Old Buddies, Elimating Suitcases, And Treatments

                          Tuesday 4/28/15

Mallery hangs with her old buddy Kay, to beg for some of her orange.

Smile girls for a picture!

Back out to the storage shed to go through suitcases of clothing.

We managed to consolidate from 8 suit cases to 4 suit cases.

It was a beautiful sunny day. Just perfect for a afternoon nap with a nice breeze from the open windows and moon roof. It was even better knowing mom and dad were just steps away working while she took her siesta.

Today was the 2nd day for treatments of fluid being put under Mallery's skin at her regular Dr. at Park Town Veterinary. The vet office is kind and not charging me for the treatments. I just have to buy the fluid, tubing, and needles. Checkout Mallery's new high water leg cut, courtesy of Eastern Iowa Veterinary Specialty Center. Mallery does really well with the treatment. The worse part, was just being at the vet office.

Going Though Our Storage, Ugh!

                                             Monday April 27, 2015

We headed out to what I have been dreading, "our storage of stuff" at PAMS Storage in Urbana, IA. The year we sold our house and bought our first Nest, was also the year Cedar Rapids had a very large flood that destroyed many homes and neighborhoods. All the storage places in town were full;  so we had to rent a storage unit in Urbana, 25 mile north of CR. Because it was in Urbana the rent was much cheaper for our 10 x 8 unit at $40 a month.

Our completely full with no path storage unit. Ugh! Just close the door and lets do something else. I wish I listened to my husband 6 1/2 years ago and wanted to sell everything.

You can't see it from this picture,but there are cobwebs everywhere.

And than Joe finds this in the front under his saw table. Yuck!

Joe pulls it out of our storage so I can get a picture. It is the size of Joe hand. Is this a large mouse or a small rat. All the decon in the the 3 boxes were empty. Later Joe finds 2 more very small dead mice. Gross!

So Joe pulls out stuff while I sweep all the cobwebs off with a broom, and we spread it out in the sun in hopes if there are any spiders, they will get out of dodge.

Joe pulls out enough to make a path into the unit. He made a very little dent in the mountain of stuff yet to go through. Our goal this day was to pull out enough, to get to the stuff that we wanted to take pictures of that we have decided to sell on Craigslist. We have decided to sell some larger pieces of furniture that won't fit in our up north home, like the roll top desk in the picture below.

After spending 5 hours of moving cleaning, picture taking and measuring, everything had to go make in, with Joe hoping he would get it all back the way he took it out. At 5pm we headed to the Animal Hospital to pick up our little girl. After release instructions they brought her to us. She was trembling almost all the way home.

After wandering all around Kay's again, she crawled into her kennel.

She hasn't been in her kennel for years in the bus. I guess she is use to the kennel after 3 nights at the hospital. Her kidney levels never came down while at the hospital. We are waiting now for the Leptospirosis results, which should come back tomorrow. The Dr. says she will most likely have permanent kidney damage. In the meantime we have her in a diaper to avoid any accidents on Kay's carpet. Ever since she came home from the hospital, she has been peeing much more than usual. They put fluid under her skin to help her stay hydrated. Right away we put a diaper on her, and we are very thankful, because she started squatting in Kay's house. If she didn't have the diaper on, there would have been several accidents. On her last day at the hospital, she starting having loose stools and starting not eating good. The Dr told us to feed her what ever she wanted because her weight loss is the most important situation presently.

Back In Iowa

                                                    Thursday April 23, 2015

We left the Super 8 in Clinton, IA and drove the 1 1/2  hrs drive to Cedar Rapids, IA.

We arrived at the Blair House where Joe's mom lives in CR. As soon as we got in the elevator to go to the 3rd floor, Mallery seems to take notice as if she smelled a familiar place.

Mallery loves Kay's place. Kay was her second mom. When Joe and I went on vacation, before we went RVing, she always stayed with her. When we got out of the elevator, I set her down, and blindly she walked down the hall toward Kay's door. She came in and started to wander all over the place. After checking out ever room, she did her lay on her side and rub her face all over the carpet. She knew she was back to her second home. She was very animated, happy, and excited to be here.

While Kay watched Mallery, we went down to our packed Honda and got two shopping carts to unload our very packed car. There was more in our Nest than we realized, and that had to come with us.

