An Update on Things....

I know I haven't written since before Christmas....and I'll admit, I have no excuse for why I haven't blogged....except for being busy. Jon and I had a wonderful holiday break with lots of food, family, and friends. Santa was good to us and we both got lots of thoughtful and love-filled gifts. Now, I'm back to work and prepping for a conference that our office will host next week. However, I did want to fill you in on one thing that happened over our holiday break. Unfortunately, we did have a scare with Ted....

You see, he received a nyla-bone from Santa for Christmas and we gave it to him to gnaw on. He spent one whole evening chewing on it....the whole time his tail was wagging and he seemed to feel as happy as could be. That night, when we were getting ready for bed that night, I noticed that Ted looked like he had a golf ball in his mouth and it was making his cheek poke out. At first I thought he might have a piece of the nyla-bone in there....but then I realized it was actually his cheek that was swollen!

I immediately went on line and did a search for what could be wrong. Everything that came back was that he had an abscessed tooth. The next morning we took him into to see Dr. Tim. The diagnosis was correct and he wanted to remove the tooth as soon as possible. We set it up for the very next day.

The bad news....once they got him under anesthesia they did x-ray's on his mouth and found that he actually had 13 bad teeth. And more than the one had abscesses. OH MY GOODNESS...the pain this poor little dog must have been in. Just think...if you have ever had a toothache and needed a root canal to relieve the pressure you were feeling....well, it was the same for him except triple or quadruple the pain. And we never had a clue!

Dr. Tim explained that we wouldn't have been able to tell by just looking at the teeth. That a lot of it has to do with his breed and some of it is genetics....and that he may just be a dog with bad teeth. However, the best thing that we could have done was to give him the nyla-bone and bring the abscesses to our attention!

S0....he did lose the 13 teeth. Traumatizing for a mom like me....but the fact that he is no longer silently suffering means everything. I've said before that Ted is a stoic little guy. He is amazing. The night we brought him home from the surgery, he ate like a maniac, gained his strength quickly, and wanted to play ball only 3 days later with tons of sutures in his mouth.

If only I could be a strong as he is....a beautiful example of endurance, perseverance, and pure love. He is my boy. My Ted.