EOD Halloween Party

Last night we had the EOD Halloween party at the shop on base. It started at 4pm, but most people got there early to get ready and to get their food ready. It was a pretty great time, we had fun and had lots of laughs. Here are some pictures throughout the night...

Ian dressed as a hooker


Dan dressed as a baby and I was a zombie nurse


Mosier dressed as a retired hooters girl


These guys are just too funny


Eda and I


Check out the heels Staud is wearing, pretty impressive


Saying goodnight


It was a great time, the people at this shop are a great bunch of people. Their job is so serious from day to day, it's nice to get together and have a great time.

Hanging around...

This past week has been pretty low key for me, not much going on...at all. My sleep schedule has been all funky (it's getting better though) and I have been taking naps in the afternoons which I usually don't do. Eddie is doing pretty well considering all he has been through. I took him to the vet on Monday, he had a slight fever, but other than that, everything was okay. He got a shot for his fever and they also gave him an anti-inflammatory shot. I have to take him to the vet again tomorrow for another visit. I wish they were closer...It takes me about 35-40 minutes to get there on a good day. Eddie wasn't too bad at first with his sutures, but now as they are healing I bet they itch like crazy, all he wants to do is lick them. So, the cone of shame went on him yesterday. He hate the thing, but he is doing better with it. He stole Sassy's bed and pouts there, silly boy. He has a hard time getting in the food and water dish though, so I give him breaks and take the cone off and let him eat and drink, I worry he will get dehydrated, but he is drinking well when I do take it off. It stays on all night though, so I don't have to worry as much to watch him all the time, I love getting some sleep. Here are a few pictures of Eddie before he got his 3rd surgery.

On the couch on his back with all legs in the air. He was completely under the blanket, but I had to see his cute face under there.


I covered his head back up and uncovered his back legs. Those claws are always getting caught on the blanket when he lays like this anyway.


Today was the first time I left Eddie alone since his surgery. I was pretty nervous about it, but he has been doing great. A gal I worked with in Destin, FL is here in Italy for vacation and today was her day in Venice. When I still worked there we talked about how she was coming on this trip and how I was going to see her when she came, I'm glad we kept our plans. I put Eddie in a big crate with his cone on and went to Venice. I met them there around noon, we met at McDonald's because anyone you ask there should know where McDonald's is. We walked around a bit, ate lunch, went to San Marco Square and shopped a little more. It was great to see her again, I miss a lot of the people I used to work with. Not just at my last job, but at all my jobs. I've made some great friends through working. I left the square just before 4pm to get back to the train station on the other side of Venice...it's quite a walk. I don't think Venice will ever get old...I think it's because everything looks the same and I can never remember if I have been in a certain spot or not. The main attractions, yes, but the stores I definitely always seem to think I haven't been there before.

Audrey and I


Now I am all tuckered out, I am going to get to bed since I have to get up early to take mi gato to the vet. Hope everyone is doing well!

Surgery # 3

I dropped Eddie off at the vet this morning to get his 3rd (and hopefully final) surgery. We decided to keep the vet we had been using. When I went in and talked to him on Monday hey seemed like he wanted to make things right. It's hard making up a decision like this because you know if something goes wrong- you will probably kick yourself in the butt for it later. I have been doing that this whole process. I have do doubts that the first surgery would have worked if Eddie wouldn't have jumped up on the table and back off. I'm still kicking myself for that one, we were being so careful...all the time. We usually kept the kitchen door shut but we were both in there. He was just fast to jump and and down, we couldn't catch him in time.

The surgery today consisted of taking the external fixation pins out of his leg and going in and putting plates in. He started out by with getting the bone grafts first, so Eddie has 5 sutures on his right back side by his hips. It's swollen and tender for him, but he seems to be doing better now that the anesthetic and morphine are wearing off. He wanted to do plates on both the radius and ulna, but he found the ulna was too small and he couldn't fit a plate on it. So, instead he did an internal pin vertically along the bone. The radius has a plate, holding the broken pieces together and there are 2 pins above the break and 3 pins below the break holding it in place. I just wonder how that fragment stays aligned with the plate since there is no screw there, I asked him and he said he placed it there and it should stay. He also put bone grafts at all the breaks to help heal and form a callus. He is hoping it will form one big callus, but only time will tell. He said it's a long process, we won't know until about 4 weeks at the next x-ray. He is pretty satisfied with how things went today, but there is just no telling how it will heal and if it will heal. I am trying to stay positive.

