Hi everyone,
So sorry to the extended absence. First, my doc gave me a new sleepy-time medication that ended up turning all day into sleepy-time! It took me a few days to discover the culprit and remedy the situation. I think I have it under control now. Secondly, these Xeloda chemo meds I’m taking at home really take a toll on my stomach after a while. It hurts like hell and I’ve felt like crap for two solid days. I think I’ve figured out that one too: the more food I keep in my stomach, the less pain I am in. Unfortunately, another side effect of the Xeloda is it wipes out my appetite so it’s very hard to keep food in my stomach when eating ANYTHING is the last thing I want to do. It’s very complicated and unfun but something in my gut (no pun intended) tells me the Xeloda is actually working on the tumor so I don’t have any intention of stopping taking it. Thirdly, well, I just needed a break from the blog. There’s really nothing new to report when every day I’m either sleeping or having stomach pains. Not to mention some household issues I’m trying to sort out and still struggling with depression over losing my mom (I still expect her to return home from wherever she is any day now…).

In the end, I wanted to let you know that I probably won’t be blogging daily for a while. I’ll still post multiple times throughout the weeks to come but just not every single day. Really, there is not enough going on in my life to talk about it every day! LOL So keep checking back here but don’t panic if there are a couple of days of silence in between posts, ok?

In other news, Dobby hurt his back. Somehow he injured something on or around a vertebrae just above his hip area. He’d slowed down a lot, walked around cautiously with his tail tucked between his legs, and whined and hesitated to jump on the bed, the reclilners, even into the one step from the porch to the house out back. This had been going on for about a week so last weekend we took him back to the vet (remember, he and Scarlett both had a cough just prior to this - which they are both fully recovered from and have successfully passed on to their sister-cat Nala who is now experiencing funny sounding kitty sneezing fits!). Finally found the painful spot on his back. The vet sent us home with some anti-inflamatory pain killers for one week and told us to keep him calm, carry him up and down the stairs, and prevent him from jumping up and down from furniture. We like to think we are good parents and we know we totally spoil our Little Prince Dog. The first three days weren’t so hard to keep him from roughhousing with Scarlett (he just wasn’t interested) or running up and down the stairs (when he’s sick he’d rather sleep in one spot all day long) etc. But on the evening of the third day, I guess he was feeling a little bit better. At least, he was well enough to “love” his Monkey again.

Some of you are well aware of Dobby’s “love” for his Monkey. He “loves” his Monkey best of all his toys and fortunately for us, that is the only thing he does “love” around here. Usually, he “loves” his Monkey every night and we just look away and let him be (that is, when we’re not watching and laughing like crazy — after four and a half years of this, it never gets old!). Even Scarlett has learned that Monkey is the one toy in the house that she simply cannot touch. He even growled at her the first few times he “loved” Monkey in her presence and all she did was stare at him. She didn’t know what he was doing. She was curious! I guess her big brother just wanted her to stop staring.

Anyway, I’m getting off point. My point is, after three days of pain killers and healing of his back, he started “playing” with his Monkey again. Which unfortunately, made him hurt all over again. Needless to say, he and Monkey have not been on speaking terms for the better part of the week now and we can only hope that someday his back will heal enough to return Monkey’s Don Juan back to her! …But really, he is slowly but surely getting better and we’ll take him back to the vet early next week for a check up.

Remember those monthly pictures I was taking around the house? Well, I missed March for some reason but I did get April done earlier this week. I’ll try to get those pictures posted for you to see over the weekend.

Well, I have lots more to catch up on with ya’ll but I’m all out of energy now. I need to go *gulp* eat something and take a rest again. Tomorrow is more CAKE and Honey mentioned something about he maybe posting tomorrow. Keep your eyes peeled for that! Don’t we love it when Mr. Honey posts on the blog?!?!