Barkley's Christmas Greeting

Barkley is Emma's 10 1/2 year old step brother. He belongs to my daughter and son-in-law. He was one of Megan and Jordan's ten pups.

Emma's Happy Tails Story

Please visit Petfinder.com and read Emma's Happy Tails Story.

Emma's new brother

This is Bailey, Emma's new 8 month old brother.

Emma in her jewelry.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Happy Halloween

Sunday afternoon at the Dog Park

Birmingham, AL has opened a new dog park at Greensprings Park. It is 3 acres fenced for dogs and their owners to run free and be off the leash. Three Cheers for Mayor Larry Langford and the city council for finally making this a reality. There are 2 acres for large dogs and 1 acre for small dogs. You enter through a double gate system. There must have been over a 100 dogs and their owners and everyone got along great. Lots of socializing, sniffing, and running but no fighting. It was clean and no poop was visible anywhere in the park. This is a big plus for responsible dog owners. Now if the other cities in our state would get off their duffs and create more wonderful places for dogs.

Close to Death

Hi everyone, I guess by now you have noticed that I have been missing for about a two months. On Aug 20 I had surgery to remove the hardware in my back that was put in a year earlier, but when they got inside nothing had healed properly. They had to replace the hardware with more (bigger and stronger) and start the fusion process all over again. They added some bone growth protein and put me back together. I lost a lot of blood and they had trouble getting my blood pressure to come up and get my kidney’s working properly.


On September 10th I woke up to 102.6 degree fever, sweats, body aches and immediately went to my doctor. They thought I probably had a virus. On September 15th I went to my Spine Surgeon and he ran an MRI to look for infection. Nothing showed up definitely on the MRI so they sent me back home.


I was sick for the next 3 weeks and finally I called my doctor on September 29th and told here something was very, very wrong. I went to the doctor the next morning on September 30th. We also noticed that morning that 3 sores had appeared under the back incision. I got to the doctor and was still running a fever and my blood pressure had dropped to half of normal 60/40. The doctor looked at the sores and said they needed to be cultured. She told me to go immediately to the hospital and they sent us to UAB Highlands. I got into a room and my blood pressure had dropped even more. After my evaluation by the UAB doctors they said that I was being transferred to ICU. I was very dehydrated and they ended up giving me 15 liters of saline. For all of you guys they had to put a catheter in and boy did it hurt. My kidneys were in stage 4 failure and hardly putting out anything. My white count was so low they said that my body had used up all of the white blood cells and my bone marrow could not keep up with the production. I did a lot of praying that night and by some miracle I made it through the night. I was diagnosed with Sepsis and I learned later that very few people survive sepsis. My doctors actually did not think that I would make it through Wed night but fortunately I did not find that out until late Friday evening. I stayed in ICU for 3 days on massive IV antibiotics and then moved to a step down room for the next 5 days. I think I was taking five different antibiotics at one time. On Friday they did a biopsy on the sores and started growing a culture. On Sunday it came back as Pseudomonas. Pseudomonas is second only to staff as a bug that you can pick up in the hospital. They put a PICC line in the subclavian vein in my left arm and the tubing runs up to the vena cava right above the heart. They were also giving me Potassium, Magnesium, and other items that my body had used all up in fighting the bacteria. I began to get better on Saturday and my blood pressure was returning to a more realistic number. They finally sent me home on Wednesday, 8 days later for home IV antibiotics. They had a home health nurse come out and show us how to setup the IV, which I have to take every 12 hours. It takes about an hour to infuse. The nurse also comes out once a week to change my bandage and do blood test. I am feeling much better, no fever, and good blood pressure. I am down to 188 pounds from my original 215 (27 pounds lost) but my appetite is back and I am eating well. This is about as close as I have ever come to dieing and it has given me a new prospective on what is important and to take each day as a present and not to waste it. I feel like God still has something for me t do before I leave this earth. Apparently this pseudomonas got into my system through the back surgery site and no one picked up on it until it was ready to do me in.


Well, what can I say? I kept telling my doctors that something was wrong but no one seemed to take me seriously. The doctors ending up running 3 MRI's, a CT Scan, an ultrasound, an echocardiogram, and many, many blood cultures and blood test. They checked everything from urine to stool trying to find the source. I was stuck like a pincushion until I got the PICC and then they began taking the blood out of one of the ports. I think I had close to 6 doctors working on me at different times. We have to clean and flush the ports daily and they sent me home with all of the supplies. I can setup or lie down and go back and forth to the bathroom. Hopefully this is behind me now and it will clear up over the next three weeks. Then more test and they will decide if I need another round of 3 weeks IV antibiotics. What can I say, I feel better, I am alive and life is good. I just wished someone had taken me more seriously when I kept telling them that something was wrong. They said that if I had waited one more day that I would not be here now. That is pretty scary! They said this bacteria is microscopic can hide along the hardware and the blood does not get to the hardware so the antibiotic can't get to the exact spot where it is needed. Right now the plan is to just do nothing but the IV antibiotics and hope it gets rid of everything. Keep me in your prayers and hopefully I will beat this and get back to normal.

I had 3 doctors’ appointments last week I am getting stronger and better. My ports flush but they can't draw blood from them anymore, so now I have to get stuck every Monday for me blood test. I can only set for a short while and then I have to lie down or walk. I am constantly changing positions. We are really getting good at the IV and so far have not had any reaction to the antibiotics. I get one IV at 8 AM and another at 8 PM.


