Ashley loved opening presents this year, too.  Last year, she liked opening bags with tissue paper.  But this year she was all about ripping the wrapping paper off the presents.  In fact, I think she enjoyed unwrapping the presents more so than the presents themselves.  She also liked bringing the presents to Van and I.  And of course the boys weren’t left out.  Toby and Blake got 2 huge bones in addition to their new beds and Jimmy got some treats and a little cat toy.

We didn’t take a lot of pictures that morning, but here are a few.

Ah, my sweet boy Toby.  My first lab.  The cute little puppy that got us out of a parking ticket at Wrightsville Beach.  My now 10 year old bodyguard who is always by my side.  We took him to the vet this past weekend for his annual check-up.  Due to his age, we also had a blood panel run to make sure all was okay.  I just knew deep down there would be nothing wrong though.  He’s eating/drinking and acting just fine.  A little more anxious than usual, but hey, his Mama is about to bring another little baby into the household.  So it’s understandable. I was pretty positive going into the visit.  But unfortunately, we didn’t get the news I was expecting.  1 – his thyroid levels were below normal (not way below normal, but just a little bit) 2 – he was diagnosed with laryngeal paralysis.

As for the thyroid issue, it could be related to the laryngeal paralysis.  So he is on medication now to get his thyroid back in check.  But even if we get his thyroid levels back to where they should be, it still won’t help the laryngeal paralysis.

The scariest part is, of course, the laryngeal paralysis.  According to the American College of Veterinary Surgeons, laryngeal paralysis is a condition recognized mostly in older dogs that can develop slowly over a year or more until it reaches a stage that causes significant breathing problems or emergencies.  Some cases of laryngeal paralysis are in younger animals, occasionally puppies, rarely cats, and develop rapidly to the point of emergency.  This condition is usually seen in larger dogs (over forty pounds), but smaller dogs can be affected by laryngeal paralysis or a more complex condition called Laryngeal Collapse.

The opening to the trachea (“wind pipe”) normally is pulled open on two sides when breathing in, and then these cartilages relax when breathing out.  With laryngeal paralysis, the muscles that normally pull these open do not function properly.  When an affected dog breathes in, the cartilages do not pull open—rather, they are sucked into the opening, or in severe cases sucked shut.  Early in the condition, this creates increased noise when they breathe (called “stridor”); later, it can completely obstruct their airway, and they can suffocate.

Right now, he is in the early stages of it.  So nothing that would warrant surgery just yet.  But it is so scary to think of what could happen.  He does have a deep, hoarse bark, pants a lot and coughs randomly.  This has been going on for a while now, and I honestly thought it was just old age.  I thought he was clearing his throat like an older person would do.  But after talking to the vet, I can see he has the symptoms for it.  There is no medication for this condition.  The vet says that the muscle is just wearing out due to age.  Best case scenario – he could live out the rest of his life and it won’t get worse.  Worse case scenario – it could get worse and he could pass out and suffocate from a lack of oxygen.  If it does get worse, surgery is an option.  But of course then you risk other complications as well.  If we ever do choose surgery, all that does is open up the airway so he can breathe better, but then you risk food and water getting into his lungs which could cause pneumonia.  Unfortunately, there is no “getting better”.  Once that muscle wears out, it’s gone.

He had another episode last night of coughing.  Now that I know what it is, it freaks me out when he does that.  So I got on the floor with him to try and soothe him.  But my worrying just caused his anxiety to get worse, and he continued to breathe hard.  Van told me to just leave the room so he would not feel whatever vibe I was emitting.  I think it worked.  In fact, the vet said that he recommends that women in 7-9 months of pregnancy to not take care of the dog and let the husband do it for the sheer fact that dogs can read your anxiety.  He was kind of joking, but serious about dogs reading your anxiety.  And Toby reads me like a book; always has.

I am telling you all of this in the hopes that it would help someone else, or that someone who has been through this can help us.  The vet says all we can do is elevate his food bowls (which we have always done) and to keep his head propped up at night.  We just bought both boys a bed with a bolster around it, so that should help keep his head up when he sleeps.  And keeping him calm and controlling his anxiety also helps.  So for right now, we are just keeping an eye on it and controlling his anxiety.  I am trying to be more aware of how I act around him and not get upset about things, because it makes him upset, too.

I would love to hear from any of you that have been through this or has any advice to offer. And please pray for Toby!

