A REALLY rough weekend

I haven't written in a while because I wasn't sure what the end of the story would be...I know that seems weird, but I didn't want to start writing one story for it to end up as a totally different story entirely...

As I wrote in my last post, things have been INSANE with getting ready for the wedding, which is a short 4 days away now...EEEEK! On Thursday night, Shane and I were just sitting down to dinner and relaxing. It was a rare moment of calm for just the two of us when the phone rang. He is waiting for a call about a job, so he answered it. It was our barn manager. The line was extremely staticy and all he heard was horse and colic. THE DREADED C-WORD!

We slammed the TV and DVD player off, dressed VERY warmly VERY quickly and took off to the barn. When we got there it was my worst nightmare. Trinity... 1 year ago to the day from the colic that ended in a surgical suite. She was exhibiting most of the same symptoms as before. She was kicking at her stomach, trying to fall over, and just looking very dejected. I called my normal vet with the vitals and he told me to call the hospital and have them come out (he was out of town).

The vet came out and felt a severe impaction in the Pelvic Flexure (NOT SAND!! YAY! I guess...), but said he also thought it was very serious and may need hospital fluids. We are very short on funds, so we decided to give her the night and see how she did with the oil, epsom salt, and electrolytes. We were up every hour to check on her and she seemed okay, but not better. By morning she was worse. I couldn't miss work, because I had only been there a week! So, Shane called our vet's on-call doctor and she came out to see Trinity. She said that she couldn't feel the impaction, but that he arms were much shorter than the Emergency Vet. She gave Shane instructions for the day and left.

 

The Pelvic Flexure is Letter E on the bottom of the image.

I got the call at about 3pm that it was time to head to the Large Animal Hospital. Not again...but yes. We got a hold of the trailer person that the hospital recommends, loaded up and headed out. When we got there the same vet from Thursday night examined her. He said he definitely still felt the same impaction. He did an Ultra Sound and wanted to put her on fluids for the night.

We also had a decision to make...Were we willing to do surgery again. We knew that surgery would fix the problem immediately, but we were just not in the position. It was very very hard to make the call, but we said that we couldn't do surgery again. Friday night and Saturday morning, Trinity was very tired and slept most of the time. They let fluids flow open and free to get things moving.

 

Poor Baby! They left the nasal tube in to drain her stomach every three hours, so that is why she has the muzzle on. 

 

Sleepy Pony...

On Saturday mid day, we went to visit and she was looking so much better. They let us take her for a walk and she was closer to herself. She was nuzzling us and neighing to the other horses. I was feeling very very encouraged. 

 

Mom, I look like a unicorn...don't take pictures!

Trinity, from the magical land of ICU. 

Then it happened...Sunday morning I got a call saying that she had taken a turn for the worse. We rushed to the hospital thinking the worst. We decided that we could only fight this for so long. It wasn't fair to Trinity or to us to keep pushing her. We met with the vet and he said, the diagnosis was not good. The entire impaction had moved to the small colon.

 

See where the intestine narrows between letter E and letter F? That is where it was sitting. 

 As I have explained before...I HATE the equine anatomy. Whoever thought it was smart to have the horse digestive system need to defy gravity in order to complete the cycle, was on crack... I digress. Basically, most impaction break-up before they hit this point, but hers was like a cork plugging up the hole. On top of that, Trinity's White Blood Cell count dropped to .8. A normal range is 5.5-8. This put her in extreme risk of developing a secondary illness. She had been classified as "Yellow" in ICU, which means that all tech's had to glove up, wear booties, and a gown to work with her to avoid giving her something. The vet was concerned of tissue death, due to the plug pressing against the intestine wall and not allowing blood flow to circulate. He said she had 24 hours to pass it before we were critical. 

Shane and I spent a large part of Sunday crying and fighting and loving on her. We knew that by Monday night, if she hadn't gotten better. We were going to have to make the worst decision of our entire lives.

 

Daddy loves sick pony.

Mommy loves her more!

As we were leaving, I gave Trinity a talking to. I told her that I needed a phone call by 10 from the vet with good news! I meant the 10am phone call that the vet promised to make after his staff meeting. At 9:56pm the vet called me and told me she had passed a fairly large pile of fecal matter. He said it was very dry and not the whole impaction, in the least, but it was good news! I never gave Trinity and am or pm, so she DID listen to me!!!!

