January 29th, 2011
We just got back from a RV trip to Tucson and back with a stop in Houston for Kate's medical checkup. The surgeon says her infection is gone and she is well enough to be free from restrictions. She's a happy dog now that she can run and play as she wants.
December 23rd, 2010
Sandy and Kate got home about 2pm yesterday and Kate is doing very well. She limps a little and doesn't put full weight on her left rear leg, but if you didn't know she had a problem, you probably wouldn't notice it. We are all happy they are home, especially in time for Christmas. Kate's well being is the best Christmas present I ever got. There is no way for me to explain how I feel about that little dog. She's my little girl.
December 18th, 2010
Sandy and Kate are still in Houston. Kate has been having therapy to learn to walk minus one hip joint and she's doing well. Apparently the pain is gone now and she's moving around happily. They will visit with the surgeon on Monday and if all is o.k, they'll head home in time for Christmas.
December 9th, 2010
Sandy and Kate are still in Houston. Kate is recovering well and getting regular therapy. As of today she is allowed to move about pretty much as she wants. No more restriction, cages, or anything. She has a limp, but the pain seems to be gone and she's happy and active again. They should head home the end of next week.
November 23, 2010
Yesterday, the surgeon in Houston removed Kate's left hip implant. It was major surgery and she's in much pain right now. Hopefully, if a few days she'll be feeling better. Now she has no hip joint on the left side. Ironic! That's what we started with before any hip replacements as she was born with no hip sockets. Except now the leg bone is shorter and she has a hole in her hip. We expect she'll adjust and live a normal happy pain-free life.
October 27th, 2010
Sandy is in Houston again with Kate. Kate's knee wasn't getting better (so we thought) and she was in a lot of pain. So after two months of recovery without progress, we had her x-rayed locally and found the surgeon in NY failed to put in the pin where he drilled a hole in her knee. Sandy went to Houston to see if the surgeon there could fix it, but found the problem not to be the knee. It her hip! There's bone deterioration around the cup part of the hip replacement. That means there is either an infection or cancer there. Yesterday afternoon they took some needle aspirations to try to determine if/what infection it is so they can treat it. She will probably lose the use of that hip by means of an FHO procedure. If it's cancer we'll have a very difficult decision to make.
Kate is one of the sweetest nicest, most lovable dogs you could ever imagine. It just isn't fair that she was born without hip joints and then to have so much difficulty with surgeries.
September 20th, 2010
Sandy and Kate board an Amtrack train at Penn station NY this afternoon to head home. They will arrive around 1:30 tomorrow afternoon in Kissimmee. The boys and I will go get them in the RV.
September 6th, 2010
Sandy is in NY again with Kate. Kate tore her knee on the leg that just had the 2nd hip surgery. We knew it was bound to happen, but not so soon. They operated on her knee on Wednesday afternoon and she's now attending physical therapy and recovering in NY until the stitches are removed around the 14th. She'll come home and have to be restricted in her freedoms for a total of 3 months. The poor dog has been going through this since January, half of her life. Hopefully, she won't have any more mishaps and this will be the end of medical treatments and the beginning of the rest of her life in good physical condition.
August 12th, 2010
Kate is doing well and we bought another motor home. It's not a huge expensive one, but rather it's one that will fit in the man cave when not in use.
Photos Don't know where we'll go first, but Kate has to have a check up in Long Island in September, so that will be one trip for sure.
July 14th, 2010
Sandy and Kate got home Sunday evening July 11th. Kate is doing well, but has to be restrained from running and jumping for about six months to make sure there's enough natural growth around the artificial hip joint. That's no easy task for a 1 1/2 year old dog, especially now that the pain is gone. Sandy has to be with her most all the time.
July 1, 2010
Kate had her third hip surgery on June 25th, in New York by the very best and most experienced in the world, specialist in small dog hip replacements. The operation was a success as he replaced the failed rotator cup in her left hip. She now has two artificial hip joints that are working properly. Sandy and Kate will remain in NY (Long Island) until the 11th of July to be sure all is healing well before coming home.
June 21, 2010
Sandy and Kate leave tomorrow morning by plane for New York to visit a special surgeon there who will fix Kate's displaced artificial hip. We just couldn't leave her limping around with discomfort. Sandy spent over a week doing research to find this specialist who performs hip replacements on small dogs and cats and who is recommended by the hip manufacturer as the best for small animals. She will be gone for about two weeks and we hope Kate will be fine when she gets home.
June 12, 2010
Sandy and Kate arrived home Thursday. Kate's problem with her left leg now is with the new hip. Something happened that it popped or slipped out of the correct position and the vet claims there is nothing they can do to fix it. She will always limp somewhat on that leg. She doesn't seem to mind and gets around just fine. Other than that, all is back to normal and life is good again.
May 30, 2010
On Friday the 28th, Sandy was on her way home with Kate (from visiting her daughters) when Kate tore her left rear knee cap. Sandy turned west on I-10 instead of east, and headed back to Houston to see Kate's surgeon. She managed to get there before they closed and the vet confirmed that problem. Kate will go into surgery on Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, Sandy is sick in bed in the hotel. She's been sick for three weeks.
May 8th, 2010
Tomorrow's Mother's day and I'm very grateful I still have mine. Yup!, we've been together for over 69 years. :-)
Griffie is having digestive system problems, but Kate is doing well with her two new hips and one rebuilt knee.
