greetings from alabama.

Greetings from Alabama!

I am overjoyed to report that we just got a fantastic call from our surgeon to let us know that our little guy is awake and doing great! She said the surgery went exactly as she had hoped. 

We were so nervous when we left him at the hospital this morning. Our surgeon is wonderful and was so helpful to us, but she had quite a few concerns for things that could have gone wrong during surgery. Tucker was the last of three dogs to be operated on today and they saved him for last because of how tricky his surgery was going to be. We had lots of reasons to be concerned but everything went perfectly!

We had hoped that we would be able to visit him tonight but our surgeon wants him to rest as much as he can. We'll be visiting him first thing in the morning and hopefully taking him home right after that. We don't mind letting him sleep and regain his energy before we cover him with hugs tomorrow!

Thank you all so much for the prayers! The surgeon said there were lots of prayers going up for Tucker within that surgery room and I know there were many more among our friends and family. We are so appreciative and thankful for every single one!

We are off for an evening of celebrating in Birmingham!

off to alabama.

I know that not everyone cares to hear the looooong version of this story, but I know we have lots of dear friends and family members who do. Feel free to skip to the very end if you fall in the first category. For those of you who want the whole tale, this will save mine and Kyle's moms from having to explain it to all of you on the phone :)

If you're new to this little blog and to our puppy's story go here to read about when we adopted him last January and here and here to read about the emergency surgery he had in November. 

Ever since Tucker's surgery, we have been watching his left eye like crazy. Kyle and I each say "Let me see your eyeball, buddy" at least twice a day. At least. 

About a month ago, Kyle was on the floor playing with Tucker and then the two of them got lazy and were resting on the floor. Kyle and Tucker were practically nose to nose on the floor when Kyle told me that he saw something wiggling in Tucker's eye. We've 'seen' lots of things in his eye since surgery but they all turned out to be nothing. This looked weird though, so we called our ophthalmologist who sent us to our regular vet for a checkup. The consensus between our vet and our surgeon was that Tucker's pupil was still a little too big for what they are comfortable with, so we increased how many eye drops Tucker was getting a day (from one drop a day to two drops a day). 

Last week I took Tucker back to his ophthalmologist for a checkup, to see how his eye pressure was and check out the 'wiggling'. The surgeon told us that what we had thought was a wiggly lens, was actually his iris. Without drawing a diagram of the eye, long story short is that his lens is not curved and holding his iris firmly in place and as a result, his iris is able to wiggle in his eye. Our surgeon said that he doesn't have many membranes holding his lens in place and there is a great possibility that it could become unattached. If that were to happen, the lens would either go forward in his eye and have to be removed, or fall back in his eye in which case we could remove it or leave it based on the specifics. Each option posed definite concerns and could have started a chain of other eye problems. The surgeon told us that she wanted to get some additional opinions before deciding what she would like to do. We are suspicious that what may have happened in his right eye was that his lens became unattached, went forward in his eye, his pressure sky-rocketed and it was all downhill from there.

Our ophthalmologist wanted to get opinions from some other eye specialists before jumping to any conclusions in deciding what we should do. She heard back from five respected ophthalmologists and four of the five had the same response, remove the lens in his left eye and insert an artificial lens in its place. If his lens were removed but an artificial lens was not inserted, he would be incredibly farsighted and there would be potential for other things in his eye to move around. The artificial lens will hopefully maintain his current vision and prevent any further catastrophes.  

That's what we have decided to do. We feel like we would have to be crazy to go against what four respected surgeons suggest, five if you count our own surgeon. 

Apparently the act of inserting a new lens is a very specific surgery that not all surgeons are trained in. Our surgeon isn't one of those few so she is referring us to a colleague and good friend of hers in Alabama.  

So we will be traveling to Birmingham next Tuesday and Tucker will undergo surgery that morning. The hospital is only a few hours away but we've decided to get a hotel because we  are obsessed with our dog as if he is our first born child want to be close by in case anything happens. We would very much appreciate if you could say a few extra prayers for us. We are praying that Tucker comes out of this surgery perfectly and that his surgeon faces no complications or challenges while she is operating. We are also praying that we will feel a little more at ease with the whole situation. 

We have complete confidence in the opinion of our doctor in Atlanta and the surgeon we will be seeing in Alabama. However, Tucker has had eye surgery before and nothing about it went smoothly or as planned. There were lots of specific circumstances that surrounded that surgery, a major one being that his eye pressure was off the charts, but we're still nervous. We are trying to stay positive and as my mom says, 'not borrowing troubles'.

We've been holding off on sharing the whole tale until we had Tucker's surgery scheduled, which we took care of yesterday. We still have a few questions to get answered before we leave for Alabama and also in our pre-surgery appointment but are confident and decided that this is what is best for Tucker.

