Lost My First Patient. God this is hard....

My patient, Steve, passed away this morning. Sorry for the sad message. But this is the first patient that I've lost. Steve was the best patient in the world to visit. My mom made him this get well card (pictures of it below) yesterday that we were going to give him tomorrow after our Pediatrics visit. We never got to give it to him. I only saw him two days ago and he seemed to be doing fine. Sickness can do that, though. It never really reveals its ugly head. And we never really know what is wrong with someone when we visit them. And we don't ask. I know it's a hard lesson to learn. My mom is really upset. But I know the times we shared together with Steve and his wife Joyce were special. We lifted their spirits and took their minds off the sad moments about to come. He obviously was much sicker than he looked, but we didn't know that. I just hung with him and put my head on his chest or stomach. And the last visit, which was on Wednesday, he was sitting in a big chair beside the bed, smiling with both legs up, crossed with his feet resting on the bed, so the only way I could touch him was to curl up and put my head on his feet/ankle area, so that's what I did. And he LOVED it. He was singing to me...."Josie! Josie!" as he fed me a whole bag of treats! We had a great visit and I got to meet his daughter Kelly. (she's really pretty!) I waved "Good-Bye" to him and my mom kissed him good-bye and we said we would see him on Saturday. Well, we actually said we'd see him tomorrow, meaning Thursday, but then we got a call from Joyce on Thursday saying he was rushed into ICU for a Biopsy early Thursday morning. So when I spoke with Joyce Thursday afternoon, she said to hold off on our visit and come visit him on Saturday after our Pediatric visit. My mom called today to see how he was doing and that's when we got the sad news. Like I said, my mom is really upset. But I tell her to focus on the good times. And that his family was probably a lot more prepared for his passing than we were. God Speed Steve! I'm glad we got to meet you. Now you get to be with all your Furbabies that went to the Rainbow Bridge. We love you and are going to miss you more than you know. Much Love. We love you!

Finally......THE PUSSYCATS!!!!

Josie's Pussycats

After having many of you request to see the Pussycats (thank you, btw for the interest) here are some pictures for you to enjoy! Okay, so from the top down we have Mizzen, whom I rescued when I worked at a printing plant. She was pregnant and only weighed in at 7 pounds. Two days after I took her in, she gave birth to three healthy kittens. It was my first and only experience with birthing something. It was awesome. We raised the kittens until they were 12 weeks old. Got them all their shots and made sure they were all socialized and healthy and found them all very good indoor homes. Then came the time to find her a home. Well, my husband and I just couldn't do it. We were so attached to her. And now she follows my husband everywhere he goes in the house to the point of cute annoyance. It makes me laugh, but he's constantly saying "Mizzen, cut that out!" or "Mizzen, can you move so I can see my computer screen." LOL. She also does this one thing with her face we call "Puffy Face" where she squints her eyes and puffs her face up. We love her so much. She is still only 7 pounds.

After Mizzen, we have Miss Sophia Loren, Sophie for short. She is a beauty. Pictures just don't do her justice. Sophie just showed up on our doorstep. We tried to find out who she belonged to by putting flyers up, but no one claimed her. Then one day we got a phone call from someone who said they knew who she belonged too. So we contacted them and they said, "Oh yeah, she's been missing for weeks. You have her?" So by law, we had to return her, so I did, crying. It was about 3 blocks from us. It was a Friday night and I was miserable, because I was attached to her by then. So I didn't feel like cooking, so we ordered take-out. When the food arrived, my husband was saying, really strangely "you can come in...it's okay" and I was thinking, "why is my husband talking like that?" So I walked over to the door and in comes Sophie and I pick her up and hug her. It was about 4 hours after I returned her to her owner. Now mind you, we live in a town where you cannot let your cats outside. It's against the law. No outside cats. So I looked at her and my husband and said, "I guess she's ours now!" She sleeps on my pillow every night and that was 4 years ago. Love my Sophie. And as you can see, Josie LOVES Sophie too. They sleep together every chance they get.