March 22nd, 2010
A friend of mine Jack Ryals, went fishing this weekend
FISH:Jack Ryals is available for real estate transactions in Melbourne Florida @ National Realty 321*795*7534. He's the best!
March 19th, 2010
Sandy and Kate arrived home on the 17th in the afternoon. Kate had the 2nd hip replacement on March 3rd and is doing pretty well. She is now walking on both rear feet well and would take off running if she wasn't restricted. Photos at the bottom of this page
HERE.
March 16th, 2010
Two members of the first band I ever played with back in '63 came to visit at the Man Cave. There was a full four piece band to entertain us, Organ, Drums, Guitar, and Sax with the sax player and guitarist singing. It was wonderful to visit and party with my lifetime friends, Mel (Mousy) Erickson, and Dick (Tweety) Lupien.Several local friends came to join us. The music was great and the social we wonderful. Photos
HERE:
March 8th, 2010
On February 22nd, Sandy left for Houston again with Kate. Kate wasn't using her new right side hip very much and the vet thought she should have physical therapy. So off she went. On March 3rd, the surgeon replaced Kate's left hip joint and she is now recovering in Houston. Sandy and Kate will stay there until the surgeon removes the stitches and gives her the o.k. to head back to Florida. After six weeks at home she will have to go back to Houston for evaluation and possibly physical therapy again for a couple of weeks.
January 25th, 2010
As stated previously, I sold the most recent RV. It went to a very nice couple, Wally and Karen. They've been to Vegas to the Consumer Electronics show and stopped in Quartzsite. While there they took a photo of the rig. Here it is:
Click
January 25th, 29010
Sandy is still in Houston with Kate and said Kate is doing pretty well. Today she put some weight on her foot. That's very good considering she had Patella rebuild and a complete hip replacement just 6 days ago. Sandy thinks they'll be ready to head home by Friday.They are driving!
January 12, 2010: Last evening Kate while jumping up and down on her hind legs, tore a knee ligament off her right knee. This morning when they x-rayed it they also found that both her hips are deformed from birth and she will eventually have to have hip replacements. I'm just sick about it. She's barely a year old and already she's in pain.
Sandy will leave for Houston as soon as the surgeon there can fix her knee, probably around a week from now. IN the mean time Kate has to live in a crate to keep her from doing further damage.
January 3rd, 2010: My brother Rick from Tucson came by with his wife Irene to visit for a few hours. We had a nice time and he entertained us playing the guitar and singing. My nephew John and family joined us. It was very nice!
December 23rd, 2009: The Christmas party at the Man Cave was awesome! If you missed it, you missed the best party of the year. Sonny Petrillo did two Sinatra shows. Kenny Michaels sat in with the band and did a soul music review with Paul Santa Maria on lead guitar. Kenny Clarke played Hammond organ, Tommy DeQuartro on drums and Mark Korpi on guitar and vocals were the house band (so to speak). They were awesome!
September 10th, 2009: Sold the RV today. I'm done traveling for a while. Thought I wanted to do that again, but realized I don't.
Sandy is still in TN trying to get her mother's old house fixed so she can close it up for the winter.
The boys are here in FL with me and doing fine. kate is with Sandy in TN and doing fine.
July 15th, 2009: Sandy's youngest daughter Sarah, is coming to visit for a few days with her first child - Sandy's first grandson.
July 12th, 2009: Griffie and Affie got their teeth cleaned.
June 20th, 2009: We bought another RV. It's a bit larger than the last one, but lots smaller than what we've used to. This one has 3 slide out so there's quite a bit of room when camped. Photos on Photos page under 2008 BT Cruiser! We hope to meander up the coast sometime this summer. A few miles a day and lots of local food!
April 2nd, 2009: Joe's DogHouse Garage is about complete and we've had some very successful band rehearsals. See photos page: Art Festival and Garage Band 1, Also, take a look at the series of photo albums covering the conversion from warehouse to playhouse.
Kate is growing and she chases Affie around all the time. Affie has lost 3 pounds in the last two months (he's also on a low carb diet). Griffie is a grouch and doesn't want anything to do with her, but he'll come around.
February 16th, 2009: Okay, so we're nuts! Today we got another baby - a female Brussels Griffon puppy 15 weeks old. Her name is Kate. Affie and Griffie are not happy about having a stranger puppy in the house, but they'll get used to it and love her too. We'll talk some photos tomorrow and post them from the Photos page index, and give her her own page from the index on the left. See "Kate"
January 23rd, 2009: There are some new photos of the garage conversion project being posted tomorrow. However, I've decided on a new name for the garage: 'Joe's DogHouse', for a couple of reasons. One: my boys will be with me there frequently and two: is obvious. :-)
January 20th, 2009: The holidays have come and gone and my project at this time is to convert some warehouse space into a personal garage and playroom. A Man-Cave some would call it! You can follow along with the progress. Go to the Photo Albums page and scroll down to Joe's Garage pages.
Griffie is doing very well with his hips and he is free of the itchy blisters he was troubled with most of his life. Affie is also doing very well, but a little heavy. Sandy is doing great with tennis and is winning frequently.
Today we have a new president who is going to fix everything. Just remember this:
"The government cannot give to anyone anything
that it does not first take away from someone else!"