So if you like sweet, snuggly puppy dogs and you like to pray, say a few for us next Tuesday! I'm sure we will be more than a little nervous but we are very ready to have this whole ordeal behind us!

How about we leave on a happy note! Surgeries, wiggly irises and all, Tucker is still the sweetest, snuggliest, happiest dog I have ever known.

thursday night thoughts.

Happy Thursday evening, dear readers!

I haven't updated lately because not a whole lot has been happening in our little world. Kyle has been busy with school and prepping for finals and I've been playing Santa Claus-choosing gifts, buying gifts, wrapping gifts-and taking care of the little puppy dog. And we've been packing like mad people all day long because...

WE'RE GOING TO TEXAS TOMORROW!!

Let's rewind a bit though. Before today hit and we went into mega-packing, mega-studying mode, we had a very exciting day with Tucker. If you've been keeping track, you may recall that Tucker's stitches were schedule to be removed on December 15. All went well yesterday and we are happy to report that Tucker is now free from his plastic cone and his itchy stitches. 

I haven't taken any better pictures of him yet so this one from my phone will have to do for now. We're a little too busy for a photo shoot!

Yes, the seatbelt hooks through his harness. When we let him roam free there is only one place he wants to be... sitting in the lap of the driver. We know it seems silly but he weighs 50 pounds and the driver's seat is just not the safest place for him to be!

We also got the results back from his biopsy. We were hoping that they would give us a really clear indication as to why all of this happened, but we didn't really gain much information at all. We are now giving him an eye drop each night as a precaution. This will help prevent glaucoma (which could have caused everything to begin with) and will also help shrink the size of his pupil. The ophthalmologist seems to think that the large size of his pupil (along with a slew of other things) may have made it easy for his lens to move out of place. I know, very confusing! We just started the drops yesterday and have already seen a difference in pupil size. He'll have his eye pressure checked again by his ophthalmologist in January and based on those results we'll decide if we need to adjust the dosage for his drops.

His surgery site looks incredible! He has healed really well and looks great. His spirits are back to what they used to be and I know he is so much more comfortable now than he has been for the last two weeks. There are still moments when I look at him and feel so, so sad for everything that he has gone through, but I think I'll always feel that way to some degree. For now though, we are beyond thankful that he is home and seems to be doing wonderfully. We've been giving him oodles of hugs over the last few days and can't stop talking about how great he looks.

Now for a few little randoms to wrap things up:

• Kyle took his first final this morning and thinks that it went really well. He is finishing up a take-home final right now and will put this semester behind him after he turns it in tomorrow!
• It has been FREEZING cold here. Literally, freezing. We had snow on Sunday and ice last night. We are very out of our element in this chilly weather. 
• I am officially registered for classes for next semester! I will be taking 9 hours and am bursting with excitement. I cannot wait to get started!
• Last week I finished reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.... ohmygosh it was amazing! I am about 200 pages into the second book and am loving it as well. 
• I am forcing Kyle to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on the drive home tomorrow. I hope he loves it.
• I think that I have somehow managed to pack for three weeks in Texas. This is an accomplishment because I have no idea what I will be doing every day of this trip. It is also an enormous challenge because the temperatures are likely to range from 40 degrees to 95. 
• This is the result of today's packing: 

Y'all, that isn't even all of it. See the red duffle... it is filled with shoes (not all mine) and the small rolling suitcase has Christmas presents in it. I still have one more small black suitcase with a random assortment of things that I decided I absolutely must have while we're in Texas. Fitting all of this and Tucker's kennel in the car will prove to be a challenge.

I have managed to ramble on about nothing for long enough, congratulations if you made it to the end of this post! I am off to finish up the last bit of laundry, dishes and packing before calling it a night!

one week.

Well it has officially been one week since this happened. 

One week since Tucker's eye looked kinda funny. 

One week since they told us he would be completely blind. Then only blind in one eye. Then blind except for light sensitivity and finally that he would lose his eye. 

It has been a long, hard week. 

In the last week we have:

• Set our phone alarms to be sure Tucker gets his pain pills every 8 hours... 6 am, 2 pm and 10 pm. (yesterday we were able to adjust our pill schedule and now start pain meds at 8 am... that early wake up was getting OLD!)
• Fed him wet dog food for every meal instead of his typical dry food. 
• Discovered that wet dog food smells B-A-D. 
• Kept him from trying to scratch at the cone on his head. 
• Slept on our sleeper sofa, with the dog, to keep him from trying to get his cone off in the middle of the night (he typically sleeps in a kennel but can't fit with the cone)
• Stayed with him for every minute of every day. Literally. One of us is with him at all times... we even went to church in shifts on Sunday so that someone would be home with him. 
• Been to the vet for two scares with his other eye (neither were anything, thank goodness!) 
• Discovered that our puppy can get nose bleeds. Yep... another vet visit in honor of that adventure as well.

