Update 5_23_2010

Whew!! What a month or so.

My trip to Dallas to get my lower dentures (set for three weeks) morphed into a nearly five week stay when my mother decided it was time to get the long-postponed foundation work on the house done. Had it been a strictly outside endeavor, my presence wouldn't have been needed. BUT...she had to have 19 piers installed INSIDE her house.

Now, none of you (except Randall) has ever seen the inside of her house, but let me just say that during the 20 years of marriage to my stepdad they traveled all over the world. Before his death in December 1999, they made at least one trip a year somewhere. And that meant gobs of things brought home (many very cool, very lovely, very sentimental things, but still, gobs). So at 75, my mom simply couldn't face what was coming at her with this foundation work, so I stayed to help out.

Unbelievably, we got it done. Exhausted the hell out of us, but done. So now she can wait several months, get the house painted and other requisite work done and then put in on the market. She's staying in Dallas (Yeah! She would hate moving back to Waco, and it does free Randall and I up so we can move there if things permit), but the house is too big and has, unfortunately, a history with foundation issues...the entire neighborhood does, so it's obviously more than just one house with problems. :(

So that's where I've been and what I've been up to for the last several weeks.

Now on to Elvis.

Little Stumpy Fella is doing just grand. He had some adjustment issues after I first left, but he, Skeeter and Randall worked through them. By the time I was due to come home after my initial three weeks, he had settled in just fine.

His heartworm treatment on May 2 went without a hitch. As a matter of fact, he didn't need a Torb at all like he has the last couple of times. He has usually had some mild coughing either late in the day after the treatment or early the following day. This time nothing. So fingers crossed that he's moved to a new stage in the treatment. We'll just keep going this way since it's the easiest thing for him. If we're lucky enough to have him for another year and a half, most if not all the adult heartworms should have died off.

Another good thing was that while I was gone Randall didn't have to give him a Valium. That's really rather surprising because my cat, Howdy, began to really be a pissant during the last couple of weeks and one of her favorite pastimes is to torment Elvis. Since he's terrified of cats, that can send him over the edge. However, Randall was vigilant and ran interference, so there really wasn't much of that going on.

His weight was also pretty steady while I was gone, too. He'd fluctuate a half a pound or so, but that was it. The weight gain is one way we can monitor his congestive heart failure...rapid weight gain means, at the least, tweaking his Lasix for a couple of days. Weight gain combined with coughing is going to have me calling the clinic. But none of that happened, so it was a good several weeks.

When I got home Thursday, I was really surprised at just how fast he slid right back into his old routine. He was right in his usual spot beside my desk chair at lunch, dancing around the dining room chair at dinner, and happily anticipating his morning treat of four Cheerios before his breakfast (he gets those while sitting on my lap while I'm blearily sipping on my first cup of coffee).

About the only weird thing he did while I was gone was catch that bird in the yard. Randall said that for days after, he'd look wistfully through the wire fencing to the other side of the yard where the birds were hopping around. He managed to climb it a few times to (no real feat considering it's only 24 or so inches tall) when Skeeter would head over.

All in all, everything went really well. I'm hoping to get a few pictures in the next several days since Randall got the yard mowed and it's not going to be too hot yet for him to spend time outside. Being black and with medical issues means his outside time is monitored.

So that it from here. Hopefully my next post will be in a few days with some photos.