Mid East Peace Talk

Yesterday I was working in downtown Annapolis at the Mid East Peace Talk. It was interesting to say the least. I actually learned a little as people screamed at each other. I am used to working in areas where people yell at the police. Yesterday was different in that the police were not being yelled at, we were just between the groups that hated each other. I don't really get why they were protesting, neither side was willing to hear what the other had to say. Seems it went a little better inside of the Naval Academy gates.

Eric is doing a little better, hopefully he continues to get well. I did not think that there has really been much change in Bosco but our friend Taras was over today and mentioned that he thought Bosco had drastically improved (he hasn't seen him in about a week). I guess its hard to see the positive changes when we are still dealing with Bosco's potty issues. I'm hoping its the Prednisone, how many times can a floor be mopped!

Christmas Reindeer

Today I wanted to find something fun to do. I had heard about a farm called Applewood Farm that has Christmas reindeer. 65 miles did not look so bad on map quest---I did not factor in holiday traffic. It took us about an hour and a half to get there, but it was worth the drive. I had never seen a reindeer much less get to pet one, it was pretty cool. The kids had a fun time petting the reindeer. There was pony rides, train rides, hay rides and games like instead of ring toss it was antler toss, and snowball bowling. There was also a petting zoo, although you really could not pet anything. If Eric had been feeling better you could also cut your own Christmas tree, although its pretty early. I'm really starting to feel a decorating time crunch. Our neighborhood is really starting to light up--we don't have up anything yet.

No other news, Eric and Bosco are both about the same, no real improvement.

So What Next?

I already have more on my plate than I can handle right now! Bosco is not doing great, he still needs help walking sometimes. This week coming up I have 4 days of working overtime that I just can't get out of (Mid-East Peace talks are at the Naval Academy), so I will be gone from home a lot. So what else could happen? Eric's lower back has been sore for about a week or so, but it happens from time to time. Seems that it is really bad now. Today he pretty much was laid out hoping to lessen the pain, he can hardly move. Of course this is a holiday weekend so he can't see a doctor til Monday---did I mention I'm going to be gone most of this week! I shouldn't say it, but what next?

On a fun note, I took the kids to see Playhouse Disney Live at the Lyric in Baltimore. It was worth every penny to see their faces as they watched the show. I had more fun watching them than I did the show. This is the first time they have seen a show like this. It was funny when we got home hearing them act out the show. What a blast.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving this year was terrific. We had dinner at Bruce and Cathy's house, everything was great. Michael sampled a little of everything, David had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner consisting of mostly rolls and cranberry sauce. It was really nice having the Nelson family all together for dinner.

I debated about going shopping today, Black Friday. Luckily my better judgement prevailed and I did a lot of shopping on line. This morning the vet's office called at 7am to say that Mike's dog Angus was not doing well. He was having seizures and had a fever that they could not bring down. The decision was made to euthanize him. Poor Angus, he was a sweet dog, I know that he is at least no suffering anymore.

Eric and I took the boys to the B & O Museum in Baltimore today. Santa arrived by train, the boys were so excited. They got to sit on Santa's lap. Michael asked for a race track and a Scooby Doo Mystery Machine. David asked for a duck, a fish, a race track and a Scooby Doo Mystery Machine. What the heck is with the duck? He asked for one last year and between us and Mom and Jerry he got plenty of "duck" stuff. He was sad and wondered why Santa did not bring him a duck. I can't figure this duck thing out, he says he's not talking about a real duck. The fish caught me off guard. I asked him what kind of fish--he said a goldfish. I asked if it was a real fish, he said no. What am I going to do?

I did brave the stores today and went to Circuit City to pick up a few things I had ordered on line. The boys wanted to go with me, the only thing was is that they were playing dress up in power ranger costumes. I figured what the heck, why not go shopping in costumes. We were quite the sight in Circuit City with a red and a blue power ranger. The things you can get away with when you are 4.

I am very thankful for my family and friends. Thank you for being in our lives.

Trying to catch up

I will try to catch everyone, I thought that I would be posting more regularly, but life gets in the way...

Bosco has shown slight improvement. He's been on steroids since Saturday. Poor dog, he has lots of energy and no way to get rid of it. We are supposed to keep him pretty quiet and rested, trouble is he feels well, his mind is good, but his hind end is still not connecting with his brain. Hopefully he will continue to improve on the steroids. The main drawback to the steroids is that he drinks a lot, which means he pees a lot, and I do mean a lot! I don't know how many times Eric and I have had to mop the floor downstairs (thank God for tile flooring). Evidently this is just a nasty side effect of the steroids, hopefully it will go away when his dose is lowered. I do still hope that he will be able to return to work, but I think I know in my heart that he won't be able to. Hopefully he will at least be able to play at home and enjoy the rest of his life retired.

