Last Friday (the 12th), I got to go see the Black Eyed Peas in concert at the Sommet Center. Now, that was a freakin blast. My good friend Leslie arranged for a limo to take us (she and I, and a few girls from her office) downtown; it’s always fun to ride in style. Opening acts were LMFAO and Ludacris. That may sound like an odd combination, but it was a great way to kick off the night. I was surprised at how many songs I knew by both groups. Well, and then the BEPs came out and it was all over. Damn they know how to put on a good show. Fergie was amazing; I kept saying “Its really her, its really her”. Haha. will.i.am rocked it out and I heard he DJ’d later at one of the clubs downtown. We just limo-ed it to Whiskey Kitchen for a drink or two after the show. Overall, it was a spectacular night and a great extension of my birthday (as the ticket was a bday present from Leslie).

Speaking of my birthday, I have to say it has got to be one of my best birthdays ever (my Sweet 16 on a boat was pretty sweet). On my actual birthday, a small group of friends and I enjoyed a delicious, relaxing meal at Flyte and ended the night at Mafiaoza’s for an additional cocktail. I took it easy on Thursday in order to prepare for Friday, which was the main event! Another good friend, Kristin, used her inside connections to secure us two King Suites at the Hutton Hotel and arranged for 12 of my girlfriends to party on the town and then crash at the hotel. We started out with tipsy madlibs and then got all dolled up in the suite before calling up our favorite taxi driver, who just happened to be driving his limo that night (same one as above). So we all piled in to the limo to go three blocks to midtown where we partied it up at Broadway Brewhouse and Hollywood Disco. Afterwords, we headed to Broadway and danced our hearts out at Decades. Altogether I think we danced for about three hours.

And my feet were not happy with me the next day. The next week really. I guess wearing heels that are slightly too small and constrict your toes is not a great idea. From the ball of my foot to the tip of my toes, I had a tingling sensation, like when they get super cold, for 8 days. I had them checked out and found out it could last for weeks, but luckily I recovered quickly. I will, however, use that as a lesson and not subject my feet to such torture ever again. Here’s to good intentions.

This weekend I’m participating in a Habitat for Humanity home build with my co-workers. I’ve never done one before (and now realize how difficult it is to arrange/sponsor a build) so I’m pretty excited. I’m just hoping for somewhat nice weather, as the build will happen no matter what. I’ll try to get some pictures posted afterwords!

We should hear from him in about 2 hours and then we have to go pick him up and take him to the all-night emergency clinic so they can monitor him overnight. We’ll take him back to the animal hospital in the morning where they will continue to monitor him throughout the day. We should hopefully be able to bring him home sometime tomorrow.

Dr. Calfee says that, because of what he is able to see on the CT Scan, this should be a very predictable surgery. Of course there are risks, but we got him in as soon as we possibly could and the cause seems to be very clear.

Clementine is confused and worried about her “brother” but she is also a great comfort while Dexter is undergoing this procedure. The power of cuddling should never be underestimated.

Nine days ago, Dexter could walk perfectly. He could jump up on the couch, run up the stairs, and chase the squirrels. But something happened during the night of the 10th. On Sept 11th, Dexter displayed a noticeable lethargy and general slowness. So much so that I stayed home and ended up taking him to the vet that afternoon. Thinking he might have an obstruction or other intestinal bug, I was expecting to walk outta there with some antibiotics and a promise of success.

Instead, the vet shook his head and confidently asserted that it was classic dachshund back pain. He gave him a steroid injection and sent us home with 3 new medications to try for two weeks with the charge to bring him back if he’s not better by then, or, dog forbid, he gets worse.

He got worse.

Monday morning Jason got up before I did, which is rare, and when I heard him coming back up the stairs shortly after he left, I knew something was wrong. His speed and light-footedness were very different from his normal return from the bathroom.

That morning Dexter had a noticeable wobble to his back legs and that sent us scrambling. We immediately took him to the vet who confirmed that the wobble was a display of neurological damage and suggested we leave him for x-rays. After a few hours, the vet informed us that Dexter had noticeable calcifications on his spine and space between some of his vertebrae. She suggested a consult by a local canine orthopedic surgeon. He wasn’t able to come to the hospital until 5pm, so we met him there at 5:30pm.

After a good hour wait, Dr. Trey Calfee came to speak with us to give us the odds. If we did nothing and confined Dexter to a crate for 6 weeks, he has a 50/50 chance of getting better, and the same chance of getting a lot worse. If we did surgery now, he has a 95% chance of fully recovering. The choice was obvious to us and we scheduled the surgery for Friday morning, as well as a CT Scan for Tuesday (yesterday) so that the doc would have a better idea of the exact problem.

Yesterday we took him to get the CT Scan and were told he did great. They gave him a tranquilizer to calm him so they could easily administer oral anesthetic. We were told this tranquilizer would exacerbate his symptoms for a while, but would wear off throughout the day. However, from the moment I picked him up from the radiologist, I noticed a concerning lack of control of his hind legs, more-so than before. This did not/has not worn off and we are scrambling again.

Except now we are playing the waiting game. Dr. Calfee is in surgery this morning and we have to wait for him to call us to find out if he can do the surgery before Friday. The longer we wait, the more permanent damage is done to the spinal cord, which means more likelihood that Dexter will not regain function in his hind quarters.

Its just all happened so fast. Not to mention that he’s only four years old, and this is just sucky timing with the home renovations and everything. We, of course, will do everything in our power to heal our baby, but its going to be very difficult. We have an Open House in 2 weeks and I’m thinking of making it a charity event to help pay for his surgery, which is going to set us back quite a bit. Anyway. Words of encouragement, prayers, whatever, are very welcome.

Hug a wiener today.

Note to self: do not blow nose when driving, riding scooter, or operating heavy machinery.

Of course I wouldn’t really have occasion to do the last one anyway, but still. This new medicine doesn’t seem to be doing much just yet. I’ll give it another day or so before I am too critical.

It sounds like Jason may be coming down with something now too. It actually surprised me how long he went without catching anything from me. I mean, I was all feverish and stuff and we were sleeping in the same bed. I thought that was a sure way to catch a cold. Maybe its just been incubating.

I’ve always thought that was a funny way of describing a cold before it shows its symptoms. It makes me picture a baby chick in my stomach, walking around until it can’t stand it anymore and then it sneezes. I know, I’m weird like that, but I’m a visual person.