Living is a gamble, baby. Loving's much the same.

I have so much to say and no time to say it. Curly Joe is being released from the hospital in a few hours. It has been one big roller coaster ride of emotions these last four days. Curly Joe was in such bad shape that we almost euthanized him. I called them to let them know we were on our way, and the tech put me on the line with the doctor. She said another specialist had taken a look at him and offered (at no charge to me) to take radiographs to see about the blood that was collecting in his chest cavity. "He doesn't see a dog who is ready to die," is what she told me. So I gave them the OK to do a chest tap and autotransfusion. The short of it is, after an unsuccessful surgery, a blood transfusion, a plasma transfusion and an autotransfusion (draining the blood from his chest cavity and putting it back into his system via an I.V.), Curly Joe is alive and (mostly) well and ready to come home.

We all knew he was special. Now I've seen firsthand just how strong he is, and I will never give up on him so easily again. Yes, the doctor was unable to repair his shunt. Yes, he developed serious complications post-op. But the doctor said if we can just get him past this, we can maintain him on special food and medications until we can find someone who can fix his specific problem.

So that is what we are doing.

Thank you to all of you who have supported me and Curly during this difficult time. It was really, really close for a while there. I'm anxious to get him back home where I am sure he will continue to improve. Tank will be so happy to see him again, as much as he hates to admit it.

Week 3, Day 14

I got a pain in my shoes and all I wanna do is dance.

I’ve now officially been doing Week 3 for two weeks. Although I felt better for most of today’s run, the last three minutes were still really tough. I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t frustrating, but I’m trying to remind myself that there’s no need to hurry. I have to keep in mind that if I ate proper meals, I’d be in better shape out there on the track.

My sister ran with me again, too! She has recently lost 11 pounds, mostly because she’s been really stressed out and not eating much, but I like to think that part of it is because she’s been running. Go, Sis!

I don’t have much else to report about the run. It was 81°F out there, but there was a nice wind to keep us cool. Funny thing is, there’s this “dead zone” at the southwest corner of the track; there’s no wind at this particular spot, and it’s always a few degrees warmer.

In hockey news, I GOT A HOCKEY JERSEY! My friend Ali sent me her Yzerman jersey because she doesn’t wear it anymore. I got it in the mail today, and I’m so happy. (It's my very first jersey.) I put it on right away and took pictures. It’d probably be a lot bigger on me if I wasn’t so ... chesty.

In doggy news, I’M GETTING A PUPPY! Sis and I are making plans to meet her friends in Colorado next month. They live in Louisiana, but they thought we could meet halfway to pick up Curly Joe. I can’t wait. Not only because I finally get to meet Curly Joe, but because I LOVE ROAD TRIPS. When I was in high school, my sister and I and our BFF did nothing but road trip around the country. We were going to concerts, but the driving was almost the best part. I usually sat in back with our gigantic cassette tape collection. We stayed at exclusively at the Motel 6; I would hide in the back seat when we pulled into the parking lot and my sister would go in and get a room for one adult and one child (we were 18, our friend was 16). We always got a room with two full-sized beds, and we would rotate so that every night, one of us would get to sleep alone. One time, we were up in Milwaukee, hanging out in front of the Ambassador Hotel. It wasn’t until we went back to our motel room that night turned on the TV that we realized this was where Jeffrey Dahmer had murdered some of his victims.

Another time, we got stuck in a freak blizzard in Arkansas and the only motel we found had one double bed, so we had to pull the mattress out on the floor and flip a coin to see who had to sleep on the box spring. Actually, I think I was outvoted; they claimed they had to sleep on the mattress because I was the only one who was capable of falling asleep anywhere, anytime. Since I’ve actually fallen asleep in the middle of guitar class and also during a concert, I really couldn’t argue with them.

Anyway. I’m really excited about the road trip. Good music, good company, good times.

See you Tuesday!