Sat 5/16 paddling plans

[Lupe]

A few of us in the LR area are going to size up the radar and gauge situation in the morning and then decide where to head. We'll be checking things out around 7am...probably would not meet any earlier than 8am to head out. Destination TBD depending on where it looks like we won't be dodging lightning bolts like last weekend!

I'll update in the am if/when a plan comes together!!!

[stormcrow]

I had the same idea, except without waking up at 7:00

[Lupe]

Well you don't have to twist my arm hard to agree to a later start!

[stormcrow]

Wow that was easy I know 1 or 2 folks that for sure want to paddle tomorrow. We'll collaborate a plan in the morning. Now back to the

-Laramy

[Lupe]

We want to do something shorter/closer to home today so we plan to head to Illinois Bayou and run Snow Creek. That area got a bit more rain, so if the gauge continues to climb up to 10 feet or so, we'll move up to the NoGo section instead.

No rush this morning...plan is to leave LR about 10:00.

Right now 3 of us...Coogan, Sarah and myself...give a shout if you want to join/carpool/or meet us...

Cheers,
Heather

[Lupe]

update:

10am Kmart parking lot off Rodney Parham to carpool;
or 10:30am Conway Exxon.

We've got 2 open boaters, a c-1 and a yak going...

It's looking like maybe a couple snow creek laps...

[Ryan Viser]

Where's your sense of adventure, dodging lightning bolts is a blast!

[Lupe]

I need to give a great big, huge, gargantuan

THANK YOU

to Mike, Lucas, Sarah, Wayne and Todd who I paddled with today.

I have been bringing my dog with me on paddling trips when it's cool enough for her to stay in the car because she has had a lot of issues over the past 6 months (seriously: lead poisoning, then a degenerative spinal disorder which lead to spinal surgery, then low thyroid which means all the fur they shaved for the spinal surgery isn't growing back, and then 10 days ago, her closest brush with death yet: her stomach twisted at about 4am which is something that can kill a dog within hours, but that we caught in time at the emergency vet clinic).

Anyway, so she's fine and great and ran around a bit while we combined boats and gear at the take out, and off we went, leaving her in my car at the take out. Probably 2-3 hours later, we pull off the river, I let her out of the car, and I knew within 5 seconds that the twisted stomach thing has happened again. I am so grateful to everyone because I literally left all my gear and my boat and just said I HAVE TO GO NOW. As I'm practically spinning my wheels driving away, I realize I am leaving 5 paddlers standing there and mine was the only car at the take out. I slam on the brakes and yell, wait, what about your shuttle!? but they waved me on. Time really is of the essence with this condition. I drove like a bat out of hell all the way from Hector back to Maumelle to the emergency clinic, afraid the whole time that I was literally going to watch my dog die in my rear view mirror.

Once again, my dog is apparently pretending to be a cat that has nine lives, because after taking x rays and rushing her into surgery, they again were able to untwist her stomach with a tube down her throat and not have to do the full surgery. She had irregular heart beats for a short time after wards (toxic chemicals build up that are then released which can cause heart problems), but now 4 hours later she has been stable. She has to be monitored overnight, and come Monday we're going to need to do surgery so that we can prevent this from happening again, but if I had not literally "dumped" my friends at the river, it could have been a different story.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for letting me fly out of there and THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for collecting all my gear and bringing my boat back to town for me. I am so appreciative! Dinner, beer, soda pop...you name it, it's on me next time!!!

Did I mention: THANK YOU!



PANCHO THANKS YOU, TOO!!!

[pacorollo]

Pancho's having a tough time! Glad it all turned out good today and that Monday goes well. Paco

[Renee H]

Heather - glad Pancho is okay. She really does have 9 lives! That is great how the paddling family comes together in times of need. Keep us posted on her status!

[Hawk_GT]

Heather,
Hope Pancho's procedure goes well tomorrow.

[Karla]

Heather, I am glad you had Poncho with you that day to recognize he had a problem again . How is he doing today? I hope he is doing good. I hate he is having so many problems. He is a sweet dog.

Karla

[CAPTAIN ALEVE]

I had been meaning to start jogging again anyway, so I volunteered to head back to the put-in. A pit bull greeted me as I passed a fellow camping (nice doggie, nice doggie) who unfortunately had no transportation. I jogged on, pooped out within a half mile, walked up a small hill and started jogging down the other side when A. J. Mallett of Hector gave me a ride to Snow Creek. A. J. was checking out the Bayou to see if it might be someplace he could paddle a canoe some day if he and his lady friend could find one to rent. I told him the mild level it was at that day would be OK to try, but don't run it if it gets much higher. I told him I'd seen people in aluminum canoes sitting on boat cushions and smoking run it just fine as long as it wasn't any higher. Fortunately for the rest of our group, A. J.'s shuttle service kept the wait for transportation pretty short. I better start jogging at home before I try something like that again.

Captain "puff puff wheeze" Aleve

[Jim Krueger]

Heather,
How is Pancho? Did she have surgery? How did it go? I've been checking for an update and haven't seen one.
Hope all is well!
Marlo

[Lupe]

Hi Marlo,
Thanks for asking about Pancho...

I haven't really felt like posting about it as it really hasn't been good news. First, my regular vet didn't even want to do the surgery or really anything at all, but after I did more research myself, I decided I wasn't okay with that. I took her to a second vet (thanks for the referral Liz!), and after discussing options on Tuesday, he did the surgery on Wed. The main purpose of the surgery was to do a gastropexy (basically staple the stomach to the abdomen wall so it can't twist), but it was also to look around and see if he could identify WHY all of a sudden my 15 year old dog was bloating.

The good news is that without a doubt if we hadn't done the surgery, she wouldn't have lived another 2 weeks. The bad news is it was a cancerous tumor in her spleen that caused the bloat.

So, Pancho has cancer, and it is malignant and fatal 99% of the time. If there's ANY silver lining in this, it is that usually by the time this cancer is diagnosed, it has already spread to multiple organs and dogs typically die within weeks or even days of diagnosis, or they are not even diagnosed until postmortem. In Pancho's case, he could not find any other tumors anywhere. Which is not to say it hasn't spread, but he is cautiously optimistic that by catching it this early and removing the spleen, I may have another 6 months with her, maybe even 9 months or a year if we get really lucky.

Although this cancer is fatal, it doesn't actually really impact the dog's overall health up until the point when it actually kills them. So once she recovers from her surgery (which already just one day later she's doing great), I can expect to have the same healthy, happy Pancho back with me to spend quality time with, for just a little bit longer.

The truth is that the chances of a dog her age surviving not just one, but two episodes of bloat with stomach torsion were pretty slim. The chances of a dog her age not just surviving, but doing remarkably well after major spinal surgery (done back in January) were pretty slim. Even this abdominal surgery we did this week is major surgery for an older dog, but she came through it just fine - the vet couldn't believe how well she did in surgery. So, all I can do now is just hope she continues to defy the odds. If I have even one more month, or three, or six, I'll be very grateful for that time. She's been by my side for 15 years...my perfect "just right" dog.