Day 75

We are at Roper Lake State Park, AZ.
Nice "off interstate" route to get here through the mountains.  Enjoyed the drive.
It's a nice "overnighter" but nothing to stay for.
There are mountains all around us and the weather is good.  Maybe at the start of a winter trip we would be happy to spend a few days here.  But at this time, we don't feel it worth our time to stay longer.
Sites are clean and lots of space between neighbors.
We wanted a big lake with swimming for Isabelle but that will not happen here.  It's not a lake like we think of a lake back in the midwest.  It's a man-made lake with no "sandy" access.  A dog in the water would come out through mud.  We'll wait for the Gulf Coast.
We are moving on in the morning.

Isabelle seems to really be missing Gracie.  She has never been an "only" dog.  Very "out of sync" with everything without her sister by her side.  We miss her no less!  Just can't believe she is not here.  Still shedding tears and have an "empty" feeling.  She was only eight!

Trip between here and South Padre Island will be uneventful so maybe nothing of interest to post until we get there.  It will take three "casual" days to get there or two if we "hit it hard".

We'll see what happens.  Thinking of getting there more sooner than later as spring breaks are starting and there is no gaurantee we will even get to the National Seashore to camp.

Should be home before month's end.  See you all soon.

Day 74

It's Sunday night and our last night here at McDowell Mountain Park.

These four nights really went fast.
This is a great park, but we need to move on.
Once we have a site, we could stay for 14 days.
But we (I) have had sufficient desert this winter.  Weather has been outstanding, but I'm ready for water.
Moving to Roper Lake State Park tomorrow in southeastern AZ just outside of Safford, AZ.
Looking forward to getting to Padre Island National Seashore soon.

The scenery at our current location is really pretty to experience in person, but not too exciting given my photography talents.  Our camera pictures just do not show very well.  I'll put some below, but not too proud.

Yesterday we went for a drive into town (Fountain Hills) to take Isabelle to a park (with grass) to  "waller" a little.  Discovered a "professional" disc golf championship taking place at the park.  Never would have believed such interest in that sport (?) existed.   But we followed the final group of four around most of the 18 holes and enjoyed it very much.  A nice "diversion" for the three of us.

The fountain in the park was constructed as a tourist attraction for the city.  It is very beautiful!  We can see it from the campground about 10 mile out of town.  It shoots 380 feet into the air!  Quite a site.

Isabelle has really been "sluggish" lately.  We thing she is really missing her sister.  She seemed interested in the park thing yesterday, but slept most of the day today. We made her get up and walk around often but she resisted.  Late afternoon as it cooled off she did a lot better.  We walked by the "kiddie" playground and decided to see of she would walk up the slide.  She did!  Then she slid down it! Unbelievable!  I was ready to film it but she did it so fast I missed it.  She went back on her own about five times and went down, but she started to "run" rather than "slide". Did get a few pictures and a video, but not the best of her performance.  Anyway, point is, she "perked" up a lot tonight.  After what we went through with Gracie we are watching every little thing Isabelle does.  Probably over concerned, yes, but we can't help it.

Well, hope the pictures are someting you enjoy anyway.

DAY 71

Left Indio (Shadow Hills RV) this morning and made the 280 mile drive to the Phoenix area.  We got into McDowell Mountain Regional Park as we hoped to do.  Not always possible this time of year without a wait in their "overflow" lot with no hook-ups.  But they had 5 sites available when we arrived.  So finally some good luck.  We are here for as long as we want up to 14 days.  Doubt we will want to stay that long but that is our limit.

Not much to talk about today other than our change of local.  Will take pictures tomorrow.  Everything we do brings up memories of Gracie.  Today especially when she was not there up front while we were driving staring at us as she like to do.  So many little things!  But enough.  We will have these moments for months (if not years) and will not make them the focus of this blog.

We are blessed with Isabelle and continued good weather on this trip.

More tomorrow.

DAY 70

Our last full day in the Palm Springs / Indio area.

Had to get a few things done.

Found a "sitter" for Isabelle and drove 20 miles West to take a tram ride up to San Jacinto Mountain State Park.
It's a 12 minute ride up over 5,000 feet to about an elevation of 8,000 feet.  We wanted to do this for weeks but were not able to do so given Gracie's health issues.

Nice side trip but nothing we got excited about.  Too much snow up there to hike without proper equipment - snow shoes, etc.  We slipped and slided a .75 mile loop but did nothing more.  Great views of the valley below but that was about it for us.  There are 54 miles of trails up there, but only for the die-hards this time of year.  Wanted to have lunch up there, but too "tourist" for us.

Got a call while up there that Gracie was ready to pick up.  Cut our mountain top trip short and went to get our girl at the vet's office. We were overwhelmed by the huge flower arrangement waiting for us given by Dr Huber and his staff.  They really seemed to be "touched" by Gracie.

