dream team is amazing

Mommy and Tman being silly in class

daddy learning how to give snowflake a bath

her new OHIO STATE bandana

Snowflake practicing lap!

Super tired... i will blog more later... enjoy the pics :o)

TRISTANS DREAM TEAM... TOGETHER

Tired girl at puppy school

trainer is actin like shes havin a seizure, snowflake is alerting

practice at hotel, tristan loves holdin her 2nd leash

harness

he loves his snowflake

He's a cheeseball

Snowflake was taught this just for Tristan.. to bring things back to his wheelchair tray :o)

Snowflake and daddy training

Beautiful girl!

smiles :o)

Snowflake and Tristan.. The Dream Team

Their 1st kiss :o)

Snowflake, im waiting with puppy treats!

Tristans first time seeing snowflake in her crate




All i can say is WOW! this has been a life changing week, and we still have another week to go! Tristan an Snowflake a have became the Dream Team we were hoping. They are bonding so well. She is so protective over him. She is sleepin in bed with him (shes a bed hog) and she LOVES to please us. Her favorite command is "take it" then "tray" and "thank you" thats when tristan knocks something off his wheelchair tray, she brings it back to his tray and lets go. This will enventually happen without saying words. Last night at the hotel she even took a diaper out of my hand and took it to tristan on the couch! Super awesome!

training is very tiring... we are ready for a nap everyday when we get back. Tomorrow we get to take her out in public for the 1st time. Wew are goin to the mall as a class. So that will be fun. Snowflake knows how to alert to seizures, open doors, on and off lights, pick things up and bring them back to tristan, she heels, goes under tables, she knows her "place" which is to go relax in her bed, sit, stand, shake, high five and so much more! She is SOOO good! :o) she loves when tristan gives her treats. Today we also learned "lap" which is when she will come and rest her head on tristans lap so he can pet and love on her. There is so much to tell, but right now we just ran home for a bit to do laundry and let snowflake see the house. I am having problems with this website and my ipod getting along so i can blog and post pics. so enjoy all the pics so far! More to come!!!

TRISTANS MATCH FOR HIS DOG!!!!

HEY! You will not believe this but one day I was sitting in my crate at 4 Paws and I SAW you! Really I did! I knew at that moment that you were my boy and I have been working soooooo hard getting ready to be your new best friend. My name is Snowflake. I was born on Christmas day in 2009. My Mom, Madonna is a Black Golden Ret mix. She was homeless and did not want to have us in the snow so she sat on some people's front porch hoping they would open the door and let us in. When they did and saw her they invited her in and let her get nice and warm. Boy were they surprised when a few hours later we were born. The family wanted the best for our Mom and us so they called 4 Paws and brought us here to live. My Mom is going to live at a Hospice. Her job will be to help people move to heaven peacefully. She says it is a good job for a dog and she will love every person she stays with. One of my sisters, Clarice, is also in our class! We all have winter names. Clarice is the girlfriend of Rudolf. I so can;t wait to meet you my friend. I mean really meet you and give you lots of kisses! In case you can't tell from the picture I am a Golden Retriever Mix and I am a girl. Hurry and get here my BFF, Hugs and Kisses, Snowflake

Baccloffen is doing great!

updates!
Hope everyone had a great holiday. I know we sure did. Glad its over.
Tristan cracked me up when it came to Santa this year. He saw him 3 different times. First time he cried, second time he did good and then cried when we walked away, 3rd time he cried again but laughed everytime someone sat on Santas lap. LOL he was too funny!
Okay, update on surgery.
Tristan will be having surgery on Monday Feb 21st in Cinci. After seeing the surgeon we found out that his hip is not as bad as the other doc made it to be. But in order to keep his hip from being pulled out of socket and to help with his walking skills, spacisity and more Tristan will be having a "soft tissue release" done. This is when they go in and snip his adductor and his hamstring muscles in his leg. They may do more depending on how his body relaxes when he is under anethesia. After this surgery Tristan will be in full leg casts on both legs for 6 weeks! yikes! So this will give him plenty of bonding time with his new dog!
We literally go from 4paws training for 10 days, home for a week, then to cinci for surgery! Febuary is going to be a VERY busy and crazy month for us.
As of right now we are still looking into having his "spit glands" removed this summer as well. Tristan has to undergo some more tests first... I will keep yall updated on that one.
The bacclofen is doing wonders on his spacisity. His arms, hands, and legs are much more relaxed now. Since starting this med, we have seen big improvements in his reaching and walking. His therapists are pretty happy with it! I have him on the lowest dose right now, no need to increase it in my eyes if it is working at this level. As he grows and his body gets use to the bacclofen we will have to increase it. Until then, everyone is happy with where it is!
Currently, Tristan is battling Croop. Lil guy always gets some crazy respirtory bug this time of year. Started on antibiotics and steriods today. So he should be feeling better in time to return to school next week.
We should get his 4paws dog match in less than 30 days! SUPER EXCITED! I will have my phone glued to me more than ever towards the end of January waiting for Tristans special emial from his dog! and i promise to post on here AS SOON as i know!
Thank you everyone for the continued prayers and support. If you are still wanting to help Tristan with his dog, we could use some gift cards to petsmart so he can buy his new pal everything he will need!!

