Last week’s Binky checkup was so uneventful I didn’t even mention it. I was literally in and out in under 30 minutes, it might be a new record. Mike and I were expecting more of the same for yesterday’s appointment. Except, Binky was having an off-day. Binky, like her big sister Madeline before her, has days where she is really active, and days where she sleeps all day. I’ve mentioned this every time I’ve had an appointment, but I guess every other appointment was an active day. So when I mentioned that Binky hadn’t moved much, the nurses reacted.

I honestly hadn’t been worried until the nurses seemed concerned. The nurse practitioner found Binky’s heart rate with the doppler, which immediately set my mind at ease. But the NP said that wasn’t enough, and she went off to report to Dr. Risky. A few minutes later a different nurse came in to say Dr. Risky wanted to perform an ultrasound. So off we went to the ultrasound room, where Dr. Risky spent the next ten minutes watching Binky. We could see that she was moving, although not big vigorous movements I could feel. I never have a great angle from the exam table, but it was pretty cool to see her floating around, a hand drifting up every now and then. We even got a good shot of her face. She looked like a little Frankenstein!

Binky 28 w 2 days

Cheat Sheet:
Frankenbaby

The gentle movements weren’t enough for Dr. Risky, so off to Labor and Delivery I went for monitoring.

In the meantime, Rigby had her follow-up vet appointment, so Mike left me to take her to get checked out. A quick exam lead the vet to conclude Rigby needed an ultrasound. Rigby and I both got pictures of our insides! After the ultrasound, the vet decided that her bladder wasn’t full enough, and told Mike that it would take three hours for it to fill to their liking. He told Mike to come back, but not before mentioning Rigby definitely had SOMETHING in her bladder, and it looked like kidney stones.

So there I am attached to monitors on the Labor and Delivery floor of the hospital, and I get a text that my dog might have kidney stones. It was then I realized sometimes my life is like an episode of Friends.

I was hooked to the machines for about 45 minutes. I couldn’t really relax because the nurses had me shifting into different positions to make sure Binky stayed on the monitors. It was cool to hear her heart pumping away, although it reminded me of the nights I was on hospital bed rest with Madeline. At one point, one of the nurses came over and told me they had enough and I could go. I asked how the baby looked, and they said everything looked fine. It was such a relief.

Mike arrived back at the hospital when I was done, so we had a quick tour of the maternity floor from my old college friend Staci, who is an L&D nurse. I’d been to some parts of the unit but Mike hadn’t been there at all, so it was nice to get acquainted. Then it was back to the vet’s office to check on Rigby.

I haven’t been to the vet’s office in a while. That task always fell to Mike. So I’d forgotten how sad the vet’s office is. All the animals are whimpering and the whole place smells like fear. I had to do some mouth breathing. The assistant brought Rigby out to us and I’m pretty sure she’s NEVER been so happy to see us. My face is raw from all the licking. We spoke to the vet, who said that Rigby’s bladder is FULL of crystals and possibly stones. While she was at the vet, she passed three crystals. The vet showed them to us – they were the size of rice grains. I wanted to cry just looking at them! Poor Rigby. We have to continue to treat her for the next two weeks with antibiotics, an anti-inflammatory, and special food. If those three things don’t improve the situation, Santa will be bringing the Spohr family Doggie Bladder Surgery for Christmas! Just what I always wanted.

Rigby’s anti-inflammatory is a pill. I have a hard enough time getting Mike to swallow pills, so I knew Rigby would be a challenge. Sure enough, she spit the pill out about five times before we finally found the one thing that tricked Rigby into swallowing her pill – a dollop of jam.

My dog really IS Joey Tribbiani.

Rigby
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