The vet called me around and told me he was done with surgery and didn't want me to pick him up until 4:30pm. I picked him up, we talked he told me what he did and showed me the x-rays. When I got Eddie home, he was like he has been all the other time, really sedated and couldn't even walk. It's absolutely insane how much they sedate them here and how long they keep him sedated for. I told the vet that the last time the female vet gave him morphine, it doesn't allot him to rest and he rubs is face on the crate because I think it makes him itch. They gave it to him anyway because they think it's what will work the best to manage his pain. They gave me 2 syringes with a very little amount of morphine in them to give him tomorrow and Sunday morning. He's been so restless ever since we brought him home, he won't sleep at all. He will lat down and stare, but that only lasts about 5 minutes until he is up again. He had a cone on his head, but Dan wanted to take that off since he couldn't even walk and was so sedated to do anything. It's just after 4am and I have been up with him all night. He is getting better as the meds wear off, but I can tell he is having pain in his leg. He is now getting to where he wants to lick, so as soon as Dan gets up we are going to put the cone back on. He won't like it, but he will get used to it. He has 2 incisions, one on each side of his leg, about 2 inches long. They have been oozing a little bit, but he is so swollen I can see why.

I just want the swelling to go down and for him to start healing. I feel so bad for him and the pain he's in, but I know it will get better. It's just hard because they don't know what's going on. We will be home all weekend to keep an eye on him, I'm such a worrier. Dan is going to get up at 630 to take over, I have no idea how I have stayed up this long considering last night I didn't get much sleep. The cats were on a roll because I had to pick their food up. I think Eddie knew what was going on and he was causing trouble. I probably got around 5 hours of sleep last night and so far none tonight (this morning). I only have 2 more hours to go though then I will sleep for a few hours. I will keep you all posted on Eddie. Please pray for a fast and bone healing recovery!

Decisions..

Well, I took Eddie to Dr. Candotti yesterday, since he was out on Thursday when we got that x-ray done, this is the first I have talked to him about it. He said what everyone had said..it's a mess. He said that when it was broken the second time instead of putting 2 more pins in, he should have taken the pins out and do internal fixation with plates and bone grafts. He said that putting in those extra pins is what broke the radius, because when you put the pins in it makes the bones soft. I didn't even know he did this, that's one of the main reasons I was looking for vets around the area who do. I told him about everything I had been doing over the weekend, having a friend post the x-rays on a vet site, got opinions from them and also calling and talking to other ortho vets in the area. He talked to me for 45 minutes telling me what he was going to do and how he was going to do it. I asked what he thought the outcome was, he said that amputation is not an option for him and he thinks that his leg will be back to normal and that his prognosis is really good. I kept asking him if he felt comfortable doing a surgery like this and making sure he has all the correct things to do the surgery and he said he felt very confident. He scheduled the surgery for Friday, I went ahead and let him put it in the books and figured after I talked to the other vet, I would make my decision.