When we packed I had everything organized and had told Joe to put this and that at the top so we could find it on our way from Saginaw, MI to Iowa. When I came out to find anything this is what I had found. Joe told me I was just lucky he could find room for everything and nothing had to be thrown out.

The back side windows were completely blocked. We had forgot that our very thick pillow top mattress pad was on our bed when we striped the sheets off our bed, when we unpacked the bus. Opps! That had to go in the back seat also.

After Mallery checked out her old stomping grounds, she jumped up on the couch and took a long nap. The next day I took her to her veterinary appointment that I had made 3 days prior. As I told you in the last blog, I quickly found out why she was not eating much. After blood work, I had been told her kidney's were failing.

I had made the decision to take her out to the Eastern Iowa Veterinary Specialty Center instead of leaving her at her regular veterinary because I didn't want her alone at night. She is a very anxious little girl, and I knew that could throw her into panic mode and then trachea collapse. She needed to be put on IV fluids, which could not be done at home.

I received a itemized bill of the low and high cost for staying 1 to 3 nights and the medical  plan to figure out what needed to be done to help her. I was also told that the outcome may be a lifetime of treatment. Lastly I was told that with her present problems, it would also be kind, if I let her go. How do you ever get prepared for this, even when you know it is coming?

I chose to give her treatment. The next day, Joe and I came out to visit her. They brought her to us with an IV capped off in her front leg. She was excited to see us, but all she really wanted to do, was to get down and go to the door. The Dr. had good news and bad news. She didn't have any new masses (as the regular vet had thought she might have after looking at the x-rays she had taken). She didn't have any infection, and her pancreas was better than they thought. The bad news was that after 24 hours of IV fluid, her kidney levels were elevated. Now, to make another decision! The Dr wanted to keep her for another night and hoped after another 24 hours, her levels would come down.

He told us she was eating good and drinking good.

He also told us she was acting like any dog and not acting like she was sick.

We just wanted to take her home, but I decided to leave her for another night, to receive another 24 hour of fluids. When they took her out of the room, the girl took her fast, and Mallery never looked back. We were glad for that. Today we got another call from the Dr. and her levels continued to stay high. Today I was given the choice to leave her one more night with continued IV fluids, but now they needed to catheterizes her so they could measure her inflow and outflow. If her levels stay high they will need to know how much fluid to give her if she is going to have lifelong treatments of under skin fluids. If she has to have lifelong treatments and they are difficult for her, that will be where I know it is time to let her to go to the other side of the rainbow. I didn't go out to see her today because it is too hard for her and me when they take her away. Joe had to take his mom to the hospital today because she wasn't feeling good. After blood tests it was found out she too was dehydrated and given IV fluids. Our two old girls were getting treatment at the same time. Luckily Kay got to come home after her treatments.

Heading South Again

                                                 Monday April 20,2015

With the bus unloaded, we headed for Saginaw, MI. The temperature had turned cold and rainy so we were glad to be heading south again.

We crossed the river in Saginaw and found the place we had scheduled to have the generator looked at once again. In about an hour, it was diagnoised that the glow plug was shot and needed to be replaced. They also change the generator fuel filter. Since it was getting dark, we decided to stay and use the electric hook ups provided. Joe also found a water connection and asked if he could get some water for the bus. The next morning we continued south for an hour to Flint, Michigan and pulled into the Super Wal-Mart. While we were in Gulf Shores, AL this winter, we had a call from someone in Michigan who was interested in our Nest. We decided after much discussion it would be best for both parties, if we met for the showing after we got back to Michigan. After a test drive and a little more negotiating, we decided to let our Nest go to the buyer. The buyer brought in to us a bag full of cash and told us to start counting. This was a bit intimidating seeing this much money in cash. After the sell, we said good bye to the "Full Time Life" and "Hello" to to the Snowbird Life".

It was after 5 before we left Flint so we drove only to Lansing and stopped for the night at a Red Roof Inn.

The next morning we headed SW. Our new view! Much different from the Nest window.

When we stopped at the rest stops, we had to remember to take the car lane. It seems kind of silly, but after 6 1/2 years of automatically taking the truck lane, you had to think for a second.

Not with the big boys anymore.

No more private bathrooms either!

