Jeff and I have now had a small taste of what it might be like to have a sick child.  Poor little Bailey got neutered yesterday morning, and is therefore not feeling his best.  Yesterday afternoon, Bailey came upstairs to the living room, after napping for a long time in the basement.  Next thing I knew, he started that terrible heaving sound he makes before he's going to throw up.  In retrospect, I should have just let him stay on the carpet where he was, but no, I tried to pick him up and get him onto the kitchen floor.  So, instead of having one pile of puke to clean up, I had a trail going half-way through the living room.   After that, he didn't seem to be sick anymore, just very tired and not interested in anything other than sleeping.

Late last night, as we were going to bed, we noticed that Bailey wouldn't lie down.  He just stood there, with his back hunched up a little.  I think the pain meds the vet game him must have worn off, and it was painful to go from standing up to lying down.  If we tried to help him, or pick him up, Bailey would let out a terrible cry.  We gave him his water, and he drank nearly the entire bowl.  Shortly after that, he threw up again, but this time with absolutely no warning.  We felt awful and didn't know what we could do to help him.  The vet had given us some more pain meds, and told us that we could start giving them to Bailey the following morning.  By the time we had tried everything we could think of to help the little guy, it was well after midnight.  We figured that that was close enough to being the following morning, and it was long enough after surgery, so we gave him the pain meds, enveloped in peanut butter.

We turned out the lights and tried to get some sleep.  A couple of hours later, I woke up to Bailey whimpers.  Jeff slept through it.  I got up and tried whatever I could to comfort him, but nothing seemed to help except petting him.  Even then, he wouldn't lie down.  Finally, Jeff woke up and tried to help.  Still, nothing seemed to work.  At that point, Jeff thought maybe Bailey would do well to lie in bed with us.  We NEVER let him sleep in our bed, but this was an exception to the rule.  He actually did really well, and relaxed considerably.  I didn't get much more sleep after that, though, because I was afraid I'd move the wrong way and hurt Bailey.

Normally, I get up with Jeff in the morning and we have breakfast together before he goes to work.  This morning, though, Jeff let Bailey and me stay in bed.  We didn't get up until after 11:00!  We both needed the rest, and I'm sure Jeff will be taking a nice nap this evening.  I'm pleased to say that although Bailey is still very tired and moving around slowly, he seems to be doing a lot better.  He's had some food and water and has been able to keep it down.  I also gave him another pain pill an hour and a half ago.  I think he's going to make it.  Below, I've posted a few pictures of our adorable little boy.

A reminder of how tiny he was when we first got him (notice how small he is compared to "Big Dog")...


And how big he is now...
 

How can you resist such an adorable face?
 

At Jeff's soccer game tonight, he was hit, very hard, in the right leg.  He couldn't even put any weight on it, so I drove him to an urgent care facility where they did x-rays.  Jeff's tibia, the weight-bearing bone, is broken, and he's going to need surgery to fix it.  I don't know all the details yet, but Jeff was taken to the emergency room at MetroHealth, where they're admitting him now.  It's possible that he'll have surgery tonight, but regardless, he's staying overnight at the hospital.  According to the urgent care doctor, he's not likely to be back at work for at least a week.  I'm at home for the moment, just so I could take care of Bailey, and get a little food in me (I haven't eaten since lunch).  As soon as I'm done eating and get Bailey situated again, I'll be heading over to the hospital.  Please pray that everything goes smoothly.  I'm getting very emotional about this, so please pray for me too!