I spoke to the vet that's 3 hours away in Cremona, Italy last night and told him everything Candotti said. I was trying to get a direct response from him as to who I should go to o if I could trust Candotti to do another surgery. I have no doubts that if Eddie wouldn't have messed up his leg when he jumped off the table, he would be healed right now. I just can't believe how careful we have been and watching him, I've been kicking myself in the butt ever since. This vet didn't really say "Come to me, I have a lot more experience." If he would have I wouldn't even be thinking about who I am going to go to right now. He would basically do the same thing Candotti explained to me, but he would rather take out the pins, let Eddie heal for a few weeks and then to the internal fixation stuff. I asked Candotti about that and he said he didn't really think it's necessary. The vet 3 hours away left today for the states and won't be back until next week and he also said it would be difficult because we are 3 hours away. Dan and I had more questions for Candotti so I called him this morning. I was just leaving a message for him to call back but I guess he was available then because he got on the phone right away. I asked him the questions I had and he answered them all pretty well. I stressed how important this is to us, he said that he he didn't feel confident in his skills he would tell me and once again said he is very confident. He said, "I don't know what they say, maybe beat around the bush? I don't like the beat around the bush." Most Italians here don't know these kinds of expressions so it was kinda funny, but it also made me feel better. One of the questions I asked him was if yhe could take x-ray right after surgery, to make sure everything is correct and he said "Yes, definitely." He also said he started doing research last night, I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Good because he is preparing, but maybe not so good because maybe he hasn't done one in a while, I don't know. I felt a lot better after talking to him on the phone, he told me if I had any more questions to call any time. I still just feel so nervous because I want to make the best decision for Eddie. Even if I was scheduled with this other guy tomorrow, I would still be worried like this, because I don't know how many of these he does either. I don't think I will feel better until I know he is better. Dan and I have to talk more about it tonight when he gets home and make up our minds.

Frustrated :(

In my last blog I wrote a little about Eddie and how I was concerned that he wasn't using the leg very much and how I felt the gap in his ulna. On Thursday Eddie jumped off the couch, which he has done before even the vet said that height would be okay but we still watch his as much as we can. Well, when he jumped off he meowed a little bit like it hurt, but it wasn't like the other 2 times he broke it. The other times he broke it he ran away hissing and meowing and tried to hide. This time he didn't do that. I have been sleeping on the couch at night to watch him, I'm such a light sleeper so pretty much any noise he makes I can hear. He jumped up on the couch while I was sleeping and the dog was under the covers and she barked and it scared him and he jumped down. Like i said he meowed a few times, I picked him up and pet him and he was fine. He went and loafed in the other room on his back with all 4 legs up in the air. He was also still using it the same amount as he had before this happened, which wasn't much, but he would occasionally put weight on it and when he got out of the litter box he would use it. The other times he broke it, he just held it back and didn't use it at all. I have also been feeling his leg throughout the whole process because I want to know what's going on. I felt it after this happened and it felt exactly the same, even the space that has been in the ulna. Of course me being a worrier and already thinking something was wrong because at the last visit he didn't seem so sure when he was feeling Eddie's leg, I wanted to get him in for an x-ray. I wanted the reassurance that everything was really okay. Dr. Candotti is the vet that has been doing the surgeries and he wasn't there that day, so I saw another vet. They took xrays and they looked the worst out of any xrays taken so far. She couldn't tell me much because she wasn't an orthopedic vet, but she said it looks like he will need another surgery. I was so upset, frustrated, sad, hurt, angry...pretty much every negative word you can think of is what I felt. I feel so bad for Eddie. She gave me the x rays and gave me the names of some doctors in case I wanted to go to them for another opinion. When I got home I looked at the xray more and realized that there were now 2 breaks in the radius when there was only one break before and this break is where he put 2 pins in very close together. That gap in the Ulna I was feeling wasn't what he said it was. He said in order for him to line up the radius that there was a gap in the ulna but it was lined up. The gap I was feeling was where it is not lined up, not even 50%, which is what it needs to heal. There were no signs on the xrays of any callouses forming, which means his bones haven't been healing. Here are the Xrays:

The first break before any surgery


This is after he re-injured it about a month after the first surgery. He had 4 pins in.


This is the X-ray they took the other day, he has 6 pins in


A closer look


You can see where the bone on the top (radius)is now broken in 2 places, where before it was only broken once. You can also see the pins going in right there at the break. This makes me think that this break happened while he was doing the second surgery, but we will never know since x rays were never done after the surgery.