Then I put in one picture of my BELOVED Dakota. Dakota went to the Rainbow Bridge in 2005 at the age of 18. I will NEVER get over that loss. That's all I need to say about that. I know all your cat/animal/dog lovers out there understand where I am coming from. Love you Dakota. I had Dakota since he was 8 weeks old.

Then we have Ripken, who too, went to the Rainbow Bridge in 2008. He was the sweetest, biggest, lovable cat. And yes, he was named after Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles. Rippy will be missed forever too. I had Ripken since he was 5 weeks old. His best bud was Mr. Big who is the next kitty in the photo list.

Mr. Big (yes, named after Sex and the City) because he looks like he's wearing a tux. He greets everyone at the door. We rescued Mr. Big after Dakota passed after visiting a shelter and seeing him. He was 10 years old and in the shelter for 10 months. I thought to myself, "this poor kitty is going to get put down because everyone is going to keep passing him up for kittens or younger cats." So I told my husband about him and we went back and adopted him. I also heard that the original owners just left him in the house they sold and moved out of and the Humane Society found them and fined them $1000 dollars. I hope it's true.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my Pussycat pictures and their stories. I could have told longer versions, but I tried to keep it short. I have a lifetime to tell you more.

One quick note, one of my patients that I visit, Steve, is having a biopsy today, so can you all say a prayer for him. There's strength in numbers and the more prayers the better. Thanks and Much Love to you all.

Also, Thank You to everyone who has been following me and has visited my blog. I am trying hard to keep you interested and coming back for more. And I am trying to visit all of your blogs too. Again Much Love, because you can never have enough....

Dog-Mas and a Hospital Visit on Tuesday

First day back since turning three. Thank you everyone for all the Birthday wishes. I took the day off to play with my owner and relax. Chew some bones and eat some peanut butter. Boy, do I love peanut butter. So does my Uncle Dave. LOL!

I wanted to share a Dog-Ma from a book a received from a friend of mine named Sharon for Christmas. It's called "Dog-Mas: Simple Truths from a Wise Pet" as reveled to Bill Zimmerman.

"Greet each day with hope and expectation.
Wipe from your memory an hurt or slight from the day before.
By doing so, you set a good example for your humans."

Isn't that a great quote? I just love that. ;-)

(mean people suck and they can hurt you pretty deep. But it is good to remember that each day is a new day, don't you think so!)

Okay now, well, back to my Tuesday Hospital visit on January 26th. We visited the Telemetry Floor. We like to start on the highest floor of the hospital beginning of the week and work our way down, so by the end of the week, we have usually covered the whole hospital. We really are only supposed to do one hour of Volunteer hour a month. But I can't help but do more. Once you get in there and you see people straining to see the dog walking the hallway, you just gotta stop in each room and ask if they want a visit. Also I told you I would post some pictures of me in my vest. Sorry about the quality, but it's hard to do hospitals visits carrying around a nice huge camera, so we had to settle using our little Olympus that we slipped in my mommy's pocket.

So when we go to the Telemetry Floor, first we visited the Nurses and there was one Surgeon there too. He was quite smitten with Josie. That was fun. After asking permission from the Charge Nurse to visit the rooms, we were on our way down the hall way. Our first room was eager for us to enter. We were met with two sets of smiles. One from the patient, Fran and one from her daughter, Caroline who was visiting her mom. I laid Josie's blanket down on the bed and Josie jumped right up and laid down next to Frances. We visited and talked and you could tell Frances completely forgot where she was. Her face lit up and she just pet Josie the whole time smiling as she did so. Again, Josie did her customary "good-bye" wave and we went on to visit more patients.

The whole night was like that. We met one patient after another who was so happy for a visit from Josie. They always say "Thank you for doing this." And I always answer "It's our pleasure."

One man, Ron and his daughter Nancy, were pretty funny. Ron was eating some vanilla ice cream. He as actually sitting on the side of the bed. So I brought Josie into the room and after asking the usually questions and placing her blanket, she was up on the bed next to Ron, just staring at him eating his ice cream. Not moving a muscle. Just staring. His daughter Nancy thought that was so funny. She commented that their dog would never survive such a trial. Josie just laid there and watched him eat his ice cream, never making a move for the ice cream, and SHE LOVES vanilla ice cream. I was very proud of her. I just told her to "leave it!"

