Oliver is better!!!!

Thanks to Dr. Cannon at Lauderdale Veterinary Specialists and divine intervention, the big guy has made it 2 weeks without the pericardial effusion returning. Dr. Cannon gave us the OKAY to travel, but she is paving the way for us as we head south with veterinarians who will be "on-call" for us that can treat heart problems. She has us covered to Key West. We are sticking around here for this week to organize and watch the weather. We have to travel on the ocean, so if the waves are large and the winds too high or from the wrong direction we will stay put until favorable conditions are present.

Totally worn out after the second drainage of the heart sac, poor guy.

Feeling more chipper looking for the cats- his favorite hobby

Colee Park as he regains his strength.

Still needs his naps though.

While here we did see the moon seem to grow in size. Scientifically this is not so, but the full moon has been gorgeous. It also is creating greater tides. We are at a fixed dock, so if the tides are too high when Oliver has to "do his thing", we cannot get Ollie off to a skinny dock. He would slide down his ramp and keep going. Splash! We put him in the dinghy and go to the docks at the edge of the property that are the right height. After we take a morning walk, he gets a dinghy ride around the neighborhood. For a while the tides cooperated in terms of the times for low and high and we could use the dock, but now we are back to the dinghy.

all we see here are million dollar boats and homes, but the free Moon is the best

I also found a great church, First Presbyterian that I have been going to on Sundays. It is a wonderful church and the choir sings many of the songs we sing at Mayflower ( Hayes, Rutter, Beck). They are doing a capital campaign right now and the minister had a great joke I thought I would share: the minister gets up in church and says, "the good news is we have the money for the new ministry center. the bad news is it is all in your pockets". I loved that one.

First Presbyterian Church

Our family went to Ft. Lauderdale for many Christmas breaks growing up. We attended a church Christmas Eve and I wonder if it is the same one. This church has been around since 1950's and since I was there in the 60's and 70's it could be the same church. Maybe my sister Mary remembers?

Love to all. I will let you know when we leave here.

Another update on Oliver

We were so cautiously hopeful, but unfortunately our buddy had to have his heart sac drained of more fluid today, the 14th of January. We went in for an ultrasound check the 7th and there was a small amount of fluid. The 10th showed NO fluid and we were ecstatic, but held ourselves in check. He was starting to eat better and had some pep to his step. He loved spying on the cats around this marina in the duplex next door. Every morning we put him in the dinghy to go for his  "business" walk ( it was low tide and we could not get him off the boat any other way, another story) and then a dinghy ride. He was so happy and feeling better. Today we went for a recheck and there was a substantial amount of fluid. Again, the way he acted, you would not suspect it. They sedated him and drained his heart sac and spoke to us about the possibility of surgery to remove part of the heart sac, so it would drain on its own. Our vet back home told us about this and we hoped it would not come to this. We go back next Monday the 21st for another ultrasound. We are still hopeful it won't come to surgery. We are staying in Ft. Lauderdale until this is resolved. We will keep you posted. He is asleep in the cockpit as I write this. He is as groggy with sedation as I am. Luckily, it is still in the 80s, so we can enjoy being away from the Michigan winter.

To my Spartan fans, this season is a nail biter. This is stress I do not need. 

 On a note about us, I went for a run this morning before the vet visit and forgot the roads are sloped here for drainage. I got about a mile away and the tendons in my once surgically repaired knee hurt, so I had to walk most of the way back. Note: don't run on an angle anymore. 

Love to all and keep the doggy prayers coming. 

Oliver update

Oliver, as usual, is being a trooper. We are still in Ft. Lauderdale and he is still seeing Dr. Cannon at Lauderdale Veterinary Specialist. Since the last post, his appetite is starting to pick up and he is eating more of his kidney food. His blood work taken Monday showed that his kidneys are not getting any worse and one number, called BUN actually improved. They also did a ultrasound on his heart to see if fluid was rebuilding. There was some, but not enough to have to drain. We go back on Thursday for another ultrasound. Luckily he loves going to the vet.

