2 posts in 1 week??

Crazy! I have to tell you though, we found a good vet and I was soo excited about it. I'll tell you first about our last experience with the vet:

So duke had an ear infection in both of his ears. This was about... 6 months ago or so, maybe a little longer. Erik took him to the vet, who before he even touched the dog, called in 2 of his assistants to come restrain him. They put Duke in a choke hold (or so erik says) and then the vet poked his little ear looker thing into dukes ear and saw that it was indeed red and that there was nothing inside of it.

He then asked erik if he ever scratches. Erik said, "Well he is a dog." and the vet said it was probably allergies, then. He gave Duke an allergy shot and told erik there would be some prescriptions for him at the front to give to the dog. The whole experience cost $90, and the worst thing is that the Dr. tells you what you need and then sells it to you, so he could sell you all kinds of stuff and you wouldn't even know you didn't need it.

so then about a month ago, it looks like duke is getting another ear infection. Just on 1 ear this time, but it's starting to get nasty and he's scratching at it all the time. Erik doesn't want to take him to the vet b/c it was expensive and the vet was really ridiculous. I started cleaning out Duke's ear every night to hopefully make the infection go down and it looked like it was getting better, but then it started to bother him more and he just kept itching it, so I finally convinced Erik to let me take him to the vet, as long as it was a different vet.

I called around to a few different places yesterday since I had the day off. The first place couldn't get me in until wednesday. The second place couldn't get me in until 4 in the afternoon, after erik would have already taken the car and gone to work. Then I called this place that was "Johnsons veterinary hospital" or something like that. I was asking the girl if there was any chance she could fit us in today, and she said that she didn't think so but she'd go check with Dr. Johnson (so the actual guy the practice was named after). She came back and said that they could see him at 1.

I showed up 15 min. early so that it would be more convenient for them to be able to take me whenever their schedule opened. I waited for about 10 min and then this guy in a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt opened the door and said, "why don't you bring duke back and we'll take a look at him". This guy is probably about 60 years old, and he told me that in his 35 years of practicing he'd seen lots of ear infections. He started talking to me about what might be causing it while he picks up the dog in his arms and steps onto a regular bathroom scale, then sets the dog down and again steps on a scale and punches the numbers into his calculator to see how much duke weighs. (71 lbs, by the way. This guy was a lot stronger than he looked, haha).

He then takes a long qtip and swabs some gunk out of duke's ear. He wiped that on a microscope slide and put some red stuff onto it and started looking at it under the microscope and tells me that he doesn't see any bacteria, just yeast and fungus. Much more scientific of a diagnosis than, "Does he ever scratch?"

He gave me some ointment, cleaned out duke's ear really good and showed me how to put the ointment in his ear. He also gave me some solution that he said to use once a week after the ear infection clears up just to keep it away. he said that if i wanted to, when it was gone, i could bring it back and they'd fill it up for a couple of dollars, or i could just go get a vinegar douche from the drug store and use that (sick, i'm douching my dog... my male dog...)

He also said that since duke's been scratching it so much (hi sear was all red on the back) he'd give him a shot to make it feel better which should last about 10 days. He said he wouldn't charge me for the shot. He also said that if I had any problems, they don't charge for rechecks, so just call them and bring him back in.

The total cost of the visit was $55: $35 for the check, $12 for the prescription, and $8 for the douche. Needless to say, I was really impressed by him and how much he seems to actually care about the animals and not so much about the money. Even if you buy the prescription online, it costs the same amount, so they can't be making too much of a profit on that.

so now duke is feeling better and I'm glad. If anyone is in UT valley and needs to know the name of a good vet, just ask me b/c i found one! :)

The past month... and a half...

Well it seems like the only person who hasn't updated more recently than me is Wudan, so here it is :)

My mom just came to town again and we had fun. we got to see the grandparents a few times, went to my cousin's wedding reception where there was a lot of dessert, and watched conference. The parts of conference that I stayed awake for were good. I am sick :( and so took a nap through probably about half of conference... a little less than that, I guess.

Lately I've been really hot all the time. Everyone else can be shivering and I'm just starting to not sweat. It's annoying, but I could be putting up with worse stuff I guess. :)

Everything is good as far as the baby goes. We had our ultrasound about 2 weeks ago, and for those of you who I was too much of a bum to contact (which doesnt' mean I don't like you, haha) I am having a girl. Everything looks normal. i have a few pictures, but don't have a scanner so I'll have to get those posted later on. Hopefully Frik will take them to campus one of these days and scan them at the library.

