What would I do if disaster hit?

For the last week I've been glued to the television and internet as I followed the situation in Japan. Much like I was glued to coverage of Katrina a few years ago, I couldn't get enough news stories and videos to quench my thirst for information. The shear size of the tragedy, and the impact it is having on the people who live over there, just baffles my mind. I just can't wrap my head around what they must be going through.

What's different this time around is how I'm viewing the tragedy. Katrina hit while I was in vet school. Sam and I were already married, but we were still somewhat independent. It was just me and Sam (plus the pets). What's different about how I'm looking at the Japan events is that now I'm a mom. I think about the parents who did what they could to gather up their kids in the few minutes they had to escape. I wonder how many of the people who were lost were rushing home to get their families to safety. It breaks my heart to think of the ones who didn't make it. Of the families who aren't whole anymore. The parents without children, the children without parents.

I live with a level of fear in my life now. Ever since my son was born, I've always had a nagging fear in the back of my mind. What if he gets hurt at daycare? What if I get in an accident and leave Sam and Tommy alone? What if Sam and Tommy are in an accident and leave me alone? I don't allow these thoughts to rule my life - I'd be a basket case if I did. But they're always there, somewhere, in the dark places of my brain. I find I'm constantly watching the weather during storm seasons now. Tornadoes have always frightened me. We didn't see them much where I grew up. But now I'm glued to severe weather coverage. Ready at a moment's notice to leave work and drive the 3 minutes to daycare to whisk him to the safety of my grandparents' basement if it's necessary. Ready to pull him from his bed in the middle of the night and head to the safety of our closet with no windows. Willing to be late to work if the weather reporters on the local news say "if you don't need to be on the roads stay home for a little while." Things I never did before I was a mom. Things I thought were overkill before Tommy was the main focus of my life.

Luckily I don't live in an area where a hurricane or tsunami could reach us with that kind of force. Earthquakes are quite small scale here, and don't tend to cause much damage. Tornadoes are a threat, but even those don't happen too often, and we usually have a few hours of warning before the conditions are ripe for a twister. Still, I wonder what I would do if I ever found myself in a situation like the one these Japanese parents found themselves in almost a week ago. I just hope that God would give me the strength and wisdom to do what was best for my family, and that He'd give me the peace to deal with the consequences. In the meantime, I'll continue to pray for all the people impacted by the events in Japan. They may be a world away, but a mother's love is the same here as it is there.

A woman holds her child at a shelter after being evacuated from an area near the Fukushima nuclear power plant 
Photo: AP   Link to original article 

Animal time

Well, I started this blog to talk about my life as a wife, mom, and vet. So I guess it's about time to talk about the work part of my life. I've been working at animal hospitals for about almost 14 years. I started out working kennels and worked my way up to a technician assistant, finally going to vet school and graduating in 2006. I've always loved animals, and I really enjoy working with them and their owners in order to keep them as healthy and happy as possible.

Spring is coming (or may already be here for those of us in the south), and with it comes flea, tick, and mosquito season. I cannot stress enough the need for proper parasite prevention in our pets.

Heartworms are worms that live in the blood vessels between the heart and the lungs. In advanced cases the worms can actually plug the vessels and decrease or stop blood flow. Even in mild cases they cause damage to the vessel walls. Heartworms are spread by mosquitoes, so even pets who never leave their house or yard are at risk. Heartworms are easy to prevent with monthly medication. Treatment costs around $500, but prevention only costs about $10-12 a month. In warmer states (like mine), we often have days when the temperature rises above 60 degrees even in winter. Because of this I recommend using heartworm prevention every month, just in case the mosquitoes don't know it's supposed to be winter.

