"Daddy Tries to Kill My Dog and We Go to the Oncologist!"

Thursday October 11th 2012

Last night my Dog was shivering and shaking uncontrollably from a Pine Cone he had eaten. He hadn't eaten any food and was vomiting all night.  Now I have to admit after committing earlier to being a fun and happy distraction for Daddy this derailed me a bit. I could see the concerned look on Daddy's face, which was of course for me and not my dog, not that Daddy's not an Animal Lover by nature, in fact I can think of many family pets that we gave away to a very nice family that lived on a big "farm" somewhere in Lehi and it wasn't until I was much older that I finally realized it was very unlikely that the "Walton Family" lived there. I do also recall many neighborhood cats who kept there distance as well as several canines on his mail routes who took the mailman scenario to a whole other level when they saw Daddy coming up the walk; but still my point is that even in his state of mind His concern was only for me and what he could do to help me. I guess somehow in his train of thought the answer to this was euthanizing poor Ozzie with the help of over the counter pain medication. So in a very soft, very concerned tone he told me "sweetheart, he has a fever, we need to give him some Tylenol, I think it will help. You can do that you know, give animals a dose of human medication." I should have had seen the Red Flags or heard the sirens but instead I forgot all about the feral cats being chased around in our basement by the sites of a .22 and said "Ok Daddy." So we crushed up 500mg of Tylenol grabbed Ozzie's jowls and forced the medicine down his throat. Poor Ozzie, he was not to happy at first but eventually he did fall into a bit of a lethargic state, stopped shaking and went to sleep. In my mind Daddy was a Hero, a genius really; it wasn't until this morning when Jared had come to the house to meet us for the oncologist that I overheard Daddy detailing the events and with laughter thrown in through out the conversation that I realized..."Oh My Gosh Daddy Tried to Kill My Dog!!!" But how mad could I be? After all Daddy was doing what Daddy does best and providing us with a much needed means of laughter and distraction which we all so desperately needed, nearly at the expense of my Dog of course, but his intentions, I am sure, were Good...Wink Wink...and then after enjoying that moment of brief normalcy we were finally off to the Oncologist.

The Utah Cancer Center was not what I thought at all, although we were very anxious and the walls were decorated with Ghosts & Skeletons in preperation for Halloween everyone around seemed to be very happy and smiling. It was almost reassuring, almost, but then you would begin feeling very nervous and your stomach would begin to feel uneasy, your heart begins eating faster and harder and in your mind you try to remind yourself to be polite and smile back at the people looking at you, but at times it is nearly impossible. Then you see it is Daddy looking at you and you think "smile Becky smile" then you remember he tried to kill your dog, and that thought provokes a laugh, just enough to rid the tense mood that seems to be enveloping you at the moment. They came to get us and said they would let all of us in the room to speak with the Oncologist, while waiting Daddy was feeling discomfort, he said his stomach hurt, and he is going to kill me for writing this part but its way too funny not to, we all were certain it was in fact gas building up...so we tried to do everything we could think of to releave the pressure. We tried "bicycle legs" but to no avail, we tried massaging his stomach, but to no avail, then Jared had a brilliant idea," The Stink Bug"! This was going to work, so Daddy climbed on the Table and got on all fours then lowered his front arms until his forearms were lying flat on the table and his rear straight up in the air, "The Stink Bug" Position....Brilliant!!! It didn't work, but it made all of us laugh hysterically, almost irreverently. I had to leave after this and so I did not hear the Dr talk with them but my follow-up was that it was Stage IV Cancer and the prognosis as we already knew with Pancreatic Cancer is given in Months not Years, Devastating! But Daddy as he was the night before when trying to save my Dog and mend my Broken Heart is a Hero and a Fighter. I know he will give it his all and I believe that will be enough!!!