I originally drafted a long post complaining about how nothing went right over Thanksgiving.  But after reading it, I felt like I was rambling so I will shorten it up for you.  Basically, we had to cancel our original plans (having Thanksgiving dinner at a friend’s house).  Ashley got sick.  Then Van got sick.  I tried to go shopping on Friday with Mom and Dad like we do every year, and was rudely interrupted by a last minute showing on our house (Who by the way, now says they want a 2-car garage.  Nice.  Thanks for wasting my time the day after Thanksgiving).  I wanted to go to church on Sunday but couldn’t even do that because of all the sickness in the house.  So I was not in the best of moods over the holiday.  All of this to say that I was far away from being thankful.  It’s not that I wasn’t thankful, but I was so wrapped up in everything else, that it was hard to think positively about things.  I felt like everything was falling apart.  Until yesterday…

Since I couldn’t go to church, I figured I would I put up Christmas decorations.  Van was still in bed sick, so the only help I had was a 3 foot tall little girl who couldn’t exactly get the heavy boxes out of the attic.  So Mom came over to help.  It was so nice of her to drop what she was doing and come help me!  It just took so much stress off of me.  And help she did – we got all the decorations up!  We also had a belated birthday dinner last night (thanks Dad!).  As I was driving to dinner and the little guy in my belly was doing somersaults, I couldn’t help but think of how thankful I truly am!

Today I am thankful for:

–A loving family that helps me in my time of need (i.e.. my Mom!)

–Our home

–A husband who works hard even when he is sick

–Healthy children

–Ashley

–The little miracle growing inside my belly

I am so blessed and have so much to be thankful for.  Hopefully next year I can sit back and reflect on the things I am thankful for BEFORE Thanksgiving, instead of concentrating on such materialistic things like I did this year.  It’s hard not to get wrapped up in the stress and chaos of the holidays, and life in general.  I am going to make an effort to live less stressful, and more thankful, from now on.  At least, until Christmas!

So the drive there on Thursday was quite an adventure.  You wind through the mountain, part of it on an unmarked road, to get to the house.  We saw several deer along the way.  We left a lot later on Thursday than we had anticipated, and we didn’t get there until after 6:00PM.  So it was pitch black dark already.  There were no street lights but they sky was beautiful!  It’s amazing how many stars you can see when you are away from all the city lights.  We mainly just relaxed during the day, played with the boys, and rode on the boat.  We painted Ashley’s toe nails one day (her first pedicure).  The kids napped well and slept through the night without any problems.  They loved seeing each other in the mornings and got wild and crazy at night.  We went out to eat Friday night at a Mexican restaurant for my birthday.  It was really good food!  And on Saturday night, they guys grilled hamburgers for us.  Van even tried out the hot tub Saturday night.  Hot tubs don’t mesh well with pregnant mamas so I didn’t get to join him.  But I did keep him company and stood outside with my jacket on.  It looked to be quite relaxing on a chilly night!

Then today we came home.  I didn’t want to leave.  It was such a pretty view to wake up to in the mornings (our room had a door out to the huge deck).  And if you woke up early enough, you could see the steam rising from the lake when it was really cold in the mornings.  Very pretty!  Oh, and at some point in the middle of the night last night, I heard an owl “whooing”.  Isn’t that cool?  I’ve never heard an owl in the wild before so it could have been something else I guess (I was too comfy in bed to get out and look out the window).  But it sure sounded like an owl!

We stopped by a development called The Coves on the way home.  It was on the other side of the lake.  It’s a development where you can buy a lot to build a house on the lake.  We explored around and picked out a lot that we liked   We also saw cows on the side of the road and walked up to them to say hi and feed them some bread.  Apparently, cows don’t like bread??  It was cool to see them up close and Ashley was able to “moo” at them.  Then Van and I got so tired during the drive that we completely missed our turn!  Not sure what happened, but the next thing I know Van is looking at the map on his phone and we were way off course – whoops!  If you look at the picture below, the flashing blue dot is where we were; the blue line is where we were supposed to be!  So that put us about 30 minutes off course.  We ended up re-routing it and figuring out a different way home.

All in all, we had a wonderful trip!  Not only was it nice having friends with us, but I was thrilled to be able to take the dogs, too.  It made me so happy seeing them romp around and play in the water.  I’m glad they were able to enjoy a nice vacation, too!  I’ve been to the beach so may times in my life, that I really liked the lake vacation.  It was different and relaxing.  Since we were there during the off season, there weren’t many people around so it was peaceful and serene.  The trees were pretty, the countryside was green with rolling hills, and the lake was crystal clear.  I think we’ll probably go back year after year.  It would be fun to just rent houses on different sides of the lake and find out which area we like better.  Except next year, I think we will go a few weeks earlier so we can see the trees in full color.  I can only imagine how pretty that would be!

P.S.  Jimmy couldn’t be found for the photo op

For his birthday he got a doggie cake, a bag of sweet potato chews, cookies in the shape of hot dogs, and cow ears.  All of which were shared with Blake, of course.  And you will notice in the pictures that he is wearing his Thunder Shirt.  Unfortunately, mother nature produced some bad thunderstorms Monday afternoon and evening, that brought in hail, tons of wind and rain.  I was going to take him swimming at the lake for his birthday but the thunderstorms crept in and we weren’t able to go.  So the poor guy ended up barking, pacing, and freaking out for a few hours until the storm passed.  Hopefully next year the weather will be a little better for him.  Oh, and I found a few old pictures from when he was younger that I’ll post with his birthday pictures.

Happy happy happy birthday Toby!  Here’s to another 10 years buddy!  We love you!!