There are a few things we haven't been able to do... I had to cancel a trip to visit my sister in DC. We missed out on skating at Piedmont Park with friends and a friend's birthday dinner at a great restaurant we've been wanting to try. I didn't get to make holiday cookies for Kyle's office party. We also haven't had a solid night's sleep in days.

It's all been more than worth it though because Tucker is feeling well and healing *perfectly*. His swelling has gone done a great deal and the bruising is looking a lot better. His hair is even starting to grow back where they shaved it for surgery and the IV.

The better Tucker feels, the tougher our job is! He is trying like crazy to get his cone off (he proved the other day that he can and it scared us to death) and thinks he can poke around in the apartment just like he used to. I had to stop myself from laughing the other day while he tried to wiggle his way underneath our coffee table... bless his heart he hates that cone!

We're still scheduled to get his stitches out next Wednesday and are hoping to hear about the biopsy of his eye before then. 

I can't thank you all enough for your prayers and kind words. The first few days were ROUGH but we're getting through and I'm actually kind of proud of how Kyle and I have been handling all of this. It's times like this when I really wish our families were closer, but we are learning so much about looking to each other for support. I'm still trying not to think about it all too hard. He is such a lovable pup and it makes me so sad to think of how much pain he was in just one week ago. We're feeling pretty confident that he doesn't know anything is different, except for the giant plastic thing on his head. Once that disappears we have a feeling things will be back to normal for our little family. We. can't. wait.

ps-I have some other super cute pictures of him on my camera but can't get them on my computer. Apparently my hard drive is full and no matter how many things I delete, I just can't make enough space :( 

home sweet home.

Thank you all for your sweet comments on my last post. If you missed it, scroll down or click here. 

We picked Tucker up this morning. We didn't get to speak with his wonderful surgeon, but her technician was there to answer our questions and chat with us. 

Tucker is doing as well as we could hope right now. The area around his eye is really, really swollen and all closed up with stitches. Poor thing looks like someone hit him with a baseball bat :(

His stitches should come out December 15 and he'll be wearing a fancy pants cone collar until then. We're planning to head to Texas on December 17 and hoping that nothing happens to change those plans. There are a lot of people in Texas that are aching to give our buddy (and us!!) a great big hug. 

We're bumming around the apartment for the next few days. We don't want to leave him alone so soon after surgery so one of us is here with him at all times. We're just too paranoid about him being in pain or something happening to his other eye so we are watching him like crazy. 

I had to pick up some soft dog food this morning because he is supposed to avoid crunchy things for a while. I also picked up this toy because it reminded me of our little pup. 

How perfect?? There is a heart on its eye. Can you picture me getting teary in the pet store yet?? Sadly his cone is preventing him from playing so we're setting this aside until he's all better.

Thanks again for the phone calls and text messages. We know this is all probably more stressful on us than him. The surgeon thinks he'll be off pain pills and feeling better in two days... we sure hope so! It was so hard to see him this morning, he just looked awful. But bless his heart, he ran down the hall to us and was wagging his tail like crazy. We're seeing little glimmers of the Tucker we know and that is filling us with so much hope. 

get well soon.

Disclaimer: This post is LONG and probably really confusing. It's been hard to explain all of this via texts and twitter and I've had lots of questions so I tried to include today's whole, twisted tale.

Today has been a ridiculously long, stressful, heart wrenching day for our little family. 

Kyle woke up this morning and got ready for class, then let Tucker out of his kennel as usual. I was still in bed but could hear Kyle having his usual morning chat with Tucker. Next thing I knew, Kyle was calling me out to the living room to look at Tuck's eye. 

His right eye wouldn't open at all. You could tell he was in a lot of pain and kept pawing at his eye and refusing to open it. Kyle finally got it open and his whole eye looked like it had a white film over it. In less than five minutes Tucker and I were out the door and heading to the vet. (Kyle had to go to class and turn in an assignment or he would have joined us)

Tucker had a few eye issues over the summer. Our vet in Georgia and my parents vet in Texas were confident that his problems then were seasonal allergies. We know exactly what to do when those spring up and know the symptoms, but this looked completely different. I was so nervous when I took him to the vet, I just knew in the pit of my stomach that something was not at all right. 

He was not himself at all when we were waiting at the office. He is usually antsy at the vet and explores everything he can. Today though, he curled up at my feet and barely even moved when the vet took his temperature. The vet took one look at his cloudy eye and said his greatest concern was glaucoma.

***cue me freaking out alone in the vet office***

Tucker had some tests run while I waited at the office. I could hear the vet tell a nurse that the pressure on his right eye was at 75 and I heard the nurse have a less than positive reaction to that number. I started googling and discovered that typical pressure on a dog's eye is 15-20 so I started bracing myself for some very bad news. 

