Right now we are supposed to be in Las Vegas.
We are supposed to be enjoying warmer weather and skies that are not clogged with gunk.
We are supposed to be wearing light jackets and letting the kids hit golf balls on the driving range.
We are supposed to be celebrating my husbands birthday with an evening out together while the kids stay back at my in-law's Las Vegas house with them.
Instead we are home.
A few months ago we were going to go to Las Vegas and ended up staying home because of our dog.
I will preface this by saying we are dog people.
I was raised with dogs, my husband was raised with dogs. Your dog is a member of your family and you treat him as such.
We love our dog.
A few months ago we found out our dog has diabetes. He was becoming slightly incontinent so we took him in to see if there was something we could do to help him. They were concerned by his blood sugar so they tested him.
Normal is 158.
He was 750.
Not good.
We started giving him two insulin shots a day and canceled our trip because it isn't very nice to ask your parents to watch your dog when he may or may not unknowingly pee on your furniture. Add in the two shots a day and it would have been quite an undertaking.
They would not have cared about the shots. One of the dogs I grew up with (Ben)had diabetes.
When my parents were trying to decide what to do (to live or not to live that was the question the dog might have posed to them) I swayed them in the "live" direction with my best, loudest, most passionate soap box speech.
"YOU CAN'T JUST KILL HIM BECAUSE HE HAS DIABETES!!! BECAUSE IT WOULD BE EASIER FOR YOU! MAYBE HE WANTS TO LIVE!!!"
And so we gave him two shots a day and he lived.
We've been giving Cody two shots a day, cutting out his table scraps and giving him lots of extra love instead. He has perked up, come back into the fold as it were. What we had attributed to old age (he is twelve) turns out was really the blood sugar level of 750 that was getting him down.
My mom wanted me to have him checked out before we left for this Las Vegas trip. She wanted to make sure his blood sugar was okay before they took him under their wing.
We took him in last week and found out his levels are at 150.
He's right on target.
We didn't cancel our trip because of the dog this time.
We canceled because of the job.
My husband really needed a vacation. Some time away from the job to regroup and feel good about the job again.
This isn't helping.
But at least he has a job.
So we will stay home and be grateful he can support us and we will go to the auto show for his birthday like we do every year, and I will make something yummy for dinner.
And we'll dream about our next vacation.