Fleas and ticks are just plain nasty! Ticks crawl up blades of grass and just wait for someone to come by so they can hitch a ride. Then they move up the leg and find a nice warm spot to dig in and feed. Many ticks can carry diseases, like lyme and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Fleas like to set up shop inside our homes. The adult flea spends all of its time on your dog or cat. The females lay eggs, which immediately fall off and land wherever your pet is standing/sitting. Then the larvae hatches from the eggs, and they crawl around in whatever carpet, bedding, etc the eggs landed on. Soon these larvae form cocoons where they develop into an adult flea. This part of the life cycle can last for months. They don't hatch out until the conditions are right - temperature, carbon dioxide, and movement are all triggers for them. They are also protected from pesticides while in the cocoon. This long life cycle means that you should never wait until you start seeing fleas to start using flea prevention. Once you're seeing the adults, they've already started laying eggs. Once fleas set up house in your house, it can take 3 months or more to kill all of them, since you have to wait for all the cocoons to hatch before you can get them all. Again, if you live in the south you should probably use flea and tick prevention all year round. If you live somewhere where there is snow on the ground all year, you may be able to get away without using it during the winter. Just remember, it's still warm in your house. If you haven't killed all the fleas that live there, they'll just keep multiplying all winter long.

So, to sum up, please remember to treat your cats and dogs with flea, tick, and heartworm prevention. It's much easier (and cheaper) to prevent these things than to treat your animals once they've been infested/infected. Always buy your prevention from your veterinarian. We keep up to date on the newest research and best products for our areas of the country. Sometimes prevention you can buy at other stores can cause skin irritation or even seizures. When you buy medication over the internet you can't always be sure that it was stored and shipped at the proper temperatures. Because of this many companies won't stand behind their product unless it was sold by a veterinarian.

Keep your pets pest free!

What a month

The last month has been a busy, and stressful, month. I'm just now getting back to normal. Let me fill you in.

Christmas was fun, but busy. I was able to get all the gifts wrapped and sent to the appropriate parties with a day to spare (thank you Amazon.com). I worked Christmas Eve morning. That evening we headed to my grandparents' house for dinner and gifts. We didn't leave for Sam's mom's house until 9:30 - over an hour past Tommy's normal bedtime. Christmas morning was nice and quiet - and we had snow! After lunch we headed back home to relax. Due to the snow on Christmas and the day after, we stayed at home all weekend and just enjoyed some time together. Tommy played in the snow for a few minutes, but then he was ready to go back inside.

The Thursday after Christmas Tommy woke me up by throwing up in his crib. He had hot dogs and milk all over his bed - not a pretty site. Thank goodness it was my off day, and we stayed home all day. By evening he was back to normal and was cleared to return to daycare the next day. That was also the day that I learned my grandmother was in the hospital. She had been in ICU for 2 days, but she was feeling better. They weren't sure what was wrong, but she was hoping to go home soon.

Over New Year's I caught Tommy's stomach bug. I spent the whole weekend in bed and didn't get to eat much at all. It amazed me how much longer it took me to get better than it did Tommy. What he took 12 hours to clear took me 4 days. Guess I'm not as young as I used to be!

After New Year's my grandmother was still in the hospital. My dad and brother drove from NY to Cape Cod to visit her. She was in good spirits during their visit, but the doctors said her kidneys and heart were both failing. Two days after their visit her heart gave out while she was sleeping and my Nana was taken up to Heaven.

The services were planned for Monday and Tuesday of the next week. Because Birmingham was expecting a snow/ice storm on Sunday and Monday, I had to fly out Saturday afternoon. Sam and Tommy stayed behind and wound up riding the storm out at Sam's mom's house. School and work were both closed Monday and Tuesday. I enjoyed seeing my family. We hadn't all been together since my brother's wedding in 2006. It was a sad time, but at the same time it was a joyful time. We spent the days remembering happier times with Nana and knowing she was happy and no longer sick. We went through all the family albums and put together a bunch of pictures from her life to share with those who came to pay their respects.

My Nana was a great woman with a big heart and a wonderful sense of humor. The world is a bit sadder place now that she's gone, but I know I'll see her again some day and that helps ease the pain of losing her somewhat.

