Throwing countries a bone

I happen to run across this article the other day that had me wondering if we should be going to Iceland for our honeymoon in Feb. You know, throw some money around somewhere that actually needs it. I have to admit that this isn't the first time I've thought about this. After the hurricane in New Orleans, I briefly wondered if it was finally the right time to go to a Mardi Gras celebration there. Or I always feel bad when I'm haggling with street vendors while traveling. They obviously need the $ more than I do, and it usually doesn't amount to more than a buck or two for me anyway.

So basically, its pity travel. Particularly, in a case like Iceland where I've never thought about going to anyway. Who goes to Iceland in Feb? And what I want to know is, is it nice or just frickin' patronizing that I'm even thinking about it?

Anyway, its all just hypothetical at this point. We've already gotten tickets to go to Thailand for our honeymoon, where I'm sure we'll have lots of opportunities to help the local economy.

Gimpy

When my dog Mia was 6 months old, she was diagnosed with hip dysplasia. Its a condition that 20-30 yrs ago, a dog would have been put to sleep for. Now, there are a several painful and expensive surgeries that you can do. I considered every one of them at some point. Basically, in a normal hip, the femur attaches to the pelvis at the hip joint. Its like a ball and a socket, fits perfectly -- I think that's the right expression, anyway, though I'm not sure what balls and sockets really have to do with each other. Anyway, in dogs with dysplasia (and humans), the femur starts slipping from the joint. And slowly, arthritis develops in the joint. In Mia's case, even at 6 mos., it was pretty grim. The femur was pretty far out of the socket and she already had quite a bit of arthritis, making her ineligible for one of the surgeries. The others she was still too young for -- they won't perform them until a dog is done growing. The most successful is a total hip replacement, which can run up to 5-6k per hip and involves a fairly lengthy recovery period.

Until recently, those were my only options. And as Mia is fairly functional, I was never quite wiling to subject her to surgery. Not to mention that I don't happen to have 12k lying around to spend on my pet. So instead, I gave her glucosamine, kept her well exercised, and made sure she stayed skinny.

But a few months ago, a friend of mine sent me this article that blew me away:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1817572,00.html?cnn=yes

Its a stem cell treatment for dogs! No surgery. They remove tissue from the dog's stomach, extract the stem cells, and reinject those cells into the hips. According to the article, the stem cells develop into healthy cartilage and tendon cells. It turns out that the article is a bit misleading about how it all works, but is on the whole, accurate. If it works, it results in a dog that's pretty close to normal. And the cost is about the 1/3 the cost of replacement surgery. So of course0, Gregg and I have been watching these developments with some interest. And a few weeks ago, there was an article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel about a vet in SC doing the treatment. Gregg called the vet, and we took Mia into see him yesterday.

At the end of the appointment, I was completely amazed:

1. Her joints have probably been inflamed since pretty much when we found out about her condition almost 3 yrs ago. Other than when I first found out (when she could barely walk), I have never given her anti-inflammatory medication.
   
2. Day to day, she probably experiences fairly constant pain. On a scale of 1-10, the vet guessed maybe a 4 or 5.
3. The x-rays showed that Mia's hips are so bad that its a miracle that she can walk. She has the dubious honor of having almost the worst hips the vet had ever seen.
4. And yet, she walks, runs, backpacks, chases rabbits, tries to climb trees. She won't chase frisbees, and she won't let dogs hump her, but other than that, she seems pretty normal.
   
5. I think the stem cells don't morph so much as block inflammatory molecules. This part is still a little unclear to me, but even if the treatment works, Mia's hips will look exactly the same. She just won't feel pain.
   
6. My dog is a horrible drunk -- she had to be sedated for the xray. Afterwards, she stumbled around the vet's office. AND she passed out again while we were paying our bill and peed herself while she was asleep! I swear, she doesn't get that from me! Well, there was a peeing on a curb incident in the city that ONE time, but . . .
   

Anyway, we're doing the treatment and I'm hopeful!

Drum roll please . . . .

Earlier this week, I got an email saying that my wedding dress had shipped! So I've been on pins on needles all week. And, yesterday, it arrived.

I was both excited and scared . . . the place where I'd gotten it is an online knock off place basically. I'd discovered it by accident and had many second thoughts while ordering. They do get rave reviews online. And their prices are unbelievable. But they're based in China. The customer service are definitely not native English speakers. Its all a little sketch. But again the prices are unbelievable!! And I didn't want to be one of those people that spent thousands of dollars on a dress that I'll wear only once.

I didn't want to order blind though. So about a month ago, Vid and Yi-ling and I went dress shopping, so I could get a sense of the different styles. I wanted to know what would look good on me before just ordering from a picture. Turns out, not that much looks that good on me. There was really just one or two types of dresses that I liked. So I went back to the website, and of course, they didn't have anything like I'd wanted.

So I probably should have just dropped the plan and bitten the bullet. But instead I found out that the place does custom orders also. So you send them a picture and they make you a knock off. Doesn't it get better and better? Totally freaked now, I sent them my pics and they got back to me almost immediately, saying they could do it. Actually, itwas kind of crazy. I wrote them late one evening, she got back to me early the next morning and apologized for the delay!! So they're definitely speedy, I have to give them that. And not just with communications, it took them 2 weeks to get my dress made. Dude you go to a bridal store and they tell you to allow 6 months.

Against my better judgment, I proceeded to give them my measurements anyway. THAT was actually an adventure in itself too but that's another story -- it just turns out that not many people order a dress online like this. Go figure. The website asked for a million different measurements and I went to a tailor to get it done right. They were totally baffled so that didn't bode well at all. So a part of me expected to open the box and find something that only a 6yo could wear.

The first thing I noticed is that it came in a little tiny box. All bundled up in there like a sweater. I'm guessing that's not how the better bridal stores send them. :) But I had known that'd be the case from the reviews. Anyway, I had about 15 minutes to try it on and then hide it before G got there, so I was running around like crazy with it.

At first glance, I was disappointed. The dress didn't really look anything like I'd asked for. The material wasn't as shiny as the satin I'd tried on. And there was no embroidery. I stared at it for a few minutes and then realized i had it on inside out!!

Then it was another huge production getting it off, and in it again with all the frickin fabric. I already got dog hair all over it too, cuz nothing touches my floor without getting hair on it. Plus the dogs were all curious to see me so exicted so they kept coming up and checking me out. And the annoying thing is that even when I managed to get it on right, I couldn't zip or button up anything. Its a 2 man job!! So all I know is that it seems to fit and its gorgeous!!

Ladies, you should definitely check this site out:
www.lilywedding.com
I'm so amazed!

Anyway, I was telling the story to our secretary here at the office, and she's going to help me put it on after lunch!