of course, the most wonderful (insert sarcasm here) part is that he fractured a tooth sometime this week. i am so not thrilled with this. so very not thrilled and i really dont know what to do about this.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
the paranoia sets in
rah is acting just a slight bit off. did a few things odd for him... and im getting worried. nothing says CARDIO...
but this am when i went into the basement to do laundry, he didnt follow me down. now, he usually comes - did he not come because its the morning and hes SUPER LAZY In the morning? is it because he's feeling out of sorts because he has no playmate since berlin is on crate rest and he has no one to wrestle with?
last night at training it took me telling him like 12 times to get a drink of water before he would, and he was all freaked by his crate??? and it looked like he wouldnt put his head down - but later on he went right over to drink his water no problem. he trained just like normal, no issues. no signs of pain. no lethargy. wanted his cookies no problem.
and im convinced that his breath is different. this absolutely could be because for the past month he's eaten NOTHING but kibble for the first time in his life - he's got gas, he poops more, and his teeth are dirty, so its not inconceivable that his breath would smell right? its everything i can do to not stop at the clinic before i leave today to run bw on him before i go to the conference to make sure hes not in liver or kidney failure though.
see, this is the part i hate. the staring at your dog like something could go wrong at any moment. waiting for the other fucking shoe to drop.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
12 days post-SC
its been 12 days since rah received stem cells - and i think its clear they gave him the cells of a very very very bad dog!!!!
he's doing fine - great, even. he's evil. he's light chasing up a storm, he's chewing up pillows (and lydia's blanket), he's being a butthead.
he has experienced absolutely no negative side effects from the stem cell treatment/procedure that i can see whatsoever, not even any clipperburn from where they shaved him
(and his student made sure they only shaved him a very little bit!)
his new medication schedule is a killer - he's on mexiletine every 8 hours, so that really screws with being away from him for any extended period of time. my life now revolves around making sure my cardio dog has meds every 8 hours - bye bye social life (did i have one before hand?) - compounded by the fact that there are OTHER meds being given as well...
8 am - sotalol, mexiletine
1 pm - atopica
4 pm - mexiletine
8 pm - sotalol, benazepril
midnight - mexiletine
yeah, it's great. the biggest stretch i get is the 8 hours that we are generally sleeping and doing morning things... but he's worth it!!!!!!
so, for now - im hopeful. he's doing well. for the moment, i feel that this dark cloud is slightly further away - it's still hanging around, but for now im going to pretend it's not there.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
homecoming!!!
just got the call to go pick up the blueberry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
done done done!!!
i got the call at 1:15 that he was done and out of surgery, waking up and everything went well. i pretty much started to cry right then and there in the middle of panera (down the road from the vet school, where i was camped out with lydia).
he only threw one VPC during the procedure and had some "rah" things to deal with (leave it to rah to be abnormal!) - he had some weird anatomy and a brief episode of a-fib but all in all, they consider it a success! he was awake and doing well and i will get another call tonight to report on how he's doing.
so, i hope to pick him up tomorrow, but he's doing well right now and i can breath at least a little bit... i miss my little (big) boy a lot!!!!!
__________________
he only threw one VPC during the procedure and had some "rah" things to deal with (leave it to rah to be abnormal!) - he had some weird anatomy and a brief episode of a-fib but all in all, they consider it a success! he was awake and doing well and i will get another call tonight to report on how he's doing.
so, i hope to pick him up tomorrow, but he's doing well right now and i can breath at least a little bit... i miss my little (big) boy a lot!!!!!
__________________
sitting in panera... waiting...
dropped him off at 8 am this morning. the vet student on his case is amazing, she's very sweet. she has corgis, i will have to send her something special - this has to be her last rotation and she will be a great vet, she cuddles rah up and she handled him well, including around other dogs that reacted towards him :)
he had his pre-op check yesterday and shocked the shit out of all of us - TOTALLY NORMAL yesterday. echo was NORMAL. no vpc's on the ecg or during the echo - for almost an hour my dog was VPC FREE???? the dog whose holter 2 weeks ago was worse than ever now had an hour of his life that he didn't throw a single arrhythmia???
the cardiologist (who is fucking adorably cute by the way, of course im down here sweating my ass off and my hair is frizzing in the 10000% humidity ) actually considered that i may have brought him the wrong dog? and that we never had the right diagnosis to start with - pulled out his old records and confirmed that 1) this was the dog with DCM and 2) he did have it ...