Stopped by Sam's Club for $34.00 Crown Royal in 1.75 ltr bottles.
Stopped by Bristol Farms Deli for a gift of gourmet chocolate to take to Dr Huber and staff.
Stopped by a restaurant specializing in fresh fish for lunch.
Back to the RV to start packing up.

So many people here at the RV park have been so kind.  Two brought us flowers.  One took care of Isabelle today for 5 hours while we did the tram up the mountain and refused to take anything for doing so.  One groomed Isabelle yesterday just to give her some "special" treatment.  Numerous people have stopped by with condolences.  And on and on!  Very nice company here.

Phoenix tomorrow.

DAY 69

We decided yesterday to head East Thursday morning and not go to the coast and up into wine country as originally planned.  We have spent too much time in this area (49 days) to continue further West and then North up the California coast.

Plans (which usually change) are to head to the Scottsdale/Mesa, AZ area first.
Then maybe Padre Island National Seashore.
Galveston Island could be a stop.
Then, if time allows, maybe even to the Florida panhandle before heading North for home.

We've spent the last four days thinking of Gracie and how much happiness she brought to our lives.  We miss her so much.  Many people here at Shadow Hills RV had got to know Gracie and kept up daily on her progress.  It's been extremely difficult explaining to everyone, one at a time, that she didn't make it.  They certainly mean well, don't get me wrong, it just is hard on us to have to tell the story so many times.

Isabelle is starting to show signs of missing her sister.  She seems very depressed.  As a diversion for the three of us we drove up into the mountains and found snow.  There is actually quite a bit of it up there from the storm last Friday and Saturday.  We got some rain here in the valley, but the mountains to the West got hammered with snow.  We found a park and let Isabelle out to play in the snow.  She loved it!  On the way home we stopped for an In & Out burger for some food therapy.  If you've ever had one you know what I mean.  If you've never had one you don't know what your missing.
Isn't this a heart stopping picture!

 Isabelle "going nuts"

 Country Club Drive

 There are thousands and thousands of these wind generators as you approach Palm Springs from the West.

DAY 66 - A DOG'S PURPOSE

Sent to us by Wendy Bennett -

A Dog's Purpose (from a 6-year-old).
Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker.
I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn't do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home
The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker’s family surrounded him. The little boy Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on.
Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker's death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, said ''I know why.''
Shane said, ''People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life -- like loving everybody all the time and being nice, ''He continued, "Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long.''

DAY 65

It's Friday around Noon.

Gracie's condition took a big turn for the worse yesterday.  It's like she hit a wall!
We were so hopeful after the drive Wednesday and the new food she began eating.  But she just lost her will to fight anymore. She "told" us yesterday and again last night that she was ready to go to the Rainbow Bridge to wait for us.  She stopped eating and drinking despite our efforts to coax her to try.

We got in touch with the vet last night about 6:30 and we arranged to move the Monday tests up to today.
After talking with him and his nurse for two hours we all came to the conclusion that it would not do any good to run any more tests - she was not improving after 11 days of trying.  Treatment was not working!  The kidneys were simply too damaged to stop there decline.  With her bad knee and inability to walk for three weeks, she was loosing muscle mass which in turn was putting more and more protein in her system, stressing the kidneys even more.  It was like a viscious circle - can't fix the knee until kidneys stabilize, without the knee fixed she loses muscle, losing muscle further damages the kidneys.

She fought the good fight and never complained about all the poking and prodding and injections and medications. It is with great sadness that we honored her wishes and put our Gracie to sleep at 11:30 this morning.  We both were holding her and comforting her as her pain finally came to an end.  We love you Grace!

Thank you for all the support given to us in this three week ordeal.

That's all we are able say right now.

DAY 64

10:00am Thursday.

We were so upbeat about Gracie yesterday morning after such a good day Tuesday, but the first half of the day did not go so well.  She refused to eat yet again!  She began hacking several days ago and it appeared to be getting worse and some fluid was coming up.  Not vomit, just some fluid.  We were so down after being so up at the start of the day.

Good news, though, she began "perking up" later in the day.  The vet called to check her progress and we gave him all our worries.  He said the hacking and fluid and even a dripping nose were good signs as it meant she was getting a full dose of fluids - needed to clean out the kidneys.  Not to worry!

He also had a sample of a different kidney support food for us to try.  We loaded the girls up in the car and went for a drive to kill two hours before our scheduled appointment to pick up, not only the food samples, but another week's worth of medicines and IV fluid bags.  He wants to "stay the course" at least until Monday when he will do another blood workup.  Anyway, Gracie had her head out the window almost the entire trip.  She so loved to be out of the RV "prison".

