Focht Family Blog

This is a picture of Dory taken on her 2nd birthday in November…

Sunday we decided to drive to Amicolola Falls and have brunch with my brother’s family. Nathan and I had already left the RV and sent Samantha and Josh back in for warmer jackets. Whichever one was last out did not do a good job shutting the door. So while we were eating and hiking to the falls, Dory left the RV. Our only thought is that maybe she was going out to go potty. We now know that two people from the campground saw her walking around. I think that one of them may have yelled at her and scared her which started her running. As we were driving home we noticed cars slowing down for something and two people stopping and pulling over. Now we know that Dory was crossing the street as we drove by.

We got home and noticed that the door was ajar. Nathan and I thought Dory would still be inside. My first thought when we found her gone was that someone had stolen her because Dory doesn’t run off. We called the police and found out there had been two calls about a large dog roaming so we went searching where they had the last report. We found a gravel road that went all the way to a highway. I noticed a pawprint in the mud and we started following the pawprints. They led us in circles where she couldn’t figure out where she was going. This happened around 1:00 in the afternoon. At about 4:00 my brother and his wife spotted her coming out of the woods into a cow field at a neighboring farm. As soon as they called her she ran back into the woods diving under barbed wire to get away. I went back to where we originally were tracking her because it was in the direction she ran. I got to the end of the road and there she was. I called her name and she bolted. We tracked her for a bit in the direction she ran in but couldn’t find her.

Monday was spent with me taking the kids to a gold mine and Nathan working and looking for Dory. As soon as I got back we both went back to searching. We found pawprints but had no clue if they were from Sunday or Monday. We even called a lady who has a dog trained to track lost pets who is in Maryland. She told us to put food and toys out for her where we last saw her so we did. This morning we were back out by 8:00 to check her food dish and look for more prints.  We found prints a lot further away than where we were originally looking. We left the woods about 9:30 to start passing around flyers. At around 10:00 or so we were out by the road getting ready to search an abandoned house to see if we could find any sign of her.  As I was walking up to the house I received a call from the police saying they thought our dog had been spotted.

Two wonderful women, Leslie and Cheryl, noticed Dory on the side of the road. This was definitely God answering our prayers. They were meeting for coffee and went to a coffee place that they didn’t usually go to. They didn’t usually drive on the road that they saw Dory on. They stopped and found her so exhausted that she was laying down. Animal control was actually worried she had been hit because of how she was acting. As soon as we pulled up she got up and started coming towards Nathan. She was eager to get into the truck. We drove her to the vet’s office that handles mastiffs for rescue in the area. On the outside she is just scratched up and bruised but she flinched when her stomach was touched. Her blood shows that her liver levels are elevated and there was also some blood in her urine. They think she ate something she shouldn’t have. Hopefully it is just bad trash or a dead animal but it is acting like a poison to her. They are keeping her overnight on IV fluids and antibiotics to flush out the bad stuff. They will test her blood and urine again tomorrow afternoon and if her levels are improved she can come home….. after a BATH!! I created a map of Cumming, GA on Google maps that shows where Dory traveled. The middle point is the campground. The spot to the right and below is where we saw her on Sunday. The spot to the left and above is where she was found today!

Although Timmy had a lot of fun at camp this summer Samantha had her camping cut short. Right after the boat ride she started getting sick. I took her to the ER one night thinking she was having an asthma attack. The ER doctor said she was just having an anxiety attack and gave her a benadryl and sent us home. I probably should have questioned him on that one since she was only 10! But I didn’t.

I took her to the pediatrician on the following Monday (the ER was on Saturday). The pediatrician said she was wheezing and gave her a breathing treatment followed by a week of prednisone and breathing treatments at home. Still no better so I had my mom take her back to the pediatrician the next Monday (Nathan and I were in Ohio for two days). This time they sent her for an x-ray and they found out she had pneumonia!! Who gets pneumonia in the middle of the summer???

The boys ended up on antibiotics as well. Nathan ended up with pneumonia. Josh ended up getting sick again and getting pneumonia the second time. Timmy ended up just having asthma attacks. I got by with an infection in my throat but it didn’t go into my lungs thankfully. My mom didn’t get sick. Maybe she had better defenses because of having a pneumonia shot. I had one in college, maybe some of it is still working.

Because of the pneumonia, Samantha had to cancel all of her Girl Scout camping plans. I guess the silver lining is that we now have a pediatrician in Pennsylvania.

