Life With Terri: April 2019

Happy Saturday, Hope you are enjoying Spring were you are. The weather has been beautiful here the last few days. It is even going to be in the 80's today but that is all suppose to change tomorrow. We are suppose to get rain and possibly snow. That is going to suck but hopefully it won't last long and we will be back to spring soon.
Hello March I made this piece on my Ipadpro and procreate. I was inspired by something similar I saw on Pinterest.

Lily: The month started out with me trying to find a new vet. What a nightmare that was, I started with VRCC another specialty hospital here in Denver but they would not even talk to me without a referral from another vet. I thought was ridiculous. They were not nice either. I called CSU to see if they had any trials available for her but they one they had sounded awful and I would never put her through that. They had nothing else to offer me. I called another vet who's father I had used a few years ago for Sophie but didn't really like and found out his daughter was practicing now. It took 2 days to get a call back from her but I really liked her though. She admitted that she was very busy and could not be readily available if needed which is no better then I have now so she was out. I called Dr Sherry on the recommendation of a friend on Facebook. We actually know her from Wash Park Vet which was the vet office we used years ago when we lived in Washington Park. I didn't think she was practicing anymore though. She was very nice but is too far away to get her if needed. I tried another mobile vet I had heard about she is the one with the mobile vet office. It said she was not taking new patients but I emailed anyways and got a response. She wanted a fortune just to go over her records/consultation though so she was out. I called another vet who was recommended by another Facebook friend and they got back to me quickly but their first appointment was not for 10 days though. I asked if I could speak to the vet before I made the appointment, but they were not open to that. Said she was too busy and that concerned me but I went ahead and made the appointment for the 14^th to meet them anyways since they were suppose to be holistic and provide palliative care too. I wasn't very optimist though because I saw they had a bad review saying it took days to get a response for their sick dog. I ended up contacting the person that did the review and she referred me to someone else. I called that vet and she was nice but was very far out too and would not be able to get her easily either. She also said that steroids could be use without waiting. I talked to another integrative vet that was recommended by someone on Facebook. She was very against a lot of things I was doing like feeding her fish and giving her regular drinking water which are things I had never heard of before. She started throwing a lot of information at me all at once and was very negative. Telling me we did not have a lot of time and that her dog died from bladder cancer because he could not pee. Nothing else was wrong with him though. Not what I needed to hear. I know this is not good. I don’t need to be reminded about it. She continued to bombard me with another CBD product and information about it saying it had good tumor shrinking properties but all that information started to overwhelm me and I could not keep up. I was trying to write things down as she was saying them but had just woken up from a bad migraine when she called and I kept getting even more confused and frustrated. I told her that and asked her to slow down but she started getting angry with me and had a terrible attitude which made me even more upset and she said I was yelling at her. I was not really yelling at her though I was just frustrated and she was making me feel terrible. She ended up giving me the CBD guys number then ended the conversation. I was in tears after that. She sent an email a few minutes later with all the information which was all she needed to do in the first place and none of that would have happened. I was not going to have anything else to do with her after that but decided to thank her for the information and see if I could explain what happened better in an email. I didn’t think she was going to respond but she eventually did and said she was grateful for the email and was willing to continue working with me never heard from her again though. I talked to the guy that makes the CBD His company is call Colorado Sun and he was super nice and sent me a bottle for free which was really nice of him. There should be more people like that. After that I emailed and called more vets from the American Holistic Veterinary Medicine list that was shared with me on Facebook. I got a free phone consult with Harmony Vet Center on Wed, March 13. They were very nice and even requested her records to look at prior to the call which gave me some hope they actually really want to help. Another person I called on the list wanted to charge me to just to talk to them. I talked another vet on the list she was very nice but could only offer a few things and was not a full service vet. I talked to another vet that was referred to me from someone else on Facebook. She made me feel terrible too though. She thought I was doing too many things and they were fighting each other and I was suppose to take her off the Peroxicam. I didn't want to do that though because I think it is still helping. She was going to charge me to talk to her too but when she heard I was not on board with taking things out she ended the conversation and didn’t charge me which was a good thing because I didn’t feel right paying for her advice in the first place. I was in tears again after taking to her. At that point I decided just to wait to talk to the Vet from Harmony's see the vet from Journeys.

We ended up getting a big snow storm that day and the new vet called to tell me they would not make it because the roads were still closed where they were. They waited to call me at the appointment time though which sucked. Said they tried to text but the number I gave them is my land line, I don’t understand why they didn’t just call me when they didn’t hear back. They were suppose to come the next day at 4:30 but they canceled again saying they still could not get out of their driveway and had no idea when a plow would come so could we move the appointment to Sunday. I said okay.

