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.