I recently met a woman here, her name is Amy and she is our Squadron Commanders wife, they just moved here about 3 months ago. In the states she was a vet, I talked to her at a bake sale we did a few weeks ago and she was asking about Eddie. She said she would like to see him because she was concerned with some of the things I was telling her that they did, or about the meds they gave him or didn't give him (antibiotics). I took him over to her house the next day so she could see how he was walking and to feel his leg. I showed her where I felt the gap in the ulna, which she felt as well, and I told her what the vet told me it was. At this point we had to trust him. He was walking on it a bit and putting some weight on it, but not much. She just wanted to look at him and get a general idea of what he did. So, after I left the vet from getting this xray I called her and told her how much worse it looked, but they couldn't really tell me anything because Dr. Candotti was out. We had an event planned for the next morning that we both were going to be at, so she told me to bring a camera and the xrays and we will go to the vet clinic on base, put the xrays up on a light board and take pictures so she can post them on a VIN website and get opinions for other vets out there. She also had a friend going to her house for dinner friday night who is also a vet and they looked at the xrays together. They both agreed that I shouldn't let Dr. Candotti do anything more with this because how much he screwed it up. They also think that the 2nd break in the radius was caused by the pins and that this is how his leg has been since his last surgery. Some of the doctors on the VIN website wrote Amy saying that we need to get Eddie in with an Ortho surgeon who does bone grafts. They said he needs plates and bone grafts for it to heal. They also said we really only have one more chance to get this leg fixed before it needs to be amputated. Oh, I left out the part about the woman vet that did the x-ray...she told me "The worst thing that will happen is that he leaves here with 3 legs." Comforting, huh? I understand that, but have a little sympathy.

Anyway, those vets on the VIN website sent Amy a link to European College of Vet surgeons, you can chose where you are and what specialty. There were 2 in Italy on there and 3 in Germany. I emailed them all and sent them pictures of the Xrays. I haven't heard back from any of them yet, but I needed to know if any of them did bone grafts. The one Italian vet that is on this website was Dr. Candotti's teacher. I had to take the x rays back yesterday and I asked the vet I saw that did the x rays and she told me this. She gave me his phone number so I will call on Monday. On Friday afternoon, I called one of the vets that they recommended for a second opinion. I talked with a guy who gave me an email address to email everything and he said they would get back to me. One of the orthopedic surgeons called yesterday, he told me he couldn't believe how this last x ray looked. He said that for the weight of the cat there should be a lot more pins in there because if that bone moves at all, it breaks all the new vessels around it, which won't allow it to heal. He also said that the pins that were used are too big. I asked him what he thought about the new break in the radius and if it was caused from the pins during the second surgery, he said yes. He said it would be difficult, but if he were to do the surgery, he would take the pins out, clean up the bone fragments that are in there, take out the little portion of the radius that's broken and re-do external fixation. I asked him about the plate, he said he didn't think there was enough room for a plate and if there is infection, it's not a good idea to do that. They don't do bone grafts there, so that's not an option. With everything Amy, her friend Cindy and these vets from the VIN website, he really needs a graft and plates. He can do external fixation and get everything lined up perfectly, but that's not saying the bone is going to heal, there has already been too much damage.

So, I have an appt with Candotti on Monday, he hasn't even seen the xrays yet, but I am going to ask him to call the Vet that thought him, Dr Vezzoni, who was on this European college of vet surgeons website and see if he does bone grafts of knows of anyone who does. Hopefully I will hear back from some of the people I emailed in Germany as well. Eddie is acting fine, like he has the whole time, so that's good. It just breaks my heart knowing he is going to have another surgery, possibly an amputation.

Sorry for the long, rambling blog, I'm sure there are many typos...a lot has been going on the past few days, I have a lot on my mind and I'm not too happy about it. I will update you all after I see the vet on Monday afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Faster Internet!