just adding more pics!

mommy and tman at newport

older pic, but a fav.. go buckeyes!

I JUST WANNA EAT HIM UP!!

IS THIS WEEK OVER YET!!!!

Summer fun at the zoo

Daddy and Tman in the lake

Mommy and Tristan

I PICK THIS PUMPKIN MOM!

What a week its been and its only Wednesday!
Lets see, where to catch up.... lets start..
Monday we got a phone call from neurology about Tristan's last set of blood work done. His seizure med levels came back good. But his red blood cell count is off. Tristan has now been diagnosed with microsytic anemia. Which means his red blood cells are smaller than they should be. That they havent been "growing" with his body. So now we are going to start him on an iron vitamin and redo this blood works in a few months and fingers crossed it works!
Today, we saw Dr. Vargus-Adams in Cinci who has been following Tristan for about a a year and a half now. She is a Cerebral Palsy doctor. The first words out of her mouth was about Tristan's last hip xray. We have been doing routine hip xrays for the past few years as well. His left hip has always been "not right" and today we found out that its pretty dang close to being dislocated! AHH! So long story short, we will be seeing one of the favored and top orthopedic surgeons in Cinci in the next week hopefully, and Tristan will def be having his first surgery sometime before Christmas to get his hip fixed. I will let ya know how that appt goes and when surgery will be. :( Because of his spacisity in his legs we started him on Bacclofen tonight. This is a med that will help reduce his spacisity in his legs and the rest of his body. This is to help his muscles to stop pulling on his hips. My plan is to get him off this med after he has surgery. With this med we do run the risks of having seizures. So fingers crossed we dont!
Good news! Tristan weighed in a lil over 30lbs today! So he is finally putting some weight on again. And he finally got his flu shot, so I dont have to worry about that now! We are also going to see a new Hollistic Health team at Cinci Childrens this friday. So hopefully no more bad news this week from that. He will also be receiving a deep tissue massage, poor kid really needs it, and so does mommy! lol
Tristans seizures are still sticking around ( I think) he had his last episode a few weeks ago. Its just so hard to read his actions sometimes if they are seizures or not. Especially sense his seizures normally come in clusters and not just one. But the kid likes to keep us on our toes so you just never know! His 4paws dog can not come soon enough!
Otherwise, Tristan has been doing great. He is getting better with his new communication device. Which we are really hoping to start taking to school for him soon. He is getting the concept of activating the switch to make his "talker" talk to get what he wants. He is getting stronger everyday. I love hearing his therapist praise him for doing so well, and amazed at what he is doing :) its the best feeling for both Tristan and I.
Once again, Tristan will be receiving his 4paws seizure alert/mobility dog FEB 1st! We will be in training with tristan and the dog from the 1st till the 11th. wahoo!
Well<> I am going to work on getting new pics up, so enjoy! feel free to email us anytime! CRentz3@yahoo.com
Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers!

Back in school!

After taking a week off school, hes back!
Poor guy already caught his first "bug" of the school year. He just had some sinus stuff going on and was running a fever, still dont know exactly what it was but a lil bit of antibiotics helped!
This weekend and next week we are starting our last "step" for the dog. We have to send in a HUGE video of whats it is like to be in Tristan's shoes. ( I could never imagine) But we will be taping tristan thru therapies, school, around the house, bedtime and morning routines (which we dont have!) and so much more! Its going to be a big project, who knows, maybe we will just turn it into a documentry!
Otherwise<> I think all is going well. I am getting ready to switch some of Tristan's docs around and move him to Cinci Childrens for GI,ortho, and I think we might look into Cinci's new Hollistic Doctor.. would be interesting to see what they have to say.
Tristan is doing great, hes almost 29lbs now and 39 inches tall... Less than 22 more inches and he will be taller than mommy! ahh!