Here’s our dog in her Halloween costume, so I just couldn’t resist the pun-intended title. Our weekend went by in a complete blur and both Super Dad and I are much more exhausted than we expected. Already scheduled to be incredibly busy with a softball game, a high school homecoming and two Halloween/Harvest events, we had to squeeze in counseling and visitation trips to LuLu’s hospital (about a 2-hour round trip) on both Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday was not a good day for LuLu. Although on Friday the doctor reported her to be a bit more stable, the process of talking with the counselor and LuLu caused an escalation in her behaviors and we had to end our visit sooner than we’d planned. When I returned yesterday, she was much calmer and the staff reported that she’d had one of the best days so far. She had also been taken off of one-to-one monitoring, meaning that she had more freedom to independently move around the unit.

On Saturday I was a bit frustrated to learn just how much cheese, butter and other dairy products she’d consumed. Knowing that she is the Stinky Cheese Monster, I reiterated to the counselor how this may be directly responsible for the spikes of violent behavior…or at least contributing to them. She concurred that it was likely to exacerbate the situation and told the staff once again that she was on a casein-free diet.

Now I know that there is a huge likelihood that they will never get all the casein removed from her diet there. But in the grand scheme of picking my battles, this is one that I’m not likely to win, until we can get her home again. And given that it can take 10-14 days for all casein to leave her system, she will long be home before all this happens.

So, we did our Operation Trunk or Treat – see the picture! Our ambulance theme, complete with a life-sized Operation Game was a huge hit and we won the Best Activity part of the contest. It was fun; and as Super Dad pointed out, less stressful without LuLu. But sad, too, as many of the medical props belonged to her and parts of the game (like the poor guy’s Frog in the Throat) was her idea.

LuLu, on the other hand, hasn’t realized that it’s Halloween or that she’s missing these events. She didn’t ask and I didn’t tell. I had asked her doctor on Friday if there was any chance for a temporary release. And on Saturday I was relieved he had said no. She definitely was not ready.