Today they came and hooked up internet at our apartment. The installation guy typed in some IP addresses in some wrong places so it was connecting to our laptops through the router but was not connecting to our main computer. Pretty weird. We called our friend Alessio and he came over tonight after he got off work and figured it out for us. He didn't even work for the company that we got either, it was very nice of him. He is the guy I have been talking to about internet since we moved into our apartment here. So, now everything is up and running correctly. It moves pretty fast, so we are happy with it. We are just going to have to wait and see how it does when the weather gets bad...because all internet usually stinks in this country when it starts to rain. If it's not bad, we will probably decide to get Vonage, that way we can start calling the states and people from the states can call us. If it cuts out a lot we will probably go with an Italian phone line and I will buy a US number through Skype and forward calls to my home phone. I will let everyone know one way or another :)

Today's vet visit went well, the vet scruffed Eddie right at the beginning of the visit and of course he hissed because he didn't like it. I just the guy would just let me pick him up and put him on the table. There is no need for him to do that..and they wonder why Eddie doesn't like them. He just felt around, said he wanted to do an x-ray next week to see how things are looking. He said because he had a crush injury to an already broken leg, this is a special case and he wants to see what's going on. He seemed to feel the leg a little more and not seem so sure as he has been in the past, so we will see what happens next week. I think that's why they need to do an x-ray right after surgery, to make sure everything is aligned. He said he could tell by feeling, even though he was pretty swollen. Now that it's more than a month after surgery he just now wants an x-ray. Crazy. I will let you know how that goes as well. Eddie hasn't been walking on his leg much, so that worries me a bit. When I feel his leg I start at the top of his leg, find the bone and make my way down. I can feel almost an inch gap between the bones. I asked the vet about it, he said to get the radius lined up and the ulna is separated like that. He seemed to be fine with that.

My allergies have been at their worst, I need to find something that works. I've been taking Zyrtec, but no luck with that.

The weather here has been so beautiful. It's been in the 70's during the day and 40's at night, I have a feeling it's going to get pretty chilly very fast. Especially with all these hard, tile floors. I love fall, one of my favorite times of the year :)

6 Months in Italy

Fall has officially arrived, the weather has been nice and cool, you can smell the wood burning from fire places around us, it's been nice. It's also been raining quite a bit lately, but I don't mind it. The past few times it has rained, it's poured all through the night into the next day, which has left flooding in our little back yard. The roads here flood easily and get really slick when they are wet. They are slick when it's not wet, so you have to be careful at all times.

The first 6 months have gone by pretty fast, we've enjoyed ourselves. This rain lately has kept us around town and indoors, but that's okay, we usually find something to do inside. We hope to start traveling South now that most of the tourists are gone.

Still no progress on the internet I signed up for over a month ago, Alessio (internet guy that's been helping me) called them yesterday and they said they are not ready to come install it yet. This isn't the one I have been waiting months for, I don't think that one will ever happen. So, I decided to go with what is available...now just waiting on them to come hook it up. It's been over a month and I haven't even gotten a call for them to set up an appt, it's crazy. I've been looking into phone plans (for a landline) to see what's out there. If they do come out and get this internet hooked up, I need to do a speed test to see if it is fast enough for vonage. If I could get vonage, I could call the states and people from the states could call me because it would be a US number and it's only 25$ a month. I've been looking into the plans here, I'm not sure what the basic phone line costs, but for 10 euro a month extra I can get unlimited calls to the states. People wouldn't be able to call me though. I could get a number through skype and forward it to my home phone so people could call, but I don't know how much that costs either. I am going to start looking into all these options and figure out what to do. Seeing that vonage relies solely on the internet, I don't know if that would be a good idea, seeing that this isn't going to be a very fast internet connection. Should be fast enough for skype though! I've just missed talking to family and friends and hate going in to Dan's office to have to call them. It's just a huge pain to have to sit there and hope people answer their phones and when they don't you feel like it was a waste of time. It would just be better to have something in our apartment and we could call anytime.

Not much else really going on, they are planning on taking Eddie's pins out in about 3 weeks, I hope he is ready for it. The last thing I need is for them to get those pins out and then for it to break again because it is not being stablized. We will see though. Eddie is doing pretty well, he is more lovable now than he ever was. He is always wanting to jump up on the couch with me and sleep on me, such a sweetie. For some reason he doesn't go to Dan anymore, Dan will try and call him when he is on the floor and Eddie pops up and comes hobbling over to me. He loves his Momma :)

I will let you know what I decide with the phone situation, if I do sign up for a land line, it will probably take a month to get that set up...such a pain. I just cannot believe the customer service over here. How anyone makes any money is beyond me.

Ciao for now!