Tristen after surgery

I visited Tristen today. He seems alot better... he perks his ears up and is alert to sounds. But he still can't walk, is on IVs and has a cafeter. Maybe it's the pain meds that make him seem a bit better. He's still not eating or drinking but hopefully I can bring him home tomorrow. He might just be nervous being there all alone. I'll go visit tomorrow and if they say I can take him I'll learn all I have to do to take care of him.

Tristen's Ruptured Disc

What crazy past 24 hours... came home from work last night and poor Tristen couldn't walk. I was up with him all night because he was crying in pain every time he re-positioned himself. I had to carry him from one place to another and he couldn't even use the bathroom. Ends up that he has a ruptured disc and it was so severe it caused paralysis. This article gives a pretty good description of what happened to him.

First thing this morning I took him to the vet and spent $400 there for them to tell me he probably needs surgery and that I should take him up to Veterinary Specialty. Well, they did more than that - they emptied his bladder and gave him some pain meds, took x-rays and did blood work too. So up to Buffalo Grove we went. It was pouring rain and people were driving like idiots and he was in a lot of pain sitting uncomfortably in the front seat.

I felt better once we got there because I know how good they are. He needed an MRI ($1000 plus vet analysis of another $600 or so) and they pretty much knew from their experience that he'd need surgery. I waited up there until all day waiting for them to squeeze him in as an emergency MRI but it ends up that they had to put him under to do the MRI so that needed to be coordinated with the availability of the surgeon so if we decided to go ahead with surgery they could just continue on with that while he is still under the anesthesia. We did decide to go ahead with the surgery and the entire day cost me about $6000... so far. He has a hospital stay for a while before I can take him home and I'll get the final bill then.

No vacations for mama next year! But it's okay because he was fine one night and then the next night I had to decide if I wanted to let him die of pain or go in debt. It is a very shocking choice and of course I didn't really have to think too hard of which one to do. But I can't believe how expensive it all is - what do people do who can't afford it, don't have credit and can't borrow? Just watch their pets die? I can't imagine how dreadful that would be.

Anyways, surgery is successful. The next few months will be a big challenge for me because he will still be immobile while he heals and I'll have to carry him around, feed him, even "extract" his bladder and who knows what else. I've never taken care of a person or pet really that immobile before so it is going to be really tough. But that's what we do for our babies!

PS - an interesting story of what another pet owner went through with this same thing here.

Shadia's Baby Shower

Today was Shadia's baby shower. I still can't believe that she's preggers and going to be a mama in a few more weeks! The shower was at Sip and Erin, Yasemin and Shadia put it all together. It was the perfect place for us to hang out together. Erin brought some awesome coffee from Colorado and put it in plastic bottles as favors. That and tea bags. They put baby pictures of Shadia and Jeremy as tags on them too. It was super cute. And one of the neatest things they did was buy a bunch of white onesies, bibs and hats and they put them out on the table with markers and asked the guests to draw on them. I made a funky onesie with a purple monkey and a bunch of my scrapbooking swirly doodles.

More pictures from the shower are here.

Dick's Birthday

Tonight we went to the Chicago Firehouse Restaurant to celebrate Dick's birthday. They say it's a steakhouse. It's build in an old firehouse and even has the pole they slide down next to the bar. There are awesome old lights and an old tile floor too. This is a really neat place to bring people who visit from out of town.

Kylie Minogue @ UIC Pavilion (10/7)

We had the best time at the Kylie Minogue concert! And it was a total surprise that I even went because my friend got tickets and had an extra one for me. The show was great and she is very theatrical. Most of her stuff is real dancy, which is fun. There was one point in the show and she sang "Your Disco Needs You" acapella and she has the voice of an angel. She is super cute and now I am a huge fan!

See all the pictures from the Kylie show here.

The Lost Symbol

Recently finished Dan Brown's new book, The Lost Symbol. All in all, I enjoyed it. This book is as fun as any other Dan Brown book. Half of it is unbelievable and the other half makes you think... I found plenty of stuff to google and see if it was real - and it all was. I was especially curious to see some of the artwork mentioned. I think that's what makes his books stand apart from others, his research. He writes about things in a way that people won't believe it, but it's all true.

As for the writing of the book and all that, some of it was kind of annoying and sometimes, like when reading what the bad guy was thinking, it was just plain dumb. But that's okay. I kept turning the pages and couldn't stop reading by last 100 pages or so of the book.

So do I recommend this book? Yes. But not because it is anything earth shattering, unique or touching. But because it is fun and I can't wait for some more of my friends to read it so I can talk about some of the topics with them.

Googling "Melancholia I", Albrecht Durer, "The Apotheosis of Washington", circumpunct, "Kryptos" and Noetic Sciences...

Whip It!

Saw Whip It! and LOVED it! First of all, Kristen Wiig, Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page are all uber cute. And the story was fun. Roller derby is something no one really knows about and now, after this movie, I totally want to go check it out. These girls are tough!

PS - made a "derby name" on the official movie site and my name is Tic Tac Tackles.

Centrifusion mini-reunion

It was so good to see a bunch of people that I used to work with at Centrifusion. Pflieger had us all over to his place. There ended up being only a handful of us because the dates got messed up, but once we all got talking we all talked about the others we kept up with and it felt like I got caught up with 50 people instead of about 10. Almost everyone brought their kids and we had a nice time. Centrifusion was my favorite place to work throughout my entire career.

Chicago 2016... denied

Today was the Chicago 2016 Olympic Rally at Daley Plaza. We were to find out around noon if Chicago won the bid to be the host for the 2016 Olympics. The rally started at around 9am and I wandered by at around 10am. I heard they were passing out free t-shirts but they were all gone when I got there. Instead I got a colorful flag and a poster thing. But the vibe at Daley Plaza was full of fun and everyone was excited. There were tons of news crews and bands were playing Led Zeppelin and other "pump you up" songs.

When I got back to work I was listening to the Olympic voting which was streaming online. I planned to head back to the plaza around 11:30 to hear the final results. Everyone thought it would come down to Chicago vs. Rio. But it ended up that Chicago was the first out of the four to be eliminated! You could hear a collective gasp around my entire office when that was announced. No one expected it. People were walking down Dearborn crying. I'm assuming it's because they were hoping for the new jobs that the Olympic bid would have secured for the city... can't think of another reason why someone would be SO disappointed. As for me, I thought it would be awfully convenient for me to get to go to the Olympics in my lifetime if they were held in my home town. Also, there would be hottie athletes hanging around the city which is fun too.

All pics from the rally are here.