The vet was so compassionate towards me. As soon as he came in he cut to the chase and told me that he was confident it was glaucoma. I started asking questions and he told me that vision in his right eye was likely already gone and we should expect the glaucoma to spread to his other eye. 

I am a pretty emotional person and we just adore our puppy, so I lost it immediately. It's never a good sign when your vet feels the need to give you a hug before leaving... it was bad!

He told us that Tucker could stay at the vet and they could help bring his pressure down but that he would eventually need to see an ophthalmologist so we opted to head straight there. Our vet gave Tucker some strong pain medicine because he was in miserable pain and off we went. 

I had been texting with Kyle through the whole appointment so as soon as I knew it was really bad news and that we would be heading to a specialist, he let me know that he was leaving class so we could go together. We picked him up and had a less than lovely driving to the veterinary hospital. 

Tucker seemed in a bit better spirits when we arrived. There were lots of dogs there and he wanted to play with them so badly... it was so nice to see that he was feeling a bit more like himself for the moment. 

The doctors at the hospital took Tucker's vitals again and got another reading on the pressure on his eye. Our prayer on the way to the hospital was that we would have a way to save his other eye. The thought of him being completely blind at one year old broke our hearts. He is such an active, spunky little dog and I cannot imagine how that would change his sweet personality. 

We were beyond relieved when the doctor told us that although he had all the symptoms of glaucoma, he did not have hereditary or juvenile glaucoma. Instead, he has a luxated lens in his right eye. Essentially, the lens had become detached and moved forward in his eye, causing a great deal of pressure. I'm a little fuzzy on some of the other specifics but that's the general story of what happened. She confirmed that he had lost vision in that eye but that we had no reason to expect this to happen in his other eye... HUGE HUGE BLESSING!

We're not entirely sure what caused the lens problem. He may have had a flare up of his seasonal allergies or some kind of infection which then caused his eye to become inflamed. As a result, this could have pushed his lens forward in the eye.

From there she discussed a few options with us. We decided to go ahead with a surgery that would remove the detached lens. There was a slight possibility that doing this will allow him to regain light sensitivity in that eye, but we weren't expecting it. Our main goal was to remove the lens and thus the incredible pressure that was putting Tucker in such great pain. 

A little while into the surgery we got another dose of rough news. The surgeon called to give us the line that no one wants to hear when someone is undergoing surgery .... "I've never seen anything like this in my professional career"



That twist didn't change too much for us, but it removed any and all hope that he could regain any sight in that eye (because all of the inner working pieces are completely gone) That was really rough to hear because we were praying so hard that he may regain light sensitivity.

We got another call from the doctor not too long after that one to let us know that things were just too bad and she was going to have to remove the whole eye. Again, this didn't really change anything, it was just so hard to hear. We have felt so helpless all day and just got one call after another with bad news.

Tucker is staying at the hospital tonight. The surgery happened late in the day and since things went so awry, the doctor wanted to closely monitor him overnight. We just talked to her one last time and she was happy to report that he was awake and seemed to be doing just fine. We've been waiting for that good news for what seems like an eternity. I know that his surgeon did absolutely everything she could for him, I am so thankful for that.

I cannot tell you all how very much we appreciate everyone's kind words and prayers. I have received so many text messages, tweets and phone calls just calling to check on Tucker and the two of us. We are so blessed by all of you and feeling very thankful for the overwhelming support we've received today.

We're hoping to pick him up tomorrow morning. If you have some extra prayers, these are the things we're still concerned over....

• Tucker's good eye. We're hoping for more confirmation that his left eye will be fine and he'll still have sight there. We have no reason to think his other eye won't be okay, but after the strangeness of what happened today, we'd like a bit more confidence. (side note: the surgeon is so perplexed by what happened today that she is sending his eye and surgery information for UGA to see if we can gain some information. We're praying to learn something that will give us some peace of mind in regards to the other eye)
• His comfort. 
• That he is able to rest tonight and isn't terribly scared.
• A good recovery. We're not sure yet what that exactly means, but we'd like it to be stress-free.
• We are so hopeful that his sweet, spirited self will be back to normal very soon. We miss his personality and playfulness and we're hoping he'll bounce back. 

Again, thank you all so so so much. It brought tears to my eyes each time a friend let me know that they were thinking of us and Tucker.  I know he's 'just a dog' but he is so much more than that to the two of us and we have been on quite the emotional roller coaster with him today. We'll love his sweet little self with one eye or no eye, we just want him feeling better.

We're going to spend the rest of the evening eating Chinese food and curled up on the couch. It's been an exhausting day and we just need to try to relax. We are so ready to have our sweet Tucker back at home with us. 

Love this picture of Tucker, but it just made me cry again. Please, oh please let my puppy be this happy again soon!!