it's not a tumor

B's results came back earlier than expected and both the original tumor and the lipoma are benign. The explanation for the lipoma is that it suffered from something called crush syndrome and is currently infarcting. I'd forgotten that about 3-4 weeks ago B got under foot, tripped me, and I landed partially on her. This was despite my best efforts to not do so, but I'm living in a travel trailer so there are only so many places I can fall where she's not. I am so utterly and completely relieved at this point. B is also getting her stitches removed a day earlier where the vet and I will tie up the loose ends on what may or may not come next.

I'm glad that this chapter is ending on such a good note in lieu of the challenges we've endured these last four months. For (four also) months I've been meaning to talk in greater detail about the work I've been doing in my new profession. A few weeks ago a new kid arrived in our area.

This sweet boy is named Lego, and is my new project dog. His issues and needs area different than the ones I've learned to work with so far, and I was up for a new challenge. For anyone wanting to keep up with his story I urge you to follow his story here ... Lego's Story. I and my two other teammates will be writing updates about his progress in the coming weeks/months.

this ain't over yet

Bridgette's surgery was last week. She came home very ouchy and neither of us got much sleep the first few nights. The tumor was removed successfully and sent off to the lab. The day before her biopsy I had discovered that one of her lipomas had begun to harden which is never a good thing. The Dr aspirated it and found a more than just fatty cells, but biopsied part of it to send to the lab as well. The results are due this Friday and I'll be sure to let you know.

I remember reading where another blogger was saying something about never apologizing to your audience for one reason or another. I still feel I owe it to you since you've stuck it out with me this long. I'm sorry my updates haven't been quite up to par lately. As I stated last month things have been a bit rough, but are improving again.

My tiny electric heater wasn't enough to warm up this trailer so for a few weeks I went with using the furnace instead. I figured since it took me approx two months to burn thru a single tank that I could splurge during the winter. At first I was going thru a tank every two weeks with a cost of $15 to refill. This was fine for the first month, but when it got really cold I burned thru a tank in a week. Yeah! I jumped on Amazon.com and bought the bigger brother to my electric heater. I'm not sure what I've spent in electricity since they're billing about a month behind atm. It's nice that we're back to a quieter way of keeping warm again.

No I'm not moving away from blogging because I've blogged less these last few months. Here's what's been keeping me.Work  has been great but rough also. I haven't mentioned this before, and it was for no other reason that my need to mourn. At the end of October one of the kids in my care had passed suddenly on us. Her name was Jersey and she was a hurricane Katrina survivor. She was a sweet albeit very shy and selective about whom she allowed physical contact with. The morning it happened was no different than any other and her end was swift. She passed in my arms on the way to the clinic (across the street). She was eleven and finally had a potential adopter. In the midst of this one of our teammates moved to another area leaving only two of us for about a month and a half. I even had a week where I worked alone. Solo days are extremely taxing when you're caring for roughly 20-24 dogs. Our third teammate joined us in Dec but already had a week scheduled off then, as well as another in Jan. As if that wasn't enough we had another loss to bookend this period of suck. One of my favorite kids, Desmond, had to be crossed. He was 12. He was not shy and but a real loving and goofy boy.

Jersey with a volunteer

Desmond's hero shot

With all this going on I needed to do something a lot more cathartic than writing. By that I mean anything to take my mind off of the things that have plagued my well being, so I hope you understand why. I've kept busy by getting back into cooking, Eve Online, Marvel's Jessica Jones series on Netflix, freaking out over the possible loss of Bridgette, discovering new and exciting ways of keeping warm on a budget, and helping others out in any way I can. I think I'm just about back to normal. Meaning whatever it is for me.

Talk to you soon ...