Chicken Chronicles

So, I've been telling Diane that 2, maybe 3 of the five chickens are looking like roosters. One of those being the Brown Leghorn that Aric named Julie.

I told her that he may have to re-name it Julio or we could just call it dinner! Any way I took them outside last night while I was planting my two berry bushes. I made them a little makeshift cage and stuck them in. At first they didn't seem to know what to do. I went and got them some food and tossed on the ground to get them to start scratching in the dirt. After they recovered from thinking that the sky was falling and all ran away, they sort of got the hang of the whole dirt thing. The area I was cleaning out for the berries has become a sprout garden. I was raking out 4" thick sections of nothing but sprouts. Dang those tumble weeds. I started uncovering not only a plethora of worms but some grubs or caterpillars too. I was throwing the sprouts in to the chickens so they could dig through them and look for bugs. They mostly just ran away scared (the whole sky is falling thing again). Then I tossed in a couple of the grubs. Again they ran. Julie (Julio) was the first to discover that it was food. (s)he would pick it up and then run around (litteraly like a chicken with it's head cut off) trying to keep her prize away from the other chickens. She would finally get to a 'safe' spot and gobble it up. (no pun intended) After throwing a couple more in, Julie caught on fast. She realized that when I came over I usually had something good and while the other chickens cowered in the corner she would run up and snatch the treat almost as soon as it hit the ground. It was very cute - darn it now I don't want to eat a smart chicken for dinner. I'll try to get video of it to share. I've got to work my butt off over the weekend to get the coop ready. The chickies need to go out! They are very cramped and starting to get very smelly.

Tripod comes home

Of course Shar'rai would get to come home in the middle of the biggest storm of the year. The nurse called and said she did well in surgery and was doing good today and that she could go home at 10:00 this morning.

I went to the admissions desk (first one that you get to when you go in) and asked to pick up my dog. They said I had to go to the billing office for all discharges. Of course. That's how you can't skip out on the bill. You can't even see your dog until billing calls back that you are here. The girl started tallying up the bill. It was only $200 something for the surgery but we still had $100 something from last week that wasn't covered by the credit. She told me the total due and I just stood there. I told her that I could pay her in two weeks when I get my next check. She said no, that wasn't their policy, blah, blah, blah. I told her my story, blah, blah, blah. We went back and forth,
"the dog can't be discharged without payment in full",
"I can't pay in full".
She said she would check with her supervisor, which she did, still, no. I asked her, so what, you're going to keep my dog for two weeks until I can pay? She seemed a bit surprised by that and said no that had never happened. She suggested that we try to up the credit that I had gotten last week. I refused telling her that I hadn't qualified, my sister had and there was no way I was going to try to get more on that. I told her about our conversations with the Dr's on the first day and was really getting confrontational by then. She asked me to sit down while she called the Dr. I told her that was a good idea and she should do that. I went outside to call Sean. told him what was going on and then proceeded to cry in the snow for the next five min. By the time I went back in, the surgeon and the student assigned to her for the stay were at the billing office talking to the girl. I sat down and cried some more. The student saw me and came over. She said she would go get Shar'rai. I told her I didn't want to see Shar'rai if i couldn't take her home, it would just be that much harder. She was surprised by what I had said. The Dr came over and was trying to find out what was wrong. I was crying too much to say anything. They finally got me into an exam room and after a few minutes I told them the whole story. Our first good impressions, conversations, and the subsequent lack of communication regarding the billing practices. The fact that if I couldn't take her home they might as well not bring her out to see me because that would be too difficult to see her and not have her go with me. He too seemed confused when I said that and asked why I would think she wasn't going home today. I told him that's what the girl in the billing office had told me. There was no way I could finish paying the bil today so she said she couldn't discharge Shar'rai. The Dr said there was no way she wasn't going home today and that he would take care of the billing office. I don't know if that means that he got them to go ahead and bill us or if he got the account cleared. I guess we'll see if a bill show up in the next couple of weeks.