Well… I have been having a lot of fun for the last couple of weeks. The week after Mother’s Day my back started going out. In the past when I have had back problems it has just been muscle spasms and after 3-4 days of rest and muscle relaxants I am fine. This time it wasn’t the same. I was resting and taking meds and my back wasn’t getting any better. I tried stretching it and doing back exercises. I tried everything that people told me to do. Finally, on Wednesday last week I had an MRI done on my back. Unfortunately my doctor here was on vacation and her partner didn’t have any openings until Tuesday morning to get my results.

On Monday I woke up and my left leg was spasming all day where my muscles were twitching on their own. Then in the afternoon I got what I can only describe as a charlie horse that stretched from my hip to my ankle. Nothing I did would relieve it and all I could do is scream in pain. I finally found a position that took the pain away but it took a long time before I could take my leg out of the position without it seizing up again.  After it stopped I  went to get up and my leg buckled underneath me. I couldn’t feel most of my leg and it wouldn’t hold any weight so I decided to go to the ER. Usually when I go to the ER with my back they give me stronger meds and let me go. This time they checked me in. They had the results of my MRI available because it is in the same Health system as the hospital and it showed a large herniated disc between L4 & L5. Apparently the herniation was cutting off the nerves to my leg and if it wasn’t corrected it could end up killing them.

So for the last 2 days I have been in the hospital. This is the first time I have ever spent the night at a hospital other than giving birth. They gave me muscle relaxants, heavy pain meds, anti-inflammatories, and steroids. Then last night I was given an epidural injection of steroids directly to the affected disc. They said it will take 48-72 hours to take full affect and it could get worse before it gets better. Last night it seemed better but since I have been home I have noticed that my left leg is very weak and it is hurting. So I will keep on the meds and hopefully be better soon. I will still have to have two more epidural injections, one in two weeks and one in four weeks. I promise to try to devote some time to catch up. I still need to take pictures of our beautiful flowerbed that Nathan built around our deck. They are guessing that it was probably either the planting or mowing our lawns that herniated the disc so at least I should show the beautiful plants that did me in! :)

When we first started this journey we had to rush home on an early trip because my grandfather, Talmadge Forester, was in the ICU. As you know he recovered well enough that he was put into a nursing home where they had him walking around. This month he started a rapid decline. Last week he was put back onto hospice care while in the nursing home. My brother, Tim, drove down this weekend so he could visit with him for a last time. I think he will be glad that he came. My mom and my brother went to visit with him yesterday and went back again tonight. They left him at about 10:00PM and my mom knocked on my window a little after 12:00AM to let me know that she had received a phone call from hospice and that her dad had died.

For those of you who are religious who read this blog, please say a prayer for my mom. There will not be any services held for her father. My grandfather was suffering for the last few weeks and I know that we are all glad that his suffering is over. He is having a party in heaven tonight with all of his brothers and sisters and his wife. Rest in Peace grandpa!

On the way back to Pennsylvania from Vermont we had our first and hopefully last tire blowout. I was driving and we were almost out of Vermont. A car passed me and motioned for me to pull over. I pulled over and when we got out to find out what was wrong we found that there was no tire on the left rear of the truck. I had obviously lost the tire a few miles back and had ruined the rim as well. I am lucky that I didn’t blow up the truck and my mom’s camper since I am sure it had been sparking down the road. You can see the groove I was making in the road with the hot rim. Here is what was left…

A semi truck pulled over behind us and told us that he had been trying to get my attention for 15 miles or so. I am hoping he meant he noticed a flat or the tire starting to come off and not that I was driving on the rim that long. I never felt a difference from the RV. I guess I was just looking ahead and not paying attention to the mirrors. Now I am being careful to adjust the mirrors when I am driving so I can see the tires so at least I  might notice chunks of tire flying off if it were to happen again. We called AAA and they called the police and a service truck for us since I was blocking a lane of traffic. The police never showed and Nathan already had the spare off when the truck came. The truck was able to park behind us at an angle so that Nathan was protected to change the tire and the driver helped him get the spare back on so we could get back on the road quicker. It looks like we are now looking at having to get 4 new tires, a rim, and an alignment for the truck. Nathan also mentioned that the boots were torn on the caliper so I am hoping he has the tools to fix that to save us some money. At least no one was hurt. Here is another picture I took of the rim when I was putting it in the back seat of the truck…