found her way back into the recliner for a good nap.

I look forward to watching her grow brave and blossom here with Maddie and Peaches' help.  I'm hopeful that she'll be loving life as a dog in no time. And I look forward to sharing her journey with you.

The girls and I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!