Mom came down last Tuesday, we are always happy to see her, but also happy that it usually means that Eric and I get a night out. We went to dinner at Benihanas Wednesday night with Debbie and Taras. We had a fantastic dinner. It was so good to be out with T and Debbie, T does so much for us but I feel like we never see him socially.

Good thing that we got our night out on Wednesday because on Thursday Eric called me at work and told me to meet my mother at the hospital, that an ambulance would be bringing her in. Turns out that (depending on who's side you take), Mom tripped over Blanca, or Blanca tripped my mom. Either way she ended up on the floor hurting her knee and hip in the process. I felt bad for her, she was hurting pretty good, I tried to lighten in up by asking if she hurt Blanca :) The ER doc told her that she had a bone chip on her knee and she would have to be in an immobilizer until she could be seen by an orthopedic doc. Her hip was fine. Luckily she was able to get an appointment on Monday, although she did have to postpone her trip to Cumberland. On Monday the orthopedic doc said that her knee was fine but that he was concerned about the possibility of a fracture in her hip so he sent her for an MRI and told her no driving. Today we went back to the doctor and he said that the MRI was fine, no fracture--finally GOOD NEWS.

On Monday we met Connie, Brittany and Justus at Chucky Cheese in Hagerstown. We were not able to see Justus on his birthday so we met there to celebrate it. The kids had an absolute blast. Hard to believe Justus is 6. Its great that the cousins are so close. I had fun car racing against Britt. I'm a cop, I can drive fast, you would think that I could beat s kid on a car racing video game right---wrong, I think I lost every time!

I had a doctors appointment today as well. It was a followup with my orthopedic doctor for my MRI results on my neck. The MRI showed that I have 3 very small bulges in the disks in my neck. She did not seem concerned about it. She is concerned about my reflexes, evidently they are pretty hyper, so she is referring me to a neurologist (isn't it supposed to be dogs take after their owners, not the other way around?). I'm still doing PT for some neck and back pain, luckily it seems to be just muscular.

Well that should be enough in one week right? Wrong. Last Friday we had an officer get shot during a search warrant. He has a son that is the same age as my boys. It really hits home when something like this happens. Our new K-9 handler, Mike was also on the drug raid and was involved in the shooting. Thank God he is OK. Mike's dog has not been well since he brought him home in Sept. from Miami. Friday night (the night of the shooting) I stopped by Mike's house to check on the dog, Angus. Angus looked terrible, I ended up taking him to the vets where he spent the weekend hooked to IVs and vets trying to figure out why a 2 year old dog was so sick. Monday on my way home from Chucky Cheese the vet called me and told me that Angus has lymphoma. The only options are chemo ($5000) or medication to make his last days more comfortable. I feel terrible for Mike, at least with Bosco I know that I have had a great 10 1/2 years with him as a partner, poor Angus never had a chance.

Today seems to have been a little calmer. Mom was able to get on the road to Cumberland, I know she's happy her hip is not hurt. I was able to get some baking done for Thanksgiving. Michael was actually a big help in the kitchen while David helped Eric wash the cars. I will have a little more baking to due on Thanksgiving, but I think it should go well.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

More on Bosco

Today I took Bosco to a neurosurgeon in Gaithersburg. I really felt like I was at the right place, they really have their act together there. After the exam, the vet said he did not think it was Degenerative Mylopathy, his concern was cancer. He wanted to do chest and abdomen x-rays mostly due to the fact that Bosco has lost about 6 pounds in just 4 months. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it is. Bosco has basically stayed within a pound or 2 of his weight since he was 2 years old. He did not have to be sedated for the x-rays, and it only took about 15 minutes. The news was good, no signs of cancer in the lungs.

The next most likely scenario was that Bosco had a bone infection. Evidently they are very common in older German Shepherds. This would be very treatable with antibiotics. Due to the weight loss, the vet said this was a very good possibility. The draw back? A $2500 CAT scan and a spinal tap. With the possibility that it was something as simple as an infection I had to pursue the CAT scan and tap.

Many hours later I am told that its not an infection. There is some sort of "massive" mass "severely" compressing Bosco's spinal cord. The neurologist be lives its a disk either ruptured or herniated, the radiologist believes its a tumor. The neurologist wants to do surgery, if its a disk problem the chances of a full recovery are 75%, if its a tumor then its a 6-12 month life expectancy. The surgery would cost around $6000.