Other than that, work is going well. I'm feeling more comfortable with the products we support and starting to feel like I'm at least as smart as most of the people who are calling in for help :)

Oh, we bought a new laptop. well, a used laptop. i like it. It's a little slower than our other one (it's 3 years old) but the keyboard and touchpad are 100% better than our old computer. They actually work, haha.

Well... that's about all for my update. I'm feeling sick... I got a cold and it's not gone yet, so that's frustrating, and hopefully it gets better soon. :) Ok, that's really it now.

A little sad, but mostly good.

So this weekend was good. My mom came into town and we cleaned up and played games (see Sukie's blog) and watched movies... The best thing is how much cleaner my house is now. Since we moved in, we haven't really had a place for everything, but mom helped me to find a place for a lot of stuff (mostly the kitchen stuff) and now it's so much easier to put stuff away.

Daxsaito came and helped put on some doorknobs and stuff, too. We also went up to my grandparents and spent some time with them on Sunday and made them dinner... and broke their sink. But it's fixed now, so everything is back to happy!

The thing that I'm a little sad about now is that yesterday, I decided to drop all my classes. You can defer for a semester at BYU (or a few years, if it's for a mission) but you can't defer for just 1 year. So that means that I'll have to reapply as a former student (which apparently makes it not to difficult to get in). It's mostly good... because for one, I would be 8 mo pg at the end of the semester, which wouldn't be comfortable in those little desk chair combos. Also, we'd have to take out more student loans in order to pay for me this semester since we don't have the money saved up (we were just unprepared this year). It also gives me more time at home (since I'm working 40 hrs/ wk also) to get stuff done and relax a bit and actually get some sleep. The thing that makes me sad about it is that I just have this feeling like I'm giving up, even though I know I'm not. I haven't not gone to school in the fall since I was... 4? Before kindergarten anyway. I came to UT to get my degree, and now I'm stopping before I have it. I fully plan on going back, too, but plans don't always work out (thus I'm still in UT 4 years after coming to get a degree...)

So it was a hard decision, but I think it's the best for my sanity. I just have to deal with the disappointment that I have that I haven't finished yet and am right now not doing anything to finish. I was seriously crying about it yesterday when I had to click the little "D" next to all of my classes in my schedule. Esp the one that Frik and I were going to take together.

Speaking of Frik, you'll notice that his blog is down. It's not because of inappropriate content like mom thought, but because he accidentally gave his IP to a customer at work and didn't want them reading about his personal life. Maybe I can get him to move his blog over to my server so that the chances of him updating once in a while go from 0 to... about 2%.

No more bum hurts!

Sweet, so I went to the dr after my "broken tail bone" started to spread and hurt all the way around my entire bum... and then yesterday when it started bleeding (not from my bum hole, but right at the level of my tailbone...) Well I figured that either my tailbone was coming out of my back or that this was something different all together.

It turns out it was never broken, but that I have a Pilonidol Cyst (which is kind of like a boil, and I think it's sick. If you want to read up on it, do, but I won't make you), and that there was an infection.

As I've looked around the internet, I've seen a lot of stuff where people, when they first have an infection or whatever, they think it's a broken tailbone, so I don't feel too dumb. :) It's good news, kindof. It means that I'll have to have surgery after the baby is born, but it'll feel better in the mean time as long as I can keep it clean and take hot baths every day.

You will all be happy to know, I'm sure, that I woke up this morning and felt no pain at all. I'm sitting on a chair right now that would have killed me before. I am happy, but also grossed out.

Anyone else ever had a broken tail bone?

I can't sit or lay down or stand... unless I'm very careful about doing any of the previous three and make sure I don't move once I get into a position that doesn't hurt. It wasnt' too bad a few days ago, but for the past couple days, my tailbone has been killing me. Tylenol doesn't touch it, and I'm not allowed to take any other pain relievers, so I'm just lost. I have to sit at work, but that's the worst thing to do b/c I have to lean forward in order to sit, and you can't do that for too long comfortably.

I was reading about how they diagnose a broken tailbone, and it said that they stick their finger up your bum and feel the bone and see if it moves. Sick. I know I've bruised my tailbone before, and that hurt in about the same place, but only if I leaned on it. I was actually crying yesterday b/c it hurt so bad... This was after all day at church on their less than comfortable chairs, so that probably contributed.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

In other news, I've got an appointment set for the 19th of September, when we'll have the ultra sound and be able to tell if we're having a boy or girl. I'm excited. Also just to see the baby will be exciting. I'll have to let you all know what I'm having sometime shortly after that :)