I almost had to stay in New England longer than I planned. My flight out of Boston was rescheduled and then canceled due to a big storm that was coming in on Wednesday. I wound up driving to Rochester with my parents and then catching a plane out of Buffalo instead of Boston. It was a good decision, because Boston got around 15 inches of snow that day and I wouldn't have been able to leave until Thursday if I'd stayed there. I was able to get back to Sam and Tommy on time - boy was I glad to see them! This was the first time Tommy and I had been apart overnight, and 4 days was quite a long time away for me. It was nice to get home and get back to normal - well almost. The week before I left town my back was really itchy on one side. Right before I left town I started to get some bumps that I thought were pimples because I'd been scratching so much. While I was gone the bumps started to hurt, so I went to the doctor when I got home. Turns out I had shingles! It was a fairly mild case with more itchiness than pain, but it was still irritating. The doctor said that being sick and then being stressed out about my grandmother is probably what triggered it. The bumps have all scabbed over and are just a little itchy now, thank goodness.

So, that's my month. Good times, sad times, sick times, well times - quite a month it was. I'd say the next month should be calmer, but my little Tommy has started his terrible twos this past week. That's another blog altogether!

How old is he?!?

So Tommy is 21 months old, and the size of a 2-3 year old. He's always been a bit big for his age. He was 7lbs 3oz when he was born 3 weeks early - I can't imagine what would have happened if I went full term. He only stayed in newborn sizes for a few weeks, and he was at least 1 month ahead of the baby sizes as he grew. He's been in 2T clothes since he turned 18 months, but I think his growth has finally stalled out for a little while - thank goodness!

Tommy's daycare is divided into 3 buildings. The infant building holds babies up to 2 year olds. It's divided into 3 rooms. The infants, the crawlers, and the toddlers. Tommy kind of skipped the middle room. He was in the toddler room for about 6 months, but at 18 months he was promoted to the next building because he was too big for the kids his age, plus he was getting bored with the baby toys. When 2 of his friends were promoted this past August to the 2-3 year old class, Tommy went with them. So since he was 18 months he's been in "preschool" with 2-3 year olds, and sometimes with the 4-5 year olds.

Because of this Tommy is doing things I never thought he would at this age. He knows his colors, he knows the numbers 0-9, and he knows 75% of his letters. He loves animals, and knows the sounds for about 20 of them. He can do puzzles that are supposed to be for 2-3 and up, and he loves to find the moon and stars in the sky. I'd like to take some of the credit for his love for learning, and we do a lot of colors, letters, numbers, and reading here at home, but most of it is due to his wonderful teacher, Jennifer.

I say all of this to explain why people are so surprised to find out how old (or young) he is. When we're out shopping, at church, or at the doctor people always think he is older than he is. My grandmother is afraid this will be a problem in the future - she thinks he will be too advanced to relate to his peers. I'm not so concerned. I think he is happy, well adjusted little boy who just happens to be a little ahead of schedule. Since he loves his class and he loves what he's doing, I think he's just fine. He may be a little big for his age, he may be learning and understanding things that are normal for kids 1-2 years older than him, but he still loves horseyback rides, bubbles, and spinning around till he falls down. I don't think I have to worry about him doing advanced algebra or building rockets anytime soon - although the fact that he has figured out how to open and close the baby gate on his own does worry me :)

New Blog

So I'm starting over with a new blog. My other blog started out when I was pregnant with Tommy, but I didn't write much after he was born. This time I'm writing about my life as a wife, mom, and veterinarian.

My mom was a stay at home mom for most of my childhood. She put her job as a physical therapist on hold until I was in junior high, and stayed home with me and my two younger brothers. To be honest, I don't know how she did it. I work 4 and a half days a week, and stay at home 2 and a half days. I only have one child, she had 3. I'm exhausted at the end of my home days. I can't keep up with him! Thank goodness for the 1-3 hours he naps - that's my chance to actually get some things done around the house.

Not that I actually like to do housework. Along with the "stay at home mom" gene, I seem to be missing the "must keep the house clean" gene. My mom cleaned house every Saturday, and straightened up every day. I pick up toys at the end of the day, do laundry once a week, wash dishes twice a day, and only actually clean the house when one of our mothers is coming to visit. It's not that I don't know how to, I just don't like to. And since I work till noon most Saturdays, there just don't seem to be enough hours in the weekend to spend time with Sam and Tommy and clean the house.

Maybe in a few years when Tommy is old enough to help. Maybe then we'll keep the house clean. Then again, maybe not :)