Mind you, I’m not in the depressed state of mind I was that fateful Tuesday since I have a little bit more spending cash then I did during the last pay period – but not much. I’m fine with it actually, it teaches me that I can stay at home – watch movies – and try to be creative when getting something to eat every day. We have LOTS of food in the freezer and dry goods in the cupboards, why not try to use them up!

Should also mention that I was able to go see one of my favorite band on Wednesday night too! So that came out of the little I had the two weeks prior, but truthfully that wasn’t too bad either since myself and Liz split the costs pretty much down the middle.. $40 for the tickets (each), I paid for the bridge ($42.50) and then I paid $40 or so for the meal we had (Liz paid for the gas since we went in her car and also some of the meal.. she’s really great that way). Wait.. there was also the fact I had to buy a concert t-shirt too ($35 for it may seem ridiculous .. truth be told it is.. but I try to get one at every good concert I go to.. and this concert was definitely worth it).

I’m actually just really excited that I didn’t (and haven’t for some time) had to dip into the Line of Credit or any Mastercard credit in order to go from week to week, and my savings are increasing as a result.

This leads me to my Budget Update. I blogged before about my financial status and of course the last time I wrote about it was back in September where I’d written that I’ve paid off over $3700 in debt since I started sinking my teeth into it. As of today, with no major bills (I don’t want to go into the fact that my boy was limping on his OTHER leg today) – but as of today I’ve put a dent in the amount of $6,118 onto my debt!

I’m EXTREMELY impressed with myself for being able to do this, but it hasn’t come easy. I’ve pretty much given up poker with only one exception per month.. and I’ve also really focused on being smarter with regards to eating out, etc.

That said, I’ve also been able to pay off  that $2418 since September with Christmas as well as Hunter’s major AVC bill paid for! Very impressive I think… but I’m far from done. You are going to see one big celebration when that line of credit amount gets down to zero that’s for sure.. and that’s my goal.

*UPDATE*

Well since I didn’t want to mess around with Hunter’s recently operated on leg being the only one he’s putting weight on, I called the AVC and have an appointment on Monday. Here’s to hoping it’s nothing huge!

Long Road To Recover - But We'll Get There Boy!

On a personal note, I’ve booked an appointment to have Hunters CCL surgery performed at the Atlantic Vet College. Sadly, the date they’ve given me is MARCH 27th!! God and we thought the waiting times for some of the surgeries around here for people were bad, this is right up there!

It should be noted that although the official date isn’t until March, the lady I talked to on the phone was quite helpful and told me that more than likely that date would be pushed up significantly as they don’t have the surgeons schedule yet. Something about all surgeries are being booked under Orthopedic even though not all of them should be.. something like that, I sure hope so!

I actually did a lot of investigation into the new surgery I mentioned called the ‘Tightrope CCL’ surgery as I really wanted to have that performed on him, unfortunately.. there are no surgeons in Atlantic Canada whom perform said surgery. I went as far as to email the surgeon whom created the actual procedure, Dr. James (Jimi) Cooke from the University of Missouri. He was actually nice enough to reply with a lengthy email containing the names of a number of surgeons performing the surgery around the New England states as well as a few from Ontario. Unfortunately, medical travel such as this would not be an option I can’t imagine with all the follow up appointments and such.

I’m still in the process of deciding which surgery I’m going to have performed, but it is nice to have something booked.

Hunter - Down But Not Out!!

Hi All! I hope everyone out there is doing great and having a wonderful day.. it’s sunny here, and that always seems to brighten moods.

I haven’t had many posts the last few days, there are a few reasons for this but the main one being my mind is completely somewhere else right now. One of my beagles (Hunter) needs surgery on his knee, he’s been limping around on one leg and getting around fine mind you, but he does need surgery and right now I’m currently looking into the types of surgery that are out there for him.

His injury is actually fairly common as it’s happened to my old dog “Scooby” on both her knees and I’ve seen other dogs that have had it happen as well. The injury is similar to athletes in that he has torn his ACL (I think they call it CCL in dogs – cranial cruciate ligament). There are 4 different ways to repair the surgery, and I’m very thankful to have the Internet so that I can learn up on them all.

• TPLO – Involves cutting bone, very invasive, time consuming, hence.. costly
• TTA – Involves splitting bone, also invasive but not as much as TPLO, costs about the same
• Extracapsular Technique – most common technique – involves using a nylon band – this is what Scooby had done, costs are about 1/2 the others
• Tightrope CCL - new type of surgery, seems like the best choice but don’t know where to get it done as of right now, it seems the costs is between the Extracapsular and TTA.

Anyhow, that’s likely a lot more Dog surgery information than you wanted, but that’s what I’ve been doing lately and every since I found out that’s what he needs.

I thank the site DogKneeLigament.com for the great information and for leading me to a number of different sites.

There is NO question my buddy is going to get the surgery he needs and requires, it’s just a difficult time with Christmas and all coming up. Kind of throws a big curve-ball into all plans.

If you or someone you know for any reason would like to assist me and certainly help Hunter out with these unexpected costs – I would be most appreciative and also find a way to make it up to you (I am a pretty good photographer you know , Paypal donations can be sent by clicking the button