he gave me the option of whether or not i could do the study. i was afraid he was going to say rah COULDNT have the procedure because of the results... but he said it was up to me. lydia says she thinks if i was local they would have said no - but because i drove down from NJ they werent going to turn me away. but knowing he was looking better than ever (and knowing its just a snapshot, but its a frame of mind!) calmed me a bit...
so i dropped him off this morning at 8. definitely cried. they saw him yesterday in all his light chasing glory. he smells like fish from swimming in carol's pond. we gave them all his annoying deedle dude toys that sing when he chomps them and she said he could have them once he recovers. everyone in the hospital loves him and the receptionists and other students were already calling him when i walked him back in there today because he's very recognizable (besides the fact that he's the stinky dog) - when they walk him down the hallway (ok when he pulls them, since no one could figure out his heel command and he doesn't respond to heel!!!) he goes up to everyone and stands next to them until they pet him, then moves on.
i got the call at 11 am that he was being wheeled into fluoroscopy to start the implantation - first they are sedating him mildly and putting the implating catheter/port in, awake. then they knock him out and test the location of the catheter (coronary sinus), blow up the balloon and cut off blood flow for 10 minutes or so while they agitate the endothelium with saline and then inject the stem cells. he should be getting that right now.
they have an emergency/critical care doctor (that was actually a resident that i went to vet school with!) in there as well as a boarded anesthesiologist the entire time. he will recover and go into the ICU overnight, the entire time being on telemetry (an ECG unit that will display his heart rate/rhythm onto a display in the center of the ICU so the techs/drs can visually see it at all times) and hopefully come home tomorrow. he's on leash walks and no horseplay until he gets home friday.
im waiting for the call that he's awake. because he's affected they have to hold off for 30+ minutes once the jugular implant/port is removed. im nauseous. people keep calling about other things and i wish they would stop because i think its the vet school!
the person im staying with down here has the property from heaven. 19 fenced in acres, including some for her horse (that rah is terrified of, by the way). a pond (now muddy). the entire fence is fully dog safe, so the dogs can be entirely free. she left all the trees on her property so its all natural. she has a full agility ring set up with all contact equipment. the dogs hike all day long run wherever they want in the woods. rah's actual love is that her water bowl outside is a running bird bath with a fountain in it - he spends hours in front of that fountain playing with the water, they fill it 10-15 times a day because of him.
still waiting... .
dropped him off at 8 am this morning. the vet student on his case is amazing, she's very sweet. she has corgis, i will have to send her something special - this has to be her last rotation and she will be a great vet, she cuddles rah up and she handled him well, including around other dogs that reacted towards him :)
he had his pre-op check yesterday and shocked the shit out of all of us - TOTALLY NORMAL yesterday. echo was NORMAL. no vpc's on the ecg or during the echo - for almost an hour my dog was VPC FREE???? the dog whose holter 2 weeks ago was worse than ever now had an hour of his life that he didn't throw a single arrhythmia???
the cardiologist (who is fucking adorably cute by the way, of course im down here sweating my ass off and my hair is frizzing in the 10000% humidity ) actually considered that i may have brought him the wrong dog? and that we never had the right diagnosis to start with - pulled out his old records and confirmed that 1) this was the dog with DCM and 2) he did have it ...
he gave me the option of whether or not i could do the study. i was afraid he was going to say rah COULDNT have the procedure because of the results... but he said it was up to me. lydia says she thinks if i was local they would have said no - but because i drove down from NJ they werent going to turn me away. but knowing he was looking better than ever (and knowing its just a snapshot, but its a frame of mind!) calmed me a bit...
so i dropped him off this morning at 8. definitely cried. they saw him yesterday in all his light chasing glory. he smells like fish from swimming in carol's pond. we gave them all his annoying deedle dude toys that sing when he chomps them and she said he could have them once he recovers. everyone in the hospital loves him and the receptionists and other students were already calling him when i walked him back in there today because he's very recognizable (besides the fact that he's the stinky dog) - when they walk him down the hallway (ok when he pulls them, since no one could figure out his heel command and he doesn't respond to heel!!!) he goes up to everyone and stands next to them until they pet him, then moves on.
i got the call at 11 am that he was being wheeled into fluoroscopy to start the implantation - first they are sedating him mildly and putting the implating catheter/port in, awake. then they knock him out and test the location of the catheter (coronary sinus), blow up the balloon and cut off blood flow for 10 minutes or so while they agitate the endothelium with saline and then inject the stem cells. he should be getting that right now.
