Emma's Surgery...Take Two

Even though she ran like a pro at Michael and Katherine's Turkey Trot Emma was still not feeling well on Thanksgiving. She was showing her characteristic symptoms of a possible repeat sock ingestion. She adores a good running sock as a mid-morning snack. Though I guard them like gold and put them up...she always manages to find a spare. Usually they pass within a couple days. So I was stumped. I called the vet and they said to bring her into the clinic. After a day-long barium x-ray diagnostic epic Dr Mary called with the verdict. "We think there's something in there and it's not moving. We need to open her up."

This is not Emma's first dance with Dr Mary's scalpel. Three years ago she ate a Greenie, fed to her by yours truly, and the darn thing adhered to her intestine and had to be removed surgically. Greenies have since changed their formula, removing the vast amounts of gluten, since many dogs died from the same affliction. Needless to say, neither Emma nor Zoe are allowed to eat Greenies.

I called the Dr immediately and told her to do what she thought she needed to. Three hours later I got the call to bring her home. Emma, still gorked from the anesthetic and pain meds, could barely lift her head from the floor as her lip slung open and her tongue lolled to the side of gravity. Dr. Mary immediately began showing me the x-rays. She wanted me to see why they felt it necessary to go in. She literally saved Emma's life three years ago and I was not about to question her motives. Then she told me what they found, in a word...nothing. There was nothing in my little Emma's tummy. She was sick, just sick.

After beating myself up about sending Emma to unnecessarily surgery and staying up all night with her, changing the towels as she was in too much pain to go outside and full of fluid from the iv fluid she received, I finally stopped. We can second guess every decision we make. We literally make thousands of decisions every day. All we can do is follow our heart and make the best decision with the information available to us at the time. That is all we can do. To worry, regret, wish, or stress about what could have, should have, or would have been is futile.

My 6 year old dog Emma, the first dog I've ever raised from a pup, is going to be ok. She's already wagging her tail, eating, and giving me kisses. She can't pull her trademark move of both legs stretched out behind her right now...but I bet even that will come back with time. If it doesn't, her bag is so full of moves that make my heart melt...we won't miss the super-emma-frog-legs one bit.

She's sleeping comfortably now. She looks relaxed and content as opposed to the moaning that worried Zoe and I last night as we curled up next to her on the floor. Thankfully, today was a scheduled day off. Thankfully Brett, who continues to love and care for Emma and Zoe as his own, is helping with the vet bill. Being faced with the mortality of someone you love strips away any pretense of comfortable detachment from those we care about. I consider myself lucky to be reminded of this today and so thankful that Emma is staring up at me with her tail wagging right now.

Thank you.

My Other Little Sister.

Meet Hydeia and Stephanie. Hydeia is my new Little Sister. Stephanie is her Aunt. The three of us have committed to Hydeia and I spending time together once week for at least a year and hopefully more! I was nervous as I drove to meet both Hydeia and Stephanie. I thought, "What if they don't like me? what if we have nothing in common?"...the questions went on and on. Turns out I had nothing to worry about. Shannon, our match specialist, was awesome and ready with fun questions like, "like if you could be a cat or a dog...which would it be?" When Hydeia answered, "A dog." I knew we were definitely sisters.

We spent about an hour talking over the rules, regulations, guidelines, suggestions and anything else Big Brothers/Big Sisters felt prudent to write down. We made easy work of the document with Hydeia volunteering to start the reading. Hydeia is 12 years old. My initial impressions of her are that she's smart, caring, kind, honest, curious and enthusiastic. We made a list of 15 things we hope to do in our meetings. Next week we will scratch off number one and take some turns around the local mall. If we have time we'll ice skate- or maybe just check into it for next time. If anyone has other suggestions for great low-cost or free outings...please let us know!! For now I'm psyched to learn more about Hydeia and math. She says she needs work on her math homework. I'm looking forward to trying to remember what I forgot about math.

Crossfit WoD today:

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes.