Last night with fingers crossed we gave her some of the new dog food.  SHE ATE IT!  Still took a little trickery with a morsel of boiled chicken, but she actually somewhat likes it and even licked our fingers (we have to kind of ball it up for her into little bite sized pieces because it is a canned food).

This morning she continued to eat the new food, even some without the chicken.  Once again we are on a "high" about her condition.  The eating will be extremely beneficial if she has any hope to beat this problem and we are thrilled at this moment.  She ate some more a few hours later before taking one of her meds that needs some food in the stomach. Big test will come Monday with the blood work.  If after two weeks of Vet and home care of the aggressive therapy and no improvement of the kidney function then that would mean no surgery to fix the knee and some big decisions to be made by us about the quality of Gracie's future.

But for now - we are very hopeful the results will be great on Monday!  What else can we do?

Her Rx regiment requires 9 separate treatments each day along with multiple small "feedings" (that may be a lot easier now if she continues to accept the new food) leaving us without much time to get anything else done.  So time is flying.

Weather continues to be a bright spot for us.  Cool down and rain on the way for Saturday and Sunday, but warming into the 80's next week.

This area is truly "Country Club" valley.  Literally miles and miles of streets with one golf course community after another.  If Gracie continues to get better we will take more drives and take more pictures to share the opulence of the lifestyle out here for those who are "in the money" (there are a lot of them).

DAY 62 - GRACIE UPDATE

It's Wednesday morning we can report that yesterday was, indeed, a better day for Gracie.

Someting is working!  Meds, IV, eating, maybe all three.
She (and we) handled the three fluid injections without any problems.  Hard to stick that big needle into her neck, but she does not seem to even notice it.

Sometime yesterday she began eating both her chicken AND the rice.  In fact, she licked her bowl clean the last three feedings (we don't give her too much at any one time).  She ate one whole "goodie".  She "snapped" at the chicken pieces we planted her pills in.  She drank water.  She was alert most of the day and not simply sleeping.  And while we were eating dinner, she actually got up off the sofa and came to the table to beg for food!  Now thats the Gracie we know.
What a change in 24 hours!

The Dr ordered in several samples of "approved" food for kidney issue patients but did not hear from him yesterday.  But as long as Gracie is eating chicken and brown rice, chicken and brown rice it is!

More later today if anything changes.  Otherwise I'll update tomorrow morning re todays progress.

Thanks for checking in on her.

DAY 61

OK Vince, here is your update.  If you would have stayed awake long enough tonight you would have had it today (Monday).

Took Gracie in this morning at 8 for bloodwork to see how she was doing off the IV and the the round-the-clock emergency care she was receiving last Monday thru Friday.  As the Dr said "good news - bad news".  Good news is she has not vomited since last Thursday and seems very alert. She has to eat though. Per the Dr. we have changed her diet to brown rice, boiled chicken breast and a little chicken broth.

Bad news is the blood work continues to be more negative.  Her best numbers occured early after her first 24 hours on the IV last Monday/Tuesday.  Significant improvement after the initial day. Dr was worried taking her off of it for the weekend might cause numbers to go the wrong way. They did!

So we left the office this morning (with Gracie) not knowing what we would do next.  More specialized treatment is available in San Diego or LA but very, very costly.  They can put a dog on  dialysis but as the Dr. put it "we might as well plan on getting a second home near the hospital".  It would be  lifelong treatment and doesn't always work. Every situation is different.

I can't give you all the options we considered today for our next step, but the Dr. called us around 5:00pm and said there was a more affordable treatment he thought of.  He said it bothers him when he can't fix a problem and he came up with something we can do ourselves without the cost of hospitalization for Gracie - subcutaneous injection.  We do that ourselves - basically give her the IV three times a day at home (motor home).  He offered  to set us up tonight if we could come in soon.  We went in, got our instructions, gave her the first 500ml of subcutaneous injection of fluid under the  nurse's watchful eye, and out the door after passing the test.  We'll repeat  that injection here "at home" three times each of the next two days without the expense of hospitalization and 24 hour care.  And maybe for an even longer period if results are positive.  After this morning's news we were really depressed, but how have hope that an alternative plan of treatment has formalized. One that she would have to be on for the rest of her life.

Day by day, that's all we can do.  Gracie really seemed to have a good day today.  We are planning on an even better one tomorrow.

DAY 60

Never got the video to play on the last posting.  I took it with my phone because I forgot to take the camera and somehow it wouldn't load to the computer as a video - just a single frame.  But try clicking here - I may have got it.

So, update on Gracie.  But first a thank you to all for your get well wishes for her.

She stopped eating the "special" food Friday night completely after some small amounts Friday mid-day.  Couldn't even "fool" her by putting some crumbled treats in it.  Even tried warming it up with chicken broth but she saw through our tricks.  Those attempts were approved by the vet, but he said NO regular food!  After 30 hours with nothing we "balled" some of the special stuff up and gently placed it in the back of her mouth.  She spit it out at us with a look on her face that said "come on, I'm not going to eat that shit, don't shove it down my throat".

