TFT - Animal Hospital

It started out great. I left work just a few minutes early, stopped by KFC for a bucket of chicken, even took a minute to run into Kohl's to search their sale - got a couple of tops and a pair of pants - whooohooo! After losing about 40 pounds, I am in desperate need of clothes.

Got home, tossed the food on the table, changed out of work clothes (and into different 'work' clothes), tidied a couple of things and was in the basement by ohh maybe 6:30. Got out a ring I've been working on for Candace (from the giveaway), removed the shank becuase the ring was sizing just a bit too big. Actually I sawed it open, removed a tiny bit, or what I thought was a tiny bit, and hammered it closed and dropped it on the ring mandrel. WOW. That tiny bit cost me an entire ring size. Now its way small. OK, melt it off - grab new metal, start hammering it on mandrel to size....and I hear my Mother yelling something. Sounds like "Comfy the blogs"...better turn my ipod down...."WHAT?!" I yell back up. Again, some frantic request that now sounds more like, "Come feed the dogs" - I'm like (to myself) "duh, I always feed the dogs, head on off to bible study now Mom"....but again, I yell "WHAT?!" and again some nonsensical thing comes back to me...so now I"m up from the bench and to the bottom of the steps and she's yelling "Come see the dog(s?)!" ...oh great. Run up the stairs and Missy is laying on her side....barely breathing. Why do dogs have to get old?

For the past couple of weeks she's been having these little episodes -- seizures?, muscle contractions?, wicked charlie horses?, mini-strokes?....we're not really sure but we've just been watching her closely. Well shit, now I'm thinking she's dead cuz dude she's not moving at all. So I go over and talk to her....pick her up...thats when I see the puddle of urine on the floor. %$!*, losing control of the bladder -- not good. And she is completely limp in my arms, dangling, no muscle tone at all. Crap. Call the vet, they are closing in 10 minutes but hey,the animal hospital up the block from us opens in 10 minutes (at 7pm) so, run upstairs and throw some clothes on and back downstairs, I wrap Missy in a blanket and out we go to the Animal Hospital. Get there, they take her back, put her on 02 and start cleaning her up a bit (she lost the other end on the way over.....poor baby)....her heart rate is slow, but strong - her lungs however sound a bit dull.....they want to do blood work, x-rays, yadda yadda yadda.

So then comes all the decision making. What to do? What will the diagnostics mean in terms of treatment or palliative care? Meaning, will the results really lead us to treatment or are the kinds of things we are looking at going to mean, for us, supportive care? I opted for limited bloodwork to start us out. She had a chem panel and it showed her liver has some damage - her LFTs are elevated. Her calcium is low. She's 'waking up' a bit -- is looking around, trying to stand, finally does. Is walking a tiny it - no, make that stumbling.....

So, for now we decide to take her home and have her LFTs repeated in a few days. We got home a little before 9pm - my son's first question -"did she make it?"

"Yes sweety, she made it. but we dont' know for how long, we're not really sure what's wrong with her but she's getting old" Then ensues a conversation about death and dying (very limited) and so he says "Can't we just call it 'giving out'?" Sure, hon' that sounds like a good way - when her body gives out...

((hugs))

So, Missy slept most of the evening but was coming around more and walking a little bit better. We seperated her from the other dogs for the night. Woke this morning to a hellacious mess in the bathroom where we put her. She had horrible explosive diarrhea in the night (sorry if thats TMI) and it sprayed EVERYwhere. But.....she's alert.

And so begins another day for her. We don't know what is really wrong - my guess is she may have a mass, ?? cancerous. We won't do chemo and all of that if it is cancer. We'll keep her comfortable as best we can. I also suspect that these episodes that she is having will become more frequent and increase in intensity. I have been agonizing over our course of action with her and my Father finally says, "ya know, you're going to go through this all....." and I'm waiting for him to say '....with the other two dogs eventually' but NOOOOOOOOOO, he says:

"ya know, you're going to go through this all with US one day" Meaning him and my Mom! Well, gee, thanks alot for that uplifting little thought....I'm going back downstairs. After all, my ipod is still playing, bench lights, pickle pot, and tanks are still turned on....Its now 9:30 probably.

I finished the ring shank, soldered it on to the ring, put it in the pickle, then called it a night.

Here is a pic of Mis as I was driving her home from the hospital. She's 'up' but not alert.....just kind of bobbing along in the car.....
In her snazzy little bed which I think made her feel 'more better'. My Mom brought it up to the hospital while we were there - while we were waiting the test results we brought it inside and she was able to lay in it. I think having her own smelly thing was a comfort to her.

It seems its always something in our house.......

Janice