They brought Shar'rai out. She's in a t-shirt. It's to help keep her covered from the sun, with 1/2 her body shaved, she could get a nasty sun burn, although not during a blizzard! The Dr helped me load her up in the car and off we went. We picked up Sean form work on the way home and we were able to get her out of the car without too much trouble. We took her to the back stairs because they are not as steep and she managed them quite well. The rest of the day she followed me around the house which tells me that either she's feeling a lot better without her diseased leg, or that she's on some really good pain meds. She hadn't followed me around for weeks because it hurt her so bad. She was laying on her blanket later and we noticed her shirt was pretty wet. We'd been outside for a bathroom break, and while it was raining real good, the wet spot on her shirt didn't look like rain drops. I took it off her and surprise, she had felt so good today and moved around so much that she popped at least three of her staples and was oozing. yay. We bandaged it with some neosporin (never hurts right?) gauze, tape and wrapped it all up with an ace bandage - good thing for first aid kits. We'll see how it looks tomorrow and decide if we need to take her in to get re-stapled.

Shar'rai's surgery day

I dropped Shar'rai off at CSU for her surgery today. I met with her surgeon and the nurse assigned to her. They were both very nice and the nurse just called to tell me that they are taking her in for surgery right now.

They had me sign another estimate today for the surgery costs. It looks like it could be anywhere from them covering it all, to us having to pay only about $400. Unfortunately we still don't have that $400. I'm still hoping I can just get her and leave. The billing office will never know, they are soo busy there. They have a sign that I noticed last time I was there that said they would charge $25 to any account that isn't paid in full at the time you leave. I'm good with that. Better than the $150 we just had to cover in overdraft fees from last week. I can't even concentrate on anything I'm such a mess.

Shar'rai goes to college

We decided to try the Vet hospital at CSU for more options for Shar'rai's cancer treatment. Her first apointment was yesterday. As with all diagnosis' as soon as you hear something scary you go straight to the internet to start researching it. That helped prepare us for the conversation with the vet team. Sean and I had already discussed the situation and if we were able we already knew what we would do. If the cnacer has spread, no surgery, we'll do pain management for as long as Shar'rai will tolerate it. If it hasn't spread and she's a candidate for one of the trials we'll sign up for the trial

We were also hoping that they would be a bit more affordable. Luckily they did have several trials going on that are specific to treating bone cancer. Everything from gene therapy to several different drug trials. It turns out that Shar'rai is eligible for the gene therapy. We have to cover all the testing costs associated with the diagnosis and pre-operative stuff, the trial will pay up to $1500 for the amputation.

Yes I said vet team. We were very impressed with the facilities and the personel. They had a greeter in the wating room offering beverages to both the humans and the pets, talking to all the owners and helping them feel comfortable and less anxious. As people are called back, the students and or vets come out to get you, they greet the animals and their owners and chatted a bit in the waiting room, then would walk you back.

Only one thing spoiled our experience... We told the vet on Monday that money was a huge issue for us. The only way we could consider the testing and treatment was if we could make payment arrangements. There was no way we could come up with all the money right now. I feel we made that point very clear. They said they would get us an estimate and that all we would need to do is pay 1/2 of the low estimate on Monday. We said ok. We scraped together all our cash, credit cards and overdrew our bank account with the debit card to pay the deposit.

In the mean time they wanted to start testing right away. Shar'rai needed more x-rays, to make sure it hadn't already metastasized into her lungs, and blood tests to make sure she could tolerate the surgery and anesthesia. They recommended a bone scan that could help find any spots of new growth which would indicate cancer in areas other than just her front leg, and they discovered an irregular heartbeat which may affect surgery so they recommended doing an EKG. The results of any of these tests could change our course of treatment, amputation would no longer be on the table if it had already spread, or if there were other things wrong that would adversely affect her being under anesthesia.