Hopefully I will be back to posting soon with more stories of Emma who I might add has stayed by my side and watched over me except for the 8 days I was in the hospital and my sweet daughter stepped up and shared her home with Emma. My lovely wife took on all the responsibilities and wore several hats. Please keep me in your prayers that this bug is killed and I don’t have any further problems.



Bob

A Trip to the Park

I had back surgery 17 days ago and on doctors orders I have to start walking. Well we took Emma to Orr Park in Montevallo. This is a great park with a creek running through it and concrete walking trails. There is also about 25 acres of lush green grass in the middle of the park surrounded by the walking trails. I walked out into the middle and turned Emma loose from her lead. (All dogs are to be kept on a leash at all times). She is such a free spirit. It made my heart fly just watching her run in loops and circles as fast as she could go. Then she would race back to me and start all over again. I wish I had a big farm where I could let her run every day but my little back yard is tiny. She did pretty good until she spotted other people and Emma loves everyone and she just has to go over and say hello. Well some people don't like the idea of a 75 pound Golden Retriever running at them at full speed even though she would not harm anyone. She ignores me and runs around her prey jumping and sniffing. Suddenly she is deaf to the sound of my voice and acts like she has never seen me before. Then after I finally get to her and get her back on the leash all is well. I am a responsible pet owner and pick up after my dog. I wish we had a dog park like they do in other states where you can go in and turn your dog loose and let them run. The only people inside the park are other pet lovers who eagerly welcome another dog as well as their own. I don't understand why our city and county leaders have not figured out that we need an area for dogs and people to interact. I just wish we had one dog park for at least every ten people parks. The City of Hoover is actually securing funding and starting to build a park for dogs. This will be the first park within a hundred miles of our area. I can only hope that more city and county leaders will see the light and start their own projects.

Emma's Latest Picture

One Year Anniversary

Well, June 23rd was our one year anniversary, celebrating Emma coming into our lives. It has been quite a year and Emma has grown into a beautiful dog. I can not thank God enough for bringing Emma to us. While she is still a puppy, and still gets into things that she shouldn't, I would not trade her for anything.

Emma and I went to get her shots last week and the Veterinarian said that she was in great health. It is ironic that this was the last day before our Veterinarian for the past 15 years, and three generations of Golden's, is retiring. We will miss him and wish him good luck in his retirement.

Emma's other Brother

This is Emma's other new brother Black. He is very shy and stays hidden most of the time. Black is a domestic short hair, all black, and believed to be about 3 years old. He came to us through TEARS (The Emergency Rescue Animal Service). He has got better and now ventures out and explorers. We did not see him for the first five days that he lived here. Emma loves them both but Black is a little afraid of Emma. She wants to play and can move very very fast which makes Black run and hide. I found all three of them in bed with us the other morning so they are getting more comfortable with each other.

Emma discovered the hammock

Emma has a new friend

Emma got a new friend last week. Blu is a 1 year old Russian Blue domestic short hair cat that we adopted from TEARS (The Emergency Animal Rescue Service). They get along great and have become best friends. This is her kitty and she is going to take good care of him.

Emma's Big Adventure

On March 27 we left our home in Alabaster with our 1963 Shasta Travel Trailer and headed south. We stopped in Biloxi,MS and Lake Charles,LA and spent a week in Round Top, TX for the spring antique fair. Coming home we stayed in Minden, LA and Cotile Lake, LA (near Alexandria). It was quite a trip, over 2250 miles all total. We got back late on April 7. Emma was the perfect traveler and met lots of new friends. Her only problem was a bout with an upset stomach on the first day we headed home. After several trips to the side of the roadway we finally got it under control.

Passing of a special friend

Jordan was born on October 20, 1967 and died this past Monday, March 16, 2009. He was a champion tennis ball fetcher who loved to swim and go everywhere in the car. Jordan had been sick for the past few weeks with a cough which turned out to be some type of tumors in his lungs. He was doing fine and then suddenly went into a seizure shortly after lunch and it was almost 2 hours later by the time the Vet got enough Valium into his system to stop the seizure. We had already made the decision not to prolong his life and opted for quality of life. We did not want him to ever have to go through the seizure again so in a very quite room with both of us and the Vet at his side,he went peacefully to sleep and crossed the rainbow bridge to be with Megan (his mate) who died last May from another type of cancer. He will be missed but he knew that we loved him as we totally shared our lives over the past eleven years.

I'll always love you Jordan!

Emma's First Snow

Today was Emma's first snowfall. It is pretty rare for us to have measurable snow in the South. She went outside and sniffed of it quite extensively and then finally put her snout in the snow and tasted it. The slowly one foot at a time she ventured out into this strange white wonderland that appeared overnight. It did not take her long to get used to it and was happily romping all over the yard.

Emma's First Birthday

We rescued Emma on June 23, 2008 from the Chilton County Humane Society. While we will never really know her actual birth date, we have chosen February 23 as the official date. This is due to the Vet's observations on that second day we had her, that she was somewhere around 4 months old when she became an official part of our family.

In honor of her birthday, we are giving 15% off on all orders placed during the month of February at http://www.myshop4pets.com. Use coupon code Emma1 at checkout. In addition, an additional 5% of all sales at the site is donated to animal rescue organizations. We are so fortunate to have found Emma through http://www.petfinders.com and can't thank them enough. Everything at MyShop4Pets has free shipping so come and help us celebrate her birthday all month long in February, 2009.