Big Boy

Well, our last month has been exciting around here. Markku is now almost officially potty trained! He started in August (on his own) and then took a little back slide after our vacation to Park City. He decided it was too easy to pee in pull ups (still went poop on potty). But then we got a call that he got into a part time preschool in San Marcos--but he had to be in underwear! So we bit the bullet and, while I conveniently went out of town for a weekend, had Mummo, Bill, Isa and Uncle John potty train him fully! It went great (even Mummo and Isa say that and they were here with him!). So now he hasn't had an accident in quite awhile, (but still sleeps in pull ups). He did discover one day that peeing in the yard was fun. I am not such a fan, but his mummo thought it was ok so he did it a lot. He would run outside naked and pee, then come back in. One time, he was wandering around with the underwear around his knees. I went out and asked him to get dressed. He told me I needed to wipe him because he went la (poop). Sure enough, I saw poop that looked just like his in the yard! I think we may have broken that habit, but am a little fearful I will get a phone call from his school...

So now that that has been tackled, he gets to start school on Tuesday. I am so sad because I will miss it, I actually have work scheduled! Mummo Frederick will take him and I know she will take plenty of pictures for me! Then I will take him Thursday and hopefully he still likes it! He went out and bought new underwear and a lunch box and is ready to go to school. He was a little worried the other day. I told him that he would go to school by himself and that Suvi and I would be at home waiting for him. He looked very worried and said, "Will you drive home? I do not know how to drive the car!"

I am not sure I mentioned it earlier, but he is in a big boy bed as well (well still his crib but no side on it, so he can get in and out!. What a big boy I have now. I can't believe how fast he seems to be growing. He did ask for the crib rail to be replaced the other night because his toys kept falling out of bed.

Suvi is starting another tantrum/screeching phase. It is lots of fun. Her scream can wake the dead, so I figure she is practicing for Halloween. I am wondering what developmental phase she is going through-what milestone we may soon see since her tantrums had calmed down quite a bit during the summer, but have returned full force now. She is also eating me out of house and home. She eats about twice what Markku eats!

I have been filling in shifts at the emergency clinic and am trying to find more daytime work. I start at a new clinic tomorrow and work Tuesday, but then only have emergency shifts the rest of the month! Yikes. We see interesting and complex cases. The one that stands out most for me was a 6 month old puppy that came in Friday night. He had been vomiting/diarrhea and not eating for 3 days and was diagnosed with a GI parasite 2 days before. He was not responding to treatment so was referred back to us. He was very sick. He was extremely dehydrated, vomiting, very painful in his abdomen, had a heart arrhythmia and had enlarged lymph nodes. He had what appeared to be a large kidney on his x-rays. I did some blood work and found he was in kidney failure, anemic and had very few blood platelets. He was only 6 months old! Our best guess was something infectious, we worried about leptospirosis ( a bacterial infection found in water sources, carried by wildlife) or a tick borne disease. We started him on fluids and found he did not produce any urine. His owners will not give up. He is on fluids, receiving blood transfusions, had in a urinary catheter and many medications (antibiotics, drugs to stimulate him to urinate and kick start his kidneys). Nothing was working, so he is now receiving peritoneal dialysis. I had never seen that done before so it has been very interesting from that point of view-a drain was surgically placed into his abdomen so fluids can be flushed in, set for a while and then drained out. This helps relieve some of the toxins that are building up in his blood stream since he cannot produce urine. It is trying to buy him some time while we try to fight the underlying infection we think he has. His bill is likely to be $7-10000 . Most owners are not willing to pursue this type of therapy. I really would love for him to make, but really do not have much hope that he will. He is one of the sickest pups I have seen in awhile.
Another crazy case was a 10 yr old iguana! He got into ant poison and was very lethargic. He would take one breath every 5 minutes or so, we always thought he was dead. He had blood drawn (a tech actually knew how to draw blood from an iguana!!!) and a interosseous (bone) catheter placed so he could receive IV fluids. That was crazy and am happy that he was actually someone else's case. I would have had NO idea how to treat him.

Heikki is working lots and will be spending 2 more weeks in the Coast Guard at the end of the month to help us pay our bills while my job is in transition. He does enjoy his time there and has lots of time to play out in the gulf even. Since Suvi has not been sleeping through the night I am sure he will enjoy his sleepful nights away-even though he will miss us.