General updates on life and shit.

Lola
Lola is back to being Lola - waking us up at 6am by climbing on Dominic and biting his ears. She's eating huge meals 3xs a day and her energy level is THROUGH THE ROOF. Pooping and peeing normal. I can't believe a week ago she was dying of Parvo, and we were sleeping in puke filled sheets. She is off the herbal remedy and I am going to take her in for bloodwork in a couple of weeks to make sure all is well.

Work
I am working at this coffee shop in Northside. Even though the money sucks, I love working there. The job at the transitional house didn't work out, and I am totally ok with that. I am not ready for something that heavy anyways. For now, I love making espresso drinks for people who I've known over half my life. It's really the first job I've had in 15 years that I don't dread going to.

Kaitlyn
I love having Kait here. She turned 18 last Friday, and she's learning how to be more independent. We moved my computer out of the 2nd bedroom and she moved all her shit in there. They painted the walls a cool blackberry color and she put her up zebra curtains. Since she's moved in, her happiness is shining through. She no longer smokes, her face isn't all broken out from stress, and she has a new guy hanging around. He is a good guy too, has friended me on Facebook, hangs out at the house, and he and Dominic like to play with electric cars. Go figure.

Bikes and Racing
I got a demo bike from Raleigh to race CX on all season. I wrote about it on DrunkCyclist. I emailed the marketing guy at the Raleigh mothership in Seattle asking if he had anything I could demo and I'd write about it on DC. He sent me this beautiful bike 2 days later. My old CX bike was giving me an ulcer. Every time I rode it, something broke. The last ride, when I cracked the derailleur and snapped the chain, I lost it. I was desperate for a proper bike to race on, and Raleigh really came through for me. I still can't believe it.














CX season is here, and I have been making myself wait to race until October. I didn't want to be burned out by the time November came around, so my 1st OVCX race will be this Sunday in Yellowsprings. I haven't been practicing much, but I have been riding that Raleigh, getting used to the Sram components and making sure the fit is perfect. The ride is smooth as shit, and I am psyched to race this bike and see what happens.

Anniversary
Dominic and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary last week. It's hard to believe we have been married a year. We didn't do anything special, but we wanted to be sure we rode bikes together that day. So we did the Slow Ride where we stopped downtown and Michael Providenti took this awesome picture.












That's about it for now. Have a great week.

Lola is on the mend!

Finally, after 5 days, Lola has made a 180 degree turn around, and is on the way to recovery! Parvo is a mother fucker of a disease and she had a 50/50 chance of making it. I've read that 70% of the dogs that contract the illness die.













Monday after I posted here, I contacted a place called Wolf Creek Lodge. They have treated 46 out of 47 parvo puppies successfully with two products, Parvaid which is used in conjunction with Vibactra, both herbal remedies.

The conventional meds she had been taking, sub q fluids and antibiotics, weren't doing anything. She was still throwing up about 4xs an hour and I was desperate.

I had them overnight the remedies. In the meantime, they gave me an "emergency tea" recipe to give to her as an enema once an hour. I sped off to the grocery store for the items and came home and made a batch. It consisted of mint medley and chamomile tea, pedialite, garlic cloves, vitamin c, and echinacea.

After 17 hours of hourly enema's of the tea, she peed for the first time in 36 hours and wagged her tail, and jumped on the bed by herself.

Once the UPS package arrived yesterday, she started on oral doses mixed with the pedialite every 15 minutes. This was administered until 4am this morning, and she held it down with out throwing up. This morning she jumped off the bed to go outside to potty, and Dominic stayed home with her while I worked at the coffee shop. At noon, he called to tell me she wanted food.

WOOOOOOO!!!

When I got home, she was waiting for me in the livingroom, tail wagging and jumping around, playing with a stuffie. I couldn't believe it. I really think she's going to pull through, and it's a freaking miracle, really.















Thank you all for your support and donations. I can not believe the generosity of all of you, it means so much, I can only say that I am grateful - in so many ways.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Lola Parvo Fund

In the last two hours, I have had 4 requests from readers and friends to donate to Lola's medical bills. It is so overwhelming, thank you so much. We have spent $400 so far and the costs keep on coming.

If you would like to donate via Paypal, my address is judir6@gmail.com.
My physical address is:

4034 Akochia ave
Cincinnati, Ohio
45205

Thanks for all of your comments and good vibes.