This is tough news to hear, Bosco has been my partner for more than 10 years, one side of me hates for it to come down to a situation where its just about the money. The other side of me realizes that he's 12 years old and really doesn't deserve to be put through a very serious surgery that one expert believes is not going to have a good outcome.

Eric and I are choosing to see how Bosco responds to steroids. The vet says that if its a disk there is a possibility that it will shrink with steroids. If there is no change then we know its a tumor and surgery would have been for nothing. There is a pretty significant risk to using the steroids. Evidently the pain medicine he's been on for years for his arthritis can cause serious GI problems when mixed with steroids. The vet says that since we don't want to go the surgery route, we have to give Bosco the chance that the steroids will work even with the potential of danger.

I am so thankful to be surrounded by friends and family that care so much for Bosco and his family. Thanks for all of your support.

Bosco Update

Well Tuesday I am taking Bosco to a neurologist in Gaithersburg. I am hoping that he will be able to help me with decisions that will need to be made. My vet now says that she doesn't think its a disk problem due to the fact that he does not seem to be in pain (thank God). She believes its either a Tumor or Degenerative Myelopathy. Neither is great. Bosco actually seems to be doing better today, maybe the acupuncture this past Saturday helped him.

Bosco

You would think that I would be prepared for Bosco's failing health, I really thought that I was. I mean he's 12 years old! He's a working German Shepherd, they don't normally work as long as he has, a 12 year old Shepherd is almost unheard of in police work.

Last night at K-9 training, my car was empty. It's so strange to ride around in my car without Bosco. On Sunday I noticed that Bosco was really stiff in his hind legs. By Monday he almost fell down the stairs. His hind end is so weak on wobbly. I took him to the vets on Monday morning. I had just come in from court so I was in uniform. People in the waiting room were saying "poor old dog". I mean I know he's old, but seeing him so weak and wobbly just kills me. By the time I saw the vet I couldn't take the waiting room comments any longer and broke down when the vet came in.

The vet said it could be many things causing the sudden down slide. Could be a tumor, disk problem or degenerative mylopothy. She said not to worry because we could do x-rays or an MRI to determine what's going on. I felt so cold hearted when I said that I probably would not want to put him under for either. What's the use. I'm not going to have him operated on, he has had a really good life, I don't want him going through surgery, I don't think that would be fair to him. She also mentioned getting him a cart. I think that would just be a selfish way to keep him around, I know he would not be happy with that quality of life.

The blood work came back today, its not cancer. I guess that's good, but he's actually doing worse today. On Saturday I am going to take him for acupuncture, I will try anything at this point if it means he's not in pain and helps his hind end problems.

I have started to think of how to deal with the kids when Bosco does finally die. I know how hard its going to be on Eric and I, I'm not sure how to explain the whole thing to them. Hopefully we have time to figure it out.

Bosco has been such a huge part of our lives, a partner at work for the last 10 years. Hopefully he improves over the next few days. Off to K-9 training I go with no dog tonight....

Don't put your finger in there!

Somehow David got his finger stuck in a plastic telescope. I have know idea why he would think it was a good idea to stick his finger in there. He came to me crying that he needed "slippery soap" to get the telescope off. Simple enough--well all the slippery soap in the world was not going to get that thing off of his finger.

I was ready to take him to the fire department, they have the jaws of life, surely they would have something to cut off a plastic telescope right? Of course Eric thought that was crazy, he said he would just cut it off. Well that scared David and excited Michael. Michael was already in the bathtub so we had to move ourselves into the bathroom so that Michael could watch. We had David close his eyes and then Eric started cutting. I was probably just as worried as David, but it came off pretty easy, Eric did a good job and did not cut David's finger off. Well, just to add a little drama, Michael starts shouting "there's blood". Meanwhile David has just opened his eyes and is scrambling to find the blood. I had to show them both that there was no blood, it was just a piece of red plastic on the washcloth. Not good enough for Michael, he insisted it was blood until I picked it off the washcloth and showed him.

Just another day at the Nelson's.

October Birthday's

It used to be that Lisa, Jerry and I would celebrate our birthday's in October every year. Since mom and Jerry have moved to PA its been a little harder to do that. This year while Eric went on a guys weekend to NY to watch football, the boys and I went to PA. Lisa and the kids were also able to come.

We always have a good time together even if its just hanging out around the house. David, Michael and Nathan had a great time just being boy's. The 3 of them together is like a tornado! Brenna seems so mature to me, she's such a great helper especially when she watched the boys Sunday morning and I got to sleep in!

Grandma taught David & Michael how to play Old Maid. I don't know how many times we laughed at them when they would say "I don't want to get stuck by the Old Maid"

Thanks for a great weekend away.