On Monday morning the news was even better. She had passed a few more piles and her White Blood Cell count had gone up to 1.4. It was still VERY low, but the news was encouraging. On Monday night we went down and she had passed 4 more piles throughout the day, and they had started feeding her small amounts of hay several times a day. THANK GOODNESS! My pony is here to stay! She is such a fighter!

The biggest concern now was the White Blood Cell count. Shane and I are leaving town Thursday morning (for Golden, only about 40 minutes from the hospital) and then Sunday we are leaving town for Mexico. My concern is bringing her home too early and her catching something. Then I would be out of town and then what? We spoke to the vet and they have a small rehabish type barn for a fairly reasonable price. Once she is off fluids and had a high enough WBC count to be safe, they are going to move her there. This way we can enjoy Mexico and we don't have to worry about her being exposed and without vet care. 

This morning, we got a call that the WBC count was up to 3.4! We are getting better. The vet said this is a really goo pace to be increasing. Too fast and that would indicate a secondary issue. We are doing good though! THANK EVERY HIGHER POWER POSSIBLE!

The tough conversation will remain...what if this happens again. As much as I hate to discuss it, she is apparently predisposed to colic. She has coliced 3 times in 20 months. 4 times in 5 years... We can not afford to do this again. So, we are going to do a lot of preventative supplements and care. Nevertheless, we are going to have to have the discussion... and I hate it...

...oh so much going on...

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in FOREVER...It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks. As most of you know I live in Colorado. While I don't live in Boulder (all they talk about on the National News) I do live in Arapahoe County, which was the 2nd worst hit by the biblical flooding a couple of weeks ago.

So, I woke up on Thursday September 12th, like any Thursday...grumbly because it was 6am and I was up and getting dressed to go to a fairly unfullfilling job. I ran down to the basement as I was getting ready to leave for work, because I wanted to grab some popcorn in case I wanted a snack. As soon as I hit the bottom step, I was standing in 2 inches of water...oh CRAP! I screamed for Shane, who was luckily off work that day, and he came down and said the same thing...oh CRAP! I called in to work, and I started shop-vac-ing water while he ran to Home Depot and fought a guy for the final sump-pump.

By the time he got home the water had increased to 2.5". We were making great headway, when I opened the door to the down stairs bedroom and...oh CRAP! All of the carpet was underwater. We thought we had caught it soon enough that it had only drenched the unfinished portion...NOPE!

My basement...yikes

So, Step 1:

Remove Drenched carpet...I mean I really did hate the pink carpet from the 1980s, but I wasn't in the mood to remove it all while it was weighed down by 20lbs of water...or less than a month before the wedding (and a million house guests!)

Step 2:

Begin Flood cutting the drywall. The sheet rock had soaked up the water and was drenched to about 18", so we cut it at 2 feet high to make sure we removed all of the moisture to mitigate any potential for mold. 

Step 3:

Finish removing drywall and sweep up ALL dust so that we could turn on huge carpet fans and dehumidifiers to clear all moisture. This would enable us to spray anti-mold spray. 

Step 4:

Remove all insulation because guess what, the water had penetrated THAT too...

Luckily, it didn't rain on Friday, which gave us tome to accomplish this monumental task. We also went to check on the ponies. They had not grown flippers...so we felt good: 

Wet, but not as bad as I thought. This was only after day 1 of the biblical flood though...little did we know, there would be more.

We finished cleaning all of the basement, had it 90% dry and we were feeling really good on Saturday evening when it started raining...AGAIN. 

This used to be my neighborhood street...

I ran down to check the basement, and...you guessed it...oh CRAP!

So, we called out the water removal people who had sprayed for the mold and they came out and shop-vac-ed the water back out, turned the fans back on, turned the dehumidifier back on, and we started all over again...Thank goodness there was no drywall. That was hard work and I would not have been happy to have to remove it again!