Third time was the charm. Candy finally showed up and spent 2 hours with us. She seemed very nice, compassionate, knowledgeable and agreed that she has more life to live. She went over everything and was in agreement with me about the Peroxicam vs the steroids and to leave her on it. We went over a lot of things and she added in some more supplements. She suggested I make my own food using fresh vegetables and bone broth then adding in lightly cooked meat because she felt it was better than the freeze dried food I was feeding her from Dr. Harveys. . I told her I would try it. She also discovered she had a slight heart murmur and that could be the cause of the cough. She put her on something for that but she had to ship it to me because she didn’t have it on her. She said to stop the Deamarin and she will put her on a different milk thistle that is easier to absorb without fillers. She also said don’t do the honey which I was questioning too. The visit and supplements ended up being expensive. 280.00 later. i was told the visit was only going to be 80.00 so was a bit confused and asked for an itemized bill which she said she would send later. She was also supposed to email me everything we talked about because it was way too much for me to remember which she understood. I had some hope again but was still being cautiously optimistic because I have had my hopes dashed before.

I started the supplements she gave me while she was here later that night and she did okay with them. I got the plan a few days later and it was very overwhelming. She wanted me to do a lot of things all at once. I tried to contact her with questions but was only getting responses from her office girl. I decided to just add things slowly instead of all at once because I didn't want to overload her and not know what was working and what wasn't. I was most hesitant to do the Artemesinin and the Apocaps because I didn't know enough about them. I started researching on my own and decided to start with the Apocaps on the 28th. I thought she was doing okay with them but about 5 days later she started hesitating to take her treats which was really odd then she was not wanting to eat her food. I had changed her to all homemade. I tried the turkey backs and legs in the crock pot but that was a real pain so switched back to ground turkey. I was grinding the fresh vegetables in the food processor and she seemed to be eating them okay but when she started to not want to eat I went back to her old food and took her off the Apo caps and she started eating again. I emailed the holistic vet to tell her what was going on but it took 3 days for a response and she didn't really seem concerned and then she disappeared again. I don't understand this especially since I thought I made it very clear telling her that I needed someone with good communication and follow up and she still didn't answer all my questions. I tried emailing again but still no response. I decided to to just play around with the supplements and try to figure out what is going to work best for her on my own. It is physically and emotionally exhausting not knowing if I am doing the right things for her though. A lot more has happened since I wrote this but I will fill you in on that next month.

My birthday was on the 25th and it was a big one. It turned out to be a pretty good day. We took the dogs to the book store. (Barnes and Nobel) something I have been wanting to do for while now. Indie did great in there. Lily was a little whiny in her stroller though. I think she wanted out but I didn't want to risk her peeing in there. People in there were very dog friendly. Emilia had me pick out a book for a gift and then we got ourselves and the pups a drink at Starbucks. Rich got stuck at home waiting for the mailman to come get the packages but he surprised me with more sunflowers when he came home and is going to help me pay off the Ipad I bought at Christmas. Emilia also surprised me with Winnie The Pooh Candyland. I had bought that game for her when she was little but gave it away for some reason and have always regretted it so that was a big surprise. She also got me some paints too but they were just shipped yesterday. We ended the evening watching American Idol and eating some yummy vegan/gluten free tarts from Make Believe Bakery. This was a milestone birthday. I have decided that instead of looking at it in a negative way I am going to be grateful for getting 50 years of life so far and hoping that this next decade will be a good one even though I know there will be challenges ahead. I think this quote Emilia found sums it up perfectly "turning 50 doesn't mean you're approaching the end it means you're nearing the top rejoice and be grateful!

Things in our Etsy shop were still going okay. I made a new fabric and ribbon banner to go with out pink lemonade tutu outfit that I have wanted to make for awhile. I love how it came out. Hope you do too.

My Art: I started a new challenge called Florals And Praise For His Glory on Instragram hosted by @tiny_sparrow_design and @artuplifted. Each week you letter a bible verse and floral chosen by them. I am really enjoy it.

I also did a few more pieces for Stefan Kuntz half baked sketches challenge.

Finally I did this piece to welcome in Spring. The brushes and tutorial are from Tina at Sketchwerx. She is an amazing artist and has a lot of great brushes and tutorials on her website so be sure to check it out.