Luckily, or not, depends on how you look at it, all her tests came back clean. They kept her overnight to perform all the tests, and when I went to pick her up, they asked for the rest of the money.

What? What kind of a payment plan is that? 24 hours is not a payment plan. The 'rest' ended up being more than the what the high end estimate was listed as. I don't have any more money, you guys already took everything we had yesterday. Thus the reason for asking for a payment plan, which we told everyone about yesterday. They had me fill out a credit app for some health care credit. I was declined, which I knew I would be. Luckily I have a wonderful sister who allowed me to put her on as a co-signer. That time it got approved, although it was still for less than what that trips total bill was for. It was after hours and the billing office was closed so they said they would leave it for them in the morning to finalize the bill. I got out of there quick. I was already a mess by then, not only with the current problems but the whole situation in general. Ugh. Stress like you wouldn't believe.

During the testing they did a biopsy and injected the gene therapy material into the cancer site. Now the trial details are that Shar'rai needs to go back at 3 and 7 days for blood tests and on day 10 is when they'll perform the amputation. So between yesterday and the 17th I'll be making the trip to Ft Collins 6 times. Good thing I have 100hrs of vacation. I'm assuming (and hoping) that the re-visits are all covered by the trial. (crossing fingers) When we get to the amputation I'm hoping that I can just get her, duck the billing office and have them send me a bill. I know that the $1500 won't cover the entire operation.

Shar'rai's Follow up

We just went back today for follow up x-rays and they pretty much confirmed that she has bone cancer. We have two options - both of which mean we have to cancel the vacation to Nevada and the Northwest that we were planning. First option is we control the pain until she becomes too bad and we have to put her down, the vet estimates that to be about 4-6 months. The second option is to run a bunch of tests, make sure that the cancer hasn't metastasized to more parts of her body, if that comes out ok then we amputate the leg that does have the cancer, follow up with Chemo and hope for the best. They said if there is any cancer that is smaller than 4mm they wouldn't be able to detect it so we take our chances that the surgery isn't in vain.

I know that's small potatoes compared to some of the trials our families have faced in the recent years, luckily it's not another human, but she is a member of my family and I wanted to share with you all. I know how I feel when I don't get let in on the news, good or bad, and thought some of you might want to know as well.

As for the chickens, I won't e-mail you when I kill one of them, unless you want an invite to come over for BBQ!

Chicken Chronicles

Shar'ai's pain pills seem to be helping. She's still limping but is not afraid to walk or even run on it when it suits her. I've been getting more pictures of the dogs with the chicks. Shar'ai is fine - she put's her nose right on the poor little girls and just sniffs them, all over! No agressive moves, just lots of sniffing. Tasha has tried to eat them several times on Sunday, but did much better last night. Only one attempt at 'chick in mouth' :) She get's a severe reprimand and then she just tries to avoid the chick so that she won't get into trouble. We've got a couple pictures of her where she looks like she is scared of the chick. It's very funny.

Canine Osteosarcoma

Shar'rai has been limping for the past couple of days. I noticed it yesterday and checked her paw, I looked for a thorn or something but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. By last night she seemed fine, we took the girls out to the pet store to get some food and they both acted fine. This morning when I went out to feed them I noticed Shar'rai limping again. This time I saw the her front right leg was swollen. That was concerning. I had to leave fairly early to go with Daine to a luring event that she wanted to check out. I had Sean take Shar'rai inside, thinking that maybe she was getting a bit of arthritis or something and needed to be in where it's warm. I asked him to watch her for a bit and see if it got better. Then we decided that we should make her an appt to see a vet. The vet had room for her today so he took her in. He called me from the office as soon as the vet looked at her. He wanted to get x-rays right away thinking it was broken. Apparently when the Dr came back after looking at the x-rays, Sean could tell that it was something different. The x-rays showed unusal bone growth that is indicative of cancer. They sent Sean and Shar'rai home with some doggie ibuprofins and said to come back next week for a follow up.