XXOO - Judi and Dominic, and little Lola LoPresti

Lola has Parvo

When we got home Friday night, Lola was sick. She started dry heaving, puking up a bit of liquid. Kaitlyn had gone out around 8pm, and forgot to put her in a crate. I assumed she got into something. A friend suggested making her puke with hydrogen peroxide, nothing came up but 4 piles of foam. She dry heaved until 5am. Dominic stayed up with her most of the night.














Saturday morning, she had diarrhea, and no interest in food. I grabbed a stash of cash I had set aside for an emergency mortgage payment and took her to a vet my MIL uses. They thought it was Parvo, and I thought they were being ridiculous. They said the cheapest way to go would be to treat the symptoms, as they would Parvo, with sub q fluids (hydration via a needle under the skin), and antibiotics. I was to call them Monday for a follow up.

Saturday afternoon she seemed much better, and even ate a little bit of the canned intestinal diet food I had bought.

Sunday morning, I woke up to her dry heaving and I took her outside to potty. She had more diarrhea, and still no interest in food. I took the boys for a 30 minute walk, and by the time I got home, she had deteriorated so much, it was scary. Dominic was freaking out and I was starting to think maybe it was Parvo.

I only know of one vet that is open on Sunday, so I took her there - All Creatures animal hospital in Amelia, a 45 minute drive. I used to take my dogs there all the time, when I had money. The Dobe rescue I volunteered for years ago had always used them, and I like that they allow me to stay with my dog during diagnostic testing.

Once we arrived, I had to carry her through the waiting room. Parvo is highly contagious and I didn't want to infect the floors. I knew something was deathly wrong. Sure enough, she tested positive, and the vet tech showed us how to give her sub q fluids which were important to hydrate her. She came home with 2 days worth of meds for her vomiting and 2 kinds of antibiotics to treat the diarrhea and infection that has taken over her intestines, all in shot form - no pills.

Parvo is deadly. Vaccinations should have been done.

We've had her 2 months now, and I've been wanting to take her in for an office visit but fucked it all up. She was spayed by UCAN, with a voucher, because we didn't have the money and the grant funding was there. Rabies vaccine was done. I could have added in the rest of the vaccines at the time of her spay but chose not to. I secretly hoped she could go without vaccines. But she is a puppy, and her immune system is not strong enough. My other dogs came home from a rescue, already vaccinated, and I usually never vaccinate them again.

Until now.

I bought vaccines for both boys yesterday at Tractor Supply and administered them myself. Though they have immunity to Parvo, my entire outlook on vaccines is changing.

I feel like kicking myself in the face.

Lola puked all night last night, and her breathing was labored. I thought she would be dead when I woke up. Dominic stayed awake, singing and humming songs to her, all night long. I heard him sobbing in the bathroom this morning. She has to be carried outside, she is so weak. She has a half a bag of fluids left and she's going to need more, if she makes it. If the puking continues, she'll have to go back to the vet this afternoon.

I have also found some holistic remedies, I am waiting for them to open at 9am, PST.

Say a prayer for her for me, willya?

" Fun before Fast" a little Gnome told me....

Shit.

Blogging just isn't the cards these days. It was easier when I could do it on the clock. Nowadays, every time I sit down to write a post, something interrupts me and I never finish. I must have 4 or 5 posts I have started and never finished.

Life goes on.

I raced CX last weekend. A training race for the most part. More drama with my CX bike the night before the race. Racing the hilly course with a 22/11 cog didn't really work out too well. I came in 7th out of maybe 13 or 14 girls. I rode well, no crashing, HR stayed between 185 and 190 for the entire 30 minutes. Then I coughed for the rest of the day.

















I did not cat up this year, taking the advice of Mitch Graham, who checked my results from last year. He recommended that I stay a 4 again, since there were zero podiums for me in 2010.

It kind of sucks that all the girls, or most of them anyways, that I started racing with 2 years ago, have all cat'd up to a 3. It's demoralizing in some ways. I always have high hopes for CX races, and always feel so fucking let down when I end up sucking ass.

I can make some really good excuses:

1. Need a proper CX bike.
2. The course had no run ups.
3. Sandbaggers racing in the B race.
4. The chick on the MTB who passed me on the hill had bigger gears.
5. No places to run.
6. Not enough practice.
7. Second time on my CX bike this year.
8. Raced with a 22/11 cog.
9. This time last year I had been training on my CX bike for 2 months.
10. I couldn't get clipped in.

And look at this picture. What the fuck is that? This is my 3rd season racing CX and I am jumping a barrier like this?

















What happened to this girl? Who could get some fucking air when jumping barriers?

















I have let myself down. I have 3 weeks to get my ass in gear for the next CX races. Then it's on.