And no more cheap home made lunches in the Nest!

Late that afternoon we crossed the "Mighty Mississippi" into Clinton, IA after driving 7 hours. We only had 1 1/2 hour to Cedar Rapids, IA, but we decided to call it a night and get another Hotel, this time a Super 8. (The Red Roof Inn in Lansing was much nicer and updated). The next day we arrived in Cedar Rapids, IA, and unloaded all our stuff at Joe's mom's home. On Monday I had an appointment all ready made for Mallery because she was not eating well. Unfortunately after blood test and x-rays, I was told that her pancreas was enraged and her kidney's were failing. They wanted me to let them keep her so they could get her on IV fluids, but after 5 she would be left all alone during the night. Because that didn't feel comfortable to me, I was told she could be taken to the Emergency Care Veterinary instead with the cost being much higher. In the end I decided I wanted her to be under care through the night. At the Emergency Care I was given the chose to put her to sleep or be prepared for a very large bill. Once again I couldn't bring myself to give up on her, so we are going to see how she does after 24 hours and a few other test. Please pray for Mallery and for me making the best decision for her.

5 Days In Boyne City, MI. To Unload The Nest

                                                           Monday April 20, 2015

So I thought I would show you and record for us the before  during and after pictures of the bathroom remodels. This is of course the "before guest bathroom"

Here is the "during demo guest bath". Because the ceiling height was under 7", we had the ceiling raised up to 8 ft. The guest bath is located in the original log cabin part of the house.

This is the "before hallway" where part of  it will be used to enlarge the master bath. We were originally going to enlarge the guest bath into part of the hall also, but our measurements were wrong and it would have come into where the washer and dryer were. What a bummer! We were very disappointed with this information.

"During hallway" A wall is being built at the end of the hall where the master bath will be expanded in to. The door will be removed that goes out to the back alley.

"Before master bath"

Expanded "during master bath" into the hallway, making the new master bath 10 feet long.

Our lakefront waters looked like this when we first arrived-frozen with small streams woven amongst the ice.

This is a picture on the 3rd day after we arrived. When we first arrived, we had a 1 1/2 foot high pile of snow running in front of the two car garage and another pile next to RV parking spot. In 2 days almost all the snow in front of the garage was gone and only a small pile up near our RV parking spot left.

Two days before we left, our contractor told us that the ice was getting close to breaking up, so we should keep an eye on it because it would happen fast. Saturday we went down to the lake and took more pictures.

The days were beautiful in the high 60's to low 70's, and the nights were cold in the high 30's to low 40's, refreezing the lake at night.

Along the shore there were ice crystal prisms. Sunday morning Joe checked the lake and it looked the same as it had the previous morning.

By Sunday noon the ice was gone in front of our lake lot.

Out in the middle of the lake, we could still see ice with large river between it.

To the east of us and close to the shore we had a large floating  patch of crush ice,

and along the shore more long ice prisms. An hour later the lake was completely thawed except a cove west of us. Like our contractor told us, the ice broke up within 3 hours from frozen to free flowing.

For 5 days we emptied the bus, cleaned the bus and walked Mallery up and down the alley (or just standing outside in the sun. Some days Mallery just wants to stand outside, because she doesn't have the energy to walk much). Because we couldn't get water from the house, we had to conserve what we had for the necessities, like dish washing, hand washing, face washing, teeth brushing, and toilet flushing. Showers were out of the question. Two showers would cause us to run out of water with in two days. Not only did we have to conserve water, the generator was not working. We thought it had been fixed a week prior, but a few days after we left the Elkhart, IN, where it had been worked on, it started to show problems and then quit. Because we only had 110 voltage from an  extension cord from the garage, it was not strong enough to give us heat at night, At night we had to run the furnace using the propane. Near the end we had to conserve the propane, and lower the thermostat so it would come on at 50, instead of 67 at night, so we would have enough for early cold mornings. Some days the voltage was low and we would blow fuses just vacuuming. Joe was worried about getting the slides in the day we left. Needless to say, we were camping while we were unloading and cleaning the bus. Luckily the morning we left, the voltage was up, (we have a voltage monitor), so we didn't have any problems with the slides. The day we left, the lake was fogged over and rain and colder weather was in the forecast. It was time to get out of Dodge!