Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Chloe's Road to Recovery - Day 1

last night on 7/28/09, chloe started to feel funny after our dinner walk. we thought chloe must've accidently ate a hot pepper from our subway sandwich or something. chloe kept on pacing around and around, resting very uneasy.

by 11pm that night, haley was crying as usual, since she has been teething. but chloe was still very restless, as if something is wrong, but don't know what it is. then at 3am in the morning, haley cried again and chloe wanted to come down from the bed. i picked her up and put her down and she just walked into haley's room to check on her.

after that, i was afraid that chloe might bark and woke up haley, so i took her downstairs to sleep with me on the futon. when we got downstairs, chloe still didn't want to sleep with me on the futon, which was very unusual. so i decided to let chloe walk around downstairs as she please while i get some sleep.

by 7am, my alarm rang and i was getting ready to go to work. when i saw chloe laying down, i went to check on her. chloe was happy to see me, but when she stood up and tried to walk, that's when my heart was shattered into billions of pieces.

chloe was dragging her hind legs on the floor. chloe has lost control of her hind legs and tail movements.

i knew one of these days it will happen to dachshunds because most of them will have IVDD (Intervertebral disc disease). however, never in a million year would i think it would happen to chloe that early on in her life.

that day, i decided to take the whole week off and took chloe into the vet to have a check up. the vet gave us three choices:

1) take her to specialist for evaluation if surgery would help or not. if yes, it would cost around US$5000 - $6000 and the chance of recovery is 50%-60% max.

2) take the non-surgurcal method, which is pain medication with steroids. then crate resting for 6-8 wks to see if she can heal herself.

3) let her go and put her to sleep.

for us, the choice was very simple. we decided to go for #2. we love chloe dearly but if the surgery could guarantee at least 80% chance, i would go in debt for her. but after reading some reviews of doxie owners, it seems that most went through surgury, eventually have other disc move out of place.

as for #3, we would not choose that. it would be like seeing your loved ones get injured and paralyzed from the waist down and must rely on a wheelchair, but you decided to put them to sleep instead.

chloe is still a very healthy and happy dachshund. just today after the visit from the vet, she kept crying and licking her hind legs while looking at me with her round eyes asking:

"daddy, what's wrong with me? how come i can't move my legs anymore?"

don't worry baby.. mommy and daddy and haley will not give up on you. so you need to fight, fight, fight and get better soon. when you are all much better, daddy will get you a wheelchair and we can go to carmel again.

to all my readers: a simple request... please pray for chloe's speedy recovery and keep her in your daily prayers. God Bless..

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

America's Next Top Model

recently, i've been feeling very proud to be haley's daddy. especially during the weekends when we take her out for grocery shopping or going to the mall, there's always people stopping to say "she such a cute baby". it is at that very moment, i feel proud and very thankful to God and cherie for giving me this beautiful and healthy angel.

haley's been growing up really fast and i try to capture every moment possible of our little angel growing. like the show America's Next Top Model, i really think she might be the next top model.

she's such a big girl now. here are some recent photos of haley that i really love.

mommy and haley



isn't she precious...?


i'm posing for my daddy... Tyra Banks eat your heart out girl~ now THAT'S FIERCE!


haley in her deep thoughts...