Melisa's Life

Saige got in to the Syracuse Arts Academy! You should have seen the look on her face when I told her. She is so excited! I've been busy the last couple of days making appointments for her. She has to have the kindergarten exam and I had to get something from their dentist and stuff. I'm not quite sure how she's going to feel about wearing uniforms though.

Had to add Kade's phrase of the week: "Look at this!" I especially love it when he has the cat by the scruff and is trying to show him a book.

I just wanted to give an update on Buff. He got his feeding tube taken out and went home about a week and a half ago. One of the drs I work with took him home while the feeding tube was in. I hung out with him while he was waiting for his owners. He looks SO good! He was playing with me and I was finally able to give him a treat :)
They brought the cougar in yesterday. I wish I would have gone in, but I didn't. I figured the inauguration of our first African American president was more important...besides, I've seen Mohawk many times.

I was counting out loud yesterday and when I would get to a number, Kade would say the next one...like I would get to 6 and stop and he would say "7." I was shocked. He counted all the way to 10.
...and this is my 100th post yeehaw!

I made a spur of the moment decision last week. It has always been a goal of mine to go back to school when Saige starts kindergarten. The new year got me thinking and I thought "why not start now?" It started with me filling out forms for financial aid. Then, I started looking at degrees, then what I needed to do as far as generals go. Tuesday, I was having doubts and wondering if I was doing the right thing. Wednesday, something happened and I had a total change of heart. I registered last night for 2 classes, one at the Davis campus at night, the other online. Classes started monday, so I'm a little behind, but that's ok. I got my books today and I'm getting excited. I'm taking botany and a basic computer class. I *think* I want to go into surgical nursing. I LOVE that part of my job, but vet techs don't make any money, especially in Utah, so I figure, why not people? I had a glimpse of the surgical nursing textbook today at the bookstore and got really scared. It's 4-5 inches thick, plus there's a 2 in thick workbook to go with it. Yuck!

My little boy has learned the word "no." For example, I caught him with a sharpie today and I said "Give mommy the marker." He runs away screaming "NO!" We have also started doing little timeouts, because he keeps doing things like pushing a chair all the way across the kitchen so that he can climb on the oven or when he colored on the couch. He sits on the stairs with me and when he's done, I'll tell him "no climbing" or whatever and he says "k." It is actually working. I'm surprised at how much he understands. Ok, that sounds bad...I mean he's smarter than most 1 year olds I know. like just now, he handed me my phone and said "call daddy." I told him to put his coat in the closet earlier and he did it.

I have always wanted to kind of highlight some of the animals at my work. Whenever the good ones come in, I always forget my camera *doh!* This time, I just took pics with my phone. They're not the greatest quality, but you get the idea. Friday was HORRIBLE! We get New Years Day off, so everyone waits until the 2nd to come in. It was so busy.
First is B. He is the sweetest Jack Russell. He reminds me a lot of Ryu. He came in on Christmas day on an emergency. Another dog attacked him. His throat was completely open and you could see his trachea. One of the drs. was showing me pictures of what it looked like before he stitched it up. He came back New Years Eve, we did surgery on him and found a hole through his esophagus. Every time he would eat, it would come back out the hole(gross huh...try cleaning that up). This caused the sutures to fail in a couple spots. We sedated him again on Friday while I was there and I helped put a feeding tube in(that's what the orange/brown tube is on top of his neck) and resuture the failing spots. I decided to spare the details and took a pic of him after surgery while we were out for a walk. Dr N talked his owners into letting him take care of B for a couple of weeks while the feeding tube is in. We were all talking about what a sweetheart he is and both the drs said that if the owners were leaning toward euthanizing him, they would take him home. I will write an update next week.

Next is puppies! We had a c-section on Friday too. One of my coworkers breeds English Bulldogs. These dogs, in my opinion, are unnatural. They can't get pregnant on their own or give birth on their own. We've become the bulldog specialists in Utah and see a LOT of them, therefore, we do a lot of c-sections. These puppies are some of my coworkers. These pics are graphic.
1. Is a pic of the Uterus with all the puppies inside.
2. Is a pic of the incision with him pulling a puppy out.
3. Is a pic of the puppy. He still has the membrane on him. The dr carefully takes this off and cleans him up.
4. The dr clamping the umbilical cord.
I couldn't get any pics after this point, it gets a little crazy. My job is to rub puppies, suction their noses and mouths, make sure they are breathing and their color looks good, and sometimes tie the cords and cut them.
5. All 8 puppies in a row :)