So we called the vet yesterday late morning and left a message for him to call us (he told us to do so if we had any problems over the weekend).  We didn't want to wait until our next appointment to address a possible change to her feeding instructions.  After waiting 5 or 6 hours and no return call, we started feeding her dog treats and a little of her regular food.  She ate!

Dr finally called early evening and after giving him an update said to go ahead and give her whatever she will eat - just not too much.  So that is what we have been doing and she is doing well with it.  She seems to us to be a little more alert, more interested in what is going on (a lot of dogs going by), and wanting to spend more time outside.  Good girl, Gracie!

Rain has run its course after more of it last night and the sky is blue again today.  Little cooler (65), but the 10 day forecast is all sunshine and warming into the 70's.  A lot of snow fell in the surrounding mountains - it's really pretty as long as it stays in the mountains.

Dr visit at 8:00am tomorrow for blood work.  We are confident she will not have to spend any more "overnights" in the hospital.  Looking for a "go" for surgery soon.

Park view this morning to the east from our site

Gracie is on alert this morning watching everything going on - just like her mom does.  Isabelle is always getting her beauty rest.

This is looking out our front window.  It's not a view to die for, but at least we are not looking at the front or rear end of another RV.  It is the park office and pool area.

 Another picture of Gracie wanting to see what's happening while Isabelle is sleeping.  As you can see, she is looking more like her normal self.

SHADOW HILLS RV RESORT - INDIO, CA

Day 59

Too much going on yesterday to update as promised.
We did get our Gracie home at 9:30am.  Got the go-ahead to move into the unclaimed site so had to pack up and move.  And simply spent most of the remaining day seeing to her needs (and our needs to see, hold, and love her).

She is off the IV for now but on four separate meds to compensate - plus a special food for kindey diseased dogs.
She really does not like it and only eats nibbles of it if we hand feed it to her and "spice" it up a little with crumbs of doggie treats or chicken broth.  She seems very interested in the treats or our human food so I know she is hungry - she just won't eat the food she is allowed.  We have strict instructions to NOT give her what she wants - only what she has been prescribed.  The good part of this is she has kept down what little she has eaten.

She sleeps most of the time but does watch us if we are moving around the RV.  She does go to the door when she needs to "go out" - that's good!  If left out too long, however, she shivers - we think because she is weak and it's just too cool (for her) to simply lay still outside.  Once back inside she is fine.

She goes back to the vet on Monday morning for blood work to check her progress.  If stable or improving the Dr said she could have her knee repaired as early as late next week or the first of the following - about Feb 28th.

Gracies vet and his staff are unbelieveable.  She really is getting "star" treatment from them - 24 hour a day care while in their care - but we are in Palm Springs after all!

We walked in the door yesterday to pick her up and they had three large photos of her on the counter top.  You'll see them below.  The Doctor spent a great deal of time with us giving specific instructions (all typed out as well) for her med schedule and why she was needing each one.  He even followed up later in the day with a phone call to check her condition.

It's now 8:30am Saturday and so she has had her 7am and 8am meds.  She ate very little - only what I dosed with a little bit of goodie crumbs, but at least she ate something - and so far has kept everything down for 48 hours.  Great news.

For now our plans are to stay here in Indio -Palm Springs- (oh darn) for the next 30 days and ride this thing with Gracie out to its conclusion.  We are in a nice RV "resort" with pavement and grass - no dirt anywhere!  Pool, hot tub, exercise room, and close to anything and everything you could ever dream of.  With Gracie now with us we feel quite relieved, but still apprehensive about what may be in store for her in the future.  When we leave here we hope to be heading home with a happy and healthy girl.  Gracie can live with her damaged kidneys if we keep them stabilized with a very strict diet, and repairing her knee will allow her a fairly normal life after recovery and therapy.

Almost everyone here in the park knows about Gracie and they check up on her often.  She is a star!  That makes Ellen jealous because she is no longer the center of attention.

Thanks for all your concern and support!

Pictures follow.  But only a few.  It actually rained yesterday and most of the night and still cloudy today, so I won't take pictures of our new home until the sky is blue again.  They told us it never rains here!  Oh well.  It actually was kind of nice - reminded us of home.


The first three pictures were on the counter sitting in a picture holder at the vets' office when we picked her up:

this caption reads "What, me worry?  I'm Gracie!"

this one says "I love rabbits.  Thanks Mom and Dad!"

Wednesday when we learned she wasn't coming home for a few days we took her 'baby" to stay with her.

this one simply says "Smiling Gracie"

she's home at last

this one is a video of her coming out of the hospital with "Rocky" the rabbit but I can't get it to play right now.  I'll fix it later.