It's a sweet sweet life livin' by the salty sea

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Duke Update

Well Duke just approached the 6 month mark since his amputation ( more like 7 mo). Over the last 6 months Duke has far surpassed all of my expectations of what a 3 legged dog is suppose to be. He is simply amazing and well perfect! He has the heart of the champion. And when I couldn't put on a happy face for him he always put one on for me. I'll never forget the day we picked him up after his surgery. I was a mess, nothing but tears. Then out comes this 3 legged dog, my dog Duke, just wagging his tail and smiling from ear to ear. I'd like to say that I'd be smiling the next day after they amputated my leg, but then again I'd be lying. What a dog he is. We are blessed to have him in our family.

We figured we needed to celebrate his 6 month milestone. So we celebrated with a few new toys and increase in food! Since he hit the 6 month mark we took him in for a check up to see if the cancer had spread. His doctors had recommended this to us so obviously we did. Apparently with the type of cancer duke had the most likely of places for the cancer to spread would have been his chest and liver. So they took X-rays of this hips, chest, and lungs and did an abdominal ultrasound.
Andrew and I hadn't thought much about the appointment; we knew it needed to happen. We hadn't got ourselves worked up about anything and just viewed it as a normal routine appointment. Like Andrew said "It's not like we are going to cut off another one of his legs" Crass, but true....So anyway Duke had is appointment, which he wasn't happy about because he had to fast. The poor boy is hungry enough the last thing he wants to do is miss a meal!

I got a phone call a little after lunch on that Friday that said "good news"! There were no changes in his hips, lungs, chest, or liver since this last exam 6 months ago. Thank God! However, there were nodules on his spleen that had not been there the last time...ok so what does that mean....It means lets do a biopsy and run a cytology to make sure the cancer didn't spread there. So strange...because appartently that is a really unusual place for his type of cancer to spread. So they took a biopsy and told us it would probably be Tuesday before we had the results.

Ok so I tried not to freak out or get scared, but epic fail on my part. It's just par for the course right? Andrew kept his cool like he always does. We discussed it just a little bit just to prepared. We had already decided if it was cancer we would not elect to do a splenectomy (if it was an option); instead we would make Duke happy and comfortable for as long as we could.

Saturday evening rolled around and we check our email and to our surprise were the cytology results for Duke. Holding my breath Andrew read the report. Andrew said " no evident of neoplasia is present". Neoplasia! What does that mean?! Andrew sweetly tells me..It means he doesn't have cancer! Thank the Lord! Duke is cancer free in his spleen! We were soo relieved and so grateful!
His doctor would still like to do a complete blood panel on him just to make sure we've not missed anything. Which is fine by me. I'm still saying my prayers for Duke, but am extremely happy is cancer free. We just didn't want him to go through that again.

One big bummer though is that Duke's hair had just completely grown back! Now is belly is bare again. Poor boy. I say this in jest - a little shaved belly is no big deal....

The day after surgery 7 months ago. What an incredible dog!

Doing what he does best..notice the bare belly!

Playing before we left for Christmas

My two favorite boys!

Welcome Back!

My goodness! I didn’t realize that it had been so long since I had last written. Well it should come as no surprise that we got busy…Here’s the long and short of it. Andrew finished last semester well and has moved onto the next! Congrats baby! We went home for the holiday and had an amazing time with family and friends…oh and food…boy did we eat a lot! If it wasn’t nail downed, we ate it! Or at least I did. We had anice relaxing 3 weeks and really hated to leave. We both agreed though, that leaving this last time wasn't that hard. Maybe because we are now settled....

We are back on island now and have moved into our own home. It is just us and Duke! We love it. Though we enjoyed our roommates it really is nice to be by ourselves. I think Duke really likes being the only dog again. Though I do think he misses Koala!

Our new home is perfect. It’s small and quaint. It feels really homey and we are very comfortable in it. Duke has his own yard to romp around and play in. Sometimes monkeys sit on the wall or mongeese get in the yard and he has a field day with it.

It’s a one bed room one bath sweet little house. Oh and its ground level, which is great for Duke. He only has to deal with two steps! No big deal! It comes equipped with a stacked washer and dryer. A dryer yay! No dishwasher…bummer…at least I got good practice with washing dishes when we lived in the dorm. One of the best parts is that we have been bug free! Knock on wood! Some really hard wood! No centipeds or even little lizards. The windows do have bars, which is good. Oh and yes a security system! Awesome! I set the alarm every night and when I’m home by myself. Though Duke is best alarm system we’ve got it’s still good to have a backup.

We had to do a few things when we moved in, but the house is awesome. We absolutely love it here. Our landlord is amazing also. He is really friendly and very helpful. He is a lawyer on the island. I think it is good to know a lawyer….just in case.

Well enough about the house. Here are pictures! Enjoy (they are out of order, sorry)

Can you guess who's closet is who's? We had to add another one because someone has too many clothes....too many..no never!

We down sized to a queen! No more slumber parties with Duke.

Andrew's Study corner. He gets a great breeze off of the Atlantic.

Our bedroom view..Not too bad! well besides the container. My whale watching has started again.

Little bathroom! By the way..Andrew broke the seat lid. He stood on it!

View from the living room looking at the bathroom. The laundry closet is to the right and our room is to the left.

Living room. 32 inch TV!

more bathroom

Living room. Duke has a bed but he prefers the couch....

Great kitchen!

Dining Area

Front porch

I find it appropriate that our house is Wolfpack Red and White!

Our Kittian Grill - no street meat though only IGA meat.

Yard.

Duke on the look out.

Happy Dog!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

House Guests

From time to time we get house guest, but they aren't your average house guest....

Living in the Caribbean I have the privileged of playing host to endangered species. Two of our roommates work and volunteer for the St Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network. And because of their involvement I have the extreme honor to be witness to their efforts to help such an incredible species.
There is nothing more humbling then being in the presence of an endangered species.

Here are a few photos of our house guests....

A Baby Leatherback

A Baby Green

A Juvenile Green

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Katfish and Billfish Came to St. Kitts

Well Katfish and Billfish made it to St. Kitts! They came to visit and we had such a wonderful time! Mom and Dad were here for about 10 days and we kept them busy every day! Between zip-lining, snorkeling, tanning, eating, fishing, island touring, and exploring. We took them to our favorite places! And our not so favorite places. It was imperative that they visited our not so favorite places….They were even able to experience "Only in St. Kitts" moments too!

Oh and I almost forgot! Duke was in HEAVEN all week with Billfish. I don’t think Duke left his side. We actually surprised Duke by letting him outside to go “potty” but really it was to surprise him with Billfish! And boy was he surprised to see his best friend. By the way it was my idea to surprise Duke! Mom was really cute before we surprised Duke though the exchange went something like this:

Katfish: Do you think Duke will remember me? I’m worried he won’t.

Me: Well I can’t promise he will remember you but he will remember Dad!

Love you Katfish!

I won’t bore you with the details of their visit. Just know that Katfish loves zip-lining and Billfish loves snorkeling! He was snorkeling machine! Oh and Dad has done a lot of out the country fishing and he has always been successful. So might be angry for me to tell you that he was skunked here in St. Kitts. Not one people! The man caught nothing! So I guess that means he will just have to come back and try again!
We enjoyed them so much and hated to see them leave. We had home cooked meals and a few surprises from home! Most importantly we had our family here with us. And we exposed them to every good, bad, and Jumanji like quality of St. Kitts.

So instead of details enjoy our pictures.....