Following The Call » Our lives as we went from adopting to mission work to leukemia fighters.

Have you heard that Lola got a dog for christmas??   It is the most wonderful/awful little dog ever. Its a tiny 4lb 2yr old yorkie that lets lola haul it all over the house, and put it in party dresses and force it to lay next to her any time she is tired, including all night long.  It is wonderful because Lola LOVES it so much. It helps to keep her happy, it gives her a ‘purpose’ when she isn’t feeling well and can’t do much else but pet the dog and tell it how cute it is. This past friday when Lola had clinic we scheduled the dog to go to the vet the same day to get fixed (We sure don’t need any puppies around here…) and to have some teeth pulled (really??  My dog has a dental bill?!!  ). Lola thought it was so great that they were both going to the hospital on the same day. They both needed medicine, and they both had to get ‘pokes’ And lola made sure to tell every person we came in contact with that day that both her and the dog were going through medical procedures. The dog is awful because it seems to have bonded to me. And I am not bonded to it. I want it to be Lola’s dog, and the dog wants to follow my every move and snuggle up close breathing its hot stinky breath on me any time I take a break. If that dog catches me in bed, it is sure to jump on in, snuggle down under the covers and give me a big stinky lick on the face. gross. So. Thats the story on Lola’s new dog the famous Ms. Roxy Fur. (she was going to name it fur…. thankfully she decided to go with that for its middle name. )

Let’s see. What else is going on. Lola has been doing fairly well. Her spirits have been high, and she is just all around happy. Last month (december) she had gained enough weight that at clinic they raised her doses of chemo. That seems to have been more than her little body can handle and she is now dealing with a lot of nausea and vomiting. She eats and like 4 minutes later will throw up and then just continue on with her day.  While so far all of these ‘incidents’ have been at home, I am slightly terrified to leave the house with her for fear of puke. I just make sure to pack some plastic bags and extra clothes every time it seems we may be at risk for an explosion.  This is also effecting her eating habits, and it has become nearly impossible to get her to eat. Nothing sounds good, and it is so hard for her to eat even a little bit. When we were at clinic friday she had lost weight, but not enough to need to lower her chemo doses back down. Her PA at clinic didn’t have any real great ideas for how to deal with this, so we are basically going to give it another month. She is now on some high doses of chemo, and high doses of meds to deal with the side effects of the chemo.  Its just so frustrating knowing she needs the chemo, but that the chemo is affecting her negatively.  This whole situation makes life a bit more difficult.

We went to church in town today, so decided to run to the mall while we were there. Lola still has some leg/ankle weakness from last year when she stopped walking, and I could tell that the cute little leather boots I had bought her were just not giving her enough support so I really needed to find her a new, better pair. It was lunch time so we decided to grab a bite to eat at the food court.  Lola doesn’t want anything to eat, and after trying to figure out what to get her for about 15 minutes I get frustrated and tell her to pick something, or we’re going to go home.  She finally decides on chicken tenders and chocolate milk. We get our food, and she drinks about half her milk, says her stomach hurts and that she can’t eat anything else. I become slightly afraid that she is going to throw up in the food court (which she doesn’t).  Matt becomes slightly suspicious that she is just saying her stomach hurts so she doesn’t have to eat.  After some discussion it is decided that her stomach does indeed hurt. We decided just to suck it up and try to find a pair of boots since we are at the mall and probably won’t be back for a couple of weeks. We make it to store #1. No good boots. on to store #2.  They have a cute pair of Keen boots. They looks supportive, cute, comfy and they are on sale. perfect. Oh wait…. they don’t have Lola’s size. On to store #3 (stride rite). They have about the same options as store one, but we decide they are an improvement over what she has now, and they are on sale so we just snag a pair and start to get the heck out of the mall. Lola suddenly has to go to the bathroom and the events that occur in the bathroom prove that her stomach did indeed hurt. I’ll spare you the details of that…..

That is a pretty good description of our lives right now. Lola is happy overall, feels good most of the time, but we just never know when these stomach issues might creep up and cause trouble. Hopefully we can get things under control with this so that Lola can go on being happy  and feeling good all the time!!