they have an emergency/critical care doctor (that was actually a resident that i went to vet school with!) in there as well as a boarded anesthesiologist the entire time. he will recover and go into the ICU overnight, the entire time being on telemetry (an ECG unit that will display his heart rate/rhythm onto a display in the center of the ICU so the techs/drs can visually see it at all times) and hopefully come home tomorrow. he's on leash walks and no horseplay until he gets home friday.
im waiting for the call that he's awake. because he's affected they have to hold off for 30+ minutes once the jugular implant/port is removed. im nauseous. people keep calling about other things and i wish they would stop because i think its the vet school!
the person im staying with down here has the property from heaven. 19 fenced in acres, including some for her horse (that rah is terrified of, by the way). a pond (now muddy). the entire fence is fully dog safe, so the dogs can be entirely free. she left all the trees on her property so its all natural. she has a full agility ring set up with all contact equipment. the dogs hike all day long run wherever they want in the woods. rah's actual love is that her water bowl outside is a running bird bath with a fountain in it - he spends hours in front of that fountain playing with the water, they fill it 10-15 times a day because of him.
still waiting... .
Monday, May 3, 2010
preprocedure update
im here in florida
everything is going great - rah and berlin (and bunny) are in heaven here - having TOO MUCH FUN - our hostess carol is very gracious and berlin has taken a hankering to her husband!!!! the property is amazing and the dogs may want to stay in FL even though its hotter than hell here and humid to boot.
the dogs have been running around on fenced in acreage, swimming in ponds, hiking trails and being dogs.
im exhausted. rah had his preop visit today at the vet school - when they brought him back they said, IS THIS THE RIGHT DOG? they said "we have to talk about the echo" ... so i sat down and they said his echo was perfectly normal today!! and he didn't throw any VPC's at the visit... but we have documented evidence that he's got DCM, he's just in a very stable place right now, today.
they gave me the option of doing the study or not. i was afraid he was going to tell me rah wasn't ALLOWED to do the study!! i opted to keep him in the program and rah will go to the vet school bright and early tomorrow morning as planned for his stem cells - he will spend the night and be released wednesday afternoon.
im feeling much more secure about the entire procedure - both because he appears to be more stable than i had thought he was (though i know this is just a glimpse) and because the doctors there are just so amazing and i feel that the protocols behind the implantation are sound (and i know the ECC doctor that will be in the operating room as well!)
im still nervous, but im in a better place. its been so lovely having the past day or so with him running around and so happy - today he fetched balls with the chuckit, hiked and ran with the girls, did some agility, chased bugs and spent probably 2 hours playing in carol's water fountain.
i know the stable echo today doesnt mean he will absolutely be fine tomorrow. but its an improvement over where he was - and he's throwing less VPC's. its some improvement. somewhere. im trying not to be too hopeful.
everything is going great - rah and berlin (and bunny) are in heaven here - having TOO MUCH FUN - our hostess carol is very gracious and berlin has taken a hankering to her husband!!!! the property is amazing and the dogs may want to stay in FL even though its hotter than hell here and humid to boot.
the dogs have been running around on fenced in acreage, swimming in ponds, hiking trails and being dogs.
im exhausted. rah had his preop visit today at the vet school - when they brought him back they said, IS THIS THE RIGHT DOG? they said "we have to talk about the echo" ... so i sat down and they said his echo was perfectly normal today!! and he didn't throw any VPC's at the visit... but we have documented evidence that he's got DCM, he's just in a very stable place right now, today.
they gave me the option of doing the study or not. i was afraid he was going to tell me rah wasn't ALLOWED to do the study!! i opted to keep him in the program and rah will go to the vet school bright and early tomorrow morning as planned for his stem cells - he will spend the night and be released wednesday afternoon.
im feeling much more secure about the entire procedure - both because he appears to be more stable than i had thought he was (though i know this is just a glimpse) and because the doctors there are just so amazing and i feel that the protocols behind the implantation are sound (and i know the ECC doctor that will be in the operating room as well!)
im still nervous, but im in a better place. its been so lovely having the past day or so with him running around and so happy - today he fetched balls with the chuckit, hiked and ran with the girls, did some agility, chased bugs and spent probably 2 hours playing in carol's water fountain.
i know the stable echo today doesnt mean he will absolutely be fine tomorrow. but its an improvement over where he was - and he's throwing less VPC's. its some improvement. somewhere. im trying not to be too hopeful.
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