One of the things you train for in Pet Therapy Classes is leaving food or pills alone on command. And Josie was one of the worst in her class, in the beginning, that is. But as I worked with her, she got much better. And as time has gone by, she gotten MUCH better. There have been many times we have visited patients, and they deliver lunch for dinner, and she will just lie there and sleep and snuggle with the patient.

When we were done in Telemetry, I was going to leave, so we got in the elevator and I pushed "G" for the Ground Floor, and as fate had it, it opened on the First Floor, so I figured let me go to Oncology (which is on the First Floor). Well, I'm so happy we did. First, I went to go visit the Nurses and say hello.

If you read my earlier Posts (Re: Back to Our Hospital Visits), I mentioned about a whole family who was visiting a young man that we stopped in to visit a couple of times, well he was still there. Unfortunately, his white blood cell counts were low and I couldn't visit with Josie, but I did pop my head into his room to say we were thinking of him and wish him "Love and Good Wishes" and to "Get Well Soon!" Josie needs to make a Get Well Card for him. We do that for "special patients" from time to time. His fiance was in the room with him. They all smiled when they saw Josie at the door. But with low white blood cell counts, I cannot let her in the room.

So I went back to the Nurses station to see if any other patients would benefit from a Josie visit. So one of the Nurses went to check on a patient Taylor and she actually came back to the station with him. He had his I.V. and everything. I told him I could come to his room and have Josie visit with him there. And he explained that if I did that, that Josie would be going home with him. That's how much he loves dogs. I laughed. I understand. I gave him some doggie treats and he fed them to Josie. He smiled huge smile and I had Josie do some tricks for him. I told him I would stop by tomorrow and have him come out again to visit with Josie and he said that would be fantastic.

And the night ended on a very good note. Then one of the Nurses said, "I have one more patient for you to visit" and she led Josie and myself down the hall and she opened the door to a room and there was a patient who I knew, Steve. Steve was the patient (also mentioned in the earlier Post: Back To Our Hospital Visits) whose wife intercepted me and asked me to visit him when he was Respiratory. Josie had visited him back in late Nov/early Dec, I believe. Anyway, I was SOOO happy to see Steve. I said, "I've been looking for you! But I was hoping you were released and went home." And he said, "No, not me" Turns out he's fighting a few things, but I believe he's going to get better soon. He looks good and boy, did he perk up when he saw Josie. Just like our last visit, he started patting the bed and said " Come 'on Josie! Up! Up!" and up on the bed she went, after I laid her blanket down, of course. Took her a few minutes to get used to the breathing bag he had on his face for oxygen. Josie's funny that way. Anything new, she has to check out. Then once she does, she settles in. By a few minutes into the visit, she had her head resting on Steve's lap all comfy and cute, sleeping. Steve was petting her, all cute too. Then his wife, Joyce arrived, and as she walked through the door she says, "Ahhh!!! We have Josie and the Pussycats visiting us! You found us!!!" She was so happy to see Josie there. It was so apparent. I ended up staying for about 45 minutes talking with them. What a nice couple they are. I promised them I would definitely visit them again tomorrow.

It's really hard not to get attached to certain people. Especially the ones you see night after night. If you see someone one night and you come back and they've gone home. Well, at least you know you did your job and cheered them up and they are feeling better and got to go home. But, for a patient like Steve, who is there for more than a week or two. Well, you just want to help them. You want to fix them somehow. And the only way I know how to do that is to visit them with Josie and lift their spirits, cheer them up, take their mind off their sickness or the disease they are fighting. Give them hope. Make them laugh and smile. Share a story or two. Be their friend. And I don't take it lightly. I give all of that whole heartedly and so does Josie. She gives 200% of her doggie heart. And it's all volunteer work.

Now for all of you who are are asking for photos of the Pussycats...come back tomorrow as I will have pictures and a story posted of all the Pussycats for you to see and read about. Meow..


But for now....Much Love and Woof Woof!!!