Friday, April 15, 2011

Ruin a Honeymoon: Mix Chocolate with Meds

Within the past couple of days, I was actually forced to act like an adult and make important decisions.  Me.  I KNOW, right!

They say that bad things come in waves of 3, and that saying still has yet to be discredited by my own life experiences.  (By the way, an itchy palm TOTALLY means that you are going to run into some money!!!) 

One by one, family elders (grandmas on both my maternal and paternal sides) ended up needing hospitalization.  My grandma in Peru has a bad knee and high blood pressure.  Her leg suddenly became swollen and my other family in Peru said it turned "black".  My family tends to exaggerate a little (NOW you know where I get it from!)  I won't believe the degree of shading until I see it in pictures or I speak with a doctor.

My other grandma who lives here in the US ended up in the ER because of severe back pains and a swollen stomach.  The doctor said she pulled a muscle.  I think she probably pulled it dancing at my sister's wedding.

So when was the final (third) wave due?  I was on pins and needles.  Then I got a call on Thursday while at work from my mother.  I answered the phone and immediately sensed the dismay in her voice.

ME: "What happened?"

MOTHER: "I just got home and saw that Mokee (sister's chocolate labrador) has eaten all of his arthritis medication.  He had to get it from the table.  It could have been 10 tablets!"

ME: "Calm down, let me call the vet."

I called the vet, and they told me to bring him in so they could induce him to vomit.


It turned out that the vomit produced no tablets.  The doctor then began to describe the plan for Mokee, which included having him hooked up to an IV for 48 hours, giving him charcoal for absorbtion, medication to coat his intestines, and bloodwork.  He would need to stay at the hospital until Saturday.  I looked at the bottom of the estimate sheet:  $1000!!!!!!!!

My mother was dog-sitting Mokee because my sister was off on her honeymoon in Bora Bora doing this:

Meanwhile, my sis had no idea about the drama that was unfolding at home. 

Eventhough I knew what my sister would do in this scenario - I'm a Libra, and I can't make easy decisions for the life of me.  I tried calling Mokee's insurance but they wouldn't tell me anything because I wasn't authorized.  I didn't even know if his insurance was still active.  Mokee was perfectly fine, but the doc said that he could go into kidney failure in 1-2 days and needed this treatment.

I obviously admitted the little chocolate lab, and he went bounding away to the back of the hospital (he actually loves the vet because of all the attention he gets!) To this point, all the doctor's updates have been positive.  I finally got into contact with my sister, and managed to ruin their honeymoon.  Leave it to me.  They come back on Monday.

Why oh why must the little chocolate lab be so incapable of restraining himself from things that he KNOWS he should NOT eat.....sigh.

1 comments:

Jessica W said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

Oh yikes! I hope everything works out. I tend to exaggerate numbers. I swear I get it from my mom. :)