Meanwhile, thanks to fellow boaters, we found a quiet live aboard marina in the canal section of Ft. Lauderdale. The boating community has been wonderful. We have had offers of rides, emotional support and rule bending to keep our dog here. The marina we are at is Bruno's Zoo. It turns out he is from Holland and even attended Hope and WMU. We have been talking a lot about Michigan with him. It turns out he was at Hope when 2 of my sisters were there. There is a no pets policy here, but we are so grateful he is letting us stay here. He is getting more rest, as are we. The breeze here is lovely and a residential street is a nice change. The vets keep checking up on us and one even offered her dock if we could get up a river that far.  There is truly kindness yet in this world.

We had an adventure yesterday to get the rental car from the other marina. Oliver had a dinghy ride then transferred to the car which I drove back here. Dale brought the dinghy back. He did well, but then slept for a while.. You would never know he was so sick a few days ago. Nothing like a dinghy ride to perk up!

We will keep you all posted. Hopefully the worst is over. We will stay here until we are sure. Thanks for all the emails, prayers and support.

Oliver - you can see his shaved area from heart drain and IVs, poor guy.

view from Bruno's Zoo

view looking another way

Happy New Year from Ft. Lauderdale

It is 2013 and we are enjoying the warm weather. Every few days we would get a north wind and it only gets into the 60s. What a change from last year. This week has been in the 70s and 80s.

We celebrated Christmas and New Year's Eve with Tom and Laura from Cool Hand.  We potluck up by the marina offices so Oliver can participate. We were hoping to cross to the Bahamas together when weather cooperates with the winds and waves.

Our issue is Oliver. Just after Christmas he quit eating and had diarrhea. Sorry for that detail. We took him to one vet that said try bland food and give him the medicine we had with us from the vet back home. Well, another 2 days of this and we went to another vet, Dr. Birken. She recommended some new meds , did bloodwork and he rallied a touch, but not much. His kidney numbers were slightly higher and red blood count was a touch low. His liver, pancreas and other numbers looked good. We went back in 2 days since he was still not eating. Luckily he was drinking water. December 31, she kept him in the hospital with IVs and we did Barium x-rays. There may be a blockage at the beginning of the small intestine but that is not definitive, it could be food stuck. So no real answer.  He was on a diet of chicken and rice and actually ate some New Years Eve.  For the gas and inflammation we added Pepcid AC. Another day goes by, Dale and I still felt he needed an ultrasound to see what was going on, so Dr. Birken got us into Lauderdale Veterinarian Specialists. We waited for an hour to get in as other dogs seemed sicker. They finally took him back for his ultrasound and within 5 minutes the vet tech said to come back, that the vet needed to talk to us. He again had pericardial effusion, the heart sac filled with fluid and was compressing on his heart. This makes the heart not work very well as you can imagine. Without oxygen, organs start shutting down with the intestines going first as they are not as important as liver, spleen and such,  So, they sedated him to drain it and and finished the ultrasound. This case of effusion was worse than the one a year and a half ago and his kidneys are worse. In fact his right kidney is almost nonexistent now. One kidney is not an issue if it works properly, but his left one is not. They still did not see a mass on his heart though. We brought him back to the boat at about 6:00 pm, very woozy and he slept in the cockpit until about 3:30 am. Dale and I put up the enclosure and I grabbed cushions and pillows and slept there with him. Getting a huge dog down skinny steps is tricky under the best of situations. This morning, January 3, Dale took him for a short walk and we got him to drink some water and eat a few pieces of his chicken and rice. He seems better, but he can fool even the experts. Everyone say some prayers for the guy and we will keep you posted. We plan to stay here to see how it goes. Bahamas will have to wait. 

We are thinking positive. Before all this we had provisioned for the Bahamas. so we have enough food to last us forever.. We had plan to travel with Cool Hand, but do not want to hold them back. Many boats plan to leave this week. We will make travel plans after we know for sure how Oliver is doing. We go back to the specialist on Monday.  Maybe the Keys are in our future

on the way to Boca Raton to anchor. 

at anchor in Boca, just a small house

On the ICW

Cool Hand going through a bridge

Oliver on Christmas morning, before he was really sick

Mommy Manatee by the docks. Laura saw them and called me and the camera.

Baby Manatee, a face only a mother could love. 

House all decked out for Christmas

Oliver after first hospital stay. You would never know he was in heart failure.

these are made of recycled bottles

our Christmas lights

Ft. Lauderdale Beach

Saw these on the rode to vet. Looks like the ones from Art Prize.