Where Is the G-Tube When You Need IT?

Today was a hard day.  We found out yesterday that Emma, our dog, was in severe kidney failure.  We brought her home from the vet for the night so everyone could say good-bye to her.  It was a long day as we said our good-byes and tried to make Emma has comfortable as possible.  This morning we needed to give Emma extra fluid right beneath her skin.  The vet showed me how to do it and assured me it wasn't that hard.  So this morning, Emma and Leo shared the IV pole.  Leo with his feed going and Emma receiving her extra fluids.

We made an appointment for 5:00 PM to return to the vet.  My sister agreed to watch the boys while we were at the vet.  She even volunteered to feed us dinner.

We carefully loaded Emma into the trunk of the van and headed to Aunt Suzy's house.  When we arrived, she was on the phone trying to figure out why Mr. Papa John's wouldn't let her use her 50% code.  She has a little dog, named Lucy, who is a puppy and very hyper.  Because Aunt Suzy can't/won't deal with Leo's feeding tube, I had been feeding him on the drive over.  He had 15 ml's left as I carried him into the house. I sat him on the sofa where Lucy basically tried to lick his face and jump all over him.  Leo was looking a little scared so I quickly picked him up and in the process pulled his g-tube completely out.  (At this point we are supposed to be at the vet in 10 minutes.)

I quickly dumped out the diaper bag looking for the extra tube- it was no where to be found.  I left Aunt Suzy on the phone negotiating pizza, the boys in front of her TV and I threw Leo back in the car and with Emma still in the trunk, we raced the 10 minutes back to our house where I found a spare g-tube and inserted it back into Leo's tummy.  We ran out of our house and back the 10 minutes to Aunt Suzy's.  On the drive back, I remembered the last time we were at CHOP they had replaced Leo's tube and used the one I kept in the diaper bag and I had forgotten to replace it.  (extra tube is currently in diaper bag)

We finally arrived at the vet at 5:15.  They ushered us right into a room they had prepared for Emma with a pink blanket laying on the table.  Amanda and I said our good-bye's, cried, and talked quietly to Emma as they put her to sleep.  They took a paw print for us as a remembrance and then we left.

We returned back to Aunt Suzy's where Jeremy joined us and we enjoyed some good food therapy of pizza and wings.

The house is strangely quiet tonight without Emma here.  Neither Jeremy or I are huge dog people, but Emma grew on us.  She was part of our family and will be missed. 

In other news, we are heading out van shopping this weekend and hope to find something we can purchase in our price range.  You can be sure we will be making sure the diaper bag is packed with an extra g-tube just in case.