When the storm stopped and the water was removed and the basement was drying, we were able to find the entry point, a tiny place where the concrete foundation had contracted from the cinderblock walls and was allowing water in. So, I packed it up to Home Depot and bought concrete patch and masonry sealant. Shane had to go to work, so this was my project! I was going to beat the WATER! SO, 

Step 1:

Patch the concrete. I did this around 9pm on Saturday night. It said to give it 24 hours to dry and 7 days to seal. I obviously did NOT have that kind of time. We were due to get another 3-4 inches on Sunday. So, 

Step 2:

Seal the wall. We did this around 9am on Sunday morning. We had given the concrete patch as much time as possible to dry, because the sealant would need time to dry as well. 

Step 3:

Bring some humor to the whole ordeal...

So, we were set...right? Sunday, like clockwork (WOW the weatherman was right!), at about 12:15 it started raining...hard. We rushed down to the basement immediately when the first thunder hit to marvel at our craftsmanship...oh CRAP! 

Water was rushing in a giant hole. Apparently the can of concrete patch was right, because the water mixed right with the still damp patch and punctured through the wall...

SHIT!

Well, at least now we knew EXACTLY where the leak was. We ran outside and tarpped the side of our house to avoid any more water. 

No water has entered the basement since we added this gorgeous piece of garden sculpturing, even though it has rained 2 or 3 times. 

Shane has a solution to the issue, but we need a dry spell so he can fix the concrete and let it dry. I think that is the mission for this weekend. Until it is patched up and fixed, this tarp isn't going anywhere...

So, long story short, we have been dealing with this fiasco. Since we had to clear the basement and get everything out, the clean upstairs that was ready for company in a couple weeks was once again destroyed. So, the last week has been spent cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. The house is now back in shape, and I can start spending some time with the ponies again. 

Let's Hope...

Busy Life

I know that this post is a long time coming, and I am warning you, over the next several weeks posts will be sparse. I am planning a wedding that is now 32 days away...Things have been completely insane. Last weekend (Labor Day Weekend) I went down to Texas. My aunts threw me an amazing Wedding Shower. It was so great to see everyone, enjoy the family, and relax. Work has been absolutely nuts and very stressful, so I have been trying to find the positive in things.

My cousin is a miracle worker with sugar. The wedding shower had a beach themes, to promote our honeymoon in CANCUN!That is cake, CAKE! Can you believe it? She blows my mind every time I see one of her masterpieces. 

My future Mother-in-law gave me this amazing bracelet. I love it so much!

In addition to things off of our honeymoon registry, my aunts got us some fantastic Mr. and Mrs. beach towels to take on the trip with us. 

The horses are doing really well and enjoying their time in their pasture. They absolutely love the room to walk around. I drive by all the time and they are taking a stroll and always moving. Their legs look fit and strong. Their bodies look good (except that Trinity is still lacking some serious muscle). I haven't had time to ride, ride, ride like I promised. Shocking...I know. 

I went out the other day and was going to spend some serious pony love time, but it was only 30 minutes after breakfast. Trinity basically told me to shove off, she was eating...

Mom, there is still alfalfa left!

See, I am still eating...all this...hay?

Yesterday it looked like it was about to storm. We made our way out to the barn to atleast let the horses in to the arena to run some steam off. They ran a whopping 300 feet to the end of the arena and then fell asleep. Shane and I both grabbed lunge whips and positioned ourselves around the arena and tried to get them to run. I think they were really getting us to run! After about 10 minutes I realized, their pasture is amazing, because they aren't wound up like they always were in their old pens. 

ugh, Mom, we are tired from all the walking...

Unfortunately, the tail thief made an appearance in our town again. Trinity's gorgeous luscious locks are no more. The harm of living in a city is that there are morons around that do shit like this. Though we were in the middle of no where when Frosty's tail got "eaten". Which we were still convinced was due to the horse tail thief. Oh well, I guess I wont need to bag the tail to keep it out of the snow this year...

SO SAD! I loved that tail so much...

While Shane and I have been busy beyond belief, our garden has been very busy as well. Our zucchini plant is producing ginormous veggies. I think I have picked about 6 of them and there are 4 still on the plant. Each huge zucchini is equal to about 3 normal sized zucchini. The tomatoes are producing, but they are small. I have gotten about 5 or 6 banana peppers and 2 Mexi-bells. We have 2 tiny melons starting to form. Also, we have 2 little baby cucumbers.