BW Squats x 10 (I did 2 rounds at 125, three at 115)
15 ring push-ups (I modified with rubber bands)


Afternoon: Easy run with girls. 6 x 30 second strides up hill. No limping for Emma or me. Good to be injury free.

Hard Routine

We have all agreed to abide by a Hard Routine, created by each of us, for three weeks as a precursor to our crossfit games training. Oddly enough, the diet Mark has worked out for me has been easier than in the past. I've a whole team of people going through similar restrictions and that's helped immensely. I did, however, falter on my coffee intake yesterday. Namely, I had two cups of coffee. I'd already gotten over the hump too! But as I was back off today, and had no headaches, I'm thankfully back on the wagon. Had dinner with Pete and Marila today at Miss Delta's. Figuring out a zone-friendly diet there wasn't as tough as I thought it might be. Collard greens were delicious...vegan style. They've got me excited for the upcoming cross country ski season, as well as mountain biking next year. The final cross race is this sunday and with as much fun as I had last week...I'm definitely going to be there.

Almost finished with week two.

Birthday.

This morning as I was getting off work and the guys were wishing me "Happy 40th" on today, my 38th birthday, Mike convinced me to meet him and another Mike, retired ff, to race cyclo-cross at PIR. It's been over a year since I jumped into one of these races and had no plans...so figured why not? I raced with the Mike's in their Men's Beginner group. The first thing I noticed was the size of the field! There had to be over 100 people!! Compared to the women's fields, or at least what they were when I was racing, this was huge! I started to line up at the front of the pack and Mike stopped me. "No, we want to start back here." "Back here" was the last third of the bunch. I'm thinking how in the heck are we going to make it through this mess of riders to get in front during the race?? Mike said, "I'm not here to win the thing. I just want to have fun." His point was well-taken. I lined up in between Mike and Mike. I had just enough time to register and find Mike so I hadn't pre-ridden the course at all. Mike told me what he could, "There's a hell of a lot of mud and the run up has a 6 pack of barriers with a windmill you have to run through." With reconnaissance complete the gun went off and we moved like a giant glob of molasses through the mud towards first bend.

During races like these, in the beginning...when I still have enough energy to think outside of the pain, I always have to laugh at the concept that we are all moving roughly 5miles an hour and call it "racing." The conditions at the start and a few other points in the race were so muddy it was a challenge to move fast enough to stay upright on your bike. People are waving the cowbells yelling, "Yeah! Go girl you're doing awesome!" Then there is this somewhat funny and awkward silence because I've only moved 30 inches since the spectator compassionately cheered me on. He's got to be thinking..."Should I give her more bell and say it again...or just pretend she's not still moving at a snail's pace directly in front of me?"

I don't know what he chose because I was concentrating so hard on my route. Should I go through the 12" deep puddle not knowing what type of surface lies beneath? Or, should I "barrel" through the 6" deep sludge that just caused that dude in front of me to go down? Puddle. Good choice!! Rode through. :]

Running uphill with my bike on my shoulder and jumping over barriers was fun. I passed people really feeling the beginning of some power coming back to my legs since the marathon. The downhills were another story. I slipped and slided landing on my clean white race kit more than a few times. It's always better to look hardcore anyway. Schultz on the other hand, told me after the race that he had learned to negotiate the off-camber downhill and rode the whole thing! He chose to run through the muddy flats and discovered he could pass multiple racers...but was more exhausted than when he snail-peddled through. Liel got out front early, but when I saw a hole I passed and never looked back. I didn't get to hear or see him race after that. But he looked recovered and fresh when we finished. Both him and Mike talked and ate at breakfast denying any pain or soreness. Meanwhile my muscles were screaming at me. My glutes and hamstrings were having a conversation all their own while I ate my garden scramble in silence. Liel was sweet enough to give me kudos for the Ironman races I ran over four years ago. I sat there amazed that these two guys raced the same race I did and felt no pain, as much as I train...ok so not on my bike...details. All I could think was what a great way to spend my birthday, covered in mud, muscles aching, surrounded by friends. I asked Schultz if he wanted my hash browns. He did. I swiped them off my plate onto his, looking forward to a nap.

Great day.